Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consistency of visual assessments of mammographic breast density from vendor-specific “for presentation” images

Abstract. Discussions of percent breast density (PD) and breast cancer risk implicitly assume that visual assessments of PD are comparable between vendors despite differences in technology and display algorithms. This study examines the extent to which visual assessments of PD differ between mammograms acquired from two vendors. Pairs of “for presentation” digital mammography images were obtained from two mammography units for 146 women who had a screening mammogram on one vendor unit followed by a diagnostic mammogram on a different vendor unit. Four radiologists independently visually assessed PD from single left mediolateral oblique view images from the two vendors. Analysis of variance, intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC), scatter plots, and Bland–Altman plots were used to evaluate PD assessments between vendors. The mean radiologist PD for each image was used as a consensus PD measure. Overall agreement of the PD assessments was excellent between the two vendors with an ICC of 0.95 (95% confidence interval: 0.93 to 0.97). Bland–Altman plots demonstrated narrow upper and lower limits of agreement between the vendors with only a small bias (2.3 percentage points). The results of this study support the assumption that visual assessment of PD is consistent across mammography vendors despite vendor-specific appearances of “for presentation” images.
The Lysozyme-Induced Peptidoglycan N-Acetylglucosamine Deacetylase PgdA (EF1843) Is Required for Enterococcus faecalis Virulence

ABSTRACT Lysozyme is a key component of the innate immune response in humans that provides a first line of defense against microbes. The bactericidal effect of lysozyme relies both on the cell wall lytic activity of this enzyme and on a cationic antimicrobial peptide activity that leads to membrane permeabilization. Among Gram-positive bacteria, the opportunistic pathogen Enterococcus faecalis has been shown to be extremely resistant to lysozyme. This unusual resistance is explained partly by peptidoglycan O-acetylation, which inhibits the enzymatic activity of lysozyme, and partly by d-alanylation of teichoic acids, which is likely to inhibit binding of lysozyme to the bacterial cell wall. Surprisingly, combined mutations abolishing both peptidoglycan O-acetylation and teichoic acid alanylation are not sufficient to confer lysozyme susceptibility. In this work, we identify another mechanism involved in E. faecalis lysozyme resistance. We show that exposure to lysozyme triggers the expression of EF1843, a protein that is not detected under normal growth conditions. Analysis of peptidoglycan structure from strains with EF1843 loss- and gain-of-function mutations, together with in vitro assays using recombinant protein, showed that EF1843 is a peptidoglycan N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase. EF1843-mediated peptidoglycan deacetylation was shown to contribute to lysozyme resistance by inhibiting both lysozyme enzymatic activity and, to a lesser extent, lysozyme cationic antimicrobial activity. Finally, EF1843 mutation was shown to reduce the ability of E. faecalis to cause lethality in the Galleria mellonella infection model. Taken together, our results reveal that peptidoglycan deacetylation is a component of the arsenal that enables E. faecalis to thrive inside mammalian hosts, as both a commensal and a pathogen.
Celiac Disease is Misdiagnosed Based on Serology Only in a Substantial Proportion of Patients

Background: Although the diagnostic process in celiac disease (CeD) has been addressed in several international guidelines, little is known about the actual proceeding in current clinical practice. This study investigated the initial presentation, the diagnostic process, follow-up evaluations, and adherence to a gluten-free diet in CeD patients in a real-life setting in Switzerland from a patient’s perspective. Methods: We performed a large patient survey among unselected CeD patients in Switzerland. Results: A total of 1689 patients were analyzed. The vast majority complained of both gastrointestinal and nonspecific symptoms (71.5%), whereas 1.8% reported an asymptomatic disease course. A total of 35.8% CeD patients were diagnosed by a nongastroenterologist. The diagnostic process differed between nongastroenterologists and gastroenterologists, with the latter more often using duodenal biopsy alone or in combination with serology (94.7% vs. 63.0%) and nongastroenterologists more frequently establishing the diagnosis without endoscopy (37.0% vs. 5.3%, P<0.001). Follow-up serology after 6 months was performed only in half of all patients (49.4%), whereas 69.9% had at least 1 follow-up serology within the first year after diet initiation. About 39.7% had a follow-up endoscopy with duodenal biopsies (after a median of 12 mo; range, 1 to 600 mo). The likelihood of receiving any follow-up examination was higher in patients initially diagnosed by a gastroenterologist. Conclusions: A significant proportion of CeD patients are diagnosed by nongastroenterologists. Under the diagnostic lead of the latter, more than a third of the patients receive their diagnosis on the basis of a positive serology and/or genetics only, in evident violation of current diagnostic guidelines, which may lead to an overdiagnosis of this entity.
Cytoreductive Chemotherapy Improves the Biodistribution of Antibodies Directed against Tumor Necrosis in Murine Solid Tumor Models

