Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gene deletion of glutathione S-transferase theta: correlation with induced genetic damage and potential role in endogenous mutagenesis.

Genetic traits that confer increased susceptibility to DNA and chromosomal damage from reactive epoxide and peroxides could be important individual risk factors in the development of human cancers. To provide an index of individual sensitivity to expoxides, we previously studied sister chromatid exchange (SCE) induction in peripheral blood lymphocytes and identified a trait involving sensitivity to chromosomal damage by monoepoxybutene and diepoxybutane (DEB), both potential carcinogenic metabolites of 1,3-butadiene. Individuals sensitive to DEB induction of SCEs also had an increased number of background or "spontaneous" SCEs. The present investigation was conducted to test whether a newly described deletion polymorphism in the glutathione S-transferase class theta (GSTT1) was significantly associated with the previously described inherited chromosomal sensitivity to DEB. The background and DEB-induced SCE frequencies in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 78 healthy volunteers were determined with the use of fluorescence plus Giemsa staining. The presence or absence of the homozygous deletion of the GSTT1 gene was determined for each participant using PCR methods. In the present study, we report a close correlation of the DEB sensitivity trait with the novel polymorphism in GSTT1. The GSTT1 polymorphism was also highly associated with the background frequencies of SCE. These studies raise the possibility that DBE is a substrate for GST-theta. Individuals who carry a homozygous deletion of the GSTT1 gene may be at increased risk for genotoxic damage from environmental or occupational 1,3-butadiene exposures. The association of the GSTT1 deletion polymorphism with increases in background SCEs indicates that substrates for this isozyme are encountered commonly in the environment or are endogenous in nature. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Optimized Hyperspectral Band Selection Using Particle Swarm Optimization

A particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based system is proposed to select bands and determine the optimal number of bands to be selected simultaneously, which is near-automatic with only a few data-independent parameters. The proposed system includes two particle swarms, i.e., the outer one for estimating the optimal number of bands and the inner one for the corresponding band selection. To avoid employing an actual classifier within PSO so as to greatly reduce computational cost, criterion functions that can gauge class separability are preferred; specifically, minimum estimated abundance covariance (MEAC) and Jeffreys-Matusita (JM) distance are adopted in this research. The experimental results show that the 2PSO-based algorithm outperforms the popular sequential forward selection (SFS) method and PSO with one particle swarm in band selection.
Risk factors for more severe regional musculoskeletal symptoms: a two-year prospective study of a general working population.

OBJECTIVE To quantify the relative contribution of work-related physical and psychosocial factors, individual factors, and health-related factors to the development of more severe musculoskeletal pain in the neck and upper limbs and the back and lower limbs. METHODS In this cohort study of 5,604 workers from industrial and service companies, we collected information on work-related physical and psychosocial exposures and on individual and health-related factors. Questionnaires were completed at baseline by 4,006 participants (71.5%) and after 24 months by 3,276 (82%). At followup, participants with no or minor pain were included in Cox regression analyses to determine which factors predicted more severe regional pain. RESULTS Of the 4,006 baseline respondents, only 7.7% were free of regional pain. A total of 1,513 participants were free of severe pain at baseline and completed the 24-month followup. Highly repetitive work predicted arm pain, heavy lifting and prolonged standing predicted low back pain, and heavy pushing or pulling predicted lower limb pain. Low job satisfaction predicted neck/shoulder pain and lower limb pain, whereas other psychosocial work place factors were only of marginal importance. High levels of fear avoidance were associated with arm pain and lower limb pain. A high body mass index was highly associated with lower limb pain. CONCLUSION Very few workers are totally free of pain in musculoskeletal regions, and we question the concept of incidence of musculoskeletal pain. The transition from no or minor pain to more severe pain was influenced by physical and psychosocial work place factors together with individual and health-related factors.
Prevalence of asymptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis in high-risk patients

