Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunoprofile from tissue microarrays to stratify familial breast cancer patients

Familial breast cancer (BC) is a heterogeneous disease with variable prognosis. The identification of an immunoprofile is important to predict tumor behavior for the routine clinical management of familial BC patients. Using immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays, we studied 95 familial BCs in order to analyze the expression of some biomarkers involved in different pathways. We used unsupervised hierarchical clustering analyses (HCA), performed using the immunohistochemical score data, to define an immunoprofile able to characterize these tumors. The analyses on 95 and then on a subset of 45 tumors with all biomarkers contemporarily evaluable, revealed the same biomarker and patient clusters. Focusing on the 45 tumors we identified a group of patients characterized by the low expression of estrogen receptor (P = 0.009), progesterone receptor (P < 0.001), BRCA1 (P = 0.005), nuclear Na+/H+ exchanger regulatory factor 1 (NHERF1) (P = 0.026) and hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (P < 0.001), and also by the higher expression of MIB1 (P = 0.043), cytoplasmic NHERF1 (P = 0.004), cytoplasmic BRCT-repeat inhibitor of hTERT expression (P = 0.001), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (P = 0.024) and VEGF receptor-1 (P = 0.029). This immunoprofile identified a more aggressive tumor phenotype associated also with a larger tumor size (P = 0.012) and G3 grade (P = 0.006), confirmed by univariate and multivariate analyses. In conclusion, the clinical application of HCA of immunohistochemical data could allow the assessment of prognostic biomarkers to be used simultaneously. The 10 protein expression panel might be used to identify the more aggressive tumor phenotype in familial BC and to direct patients towards a different clinical therapy.
Heuristic Guidelines for Playful Wearable Augmented Reality Applications

In recent years, new wearable platforms and peripherals requiring unique modes of interaction have been emerging in record numbers. Watches, necklaces, glasses, even pants [1] are beginning to incorporate technology. Wearable devices also offer many new ways for users to interact; therefore, more research is needed to evaluate these novel methods of interactions. Our research focuses on proposing a heuristic list to guide design and evaluation of wearable devices in playful applications. In this work-in-progress (WiP) article we show a prototype of a unique, playful, interaction application, META Museum, and propose the development of a heuristic list to evaluate it. This WiP reports on the early evaluation results based on user's inputs and discusses some common mistakes that users make and in what way this relates to how the application is designed.
The Role of Prophage for Genome Diversification within a Clonal Lineage of Lactobacillus johnsonii: Characterization of the Defective Prophage LJ771

ABSTRACT Two independent isolates of the gut commensal Lactobacillus johnsonii were sequenced. These isolates belonged to the same clonal lineage and differed mainly by a 40.8-kb prophage, LJ771, belonging to the Sfi11 phage lineage. LJ771 shares close DNA sequence identity with Lactobacillus gasseri prophages. LJ771 coexists as an integrated prophage and excised circular phage DNA, but phage DNA packaged into extracellular phage particles was not detected. Between the phage lysin gene and attR a likely mazE (“antitoxin”)/pemK (“toxin”) gene cassette was detected in LJ771 but not in the L. gasseri prophages. Expressed pemK could be cloned in Escherichia coli only together with the mazE gene. LJ771 was shown to be highly stable and could be cured only by coexpression of mazE from a plasmid. The prophage was integrated into the methionine sulfoxide reductase gene (msrA) and complemented the 5′ end of this gene, creating a protein with a slightly altered N-terminal sequence. The two L. johnsonii strains had identical in vitro growth and in vivo gut persistence phenotypes. Also, in an isogenic background, the presence of the prophage resulted in no growth disadvantage.
The Relationship Between Surface Roughness and Corrosion

There are different parameters which can affect electrochemical reactions such as type of electrolyte, velocity, temperature, oxidizing agents, impurities, anode material type and surface treatment. It has been shown that pre-treatment of working electrode (anode) through abrasion techniques is one of the most important parameters affecting on Tafel slopes and consequently corrosion rate. Surface roughness of the metal surface is a major influence on general corrosion, nucleation of metastable pitting and pitting potential as well.In this study different surface roughnesses were created on nickel surface by SiC papers and corrosion properties were compared. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and profilometry tests were carried out on all the samples and the results were compared with another sample prepared through laser ablation method. Corrosion rate values were calculated and were compared with EIS results for all the samples and a trend in the effect of roughness on corrosion protection of nickel was introduced. SEM and 3D roughness images were taken and compared for all of the samples before and after corrosion tests. Different mechanisms were distinguished for samples created through different methods. The lower the roughness values, the more the corrosion resistance. Sample with patterns created through laser ablation method showed the best protection properties compared to other samples.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
Deep vein thrombosis among patients entering cardiac rehabilitation after coronary artery bypass surgery.

