Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metastatic Melanomas Express Inhibitory Low Affinity Fc Gamma Receptor and Escape Humoral Immunity

Our research, inspired by the pioneering works of Isaac Witz in the 1980s, established that 40% of human metastatic melanomas express ectopically inhibitory Fc gamma receptors (FcγRIIB), while they are detected on less than 5% of primary cutaneous melanoma and not on melanocytes. We demonstrated that these tumoral FcγRIIB act as decoy receptors that bind the Fc portion of antimelanoma IgG, which may prevent Fc recognition by the effector cells of the immune system and allow the metastatic melanoma to escape the humoral/natural immune response. The FcγRIIB is able to inhibit the ADCC (antibody dependent cell cytotoxicity) in vitro. Interestingly, the percentage of melanoma expressing the FcγRIIB is high (70%) in organs like the liver, which is rich in patrolling NK (natural killer) cells that exercise their antitumoral activity by ADCC. We found that this tumoral FcγRIIB is fully functional and that its inhibitory potential can be triggered depending on the specificity of the anti-tumor antibody with which it interacts. Together these observations elucidate how metastatic melanomas interact with and potentially evade humoral immunity and provide direction for the improvement of anti-melanoma monoclonal antibody therapy.
Attitudes towards languages and code‐mixing in Hong Kong

Previous research has shown that among English‐Cantonese bilingual students at the University of Hong Kong a mixture of Cantonese and English (MIX) is very common yet apparently disliked by its users. To examine this seeming conflict between attitudes and behaviour, a matched‐guise experiment was conducted. Results indicated hostility towards MIX but produced evidence that it is a useful, culturally‐neutral choice falling between English and Cantonese and that it may have covert status in this community.
The Multifunctional Effects of Nobiletin and Its Metabolites In Vivo and In Vitro

Nobiletin (NOB) chemically known as 5,6,7,8,3′,4′-hexamethoxyflavone is a dietary polymethoxylated flavonoid found in Citrus fruits. Recent evidences show that NOB is a multifunctional pharmaceutical agent. The various pharmacological activities of NOB include neuroprotection, cardiovascular protection, antimetabolic disorder, anticancer, anti-inflammation, and antioxidation. These events may be underpinned by modulation of signaling cascades, including PKA/ERK/MEK/CREB, NF-κB, MAPK, Ca2+/CaMKII, PI3K/Akt1/2, HIF-1α, and TGFβ signaling pathways. The metabolites may exhibit stronger beneficial effects than NOB on diseases pathogenesis. The biological activities of NOB have been clarified on many systems. This review aims to discuss the pharmacological effects of NOB with specific mechanisms of actions. NOB may become a promising candidate for potential drug development. However, further investigations of NOB on specific intracellular targets and clinical trials are still needed, especially for in vivo medical applications.
Stigmatization as a Predictor of Psychological Well-Being of Hong Kong Single Mothers

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of stigmatization and other pressures associated with single-motherhood on a variety of well-being variables. A sample of 356 Hong Kong Chinese single mothers, whose marriage ended due to divorce, husband's death, separation or desertion, responded to the self-administered questionnaire. The results show that stigmatization is a very salient factor affecting nine out of the eleven domains of psychological well-being. The impact on well-being of other social pressures, i.e., personal burdens and custodial responsibilities is rather limited. Deterioration in the employment situation after becoming a single parent is found to be the strongest predictor of stigmatization, whereas being on welfare and a lack of employment are positively and significantly correlated with stigmatization.
Multiple Pathways for Cationic Amino Acid Transport in Rat Seminiferous Tubule Cells1

