Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modulation of Urokinase-type Plasminogen Activator and Ovarian Cancer Cell Invasion by in Vitro Inhibition of Updated Version Citing Articles E-mail Alerts Inhibition of in Vitro Ovarian Cancer Cell Invasion by Modulation of Urokinase- Type Plasminogen Activator and Cathepsin B

HOC-I ovarian cancer cells express the single-chain form of the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and cathepsin B (calli B) on their cell surface. The significance of the expression of cell surface uPA/ cath B activity to the invasive potential was examined by preincubating with uPA/cath B-modulating agents in in vitro invasion assay. The anti-uPA monoclonal antibody 394 effectively inhibited invasion in a dose-dependent manner. On the contrary, anti-cath B antibody did not affect the invasive potential of the cells. 1-6-1. a specific inhibitor for cysteine proteases, blocked invasion as effectively as monoclonal antibody 394. The data reveal that the uPA and cysteine proteases contribute signifi cantly to the invasive capacity of the cells. We suggest that the cysteine proteases facilitate the action of uPA, possibly by activating proenzyme uPA produced by cancer cells. Evidence for the role of a cathepsin-uPA activation cascade in HOC-I cell invasion is provided.
Lift forces on a cylindrical particle in plane Poiseuille flow of shear thinning fluids

Lift forces on a cylindrical particle in plane Poiseuille flow of shear thinning fluids are investigated by direct numerical simulation. Previous works on this topic for Newtonian fluids show that the two-dimensional channel can be divided into alternating regions defined by the stability of the particle’s equilibrium. We observe stability regions with the same pattern in flows of shear thinning fluids and study the effects of shear thinning properties on the distribution of the stability regions. Joseph and Ocando [J. Fluid Mech. 454, 263 (2002)] analyzed the role of the slip velocity Us=Uf−Up and the angular slip velocity Ωs=Ωp−Ωf on migration and lift in plane Poiseuille flow of Newtonian fluids. They concluded that the discrepancy Ωs−Ωse, where Ωse is the angular slip velocity at equilibrium, changes sign across the equilibrium position. In this paper we verify that this conclusion holds in shear thinning fluids. Correlations for lift forces may be constructed by analogy with the classical lift formul.
Centromere Stability: The Replication Connection

The fission yeast centromere, which is similar to metazoan centromeres, contains highly repetitive pericentromere sequences that are assembled into heterochromatin. This is required for the recruitment of cohesin and proper chromosome segregation. Surprisingly, the pericentromere replicates early in the S phase. Loss of heterochromatin causes this domain to become very sensitive to replication fork defects, leading to gross chromosome rearrangements. This review examines the interplay between components of DNA replication, heterochromatin assembly, and cohesin dynamics that ensures maintenance of genome stability and proper chromosome segregation.
Interacting with Predictions: Visual Inspection of Black-box Machine Learning Models

Understanding predictive models, in terms of interpreting and identifying actionable insights, is a challenging task. Often the importance of a feature in a model is only a rough estimate condensed into one number. However, our research goes beyond these naïve estimates through the design and implementation of an interactive visual analytics system, Prospector. By providing interactive partial dependence diagnostics, data scientists can understand how features affect the prediction overall. In addition, our support for localized inspection allows data scientists to understand how and why specific datapoints are predicted as they are, as well as support for tweaking feature values and seeing how the prediction responds. Our system is then evaluated using a case study involving a team of data scientists improving predictive models for detecting the onset of diabetes from electronic medical records.
The Long-Term Effects of Cross-Listing, Investor Recognition, and Ownership Structure on Valuation

The widening of a foreign firm's U.S. investor base and the improved information environment associated with cross-listing on a U.S. exchange are distinct effects. Valuations of Canadian firms peak in the year of cross-listing and fall monotonically thereafter, irregardless of the level of U.S. investor holdings or the ownership structure of the firm. Cross-listed firms with a 20%+ blockholder attract a similar number of U.S. institutional investors as widely-held firms on average, but experience a lower increase in valuation at high levels of investor recognition. While U.S. investors are less willing to invest in firms with dual-class shares, these firms benefit more from cross-listing even when they fail to widen their U.S. investor base, suggesting that the reduction in information asymmetry between controlling and minority investors has a separate impact on valuation for firms where agency problems are greatest.
New DLOG-Based Convertible Undeniable Signature Schemes in the Standard Model

We propose discrete-logarithm-based undeniable signature schemes supporting both selective and all conversion, with formal security analysis in the standard model. The schemes are the first practical ones of their type, enjoying relatively short signatures and efficient confirmation/disavowal protocols, while for security relying on the strong Diffie-Hellman assumption and the decision linear assumption.
SVD Identifies Transcript Length Distribution Functions from DNA Microarray Data and Reveals Evolutionary Forces Globally Affecting GBM Metabolism

