Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ALCAM (CD166) Expression and Serum Levels in Pancreatic Cancer

Background This study was conducted to evaluate the expression of the activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) in pancreatic cancer (PAC) and to determine whether or not the ectodomain shedding of ALCAM (s-ALCAM) could serve as a biomarker in the peripheral blood of PAC patients. Material and Methods Tissue specimens and blood sera of patients with PAC (n = 264 and n = 116, respectively) and the sera of 115 patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) were analyzed via ALCAM immunohistochemistry and s-ALCAM ELISA tests. Results were correlated with clinical, histopathological, and patient survival data (Chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier analysis, log-rank test, respectively). Results ALCAM was expressed in the majority of PAC lesions. Immunohistochemistry and serum ELISA tests revealed no association between ALCAM expression in primary tumors or s-ALCAM and clinical or histopathological data. Neither ALCAM nor s-ALCAM showed a significant impact regarding overall survival (p = 0.261 and p = 0.660, respectively). S-ALCAM serum levels were significantly elevated compared to the sera of CP patients (p<0.001). The sensitivity of s-ALCAM in detecting PAC was 58.6% at a specificity of 73.9% (AUC = 0.69). Conclusions ALCAM is expressed in the majority of PAC lesions, but statistical analysis revealed no association with clinical or pathological data. Although significantly elevated in patients with PAC, the sensitivity and specificity of the s-ALCAM serum quantification test was low. Therefore, its potential as a novel diagnostic marker for PAC remains elusive and further investigations are required.
Sensory Neuron Signaling to the Brain: Properties of Transmitter Release from Olfactory Nerve Terminals

Olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) convey sensory information directly to the CNS via conventional glutamatergic synaptic contacts in olfactory bulb glomeruli. To better understand the process by which information contained in the odorant-evoked firing of ORNs is transmitted to the brain, we examined the properties of glutamate release from olfactory nerve (ON) terminals in slices of the rat olfactory bulb. We show that marked paired pulse depression is the same in simultaneously recorded periglomerular and tufted neurons, and that this form of short-term plasticity is attributable to a reduction of glutamate release from ON terminals. We used the progressive blockade of NMDA receptor (NMDAR) EPSCs by MK-801 [(5R,10S)-(+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5-10-imine hydrogen maleate] and stationary fluctuation analysis of AMPA receptor (AMPAR) EPSCs to determine the probability of release (Pr) of ON terminals; both approaches indicated that Pr is unusually high (≥0.8). The low-affinity glutamate receptor antagonists γ-d-glutamylglycine and l-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid blocked ON-evoked AMPAR- and NMDAR-mediated EPSCs, respectively, to the same extent under conditions of low and high Pr, suggesting that multivesicular release is not a feature of ON terminals. Although release from most synapses exhibits a highly nonlinear dependence on extracellular Ca2+, we find that the relationship between glutamate release and extracellular Ca2+ at ON terminals is nearly linear. Our results suggest that ON terminals have specialized features that may contribute to the reliable transmission of sensory information from nose to brain.
Preserving privacy by de-identifying face images

In the context of sharing video surveillance data, a significant threat to privacy is face recognition software, which can automatically identify known people, such as from a database of drivers' license photos, and thereby track people regardless of suspicion. This paper introduces an algorithm to protect the privacy of individuals in video surveillance data by deidentifying faces such that many facial characteristics remain but the face cannot be reliably recognized. A trivial solution to deidentifying faces involves blacking out each face. This thwarts any possible face recognition, but because all facial details are obscured, the result is of limited use. Many ad hoc attempts, such as covering eyes, fail to thwart face recognition because of the robustness of face recognition methods. This work presents a new privacy-enabling algorithm, named k-Same, that guarantees face recognition software cannot reliably recognize deidentified faces, even though many facial details are preserved. The algorithm determines similarity between faces based on a distance metric and creates new faces by averaging image components, which may be the original image pixels (k-Same-Pixel) or eigenvectors (k-Same-Eigen). Results are presented on a standard collection of real face images with varying k.
Heart Sound Abnormality Detection Using Short Time Fourier Transform and Continuous Wavelet Transform

