Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chemoimmunotherapy Reduces the Progression of Multiple Myeloma in a Mouse Model

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a B-cell malignancy characterized by clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. Recently, we showed a correlation between increased ratios of functional regulatory T cells (Treg) and disease progression in a unique mouse model that mimics the human disease. Cyclophosphamide (CYC) is a cytotoxic alkylating agent widely used in chemotherapeutic regimens. Low-dose CYC was previously reported to selectively reduce Treg levels and to contribute to immunostimulation. Our objectives were (a) to determine whether treatment using a low-dose CYC could reduce MM progression and (b) to further characterize the modes of action underlying these effects. We found that both low- and high-dose CYC given to sick mice with hind limb paralysis resulted in the disappearance of the paralysis, the replacement of plasma tumor cells in the bone marrow by normal cell populations, and a significant prolongation of survival. However, only low-dose CYC treatment decreased the incidence of MM. Low-dose CYC rendered Tregs susceptible to apoptosis because of the downregulation of Bcl-xL and CTLA-4 in these cells, and a decreased production of interleukin 2 by effector CD4 cells. Moreover, using this treatment, we noted the recovery of IFN-γ–producing natural killer T cells and maturation of dendritic cells. Treatment of tumor-bearing mice with repeated administrations of low-dose CYC at longer time intervals (coinciding with the blocked renewal of Tregs) resulted in reduced tumor load, and the prevention or delay of disease recurrence, thereby breaking immune tolerance against MM tumor cells. Cancer Prev Res; 3(10); 1265–76. ©2010 AACR.
Individual Differences in Multitasking Performance

The present study examined whether personality characteristics and general intelligence predict multitasking performance. The Multi-Attribute Task Battery-II was used to assess multitasking performance. Personality factors included the Big Five, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The results indicated scores on general intelligence predict performance on the tracking task of the Multi-Attribute Task Battery-II, where higher scores of general intelligence predicted improved tracking performance. Additionally, conscientiousness and neuroticism were found to predict worsened performance on the resource management task of the Multi-Attribute Task Battery-II. Furthermore, agreeableness was found to predict perceived workload on the mental demand subscale of the Workload Rating Scale.
Nonparametric Discrete Choice Models With Unobserved Heterogeneity

In this research, we provide a new method to estimate discrete choice models with unobserved heterogeneity that can be used with either cross-sectional or panel data. The method imposes nonparametric assumptions on the systematic subutility functions and on the distributions of the unobservable random vectors and the heterogeneity parameter. The estimators are computationally feasible and strongly consistent. We provide an empirical application of the estimator to a model of store format choice. The key insights from the empirical application are: (1) consumer response to cost and distance contains interactions and nonlinear effects, which implies that a model without these effects tends to bias the estimated elasticities and heterogeneity distribution, and (2) the increase in likelihood for adding nonlinearities is similar to the increase in likelihood for adding heterogeneity, and this increase persists as heterogeneity is included in the model.
A Symbolic Approach to Performance Analysis of Quantized Feedback Systems: The Scalar Case

When dealing with the control of a large number of interacting systems, the fact that the flow of information has to be limited becomes an essential feature of the control design. The first consequence of the limited information flow constraint is that the signals that the controllers and the systems exchange have to be quantized. Though quantization has already been extensively considered in the control literature, its analysis from the point of view of the information flow demand has been considered only recently. Limiting the information flow between a plant and a controller will necessarily lead to a performance degradation of the feedback loop, and we expect a trade-off between the achievable performance and the amount of information exchange allowed in the loop. Most of the success of modern digital communication theory in the last 50 years is due to the contributions of information theory, which proposed a symbolically based analysis of the communication channel performance. The same goal is much more difficult to reach in digital control theory. This paper proposes an attempt toward this direction. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a complete analysis of the trade-off between performance and information flow in the simple case of the stabilization of a scalar linear system by means of a memoryless quantized feedback map.
Biotechnological Potential of Agro-Industrial Wastes as a Carbon Source to Thermostable Polygalacturonase Production in Aspergillus niveus

