Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-grade gliomas in children and adolescents: is there a role for reoperation?

OBJECTIVE Tumors of the CNS are the main causes of childhood cancer and have an incidence that exceeds that of leukemia. In addition, they are the leading causes of cancer-related death in childhood. High-grade gliomas account for 11% of such neoplasms and are characterized by aggressive clinical behavior and high morbidity and mortality. There is a lack of studies focusing on the factors that can prolong survival in these patients or guide therapeutic interventions. The authors aimed to investigate the factors related to longer survival durations, with a focus on reoperation for gross-total resection (GTR). METHODS In this retrospective cohort study, the authors analyzed 78 patients diagnosed with high-grade gliomas occurring across all CNS locations except diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas. Patients 0 to < 19 years of age were followed up at the Pediatric Oncology Institute. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed in the context of various prognostic factors, such as age, sex, histology, extent of tumor resection, reoperation for GTR, adjuvant treatment, and treatment initiation from 2010 onward. RESULTS With a mean age at diagnosis of 8.7 years, 50% of the patients were female and approximately 39% underwent GTR at some point, which was already achieved in approximately 46% of them in the first surgery. The median OS was 17 months, and PFS was 10 months. In terms of median OS, the authors found no significant difference between those with reoperation for GTR and patients without GTR during treatment. Significant differences were observed in the OS in terms of the extent of resection in the first surgery, age, sex, Ki-67 expression, adjuvant treatment, and treatment initiation from 2010 onward. Furthermore, the PFS values significantly differed between those with GTR in the first surgery and Ki-67 expression ≥ 50%. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates the importance of GTR for these neoplasms, highlights the role of surgeons in its achievement in the first attempt, and questions the role of reoperation for this purpose. Finally, this study further supports the use of combined adjuvant treatment for the improvement of OS and PFS.
Electrooxidation of 5-substituted indoles

The electrochemical oxidation of a wide variety of 5-substituted indole monomers at a platinum electrode results in the formation of a redox active film. Electrochemical and spectroscopic evidence is consistent with the redox species in the film being a cyclic trimer. In contrast, the electropolymerisation of 5-aminoindole and 5-hydroxyindole on a platinum electrode does not result in redox active film formation. This is attributed to the adsorption of the monomer onto the metal electrode via the substituent, which inhibits this reaction. However, electropolymerisation of these monomers onto a predeposited film of 5-cyanoindole or 5-nitroindole results in the formation of the cyclic trimer. Electrochemical studies using a rotating-ring disc electrode (RRDE) have confirmed the stoichiometry of the trimerisation reaction and also that the redox active cyclic trimer species shows reversible one electron redox activity. The half-wave potential for the reduction of each of these trimers shows a linear dependence with the Hammett substituent constant, σ+ or σ-, as appropriate, determined for a para-substituted aromatic indicating that the 5-substituent is conjugated into the π-electron system of the trimer. This indicates that judicious choice of substituents allows control of the trimer redox potential.
Atmospheric-pressure plasma jets : effect of gas flow, active species, and snake-like bullet propagation

Cold atmospheric-pressure plasma jets have recently attracted enormous interest owing to numerous applications in plasma biology, health care, medicine, and nanotechnology. A dedicated study of the interaction between the upstream and downstream plasma plumes revealed that the active species (electrons, ions, excited OH, metastable Ar, and nitrogen-related species) generated by the upstream plasma plume enhance the propagation of the downstream plasma plume. At gas flows exceeding 2 l/min, the downstream plasma plume is longer than the upstream plasma plume. Detailed plasma diagnostics and discharge species analysis suggest that this effect is due to the electrons and ions that are generated by the upstream plasma and flow into the downstream plume. This in turn leads to the relatively higher electron density in the downstream plasma. Moreover, high-speed photography reveals a highly unusual behavior of the plasma bullets, which propagate in snake-like motions, very differently from the previous reports. This behavior is related to the hydrodynamic instability of the gas flow, which results in non-uniform distributions of long-lifetime active species in the discharge tube and of surface charges on the inner surface of the tube.
Nanopores in GaN by electrochemical anodization in hydrofluoric acid: Formation and mechanism