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the first (S1) and second (S2) heart sound of the Phonocardiogram signal (PCG) using Short -Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT). The frequency content and time duration of S1 and S2 can be determined by the STFT without difficulties. The second heart sound S2 consists of two major components A2 and P2. The time delay between them is very important for the medical diagnosis. Experiments are performed on normal and pathological PCG signals. Frequency contents of S1 and S2 of PCG as well as time duration of them have been measured using STFT. Split between A2 and P2 have been measured using CWT.
Fibrin accumulation plays a critical role in the sensitization to lipopolysaccharide‐induced liver injury caused by ethanol in mice

The early stages of alcohol‐induced liver injury involve chronic inflammation. Whereas mechanisms by which this effect is mediated are not completely understood, it is hypothesized that enhanced sensitivity to circulating lipopolysaccharide (LPS) contributes to this process. It has recently been shown that ethanol induces activation of plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1). PAI‐1 causes fibrin accumulation in liver by inhibiting degradation of fibrin (fibrinolysis). LPS also enhances fibrin accumulation by activating the coagulation cascade. It was therefore hypothesized that ethanol will synergistically increase fibrin accumulation caused by LPS, enhancing liver damage. Accordingly, the effect of ethanol pretreatment on LPS‐induced liver injury and fibrin deposition was determined in mice. Ethanol enhanced liver damage caused by LPS, as determined by plasma parameters and histological indices of inflammation and damage. This effect was concomitant with a significant increase in PAI‐1 expression. Extracellular fibrin accumulation caused by LPS was also robustly increased by ethanol preexposure. Coadministration of the thrombin inhibitor hirudin or the MEK (mitogen‐activated protein kinase) inhibitor U0126 significantly attenuated the enhanced liver damage caused by ethanol preexposure; this protection correlated with a significant blunting of the induction of PAI‐1 caused by ethanol/LPS. Furthermore, thrombin/MEK inhibition prevented the synergistic effect of ethanol on the extracellular accumulation of fibrin caused by LPS. Similar protective effects on fibrin accumulation were observed in tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR‐1)−/− mice or in wild‐type injected with PAI‐1‐inactivating antibody. Conclusion: These results suggest that enhanced LPS‐induced liver injury caused by ethanol is mediated, at least in part, by fibrin accumulation in livers, mediated by an inhibition of fibrinolysis by PAI‐1. These results also support the hypothesis that fibrin accumulation may play a critical role in the development of early alcohol‐induced liver injury. (HEPATOLOGY 2009.)
I/O-Efficient Planar Separators and Applications

We present a new algorithm to compute a subset S of vertices of a planar graph G whose removal partitions G into O(N/h) subgraphs of size O(h) and with boundary size O( √ h) each. The size of S is O(N/ √ h). Computing S takes O(sort(N)) I/Os and linear space, provided that M ≥ 56h log2 B. Together with recent reducibility results, this leads to O(sort(N)) I/O algorithms for breadth-first search (BFS), depth-first search (DFS), and single source shortest paths (SSSP) on undirected embedded planar graphs. Our separator algorithm does not need a BFS tree or an embedding of G to be given as part of the input. Instead we argue that “local embeddings” of subgraphs of G are enough.
Cognitive Determinants of Academic Performance in Nigerian Pharmacy Schools

