Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MicroRNA-125a Reduces Proliferation and Invasion of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells by Targeting Estrogen-related Receptor α

Background: ESRRA is frequently up-regulated in several cancers. However, the mechanism underlying its up-regulation remains elusive. Results: Down-regulation of tumor suppressor miR-125a causes up-regulation of ESRRA in OSCC. Conclusion: Down-regulation of miR-125a is a novel mechanism for up-regulation of ESRRA in OSCC. Significance: Targeting miR-125a via a synthetic mimic adds novelty to OSCC therapeutics. Estrogen-related receptor α (ESRRA) functions as a transcription factor and regulates the expression of several genes, such as WNT11 and OPN. Up-regulation of ESRRA has been reported in several cancers. However, the mechanism underlying its up-regulation is unclear. Furthermore, the reports regarding the role and regulation of ESRRA in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are completely lacking. Here, we show that tumor suppressor miR-125a directly binds to the 3′UTR of ESRRA and represses its expression. Overexpression of miR-125a in OSCC cells drastically reduced the level of ESRRA, decreased cell proliferation, and increased apoptosis. Conversely, the delivery of an miR-125a inhibitor to these cells drastically increased the level of ESRRA, increased cell proliferation, and decreased apoptosis. miR-125a-mediated down-regulation of ESRRA impaired anchorage-independent colony formation and invasion of OSCC cells. Reduced cell proliferation and increased apoptosis of OSCC cells were dependent on the presence of the 3′UTR in ESRRA. The delivery of an miR-125a mimic to OSCC cells resulted in marked regression of xenografts in nude mice, whereas the delivery of an miR-125a inhibitor to OSCC cells resulted in a significant increase of xenografts and abrogated the tumor suppressor function of miR-125a. We observed an inverse correlation between the expression levels of miR-125a and ESRRA in OSCC samples. In summary, up-regulation of ESRRA due to down-regulation of miR-125a is not only a novel mechanism for its up-regulation in OSCC, but decreasing the level of ESRRA by using a synthetic miR-125a mimic may have an important role in therapeutic intervention of OSCC and other cancers.
Synchronization and Specification Issues in Protocol Testing

Protocol testing for the purpose of certifying the implementation's adherence to the protocol specification can be done with a test architecture consisting of remote tester and local responder processes generating specific input stimuli, called test sequences, and observing the output produced by the implementation under test. It is possible to adapt test sequence generation techniques for finite state machines, such as transition tour, characterization, and checking sequence methods, to generate test sequences for protocols specified as incomplete finite state machines. For certain test sequences, the tester or responder processes are forced to consider the timing of an interaction in which they have not taken part; these test sequences are called nonsynchronizable. The three test sequence generation algorithms are modified to obtain synchronizable test sequences. The checking of a given protocol for intrinsic synchronization problems is also discussed. Complexities of synchronizable test sequence generation algorithms are given and complete testing of a protocol is shown to be infeasible. To extend the applicability of the characterization and checking sequences, different methods are proposed to enhance the protocol specifications: special test input interactions are defined and a methodology is developed to complete the protocol specifications.
Diffusion Adaptation Over Clustered Multitask Networks Based on the Affine Projection Algorithm

Distributed adaptive networks achieve better estimation performance by exploiting temporal and as well spatial diversity while consuming few resources. Recent works have studied the single task distributed estimation problem, in which the nodes estimate a single optimum parameter vector collaboratively. However, there are many important applications where the multiple vectors have to estimated simultaneously, in a collaborative manner. This paper presents multi-task diffusion strategies based on the Affine Projection Algorithm (APA), usage of APA makes the algorithm robust against the correlated input. The performance analysis of the proposed multi-task diffusion APA algorithm is studied in mean and mean square sense. And also a modified multi-task diffusion strategy is proposed that improves the performance in terms of convergence rate and steady state EMSE as well. Simulations are conducted to verify the analytical results.
Friction and wear behaviors of AlTiCrN coatings by cathodic arc ion plating at high temperatures

