Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nevirapine restores androgen signaling in hormone‐refractory human prostate carcinoma cells both in vitro and in vivo

Prostate carcinomas are androgen‐dependent neoplasms which progress toward a hormone‐independent phenotype during hormone‐deprivation therapy. We evaluated nevirapine, a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, as a new treatment in hormone‐refractory prostate carcinoma cells with the aim of restoring the androgen‐dependency of tumor cells, the rationale being that endogenous reverse transcriptase is up‐regulated in transformed cells and reverse transcriptase inhibitors exert a differentiating activity in human tumors.
SHR Y chromosome enhances the nocturnal blood pressure in socially interacting rats.

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that nocturnal mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and activity would be increased in 1) colony over individually caged rats and 2) the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) Y chromosome strain (SHR/y colony) compared with Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. MAP, HR, and activity were monitored using radiotelemetry. The nocturnal MAP rise expressed as the percentage change in MAP from light to dark was increased (P < 0.05) in the SHR/y colony. The SHR Y chromosome increased MAP in both the colony and caged groups compared with WKY (P < 0.001). The SHR/y colony animals spent 23% of a 24-h period at a MAP >120 mmHg, whereas the WKY colony animals spent 2% of a 24-h period in this range. The MAP of the SHR/y colony on clonidine was reduced (P < 0.001) to WKY baseline values. Activity but not HR was increased (P < 0.01) in the WKY and SHR/y colonies compared with caged animals. In conclusion, colony housing and the SHR Y chromosome increased MAP compared with individually caged housing.
Prognostic Value of Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA), AFP, CA19-9 and CA125 for Patients with Colorectal Cancer with Peritoneal Carcinomatosis Treated by Cytoreductive Surgery and Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to clarify the prognostic significance of tumour markers on long-term survival in colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis (CRPC) following cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Preoperative serum tumour markers of 164 patients with CRPC were analyzed. Peritoneal cancer index (PCI) was measured and relationship to survival calculated. RESULTS Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) >6.5 mg/l and cancer antigen 125 (CA125) >16 U/ml remained independent predictors of survival after adjusting for PCI [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR)=2.46, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.3-4.5, p<0.01 and aHR=2.23, 95% CI=1.21-4.09, p<0.01, respectively]. Patients with high CEA and low CA125 or vice versa had an approximately triple risk of death (HR=3.34, 95% CI=1.21 9.25, p=0.02 and HR=2.76, 95% CI=1.01 7.77, p=0.04, respectively). High CEA with high CA125 produced an additive effect, reflecting a six-fold increase in death (HR=6.57, 95% CI=2.62 13.69, p<0.001, median survival: not reached vs. 22 months). CONCLUSION Serum CEA and CA125 in patients with CRPC treated with cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy convey a negative prognostic effect independently of PCI.
Conservation-Practice Adoption Rates Vary Widely by Crop and Region

This research analyzes national and regional adoption of no-till and strip-till planting systems; cover-crop use; and nitrogen-fertilizer application rates, timing, and methods. Results show that U.S. farmers' adoption of these practices varies widely by crop and region. In addition many farmers are "partial" adopters, adopting these conservation practices on some but not all acres of their farm.
A model of ionic transport and osmotic volume control in cochlear outer hair cells

A computational model of the outer hair cell (OHC) of the mammalian cochlea is presented. It addresses the way in which movement of ions controls the cell shape and regulates pH. The model takes into account the possible chloride–bicarbonate exchange function of prestin, a protein highly expressed in the plasma membrane of OHCs. A model of intracellular pH transients following the imposition of a rapid acid load upon the cell has been adapted from the squid axon literature and further extended in order to investigate the effects of ion transport upon the osmotic flux of water into the cell. The model predicts the slow length changes of OHCs reported in the literature a feature which may control the contribution of OHCs to cochlear amplification.
Bivalirudin Therapy Is Associated With Improved Clinical and Economic Outcomes in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Results From an Observational Database

