Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Private Self-Consciousness as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Value Orientations and Attitudes

Abstract The author examined implications of private self-consciousness (PrivSC; Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975) for the relationships between social values and issue attitudes. Indeed, the author expected that the value orientations of authoritarianism and individualism would shape attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide. Values and attitudes were consistent in the high-PrivSC participants, who tended to be more aware of different beliefs held simultaneously than were the low-PrivSC participants. However, for the low-PrivSC individuals, there was no relationship between values and attitudes. The results of 2 studies among U.S. undergraduate students confirmed these predictions.
Biosynthesis of arsenolipids by the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Although methylated arsenic and arsenosugars have been verified in various freshwater organisms, lipid-soluble arsenic compounds have not been identified. Here, we report investigations with the model organism cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 wild type and arsM (arsenic(III) S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase) mutant strain, which lacks the enzymes for arsenic methylation cultured in various concentrations of arsenate (As-V). Although Synechocystis accumulated higher arsenic concentrations at the higher exposure levels, the bioaccumulation factor decreased with increasing As-V. The accumulated arsenic in the cells was partitioned into water-soluble and lipid-soluble fractions; lipid-soluble arsenic was found in Synechocystis wild type cells (3-35% of the total depending on the level of arsenic exposure), but was not detected in Synechocystis arsM mutant strain showing that ArsM was required for arsenolipid biosynthesis. The arsenolipids present in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometry, and high resolution tandem mass spectrometry. The two major arsenolipids were characterised as arsenosugar phospholipids based on their assigned molecular formulas C47H88O14AsP and C47H90O14AsP, and tandem mass spectrometric data demonstrated the presence of the phosphate arsenosugar and acylated glycerol groups.
L2GSCI: Local to Global Seam Cutting and Integrating for Accurate Face Contour Extraction

Current face alignment algorithms can robustly find a set of landmarks along face contour. However, the landmarks are sparse and lack curve details, especially in chin and cheek areas where a lot of concave-convex bending information exists. In this paper, we propose a local to global seam cutting and integrating algorithm (L2GSCI) to extract continuous and accurate face contour. Our method works in three steps with the help of a rough initial curve. First, we sample small and overlapped squares along the initial curve. Second, the seam cutting part of L2GSCI extracts a local seam in each square region. Finally, the seam integrating part of L2GSCI connects all the redundant seams together to form a continuous and complete face curve. Overall, the proposed method is much more straightforward than existing face alignment algorithms, but can achieve pixel-level continuous face curves rather than discrete and sparse landmarks. Moreover, experiments on two face benchmark datasets (i.e., LFPW and HELEN) show that our method can precisely reveal concave-convex bending details of face contours, which has significantly improved the performance when compared with the state-ofthe- art face alignment approaches.
Strain engineering of Ge/GeSn photonic structures

Silicon compatible light sources have been referred to as the \holy grail" for Si photonics. Such devices would give the potential for a range of applications; from optical interconnects on integrated circuits, to cheap optical gas sensing and spectroscopic devices on a Si platform. Whilst numerous heterogeneous integration schemes for integrating III-V lasers with Si wafers are being pursued, it would be far easier and cheaper to use the epitaxial tools already in complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) lines, where Ge and SiGe chemical vapour deposition is used in a number of advanced technology nodes. Germanium is an efficient absorber, but a poor emitter due to a band-structure which is narrowly indirect, but by only 140 meV. Through the application of strain, or by alloying with Sn, the Ge bandstructure can be engineered to become direct bandgap, making it an effcient light emitter. In this work, silicon nitride stressor technologies, and CMOS compatible processes are used to produce levels of tensile strain in Ge optical micro-cavities where a transition to direct bandgap is predicted. The strain distribution, and the optical emission of a range of Ge optical cavities are analyzed, with an emphasis on the effect of strain distribution on the material band-structure. Peak levels of strain are reported which are higher than that reported in the literature using comparable techniques. Furthermore, these techniques are applied to GeSn epi-layers and demonstrate that highly compressive GeSn alloys grown pseudomorphically on Ge virtual substrates, can be transformed to direct bandgap materials, with emission >3 m wavelength { the longest wavelength emission demonstrated from GeSn alloys. Such emission is modeled to have a good overlap with methane absorption lines, indicating that there is huge potential for the such technologies to be used for low cost, Si compatible gas sensing in the mid-infrared.
V-ATPase Inhibition Regulates Anoikis Resistance and Metastasis of Cancer Cells

