Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Down-Regulation of GEP100 Causes Increase in E-Cadherin Levels and Inhibits Pancreatic Cancer Cell Invasion

Aims Invasion and metastasis are major reasons for pancreatic cancer death and identifying signaling molecules that are specifically used in tumor invasion is of great significance. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the role of GEP100 in pancreatic cancer cell invasion and metastasis and the corresponding molecular mechanism. Methods Stable cell lines with GEP100 knocked-down were established by transfecting GEP100 shRNA vector into PaTu8988 cells and selected by puromycin. qRT-PCR and Western blot were performed to detect gene expression. Matrigel-invasion assay was used to detect cancer cell invasion in vitro. Liver metastasis in vivo was determined by splenic injection of indicated cell lines followed by spleen resection. Immunofluorescence study was used to detect the intracellular localization of E-cadherin. Results We found that the expression level of GEP100 protein was closely related to the invasive ability of a panel of 6 different human pancreatic cancer cell lines. Down-regulation of GEP100 in PaTu8988 cells significantly decreased invasive activity by Matrigel invasion assay, without affecting migration, invasion and viability. The inhibited invasive activity was rescued by over-expression of GEP100 cDNA. In vivo study showed that liver metastasis was significantly decreased in the PaTu8988 cells with GEP100 stably knocked-down. In addition, an epithelial-like morphological change, mimicking a mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) was induced by GEP100 down-regulation. The expression of E-cadherin protein was increased 2–3 folds accompanied by its redistribution to the cell-cell contacts, while no obvious changes were observed for E-cadherin mRNA. Unexpectedly, the mRNA of Slug was increased by GEP100 knock-down. Conclusion These findings provided important evidence that GEP100 plays a significant role in pancreatic cancer invasion through regulating the expression of E-cadherin and the process of MET, indicating the possibility of it becoming a potential therapeutic target against pancreatic cancer.
Automating regression testing for evolving GUI software

With the widespread deployment of broadband connections worldwide, software development and maintenance are increasingly being performed by multiple engineers, often working around-the-clock to maximize code churn rates. To ensure rapid quality assurance of such software, techniques such as ‘nightly/daily building and smoke testing’ have become widespread since they often reveal bugs early in the software development process. During these builds, a development version of the software is checked out from the source code repository tree, compiled, linked, and (re)tested with the goal of (re)validating its basic functionality. Although successful for conventional software, smoke tests are difficult to develop and automatically re-run for software that has a graphical user interface (GUI). In this paper, we describe a framework called DART (Daily Automated Regression Tester) that addresses the needs of frequent and automated re-testing of GUI software. The key to our success is automation: DART automates everything from structural GUI analysis, smoke-test-case generation, test-oracle creation, to code instrumentation, test execution, coverage evaluation, regeneration of test cases, and their re-execution. Together with the operating system's task scheduler, DART can execute frequently with little input from the developer/tester to re-test the GUI software. We provide results of experiments showing the time taken and memory required for GUI analysis, test case and test oracle generation, and test execution. We empirically compare the relative costs of employing different levels of detail in the GUI test oracle. We also show the events and statements covered by the smoke test cases. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A single high dose of inhaled corticosteroids: a possible treatment of asthma exacerbations.

UNLABELLED Recovery from an asthma exacerbation may take days or weeks even after the introduction of appropriate exacerbation therapy. However airway responsiveness and sputum eosinophils can be reduced within 6 hours by a single dose of inhaled corticosteroids. AIM To determine if a single dose of 3200 microg of budesonide increases the rate of recovery from an asthma exacerbation. METHODS Nineteen asthmatic subjects with an asthma exacerbation following withdrawal of inhaled corticosteroids were randomised to receive either usual care (doubling their dose of inhaled corticosteroids) plus placebo or usual care plus a single dose of 3200 microg of budesonide in a double-blind manner. Subjects monitored peak flow (PEF), symptoms, and beta agonist use daily for four weeks. The lowest PEF reading for each week was calculated as a percentage of the best peak flow value achieved in the recent past (PEF lowest % best). RESULTS In the first week following exacerbation, PEF (lowest % best) was significantly greater in the budesonide group than in the placebo group (87.4 +/- 4.7 vs. 76.7 +/- 5.3; p = 0.029). However in the fourth week following exacerbation PEF was not significantly different (p = 0.728). The proportion of subjects who had a symptom free day during the first week was significantly higher in the budesonide group (p = 0.0012). CONCLUSION A single high dose of inhaled corticosteroids added to usual exacerbation treatment might increase the rate of recovery from a mild exacerbation of asthma.
Semi-supervised Dependency Parsing using Bilexical Contextual Features from Auto-Parsed Data

