Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are Breast Cancer Molecular Classes Predictive of Survival in Patients with Long Follow-Up?

In this study we investigate the clinical outcomes of 305 breast cancer (BC) patients, aged 55 years or younger, with long follow-up and according to intrinsic subtypes. The cohort included 151 lymph node negative (LN−) and 154 lymph node positive (LN+) patients. Luminal A tumors were mainly LN−, well differentiated, and of stage I; among them AR was an indicator of good prognosis. Luminal B and HER2 positive nonluminal cancers showed higher tumor grade and nodal metastases as well as higher proliferation status and stage. Among luminal tumors, those PR positive and vimentin negative showed a longer survival. HER2-positive nonluminal and TN patients showed a poorer outcome, with BC-specific death mostly occurring within 5 and 10 years. Only luminal tumor patients underwent BC death over 10 years. When patients were divided in to LN− and LN+ no differences in survival were observed in the luminal subgroups. LN− patients have good survival even after 20 years of follow-up (about 75%), while for LN+ patients survival at 20 years (around 40%) was comparable to HER2-positive nonluminal and TN groups. In conclusion, in our experience ER-positive breast tumors are better divided by classical clinical stage than molecular classification, and they need longer clinical follow-up especially in cases with lymph node involvement.
Synaptic organization of claustral and geniculate afferents to the visual cortex of the cat

Claustral and geniculate afferents to area 17 were labeled by anterograde axonal transport of peroxidase-conjugated wheatgerm agglutinin, and examined in the electron microscope. A peroxidase reaction protocol that led to labeling in the form of minute holes in the EM sections was used. Both types of afferents formed type 1 (presumed excitatory) synapses exclusively. In agreement with previous reports the great majority of geniculate afferents to layers 4 and 6 contacted dendritic spines. The claustral afferents to layers 1 and 6 also predominantly contacted spines. In layer 4, however, claustral afferents contacted spines and dendritic shafts about equally. The results suggest a substantial claustral input to smooth-dendrite cells in layer 4, which are thought to be inhibitory in function. This may be the circuit by which the claustrum helps to generate end-stopped cortical receptive fields (Sherk and LeVay, 1983).
The VMC survey - V. First results for classical Cepheids

The VISTA Magellanic Cloud (VMC, PI M.-R. L. Cioni) survey is collecting deep Ks-band time-series photometry of the pulsating variable stars hosted by the system formed by the two Magellanic Clouds (MCs) and the Bridge connecting them. In this paper we present the first results for Classical Cepheids, from the VMC observations of two fields in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), centred on the South Ecliptic Pole and the 30 Doradus star forming regions, respectively. The VMC Ks-band light curves of the Cepheids are well sampled (12 epochs) and of excellent precision (typical errors of � 0.01 mag). We were able to measure for the first time the Ks magnitude of the faintest Classical Cepheids in the LMC (Ks � 17.5 mag), which are mostly pulsating in the First Overtone (FO) mode, and to obtain FO Period–Luminosity (PL), PeriodWesenheit (PW), and Period–Luminosity–Colour (PLC) relations, spanning the full period range from 0.25 to 6 day. Since the longest period Cepheid in our dataset has a variability period of 23 day, we have complemented our sample with literature data for brighter F Cepheids. On this basis we have built a PL relation in the Ks band that, for the first time, includes short period hence low luminosity pulsators, and spans the full range from 1.6 to 100 day in period. We also provide the first ever empirical PW and PLC relations using the (V Ks) colour and time-series Ks photometry. The very small dispersion (� 0.07 mag) of these relations makes them very well suited to study the three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the Magellanic system. The use of “direct” (parallax- and Baade–Wesselink- based) distance measurements to both Galactic and LMC Cepheids, allowed us to calibrate the zero points of the PL, PW, and PLC relations obtained in this paper, and in turn to estimate an absolute distance modulus of (m M)0 = 18.46 ± 0.03 mag for the LMC. This result is in agreement with most of the latest literature determinations based on Classical Cepheids.
Transracially Adoptive Families in South Africa: Parental Experiences of Outsider reactions

ABSTRACT Since the adoption of the Child Care Act of 1991, many families in South Africa have been formed through transracial adoption, particularly through the placement of black children in white-parented homes. Though this family form has increased over the past two decades, very little research has been dedicated to understanding the experiences of these families in South African society. The current study explored these families’ interactions with outsiders through in-depth interviews with 35 parents who have adopted transracially across four South African provinces. Parents received a variety of comments and questions regarding their family identity, but overwhelmingly reported positive experiences. Parents described different response strategies, dependent on circumstance and level of intrusiveness. Overall, parents were willing to endure public attention and intrusion to raise awareness of adoption and transracial relationships in South Africa. This study begins the process of examining this unique family form in a changing society.
Opportunities for Reducing Surface Emissions through Airport Surface Movement Optimization

