Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Of Mice and Men (and Dogs): development of a xenogeneic DNA vaccine for canine oral malignant melanoma

Summary Melanoma is the most common oral malignancy in the dog. Oral and/or mucosal melanoma is generally considered an extremely malignant tumor with a high degree of local invasiveness and metastatic propensity. The WHO staging scheme for dogs with oral melanoma is based on size and metastasis, with stage I = 4 cm. tumor and/or lymph node metastasis and stage IV = distant metastasis. Median survival times for dogs with oral melanoma treated with surgery are approximately 1718, 5-6 and 3 months with stage I, II and III disease, respectively. Significant negative prognostic factors include stage, size, evidence of metastasis and a variety of histologic criteria. Standardized treatments such as surgery, coarse-fractionation radiation therapy and chemotherapy have afforded minimal to modest stage-dependent clinical benefits and death is usually due to systemic metastasis. Numerous immunotherapeutic strategies have been employed to date with variable clinical efficacy; however, the use of xenogeneic DNA vaccines as outlined herein may represent a leap forward in clinical efficacy. Oral melanoma is a spontaneous syngeneic cancer occurring in outbred, immunocompetent dogs and appears to be a more clinically faithful therapeutic model for human melanoma; further use of canine melanoma as a therapeutic model for human melanoma is strongly encouraged. In addition, the development of an expanded but clinically relevant staging system incorporating the aforementioned prognostic factors is also strongly encouraged.
Immunohistochemical localization of bone morphogenetic protein-2 in the oral and maxillofacial area of the human embryo.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) expression in oral and maxillofacial tissue of the human embryo. A human embryo was obtained from a patient with hysterorrhexis. The oral and maxillofacial area of the embryo was analyzed immunohistochemically using specific antibodies to BMP-2. BMP-2 was found mainly localized in developing teeth buds, jaw bone, striated and smooth muscle, spinal cord and nasal tracheal and oesophagal epithelium. However, it was not found in hair follicles. These findings are similar to those of BMP-2 and -4 gene expression in mouse and rat embryos. BMP-2 may be involved in the morphogenesis of oral and maxillofacial tissue in human embryos as well as those of other animals. These results will be of considerable benefit in the restoration and regeneration of the oral and maxillofacial tissue clinically.
Retinal nerve fiber layer is associated with brain atrophy in multiple sclerosis

Objective: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) noninvasively quantifies retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness. Studies show RNFL thinning in multiple sclerosis (MS), and we assessed its association with brain atrophy. Methods: RNFL thickness was measured in 40 patients with MS and 15 controls. Brain parenchymal fraction (BPF) and partial brain volumes were estimated from cranial MRI scans using SIENA-X. Multiple linear regression modeling assessed the association between OCT and MRI measures of atrophy. Results: Minimum RNFL thickness and subject age together predict 21% (p = 0.005) of the variance in BPF in all patients with MS and 43% (p = 0.003) of the variance in BPF in the subgroup with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS; n = 20). The partial correlation coefficient between BPF and minimum RNFL thickness, controlling for age, is 0.46 (p = 0.003) in all patients with MS and 0.69 (p = 0.001) in patients with RRMS. These associations are driven by CSF volume but not by gray or white matter volume. There is no significant association of these variables among controls. Conclusions: In multiple sclerosis (MS), retinal nerve fiber layer thickness is associated with brain parenchymal fraction and CSF volume. These data suggest that quantification of axonal thickness in the retina by optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides concurrent information about MRI brain abnormality in MS. OCT should be examined in longitudinal studies to determine if it could be used as an outcome measure in clinical trials of neuroprotective drugs. GLOSSARY: BPF = brain parenchymal fraction; EDSS = Expanded Disability Status Scale; KKI = Kennedy Krieger Institute; MNI = Montreal Neurological Institute; MPRAGE = magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo; MS = multiple sclerosis; OCT = optical coherence tomography; PPMS = primary progressive MS; RNFL = retinal nerve fiber layer; RRMS = relapsing remitting MS; SPMS = secondary progressive MS; TMV = total macular volume.
Redefined duplex ultrasonographic criteria for diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate duplex ultrasonographic criteria for the determination of 50% or more and 70% or more stenosis of the diameter of the internal carotid artery based on conventional angiography in order to align ultrasonographic diagnostic categories with current clinical management schemes. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between January 1, 1995, and June 30, 1999, 915 patients underwent both carotid duplex ultrasonography and cerebral angiography within 30 days at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Of these patients, 294 were excluded from this study because of occlusion of one or both of the internal carotid arteries or atypical flow characteristics. In the remaining 621 patients (61 % male, 39% female; mean age, 67.7 years [range, 14-88 years]), 1218 vessels were available for correlation. Several Doppler ultrasonographic velocity variables were compared with the angiographic findings by use of receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The primary end point was verification of optimal ultrasonographic criteria to diagnose 70% or more internal carotid artery stenosis. The secondary end point was establishment of threshold values to detect stenosis of 50% or more. RESULTS At angiography, 382 patients had internal carotid arteries with 70% or more stenosis. Peak systolic and end diastolic velocities of the internal carotid artery and internal carotid artery:common carotid artery peak systolic velocity ratios were measured. For an internal carotid artery stenosis of 70% or more, a peak systolic velocity of 230 cm/s or more resulted in a sensitivity of 86.4%, a specificity of 90.1%, a positive predictive value of 82.7%, a negative predictive value of 92.3%, and an accuracy of 88.8%. An end diastolic velocity of 70 cm/s or more and an internal carotid artery:common carotid artery ratio of 3.2 or more yielded similar values. For an internal carotid artery stenosis of 50% or more, a peak systolic velocity of 130 cm/s or more resulted in a sensitivity of 92.1 %, a specificity of 89.5%, a positive predictive value of 90.3%, a negative predictive value of 91.3%, and an overall accuracy of 90.8%. An internal carotid artery:common carotid artery ratio of 1.6 or more yielded similar values. CONCLUSION In our ultrasonography laboratory, a carotid artery stenosis of 70% or more (for which carotid endarterectomy is typically recommended in symptomatic patients) is diagnosed reliably with the following duplex ultrasonographic criteria: a peak systolic velocity of 230 cm/s or more, an end diastolic velocity of 70 cm/s or more, or an internal carotid artery:common carotid artery ratio of 3.2 or more.
Interleukin (IL)‐10, IL‐1ra and IL‐12 profiles in active and quiescent systemic lupus erythematosus: could longitudinal studies reveal patient subgroups of differing pathology?

