Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wnt Pathway Activity in Breast Cancer Sub-Types and Stem-Like Cells

Introduction Wnt signalling has been implicated in stem cell regulation however its role in breast cancer stem cell regulation remains unclear. Methods We used a panel of normal and breast cancer cell lines to assess Wnt pathway gene and protein expression, and for the investigation of Wnt signalling within stem cell-enriched populations, mRNA and protein expression was analysed after the selection of anoikis-resistant cells. Finally, cell lines and patient-derived samples were used to investigate Wnt pathway effects on stem cell activity in vitro. Results Wnt pathway signalling increased in cancer compared to normal breast and in both cell lines and patient samples, expression of Wnt pathway genes correlated with estrogen receptor (ER) expression. Furthermore, specific Wnt pathway genes were predictive for recurrence within subtypes of breast cancer. Canonical Wnt pathway genes were increased in breast cancer stem cell-enriched populations in comparison to normal breast stem cell-enriched populations. Furthermore in cell lines, the ligand Wnt3a increased whilst the inhibitor DKK1 reduced mammosphere formation with the greatest inhibitory effects observed in ER+ve breast cancer cell lines. In patient-derived metastatic breast cancer samples, only ER-ve mammospheres were responsive to the ligand Wnt3a. However, the inhibitor DKK1 efficiently inhibited both ER+ve and ER-ve breast cancer but not normal mammosphere formation, suggesting that the Wnt pathway is aberrantly activated in breast cancer mammospheres. Conclusions Collectively, these data highlight differential Wnt signalling in breast cancer subtypes and activity in patient-derived metastatic cancer stem-like cells indicating a potential for Wnt-targeted treatment in breast cancers.
The effect of training set size for the performance of neural networks of classification

Even though multilayer perceptrons and radial basis function networks belong to the class of artificial neural networks and they are used for similar tasks, they have very different structures and training mechanisms. So, some researchers showed better performance with radial basis function networks, while others showed some different results with multilayer perceptrons. This paper compares the classification accuracy of the two neural networks with respect to training data set size, and shows the performance of the two neural networks can be differently dependent on training data set size. Experiments show the tendency that multilayer perceptrons have better performance in relatively larger training data sets for some data sets, even though radial basis function networks have better performance in relatively smaller training set size for the same data sets. The experiment was done with four real world data sets.
Local adaptation across a climatic gradient despite small effective population size in the rare sapphire rockcress

When assigning conservation priorities in endangered species, two common management strategies seek to protect remnant populations that (i) are the most genetically divergent or (ii) possess the highest diversity at neutral genetic markers. These two approaches assume that variation in molecular markers reflects variation in ecologically important traits and ignore the possibility of local adaptation among populations that show little divergence or variation at marker loci. Using common garden experiments, we demonstrate that populations of the rare endemic plant Arabis fecunda are physiologically adapted to the local microclimate. Local adaptation occurs despite (i) the absence of divergence at almost all marker loci and (ii) very small effective population sizes, as evidenced by extremely low levels of allozyme and DNA sequence polymorphism. Our results provide empirical evidence that setting conservation priorities based exclusively on molecular marker diversity may lead to the loss of locally adapted populations.
Populations of High-Luminosity Density-bounded H II Regions in Spiral Galaxies: Evidence and Implications

We present evidence that the H II regions of high luminosity in disk galaxies may be density bounded, so that a significant fraction of the ionizing photons emitted by their exciting OB stars escapes from the regions. The key piece of evidence is the presence of glitches, local sharp peaks at an apparently invariant luminosity, in the Hα luminosity functions of the populations of H II regions. The apparently invariant luminosity is defined as the Strömgren luminosity (LStr), such that LHα = LStr = 1038.6 ± 100.1 ergs s-1 (no other peaks are found in any of the luminosity functions) accompanying a steepening of slope for LHα > LStr. This behavior is readily explicable by a physical model in which (1) the transition at LHα = LStr marks a change from essentially ionization bounding at low luminosities to density bounding at higher values and (2) for this to occur the law relating stellar mass in massive star-forming clouds to the mass of the placental cloud must be such that the ionizing photon flux produced within the cloud is a function that rises more steeply than the mass of the cloud. Supporting evidence for the hypothesis of this transition is also presented: measurements of the central surface brightnesses of H II regions for LHα < LStr are proportional to L, as expected for ionization bounding, but show a sharp trend to a steeper dependence for LHα > LStr, and the observed relation between the internal turbulence velocity parameter, σ, and the luminosity, L, at high luminosities can be well explained if these regions are density bounded. If confirmed, the density-bounding hypothesis would have a number of interesting implications. It would imply that the density-bounded regions were the main sources of the photons that ionize the diffuse gas in disk galaxies. Our estimates, based on the hypothesis, indicate that these regions emit sufficient Lyman continuum photons not only to ionize the diffuse medium but to cause a typical spiral to emit significant ionizing flux into the intergalactic medium. The low scatter observed in LStr, less than 0.1 mag rms in the still quite small sample measured to date, is an invitation to widen the database and to calibrate against primary standards to obtain a precise (∼105 L⊙) widely distributed standard candle.
Being patient, being vulnerable: exploring experiences of general practice waiting rooms through elicited drawings