We report the use of hydrofluoric acid (HF) as an electrolyte in etching and porosifying GaN. HF is found to be effective in rendering a wide range of nanoporous morphology, from curved branches to highly parallel straight pores. Under suitable conditions, the porosification proceeds at a rate greater than 100 μm/min. To elucidate the etching mechanism, cyclic voltammetry is performed, together with a parametric mapping of electrolysis variables such as the doping of GaN, the concentration of HF electrolyte, and the anodization voltage. We demonstrate that the formation of nanoporous structures is largely due to the local breakdown of the reverse-biased semiconductor junction. A quantitative agreement between the estimated width of space-charge region and the observed variation in morphology lends support to a depletion layer model developed previously in the etching of porous-Si.
Web Surfer Tracking using Big Data Technologies

-Log files are semi-structured on the web server-side. Computer generates huge flat text files as log. Therefore, Hadoop file systems are suitable to store as text files. The MapReduce techniques of the Hadoop works well in distributed clusters as it process one line at a time. NASA web server log is considered as input to system in order to perform the session identification task. A Statistical report is produced based on total count of visit per hour, per day, and per date. R language is used in order to find the user sessions and analyzed rigorously. In this paper, the distributed cluster is considered in Hadoop for the session identification in the web log. The analyst loads the log file and does analysis using MapReduce and generating statistical reports. The system developed to analyze the traffic from the log file based on various parameters, such as hours of a day, days of a week, days in a month etc. The system generates the detailed information about the location of a user that includes the country, state, city, zip code and also the co-ordinates of the location (latitude and longitude) by making use of the IP address field of a web server log.
The Provision of Inter-organisational Infrastructure as An Appropriate Role for Cosourcing

A case study of credit unions in the financial services sector in Australia designed to examine the motivations and constraints to cosourcing – or the sourcing of a common activity jointly by a group of organizations – and assess whether the provision of inter-organisational infrastructure is an appropriate focus for cosourcing Keywords—infrastructure, financial services, outsourcing, core capabilities.
Life satisfaction and happiness in patients shielding from the COVID-19 global pandemic: A randomised controlled study of the ‘mood as information’ theory

Objectives To extrapolate the ‘mood as information’ theory to the unique and ecologically relevant setting of the COVID-19 pandemic; the specific aim was to inform health care providers of the impact of bringing the pandemic to salience during life satisfaction evaluations, assessing whether this ‘prime’ results in increased or decreased reports of satisfaction which are derived unconsciously. Design Prospective Randomised Interventional Study. Setting Renal Transplant Department in a tertiary centre in the United Kingdom. Participants 200 Renal transplant patients aged between 20 and 88 years. Telephone interviews were undertaken between 1st May, 2020 and 29th May, 2020, at the height of ‘shielding’ from COVID-19. Interventions Participants were randomised into 2 groups, with 1 group receiving a simple ‘priming question’ regarding the COVID pandemic and the other group having no prior contact. Main outcome measurements Individuals were then asked to rate their own overall lifetime happiness; desire to change; overall life satisfaction and momentary happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 for each measure. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare results between the two groups, with a type 1 error rate below 5% considered statistically significant. Results Participants’ overall happiness with their life as a whole revealed that individuals who were primed with a question about COVID-19 reported increased overall happiness with their life compared to individuals who had not been primed (+0.88, 95% confidence interval 0.42 to 1.35, p = 0.0002). In addition, participants in the primed group reported less desire to change their life when compared to the non-primed group (-1.35, 95% confidence interval -2.06 to -0.65, p = 0.0002). Participants who were primed with the COVID-19 question also reported a higher overall satisfaction with their life than individuals who had not been primed (+1.01, 95% confidence interval 0.50 to 1.52, p = 0.0001). Finally, the participants who received the priming question demonstrated increased reported momentary happiness (+0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.03 to 1.24, p = 0.04). Conclusions The results demonstrated that bringing salience to the COVID-19 pandemic with a simple question leads to positive changes in both momentary happiness and other components of global life satisfaction, thereby extrapolating evidence for the application of the mood-as-information theory to more extreme life circumstances. Given the importance of patient-reported evaluations, these findings have implications for how, when and where accurate and reproducible measurements of life satisfaction should be obtained.
DSM-5 Level of Personality Functioning: Refocusing Personality Disorder on What It Means to Be Human.

