Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Grape seed extract inhibits advanced human prostate tumor growth and angiogenesis and upregulates insulin‐like growth factor binding protein‐3

Dietary intake of many fruits and vegetables has been shown to be associated with reduced risk of cancer. We investigated the in vivo efficacy of grape seed extract (GSE, patented as Traconol) against prostate cancer (PCA) and associated molecular events. Athymic nude mice were implanted with hormone‐refractory human prostate carcinoma DU145 cells and fed with 100 and 200 mg/kg/day (5 days/week) doses of GSE for 7 weeks. At the end of experiment, tumors were immunohistochemically analyzed for cell proliferation, apoptosis and angiogenesis. Our data show that GSE feeding strongly inhibited tumor growth that accounted for 59–73% (p < 0.001) inhibition in tumor volume and 37–47% (p < 0.05) decrease in tumor weight at the end of the experiment. It did not show any significant change in body weight gain profile and diet consumption. Immunohistochemical analysis of tumors showed that GSE decreases proliferation index by 51–66% (p < 0.001) and increases apoptotic index by 3–4‐fold (p < 0.001). CD31 staining for endothelial cells, showed decrease in intratumoral microvasculature in GSE‐fed group of mice. Control tumors showed 64.0 ± 1.6 CD31 positive cells/400× field compared to 23.2 ± 0.9 and 15.7 ± 0.08 (p < 0.001) CD31 positive cells in 100 and 200 mg/kg doses of GSE‐treated tumors, respectively. GSE strongly inhibited (47–70%, p < 0.05) vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion in conditioned medium by DU145 cells. Recently, the circulating level of insulin‐like growth factor binding protein (IGFBP)‐3 is shown to inversely related with PCA risk, growth and prognosis. Consistent with this, we observed 6–7‐fold (p < 0.001) increase in tumor‐secreted levels of IGFBP‐3 after GSE feeding. In other immunohistochemical studies, compared to controls, tumor xenografts from GSE‐fed groups of mice showed a moderate decrease in VEGF but an increase in IGFBP‐3 levels. These findings suggest that GSE possesses in vivo anticancer efficacy against hormone‐refractory human PCA, which is associated with its antiproliferative, proapoptotic and antiangiogenic activities together with upregulation of IGFBP‐3. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Targeted Advertising in Public Transportation Systems with Quantitative Evaluation

In spite of vast business potential, targeted advertising in public transportation systems is a grossly unexplored research area. For instance, SBS Transit in Singapore can reach 1 billion passengers per year but the annual advertising revenue contributes less than $35 million. To bridge the gap, we propose a probabilistic data model that captures the motion patterns and user interests so as to quantitatively evaluate the impact of an advertisement among the passengers. In particular, we leverage hundreds of millions of bus/train boarding transaction records to quantitatively estimate the probability as well as the extent of a user being influenced by an ad. Based on the influence model, we study a top-k retrieval problem for bus/train ad recommendation, which acts as a primitive operator to support various advanced applications. We solve the retrieval problem efficiently to support real-time decision making. In the experimental study, we use the dataset from SBS Transit as a case study to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed methodologies.
Cardiovascular safety of tiotropium Respimat vs HandiHaler in the routine clinical practice: A population-based cohort study

The cardiovascular safety of tiotropium Respimat formulation in the routine clinical practice is still an open issue. Our aim was to compare the risk of acute myocardial infarction and heart rhythm disorders in incident users of either tiotropium Respimat or HandiHaler. The study population comprises patients aged ≥45 years, resident in two Italian regions with a first prescription of tiotropium (HandiHaler or Respimat) between 01/07/2011-30/11/2013. The cohort was identified through the database of prescriptions reimbursed by the Italian National Health Service. Comorbidities and clinical outcomes were obtained from hospital records. The primary outcome was the first hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction and/or for heart rhythm disorders during the exposure period. Hazard ratios were estimated in the propensity score-matched groups through Cox regression. After matching, 31,334 patients with incident prescription of tiotropium were included. The two groups were balanced with regard to baseline characteristics. Similar incidence rates of the primary outcome between Respimat and HandiHaler users were identified (adjusted hazard ratio 1.02, 95% CI 0.82–1.28). No risk difference between Respimat and HandiHaler emerged when considering clinical events separately. This large cohort study showed a comparable acute cardiovascular safety profile of the two tiotropium formulations.
A Low-Frequency Panning Method With Compensation for Head Rotation

