Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LOX expression in primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma: correlation with prognostic parameters and outcome

Lysyl oxidase (LOX) is an extracellular matrix-remodeling enzyme that plays important roles in tumor development and progression. To evaluate the prognostic value of LOX levels in primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma, we performed an immunohistochemical analysis using 233 tissue biopsy specimens from as many patients. We found that the extent of immunohistochemical LOX staining correlated inversely with the clinicopathological features and survival. High LOX expression correlated with decreases in 5-year survival, overall survival, distant metastasis-free survival and disease-free survival (p < 0.05). Cox regression analysis confirmed that LOX was a significant prognostic indicator of increased risk of 5-year mortality for all patients (hazard ratio [HR], 1.670; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.033–2.701 [p < .005]). Higher LOX expression was also an independent predictor of poor prognosis in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. These findings suggest LOX may be a new biomarker predictive of NPC prognosis and may also be a useful treatment target.
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation a Comparison of Three Feature Selection Methods for Object-based Classification of Sub-decimeter Resolution Ultracam-l Imagery

In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: a b s t r a c t The availability of numerous spectral, spatial, and contextual features with object-based image analysis (OBIA) renders the selection of optimal features a time consuming and subjective process. While several feature selection methods have been used in conjunction with OBIA, a robust comparison of the utility and efficiency of approaches would facilitate broader and more effective implementation. In this study, we evaluated three feature selection methods, (1) Jeffreys–Matusita distance (JM), (2) classification tree analysis (CTA), and (3) feature space optimization (FSO) for object-based vegetation classifications with sub-decimeter digital aerial imagery in arid rangelands of the southwestern U.S. We assessed strengths, weaknesses, and best uses for each method using the criteria of ease of use, ability to rank and/or reduce input features, and classification accuracies. For the five sites tested, JM resulted in the highest overall classification accuracies for three sites, while CTA yielded highest accuracies for two sites. FSO resulted in the lowest accuracies. CTA offered ease of use and ability to rank and reduce features, while JM had the advantage of assessing class separation distances. FSO allowed for determining features relatively quickly, because it operates within the OBIA software used in this analysis (eCognition). However, the feature ranking in FSO is not transparent and accuracies were relatively low. While all methods offered an objective approach for determining suitable features for classifications of sub-decimeter resolution aerial imagery, we concluded that CTA was best suited for this particular application. We explore the limitations, assumptions, and appropriate uses for this and other datasets.
Discussion of “ Boosting Algorithms : Regularization , Prediction and Model Fitting ” by Peter Bühlmann and

We congratulate the authors (hereafter BH) for an interesting take on the boosting technology, and for developing a modular computational environment in R for exploring their models. Their use of low-degree-of-freedom smoothing splines as a base learner provides an interesting approach to adaptive additive modeling. The notion of “Twin Boosting” is interesting as well; besides the adaptive lasso, we have seen the idea applied more directly for the lasso and Dantzig selector (James, Radchenko & Lv 2007). In this discussion we elaborate on the connections between L2-boosting of a linear model and infinitesimal forward stagewise linear regression (Section 5.2.1 in BH). We then take the authors to task on their definition of degrees of freedom (Section 5.3 of BH).
Polymorphisms of Calpain 10 ( Capn 10 ) In Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus – A Review

ype 2 Diabetes Mellitus is a complex disorder due to the actions and interactions of many genetic and environmental factors. Although exercise and changes in the diet can reduce the complications of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, identifying the genetic risk factors and non-genetic risk factors may help treat the disease better with its known physiology and effective therapies. Recent identification of different genetic risk locus of chromosomes, disease susceptibility genes and the genetic variations of each gene is not only a step towards knowing the disease but also help treate the disease, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus better. The first positionally cloned gene for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Calpain 10, located on chromosone 2q37.3(NIDDM1) has undergone detailed study, four nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs); UCSNP43, UCSNP44, UCSNP19, and UCSNP63 in the recent past with respect to other susceptibility genes; INS, INSR, PPARG etc. for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Inheritance of specific haplotype combination defined by SNP-44, -43 -19 and -63 is found to be in association with increased risk to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Different haplotypes and haplotype combinations such as four-locus (1112) and three locus (112) representing different alleles (G/G, G/A, T/C etc.) in different ethnic groups (South Indians, Africans-Americans, Samoans etc.) of different countries (Africa, Asia, India, UK etc.) has undergone as far as posible a through analysis to show the correlation between the disease and the other factors such as quantitative traits (hip size, waist to hip ratio etc), insulin resistence, glucose tollerence etc. in different ethnic groups. Although Insulin secretion, insulin action, insulin stimulated glucose transport and insulin stimulated glycogen synthesis are the significant metabolic activities related to the disease of an individual, evidences from the studies show that there are susceptibility genes controlling these metabolic activities and calpain 10 and its variants contribute to the metabolic activites and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Calpains are hetero-dimers, 80 KDa and 30 KDa, catalytic and regulatory subunits respectively within the range of I to VI domains probably with calcium binding sites. Calpain 10, a cytoplasmic cystein protease probably requires calcium and phospholipids for its activity, is among one of 16 genes, 14 genes from 80K family and 2 genes from 30K family is expressed ubiquitously having probably its main function, protease activity and cellular signaling. Although Calpain 10 is highly expressed in heart, brain, liver, kidney and pancreas, the main role of it is in the tissues such as skeletal muscles.
The Unusual Suspect: A Case of Non-occlusive Mesenteric Ischemia in a Patient With Cirrhosis

