Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of Consumer Search On-Line: How Much Do We Search?

Information search is a critical stage in the Internet purchase process. But does decreased search cost on the Internet really lead to increased search? According to the search cost literature, consumers face three types of search costs: the cost of locating an appropriate seller, the cost of obtaining price information, and the cost of obtaining product information. This study examines the effect on consumer search intention of ease of on-line search for price, nonprice product information, and store. The results show the significant main effect of both cross-site search and in-site search on both price search and nonprice product information search for books (search goods) and MP3 players (experience goods). Price search and nonprice product information search increase when cross-site search and in-site search are made easy. However, cross-site search and in-site search have no significant impact on store search; respondents going directly to their preferred sellers' Web sites seems to be the dominant method used by buyers to search for online sellers. Results also indicate that consumers like the Internet shopping process more when search transparency of the interface is high. Implications for practitioners and academics are provided.
Smart advertising in the home of the future

With the emergence of smart home environments, services are constantly subject to changes, seeking the customer's full satisfaction. Enriching these services with innovative approaches such as context-aware, mobile, adaptable and interactive mechanisms, enables users to experience a variety of personalised services seamlessly across different platforms and technologies. Moreover, considering advertising as the enabler for next generation services, it is important to explore its integration into new domains. This paper, therefore presents a framework approach to address advertising solutions focusing on smart home environments, enriching the overall user quality of experience. In addition, by over viewing the current smart homes market scenario, it provides the vision to overcome the established advertising paradigms focusing on key points like user privacy protection, online social networks and reality mining technologies.
Variation of Carotid Intima - Media Thickness in Hypercholesterolemia Patients on Atorvastatin and Rosuvastatin Therapy

Aims of study: This study compares changes in lipid profile and carotid intima-media thickness and their use as surrogate biomarkers, after treatment with atorvastatin and rosuvastatin given to hypercholesterolemia patients. Methodology: Lipid profile was done after overnight fasting in patients with history of hypercholesterolemia or family history of premature coronary artery diseases. B-mode ultrasonography was done to measure mean carotid intima-media thickness on a Toshiba (M# SSA-580A/E2) ultrasound scanner with linear probe. Both treatment groups, one on atorvastatin (20 mg) and other on rosuvastatin (10 mg) were followed-up for two years. Results: Total of forty two patients of heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia were followed -up for two years. Total cholesterol reduction was (45%) and LDL-cholesterol (48%) in patients on rosuvastatin 10 mg/day, as compared to total cholesterol reduction (36%) and LDL-cholesterol (37%) in patients on atorvastatin 20 mg/day (**p < 0.001). The mean CIMT regression in both treatment groups was significant (0.11 mm) in rosuvastatin treatment group and (0.08 mm) in atorvastatin treatment group (*p < 0.02). Conclusion: This study has shown better efficacy of rosuvastatin as compared to atorvastatin in reduction of LDLcholesterol and carotid – intima media thickness.
Survival Disparities in Bladder, Kidney, and Prostate Cancer in Asian-Indian & Pakistani Immigrants to the United States as Compared to Other US Ethnic Groups: A Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result (SEER) 2011 Public Use Database Study

Objective: To compare the SEER 2011 public use data prognostic variables and survival of US Asian-Indians and Pakistanis (US-AIP) diagnosed with bladder, kidney, or prostate cancers, to patients in three comparable US ethnic groups (African-Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians) diagnosed with the same cancers. Patients and Methods: SEER 1988-to-2008 data (released in 2011) was analyzed using SEER*Stat Software V7.0. 5 and SAS version 9.3. Results: From 1988-to-2008, SEER documented 14,006 cancers in US-AIP (7,118 male, 6,888 female), with 2,867 (20%) being bladder, kidney, or prostate. Compared to the three other US ethnic groups examined, US-AIP genitourinary (GU) cancers occurred at significantly younger ages (p <0.01-to-<0.001). US-AIP had significantly more grade 3-4 (p <0.01-to-<0.001) and stage 3-4 (p<0.001) cancers than the other three groups. Paradoxically, despite having worse prognostic factors, five year age-adjusted survival for the bladder, kidney, and prostate cancers in US-AIP were significantly better than in the other three US ethnic groups (p <0.01-to-<0.001). Conclusions: SEER 1988-to-2008 data contained a “survival disconnect” for genitourinary cancers in US-AIP. All three US-AIP GU cancers had worse prognostic features but better age-adjusted survival when compared to three other US ethnic groups, even though US-AIP appeared to have had similar treatment. US-AIP cultural and biologic factors, which might modify the clinical behavior of their GU cancers, are discussed. Of note, SEER 2000-to-2008 data showed a significant decline in bladder, kidney, and prostate cancer relative risk of death for all four ethnic groups studied versus earlier era SEER 1994-to-2000 data.
Resistance training in older women: Comparison of single vs. multiple sets on muscle strength and body composition

