Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Prognostic Value of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background The prognostic values of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and TILs subsets in breast cancer (BC) are uncertain. Methods A systematic literature search (MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library to August 2014) was conducted for studies which met the eligibility criteria. The primary clinical outcome was defined as disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and BC-specific survival (BCSS). Random or fixed-effects model was adopted to estimate the summary hazard ratio (HR). Results Twenty-five published studies comprising 22,964 patients were reviewed. Pooled analysis indicated that TILs were not prognostic markers for DFS and OS in overall population, but related to improved DFS (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.76–0.88) and OS (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.71–0.87) in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients. For TILs subsets, CD8+ lymphocytes were associated with improved DFS (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.56–0.84) and BCSS (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.71–0.86) in overall population, while FOXP3+ lymphocytes were associated with reduced DFS (HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.01–2.05) and OS (HR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.15–1.97). In estrogen receptor (ER) negative patients, CD8+ lymphocytes was also related to better BCSS. In addition, the high density of CD20+, CD3+ or low level of PD-1+ or γδ T lymphocytes indicated increased OS in limited studies. Conclusion TILs and TILs subsets are promising prognostic biomarkers in breast cancer, especially in TNBC.
A reinforcement learning model of gaze following

Gaze following is defined as the redirection of one's visual attention to match the object of attention of another person. It is a basic mechanism resulting in joint attention, the coordination of attention between persons towards an external object. Joint attention in turn is foundational for skills such as imitation, word learning, the interpretation of novel events, and theory-of-mind, the understanding of others' beliefs, desires, and intentions. Gaze following develops within the first 18 months of age, with a gradual improvement in the discrimination of the referred target, the incorporation of eye direction cues in addition to the earlier use of head direction cues, and the appearance of gaze following to out-of-view targets. This development has been interpreted as the gradual incorporation of qualitatively different mechanisms that improve gaze following. For example, it is believed that behind this development is a transition from a simple following of cues (attentional gaze following) into an understanding of others as agents with their own focus of attention (mentalist gaze following). Others see this development as the product of a gradual introduction of different attentional mechanisms that improve spatial aspects of gaze following. This dissertation presents a new computational model of gaze following based on reinforcement learning, a biologically plausible learning algorithm. The model replicates the developmental trajectory of gaze following as measured experimentally in key studies. This unifies attentional and mentalist interpretations of gaze following into a learning account. It also offers a parsimonious, single- mechanism account of the improvement of spatial aspects of gaze following. The dissertation also explores, in the context of the gaze following model: the developmental origins of mirror neurons and their role in imitative behavior; why gaze following tends to develop less in individuals with autism spectrum disorders; and how top- down influences can be seamlessly incorporated into bottom -up visual search. A realistic virtual reality environment platform, built to test gaze following and other cognitive development phenomena, is described
What Is Wrong with Granulocytes in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases?

The neutrophil plays a central role in the acute inflammatory response, a crucial mechanism required for the efficient clearance of invading microorganisms and antigenic material. Patients with primary immunodeficiencies of neutrophil function, particularly chronic granulomatous disease, are predisposed to develop bowel inflammation that is indistinguishable from Crohn's disease (CD) on the basis of clinical, endoscopic and histopathological features. The intrinsic function of the neutrophil is normal in the vast majority of patients with CD; however, there is clear evidence of an impairment of neutrophil recruitment to sites of trauma and bacterial infection. This is associated with an inability to adequately clear bacteria that have penetrated the tissues, resulting in the formation of granulomata, the histological hallmark of the disease, and the subsequent initiation of a chronic adaptive immune response. The reduced secretion of proinflammatory cytokines by macrophages, most notably TNF-α, may account for the attenuated neutrophil recruitment observed in CD. Stimulation of the innate immune system in CD, particularly in patients in remission, may be an alternative therapeutic strategy that could reduce the risk of future disease relapses.
Global Poverty, Structural Injustice and Obligations to take Political Action

This work considers the moral obligations agents have in relation to global poverty. Utilising a practical ethics approach, it aims to provide an account of obligation that is explicitly political. It proposes that moral decency requires agents to be concerned with the justice of the social structures to which they contribute. Unjust social structures are treated as the aggregative effect of many human actions and institutions. The thesis argues that poverty indicates injustice in these structures. It proposes that those who make on-going contributions to these structures have an obligation to make reasonable efforts to prevent injustice in them. It explains that these efforts are required as a necessary precaution to avoid contributing to essentially aggregative harm. The interconnectedness of global economies means that actions and practices in one state can have a dramatic effect on the conditions faced by residents of another state. Currently a significant portion of the world’s population lives in social conditions where they are vulnerable to serious deprivation and domination. The thesis argues that the combined effect of these facts and the norm elucidated above is that agents around the world have an obligation to work together to prevent the continuance of this situation. It argues that each individual has an obligation to make efforts to form a collective to prevent structural injustice as a precaution against contributing to structural injustice. The original contribution of this thesis is to propose that there are precautionary duties in relation to global poverty. These duties require agents to work together with others through political action to alter the structures that give rise to global poverty. The aim of this thesis is to establish this obligation, define its meaning, and defend it against various challenges.
Localizing by Describing: Attribute-Guided Attention Localization for Fine-Grained Recognition