Abstract Arginine and ornithine are known to be important for various biological processes in the testis, but the delivery of extracellular cationic amino acids to the seminiferous tubule cells remains poorly understood. We investigated the activity and expression of cationic amino acid transporters in isolated rat Sertoli cells, peritubular cells, pachytene spermatocytes, and early spermatids. We assessed the l-arginine uptake kinetics, Na+ dependence of transport, profiles of cis inhibition of uptake by cationic and neutral amino acids, and sensitivity to trans stimulation of cationic amino acid transporters, and studied the expression of the genes encoding them by RT-PCR. Our data suggest that l-arginine is taken up by Sertoli cells and peritubular cells, principally via system y+L (SLC3A2/SLC7A6) and system y+ (SLC7A1 and SLC7A2), with system B0+ making a minor contribution. By contrast, system B0+, associated with system y+L (SLC3A2/SLC7A7 and SLC7A6), made a major contribution to the transport of cationic amino acids in pachytene spermatocytes and early spermatids. Sertoli cells had higher rates of l-arginine transport than the other seminiferous tubule cells. This high efficiency of arginine transport in Sertoli cells and the properties of the y+L system predominating in these cells strongly suggest that Sertoli cells play a key role in supplying germ cells with l-arginine and other cationic amino acids. Furthermore, whereas cytokines induce nitric oxide (NO) production in peritubular and Sertoli cells, little or no upregulation of arginine transport by cytokines was observed in these cells. Thus, NO synthesis does not depend on the stimulation of arginine transport in these somatic tubular cells.
Four basic symmetry types in the universal 7-clusterstructure of 143 complete bacterial genomic sequences

Coding information is the main source of heterogeneity (non-randomness) in the sequences of bacterial genomes. This information can be naturally modeled by analysing cluster structures in the ``in-phase'' triplet distributions of relatively short genomic fragments (200-400bp). We found a universal 7-cluster structure in all 143 completely sequenced bacterial genomes available in Genbank in August 2004, and explained its properties. The 7-cluster structure is responsible for the main part of sequence heterogeneity in bacterial genomes. In this sense, our 7 clusters is the basic model of bacterial genome sequence. We demonstrated that there are four basic ``pure'' types of this model, observed in nature: ``parallel triangles'', ``perpendicular triangles'', degenerated case and the flower-like type. We show that codon usage of bacterial genomes is a multi-linear function of their genomic G+C-content with high accuracy (more precisely, by two similar functions, one for eubacterial genomes and the other one for archaea). All 143 cluster animated 3D-scatters are collected in a database and is made available on our web-site: http://www.ihes. fr/~zinovyev/7clusters The finding can be readily introduced into any software for gene prediction, sequence alignment or bacterial genomes classification.
Unfavorable Course of Subclinical Hypothyroidism in Children with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Compared to Those with Isolated Non-Autoimmune Hyperthyrotropinemia

Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is a common problem in pediatric population, and the natural history of SCH varies depending on its etiology. Whether Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) negatively affects the natural course of SCH was investigated in pediatric patients without concomitant diseases. Predictors for levothyroxine medication were also evaluated. Medical records of 109 children with SCH (91 girls, 5−18 years) diagnosed between 2005 and 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were classified into HT (n = 37) and isolated non-autoimmune hyperthyrotropinemia (iso-NAHT, n = 72). During median 2 years of follow-up, only 10.1% of SCH patients eventually initiated levothyroxine, and HT patients showed a higher probability of requiring levothyroxine medication than iso-NAHT patients (21.6% vs. 4.2%). Underlying HT independently predicted deterioration of thyroid function, leading to levothyroxine medication (hazard ratios [HRs], 4.6 vs. iso-NAHT, P = 0.025). High titers of anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (TGAbs) predicted later medication in the HT group (HRs, 28.2 vs. normal TGAbs, P = 0.013). Most pediatric SCH showed benign and self-remitting courses. Underlying HT significantly increases the risk for levothyroxine medication, especially with high titers of TGAbs.
Investigating the Role of Neighbourhood Characteristics in Determining Life Satisfaction