Aircraft taxiing on the surface contribute significantly to the fuel burn and emissions at airports. This report is an overview of PARTNER’s Project 21, which tries to identify promising opportunities for surface optimization to reduce surface emissions at airports, estimate the potential benefits of these strategies, and assess the critical implementation barriers that need to be overcome prior to the adoption of these approaches at airports. We also present a new queuing network model of the departure processes at airports that can be used to develop advanced queue management strategies to decrease fuel burn and emissions. ∗This work was supported by FAA, NASA and Transport Canada under the Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction(PARTNER)
A security policy oracle: detecting security holes using multiple API implementations

Even experienced developers struggle to implement security policies correctly. For example, despite 15 years of development, standard Java libraries still suffer from missing and incorrectly applied permission checks, which enable untrusted applications to execute native calls or modify private class variables without authorization. Previous techniques for static verification of authorization enforcement rely on manually specified policies or attempt to infer the policy by code-mining. Neither approach guarantees that the policy used for verification is correct. In this paper, we exploit the fact that many modern APIs have multiple, independent implementations. Our flow- and context-sensitive analysis takes as input an API, multiple implementations thereof, and the definitions of security checks and security-sensitive events. For each API entry point, the analysis computes the security policies enforced by the checks before security-sensitive events such as native method calls and API returns, compares these policies across implementations, and reports the differences. Unlike code-mining, this technique finds missing checks even if they are part of a rare pattern. Security-policy differencing has no intrinsic false positives: implementations of the same API must enforce the same policy, or at least one of them is wrong! Our analysis finds 20 new, confirmed security vulnerabilities and 11 interoperability bugs in the Sun, Harmony, and Classpath implementations of the Java Class Library, many of which were missed by prior analyses. These problems manifest in 499 entry points in these mature, well-studied libraries. Multiple API implementations are proliferating due to cloud-based software services and standardization of library interfaces. Comparing software implementations for consistency is a new approach to discovering "deep" bugs in them.
Reform Fatigue: Symptoms, Reasons, Implications

Following a period of ambitious promarket reforms, Latin American policymakers and the public at large have entered a period of “reform fatigue. ” Initial enthusiasm for policies such as liberalized markets and a level field for investors has given way more recently to the view that ambitious promarket reforms are to blame for the region’s economic crises. The process of reform has stalled in some countries, and a few have suffered serious setbacks. ; To help explore the future of reform, this article aims to document and explain the symptoms of fatigue among the public, policymakers, and opinion leaders. The authors explore the economic, social, political, and psychological reasons for the fatigue. They review numerous studies that have identified various explanatory factors, including reforms’ modest economic outcomes, the failure of reforms to improve social conditions, a leftward shift of public opinion and political coalitions, and perception biases among citizens. ; The authors find that economic reasons are the primary explanation for the increasing rejection of reforms. Disillusionment with reforms, despite reforms’ overall benefits, seems to stem from people’s inability to isolate short-term macroeconomic situations from reforms’ permanent effects. ; While political reasons cannot account for reform fatigue, the authors believe that politics will play a decisive role in the future of reform. They conclude that, especially in countries where promarket reforms are well advanced, eventual economic recoveries will result in further institutional and social policy reforms.
Correlates of Treatment Retention Among Persons with Serious Mental Illness Receiving Integrated Care in a Community Mental Health Setting

ABSTRACT Knowledge about methods to retain community mental health (CMH) clients in integrated primary and behavioral health care (PBHC) programs is needed to address longstanding health disparities. A preexisting data set that contained the clinical records of 446 PBHC program participants was used to examine whether baseline sociodemographic, health, and psychosocial characteristics predicted retention in care at 6 months post-enrollment. Results indicated that less than half of PBHC participants (43.7%) were retained in care, and approximately 17% of the variance in retention was explained by the inclusion of seven predictors in the model (overall health, medications, laboratory data, primary care provider, disorder type, transportation, and living arrangement). Clients with thought disorders were almost twice as likely as those with mood disorders to be retained in care, and greater frequency of prescribed medications also increased the likelihood of treatment continuation (ORs = 1.99 and 1.20, respectively). Future research should identify factors that improve retention in integrated PBHC programs overall, and among persons with mood disorders, in particular.
CMB and large-scale structure as a test of mixed models with n > 1