We present a semi-supervised approach to improve dependency parsing accuracy by using bilexical statistics derived from auto-parsed data. The method is based on estimating the attachment potential of head-modifier words, by taking into account not only the head and modifier words themselves, but also the words surrounding the head and the modifier. When integrating the learned statistics as features in a graph-based parsing model, we observe nice improvements in accuracy when parsing various English datasets.
Coordinated beating of algal flagella is mediated by basal coupling

Significance In areas as diverse as developmental biology, physiology, and biomimetics, there is great interest in understanding the mechanisms by which active hair-like cellular appendages known as flagella or cilia are brought into coordinated motion. The prevailing theoretical hypothesis over many years is that fluid flows driven by beating flagella provide the coupling that leads to synchronization, but this is surprisingly inconsistent with certain experimentally observed phenomena. Here we demonstrate the insufficiency of hydrodynamic coupling in an evolutionarily significant range of unicellular algal species bearing multiple flagella, and suggest that the key additional ingredient for precise coordination of flagellar beating is provided by contractile fibers of the basal apparatus. Cilia and flagella often exhibit synchronized behavior; this includes phase locking, as seen in Chlamydomonas, and metachronal wave formation in the respiratory cilia of higher organisms. Since the observations by Gray and Rothschild of phase synchrony of nearby swimming spermatozoa, it has been a working hypothesis that synchrony arises from hydrodynamic interactions between beating filaments. Recent work on the dynamics of physically separated pairs of flagella isolated from the multicellular alga Volvox has shown that hydrodynamic coupling alone is sufficient to produce synchrony. However, the situation is more complex in unicellular organisms bearing few flagella. We show that flagella of Chlamydomonas mutants deficient in filamentary connections between basal bodies display markedly different synchronization from the wild type. We perform micromanipulation on configurations of flagella and conclude that a mechanism, internal to the cell, must provide an additional flagellar coupling. In naturally occurring species with 4, 8, or even 16 flagella, we find diverse symmetries of basal body positioning and of the flagellar apparatus that are coincident with specific gaits of flagellar actuation, suggesting that it is a competition between intracellular coupling and hydrodynamic interactions that ultimately determines the precise form of flagellar coordination in unicellular algae.
Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience Synaptic Neuroscience Stdp in the Hippocampus: the Data the Activity Requirements for Spike Timing-dependent Plasticity in the Hippocampus

and Debanne et al. (1998) were the first to fully characterize the timing window for the induction of what we now term STDP, in the hippocampus. They took advantage of cultured hippocampal preparations which allow pairs of connected cells to be recorded from with relative ease. This allows one to precisely control the spiking of both the presynaptic and the postsynaptic neuron. In a similar fashion, recordings between pairs of mono-synaptically connected pyramidal neurons in cortical slices also demonstrated reliable STDP (Markram et al., 1997; Sjostrom et al., 2001) which raised the possibility that STDP is a general phenomenon for all synapses exhibiting NMDA receptor-dependent synaptic plasticity. Bi and Poo and Debanne et al. demonstrated that the direction and magnitude of synaptic plasticity could be dictated by the precise millisecond timing of single presynaptic and postsynaptic spikes. If presynaptic spikes precede postsynaptic spikes by up to 30 ms (positive spike timing interval) then LTP was induced, whereas if the presynaptic spike occurred after the postsynaptic spike (negative spike timing interval) LTD ensued. The magnitude of LTP and LTD was greatest when the spikes were closest together leading to a switch from maximal LTD to maximal LTP over a narrow time window of only a few milliseconds. This spike timing window offered an extremely elegant model for plasticity induction in vivo and has proved popular with groups modeling information storage in the brain (e.g., Song et al., 2000; Drew and Abbott, 2006). Recordings in dissociated hippocampal cultures have their drawbacks , in particular the divergence of culture conditions from an intact hippocampal network. After the initial description of STDP The classic asymmetrical spike timing curve between pairs of synaptically connected hippocampal neurons in dissociated culture described by Bi and Poo (1998) or in organotypic slice cultures by Debanne et al. (1998) have become synonymous with the field of spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). These data have been reproduced almost ubiquitously to demonstrate the elegance of spike timing plasticity induction. From this seemingly straightforward description the story of STDP in the hippocampus has followed a rather more complicated and tortuous route. Many groups have taken advantage of the stalwart of plasticity research, the Schaffer collateral to CA1 pyramidal cell synapse in the acute hippocampal slice preparation, to further characterize the requirements for STDP induction. At first glance the research that has emerged from this field is confusing with different groups showing different, seemingly …
Predictors of 2-year outcome for patients with borderline personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE The primary purpose of this report was to investigate whether characteristics of subjects with borderline personality disorder observed at baseline can predict variations in outcome at the 2-year follow-up. METHOD Hypothesized predictor variables were selected from prior studies. The patients (N=160) were recruited from the four clinical sites of the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study. Patients were assessed at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders; the Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders, a modified version of that instrument; the Longitudinal Interval Follow-Up Evaluation; and the Childhood Experiences Questionnaire-Revised. Univariate Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated on the primary predictor variables, and with two forward stepwise regression models, outcome was assessed with global functioning and number of borderline personality disorder criteria. RESULTS The authors' most significant results confirm prior findings that more severe baseline psychopathology (i.e., higher levels of borderline personality disorder criteria and functional disability) and a history of childhood trauma predict a poor outcome. A new finding suggests that the quality of current relationships of patients with borderline personality disorder have prognostic significance. CONCLUSIONS Clinicians can estimate 2-year prognosis for patients with borderline personality disorder by evaluating level of severity of psychopathology, childhood trauma, and current relationships.
Toward a CPFLOW-based algorithm to compute all the type-1 load-flow solutions in electric power systems

