Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systemic Effects of Radiation Therapy-Induced Abscopal Responses in Patients with Advanced Lung Cancer

Background: Out-of-field tumor regression effects of radiation therapy (abscopal response) have been sporadically observed in the past, but they have only recently gained significant importance due to the use of innovative high-precision radiation delivery devices for the treatment of various cancers including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we provide a detailed overview of the current state of knowledge and clinical experience of radiation therapy-induced abscopal effects in patients with advanced NSCLC. Summary: Peer-reviewed published clinical evidence on the abscopal effect of radiation therapy was collected using electronic databases such as MEDLINE via PubMed and Google Scholar. The clinical data on the abscopal effect of radiation therapy were reviewed and the outcomes have been summarized. Most studies describing the abscopal effects of radiation therapy in patients with advanced NSCLC have been in the form of either case reports or small cohort studies. Although the exact molecular mechanisms for the abscopal effect are yet to be established, current evidence indicates that tumor cell destruction induced by local radiation therapy releases tumor antigens, which stimulate the immune system of the host to activate the body’s immune effector cells systemically and trigger the regression of distant nonirradiated cancer cells. These off-target antitumor effects of radiation therapy provide an opportunity to explore the use of the radiation therapy in combination with novel immunotherapy agents to maximize treatment outcomes in patients with advanced NSCLC and other cancers. Key Message: The findings suggest that radiation therapy has the ability to induce abscopal effects with an increased potential to boost these effects when it is used in combination with immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced NSCLC and other cancers. Clinical trials investigating radiation therapy-induced abscopal effects may lead to a dramatic change in its use especially when it is combined with immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced NSCLC.
The effect of seminal plasma cadmium and lead levels on semen parameters in male subjects of infertile couples: a prospective cohort study

Abstract The aim of this prospective study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between seminal plasma cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) levels and semen parameters in male partners of infertile couples. Two hundred fifty one (251) men recruited with no history of occupational exposure to toxic metals. After semen analysis, seminal Cd and Pb levels were measured using atomic absorption spectrometry. Cadmium levels in men with hypospermia was significantly higher than men with normal semen volume (p = .049). In contrast, there was no statistically significant difference in median seminal Pb levels between men with hypospermia and men with normal semen volume (p = .13). There was no statistically significant association between seminal plasma Cd and Pb levels sperm concentration, motility, morphology and total progressively motile sperm count. These findings suggest that environmental Cd exposure may contribute to low semen volume in male partners of infertile couples. IMPACT STATEMENT What is already known on this subject? Toxic metals may adversely affect both male and female reproductive system. What the results of this study add? Seminal plasma cadmium levels in men with hypospermia were statistically significantly higher than men with normal semen volume. What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Patients should be informed about possible adverse effects of toxic metals.
Development and Validation of a Questionnaire Assessing Patient Distress from Preoperative Fasting in Cataract Surgery

ABSTRACT Purpose: To develop and psychometrically validate a questionnaire to measure patient distress with preoperative fasting related to cataract surgery. Methods: In this single-centered cross-sectional study, consecutive sampling of cataract patients was undertaken immediately preoperatively from February to December 2019. A questionnaire evaluating patient distress with fasting was designed and administered. Questionnaire development occurred in an iterative process and was conducted with consultation from expert investigators and patients. Validation and psychometric evaluation of the questionnaire were performed with Rasch analysis. Results: A preliminary version of the questionnaire was developed by 10 study investigators. Across five iterations of development, the questionnaire was administered to 186 cataract patients. Psychometric evaluation of the 13-item questionnaire demonstrated ordered thresholds, acceptable item calibration and fit, adequate internal consistency, ability to discriminate between three levels of distress from preoperative fasting and no notable differential item functioning. However, issues with mistargeting, clustering of items on the person-item map and multidimensionality remained. Given these concerns, 13 separate re-analyses were conducted via removal of certain items. A 6-item subset was determined to be well targeted, unidimensional, did not display item clustering and was able to discriminate between patients with high and low distress from preoperative fasting. Conclusion: A 6-item questionnaire is a valid, psychometrically robust and reliable measure for the assessment of patient distress with preoperative fasting in cataract surgery. Items include hunger, thirst, hoarseness, weakness, anxiety and nausea. Future studies should seek to validate this questionnaire across a variety of sociodemographic contexts, languages and specialties.
Altered sensorimotor fMRI directed connectivity in Parkinson's disease patients