We used transcranial Doppler to screen 3,057 patients who had at least one vascular risk factor of hypertension, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia and found 385 (12.6%) had middle cerebral artery stenosis. Elderly, hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia were associated factors. The prevalence escalated quadratically with increasing number of associated factors: from 7.2% for one, to 29.6% for four associated factors. Asymptomatic middle cerebral artery stenosis is common in patients with vascular risk factors.
Lateral Dominance in Tachistoscopic word Recognitions of Children at Two Levels of Ability

Monocular tachistoscopic word recognition performance as a function of word placement to the right or left of fixation was studied in 20 seventh grade children. Half the subjects possessed normal reading skills, while the other half read at a third grade level. Words directed to the left cerebral hemisphere (right field words) were recognized significantly more often (P < 0.005) in both groups than words channelled to the right hemisphere. The result supports the view that right field recognition superiority reflects the language specialization of the left hemisphere rather than “training” of the left hemiretinae through the acquisition of reading proficiency.
Vmalloc: A General and Efficient Memory Allocator

Despite its popularity, malloc's shortcomings frequently cause programmers to code around it. The new library Vmalloc generalizes malloc to give programmers more control over memory allocation. Vmalloc introduces the idea of organizing memory into separate regions, each with a discipline to get raw memory and a method to manage allocation. Applications can write their own disciplines to manipulate arbitrary type of memory or just to better organize memory in a region by creating new regions out of its memory. The provided set of allocation methods include general purpose allocation, fast special cases and aids for memory debugging or profiling. A compatible malloc interface enables current applications to select allocation methods using environment variables so they can tune for performance or perform other tasks such as profiling memory usage, generating traces of allocation calls or debugging memory errors. A performance study comparing Vmalloc and currently popular malloc implementations shows that Vmalloc is competitive to the best of these allocators. Applications can gain further performance improvement by using the right mixture of regions with different Vmalloc methods.
The early development of substrate‐brooding cichlids (Teleostei: Cichlidae) with a discussion of a new system of staging

The early development of five species of substrate‐brooding cichlid (Aequidens pulcher; Cichlasoma bimaculatum; C. biocellatum; C. nigrofasciatum and Hemichromis bimaculatus) is described. Heterochrony in these species renders the standard system of staging inadequate for comparative study. A new system is proposed in which the period of development is resolved into five overlapping phases, each phase corresponding to a dissociable ontogenetic process. This form of staging permits comparison in a way which neither obscures the basic uniformity of cichlid development nor masks the differences between the species.
Cardiac Actin Capping Protein Reduction and Protein Kinase C Inhibition Maintain Myofilament Function During Cardioplegic Arrest

Background: Heart transplantation is associated with cold, cardioplegic arrest that impairs myocardial function. Protein Kinase C (PKC) suppression of myofilaments may contribute to this dysfunction. CapZ-deficient cardiac myofilaments are unresponsive to PKC. We hypothesized that myofilaments from CapZ-deficient transgenic hearts are resistant to cardioplegic dysfunction and that PKC inhibition improves function. Methods: Heart function was assessed using a Langendorff apparatus. Myofilaments isolated from murine hearts were assessed with an actomyosin MgATPase assay and protein phosphorylation gels. PKC activation was examined by immunoblotting. Results: Wildtype hearts showed impaired function after cardioplegic arrest. CapZ-deficient transgenic mouse hearts performed significantly better after 1 h cardioplegia than wildtype hearts, but not after 4 h cardioplegic arrest. Wildtype myofilaments had depressed activation at 1 and 4 h cardioplegic arrest, as demonstrated by reduced actomyosin MgATPase activity. CapZ-deficient myofilaments showed no reduced actomyosin MgATPase activity at either time. Troponin I (TnI) phosphorylation increased by approximately 20% at 1 and 4 h in wildtype mice. Myosin binding protein C (MyBP-C),and troponin T (TnT) phosphorylation increased by less than 10% at 1 h, and tended to rise at 4 h. Myofilament protein phosphorylation was largely unchanged in CapZ-deficient hearts at 1 h, but MyBP-C tended to be dephosphorylated at 4 h cardioplegic arrest. Myofilament-associated PKC-α, -βII, -δ, and -ε increased at 1 and 4 h cardioplegia in wildtype hearts, whereas only PKC-α increased in transgenic myofilaments at 1 h. PKC inhibition abolished the cardioplegic-dependent changes in actomyosin MgATPase activity and TnI phosphorylation of wildtype myofilaments. Conclusions: We demonstrate a direct link between PKC activation and myofilament dysfunction associated with cold, cardioplegic arrest. Moreover, we show for the first time a cardioprotective benefit of decreased cardiac CapZ.
Computed tomography of alveolar bone grafts 20 years after repair of unilateral cleft lip and palate

