Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantitative proteomic analysis for high-throughput screening of differential glycoproteins in hepatocellular carcinoma serum

Objective Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Novel serum biomarkers are required to increase the sensitivity and specificity of serum screening for early HCC diagnosis. This study employed a quantitative proteomic strategy to analyze the differential expression of serum glycoproteins between HCC and normal control serum samples. Methods Lectin affinity chromatography (LAC) was used to enrich glycoproteins from the serum samples. Quantitative mass spectrometric analysis combined with stable isotope dimethyl labeling and 2D liquid chromatography (LC) separations were performed to examine the differential levels of the detected proteins between HCC and control serum samples. Western blot was used to analyze the differential expression levels of the three serum proteins. Results A total of 2,280 protein groups were identified in the serum samples from HCC patients by using the 2D LC-MS/MS method. Up to 36 proteins were up-regulated in the HCC serum, whereas 19 proteins were down-regulated. Three differential glycoproteins, namely, fibrinogen gamma chain (FGG), FOS-like antigen 2 (FOSL2), and α-1,6-mannosylglycoprotein 6-β-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase B (MGAT5B) were validated by Western blot. All these three proteins were up-regulated in the HCC serum samples. Conclusion A quantitative glycoproteomic method was established and proven useful to determine potential novel biomarkers for HCC.
A cautionary note on testing latent variable models

The article tackles the practice of testing latent variable models. The analysis covered recently published studies from 11 psychology journals varying in orientation and impact. Seventy-five studies that matched the criterion of applying some of the latent modeling techniques were reviewed. Results indicate the presence of a general tendency to ignore the model test (χ2) followed by the acceptance of approximate fit hypothesis without detailed model examination yielding relevant empirical evidence. Due to reduced sensitivity of such a procedure to confront theory with data, there is an almost invariable tendency to accept the theoretical model. This absence of model test consequences, manifested in frequently unsubstantiated neglect of evidence speaking against the model, thus implies the perilous question of whether such empirical testing of latent structures (the way it is widely applied) makes sense at all.
Correlating solder paste composition with stencil printing performance

Soldering technologies continue to evolve, particularly in the area of solder pastes used in SMD reflow soldering. Solder pastes typically consist of solder alloy powder, flux, viscosity control agents, and a solvent system. By varying solder particle size, distribution and shape, as well as the other constituent materials, solder paste rheology and printing performance can be controlled. As PCB pad and component lead sizes reduce to meet ultra-fine pitch and flip-chip assembly requirements, most paste suppliers have opted for smaller powder particle sizes and new rheology modifier formulations. Successful assembly at these small-scale geometries requires deposition of small and consistent paste deposits from pad to pad, and from board to board. Two primary mechanisms dominate paste printing at this chip-scale geometry: paste transfer into stencil apertures, and paste release from the apertures on to PCB pads, i.e. paste flow behaviour is crucial in defining printing performance. Solder paste flow properties primarily depend on their chemical and physical structure, and hence composition. In this paper, we study the rheological profile of various paste formulations, and how this can be used to provide better understanding of composition effects on stencil printing performance. Pastes for ultra-fine pitch and flip chip applications were studied via a wide range of rheological tests, including the creep recovery test to determine paste slump characteristics and the oscillatory test to determine visco-elastic behaviour required for two critical sub-processes: aperture filling and paste withdrawal.
Status and Distrust: The Relevance of Inequality and Betrayal Aversion

Trust is related to people's willingness to accept vulnerability, composed of their willingness to accept the risk of being worse off than if they had never trusted, the risk of being worse off than the trusted party, and the risk of being betrayed by the trusted party. We examine how people's status, focusing on sex, race, age and religion, affects their willingness to accept these three risks. We experimentally measure a person's willingness to accept risk in a Decision Problem, a Risky Dictator Game and a Trust Game. Groups typically considered having lower status in the US – women, minorities, younger people and non-Protestants – are averse to inequality while higher status groups-male, white, older and Protestant decision makers – dislike being betrayed. This heterogeneity in motivation asks for different organizational interventions to decrease distrust depending on a group's status.
Plastic Bending of A514 Steel Beams