Level of Personality Functioning (LPF) represents the entry criterion (Criterion A) of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). It is defined as a dimensional general severity criterion common to all personality disorders and conceptually independent of personality types or traits, and it represents maladaptive self (identity and self-direction) and interpersonal (empathy and intimacy) functioning. We review the history, measurement, and significance of LPF. We show that the inclusion of LPF in the AMPD is well justified if it is defined as a general adaptive failure of a subjective intrapsychic system needed to fulfill adult life tasks. If so defined, LPF distinguishes itself from maladaptive traits (Criterion B of the AMPD) and captures the contribution humans make as agentic authors to the interpretation and management of the self. While Criterion B maladaptive traits provide important descriptive nuance to manifestations of personality pathology, maladaptive LPF is conditional to the diagnosis of personality disorder. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Volume 17 is May 7, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews. org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Predictors and outcome of first line treatment failure among under-five children with community acquired severe pneumonia at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania: A prospective cohort study

Background Despite recent advances in management and preventive strategies, high rates of first line antibiotics treatment failure and case fatality for Severe Community Acquired Pneumonia (SCAP) continue to occur in children in low and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the predictors and outcome of first line antibiotics treatment failure among children under-five years of age with SCAP admitted at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. Methods The study involved under-five children admitted with SCAP, treated with first line antibiotics as recommended by WHO. Patients with treatment failure at 48 hours were shifted to second line of antibiotics treatment and followed up for 7 days. Generalized linear model was used to determine predictors of first line antibiotics treatment failure for SCAP. Results A total of 250 children with SCAP with a median age of 18 [IQR 9–36] months were enrolled, 8.4% had HIV infection and 28% had acute malnutrition. The percentage of first line antibiotics treatment failure for the children with SCAP was 50.4%. Predictors of first line treatment failure were; presentation with convulsion (RR 1.55; 95% CI [1.11–2.16]; p-value 0.009), central cyanosis (RR 1.55; 95% CI [1.16–2.07]; p-value 0.003), low oxygen saturation (RR 1.28; 95% CI [1.01–1.62]; p-value 0.04), abnormal chest X-ray (RR 1.71; 95% CI [1.28–2.29]; p-value <0.001), HIV infection (RR 1.80; 95% CI [1.42–2.27]; p-value 0.001), moderate acute malnutrition (RR 1.48; 95% CI [1.04–2.12]; p-value = 0.030) and severe acute malnutrition (RR 2.02; 95% CI [1.56–2.61]; p-value<0.001). Mortality in children who failed first line treatment was 4.8%. Conclusion Half of the children with SCAP at this tertiary center had first line antibiotics treatment failure. HIV infection, acute malnutrition, low oxygen saturation, convulsions, central cyanosis, and abnormal chest X-ray were independently predictive of first line treatment failure. We recommend consideration of second line treatment and clinical trials for patients with SCAP to reduce associated morbidity and mortality.
Associations Between Hearing Health and Well-Being in Unilateral Hearing Impairment

