Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metformin Inhibits Cellular Proliferation and Bioenergetics in Colorectal Cancer Patient–Derived Xenografts

There is increasing preclinical evidence suggesting that metformin, an antidiabetic drug, has anticancer properties against various malignancies, including colorectal cancer. However, the majority of evidence, which was derived from cancer cell lines and xenografts, was likely to overestimate the benefit of metformin because these models are inadequate and require supraphysiologic levels of metformin. Here, we generated patient-derived xenograft (PDX) lines from 2 colorectal cancer patients to assess the properties of metformin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), the first-line drug treatment for colorectal cancer. Metformin (150 mg/kg) as a single agent inhibits the growth of both PDX tumors by at least 50% (P < 0.05) when administered orally for 24 days. In one of the PDX models, metformin given concurrently with 5-FU (25 mg/kg) leads to an 85% (P = 0.054) growth inhibition. Ex vivo culture of organoids generated from PDX demonstrates that metformin inhibits growth by executing metabolic changes to decrease oxygen consumption and activating AMPK-mediated pathways. In addition, we also performed genetic characterizations of serial PDX samples with corresponding parental tissues from patients using next-generation sequencing (NGS). Our pilot NGS study demonstrates that PDX represents a useful platform for analysis in cancer research because it demonstrates high fidelity with parental tumor. Furthermore, NGS analysis of PDX may be useful to determine genetic identifiers of drug response. This is the first preclinical study using PDX and PDX-derived organoids to investigate the efficacy of metformin in colorectal cancer. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(9); 2035–44. ©2017 AACR.
PoliPer: policies for mobile and pervasive environments

The need for sharing is well known in a large number of distributed applications. These applications are difficult to develop either for fully wired or mobile wireless networks. Such difficulty arises not only because of slow and unreliable connections in such networks but also due to the great diversity of usage scenarios (even for a single application). Currently, programmers are forced to deal with system-level issues such as replication, consistency, security, etc. PoliPer is a middleware platform, capable of providing the needed flexibility for application development and runtime adaptability. This way, applications can cope with the multiple requirements and usage diversity found in mobile settings. PoliPer relies strongly on the following features: i) the extensible capability to support the specification and enforcement of runtime management policies; ii) a plug-able set of basic mechanisms supporting object replication, security, distributed transactions and code relocation; iii) a set of pre-defined policies that control the mechanisms previously mentioned. Previous systems are either less comprehensive (they address fewer - or just one - aspects than PoliPer), or less flexible (they are not adaptive). A preliminary prototype of PoliPer has been implemented and evaluated with encouraging results.
Follicular Density and Ratios in Scarring and Nonscarring Alopecia

Abstract:Follicular counts from transverse sectioning of scalp biopsies have not been statistically scrutinized across disease entities in a standardized fashion. We applied uniform histological criteria and strict statistical measures to compare nonscarring and scarring alopecia. We studied 700 consecutive cases including 355 nonscarring alopecia [136 telogen effluvium, 115 alopecia areata (AA), 95 androgenetic alopecia, and 9 trichotillosis] and 345 scarring alopecia [238 central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, 29 traction alopecia, 26 lichen planopilaris, 21 end-stage alopecia, 20 lupus erythematosus, 11 folliculitis decalvans]. We counted follicular units, anagen, catagen/telogen, and vellus-like follicles at the central follicular unit level. We calculated follicular density per square centimeter, anagen percentage, telogen percentage, anagen to telogen ratio, and terminal to vellus ratio (TVR). The following achieved statistical significance (P < 0.05): follicular density was 249.4 ± 4.6 in nonscarring alopecia versus 120.1 ± 3.8 in scarring alopecia, follicular density of telogen effluvium was 273.5 ± 7.0 (36.5 ± 12.5 above nonscarring alopecia mean), TVR of androgenetic alopecia was 1.6 ± 0.1 (3.6 ± 0.5 below nonscarring alopecia mean), TVR of AA was 3.2 ± 0.4 (1.5 ± 0.6 below nonscarring alopecia mean), anagen percentage of AA was 26.8 ± 1.8 (26.3 ± 3.0 below nonscarring alopecia mean), anagen to telogen ratio of AA was 1.6 ± 0.4 (3.9 ± 0.7 below nonscarring alopecia mean), and telogen percentage of AA was 59.0 ± 2.3 (31.0 ± 3.5 above nonscarring alopecia mean). There exists a great overlap of densities and ratios across the various disorders due to the limited nature of the punch biopsy sample, variations in scalp anatomy, disease biology and duration, patient gender, and age, etc. Our data provide a bell curve distribution that helps analyze hair counts in the clinicopathologic context.
Three Ways to Grow Designs: A Comparison of Evolved Embryogenies for a Design Problem

