Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selective Targeting and Inducible Destruction of Human Cancer Cells by Retroviruses with Envelope Proteins Bearing Short Peptide Ligands

ABSTRACT In the accompanying study, we show how retroviral tropism can be redirected by insertion of short peptide ligands at multiple locations in envelope. Here we use this approach to selectively target and destroy human cancer cells. Many cancer cells overexpress specific cell surface receptors. We have generated Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV) envelope derivatives bearing short peptide ligands for gastrin-releasing protein (GRP) and human epidermal growth factor receptors. Pseudotyped viruses containing these chimeric envelope derivatives selectively transduce human cancer cell lines that overexpress the cognate receptor. A retrovirus targeting the GRP receptor can deliver the thymidine kinase gene to human melanoma and breast cancer cells, which are killed by the subsequent addition of ganciclovir. Collectively, our results demonstrate that short peptide ligands inserted at appropriate locations in MLV envelope can selectively target retroviruses to human cancer cells and deliver a therapeutically relevant gene.
Prehistoric Seal and Sea-Lion Butchering on the Southern Northwest Coast

Ethnoarchaeological data indicate that various factors, including size of prey, influence both transport of animal parts and how animals are reduced to humanly usable or consumable portions. Remains of two taxa of pinnipeds of markedly different body size from two sites of similar age on the southern Northwest Coast of North America do not vary significantly in skeletal parts represented, which suggests similar transport histories. Butchering marks on bones of both taxa indicate that the butchery procedure was intertaxonomically similar for joint disarticulation and limb filleting. Bones of the larger taxon display significantly more butchery marks than bones of the smaller one, indicating the larger taxon was subjected to much more intensive butchery than the smaller one due to differences in body size.
Polyamines decrease Ca(2+) sensitivity of tension and increase rates of activation in skinned cardiac myocytes.

Owing in part to their interactions with membrane proteins, polyamines (e.g., spermine, spermidine, and putrescine) have been identified as potential modulators of membrane excitability and Ca(2+) homeostasis in cardiac myocytes. To investigate whether polyamines also affect cardiac myofilament proteins, we assessed the effects of polyamines on contractility using rat myocytes and trabeculae that had been permeabilized with Triton X-100. Spermine, spermidine, and putrescine reversibly increased the [Ca(2+)] required for half-maximal tension (i.e., right-shifted tension pCa curves), with the following order of efficacy: spermine (+4) > spermidine (+3) > putrescine (+2). However, synthetic analogs that differed from spermine in charge distribution were not as effective as spermine in altering isometric tension. None of the polyamines had a significant effect on maximal tension, except at high concentrations. After flash photolysis of DM-Nitrophen (a caged Ca(2+) chelator), spermine accelerated the rate of tension development at low and intermediate but not high [Ca(2+)]. These results indicate that polyamines, especially spermine, interact with myofilament proteins to reduce apparent Ca(2+) binding affinity and speed cross-bridge cycling kinetics at submaximal [Ca(2+)].
Neural Networks for Text Correction and Completion in Keyboard Decoding

Despite the ubiquity of mobile and wearable text messaging applications, the problem of keyboard text decoding is not tackled sufficiently in the light of the enormous success of the deep learning Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for natural language understanding. In particular, considering that the keyboard decoders should operate on devices with memory and processor resource constraints, makes it challenging to deploy industrial scale deep neural network (DNN) models. This paper proposes a sequence-to-sequence neural attention network system for automatic text correction and completion. Given an erroneous sequence, our model encodes character level hidden representations and then decodes the revised sequence thus enabling auto-correction and completion. We achieve this by a combination of character level CNN and gated recurrent unit (GRU) encoder along with and a word level gated recurrent unit (GRU) attention decoder. Unlike traditional language models that learn from billions of words, our corpus size is only 12 million words; an order of magnitude smaller. The memory footprint of our learnt model for inference and prediction is also an order of magnitude smaller than the conventional language model based text decoders. We report baseline performance for neural keyboard decoders in such limited domain. Our models achieve a word level accuracy of $90\%$ and a character error rate CER of $2.4\%$ over the Twitter typo dataset. We present a novel dataset of noisy to corrected mappings by inducing the noise distribution from the Twitter data over the OpenSubtitles 2009 dataset; on which our model predicts with a word level accuracy of $98\%$ and sequence accuracy of $68.9\%$. In our user study, our model achieved an average CER of $2.6\%$ with the state-of-the-art non-neural touch-screen keyboard decoder at CER of $1.6\%$.
Longitudinal manganese and copper balances in young infants and preterm infants fed on breast-milk and adapted cow's milkformulas