To search for evolutionary forces that might act upon transcript length, we use the singular value decomposition (SVD) to identify the length distribution functions of sets and subsets of human and yeast transcripts from profiles of mRNA abundance levels across gel electrophoresis migration distances that were previously measured by DNA microarrays. We show that the SVD identifies the transcript length distribution functions as “asymmetric generalized coherent states” from the DNA microarray data and with no a-priori assumptions. Comparing subsets of human and yeast transcripts of the same gene ontology annotations, we find that in both disparate eukaryotes, transcripts involved in protein synthesis or mitochondrial metabolism are significantly shorter than typical, and in particular, significantly shorter than those involved in glucose metabolism. Comparing the subsets of human transcripts that are overexpressed in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) or normal brain tissue samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we find that GBM maintains normal brain overexpression of significantly short transcripts, enriched in transcripts that are involved in protein synthesis or mitochondrial metabolism, but suppresses normal overexpression of significantly longer transcripts, enriched in transcripts that are involved in glucose metabolism and brain activity. These global relations among transcript length, cellular metabolism and tumor development suggest a previously unrecognized physical mode for tumor and normal cells to differentially regulate metabolism in a transcript length-dependent manner. The identified distribution functions support a previous hypothesis from mathematical modeling of evolutionary forces that act upon transcript length in the manner of the restoring force of the harmonic oscillator.
Promising strategies to minimize secondary brain injury after head trauma

ObjectiveTo review novel therapeutic approaches in the treatment of severe traumatic brain injury. DesignEighty-three studies were reviewed specific to the treatment of traumatic brain injury, in either experimental models or in patients. ConclusionFour therapeutic strategies appear to be the most promising approaches currently in clinical trials for severe traumatic brain injury: a) the novel pharmacologic agent dexanabinol; b) hypertonic saline; c) mild hypothermia; and d) decompressive craniectomy. Each of these therapies share the common feature of targeting multiple mechanisms, suggesting this may be an important factor to the development of a successful approach to severe traumatic brain injury.
Which food-related behaviours are associated with healthier intakes of fruits and vegetables among women?

Abstract Objective To examine associations between shopping, food preparation, meal and eating behaviours and fruit and vegetable intake among women. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Community-based sample from metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Subjects A sample of 1136 women aged 18–65 years, randomly selected from the electoral roll. Results Food-related behaviours reflecting organisation and forward-planning, as well as enjoyment of and high perceived value of meal shopping, preparation and consumption were associated with healthier intakes of fruits and vegetables. For example, women who more frequently planned meals before they went shopping, wrote a shopping list, enjoyed food shopping, planned in the morning what they will eat for dinner that night, planned what they will eat for lunch, reported they enjoy cooking, liked trying new recipes and who reported they sometimes prepare dishes ahead of time were more likely to consume two or more servings of vegetables daily. Conversely, women who frequently found cooking a chore, spent less than 15 minutes preparing dinner, decided on the night what they will eat for dinner, ate in a fast-food restaurant, ate takeaway meals from a fast-food restaurant, ate dinner and snacks while watching television and who frequently ate on the run were less likely to eat two or more servings of vegetables daily. Conclusions Practical strategies based on these behavioural characteristics could be trialled in interventions aimed at promoting fruit and vegetable consumption among women.
Significance of p85 expression as a prognostic factor for patients with breast cancer

p85, the regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), functions in the pathogenesis and progression of human breast cancers. Previous studies have observed that p85 isoforms may correlate with cancer cell proliferation. In the present study, immunohistochemical staining of p85 was performed in 126 primary breast cancers. The association between the expression levels of p85 with clinicopathological variables, subtypes and prognosis was studied. The breast cancer specimens were divided into three subgroups according to the expression levels of p85 protein. High p85 protein expression was significantly correlated with tumor grade, vascular invasion and recurrence and/or metastasis (P<0.05). Increased p85 protein expression was associated with the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive and triple-negative breast cancers (P=0.008). Patients with higher p85 protein expression levels showed shorter disease-free survival and overall survival times as compared with those with lower expression levels of p85 (P<0.001). Cox proportional-hazards analysis showed that p85 protein expression was not an independent prognostic factor. Further large-scale studies are required to evaluate the significance of p85 protein expression as a prognostic marker for breast cancer.
Vision-based articulated machine pose estimation for excavation monitoring and guidance

