Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Centre De Referència En Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Optimal Procurement Auction for a Buyer with Downward Sloping Demand: More Simple Economics Optimal Procurement Auction for a Buyer with Downward Sloping Demand: More Simple Economics

A buyer with downward slopping demand faces a number of unit-supply sellers. The paper characterizes optimal auctions in this setting. For the symmetric case, a uniform auction (with price equal to lowest rejected offer) is optimal when complemented with reserve prices for different quantities acquired. For asymmetric sellers, the optimal distortions are faimiliar. The problem is similar to the third-degree discriminating monopsonist problem, just as in the unit (flat) demand case (Bulow-Roberts, 1989), and when the number of sellers (and the demand) grows their outcomes approach at the speed of the law of large numbers.
Effect of SLCO1B1 polymorphism on induction of CYP3A4 by rifampicin

Rifampicin (rifampin) is a potent inducer of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4. It was recently identified as a substrate of the polymorphic organic anion transporting polypeptide 1B1 (OATP1B1) expressed on the sinusoidal membrane of human hepatocytes. The present study aimed to investigate the possible association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the SLCO1B1 gene encoding for OATP1B1 with the inducing effect of rifampicin on hepatic CYP3A4. A total of 38 healthy volunteers who had participated in drug interaction studies with rifampicin were genotyped for the g. −11187G>A and c.521T>C SNPs in SLCO1B1, c.3435C>T SNP in ABCB1 and g.6986A>G SNP in CYP3A5. The plasma concentration of 4&bgr;-hydroxycholesterol, an endogenous marker of CYP3A4 activity, was measured before and after administration of 600 mg rifampicin once daily for 9–11 days. Treatment with rifampicin significantly increased the mean±SD plasma concentration of 4&bgr;-hydroxycholesterol from 55.2±17.9 ng/ml to 120.9±32.0 ng/ml (P<0.001). A large intersubject variability existed in the induction of CYP3A4 by rifampicin, but no associations were observed between the variability in induction and any of the polymorphisms studied. These data suggest that SLCO1B1 polymorphism does not affect the extent of induction of hepatic CYP3A4 by rifampicin, probably because other uptake transporters, such as OATP1B3, can compensate for reduced uptake of rifampicin by OATP1B1. However, the present study had sufficient power to detect only a considerably smaller rifampicin-induced increase in 4&bgr;-hydroxycholesterol in carriers of the SLCO1B1 c.521C allele compared to subjects with the reference genotype.
Carbohydrate Sequence of the Prostate Cancer-associated Antigen F77 Assigned by a Mucin O-Glycome Designer Array

Background: F77 is a previously uncharacterized prostate cancer-associated antigen. Results: Using a microarray of sequence-defined glycolipids and neoglycolipids, mucin-O-glycan designer arrays, and mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that F77 antibody recognizes blood group H on 6-linked branches of poly-N-acetyllactosamine backbones. Conclusion: F77 antigen is expressed on glycolipids and on glycoprotein O-glycans. Significance: F77 antigen can now be explored rationally as a cancer biomarker. Monoclonal antibody F77 was previously raised against human prostate cancer cells and has been shown to recognize a carbohydrate antigen, but the carbohydrate sequence of the antigen was elusive. Here, we make multifaceted approaches to characterize F77 antigen, including binding analyses with the glycolipid extract of the prostate cancer cell line PC3, microarrays with sequence-defined glycan probes, and designer arrays from the O-glycome of an antigen-positive mucin, in conjunction with mass spectrometry. Our results reveal F77 antigen to be expressed on blood group H on a 6-linked branch of a poly-N-acetyllactosamine backbone. We show that mAb F77 can also bind to blood group A and B analogs but with lower intensities. We propose that the close association of F77 antigen with prostate cancers is a consequence of increased blood group H expression together with up-regulated branching enzymes. This is in contrast to other epithelial cancers that have up-regulated branching enzymes but diminished expression of H antigen. With knowledge of the structure and prevalence of F77 antigen in prostate cancer, the way is open to explore rationally its application as a biomarker to detect F77-positive circulating prostate cancer-derived glycoproteins and tumor cells.
Cocoa Reduces Blood Pressure and Insulin Resistance and Improves Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilation in Hypertensives

