Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Situ Tumor PD-L1 mRNA Expression Is Associated with Increased TILs and Better Outcome in Breast Carcinomas

Purpose: Blockade of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis emerged as a promising new therapeutic option for cancer that has resulted in lasting responses in metastatic renal, lung carcinomas, and melanomas. Tumor PD-L1 protein expression may predict response to drugs targeting this pathway. Measurement of PD-L1 protein is limited by the lack of standardized immunohistochemical methods and variable performance of antibodies. Our goal was to correlate PD-L1 mRNA expression with clinical variables in primary breast carcinomas. Experimental Design: The fluorescent RNAscope paired-primer assay was used to quantify in situ PD-L1 mRNA levels in 636 stage I–III breast carcinomas on two sets of tissue microarrays [YTMA128 (n = 238) and YTMA201 (n = 398)]. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) were assessed by hematoxylin/eosin stain and quantitative fluorescence. Results: On YTMA128 and YTMA201, 55.7% and 59.5% of cases showed PD-L1 mRNA expression, respectively. Higher PD-L1 mRNA expression was significantly associated with increased TILs (P = 0.04) but not with other clinical variables. Elevated TILs (scores 2 and 3+) occurred in 16.5% on YTMA128 and 14.8% on YTMA201 and was associated with estrogen receptor–negative status (P = 0.01 on YTMA128 and 0.0001 on YTMA201). PD-L1 mRNA expression was associated with longer recurrence-free survival (log-rank P = 0.01), which remained significant in multivariate analysis including age, tumor size, histologic grade, nodal metastasis, hormone receptor, HER2 status, and the extent of TILs (HR, 0.268; CI, 0.099–0.721; P = 0.009). Conclusions: PD-L1 mRNA expression is identified in nearly 60% of breast tumors and it is associated with increased TILs and improved recurrence-free survival. These observations support the evaluation of PD-1/PD-L1–targeted therapies in breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 20(10); 2773–82. ©2014 AACR.
Association Between Serum Levels of Testosterone and Estradiol With Meibomian Gland Assessments in Postmenopausal Women

Purpose The aims of this analysis were to determine if there is an association between serum levels of testosterone and estradiol with meibomian gland (MG) morphology and lipid layer thickness. Methods The data used for this analysis were collected from postmenopausal women with and without dry eye disease. Meibography was used to assess MG dropout on the central two-thirds of the eyelid and biomicroscopy was used for assessing MG expressibility and meibum quality. Venous blood samples were drawn for serum hormone level analysis. The Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman correlations were used for statistical analysis. Results One hundred ninety-eight postmenopausal women with an average age of 61.2 (±9.1) years were included in this analysis. Testosterone levels showed significant differences between MG dropout grades 1 and 4 (P = 0.002) and grades 2 and 4 (P = 0.01), whereas estradiol levels were different based on MG dropout (P = 0.53). No significant correlations were found between testosterone (r = 0.10, P = 0.17) or estradiol (r = 0.05, P = 0.45) and lipid layer thickness. Conclusions Testosterone levels were increased with MG dropout, which was significant between the mild and severe dropout groups, whereas no significant differences were found with estradiol and any MG assessment. Although the literature suggests an association of serum hormone levels and pathogenesis of dry eye disease in postmenopausal women, analysis of active sex steroid precursors and local tissue hormone levels may prove more useful.
Discounting and Climate Change

AbstractWhy has discounting been controversial, and why has the controversy been particu-larly acute in the environmental area? The environmental area forces one to considerlong time horizons. In the climate change area, a century is the minimum time hori-zon to make sense. The same is true about species extinction and biodiversity lossand disposal of nuclear waste. Such time horizons are completely outside the normalrange in economic decision-making. Corporations and governments normally look atmost decades ahead, rather then centuries. Horizons of this type are not long enoughto raise one of the issues central to long-term environmental problems, namely equitybetween generations. For …ve to …fteen years in the context of business plans, thee¢cient use of money is the central issue: for a century or more, when consideringthe planet’s life support systems, equity and “sustainability” naturally come to thecenter of the stage. So normal intertemporal economic problems and long-term en-vironmental problems involve di¤erent issues. It is natural that the methodology forone does not …t the other perfectly.
Robust Cross-Domain Sentiment Analysis for Low-Resource Languages

While various approaches to domain adaptation exist, the majority of them requires knowledge of the target domain, and additional data, preferably labeled. For a language like English, it is often feasible to match most of those conditions, but in low-resource languages, it presents a problem. We explore the situation when neither data nor other information about the target domain is available. We use two samples of Danish, a low-resource language, from the consumer review domain (film vs. company reviews) in a sentiment analysis task. We observe dramatic performance drops when moving from one domain to the other. We then introduce a simple offline method that makes models more robust towards unseen domains, and observe relative improvements of more than 50%.
Alterations of multiple resting state network connectivity in physiological, pharmacological, and pathological consciousness states