We compute cosmic background radiation (CBR) anisotropies in mixed models with different hot components, including neutrinos or volatile hot dark matter (HDM). The latter arises from heavier particles decaying well before matter--radiation equivalence (lifetime ∼ 104--107 s). The CBR power spectra of these models exhibit a higher Doppler peak than cold dark matter (CDM), and the discrepancy is even stronger in volatile models, both because the decay also gives rise to a neutral scalar, and because they allow quite a late derelativization of HDM, even for large Οh. CBR experiments, together with large-scale structure (LSS) data, are then used to constrain the space parameter of mixed models, when values of the primeval spectral index n > 1 are also considered. Even if n>1 is allowed, however, LSS alone prescribes that Οh90. 30. LSS can be fitted by taking simultaneously a low derelativization redshift zder (down to ≃600, as is allowed in volatile models) and a high n, while CBR data from balloon-borne experiments cause a severe selection on this part of the parameter space. In fact, late derelativization and n>1 have opposite effects on the fluctuation spectrum P(k), while, in contrast, they sum their action on the angular spectrum Cl. Hence, unless we assume a suitable reionization, n01.3 seems excluded by balloon-borne experiment outputs, while a good fit of almost all CBR and LSS data is found for Ωh values between 0.11 and 0.16, n∼1.1 and zder∼2000--5000. A smaller n is allowed, but zder should never be smaller than ≃1200.
Placental isoprostane is significantly increased in preeclampsia

We determined placental tissue levels, production rates, and secretion rates of isoprostanes for placentas obtained from women with normal pregnancies and women with preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. Isoprostanes are markers of oxidative stress that exert biological actions such as vasoconstriction. Placental tissue was rinsed and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen to determine tissue levels of total and free isoprostane. Placental tissue pieces were also incubated in serum‐free DMEM for 48 h at 37°C in 95% air/5% CO2 to determine production rates. Isolated placental cotyledons were perfused for the determination of secretion rates. All samples were analyzed by EIA for isoprostane using an antibody specific for 8‐Iso‐PGF2 (15‐F2t‐IsoP). In addition, medium samples were analyzed for malondialdehyde (MDA), a breakdown product of lipid peroxidation. We found that tissue levels of free isoprostane and total isoprostane (free plus esterified forms) were significantly higher for preeclamptic placentas than for normal placentas. Concentrations of isoprostane and MDA in the medium increased progressively during 48 h of incubation of placental explants. At 48 h of incubation, the mean concentrations of both isoprostane and MDA were significantly higher for the placentas from preeclamptic women than for the placentas from normal pregnant women. Concentrations of MDA were highly correlated with those of isoprostane. Induction of oxidative stress with xanthine plus xanthine oxidase increased placental production of isoprostane by normal tissue to a level similar to that of preeclamptic tissue. Placental secretion of isoprostane was eightfold greater toward the maternal side of the placenta than toward the fetal side, and was increased sixfold on the maternal side and twofold on the fetal side by inducing oxidative stress with t‐butyl hydroperoxide. This study presents new information that isoprostanes are formed and secreted by the human placenta and provides convincing evidence that oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation are abnormally increased in placentas of preeclamptic women. —Walsh, S. W. , Vaughan, J. E. , Wang, Y. , Roberts, L. J., II. Placental isoprostane is significantly increased in preeclampsia. FASEB J. 14, 1289–1296 (2000)
Linear strategies for the Gaussian MAC with user cooperation

The capacity region of the two-user additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) multiple-access channel (MAC) with user cooperation is studied. This channel differs from the classical AWGN MAC in that here each transmitter observes a noisy version of the channel inputs sent by the other transmitter. A new achievable region is presented based on a coding scheme where each transmitter sends a linear combination of these observations and of the codeword it produced to encode its message. For certain choices of the parameters our scheme can be viewed as a scheme where the messages are encoded into stationary processes and where the encoders apply linear time-invariant filters to their observations. The rates achieved by this latter scheme can be expressed in terms of the power spectra of the filters and input processes. For most choices of filters, the optimal input spectra are given by frequency-division and can be found using a water-filling algorithm. It is shown that when the transmitters' observations are very noisy our scheme with general parameters outperforms the best previously known schemes. Moreover, the scheme allows to conclude that user cooperation strictly improves the capacity region, irrespective of how noisy the transmitters' observations are. In contrast, when the observations are almost noise-free, then a scheme previously proposed by Carleial improves on our scheme. It is shown that for symmetric setups—i.e., equal power constraints at the two transmitters and equal variances of the noises corrupting the transmitters' observations—and in the asymptotic regime when the observations become noise-free Carleial's lower bound on the sum-capacity and Tandon and Ulukus's recent upper bound on the sum-capacity are tight in the sense that they both tend to the sum-capacity of the setup with noise-free observations with identical slopes.
Curing singularities in cosmological evolution of F(R) gravity