Objective. To evaluate cognitive factors that might influence academic performance of students in Nigerian pharmacy schools. Methods. A cross-sectional, multi-center survey of Nigerian pharmacy students from 7 schools of pharmacy was conducted using 2 validated questionnaires measuring cognitive constructs such as test anxiety, academic competence, test competence, time management, and strategic study habits. Results. Female students and older students scored significantly better on time management skills and study habits, respectively. Test anxiety was negatively associated with academic performance while test competence, academic competence, and time management were positively associated with academic performance. These 4 constructs significantly discriminated between the lower and higher performing students, with the first 2 contributing to the most differences. Conclusion. Test and academic competence, test anxiety, and time management were significant factors associated with low and high academic performance among Nigerian pharmacy students. The study also demonstrated the significant effects of age, gender, and marital status on these constructs.
Investigations of Zeros near the Central Point of Elliptic Curve L-Functions

We explore the effect of zeros at the central point on nearby zeros of elliptic-curve L-functions, especially for one-parameter families of rank r over ℚ. By the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture and Silverman's specialization theorem, for t sufficiently large the L-function of each curve E t in the family has r zeros (called the family zeros) at the central point. We observe experimentally a repulsion of the zeros near the central point, and the repulsion increases with r. There is greater repulsion in the subset of curves of rank r + 2 than in the subset of curves of rank r in a rank-r family. For curves with comparable conductors, the behavior of rank-2 curves in a rank-0 one-parameter family over ℚ is statistically different from that of rank-2 curves from a rank-2 family. In contrast to excess-rank calculations, the repulsion decreases markedly as the conductors increase, and we conjecture that the r family zeros do not repel in the limit. Finally, the differences between adjacent normalized zeros near the central point are statistically independent of the repulsion, family rank, and rank of the curves in the subset. Specifically, the differences between adjacent normalized zeros are statistically equal for all curves investigated with rank 0, 2, or 4 and comparable conductors from one-parameter families of rank 0 or 2 over ℚ.
Partition testing does not inspire confidence

The authors improve the negative results published about partition testing and try to reconcile them with its intuitively perceived value. Partition testing is shown to be more valuable than random testing only when the partitions are narrowly based on expected faults and there is a good chance of failure. For gaining confidence for successful tests, partition testing as usually practiced has little value. <<ETX>>
Mean-Field Learning: a Survey

In this paper we study iterative procedures for stationary equilibria in games with large number of players. Most of learning algorithms for games with continuous action spaces are limited to strict contraction best reply maps in which the Banach-Picard iteration converges with geometrical convergence rate. When the best reply map is not a contraction, Ishikawa-based learning is proposed. The algorithm is shown to behave well for Lipschitz continuous and pseudo-contractive maps. However, the convergence rate is still unsatisfactory. Several acceleration techniques are presented. We explain how cognitive users can improve the convergence rate based only on few number of measurements. The methodology provides nice properties in mean field games where the payoff function depends only on own-action and the mean of the mean-field (first moment mean-field games). A learning framework that exploits the structure of such games, called, mean-field learning, is proposed. The proposed mean-field learning framework is suitable not only for games but also for non-convex global optimization problems. Then, we introduce mean-field learning without feedback and examine the convergence to equilibria in beauty contest games, which have interesting applications in financial markets. Finally, we provide a fully distributed mean-field learning and its speedup versions for satisfactory solution in wireless networks. We illustrate the convergence rate improvement with numerical examples.
Interactions between human behaviour and ecological systems

Research on the interactions between human behaviour and ecological systems tends to focus on the direct effects of human activities on ecosystems, such as biodiversity loss. There is also increasing research effort directed towards ecosystem services. However, interventions to control people's use of the environment alter the incentives that natural resource users face, and therefore their decisions about resource use. The indirect effects of conservation interventions on biodiversity, modulated through human decision-making, are poorly studied but are likely to be significant and potentially counterintuitive. This is particularly so where people are dependent on multiple natural resources for their livelihoods, when both poverty and biodiversity loss are acute. An inter-disciplinary approach is required to quantify these interactions, with an understanding of human decision-making at its core; otherwise, predictions about the impacts of conservation policies may be highly misleading.
The Origin of Polar Ring Galaxies: Evidence for Galaxy Formation by Cold Accretion

