Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Melanin content in melanoma metastases affects the outcome of radiotherapy

Melanin possess radioprotective and scavenging properties, and its presence can affect the behavior of melanoma cells, its surrounding environment and susceptibility to the therapy, as showed in vitro experiments. To determine whether melanin presence in melanoma affects the efficiency of radiotherapy (RTH) we evaluated the survival time after RTH treatment in metastatic melanoma patients (n = 57). In another cohort of melanoma patients (n = 84), the relationship between melanin level and pT and pN status was determined. A significantly longer survival time was found in patients with amelanotic metastatic melanomas in comparison to the melanotic ones, who were treated with either RTH or chemotherapy (CHTH) and RTH. These differences were more significant in a group of melanoma patients treated only with RTH. A detailed analysis of primary melanomas revealed that melanin levels were significantly higher in melanoma cells invading reticular dermis than the papillary dermis. A significant reduction of melanin pigmentation in pT3 and pT4 melanomas in comparison to pT1 and T2 tumors was observed. However, melanin levels measured in pT3-pT4 melanomas developing metastases (pN1-3, pM1) were higher than in pN0 and pM0 cases. The presence of melanin in metastatic melanoma cells decreases the outcome of radiotherapy, and melanin synthesis is related to higher disease advancement. Based on our previous cell-based and clinical research and present research we also suggest that inhibition of melanogenesis can improve radiotherapy modalities. The mechanism of relationship between melanogenesis and efficacy of RTH requires additional studies, including larger melanoma patients population and orthotopic, imageable mouse models of metastatic melanoma.
What Is Learned From Artificial Grammars ? Transfer Tests of Simple Association

Ss were trained on letter pairs or letter strings in an artificial grammar learning paradigm to determine the extent to which implicit learning is driven by simple associative knowledge. Learning on strings resulted in sensitivity to violations of grammaticality and in transfer to a changed letter set. Learning on letter pairs resulted in less sensitivity and no transfer. Discrepancies in performance were later reduced, but not eliminated, by equating the task demands of the conditions during learning. A direct test of associative knowledge showed that training on letter pairs resulted in knowledge of legal bigrams, but this knowledge was only weakly related to violation sensitivity. The experiments demonstrate that knowledge of isolated associations is sufficient to support some learning, but this knowledge cannot explain the more abstract knowledge that results from learning on complete exemplars.
An Optimization Approach for Designing Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks have been studied in several contexts because of their large number of applications. There are many challenges involving such networks as the energy resources optimization, the robustness and the network coverage. We address here the problem of energy efficient topology design. A well-designed dynamic topology and an efficient routing algorithm allow to reduce energy consumption, which is the main constraint of wireless sensor node. In this work, we propose to model the problem as a variation of the independent set optimization problem, for the clustering the wireless sensor nodes. We also propose a local search procedure to improve the whole network topology and a specific evaluation procedure.
Volatility and Investment: Interpreting Evidence from Developing Countries

The authors uncover a significant negative correlation between various volatility measures and private investment in developing countries, even when adding the standard control variables. No such correlation is uncovered when the investment measure is the sum of private and public investment spending. Indeed, public investment spending is positively correlated with some measures of volatility. These findings suggest that the detrimental impact of volatility on investment may be easier to detect using disaggregated data. The authors provide several possible interpretations for their findings. Nonlinearities in preferences or budget constraints can cause volatility to have first-order negative effects on private investment. Copyright 1999 by The London School of Economics and Political Science
Increasing the dose of television advertising in a national antismoking media campaign: results from a randomised field trial

Background While antismoking media campaigns have demonstrated effectiveness, less is known about the country-level effects of increased media dosing. The 2012 US Tips From Former Smokers (Tips) campaign generated approximately 1.6 million quit attempts overall; however, the specific dose–response from the campaign was only assessed by self-report. Objective Assess the impact of higher ad exposure during the 2013 Tips campaign on quit-related behaviours and intentions, campaign awareness, communication about campaign, and disease knowledge. Methods A 3-month national media buy was supplemented within 67 (of 190) randomly selected local media markets. Higher-dose markets received media buys 3 times that of standard-dose markets. We compared outcomes of interest using data collected via web-based surveys from nationally representative, address-based probability samples of 5733 cigarette smokers and 2843 non-smokers. Results In higher-dose markets, 87.2% of smokers and 83.9% of non-smokers recalled television campaign exposure versus 75.0% of smokers and 73.9% of non-smokers in standard-dose markets. Among smokers overall, the relative quit attempt rate was 11% higher in higher-dose markets (38.8% vs 34.9%; p<0.04). The higher-dose increase was larger in African-Americans (50.9% vs 31.8%; p<0.01). Smokers in higher-dose markets without a mental health condition, with a chronic health condition, or with only some college education made quit attempts at a higher rate than those in standard-dose markets. Non-smokers in higher-dose markets were more likely to talk with family or friends about smoking dangers (43.1% vs 35.7%; p<0.01) and had greater knowledge of smoking-related diseases. Conclusions The US 2013 Tips antismoking media campaign compared standard and higher doses by randomisation of local media markets. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of a higher dose for engaging non-smokers and further increasing quit attempts among smokers, especially African-Americans.
Group Actions on Stacks and Applications

