Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
sFas levels increase in response to cisplatin‐based chemotherapy in lung cancer patients

The Fas/Fas Ligand (FasL) system and survivin have counteracting roles in cell survival. Therefore, we explored the role of circulating soluble Fas (sFas) and the tissue levels of Fas and survivin with regard to response to chemotherapy in lung cancer patients. Serum samples from 52 lung cancer patients and 54 control subjects (19 benign lung disease and 35 healthy control subjects) were collected prior to and 24 and 48 h after chemotherapy. sFas was statistically significantly higher in the cancer group than that in the control groups (p < 0.001). Baseline (before chemotherapy) sFas values showed a statistically significant inverse correlation with overall survival (r = −0.599, p < 0.001). There was a significant increase in serum sFas levels 24 h after treatment (p < 0.05). Contrarily, tissue levels of Fas and survivin were not changed following the chemotherapy (p > 0,05). In conclusion, increased sFas may be an indicator of poor outcome in lung cancer patients. However, cisplatin‐based chemotherapy may not be effective via neither the Fas/FasL system nor survivin pathway. Indeed, larger sample size is required for further evaluation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Atropine is more efficient than ZM241385 to reduce a drastic level of fade caused by cisatracurium at 50 Hz

The effects of atropine (non selective muscarinic antagonist) and ZM241385 (A 2A receptors antagonist) in the cisatracurium-induced drastic (100%) level of fade at 50 Hz (10 s) (100% Fade) were compared in the phrenic nerve-diaphragm muscle preparations of rats indirectly stimulated at a physiological tetanic frequency (50 Hz). The lowest dose and the instant cisatracurium caused 100% Fade were investigated. Cisatracurium induced 100% Fade 15 min after being administered. Atropine reduced the cisatracurium-induced 100% Fade, but the administration of ZM241385 separately, or combined with atropine, did not cause any effect in the cisatracurium-induced 100% Fade. Data indicate that the simultaneous blockage of M 1 and M 2 muscarinic receptors on motor nerve terminal by atropine is more efficient than the blockage of presynaptic A 2A receptors for a safer recovery of patients from neuromuscular blockade caused by cisatracurium.
Named Series: Brain Mechanisms of Placebo Expectations and associations that heal: Immunomodulatory placebo eVects and its neurobiology

The use of placebo may have accompanied healing and medical practices since their origins (Plato; Charmides, 155–156). Recent experimental data indicate that we would be well advised to further consider placebo eVects in future therapeutic strategies, with a better knowledge of their potency, psychological basis and underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Current research in the areas of pain, depression and Parkinson’s disease has uncovered some of the potential neurobiological mechanisms of placebo eVects. These data indicate that conscious expectation and unconscious behavioral conditioning processes appear to be the major neurobiological mechanisms capable of releasing endogenous neurotransmitters and/or neurohormones that mimic the expected or conditioned pharmacological eVects. To date, research on placebo responses aVecting immune-related diseases is scarce, but there are consistent indications that skin and mucosal inXammatory diseases, in particular, are strongly modulated by placebo treatments. However, the brain’s capability to modulate peripheral immune reactivity has been impressively demonstrated by paradigms of behavioral conditioning in animal experiments and human studies. Thus, placebo eVects can beneWt end organ functioning and the overall health of the individual through positive expectations and behavioral conditioning processes.
Airborne Three-Dimensional Cloud Tomography

We seek to sense the three dimensional (3D) volumetric distribution of scatterers in a heterogenous medium. An important case study for such a medium is the atmosphere. Atmospheric contents and their role in Earth's radiation balance have significant uncertainties with regards to scattering components: aerosols and clouds. Clouds, made of water droplets, also lead to local effects as precipitation and shadows. Our sensing approach is computational tomography using passive multi-angular imagery. For light-matter interaction that accounts for multiple-scattering, we use the 3D radiative transfer equation as a forward model. Volumetric recovery by inverting this model suffers from a computational bottleneck on large scales, which include many unknowns. Steps taken make this tomography tractable, without approximating the scattering order or angle range.
Batch Bayesian Optimization via Local Penalization