Background— Randomized trials show improved outcomes among acute coronary syndrome patients treated with bivalirudin. The objective of this analysis was to compare clinical and economic outcomes in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients encountered in routine clinical practice undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), treated with bivalirudin or heparin+GP IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitor (heparin+GPI). Methods and Results— STEMI admissions from January 1, 2004 through March 31, 2008 among patients receiving PPCI and bivalirudin or heparin+GPI in the Premier hospital database were identified. The probability of receiving bivalirudin was estimated using individual and hospital variables; using propensity scores, each bivalirudin patient was matched to 3 heparin+GPI treated patients. The primary outcome was in-hospital death. Rates of bleeding, transfusion, length of stay, and in-hospital cost were secondary outcomes. There were 59 917 STEMI PPCIs receiving bivalirudin (n=6735) or heparin+GPI (n=53 182). Seventy-nine percent of bivalirudin patients matched, resulting in 21 316 STEMI PPCIs for analysis. Compared with heparin+GPI patients, bivalirudin patients had fewer deaths (3.2% versus 4.0%; P=0.011) and less inpatient bleeding (clinically apparent bleeding [6.9% versus 10.5%, P<0.0001], clinically apparent bleeding with transfusion [1.6% versus 3.0%, P<0.0001], and transfusion [5.9% versus 7.6%, P<0.0001]). Patients receiving bivalirudin had shorter average length of stay (mean 4.3 versus 4.5 days; P<0.0001), with lower in-hospital cost (mean $18 640 versus $19 967 [median $14 462 versus $16 003], P<0.0001). Conclusions— This large “real-world” retrospective analysis demonstrates that bivalirudin therapy compared with heparin+GPI is associated with a lower rate of inpatient death, inpatient bleeding, and decreased overall in-hospital cost in STEMI patients undergoing PPCI.
Autophagy mediates pharmacological lifespan extension by spermidine and resveratrol

Although autophagy has widely been conceived as a self-destructive mechanism that causes cell death, accumulating evidence suggests that autophagy usually mediates cytoprotection, thereby avoiding the apoptotic or necrotic demise of stressed cells. Recent evidence produced by our groups demonstrates that autophagy is also involved in pharmacological manipulations that increase longevity. Exogenous supply of the polyamine spermidine can prolong the lifespan of (while inducing autophagy in) yeast, nematodes and flies. Similarly, resveratrol can trigger autophagy in cells from different organisms, extend lifespan in nematodes, and ameliorate the fitness of human cells undergoing metabolic stress. These beneficial effects are lost when essential autophagy modulators are genetically or pharmacologically inactivated, indicating that autophagy is required for the cytoprotective and/or anti-aging effects of spermidine and resveratrol. Genetic and functional studies indicate that spermidine inhibits histone acetylases, while resveratrol activates the histone deacetylase Sirtuin 1 to confer cytoprotection/longevity. Although it remains elusive whether the same histones (or perhaps other nuclear or cytoplasmic proteins) act as the downstream targets of spermidine and resveratrol, these results point to an essential role of protein hypoacetylation in autophagy control and in the regulation of longevity.
The 3rd International Planning Competition: Results and Analysis

This paper reports the outcome of the third in the series of biennial international planning competitions, held in association with the International Conference on AI Planning and Scheduling (AIPS) in 2002. In addition to describing the domains, the planners and the objectives of the competition, the paper includes analysis of the results. The results are analysed from several perspectives, in order to address the questions of comparative performance between planners, comparative difficulty of domains, the degree of agreement between planners about the relative difficulty of individual problem instances and the question of how well planners scale relative to one another over increasingly difficult problems. The paper addresses these questions through statistical analysis of the raw results of the competition, in order to determine which results can be considered to be adequately supported by the data. The paper concludes with a discussion of some challenges for the future of the competition series.
The Effect of Corners on the Complexity of Approximate Range Searching