Consumption of flavanol-rich dark chocolate (DC) has been shown to decrease blood pressure (BP) and insulin resistance in healthy subjects, suggesting similar benefits in patients with essential hypertension (EH). Therefore, we tested the effect of DC on 24-hour ambulatory BP, flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) in patients with EH. After a 7-day chocolate-free run-in phase, 20 never-treated, grade I patients with EH (10 males; 43.7±7.8 years) were randomized to receive either 100 g per day DC (containing 88 mg flavanols) or 90 g per day flavanol-free white chocolate (WC) in an isocaloric manner for 15 days. After a second 7-day chocolate-free period, patients were crossed over to the other treatment. Noninvasive 24-hour ambulatory BP, FMD, OGTT, serum cholesterol, and markers of vascular inflammation were evaluated at the end of each treatment. The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), and insulin sensitivity index (ISI) were calculated from OGTT values. Ambulatory BP decreased after DC (24-hour systolic BP −11.9±7.7 mm Hg, P<0.0001; 24-hour diastolic BP −8.5±5.0 mm Hg, P<0.0001) but not WC. DC but not WC decreased HOMA-IR (P<0.0001), but it improved QUICKI, ISI, and FMD. DC also decreased serum LDL cholesterol (from 3.4±0.5 to 3.0±0.6 mmol/L; P<0.05). In summary, DC decreased BP and serum LDL cholesterol, improved FMD, and ameliorated insulin sensitivity in hypertensives. These results suggest that, while balancing total calorie intake, flavanols from cocoa products may provide some cardiovascular benefit if included as part of a healthy diet for patients with EH.
Chronic painless pancreatitis

This paper describes four patients whose chief symptoms were steatorrhoea and loss of weight. Despite the absence of a history of abdominal pain investigations showed that these patients had chronic pancreatitis, which responded to medical treatment. The pathological findings in two of these cases and in six which came to necropsy are reported.
Hepcidin and DNA promoter methylation in hepatocellular carcinoma

The liver hormone hepcidin regulates iron homoeostasis that is often altered in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Epigenetic phenomena control gene expression through a dynamic fashion; therefore, considering the plasticity of both iron homoeostasis and epigenetic mechanisms and their role in liver carcinogenesis, we investigated whether hepcidin gene (HAMP) expression is modulated by DNA methylation, thus affecting iron status in human HCC.
The Cover Time of Random Walks on Graphs

A simple random walk on a graph is a sequence of movements from one vertex to another where at each step an edge is chosen uniformly at random from the set of edges incident on the current vertex, and then transitioned to next vertex. Central to this thesis is the cover time of the walk, that is, the expectation of the number of steps required to visit every vertex, maximised over all starting vertices. In our first contribution, we establish a relation between the cover times of a pair of graphs, and the cover time of their Cartesian product. This extends previous work on special cases of the Cartesian product, in particular, the square of a graph. We show that when one of the factors is in some sense larger than the other, its cover time dominates, and can become within a logarithmic factor of the cover time of the product as a whole. Our main theorem effectively gives conditions for when this holds. The techniques and lemmas we introduce may be of independent interest. In our second contribution, we determine the precise asymptotic value of the cover time of a random graph with given degree sequence. This is a graph picked uniformly at random from all simple graphs with that degree sequence. We also show that with high probability, a structural property of the graph called conductance, is bounded below by a constant. This is of independent interest. Finally, we explore random walks with weighted random edge choices. We present a weighting scheme that has a smaller worst case cover time than a simple random walk. We give an upper bound for a random graph of given degree sequence weighted according to our scheme. We demonstrate that the speed-up (that is, the ratio of cover times) over a simple random walk can be unbounded
Measuring properties of molecular surfaces using ray casting