The popularity of Bayesian optimization methods for efficient exploration of parameter spaces has lead to a series of papers applying Gaussian processes as surrogates in the optimization of functions. However, most proposed approaches only allow the exploration of the parameter space to occur sequentially. Often, it is desirable to simultaneously propose batches of parameter values to explore. This is particularly the case when large parallel processing facilities are available. These facilities could be computational or physical facets of the process being optimized. E.g. in biological experiments many experimental set ups allow several samples to be simultaneously processed. Batch methods, however, require modeling of the interaction between the evaluations in the batch, which can be expensive in complex scenarios. We investigate a simple heuristic based on an estimate of the Lipschitz constant that captures the most important aspect of this interaction (i.e. local repulsion) at negligible computational overhead. The resulting algorithm compares well, in running time, with much more elaborate alternatives. The approach assumes that the function of interest, $f$, is a Lipschitz continuous function. A wrap-loop around the acquisition function is used to collect batches of points of certain size minimizing the non-parallelizable computational effort. The speed-up of our method with respect to previous approaches is significant in a set of computationally expensive experiments.
De Novo Lymph Node Formation in Chronic Inflammation of the Human Leg

Abstract: Organized lymphoid tissue is the first line of antigenic defense. Recruited by antigen located in the non‐lymphoid tissues, the infiltrating lymphocytes often organize themselves as follicle‐like structures that contain germinal centers, similar to those in secondary lymphoid follicles of lymph nodes. These extranodal tertiary lymphoid follicles are found in various autoimmune diseases. We investigated 153 patients with protracted lymph stasis of the lower limb, caused by lymphatic damage incurred through soft tissue bacterial inflammation or mechanical trauma of soft tissues and bones. In 10% of patients with post‐inflammatory, and in 25% with post‐traumatic lymph stasis, “newly‐formed” lymph nodes were detected by means of lymphoscintigraphy. They were located along the large calf and thigh veins. Although scattered nodes are normally detected in these areas, the number and total mass of visualized nodes substantially exceeded those seen in healthy subjects. The calculated surface area of “newly formed” nodes attained 50‐70% of the area of ipsilateral inguinal nodes. Histological evaluation of nodal biopsy specimens in three such patients revealed, in one, a lymph node structure without differentiation into cortical and medullary areas, and in a second, a follicle‐like structure within a dilated lymph vessel. Lymph clot removed from another dilated vessel contained a lymphocyte/dendritic cell aggregate. The “newly formed” nodes likely originate from primordial lymphoid follicles and/or lymphoid cell aggregates formed in response to chronic stimulation by microbial products and self‐antigens from the damaged tissues. Detection of “newly‐formed” lymph nodes in the limb is evidence of an ongoing inflammatory process and requires appropriate therapy.
The Role of Sea Spray in Cleansing Air Pollution over Ocean via Cloud Processes

Particulate air pollution has been shown to strongly suppress precipitation from convective clouds over land. New observations show that precipitation from similar polluted clouds over oceans is much less affected, because large sea salt nuclei override the precipitation suppression effect of the large number of small pollution nuclei. Raindrops initiated by the sea salt grow by collecting small cloud droplets that form on the pollution particles, thereby cleansing the air. Therefore, sea salt helps cleanse the atmosphere of the air pollution via cloud processes. This implies that over oceans, the climatic aerosol indirect effects are significantly smaller than current estimates.
Electric power network security analysis via minimum cut relaxation

In this paper an efficient computation scheme for analyzing the security of power transmission networks is presented. In order to strategically allocate protection devices in the network, the problem of finding the sparsest stealthy false data attack to the state estimator is studied. While the attack search problem is traditionally solved as a generic constrained cardinality minimization problem, this paper exploits the problem structure intrinsic to the power network application to obtain a polynomial time approximate algorithm based on a minimum cut relaxation. Experiment results from realistic test cases are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed algorithm.
The effects of kin on child mortality in rural gambia

