Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survival Benefit of Adjuvant Radiation Therapy in Node-positive Vulvar Cancer

Background: Adjuvant radiation therapy improves overall survival in patients with vulvar cancer with 2+ positive lymph nodes, but its benefit remains uncertain for 1 positive lymph node. Methods: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, we identified node-positive, American Joint Committee on Cancer version 6-staged women with squamous cell vulvar carcinoma treated with and without radiation following surgery. The Kaplan-Meier approach assessed overall and cause-specific survival. Propensity score-based, multiply imputed Cox modeling accounted for missing data and selection bias. Results: From 2004 to 2013, 488 versus 206 women did and did not receive adjuvant radiation after surgery. Patient characteristics were well balanced, including home county, index tumor diameter, number of nodes excised, provider type, race, and surgery type (P>0.05). Unbalanced covariates—including median age, grade, number of positive nodes, N-stage—were adjusted using Cox regression. At a median follow-up of 36 months, adjuvant radiation was associated with improved median overall survival across all node-positive patients (54 vs. 24 mo; P<0.01). This survival benefit persisted in women with just one (not reached vs. 39 mo; P<0.01) and 2+ (26 vs. 16 mo; P<0.01) positive lymph nodes. Likewise, all node-positive groups saw a cause-specific survival benefit with adjuvant radiation (all P<0.02). On multivariable Cox regression, adjuvant radiation, age, tumor diameter, number of positive nodes, race, and N-stage associated with survival (P<0.05). Conclusions: All node positive vulvar cancer patients should benefit from and thus should receive adjuvant radiation, including those with one positive node.
New Hope for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Treatment Targeting Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Response: A Systematic Review

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal types of tumours, and its incidence is rising worldwide. Although survival can be improved by surgical resection when these tumours are detected at an early stage, this cancer is usually asymptomatic, and disease only becomes apparent after metastasis. Several risk factors are associated with this disease, the most relevant being chronic pancreatitis, diabetes, tobacco and alcohol intake, cadmium, arsenic and lead exposure, certain infectious diseases, and the mutational status of some genes associated to a familial component. PDAC incidence has increased in recent decades, and there are few alternatives for chemotherapeutic treatment. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress factors such as GRP78/BiP (78 kDa glucose-regulated protein), ATF6α (activating transcription factor 6 isoform α), IRE1α (inositol-requiring enzyme 1 isoform α), and PERK (protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase) activate the transcription of several genes involved in both survival and apoptosis. Some of these factors aid in inducing a non-proliferative state in cancer called dormancy. Modulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress could induce dormancy of tumour cells, thus prolonging patient survival. In this systematic review, we have compiled relevant results concerning those endoplasmic reticulum stress factors involved in PDAC, and we have analysed the mechanism of dormancy associated to endoplasmic reticulum stress and its potential use as a chemotherapeutic target against PDAC.
Serum biomarkers of fibrosis and extracellular matrix remodeling in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: association with liver histology

Background We sought to explore the interplay of multiple serum biomarkers of fibrosis and extracellular matrix remodeling with the results of liver histology in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Patients and methods Venous blood samples were collected from 80 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and 59 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls. Serum levels of transforming growth factor (TGF)-&bgr;1, TGF-&bgr;2, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-1, MMP-2, MMP-7, MMP-9, MMP-10, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1, and TIMP-2 were determined by using the Luminex MagPix technology on a MAGPIX analyzer. Results We documented significant differences in the levels of TGF-&bgr;1, TGF-&bgr;2, MMP-2, MMP-7, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2 between NAFLD patients and controls. However, none of these biomarkers was able to distinguish between nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver. TIMP-1 levels were significantly higher in patients with significant fibrosis (fibrosis stage ≥2; 2624±1261 pg/ml) than in those without (fibrosis stage 0−1; 2096±906 pg/ml; P=0.03). Moreover, serum levels of TIMP-1 were identified as the only independent predictor of histological fibrosis (&bgr;=0.298, t=2.7, P=0.007). Conclusion Our study provides insights into the association of multiple serum biomarkers of fibrosis and extracellular matrix remodeling with NAFLD histology. Notably, serum levels of TIMP-1 were identified as a clinically useful marker for distinguishing NAFLD patients with and without significant fibrosis.
Leafhopper-Induced Activation of the Jasmonic Acid Response Benefits Salmonella enterica in a Flagellum-Dependent Manner