A key challenge in fine-grained recognition is how to find and represent discriminative local regions.Recent attention models are capable of learning discriminative region localizers only from category labels with reinforcement learning. However, not utilizing any explicit part information, they are not able to accurately find multiple distinctive regions.In this work, we introduce an attribute-guided attention localization scheme where the local region localizers are learned under the guidance of part attribute descriptions.By designing a novel reward strategy, we are able to learn to locate regions that are spatially and semantically distinctive with reinforcement learning algorithm. The attribute labeling requirement of the scheme is more amenable than the accurate part location annotation required by traditional part-based fine-grained recognition methods.Experimental results on the CUB-200-2011 dataset demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme on both fine-grained recognition and attribute recognition.
Pattern of Acute Intestinal Obstruction: Is There a Change in the Underlying Etiology?

Background/Aim: To study the changing pattern of acute intestinal obstruction at a teaching institute. Patients and Methods: It is a prospective descriptive study conducted at a teaching hospital during the period from June 2004 to June 2009. All patients with clinical or radiological evidence of acute intestinal obstruction were included in this study regardless of the gender of the patient. Patients below the age of 10 years were excluded from the study. The treatment strategy was planned ranging from conservative treatment to emergency laparotomy after resuscitation and rehydration of the patient. Details of individual patients were recorded on a pro forma sheet and data analyzed statistically on SPSS version 14. Results: A total of 229 patients with acute intestinal obstruction were admitted and treated. The mean age of the study population was 43.08 ± 13.07 years. Postoperative adhesions accounted for 41% (n= 95) of the total cases, followed by abdominal tuberculosis (25%, n= 58), obstructed/ strangulated hernias of different types (18%, n= 42). There was an obvious change in the pattern of etiology of acute intestinal obstruction as the common causes were postoperative adhesions and abdominal tuberculosis instead of obstructed inguinal hernias. Conclusion: An increase in the adhesive obstruction and a concomitant decrease in the incidence of obstructed hernias indicate a changing trend towards early operation before it gets complicated. Abdominal tuberculosis is emerging as another common cause of acute bowel obstruction.
Feature selection with harmony search and its applications

Abstract Feature selection is a term given to the problem of selecting important domain attributes which are most predictive of a given outcome. Unlike other dimensionality reduction methods, feature selection approaches seek to preserve the semantics of the original data following reduction. Many strategies have been exploited for this task in an effort to identify more compact and better quality feature subsets. A number of group-based feature subset evaluation measures have been developed, which have the ability to judge the quality of a given feature subset as a whole, rather than assessing the qualities of individual features. Techniques of stochastic nature have also emerged, which are inspired by nature phenomena or social behaviour, allowing good solutions to be discovered without resorting to exhaustive search. In this thesis, a novel feature subset search algorithm termed ? feature selection with harmony search? is presented. The proposed approach utilises a recently developed meta-heuristic: harmony search, that is inspired by the improvisation process of musical players. The proposed approach is general, and can be employed in conjunction with many feature subset evaluation measures. The simplicity of harmony search is exploited to reduce the overall complexity of the search process. The stochastic nature of the resultant technique also allows the search process to escape from local optima, while identifying multiple, distinctive candidate solutions. Additional parameter control schemes are introduced to reduce the effort and impact of static parameter configuration of HS, which are further combined with iterative refinement, in order to enforce the discovery of more compact feature subsets. The flexibility of the proposed approach, and its powerful performance in selecting multiple, good quality feature subsets lead to a number of further theoretical developments. These include the generation and reduction of feature subset-based classifier ensembles; feature selection and adaptive classifier ensemble for dynamic data; hybrid rule induction on the basis of fuzzy-rough set theory; and antecedent selection for fuzzy rule interpolation. The resultant techniques are experimentally evaluated using data sets drawn from real-world problem domains, and systematically compared with leading methodologies in their respective areas,
Paths and Pitfalls

