Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selected aspects of inherited susceptibility to prostate cancer and tumours of different site of origin

Epidemiologic research conducted over the last two decades has led us to believe that inherited factors play an important role in the aetiology of prostate cancer, but the genes which underlie the inherited susceptibility are elusive. The most compelling associations to date are with genes involved in DNA damage repair, including BRCA2. In Poland we have initiated a programme to identify DNA variants which confer an increased risk of prostate cancer and other cancers. Here we review our recent results. We found that germline mutations in BRCA1, CHEK2 and NBS1 confer an increased prostate cancer risk in Polish men. We provide evidence that CHEK2 is a multi-organ cancer susceptibility gene. We show that inherited variation in RNASEL and MSR1 genes do not contribute to prostate cancer development in Poland.
A phylogenetic approach to study the origin and evolution of plasmodesmata-localized glycosyl hydrolases family 17

Colonization of the land by plants required major modifications in cellular structural composition and metabolism. Intercellular communication through plasmodesmata (PD) plays a critical role in the coordination of growth and cell activities. Changes in the form, regulation or function of these channels are likely linked to plant adaptation to the terrestrial environments. Constriction of PD aperture by deposition of callose is the best-studied mechanism in PD regulation. Glycosyl hydrolases family 17 (GHL17) are callose degrading enzymes. In Arabidopsis this is a large protein family, few of which have been PD-localized. The objective here is to identify correlations between evolution of this protein family and their role at PD and to use this information as a tool to predict the localization of candidates isolated in a proteomic screen. With this aim, we studied phylogenetic relationship between Arabidopsis GHL17 sequences and those isolated from fungi, green algae, mosses and monocot representatives. Three distinct phylogenetic clades were identified. Clade alpha contained only embryophytes sequences suggesting that this subgroup appeared during land colonization in organisms with functional PD. Accordingly, all PD-associated GHL17 proteins identified so far in Arabidopsis thaliana and Populus are grouped in this ‘embryophytes only’ phylogenetic clade. Next, we tested the use of this knowledge to discriminate between candidates isolated in the PD proteome. Transient and stable expression of GFP protein fusions confirmed PD localization for candidates contained in clade alpha but not for candidates contained in clade beta. Our results suggest that GHL17 membrane proteins contained in the alpha clade evolved and expanded during land colonization to play new roles, among others, in PD regulation.
Laparoscopic resection of liver tumors

Laparoscopic liver resection is technically challenging compared to open liver surgery and has a steep learning curve. Tumors located in the posterior sector, centrally, in proximity of major vascular pedicles or in a background of liver cirrhosis are surgically more complex with a higher risk of blood loss. There is emerging consensus about indications for laparoscopic liver resection. While laparoscopic approach is considered standard for left lateral sectionectomy and minor laparoscopic liver resections in antero-lateral segments, with increasing experience, major resections, parenchyma sparing resections and even donor hepatectomies are being performed laparoscopically with good outcomes. Laparoscopic liver surgery is feasible and safe for well selected patients by well-trained surgeons with short-term advantages and non-inferior long-term oncologic outcomes.
Performance Evaluation of a Cellular Millimetrewave Mobile Broadband System Demonstrator

In this paper a radio propagation simulation tool is used to estimate the power distribution and channel time dispersion throughout the cell in typical MBS scenarios and the measurements performed during the SAMBA field trials campaign are used to validate the results. Moreover, it is shown how good the simulated match the measured results in complex propagation scenarios. Also in this paper, experimental data collected in the measurements campaign performed in a large indoor environment, using a two-cell configuration, is analysed in order to evaluate the system performance in presence of large channel time dispersion values and the handover algorithm implemented in an MBS Demonstrator.
Naltrexone long-acting formulation in the treatment of alcohol dependence