Amplitude panning produces interaural time difference (ITD) cues that help localize images in directions between loudspeakers. However, if the panning gains are static, then the ITD cues produced in this way vary inconsistently as the listener's head rotates, compared with a real source, and so the dynamic ITD cues are inaccurate. This effect destabilizes the perception of the image and overall scene, and is worse for loudspeakers that are more widely spaced relative to the listener. Based on a simple head model that is accurate in the low-frequency ITD regime, the ITD is calculated for a general field, including those produced by panning. A simple formula is derived relating head orientation, image direction, and a field description vector. Panning functions are then found that compensate for head orientation and are valid for any image direction. For the special case when the listener is facing the image, the functions are equivalent to vector base amplitude panning. The performance is first assessed objectively using measured binaural responses, rather than the simple head model. Subjective comparison is then made with pre-existing listening tests and new listening tests in which the listener's head is tracked to control the panning gains in real-time. These show that images can be stabilized as predicted, and, furthermore, that with the same panning functions, images can be produced in all directions using two loudspeakers placed in front.
Time-delayed teleoperation for interaction with moving objects in space

Telerobotics has the potential to facilitate the repair of satellites in geosynchronous orbit by allowing human operators to interact naturally with remote objects. Time delays on the order of seconds make it difficult to provide immersive feedback to the operator, motivating the use of predictive visual and haptic displays of the robot and environment. A teleoperation framework developed for this scenario invokes a two-part environment model that predicts motion of objects in the environment, both in free space and during contact with the robot. When objects in the environment are in free space, a propagated model using delayed data provides predictive feedback to the operator. However, when the robot interacts with the environment, a local environment model that does not propagate delayed data is used. This reduces computational load and ensures stability during robot-environment interactions. Two experiments were carried out to test the teleoperation system. Results demonstrate the ability of the prediction algorithm to provide reliable feedback and improve operator performance before, during, and after robot-environment interactions.
Control of Uncertainty-Affected Discrete Time Linear Systems via Convex Programming

In [1], we have demonstrated that robust optimization of linear finite-horizon control in a discrete time linear dynamical system affected by uncertain disturbances becomes computationally tractable if, rather than using natural parameterization of a linear output-based control law, one passes to a specific re-parameterization of the law, representing it as affine control law based on the so called “purified outputs”. With the traditional parameterization, the states and the controls, being affine in the initial state and the disturbances, are highly nonlinear in the parameters of the control law; with the new parameterization, the states and the controls become bi-affine, that is, affine in the initial state and the disturbances, the parameters of the control law being fixed, and affine in the parameters of the control law, the disturbances and the initial state being fixed. As a result, synthesis of a finite-horizon control law satisfying, in a robust fashion, a given system of linear constraints on the finite-horizon state-control trajectory, reduces to solving an explicit convex program and thus becomes computationally tractable. In this follow up paper we extend the above methodology to optimizing infinite-horizon control in a time-invariant linear system and illustrate our methodology on examples involving discrete time H∞and L1-control.
Assessment of insert sizes and adapter content in fastq data from NexteraXT libraries