Data from a representative survey of adult Australians are analysed for usual and preferred working time across family types. We discover a time divide regardless of gender and family type: many short hours individuals desire longer hours of employment, while many long hours individuals prefer shorter hours. The latter group is larger such that the average employee desires fewer hours across family types, with the exception of lone mothers. For dual-earner couples with children, men average approximately 20 hours more per week than women, a difference that would only decline to 18 hours per week if preferred hours were realized. However, approximately one-fifth of these couples exhibited egalitarian or nearly equal working hours. Egalitarian couples averaged a combined 84 hours per week of employment, tended to share the care of children, were more likely to be non-Australian born, and included marked numbers of women holding degrees and in professional occupations.
The role of learned societies in knowledge exchange and dissemination: the case of the Regional Studies Association, 1965–2005

This paper discusses the role of learned societies in knowledge exchange and dissemination. It attempts to ‘map’ the organisations that are considered to reside under the term and discusses how they have developed through history. In doing so, it seeks to highlight that whilst several types of organisations inhabit the landscape of learned societies, they all share a commitment to knowledge exchange and dissemination. The paper then discusses the modern learned societies that were founded in twentieth‐century Britain and now exist alongside their organisational predecessors. It raises questions of whether these organisations exist for the benefit of their members or wider society. The paper then discusses change and development in learned societies in relation to its case study, the Regional Studies Association. The paper concludes by arguing that ‘learned society’ is an umbrella term for knowledge exchange and dissemination organisations whose functions are contextually specific and inextricably tied to the needs of their respective discipline, sub‐discipline or field of intellectual enquiry.
Semidefinite Programming Relaxations and Algebraic Optimization in Control

We present an overview of the essential elements of semidenite programming as a computational tool for the analysis of systems and control problems. We make particular emphasis on general duality properties as providing suboptimality or infeasibility certicates. Our focus is on the exciting developments occurred in the last few years, including robust optimization, combinatorial optimization, and algebraic methods such as sum-of-squares. These developments are illustrated with examples of applications to control systems.
Prevalence of cervical high-risk human papillomavirus infections in kidney graft recipients.

BACKGROUND Female kidney graft recipients are regarded as a group at risk of cervical cancer development. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of cervical high-risk human papilloma virus (HR-HPV) infection and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in female kidney graft recipients in comparison to healthy controls. MATERIAL AND METHODS We assessed the prevalence of HR-HPV and CIN in 60 female kidney graft recipients of reproductive age in outpatient care of the First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of Warsaw. The control group consisted of 60 healthy women. Cervical swabs were analyzed with use of Amplicor HPV Roche Molecular Systems test, detecting DNA of 13 types of high-risk HPV: 6, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, and 68. RESULTS HR-HPV was detected in 11/60 kidney recipients and 15/60 healthy women (p=0.37). There was no correlation between HR-HPV presence and immunosuppressive regimen, underlying disease, graft function, or time interval from transplantation. In both groups, higher prevalence of HR-HPV was observed in females with ≥2 lifetime sexual partners. Abnormal Pap test results in 2 kidney recipients (2 cases of HSIL) and 2 healthy women (LSIL and HSIL) required colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy, which in all cases revealed CIN2+. CONCLUSIONS Female kidney graft recipients seem to be equally exposed to cervical infection with HPV of high oncogenic potential as the healthy population.
Noradrenergic Activation of Hypoglossal Nucleus Modulates the Central Regulation of Genioglossus in Chronic Intermittent Hypoxic Rats