AbstractGiven an n-element point set in ℝd, the range searching problem involves preprocessing these points so that the total weight, or for our purposes the semigroup sum, of the points lying within a given query range η can be determined quickly. In ε-approximate range searching we assume that η is bounded, and the sum is required to include all the points that lie within η and may additionally include any of the points lying within distance ε⋅diam(η) of η’s boundary.In this paper we contrast the complexity of approximate range searching based on properties of the semigroup and range space. A semigroup (S,+) is idempotent if x+x=x for all x∈S, and it is integral if for all k≥2, the k-fold sum x+⋅⋅⋅+x is not equal to x. Recent research has shown that the computational complexity of approximate spherical range searching is significantly lower for idempotent semigroups than it is for integral semigroups in terms of the dependencies on ε. In this paper we consider whether these results can be generalized to other sorts of ranges. We show that, as with integrality, allowing sharp corners on ranges has an adverse effect on the complexity of the problem. In particular, we establish lower bounds on the worst-case complexity of approximate range searching in the semigroup arithmetic model for ranges consisting of d-dimensional unit hypercubes under rigid motions. We show that for arbitrary (including idempotent) semigroups and linear space, the query time is at least $\varOmega(1/{\varepsilon }^{d-2\sqrt{d}})$ . In the case of integral semigroups we prove a tighter lower bound of Ω(1/εd−2). These lower bounds nearly match existing upper bounds for arbitrary semigroups.In contrast, we show that the improvements offered by idempotence do apply to smooth convex ranges. We say that a range is smooth if at every boundary point there is an incident Euclidean sphere that lies entirely within the range whose radius is proportional to the range’s diameter. We show that for smooth ranges and idempotent semigroups, ε-approximate range queries can be answered in O(log n+(1/ε)(d−1)/2log (1/ε)) time using O(n/ε) space. We show that this is nearly tight by presenting a lower bound of Ω(log n+(1/ε)(d−1)/2). This bound is in the decision-tree model and holds irrespective of space.
Assessment of Thrombin-Activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor (TAFI) Plasma Levels in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

OBJECTIVES:Hypofibrinolysis has been proposed as a possible mechanism underlying the known risk of thrombosis observed in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) is a recently described inhibitor of fibrinolysis. Increased TAFI plasma levels are associated with a risk for venous thrombosis. The objective was to evaluate TAFI plasma levels and their possible correlations with clinical features and acute-phase reactants in IBD patients.METHODS:Eighty-one IBD patients (47 Crohn's disease and 34 ulcerative colitis) and 81 sex- and age-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study; moreover, we studied 30 inflammatory controls (13 Reiter's syndrome, 4 Behçet's syndrome, and 13 patients with newly diagnosed celiac disease). TAFI plasma levels were assessed by means of a commercially available ELISA kit. Erythrocytes sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, and α1-acid glycoprotein were measured as acute-phase reactants. Statistical analysis was performed by means of nonparametric tests and Fisher's exact test and χ2 test for independence.RESULTS:Median TAFI plasma levels were significantly higher in IBD patients (116.0%, range: 39.0–232.0%) and in inflammatory controls (176.0%, 50.0–435.0%) than in healthy controls (99.0%, 40.0–170.0%) (p≤ 0.05 and p≤ 0.001, respectively). TAFI plasma levels higher than the 95th percentile of control values were significantly more frequent in IBD patients (19.7%) and in inflammatory controls (53.3%) than in healthy controls (4.9%) (p≤ 0.008 and p≤ 0.0001, respectively) and more frequent in clinically active IBD than in clinically quiescent IBD (31.4% vs 10.9%, p≤ 0.03). Finally, in IBD, significant correlations were observed between TAFI plasma levels and erythrocytes sedimentation rate (p≤ 0.02), C-reactive protein (p≤ 0.001), and α1-acid glycoprotein (p≤ 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:TAFI plasma levels are increased in IBD patients and correlate with acute-phase reactants. Increased TAFI plasma levels might contribute to the prothrombotic state observed in IBD through the induction of hypofibrinolysis.
Tumor necrosis factor‐α −308G/A and −238G/A polymorphisms are associated with increased risks of sepsis: evidence from an updated meta‐analysis