Enteric human pathogens such as Salmonella enterica are typically studied in the context of their animal hosts, but it has become apparent that these bacteria spend a significant portion of their life cycle on plants. S. enterica survives the numerous stresses common to a plant niche, including defense responses, water and nutrient limitation, and exposure to UV irradiation leading to an increased potential for human disease. In fact, S. enterica is estimated to cause over one million cases of foodborne illness each year in the United States with 20% of those cases resulting from consumption of contaminated produce. Although S. enterica successfully persists in the plant environment, phytobacterial infection by Pectobacterium carotovorum or Xanthomonas spp. increases S. enterica survival and infrequently leads to growth on infected plants. The co-association of phytophagous insects, such as the Aster leafhopper, Macrosteles quadrilineatus, results in S. enterica populations that persist at higher levels for longer periods of time when compared to plants treated with S. enterica alone. We hypothesized that leafhoppers increase S. enterica persistence by altering the plant defense response to the benefit of the bacteria. Leafhopper infestation activated the jasmonic acid (JA) defense response while S. enterica colonization triggered the salicylic acid (SA) response. In tomato plants co-treated with S. enterica and leafhoppers, both JA- and SA-inducible genes were activated, suggesting that the presence of leafhoppers may affect the crosstalk that occurs between the two immune response pathways. To rule out the possibility that leafhoppers provide additional benefits to S. enterica, plants were treated with a chemical JA analog to activate the immune response in the absence of leafhoppers. Although bacterial populations continue to decline over time, analog treatment significantly increased bacterial persistence on the leaf surface. Bacterial mutant analysis determined that the bacterial flagellum, whether functional or not, was required for increased S. enterica survival after analog treatment. By investigating the interaction between this human pathogen, a common phytophagous insect, and their plant host, we hope to elucidate the mechanisms promoting S. enterica survival on plants and provide information to be used in the development of new food safety intervention strategies.
The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) in girls and women: Developing a conceptual framework for a prevention research agenda

The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium was established by the National Institutes of Health in 2015 to expand research beyond the detection and treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) to the promotion and preservation of bladder health and prevention of LUTS in girls and women. While many multi‐disciplinary scientific networks focus on pelvic floor dysfunction and LUTS, the PLUS Consortium stands alone in its focus on prevention. This article describes the PLUS approach to developing a conceptual framework to guide the Consortium's initial prevention research agenda.
Segmentation of Melanoma Skin Lesions Using Anisotropic Diffusion and Adaptive Thresholding

Segmentation is the first and most important task in the diagnosis of skin cancer using computer-aided systems and due to complex structure of skin lesions, the automated process may lead to a completely different diagnosis. In this paper, a novel segmentation method of skin lesions is proposed which is both effective and simple to implement. Smoothing of skin lesions in original image plays a pivotal role to secure an accurate segmented image. Anisotropic Diffusion Filter (ADF) is used in the initial stage to smooth images with preserved edges. Adaptive thresholding is then applied to segment the skin lesion of the image by binarizing it. The morphological operations are applied for further enhancement and final segmented image is obtained by applying proposed boundary conditions in which objects are selected on basis of distance. The proposed technique is tested on over 300 images and averaged results are compared with existing methods like L-SRM, Otsu-R, Otsu-RGB and TDLS. The proposed method achieved an average accuracy of 96.6%. Visual results for selected images also depicted better performance of proposed method even in the presence of bad illumination and rough skin lesions in the image.
Does Childhood Psychological Abuse Contribute to Intimate Partner Violence Victimization? An Investigation Using the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Interview