Current strategies in cancer treatment employ combinations of different treatment modalities, which include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and surgery. Consistent with that approach, the present study demonstrates how chemotherapeutic agents can potentiate the delivery of radiolabeled, necrosis-targeting antibodies (chTNT-3, NHS76) to tumor. All chemotherapeutics in this study (5-fluorouracil, etoposide, vinblastine, paclitaxel, and doxorubicin) resulted in statistically significant increases in tumor uptake of radiolabeled antibodies and their F(ab')2 fragments compared to no pretreatment with chemotherapy. Labeled antibodies were administered at various time points following a single dose of chemotherapy in multiple tumor models, and the biodistribution of the antibodies was determined by measuring radioactivity in harvested tissues. MicroPET/CT was also done to demonstrate clinical relevancy of using chemotherapy pretreatment to increase antibody uptake. Results of biodistribution and imaging data reveal specific time frames following chemotherapy when necrosis-targeting antibodies are best delivered, either for imaging or radiotherapy. Thus, the present work offers the prospect of using cytoreductive chemotherapy to increase tumor accumulation of select therapeutic antibodies, especially when combined with other forms of immunotherapy, for the successful treatment of solid tumors. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(12); 2827–36. ©2013 AACR.
Learning-by-Doing: Using Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Detect Habituation and Adaptation in Automated Driving

The advent of automated features in modern vehicles requires human factors researchers to find measures other than driving behavior to anticipate the response of drivers in various contexts. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is one research tool that allows us to quantify the driver's mental state. However, the underlying mechanisms of fNIRS technology can limit the possible contexts for its application. The pervasive question arises, whether the measurement device at hand is suitable for the research topic in question and is it capable of detecting the phenomenon under investigation? We provide a proof of concept study demonstrating that significant habituation is present when drivers operate new automated driving systems and that fNIRS technology is suitable to detect said driver habituation effects. The study presented here was conducted in a driving simulator and investigated the drivers' cortical activation in three different modes of automation: manual, partially autonomous, and fully autonomous modes.
Praxisbezogene Weiterbildung – Schlüssel für den Weg aus Arbeitslosigkeit in Beschäftigung

Die Forderung der beruflichen Weiterbildung ist ein wirksames Instrument der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik zur Erhohung der individuellen Beschaftigungschancen. Dies ermittelt eine Wirksamkeitsanalyse mit Daten der Integrierten Erwerbsbiografien des Instituts fur Arbeitsmarkt - und Berufsforschung fur die Altenpflege in Sachsen. Mit Hilfe der Propensity-Score-Matching-Methode wird der Beschaftigungseffekt fur einen Zeitraum von neun Jahren nach Masnahmebeginn bestimmt.
Climate change will lead to pronounced shifts in the diversity of soil microbial communities