BACKGROUND Little information is available about the prevalence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after discharge from cardiac surgery units and its impact on rehabilitation programs. OBJECTIVES To estimate the rate of DVT, in relation to different thromboprophylaxis strategies, in patients with a recent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) entering cardiac rehabilitation. METHODS Two hundred seventy consecutive patients admitted to three rehabilitation facilities after CABG surgery from 19 cardiac surgery units (male patients, 81%; mean +/- SD age, 64 +/- 9 years; interval after operation, 4 to 19 days) underwent serial leg venous ultrasound examination on admission to three rehabilitative units. RESULTS At admission, antiplatelet treatment was present in all patients except 10 with absolute contraindications. In 171 patients (63%), heparin prophylaxis (low-molecular-weight heparin once daily, 87%; unfractionated heparin twice daily, 13%) was reported, limited to the early postoperative period (< or = 3 days) in 102 patients (38%). DVT was detected in 47 patients (17.4%). The rate of proximal and isolated distal DVT was 2.6% (7 cases) and 14.8% (40 cases), respectively. DVT was complicated in two cases (0.7%) by symptomatic pulmonary embolism, fatal in one case (0.4%). Clots were found in the leg contralateral to the saphenous vein harvest site in half of all DVT cases. Forty-three DVT cases (91%) were diagnosed at admission, while serial ultrasound testing allowed diagnosis of an additional 4 distal DVT cases. At multivariate analysis, female sex (p < 0.001) and length of stay in the surgery unit > 8 days (p < 0.05) were independently associated with risk of DVT in the rehabilitation setting. The adoption of heparin prophylaxis until discharge predicted the absence of DVT after adjustment for immobility (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS This study showed a high rate of DVT in patients entering cardiac rehabilitation after CABG surgery. Wearing unilateral graded compression stockings after CABG surgery had limited efficacy, as clots were often localized in legs contralateral to the saphenous vein harvest site.
Performance Investigation on the High-Resolution Wide-Swath SAR System with Monostatic Architecture

The High-Resolution Wide-Swath (HRWS) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system, promoted by EADS Astrium GmbH, has been object in the last years of intensive studies for his capability to overcome the conflict between azimuth resolution and swath width of conventional SAR. The original choice of a bistatic solution for the system architecture has been recently reconsidered and is currently oriented towards a monostatic approach. The paper reports a performance analysis on the HRWS SAR system with monostatic architecture.
Ensuring sustainability of web services dependent processes

High dependence on web services and service-oriented architecture affects not only business solutions, but also scientific research. Web services may be delivered by third parties, and thus are candidates for outsourcing. However, they represent a source of risks, which can jeopardise the robustness of processes. Hence, there is a need for actions which can contribute to the mitigation of possible threats to the continuity of processes. In this paper, risk affecting processes are classified, followed by a discussion about particular changes stemming from web services. Three distinct approaches allowing improvements are described: a newly proposed web services monitoring framework supported by a software solution, the concept of resilient web services, which specifies new design requirements for web services, and digital preservation strategies, which apart from long-term benefits can support sustainability of currently running processes.
Multiple Stumbles: A Risk Factor for Falls in Community‐Dwelling Elderly; A Prospective Study

To better understand risk factors for falls among community‐dwelling elderly, we analyzed data from a sample of elderly Medicare beneficiaries interviewed in 1987 and a year later. Demographic, social, medical, and functional information were obtained by telephone interviews with 736 subjects (68% women) whose average age was 76.5 (range, 65–99). At baseline, 63 subjects reported a fall and 67 reported two or more stumbles without a fall in the past month. At the second interview follow‐up information on falls in the past year was obtained on 586 subjects. One hundred twenty‐seven (22%) subjects reported one or more falls. Baseline risk factors that were independent predictors of a fall at the second interview included two or more stumbles (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2–4.5), one or more falls (AOR 5.9, 95% CI 2.9–12.2), having spent 4 or more days in bed in the past month (AOR 7.7, 95% CI 1.9–31.0), and self‐reported declining health status (AOR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1–3.5).
Jobless Growth in the Central and Eastern European Countries