*Correspondence: Athena Demertzi , Coma Science Group, Cyclotron Research Center, Allée du 6 août no 8, Sart Tilman B30, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium. e-mail: a.demertzi@ulg.ac. be In order to better understand the functional contribution of resting state activity to conscious cognition, we aimed to review increases and decreases in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) functional connectivity under physiological (sleep), pharmacological (anesthesia), and pathological altered states of consciousness, such as brain death, coma, vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, and minimally conscious state.The reviewed resting state networks were the DMN, left and right executive control, salience, sensorimotor, auditory, and visual networks. We highlight some methodological issues concerning resting state analyses in severely injured brains mainly in terms of hypothesis-driven seed-based correlation analysis and data-driven independent components analysis approaches. Finally, we attempt to contextualize our discussion within theoretical frameworks of conscious processes.We think that this “lesion” approach allows us to better determine the necessary conditions under which normal conscious cognition takes place. At the clinical level, we acknowledge the technical merits of the resting state paradigm. Indeed, fast and easy acquisitions are preferable to activation paradigms in clinical populations. Finally, we emphasize the need to validate the diagnostic and prognostic value of fMRI resting state measurements in non-communicating brain damaged patients.
On the metal abundances inside mixed-morphology supernova remnants: the case of IC 443 and G166.0+4.3

Context. Recent developments in the study of mixed morphology supernova remnants (MMSNRs) have revealed the presence of metal-rich X-ray emitting plasma inside a fraction of these remnants, a feature not properly addressed by traditional models for these objects. Aims. Radial profiles of thermodynamical and chemical parameters are needed for a fruitful comparison of data and model of MMSNRs, but these are available only in a few cases. Methods. We analyzed XMM-Newton data of two MMSNRs, namely IC 443 and G166.0+4.3, previously known to have solar metal abundances, and performed a spatially resolved spectral analysis of the X-ray emission. Results. We detected enhanced abundances of Ne, Mg and Si in the hard X-ray bright peak in the north of IC 443, and of sulphur in the outer regions of G166.0+4.3. The metal abundances are not distributed uniformly in both remnants. The evaporating clouds model and the radiative SNR model fail to reproduce consistently all the observational results. Conclusions. We suggest that further deep X-ray observations of MMSNRs may reveal more metal-rich objects. More detailed models including ISM-ejecta mixing are needed to explain the nature of this growing subclass of MMSNRs.
Income Inequality and Labor Share in U.S.A and Canada

In recent years, in many countries, income inequality has increased while the labour share of income has declined. Using the Standardized World Income Inequality Database, we examine if income inequality, measured by the GINI Index, is related to the labor share of income in the U.S. and Canada. The paper uses time series regressions for the 1981–2011 period. Although apparently correlated, regression results confirm that declines in the labor income share have not had significant effects on income inequality.
FIW – Working Paper Determinants of Comparative Advantage in Services

This paper analyzes whether and to what extent determinants of comparative advantage have explanatory power for conventional services trade. It assesses the geographical, Heckscher-Ohlin and institutional determinants of services trade based on the literature for goods trade. Moreover, this paper investigates the importance of a country’s governance of regulation as a source of comparative advantage in services markets. Determinants for services trade differ from goods. Services trade is more sensitive to a country’s stock of high-skilled and mid-skilled labour, more receptive to the level of trust enjoyed by any importers, and more dependant on the quality of regulatory governance practiced when liberalizing services sectors. The counterfactual analyses presented in this paper show furthermore that these factors when affected by policy can bring substantial gains to countries. Specifically, countries with already good regulatory governance structures would enjoy relatively higher growth share in services trade by capitalizing on their high-skilled stock. Other countries, however, would instead to better by improving their condition of regulatory governance. JEL Codes: F13; L8 ; F15.
Global MicroRNA Expression Profiling of Mouse Livers following Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury at Different Stages

Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury is a dynamic process consisting of two stages: ischemia and reperfusion, and triggers a cascade of physiological and biochemical events. Given the important role of microRNAs in regulating gene expression, we analyzed gene expression changes in mouse livers at sham control, ischemia stage, and reperfusion stage. We generated global expression profiles of microRNA and mRNA genes in mouse livers subjected to ischemia-reperfusion injury at the three stages, respectively. Comparison analysis showed that reperfusion injury had a distinct expression profile whereas the ischemia sample and the sham control were clustered together. Consistently, there are 69 differentially expressed microRNAs between the reperfusion sample and the sham control whereas 28 differentially expressed microRNAs between the ischemia sample and the sham control. We further identified two modes of microRNA expression changes in ischemia-reperfusion injury. Functional analysis of both the differentially expressed microRNAs in the two modes and their target mRNAs revealed that ischemia injury impaired mitochondrial function, nutrient consumption, and metabolism process. In contrast, reperfusion injury led to severe tissue inflammation that is predominantly an innate-immune response in the ischemia-reperfusion process. Our staged analysis of gene expression profiles provides new insights into regulatory mechanisms of microRNAs in mouse hepatic IR injury.
On the Ability of the 802.11p MAC Method and STDMA to Support Real-Time Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

Traffic safety applications using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication is an emerging and promising area within the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) sphere. Many of these new applications require real-time communication with high reliability, meaning that packets must be successfully delivered before a certain deadline. Applications with early deadlines are expected to require direct V2V communications, and the only standard currently supporting this is the upcoming IEEE 802.11p, included in the wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE) stack. To meet a real-time deadline, timely and predictable access to the channel is paramount. However, the medium access method used in 802.11p, carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA), does not guarantee channel access before a finite deadline. In this paper, we analyze the communication requirements introduced by traffic safety applications, namely, low delay, reliable, real-time communications. We show by simulation of a simple, but realistic, highway scenario, that vehicles using CSMA/CA can experience unacceptable channel access delays and, therefore, 802.11p does not support real-time communications. In addition, we present a potential remedy for this problem, namely, the use of self-organizing time division multiple access (STDMA). The real-time properties of STDMA are investigated by means of the same highway simulation scenario, with promising results.
Frontal EEG/ERP correlates of attentional processes, cortisol and motivational states in adolescents from lower and higher socioeconomic status

Event-related potentials (ERPs) and other electroencephalographic (EEG) evidence show that frontal brain areas of higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) children are recruited differently during selective attention tasks. We assessed whether multiple variables related to self-regulation (perceived mental effort) emotional states (e.g., anxiety, stress, etc.) and motivational states (e.g., boredom, engagement, etc.) may co-occur or interact with frontal attentional processing probed in two matched-samples of fourteen lower-SES and higher-SES adolescents. ERP and EEG activation were measured during a task probing selective attention to sequences of tones. Pre- and post-task salivary cortisol and self-reported emotional states were also measured. At similar behavioural performance level, the higher-SES group showed a greater ERP differentiation between attended (relevant) and unattended (irrelevant) tones than the lower-SES group. EEG power analysis revealed a cross-over interaction, specifically, lower-SES adolescents showed significantly higher theta power when ignoring rather than attending to tones, whereas, higher-SES adolescents showed the opposite pattern. Significant theta asymmetry differences were also found at midfrontal electrodes indicating left hypo-activity in lower-SES adolescents. The attended vs. unattended difference in right midfrontal theta increased with individual SES rank, and (independently from SES) with lower cortisol task reactivity and higher boredom. Results suggest lower-SES children used additional compensatory resources to monitor/control response inhibition to distracters, perceiving also more mental effort, as compared to higher-SES counterparts. Nevertheless, stress, boredom and other task-related perceived states were unrelated to SES. Ruling out presumed confounds, this study confirms the midfrontal mechanisms responsible for the SES effects on selective attention reported previously and here reflect genuine cognitive differences.
Object Familiarity and Semantic Congruency Modulate Responses in Cortical Audiovisual Integration Areas

The cortical integration of auditory and visual features is crucial for efficient object recognition. Previous studies have shown that audiovisual (AV) integration is affected by where and when auditory and visual features occur. However, because relatively little is known about the impact of what is integrated, we here investigated the impact of semantic congruency and object familiarity on the neural correlates of AV integration. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify regions involved in the integration of both (congruent and incongruent) familiar animal sounds and images and of arbitrary combinations of unfamiliar artificial sounds and object images. Unfamiliar object images and sounds were integrated in the inferior frontal cortex (IFC), possibly reflecting learning of novel AV associations. Integration of familiar, but semantically incongruent combinations also correlated with IFC activation and additionally involved the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). For highly familiar semantically congruent AV pairings, we again found AV integration effects in pSTS and additionally in superior temporal gyrus. These findings demonstrate that the neural correlates of object-related AV integration reflect both semantic congruency and familiarity of the integrated sounds and images.
The impact of new product launch strategies on competitive reaction in industrial markets