This paper explores the use of growth processes, or embryogenies, to map genotypes to phenotypes within evolutionary systems. Following a summary of the significant features of embryogenies, the three main types of embryogenies in Evolutionary Computation are then identified and explained: external, explicit and implicit. An experimental comparison between these three different embryogenies and an evolutionary algorithm with no embryogeny is performed. The problem set to the four evolutionary systems is to evolve tessellating tiles. In order to assess the scalability of the embryogenies, the problem is increased in difficulty by enlarging the size of tiles to be evolved. The results are surprising, with the implicit embryogeny outperforming all other techniques by showing no significant increase in the size of the genotypes or decrease in accuracy of evolution as the scale of the problem is increased.
Supply Chain Management, Activity-Based Costing and Organisational Factors

In today's intense global competition, supply chain management (SCM) is as a vital tool for helping managers to improve productivity, profitability and the performance of their organisations. In doing so, SCM requires more accurate cost data regarding all activities and processes within the organisations. Given the above, activity-based costing (ABC) can significantly contribute to global supply chain management as it is suggested to fulfil the above requirements by providing more accurate, detailed and up-to-date information on all activities and processes in organisations. Contributing to the SCM and ABC literature, current study first identifies different types of improvements which ABC can offer to SCM and the performance of the organisations, then it examines the extent of association between business size as well as business industry (as organisational factors) affecting the adoption of ABC in New Zealand (NZ) through using a survey questionnaire and targeting NZ qualified CIMA members. To improve SCM and organisations’ performance by increasing the adoption of ABC in organisations, one of the main implications of the findings is that the adoption of ABC in smaller firms needs more attention compared with the larger firms regardless of their industries (manufacturing versus non-manufacturing firms). However, when the decision is made to implement ABC, non-manufacturing firms (rather than manufacturing firms) need more attention to proceed with a higher level of adoption of ABC.
Constitutive Modeling for Uniaxial Time-Dependent Ratcheting of SS304 Stainless Steel

Based on the experimental results of uniaxial time-dependent ratcheting behavior of SS304 stainless steel at room temperature and 973K,a new time-dependent constitutive model was proposed.The model describes the time-dependent ratcheting by adding a static/thermal recovery into the Abdel-Karim-Ohno non-linear kinematic hardening rule.The capability of the model to describe the time-dependent ratch-eting was discussed by comparing the simulations with the corresponding experimental results.It is shown that the revised unified viscoplastic model can simulate the time-dependent ratcheting reasonably both at room and high temperatures.
Pairwise Neural Network Classifiers with Probabilistic Outputs

Multi-class classification problems can be efficiently solved by partitioning the original problem into sub-problems involving only two classes: for each pair of classes, a (potentially small) neural network is trained using only the data of these two classes. We show how to combine the outputs of the two-class neural networks in order to obtain posterior probabilities for the class decisions. The resulting probabilistic pairwise classifier is part of a handwriting recognition system which is currently applied to check reading. We present results on real world data bases and show that, from a practical point of view, these results compare favorably to other neural network approaches.
The Role of Pause Cues in Language Learning: The Emergence of Event-related Potentials Related to Sequence Processing