The motivation at the origin of this article is to investigate some ways of constructing moduli for curves, and covers above them, using tools from stack theory. This idea arose from reading Bertin–Mezard [BeM, esp. Sec. 5] and Abramovich– Corti–Vistoli [ACV]. Our approach is in the spirit of most recent works, where one uses the flexibility of the language of algebraic stacks. This language has two (twin) aspects: category-theoretic on one side and geometric on the other. Some of our arguments, especially in Section 8, are formal arguments involving general constructions concerning group actions on algebraic stacks (this is more on the categoric side). They are, intrinsically, natural enough to preserve the “modular” aspect. In trying to isolate these arguments, we were led to write results of independent interest. It seemed therefore more adequate to present them in a separate, self-contained part. Thus the article is split into two parts of comparable size. More specifically, groups are ubiquitous in algebraic geometry (when one focuses on curves and maps between them, examples include the automorphism group, fundamental group, monodromy group, permutation group of the ramification points, . . .). It is natural to ask whether we can handle group actions on stacks in the same fashion as we do on schemes. For example, we expect: that the quotient of the stack of curves with ordered marked points Mg,n by the symmetric group should classify curves with unordered marked points; that if G acts on a scheme X then the fixed points of the stack Pic(X) under G should be related to G-linearized line bundles on X; and that the quotient of the modular stack curve X1(N ) by (Z/NZ)× should be X0(N ) (the notation is, we hope, well known to the reader). Other important examples appear in the literature: action of tori on stacks of stable maps in Gromov–Witten theory [Ko; GrPa], and action of the symmetric group Sd on a stack of multisections in [L-MB, (6.6)]. Our aim is to provide the material necessary to handle the questions raised here and then answer them, as well as to give other applications. Let us now explain in more detail the structure and results of this paper. In Part A we discuss the notion of a group action on a stack. We are mainly interested in giving general conditions under which the fixed points and the quotient of an algebraic stack are algebraic. In Sections 1 and 2 we give definitions and basics on actions. For simplicity let us now consider a flat group scheme G and an algebraic stack M, both of finite presentation (abbreviated fp) over some
Gender Effects in Dictator Game Giving: Women Favour Female Recipients

Allowing for a free choice of the recipient’s gender in a dictator game (N = 508), we find that women show a substantial gender biased towards females. Adding a charity recipient to the possible choices, the charity becomes the primary recipient and overall transfers increase. Yet, conditioning on transfers to fellow students the gender bias of women remains. Moreover, we find that women tend more towards giving half the endowment while men tend more towards “all or nothing. ” The literature on cognitive dissonance (the feeling of distress once we act against our internalised values) emphasises the importance of voluntary choice for dissonance effects to take hold. Accordingly, we interpret our results as hinting at an important detail regarding the ongoing debate about gender differences in altruistic giving: primary differences may not be found in the amount of transfers made but rather in the choice of the beneficiary’s gender.
Wrongful Conviction, Persuasion and Loss Aversion

When can a prosecutor persuade a loss-averse judge to increase her rate of conviction? Motivated by empirical evidence, I study a model of persuasion in which the loss a judge incurs from wrongful conviction looms larger than the gain from a just verdict. I show that, surprisingly, the prosecutor beneﬁts from persuasion even when the judge is extremely loss-averse. However, a necessary condition is that the prosecutor does not underestimate the judge’s loss aversion. I draw on experimental ﬁndings to quantify the eﬀectiveness of persuasion under loss aversion. JEL classification numbers: D72 ; D82 ; D91 ; K40
Radio Images of 3C 58: Expansion and Motion of Its Wisp

New 1.4 GHz VLA observations of the pulsar-powered supernova remnant 3C 58 have resulted in the highest quality radio images of this object to date. The images show filamentary structure over the body of the nebula. The present observations were combined with earlier ones from 1984 and 1991 to investigate the variability of the radio emission on a variety of timescales. No significant changes are seen over a 110 day interval. In particular, the upper limit on the apparent projected velocity of the wisp is 0.05c. The expansion rate of the radio nebula was determined between 1984 and 2004 and is 0.014% ± 0.003% yr-1, corresponding to a velocity of 630 ± 70 km s-1 along the major axis. If 3C 58 is the remnant of SN 1181, it must have been strongly decelerated, which is unlikely given the absence of emission from the supernova shell. Alternatively, the low expansion speed and a number of other arguments suggest that 3C 58 may be several thousand years old and not the remnant of SN 1181.
Eicosanoid Profiling in an Orthotopic Model of Lung Cancer Progression by Mass Spectrometry Demonstrates Selective Production of Leukotrienes by Inflammatory Cells of the Microenvironment

