Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanism of Breast Cancer Preventive Action of Pomegranate: Disruption of Estrogen Receptor and Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathways

A pomegranate emulsion (PE), containing various bioactive phytochemicals, has recently been found to exert substantial chemopreventive effect against 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary tumorigenesis in rats via antiproliferative and proapoptotic actions. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms of action are not completely understood. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of PE treatment on intratumor expression of estrogen receptor (ER)-α, ER-β,β-catenin and cyclin D1 during DMBA rat mammary carcinogenesis. Mammary tumor sections were harvested from a chemopreventive study in which PE (0.2, 1.0 and 5.0 g/kg) exhibited inhibition of mammary tumorigenesis in a dose-response manner. The expressions of ER-α, ER-β, β-catenin and cyclin D1 were analyzed by immunohistochemical techniques. PE downregulated the expression of intratumor ER-α and ER-β and lowered ER-α:ER-β ratio. PE also decreased the expression, cytoplasmic accumulation, and nuclear translocation of β-catenin, an essential transcriptional cofactor for Wnt signaling. Moreover, PE suppressed the expression of cell growth regulatory protein cyclin D1, which is a downstream target for both ER and Wnt signaling. Our current results in conjunction with our previous findings indicate that concurrent disruption of ER and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways possibly contributes to antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects involved in PE-mediated chemoprevention of DMBA-inflicted rat mammary tumorigenesis.
Multiple Fano Resonances Based on Plasmonic Resonator System With End-Coupled Cavities for High-Performance Nanosensor

A plasmonic resonator system composed of a metal-insulator-metal waveguide coupled with a disk and a ring cavity was proposed to produce double Fano resonances, which resulted from the coupling between the narrow discrete resonances of the ring cavity and the broad spectrum of the disk resonator. Based on the proposed structure, end-coupled cavities are added to form new coupled plasmonic resonator systems, which can support triple and quadruple Fano resonances, and the multiple Fano resonances can be tuned semi-independently by changing the parameters of the end-coupled cavities. These characteristics offer flexibility in the design of the highly integrated circuits. Also, the proposed structure can work as a highly efficient plasmonic nanosensor, which yields a sensitivity of ∼1100 nm/RIU and figure of merit (FOM) of ∼2.73 × 104. The proposed structure may have potential applications for nanosensing, slow light, and nonlinear devices in highly integrated devices.
Effect of Opuntia humifusa Supplementation and Acute Exercise on Insulin Sensitivity and Associations with PPAR-γ and PGC-1α Protein Expression in Skeletal Muscle of Rats

This study examined whether Opuntia humifusa (O. humifusa), which is a member of the Cactaceae family, supplementation and acute swimming exercise affect insulin sensitivity and associations with PPAR-γ and PGC-1α protein expression in rats. Thirty-two rats were randomly divided into four groups (HS: high fat diet sedentary group, n = 8; HE: high fat diet acute exercise group, n = 8; OS: 5% O. humifusa supplemented high fat diet sedentary group, n = 8; OE: 5% O. humifusa supplemented high fat diet acute exercise group, n = 8). Rats in the HE and OE swam for 120 min. before being sacrificed. Our results indicated that serum glucose level, fasting insulin level and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in OS were significantly lower compared to those of the HS (p < 0.01, p < 0.05, p < 0.05). In addition, PPAR-γ protein expression in the OS and OE was significantly higher than that of the HS and HE, respectively (p < 0.05, p < 0.01). PGC-1α and GLUT-4 protein expressions in the OS were significantly higher compared to those of the HS (p < 0.05, p < 0.05). From these results, O. humifusa supplementation might play an important role for improving insulin sensitivity through elevation of PPAR-γ, PGC-1α, and GLUT-4 protein expression in rat skeletal muscle.
Introducing perennial biomass crops into agricultural landscapes to address water quality challenges and provide other environmental services

