Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zoledronic Acid Produces Combinatory Anti-Tumor Effects with Cisplatin on Mesothelioma by Increasing p53 Expression Levels

We examined anti-tumor effects of zoledronic acid (ZOL), one of the bisphosphonates agents clinically used for preventing loss of bone mass, on human mesothelioma cells bearing the wild-type p53 gene. ZOL-treated cells showed activation of caspase-3/7, -8 and -9, and increased sub-G1 phase fractions. A combinatory use of ZOL and cisplatin (CDDP), one of the first-line anti-cancer agents for mesothelioma, synergistically or additively produced the cytotoxicity on mesothelioma cells. Moreover, the combination achieved greater anti-tumor effects on mesothelioma developed in the pleural cavity than administration of either ZOL or CDDP alone. ZOL-treated cells as well as CDDP-treated cells induced p53 phosphorylation at Ser 15, a marker of p53 activation, and up-regulated p53 protein expression levels. Down-regulation of p53 levels with siRNA however did not influence the ZOL-mediated cytotoxicity but negated the combinatory effects by ZOL and CDDP. In addition, ZOL treatments augmented cytotoxicity of adenoviruses expressing the p53 gene on mesothelioma. These data demonstrated that ZOL-mediated augmentation of p53, which was not linked with ZOL-induced cytotoxicity, played a role in the combinatory effects with a p53 up-regulating agent, and suggests a possible clinical use of ZOL to mesothelioma with anti-cancer agents.
Evolving therapies in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. The major etiologies and risk factors for HCC development are well defined and some of the steps involved in hepatocarcinogenesis have been elucidated in recent years. Therapeutic options that can be applied in curative or palliative intention are available and are dependent on the HCC stage. The therapeutic options fall into five main categories: (1) surgical interventions, including tumor resection and liver transplantation, (2) percutaneous interventions, including ethanol injection and radiofrequency thermal ablation, (3) transarterial interventions, including embolization and chemoembolization, (4) radiation therapy, and (5) drugs as well as gene and immune therapies. Until recently, no therapy existed for patients with advanced HCC. In 2007 a multikinase inhibitor (sorafenib) showed for the first time a significant increase in overall survival in patients with advanced HCC. Furthermore, several other agents that target different factors of hepatocarcinogenesis (eg, epidermal growth factor, insulin-like growth factors, hepatocyte growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, and the transforming growth factors-α and -β), have emerged and been tested in clinical trials. This review gives an overview of the current therapeutic strategies and their clinical impact.
Implementation of Ring-Oscillators-Based Physical Unclonable Functions with Independent Bits in the Response

The paper analyzes and proposes some enhancements of Ring-Oscillators-based Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs). PUFs are used to extract a unique signature of an integrated circuit in order to authenticate a device and/or to generate a key. We show that designers of RO PUFs implemented in FPGAs need a precise control of placement and routing and an appropriate selection of ROs pairs to get independent bits in the PUF response. We provide a method to identify which comparisons are suitable when selecting pairs of ROs. Dealing with power consumption, we propose a simple improvement that reduces the consumption of the PUF published by Suh et al. in 2007 by up to 96.6%. Last but not least, we point out that ring oscillators significantly influence one another and can even be locked. This questions the reliability of the PUF and should be taken into account during the design.
Genomewide Analyses Define Different Modes of Transcriptional Regulation by Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-β/δ (PPARβ/δ)

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are nuclear receptors with essential functions in lipid, glucose and energy homeostasis, cell differentiation, inflammation and metabolic disorders, and represent important drug targets. PPARs heterodimerize with retinoid X receptors (RXRs) and can form transcriptional activator or repressor complexes at specific DNA elements (PPREs). It is believed that the decision between repression and activation is generally governed by a ligand-mediated switch. We have performed genomewide analyses of agonist-treated and PPARβ/δ-depleted human myofibroblasts to test this hypothesis and to identify global principles of PPARβ/δ-mediated gene regulation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) of PPARβ/δ, H3K4me3 and RNA polymerase II enrichment sites combined with transcriptional profiling enabled the definition of 112 bona fide PPARβ/δ target genes showing either of three distinct types of transcriptional response: (I) ligand-independent repression by PPARβ/δ; (II) ligand-induced activation and/or derepression by PPARβ/δ; and (III) ligand-independent activation by PPARβ/δ. These data identify PPRE-mediated repression as a major mechanism of transcriptional regulation by PPARβ/δ, but, unexpectedly, also show that only a subset of repressed genes are activated by a ligand-mediated switch. Our results also suggest that the type of transcriptional response by a given target gene is connected to the structure of its associated PPRE(s) and the biological function of its encoded protein. These observations have important implications for understanding the regulatory PPAR network and PPARβ/δ ligand-based drugs.
Evaluation of an instantaneous microbial detection system in controlled and cleanroom environments