Humans can derive sequential dependencies from unfamiliar artificial speech within several of minutes of exposure. However, there is an ongoing debate about the nature of the underlying learning processes. In a widely discussed study Pea et al. [Pea, M. , Bonatti, L. L. , Nespor, M. , & Mehler, J. Signal-driven computations in speech processing. Science, 298, 604607, 2002] argued for the importance of subtle acoustic cues in the signal, such as pauses, in order to switch between two computational mechanisms, which are conceptualized as rule-based versus statistical. The present study was aimed to approach this problem by recording event-related potentials in response to correct and incorrect phrases consisting of bisyllabics after short exposure to either rule-based or random artificial speech streams. Rule-based streams contained dependencies of the form AXC, whereby A elements reliably predicted the C elements and X elements were variable. Participants were exposed to four input and test phases. Two of the input streams were rule-based and contained either only probabilistic information related to the distribution of the AXC stimuli or an additional acoustic cue indicating the boundaries of relevant units. The other two streams were random variations of the rule-based streams. During the test phase in the condition with pause cues, an early negativity and a later positivity emerged for correct and incorrect items in comparison to their acoustically identical counterparts, which were presented after the random control condition. In the noncued condition, only negativities were seen. The timing and the scalp distribution of the negativities were different for correct and incorrect sequences in both the cued and the noncued conditions. The results are interpreted in support of a view of grammatical learning in which both distributional and acoustic cues may contribute to different aspects of syntactic learning.
The influence of birth order and number of siblings on adolescent body composition: evidence from a Brazilian birth cohort study

The aim of this study was to estimate the association between birth order and number of siblings with body composition in adolescents. Data are from a birth cohort study conducted in Pelotas, Brazil. At the age of 18 years, 4563 adolescents were located, of whom 4106 were interviewed (follow-up rate 81·3 %). Of these, 3974 had complete data and were thus included in our analysis. The variables used in the analysis were measured during the perinatal period, or at 11, 15 and/or 18 years of age. Body composition at 18 years was collected by air displacement plethysmography (BOD POD®). Crude and adjusted analyses of the association between birth order and number of siblings with body composition were performed using linear regression. All analyses were stratified by the adolescent sex. The means of BMI, fat mass index and fat-free mass index among adolescents were 23·4 (sd 4·5) kg/m2, 6·1 (sd 3·9) kg/m2 and 17·3 (sd 2·5) kg/m2, respectively. In adjusted models, the total siblings remained inversely associated with fat mass index (β = − 0·37 z-scores, 95 % CI − 0·52, − 0·23) and BMI in boys (β = − 0·39 z-scores, 95 % CI − 0·55, − 0·22). Fat-free mass index was related to the total siblings in girls (β = 0·06 z-scores, 95 % CI − 0·04, 0·17). This research has found that number of total siblings, and not birth order, is related to the fat mass index, fat-free mass index and BMI in adolescents. It suggests the need for early prevention of obesity or fat mass accumulation in only children.
Gamma-ray irradiation stimulates the expression of caveolin-1 and GFAP in rat spinal cord: a study of immunoblot and immunohistochemistry

We studied the expression of caveolin-1 in the spinal cords of rats using 60Co γ-ray irradiation (single dose of 8 Gray (Gy)) in order to determine the possible involvement of caveolin-1 in the tissues of the central nervous system after irradiation. Spinal cords sampled at days 1, 4, and 9 post-irradiation (PI) (n = 5 per each time point) were analyzed by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. Western blot analysis showed that the expression of caveolin-1 was significantly increased at day 1 PI (p < 0.05), and returned to the level of normal control rats on days 4 and 9 PI. Immunohistochemistry showed that caveolin-1 immunoreactivity was enhanced in some glial cells, vascular endothelial cells, and neurons in the spinal cords. The increased expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a marker for an astroglial reaction, was consistent with that of caveolin-1. In addition, caveolin-1 was co-localized in hypertrophied GFAP-positive astrocytes. Taking all these facts into consideration, we postulate that irradiation induces the increased expression of caveolin-1 in cells of the central nervous system, and that its increased expression in astrocytes may contribute to hypertrophy of astrocytes in the spinal cord after irradiation. The precise role of caveolin-1 in the spinal cords should be studied further.
Efficient DV-HOP Localization for Wireless Cyber-Physical Social Sensing System: A Correntropy-Based Neural Network Learning Scheme