Neuromuscular compensation of the genioglossus muscle can be induced by chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) in obstructive sleep apnea to maintain upper airway stability. Noradrenergic activation of hypoglossal nucleus plays a critical role in the central control of the genioglossus. However, it remains unknown whether norepinephrine takes part in the central regulation of the genioglossus during CIH. Adult male Wistar rats (n = 32) were studied to explore the influence of noradrenergic activation of hypoglossal nucleus on the central control of the genioglossus at different stages of CIH. The rats were divided into four groups: normal control or normoxic (NO) group, CIH group, CIH + normal saline (NS) group, and CIH + prazosin (PZ, α1-adrenergic antagonist) group. PZ (0.2 mM, 60 nl) and NS (0.9%, 60 nl) were microinjected into the hypoglossal nucleus. The responses of the genioglossus corticomotor area to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were recorded on the 1st, 7th, 14th, and 21st day of CIH. The CIH group showed significantly shorter TMS latencies on days 1, 7, and 14 (3.85 ± 0.37 vs. 4.58 ± 0.42, 3.93 ± 0.17 vs. 4.49 ± 0.55, 3.79 ± 0.38 vs. 4.39 ± 0.30 ms, P < 0.05), and higher TMS amplitudes on day 1 (2.74 ± 0.87 vs. 1.60 ± 0.52 mV, P < 0.05) of CIH than the NO group. Compared to the CIH + NS group, the CIH + PZ group showed decreased TMS responses (longer latencies and lower amplitudes) only on the 14th day of CIH (3.99 ± 0.28 vs. 4.61 ± 0.48 ms, 2.51 ± 0.67 vs. 1.18 ± 0.62 mV, P < 0.05). These results indicated that noradrenergic activation of the hypoglossal nucleus played a role in the central compensation of genioglossus through α1-adrenoceptor on the 14th day of CIH.
Are Autobiographical Memories Inherently Social? Evidence from an fMRI Study

The story of our lifetime – our narrative self – is constructed from our autobiographical memories. A central claim of social psychology is that this narrative self is inherently social: When we construct our lives, we do so in a real or imagined interaction. This predicts that self-referential processes which are involved in recall of autobiographical memories overlap with processes involved in social interactions. Indeed, previous functional MRI studies indicate that regions in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are activated during autobiographical memory recall and virtual communication. However, no fMRI study has investigated recall of autobiographical memories in a real-life interaction. We developed a novel paradigm in which participants overtly reported self-related and other-related memories to an experimenter, whose non-verbal reactions were being filmed and online displayed to the participants in the scanner. We found that recall of autobiographical vs. non-autobiographical memories was associated with activation of the mPFC, as was recall in the social as compared to a non-social control condition; however, both contrasts involved different non-overlapping regions within the mPFC. These results indicate that self-referential processes involved in autobiographical memory recall are different from processes supporting social interactions, and argue against the hypothesis that autobiographical memories are inherently social.
Amino acid residues controlling acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase specificity.

Acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase have 51-54% sequence identity in mammalian species; they exhibit distinct substrate and inhibitor specificities. The crystal structure of acetylcholinesterase enables one to predict folding of related esterases as well as assign residues responsible for differences in substrate specificity. These predictions were tested by expression of esterase chimeras and site-specific mutants using mouse acetylcholinesterase as a template. Chimeras of acetylcholinesterase in which the amino-terminal 174 and the carboxyl-terminal 88 amino acids have been converted to the butyrylcholinesterase sequences still exhibit acetyl-like substrate specificity. Four nonconserved amino acids which are within the central sequence and appear to surround the acyl pocket, F295, R296, F297, and V300, have been mutated alone and in combination to the corresponding residues found in butyrylcholinesterase, L286, S287, I288, and G291. The V300 and R296 mutants slightly enhance butyrylthiocholine hydrolysis while the F295 and F297 mutants, alone and in combination, confer butyrylcholinesterase character by enhancing activity to butyrylthiocholine, and diminishing activity to acetylthiocholine. The F297 mutation eliminates substrate inhibition. F295 and F297 may form a clamp around the acetoxy methyl group. They have distinctive roles in affecting catalysis of the two acylcholines and precisely control acyl ester specificity. Comparison of the susceptibilities of the chimeras and site-specific mutants to cholinesterase-specific inhibitors isoOMPA, ethopropazine, and BW284c51 suggests that inhibitor selectivity for isoOMPA is attributable to residues limiting the size of the acyl pocket, while residues in the amino-terminal domain presumably near the lip of the gorge affect BW284c51 selectivity. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Large patch convolutional neural networks for the scene classification of high spatial resolution imagery