Fighting metastasis is a major challenge in cancer therapy and novel therapeutic targets and drugs are highly appreciated. Resistance of invasive cells to anoikis, a particular type of apoptosis induced by loss of cell–matrix contact, is a major prerequisite for their metastatic spread. Inducing anoikis in metastatic cancer cells is therefore a promising therapeutic approach. The vacuolar-ATPase (V-ATPase), a proton pump located at the membrane of acidic organelles, has recently come to focus as an antimetastatic cancer target. As V-ATPase inhibitors have shown to prevent invasion of tumor cells and are able to induce apoptosis, we proposed that V-ATPase inhibition induces anoikis-related pathways in invasive cancer cells. We used the V-ATPase inhibitor archazolid to investigate the mechanism of anoikis induction in various metastatic cancer cells (T24, MDA-MB-231, 4T1, 5637) in vitro. Anoikis induction by archazolid was characterized by decreased c-FLIP expression and caspase-8 activation as well as reduction of active integrin-β1 and an early increase of the proapoptotic protein BIM. However, we observed that archazolid also induces mechanisms opposing anoikis such as degradation of BIM mediated by extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), Akt and Src kinases at later time points and induction of reactive oxygen species. Still, intravenous injection of archazolid-treated 4T1-Luc2 mouse breast cancer cells resulted in reduced metastasis in mouse lungs. Thus, V-ATPase inhibition is not only an interesting option to reduce cancer metastasis, but also to better understand anoikis resistance and to find choices to fight against it. Mol Cancer Ther; 13(4); 926–37. ©2014 AACR.
Simulation of transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a patient-specific finite element approach

Until recently, heart valve failure has been treated adopting open-heart surgical techniques and cardiopulmonary bypass. However, over the last decade, minimally invasive procedures have been developed to avoid high risks associated with conventional open-chest valve replacement techniques. Such a recent and innovative procedure represents an optimal field for conducting investigations through virtual computer-based simulations: in fact, nowadays, computational engineering is widely used to unravel many problems in the biomedical field of cardiovascular mechanics and specifically, minimally invasive procedures. In this study, we investigate a balloon-expandable valve and we propose a novel simulation strategy to reproduce its implantation using computational tools. Focusing on the Edwards SAPIEN valve in particular, we simulate both stent crimping and deployment through balloon inflation. The developed procedure enabled us to obtain the entire prosthetic device virtually implanted in a patient-specific aortic root created by processing medical images; hence, it allows evaluation of postoperative prosthesis performance depending on different factors (e.g. device size and prosthesis placement site). Notably, prosthesis positioning in two different cases (distal and proximal) has been examined in terms of coaptation area, average stress on valve leaflets as well as impact on the aortic root wall. The coaptation area is significantly affected by the positioning strategy ( − 24%, moving from the proximal to distal) as well as the stress distribution on both the leaflets (+13.5%, from proximal to distal) and the aortic wall ( − 22%, from proximal to distal). No remarkable variations of the stress state on the stent struts have been obtained in the two investigated cases.
Understanding of Pure Spin Transport in a Broad Range of Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 -based Heterostructures