The world is faced with a difficult multiple challenge of meeting nutritional, energy, and other basic needs, under a limited land and water budget, of between 9 and 10 billion people in the next three decades, mitigating impacts of climate change, and making agricultural production resilient. More productivity is expected from agricultural lands, but intensification of production could further impact the integrity of our finite surface water and groundwater resources. Integrating perennial bioenergy crops in agricultural lands could provide biomass for biofuel and potential improvements on the sustainability of commodity crop production. This article provides an overview of ways in which research has shown that perennial bioenergy grasses and short rotation woody crops can be incorporated into agricultural production systems with reduced indirect land use change, while increasing water quality benefits. Current challenges and opportunities as well as future directions are also highlighted. WIREs Energy Environ 2018, 7:e275. doi: 10.1002/wene.275
Scalability Analysis of Memory Consistency Models in NoC-Based Distributed Shared Memory SoCs

We analyze the scalability of six memory consistency models in network-on-chip (NoC)-based distributed shared memory multicore systems: 1) protected release consistency (PRC); 2) release consistency (RC); 3) weak consistency (WC); 4) partial store ordering (PSO); 5) total store ordering (TSO); and 6) sequential consistency (SC). Their realizations are based on a transaction counter and an address-stack-based approach. The scalability analysis is based on different workloads mapped on various sizes of networks using different problem sizes. For the experiments, we use Nostrum NoC-based configurable multicore platform with a 2-D mesh topology and a deflection routing algorithm. Under the synthetic workloads, the average execution time for the PRC, RC, WC, PSO, and TSO models in the 8 × 8 network (64-cores) is reduced by 32.3%, 28.3%, 20.1%, 13.8%, and 9.9% over the SC model, respectively. For the application workloads, as the network size grows, the average execution time under these relaxed memory models decreases with respect to the SC model depending on the application and its match to the architecture. The performance improvement of the PRC and RC models over the SC model tends to be higher than 50% as observed in the experiments, when the system is further scaled up. The area cost in the network interface for the relaxed memory models is increased by less than 4% over the SC model.
Comparing Greenhouse Gases for Policy Purposes

In order to derive optimal policies for greenhouse gas emissions control, the discounted marginal damages of emissions from different gases must be compared. The greenhouse warming potential (GWP) index, which is most often used to compare greenhouse gases, is not based on such a damage comparison. This essay presents assumptions under which ratios of gas-specific discounted marginal damages reduce to ratios of discounted marginal contributions to radiative forcing, where the discount rate is the difference between the discount rate relevant to climate-related damages and the rate of growth of marginal climate-related damages over time. If there are important gas-specific costs or benefits not tied to radiative forcing, however, such as direct effects of carbon dioxide on plant growth, there is in general no shortcut around explicit comparison of discounted net marginal damages.
Genetic lineage labeling in zebrafish uncovers novel neural crest contributions to the head, including gill pillar cells

At the protochordate-vertebrate transition, a new predatory lifestyle and increased body size coincided with the appearance of a true head. Characteristic innovations of this head are a skull protecting and accommodating a centralized nervous system, a jaw for prey capture and gills as respiratory organs. The neural crest (NC) is a major ontogenetic source for the ‘new head’ of vertebrates and its contribution to the cranial skeleton has been intensively studied in different model organisms. However, the role of NC in the expansion of the respiratory surface of the gills has been neglected. Here, we use genetic lineage labeling to address the contribution of NC to specific head structures, in particular to the gills of adult zebrafish. We generated a sox10:ERT2-Cre line and labeled NC cells by inducing Cre/loxP recombination with tamoxifen at embryonic stages. In juvenile and adult fish, we identified numerous established NC derivatives and, in the cranium, we precisely defined the crest/mesoderm interface of the skull roof. We show the NC origin of the opercular bones and of multiple cell types contributing to the barbels, chemosensory organs located in the mouth region. In the gills, we observed labeled primary and secondary lamellae. Clonal analysis reveals that pillar cells, a craniate innovation that mechanically supports the filaments and forms gill-specific capillaries, have a NC origin. Our data point to a crucial role for the NC in enabling more efficient gas exchange, thus uncovering a novel, direct involvement of this embryonic tissue in the evolution of respiratory systems at the protochordate-vertebrate transition.
Distributed Change Detection