Agro-industrial wastes are mainly composed of complex polysaccharides that might serve as nutrients for microbial growth and production of enzymes. The aim of this work was to study polygalacturonase (PG) production by Aspergillus niveus cultured on liquid or solid media supplemented with agro-industrial wastes. Submerged fermentation (SbmF) was tested using Czapeck media supplemented with 28 different carbon sources. Among these, orange peel was the best PG inducer. On the other hand, for solid state fermentation (SSF), lemon peel was the best inducer. By comparing SbmF with SSF, both supplemented with lemon peel, it was observed that PG levels were 4.4-fold higher under SSF. Maximum PG activity was observed at 55°C and pH 4.0. The enzyme was stable at 60°C for 90 min and at pH 3.0–5.0. The properties of this enzyme, produced on inexpensive fermentation substrates, were interesting and suggested several biotechnological applications.
Functional properties and interaction of the anterior and posterior intraparietal areas in humans

In the monkey the lateral bank of the anterior part of the intraparietal sulcus (area AIP), contains neurons that are involved in visually guided, object‐related hand movements. It has also been shown that neurons in the caudal part of the intraparietal sulcus (area CIP) preferentially respond to 3D surface orientation. According to these results, it has been hypothesized that neurons in area CIP primarily encode the 3D features of an object and forwards this information to area AIP. AIP then utilizes this information for appropriate hand actions towards the object. Based on analogies to these primate studies, recent neuroimaging studies have suggested human homologues of areas AIP and CIP, however, the functional interaction between these areas remains unclear. Our event related fMRI study was designed to address specifically the question, how CIP and AIP interact in the process of adjustment of hand orientation towards objects. Volunteers were asked to perform three tasks: discrimination of surface orientation, imaging of visually guided hand movements and execution of visually guided hand movements. Our data show that the human AIP was activated both during discrimination of surface orientation and during the subsequent spatial adjustment of the thumb and index finger position towards the surface orientation. In contrast, human CIP was activated by the surface orientation but not by spatial adjustment of finger position. These data clearly indicate that the function of human CIP is more involved in coding 3D features of the objects, whereas human AIP is more involved in visually guided hand movements, similar to its role in the monkey.
Discovering Association Rules with High Predictive Power

I argue that association rules are only useful if they express regularities in the process that created a particular database, rather than regularities in the database itself { which may be due to chance and may have little or no pre-dictive power. As a consequence, I propose a modiied deenition of the discovery problem. I present an algorithm which is guaranteed to nd (with high probability) only those association rules which characterize the underlying process. The algorithm operates on arbitrarily small subsets of the data base which makes its eeciency controllable. As a drawback, the algorithm is incomplete { i.e., it nds some, but not all rules (the larger the sample, the more rules it will nd). I then show a second algorithm which is guaranteed (with high probability) to nd all regularities in the underlying process. The subset of the database which this algorithm needs to look at grows polynomially in the number of rows. However, the number of association rules can potentially grow exponentially in the number of rows.
Partner Selection Criteria in Strategic Alliances When to Ally with Weak Partners

In many emergent markets, cross-industry alliances are necessary to develop and market new products and services. The resource-based view suggests that firms form alliances to access or acquire valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable resources, and that such access determines the level of profits. Hence, firms confronted with the choice between partners with strong versus partners with weak resource endowments should choose the former. We contest this view and argue that firms benefit from allying with weak partners at certain times. In essence, we suggest that partner selection involves assessing the relative importance of strong resource endowments and aligned strategic aspirations over time. By adopting an evolutionary approach, we show that appropriate partner selection criteria are dynamic and may involve allying with weak partners in the initial exploratory stage, with weak and/or strong partners in the development stage and with strong partners in the maturity stage. Our findings suggest that the resource-based understanding of strategic alliances should be extended to include a more profound role for a partner firm’s strategic aspiration.
Automatic detection and masking of nonatomic exception handling

The development of robust software is a difficult undertaking and is becoming increasingly more important as applications grow larger and more complex. Although modern programming languages such as C++ and Java provide sophisticated exception handling mechanisms to detect and correct runtime error conditions, exception handling code must still be programmed with care to preserve application consistency. In particular, exception handling is only effective if the premature termination of a method due to an exception does not leave an object in an inconsistent state. We address this issue by introducing the notion of failure atomicity in the context of exceptions. We propose practical techniques to automatically detect and mask the nonatomic exception handling situations encountered during program execution. These techniques can be applied to applications written in various programming languages that support exceptions. We perform experimental evaluation on both C++ and Java applications to demonstrate the effectiveness of our techniques and measure the overhead that they introduce.
SpaceTree: supporting exploration in large node link tree, design evolution and empirical evaluation

We present a novel tree browser that builds on the conventional node link tree diagrams. It adds dynamic rescaling of branches of the tree to best fit the available screen space, optimized camera movement, and the use of preview icons summarizing the topology of the branches that cannot be expanded. In addition, it includes integrated search and filter functions. This paper reflects on the evolution of the design and highlights the principles that emerged from it. A controlled experiment showed benefits for navigation to already previously visited nodes and estimation of overall tree topology.
Relation between lymphopenia and bacteraemia in UK adults with medical emergencies