1. Mn and Cu intake and retention in twenty full-term infants and six preterm infants were studied on the basis of 72 h balances. The age of the infants was 2–16 weeks and the gestational age of the preterm infants (triplets) 34 and 36 weeks. Three nutrition schemes were pursued: breast-fed, formula-fed with unsupplemented adapted formula and formula-fed with trace element supplementation. 2. The mean Mn concentration of all breast-milk samples (n 2339) was 6·2 μg/1. The two formulas had similar Mn concentrations (77 and 99 μg/1) but had different Fe, Cu (121 and 619 μg/1), Zn and I contents. The mean Cu concentration in mother's milk was 833 μg/1. 3. The following mean daily Mn intakes and retentions (μg/kg) respectively were measured: breast-fed fullterm 1·06 (sd 0·43) and 0·43 (sd 0·65), formula-fed full-term 14·2 (sd 3·1) and 2·8 (sd 4·8), formula-fed preterm 15·0 (sd 2·2) and 0·06 (sd 5·87). The results for Cu were 114·5 (sd 22·3) and 88·0 (sd 46·5) μg/kg in breast-fed, 19–8 (sd 4·2) and 4·6 (-11·5–9·6) in the unsupplemented formula-fed and 106·4 (sd 18·9) and 55·5 (sd 20·3) in the supplemented formula full-term infant group. No significant influence of the trace element contents of the formulas on the relative retention of Mn or Cu was found. 4. Young preterm infants, and to some degree young full-term infants, often had negative Mn balances caused by a high faccal excretion. The formulas with a Mn concentration below 100 μg/l gave a sufficient supply of Mn. Preterm infants fed on the unsupplemented formula had a marginal Cu supply and their first balances were negative (-3·8 (sd 1·8) μg/kg). 5. In accordance with the estimated safe and adequate daily dietary intakes (recommended dietary allowances), formula-fed infants receive much more Mn than breast-fed infants and their absolute retention is higher. 6. Cu from breast-milk had a significantly better biological availability than that from cow's milk formula. If retentions similar to those in breast-fed infants are intended, we conclude, therefore, that cow's milk formula should be fortified with Cu up to a level of at least 600 μg/l.
Helping and the attribution process.

Summary The present experiment demonstrated that Ss led to believe that an external cause is responsible for their arousal at seeing a woman in pain will be less likely to help her than those attributing their arousal to sympathy for her. Ten men and 10 women were told that exposure to an aversive noise would produce symptoms of physiological arousal; another 10 men and 10 women were told that irrelevant symptoms might occur. Those expecting irrelevant symptoms from noise bombardment helped a woman with a hurt knee significantly more than those expecting the noise to cause symptoms typical of arousal; these results provided support for both Schachter's cognitive attribution theory of emotion and Aronfreed's empathy theory of altruism.
Indirect Measurement of Instantaneous Arterial Blood Pressure in the Human Finger by the Vascular Unloading Technique

For the indirect measurement of beat-to-beat systolic and diastolic pressure in the human finger, a new hydraulic servocontrol system was designed to maintain the vascular volume in the unloaded state. The servocontrol system consists of a compression chamber equipped with an occluding cuff and a photoelectric plethysmograph, an electromagnetic shaker, and a volume servo circuit. The shaker connected to a diaphragm actuator is used for controlling the cuff pressure. The vascular volume change in the finger is detected by the photoelectric plethysmograph. The plethysmographic signal is fed into the servo circuit to control the cuff pressure, which is clamped at a proper value corresponding to the unloaded vascular volume. At this state the controlled cuff pressure follows the intraarterial pressure. The accuracy of this method was evaluated using an in vitro vascular model of the finger. Comparisons with direct measurement were carried out successfully in four normotensive and six hypertensive subjects.
Sympathetic denervation impairs epidermal healing in cutaneous wounds

The involvement of peripheral nerves in dermal wound healing, particularly in the inflammatory response has not been extensively studied. Therefore, this study was performed to examine the role of peripheral nerves in the healing of rat skin linear incisions. We report that chemical sympathectomy with 6‐hydroxydopamine significantly impaired wound healing as measured on days 7, 11, and 14 postsurgery (by day 14, 48% of the sympathectomized rats were healed in contrast with 84% of the controls; p = 0.0104). In contrast, neonatal capsaicin treatment, which predominantly destroys sensory afferents, had no effect on wound healing (p > 0.05 on all days). These results support the hypothesis that sympathetic efferents are important for wound healing. Unlike previous research, which showed that peripheral nerves influence ischemic skin flaps, we are the first to demonstrate a role for peripheral nerves in the healing of skin incisions. Because inflammation is an important step in cutaneous wound healing, we propose that a reduction of neurogenic inflammation caused by sympathectomy may explain the impaired wound healing that we observed in our study.
Mobile learning based of Mandarin for college students: A case study of international department' sophomores