BACKGROUND: Studies are conflicting as to whether single-set resistance training (RT) are as effective as multi-set protocols with respect to promoting muscular adaptations. Several meta-analyses have shown that a clear dose-response relationship exists between RT volume and muscular adaptations. However, a majority of studies were not specific to older individuals, particularly women. OBJECTIVE: To determine changes in strength and body composition in elderly women following 1 vs. 3 sets of RT. METHODS: Thirty older women participated in a 12-week supervised total body RT program. Participants were randomly assigned to perform either 1 set (G1S) or 3 sets (G3S) per session. All other RT variables were held constant. Body composition was assessed by dual X-ray absorptiometry, muscle strength was evaluated by 1RM in chest press and knee extension. RESULTS: Increases in strength were significantly (p 0.05) differences were noted in body composition components between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that multiple set protocols are required to optimize strength gains in older women. Changes in body composition appear to be similar irrespective of training volume during the initial stages of RT.
Molecular Imaging of Hypoxia

Hypoxia, a condition of insufficient O2 to support metabolism, occurs when the vascular supply is interrupted, as in stroke or myocardial infarction, or when a tumor outgrows its vascular supply. When otherwise healthy tissues lose their O2 supply acutely, the cells usually die, whereas when cells gradually become hypoxic, they adapt by up-regulating the production of numerous proteins that promote their survival. These proteins slow the rate of growth, switch the mitochondria to glycolysis, stimulate growth of new vasculature, inhibit apoptosis, and promote metastatic spread. The consequence of these changes is that patients with hypoxic tumors invariably experience poor outcome to treatment. This has led the molecular imaging community to develop assays for hypoxia in patients, including regional measurements from O2 electrodes placed under CT guidance, several nuclear medicine approaches with imaging agents that accumulate with an inverse relationship to O2, MRI methods that measure either oxygenation directly or lactate production as a consequence of hypoxia, and optical methods with NIR and bioluminescence. The advantages and disadvantages of these approaches are reviewed, along with the individual strategies for validating different imaging methods. Ultimately the proof of value is in the clinical performance to predict outcome, select an appropriate cohort of patients to benefit from a hypoxia-directed treatment, or plan radiation fields that result in better local control. Hypoxia imaging in support of molecular medicine has become an important success story over the last decade and provides a model and some important lessons for development of new molecular imaging probes or techniques.
Contrast-Enhanced 18F-FDG PET/CT: 1-Stop-Shop Imaging for Assessing the Resectability of Pancreatic Cancer