Acute mesenteric ischemia has a variety of etiologies. Non-occulusive mesenteric ischemia accounts for 20-30% of patients with acute mesenteric ischemia. We describe a case of non-occulusive jejunal ischemia leading to infarction that occurred in a patient with cirrhosis and no previous history of cardiovascular disease.
Long Term Effects of 'Prosperity in Youth' on Consumption: Evidence from China

We test for the long-term impact of experiencing “prosperity in youth” (PIY) on non-traditional category consumption. Using unique twenty-year panel data of individuals from nine Chinese provinces with varying levels of per-capita GDP and rates of per-capita GDP growth, we find robust evidence for the PIY effect. We find both a direct effect of one’s own prosperity and an indirect effect of the prosperity of one’s province during youth on long-term consumption. In particular, the indirect PIY effect is driven more strongly by individuals with low incomes during youth — suggesting that norms and aspirations created by the consumption of non-traditional categories by the rich during one’s youth have significant impact on long-term consumption — almost the same magnitude as the direct effect. The analysis also highlights the importance of separating cohort effects from life cycle effects for taste based products. We highlight the marketing implications for non-traditional categories in emerging markets.
Elevations in Arterial Pressure Induce the Formation of Spontaneous Action Potentials and Alter Neurotransmission in Canine Ileum Arteries

Arterial segments (<250 μm o.d.) excised from canine ileum were mounted in a chamber that permitted arterial transmural pressure (TMP) to be altered and measured. Subsequently, the periar- terial nerves were field stimulated with single pulses (0.1 msec, 70 V), and the resting membrane potential (Em) as well as the nerve-mediated alterations in smooth muscle Em were measured using intracellular microelectrodes at TMPs between 0 and 160 mm Hg. The resting Em was greatest at TMPs of 40 mm Hg (- 54.7 ± 2.6 mV) and depolarized as the TMP was increased, reaching a value of −44.8 ± 3.1 mV at 160 mm Hg. At TMP ±60 mm Hg, a proportion of the preparations exhibited spontaneous electrical activity (SA) consisting of constant rhythmic oscillations in Em or action potentials (APs) or of trains of rhythmic APs that progressively decreased in amplitude, interrupted by periods of hyperpolarization. SA stopped when the TMP was lowered to 40 mm Hg and was reestablished when the TMP was reelevated to TMPs above 60 mm Hg. Nerve stimulation evoked excitatory junction potentials (ejps) or APs. At constant stimulus parameters, ejps of maximum amplitude having the greatest rate of potential rise and fall were produced at TMP of 100 mm Hg. At TMPs >100 mm Hg or <100 mm Hg, the amplitude and the rate of rise and fall of the ejps decreased. Ejps formed in response to a constant single pulse stimulus (0.1 msec, 70 V) elicited APs only at TMPs ±60 mm Hg. Neither ejps nor APs were inhibited by α-receptor-blocking agents. These studies indicate that the TMP at which an artery is maintained plays an important role in determining the resting Em, the occurrence of spontaneous action potentials, and the alterations in Em associated with nerve stimulation.
A System for Computerized Analysis of Verbal Fluency Tests

I present VF-Clust, a system for computerized analysis of psychological tests of verbal fluency, which are used in clinical settings to detect and assess neurological pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease. While the simple scoring of such tests may not be sensitive to underlying pathologies, more nuanced clustering analyses often are. Currently, clustering analyses on verbal fluency tests are conducted manually, by trained scorers, in a process that is labor-intensive and prone to human error and interrater variability. VF-Clust is a resource for automatically generating clustering analyses, on both semantic and phonemic verbal fluency test responses, by utilizing latent semantic analysis and computational methods for determining phonetic similarity. Results from a pilot study indicate that VF-Clust’s automatically determined clustering measures are as useful as their manually determined equivalents. Additionally, in this study repetitions were more numerous in verbal fluency test responses from patients with dementia from Alzheimer’s disease. In the case of phonemic verbal fluency, controls differed with patients with Alzheimer’s diagnoses on the number of words repeated, but not on the number of words generated, which is the standard measure by which the test is scored. While repetitions are typically ignored in even the most in-depth analyses of verbal fluency test responses, these results indicate that future analyses should consider them. VF-Clust is freely available upon request.
Reattachment of a fractured fragment with relined fiber post using indirect technique: a case report