Molecular geometric properties, such as volume, exposed surface area, and occurrence of internal cavities, are important inputs to many applications in molecular modeling. In this work we describe a very general and highly efficient approach for the accurate computation of such properties, which is applicable to arbitrary molecular surface models. The technique relies on a high performance ray casting framework that can be easily adapted to the computation of further quantities of interest at interactive speed, even for huge models.
Anticancer activity of docetaxel in murine salivary gland carcinoma.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biological mechanisms of docetaxel (TXT) on salivary gland carcinoma. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The effects of TXT on a spontaneous murine salivary carcinoma were determined. Proliferation, cell cycle regulation, connexin43 expression, gap-junctional intercellular communication, apoptosis, and Fas receptor (FasR) expression were measured. RESULTS We characterized a spontaneous mouse salivary gland carcinoma (SGC1). SGC1 is a poorly differentiated carcinoma that originated from the parotid gland of a BALB/c mouse. SGC1 cells were cultured and found to be immortal past 30 passages. Initially, cells formed tumor nodules in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. Afterward, SGC1 cells that were subcultured from SCID tumors readily formed colonies in soft agar and were highly tumorigenic in SCID mice and immune-competent BALB/c hosts. Dose response for TXT with respect to growth suppression, G(2)-M cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis was found. Induction of apoptosis by TXT coincided with an increase in cell surface FasR expression. Up-regulation of FasR with lower doses of TXT rendered cells susceptible to FasR agonist antibody-mediated apoptosis. In the absence of TXT, anti-FasR antibodies were completely without effect, suggesting that TXT is critical for priming apoptosis mediated through the Fas pathway. In addition, gap-junctional intercellular communication was augmented by TXT in SGC1 cells concomitant with increased connexin43 expression and membrane localization. CONCLUSIONS We have identified several novel targets of TXT that contribute to its antitumor activity in poorly differentiated salivary gland carcinoma. These results suggest that TXT may be appropriate for additional in vivo studies and clinical trials in patients with salivary cancers.
Expression of the Arabidopsis Sigma Factor SIG5 Is Photoreceptor and Photosynthesis Controlled

Two collections of Arabidopsis GAL4 enhancer trap lines were screened for light-intensity dependent reporter gene activation. Line N9313 was isolated for its strong light-intensity regulation. The T-DNA element trapped distant enhancers of the SIG5 promoter, which drives expression of a sigma factor involved in regulation of chloroplast genes for photosystem II core proteins. The T-DNA insertion 715 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site splits the promoter in a distal and proximal part. Both parts are sensitive to blue and red light and depend on photosynthetic electron transport activity between photosystem II and the plastoquinone pool. The mainblue-light sensitivity is localized within a 196-bp sequence (–887 to –691 bp) in the proximal promoter region It is preferentially CRY1 and PHYB controlled. Type-I and type-II phytochromes mediate red-light sensitivity via various promoter elements spread over the proximal and distal upstream region. This work characterizes SIG5 as an anterograde control factor of chloroplast gene expression, which is controlled by chloroplast signals in a retrograde manner.
Management Strategies for Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis

BACKGROUND Adults with asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis are at increased risk for ipsilateral carotid territory ischemic stroke. PURPOSE To examine comparative evidence on management strategies for asymptomatic carotid stenosis and the incidence of ipsilateral stroke with medical therapy alone. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, U.S. Food and Drug Administration documents, and review of references through 31 December 2012. STUDY SELECTION Randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) and prospective or retrospective nonrandomized, comparative studies of medical therapy alone, carotid endarterectomy (CEA) plus medical therapy, or carotid artery stenting (CAS) plus medical therapy for adults with asymptomatic carotid stenosis, as well as single-group prospective cohort studies of medical therapy, were reviewed. DATA EXTRACTION Two investigators extracted information on study and population characteristics, results, and risk of bias. DATA SYNTHESIS Forty-seven studies in 56 publications were eligible. The RCTs comparing CAS and CEA were clinically heterogeneous; 1 RCT reported more but not statistically significant ipsilateral stroke events (including any periprocedural stroke) in CAS compared with CEA, whereas another RCT, in a population at high surgical risk for CEA, did not. Three RCTs showed that CEA reduced the risk for ipsilateral stroke (including any periprocedural stroke) compared with medical therapy alone, but these results may no longer be applicable to contemporary clinical practice. No RCT compared CAS versus medical therapy alone. The summary incidence of ipsilateral stroke across 26 cohorts receiving medical therapy alone was 1.68% per year. LIMITATIONS Studies defined asymptomatic status heterogeneously. Participants in RCTs did not receive best-available medical therapy. CONCLUSION Future RCTs of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis should explore whether revascularization interventions provide benefit to patients treated by best-available medical therapy. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Morphological analysis of the tiger stripe on injection molding of polypropylene/ethylene-propylene rubber/talc blends dependent on based polypropylene design