Although psychological abuse is recognized as a particularly insidious form of child abuse, research on the impact of this type of abuse related to intimate partner violence (IPV) is scant. This study examined the contribution of childhood psychological abuse to IPV in female victims and non-victims. Furthermore, it investigated the role of cumulative abuse in predicting IPV. The study included 38 women victims of IPV and 40 non-IPV women. All participants were investigated using the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Interview (CECA); the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) and the IPV History Interview were used to assess IPV in the last year and lifetime, respectively. Results indicated that psychological abuse was a stronger predictor of IPV than other maltreatment types. Furthermore, dose–response effects of cumulative abuse on IPV are well evidenced. Future research should continue examining impacts of psychological abuse on IPV so as to further inform clinical practice and intervention planning.
Multifaceted image similarity criteria as revealed by sorting tasks

This paper reports a study on the types of image categories constructed from magazine photographs. A novel sorting procedure was tested with the aim of providing more data on image similarity and possible category overlap. Expert and non-expert participants were compared in their categorizations. The new similarity sorting procedure resulted in an average of 67%–111% increase in similarity data gathered compared to basic free sorting. Categories were constructed on various levels of similarity: image Function, main visual content (People, Objects and Scene), conceptual content (Theme) and descriptors (Story, Affective, Description, Photography and Visual). Most categories were based on the theme and people portrayed in the photograph, and in the case of the expert subjects, image function. Also abstract and syntactic similarity criteria were employed by the subjects. The categories created by each subject showed on average a 35%–53% overlap. Participants also demonstrated a tendency to use multiple similarity criteria simultaneously and to combine terms from different levels in a single category name. These results indicate a need for a multifaceted approach in image categorization.
Environmental factors drive language density more in food-producing than in hunter–gatherer populations

Linguistic diversity is a key aspect of human population diversity and shapes much of our social and cognitive lives. To a considerable extent, the distribution of this diversity is driven by environmental factors such as climate or coast access. An unresolved question is whether the relevant factors have remained constant over time. Here, we address this question at a global scale. We approximate the difference between pre- versus post-Neolithic populations by the difference between modern hunter–gatherer versus food-producing populations. Using a novel geostatistical approach of estimating language and language family densities, we show that environmental—chiefly climate factors—have driven the language density of food-producing populations considerably more strongly than the language density of hunter–gatherer populations. Current evidence suggests that the population dynamics of modern hunter–gatherers is very similar to that of what can be reconstructed from the Palaeolithic record. Based on this, we cautiously infer that the impact of environmental factors on language densities underwent a substantial change with the transition to agriculture. After this transition, the environmental impact on language diversity in food-producing populations has remained relatively stable since it can also be detected—albeit in slightly weaker form—in models that capture the reduced linguistic diversity during large-scale language spreads in the Mid-Holocene.
Clustering and Labelling Auction Fraud Data

Although shill bidding is a common auction fraud, it is however very tough to detect. Due to the unavailability and lack of training data, in this study, we build a high-quality labeled shill bidding dataset based on recently collected auctions from eBay. Labeling shill biding instances with multidimensional features is a critical phase for the fraud classification task. For this purpose, we introduce a new approach to systematically label the fraud data with the help of the hierarchical clustering CURE that returns remarkable results as illustrated in the experiments.
Benzylamine and Thenylamine Derived Drugs Induce Apoptosis and Reduce Proliferation, Migration and Metastasis Formation in Melanoma Cells