Although fiber-reinforced posts have been widely used, they sometimes fail to obtain sufficient retention because of an extremely large canal space. To address this, several techniques have been introduced including relining of the fiber-reinforced posts. Here, we used a relined glass-fiber post to increase retention and fitness to the root canal in a crown reattachment case. The relining procedure was performed by using an indirect method on the working cast. This case also highlights the esthetic concerns regarding dehydration of the attached crown fragment.
Experiments with continuation semantics for DNA computing

We investigate the semantics of a process algebra language for DNA computing. As a formal description technique we use denotational semantics and the mathematical methodology of metric semantics. We use continuations and powerdomains to represent nondeterministic behavior. An element of a powerdomain is a collection of sequences of observables representing DNA structures. We consider two notions of an observable item and we design two corresponding denotational models. As far as we know this is the first paper that employs the denotational approach in the semantic investigation of DNA computing.
Correction to "A new approach to service provisioning in ATM networks"

The authors formulate and solve a problem of allocating resources among competing services differentiated by user traffic characteristics and maximum end-to-end delay. The solution leads to an alternative approach to service provisioning in an ATM network, in which the network offers directly for rent its bandwidth and buffers and users purchase freely resources to meet their desired quality. Users make their decisions based on their own traffic parameters and delay requirements and the network sets prices for those resources. The procedure is iterative in that the network periodically adjusts prices based on monitored user demand, and is decentralized in that only local information is needed for individual users to determine resource requests. The authors derive the network's adjustment scheme and the users' decision rule and establish their optimality. Since the approach does not require the network to know user traffic and delay parameters, it does not require traffic policing on the part of the network. >
The Ultraviolet Luminosity Density of the Universe from Photometric Redshifts of Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field

Studies of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and other deep surveys have revealed an apparent peak in the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity density, and therefore the star formation rate density, of the universe at redshifts 1<z<2. We use photometric redshifts of galaxies in the HDF to determine the comoving UV luminosity density, and we find that, when errors (in particular, sampling error) are properly accounted for, a flat distribution is statistically indistinguishable from a distribution peaked at z≃1.5. Furthermore, we examine the effects of cosmological surface brightness (SB) dimming on these measurements by applying a uniform SB cut to all galaxy fluxes after correcting them to redshift z=5. We find that, when comparing all galaxies at the same intrinsic surface brightness sensitivity, the UV luminosity density contributed by high intrinsic SB regions increases by almost 2 orders of magnitude from z≃0 to z≃5. This suggests that there exists a population of objects with very high star formation rates at high redshifts that apparently do not exist at low redshifts. The peak of star formation, then, likely occurs somewhere beyond z>2.
Many roads, one destination for T cell progenitors

The thymus manufactures new T cells throughout life but contains no self-renewing potential. Instead, replenishment depends on recruitment of bone marrow–derived progenitors that circulate in the blood. Attempts to identify thymic-homing progenitors, and to assess the degree to which they are precommitted to the T cell lineage, have led to complex and sometimes conflicting results. As described here, this probably reflects the existence of multiple distinct types of T cell lineage progenitors as well as differences in individual experimental approaches.
TIME-RESOLVED STUDIES OF STICK-SLIP FRICTION IN SHEARED GRANULAR LAYERS

Sensitive and fast force measurements are performed on sheared granular layers undergoing stick-slip motion, along with simultaneous optical imaging. A full study has been done for spherical glass particles with a 20% size distribution. Stick-slip motion due to repetitive fluidization of the granular layer occurs for low driving velocities. Between major slip events, slight creep occurs that is highly variable from one event to the next. The effects of varying the stiffness k of the driving system and the driving velocity V are studied in detail. The stick-slip motion is almost periodic for spherical particles over a wide range of parameters, whereas it becomes irregular when k is large and V is relatively small. At larger V, the motion becomes smoother and is affected by the inertia of the upper plate bounding the layer. Measurements of the period and amplitude of the relative motion are presented as a function of V. At a critical value ${V}_{c}$ a transition to continuous sliding motion occurs. The transition is discontinuous for k not too large, and large fluctuations occur in the neighborhood of the transition. The time dependence of the instantaneous velocity of the upper plate and the frictional force produced by the granular layer are determined within individual slipping events. The frictional force is found to be a multivalued function of the instantaneous velocity during slip, with pronounced hysteresis and a sudden drop just prior to resticking. Measurements of vertical displacement reveal a very small dilation of the material (about one-tenth of the mean particle size in a layer 20 particles deep) associated with each slip event; the dilation reaches its maximum amplitude close to the time of maximum acceleration. Finally, optical imaging reveals that localized microscopic rearrangements precede (and follow) each macroscopic slip event; their number is highly variable and the accumulation of these local displacements is associated with macroscopic creep. The behavior of smooth particles is contrasted qualitatively with that of rough particles.
Weight status and associated factors among HIV-infected people on antiretroviral therapy in rural Dikgale, Limpopo, South Africa