Tiger stripe of injection molding of polypropylene (PP)/elastomer/talc blends was analyzed in terms of the morphology of the dispersed phase comprising elastomer components by using gloss and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, the contribution of the polymer design of PP, i.e., industrial block-type grade consisting of a homo-PP portion as the matrix and an ethylene propylene random copolymer portion as the domain is discussed. Local gloss measurement of the injected specimen along with the flow direction of the molten blends indicates a periodic fluctuation repeating higher and lower degrees of gloss, corresponding to the period of glossy and cloudy portions of the tiger stripe, respectively. These local gloss degrees are highly dependent on the morphologies of the dispersed phases near the surface layer of the injected specimen. The gloss increases when the ratio long axis (L) and diameter (D), L/D, of the dispersed phase are increased, and the gloss decreases when the L/D is decreased. Increasing the intrinsic viscosity of the ethylene-propylene rubber portion of the PP is an effective design factor for restricting the deformation against shear strain during injection process by giving the dispersed phases high elasticity. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 192–199, 2007
Comparison of plutonium systemic distribution in rats and dogs with published data in humans

Abstract Purpose: This manuscript compares the behavior of monomeric 239Pu4+-citrate injected intravenously in rats and dogs with a comparison of available humans’ data. Material and methods: The experimental design for these two studies consisted of eight groups sacrificed at predetermined time-points post exposure. All organs and tissues as well as daily urinary and fecal excretion were analyzed. Results: Liver and skeleton were the organs with the highest 239Pu uptake in both species; 76% in dogs and 70% in rats at 24 hours (h) post IV administration. By the end of the study (28 days, d), the activity in skeleton and liver was 85% in dogs and 65% in rats. The urinary excretion function seems to be similar for rats, dogs and humans but the daily fecal to urinary excretion ratio differs between species. Conclusion: A rapid clearance from the liver of rats was observed compared to dogs. Skeleton-to-liver ratios are variable between species. Urinary and fecal excretion patterns for dogs are consistent with human data, indicating that dogs seem to represent better the 239Pu behavior in humans. The data confirm that the better animal model to evaluate the efficacy of 239Pu chelating compounds is the canine model.
In your face, robot! The influence of a character's embodiment on how users perceive its emotional expressions

The ability of artificial characters to express emotions is essential for the natural interaction with humans. Their absence could be interpreted as coldness towards the user. Artificial characters can have different embodiments. Screen characters and robotic characters are currently among the most widely used. This study investigates the influence of the character’s embodiment on how users perceive the character’s emotional expressions. The results show that there is no significant difference in the perceived intensity and recognition accuracy between a robotic character and a screen character. Another important aspect of the character is its ability to express different emotional intensity levels. Developers create different geometrical intensity levels of emotional expressions by equally dividing the spatial difference of each facial component between the neutral and maximum expression. However, the relationship between this geometrical intensity and the intensity perceived by the user might not be strictly linear. This study shows that also a quadratic trend is present in this relationship and that10% steps increase of geometrical intensity can often be distinguished whereas 20% steps can be distinguished almost all the time.
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS OF HEAT TRANSFER IN NANOSCALE LIQUID FILMS A Dissertation by