China emerges as one of the multi-polar powers of a successful third world country to emulate America and Japan in industry and trade. Indonesia, as one of the trade partners of China, should increase the quality and quantity of cooperation with China. In supporting the goal, it requires an ample of human resources ability that is active in socialization, diplomacy, and cooperation establishment with China. The cooperation can be established by mastering of Mandarin. The Department of International Relations realized the situation and complemented its students with foreign language skill such as Mandarin. Based on the evaluation of Chinese learning outcomes to 31 sophomore students, the biggest obstacle of students is to compose a sentence based on vocabularies learned. Researchers designed mobile learning as a tool in learning Mandarin. Therefore, this research offers solutions to assist students in mastering the sentences forming in Mandarin through mobile learning.
A cell surface protein that binds avian hepatitis B virus particles

We have identified a 180-kDa cellular glycoprotein (gp180) that binds with high affinity to duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) particles. The protein was detected by coprecipitating labeled duck hepatocyte proteins with virions or recombinant DHBV envelope proteins, using nonneutralizing monoclonal antibodies to the virion envelope. Binding of gp180 requires only the pre-S region of the viral large envelope protein, since recombinant fusion proteins bearing only this region efficiently coprecipitate gp180. The DHBV-gp180 interaction is blocked by two independent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. The protein is found on both internal and surface membranes of the cell, and the species distribution of gp180 binding activity mirrors the known host range of DHBV infection. Functional gp180 is expressed in a wide variety of tissues in susceptible ducks.
The Use of Fetal Bovine Serum: Ethical or Scientific Problem?

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is a common component of animal cell culture media. It is harvested from bovine fetuses taken from pregnant cows during slaughter. FBS is commonly harvested by means of a cardiac puncture without any form of anaesthesia. Fetuses are probably exposed to pain and/or discomfort, so the current practice of fetal blood harvesting is inhumane. Apart from moral concerns, several scientific and technical problems exist with regard to the use of FBS in cell culture. Efforts should be made to reduce the use of FBS or, preferably, to replace it with synthetic alternatives.
Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin (NGAL): Validation of commercially available ELISA

Abstract Background. Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin (NGAL) has been described as an excellent marker of acute kidney injury (AKI) using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from BioPorto Diagnostics, DK. Validation of the ELISA kit and investigation of stability of the NGAL protein is a prerequisite before introducing NGAL as a marker for AKI in clinical research. Methods. Plasma and urine samples from a healthy adult and from 16 children undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease were used to validate the 036 NGAL ELISA kit from BioPorto Diagnostics and study stability of the NGAL protein. Results. Median intra-assay variation in plasma and urine from the healthy adult was <5% and median inter-assay variation was <10%. For children undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease intra-assay variation was <10%. ELISA kit batch-to-batch variation for plasma was 14.6%. We observed excellent results on analysis of linearity and spike-recovery and found no clinically important variation of NGAL measurements throughout the ELISA plate. Haemolysis significantly interfered with measurement of NGAL, whereas repeated thawing or 48 h of 4–5°C-storage before centrifugation and storage at −80°C did not influence NGAL measurements (ANOVA; n.s.). The NGAL protein is stable in plasma for at least 11 months at −80°C. Conclusion. 036 NGAL ELISA kit from BioPorto Diagnostics can be used with acceptable precision for plasma and urine. However, the presence of haemolysis in blood samples or the use of different batches of ELISA kits may seriously decrease the accuracy of measurements.
Formal Considerations and a Practical Approach to Intermediate-Level Obfuscation

The essence of obfuscation is to entangle the code and eliminate the majority of logical links in it. The offered theoretical apparatus allows describing obfuscated routines by concatenation of original and fake operational logics. This approach considers not only instructions or routines themselves, but the actions (results) they produce, what makes obfuscation a process of adding excessive functionality. The mathematical apparatus presented in the paper, discusses introductory terms, definitions, operations, and formulates a proposition about NP-completeness of a special deobfuscation problem. We formulate the problem statement and prove that the significance of operational logic in the obfuscated routine is an NP-complete problem. We point out the applicability limits of this proposition, and offer a practical approach that can noticeably reduce the probability of having a deobfuscator running in polynomial time. This paper also offers recommendations for constructing obfuscating transformations and points out a practical approach to creation of intermediatelevel obfuscating algorithm. Key-Words: Obfuscation, operational logic, global context, NP-completeness, intermediate representation.
Quantitative analysis of treatment process time and throughput capacity for spot scanning proton therapy.