We study F(R) modified gravity models which are capable of driving the accelerating epoch of the Universe at the present time whilst not destroying the standard Big Bang and inflationary cosmology. Recent studies have shown that a weak curvature singularity with |R| → ∞ can arise generically in viable F(R) models of present dark energy (DE) signaling an internal incompleteness of these models. In this work we study how this problem is cured by adding a quadratic correction with a sufficiently small coefficient to the F(R) function at large curvatures. At the same time, this correction eliminates two more serious problems of previously constructed viable F(R) DE models: unboundedness of the mass of a scalar particle (scalaron) arising in F(R) gravity and the scalaron overabundance problem. Such carefully constructed models can also yield both an early time inflationary epoch and a late time de Sitter phase with vastly different values of R. The reheating epoch in these combined models of primordial and present dark energy is completely different from that of the old R+R2/6M2 inflationary model, mainly due to the fact that values of the effective gravitational constant at low and intermediate curvatures are different for positive and negative R. This changes the number of e-folds during the observable part of inflation that results in a different value of the primordial power spectrum index.
The Role of Resilience and Psychological Well-Being in School Engagement and Perceived Academic Performance: An Exploratory Model to Improve Academic Achievement

The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between resilience, subjective well-being and academic achievement (i.e., school engagement and perceived performance). To achieve this, a battery of instruments was applied to 945 Compulsory Secondary Education students from Basque Country (425 boys and 520 girls) of medium socio-cultural level and aged between 12 and 17 (M age = 14.50, SD = 1.82). The study tests a structural model for analyzing the effects of resilience and subjective well-being on school engagement and perceived performance. The findings provide evidence in favor of the influence of resilience and subjective well-being as decisive psychological variables in the prediction of school engagement and perceived performance. Finally, the results of this study highlight the need to foster education of resilience and subjective well-being to improve academic achievement among adolescent students.
A comparison of the ceiling effect between Berg Balance Scale and Mini-BESTest in a group of balance trained community-dwelling older adults

Introduction. The aim of the study was to examine the ceiling effect of Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Mini-BESTest (MBT) and to determine the most difficult items of the two scales in a group of functionally fit older adults. Methods. The total of 26 community-dwelling older adults were enrolled to the study. Their functional status and agility were evaluated with the 10-meter walk test and Four-Square Step Test, respectively, followed by the BBS and MBT. The descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results. The participants’ functional status and agility were higher than the reported normative values for the age group. The results of BBS indicated a very high ceiling effect; as many as 73.1% of participants obtained the highest score. When tested by MBT, only 3.8% reached the highest score of the scale. The ceiling effect difference between BBS and MBT was statistically significant ( p < 0.001). The most difficult item was 360° turning for BBS and Timed Up and Go test with a cognitive task for MBT. Conclusions. The MBT presents a significantly smaller ceiling effect and is therefore more suitable for assessing balance even for balance trained older adults. The most difficult items of the two scales, i.e. 360° turning and Timed Up and Go test with a cognitive task, may be used as a short screening tool.
Pressor and Renal Hemodynamic Effects of the Novel Angiotensin A Peptide Are Angiotensin II Type 1A Receptor Dependent

Recently, a new derivative of angiotensin (Ang) II, called “Ang A,” has been discovered to be present in plasma of healthy humans and, in increased concentrations, in end-stage renal failure patients. The objectives of the study were to investigate the blood pressure and renal hemodynamic responses to Ang A in normotensive and hypertensive rats and in genetically modified mice and the binding properties of Ang A to Ang II type 1 (AT1) or Ang II type 2 (AT2) receptors. Intravenous and intrarenal administration of Ang A induced dose-dependent pressor and renal vasoconstrictor responses in normotensive rats, which were blocked by the AT1 receptor antagonist candesartan but were not altered by the AT2 receptor ligands PD123319, CGP42112A, or compound 21. Similar responses were observed after intravenous administration in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Deletion of AT1a receptors in mice almost completely abolished the pressor and renal vasoconstrictor responses to Ang A, indicating that its effects are mediated via AT1a receptors. Ang A was less potent than Ang II in vivo. The in vitro study demonstrated that Ang A is a full agonist for AT1 receptors, with similar affinity for AT1 and AT2 receptors as Ang II. Overall, the responses to Ang A and Ang II were similar. Ang A has no physiological role to modulate the pressor and renal hemodynamic effects of Ang II.
Persistence in Phage-Bacteria Communities with Nested and One-to-One Infection Networks

We show that a bacteria and bacteriophage system with either a perfectly nested or a one-to-one infection network is permanent, a.k. a uniformly persistent, provided that bacteria that are superior competitors for nutrient devote the least to defence against infection and the virus that are the most efficient at infecting host have the smallest host range. By ensuring that the density-dependent reduction in bacterial growth rates are independent of bacterial strain, we are able to arrive at the permanence conclusion sought by Jover et al (J. Theor. Biol. 332:65-77, 2013). The same permanence results hold for the one-to-one infection network considered by Thingstad (Limnol Oceanogr 45:1320-1328, 2000) but without virus efficiency ordering. Additionally we show the global stability for the nested infection network, and the global dynamics for the one-to-one network.