Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The two faces of janus: sex steroids as mediators of both cell proliferation and cell death.

In this issue of the Journal, Song et al. (1) report that prolonged estrogen withdrawal in breast cancer cells results in the acquisition of an apoptotic response to 17 -estradiol; i.e., the very same hormone that mediates the proliferation of its target cells in the female genital tract and mammary glands is also able to trigger their death. In this editorial, we aim to integrate these experimental results, which are obviously relevant to the management of breast cancer, within a biologic perspective. The exploration of nature never ceases to surprise biologists. When adopting a narrow anthropocentric approach, we imagine nature as designed by a meticulous engineer. However, a more appropriate metaphor would be to imagine instead the workings of nature as the fruit of tinkering, or putting old devices to new uses. From this evolutionary perspective, it is conceivable that the same sex steroid hormones mediate the increase of cell numbers, the inhibition of cell proliferation, the inhibition of cell death, and the increase of cell death. In the 1970s, Bruchovsky et al. (2) showed that androgens, in addition to inhibiting cell death and inducing cell proliferation in the rat prostate in situ, inhibit prostate cell proliferation. The proliferative and inhibitory effects were dissociated temporarily; i.e., the latter event followed the former. Gorski and colleagues (3,4) described an equivalent effect by estrogens for the uterus and the pituitary gland.
Weight gain reveals dramatic increases in skeletal muscle extracellular matrix remodeling.

CONTEXT In animal models of obesity, chronic inflammation and dysregulated extracellular matrix remodeling in adipose tissue leads to insulin resistance. Whether similar pathophysiology occurs in humans is not clear. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to test whether 10% weight gain induced by overfeeding triggers inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling (gene expression, protein, histology) in skeletal muscle and sc adipose tissue in humans. We also investigated whether such remodeling was associated with an impaired metabolic response (hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp). DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND INTERVENTION Twenty-nine free-living males were fed 40% over their baseline energy requirements for 8 weeks. RESULTS Ten percent body weight gain prompted dramatic up-regulation of a repertoire of extracellular matrix remodeling genes in muscle and to a lesser degree in adipose tissue. The amount of extracellular matrix genes in the muscle were directly associated with the amount of lean tissue deposited during overfeeding. Despite weight gain and impaired insulin sensitivity, there was no change in local adipose tissue or systemic inflammation, but there was a slight increase in skeletal muscle inflammation. CONCLUSION We propose that skeletal muscle extracellular matrix remodeling is another feature of the pathogenic milieu associated with energy excess and obesity, which, if disrupted, may contribute to the development of metabolic dysfunction.
Physciochemical variations in the honey produced by Apis dorsata from Punjab, Pakistan

A total of 24 samples was collected from three different localities (n= 3, Lahore, n= 10, Jhang and n=11, Kalar Kahar). These honey samples were analyzed for moisture content, pH, electrical conductivity, free acidity, lactone content, total acidity, proline and HMF content for quality evaluation of Apis dorsata honey. The average moisture content was 22.86%, 22.97% and 21.13% from Lahore, Jhang and Kalar Kahar, respectively. The pH values fell within the prescribed range of 3.42-6.1. The mean free acidity of all honey samples was well with international limits. Lactone content was 33.44meq/kg from Lahore, 15.53meq/kg from Jhang and 12.77meq/kg from Kalar Kahar. Total acidity calculated for honey samples of Lahore was 60.21meq/kg, 55.46meq/kg for Jhang and 50.36meq/kg for Kalar Kahar region. Proline content was estimated at an average of 5146.62mg/kg of honey samples from Lahore, 4328.44mg/kg from Jhang and 3554.68mg/kg from Kalar Kahar honey samples which were higher than minimum International Honey Standards limit. HMF content was measured as 36.41mg/kg from Lahore, 30.44mg/kg from Jhang and 89.93mg/kg from Kalar Kahar. The HMF Content was within the maximum International limit. Keywords: A.dorsata honey; Proline and HMF content; EC value http://dx.doi. org/10.19045/bspab.2017. 60078
PMU-based estimation of dynamic state Jacobian matrix

In this paper, a hybrid measurement and model-based method is proposed which can estimate the dynamic state Jacobian matrix in near real-time. The proposed method is computationally efficient and robust to the variation of network topology. A numerical example is given to show that the proposed method is able to provide good estimation for the dynamic state Jacobian matrix and is superior to the model-based method under undetectable network topology change. The proposed method may also help identify big discrepancy in the assumed network model.
Trends in Endometrial Cancer Incidence by Race and Histology with a Correction for the Prevalence of Hysterectomy, SEER 1992 to 2008