The ability of an instantaneous microbial detection system (IMD-A) to monitor microbial populations In environmental air was evaluated. The IMD-A results were compared with results from conventional environmental air monitoring methods. The comparisons were carried out In controlled microbial barrier test chambers and In cleanroom environments. Additionally, microbial populations in environmental air in an unclassified environment were evaluated using the IMD-A and the all-gas impingement (AGI) method coupled with ScanRDI. In 1-m 3 and 150-m 3 controlled-barrier test chamber studies the mean recoveries with the IMD-A were equal to or greater than the mean recoveries obtained with the Anderson air sampler at various concentrations. The mean microbial recoveries obtained using the AGI were higher, but in the same order of magnitude, as those recovered by IMD-A. In classified environments, microbial recoveries from the SAS air sampler were substantially lower than microbial counts detected by the IMD-A. There were reasonable correlations of microbial recoveries between the IMD-A and the SAS air sampler results In cleanroom environments. Mean microbial recoveries from environmental air in an unclassified environment were similar in the IMD-A and AGI methods coupled with ScanRDI analysis. These results suggest that the IMD-A has the potential to reliably and instantaneously evaluate microbial populations in environmental air to provide a valuable technique for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
A high-performanance remote computing platform

The pervasive computing environment and the wide network bandwidth provide users more opportunities to utilize remote computing resources. In this paper, we introduce a high-performance remote computing platform to enable thin clients to access the applications in remote servers. Our system employs a compression-friendly model, where all the data redundancies are exploited in the compression viewport. Within this model, we also propose a unified coding scheme to efficiently compress the vast-spectral screens. Several mechanisms are further proposed to improve interactivity and reduce the bandwidth consumption in the system, including adaptive transmission for heterogeneous display devices. Simulations with real applications demonstrate that our system significantly outperforms previous thin-client systems. Especially for video playback under moderate- and low-bandwidth network conditions, our system can achieve the frame update rate 5 times as high as the previous counterparts.
Changes of Brain Connectivity in the Primary Motor Cortex After Subcortical Stroke

AbstractThe authors investigated the changes in connectivity networks of the bilateral primary motor cortex (M1) of subcortical stroke patients using a multimodal neuroimaging approach with antiplatelet therapy. Nineteen patients were scanned at 2 time points: before and 1 month after the treatment. The authors assessed the resting-state functional connectivity (FC) and probabilistic fiber tracking of left and right M1 of every patient, and then compared these results to the 15 healthy controls. The authors also evaluated the correlations between the neuroimaging results and clinical scores.Compared with the controls, the patients showed a significant decrease of FC in the contralateral motor cortex before treatment, and the disrupted FC was restored after treatment. The fiber tracking results in the controls indicated that the body of the corpus callosum should be the main pathway connecting the M1 and contralateral hemispheres. All patients exhibited reduced probability of structural connectivity within this pathway before treatment and which was restored after treatment. Significant correlations were also found in these patients between the connectivity results and clinical scores, which might imply that the connectivity of M1 can be used to evaluate the motor skills in stroke patients.These findings can help elucidate the neural mechanisms responsible for the brain connectivity recovery after stroke.
Preservation of the dissipativity properties of a class of nonsmooth dynamical systems with the (θ,γ)-algorithm

In this work we study the following problem: given a numerical method (an extended θ−method named the (θ,γ)-method), find the class of dissipative linear complementarity sys- tems such that their discrete-time counterpart is still dissipative, with the same storage (energy) function, supply rate (reciprocal variables), and dissipation function. Systems with continuous so- lutions, and with state jumps are studied. The notion of numerical dissipation is given a rigorous meaning.
Association study of candidate variants of COMT with neuroticism, anxiety and depression