Aims: To determine the relevance of lymphopenia to the diagnosis of bacteraemia in patients admitted with medical emergencies, relative to peripheral blood white cell count and neutrophilia. Patients/Methods: A two year cohort study carried out in a teaching hospital in Oxford, UK of 21 495 consecutive adult emergency admissions to general medical or infectious disease wards. Full blood data were available in 21 372 cases; 41 cases with extreme full blood count results (neutrophil count, > 75 × 109/litre; lymphocyte count, > 10 × 109/litre) were excluded, leaving 21 331 cases for analysis. The association between the admission lymphocyte and neutrophil counts and the risk of bacteraemia was assessed. Results: Neutrophilia and lymphopenia were both associated with bacteraemia. Lymphopenia was the better predictor in this cohort. Both neutrophilia and lymphopenia were more predictive of bacteraemia than the total white blood cell count. Conclusions: Both lymphocyte and neutrophil counts, rather than total white blood cell count, should be considered in adult medical admissions with suspected bacteraemia.
Application of the probabilistic collocation method for an uncertainty analysis of a simple ocean model

This paper presents the probabilistic collocation method as a computationally efficient method for performing uncertainty analysis on large complex models such as those used in global climate change research. The collocation method is explained, and then the results of its application to a box model of ocean thermohaline circulation are presented. A comparison of the results of the collocation method with a traditional Monte Carlo simulation show that the collocation method gives a better approximation for the probability density function of the model’s response with less than 20 model runs as compared with a Monte Carlo simulation of 5000 model runs.
Consumer Religiosity and Shopping Behaviour in Malaysia

ABSTRACT There has been considerable research establishing a link between cultural and s ub-cultural values, and aspects of consumer behaviour. However, religion as a sub-cultural element has received little attention from researchers. This study sought to examine the influence of religiosity on one aspect of consumer behaviour ± shopping orientation. The research data was collect ed by means of a survey through personal interviews using a structured questionnaire. Out of 300 respondents targeted, 226 questionnaires were deemed usable for statistical analysis. The findings revealed that three shopping orientation factors, namely quality consciousness, impulsive shoppin g, and price consciousness were related to religiosity. It is suggested that religiosity should be included as a possible determinant of shopping orientations in consumer behaviour models. Keywords: Religion; religiosity; consumer behaviour; shopping orientation; Malaysia.
Reputation Inflation: Evidence from an Online Labor Market

Average public feedback scores given to sellers have increased strongly over time in an online labor market. Changes in marketplace composition or improved seller performance cannot fully explain this trend. We propose that two factors inflated reputations: (1) it costs more to give bad feedback than good feedback and (2) this cost to raters is increasing in the cost to sellers from bad feedback. Together, (1) and (2) can lead to an equilibrium where feedback is always positive, regardless of performance. In response, the marketplace encouraged buyers to additionally give private feedback. This private feedback was substantially more candid and more predictive of future worker performance. When aggregates of private feedback about each job applicant were experimentally provided to employers as a private feedback score, employers used these scores when making screening and hiring decisions.
Immunogenicity and Cross Protective Ability of the Central VP2 Amino Acids of Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.)

Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) is a member of the family Birnaviridae that has been linked to high mortalities in juvenile salmonids and postsmolt stages of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) after transfer to seawater. IPN vaccines have been available for a long time but their efficacy has been variable. The reason for the varying immune response to these vaccines has not well defined and studies on the importance of using vaccine trains homologous to the virulent field strain has not been conclusive. In this study we prepared one vaccine identical to the virulent Norwegian Sp strain NVI-015 (NCBI: 379740) (T217A221T247 of VP2) and three other vaccine strains developed using the same genomic backbone altered by reverse genetics at three residues yielding variants, T217T221T247, P217A221A247, P217T221A247. These 4 strains, differing in these three positions only, were used as inactivated, oil-adjuvanted vaccines while two strains, T217A221T247 and P217T221A247, were used as live vaccines. The results show that these three residues of the VP2 capsid play a key role for immunogenicity of IPNV vaccines. The virulent strain for inactivated vaccines elicited the highest level of virus neutralization (VN) titers and ELISA antibodies. Interestingly, differences in immunogenicity were not reflected in differences in post challenge survival percentages (PCSP) for oil-adjuvanted, inactivated vaccines but clearly so for live vaccines (TAT and PTA). Further post challenge viral carrier state correlated inversely with VN titers at challenge for inactivated vaccines and prevalence of pathology in target organs inversely correlated with protection for live vaccines. Overall, our findings show that a few residues localized on the VP2-capsid are important for immunogenicity of IPNV vaccines.
Age-Related Decrease in the Mitochondrial Sirtuin Deacetylase Sirt3 Expression Associated with ROS Accumulation in the Auditory Cortex of the Mimetic Aging Rat Model