Soil bacteria are key to ecosystem function and maintenance of soil fertility. Leveraging associations of current geographic distributions of bacteria with historic climate, we predict that soil bacterial diversity will increase across the majority (~70%) of the Tibetan Plateau and northern North America if bacterial communities equilibrate with existing climatic conditions. This prediction is possible because the current distributions of soil bacteria have stronger correlations with climate from ~50 years ago than with current climate. This lag is likely associated with the time it takes for soil properties to adjust to changes in climate. The predicted changes are location specific and differ across bacterial taxa, including some bacteria that are predicted to have reductions in their distributions. These findings demonstrate the widespread influence that climate change will have on belowground diversity and highlight the importance of considering bacterial communities when assessing climate impacts on terrestrial ecosystems.
The Influence of Decisional Autonomy on Performance and Strategic Choices - The Case of Subcontracting SMEs in Logging Operations

The emergence of new actors in the globalized economy has given rise to increased competition in a number of economic sectors, including the forest industry. The logging industry in Canada has seen challenging times in recent years, as it faces problems at both the structural and cyclical levels. Increases in the cost of fibre, currency exchange rates and compensatory fines on timber that are detrimental to exports to the United States, higher energy costs, a decrease in the price of timber and some paper products, the increasing scarcity of resources: the industry faces many serious problems.
Using Eye Movements To Evaluate Effects of Driver Age on Risk Perception in a Driving Simulator

Novice drivers (16-year-olds with ≤6 months' driving experience) have the highest crash involvement rates per 100 million vehicle miles (161 million vehicle km). In the past, this was attributed to greater risk taking or poorly developed psychomotor skills. More recently, however, their high crash involvement rate has been hypothesized to be attributable largely to their relative inability to acquire and assess information in inherently risky situations. The current study seeks to evaluate this hypothesis by recording eye movements while 72 participants (24 novice drivers, 24 younger drivers, and 24 older drivers) drove through 16 risky scenarios in an advanced driving simulator. There were significant age-related differences in driver scanning behavior, consistent with the hypothesis that novice drivers' scanning patterns reflect their failure to acquire information about potential risks and their consequent failure to deal with these risks. Actual or potential applications of this research include modification of these scenarios for display on a PC as a basis for a training module that would enable novice drivers to recognize risky scenarios before they encounter them on the road, in the hope of reducing their high fatality rate.
Ecological Processes and Contemporary Coral Reef Management

Top-down controls of complex foodwebs maintain the balance among the critical groups of corals, algae, and herbivores, thus allowing the persistence of corals reefs as three-dimensional, biogenic structures with high biodiversity, heterogeneity, resistance, resilience and connectivity, and the delivery of essential goods and services to societies. On contemporary reefs world-wide, however, top-down controls have been weakened due to reduction in herbivory levels (overfishing or disease outbreak) while bottom-up controls have increased due to water quality degradation (increase in sediment and nutrient load) and climate forcing (seawater warming and acidification) leading to algal-dominated alternate benthic states of coral reefs, which are indicative of a trajectory towards ecological extinction. Management to reverse common trajectories of degradation for coral reefs necessitates a shift from optimization in marine resource use and conservation towards building socio-economic resilience into coral reef systems while attending to the most manageable human impacts (fishing and water quality) and the global-scale causes (climate change).
Live demonstration: FPGA implementation of the CAR model of the cochlea

We will demonstrate a 100-CAR-section cochlear model running in real time on an FPGA. Although our result suggests that an electronic cochlea with 1224 cochlear sections can be implemented on an average FPGA [1], the data rate limit of USB 2.0 does not permit us to implement more than 100 filter sections and display the output on a PC. Future work will explore alternatives to increase the bandwidth such as a PCI interface or USB 3.0 that will enable us to implement more filter sections. Nonetheless, our work demonstrates the capability of the CAR model to process sound in real-time.
What proportion of youth are physically active? Measurement issues, levels and recent time trends