The pose of an articulated machine includes the position and orientation of not only the machine base (e.g., tracks or wheels), but also each of its major articulated components (e.g., stick and bucket). The ability to automatically estimate this pose is a crucial component of technical innovations aimed at improving both safety and productivity in many construction tasks. A computer vision based solution using a network of cameras and markers is proposed in this research to enable such a capability for articulated machines. Firstly, a planar marker is magnetically mounted on the end-effector of interest. Another marker is fixed on the jobsite whose 3D pose is pre-surveyed in a project coordinate frame. Then a cluster of at least two cameras respectively observing and tracking the two markers simultaneously forms a camera-marker network and transfers the end-effector's pose into the desired project frame, based on a pre-calibration of the relative poses between each pair of cameras. Through extensive sets of uncertainty analyses and field experiments, this approach is shown to be able to achieve centimeter level depth tracking accuracy within up to 15 meters with only two ordinary cameras (1.1 megapixel each) and a few markers, providing a flexible and cost-efficient alternative to other commercial products that use infrastructure dependent sensors like GPS. A working prototype has been tested on several active construction sites with positive feedback from excavator operators confirming the solution's effectiveness.
Stable transformation and expression of GhEXPA8 fiber expansin gene to improve fiber length and micronaire value in cotton

Cotton fiber is multigenic trait controlled by number of genes. Previous studies suggest that one of these genes may be responsible for switching cotton fiber growth on and off to influence the fiber quality produced from a cotton seed. In the present study, the Gossypium hirsutum GhEXPA8 fiber expansin gene was introduced into local cotton variety NIAB 846 by using an Agrobacterium-mediated gene transformation. The neomycin phosphotransferase (NPTII) gene was used as a selection marker for screening of putative transgenic cotton plants. Integration and expression of the fiber expansin gene in cotton plants was confirmed with molecular techniques including Southern blot analyses, real-time PCR. Cellulose assay was used for measurement of cellulose contents of transgenic cotton fiber. The data collected from 3 years of field performance of the transgenic cotton plants expressing GhEXPA8 showed that significant improvement has been made in fiber lengths and micronaire values as compared to control G. hirsutum variety NIAB 846 cotton plants. Statistical techniques were also used for analysis of fiber and agronomic characteristics. The results of this study support improvement of cotton fiber through genetic modification.
Evaluating the role of contracting and expanding rainforest in initiating cycles of speciation across the Isthmus of Panama

Climatic and geological changes across time are presumed to have shaped the rich biodiversity of tropical regions. However, the impact climatic drying and subsequent tropical rainforest contraction had on speciation has been controversial because of inconsistent palaeoecological and genetic data. Despite the strong interest in examining the role of climatic change on speciation in the Neotropics there has been few comparative studies, particularly, those that include non-rainforest taxa. We used bird species that inhabit humid or dry habitats that dispersed across the Panamanian Isthmus to characterize temporal and spatial patterns of speciation across this barrier. Here, we show that these two assemblages of birds exhibit temporally different speciation time patterns that supports multiple cycles of speciation. Evidence for these cycles is further corroborated by the finding that both assemblages consist of ‘young’ and ‘old’ species, despite dry habitat species pairs being geographically more distant than pairs of humid habitat species. The matrix of humid and dry habitats in the tropics not only allows for the maintenance of high species richness, but additionally this study suggests that these environments may have promoted speciation. We conclude that differentially expanding and contracting distributions of dry and humid habitats was probably an important contributor to speciation in the tropics.
An Intelligent Context-Aware Spatial Routing System in Mobile Environment

The rapid growth and development of wireless communication and networking technologies coupled with far more powerful and energy efficient mobile computing systems enable more intelligent behaviours such as user-centric and self-reflection to be used so that mobile user applications can leverage dynamic context information to provide customized services. In this research, an architectural model for the deployment of intelligent context-aware service adaptation process is introduced. A mobile spatial routing application is exploited to demonstrate the improved flexibility and robustness of the new system model.
Idiosyncratic Risk and the Manager

Abstract We develop a model to characterize and quantify the effects of stock, option, and fixed compensation on a manager’s risk-taking incentive and investment choice. We find the average chief executive officer’s (CEO) compensation contract incentivizes overinvestment by 1.3 percentage points per year, with significant variation across firms and over time. We estimate a value of CEO effort implied by compensation contracts and find it to be strongly related to firm intangibility. Finally, we assess the effects on investment of FAS 123R and a hypothetical ban on option grants and find heterogeneous responses that depend on firm volatility and the prior structure of compensation.
Synovial sarcoma: Magnetic resonance and computed tomography imaging features and differential diagnostic considerations

The present study retrospectively examined 24 cases of pathologically confirmed synovial sarcoma and analyzed the clinical presentation and imaging findings in order to explore the imaging features of synovial sarcoma. The majority of the lesions were large (>5 cm; 88%), rounded or lobulated, relatively well-defined tumor masses in the extremities near the joints or deeply located. On computed tomography (CT) scans, the lesions demonstrated intensity signals similar to those of muscle. Six cases exhibited punctate calcification in the periphery of the tumor. On T1-weighted images, the largest lesions of >5 cm, were usually heterogeneous, with a signal intensity similar to or slightly higher than that of muscle. On T2-weighted images, heterogeneous high-intensity or slightly high-intensity signals were observed, with 12 cases exhibiting a high signal consistent with hemorrhage and 12 presenting signals that indicated internal septations. Contrast-enhanced scanning revealed heterogeneous enhancement in the majority of the lesions and no enhancement in areas of cystic necrosis or internal septations. Synovial sarcoma has specific imaging features, and comprehensive analysis of CT and magnetic resonance imaging can improve the accuracy of the pre-operative diagnosis.
"I Got to Teach All Day!" (Perceptions of Student Teachers)