Patients with pancreatic cancer continue to have a poor prognosis, with a 5-y survival rate of less than 5%. Surgery is the only treatment that offers a potential cure. Determining resectability is the principal goal of staging in pancreatic cancer patients. Our objective was to evaluate the value of combined contrast-enhanced 18F-FDG PET/CT in assessing the resectability of pancreatic cancer and to compare enhanced PET/CT with the performance of PET alone and unenhanced PET/CT. Methods: Fifty patients (25 women and 25 men; mean age, 64.3 y; range, 39–84 y) with biopsy-proven pancreatic adenocarcinoma underwent enhanced 18F-FDG PET/CT for the evaluation of resectability. Criteria for unresectability were distant metastases, peritoneal carcinomatosis, arterial infiltration, or invasion of neighboring organs other than the duodenum. The performance of enhanced PET/CT regarding resectability was compared with that of PET alone and unenhanced PET/CT. Histology, intraoperative findings, and follow-up CT with clinical investigations were used as the reference standard. Results: According to the reference standard, 27 patients had disease that was not resectable because of distant metastases (n = 17), peritoneal carcinomatosis (n = 5), or local infiltration (n = 5). In the assessment of resectability, PET alone had a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 44%, accuracy of 70%, positive predictive value of 61%, and negative predictive value of 100%; unenhanced PET/CT had respective values of 100%, 56%, 76%, 66%, and 100%; and enhanced PET/CT, 96%, 82%, 88%, 82%, and 96%. In 5 patients, unresectability was missed by all imaging methods and was diagnosed intraoperatively. Enhanced PET/CT was significantly superior to PET alone (P = 0.035), and there was a trend for enhanced PET/CT to be superior to unenhanced PET/CT (P = 0.070). Conclusion: The use of enhanced PET/CT as a 1-stop-shop imaging protocol for assessing the resectability of pancreatic cancer is feasible and accurate. Enhanced PET/CT is significantly superior to PET alone.
Ketolides: pharmacological profile and rational positioning in the treatment of respiratory tract infections

Ketolides differ from macrolides by removal of the 3-O-cladinose (replaced by a keto group), a 11,12- or 6,11-cyclic moiety and a heteroaryl-alkyl side chain attached to the macrocyclic ring through a suitable linker. These modifications allow for anchoring at two distinct binding sites in the 23S rRNA (increasing activity against erythromycin-susceptible strains and maintaining activity towards Streptococcus pneumoniae resistant to erythromycin A by ribosomal methylation), and make ketolides less prone to induce methylase expression and less susceptible to efflux in S. pneumoniae. Combined with an advantageous pharmacokinetic profile (good oral bioavailability and penetration in the respiratory tract tissues and fluids; prolonged half-life allowing for once-a-day administration), these antimicrobial properties make ketolides an attractive alternative for the treatment of severe respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia in areas with significant resistance to conventional macrolides. For telithromycin (the only registered ketolide so far), pharmacodynamic considerations suggest optimal efficacy for isolates with minimum inhibitory concentration values ≤ 0.25 mg/l (pharmacodynamic/pharmacokinetic breakpoint), calling for continuous and careful surveys of bacterial susceptibility. Postmarketing surveillance studies have evidenced rare, but severe, side effects (hepatotoxicity, respiratory failure in patients with myasthenia gravis, visual disturbance and QTc prolongation in combination with other drugs). On these bases, telithromycin indications have been recently restricted by the US FDA to community-acquired pneumonia, and caution in patients at risk has been advocated by the European authorities. Should these side effects be class related, they may hinder the development of other ketolides such as cethromycin (in Phase III, but on hold in the US) or EDP-420 (Phase II).
Renal Toxicity of Radiolabeled Peptides and Antibody Fragments: Mechanisms, Impact on Radionuclide Therapy, and Strategies for Prevention

Peptide-receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) with radiolabeled somatostatin analogs such as octreotide is an effective therapy against neuroendocrine tumors. Other radiolabeled peptides and antibody fragments are under investigation. Most of these compounds are cleared through the kidneys and reabsorbed and partially retained in the proximal tubules, causing dose-limiting nephrotoxicity. An overview of renal handling of radiolabeled peptides and resulting nephrotoxicity is presented, and strategies to reduce nephrotoxicity are discussed. Modification of size, charge, or structure of radiolabeled peptides can alter glomerular filtration and tubular reabsorption. Coinfusion of competitive inhibitors of reabsorption also interferes with the interaction of peptides with renal endocytic receptors; coinfusion of basic amino acids is currently used for kidney protection in clinical PRRT. Furthermore, nephrotoxicity may be reduced by dose fractionation, use of radioprotectors, or use of mitigating agents. Decreasing the risk of nephrotoxicity allows for administration of higher radiation doses, increasing the effectiveness of PRRT.
Human Biodistribution and Radiation Dosimetry of 82Rb