While oral naltrexone has a demonstrated ability to decrease alcohol reinforcement, it also has pharmacotherapeutic limitations, such as a small treatment effect size, adverse events, and plasma level fluctuations. The pharmacokinetic profile of naltrexone could be enhanced by intramuscular administration, which would sustain its release over several weeks and keep plasma levels relatively constant, ie, low enough to minimize side effects but high enough to reduce drinking. Vivitrex®/Vivitrol® and Naltrel® are injectable naltrexone depot formulations that have been tested as possible medications for treating alcohol dependence. Their adverse-event profiles appear to be less severe than that of oral naltrexone. Vivitrex®/Vivitrol® has demonstrated efficacy at decreasing heavy drinking among alcohol-dependent males. Naltrel® helped to promote abstinence and decrease the incidence of relapse in two samples of alcohol-dependent subjects. The data on a third formulation, Depotrex®, are still limited. All three formulations require further study of their efficacy.
Pediatric rheumatology in adult rheumatology practices in Washington state.

OBJECTIVE To determine both the extent to which adult rheumatologists treat children and their level of comfort in doing so. METHODS A questionnaire was sent to all 77 physicians in the state of Washington who were listed as adult rheumatologists in the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) directory. RESULTS Sixty-six questionnaires (86%) were returned; 50 were identified as being from private-practicing adult rheumatologists and were the focus of this study. Sixty-two percent of the respondents reported that they care for children; predictors included increased exposure to pediatric rheumatology during fellowship (P = 0.003), increased distance from Seattle (P = 0.001), and listing oneself in the ACR directory as treating children (P = 0.03). Most respondents reported feeling discomfort in treating children younger than 6 years of age, treating Kawasaki disease, and treating polyarteritis nodosa, but most reported feeling comfortable treating children with chronic arthritides. Impediments to referring to a pediatric rheumatologist included distance (median distance 35 miles), convenience for the family, personal preference, and experience in caring for children. Twenty-nine percent reported difficulties referring to a pediatric rheumatologist outside of one's managed care plan. Adult rheumatologists expressed interest in continuing medical education dealing with pediatric rheumatology, preferably with a lecture format in their home communities. CONCLUSION A significant number of adult rheumatologists care for children. Pediatric rheumatologists should provide both educational and consultative support for these adult rheumatologist colleagues.
An Inductive Classification Scheme for Green IT Initiatives

“Green IT” can be loosely described as a set of organizational initiatives undertaken to reduce the environmental impact of Information Technology. Although many trade publications are full of examples of Green IT initiatives, there is a lack of coherence around what constitutes a “Green IT” initiative, which practices could be considered Green IT, and even what the goals and motivations for a Green IT initiative should be. In this paper, we describe a centering resonance text analysis on documentation of the Green IT initiatives undertaken by seven large technology-intensive firms. The findings from the analysis are used to propose a new classification scheme for Green IT initiatives and help bring further clarify to the concepts, goals, and motivations underlying Green IT initiatives.
Self-organized critical forest-fire model.

A forest-fire model is introduced which contains a lightning probability f. This leads to a self-organized critical state in the limit f\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0 provided that the time scales of tree growth and burning down of forest clusters are separated. We derive scaling laws and calculate all critical exponents. The values of the critical exponents are confirmed by computer simulations. For a two-dimensional system, we show that the forest density in the critical state assumes its minimum possible value, i.e., that energy dissipation is maximum.
Methodological Issues in the Analysis of Residential Preferences, Residential Mobility, and Neighborhood Change

This paper reviews methods for analyzing both individual preferences and choices about where to live, and the implications of these choices for residential patterns. Although these methods are discussed in the context of residential choice, they can be applied more broadly to individual choices in a range of social contexts where behavior is interdependent. We also discuss specific problems with residential mobility data, including the treatment of one’s current location as a potential choice, the aggregation of units and the need to take into account variations in neighborhood size, the problem of very large choice sets, and the link between residential mobility and patterns of neighborhood change.
Community-wide effects of marine reserves in the Mediterranean Sea