This paper estimates a labor demand equation based on the panel data of manufacturing industry in the Central and Eastern European Countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Romania) in order to test the effect of domestic factors (wages and output) and international factors (exports, imports, and foreign direct investment) on employment during the era of post-transition recovery. The findings indicate that employment does not respond to wages in more than half of the cases. The output elasticity of labor demand is mostly positive, but low, with a number of cases where employment is completely de-linked from output. An impressive speed of integration to the European economic sphere through FDI and international trade has not prevented job losses in the manufacturing industry. While there are very few cases of positive effects, insignificant effects of trade and FDI dominate the findings with some evidence of negative effects as well
Acoustic environment classification using discrete hartley transform features

This paper presents a new approach for acoustic environment classification based on the discrete Hartley transform. The approach applies a Hidden Markov Model based classifier on test data composed of audio clips, in order to determine which environment is surrounding these audio clips. The approach uses features obtained from the discrete Hartley transform, leading to a set of features that require only real arithmetic computations. This can make the technique advantageous in terms of simplicity and/or in terms of computational speed. The proposed approach performance is evaluated on benchmark datasets provided from the 2013 and 2016 Detection and Classification of Acoustic Scenes and Events (DCASE) challenges. Experiments show that the proposed method is competitive compared to other recently proposed methods, and that the use of the discrete Hartley transform improves the classification performance.
Gender differences in human single neuron responses to male emotional faces

Well-documented differences in the psychology and behavior of men and women have spurred extensive exploration of gender's role within the brain, particularly regarding emotional processing. While neuroanatomical studies clearly show differences between the sexes, the functional effects of these differences are less understood. Neuroimaging studies have shown inconsistent locations and magnitudes of gender differences in brain hemodynamic responses to emotion. To better understand the neurophysiology of these gender differences, we analyzed recordings of single neuron activity in the human brain as subjects of both genders viewed emotional expressions. This study included recordings of single-neuron activity of 14 (6 male) epileptic patients in four brain areas: amygdala (236 neurons), hippocampus (n = 270), anterior cingulate cortex (n = 256), and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (n = 174). Neural activity was recorded while participants viewed a series of avatar male faces portraying positive, negative or neutral expressions. Significant gender differences were found in the left amygdala, where 23% (n = 15∕66) of neurons in men were significantly affected by facial emotion, vs. 8% (n = 6∕76) of neurons in women. A Fisher's exact test comparing the two ratios found a highly significant difference between the two (p < 0.01). These results show specific differences between genders at the single-neuron level in the human amygdala. These differences may reflect gender-based distinctions in evolved capacities for emotional processing and also demonstrate the importance of including subject gender as an independent factor in future studies of emotional processing by single neurons in the human amygdala.
Neural Markers of Religious Conviction

Many people derive peace of mind and purpose in life from their belief in God. For others, however, religion provides unsatisfying answers. Are there brain differences between believers and nonbelievers? Here we show that religious conviction is marked by reduced reactivity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a cortical system that is involved in the experience of anxiety and is important for self-regulation. In two studies, we recorded electroencephalographic neural reactivity in the ACC as participants completed a Stroop task. Results showed that stronger religious zeal and greater belief in God were associated with less firing of the ACC in response to error and with commission of fewer errors. These correlations remained strong even after we controlled for personality and cognitive ability. These results suggest that religious conviction provides a framework for understanding and acting within one's environment, thereby acting as a buffer against anxiety and minimizing the experience of error.
The needs of parents of hospitalized children in Australia

The aim of this study was to compare the perceptions of needs held by parents of hospitalized children with those held by the staff caring for them. Family-centred care is a central tenet of paediatrics and should encompass all aspects of the child and family's experience of hospitalization. Important to this are the needs of parents when their children are hospitalized. A widely used and validated tool was used with a convenience sample in paediatric facilities in a children's hospital in Australia. Some differences were found between parents and staff for scores for perceived importance of the 51 needs included in the questionnaire, and whether or not they were being met satisfactorily during children's hospital admission, although there were no consistent patterns. Parents declared themselves more independent than the staff perceived them to be. These findings facilitate improvements in communication between parents and staff and can be included in education programmes for both.
Unified Embedding and Metric Learning for Zero-Exemplar Event Detection