Prior estimates of radiation-absorbed doses from 82Rb, a frequently used PET perfusion tracer, yielded discrepant results. We reevaluated 82Rb dosimetry using human in vivo biokinetic measurements. Methods: Ten healthy volunteers underwent dynamic PET/CT (6 contiguous table positions, each with separate 82Rb infusion). Source organ volumes of interest were delineated on the CT images and transferred to the PET images to obtain time-integrated activity coefficients. Radiation doses were estimated using OLINDA/EXM 1.0. Results: The highest mean absorbed organ doses (μGy/MBq) were observed for the kidneys (5.81), heart wall (3.86), and lungs (2.96). Mean effective doses were 1.11 ± 0.22 and 1.26 ± 0.20 μSv/MBq using the tissue-weighting factors of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), publications 60 and 103, respectively. Conclusion: Our current 82Rb dosimetry suggests reasonably low radiation exposure. On the basis of this study, a clinical 82Rb injection of 2 × 1,480 MBq (80 mCi) would result in a mean effective dose of 3.7 mSv using the weighting factors of the ICRP 103—only slightly above the average annual natural background exposure in the United States (3.1 mSv).
Pérdida del precondicionamiento isquémico: ¿un fenómeno relacionado con el envejecimiento?

RESUMEN Introduccion La edad es un predictor independiente de riesgo en pacientes con enfermedad coronaria.Esto podria explicarse por la falta de adaptacion a la isquemia miocardica aguda. Elprecondicionamiento es un mecanismo por el cual episodios repetitivos de isquemia indu-cen en el miocardio una tolerancia mayor a episodios subsiguientes. Objetivo Evaluar el desarrollo de precondicionamiento isquemico en pacientes anosos. Material y metodos Se incluyeron 65 pacientes sometidos a angioplastia coronaria electiva (< 70 anos [n = 47] y≥ 70 anos [n = 18]). Se evaluo el desarrollo de precondicionamiento durante tres periodos deoclusion coronaria. Por ECG intracoronario se midio la elevacion del ST al final de cada dilata-cion y se registro el porcentaje de resolucion del ST a la tercera dilatacion respecto del maximovalor registrado. Los datos se presentan como mediana e intervalo intercuartil 25/75%. Resultados No hubo diferencias significativas en las caracteristicas clinicas basales. El maximo ST re-gistrado, el ST a la tercera dilatacion y el porcentaje de resolucion del ST fueron 14 (9/24)mm, 8 (4/14) mm y 23,8% (0/55,5) para los pacientes jovenes y 9,5 (5/18) mm (p = ns), 6,5 (4/16) mm (p = ns) y 5,5% (0/20) (p = 0,04) para los anosos. Al estratificar por grupos etarios,la proporcion de pacientes que alcanzaron una resolucion del ST ≥ 50% mostro una distri-bucion lineal por chi cuadrado de tendencia (p = 0,025).
Negative correlation in the frequency responses of a pair of analogue circuits results in possible improvement of fault-tolerant performance

Analogue circuits play an important part in modern electronic systems. Existing works on evolutionary fault-tolerant design of analogue circuits are mainly based on the idea of introducing certain faults into the design process of analogue circuits. Via this idea, the fault-tolerant circuits may have outstanding ability of tolerance on the introduced-into-design-process faults. On the contrary, these circuits might be fragile under the impact of not-introduced-into-design-process faults. This paper proposes a novel method of fault-tolerant analogue circuit design method that is different from the existing works, which are based on the idea of introducing certain faults into the design process of analogue circuits. We do not introduce any faults into the design process of analogue circuits. As an alternative, we design a pair of analogue circuits, which are negatively correlated in the frequency responses. The experimental results show that the proposed method is a promising way of fault-tolerant analogue circuit design.
QoS-based approach for context-aware service selection with fuzzy preferences handling