The importance of successful innovation for the long-term performance of companies can hardly be exaggerated. However, we need to consider this in a dynamic setting, in which competitors do not remain passive. We find that two thirds of new product launches meet reaction by competitors after their launch. We also empirically demonstrate that the strategic launch decisions that managers take have an effect on future reaction by competitors. Following an extensive review of the literature, a propositional model is developed. In order to test this theoretical model, an ex post facto field study was designed, in which the authors obtained comprehensive information on 509 new industrial products launched in the US, the UK and the Netherlands. Competitive reaction is diagnosed in terms of changes in the marketing instruments of the competitor. A logistic regression model is estimated on the occurrence of competitive reaction with any marketing instrument. We also look at the occurrence of individual marketing instrument reactions. The data show that competitors react primarily by means of price changes. Product assortment and promotional changes are less frequent, whereas distribution policy modifications occur very rarely. The characteristics of the new product launch strategy were found to have a significant impact on both the occurrence and nature of competitive reactions. We claim that the competitive effect of radically new products and incrementally new products greatly differs. The results show that competitors fail to respond to radical innovations and to new products that employ a niche strategy. They do react if a new product can be assessed within an existing product category and thus represent an unambiguous attack. Both innovative and imitative new products meet reaction in this case. The results also demonstrate that competitors are more inclined to react to the introduction of new products that are supported by extensive communication by the innovating firm. The likelihood of reaction is also higher in high growth markets than in low growth markets. The article discusses theoretical and managerial implications of these results, as well as thoughts for future research that may add more insight.
Improved Connectivity Condition for Byzantine Fault Tolerance

Given a network in which some pairs of nodes can communicate freely, and some subsets of the nodes could be faulty and colluding to disrupt communication, when can messages reliably be sent from one given node to another? We give a new characterization of when the agreement problem can be solved and provide an agreement algorithm which can reach agreement when the number of Byzantine nodes along each minimal vertex cut is bounded. Our new bound holds for a strict superset of cases than the previously known bound. We show that the new bound is tight. Furthermore, we show that this algorithm does not require the processes to know the graph structure, as the previously known algorithm did. Finally, we explore some of the situations in which we can reach agreement if we assume that individual nodes or entire subgraphs are trustworthy.
A survey for pulsars in EGRET error boxes

As part of an effort to associate the unidentified Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) γ -ray sources with pulsars, error boxes for 19 sources were searched using Arecibo at 327 MHz. The sources were chosen to be out-of-plane and possibly associated with the Gould belt, a nearby starburst region with an enhanced production rate of core-collapse supernovae. The search revealed one new 597-ms pulsar, J2243+1518, within the error box of the EGRET source 3EG J2243+1509. The spin-down energy loss rate of the new pulsar is not nearly sufficient to power the γ -ray source and so the pulsar is very unlikely to be associated. Simulations we have carried out show that any pulsars at Gould belt distances should have been detected by the survey. This suggests that either the EGRET sources associated with the Gould belt are not pulsars, or that the minimum of the pulsar luminosity function is lower than the ∼1.5 mJy kpc 2 inferred from the population of normal pulsars. Ke yw ords: pulsars: general ‐ pulsars: individual: J2243+1518.
Inhibition of NADPH Oxidase Activation in Oligodendrocytes Reduces Cytotoxicity Following Trauma

Spinal cord injury is a debilitating neurological disorder that initiates a cascade of cellular events that result in a period of secondary damage that can last for months after the initial trauma. The ensuing outcome of these prolonged cellular perturbations is the induction of neuronal and glial cell death through excitotoxic mechanisms and subsequent free radical production. We have previously shown that astrocytes can directly induce oligodendrocyte death following trauma, but the mechanisms regulating this process within the oligodendrocyte remain unclear. Here we provide evidence demonstrating that astrocytes directly regulate oligodendrocyte death after trauma by inducing activation of NADPH oxidase within oligodendrocytes. Spinal cord injury resulted in a significant increase in oxidative damage which correlated with elevated expression of the gp91 phox subunit of the NADPH oxidase enzyme. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the presence of gp91 phox in oligodendrocytes in vitro and at 1 week following spinal cord injury. Exposure of oligodendrocytes to media from injured astrocytes resulted in an increase in oligodendrocyte NADPH oxidase activity. Inhibition of NADPH oxidase activation was sufficient to attenuate oligodendrocyte death in vitro and at 1 week following spinal cord injury, suggesting that excitotoxicity of oligodendrocytes after trauma is dependent on the intrinsic activation of the NADPH oxidase enzyme. Acute administration of the NADPH oxidase inhibitor apocynin and the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate channel blocker 2,3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7-sulfamoyl-benzo[f]quinoxaline-2,3-dione significantly improved locomotor behavior and preserved descending axon fibers following spinal cord injury. These studies lead to a better understanding of oligodendrocyte death after trauma and identify potential therapeutic targets in disorders involving demyelination and oligodendrocyte death.