SUMMARY In up to two million couples ever married, one spouse has disclosed or may disclose being gay, lesbian, or bisexual. An increasing number of spouses are coming out, yet the phenomenon remains little known. Disclosing spouses generally find supporting organizations, while their heterosexual spouses find little support or understanding of their issues. Isolated, most cope alone. Dealing with sexual rejection, the challenge to the marriage, and, if they have children, spouse/parent conflicts is followed by handling questions about their own identity, integrity, and belief system. This piece describes issues that heterosexual spouses typically face and stages through which they move from survival to reconfiguring their lives whether or not they stay married. Peer support helps this process that lasts several years or more. Knowledge about spouse's concerns assists therapists working with spouses to help them resolve potentially paralyzing pain, anger, grief, or fear.
Floral development and phyllotactic variation in Ceratophyllum demersum (Ceratophyllaceae).

The floral development of staminate and pistillate flowers of Ceratophyllum demersum was observed, with particular focus on the phyllotactic variation in staminate flowers, using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). We discerned patterns of development of some important new morphological features, e.g., the difference and discontinuity between the organ initiation in stamens and that in bracts (or tepals) and the initial presence of a mucilaginous appendage on each pistil. Female flowers are considered to be very specialized through reduction. In male flowers stamen initiation changes between early and late floral development. The four or five stamens in the outermost whorl initiate first on the abaxial and lateral sides of the floral apex and only later on the adaxial side (unidirectional). Later the inner stamens initiate spirally, and this is the main pattern in the stamen initiation. Members of each whorl differ among themselves in time of initiation and in ultimate size. The phyllotactic variation in staminate flowers of Ceratophyllum, suggested by previous studies, is derived from the variation in stamen number and the difference of stamen initiation between the early and later stages. The development in Ceratophyllum has some similarities to those of ANITA plants except for Nymphaeales.
Atmospheres and Spectra of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars. III. Partially Ionized Hydrogen Models

We construct partially ionized hydrogen atmosphere models for magnetized neutron stars in radiative equilibrium with surface fields B = 1012-5 × 1014 G and effective temperatures Teff ~ a few × 105-106 K. These models are based on the latest equation of state and opacity results for magnetized, partially ionized hydrogen plasmas that take into account various magnetic and dense medium effects. The atmospheres directly determine the characteristics of thermal emission from isolated neutron stars. For the models with B = 1012-1013 G, the spectral features due to neutral atoms lie at extreme UV and very soft X-ray energy bands and therefore are difficult to observe. However, the continuum flux is also different from the fully ionized case, especially at lower energies. For the superstrong field models (B ≳ 1014 G), we show that the vacuum polarization effect not only suppresses the proton cyclotron line as shown previously, but also suppresses spectral features due to bound species; therefore, spectral lines or features in thermal radiation are more difficult to observe when the neutron star magnetic field is ≳1014 G.
Evaluation of the Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidative Potential of Four Fern Species from China Intended for Use as Food Supplements

Inflammation plays a major role in many diseases, for instance in arteriosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disorders and cancer. Since many plants contain compounds with anti-inflammatory activity, their consumption may be able to prevent the development of inflammatory-based diseases. Edible ferns are some of the most important wild vegetables in China and have traditionally been used both for dietary and therapeutic purposes. In this study we investigated the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential of fern extracts from Matteucca struthiopteris, Osmunda japonica, Matteuccia oriental and Pteridium aquilinum intended for use as nutraceuticals. Two modes of action were investigated: the inhibition of the pro-inflammatory gene expression of interleukin-1 beta (IL1-β) and interleukin-6 (IL6), and the gene expression of iNOS by LPS-elicited macrophages. The results showed a decrease of IL1-β gene expression for the five fern extracts. This effect was more pronounced for the extracts prepared from the roots of O. japonica (IC50 of 17.8 μg/mL) and the young fronds of M. orientalis (50.0 μg/mL). Regarding the indirect measurement of NO, via iNOS gene expression, an interesting decrease of 50% was obtained with the extract of M. orientalis fronds at a low concentration (20 μg/mL) compared with P. aquilinum fronds (160 μg/mL) and leaves of O. japonica. The latter showed a higher decrease but at a high concentration of extract (160 μg/mL). The five fern extracts were also evaluated for their ability to scavenge 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS). All fern extracts exhibited antioxidant effects but the roots of O. japonica and the fronds of M. orientalis were most efficient. The HPLC-MS analysis of the constituents of the fern extracts confirmed the presence of chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, kaempferol and apigenin, molecules known to exhibit antiinflammatory and/or antioxidant properties.
Design of Two-Level Fault-Tolerant Networks