An AlTiCrN coating was prepared on a YT14 cutting tool, whose friction and wear behaviors were investigated with a wear test at 900 and 1000 °C, respectively. The results show that the phases of the AlTiCrN coating mainly are composed of AlN, CrN, and TiN. The elements of Al, Ti, Cr, and N in the coating show gradient and transition distributions at the bonding interface; the C atoms of the substrate have diffused into the lattices of TiN, AlN, and CrN to form the obvious interdiffusion layer; and the interface bonding strength is 57.65 N. The coating is composed of different metal oxides and compound oxides at 900 and 1000 °C. The worn surface is relatively smooth at 900 °C, whose average coefficient of friction (COF) is 0.42, while the worn surface produces severe plastic deformation at 1000 °C, whose average COF is 0.45. There are enriched and depleted stripes with uniformly distributed chemical elements on the worn scar, which is expressed with uniform wear at the high temperatures.
Evidence for a Pathogenic Role of Nitric Oxide in Inflammation‐Induced Osteoporosis

Inflammatory disease is associated with increased production of nitric oxide (NO) and activation of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) pathway. Several studies have addressed the role of NO as a mediator of cytokine effects on bone cell activity in vitro. Stimulatory and inhibitory actions have been found, however, depending on the concentrations produced and model system used. In view of this, it has been difficult to predict whether increased production of NO during inflammation is likely to increase bone loss or prevent it. We have investigated the pathogenic role of NO in an animal model of inflammation‐induced osteoporosis (IMO). NO production was increased in IMO when compared with controls (+344%; p < 0.01), and this was accompanied by activation of inducible NOS (iNOS) in the bone marrow space. Bone mineral density (BMD) was reduced in IMO when compared with controls (–64%; p < 0.01), and this was found to be associated with reduced osteoblast numbers (–44%; p < 0.05) and increased osteoclast numbers (+38%; p < 0.01). The NOS inhibitor L‐NMMA reversed the deleterious effects of IMO on bone mass and bone turnover, but L‐NMMA had no effect on bone mass in control animals. This study has important implications for many inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and inflammatory bowel disease which are associated with increased NO production and osteoporosis. Our data not only suggest that iNOS activation and increased NO production contribute to the pathogenesis of osteoporosis in these situations, but also suggest that NOS inhibitors could be of therapeutic value in the prevention and treatment of such bone loss.
Sumsets of Finite Beatty Sequences

An investigation of the size of $S+S$ for a finite Beatty sequence $S=(s_i)=(\lfloor i\alpha+\gamma \rfloor)$, where $\lfloor \hphantom{x} \rfloor$ denotes "floor", $\alpha$, $\gamma$ are real with $\alpha\ge 1$, and $0\le i \le k-1$ and $k\ge 3$. For $\alpha>2$, it is shown that $|S+S|$ depends on the number of "centres" of the Sturmian word $\Delta S=(s_i-s_{i-1})$, and hence that $3(k-1)\le |S+S|\le 4k-6$ if $S$ is not an arithmetic progression. A formula is obtained for the number of centres of certain finite periodic Sturmian words, and this leads to further information about $|S+S|$ in terms of finite nearest integer continued fractions.
RETROSPECTIVE : A Safe Approximate Algorithm for Interprocedural Pointer Aliasing