Background: Incidence rates of endometrial cancer are routinely calculated without removing women who have had a hysterectomy from the denominator, which leads to an underestimate. Furthermore, as the number of women who have had a hysterectomy (hysterectomy prevalence) varies by race, the estimate of racial difference in endometrial cancer incidence is incorrect. Methods: Data from 1992 to 2008 from the SEER Program were used to calculate incidence rates of endometrial cancer (corpus uterus and uterus, NOS) for 67,588 women 50 years and older. Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used to estimate hysterectomy prevalence. SEER area populations were reduced by hysterectomy prevalence, and corrected incidence rates were calculated. Results: For women 50 years and older, the corrected incidence rate of endometrial cancer was 136.0 per 100,000 among whites and 115.5 among blacks, a 73% and 90% increase respectively compared with the uncorrected rate. The increase was greater for black women because hysterectomy prevalence was higher among black women (47%) than white women (41%). The corrected incidence among black women significantly increased 3.1% per year compared with a 0.8% significant decrease among white women resulting in higher rates among black women toward the end of the study period. Conclusion: Correcting the incidence rate for hysterectomy prevalence provides more accurate estimates of endometrial cancer risk over time. Impact: Comparisons of rates of endometrial cancer among racial groups may be misleading in the absence of denominator correction for hysterectomy prevalence. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(2); 233–41. ©2012 AACR.
An Alzheimer’s Disease-Derived Biomarker Signature Identifies Parkinson’s Disease Patients with Dementia

Biomarkers from multiple modalities have been shown to correlate with cognition in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the relationships of these markers with each other, and the use of multiple markers in concert to predict an outcome of interest, are areas that are much less explored. Our objectives in this study were (1) to evaluate relationships among 17 biomarkers previously reported to associate with cognition in PD or AD and (2) to test performance of a five-biomarker classifier trained to recognize AD in identifying PD with dementia (PDD). To do this, we evaluated a cross-sectional cohort of PD patients (n = 75) across a spectrum of cognitive abilities. All PD participants had 17 baseline biomarkers from clinical, genetic, biochemical, and imaging modalities measured, and correlations among biomarkers were assessed by Spearman’s rho and by hierarchical clustering. We found that internal correlation among all 17 candidate biomarkers was modest, showing a maximum pairwise correlation coefficient of 0.51. However, a five-marker subset panel derived from AD (CSF total tau, CSF phosphorylated tau, CSF amyloid beta 42, APOE genotype, and SPARE-AD imaging score) discriminated cognitively normal PD patients vs. PDD patients with 80% accuracy, when employed in a classifier originally trained to recognize AD. Thus, an AD-derived biomarker signature may identify PDD patients with moderately high accuracy, suggesting mechanisms shared with AD in some PDD patients. Based on five measures readily obtained during life, this AD-derived signature may prove useful in identifying PDD patients most likely to respond to AD-based crossover therapies.
Structure‐Function Analysis of the BEACH Protein LvsA

Most eukaryotes have several members of the BEACH family of proteins but the molecular function of these large proteins remains unknown. The Dictyostelium BEACH protein LvsA is essential for cytokinesis and contractile vacuole activity. The functional contribution of different portions of LvsA was tested here by deletion analysis. The C‐terminal WD domain was important for protein stability and C‐terminal deletions resulted in loss of LvsA function. In contrast, N‐terminal deletions yielded abundant protein expression that could be assayed for function. Despite very low sequence conservation of the N‐terminal portion of LvsA, this region is important for its function in vivo. Deletion of 689 N‐terminal amino acids produced a protein that was functional in cytokinesis but partially functional in osmoregulation. Further deletions resulted in the complete loss of LvsA function. Using in vitro fractionation assays we found that LvsA sedimented with membranes but that this association does not require the N‐terminal portion of LvsA. Interestingly, the association of LvsA with the contractile vacuole was perturbed by the loss of drainin, a protein important for vacuole function. In drainin‐null cells, LvsA bound irreversibly to engorged contractile vacuoles that fail to expel water. These experiments help delineate the biochemical and physiological requirements for function of one important BEACH protein, LvsA.
Carotid artery stenting in the first 100 consecutive patients: results and follow up