Dopamine depletion in the axons of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients precedes depletion in cell bodies thus proposing that macroscopic connectivity can be used to understand disease mechanism. A novel multivariate functional connectivity analysis, based on high order coherence among four fMRI BOLD signals was applied on resting‐state fMRI data of controls and PD patients (OFF and ON medication states) and unidirectional multiple‐region pathways in the sensorimotor system were identified. Pathways were classified as “preserved” (unaffected by the disease), “damaged” (not observed in patients) and “corrected” (observed in controls and in PD‐ON state). The majority of all pathways were feedforward, most of them with the pattern “S1→M1→SMA. ” Of these pathways, 67% were “damaged,” 28% “preserved,” and 5% “corrected. ” Prefrontal cortex (PFC) afferent and efferent pathways that corresponded to goal directed and habitual activities corresponded to recurrent circuits. Eighty‐one percent of habitual afferent had internal cue (i.e., M1→S1→), of them 79% were “damaged” and the rest “preserved. ” All goal‐directed afferent had external cue (i.e., S1→M1→) with third “damaged,” third “preserved,” and third “corrected. ” Corrected pathways were initiated in the dorsolateral PFC. Reduced connectivity of the SMA and PFC resulted from reduced sensorimotor afferent to these regions. Reduced sensorimotor internal cues to the PFC resulted with reduced habitual processes. Levodopa effects were for pathways that started in region reach with dopamine receptors. This methodology can enrich understudying of PD mechanisms in other (e.g., the default mode network) systems.
Ergogenic potential of foods for performance and recovery: a new alternative in sports supplementation? A systematic review

Abstract In recent years, there have been studies in the literature reporting the ergogenic effect of some different foods on sports performance. Given the reasonable number of studies in which some food has shown improvement in some physiological variables related to physical performance, a review is pertinent in order to produce a compilation of these studies, providing new elements for athletes and coaches which aim to optimize their performance. Thus, the objective of this work was to present a systematic review of the findings regarding the potential ergogenic effect of food for athletes. Researchers performed a double-blind research in Medline/PubMed considering articles published until January 2019 which resulted in 71 articles. Increased time until exhaustion, improved aerobic capacity and strength recovery were the most commonly reported physical effects. In general, food showed equal or superior ergogenic activity over supplements. Although the number of foods investigated is reasonable, there is still no body of evidence for each studied food, except beets. The current data support the possibility of certain foods being able to enhance athletic performance, as well as serving as an energy source. However, a larger volume of studies is needed to form a body of evidence on each of these foods.
Characterisation of sperm piRNAs and their correlation with semen quality traits in swine

Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs which main reported function consists on the silencing of transposable elements and genome stability in mammalian germline. In this study we have identified piRNAs in porcine sperm, using male germline and zygote datasets from human, mice, cow and swine, and evaluated the relation between their abundances and sperm quality traits. Our analysis identified 283,382 piRNAs, 1,355 of which correlated to at least one semen quality trait. Indeed, genome analysis of the correlated piRNAs evidenced that 57% of these were less than 50kb apart and were significantly enriched near Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements (LINEs). Moreover, some of the significant piRNAs mapped within or close to genes relevant for fertility or spermatogenesis such as CSNK1G2 and PSMF1.
Interactive Hair Styling Interface