PURPOSE To determine the patient throughput and the overall efficiency of the spot scanning system by analyzing treatment time, equipment availability, and maximum daily capacity for the current spot scanning port at Proton Therapy Center Houston and to assess the daily throughput capacity for a hypothetical spot scanning proton therapy center. METHODS At their proton therapy center, the authors have been recording in an electronic medical record system all treatment data, including disease site, number of fields, number of fractions, delivered dose, energy, range, number of spots, and number of layers for every treatment field. The authors analyzed delivery system downtimes that had been recorded for every equipment failure and associated incidents. These data were used to evaluate the patient census, patient distribution as a function of the number of fields and total target volume, and equipment clinical availability. The duration of each treatment session from patient walk-in to patient walk-out of the spot scanning treatment room was measured for 64 patients with head and neck, central nervous system, thoracic, and genitourinary cancers. The authors retrieved data for total target volume and the numbers of layers and spots for all fields from treatment plans for a total of 271 patients (including the above 64 patients). A sensitivity analysis of daily throughput capacity was performed by varying seven parameters in a throughput capacity model. RESULTS The mean monthly equipment clinical availability for the spot scanning port in April 2012-March 2015 was 98.5%. Approximately 1500 patients had received spot scanning proton therapy as of March 2015. The major disease sites treated in September 2012-August 2014 were the genitourinary system (34%), head and neck (30%), central nervous system (21%), and thorax (14%), with other sites accounting for the remaining 1%. Spot scanning beam delivery time increased with total target volume and accounted for approximately 30%-40% of total treatment time for the total target volumes exceeding 200 cm(3), which was the case for more than 80% of the patients in this study. When total treatment time was modeled as a function of the number of fields and total target volume, the model overestimated total treatment time by 12% on average, with a standard deviation of 32%. A sensitivity analysis of throughput capacity for a hypothetical four-room spot scanning proton therapy center identified several priority items for improvements in throughput capacity, including operation time, beam delivery time, and patient immobilization and setup time. CONCLUSIONS The spot scanning port at our proton therapy center has operated at a high performance level and has been used to treat a large number of complex cases. Further improvements in efficiency may be feasible in the areas of facility operation, beam delivery, patient immobilization and setup, and optimization of treatment scheduling.
Physical activity and mammographic density in a cohort of midlife women.

PURPOSE Physical activity (PA) is one of few modifiable breast cancer risk factors. There have been few studies of the relation between PA and mammographic density, especially in multiethnic populations. METHODS In a cohort of pre- and early perimenopausal women of non-Hispanic white (N = 373), African American (N = 55), Chinese (N = 178), and Japanese (N = 166) ethnicity, we used multivariable linear regression to examine the association between two measures of mammographic density (percent density and area of density) and mutually exclusive components of recent physical activity (sports, household/caregiving and work activity, active living). RESULTS After adjusting for race/ethnicity, menopausal status, parity, past use of hormones, body mass index, waist circumference and education, we observed nonsignificant inverse associations for percent mammographic density and the highest versus the lowest category of each of our PA domains. For example, the adjusted beta for active living = -2.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) (-5.84, 0.60). Nonsignificant inverse associations also were observed for area of density and each PA domain except work activity. However, most associations were nonlinear. CONCLUSION Our results are consistent with a modest inverse association between multiple domains of PA and mammographic density, although findings may have been attributable to chance alone.
Task Analysis of Writing Hospital Admission Orders: Evidence of a Problem-Based Approach

As part of a broader project to improve the usability of computerized physician order entry (CPOE)systems, we set out to study the cognitive tasks physicians undertake to write "admission orders" when admitting a patient to the hospital. In particular, we evaluate the hypothesis that physicians' mental model of diagnostic and therapeutic planning is problem based, whereas both paper-based ordering and CPOE are typically organized around functional categories of orders such as those reflected in the mnemonic ADCVAANDIML. A task analysis was performed which included think-aloud observations of physicians writing orders in clinical care settings and for fictional case-scenarios, as well as a semistructured questionnaire. Our work finds core tasks of admitting a patient to hospital and conflicts between physicians' mental model and traditional ordering systems. Based on our study, we suggest improvements to traditional CPOE systems.
In0.5Ga0.5As-Based Metal - Oxide - Semiconductor Capacitor on GaAs Substrate Using Metal - Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition

We demonstrate the good-performance In<sub>0.5</sub>Ga<sub>0.5</sub>As-based metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor (MOSCAP) on GaAs substrate using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition technique. In<sub>0.5</sub>Ga<sub>0.5</sub>As film grown on GaAs substrate is proved to be high quality with threading dislocation density as low as 10<sup>6</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>. The performance of the MOSCAPs is comparable to that of In<sub>0.53</sub>Ga<sub>0.47</sub>As/InP-based devices grown by molecular beam epitaxy technique. The devices show a nice capacitance-voltage response, with small frequency dispersion. The parallel conductance contours show the free movement of Fermi level with the gate bias. Acceptable interface trap density D<sub>it</sub> values of 5 × 10<sup>11</sup>-2 × 10<sup>12</sup> eV<sup>-1</sup> · cm<sup>-2</sup> in the energy range of 0.64-0.52 eV above the InGaAs valence band maximum in In<sub>0.5</sub>Ga<sub>0.5</sub>As/GaAs MOSCAPs obtained by conductance methods were shown.