Some new techniques for the synthesis of fault-tolerant two-level combinational networks are presented. Two classes of faults are defined, 1) critical faults and 2) subcritical faults. Critical fauls are the class of faults that cannot be tolerated by any two-level networks. Necessary conditions for synthesis of networks tolerating subcritical faults are developed. As a result it is established that the conditions required for tolerating faults in the logic elements and those required for tolerating faults in the primary inputs are significantly different. Several design techniques are presented and it is shown that if we restrict our class of faults, then certain normally assumed conditions on redundancy can be relaxed. A class of hazards is defined. It is shown that the synthesis of certain hazard-free realizations is equivalent to the fault-tolerant realization, and also an upper bound on the redundancy of the fault-tolerant realization is derived.
Hepatitis C Virus Antibodies in High‐Risk Saudi Groups

Abstract. The recombinant‐based enzyme immunoassay developed by Ortho Diagnostic System for the detection of antibodies of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was used to determine the extent of exposure to HCV in healthy Saudi subjects (500 males; 260 females) without liver disease and with no history of percutaneous exposure to blood and in Saudis who are considered at high risk for contracting the disease: hemophiliacs (28), thalassemics (78), hemodialysis patients with renal failure (65) and patients with sexually transmitted diseases (STD) (220). The results show that HCV is endemic in the Saudi population with an overall frequency of 5.3% in healthy Saudi adults which is at least 5 times higher than what has been reported from Western Europe and the United States. Seropositivity rate in the high‐risk groups ranges from 15.9% in patients with STD to 78.6% in hemophiliacs. These data underscore the urgent need for routine anti‐HCV screening of blood donations in order to reduce the frequency of postransfusion non‐A, non‐B hepatitis and its sequelae in the Saudi population.
Early Ultraviolet, Optical, and X-Ray Observations of the Type IIP SN 2005cs in M51 with Swift

We report early photospheric-phase observations of the Type IIP supernova (SN) 2005cs obtained by the Swift ultraviolet-optical and X-ray telescopes. Observations started within 2 days of discovery and continued on a regular basis for 3 weeks. During this time the V-band magnitude remained essentially constant, while the UV was initially bright, but steadily faded until below the brightness of an underlying UV-bright H II region. This UV decay is similar to SNe II observed by the International Ultraviolet Explorer. UV grism spectra show the P Cygni absorption of Mg II 2798 Å, indicating a photospheric origin of the UV flux. Based on non-LTE model atmosphere calculations with the CMFGEN code, we associate the rapid evolution of the UV flux with the cooling of the ejecta, the peak of the spectral energy distribution (SED) shifting from ~700 Å on June 30 to ~1200 Å on July 5. Furthermore, the corresponding recombination of the ejecta, e.g., the transition from Fe III to Fe II, induces a considerable strengthening of metal line-blanketing at and above the photosphere, blocking more and more effectively this fading UV flux. SN 2005cs was not detected in the X-ray band, and the upper limit to the X-ray luminosity yields a limit to the mass-loss rate of the progenitor of ≲ 1 × 10-5 yr-1 (vw/10 km s-1). Overall, Swift represents a unique opportunity to capture the early and fast evolution of Type II SNe in the UV, providing additional constraints on the reddening, the SED shortward of 4000 Å, and the ionization state and temperature of the photon-decoupling regions.
Employee Participation in Non‐Mandatory Professional Development – The Role of Core Proactive Motivation Processes

With a focus on the self‐initiated efforts of employees, this study examined a model of core proactive motivation processes for participation in non‐mandatory professional development (PD) within a proactive motivation framework using the Self‐Determination Theory perspective. A multi‐group SEM analysis conducted across 439 academic and general employees of an Australian regional University provided initial support for the model. Results indicated that when employees are autonomously motivated to participate in non‐mandatory PD, intrinsic benefits are the most salient aspiration that also mediate the influence of autonomous motivation on transfer implementation intentions. Extrinsic benefits are likely to be a secondary outcome which does not directly relate to transfer implementation intentions. Further research should replicate and extend this core model in other organizational settings where participation in non‐mandatory PD is a critical factor in the effectiveness of the organization.
Analysis of research into the role of trauma and stress in the etiology of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system characterized by inflammatory and chronic lesions, local permeability of the blood-brain barrier, and atrophy of the gray and white matter. The etiology of MS is not well understood, but evidence points to the involvement of both genetic and environmental factors. MS also appears to be a heterogeneous disease, with multiple sets of risk factors; therefore two people with MS may have somewhat different genetic risk factors and have experienced different environmental exposures but still both receive a diagnosis of MS.