The Illumina NexteraXT transposon protocol is a cost effective way to generate paired end libraries. However, the resulting insert size is highly sensitive to the concentration of DNA used, and the variation of insert sizes is often large. One consequence of this is some fragments may have an insert shorter than the length of a single read, particularly where the library is designed to produce overlapping paired end reads in order to produce longer continuous sequences. Such small insert sizes mean fewer longer reads, and also result in the presence of adapter at the end of the read. Here is presented a protocol to use publicly available tools to identify read pairs with small insert sizes and so likely to contain adapter, to check the sequence of the adapter, and remove adapter sequence from the reads. This protocol does not require a reference genome or prior knowledge of the sequence to be trimmed. Whilst the presence of fragments with small insert sizes may be a particular problem for NexteraXT libraries, the principle can be applied to any Illumina dataset in which the presence of such small inserts is suspected.
Time to move beyond the mind-body split

Descartes distinguished between the res cogitans and the res extensa . The former referred to the soul or mind and was said to be essentially “a thing which thinks. ”1 The latter was the material stuff of the body. It was characterised primarily by the fact of extension: it occupied space and was therefore amenable to measurement. In recent years neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have argued that this ontological separation of mind and body is no longer tenable.2 The former maintain that mental functions can be fully explained by brain science. The latter make the case for a distinct psychological realm but one whose operations, like those of computer software, are measurable and open to scientific investigation. The res cogitans is illusive no longer. We can map it, scan it, and explain its functions in biological or computational terms. These ideas have become dominant in medical circles and, in some form or other, have become articles of faith for most doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists. Contemporary …
Interaction among Skeletal Muscle Metabolic Energy Systems during Intense Exercise

High-intensity exercise can result in up to a 1,000-fold increase in the rate of ATP demand compared to that at rest (Newsholme et al., 1983). To sustain muscle contraction, ATP needs to be regenerated at a rate complementary to ATP demand. Three energy systems function to replenish ATP in muscle: (1) Phosphagen, (2) Glycolytic, and (3) Mitochondrial Respiration. The three systems differ in the substrates used, products, maximal rate of ATP regeneration, capacity of ATP regeneration, and their associated contributions to fatigue. In this exercise context, fatigue is best defined as a decreasing force production during muscle contraction despite constant or increasing effort. The replenishment of ATP during intense exercise is the result of a coordinated metabolic response in which all energy systems contribute to different degrees based on an interaction between the intensity and duration of the exercise, and consequently the proportional contribution of the different skeletal muscle motor units. Such relative contributions also determine to a large extent the involvement of specific metabolic and central nervous system events that contribute to fatigue. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contemporary explanation of the muscle metabolic response to different exercise intensities and durations, with emphasis given to recent improvements in understanding and research methodology.
Effects of Chorionicity and Zygosity on Triplet Birth Weight

Birth weight in triplets is, on average, lower than in singletons and twins, and more children are classified as having very low or extremely low birth weight. Still, there is limited research on factors that affect triplet birth weight, and samples under study are often small. Chorionicity and zygosity influence triplet birth weight, but it is unknown whether the effect of zygosity can be entirely ascribed to the effect of chorionicity or whether zygosity has an additional effect on triplet birth weight. This question was investigated in 346 triplets (from 116 trios) registered with the Netherlands Twin Register for whom data on chorionicity were available. ‘Triplet’ refers to one child and the set of three triplets is referred to as ‘trio’. Trios and triplets were classified based on zygosity and chorionicity. With regression analysis, the effects of zygosity and chorionicity on triplet birth weight were examined, while controlling for gestational age, sex, and maternal smoking during pregnancy. In addition, within the dizygotic trios a within-family comparison was made between the birth weight of the triplets that were part of a monozygotic pair (with some pairs sharing a chorion), and the birth weight of the dizygotic triplet. Based on the classification on individual level, monozygotic, monochorionic triplets had a lower mean birth weight than dizygotic, dichorionic triplets. Most remarkably, in dizygotic trios, monozygotic pairs only had a lower mean birth weight than their dizygotic sibling triplet when the pair shared a chorion. We conclude that having shared a chorion, rather than being monozygotic, increases the risk of a low birth weight.
Nuclear Organization of Mammalian Genomes