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objectives: To determine population-based risks of adverse effects on hearing and well-being outcomes associated with unilateral hearing impairment. Design: A group of 40- to 69-year-old adults (n = 861) who reported being able to hear only in one ear and having speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in noise indicating normal hearing in that ear (SRTN/−) was selected from the UK Biobank cohort. The UK Biobank participants with SRTs indicating either normal (SRTN/N, n = 95,514) or symmetrically impaired hearing in both ears (SRTI/I, n = 17,429) were selected as comparison groups. Self-reported difficulty following conversations in noise, tinnitus presence, feeling depressed, lonely, unhappy, and being in poor health or dissatisfied with health were selected as hearing and well-being outcomes. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the risks of reporting adverse outcomes associated with SRTN/− compared with SRTN/N and SRTI/I while controlling for numerous factors linked to hearing and general health. Results: People with SRTN/− were significantly more likely to report difficulties following conversations in noise (odds ratio, 10.61; 95% confidence interval, 8.83 to 12.75), tinnitus (4.04; 3.51 to 4.66), poor health (1.35; 1.15 to 1.58), health dissatisfaction (1.22; 1.00 to 1.47), and loneliness (1.28; 1.08 to 1.51) compared with people with SRTN/N. Well-being outcomes were similar in the SRTN/− and SRTI/I groups. However, difficulties following conversations in noise (5.35; 4.44 to 6.44) and tinnitus presence (2.66; 2.31 to 3.08) were significantly more likely with SRTN/− than with SRTI/I. The SRTN/− was associated with increased risk of self-reported poor health by 18% (relative risk, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.06 to 1.32) and loneliness by 24% (1.24; 1.07 to 1.43) compared with SRTN/N. The risk of reporting difficulties following conversations in noise increased by 64% (1.64; 1.58 to 1.71) and tinnitus presence by 84% (1.84; 1.69 to 2.01) compared with SRTI/I. The effect of SRTN/− on reporting poor health was similar to that from having other health problems such as hypertension or high cholesterol. Conclusions: The large increases in the risks of reporting adverse hearing-related outcomes associated with unilateral hearing impairment suggest its specific impact on hearing function in everyday situations. The increased risk of loneliness and poor health indicates that one normally functioning ear is also insufficient to protect against the adverse psychosocial impacts of unilateral hearing impairment. This impact was still significant after controlling for various health-related factors and can lead to perception of poor health comparable to that with having medical problems contributing to life-threatening conditions such as heart disease. The findings suggest the need for effective interventions to address the hearing-related problems and their impact on well-being in people with unilateral hearing impairment.
Alkaline Delignification in the Presence of Anthraquinone/Anthrahydroquinone. Part 2: Experiments Using Extracted Wood Shavings from Pinus sylvestris

Lignin and carbohydrate degradation during alkaline pulping of untreated and pre-treated wood shavings from Pinus sylvestris in the presence of the redox Systems AQ/AHQ" and/or S°/HS" has been followed. The reduced forms of both redox System accelerate delignification, particularly during the initial phase of pulping, while the oxidized forms stabilize carbohydrates against alkaline degradation by oxidation of reducing end-groups. The former redox System (AQ/AHQ") is more efficient than the latter (S°/HS~) both with respect to the accelerating effect on delignification and the stabilizing effect on carbohydrates. However, the increase in selectivity of alkali pulping by addition of AQ seerns to be restricted by oxidative changes in the polysaccharides which, in contrast to end-group oxidations, render these polymers more sensitive to the action of alkali. Unlike a pre-treatment with another quinone of considerably higher oxidation Potential (2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-l,4-benzoquinone, DDQ), pre-treatment with AQ under similar conditions does not bring about oxidative changes in lignin which would facilitate lignin degradation during subsequent sulphate pulping.
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Genetics and Epigenetics

Polycystic ovarian syndrome and its associated endocrine abnormalities comprise one of the most common metabolic spectrum disorders within the human race. Because of the variance in phenotypic expression among individuals and within family lineages, attention has been turned to genetic and epigenetic changes in which the root cause of the disorder may lie. Further understanding of DNA/histone methylation and microRNA patterns may help to improve the accuracy of diagnosis and lead to future treatment options.
Von reaktiven molekularen Vorläufern zu höhervernetzten Lanthanoid-Oxonitridocarbonaten und nanokristallinen Lanthanoid-Nitrid-Materialien