Polar ring galaxies are flattened stellar systems with an extended ring of gas and stars rotating in a plane almost perpendicular to the central galaxy. We show that their formation can occur naturally in a hierarchical universe where most low-mass galaxies are assembled through the accretion of cold gas infalling along megaparsec-scale filamentary structures. Within a large cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, we find a system that closely resembles the classic polar ring galaxy NGC 4650A. How galaxies acquire their gas is a major uncertainty in models of galaxy formation, and recent theoretical work has argued that cold accretion plays a major role. This idea is supported by our numerical simulations and the fact that polar ring galaxies are typically low-mass systems.
Similar V/Sc Systematics in MORB and Arc Basalts: Implications for the Oxygen Fugacities of their Mantle Source Regions

V/Sc systematics in peridotites, mid-ocean ridge basalts and arc basalts are investigated to constrain the variation of fO2 in the asthenospheric mantle. V/Sc ratios are used here to ‘ see through’ those processes that can modify barometric fO2 determinations in mantle rocks and/or magmas: early fractional crystallization, degassing, crustal assimilation and mantle metasomatism. Melting models are combined here with a literature database on peridotites, arc lavas and mid-ocean ridge basalts, along with new, more precise data on peridotites and selected arc lavas. V/Sc ratios in primitive arc lavas from the Cascades magmatic arc are correlated with fluidmobile elements (e.g. Ba and K), indicating that fluids may subtly influence fO2 during melting. However, for the most part, the average V/Sc-inferred fO2s of arc basalts, MORB and peridotites are remarkably similar ( 1 25 to þ0 5 log units from the FMQ buffer) and disagree with the observation that the barometric fO2s of arc lavas are several orders of magnitude higher. These observations suggest that the upper part of the Earth’s mantle may be strongly buffered in terms of fO2. The higher barometric fO2s of arc lavas and some arc-related xenoliths may be due respectively to magmatic differentiation processes and to exposure to large, time-integrated fluid fluxes incurred during the long-term stability of the lithosphericmantle.
Increasing the horizontal resolution of ensemble forecasts at CMC

Abstract. Ensemble forecasts are run operationally since February 1998 at the Canadian Meteorological Centre, with outputs up to ten days. The ensemble size was increased from eight to sixteen members in August 1999. The method of producing the perturbed analyses consists of running independent assimilation cycles that use perturbed sets of observations and are driven by eight different models, mainly different in their physical parameterizations. Perturbed analyses are doubled by taking opposite pairs. A multi-model approach is then used to obtain the forecasts. The ensemble output has been used to generate several products. In view of increasing computing facilities, the ensemble prediction system horizontal resolution was increased to TL149 in June 2001. Heights at 500 hPa and mean sea-level pressure maps are regularly used. Charts of precipitation with the probability of precipitation being above various thresholds are also produced at each run. The probabilistic forecast of the 24-h accumulated precipitation has shown skill as demonstrated by the relative operating characteristic (ROC). Verifications of the ensemble forecasts will be presented.
Identification of a novel mutation in the EXT1 gene from a patient with multiple osteochondromas by exome sequencing

Multiple osteochondromas (MO) is an autosomal skeletal disease with an elusive molecular mechanism. To further elucidate the genetic mechanism of the disease a three-generation Chinese family with MO was observed and researched, and a novel frameshift mutation (c.335_336insA) in the exotosin 1 (EXT1) gene of one patient with MO was observed through exome sequencing. This was further validated by Sanger sequencing and comparison with 200 unrelated healthy controls. Immunohistochemistry and multiple sequence alignment were performed to determine the pathogenicity of the candidate mutation. Multiple sequence alignment suggested that codon 335 and 336 in the EXT1 gene were highly conserved regions in vertebrates. Immunohistochemistry revealed that EXT1 protein expression levels were decreased in a patient with MO and this mutation compared with a patient with MO who had no EXT1 mutation. Owing to the appearance of c. 335_336insA in exon 1 of EXT1, a premature stop codon was introduced, resulting in truncated EXT1. As a result integrated and functional EXT1 was reduced. EXT1 is involved in the biosynthesis of heparan sulfate (HS), an essential molecule, and its dysfunction may lead to MO. The novel mutation of c. 335_336insA in the EXT1 gene reported in the present study has enlarged the causal mutation spectrum of MO, and may assist genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis of MO.
Somato-dendritic Synaptic Plasticity and Error-backpropagation in Active Dendrites