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Heat Transfer in Nanoscale Liquid Films. (May 2009) Bo Hung Kim, B.A., Yonsei University; M.S., Texas A&M University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Ali Beskok Dr. Tahir Cagin Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of nano-scale flows typically utilize fixed lattice crystal interactions between the fluid and stationary wall molecules. This approach cannot properly model thermal interactions at the wall-fluid interface. In order to properly simulate the flow and heat transfer in nano-scale channels, an interactive thermal wall model is developed. Using this model, the Fourier’s law of heat conduction is verified in a 3.24 nm height channel, where linear temperature profiles with constant thermal conductivity is obtained. The thermal conductivity is verified using the predictions of Green-Kubo theory. MD simulations at different wall wettability (εωf/ε ) and crystal bonding stiffness values (K) have shown temperature jumps at the liquid/solid interface, corresponding to the well known Kapitza resistance. Using systematic studies, the thermal resistance length at the interface is characterized as a function of the surface wettability, thermal oscillation frequency, wall temperature and thermal gradient. An empirical model for the thermal resistance length, which could be used as the jump-coefficient of a Navier boundary condition, is developed. Temperature
Identifying Metastases-related Information from Pathology Reports of Lung Cancer Patients

Metastatic patterns of spread at the time of cancer recurrence are one of the most important prognostic factors in estimation of clinical course and survival of the patient. This information is not easily accessible since it’s rarely recorded in a structured format. This paper describes a system for categorization of pathology reports by specimen site and the detection of metastatic status within the report. A clinical NLP pipeline was developed using sentence boundary detection, tokenization, section identification, part-of-speech tagger, and chunker with some rule based methods to extract metastasis site and status in combination with five types of information related to tumor metastases: histological type, grade, specimen site, metastatic status indicators and the procedure. The system achieved a recall of 0.84 and 0.88 precision for metastatic status detection, and 0.89 recall and 0.93 precision for metastasis site detection. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying NLP technologies to extract valuable metastases information from pathology reports and we believe that it will greatly benefit studies on cancer metastases that utilize EHRs.
The bounded rate concept: A framework to deal with objective failure predictions in dynamic within a local constitutive model

This article deals with the objective prediction of damage localization and failure in dynamics within the framework of local constitutive model. A main limitation of such model with respect to failure prediction is that the results can be mesh dependent. In order to overcome this problem, spatial localization limiters have been proposed and widely studied. In this article some limitations of rate-dependent model with respect to localization are discussed. These limitations have given rise to the proposal of bounded rate constitutive model. The approach is illustrated in two cases: – the simulation of failure and perforation of laminated composite structures, – the prediction of failure of metallic structures in finite strain.
Formation of β-iPP in Isotactic Polypropylene/Acrylonitrile–Butadiene–Styrene Blends: Effect of Resin Type, Phase Composition, and Thermal Condition

The formation of β-iPP (β-modification of isotactic polypropylene) in the iPP/ABS (acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene), iPP/styrene–butadiene (K resin), and iPP/styrene–acrylonitrile (SAN) blends were studied using differential scanning calorimery (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that α-iPP (α-modification of isotactic polypropylene) and β-iPP can simultaneously form in the iPP/ABS blend, whereas only α-iPP exists in the iPP/K resin and iPP/SAN blend samples. The effects of phase composition and thermal conditions on the β-iPP formation in the iPP/ABS blends were also investigated. The results showed that when the ABS content was low, the ABS dispersed phase distributed in the iPP continuous phase, facilitating the growth of β-iPP, and the maximum amount of β-iPP occurred when the composition of iPP/ABS blend approached 80:20 by weight. Furthermore, it was found that the iPP/ABS blend showed an upper critical temperature T c * at 130°C for the formation of β-iPP. When the crystallization temperature was higher than the T c *, the β-iPP did not form. Interestingly, the iPP/ABS blend did not demonstrate the lower critical temperature T c ** previously reported for pure iPP and its blends. Even if the crystallization temperature decreased to 90°C, there was still β-iPP generation, indicating that ABS has a strong ability to induce the β-iPP. However, the annealing experiments results revealed that annealing in the melt state could eliminate the susceptibility to β-crystallization of iPP.