Several cytokines have been implicated individually in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and some, including interleukin (IL)‐10, IL‐12 and IL‐1ra are raised during flares of disease activity. Few studies have been directed at examining the interactions between these cytokines and how their combined profile relates to disease activity. We have examined serum levels of IL‐10, IL‐12 and IL‐1ra in a cohort of SLE patients obtained from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham in cross‐sectional and, in a smaller group, longitudinal analyses. In the cross‐sectional study, there were significant correlations between levels of the three cytokines. There were also significant correlations between levels of each cytokine and measures of disease activity. IL‐10 levels correlated with ESR, anti‐dsDNA antibody titres and C3D, IL‐12 levels with anti‐dsDNA antibody titres and IL‐1ra levels with ESR, anti‐dsDNA antibody titres and C3D. IL‐1ra levels also correlated with CRP. Circulating IL‐10 and IL‐1ra levels were higher in patients with SLE than in normal controls, although in this study group they did not reach significance. Circulating IL‐12 levels were, however, significantly higher in SLE compared to controls. This was true both in patients with active disease and those sampled during a quiescent phase. These data add to the evidence that cytokines such as IL‐10, IL‐12 and IL‐1ra are important in SLE pathogenesis. In a retrospective study of serial serum samples from seven patients, we found two patients whose cytokine profile was very different from the rest of the group. In most patients normalized IL‐10, IL‐12 and IL‐1ra levels mirrored BILAG scores closely, but in these two patients, IL‐10, IL‐12 and IL‐1ra levels did not fluctuate with disease activity. It is possible that there is a subgroup of SLE patients whose cytokine profile could be an important indicator of their pathology. In order to confirm this and determine the frequency of such patients this study needs to be repeated with a much larger subject group. The coexistence of patient groups with different patterns of cytokine activity might explain conflicting reports of associations of levels of particular cytokines with SLE. As the observed differences could reflect different aetiologies of SLE, this information could reveal valuable endophenotypes for genetic and functional studies of SLE and might, ultimately, inform therapeutic management.
A Study of Knowledge Culture in the Consulting Industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the values that make up a knowledge‐friendly culture in the consulting industry, in which the implementation of in‐house knowledge management (KM) projects has positive performance outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory analysis and a structural equation model were used on a sample of 100 knowledge workers (managers and internal KM project managers) in the consulting sector.Findings – The results of this study indicate that the values identified (trust, transparency, flexibility, collaboration, commitment, honesty and professionalism) bear a close positive relation to the success of the KM project implementation (innovation, employee satisfaction, capabilities, quality and productivity). These values are divided into three groups.Research limitations/implications – This research focuses on the consulting industry in Catalonia, Spain; further research will be required in order to apply the findings to other countries in the world.Practical i.
Resolution of giant left atrial appendage thrombus with rivaroxaban