To determine how variations in the geometric ratios of b/t (the flange width is 2 b ) and L/ry affect the ability of A514-steel members to fulfill the requirements for plastic design, seven A514 steel I-shaped beams were tested in pure bending and two others were tested as centrally loaded beams in which the moment varied linearly from zero to maximum between bracing points. The moment-gradient and pure-bending tests simulated, respectively, first-forming and last-forming plastic hinges of frames. Both the pure-bending and moment-gradient tests indicated that A514 steel has sufficient rotation capacity for its use in plastically designed structures loaded in this way. The tests also indicated that premature plastic buckling of A514 steel I-shaped members will not occur if the value of b/t is limited to 5 and if the value of L/ry is limited to 21 for uniform-moment regions and 36 when the moment varies linearly from zero to maximum over the unbraced length.
Classification of Electrocardiogram Signals with RS and Quantum Neural Networks

In this paper, rough sets (RS) and quantum neural network (QNN) are used to recognize electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. Firstly, wavelet transform (WT) is used as a feature extraction after normalization of these signals. Then the attribute reduction of RS has been applied as preprocessor so that we could delete redundant attributes and conflicting objects from decision making table but remain efficient information lossless. We realized classification modeling and forecasting test based on QNN after that. Finally, the RS-QNN gives us fast and realistic results compared with the BP and RBF. By this method, we could reduce the dimension of feature space and decrease the complexity in the process. Experiment result shows that the classification ability of the RS-QNN is superior to conventional approach.
The Properties of Rice Flours Prepared by Dry- and Wet-Milling of Soaked Glutinous and Normal Grains

To prepare ready-to-use rice flour as de novo material for processed rice foods, glutinous(W) and normal rice grains (N) were soaked for 1, 8, and 12 hours prior to processing. One half (DG) was air-dried and milled, and the other (WG) was milled and air-dried. General, morphological and pasting properties of the flours (NDG, NWG, WDG, WWG) were compared to those of a control (raw milled rice without soaking). The general compositions of the rice flours varied with soaking. Crude ash was considerably decreased at the beginning of soaking (1 hour). With the soaking, the rice flour, having polygonal shaped particles and a layered surface, acquired particles with smooth edges, which were then uniformly distributed. Additionally, the WG flour was lighter and had a lower value than the DG flour, due to a higher L and less +b as a result of soaking. Compared to the control, the WBC of the normal rice flour was decreased significantly with soaking, and the WG flour had significantly lower WBCs than the DG flour. Stirring number (SN), an indicator of activity, was highly and significantly correlated with WBC (r=-0.85, p=0.0001) in the normal rice flour. At , the SP and solubility of all the soaked rice flours were much higher than those of the control. Positive (r=+0.85, p=0.0001) and negative (r=-0.61, p=0.02) correlations between the SP and solubility of the normal and glutinous rice flours were found, respectively. Using RVA, the pasting temperature of NDG was lower than that of NWG (p
Incidence of Retinal Complications in a Cohort of Newly Diagnosed Diabetic Patients