The aim of this study was to estimate the clinical condition and amount of remaining grafted bone 20 years after final repair of unilateral cleft lip and palate. Eighteen consecutive patients had computed tomograms (CT) and clinical examination 20 years or more after secondary bone grafting which had been done at the ages of 7–11 years. The images were obtained with a spiral CT with 1 mm collimation, and reconstructed as three-dimensional volumes with reformatted cut planes. The area of grafted bone was measured in a plane perpendicular to the curved axis of the alveolar arch and compared with the area of a corresponding section through the non-cleft side. The clinical examination showed satisfactory results in all. CT indicated a mean cross sectional area of 97 mm2 on the cleft side compared with 157 mm2 on the non-cleft side. The bone mass was significantly less on the grafted cleft side (p<0.001), but the functional results were satisfactory.
Parallel Evaluation of a Spatial Traversability Cost Function on GPU for Efficient Path Planning

A parallel version of the traditional grid based cost-to-go function generation algorithm used in robot path planning is introduced. The process takes advantage of the spatial layout of an occupancy grid by concurrently calculating the next wave front of grid cells usually evaluated sequentially in traditional dynamic programming algorithms. The algorithm offers an order of magnitude increase in run time for highly obstacle dense worst-case environments. Efficient path planning of real world agents can greatly increase their accuracy and responsiveness. The process and theoretical analysis are covered before the results of practical testing are discussed.
Disambiguating network effects from edge effects in TCP connections

While the applications using the Internet have changed over time, TCP is still the transport protocol that is used by almost all the applications and carries over 90% of the total traffic. Throughput is a key performance metric for long TCP connections. The achieved throughput results from the aggregate effects of the network path, the TCP end points’ parameters, and the application on top of TCP. Finding out which of these is limiting the throughput of a TCP connection is a critical problem for end users that want to understand the origins of their problems, ISPs that need to troubleshoot their network, and application designers that need to know where the bottleneck is. In this paper, we revisit this issue by first demonstrating the weaknesses of the previously proposed flight-based approach. We next discuss in detail the different possible limitations and highlight the need to account for the application behavior during the analysis process. This paper’s main contribution is a new approach based on the analysis of time series extracted from packet traces that allow for quantitative assessment of the different causes to the resulting throughput. We exemplify the interest of this approach on a large BitTorrent dataset.
Potential for bias in observed associations between milk yield and reproductive performance in dairy cows

In lactating dairy cows, high milk yield could indirectly reduce reproductive performance. With steady increases in milk yield over time in many dairy cow populations, there has been considerable concern about consequent effects on reproductive performance and several observational approaches have been used to estimate the strength of association between milk yield and reproductive performance. Ecologic studies using historic controls have indicated strong negative associations. However these observed associations are likely to be confounded by other changes in the population over time, potentially overestimating the strength of association. In addition, associations at the population level may not reflect relationships at the cow
Self-reported executive dysfunction, neuropsychological impairment, and functional outcomes in multiple sclerosis