Abstract. The increase of the spatial resolution of remote-sensing sensors helps to capture the abundant details related to the semantics of surface objects. However, it is difficult for the popular object-oriented classification approaches to acquire higher level semantics from the high spatial resolution remote-sensing (HSR-RS) images, which is often referred to as the “semantic gap. ” Instead of designing sophisticated operators, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), a typical deep learning method, can automatically discover intrinsic feature descriptors from a large number of input images to bridge the semantic gap. Due to the small data volume of the available HSR-RS scene datasets, which is far away from that of the natural scene datasets, there have been few reports of CNN approaches for HSR-RS image scene classifications. We propose a practical CNN architecture for HSR-RS scene classification, named the large patch convolutional neural network (LPCNN). The large patch sampling is used to generate hundreds of possible scene patches for the feature learning, and a global average pooling layer is used to replace the fully connected network as the classifier, which can greatly reduce the total parameters. The experiments confirm that the proposed LPCNN can learn effective local features to form an effective representation for different land-use scenes, and can achieve a performance that is comparable to the state-of-the-art on public HSR-RS scene datasets.
Opus: University of Bath Online Publication Store Waste the Waist: a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial of a Primary Care Based Intervention to Support Lifestyle Change in People with High Cardiovascular Risk

(2015) Waste the waist:A pilot randomised controlled trial of a primary care based intervention to support lifestyle change in people with high cardiovascular risk. This version is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Abstract Background: In the UK, thousands of people with high cardiovascular risk are being identified by a national risk-assessment programme (NHS Health Checks). Waste the Waist is an evidence-informed, theory-driven (modified Health Action Process Approach), group-based intervention designed to promote healthy eating and physical activity for people with high cardiovascular risk. This pilot randomised controlled trial aimed to assess the feasibility of delivering the Waste the Waist intervention in UK primary care and of conducting a full-scale randomised controlled trial. We also conducted exploratory analyses of changes in weight.
Happy and Sad TV Programs: How They Affect Reactions to Commercials

Relative to a sad TV program, a happy program induced: (1) a happier mood as viewers watched both program and commercials, (2) greater perceived commercial effectiveness, (3) more affectively positive cognitive responses, and (4) to some extent, better recall. A main effect for commercial type was also noted, with emotional commercials leading to generally more positive reactions than informational commercials. A significant program-by-commercial interaction was obtained for the viewer's mood during the commercial, with the program effect greater for those viewing emotional commercials than for those viewing informational commercials.
Self-supervised learning method for unstructured road detection using Fuzzy Support Vector Machines

Road detection is a crucial problem in the application of autonomous vehicle and on-road mobile robot. Most of the recent methods only achieve reliable results in some particular well-arranged environments. In this paper, we describe a road detection algorithm for front-view monocular camera using road probabilistic distribution model (RPDM) and online learning method. The primary contribution of this paper is that the combination of dynamical RPDM and Fuzzy Support Vector Machines (FSVMs) makes the algorithm being capable of self-supervised learning and optimized learning from the inheritance of previous result. The secondary contribution of this paper is that the proposed algorithm uses road geometrical assumption to extract assumption based misclassified points and retrains itself online which makes it easier to find potential misclassified points. Those points take an important role in online retraining the classifier which makes the algorithm adaptive to environment changing.
The Implicit Domain in Couples and Couple Therapy

At this point in the evolution of our field, developments in psychoanalysis and family systems, as well as findings from cognitive neuroscience and research in infant development are pointing to convergences in our understanding of the human experience. One central point of convergence has been the understanding of implicit modes of experience, particularly as this relates to affective communication. Through the lens of couples and couple therapy, this paper examines the ways in which the patterning of couple and family relationships takes place in the enactive domain through nonconscious, implicit communication processes. With the understanding that it is in the nature of implicit experience that it must be enacted to be accessed, this paper argues that some of that which is stored in the implicit domain remains embedded and enacted in one's most intimate relationships and therefore can only be accessed within the context of those relationships. This paper then explores some of the implications of implicit processes as this relates to the triad of the therapist and the couple in couple therapy.