Change detection has traditionally been seen as a centralized problem. Many change detection problems are however distributed in nature and the need for distributed change detection algorithms is therefore significant. In this paper a distributed change detection algorithm is proposed. The change detection problem is first formulated as a convex optimization problem and then solved distributively with the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). To further reduce the computational burden on each sensor, a homotopy solution is also derived. The proposed method have interesting connections with Lasso and compressed sensing and the theory developed for these methods are therefore directly applicable.
Sex allocation and investment into pre- and post-copulatory traits in simultaneous hermaphrodites: the role of polyandry and local sperm competition

Sex allocation theory predicts the optimal allocation to male and female reproduction in sexual organisms. In animals, most work on sex allocation has focused on species with separate sexes and our understanding of simultaneous hermaphrodites is patchier. Recent theory predicts that sex allocation in simultaneous hermaphrodites should strongly be affected by post-copulatory sexual selection, while the role of pre-copulatory sexual selection is much less clear. Here, we review sex allocation and sexual selection theory for simultaneous hermaphrodites, and identify several strong and potentially unwarranted assumptions. We then present a model that treats allocation to sexually selected traits as components of sex allocation and explore patterns of allocation when some of these assumptions are relaxed. For example, when investment into a male sexually selected trait leads to skews in sperm competition, causing local sperm competition, this is expected to lead to a reduced allocation to sperm production. We conclude that understanding the evolution of sex allocation in simultaneous hermaphrodites requires detailed knowledge of the different sexual selection processes and their relative importance. However, little is currently known quantitatively about sexual selection in simultaneous hermaphrodites, about what the underlying traits are, and about what drives and constrains their evolution. Future work should therefore aim at quantifying sexual selection and identifying the underlying traits along the pre- to post-copulatory axis.
Enhanced chemical weathering as a geoengineering strategy to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide, supply nutrients, and mitigate ocean acidification

Chemical weathering is an integral part of both the rock and carbon cycles and is being affected by changes in land use, particularly as a result of agricultural practices such as tilling, mineral fertilization, or liming to adjust soil pH. These human activities have already altered the terrestrial chemical cycles and land‐ocean flux of major elements, although the extent remains difficult to quantify. When deployed on a grand scale, Enhanced Weathering (a form of mineral fertilization), the application of finely ground minerals over the land surface, could be used to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The release of cations during the dissolution of such silicate minerals would convert dissolved CO2 to bicarbonate, increasing the alkalinity and pH of natural waters. Some products of mineral dissolution would precipitate in soils or be taken up by ecosystems, but a significant portion would be transported to the coastal zone and the open ocean, where the increase in alkalinity would partially counteract “ocean acidification” associated with the current marked increase in atmospheric CO2. Other elements released during this mineral dissolution, like Si, P, or K, could stimulate biological productivity, further helping to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. On land, the terrestrial carbon pool would likely increase in response to Enhanced Weathering in areas where ecosystem growth rates are currently limited by one of the nutrients that would be released during mineral dissolution. In the ocean, the biological carbon pumps (which export organic matter and CaCO3 to the deep ocean) may be altered by the resulting influx of nutrients and alkalinity to the ocean. This review merges current interdisciplinary knowledge about Enhanced Weathering, the processes involved, and the applicability as well as some of the consequences and risks of applying the method.
Endoscopic improvement of mucosal lesions in patients with moderate to severe ileocolonic Crohn's disease following treatment with certolizumab pegol