Abstract For members of vulnerable populations, articulating feelings and emotions about a place to a cultural outsider may be challenging. This article describes a study using participatory visual methodology, in which participants were invited to create drawings to explore their experiences as patients in general practice waiting rooms, and interacting with receptionists. Set in New Zealand, the Pākehā (white) male researcher used a traditional meeting protocol (hui process) as a process for trust building with the participants; most were Māori, many were female, of a different age group, and had mental health vulnerabilities. As well as explaining the research, the preamble to the interviews also involved making family connections, gift giving and a mutual sharing of ideas. Elicited drawings provided the framework for conversational interviews. Colour, materials, symbols and metaphors were jointly explored through a process of shared analysis of images created. Through this process, participants reflected on, and conceptualised, ideas that addressed disempowerment, discrimination and racism. Key to the project’s success was the adoption of a culturally safe approach and willingness on the part of the researcher and participants to not only trust the process, but also be patient and vulnerable – in a context in which being a vulnerable patient prevails.
Caffeine increases false memory in nonhabitual consumers

Insight into caffeine's equivocal effects on memory can be derived from work suggesting both emotional arousal and psychosocial stress increase false memory rates without increasing veridical memory. This study investigated how a range of caffeine doses affect veridical and false memory formation in nonhabitual consumers. A double-blind, repeated-measures design with caffeine (0 mg, 100 mg, 200 mg, 400 mg caffeine) was used to examine memory using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Results showed that caffeine modulated arousal levels, peaking at 200 mg and returning to near baseline levels at 400 mg. Main effects of caffeine demonstrated higher critical lure recall and recognition ratings (i.e., false memory) as a function of dose, again peaking at 200 mg. Those who showed the highest arousal increases as a function of caffeine also tended to produce the highest false recall and recognition rates. Veridical memory was not affected. Results demonstrate that consumption of as little as 100 mg of caffeine elicits reliable inverted-U shape changes in arousal and, in turn, false memories in individuals who do not habitually consume caffeine.
Americans Still Overestimate Social Class Mobility: A Pre-Registered Self-Replication

Kraus and Tan (2015) hypothesized that Americans tend to overestimate social class mobility in society, and do so because they seek to protect the self. This paper reports a pre-registered exact replication of Study 3 from this original paper and finds, consistent with the original study, that Americans substantially overestimate social class mobility, that people provide greater overestimates when made while thinking of similar others, and that high perceived social class is related to greater overestimates. The current results provide additional evidence consistent with the idea that people overestimate class mobility to protect their beliefs in the promise of equality of opportunity. Discussion considers the utility of pre-registered self-replications as one tool for encouraging replication efforts and assessing the robustness of effect sizes.
A Decade of Research on Evaluation

Although investigations into evaluation theories, methods, and practices have been occurring since the late 1970s, research on evaluation (RoE) has seemingly increased in the past decade. In this review, 257 studies published in 14 evaluation-focused journals over a 10-year period (between 2005 and 2014) were identified as RoE and then classified according to Henry and Mark’s and Mark’s taxonomies of RoE. The majority of RoE published in evaluation-focused journals consists of descriptive studies and, to a lesser extent, comparative studies of evaluation practices. Few investigations, however, address questions pertaining to values or valuing in evaluation, ethics, or evaluation consequences. Gaps in and an agenda for future RoE are discussed.
The Effects of 6 Weeks of Preseason Skill-Based Conditioning on Physical Performance in Male Volleyball Players

Abstract Trajković, N, Milanović, Z, Sporis, G, Milić, V, and Stanković, R. The effects of 6 weeks of preseason skill-based conditioning on physical performance in male volleyball players. J Strength Cond Res 26(6): 1475–1480, 2012—The purpose of this study was to determine the changes in physical performance after a 6-week skill-based conditioning training program in male competitive volleyball players. Sixteen male volleyball players (mean ± SD: age 22.3 ± 3.7 years, body height 190.7 ± 4.2 cm, and body mass 78.4 ± 4.5 kg) participated in this study. The players were tested for sprinting (5- and 10-m sprint), agility, and jumping performance (the vertical-jump test, the spike-jump test, and the standing broad jump [SBJ]). Compared with pretraining, there was a significant improvement in the 5- and 10-m speed. There were no significant differences between pretraining and posttraining for lower-body muscular power (vertical-jump height, spike-jump height, and SBJ) and agility. Based on our results, it could be concluded that a preseason skill-based conditioning program does not offer a sufficient stimulus for volleyball players. Therefore, a general conditioning and hypertrophy training along with specific volleyball conditioning is necessary in the preseason period for the development of the lower-body strength, agility and speed performance in volleyball players.
Satellite imagery can support water planning in the Central Valley