We analyzed data that were collected continuously between 1950 and 1974 from a rural area of the Gambia to determine the effects of kin on child mortality. Multilevel event-history models were used to demonstrate that having a living mother, maternal grandmother, or elder sisters had a significant positive effect on the survival probabilities of children, whereas having a living father, paternal grandmother, grandfather, or elder brothers had no effect. The mother’s remarriage to a new husband had a detrimental effect on child survival, but there was little difference in the mortality rates of children who were born to monogamous or polygynous fathers. The implications of these results for understanding the evolution of human life-history are discussed.
Renaming schizophrenia to reduce stigma: comparison with the case of bipolar disorder

Summary Renaming disorders to change public beliefs and attitudes remains controversial. This study compared the potentially destigmatising effects of renaming schizophrenia with the effects of renaming bipolar disorder by comparing the label ‘schizophrenia’ to ‘integration disorder’, and ‘bipolar disorder’ to ‘manic depression’, in 1621 lay participants. ‘Bipolar disorder’ was associated with less fear and social distance than ‘manic depression’. ‘Integration disorder’ was associated with increased endorsement of a biopsychosocial cause and reduced attributions of dangerousness but also increased social distance, highlighting the complex effects renaming has on stigma.
Passive Containment and Reverse Remodeling by a Novel Textile Cardiac Support Device

Background—Progressive remodeling and dilation of cardiac chambers is responsible in part for myocardial dysfunction in chronic heart failure. Preclinical studies with suitable animal models indicate that a passive cardiac constraint device can promote reverse remodeling, with improvement in cardiac function. We hypothesize that such a device could provide benefit for stable heart failure patients in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II and III . Methods and Results—From April 1999 to March 2000, 27 patients received Acorn’s Cardiac Support Device (CSD) during an initial safety/feasibility study. In 11 patients, the only surgical measure was CSD placement. Most patients suffered from idiopathic cardiomyopathy; 4 were in NYHA class II, one was in class II/III, and 6 were in class III. All were stable on intensive medical treatment. The CSD, a textile polyester device, was fitted snugly around the heart during surgery. All patients survived surgery and recovered smoothly. Three months after surgery, 56% of patients were in NYHA class I, 33% were in class II, and 11% were in class II/III. Echocardiography showed an improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction from an average of 22% to 28% and 33% at 3 and 6 months, respectively. Simultaneously, the left ventricular end-diastolic dimension decreased from 74 mm to 68 mm and 65 mm, respectively. Mitral valve regurgitation (on a scale of 0 to 4+) decreased from 1.3 to 0.7 by 3 months. Quality-of-life indices correlated with the apparent reversal of ventricular remodeling. Preoperative cardiac medications remained virtually unchanged after implant. Conclusions—In the short- and intermediate-term, CSD implantation seems to ameliorate symptoms and improve cardiac and functional performance in heart failure patients. Worldwide randomized trials are currently underway.
Protective effects of zinc, pentoxifylline, and N-acetylcysteine in an animal model of laparoscopy-induced ischemia/reperfusion injury of the small intestine.