Background Underweight in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected people on antiretroviral therapy (ART) complicates the management of HIV infection and contributes to mortality, whereas overweight increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Aim The study determined weight status and associated factors in people with HIV infection receiving ART. Setting Rural primary health care clinics in Dikgale, Limpopo province, South Africa. Methods A cross-sectional study in which data were collected using the World Health Organization (WHO) stepwise approach to surveillance (STEPS) questionnaire and calculated using WHO analysis programmes guide. Weight and height were measured using standard WHO procedures, and body mass index was calculated as weight (kg)/height (m2). Data on ART duration were extracted from patients’ files. CD4 lymphocyte counts and viral load were determined using standard laboratory techniques. Results Of the 214 participants, 8.9%, 54.7% and 36.4% were underweight, normal weight and overweight, respectively. Physical activity (OR: 0.99, p = 0.001) and male gender (OR: 0.29, p = 0.04) were negatively associated with overweight. Men who used tobacco were more likely to be underweight than non-tobacco users (OR: 10.87, p = 0.02). Neither ART duration nor viral load or CD4 count was independently associated with underweight or overweight in multivariate analysis. Conclusion A high proportion of people on ART were overweight and a smaller proportion underweight. There is a need to simultaneously address the two extreme weight problems in this vulnerable population through educating them on benefits of avoiding tobacco, engaging in physical activity and raising awareness of CVD risk.
Predictability in the Epidemic‐Type Aftershock Sequence model of interacting triggered seismicity

[1] As part of an effort to develop a systematic methodology for earthquake forecasting, we use a simple model of seismicity on the basis of interacting events which may trigger a cascade of earthquakes, known as the Epidemic-Type Aftershock Sequence model (ETAS). The ETAS model is constructed on a bare (unrenormalized) Omori law, the Gutenberg-Richter law, and the idea that large events trigger more numerous aftershocks. For simplicity, we do not use the information on the spatial location of earthquakes and work only in the time domain. We demonstrate the essential role played by the cascade of triggered seismicity in controlling the rate of aftershock decay as well as the overall level of seismicity in the presence of a constant external seismicity source. We offer an analytical approach to account for the yet unobserved triggered seismicity adapted to the problem of forecasting future seismic rates at varying horizons from the present. Tests presented on synthetic catalogs validate strongly the importance of taking into account all the cascades of still unobserved triggered events in order to predict correctly the future level of seismicity beyond a few minutes. We find a strong predictability if one accepts to predict only a small fraction of the large-magnitude targets. Specifically, we find a prediction gain (defined as the ratio of the fraction of predicted events over the fraction of time in alarms) equal to 21 for a fraction of alarm of 1%, a target magnitude M > 6, an update time of 0.5 days between two predictions, and for realistic parameters of the ETAS model. However, the probability gains degrade fast when one attempts to predict a larger fraction of the targets. This is because a significant fraction of events remain uncorrelated from past seismicity. This delineates the fundamental limits underlying forecasting skills, stemming from an intrinsic stochastic component in these interacting triggered seismicity models. Quantitatively, the fundamental limits of predictability found here are only lower bounds of the true values corresponding to the full information on the spatial location of earthquakes.
The multiple roles of cord blood banks in Taiwan: competition and collaboration

In Taiwan, as in many countries where national cord blood donation programs are not available, cord blood donation and banking services are provided by non-governmental sectors. This article discusses: (1) the various cord blood banking models to critically examine the public and private binary; and (2) the collaboration and networking between cord blood banks and other institutions as strategies in response to strict governance and fierce competition. This article, based on fieldwork in Taiwan, gives an overview of cord blood banking models in Taiwan and shows the interdependent relationship among different stakeholders in the generation of stem cell knowledge. The concept of “bionetworking” is drawn upon to analyze the networks that cord blood banks establish with various stakeholders. I argue that, through analyzing networks and activities that cord blood banks engaged in and their relation with science, our understandings of stem cell knowledge and therapies production can be deepened.