This paper presents a potential algorithm based on continuation power flow (CPFLOW) to compute all the Type-1 load-flow solutions. Type-1 solutions are of a single positive real-part eigenvalue associated with Jacobian of load-flow equations and are used in conjunction with techniques such as energy methods and the voltage instability proximity index (VIPI) for assessing system voltage stability. The benefits of the proposed algorithm are the following. The algorithm has the potential to find all the Type-1 load-flow solutions by tracing a small number of homotopy curves. Traditional methods, which can locate some of the Type-1 solutions, suffer from the uncertainty that there might be another Type-1 solution that might be more suitable for voltage stability assessment. This uncertainty is eliminated if all the Type-1 solutions are located. The proposed algorithm has been tested for two example systems, and encouraging results have been obtained.
Integrating Technology Acceptance Model and Motivational Model towards Intention to Adopt Accounting Information System

The main purpose of this study was to integrate technology acceptance model and motivation model to investigate mediating effect of attitude for IS adoption studies. Quantitative survey questionnaire was developed and distributed using purposive sampling technique. Owner of SMEs are targeted as respondents and in total 348 samples were collected with a response rate of 42%. The findings revealed that integration perception and motivation increases user’s attitude towards acceptance of IS. It can also be concluded that planning for information system adoption in the organizational context is very crucial factor that should be taken into consideration along with the attitude of the decision makers and users towards system adoption.
A fast hierarchical patch-based approach for mitigating atmospheric turbulence

Atmospheric turbulence degrades images by causing non-uniform geometric deformations and distortions due to the random fluctuations of refractive index over air media. In this paper, a new approach based on hierarchical layer parsing is developed. Each frame from a set of temporal frames is decomposed into a collection of isoplanatic space-time patches. Thereafter, each of temporal patches is parsed hierarchically to separate layers corresponding to, low rank background, sparse turbulence errors, and moving objects, using low rank matrix decomposition. In order to remove redundant blur that remains after local hierarchical parsing blind de-convolution procedure is applied. Finally, the stable background component and the one or more moving object components are fused to reconstruct the turbulence mitigated content.
A simultaneous XMM-Newton and BeppoSAX observation of the archetypal broad line Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548

We report the spectral analysis of a long XMM‐Newton observation of the well-studied, moderate luminosity broad line Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. The source was at an historically average brightness and we find the hard (3‐10 keV) spectrum can be well fitted by a power law of photon index � ∼ 1.75, together with reflection. The only feature in the hard X-ray spectrum is a narrow emission line near 6.4 keV, with an equivalent width of ∼60 eV. The energy and strength of this line are consistent with fluorescence from ‘neutral’ iron distant from the central continuum source. We find no evidence for a broad Fe K line, with an upper limit well below previous reports, suggesting the inner accretion disc is now absent or highly ionized. The addition of simultaneous BeppoSAX data allows the analysis to be extended to 200 keV, yielding important constraints on the total reflection. Extrapolation of the hard X-ray power law down to 0.3 keV shows a clear ‘soft excess’ below ∼0.7 keV. After due allowance for the effects of a complex warm absorber, measured with the XMM‐Newton RGS, we find that the soft excess is better described as a smooth upward curvature in the continuum flux below ∼2 keV. The soft excess can be modelled either by Comptonized thermal emission or by enhanced reflection from the surface of a highly ionized disc.
Introduction to the Mathematics of Computed Tomography

Computed tomography (CT) entails the reconstruction of a function f from line integrals of f . This mathematical problem is encountered in a growing number of diverse settings in medicine, science, and technology. This introductory article is divided into three parts. The first part is concerned with general theory and explores questions of uniqueness, stability and inversion, as well as detection of singularities. The second part is devoted to local tomography and is centered around a discussion of recently developed methods for computing jumps of a function from local tomographic data. The third part treats optimal sampling and has at its core a detailed error analysis of the parallel-beam filtered backprojection algorithm. Matlab source code for the filtered backprojection algorithm and the Feldkamp–Davis–Kress algorithm is included in an appendix.
The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and its Influence on Group Behavior