The expected expansion of the number of context-aware services makes service selection engines, which are able to automatically recommend the most relevant service to users, in high demand. Yet, current approach and practice on service selection remain inadequate to meet the requirement posed by the user-centric computing paradigm. In our approach we consider that functional aspects of a service are already met and we focus on non-functional and QoS-related aspects in service description, indeed, QoS-aware computing is expected to be a key enabler for customising the selection of fast-growing context-aware services. We propose in this paper a workflow-based algorithm allowing the inexact matching between context and services descriptions, the service description and request are compared using four similarities measures: syntactic, linguistic, structural and QoS semantic. In the last a discussion is opened about possible methods for service ranking, and a case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Targeting Angiogenesis Using a C-Type Atrial Natriuretic Factor–Conjugated Nanoprobe and PET

Sensitive, specific, and noninvasive detection of angiogenesis would be helpful in discovering new strategies for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Recently, we reported the 64Cu-labeled C-type atrial natriuretic factor (CANF) fragment for detecting the upregulation of natriuretic peptide clearance receptor (NPR-C) with PET on atherosclerosis-like lesions in an animal model. However, it is unknown whether NPR-C is present and overexpressed during angiogenesis. The goal of this study was to develop a novel CANF-integrated nanoprobe to prove the presence of NPR-C and offer sensitive detection with PET during development of angiogenesis in mouse hind limb. Methods: We prepared a multifunctional, core-shell nanoparticle consisting of DOTA chelators attached to a poly(methyl methacrylate) core and CANF-targeting moieties attached to poly(ethylene glycol) chain ends in the shell of the nanoparticle. Labeling of this nanoparticle with 64Cu yielded a high-specific-activity nanoprobe for PET imaging NPR-C receptor in a mouse model of hind limb ischemia–induced angiogenesis. Histology and immunohistochemistry were performed to assess angiogenesis development and NPR-C localization. Results: 15O-H2O imaging showed blood flow restoration in the previously ischemic hind limb, consistent with the development of angiogenesis. The targeted DOTA-CANF-comb nanoprobe showed optimized pharmacokinetics and biodistribution. PET imaging demonstrated significantly higher tracer accumulation for the targeted DOTA-CANF-comb nanoprobe than for either the CANF peptide tracer or the nontargeted control nanoprobe (P < 0.05, both). Immunohistochemistry confirmed NPR-C upregulation in the angiogenic lesion with colocalization in both endothelial and smooth muscle cells. PET and immunohistochemistry competitive receptor blocking verified the specificity of the targeted nanoprobe to NPR-C receptor. Conclusion: As evidence of its translational potential, this customized DOTA-CANF-comb nanoprobe demonstrated superiority over the CANF peptide alone for imaging NPR-C receptor in angiogenesis.
The Yield of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Patients with Clinical Stage IIA, IIB, or IIIA Breast Cancer: A Prospective Study

The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with stage IIA, IIB, or IIIA breast cancer. Methods: During 56 mo, 131 consecutive patients with large (>2 cm) breast cancer and clinical stage IIA, IIB, or IIIA (based on clinical examination, mammography, breast MRI, and ultrasonography) underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT. The nuclear physician was unaware of the results of any other procedure (bone scan, chest radiography, liver ultrasound, or thoracoabdominal CT scan). Results: Of the 131 examined patients, 36 had clinical stage IIA (34 T2N0 and 2 T1N1), 48 stage IIB (20 T3N0 and 28 T2N1), and 47 stage IIIA (29 T3N1, 9 T2N2, and 9 T3N2). 18F-FDG PET/CT modified staging for 5.6% of stage IIA patients, for 14.6% of stage IIB patients, and for 27.6% of stage IIIA patients. However, within stage IIIA, the yield was specifically high among the 18 patients with N2 disease (56% stage modification). When considering stage IIB and primary operable IIIA (T3N1) together, the yield of 18F-FDG PET/CT was 13% (10/77); extraaxillary regional lymph nodes were detected in 5 and distant metastases in 7 patients. In this series, 18F-FDG PET/CT outperformed bone scanning, with only 1 misclassification versus 8 for bone scanning (P = 0.036). Conclusion: 18F-FDG PET/CT provided useful information in 13% of patients with clinical T3N0, T2N1, or T3N1 disease. The yield was more modest in patients with stage IIA. The high yield in the case of N2 disease demonstrates that stage IIIA comprises 2 quite distinct groups of patients.