Aim The aim of this review is to summarise issues surrounding the measurement of physical activity (PA) by self-report and accelerometry in youth (2–18 years old). Current levels and temporal trends in PA and sport participation and the effect of assessment method on data interpretation will be summarised. Methods Relevant papers were extracted from a computerised literature search of MEDLINE and personal databases. Additional papers were extracted from reference lists of recently published reviews. Results The criterion validity (direct comparison with an objective method) of self-reported instruments is low to moderate, with correlation coefficients generally between 0.3 and 0.4. Self-report instruments overestimate the intensity and duration of PA and sport participation. The interpretation of PA data from accelerometry is a challenge, and specific issues include the definition of intensity thresholds and the influence of age on intensity thresholds. Recent data on self-reported PA in youth suggest that between 30% and 40% are sufficiently active. Prevalence values for sufficiently active youth measured by accelerometry range between 1% and 100%, depending on the intensity thresholds used. Sport participation is likely to contribute to higher levels of PA. The available evidence does not support the notion that PA levels and sport participation in youth have declined in recent decades. Conclusion The number of youth meeting current PA guidelines varies by assessment method and the intensity thresholds used when PA is measured by accelerometry. The available evidence does not firmly support the notion that PA in young people has declined during the last decades. It is unlikely that any self-report method is sufficiently accurate for examining cross-cultural differences and temporal trends in young people's PA and sport participation over time. Surveillance systems therefore need to strive for an international standardisation using objective measurements of PA to complement existing self-report instruments.
Formal, holarchical representation of tactical behaviors

We address the formal representation of military tactical behaviors, in particular, the coordinated movements of experimental unmanned vehicles (XUVs). A unit of cooperating XUVs is considered a multiagent system on which the hierarchical structure of military command and control is imposed to yield a holarchy, a hierarchy of holons, where a holon is both a whole and a part. To model holarchical units of XUVs, we use a statechart extension called a parts/whole statechart, which introduces a coordinating whole as a concurrent component on a par with the coordinated parts. Implementing a part amounts to endowing an individual with the capacity for certain public behavior, while implementing a whole amounts to endowing the subsumed individuals with common knowledge hence the capacity for certain social behavior.
Efectos de la musicoterapia en el nivel de intensidad del dolor post quirúrgico en pacientes pediátricos en un hospital de EsSALUD.

Objetivos: determinar los efectos de la musicoterapia, como tratamiento complementario, en el nivel de intensidad del dolor postquirurgico en pacientes pediatricos en el servicio de Neurocirugia del Hospital Nacional Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen. Material y Metodos: estudio cuasi experimental. Muestra: 40 pacientes pediatricos de 5 a 17 anos, 20 pacientes del grupo experimental que recibieron sesion de musicoterapia clasica por 30 minutos y 20 pacientes grupo control quienes no recibieron sesion de musicoterapia, en ambos grupos se utilizaron escalas CHEOPS (de 5 a 7anos), facial (8 a 17 anos). Resultados: el puntaje del dolor en el grupo experimental de 8 a 17 anos a las 24 horas post operados fue de 5 ± 1,9 (moderado) y posterior a la musicoterapia, el puntaje del dolor fue de 3,2 ±1,6 (moderado), encontrandose una reduccion del dolor en 1,8 puntos, estadisticamente significativa P=0,000<0,05y en ninos de 5 a 7 anos fue de 9,6 ±1,9 (moderado); despues de 30 minutos con musicoterapia el puntaje del dolor fue de 7,6 ±1,8 (leve). Se encontro una reduccion del dolor en 2 puntos, estadisticamente significativa P=0,000<0,05; en el grupo control en ambos grupos no hubo cambios significativos. Conclusiones:la musicoterapia disminuye el nivel de intensidad del dolor postquirurgico en pacientes pediatricos en el servicio de Neurocirugia del Hospital Nacional Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen.
Developmental origin of long‐range neurons in the superficial dorsal spinal cord