Background: Carotid artery stenting is now used as an alternative to surgical endarterectomy. The availability of cerebral protection systems has expanded the area of application of this procedure. Objective: To assess the feasibility, safety, and immediate and late clinical outcome in patients undergoing percutaneous carotid interventions. Methods: Between January 1999 and December 2000, 100 consecutive patients with 102 carotid artery stenoses were treated (71 men, 29 women, mean (SD) age 67 (8) years): 49 had coronary artery disease, 28 had previous stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). On the basis of the Mayo Clinic carotid endarterectomy risk scale, 73 patients were grade III–IV and 13 grade VI. Results: Baseline diameter stenosis was 78.8 (10)%, with a mean lesion length of 12.6 (5.8) mm. Angiographic success was obtained in 99 lesions (97.0%) with a final diameter stenosis of 2.4 (3.5)%. Procedural success was obtained in 96 patients (96%). Selective cannulation of three carotid arteries was impossible owing to severe vessel tortuosity. Carotid stenting was performed in 97 of the treated lesions, and protection devices were used in 67 lesions. In-hospital complications occurred in seven patients (six TIA, one (category 1) minor stroke). No major stroke or death occurred. All patients were discharged from the hospital after an average of 2.5 days. At 12 (6.2) months of follow up restenosis occurred in three patients (3.4%) (one patient with carotid occlusion had TIA). Six patients had died: two from cerebrovascular events (5 and 11 months after the procedure) and four from cardiovascular causes. Conclusions: Carotid stenting appears feasible and safe, with few major complications. Long term follow up is affected by a high incidence of cardiovascular mortality.
Scaling up stigma? The effects of antiretroviral roll-out on stigma and HIV testing. Early evidence from rural Tanzania

Objective: To investigate the interplay between antiretroviral therapy (ART) scale-up, different types of stigma and Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) uptake 2 years after the introduction of free ART in a rural ward of Tanzania. Methods: Qualitative study using in-depth interviews and group activities with a purposive sample of 91 community leaders, 77 ART clients and 16 health providers. Data were analysed for recurrent themes using NVIVO-7 software. Results: The complex interplay between ART, stigma and VCT in this setting is characterised by two powerful but opposing dynamics. The availability of effective treatment has transformed HIV into a manageable condition which is contributing to a reduction in self-stigma and is stimulating VCT uptake. However, this is counterbalanced by the persistence of blaming attitudes and emergence of new sources of stigma associated with ART provision. The general perception among community leaders was that as ART users regained health, they increasingly engaged in sexual relations and “spread the disease. ” Fears were exacerbated because they were perceived to be very mobile and difficult to identify physically. Some leaders suggested giving ART recipients drugs “for impotence,” marking them “with a sign” and putting them “in isolation camps. ” In this context, traditional beliefs about disease aetiology provided a less stigmatised explanation for HIV symptoms contributing to a situation of collective denial. Conclusion: Where anticipated stigma prevails, provision of antiretroviral drugs alone is unlikely to have sufficient impact on VCT uptake. Achieving widespread public health benefits of ART roll-out requires community-level interventions to ensure local acceptability of antiretroviral drugs.
Field evaluation of distance-estimation error during wetland-dependent bird surveys

Abstract Context. The most common methods to estimate detection probability during avian point-count surveys involve recording a distance between the survey point and individual birds detected during the survey period. Accurately measuring or estimating distance is an important assumption of these methods; however, this assumption is rarely tested in the context of aural avian point-count surveys. Aims. We expand on recent bird-simulation studies to document the error associated with estimating distance to calling birds in a wetland ecosystem. Methods. We used two approaches to estimate the error associated with five surveyor’s distance estimates between the survey point and calling birds, and to determine the factors that affect a surveyor’s ability to estimate distance. Key results. We observed biased and imprecise distance estimates when estimating distance to simulated birds in a point-count scenario (error = –9 m, s.d.error = 47 m) and when estimating distances to real birds during field trials (error = 39 m, s.d.error = 79 m). The amount of bias and precision in distance estimates differed among surveyors; surveyors with more training and experience were less biased and more precise when estimating distance to both real and simulated birds. Three environmental factors were important in explaining the error associated with distance estimates, including the measured distance from the bird to the surveyor, the volume of the call and the species of bird. Surveyors tended to make large overestimations to birds close to the survey point, which is an especially serious error in distance sampling. Conclusions. Our results suggest that distance-estimation error is prevalent, but surveyor training may be the easiest way to reduce distance-estimation error. Implications. The present study has demonstrated how relatively simple field trials can be used to estimate the error associated with distance estimates used to estimate detection probability during avian point-count surveys. Evaluating distance-estimation errors will allow investigators to better evaluate the accuracy of avian density and trend estimates. Moreover, investigators who evaluate distance-estimation errors could employ recently developed models to incorporate distance-estimation error into analyses. We encourage further development of such models, including the inclusion of such models into distance-analysis software.
Annotating photo collections by label propagation according to multiple similarity cues