We investigated the nuclear higher order compartmentalization of chromatin according to its replication timing (Ferreira et al. 1997) and the relations of this compartmentalization to chromosome structure and the spatial organization of transcription. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive and integrated view on the relations between chromosome structure and functional nuclear architecture. Using different mammalian cell types, we show that distinct higher order compartments whose DNA displays a specific replication timing are stably maintained during all interphase stages. The organizational principle is clonally inherited. We directly demonstrate the presence of polar chromosome territories that align to build up higher order compartments, as previously suggested (Ferreira et al. 1997). Polar chromosome territories display a specific orientation of early and late replicating subregions that correspond to R- or G/C-bands of mitotic chromosomes. Higher order compartments containing G/C-bands replicating during the second half of the S phase display no transcriptional activity detectable by BrUTP pulse labeling and show no evidence of transcriptional competence. Transcriptionally competent and active chromatin is confined to a coherent compartment within the nuclear interior that comprises early replicating R-band sequences. As a whole, the data provide an integrated view on chromosome structure, nuclear higher order compartmentalization, and their relation to the spatial organization of functional nuclear processes.
Remote Experts Help in Case of Emergency: A Cloud Computing Solution for Heart Disease Patients

Time constraint is one of the important issues for the patients suffering from heart diseases. Delay in getting treatment can be life threatening. Essential data collection requires a great deal of efforts and time to collect and analyze the information. Such processes are usually slow and may become error-prone if done in a hurry. This situation limits the clinical diagnostics and monitoring capabilities. This paper presents the development of a remote monitoring system for ECG signals. Proposed solution is based on the concept of cloud computing and wireless networks. Analog signal is acquired with the ADC unit of the PIC24 controller, this information in terms of ECG is transferred through ZigBee network connected to the cloud and finally examination and storing are carried out. The signals obtained from the patients can be monitored simultaneously by the experts. Cloud provides availability, reliability. KeywordsECG, Remote ECG capturing, Telemedicine
Markerless Motion Capture of Multiple Characters Using Multiview Image Segmentation

Capturing the skeleton motion and detailed time-varying surface geometry of multiple, closely interacting peoples is a very challenging task, even in a multicamera setup, due to frequent occlusions and ambiguities in feature-to-person assignments. To address this task, we propose a framework that exploits multiview image segmentation. To this end, a probabilistic shape and appearance model is employed to segment the input images and to assign each pixel uniquely to one person. Given the articulated template models of each person and the labeled pixels, a combined optimization scheme, which splits the skeleton pose optimization problem into a local one and a lower dimensional global one, is applied one by one to each individual, followed with surface estimation to capture detailed nonrigid deformations. We show on various sequences that our approach can capture the 3D motion of humans accurately even if they move rapidly, if they wear wide apparel, and if they are engaged in challenging multiperson motions, including dancing, wrestling, and hugging.
SUPERMODULAR DECOMPOSITION OF STRUCTURAL LABELING PROBLEM

We consider the problem of selecting labels in vertices of the graph in order to maximize sum of weights, assigned to pairs of labels ( (max,+) problem, MAP MRF, minimization of Gibbs energy). We construct upper bounds on the goal function as sum of two auxiliary superand submodular problems. The tightest possible bound of this type can be found by solving a special case of LP. It's solution allows to fix some part of optimal configuration of the initial problem. Introduction. In the pattern recognition we know fundamental problems, which arise as estimation of maximal a posteriori probability configuration of Markov Random Field, as search of the optimal labeling, as minimization of Gibbs energy. Optimization models of this type play an important role in other areas: in statistical mechanics they arise as minimization of Hamiltonian energy of spin glass systems, in communication theory as problems of optimal error-correcting decoding. Their abstract formulations are studied in operations research, discrete mathematics, combinatorial theory. Problem formulation. Let = ( , ) G T E be a directed graph, where ( ) 2 T E ⊆ . Elements of set T we’ll refer as objects, and elements of E as pairs. United set = T E I ∪ we’ll call as structure of the problem. Let K be finite set of labels. Let us call mapping : k T K → a labeling ( T k K ∈ ). By : k K τ τ → ( k K τ τ ∈ ) we’ll denote restriction of labeling k to the subset τ ∈ I . Let ;k τ τ θ ∈R be 1 This paper was supported by the INTAS project PRINCESS 04-77-7347. source: Shekhovtsov, A. “Supermodular decomposition of structural labeling problem”, Control Systems and Machienes, Kiev 2005, accepted, in Russian. http://cmp.felk. cvut.cz/~shekhovt/publications/shekhovtsov-SM-05-art-en.pdf
Near field phased array DOA and range estimation of UHF RFID tags