The Val158Met polymorphism of the gene encoding catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the most widely tested variants for association with psychiatric disorders, but replication has been inconsistent including both sex limitation and heterogeneity of the associated allele. In this study we investigate the association between three SNPs from COMT and anxiety and depression disorders and neuroticism all measured within the same study sample. Participants were selected as sibling pairs (or multiples) that were either concordant or discordant for extreme neuroticism scores from a total sample of 18,742 Australian twin individuals and their siblings. All participants completed the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) from which diagnoses of DSM‐IV depression and anxiety disorders were determined. Of the participants, 674 had a diagnosis of anxiety and/or depression from 492 families. Study participants (n = 2,045 from 987 families) plus, where possible, their parents were genotyped for rs737865, rs4680 (Val158Met), and rs165599. Using family based tests we looked for association between these variants and neuroticism, depression, anxiety, panic disorder and agarophobia (PDAG) and obsessive compulsive disorder. We found no convincing evidence for association either in allelic or genotypic tests for the total sample or when the sample was stratified by sex. Haplotype T‐G‐G showed weak association (P = 0.042) with PDAG before correction for multiple testing; association between this haplotype and schizophrenia has been previously reported in an Australian sample. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Must there be so few? Including women in CS

Women's under-representation in academic computer science is described for the U.S. and internationally. Conditions that contribute to this situation are identified, and motivations for increasing women's participation in computer science are discussed According to recent research in the US. , effective interventions at the undergraduate level include: actively recruiting women, encouraging women to persist, and mentoring for the purpose of overcoming under-representation. The latter two practices are easily implemented.
Transition on the Shop Floor - the Restructuring of a Weaving Mill, Hungary 1988-97

While a variety of studies analysed the benign effects of privatisation on firm performance under post-socialist transition using financial data very little is known about how the apparent productivity gains were achieved. This paper follows a weaving mill from 1998 to 1997 on its way of becoming a capitalist enterprise and gives a detailed account of the sources and limits of productivity growth. The data suggests that the factory was not far from the competitive optimum given the size of "plant and equipment" - efficiency gains were mostly achieved by plant size reduction and asset stripping. The gains from this sort of initial restructuring helped many former state enterprises stay on the market but they did not necessarily indicate high levels of adaptability, capacity to innovate and ability to attract outside investors. In economies with many "seemingly restructured" privatised enterprises the elimination of the former state sector jobs is likely to continue within the private sector. The process may last for years after privatisation as a legal act had been fully accomplished.
Value-relevant properties of smoothed earnings December , 2002

Both prior research and the popular financial press suggest that earnings smoothing is associated with higher valuations, per dollar of reported earnings. Apparently, smoothing causes reported earnings to be a less noisy measure of “permanent” earnings that can be sustained over the longterm. We extend those results to examine whether earnings smoothing is associated with higher valuations per dollar of permanent earnings, proxied by forecasted earnings, and find that earnings smoothing is associated with higher forward P/E ratios. We then investigate the extent to which this result is due to earnings smoothing being associated with higher growth and lower risk, the two effects that generate higher forward P/E ratios. Our results suggest that earnings smoothing is positively related to forecast growth and negatively related to risk, with the growth effect being more evident than the risk effect.
Hidradenitis suppurativa: a common and burdensome, yet under-recognised, inflammatory skin disease

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, relapsing, inflammatory skin condition that typically occurs after puberty. The primary clinical presentation is painful inflamed nodules or boils in the apocrine gland-bearing regions (armpits, genital area, groin, breasts and buttocks/anus) that progress to abscesses, sinus tracts and scarring. Severity is typically described according to three Hurley categories, with most patients having mild or moderate disease. Estimated prevalence is 1–4% worldwide and HS is three times more common in women than men. Patients’ disease burden includes intense pain, work disability and overall poor quality of life. Although the clinical signs of the disease can often be hidden by clothing, active HS is associated with a malodorous discharge that contributes to the disabling social stigma. Risk factors include smoking and obesity. Comorbidities include inflammatory bowel disease and spondyloarthropathies. The presentation of the disease is distinct, yet HS is not well-recognised except in dermatology clinics.
Mathematical modeling of 16S ribosomal DNA amplification reveals optimal conditions for the interrogation of complex microbial communities with phylogenetic microarrays

MOTIVATION Many current studies of complex microbial communities rely on the isolation of community genomic DNA, amplification of 16S ribosomal RNA genes (rDNA) and subsequent examination of community structure through interrogation of the amplified 16S rDNA pool by high-throughput sequencing, phylogenetic microarrays or quantitative PCR. RESULTS Here we describe the development of a mathematical model aimed to simulate multitemplate amplification of 16S ribosomal DNA sample and subsequent detection of these amplified 16S rDNA species by phylogenetic microarray. Using parameters estimated from the experimental results obtained in the analysis of intestinal microbial communities with Microbiota Array, we show that both species detection and the accuracy of species abundance estimates depended heavily on the number of PCR cycles used to amplify 16S rDNA. Both parameters initially improved with each additional PCR cycle and reached optimum between 15 and 20 cycles of amplification. The use of more than 20 cycles of PCR amplification and/or more than 50 ng of starting genomic DNA template was, however, detrimental to both the fraction of detected community members and the accuracy of abundance estimates. Overall, the outcomes of the model simulations matched well available experimental data. Our simulations also showed that species detection and the accuracy of abundance measurements correlated positively with the higher sample-wide PCR amplification rate, lower template-to-template PCR bias and lower number of species in the interrogated community. The developed model can be easily modified to simulate other multitemplate DNA mixtures as well as other microarray designs and PCR amplification protocols.
The Contribution of Domestic, Regional and International Factors to Latin America's Business Cycle