Melanomas are heterogeneous and aggressive tumors, and one of the worse in prognosis. Melanoma subtypes follow distinct pathways until terminal oncogenic transformation. Here, we have evaluated a series of molecules that exhibit potent cytotoxic effects over the murine and human melanoma cell lines B16F10 and MalMe-3M, respectively, both ex vivo and in animals carrying these melanoma cells. Ex vivo mechanistic studies on molecular targets involved in melanoma growth, migration and viability were evaluated in cultured cells treated with these drugs which exhibited potent proapoptotic and cytotoxic effects and reduced cell migration. These drugs altered the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, which is important for the oncogenic phenotype of melanoma cells. In in vivo experiments, male C57BL/6 or nude mice were injected with melanoma cells that rapidly expanded in these animals and, in some cases were able to form metastasis in lungs. Treatment with anti-tumor drugs derived from benzylamine and 2-thiophenemethylamine (F10503LO1 and related compounds) significantly attenuated tumor growth, impaired cell migration, and reduced the metastatic activity. Several protocols of administration were applied, all of them leading to significant reduction in the tumor size and enhanced animal survival. Tumor cells carrying a luciferase transgene allowed a time-dependent study on the progression of the tumor. Molecular analysis of the pathways modified by F10503LO1 and related compounds defined the main relevant targets for tumor regression: the activation of pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative routes. These data might provide the proof-of-principle and rationale for its further clinical evaluation.
EFECTO DEL SALVADO TOSTADO DE TRIGO EN LA CALIDAD PANADERA Y COMPOSICIÓN NUTRICIONAL DEL PAN MEDIA NOCHE

El aumento en el valor nutricional de los alimentos puede tener un efecto benéfico en la salud de los consumidores. Por lo que el objetivo fue evaluar el efecto de la adición de salvado tostado en el pan tipo media noche sobre su calidad panadera y nutricional. Se utilizaron tres formulaciones para elaborar los panes variando la concentración de salvado tostado (0%, 10% y 15%). Se determinó el análisis proximal, contenido de fibra, contenido de carbohidratos, contenido calórico y calidad panadera de cada tratamiento. El contenido de salvado tostado afectó significativamente (p < 0.05) a todos los parámetros de textura evaluados. La firmeza, pegajosidad y gomosidad aumentaron aproximadamente en un 55% en promedio en el pan con salvado tostado, comparado con el pan blanco control. La formulación de pan que tuvo una miga más suave fue PS15 que contiene 15% salvado. Esta formulación mostró los valores más altos de ceniza y fibra dietaria total. Además, la presencia de salvado tostado no afectó significativamente (p ˃ 0.05) el contenido calórico.
Two Multicenter Surveys on Equine Back-Pain 10 Years a Part

Despite back-pain being a common cause of poor performance in sport horses, a tailored diagnostic workflow and a consolidated therapeutic approach are currently lacking in equine medicine. The aim of the study was to assess the evolution in the veterinarian approach to diagnose and treat back-pain over a 10 years period. To investigate this topic, two surveys were addressed to equine veterinarians working in practice throughout Europe 10 years apart (2006 and 2016). The answers were organized in an Excel dataset and analyzed. There were 47 respondents in 2006 and 168 in 2016, from 8 European Countries. The main reasons for examining horses with back-pain were poor performance (76%), behavioral issues (68%), and lameness (50%). When assessing back pain, 97% of respondents applied careful digital pressure over paravertebral muscles, 90% of them used digital back mobilization, and 69% was detecting areas of localized heat. The use of diagnostic analgesia to confirm the source of pain was rarely employed. Radiography and ultrasonography were the most frequent diagnostic imaging modalities used to investigate the causes of back-pain in both surveys. Obtaining a definitive diagnosis in horses with back-pain is considered challenging due to the reduced accessibility of the area and the variability in the pain manifestations. Corticosteroids injections were used for local treatments by 80% of respondents in 2006 and 92% in 2016. Recently, ultrasonography has been extensively used during the injections of the vertebral articular facets and sacroiliac joints region. The use of complementary therapies was restricted to a low percentage of respondents in the first survey (20%) but it increased over the decade. In 2016, a wider percentage of respondents considered osteopathy (40%), kinesiotherapy (29%), and acupuncture (22%) when treating back disorders compared to 2006. The structural differences of the two surveys did not enable a direct data comparison. Based on the results of this surveys, however, veterinarians should be sensitized to the back-pain problems and seek to integrate findings from clinical research studies in their daily practice.
Detecção de Anomalias Frequentes no Transporte Rodoviário Urbano