Purpose We aimed at estimating the incidence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and maculopathy (DMP) among newly diagnosed type 1 (t1DM) and type 2 diabetic patients (t2DM) in the United Kingdom primary care system. The incidence of DMP among patients with DR was also estimated. Method We conducted a cohort study using The Health Improvement Network database. The cohort included 64,983 incident diabetic patients (97.3% were t2DM) aged 1–84 years diagnosed between 2000 and 2007. This cohort was followed from the date of diabetes diagnosis until recording of DR or DMP in two separate follow-ups. Follow-up was censored at 85 years of age, death, or end of 2008. An additional follow-up was conducted from DR to DMP diagnosis using similar censoring reasons. DR and DMP cumulative incidences were calculated as well as incidence rates (IR; cases per 1,000 person-years) per calendar period (2000–2001 and 2006–2007). Results Follow-up for DR: 9 years after diabetes diagnosis, 28% of t2DM and 24% of t1DM patients had developed DR (7,899 incident DR cases). During the first 2 years with diabetes, the IR was almost 2 times higher in patients diagnosed with diabetes in 2006–2007 (47.7) than among those diagnosed in 2000–2001 (24.5). Follow-up for DMP: 9 years after diabetes diagnosis, 3.6% of t2DM and 4.4% of t2DM patients had developed DMP (912 incident DMP cases). During the first 2 years with diabetes, the IR was three times higher in patients diagnosed with diabetes in 2006–2007 (5.8) than among those diagnosed in 2000–2001 (1.8). Macular oedema occurred in 0.8% of patients. Conclusions In a cohort of incident diabetes, 28% of patients developed retinopathy and 4% maculopathy within the first 9 years. The 2-year IRs of DR and DMP were higher in patients diagnosed with diabetes during the period 2006–2007 than in those diagnosed during the 2000–2001 period.
TRKing down an old oncogene in a new era of targeted therapy.

UNLABELLED The use of high-throughput next-generation sequencing techniques in multiple tumor types during the last few years has identified NTRK1, 2, and 3 gene rearrangements encoding novel oncogenic fusions in 19 different tumor types to date. These recent developments have led us to revisit an old oncogene, Trk (originally identified as OncD), which encodes the TPM3-NTRK1 gene fusion and was one of the first transforming chromosomal rearrangements identified 32 years ago. However, no drug has yet been approved by the FDA for cancers harboring this oncogene. This review will discuss the biology of the TRK family of receptors, their role in human cancer, the types of oncogenic alterations, and drugs that are currently in development for this family of oncogene targets. SIGNIFICANCE Precision oncology approaches have accelerated recently due to advancements in our ability to detect oncogenic mutations in tumor samples. Oncogenic alterations, most commonly gene fusions, have now been detected for the genes encoding the TRKA, TRKB, and TRKC receptor tyrosine kinases across multiple tumor types. The scientific rationale for the targeting of the TRK oncogene family will be discussed here.
Clinical Significance of CA125 Level after the First Cycle of Chemotherapy on Survival of Patients with Advanced Ovarian Cancer

Purpose To determine the most powerful cancer antigen 125 (CA125)-related prognostic factor for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and to identify cut-off values that distinguish patients with a poor prognosis from those with a good prognosis. Materials and Methods We included 223 patients who received staging laparotomy and were diagnosed with stage IIC–IV serous EOC. Cox regression analysis was used to determine the most significant prognostic factor among the following variables: serum CA125 before surgery and after the first, second, and sixth cycles of chemotherapy; the nadir CA125 value; the relative percentage change in CA125 levels after the first and second cycles of chemotherapy compared to baseline CA125; CA125 half-life; time to nadir; and time to normalization of the CA125 level. Results The CA125 level after the first chemotherapy cycle was the most significant independent prognostic factor for overall survival (OS). Time to normalization (p=0.028) and relative percentage change between CA125 levels at baseline and after the first chemotherapy cycle (p=0.021) were additional independent prognostic factors in terms of OS. The CA125 level after the first chemotherapy cycle (p=0.001) and time to normalization (p<0.001) were identified as independent prognostic factors for progression free survival (PFS). Conclusion Among well-established CA125-related prognostic factors, serum CA125 levels after the first cycle of chemotherapy and time to normalization were the most significant prognostic factors for both OS and PFS.
Characteristics of rhizobia nodulating beans in the central region of Minnesota.