This paper presents a near field localization system based on a phased array for UHF RFID tags. To estimate angle and range the system uses a two-dimensional MUSIC algorithm. A four channel phased array is used to experimentally verify the estimation of angle and range for an EPC gen2 tag. The system is calibrated for phase offsets introduced by hardware as simulations show the sensitivity to these offsets. Experiments with this calibrated receiver array give inaccurate ranging estimates. A solution is to calibrate the system for every angle, allowing meaningful range estimates. Experiments in a different environment show a reduced result, indicating the need for extensive calibration.
Hybrid composites of silica glass fibre/nano-hydroxyapatite/polylactic acid for medical application

Fibre reinforced composites (FRC) have shown great potential for the application of internal bone fixation due to mechanical properties that are similar to those of human cortical bones. Ternary composites of silica glass fibres, nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) and polylactic acid (PLA) were prepared by compression moulding and their mechanical properties were characterized in this study. With the volumetric content of glass fibre remained constantly at 30% and the volume fraction of n-HA increased from 0% to 5%, the flexural strengths of composites decreased from 625.68 MPa to 206.55 MPa, whereas a gradual increment of flexural modulus from 11.01 to 14.08 GPa were observed at the same time. Within a 28-day degradation period, the flexural strengths decreased by 30%, while no obvious trend of modulus variation was found. The flexural properties of all composites prepared in this study were all found to be close to the reported flexural properties. On the other hand, as more n-HA were incorporated, the water absorption percentages increased, whereas negligible mass loss were recorded. SEM images revealed that the impregnation of fibre mats was poor as loose fibres were observed, which shall be solved in future research to further improve the mechanical properties as well as endurance against degradation. © 2017 International Committee on Composite Materials. All rights reserved.
The neighbourhood polynomial of a graph

We examine neighbourhood polynomials, which are generating functions for the number of faces of each cardinality in the neighbourhood complex of a graph. We provide explicit polynomials for hypercubes, for graphs not containing a four-cycle and for the graphs resulting from joins and Cartesian products. We also show that the closure of the roots are dense in the complex plane except possibly in the disc |z + 1| 4, then neighG(x) = 1 + nx+ nx; • If G is an r-regular graph of girth at least 5, neighG(x) = n(1+x)r−n(r−1)x− (n−1). In particular, for the Petersen graph, neighG(x) = 1+10x+30x+10x; • If G is a tree, then neighG(x) = ∑ v∈V (1 + x) deg(v) − x(n− 1)− (n− 1). 58 JASON I. BROWN AND RICHARD J. NOWAKOWSKI 2 Graph Operations and Neighbourhood Polynomials What is the effect that various graph operations have on the neighbourhood polynomial? The first is trivial, relying solely on the fact that the only sets of the disjoint union of two graphs having a common neighbour are the sets in each of the graphs that have a common neighbour, with the empty set being the only such set the graphs have in common. Lemma 3 Let G and H be graphs and G ∪ H be the disjoint union of G and H. Then neighG∪H(x) = neighG(x) + neighH(x) − 1.