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of certolizumab pegol (CZP) in improving endoscopic lesions in patients with active ileocolonic Crohn's disease (CD). Methods This phase IIIB multicentre open-label clinical trial enrolled 89 adult patients with active endoscopic disease (ulceration in ≥2 intestinal segments with a Crohn's Disease Endoscopic Index of Severity (CDEIS) score ≥8 points). Patients received subcutaneous CZP 400 mg at weeks 0, 2 and 4 and every 4 weeks up to week 52. Endoscopic evaluations were performed at weeks 0, 10 and 54. The primary outcome was mean change in CDEIS score at week 10; secondary outcome measures included endoscopic response (decrease in CDEIS score >5 points), remission (CDEIS score <6), complete remission (CDEIS score <3) and mucosal healing (no ulcer) at weeks 10 and 54. Results In the intention-to-treat population (n=89) the mean±SD CDEIS score was 14.5±5.3 at baseline; the mean decrease in CDEIS score at week 10 was 5.7 (95% CI 4.6 to 6.8, p<0.0001). Rates of endoscopic response, endoscopic remission, complete endoscopic remission and mucosal healing at week 10 were 54%, 37%, 10% and 4%, respectively. At week 54 the corresponding rates were 49%, 27%, 14% and 8%, respectively. The safety profile was consistent with that of previous CZP trials. Conclusions Following CZP treatment in patients with active CD, endoscopic lesions were improved as shown by the decrease in mean CDEIS score and by endoscopic response and remission rates. These benefits were achieved as early as week 10 and were generally maintained through week 54. Clinical Trial Registration Number NCT00297648.
Human pose estimation using consistent max-covering

We propose a novel consistent max-covering scheme for human pose estimation. Consistent max-covering formulates pose estimation as the covering of body part polygons on an object silhouette so that the body part tiles maximally cover the foreground, match local image features, and satisfy body linkage plan and color constraints. It uses high order constraints to anchor multiple body parts simultaneously; the hyper-edges in the part relation graph are essential for detecting complex poses. Because of using multiple clues in pose estimation, this method is resistant to cluttered foregrounds. We propose an efficient linear relaxation method to solve the consistent max-covering problem. Experiments on a variety of images and videos show that the proposed method is more robust than locally constrained methods for human pose estimation.
Reduced Paneth cell α-defensins in ileal Crohn's disease

The pathogenesis of Crohn′s disease (CD), an idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease, is attributed, in part, to intestinal bacteria that may initiate and perpetuate mucosal inflammation in genetically susceptible individuals. Paneth cells (PC) are the major source of antimicrobial peptides in the small intestine, including human α-defensins HD5 and HD6. We tested the hypothesis that reduced expression of PC α-defensins compromises mucosal host defenses and predisposes patients to CD of the ileum. We report that patients with CD of the ileum have reduced antibacterial activity in their intestinal mucosal extracts. These specimens also showed decreased expression of PC α-defensins, whereas the expression of eight other PC products either remained unchanged or increased when compared with controls. The specific decrease of α-defensins was independent of the degree of inflammation in the specimens and was not observed in either CD of the colon, ulcerative colitis, or pouchitis. The functional consequence of α-defensin expression levels was examined by using a transgenic mouse model, where we found changes in HD5 expression levels, comparable to those observed in CD, had a pronounced impact on the luminal microbiota. Thus, the specific deficiency of PC defensins that characterizes ileal CD may compromise innate immune defenses of the ileal mucosa and initiate and/or perpetuate this disease.
XIAP associated factor 1 (XAF1) represses expression of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) and regulates invasion, cell cycle, apoptosis, and cisplatin sensitivity of ovarian carcinoma cells.

BACKGROUND X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) associated factor 1 (XAF1) exhibits aberrantly low or absent expression in various human malignancies, closely associated with anti-apoptosis and overgrowth of cancer cells. However, limited attention has been directed towards the contribution of XAF1 to invasion, apoptosis, and cisplatin (DDP)-resistance of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells. This study aimed to evaluate the potential effects of XAF1 on invasion, cell cycle, apoptosis, and cisplatin-resistance by overexpressing XAF1 in SKOV-3 and SKOV-3/DDP cells. METHODS AND RESULTS The pEGFP-C1-XAF1 plasmid was transfected into SKOV-3 and SKOV-3/DDP cells, and the expression of XAF1 at both mRNA and protein levels was analyzed by reverse transcription-PCR and Western blotting. Overexpression of XAF1 suppressed XIAP expression in both SKOV-3 and SKOV-3/DDP cells. Transwell invasion assays demonstrated that XAF1 exerted a strong anti-invasive effect in XAF1-overexpressing cells. Moreover, flow cytometry analysis revealed that XAF1 overexpression arrested the cell cycle at G0/G1 phase, and cell apoptosis analysis showed that overexpression of XAF1 enhanced apoptosis of SKOV-3 and SKOV-3/DDP cells apparently by activating caspase-9 and caspase-3. Furthermore, MTT assay confirmed a dose-dependent inhibitory effect of cisplatin in the tested tumor cells, and overexpression of XAF1 increased the sensitivity of SKOV-3 and SKOV-3/DDP cells to cisplatin-mediated anti- proliferative effects. CONCLUSIONS In summary, our data indicated that overexpression of XAF1 could suppress XIAP expression, inhibit invasion, arrest cell cycle, promote apoptosis, and confer cisplatin-sensitivity in SKOV-3 and SKOV-3/DDP cells. Therefore, XAF1 may be further assessed as a potential target for the treatment of both cisplatin-resistant and non-resistant EOCs.
Effects of Cultural Inputs on Survival and Growth of Direct Seeded and Naturally Occurring Valley Oak Seedlings on Hardwood Rangeland