We investigated the community-wide effects of no-take marine reserves at the regional scale in the Mediterranean Sea. Reserves had general positive effects of protection on fish targeted by fishing, and variable effects on non-target species. Differences in the structure of fish assemblages (in terms of abundance of species and trophic groups) were greater between geographic locations than when compared among all protected and adjacent fished areas at the regional scale. These results suggest that the assemblage-wide response to protection at the species level may be spatially idiosyncratic, as a function of local factors. However, the functional (trophic group) response of the fish assemblages to protection appears to be more general. Response of fish assemblages to protec- tion was significantly related to reserve age (i.e. duration of protection) only when evaluated at func- tional level, whereas reserve size did not appear to influence fish assemblages at either species or functional level. Reserves can enhance trophic cascades and ecological shifts once the density of fish predators of sea urchins reaches a density threshold of about 15 adult sea breams (Diplodus sargus and D. vulgaris, the most important sea urchin predators) per 100 m 2 . These non-linearities in the community-wide effect of reserves suggest that caution is needed in simplistically treating reserves and unprotected areas as 2 experimental treatments in ecological studies.
Standardization of Various Parameters for Mycoherbicidal metabolites production from Fusarium sp. FGCCW#16 for Parthenium hysterophorus Management

Parthenium hysterophorus weeds are one of the major problems in almost all types of agricultural lands, forest lands, pastures, farmlands and disturbed land including roadsides. It is also responsible for health problems in human and animals besides loss to agriculture and ecosystems. It causes allergic respiratory problems, contact dermatitis and mutagenicity. The main strategy of Parthenium control is the use of chemical herbicides. The increasing side effects of chemical herbicide and growing resistance against them in weeds have attracted the attention of researchers to search for some novel herbicidal compounds from natural sources. A significant barrier in the mycoherbicide metabolites production is the development of an economically viable fermentation process. The production of these compounds is largely affected by certain parameters like pH, temperature, incubation days and media constituents etc. Adjustment of these parameters up to optimum level leads to maximum production of mycoherbicidal compounds. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to standardize physiochemical conditions (Nutrient media, pH, Temperature, and Incubation periods) for maximum production of mycoherbicidal metabolites from phytopathogenic fungi Fusarium sp. FGCCW#16 isolated from Parthenium hysterophorus weed. Fusarium sp FGCCW#16 grew well and produced optimum mycoherbicidal metabolites in Richard’s broth medium at 25 to 28°C on the 21 studay of the incubation. The optimal growth, however, was obtained at pH 6. The results of this investigation indicated that cultural conditions like culture media as well as physical factors such as temperature, pH and incubation period greatly affected the growth and production of mycoherbicidal metabolites by Fusarium sp FGCCW#16.
Shape reconstruction of multiple cracks from ECT signals by means of a stochastic method

This paper presents an approach to reconstruct multiple cracks from eddy current testing signals by means of a stochastic method such as tabu search. The size, number, and locations of cracks are considered unknown in the inversion process, whereas only the orientation of cracks is supposed to be revealed in advance. Eddy current inspections of a stainless steel plate with closely located EDM slits are performed, and the inversions of measured signals are carried out. The results agree well with the true ones, which validates the proposed algorithm
Decomposition for the Shaping of Mult i-dimensional Signal Constellations

1: In this work, we introduce an efficient addressing scheme to realize points near to the knee of the tradeoff curves of an optimally shaped constellation. This scheme, called as the address decomposition, is based on decomposing the addressing into a hierarchy of the addressing steps each of a low dimensionality. As the memory size associated with a direct addressing scheme has an exponential growth with the dimensionality, this decomposition of the addressing results in a substantial decrease in the complexity. In this case, by using a memory of a practical size, we can move along a tradeoff curve which is nearly optimum. For example, in a space of dimensionality N = 32, we use a block of memory of 2.5 kilo-bytes per N dimensions to achieve a shape gain of y, = 0.92 dB with CER, = 1.25, PAR = 2.95. This scheme has no associated computation, is straightforward to implement and is adaptable to the structure of a general coset coding scheme.
Environmental modification via a quorum sensing molecule influences the social landscape of siderophore production