Until recently, beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) grown in Minnesota were rarely inoculated. Because of this, we hypothesized that bean rhizobia collected in Minnesota would either share characteristics identifiable with Rhizobium etli of Mesoamerican or Andean origin, introduced into the region as seed-borne contaminants, or be indigenous rhizobia from prairie species, such as Dalea spp. The latter organisms have been shown to nodulate and fix N2 with Phaseolus vulgaris. Rhizobia recovered from the Staples, Verndale, and Park Rapids areas of Minnesota were grouped according to the results of BOXA1R-PCR fingerprint analysis into 5 groups, with only one of these having banding patterns similar to 2 of 4 R. etli reference strains. When representative isolates were subject to fatty acid - methyl ester analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the results obtained differed. 16S rRNA gene sequences of half the organisms tested were most similar to Rhizobium leguminosarum. Rhizobia from Dalea spp. , an important legume in the prairie ecosystem, did not play a significant role as the microsymbiont of beans in this area. This appears to be due to the longer time needed for them to initiate infection in Phaseolus vulgaris. Strains of Rhizobium tropici IIB, including UMR1899, proved tolerant to streptomycin and captan, which are commonly applied as seed treatments for beans. Local rhizobia appeared to have very limited tolerance to these compounds.
Design and control shrinkage behavior of high-strength self-consolidating concrete using shrinkage-reducing admixture and super-absorbent polymer

In the present study, self-consolidating concrete (SCC) with 28 days compressive strength of 110 MPa was fabricated. Its workability, hydration heat evolution, chloride penetration resistance, and mechanical properties were analyzed. To enhance its volume stability, shrinkage-reducing admixture (SRA) and super-absorbent polymer (SAP) were used, and their effect on autogenous shrinkage, drying shrinkage, and strength of the concrete were evaluated. The results indicate that high-strength SCC can be achieved using a carefully designed ternary binder system (made with cement, fly ash, and silica fume), water-reducing admixture, and low water-to-binder ratio (W/B = 0.20). Addition of SRA and SAP into the concrete significantly reduced autogenous shrinkage and slightly reduced drying shrinkage. SAP is more effective in reducing autogenous shrinkage at later age, and the effect of SRA is better than that of SAP for drying shrinkage reduction.
A Dataset and Exploration of Models for Understanding Video Data through Fill-in-the-Blank Question-Answering

While deep convolutional neural networks frequently approach or exceed human-level performance in benchmark tasks involving static images, extending this success to moving images is not straightforward. Video understanding is of interest for many applications, including content recommendation, prediction, summarization, event/object detection, and understanding human visual perception. However, many domains lack sufficient data to explore and perfect video models. In order to address the need for a simple, quantitative benchmark for developing and understanding video, we present MovieFIB, a fill-in-the-blank question-answering dataset with over 300,000 examples, based on descriptive video annotations for the visually impaired. In addition to presenting statistics and a description of the dataset, we perform a detailed analysis of 5 different models predictions, and compare these with human performance. We investigate the relative importance of language, static (2D) visual features, and moving (3D) visual features, the effects of increasing dataset size, the number of frames sampled, and of vocabulary size. We illustrate that: this task is not solvable by a language model alone, our model combining 2D and 3D visual information indeed provides the best result, all models perform significantly worse than human-level. We provide human evaluation for responses given by different models and find that accuracy on the MovieFIB evaluation corresponds well with human judgment. We suggest avenues for improving video models, and hope that the MovieFIB challenge can be useful for measuring and encouraging progress in this very interesting field.
Thermal and decay-resistance properties of tropical wood–plastic composites

This investigation concerns about the thermal and decay resistance properties of tropical wood polymer composites. Wood polymer composites were prepared from several types of tropical wood species by impregnating the woods with ethyl methacrylate that was combined with a cross-linker, hexamethylene diisocyanate. Thermal properties of wood polymer composites in terms of thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry were evaluated, and an improvement in thermal stability was found on ethyl methacrylate and ethyl methacrylate–hexamethylene diisocyanate treatment. A significant improvement in decay resistance was also identified in wood polymer composites that were treated with ethyl methacrylate, and also, with ethyl methacrylate–hexamethylene diisocyanate. The improvement in properties was observed as more potential with ethyl methacrylate–hexamethylene diisocyanate combination rather than ethyl methacrylate.
Genome sequence comparison of Col and Ler lines reveals the dynamic nature of Arabidopsis chromosomes