O crescimento da população urbana e, consequentemente, do número de veículos provoca o aumento de engarrafamentos e da emissão de gases poluentes. Nesse contexto, observa-se a intensificação de pesquisas que buscam identificar engarrafamentos e suas causas. Estas pesquisas propõem metodologias que usam modelo de dados de trajetória e visam explicar comportamentos sistêmicos. Este artigo propõe a identificação e a classificação de anomalias no sistema de transporte rodoviário urbano a partir de agregações espaço-temporais a objetos permanentes. A metodologia consiste do pre-processamento dos dados, identificação de anomalias, identificação e classificação de padrões frequentes. Por meio dela, é possível identificar comportamentos sistêmicos e pontuais do trânsito urbano do Rio de Janeiro.
Investigation on association of self-esteem and students' performance in academics

Educationalists have formulated a taxonomy called Bloom's taxonomy. It states that during education a student progresses not only in knowledge (cognitive), but also in emotions (attitude/behaviour) and skill sets (psychomotor). In general only the knowledge of the students is assessed. This paper researches on the influence of students' self-esteem (attitude) on their performance in the academics. Self-esteem is emotional evaluation of self-worth positively or negatively. Rosenberg's self-esteem scale is used to evaluate the individual's self-esteem. The students are categorised based on their self-esteem scale and performance scale respectively using supervised and unsupervised learning. The relation between the self-esteem and the performance is proven using predictive and descriptive modelling. The study reveals the positive association between the self-esteem and the performance. This research helps the teaching community to realise the influence of student's self-esteem on their performance and helps them to grow positively in their knowledge, emotions and skills.
The paradox of irrigation efficiency

Higher efficiency rarely reduces water consumption Reconciling higher freshwater demands with finite freshwater resources remains one of the great policy dilemmas. Given that crop irrigation constitutes 70% of global water extractions, which contributes up to 40% of globally available calories (1), governments often support increases in irrigation efficiency (IE), promoting advanced technologies to improve the “crop per drop. ” This provides private benefits to irrigators and is justified, in part, on the premise that increases in IE “save” water for reallocation to other sectors, including cities and the environment. Yet substantial scientific evidence (2) has long shown that increased IE rarely delivers the presumed public-good benefits of increased water availability. Decision-makers typically have not known or understood the importance of basin-scale water accounting or of the behavioral responses of irrigators to subsidies to increase IE. We show that to mitigate global water scarcity, increases in IE must be accompanied by robust water accounting and measurements, a cap on extractions, an assessment of uncertainties, the valuation of trade-offs, and a better understanding of the incentives and behavior of irrigators.
Expressing the Characteristics of an Argumentation Framework

We propose a new semantics of Dung’s argumentation frameworks characterized by three-valued logical expressions. Semantics for frameworks is defined based on an extension and labeling. An extension is a subset of arguments that denotes acceptable arguments, while labeling assigns one of three labels in, out, undec to each argument, and arguments labeled in are acceptable. Both extension and labeling assign basic notions to semantics, such as complete, grounded, preferred, and stable. Moreover, labeling shows that an argument might be labeled differently in other complete labelings. However, a label does not clarify that the argument is acceptable in other complete labelings. Allocation assigns three-valued logical expressions to each argument. Since expressions contain variables for parameterizing the acceptability of arguments, allocation facilitates the description not only of a specific set of acceptable arguments, but also of the relationships between such sets. As a result, allocation determines the characteristics of the argumentation framework. In this paper, we also propose a local form of allocation, facilitating discussion of semantics as part of the framework.