Integrating wireless sensor network (WSN) into the emerging computing paradigm, e.g., cyber-physical social sensing (CPSS), has witnessed a growing interest, and WSN can serve as a social network while receiving more attention from the social computing research field. Then, the localization of sensor nodes has become an essential requirement for many applications over WSN. Meanwhile, the localization information of unknown nodes has strongly affected the performance of WSN. The received signal strength indication (RSSI) as a typical range-based algorithm for positioning sensor nodes in WSN could achieve accurate location with hardware saving, but is sensitive to environmental noises. Moreover, the original distance vector hop (DV-HOP) as an important range-free localization algorithm is simple, inexpensive and not related to the environment factors, but performs poorly when lacking anchor nodes. Motivated by these, various improved DV-HOP schemes with RSSI have been introduced, and we present a new neural network (NN)-based node localization scheme, named RHOP-ELM-RCC, through the use of DV-HOP, RSSI and a regularized correntropy criterion (RCC)-based extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm (ELM-RCC). Firstly, the proposed scheme employs both RSSI and DV-HOP to evaluate the distances between nodes to enhance the accuracy of distance estimation at a reasonable cost. Then, with the help of ELM featured with a fast learning speed with a good generalization performance and minimal human intervention, a single hidden layer feedforward network (SLFN) on the basis of ELM-RCC is used to implement the optimization task for obtaining the location of unknown nodes. Since the RSSI may be influenced by the environmental noises and may bring estimation error, the RCC instead of the mean square error (MSE) estimation, which is sensitive to noises, is exploited in ELM. Hence, it may make the estimation more robust against outliers. Additionally, the least square estimation (LSE) in ELM is replaced by the half-quadratic optimization technique. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme outperforms other traditional localization schemes.
Efficient Design of OFDMA-Based Programmable Wireless Radios

With the increasing demand for efficient spectrum management, programmable wireless radios can potentially play a key role in shaping our future spectrum use. In this paper, we consider the design of low-power programmable wireless radios based on orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). To meet the demands of higher data rate communications, we split OFDMA symbols carrying multiuser data across several noncontiguous bands of available spectrum. To relax power consumption in analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, we use a programmable narrowband RF front end comprising of programmable synthesizers and fixed low-pass filters. To perform digital baseband signal processing in an energy efficient manner, we propose efficient designs for the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and inverse FFT (IFFT) modules. Our designs of the FFT/IFFT modules reduce power consumption and chip area, and are capable of handling the dynamic nature of spectrum in programmable radios. To recover data that falls within the transition band of the filters, we propose a combiner similar to maximal ratio combiner. We also present the complete design of programmable wireless radios in accordance with the IEEE 802.22 (draft) standard.
Evaluating the Robustness of Learning from Implicit Feedback

This paper evaluates the robustness of learning from implicit feedback in web search. In particular, we create a model of user behavior by drawing upon user studies in laboratory and real-world settings. The model is used to understand the effect of user behavior on the performance of a learning algorithm for ranked retrieval. We explore a wide range of possible user behaviors and find that learning from implicit feedback can be surprisingly robust. This complements previous results that demonstrated our algorithm's effectiveness in a real-world search engine application.
Impact of Alcohol Intake on Measures of Lipid Metabolism Depends on Context Defined by Gender, Body Mass Index, Cigarette Smoking, and Apolipoprotein E Genotype