1. HISTORY Trying to look back over a ten-plus year period and to remember what influenced us at the time, is difficult and error prone. Thus, it is probable that these reflections are incomplete. Nevertheless, it is important to our field to trace the historical influences on new ideas. Our interest in aliasing was a natural continuation of work done at Rutgers in incremental dataflow analysis in the 1980’s. 1 Much of this work focused on FORTRAN, but as time went on C became a very important language and its analysis was essential for compiler optimization and the development of software tools. The most significant difference between C and FORTRAN from a static analysis perspective was the ubiquity of pointer aliasing in C. Because of this ubiquity, having a viable solution to the Pointer May-alias problem was fundamental to any whole-program static analysis for general C programs. At the time, there was no work yielding precise program point specific aliases for entire C programs, so the problem was unsolved, challenging and necessary. We started, perhaps surprisingly, from computability theory. It was obvious that a precise computation would not be possible. However, we thought that it was important to understand which aspects of the problem could be solved precisely and which had to be approximated. By “could be solved” we meant there exists a polynomial algorithm. We felt this approach would give us an appreciation of a complex problem that could be the basis for its viable solution. This resulted in our paper Pointer-induced Aliasing: A Problem Classification [22] in which we demonstrated a precise polynomial algorithm for the aliases of single-level pointers. Our subsequent approach was to design an algorithm that was precise for single-level pointers, but approximate in the general case. In retrospect, this decision still seems appropriate. While the worst case time complexities of our algorithms were polynomial, the order of the polynomial was large enough that their scalability to very large programs was questionable. However, it was clear that this worst case behavior was not likely to be encountered in practice. Trying to perform any sort of average case analysis was not possible, because the concept of an average program was ill-defined. Thus, we decided it was important to validate our approach through empirical performance measurements. This approach, while not invented by us, has since our paper become a
Measurements of the Temporal fMRI Response of the Human Auditory Cortex to Trains of Tones

Averaged single trials (AST) allowed the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) response to auditory stimuli to be measured at high temporal (1 s) and spatial (0.1 cm3) resolution. Using this paradigm we investigated the transient signal response to 100-ms tone bursts in trains of between 100 ms and 25.5 s in total duration. We have demonstrated that the fMRI response to such auditory stimuli is approximately linear for trains of 6 s and longer, but that shorter stimuli produce signals that are larger than might be expected from the response to the longer stimuli. This nonlinear behavior can be modeled if an adaptive response to each stimulus is assumed. A study using a novel paradigm was also performed in order to study the influence of scanner noise during fMRI experiments on the auditory system response to tones. This study demonstrated that the temporal response to 700-ms tone stimuli is modified when performed in the presence of scanner gradient noise, the modification being a small but significant increase (P < 0.05) in the magnitude of the response. Finally the ability to measure the onset of functional activation using the AST method was examined. It was found, with the aid of computer simulation that a sampling rate of one image per second is adequate to distinguish temporal responses. Using the data acquired in this study, onset times were calculated for the auditory cortex, and these results are consistent with current models of functional activation.
D-serine as a gliotransmitter and its roles in brain development and disease

The development of new techniques to study glial cells has revealed that they are active participants in the development of functional neuronal circuits. Calcium imaging studies demonstrate that glial cells actively sense and respond to neuronal activity. Glial cells can produce and release neurotransmitter-like molecules, referred to as gliotransmitters, that can in turn influence the activity of neurons and other glia. One putative gliotransmitter, D-serine is believed to be an endogenous co-agonist for synaptic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), modulating synaptic transmission and plasticity mediated by this receptor. The observation that D-serine levels in the mammalian brain increase during early development, suggests a possible role for this gliotransmitter in normal brain development and circuit refinement. In this review we will examine the data that D-serine and its associated enzyme serine racemase are developmentally regulated. We will consider the evidence that D-serine is actively released by glial cells and examine the studies that have implicated D-serine as a critical player involved in regulating NMDAR-mediated synaptic transmission and neuronal migration during development. Furthermore, we will consider how dysregulation of D-serine may play an important role in the etiology of neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Removing the Cell Resonance Error in the Multiscale Finite Element Method via a Petrov-Galerkin Formulation