Spin currents carried by mobile charges in metallic and semiconducting ferromagnetic (FM) and nonmagnetic (NM) materials have been the central focus of spintronics for the past two decades, while spin transport in insulators is largely unexplored. Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) driven spin pumping has awakened intense interest in magnon-mediated spin currents which can propagate in both conducting and insulating FMs and in antiferromagnets (AF). High quality Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) epitaxial thin films have been grown by our off-axis sputtering technique and characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) atomic force microscopy (AFM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) et al. Due to the exceptional low damping constants and insulating nature, YIG thin films have been regarded as one of the most promising candidates for microwave application and dynamic spin transport study, particularly for the detection of pure spin currents in YIG/NM bilayer structures. FMR spin pumping is an emerging technique for dynamic injection of a pure spin current from a FM into a NM without an accompanying charge current, which offers the potential to enable low energy cost, high efficiency spintronics. The performance of these future spin-based applications relies on the efficiency of spin transfer across the FM/NM interfaces. In this thesis, I present our recent results on FMR spin pumping in YIG-based heterostructures, the large mV-level inverse spin Hall signal observed in our YIG/Pt bilayers provides a good platform to probe the underlying
Un detector de la unidad central de un texto basado en técnicas de aprendizaje automático en textos científicos para el euskera

En este articulo presentamos el primer detector de la Unidad Central (UC) de resumenes cientificos en euskera basado en tecnicas de aprendizaje automatico. Despues de segmentar el texto en unidades de discurso elementales, la deteccion de la unidad central es crucial para anotar de forma mas fiable la estructura relacional de textos bajo la Teoria de la Estructura Retorica o Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). Ademas, la unidad central puede ser explotada en diversas tareas como resumen automatico, tareas de pregunta y respuesta o analisis del sentimiento. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que las tecnicas de aprendizaje automatico superan a las tecnicas basadas en reglas a pesar del pequeno tamano del corpus y de la heterogeneidad de los dominios que este muestra, dejando todavia lugar para mejoras y desarrollo.
Host resistance and the evolution of kin recognition in polyembryonic wasps

Recognition of relatives is considered a key factor in the evolution of sociality as it ensures that the benefits of altruism flow to those who share the altruist's genes. However, theory predicts that genetically based recognition systems will not persist if the only selection maintaining them derives from the recognition system itself. Kin–recognition systems, therefore, are hypothesized to involve genetic variation maintained by other functions. Polyembryonic wasps are parasites of moth larvae that clonally produce large numbers of offspring and two morphologically distinct castes. Some embryos develop into reproductive larvae that mature into adult wasps, whereas others develop into soldier larvae whose function is defence. Soldiers from Copidosoma floridanum distinguish relatives from non–relatives on the basis of relatedness. Here, we report that the recognition cues used by soldiers derive from the extraembryonic membrane, which also protects these parasites from the host's immune response. This suggests that the kin–recognition system used by C. floridanum may be maintained in part by selection for resistance against the host.
Piracetam therapy does not enhance cognitive functioning in children with down syndrome.

BACKGROUND Piracetam is widely used as a purported means of improving cognitive function in children with Down syndrome. Its efficacy, however, has not been rigorously assessed. OBJECTIVE To determine whether 4 months of piracetam therapy (80-100 mg/kg per day) enhances cognitive function in children with Down syndrome. DESIGN A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS Twenty-five children with Down syndrome (aged 6.5-13 years) and their caregivers participated. After undergoing a baseline cognitive assessment, children were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment groups: piracetam-placebo or placebo-piracetam. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The difference in performance while taking piracetam vs while taking placebo on tests assessing a wide range of cognitive functions, including attention, learning, and memory. RESULTS Eighteen children completed the study, 4 withdrew, and 3 were excluded at baseline. Piracetam therapy did not significantly improve cognitive performance over placebo use but was associated with central nervous system stimulatory effects in 7 children: aggressiveness (n = 4), agitation or irritability (n = 2), sexual arousal (n = 2), poor sleep (n = 1), and decreased appetite (n = 1). CONCLUSION Piracetam therapy did not enhance cognition or behavior but was associated with adverse effects.
Tissue adaptation: Implications for gut immunity and tolerance