In 1989, acorns were planted at three locations in northern California as part of a project to demonstrate methods for restocking valley oak on hardwood rangeland using sitespecific cultural inputs. Inputs used included protective caging, cattle exclusion, mulching, tillage, and first-year irrigation. In 1995, survival ranged from more than 80 percent in the best treatment/site combination to zero in the worst, and maximum seedling height was 288 cm. Protection from cattle was essential for seedling growth and survival in grazed fields. Seedling survival and growth in caged sites was greater in grazed fields than in adjacent nongrazed fields. Landscape fabric and wood chip mulches applied at planting favored seedling growth and/or survival. Valley oak, Quercus lobata Nee, is frequently included in oak planting projects. This species is relatively easy to propagate, particularly with intensive cultural inputs during the establishment phase. However, intensive inputs may be prohibitively expensive for large-scale plantings intended to restock formerly wooded rangelands. Furthermore, intensive inputs may not be necessary to restock valley oaks in some areas. If large areas of valley oak woodlands are to be restored, land managers will need to identify the set of cultural inputs that will permit them to restock target areas at a minimum of cost. In 1989, we reviewed the literature and evaluated previous plantings to identify factors that affect the establishment of valley oak seedlings (Swiecki and Bernhardt 1991). Using this information, we designed demonstration projects for three locations in northern California. For each project site, we determined what factors were most likely to limit seedling establishment and growth. We then selected restocking methods for each project which represented varying levels of cultural inputs, starting from the minimum deemed necessary to establish seedlings. The combinations of inputs tested in each planting differ because of the different conditions that existed at each location. We previously reported on survival and growth at these projects 9 months (Bernhardt and Swiecki 1991) and 18 months after planting (Swiecki and Bernhardt 1991). In this paper, we report on results from these projects after 6 growing seasons. A fourth demonstration project site, at The Nature Conservancy’s Cosumnes River Preserve, was included in the original study (Bernhardt and Swiecki 1991, Swiecki and Bernhardt 1991). We do not include follow-up data on the Cosumnes project in this paper, because it differs in many respects from the projects at the other three locations.
1 Billion Pages = 1 Million Dollars? Mining the Web to Play "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

We exploit the redundancy and volume of information on the web to build a computerized player for the ABC TV game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? ". The player consists of a question-answering module and a decision-making module. The question-answering module utilizes question transformation techniques, natural language parsing, multiple information retrieval algorithms, and multiple search engines; results are combined in the spirit of ensemble learning using an adaptive weighting scheme. Empirically, the system correctly answers about 75% of questions from the Millionaire CD-ROM, 3rd edition--general-interest trivia questions often about popular culture and common knowledge. The decision-making module chooses from allowable actions in the game in order to maximize expected risk-adjusted winnings, where the estimated probability of answering correctly is a function of past performance and confidence in correctly answering the current question. When given a six question head start (i.e., when starting from the $2,000 level), we find that the system performs about as well on average as humans starting at the beginning. Our system demonstrates the potential of simple but well-chosen techniques for mining answers from unstructured information such as the web.