Eicosanoids are bioactive lipid mediators derived from arachidonic acid1 (AA), which is released by cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2). AA is metabolized through three major pathways, cyclooxygenase (COX), lipoxygenase (LO) and cytochrome P450, to produce a family of eicosanoids, which individually have been shown to have pro- or anti-tumorigenic activities in cancer. However, cancer progression likely depends on complex changes in multiple eicosanoids produced by cancer cells and by tumor microenvironment and a systematic examination of the spectrum of eicosanoids in cancer has not been performed. We used liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to quantitate eicosanoids produced during lung tumor progression in an orthotopic immunocompetent mouse model of lung cancer, in which Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells are injected into lungs of syngeneic mice. The presence of tumor increased products of both the cyclooxygenase and the lipoxygenase pathways in a time-dependent fashion. Comparing tumors grown in cPLA2 knockout vs wild-type mice, we demonstrated that prostaglandins (PGE2, PGD2 and PGF2a) were produced by both cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME), but leukotriene (LTB4, LTC4, LTD4, LTE4) production required cPLA2 expression in the TME. Using flow cytometry, we recovered tumor-associated neutrophils and 2 types of tumor-associated macrophages from tumor-bearing lungs and we defined their distinct eicosanoid profiles by LC/MS/MS. The combination of flow cytometry and LC/MS/MS unravels the complexity of eicosanoid production in lung cancer and provides a rationale to develop therapeutic strategies that target select cell populations to inhibit specific classes of eicosanoids.
Bulk transfer of fluid in the interstitial compartment of mammary tumors.

Venous blood leaving a solid tumor showed higher erythrocyte concentration than did aortic blood. Net fluid loss of efferent blood as calculated from hematocrit differences was 2.7 to 6.7% of flow volume, 4.5 to 10.2% of perfusing plasma volume, or 0.14 to 0.22 ml fluid per hr per g in 2 to 5 g transplanted MTW9 and Walker 256 mammary carcinomas, and primary N-nitrosomethylurea- and 7,12-dimethylbenz(alpha)anthracene-induced mammary carcinomas of rats. Net fluid loss was directly related to blood flow but inversely related to tumor size. Increased hydrostatic pressure in tumor interstitial space was a consistent finding. Micropore chambers embedded in transplanted tumors drained 4 to 5 times more interstitial fluid than did identical chambers in the s.c. tissue. It is concluded that: (a) convective currents are present within the interstitial spaces of tumors; (b) the magnitude of fluid transfer can be measured by the difference in hemoconcentration between afferent and efferent tumor blood; and (c) the volume of this fluid transfer is not altered by hormone-induced tumor regression. The increased hydrostatic pressure of tumor interstitial spaces is interpreted as being due to absence of an anatomically well-developed lymphatic network. The bulk transfer of fluid within interstitial spaces is comparable to lymphatic drainage and should be considered in assessing drug concentration and distribution in solid tumors.
Imaging widespread seismicity at midlower crustal depths beneath Long Beach, CA, with a dense seismic array: Evidence for a depth‐dependent earthquake size distribution

We use a dense seismic array composed of 5200 vertical geophones to monitor microseismicity in Long Beach, California. Poor signal‐to‐noise ratio due to anthropogenic activity is mitigated via downward‐continuation of the recorded wavefield. The downward‐continued data are continuously back projected to search for coherent arrivals from sources beneath the array, which reveals numerous, previously undetected events. The spatial distribution of seismicity is uncorrelated with the mapped fault traces, or with activity in the nearby oil‐fields. Many events are located at depths larger than 20 km, well below the commonly accepted seismogenic depth for that area. The seismicity exhibits temporal clustering consistent with Omori's law, and its size distribution obeys the Gutenberg‐Richter relation above 20 km but falls off exponentially at larger depths. The dense array allows detection of earthquakes two magnitude units smaller than the permanent seismic network in the area. Because the event size distribution above 20 km depth obeys a power law whose exponent is near one, this improvement yields a hundred‐fold decrease in the time needed for effective characterization of seismicity in Long Beach.
Brain lateralization and self-reported symptoms of ADHD in a population sample of adults: a dimensional approach