Although cognitive deficits are common in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), the relationship between subjective complaints and objective impairment is sometimes obscured. To elaborate this issue, the present study examined the relationship between subjective complaints of dysexecutive syndrome, neuropsychological performance, and self-reported activities of daily living in 42 people with MS and 13 control participants. Regression analyses revealed that subjective complaints of impairment, measured by the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), emerged as a significant predictor of neuropsychological deficit and poor adaptive function. Accordingly, subjective complaints of dysexecutive function in MS may serve as a potent indicator of cognitive and functional impairment. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.
Prospective memory on a novel clinical task in older adults with mild cognitive impairment and subjective cognitive decline

Despite the relevance of prospective memory to everyday functioning and the ability to live independently, prospective memory tasks are rarely incorporated into clinical evaluations of older adults. We investigated the validity and clinical utility of a recently developed measure, the Royal Prince Alfred Prospective Memory Test (RPA-ProMem), in a demographically diverse, non-demented, community-dwelling sample of 257 older adults (mean age = 80.78 years, 67.7% female) with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI, n = 18), nonamestic mild cognitive impairment (naMCI, n = 38), subjective cognitive decline (SCD, n = 83) despite intact performance on traditional episodic memory tests, and healthy controls (HC, n = 118). Those with aMCI and naMCI performed significantly worse than controls on the RPA-ProMem and its subtasks (time-based, event-based, short-term, long-term). Also, those with SCD scored significantly lower than controls on long-term, more naturalistic subtasks. Additional results supported the validity and inter-rater reliability of the RPA-ProMem and demonstrated a relation between test scores and informant reports of real-world functioning. The RPA-ProMem may help detect subtle cognitive changes manifested by individuals in the earliest stages of dementia, which may be difficult to capture with traditional episodic memory tests. Also, assessment of prospective memory can help guide the development of cognitive interventions for older adults at risk for dementia.
Phase I clinical study of AZD2171, an oral vascular endothelial growth factor signaling inhibitor, in patients with advanced solid tumors.

PURPOSE AZD2171 is a highly potent oral selective inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling. This phase I study was designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of increasing doses of AZD2171, with additional assessments of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and efficacy. PATIENTS AND METHODS In part A, 36 patients with solid tumors and liver metastases refractory to standard therapies received once-daily oral AZD2171 (0.5 to 60 mg). Doses were escalated in successive cohorts until the maximum-tolerated dose was identified. In part B, patients with (n = 36) or without (n = 11) liver metastases were randomly assigned to receive once-daily AZD2171 (20, 30, or 45 mg). In both parts, treatment continued until tumor progression or dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) was observed. RESULTS Eighty-three patients received AZD2171, which was generally well tolerated at doses of 45 mg/d or less; the most frequently reported dose-related adverse events were diarrhea, dysphonia, and hypertension. The most common DLT was hypertension (n = 7), which occurred at AZD2171 doses of 20 mg and higher. After a single dose, maximum plasma (peak) drug concentration after single-dose administration (Cmax) was achieved 1 to 8 hours postdosing with an arithmetic mean half-life associated with terminal slope of a semilogarithmic concentration-time curve (t1/2 lamda(z)) of 22 hours. Pharmacodynamic assessments demonstrated time-, dose-, and exposure-related decreases in initial area under the curve, defined over 60 seconds post-contrast arrival in the tissue (iAUC60) using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, as well as dose- and time-dependent reductions in soluble VEGF receptor 2 levels. Preliminary evidence of efficacy included two confirmed partial responses and 22 patients with stable disease; effects on tumor size appeared to be dose related. CONCLUSION Once-daily oral AZD2171 at doses of 45 mg or less was generally well tolerated and was associated with encouraging antitumor activity in patients with a broad range of advanced solid tumors.
A 3.1mW 8b 1.2GS/s single-channel asynchronous SAR ADC with alternate comparators for enhanced speed in 32nm digital SOI CMOS