doi:10.1160/TH12-11-0821 Thromb Haemost 2013; 109: 583–584 A 64-year-old man was transferred to our hospital for external cardioversion (ECV) of symptomatic persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). At the time of hospital admission the patient presented with functional NYHA class III; he had a clinical history of symptomatic coronary artery disease, ischaemic cardiomyopathy with severely impaired left ventricular function, and chronic kidney disease stage 3B to 4 (creatinine clearance [CrCL] 29 ml/minute). Pretreatment with the vitamin-K antagonist (VKA) phenprocoumon was instituted in 2006 due to a high AF related thromboembolic risk with an actual CHA2DS2VASc score of 6. Since the international normalised ratio (INR) was not well controlled before elective ECV we performed a transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), which revealed a small thrombus formation (11 x 12 mm) in the apex of the left atrial appendage (LAA) (▶ Figure 1 A). Therefore, ECV was deferred for six weeks under closely controlled VKA therapy with levels of INR ranging between 2.5 – 3.5 (mean 3.2 ± 0.7, range 2.4 to 4.2). Interestingly, repeated TEE (▶ Figure 1 B) showed a markedly increased giant thrombus mass (12 x 45mm) now protruding into the left atrium. In general VKAs have a slow onset of action and their indirect anticoagulant activity depends on clearance of the vitamin K–dependent clotting proteins and replacement with functionally impaired factors (1). In contrast to current guidelines, there is increasing evidence that VKAs have a poor capability to resolve large intracardiac thrombi. Therefore, we decided to switch oral anticoagulation (OAC) to the direct factor Xa (FXa) inhibitor rivaroxaban dosed with 15 mg once daily. After four weeks of rivaroxaban treatment TEE showed a relevantly decreased thrombus size (▶ Figure 1 C) and a complete thrombus resolution was achieved after six weeks of anticoagulant therapy with the FXa inhibitor (▶ Figure 1 D). Finally, ECV was performed successfully without clinical signs of cardiac embolism and the patient was discharged in good medical conditions under continued anticoagulant treatment with rivaroxaban. To the best of our knowledge this is the first documented case of LAA thrombus resolution under rivaroxaban therapy and illustrates some clinically important characteristics of the new direct acting FXa inhibitor. First, in contrast to indirect acting VKAs, FXa inhibitors have the potential to (a) prevent de novo thrombus formation and more importantly (b) to resolve established thrombi by direct inhibition of free and thrombusassociated FXa. Thereby they reduce clot-induced fibrinopeptide A generation to a similar extent as hirudin, a potent inhibitor of thrombin (2).
An Observation Capability Metadata Model for EO Sensor Discovery in Sensor Web Enablement Environments

Accurate and fine-grained discovery by diverse Earth observation (EO) sensors ensures a comprehensive response to collaborative observation-required emergency tasks. This discovery remains a challenge in an EO sensor web environment. In this study, we propose an EO sensor observation capability metadata model that reuses and extends the existing sensor observation-related metadata standards to enable the accurate and fine-grained discovery of EO sensors. The proposed model is composed of five sub-modules, namely, ObservationBreadth, ObservationDepth, ObservationFrequency, ObservationQuality and ObservationData. The model is applied to different types of EO sensors and is formalized by the Open Geospatial Consortium Sensor Model Language 1.0. The GeosensorQuery prototype retrieves the qualified EO sensors based on the provided geo-event. An actual application to flood emergency observation in the Yangtze River Basin in China is conducted, and the results indicate that sensor inquiry can accurately achieve fine-grained discovery of qualified EO sensors and obtain enriched observation capability information. In summary, the proposed model enables an efficient encoding system that ensures minimum unification to represent the observation capabilities of EO sensors. The model functions as a foundation for the efficient discovery of EO sensors. In addition, the definition and development of this proposed EO sensor observation capability metadata model is a helpful step in extending the Sensor Model Language (SensorML) 2.0 Profile for the description of the observation capabilities of EO sensors.
Diagnosis and monitoring of renal osteodystrophy

A variety of biochemical investigations and radiological techniques are available to assist in the diagnosis and monitoring of renal osteodystrophy. Measurement of serum parathyroid hormone remains the single most useful biochemical test in predicting bone histology in an individual patient. Newer biochemical markers of bone turnover are unlikely to supplant this in everyday practice, but may provide useful supplementary information in the future. The present review discusses the role of radiological investigation, including bone densitometry and quantitative ultrasound. Bone biopsy remains the ‘gold standard’ investigation. Its invasive nature and the need for specialized processing and interpretation limits its use in clinical practice, although it still has a role particularly in the investigation of low turnover states. Also, as molecular biological techniques are increasingly being used, the evaluation of biopsy specimens will in the future provide new insights into the disordered bone cell function that occurs in renal osteodystrophy.
An analytical phantom for the evaluation of medical flow imaging algorithms