In the last decade dendrites of cortical neurons have been shown to nonlinearly combine synaptic inputs by evoking local dendritic spikes. It has been suggested that these nonlinearities raise the computational power of a single neuron, making it comparable to a 2-layer network of point neurons. But how these nonlinearities can be incorporated into the synaptic plasticity to optimally support learning remains unclear. We present a theoretically derived synaptic plasticity rule for supervised and reinforcement learning that depends on the timing of the presynaptic, the dendritic and the postsynaptic spikes. For supervised learning, the rule can be seen as a biological version of the classical error-backpropagation algorithm applied to the dendritic case. When modulated by a delayed reward signal, the same plasticity is shown to maximize the expected reward in reinforcement learning for various coding scenarios. Our framework makes specific experimental predictions and highlights the unique advantage of active dendrites for implementing powerful synaptic plasticity rules that have access to downstream information via backpropagation of action potentials.
Overfeeding Reduces Insulin Sensitivity and Increases Oxidative Stress, without Altering Markers of Mitochondrial Content and Function in Humans

Background Mitochondrial dysfunction and increased oxidative stress are associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes. High fat feeding induces insulin resistance and increases skeletal muscle oxidative stress in rodents, but there is controversy as to whether skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis and function is altered. Methodology and Principal Findings Forty (37±2 y) non-obese (25.6±0.6 kg/m2) sedentary men (n = 20) and women (n = 20) were overfed (+1040±100 kcal/day, 46±1% of energy from fat) for 28 days. Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps were performed at baseline and day 28 of overfeeding and skeletal muscle biopsies taken at baseline, day 3 and day 28 of overfeeding in a sub cohort of 26 individuals (13 men and 13 women) that consented to having all 3 biopsies performed. Weight increased on average in the whole cohort by 0.6±0.1 and 2.7±0.3 kg at days 3 and 28, respectively (P<0.0001, without a significant difference in the response between men and women (P = 0.4). Glucose infusion rate during the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp decreased from 54.8±2.8 at baseline to 50.3±2.5 µmol/min/kg FFM at day 28 of overfeeding (P = 0.03) without a significant difference between men and women (P = 0.4). Skeletal muscle protein carbonyls and urinary F2-isoprostanes increased with overfeeding (P<0.05). Protein levels of muscle peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α (PGC1α) and subunits from complex I, II and V of the electron transport chain were increased at day 3 (all P<0.05) and returned to basal levels at day 28. No changes were detected in muscle citrate synthase activity or ex vivo CO2 production at either time point. Conclusions Peripheral insulin resistance was induced by overfeeding, without reducing any of the markers of mitochondrial content that were examined. Oxidative stress was however increased, and may have contributed to the reduction in insulin sensitivity observed. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00562393
Terminal HIV Disease and Extreme Poverty: A Review of 307 Home Care Files

This retrospective study of 307 patients with advanced HIV disease residing in downtown Montreal was carried out to examine the nature and consequences of the services they received according to their degree of poverty. The findings showed that, between 1 April 1991 and 31 March 1997, patients living in extreme poverty were more likely to complain of uncontrolled pain during the final week of home visits and were more likely to die in hospital than were their more financially secure counterparts. This held true even though the poorer group had a similar clinical profile at diagnosis and were provided with practically the same services. Thus there is a need to seek better understanding of the nature of palliative care services offered to underprivileged clienteles and to see if the services now provided are adequately adapted to the specific needs of impoverished patients.