During the course of this research project the synthesis of highly reactive lanthanide and O2CN-containing molecular precursor complexes has been investigated. Important issues were the development of new reaction pathways to these species and the structural characterization of the N-containing precursors. The accurate thermal treatment of these complexes using various reaction gases yielded both lanthanide nitrides and highly condensed lanthanide oxo-nitrido carbonates using different types of gases. The observed degradation reactions to the products were characterized thoroughly. According to this procedure, novel and known compounds have been synthesized and investigated carefully regarding their structural and material properties. The application of CO2 as an important preorganized C/O-donor for addition reactions at the Ln/N precursor complex represented one of the major topics in this project. This “green reagent” can be considered as a promising species for future industrial applications. A new reaction pathway utilizing the decomposition reaction of N-containing organo¬lanthanides revealed the formation of highly aggregated nanocrystalline lanthanide nitrides at low temperatures. Novel Ln/O/C/N-solids were synthesized by thermal degradation of CO2-activated precursor complexes. The Ln/N and Ln/O/C/N species obtained can be considered as single-source molecular precursors and potential Ln/O/C/N-dopants for applications in the synthesis of O/C/N materials.
DamID identifies targets of CEH-60/PBX that are associated with neuron development and muscle structure in Caenorhabditis elegans

Transcription factors govern many of the time- and tissue-specific gene expression events in living organisms. CEH-60, a homolog of the TALE transcription factor PBX in vertebrates, was recently characterized as a new regulator of intestinal lipid mobilization in Caenorhabditis elegans. Because CEH-60’s orthologs and paralogs exhibit several other functions, notably in neuron and muscle development, and because ceh-60 expression is not limited to the C. elegans intestine, we sought to identify additional functions of CEH-60 through DNA adenine methyltransferase identification (DamID). DamID identifies protein-genome interaction sites through GATC-specific methylation. We here report 872 putative CEH-60 gene targets in young adult animals, and 587 in L2 larvae, many of which are associated with neuron development or muscle structure. In light of this, we investigate morphology and function of ceh-60 expressing AWC neurons, and contraction of pharyngeal muscles. We find no clear functional consequences of loss of ceh-60 in these assays, suggesting that in AWC neurons and pharyngeal muscle, CEH-60 function is likely more subtle or redundant with other factors.
Type and amount of help as predictors for impression of helpers

Impression of helpers can vary as a function of the magnitude of helping (amount of help) and of situational and motivational aspects (type of help). Over three studies conducted in Sweden and the US, we manipulated both the amount and the type of help in ten diverse vignettes and measured participants’ impressions of the described helpers. Impressions were almost unaffected when increasing the amount of help by 500%, but clearly affected by several type of help-manipulations. Particularly, helpers were less positively evaluated if they had mixed motives for helping, did not experience intense emotions or empathy, or if helping involved no personal sacrifice. In line with the person-centered theory of moral judgment, people seem to form impressions of helpers primarily based on the presumed underlying processes and motives of prosociality rather than its consequences.
Plasma polymerization of ethylene in an atmospheric pressure-pulsed discharge

The polymerization of ethylene in an atmospheric pressure-pulsed discharge has been studied. Partial pressures of ethylene up to 4 kN/m2 were used with helium as a diluent. Deposition rates (on glass slides) were the same throughout the discharge volume over a wide range of operating conditions. These rates were in the 1–2 A/sec range. The films were clear, soft, and showed good adhesion to the glass substrates. Oligomers large enough to visibly scatter 637.8-nm light were observed in the gas phase under all conditions in which film deposition occurred. The experimental results suggest that Brownian diffusion of these oligomers was the rate-limiting step in the film deposition process.