BACKGROUND Pneumoperitoneum induced to facilitate laparoscopy is associated with splanchnic hypoperfusion, ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, and oxidative stress. AIM This study investigated the effects of pre- and postlaparoscopic conditioning, zinc, pentoxifylline, and N-acetylcysteine on markers of I/R injury of the small intestine in an animal model. METHODS Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=56) were randomized to 1 of 7 treatment groups. Except for group 7 (control group that underwent sham surgery without pneumoperitoneum), pneumoperitoneum was induced in all by use of carbondioxide insufflation under a pressure of 15 mmHg. Group 1 (laparoscopic I/R) was subjected to 60 minutes of pneumoperitoneum. Group 2 (laparoscopic preconditioning plus laparoscopy) was subjected to 5 minutes of insufflation and 5 minutes of desufflation followed by 60 minutes of pneumoperitoneum. Group 3 (laparoscopy plus laparoscopic postconditioning) was subjected to 60 minutes of pneumoperitoneum and 60 minutes of desufflation followed by 5 minutes of insufflation and 5 minutes of desufflation. Group 4 (zinc), group 5 (pentoxifylline), and group 6 (N-acetylcysteine) received a single intraperitoneal injection of zinc (50 mg/kg), pentoxifylline (50 mg/kg), or N-acetylcysteine (150 mg/kg), respectively, 5 minutes before the desufflation period. Animals were killed at the end of the experiments, and small intestine samples were tested for malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). RESULTS There was no significant difference for MDA levels between each other in the groups 1, 2, and 3. But MDA levels were higher significantly in groups 1, 2, and 3 than those of groups 4, 5, 6, and 7. SOD and GPX levels of group 3 were significantly higher than those of groups 1, 2, 4 through 7. According to the SOD levels, there was no significant difference between each other in those of groups 1, 2, 4 through 7. GPX levels of group 3 were significantly higher than those of groups 1, 2, 4 through 7. GPX levels of group 1 were significantly lower than those of groups 5 and 7. The mean CAT level of groups 1 and 2 was significantly lower than that of groups 3, 6, and 7. The mean CAT level of group 3 was significantly higher than that of groups 1, 2, 4 through 7. CONCLUSIONS In this animal model of small intestine I/R injury, laparoscopy caused small intestine ischemia as evidenced by elevated markers of tissue I/R injury. This effect was significantly attenuated by zinc, pentoxifylline, and N-acetylcysteine, but not by prelaparoscopy conditioning and postlaparoscopy conditioning.
Recent developments and open problems in linear series

In the week 3--9, October 2010, the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut at Oberwolfach hosted a mini workshop Linear Series on Algebraic Varieties. These notes contain a variety of interesting problems which motivated the participants prior to the event, and examples, results and further problems which grew out of discussions during and shortly after the workshop. A lot of arguments presented here are scattered in the literature or constitute folklore. It was one of our aims to have a usable and easily accessible collection of examples and results.
Decoding human motor activity from EEG single trials for a discrete two-dimensional cursor control

This study aims to explore whether human intentions to move or cease to move right and left hands can be decoded from spatiotemporal features in non-invasive EEG in order to control a discrete two-dimensional cursor movement for a potential multidimensional brain–computer interface (BCI). Five naïve subjects performed either sustaining or stopping a motor task with time locking to a predefined time window by using motor execution with physical movement or motor imagery. Spatial filtering, temporal filtering, feature selection and classification methods were explored. The performance of the proposed BCI was evaluated by both offline classification and online two-dimensional cursor control. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) and post-movement event-related synchronization (ERS) were observed on the contralateral hemisphere to the hand moved for both motor execution and motor imagery. Feature analysis showed that EEG beta band activity in the contralateral hemisphere over the motor cortex provided the best detection of either sustained or ceased movement of the right or left hand. The offline classification of four motor tasks (sustain or cease to move right or left hand) provided 10-fold cross-validation accuracy as high as 88% for motor execution and 73% for motor imagery. The subjects participating in experiments with physical movement were able to complete the online game with motor execution at an average accuracy of 85.5 ± 4.65%; the subjects participating in motor imagery study also completed the game successfully. The proposed BCI provides a new practical multidimensional method by noninvasive EEG signal associated with human natural behavior, which does not need long-term training.
An open access repository of images on plant health to enable the development of mobile disease diagnostics through machine learning and crowdsourcing

Human society needs to increase food production by an estimated 70% by 2050 to feed an expected population size that is predicted to be over 9 billion people. Currently infectious diseases reduce the potential yield by an average of 40% with many farmers in the developing world experiencing yield losses as high as 100%. Infectious diseases of crops are not new and historic examples such as the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-49 demonstrate this. But what is new is the widespread distribution of smartphones among crop growers around the world with an expected 5 billion smartphones by 2020. This offers the potential of turning the smartphone into a valuable tool for diverse communities growing food. One potential application is the development of mobile disease diagnostics through machine learning and crowdsourcing. Computer vision and machine learning have shown their potential to automatically classify images. To do this for plant diseases requires a training set that facilitates the development of the algorithms. Here we announce the release of >50,000 expertly curated images on healthy and infected leaves of crops plants through the existing platform www.PlantVillage. org. We describe both the data and the platform. These data are the beginning of an on-going, crowdsourcing effort to enable computer vision approaches to help solve the problem of yield losses in crop plants due to infectious diseases.
BIOSYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES USING CULTURE FILTRATES OF LACTIC ACID BACTERIA AND ANALYSIS OF ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY

The biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is a recent approach in nanotechnology with promising application in food industry, pharmacy and medicine. In the present study, the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles from aqueous solution of AgNO3 was performed using the cell free supernatant of Lactobacillus plantarum strain LAB 58. The silver nanoparticles biosynthesis was identified by the change of colour of culture filtrate from yellow to brown due to the excitation of surface Plasmon vibrations by absorbance at 420 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed that the silver nanoparticles were spherical or polyhedral, with size range from 2 to 45 nm. AgNPs presented antifungal activity against spoilage fungi from genera Fusarium, Penicillium and Aspergillus. Optic microscopy analysis revealed hyphal alteration of Fusarium structures under the influence of treatment with AgNPs. The biosynthesized silver nanoparticles may have application as antifungal agents in food control and medicine.
Coupling of [Ca2+]i and ciliary beating in cultured tracheal epithelial cells.

The molecular mechanisms responsible for the regulation of ciliary beating frequency (CBF) are only partially characterized. To determine whether elevation of intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) can cause an increase in CBF, we measured CBF and Ca2+ in single cells. Ovine tracheal epithelial cells, obtained by dissociation with protease, were grown in primary culture for 1 to 28 days in a mucus-free system. CBF of a single cilium was measured by digital video phase-contrast microscopy and on-line Fourier-transform analysis. Changes in [Ca2+]i from single cells were determined with fura-2, using ratio imaging video microscopy. Activation of a muscarinic pathway with 10 microM ACh (acetylcholine) increased [Ca2+]i from 53 +/- 9 nM (mean +/- s.e.m.) to 146 +/- 12 nM or to 264 +/- 51% above initial baseline. In the same cells, ACh increased CBF from a baseline of 7 +/- 0.5 Hz to 9 +/- 0.2 Hz or to 31 +/- 2.8% above baseline (n = 14). The elevations of both [Ca2+]i and CBF were transient and relaxed back to an elevated plateau (10/14 cells) as long as ACh was present. To elevate [Ca2+]i by mechanisms independent of a G-protein-coupled receptor, we measured [Ca2+]i and CBF of the same cells in extracellular solutions with either 0 Ca2+ (+ 1 mM EGTA) or 10 mM Ca2+. Both signals rose and fell with similar kinetics in response to changing [Ca2+]0, suggesting that changes in [Ca2+]i alone can modulate CBF. In a second independent manipulation, cells were treated with 1 microM thapsigargin, an irreversible inhibitor of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase. Upon thapsigargin addition, 37 of 42 cells showed a transient [Ca2+]i increase and, as measured in different experiments, 8 of 9 cells showed a transient increase in CBF. Interestingly, application of ACh after cells were treated with thapsigargin produced decreases in both [Ca2+]i and CBF in 8/8 cells. Lastly, after 1-3 days in culture, addition of 10 microM ACh often produced [Ca2+]i oscillations rather than transients in [Ca2+]i. Measurements of CBF in these cells showed frequency modulation of CBF with the same peak-to-peak time interval as the Ca2+ oscillation. These results show that: (1) CBF can be measured from a single cilium and monitored on-line to track changes; (2) CBF and [Ca2+]i can be measured in the same single cell; (3) transient changes in [Ca2+]i (induced by 4 different manipulations) are associated with kinetically similar changes in CBF; and (4) [Ca2+]i oscillations are coupled to frequency modulation of ciliary beating. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Automatic Induction of a CCG Grammar for Turkish

This paper presents the results of automatically inducing a Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) lexicon from a Turkish dependency treebank. The fact that Turkish is an agglutinating free wordorder language presents a challenge for language theories. We explored possible ways to obtain a compact lexicon, consistent with CCG principles, from a treebank which is an order of magnitude smaller than Penn WSJ.