Many clinical studies reported a compromised brain lateralization in patients with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) without being conclusive about whether the deficit existed in the left or right hemisphere. It is well-recognized that studying ADHD dimensionally is more controlled for comorbid problems and medication effects, and provides more accurate assessment of the symptoms. Therefore, the present study applied the dimensional approach to test the relationship between brain lateralization and self-reported ADHD symptoms in a population sample. Eighty-five right-handed university students filled in the Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales and performed a lateralization reaction time task. The task consists of two matching conditions: one condition requires nominal identification for letters tapping left hemisphere specialization (Letter Name-Identity condition) and the other one requires physical and visuospatial identification for shapes tapping right hemisphere specialization (Shape Physical-Identity condition). The letters or shapes to be matched are presented in left or right visual field of a fixation cross. For both task conditions, brain lateralization was indexed as the difference in mean reaction time between left and right visual field. Linear regression analyses, controlled for mood symptoms reported by a depression, anxiety, and stress scale, showed no relationship between the variables. These findings from a population sample of adults do not support the dimensionality of lateralized information processing deficit in ADHD symptomatology. However, group comparison analyses showed that subjects with high level of inattention symptoms close to or above the clinical cut-off had a reduced right hemisphere processing in the Shape Physical-Identity condition.
Downregulation of microRNA-132 by DNA hypermethylation is associated with cell invasion in colorectal cancer

microRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that are involved in many biological processes, and aberrant regulation of miRNAs is always associated with cancer progression and development. Abnormal expression of miRNA-132 (miR-132) has been found in some types of cancer, but the effects and potential mechanisms of miR-132 in colorectal cancer (CRC) have not been explored to date. In this study, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to investigate the level of miR-132 in CRC tissues and their paired adjacent normal tissues. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that the mechanism underlying the tumor suppressor role of miR-132 in CRC cells may play a role in tumor suppression by targeting paxillin. Furthermore, methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction was performed to evaluate the methylation status of the miR-132 regulatory region. A DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine, was used to activate the expression of miR-132 in CRC cells in vitro. Downregulation of miR-132 may occur as a result of hypermethylation and implies a poor prognosis in CRC; therefore, triggering miR-132 reexpression by using DNA methyltransferase inhibitors may be a potential molecular therapeutic target for CRC.
RISK AND RETURN REVISITED¤

This paper questions the central assumption of global risk-aversion that underlies the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) based on studies in psychology and economics that provide convincing evidence that individual's probability beliefs of outcomes are systematically biased and a®ect his/her risk attitudes. A representative investor with such biases displays risk-seeking behavior over the high market returns states-of-theworld and has an increasing marginal utility function over such states, in contrast to a decreasing function implied by global risk-aversion. I develop an expected returnrisk framework that allows tests of the restrictions on the marginal utility function conditional on the states-of-the-world, implied by any model. Empirical tests using the NYSE/ Amex/ Nasdaq monthly stock data show evidence of risk-seeking behavior as implied by systematic biases in probability beliefs. Further, results from the post-1963 period suggest that an average excess stock return of -2.92% per month in the small cumulative probability states of negative excess market returns implies a contribution of +2.47% per year to the expected return, while an average excess stock return of +4.77% per month in the small decumulative probability states of positive excess market returns implies a contribution of -2.31% per year to the expected return. The latter ̄nding is in sharp contrast to the CAPM's prediction that stocks that have higher returns when the market return is high have higher expected returns.
Low-dimensional representation of error covariance

Ensemble and reduced-rank approaches to prediction and assimilation rely on low-dimensionalapproximations of the estimation error covariances. Here stability properties of the forecast/analysis cycle for linear, time-independent systems are used to identify factors that cause thesteady-state analysis error covariance to admit a low-dimensional representation. A usefulmeasure of forecast/analysis cycle stability is the bound matrix, a function of the dynamics, observation operator and assimilation method. Upper and lower estimates for the steady-stateanalysis error covariance matrix eigenvalues are derived from the bound matrix. The estimatesgeneralize to time-dependent systems. If much of the steady-state analysis error variance is dueto a few dominant modes, the leading eigenvectors of the bound matrix approximate those ofthe steady-state analysis error covariance matrix. The analytical results are illustrated in twonumerical examples where the Kalman filter is carried to steady state. The first example usesthe dynamics of a generalized advection equation exhibiting non-modal transient growth.Failure to observe growing modes leads to increased steady-state analysis error variances.Leading eigenvectors of the steady-state analysis error covariance matrix are well approximatedby leading eigenvectors of the bound matrix. The second example uses the dynamics of adamped baroclinic wave model. The leading eigenvectors of a lowest-order approximation ofthe bound matrix are shown to approximate well the leading eigenvectors of the steady-stateanalysis error covariance matrix.