Bacteria produce a wide variety of exoproducts that favourably modify their environment and increase their fitness. These are often termed ‘public goods’ because they are costly for individuals to produce and can be exploited by non-producers (‘cheats’). The outcome of conflict over public goods is dependent upon the prevailing environment and the phenotype of the individuals in competition. Many bacterial species use quorum sensing (QS) signalling molecules to regulate the production of public goods. QS therefore determines the cooperative phenotype of individuals, and influences conflict over public goods. In addition to their regulatory functions, many QS molecules have additional properties that directly modify the prevailing environment. This leads to the possibility that QS molecules could influence conflict over public goods indirectly through non-signalling effects, and the impact of this on social competition has not previously been explored. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa QS signal molecule PQS is a powerful chelator of iron which can cause an iron starvation response. Here we show that PQS stimulates a concentration-dependent increase in the cooperative production of iron scavenging siderophores, resulting in an increase in the relative fitness of non-producing siderophore cheats. This is likely due to an increased cost of siderophore output by producing cells and a concurrent increase in the shared benefits, which accrue to both producers and cheats. Although PQS can be a beneficial signalling molecule for P.aeruginosa, our data suggests that it can also render a siderophore-producing population vulnerable to competition from cheating strains. More generally our results indicate that the production of one social trait can indirectly affect the costs and benefits of another social trait.
Classical and quantum strategies for bit commitment schemes in the two-prover model

We show that the long-standing assumption of “no-communication” between the provers of the two-prover model is not sufficiently precise to guarantee the security of a bit commitment scheme against malicious adversaries. Indeed, we show how a simple correlated random variable, which does not allow to communicate, can be used to cheat a simplified version (sBGKW) of the bit commitment scheme of Ben-Or, Goldwasser, Kilian, and Wigderson [BGKW88]. Instead we propose a stronger notion of separation between the two provers which takes into account correlated computations. To emphasize the risk that entanglement still represents for the security of a commitment scheme despite the stronger notion of separation, we present two variations of the sBGKW scheme that can be cheated by quantum provers with probability (almost) one. A complete proof of security against quantum adversaries is then given for the sBGKW scheme. By reduction we also obtain the security of the original BGKW scheme against quantum provers. For the unfamiliar reader, basic notions of quantum processing are provided to facilitate the understanding of the proofs presented.
Motion segmentation by multistage affine classification

We present a multistage affine motion segmentation method that combines the benefits of the dominant motion and block-based affine modeling approaches. In particular, we propose two key modifications to a recent motion segmentation algorithm developed by Wang and Adelson (1994). 1) The adaptive k-means clustering step is replaced by a merging step, whereby the affine parameters of a block which has the smallest representation error, rather than the respective cluster center, is used to represent each layer; and 2) we implement it in multiple stages, where pixels belonging to a single motion model are labeled at each stage. Performance improvement due to the proposed modifications is demonstrated on real video frames.
Ethnic differences in the epidemiological characteristics of severe trauma due to falls from heights among children in northern Israel.

BACKGROUND In the western world, trauma is the leading cause of disability and mortality in the 1-39 years age group. Road accidents constitute the most frequent cause of mortality among children older than 1 year and falls from heights are the most frequent cause of injuries requiring hospitalization. OBJECTIVES To analyze the epidemiology and characteristics of severe pediatric trauma due to falls from a height in northern Israel. This analysis should aid in planning an effective intervention plan. METHODS This observational study included all patients aged 0-14 who died or were admitted to an intensive care unit in northern Israel following a fall from a height. Demographic and clinical data were collected retrospectively for 3 years and prospectively for 1 year. RESULTS A total of 188 children were severely injured or died following such a fall, with an annual rate of 11.4 per 100,000 children. Over 85% of severe injuries due to falls occurred among non-Jewish children, with an incidence rate 6.36 times higher than among Jewish children (20.17 and 3.17 per 100,000 children, respectively). In the non-Jewish sector 93.7% of the falls occurred at or around the child's home, mainly from staircases, balconies and roofs. CONCLUSIONS A very high incidence of severe trauma due to domestic falls from a height was found among non-Jewish children in northern Israel. Domestic falls represent an important epidemiological problem in the non-Jewish pediatric sector, and an effective prevention plan should include measures to modify parents' attitudes towards safety issues and the creation of a safe domestic environment.
QTL fine mapping for intramuscular fat and fatty acid composition using high-density SNP chip array on SSC12 in Korean native pig × Yorkshire F2 population  