Hyperlipidemia, smoking, and obesity are well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Conversely, moderate alcohol intake is associated with lower atherosclerosis risk. However, the influence of taking alcohol on the interrelationships of these factors in a particular context has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we asked whether the association between plasma measures of lipid metabolism and alcohol intake is dependent on context defined by gender, age, body mass index (BMI), smoking, and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype. Data were obtained in a sample of 869 women and 824 men who participated in the Quebec Heart Health Survey. There was no evidence that variation among APOE genotypes influenced the association between LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) or HDL cholesterol (HDL)-C and alcohol, after adjustment for age and BMI. Further, the positive (LDL-C and BMI) and the negative (HDL-C and BMI) associations that were observed in men and women with the &egr;3/2 and &egr;3/3 genotypes were not modified by alcohol intake. However, in women with the &egr;4/3 genotype only, we found a significant influence of an alcohol by BMI interaction on the prediction of total cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, apoA-I, and apoB, and this interaction was influenced by the status of smoking. Whereas the influence of an alcohol by BMI interaction on total cholesterol and LDL-C was significant in smokers, its influence on HDL-C was significant only in non-smokers. This study emphasizes the context dependency of the influence of alcohol on lipid metabolism and demonstrates how biological, environmental, and genetic factors interact to determine cardiovascular disease risk.
Combined ifosfamide, etoposide and oxalipatin chemotherapy, a low‐toxicity regimen for first‐relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma after ABVD/EBVP: a prospective monocentre study on 34 patients

Around 20% of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients are refractory to first‐line therapy with ABVD (adriamycin–bleomycin–vinblastine–dacarbazine) or relapse after complete remission. Salvage regimens frequently have delayed courses or require dose‐reduction because of haemotoxicity. We evaluated the IVOx (ifosfamide–etoposide–oxaliplatin) salvage regimen in terms of response rate, toxicity and stem‐cell mobilization. Thirty‐four patients with relapsed/refractory HL after anthracycline‐containing chemotherapy prospectively received IVOx, consisting of ifosfamide (1500 mg/m2 days 1–3), etoposide (150 mg/m2 days 1–3) and oxaliplatin (130 mg/m2 day 1). Patients <65 years old received high‐dose therapy followed by autologous stem‐cell transplantation (HDT–ASCT). Response was assessed by computed and positron‐emission tomographies. Overall and complete response rates were 76% and 32%, respectively, after 2 cycles. Three episodes of febrile neutropenia occurred, and three patients required dose‐reductions. Twenty‐six patients underwent HDT–ASCT. With median follow‐up at 5 years, the 5‐year overall and event‐free survival rates were 74% and 63%, respectively. IVOx is a well‐tolerated outpatient regimen for relapsed HL, that does not hamper stem‐cell mobilization, achieves good response rates and compares favourably with previously published salvage regimens.
Invasive Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhimurium Infections, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2007–2011

Infection with Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium sequence type (ST) 313 is associated with high rates of drug resistance, bloodstream infections, and death. To determine whether ST313 is dominant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we studied 180 isolates collected during 2007–2011; 96% belonged to CRISPOL type CT28, which is associated with ST313.
Fibrin sealant augmentation with autologous pericranium for duraplasty after suboccipital decompression in Chiari 1 patients: A case series

Background: The Chiari 1 malformation (CM1) involves decent of the tonsils of the cerebellum through the foramen magnum. Symptomatic disease requires a posterior fossa decompression with or without an expansile duraplasty. To date, the optimal surgical treatment for CM1 has not been delineated. The extent of bony removal, size of the dural opening, necessity for expansion of the dural space, choice of materials for the duraplasty, and possible need for augmentation with dural sealant are all factors that continue to be debated amongst neurological surgeons worldwide. We herein evaluate the use of fibrin sealant augmentation in combination with locally harvested autologous pericranium for duraplasty in adult CM1 decompression. Methods: Retrospective data collected from January 2006 to December 2011. Data were reviewed for surgical site infection or meningitis, cerebrospinal fluid leak, symptomatic pseudomeningocele, radiographic improvement of hindbrain compression, and postoperative recurrence of symptoms at a minimum of 1 year of follow-up. Outcomes were studied clinically, radiographically, as well as by using a patient-specific questionnaire. Results: Twenty-two consecutive patients were included. One patient required a revision for a delayed graft dehiscence in the setting of a rare form of aseptic meningitis with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis due to a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) allergy. All remaining patients had successful decompressions with full resolution of their symptoms except for one patient who had persistent headaches. Conclusion: Autologous pericranium with dural sealant augmentation is an effective technique for expansile duraplasty in CM1 decompressions.