Tissue adaptation is an intrinsic component of immune cell development, influencing both resistance to pathogens and tolerance. Chronically stimulated surfaces of the body, in particular the gut mucosa, are the major sites where immune cells traffic and reside. Their adaptation to these environments requires constant discrimination between natural stimulation coming from harmless microbiota and food, and pathogens that need to be cleared. This review will focus on the adaptation of lymphocytes to the gut mucosa, a highly specialized environment that can help us understand the plasticity of leukocytes arriving at various tissue sites and how tissue-related factors operate to shape immune cell fate and function.
Optimising stroke prevention in non-valvular atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Pooled data from trials comparing antithrombotic treatment with placebo have shown that warfarin reduces the risk of stroke by 62%, and that aspirin alone reduces the risk by 22%. Overall, in high-risk patients, warfarin is superior to aspirin in preventing strokes, with a relative risk reduction of 36%. Ximelagatran, an oral direct thrombin inhibitor, was found to be as efficient as vitamin K antagonist drugs in the prevention of embolic events, but has been recently withdrawn because of abnormal liver function tests. The ACTIVE-W (Atrial Fibrillation Clopidogrel Trial with Irbesartan for Prevention of Vascular Events) study has demonstrated that warfarin is superior to platelet therapy (clopidogrel plus aspirin) in the prevention af embolic events. Idraparinux, a Factor Xa inhibitor, is being evaluated in patients with atrial fibrillation. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor-blocking drugs hold promise in atrial fibrillation through cardiac remodelling. Preliminary studies suggest that statins could interfere with the risk of recurrence after electrical cardioversion. Finally, percutaneous methods for the exclusion of left atrial appendage are under investigation in high-risk patients.
Use of CEA and CA15-3 to Predict Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Breast Cancer

Purpose: The clinical significance of preoperative serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3) in breast cancer is controversial. The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical value of preoperative serum levels of CEA and CA 15-3 on the risk of axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) in patients with breast cancer. Methods: This retrospective study analyzed 1148 breast cancer patients whose preoperative CEA and CA 15-3 levels were measured. The association of these tumor markers and clinicopathologic parameters with ALNM was determined by univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: A median of 15 lymph nodes were removed. Seven hundred seventy-eight (67.8%) patients had node-negative disease and 370 (32.2%) had ALNM. Univariate analysis showed that tumor location (P = 0.024), stage (P = 0.001), grade (P < 0.001), lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (P < 0.001), CEA level (P < 0.001), CA15-3 level (P < 0.001), and breast cancer subtype (BCS) (P < 0.001) were significantly associated with ALNM. ALNM was present in 4.5% of patients with normal CEA and 11.6% of patients with elevated CEA. ALNM was present in 8.0% of patients with normal CA15-3 and 17.0% of patients with high CA15-3. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that tumor location, stage, grade, LVI, CEA, CA15-3, and BCS were significantly and independently associated with ALNM (P < 0.05 for all). Conclusion: The probability of ALNM was greater in patients with elevated preoperative serum levels of CEA and CA15-3. CEA and CA15-3 appear to be independent predictors of ALNM in breast cancer.
The Impact of Whole-Genome Sequencing on the Primary Care and Outcomes of Healthy Adult Patients: A Pilot Randomized Trial.