Event detection in unconstrained videos is conceived as a content-based video retrieval with two modalities: textual and visual. Given a text describing a novel event, the goal is to rank related videos accordingly. This task is zero-exemplar, no video examples are given to the novel event. Related works train a bank of concept detectors on external data sources. These detectors predict confidence scores for test videos, which are ranked and retrieved accordingly. In contrast, we learn a joint space in which the visual and textual representations are embedded. The space casts a novel event as a probability of pre-defined events. Also, it learns to measure the distance between an event and its related videos. Our model is trained end-to-end on publicly available EventNet. When applied to TRECVID Multimedia Event Detection dataset, it outperforms the state-of-the-art by a considerable margin.
Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 Controls the Embryo-to-Seedling Phase Transition

Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is a key regulator of epigenetic states catalyzing histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3), a repressive chromatin mark. PRC2 composition is conserved from humans to plants, but the function of PRC2 during the early stage of plant life is unclear beyond the fact that it is required for the development of endosperm, a nutritive tissue that supports embryo growth. Circumventing the requirement of PRC2 in endosperm allowed us to generate viable homozygous null mutants for FERTILIZATION INDEPENDENT ENDOSPERM (FIE), which is the single Arabidopsis homolog of Extra Sex Combs, an indispensable component of Drosophila and mammalian PRC2. Here we show that H3K27me3 deposition is abolished genome-wide in fie mutants demonstrating the essential function of PRC2 in placing this mark in plants as in animals. In contrast to animals, we find that PRC2 function is not required for initial body plan formation in Arabidopsis. Rather, our results show that fie mutant seeds exhibit enhanced dormancy and germination defects, indicating a deficiency in terminating the embryonic phase. After germination, fie mutant seedlings switch to generative development that is not sustained, giving rise to neoplastic, callus-like structures. Further genome-wide studies showed that only a fraction of PRC2 targets are transcriptionally activated in fie seedlings and that this activation is accompanied in only a few cases with deposition of H3K4me3, a mark associated with gene activity and considered to act antagonistically to H3K27me3. Up-regulated PRC2 target genes were found to act at different hierarchical levels from transcriptional master regulators to a wide range of downstream targets. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that PRC2-mediated regulation represents a robust system controlling developmental phase transitions, not only from vegetative phase to flowering but also especially from embryonic phase to the seedling stage.
Exercise Testing Soon after Myocardial Infarction

Forty-six men under age 70, without clinical congestive heart failure or unstable angina pectoris, performed treadmill tests 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 weeks after myocardial infarction. Patients were more frequently able to perform moderate exertion (2 mph, 14%percnt; grade) at 7 and 11 weeks than at 3 weeks following infarction. Ischemic ST-segment depression, usually unaccompanied by angina pectoris, occurred in 45%percnt; of patients and was associated with a significantly increased incidence of subsequent coronary events. The presence of exercise-induced ventricular ectopic activity provided little independent prognostic information. No serious complications occurred in 210 tests. Exercise testing soon after myocardial infarction provides objective information concerning the capacity to resume physical activity, including return to work. Two tests, at 3-5 weeks and at 7-11 weeks, appear to provide most of the information contained in five tests performed during this time.
Independent association between low serum amylase and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in asymptomatic adults: a cross-sectional observational study

Objectives Low serum amylase (LSA) was reported to be associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and diabetes. However, it is unknown as to whether LSA is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a hepatic manifestation of MetS and insulin resistance. Therefore, we performed a clinical epidemiological study to investigate this potential association. Design A cross-sectional observational study with multivariate analysis. Setting Subjects were recruited in a healthcare centre in Saitama, an eastern district of Japan, near Tokyo. Participants A total of 1475 asymptomatic adults aged 30–79 years who underwent detailed medical check-ups and who regularly consumed small amounts of alcohol (<20 g/day). Outcome measures Serum amylase, cardiometabolic risk factors, NAFLD determined by ultrasound, MetS determined by Adult Treatment Panel-III criteria and diabetes were assessed. Results The prevalence of NAFLD increased significantly from 22.5% to 42.4% (all grades) and from 9.2% to 24.0% (moderate or severe grade) from the highest to the lowest quartile of serum amylase. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that, compared with the highest quartile of serum amylase, the lowest quartile of serum amylase was significantly associated with any-grade NAFLD and with moderate-to-severe NAFLD, even after adjusting for MetS or diabetes. The association between LSA and any-grade NAFLD disappeared after further adjustment for body mass index or waist circumference, whereas the association between LSA and moderate or severe NAFLD remained statistically significant (ORs (95%CI), 2.01 (1.07 to 3.78) and 2.06 (1.09 to 3.87), respectively, both p=0.01). Conclusions Our results suggest that LSA may be associated with moderate or severe NAFLD in asymptomatic adults independent of MetS, diabetes and obesity. These results warrant confirmation in further studies.