Previous studies have reported the relationship between tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) −308G/A and −238G/A polymorphisms and sepsis risk with inconsistent results. The aim of this study was to estimate the association of the two polymorphisms with risk of sepsis or sepsis‐related mortality using a meta‐analysis. PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched up to June 20 2016. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using fixed or random effect model. Twenty‐six studies were included in this meta‐analysis. Overall, an increased sepsis risk of TNF‐α −308G/A was observed (GA vs GG: OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.07–1.92; GA/AA vs GG: OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.06–1.89). Subgroup analyses showed that the significant association was found in Asians (GA vs GG: OR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.01–2.63) and adult patients. Similarly, an increased sepsis risk of TNF‐α −238G/A was observed in overall and subgroup analyses. However, no significant association was found between TNF‐α −308G/A and −238G/A polymorphisms and sepsis‐related mortality. These findings indicate that both TNF‐α −308G/A and −238G/A polymorphisms were associated with increased risks of sepsis but not sepsis‐related mortality. Further studies with larger sample size are needed to confirm these results.
Optimized Frame Packing for Embedded Systems

During system synthesis (i.e., task allocation) the transmission of messages between tasks is usually addressed in a simplistic way. If a message is exchanged via an external bus, it is assumed each message is packed in an individual frame. This assumption leads to an overestimation of bus bandwidth demand and frame response time. For some systems (i.e., automotive), this pessimism is not acceptable and therefore frame packing is often performed where multiple messages are packed into a single frame. In this paper, an improved frame packing approach is provided.
GraphUnit: Evaluating Interactive Graph Visualizations Using Crowdsourcing

We present GraphUnit, a framework and online service that automates the process of designing, running and analyzing results of controlled user studies of graph visualizations by leveraging crowdsourcing and a set of evaluation modules based on a graph task taxonomy. User studies play an important role in visualization research but conducting them requires expertise and is time consuming. GraphUnit simplifies the evaluation process by allowing visualization designers to easily configure user studies for their web‐based graph visualizations, deploy them online, use Mechanical Turk to attract participants, collect user responses and store them in a database, and analyze incoming results automatically using appropriate statistical tools and graphs. We demonstrate the effectiveness of GraphUnit by replicating two published evaluation studies on network visualization, and showing that these studies could be configured in less than an hour. Finally, we discuss how GraphUnit can facilitate quick evaluations of alternative graph designs and thus encourage the frequent use of user studies to evaluate design decisions in iterative development processes.
Open-ended semantics co-evolving with spatial language

How can we explain the enormous amount of creativity and flexibility in spatial language use? In this paper we detail computational experiments that try to capture the essence of this puzzle. We hypothesize that flexible semantics which allow agents to conceptualize reality in many different ways are key to this issue. We will introduce our particular semantic modeling approach as well as the coupling of conceptual structures to the language system. We will justify the approach and show how these systems play together in the evolution of spatial language using humanoid robots.
A Stochastic Monotonicity Assumption for the Instrumental Variables Method

The instrumental variables (IV) method is a method for making causal inferences about the effect of a treatment based on an observational study in which there are unmeasured confounding variables. The method requires a valid IV, a variable that is independent of the unmeasured confounding variables and is associated with the treatment but which has no effect on the outcome beyond its effect on the treatment. An additional assumption that is often made for the IV method is deterministic monotonicity, which is an assumption that for each subject, the level of the treatment that a subject would take if given a level of the IV is a monotonic increasing function of the level of the IV. Under deterministic monotonicity, the IV method has certain desirable properties including that it identifies the sign of the average treatment effect when the sign of each subject’s treatment effect is the same (the no sign reversal property). However, deterministic monotonicity is sometimes not
Association of serum lipid components and obesity with genetic ancestry in an admixed population of elderly women