요약ˇˇ통계적 방법을 사용하여 머리카락을 생성하고 제약 조건을 이용하여 헤어 스타일을 완성하는 방법에 대한 연구가 논문 [2]에 자세히 소개되어 있다. 논문 [2]의 방법과 함께 제시된 프로그램은 매우 다양한 헤어 스타일을 가능하게 하지만 일반 사용자가 쉽게 다루기 어려운 단점이 있다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 머리카락과 헤어 스타일의 생성에 있어서는 논문 [2]의 방법을 따르되 사용자가 쉽게 헤어 스타일을 조정할 수 있도록 맵 기반 인터랙티브 헤어 스타일링 인터페이스를 제안한다. 머리카락이 생성될 두피 부분을 공간 분할하고 이 부분에 사용자가 머리카락의 밀도, 길이, 색상 맵을 직접 그릴 수 있게 하여 직관적인 헤어 스타일 생성이 가능하게 한다. 복잡한 형태의 표면에 대해서도 효과적으로 적용될 수 있도록 공간을 분할하고 접근하는 과정에 GPU 가속화 방법을 사용한다. 또한 제약 조건을 쉽게 다루기 위해 몇 가지 템플릿을 제공하고 이의 생성과 수정을 쉽게 한다. ↲ Abstractˇ The statistical wisp model for hairstyle generation was introduced in [1]. It provided a program to load human models, set parameters, generate wisps and strands, and make constraints. However, the program used hard-coded human models and prescribed constraints so that it was hard to change different models and manipulate constraints. Hence we provide a simple interface by drawing maps and constraints. Also, we can increase the speed of computation by using GPU acceleration.
Évaluation de la toxicité du béryllium en fonction de la forme chimique et de la taille des particules

Beryllium (Be) is a metal with physical and mechanical properties and is used extensively in the aerospace, energy, and electronics industries. The main effects associated with Be exposure are sensitization and chronic beryllium disease. The prevalence of the effects associated with Be suggests that the risks are function of its speciation. Futhermore, it appears that the fine particles constitute the fraction of interest for the occurrence of such effects. In this study we verified the hypothesis that the chemical form and the particle size of Be play a major role in the level of the toxicity and in the appearance of specific effects in an exposure to Be. The specific effects are translated, among others, by the formation of inflammatory granulomes, by the proliferation of lymphocytes TCD4 + and the production of type Th1's cytokines. For each of the three chemical forms assessed in this research (Be metal or Be, Be oxide or BeO and Be aluminum alloy or BeAl) the toxicity was estimated following an subchronic exposure by nose-only to fine (F) and total (T) particles. An animal model (mouse) was used. Two hundred and forty five mice divided into seven groups of 35 each were used. The first group was used as a control, while the six other groups were exposed to total or fine particles of three different Be species (Be-F, Be-T, BeO-F, BeO-T, BeAl-F, BeAl-T). The duration of exposure for each of the groups was 3 consecutive weeks, 5 days per week and 6 hours per day. The target level of exposure was 250 μg/m. Urine was collected before and during exposure. At the time of the sacrifice, several tissues (lungs, spleens, livers and kidneys) and blood samples were taken and immediately frozen until their chemical analysis for Be concentrations. Lungs and spleens were also sampled to evaluate the immunological effects and pulmonary inflammation.
Controlling the morphology of nanoparticle-polymer composite films for potential use in solar cells

This thesis presents an investigation into the factors affecting the morphology of hybrid inorganic / organic photoactive layers used in photovoltaic cells. Although optimisation of the organic (polymer) phase has received substantial attention, research into the morphology of the inorganic phase (semiconducting nanocrystals) remains limited. It is believed that there is a strong link between the morphology of the final photoactive film and the quality of the initial nanocrystal dispersion. To this end, two nanocrystal systems were investigated; zinc oxide (ZnO) and lead sulphide (PbS). ZnO nanocrystals were synthesised and found to possess reproducible characteristics. It was determined that colloid stability was initially dependent upon the presence of acetate groups bound to the surface, which in turn required a small quantity of methanol to be present in the organic dispersant. It was also discovered that while methanol evaporated readily from the surface of the nanocrystals, another molecule, 1-propylamine (1-PA), did not. Further investigations showed that while methanol only weakly physisorbed to the surface of ZnO nanocrystals, 1-PA formed strong, dative covalent bonds with Zn2+, preventing evaporation despite a low boiling point. Subsequent investigations into the effects of different ligands upon colloid stability found that amine-based groups typically possessed superior stabilising capabilities compared to alcohol-based analogues. The characteristics of nanocrystal / polymer blends were also investigated. It was determined that the nanocrystal dispersion became unstable at higher concentrations of polymer due to depletion aggregation. Films of nanocrystal / polymer blends were cast from dispersions containing either alcohol or amine-based ligands, and it was observed that dispersions stabilised with 1-PA possessed smooth morphologies on the micrometer scale. Investigations at the nanometer scale, however, revealed aggregates large enough to favour recombination.The latter half of this thesis regards the characterisation of PbS nanocrystals and investigations into triggered aggregation. It was determined that while PbS nanocrystals possessed reproducible characteristics, the stabilising molecule, oleic acid (OA) was insulating. The effects of exchanging the OA groups for a shorter ligand, butylamine (BA) were investigated.Finally, PbS nanocrystals were treated with a bidentate ligand, 1,2-ethanedithiol (EDT) to induce triggered aggregation. It was observed that the system was highly sensitive to the concentration of EDT in dispersion, forming small, relatively dispersed aggregates at low [EDT], and micrometer-sized crystalline structures at high [EDT]. The characterisation and entrapment of these nanocrystal structures within semi-conducting polymer films is also discussed.
PIPE: Uma infra-estrutura genérica de serviços para ambientes de computação ubíqua