We continue the study of the nonconforming multiscale finite element method (Ms- FEM) introduced in 17, 14 for second order elliptic equations with highly oscillatory coefficients. The main difficulty in MsFEM, as well as other numerical upscaling methods, is the scale resonance effect. It has been show that the leading order resonance error can be effectively removed by using an over-sampling technique. Nonetheless, there is still a secondary cell resonance error of O(Є^2/h^2). Here, we introduce a Petrov-Galerkin MsFEM formulation with nonconforming multiscale trial functions and linear test functions. We show that the cell resonance error is eliminated in this formulation and hence the convergence rate is greatly improved. Moreover, we show that a similar formulation can be used to enhance the convergence of an immersed-interface finite element method for elliptic interface problems.
Magnetic Microstructure of Bacterial Magnetite by Electron Holography

A brackish lagoon at Itaipu, Brazil, contains magnetotactic bacteria with unusually large magnetite magnetosomes (lengths 100–200 nm). The micromagnetic structures of the magnetosomes from two different coccoid organisms from the lagoon have been determined by electron holography. The results are consistent with single-magnetic-domain structure in the elongated magnetosomes from one organism and metastable, single-magnetic-domain structure in the larger, more equi-axed, magnetosomes from the other organism. The results are consistent with theoretical predictions of the transition dimension between stable and metastable single-domain structure in magnetite.
Privacy-Preserving Data Mashup

Data Mashup is a special class of mashup application that combines information on the fly from multiple data sources to respond to transient business needs. Mashing up data requires an important programming skill on the side of mashups' creators, and involves handling many challenging privacy and security concerns raised by data providers. This situation prevents non-expert users from mashing up data at large. In this paper, we propose a declarative approach for mashing-up data. The approach allows data mashup creators to create data mashups without any programming involved, they just need to specify "declaratively" their data needs. The approach will then build the mashups automatically while taking into account the data's privacy and security concerns.
Emergency Contraception: Knowledge and Attitudes of Family Physicians of a Teaching Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan

This study was conducted to assess the knowledge of family medicine providers and their attitudes towards emergency contraception in a teaching hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. A 21-item questionnaire containing the demographic profile of respondents and questions concerning knowledge of and attitudes towards emergency contraception was distributed among participants. In total, 45 interviews were conducted, with a response rate of 100%, with faculty physicians (33%), residents (27%), medical officers (40%), 36% male and 64% female physicians; of them, the majority (64%) were married. Although the large majority (71%) of the respondents reported considerable familiarity with emergency contraception, objective assessment revealed deficiencies in their knowledge. About 38% of the participants incorrectly chose menstrual irregularity as the most common side-effect of progestin-only emergency contraception pills, and only 33% answered that emergency contraception was not an abortifacient while 42% were unsure. Forty percent of the physicians prescribed emergency contraception in the past. The large majority (71%) of the physicians were familiar with emergency contraception, yet deficiencies in knowledge inaccuracies were identified. Barriers to its use were identified as ‘it will promote promiscuity’ (31%), religious/ethical reasons (27%), liability (40%), teratogenicity (44%), and inexperience (40%). Overall attitudes regarding emergency contraception were positive; however, most (82%) physicians were unsatisfied with their current knowledge of emergency contraception, and there was a discrepancy between perceptions of physicians and actual knowledge. Interventions providing education to family physicians regarding emergency contraception is strongly recommended.
Do Photobiont Switch and Cephalodia Emancipation Act as Evolutionary Drivers in the Lichen Symbiosis? A Case Study in the Pannariaceae (Peltigerales)