The prevalence of metabolic disorders varies among ethnic populations and these disorders represent a critical health care issue for elderly women. This study investigated the correlation between genetic ancestry and body composition, metabolic traits and clinical status in a sample of elderly women. Clinical, nutritional and anthropometric data were collected from 176 volunteers. Genetic ancestry was estimated using 23 ancestry-informative markers. Pearsons correlation test was used to examine the relationship between continuous variables and an independent samples t-test was used to compare the means of continuous traits within categorical variables. Overall ancestry was a combination of European (57.49%), Native American (25.78%) and African (16.73%). Significant correlations were found for European ancestry with body mass index (r = 0.165; p = 0.037) and obesity (mean difference (MD) = 5.3%; p = 0.042). African ancestry showed a significant correlation with LDL (r = 0.159, p = 0.035), VLDL (r = −0.185; p = 0.014), hypertriglyceridemia (MD = 6.4%; p = 0.003) and hyperlipidemia (MD = 4.8%; p = 0.026). Amerindian ancestry showed a significant correlation with triglyceride levels (r = 0.150; p = 0.047) and hypertriglyceridemia (MD = 4.5%; p = 0.039). These findings suggest that genetic admixture may influence the etiology of lipid metabolism-related diseases and obesity in elderly women.
Short-run and Long-run Dynamics of Growth,Inequality and Poverty in the Developing World

Growth, inequality, and poverty are central elements of the development process. However the mutual effects and directions of causality have been, and remain, one of the most controversial issues. After introducing a simple theoretical framework we derive some fundamental relations between growth, inequality and poverty. In the empirical part we test for unit roots and coin- tegration and apply GMM techniques on an error correction model (ECM) to estimate the pairwise short-run and long-run dynamics for income growth and changes in inequality and poverty in a panel of 114 developing countries and six regional subpanels for 1981 to 2005. The results confirm the relations of the theoretical framework; the evidence shows that in nearly all cases the vari- ables exhibit a short-run and long-run relationship. The findings reveal positive bidirectional causality between growth and inequality as well as between in- equality and poverty, and negative bidirectional causality between growth and poverty. Furthermore, the evidence shows that the level of development affects the poverty-reducing effect of growth, and that growth has benefited the poor regions far less. In summary, we show that growth, income distribution and poverty reduction are strongly inter-related, so a sucessful development strat- egy requires effective, country-specific combinations of growth and distribution policies.
A posteriori error estimates for Maxwell equations

Maxwell equations are posed as variational boundary value problems in the function space H(curl) and are discretized by Nedelec finite elements. In Beck et al., 2000, a residual type a posteriori error estimator was proposed and analyzed under certain conditions onto the domain. In the present paper, we prove the reliability of that error estimator on Lipschitz domains. The key is to establish new error estimates for the commuting quasi-interpolation operators recently introduced in J. Schoberl, Commuting quasi-interpolation operators for mixed finite elements. Similar estimates are required for additive Schwarz preconditioning. To incorporate boundary conditions, we establish a new extension result.
Industrial Light + Magic

“Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest” features Davy Jones, an all CG character, whose most outstanding feature is his beard, designed to look like an octopus with dozens of tentacles. The beard presented multiple challenges for animation, simulation, and deformation. This sketch will elaborate on techniques developed for the rigid simulation of Davy Jones’ beard. To make this character believable, it was critical that the tentacle behaved like that of an octopus, but still presented the dynamic motion of the character’s performance. ILM utilized Stanford’s PhysBAM simulation system as a base for the articulated rigid body simulation that drives the performance of the tentacles. Along with Stanford’s solver, ILM created animation controllers that allowed the artists to direct the performance of the simulation. By incorporating the Stanford solver into our proprietary animation package, Zeno, we made it possible for a team of artists to quickly produce the animation for the 200+ shots required by production.