Intramuscular fat (IMF) and fatty acid composition are characteristics that are used as important indicators of evaluating high quality pork and contribute to the economic benefits of the pig farming industry. In this study, quantitative trait loci (QTL) fine mapping of chromosome 12 was performed in a population of F2 intercross between Yorkshire (YS) and Korean native pigs (KNPs) by adopting combined linkage and linkage disequilibrium method using high-density SNP chips. QTLs for IMF (H3GA0034813 to H3GA0034965) and oleic acid (C18:1) (ASGA0054380 to ALGA0066299) were located at 120 cM (54.112–57.610 kb) and 85 cM (36.097–38.601 kb), respectively, within chromosome 12 (Sscrofa11.1 genomic reference). In addition, 31 candidate genes present within the IMF QTL region and 28 candidate genes existing within C18:1 QTL region were chosen. In order to understand the function of these candidate genes at the molecular level, these candidate genes were functionally categorized by studying gene ontology and analyzing network and pathway. Among the 59 candidate genes within the region of IMF QTL and C18:1 QTL, five (MYH1, MYH2, MYH4, ACACA, and RPS6KB1) directly interacting candidate genes were found. Furthermore, the RPS6KB1 gene was assumed to be an important candidate gene that is involved in leptin and insulin signaling pathway and participates in controlling adipogenic differentiation, fat deposition, and fatty acid composition, which is related to obesity of pigs.
Obtaining Triploid Hybrids by Means of Open Pollinations and Controlled Crosses Involving Diploids Parental

The creation of triploid hybrids is an important genetic improvement strategy for the development of new commercial citrus scion varieties. The objective of this work was to quantify the frequency of triploids obtained from natural and controlled crosses of different mandarin varieties under varying environmental conditions in the state of Bahia. The experiments were conducted in the municipalities of Cruz das Almas (Recôncavo Baiano region) and Mucugê (Chapada Diamantina region). The first experiment was based on fruits from open pollinations of the varieties ‘Page’, ‘Ortanique’, ‘Ellendale’, ‘Clemenules’, ‘Swatow’, ‘Piemonte’, ‘Fortune’, ‘South Africa’, ‘Montenegrina’, ‘Kincy’, ‘Span Americana’, ‘Fremont, ‘Nova’, ‘Dancy’ and ‘Murcott’, and the second involved fruits from controlled crosses of female parents ‘Nova’, ‘Fortune’ and ‘Ortanique’ and male parents ‘Page’, ‘Montenegrina’, ‘Swatow’, ‘Fremont’ and ‘Kincy’. The seeds selected were inoculated in test tubes containing approximately 10 mL of Woody Plant Medium (WPM). When the plants reached circa 60 days of age, leaf samples were removed for quantification of the DNA by the flow cytometry technique. In Mucugê, three triploids were identified from open pollinations, ‘Clemenules’ (1) and ‘Ortanique’ (2), while in Cruz das Almas, no triploids were obtained. In the controlled crosses, triploids were only obtained in Mucugê: ‘Ortanique’ × ‘Montenegrina’ (4), ‘Ortanique’ × ‘Kincy’ (1) and ‘Ortanique’ × ‘Swatow’ (2). Based on the data, it is suggested that the environmental conditions of Mucugê favored the formation of triploids.