Next-generation digital high-speed links require fast, yet energy-efficient ADCs at minimum area. Recent years saw impressive progress in SAR ADC designs towards higher sampling speed. Asynchronous clocking, redundant capacitive DACs (CDAC), multi-bit decisions per step and interleaved designs have been presented. We present an asynchronous redundant single-channel ADC achieving 1.2GS/s at 1V supply by using two comparators in alternation to relax comparator reset timing. The ADC achieves 39.3dB SNDR and 34fJ/conversion-step with a core chip area of 0.0015mm2.
The Mixed Integer Linear Bilevel Programming Problem

A two-person, noncooperative game in which the players move in sequence can be modeled as a bilevel optimization problem. In this paper, we examine the case where each player tries to maximize the individual objective function over a jointly constrained polyhedron. The decision variables are variously partitioned into continuous and discrete sets. The leader goes first, and through his choice may influence but not control the responses available to the follower. For two reasons the resultant problem is extremely difficult to solve, even by complete enumeration. First, it is not possible to obtain tight upper bounds from the natural relaxation; and second, two of the three standard fathoming rules common to branch and bound cannot be applied fully. In light of these limitations, we develop a basic implicit enumeration scheme that finds good feasible solutions within relatively few iterations. A series of heuristics are then proposed in an effort to strike a balance between accuracy and speed. The computational results suggest that some compromise is needed when the problem contains more than a modest number of integer variables.
Correlates of adults' participation in physical activity: review and update.

PURPOSE To review and update the evidence relating to the personal, social, and environmental factors associated with physical activity (PA) in adults. METHODS Systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature to identify papers published between 1998 and 2000 with PA (and including exercise and exercise adherence). Qualitative reports or case studies were not included. RESULTS Thirty-eight new studies were located. Most confirmed the existence of factors already known to be correlates of PA. Changes in status were noted in relation to the influence of marital status, obesity, smoking, lack of time, past exercise behavior, and eight environmental variables. New studies were located which focused on previously understudied population groups such as minorities, middle and older aged adults, and the disabled. CONCLUSION The newly reported studies tend to take a broader "ecological" approach to understanding the correlates of PA and are more focused on environmental factors. There remains a need to better understand environmental influences and the factors that influence different types of PA. As most of the work in this field still relies on cross-sectional studies, longitudinal and intervention studies will be required if causal relationships are to be inferred.
Efficacy and safety of dose‐modified docetaxel plus cisplatin‐based induction chemotherapy in Asian patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer

What is known and Objective: The beneficial effects of docetaxel plus cisplatin‐based induction chemotherapy for patients with unresectable, advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) have been documented in Western countries. However, the efficacy of such treatment has not been confirmed in Asian patients. We aimed to determine whether incorporation of dose‐modified docetaxel into a cisplatin‐based induction regimen would be both effective and tolerable in our Asian population of patients.
A wireless ECG acquisition SoC for body sensor network

This paper presents a wireless bio-signal acquisition system-on-chip (WBSA-SoC) that is specialized in electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring. The proposed system comprises the design and implementation with three subsystems, namely, (1) the ECG acquisition node, (2) the protocol for standard IEEE 802.15. 4 ZigBee system, and (3) the radio frequency (RF) transmitter circuits. A preamplifier circuit with a differential difference amplifier (DDA) structure, a 4th Butterworth low-pass filter (LPF), and a successive-approximation analog-to-digital converter (SA-ADC) are integrated to acquire an ECG signal. For high integration, applicability, and portability, the ZigBee protocol is adopted for wireless communication. A fully integrated CMOS RF front-end contains a quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO) and a 2.4 GHz low-IF transmitter with a power amplifier and an up-conversion mixer, which is employed to transmit the ECG signal through wireless communication. The low-power wireless bio-signal acquisition SoC has been implemented in TSMC 0.18-μm standard CMOS process. The measurement results on the human body reveal that the ECG signals can be acquired effectively by the proposed SoC.