Large differences in plant genome sizes are mainly due to numerous events of insertions or deletions (indels). The balance between these events determines the evolutionary direction of genome changes. To address the question of what phenomena trigger these alterations, we compared the genomic sequences of two Arabidopsis thaliana lines, Columbia (Col) and Landsberg erecta (Ler). Based on the resulting alignments large indels (>100 bp) within these two genomes were analysed. There are ∼8500 large indels accounting for the differences between the two genomes. The genetic basis of their origin was distinguished as three main categories: unequal recombination (Urec)-derived, illegitimate recombination (Illrec)-derived and transposable elements (TE)-derived. A detailed study of their distribution and size variation along chromosomes, together with a correlation analyses, allowed us to demonstrate the impact of particular recombination-based mechanisms on the plant genome evolution. The results show that unequal recombination is not efficient in the removal of TEs within the pericentromeric regions. Moreover, we discovered an unexpectedly high influence of large indels on gene evolution pointing out significant differences between the various gene families. For the first time, we present convincing evidence that somatic events do play an important role in plant genome evolution.
Locking Intramedullary Nailing with and without Reaming for Open Fractures of the Tibial Shaft. A Prospective, Randomized Study*

Ninety-one patients who had ninety-four open fractures of the tibial shaft were randomized into two treatment groups. Fifty fractures (nine type-I, eighteen type-II, sixteen type-IIIA, and seven type-IIIB fractures, according to the classification of Gustilo et al.) were treated with nailing after reaming, and forty-four fractures (five type-I, sixteen type-II, nineteen type-IIIA, and four type-IIIB fractures) were treated with nailing without reaming. The average diameter of the nail was 11.5 millimeters (range, nine to fourteen millimeters) in the group treated with reaming and 9.2 millimeters (range, eight to ten millimeters) in the group treated without reaming. Follow-up information was adequate for forty-five patients (forty-seven fractures) who had been managed with reaming and forty patients (forty-one fractures) who had been managed without reaming. No clinically important differences were found between the two groups with regard to the technical aspects of the procedure or the rate of early postoperative complications. The average time to union was thirty weeks (range, thirteen to seventy-two weeks) in the group treated with reaming and twenty-nine weeks (range, thirteen to fifty weeks) in the group treated without reaming. Four (9 per cent) of the fractures treated with reaming and five (12 per cent) of the fractures treated without reaming did not unite (p = 0.73). There were two infections in the group treated with reaming and one in the group treated without reaming. Significantly more screws broke in the group treated without reaming (twelve; 29 per cent) than in the group treated with reaming (four; 9 per cent) (p = 0.014). There was no difference between the two groups with regard to the frequency of broken nails (two nails that had been inserted after reaming broke, compared with one that had been inserted without reaming). The functional outcome, in terms of pain in the knee, range of motion, return to work, and recreational activity, did not differ significantly between the groups. We concluded that the clinical and radiographic results of nailing after reaming are similar to those of nailing without reaming for fixation of open fractures of the tibial shaft, although more screws broke when reaming had not been done.
Bactericidal Activity of Aerobic and Anaerobic Polymorphonuclear Neutrophils

Human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) were made anaerobic by nitrogen washout (oxygen saturation <1%, Eh < −42 mV at pH 7.0), and the ability of the cells to kill bacteria was assayed and compared to the bactericidal activity of aerobic PMN. Anaerobic PMN were able to kill Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus, viridans streptococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Peptostreptococcus anaerobius, Bacteroides fragilis, Clostridium perfringens, and Peptococcus magnus normally. Organisms that were not killed normally by anaerobic PMN included Staphylococcus aureus (strains Wood 46 and 502a), Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, and Salmonella typhimurium. These findings suggest that mechanisms other than those dependent on hydrogen peroxide may be important in the killing of some bacteria.