Most agricultural systems in California's Central Valley are purposely flexible and intentionally designed to meet the demands of dynamic markets such as corn, tomatoes and cotton. As a result, crops change annually and semiannually, which makes estimating agricultural water use difficult, especially given the existing method by which agricultural land use is identified and mapped. A minor portion of agricultural land is surveyed annually for land-use type, and every 5 to 8 years the entire valley is completely evaluated. We explore the potential of satellite imagery to map agricultural land cover and estimate water usage in Merced County. We evaluated several data types and determined that images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) onboard NASA satellites were feasible for classifying land cover. A technique called “supervised maximum likelihood classification” was used to identify land-cover classes, with an overall accuracy of 75% achievable early in the growing season.
A study on the reproducibility of cephalometric landmarks when undertaking a three-dimensional (3D) cephalometric analysis

Objectives: Cone Beam Computerized Tomography (CBCT) allows the possibility of modifying some of the diagnostic tools used in orthodontics, such as cephalometry. The first step must be to study the characteristics of these devices in terms of accuracy and reliability of the most commonly used landmarks. The aims were 1- To assess intra and inter-observer reliability in the location of anatomical landmarks belonging to hard tissues of the skull in images taken with a CBCT device, 2- To determine which of those landmarks are more vs. less reliable and 3- To introduce planes of reference so as to create cephalometric analyses appropriated to the 3D reality. Study design: Fifteen patients who had a CBCT (i-CAT®) as a diagnostic register were selected. To assess the reproducibility on landmark location and the differences in the measurements of two observers at different times, 41 landmarks were defined on the three spatial axes (X,Y,Z) and located. 3.690 measurements were taken and, as each determination has 3 coordinates, 11.070 data were processed with SPSS® statistical package. To discover the reproducibility of the method on landmark location, an ANOVA was undertaken using two variation factors: time (t1, t2 and t3) and observer (Ob1 and Ob2) for each axis (X, Y and Z) and landmark. The order of the CBCT scans submitted to the observers (Ob1, Ob2) at t1, t2, and t3, were different and randomly allocated. Multiple comparisons were undertaken using the Bonferroni test. The intra- and inter-examiner ICC´s were calculated. Results: Intra- and inter-examiner reliability was high, both being ICC ≥ 0.99, with the best frequency on axis Z. Conclusions: The most reliable landmarks were: Nasion, Sella, Basion, left Porion, point A, anterior nasal spine, Pogonion, Gnathion, Menton, frontozygomatic sutures, first lower molars and upper and lower incisors. Those with less reliability were the supraorbitals, right zygion and posterior nasal spine. Key words:Cone Beam Computed Tomography, cephalometry, landmark, orthodontics, reliability.
Efficient and Rate-Distortion Optimal Wavelet Packet Basis Selection in JPEG2000

This paper discusses optimal wavelet packet basis selection within JPEG2000. Algorithms for rate-distortion optimal wavelet packet basis selection in JPEG2000 are presented and compared to more efficient wavelet packet basis selection schemes. Both isotropic and anisotropic wavelet packet bases are considered. For the first time, computationally efficient heuristics are compared to the best bases in the standardized coding framework of JPEG2000. For the first time, the maximum performance gains of custom wavelet packets in JPEG2000 can be assessed. The algorithms are evaluated on a wide range of highly textured image data.
On Cache Replacement Policies for Servicing Mixed Data Intensive Query Workloads

When data analysis applicationsare employed in a multiclient environment, a data server must service multiple simultaneous queries, each of which may employ complex user-defined data structures and operations on the data. It is then necessary to harness interand intra-query commonalitiesand system resources to improve the performance of the data server. We have developed a framework and customizable middleware to enable reuse of intermediate and final results among queries, through an in-memory active semantic cache and user-defined transformation functions. Since resources such as processing power and memory space are limited on the machine hosting the server, effective scheduling of incoming queries and efficient cache replacement policies are challenging issues that must be addressed. We have worked on the scheduling problem in earlier work, and in this paper we describe and evaluate several cache replacement policies. We present experimental evaluation of the policies on a shared-memory parallel system using two applications from different application domains.
Differential Stimulation of the Na+/H+ Exchanger Determines Chloroquine Uptake in Plasmodium falciparum