Group emotional contagion, the transfer of moods among people in a group, and its influence on work group dynamics was examined in a laboratory study of managerial decision making using multiple, convergent measures of mood, individual attitudes, behavior, and group-level dynamics. Using a 2 times 2 experimental design, with a trained confederate enacting mood conditions, the predicted effect of emotional contagion was found among group members, using both outside coders' ratings of participants' mood and participants' self-reported mood. No hypothesized differences in contagion effects due to the degree of pleasantness of the mood expressed and the energy level with which it was conveyed were found. There was a significant influence of emotional contagion on individual-level attitudes and group processes. As predicted, the positive emotional contagion group members experienced improved cooperation, decreased conflict, and increased perceived task performance. Theoretical implications and practical ramifications of emotional contagion in groups and organizations are discussed.
Lipidomic profiling of patient-specific iPSC-derived hepatocyte-like cells

ABSTRACT Hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer an alternative model to primary human hepatocytes to study lipid aberrations. However, the detailed lipid profile of HLCs is yet unknown. In the current study, functional HLCs were differentiated from iPSCs generated from dermal fibroblasts of three individuals by a three-step protocol through the definitive endoderm (DE) stage. In parallel, detailed lipidomic analyses as well as gene expression profiling of a set of lipid-metabolism-related genes were performed during the entire differentiation process from iPSCs to HLCs. Additionally, fatty acid (FA) composition of the cell culture media at different stages was determined. Our results show that major alterations in the molecular species of lipids occurring during DE and early hepatic differentiation stages mainly mirror the quality and quantity of the FAs supplied in culture medium at each stage. Polyunsaturated phospholipids and sphingolipids with a very long FA were produced in the cells at a later stage of differentiation. This work uncovers the previously unknown lipid composition of iPSC-HLCs and its alterations during the differentiation in conjunction with the expression of key lipid-associated genes. Together with biochemical, functional and gene expression measurements, the lipidomic analyses allowed us to improve our understanding of the concerted influence of the exogenous metabolite supply and cellular biosynthesis essential for iPSC-HLC differentiation and function. Importantly, the study describes in detail a cell model that can be applied in exploring, for example, the lipid metabolism involved in the development of fatty liver disease or atherosclerosis. Summary: The lipidome of stem cells is remodelled in response to supplies available in the cell culture media, and as a result of changing expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism, as the cells differentiate and mature towards functional HLCs.
Catheter-based renal nerve ablation and centrally generated sympathetic activity in difficult-to-control hypertensive patients: prospective case series.

The recently published article by Brinkmann et al1 attempted to investigate the effect of catheter-based renal denervation (RDN) on blood pressure (BP) and muscle sympathetic nerve activity. The article is of interest; however, some aspects require clarification. In disagreement with several other studies, the authors report no significant overall blood BP lowering effect after RDN in a small group of 12 patients, and not surprisingly did not observe any changes in muscle sympathetic nerve activity. As shown in larger series, procedural success is clearly observed in patients with high BP as a surrogate of increased sympathetic activity. In contrast to the Symplicity trials, the baseline BP herein was 157/85 mm …
Asymptotic analysis of hybrid selection / equal gain combining diversity receivers

The hybrid selection / equal gain combining receiver selects the L strongest diversity branches out of N and combines them using equal gain combining weights. To this date, no closed form solution exists for the symbol error probability of this receiver. This can be attributed to the presence of a multiple integral which has no known solution for the case of 3 N ≥ . In this paper we derive an insightful closed form expression for the high-SNR, asymptotic symbol error probability of this receiver which provides insight into factors affecting the performance, the distribution of the average signal and noise powers in the diversity branches. The novelty and importance of this expression stems from the identification of a form of arithmetic mean of the branch noise powers and the geometric mean of the branch signal powers as the branch statistics affecting the asymptotic SEP.
Failure models for low-voltage BME ceramic capacitors with defects

Reliability of base metal electrode (BME) multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) that until recently were used mostly in commercial applications, have been improved substantially by using new materials and processes. Currently, the inception of intrinsic wear-out failures in high quality capacitors became much greater than the mission duration in most high-reliability applications. However, in capacitors with defects degradation processes might accelerate substantially and cause infant mortality failures. In this work, a physical model that relates the presence of defects to reduction of breakdown voltages and decreasing times to failure has been suggested. The effect of the defect size has been analyzed using a thermal runaway model of failures. Adequacy of highly accelerated life testing (HALT) to predict reliability at normal operating conditions and limitations of voltage acceleration are considered. The applicability of the model to BME capacitors with cracks is discussed and validated experimentally.