This paper quantifies the relative contribution of domestic, regional and international factors to the fluctuation of domestic output in six key Latin American (LA) countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru. Using quarterly data over the period 1980:1-2003:4, a multi-variate, multi-country time series model was estimated to study the economic interdependence among LA countries and, in addition, between each of them and the three world largest industrial economies: the US, the Euro Area and Japan. Falsifying a common suspicion, it is shown that the proportion of LA countries' domestic output variability explained by industrial countries' factors is modest. By contrast, domestic and regional factors account for the main share of output variability at all simulation horizons. The implications for the choice of the exchange rate regime are also discussed.
A best space for assisted wheelchair users

Introduction Occupational therapists lack manual-handling sensitive tools to assist individual adaptation specifications for assisted wheelchair users, for example, corridor-room turns for extra-long wheelchairs. Method Engineering-based methods identified an experimental set-up. This provided a useful representation of possible manoeuvres in five tasks and proposed a turn difficulty order. Experienced wheelchair assistants (n = 22) selected their maximum comfortable wheelchair weight for each turn. Results Some participants (3/22) were insensitive to turning-space but all other participants (19/22) chose their lowest maximum comfortable weight for the tightest turning-space and 17/19 chose their highest weights for space permitting a slow turn. Mean percentage weight increased by 30% from tight to slow turning-space. Results are statistically significant and clinically important. Experimental set-up was similar to assisting in confined spaces; participants were experienced in working in spacious environments and had recent manual-handling training so results are supported by good manual-handling practice. Assistant-size impact on easiest (highest weight) turning-space is small. Results are applicable to all floor coverings and wheelchair sizes but not to self-propelling wheelchair users. Results are incorporated into a tool, demonstrated by case study. Conclusion Tool-use specifies a best adaptation.
Resilient decentralized stabilization of interconnected time‐delay systems with polytopic uncertainties

Decentralized delay‐dependent local stability and resilient feedback stabilization methods are developed for a class of linear interconnected continuous‐time systems. The subsystems are time‐delay plants which are subjected to convex‐bounded parametric uncertainties and additive feedback gain perturbations while allowing time‐varying delays to occur within the local subsystems and across the interconnections. The delay‐dependent local stability conditions are established at the subsystem level through the construction of appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional. We characterize decentralized linear matrix inequalities (LMIs)‐based delay‐dependent stability conditions by deploying an injection procedure such that every local subsystem is delay‐dependent robustly asymptotically stable with an γ‐level ℒ︁2‐gain. Resilient decentralized state‐feedback stabilization schemes are designed, which takes into account additive gain perturbations such that the family of closed‐loop feedback subsystems enjoys the delay‐dependent asymptotic stability with a prescribed γ‐level ℒ︁2‐gain for each subsystem. The decentralized feedback gains are determined by convex optimization over LMIs. All the developed results are tested on representative examples. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An Evaluation of Educational Website Designs from the Perspective of Visual Perception Theories: A Study on Scale Development

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale which could be used to evaluate instructional website designs from the perspective of visual perception theories. For this purpose, a scale of 50 items was developed based on the literature and expert opinions. Visual perception theories such as Gestalt Theory, Brunswick’s Probabilistic Functionalism, Neuropsychological Theory, Theory of Direct Perception and Ecological Optics, Constructivist Visual Perception Theory and Computational Approach to Visual Perception provided a basis for the development of scale items; also a focus group discussion was employed. 196 students from the Computer Education and Instructional Technologies (CEIT) Department filled the scale. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied along with the principal component method on data. Following the factor analysis, a single factor scale was developed. The loading of each item in the scale was found to be over . 30. The internal consistency coefficient of the overall scale was high (α=.961). The corrected item-total correlation coefficient of the items was . 301 and over. Through factor analysis, it was revealed that the scale had a single-factor structure with an explained variance of 35%. At the end of the study, several recommendations were presented for future studies.