Background Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in asymptomatic adults might prevent disease but increase health care use without clinical value. Objective To describe the effect on clinical care and outcomes of adding WGS to standardized family history assessment in primary care. Design Pilot randomized trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01736566). Setting Academic primary care practices. Participants 9 primary care physicians (PCPs) and 100 generally healthy patients recruited at ages 40 to 65 years. Intervention Patients were randomly assigned to receive a family history report alone (FH group) or in combination with an interpreted WGS report (FH + WGS group), which included monogenic disease risk (MDR) results (associated with Mendelian disorders), carrier variants, pharmacogenomic associations, and polygenic risk estimates for cardiometabolic traits. Each patient met with his or her PCP to discuss the report. Measurements Clinical outcomes and health care use through 6 months were obtained from medical records and audio-recorded discussions between PCPs and patients. Patients' health behavior changes were surveyed 6 months after receiving results. A panel of clinician-geneticists rated the appropriateness of how PCPs managed MDR results. Results Mean age was 55 years; 58% of patients were female. Eleven FH + WGS patients (22% [95% CI, 12% to 36%]) had new MDR results. Only 2 (4% [CI, 0.01% to 15%]) had evidence of the phenotypes predicted by an MDR result (fundus albipunctatus due to RDH5 and variegate porphyria due to PPOX). Primary care physicians recommended new clinical actions for 16% (CI, 8% to 30%) of FH patients and 34% (CI, 22% to 49%) of FH + WGS patients. Thirty percent (CI, 17% to 45%) and 41% (CI, 27% to 56%) of FH and FH + WGS patients, respectively, reported making a health behavior change after 6 months. Geneticists rated PCP management of 8 MDR results (73% [CI, 39% to 99%]) as appropriate and 2 results (18% [CI, 3% to 52%]) as inappropriate. Limitation Limited sample size and ancestral and socioeconomic diversity. Conclusion Adding WGS to primary care reveals new molecular findings of uncertain clinical utility. Nongeneticist providers may be able to manage WGS results appropriately, but WGS may prompt additional clinical actions of unclear value. Primary Funding Source National Institutes of Health.
Radiolocalization of the sentinel lymph node in Merkel cell carcinoma: A clinical analysis of seven cases

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare cutaneous skin lesion with a variable but often aggressive clinical course. Patient survival correlates with nodal status and the presence of distant metastases. The histologic status of the sentinel lymph node consistently correlates with the incidence of regional lymphatic metastases in other dermal malignancies. The technique of radiolocalization and surgical resection of the sentinel lymph node using an intraoperative gamma probe is used to guide clinical management in these patients. We report on seven cases of MCC managed utilizing this technique. Four patients had negative sentinel nodes and no other nodal disease at completion lymphadenectomy (n = 2) or clinical follow‐up (n = 2) and currently remain disease free. Two patients had a positive sentinel node but no other positive lymph nodes at completion lymphadenectomy; one of them developed regional recurrence. One patient with a positive sentinel node and six additional positive nodes developed extensive nodal disease and systemic recurrence during radiotherapy and expired of MCC. Our results suggest that the sentinel node was identified and removed successfully using radiolocalization making this technique useful in the staging and therapy of patients with MCC. J. Surg. Oncol. 1998;67:251–254. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
NKG2D Ligand Expression in Human Colorectal Cancer Reveals Associations with Prognosis and Evidence for Immunoediting

Purpose: NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) binds to cellular ligands of the MIC and ULBP/RAET family. These ligands have restricted expression in normal tissue, but are frequently expressed on primary tumors. The role of NKG2D ligands is thought to be important in carcinogenesis but its prognostic effect has not been investigated in such a large cohort. Experimental Design: In our study, 462 primary colorectal tumors were screened for the expression of all MIC/ULBP/RAET proteins and NK cell infiltration. Tumor microarray technology was used for the purpose of this investigation. Results: NKG2D ligands were expressed by the majority of colorectal tumors; however, the level of expression varied considerably. High expression of MIC (68 versus 56 months) or RAET1G (74 versus 62 months) showed improved patient survival. Tumors expressing high levels of MIC and RAET1G showed improved survival of 77 months over tumors that expressed high levels of one ligand or low levels of both. High-level expression of all ligands was frequent in tumor-node-metastasis stage I tumors, but became progressively less frequent in stages II, III, and IV tumors. Expression of MIC was correlated with NK cellular infiltration. Conclusion: The observations presented are consistent with an immunoediting mechanism that selects tumor cells that have lost or reduced their expression of NKG2D ligands. The combination of MIC and tumor-node-metastasis stage was found to be the strongest predictor of survival, splitting patients into eight groups and suggesting prognostic value in clinical assessment. Of particular interest were stage I patients with low expression of MIC who had a similar survival to stage III patients, and may be candidates for adjuvant therapy. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(22):69937002)