Blood flow characteristics (e.g. velocity, pressure, shear stress, streamline and volumetric flow rate) are effective tools in diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerotic plaque, aneurism and cardiac muscle failure. Noninvasive estimation of cardiovascular blood flow characteristics is mostly limited to the measurement of velocity components by medical imaging modalities. Once the velocity field is obtained from the images, other flow characteristics within the cardiovascular system can be determined using algorithms relating them to the velocity components. In this work, we propose an analytical flow phantom to evaluate these algorithms accurately. The Navier–Stokes equations are used to derive this flow phantom. The exact solution of these equations obtains analytical expression for the flow characteristics inside the domain. Features such as pulsatility, incompressibility and viscosity of flow are included in a three-dimensional domain. The velocity domain of the resulted system is presented as reference images. These images could be employed to evaluate the performance of different flow characteristic algorithms. In this study, we also present some applications of the obtained phantom. The calculation of pressure domain from velocity data, volumetric flow rate, wall shear stress and particle trace are the characteristics whose algorithms are evaluated here. We also present the application of this phantom in the analysis of noisy and low-resolution images. The presented phantom can be considered as a benchmark test to compare the accuracy of different flow characteristic algorithms.
Estudi per la implantació d'un ERP de codi obert en una empresa de fabricació de mobles

Un sistema ERP es una aplicacio informatica que permet gestionar tots els processos de negoci d'una empresa de forma integrada. Aquest projecte tracta sobre l'estudi previ que s'ha de realitzar en una empresa abans de la implantacio d'un sistema ERP. L'empresa escollida per l'estudi es una pyme de fabricacio de mobles. En primer lloc, s'inclou una base teorica sobre els sistemes ERP. Despres, s'analitza el funcionament i requeriments de l'empresa escollida. Finalment, s'estudien tres sistemes ERP de codi obert, es selecciona el que millor s'adapta i es fa una proposta de la seva futura implantacio.
A novel high efficiency CMOS RF/DC power harvester based on constant on/off time buck controller for 60GHz frequency band

A novel 60 GHz RF/DC power harvesting system is presented. The system consists of RF to DC rectifier and a DC/DC Buck converter based on constant ON/OFF time (COOT) control. The rectifier has a structure of voltage doubler, but employs diodes that have lower parasitics compared to those of the standard MOSFET diodes, resulting in improved power conversion efficiency. The peak efficiency of the rectifier obtained with the extracted parasitics for the output power of 1 mW is about 25%. In order to keep the output voltage of the system to 1.2 V, the COOT control in the Buck converter is used. COOT control has much better efficiency at low output powers compared to the PWM systems. For correct operation of the COOT control, auxiliary sub-blocks: a low power high-speed comparator, a hysteresis comparator, and a high-speed voltage reference are designed and presented. The maximum switching frequency in the Buck converter is about 100MHz and the whole control system has very low static power consumption. The efficiency of the overall system for the output power of 1mW is about 21%. The system is designed in 65 nm CMOS technology.
Mise en œuvre d'un modèle électromagnétique 3D dédié à l'analyse de milieux forestiers et à la détection de cibles sous couvert

Dans ce rapport, un modele electromagnetique dedie a l’analyse de la diffraction de cibles metalliques placees en milieux forestiers est developpe. Le modele est base sur une formulation hybride (surface/volume) de la methode des moments. Le modele est d’abord developpe pour traiter le cas d’une cible metallique placee en espace libre en se basant sur la formulation surfacique de l’equation integrale du champ electrique. Ensuite, le modele est modifie afin de prendre en compte la presence du sol en se basant sur la methode des images couplee aux coefficients de reflexion de Fresnel. Enfin, le code obtenu est couple a un modele precedemment developpe au laboratoire permettant d’analyser de larges zones forestieres. Ce modele est base sur la formulation volumique de l’equation integrale du champ electrique couplee a la methode CBFM (Characteristics Basis Functions Method). Le code final obtenu permet de traiter le cas d’une cible metallique placee dans une large zone forestiere. Le modele realise est implemente sous MATLAB et Fortran afin de comparer ses resultats avec ceux donnes par le logiciel commercial FEKO. Les resultats sont compares pour plusieurs cas de figure: espace libre, avec sol et scene complexe. De plus, le code est utilise afin de mettre en evidence les differents parametres qui rentrent en jeu dans le mecanisme de diffraction. Enfin, une validation experimentale realisee en collaboration avec CCRM (Centre Commun de Ressources en Micro-ondes de Marseille) est presente. Une mesure du champ diffractee est realisee sur des maquettes a echelle reduite (1/25) et les resultats obtenus sont compares avec ceux donnes par notre modele.