Resumo Nas últimas décadas tem-se assistido a um crescimento significativo do número e poder dos diferentes dispositivos computacionais. Este crescimento traduz-se na coexistência de duas grandes classes de equipamentos. Por um lado aqueles que permeiam de forma quase ub́ıqua os espaços que frequentamos e por outro lado, um grande número de equipamentos móveis que acompanham no utilizadores no seu dia-a-dia. No entanto, estas duas classes de dispositivos têm existido em mundos largamente separados. Neste artigo apresenta-se o PIPE, um sistema ub́ıquo para espaços públicos que permite a utilizadores equipados com dispositivos móveis usufruir dos recursos (e.g., ecrãs partilhados, capacidade computacional) fornecidos pelo sistema, podendo correr um conjunto de aplicações pré-definidas, ou as suas próprias aplicações na infra-estrutura, estendendo a capacidade dos dispositivos portáteis.
Pricing , Income and College Major Choice ∗ Arpita Patnaik

This paper studies the implications of short-term costs imposed by pricing structures on college major choice and the role of financial constraints. I examine the effect of major-specific pricing policies on major choice and on the distribution of low-income students across majors. Using rich student level administrative data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I implement a difference-in-difference strategy that exploits the introduction of a surcharge policy in the Engineering and Business programs. I find that raising the program specific tuition by $1000 (11%) decreases the probability of graduating in Business by 33% and in Engineering by 12% and this is driven by the response of low-income students. I then exploit this price variation to identify the labor market returns to these majors. Using these estimates, I find that students are highly responsive to prices despite large earnings losses from switching majors. Motivated by the empirical evidence, I develop and estimate a structural model of college major choice that quantifies the importance of direct price effects and credit constraints. The model estimates suggest that credit constraints rationalize the sensitivity of students to changes in pricing structures. Complementing price differentials with expansions of borrowing limits andmeanstested subsidies can minimize the distortion created by pricing. Relaxing borrowing limits allows students to borrow against future income to pay higher tuition and means-tested grants decrease the net price of the major for low-income students. ∗I am deeply grateful to my advisors Matthew Wiswall, John Kennan and Ananth Seshadri for their valuable guidance and advice. I thank Naoki Aizawa, Nicolas Badaracco, Renata Gaineddenova, Andra Ghent, Amrita Kulka, CorinaMommaerts, Jeevant Rampal, Hans Schwarz, Jeff Smith, Sandra Spirovska, Chris Taber, Joanna Venator and Basit Zafar as well as seminar participants of AEFP, GEEZ, labor economics workshop, student public seminar and empirical micro seminar at UW-Madison for their comments. I thank the Division of Enrollment Management at UW-Madison for providing administrative records for this study and Nicolas Badaracco, Hans Schwarz and Sandra Spirovska for their help in obtaining and understanding the data. I am extremely grateful to Ellie Bruecker for help with working on the records as well as to Nikki Bollig, John Dreger, Jim Franzone, Nicholas Hillman, Clare Huhn, Peter Kinsley Maria Peters, Katherine Ptaszek, for many helpful conversations about the policy context, as well as understanding the data. The conclusions here do not represent the opinion of the UW-Madison. All errors are my own. †Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Email: patnaik3@wisc.edu
Classification automatique par champs de Markov cachés pour la cartographie du risque en épidémiologie