Age-related dysfunction of the central auditory system, also known as central presbycusis, can affect speech perception and sound localization. Understanding the pathogenesis of central presbycusis will help to develop novel approaches to prevent or treat this disease. In this study, the mechanisms of central presbycusis were investigated using a mimetic aging rat model induced by chronic injection of D-galactose (D-Gal). We showed that malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were increased and manganese superoxide dismutase (SOD2) activity was reduced in the auditory cortex in natural aging and D-Gal-induced mimetic aging rats. Furthermore, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 4834 bp deletion, abnormal ultrastructure and cell apoptosis in the auditory cortex were also found in natural aging and D-Gal mimetic aging rats. Sirt3, a mitochondrial NAD+-dependent deacetylase, has been shown to play a crucial role in controlling cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis. However, the role of Sirt3 in the pathogenesis of age-related central auditory cortex deterioration is still unclear. Here, we showed that decreased Sirt3 expression might be associated with increased SOD2 acetylation, which negatively regulates SOD2 activity. Oxidative stress accumulation was likely the result of low SOD2 activity and a decline in ROS clearance. Our findings indicate that Sirt3 might play an essential role, via the mediation of SOD2, in central presbycusis and that manipulation of Sirt3 expression might provide a new approach to combat aging and oxidative stress-related diseases.
Sealbhú na Gaeilge ag naíonáin: early language acquisition of Irish

Sealbhú na Gaeilge ag naíonáin: early language acquisition of Irish Author(s) O'Toole, Ciara Publication date 2009 Original citation O'Toole, C. 2009. Sealbhú na Gaeilge ag naíonáin: early language acquisition of Irish. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Link to publisher's version http://library.ucc. ie/record=b1893594 Access to the full text of the published version may require a subscription. Rights © 2009, Ciara O'Toole http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
What Is Word Meaning, Really? (And How Can Distributional Models Help Us Describe It?)

In this paper, we argue in favor of reconsidering models for word meaning, using as a basis results from cognitive science on human concept representation. More specifically, we argue for a more flexible representation of word meaning than the assignment of a single best-fitting dictionary sense to each occurrence: Either use dictionary senses, but view them as having fuzzy boundaries, and assume that an occurrence can activate multiple senses to different degrees. Or move away from dictionary senses completely, and only model similarities between individual word usages. We argue that distributional models provide a flexible framework for experimenting with alternative models of word meanings, and discuss example models.
Climatic variability related to El Niño in Ecuador − a historical background

Abstract. This paper reports on an investigation into the chronology of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, during the period from the arrival of conquistadores in Ecuador in 1532 until the year 1900. A number of probable El Nino events and drought years can be dated from anecdotal reports of significant rainfall and drought in the equatorial region. The evidence of ENSO has been documented from early reports in the South America archives. A large number of books and articles have been reviewing from the Ecuadorian archives to obtain information on El Nino events that have occurred over the past centuries. This information is based on evidence obtained from the equatorial region, where strong and very strong El Nino events clearly separate the northern part of the Ecuadorian coast from the southern region, the normally rainy season specially from west-central to the south coast of Ecuador, as well as the drought years, reported in this region which is climatologically and oceanographically different from the moist Northern coast of Ecuador. Given the normal occurrence of rains in the southern coast of Ecuador, it is reasonable to expect that at least some of the major rainy seasons would be recorded in local chronicles and publications. This information has been compared with reports obtained from Peru. Relative strengths of events are based on such considerations as wind and current effects on travel times of ancient sailing ships, degree of physical damage and destruction, amounts of rainfall and flooding, human disease epidemic, mass mortality of endemic marine organism, rises in sea temperatures and sea levels, effects on coastal fisheries. This paper is the first survey of the historical sources concerned the rainfall and drought in Ecuador. In the course of this investigation we also noted some extended periods of time, near decadal or longer over the past records, when the amount and/or strength of El Nino and its resulting effects appeared to represent significant long-term climate changes.