The dorsal spinal cord, which is essential for somatosensory transmission, comprises a heterogeneous population of neurons with distinct axonal lengths and projection patterns. Although the developmental origin of local‐circuit interneurons in the dorsal spinal cord has been well characterized, that of long‐range neurons extending axons over a long distance such as supraspinal projection neurons and propriospinal neurons is largely unknown. In this study, we performed birthdate and lineage analyses of these long‐range neurons in the mouse dorsal spinal cord. Unilateral injection of a retrograde neuronal tracer, cholera toxin B, into the brain or spinal cord efficiently labeled supraspinal projection neurons localized in Rexed's lamina I and the dorsolateral funiculus (DLF) and long‐range propriospinal neurons localized in the DLF, all of which had ipsi‐ and contralaterally projecting populations. Most of these neurons were born between E9.5 and E10.5, much earlier than in the case of the neurogenesis of local‐circuit neurons. Lineage analysis using an Lbx1‐Cre mouse line demonstrated that most long‐range neurons were derived from Lbx1‐positive neuronal progenitors, except in the case of the contralaterally projecting propriospinal neurons. Characterization of their neurotransmitter identity revealed that almost all of the supraspinal projection neurons were excitatory, whereas the long‐range propriospinal neurons comprised both excitatory and inhibitory populations. These results suggest that the supraspinal projection neurons were derived from the early‐born dI5 progenitor domain and that the long‐range propriospinal ones arose from several early‐born progenitor domains.
Bullying in Brazilian school children: analysis of the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (PeNSE 2012).

OBJECTIVE To describe the victimization and bullying practice in Brazilian school children, according to data from the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey and to compare the surveys from 2009 and 2012. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study with univariate and multivariate analyzes of the following variables: to have been treated badly by colleagues, to have been bullied and to have bullied other children. The following independent variables were analyzed: age, sex, race/color, type of school, maternal education. Prevalence rates were compared between the editions of 2009 and 2012 of the survey. RESULTS Of all the adolescents analyzed, 27.5% have not been treated well by peers at school, with greater frequency among boys (OR = 1.50), at the age of 15 years (OR = 1.29) and 16 (OR = 1.41), public school students (OR = 2.08), black (OR = 1.18) and whose mothers had less education; 7.2% reported having been bullied, with a greater chance in younger students (13 years old), male (OR = 1.26), black (OR = 1.15) and indigenous (OR = 1.16) and whose mothers had less education; 20.8% reported to have bullied other children, with a greater chance for older students, at the age of 14 (OR = 1.08) and 15 years (OR = 1.18), male (OR = 1.87), black (OR = 1.14) and yellow (OR = 1.15), children of mothers with higher education, private school students. There was an increase of bullying in the Brazilian capitals, from 5.4 to 6.8%, between 2009 and 2012. DISCUSSION The occurrence of bullying reveals that the Brazilian school context is also becoming a space of reproduction of violence, in which it is crucial to act intersectorally and to articulate social protection networks, aiming to face this issue.
Effect of a medication copayment increase in veterans with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of the 2002 Veterans Millennium Health Care Act, which raised pharmacy copayments from $2 to $7 for lower-priority patients, on medication refill decisions and health services utilization among vulnerable veterans with schizophrenia. STUDY DESIGN Quasi-experimental. METHODS This study used secondary data contained in the National Psychosis Registry from June 1, 2000, through September 30, 2003, for all veterans diagnosed with schizophrenia and receiving healthcare through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Longitudinal, mixed models were used to observe changes in prescriptions, health services utilization, and pharmacy costs in veterans subject to copayments (N = 40 654) and a control group of exempt individuals (N = 39 983). Analyses controlled for demographics, substance abuse, non-VA utilization, and medical comorbidities. The Health Belief Model supported analytical criteria for factors directly related to medication adherence issues. RESULTS Total prescriptions and overall pharmacy costs leveled among veterans with copayments after the medication cost increase. However, psychiatric drug refills dropped substantially, nearly 25%. Although outpatient visits were unaffected, psychiatric admissions and total inpatient days increased slightly, particularly 10 to 20 months after the policy change. Factoring in additional copayment revenue, the VA realized a $14.7-million annual net revenue gain from this subpopulation alone. CONCLUSION These results suggest the new policy successfully reduced utilization and costs, with perhaps minimal clinical consequences to date. However, higher inpatient utilization resulting from cost-related nonadherence is troubling within an already high-risk and poorly adherent population, especially considering the reduction in psychiatric drug refills.