La cartographie du risque en epidemiologie permet de mettre en evidence la situation geographique de zones a faible ou fort risque de contamination, ainsi qu'une mesure des ``differences de risque" entre ces regions. Actuellement, les modeles de cartographie pour donnees groupees utilises par les epidemiologistes sont bases sur des approches de type Bayesien hierarchique se focalisant sur l'estimation du risque pour chaque unite geographique et appliquant un lissage spatial de type auto-regressif Gaussien. La classification des risques, necessaire pour le trace des cartes, est effectuee dans un deuxieme temps. Par analogie avec les methodes utilisees en analyse d'images, nous proposons une nouvelle methode de cartographie du risque basee sur l'approche par champs aleatoires de Markov caches. Le champ cache correspond a une classification du risque qui fait ainsi directement partie des parametres a estimer. L'originalite de la cartographie du risque consiste notamment a modeliser le champ observe par une loi de Poisson, et non plus par une loi normale comme c'est generalement le cas en analyse d'images. De plus, dans ce contexte, l'ordre des classes, en lien avec leur situation geographique et leur interpretation en terme de gravite du risque, est tres important. Les classiques fonctions de lien spatial, par exemple de type Potts, ne prennent pas en compte cette interpretation. Nous proposons donc de nouvelles fonctions de lien spatial permettant de tenir compte de l'ordre des classes. Afin d'estimer les parametres du modele et determiner les classes de risque, nous utilisons l'algorithme EM, en particulier sa variante MCEM.
History and current situation of ecosystem health research

There are three key developmental stages in studying ecosystem health.Planning is the first stage,and includes two sub-stages: the accumulation of knowledge about environmental and ecosystem health,and ideas and thoughts about ecosystem health.The discipline of ecosystem health is established at the second stage and also has two sub-stages: the establishment of basic theories and the development of research methods,which symbols were the first publication of terminology 'ecosystem health' and evaluation method 'VOR',respectively.At the third stage,ecosystem health evaluation starts to be operated in practice,as represented by the development of CVOR theory and related methods.The method of evaluating ecosystem health has been developed through four processes: laying out some simple indicators→integration of these indicators→evaluation of ecosystem function→evaluation of interface processes in ecosystems.This shows that embodying key ecological processes is an important index of selecting indicators to evaluate ecosystem health and multi-indicator integrations are a trend in evaluation of ecosystem health.Ecosystem health is the outcome of multidisciplines and embodies ideas of threshold values.Ecosystem health operates at different levels.
Kernel methods in orthogonalization of hyperspectral data

Principal component analysis (PCA) is the mother of all linear orthogonal transformations for data compression and dimensionality reduc-tion of correlated multivariate data. This contribution describes a kernel version of PCA and it also sketches kernel versions of maximum autocorrelation factor (MAF) analysis and minimum noise fraction (MNF) analysis. In kernel methods the actual observations are replaced by high (in principal inﬁnite) dimensional nonlinear mappings of the observations. In the dual formulation or Q-mode analysis applied in the kernel versions, these mappings are implicitly deﬁned by a kernel function. This type of analysis allows for nonlinearities in the original data, and especially the kernel MAF/MNF transformations tend to focus on outlying observations on a slower changing background. Data examples include analysis of simple differences of multi- and hyperspectral Earth observation image data, hyperspectral NIR images for food quality control, and irregularly spaced geochemical data for geological mapping. The example shown here illustrates the successful application of kernel PCA and especially kernel MAF analysis to change detection in HyMap data covering a small agricultural area near Lake Waging-Taching, Bavaria, in Southern Germany. nm), (1,648 nm) (662 nm) RGB, June 2003 8:43 and 2003 10:23 m m) detection spectral bands of HyMap maximum autocorrelation factors 1-3 of simple band-by-band difference RGB.