This paper considers the emerging problem of annotating personal photo collections that are taken by digital cameras and may have been subsequently organized by customers. Unlike the images from the web searching engine or commercial image banks (e.g. the Corel database), the photos in the same personal collection are related to each other in time, location, and content. Advanced technologies can record the GPS coordinates for each photo, and thus provide a richer source of context to model and enforce the correlation between the photos in the same collection. Recognizing the well-known limitations ("semantic gap") of visual recognition algorithms, we exploit the correlation between the photos to enhance the annotation performance. In our approach, high-confidence annotation labels are first obtained for certain photos and then propagated to the remaining photos in the same collection, according to time, location, and visual proximity (or similarity). A novel generative probabilistic model is employed, which outperforms the pervious linear propagation scheme. Experimental results have shown the advantages of the proposed annotation scheme.
CONSERVED ONTOGENY AND ALLOMETRIC SCALING OF RESOURCE ACQUISITION AND ALLOCATION IN THE DAPHNIIDAE

Abstract Life histories vary widely among taxa, but within phylogenetic groups there may be a fundamental framework around which trait variation is organized, perhaps as a consequence of lineage-specific developmental constraints. In organisms with indeterminate growth, there is an ongoing problem of optimally allocating resources between growth and reproduction, and that allocation decision may manifest itself through allometric scaling. Previous work on freshwater zooplankton has shown that the ontogenetic pattern of resource allocation can be described by simple mathematical functions. An important component of understanding how such functions can explain life-history variation is to discover which parameters in these functions are robust, with respect to both resource availability and evolutionary diversification, and which parameters exhibit interspecific allometry. To shed light on these issues, detailed life table experiments were conducted on eight species in the family Daphniidae (Crustacea) at high and low levels of resources. Using data on growth, reproduction, and instar duration, the ontogeny of resource allocation to growth and reproduction could be described as functions that plateau at or shortly after the onset of maturity. To be sure that the results were not an artifact of phylogenetic structure, the parameters were tested in a phylogenetically controlled fashion. The results suggest a simple set of resource allocation rules for daphniids, whereby all species exhibit a similar form of ontogenetic change in allocation, and reach a plateau where approximately 94% of available resources are allocated to reproduction. The asymptotically maximal rate of net resources incorporated in growth and reproduction was positively related to size at maturity, whereas the rates of approach to plateaus (for both net resource assimilation and proportional allocation to reproduction) were negatively related to body size. Per-offspring investment was positively related to the square root of size at maturity. Using this approach, a wide range of interspecific variation in life-history features can be related to a single underlying trait, the size at first reproductive investment.
Understanding the rationale for updating a function’s comment

Up-to-date comments are critical for the successful evolution of a software application. When modifying a function, developers may update the comment associated with the function or may not update it. For example, comments associated with a complex function are likely to be updated more often when the function is modified to prevent the code and the comments from drifting apart. Nevertheless, the rationale behind updating a comment has never been studied. In this paper, we present a large empirical study to better understand the rationale for updating comments. We recover the code change history for four large open source projects (GCC: a compiler, FreeBSD: an operation system, PostgreSQL: a database management system, and GCluster: a clustering framework) with an average code history of 10 years. Using the Random Forests algorithm, we investigate the rationale for updating comments along three dimensions: characteristics of the changed function, characteristics of the change itself and time and code ownership characteristics. Our case study shows that we can predict with an accuracy of 80%; the likelihood of updating the comment associated with a modified function. We perform a sensitivity analysis to determine the most important attributes. Our analysis shows that the percentage of changed call dependencies and control statements, the age of the modified function and the number of co-changed functions which depend on it are the most important attributes in determining the likelihood of updating comments.
les strategies de legitimation de la parite en France

Cet article se propose d’analyser les rhetoriques de legitimation de la « parite » politique en France au cours des annees 1990. Nee dans un cadre juridico-politique international pronant le recours a des mesures de discrimination positive en faveur des femmes, la parite a ete de maniere croissante, au cours de la decennie, presentee comme une demande d’inscription de la difference de sexe dans la representation politique. L’article s’attache a analyser l’usage privilegie de ce registre argumentatif au regard du contexte discursif dans lequel la revendication emerge, marque par le modele de « l’universalisme republicain », et analyse ses effets sur la traduction institutionnelle de la revendication.
Behavioral Model of Younger Users in M-Payment Systems

This article contributes to the research area concerned with behaviors of young users in virtual environments. More specifically, we study their purchasing behaviors on the Internet and the acceptance of the new mobile payment tools that are being used. To perform this research, a web experiment involving a new short-message-service (SMS) mobile payment system is performed. Data from young users who participate in the experiment are used to analyze a behavioral model of factors potentially influencing intentions to adopt the new mobile payment system. The analysis shows how trust, ease of use, and risk are key elements of the intention to use the new tool by persons in a young-user population. Findings and their implications for management provide companies with alternatives to seize this new business opportunity in light of new technological developments. This article is an initial study of behavioral intention with SMS mobile payment, especially among younger users.