The purpose of the study was to use journals to record perceptions of student teachers during a pre-service teaching experience and determine factors that strongly affect perception. Subjects included college music students who were student teaching in an elementary general and a secondary school music setting. Each student teacher was assigned to keep a daily journal which began with an expectation for the day ahead, a short description of daily activities, comments about the best and worst aspect of the day, andan evaluation of the day. The expectations and evaluations were collected on a 10-point Likert scale. Best and worst aspect comments were sorted into categories including student academic (music), student social (behavioral), teaching competency, teaching duty, and other. Results indicated that few differences were found between expectations and evaluations at any point in the student teaching experience or between elementary or secondary settings. However, a significant interaction indicated that expectations and evaluations were lower for students teaching at the elementary level when it was their second placement. Student teachers ' positive and negative comments most often pertained to teaching duties. Highest and lowest evaluation scores were evoked when music making was judged to be excellent or poor, respectively.
Emotional Style and Susceptibility to the Common Cold

Objective: It has been hypothesized that people who typically report experiencing negative emotions are at greater risk for disease and those who typically report positive emotions are at less risk. We tested these hypotheses for host resistance to the common cold. Methods: Three hundred thirty‐four healthy volunteers aged 18 to 54 years were assessed for their tendency to experience positive emotions such as happy, pleased, and relaxed; and for negative emotions such as anxious, hostile, and depressed. Subsequently, they were given nasal drops containing one of two rhinoviruses and monitored in quarantine for the development of a common cold (illness in the presence of verified infection). Results: For both viruses, increased positive emotional style (PES) was associated (in a dose‐response manner) with lower risk of developing a cold. This relationship was maintained after controlling for prechallenge virus‐specific antibody, virus‐type, age, sex, education, race, body mass, and season (adjusted relative risk comparing lowest‐to‐highest tertile = 2.9). Negative emotional style (NES) was not associated with colds and the association of positive style and colds was independent of negative style. Although PES was associated with lower levels of endocrine hormones and better health practices, these differences could not account for different risks for illness. In separate analyses, NES was associated with reporting more unfounded (independent of objective markers of disease) symptoms, and PES with reporting fewer. Conclusions: The tendency to experience positive emotions was associated with greater resistance to objectively verifiable colds. PES was also associated with reporting fewer unfounded symptoms and NES with reporting more.
Characterization of Na+ and Ca2+ Channels in Zebrafish Dorsal Root Ganglion Neurons

Background Dorsal root ganglia (DRG) somata from rodents have provided an excellent model system to study ion channel properties and modulation using electrophysiological investigation. As in other vertebrates, zebrafish (Danio rerio) DRG are organized segmentally and possess peripheral axons that bifurcate into each body segment. However, the electrical properties of zebrafish DRG sensory neurons, as compared with their mammalian counterparts, are relatively unexplored because a preparation suitable for electrophysiological studies has not been available. Methodology/Principal Findings We show enzymatically dissociated DRG neurons from juvenile zebrafish expressing Isl2b-promoter driven EGFP were easily identified with fluorescence microscopy and amenable to conventional whole-cell patch-clamp studies. Two kinetically distinct TTX-sensitive Na+ currents (rapidly- and slowly-inactivating) were discovered. Rapidly-inactivating INa were preferentially expressed in relatively large neurons, while slowly-inactivating INa was more prevalent in smaller DRG neurons. RT-PCR analysis suggests zscn1aa/ab, zscn8aa/ab, zscn4ab and zscn5Laa are possible candidates for these INa components. Voltage-gated Ca2+ currents (ICa) were primarily (87%) comprised of a high-voltage activated component arising from ω-conotoxin GVIA-sensitive CaV2.2 (N-type) Ca2+ channels. A few DRG neurons (8%) displayed a miniscule low-voltage-activated component. ICa in zebrafish DRG neurons were modulated by neurotransmitters via either voltage-dependent or -independent G-protein signaling pathway with large cell-to-cell response variability. Conclusions/Significance Our present results indicate that, as in higher vertebrates, zebrafish DRG neurons are heterogeneous being composed of functionally distinct subpopulations that may correlate with different sensory modalities. These findings provide the first comparison of zebrafish and rodent DRG neuron electrical properties and thus provide a basis for future studies.