Here we describe the identification and characterization of a physiological marker that is associated with the chloroquine-resistant (CQR) phenotype in the human malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Single cell in vivo pH measurements revealed that CQR parasites consistently have an elevated cytoplasmic pH compared to that of chloroquine-sensitive (CQS) parasites because of a constitutively activated Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE). Together, biochemical and physiological data suggest that chloroquine activates the plasmodial NHE of CQS parasites, resulting in a transitory phase of rapid sodium/hydrogen ion exchange during which chloroquine is taken up by this protein. The constitutively stimulated NHE of CQR parasites are capable of little or no further activation by chloroquine. We propose that the inability of chloroquine to stimulate its own uptake through the constitutively activated NHE of resistant parasites constitutes a minimal and necessary event in the generation of the chloroquine-resistant phenotype.
Likelihood-Based Confidence Sets for the Timing of Structural Breaks

In this paper, we propose a new approach to constructing confidence sets for the timing of structural breaks. This approach involves using Markov-chain Monte Carlo methods to simulate marginal “fiducial” distributions of break dates from the likelihood function. We compare our proposed approach to asymptotic and bootstrap confidence sets and find that it performs best in terms of producing short confidence sets with accurate coverage rates. Our approach also has the advantages of i) being broadly applicable to different patterns of structural breaks, ii) being computationally efficient, and iii) requiring only the ability to evaluate the likelihood function over parameter values, thus allowing for many possible distributional assumptions for the data. In our application, we investigate the nature and timing of structural breaks in postwar U.S. Real GDP. Based on marginal fiducial distributions, we find much tighter 95% confidence sets for the timing of the so-called “Great Moderation” than has been reported in previous studies.
Religious and Sexual Identities: An Intersectional, Longitudinal Examination of Change in Therapy

The current study employs an intersectional framework to understand how well counselors are meeting the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, questioning (LGBQQ) and religious clients by examining clients’ initial anxiety and depression levels and changes in these symptoms through psychotherapy. Data from 12,825 participants from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2012–2014 data set were analyzed. Results from hierarchical linear modeling indicate lower baseline anxiety and depression among religious clients and faster rates of change of anxiety symptoms among nonreligious clients. LGBQQ clients presented with higher initial anxiety and depression, but there were no differences in rates of change of anxiety and depression between heterosexual and LGBQQ clients. Significant but minimal interaction effects between religious and sexual identities were found, indicating a need for further research. Counselors are encouraged to be mindful of these disparities in therapy.
Professional Development for Active Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa: Reflectively Practicing a Community-Centered Approach

This article describes the activities, challenges, and participants’ reflections of a teacher training program in Ethiopia. In response to the recent emphasis on more student-centered teaching approaches in the last decade, the training addressed ways to develop active learning methods and alternative assessments in settings where resources are scarce and class sizes are large. It also offered a chance for teachers to critically reflect on the effectiveness of many Western ideas and practices that are imported for development purposes. Key insights that emerged from reflection and discussion included (1) people learn more effectively when they actively use and discuss topics in practical and realistic ways; (2) students and teachers can benefit from performance-based assessments that show deep understandings of topic; and (3) traditional and community and home education practices must be considered when integrating new teaching methods.
Geomorphically based predictive mapping of soil thickness in upland watersheds

The hydrologic response of upland watersheds is strongly controlled by soil (regolith) thickness. Despite the need to quantify soil thickness for input into hydrologic models, there is currently no widely used, geomorphically based method for doing so. In this paper we describe and illustrate a new method for predictive mapping of soil thicknesses using high‐resolution topographic data, numerical modeling, and field‐based calibration. The model framework works directly with input digital elevation model data to predict soil thicknesses assuming a long‐term balance between soil production and erosion. Erosion rates in the model are quantified using one of three geomorphically based sediment transport models: nonlinear slope‐dependent transport, nonlinear area‐ and slope‐dependent transport, and nonlinear depth‐ and slope‐dependent transport. The model balances soil production and erosion locally to predict a family of solutions corresponding to a range of values of two unconstrained model parameters. A small number of field‐based soil thickness measurements can then be used to calibrate the local value of those unconstrained parameters, thereby constraining which solution is applicable at a particular study site. As an illustration, the model is used to predictively map soil thicknesses in two small, ∼0.1 km2, drainage basins in the Marshall Gulch watershed, a semiarid drainage basin in the Santa Catalina Mountains of Pima County, Arizona. Field observations and calibration data indicate that the nonlinear depth‐ and slope‐dependent sediment transport model is the most appropriate transport model for this site. The resulting framework provides a generally applicable, geomorphically based tool for predictive mapping of soil thickness using high‐resolution topographic data sets.