Lichen symbioses in the Pannariaceae associate an ascomycete and either cyanobacteria alone (usually Nostoc; bipartite thalli) or green algae and cyanobacteria (cyanobacteria being located in dedicated structures called cephalodia; tripartite thalli) as photosynthetic partners (photobionts). In bipartite thalli, cyanobacteria can either be restricted to a well-delimited layer within the thallus (‘pannarioid’ thalli) or spread over the thallus that becomes gelatinous when wet (‘collematoid’ thalli). We studied the collematoid genera Kroswia and Physma and an undescribed tripartite species along with representatives of the pannarioid genera Fuscopannaria, Pannaria and Parmeliella. Molecular inferences from 4 loci for the fungus and 1 locus for the photobiont and statistical analyses within a phylogenetic framework support the following: (a) several switches from pannarioid to collematoid thalli occured and are correlated with photobiont switches; the collematoid genus Kroswia is nested within the pannarioid genus Fuscopannaria and the collematoid genus Physma is sister to the pannarioid Parmeliella mariana group; (b) Nostoc associated with collematoid thalli in the Pannariaceae are related to that of the Collemataceae (which contains only collematoid thalli), and never associated with pannarioid thalli; Nostoc associated with pannarioid thalli also associate in other families with similar morphology; (c) ancestors of several lineages in the Pannariaceae developed tripartite thalli, bipartite thalli probably resulting from cephalodia emancipation from tripartite thalli which eventually evolved and diverged, as suggested by the same Nostoc present in the collematoid genus Physma and in the cephalodia of a closely related tripartite species; Photobiont switches and cephalodia emancipation followed by divergence are thus suspected to act as evolutionary drivers in the family Pannariaceae.
On the Influence of Amplitude on the Connectivity between Phases

In recent studies, functional connectivities have been reported to display characteristics of complex networks that have been suggested to concur with those of the underlying structural, i.e., anatomical, networks. Do functional networks always agree with structural ones? In all generality, this question can be answered with “no”: for instance, a fully synchronized state would imply isotropic homogeneous functional connections irrespective of the “real” underlying structure. A proper inference of structure from function and vice versa requires more than a sole focus on phase synchronization. We show that functional connectivity critically depends on amplitude variations, which implies that, in general, phase patterns should be analyzed in conjunction with the corresponding amplitude. We discuss this issue by comparing the phase synchronization patterns of interconnected Wilson–Cowan models vis-à-vis Kuramoto networks of phase oscillators. For the interconnected Wilson–Cowan models we derive analytically how connectivity between phases explicitly depends on the generating oscillators’ amplitudes. In consequence, the link between neurophysiological studies and computational models always requires the incorporation of the amplitude dynamics. Supplementing synchronization characteristics by amplitude patterns, as captured by, e.g., spectral power in M/EEG recordings, will certainly aid our understanding of the relation between structural and functional organizations in neural networks at large.
The Tumor Suppressor Activity of the Transmembrane Protein with Epidermal Growth Factor and Two Follistatin Motifs 2 (TMEFF2) Correlates with Its Ability to Modulate Sarcosine Levels*

The type I transmembrane protein with epidermal growth factor and two follistatin motifs 2 (TMEFF2) is expressed in brain and prostate and overexpressed in prostate cancer, but its role in this disease is unclear. Several studies have suggested that TMEFF2 plays a role in suppressing the growth and invasive potential of human cancer cells, whereas others suggest that the shed portion of TMEFF2, which lacks the cytoplasmic region, has a growth-promoting activity. Here we show that TMEFF2 has a dual mode of action. Ectopic expression of wild-type full-length TMEFF2 inhibits soft agar colony formation, cellular invasion, and migration and increases cellular sensitivity to apoptosis. However, expression of the ectodomain portion of TMEFF2 increases cell proliferation. Using affinity chromatography and mass spectrometry, we identify sarcosine dehydrogenase (SARDH), the enzyme that converts sarcosine to glycine, as a TMEFF2-interacting protein. Co-immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence analysis confirms the interaction of SARDH with full-length TMEFF2. The ectodomain does not bind to SARDH. Moreover, expression of the full-length TMEFF2 but not the ectodomain results in a decreased level of sarcosine in the cells. These results suggest that the tumor suppressor activity of TMEFF2 requires the cytoplasmic/transmembrane portion of the protein and correlates with its ability to bind to SARDH and to modulate the level of sarcosine.