Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gallic acid and curcumin induce cytotoxicity and apoptosis in human breast cancer cell MDA-MB-231

Introduction: Gallic acid (GA) and curcumin (Cur) are natural phenolic compounds that their anti-tumor effects on many types of cancers have been proved. In the current study, the effect of the combination of these agents on MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells was investigated. Methods: Inhibition of cell proliferation (MTT assay), light microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, cell cycle analysis, nitrite detection, ROS levels, measurement of the mitochondrial membrane potential, GSH level, Annexin V assay, RT-PCR and Western blotting methods were applied. Results: The results revealed the combination of GA and Cur strongly decreased MDA-MB-231 cell growth. Moreover, this combination increased ROS level and cytotoxic activity along with the glutathione depletion in MDA-MB-231 cells. Flow cytometry analysis showed the combination of GA and Cur increased sub-G1 cell population. Furthermore, fluorescent staining and Annexin V/PI assay showed that apoptotic cells were significantly increased in the presence of GA and Cur. At last, protein expression evaluation showed that the combination of GA and Cur significantly decreased Bcl-2 level while increased Bax, cleaved-caspase3 and PARP levels in MDA-MB-231 cells. Conclusion: These results suggest that GA in combination with Cur could be a possible candidate for chemoprevention agent of triple negative breast cancer.
Who Are You Listening to? Towards a Dynamic Measure of Auditory Attention to Speech-on-speech

When studying speech-on-speech perception, even when participants are explicitly instructed to focus selectively on a single voice, they can spuriously find themselves listening to the wrong voice. These paradigms generally do not allow to infer, retrospectively, which of the speakers was listened to, at different times during presentation. The present study sought to develop a psychophysical test paradigm, and a set of speech stimuli to that purpose. In this paradigm, after listening to two simultaneous stories, the participant had to identify, among a set of words, those that were present in the target story. Target and masker stories were presented dichotically or diotically. F0 and vocal-tract length were manipulated in order to parametrically vary the distance between the target and masker voices. Consistent with the hypothesis that correct-identification performance for target words depends on selective attention, performance decreases with the distance between the target and masker voices. These results indicate that the paradigm and stimuli described here can be used to infer which voice a participant is listening to in concurrent-speech listening experiments.
Association of tumor differentiation grade and survival of women with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Objective To examine the association between tumor grade and survival for women with squamous cervical cancer. Methods This retrospective observational study utilized the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result program data between 1983 and 2013 to examine women with squamous cervical cancer with known tumor differentiation grade. Multivariable analyses were performed to assess independent associations between tumor differentiation grade and survival. Results A total of 31,536 women were identified including 15,175 (48.1%) with grade 3 tumors, 14,084 (44.7%) with grade 2 neoplasms and 2,277 (7.2%) with grade 1 tumors. Higher tumor grade was significantly associated with older age, higher stage disease, larger tumor size, and lymph node metastasis (all, p<0.001). In a multivariable analysis, grade 2 tumors (adjusted-hazard ratio [HR]=1.21; p<0.001) and grade 3 tumors (adjusted-HR=1.45; p<0.001) were independently associated with decreased cause-specific survival (CSS) compared to grade 1 tumors. Among the 7,429 women with stage II–III disease who received radiotherapy without surgical treatment, grade 3 tumors were independently associated with decreased CSS compared to grade 2 tumors (adjusted-HR=1.16; p<0.001). Among 4,045 women with node-negative stage I disease and tumor size ≤4 cm who underwent surgical treatment without radiotherapy, grade 2 tumors (adjusted-HR=2.54; p=0.028) and grade 3 tumors (adjusted-HR=4.48; p<0.001) were independently associated with decreased CSS compared to grade 1 tumors. Conclusion Our study suggests that tumor differentiation grade may be a prognostic factor in women with squamous cervical cancer, particularly in early-stage disease. Higher tumor grade was associated with poorer survival.
Calculation Algorithm Reduces Protamine Doses Without Increasing Blood Loss or the Transfusion Rate in Cardiac Surgery: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to investigate whether the HeProCalc algorithm affects heparin and protamine dosage, postoperative blood loss, and transfusion rate. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING University hospital. PARTICIPANTS The study comprised 210 cardiac surgery patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Twenty patients were excluded because of re-exploration for localized surgical bleeding (n = 9), violation of protocol (n = 2), aprotinin use (n = 3 and nadir body temperature <32°C (n = 6). INTERVENTIONS Study participants were randomly assigned to either traditional heparin and protamine dosage based on body weight only (control group) or dosage based on the HeProCalc algorithm (intervention group). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The initial median heparin dose was 32,500 IU (interquartile range [IQR] 30,000-35,000) in the intervention group compared with 35,000 IU (IQR 30,000-37,500) (p = 0.025) in the control group. The total heparin dose in the intervention group was 40,000 IU (IQR 32,500-47,500) compared with 42,500 IU (IQR 35,000-50,000) in the control group (p = 0.685). The total protamine dose was 210 mg (IQR 190-240) in the intervention group compared with 350 mg (IQR 300-380) (p < 0.001) in the control group. The ratio of total protamine to initial dose of heparin in the intervention group was 0.62 compared with 1.0 (p < 0.001). The amount of chest tube bleeding after 12 postoperative hours was 320 mL (IQR 250-460) in the intervention group compared with 350 mL (IQR 250-450) (p = 0.754) in the control group. Neither the transfusion rate nor postoperative blood loss differed significantly between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION Use of the HeProCalc algorithm reduced protamine dosage and the protamine/heparin ratio after cardiopulmonary bypass compared with conventional dosage based on weight without significant effect on postoperative blood loss or the transfusion rate.
Spontaneous and IVF pregnancies have comparable first trimester screening profiles for Down syndrome

Objective: We aimed to compare the first trimester screening profiles of spontaneous (n=972) and IVF pregnancies (n=339) in a population of patients who had uncomplicated singleton pregnancies comparable for maternal age, gestation, BMI, and ethnicity. Material and Methods: A non-interventional analysis of retrospective cohort data and review of the literature. Results: All IVF pregnancies were achieved via ICSI using the same ovarian stimulation protocol with recombinant FSH and a GnRH antagonist, cetrorelix acetate. The means of the multiple of median (MoM) of PAPP-A were slightly lower in the fresh (1.19±0.6 vs. 1.33±0.7, respectively; p=0.056) and frozen ET (1.03±0.5 vs. 1.33±0. 7, respectively; p=0.036) IVF pregnancies compared with natural conceptions. However, when the medians of the MoMs of PAPP-A and b-hCG, and their distributions were compared across the mode of conception, there were no differences between IVF pregnancies spontaneous pregnancies. Furthermore, the scatterplot diagram and curve fitting regression analyses revealed no difference in the temporal relations of b-hCG and PAPP-A with each other and gestational age between spontaneous and IVF pregnancies. Conclusion: These results support the notion that uncomplicated singleton IVF pregnancies have similar first trimester screening profiles to spontaneous conceptions.
Sparsity-Constrained Weight Mapping for Head-Related Transfer Functions Individualization from Anthropometric Features

Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) describe the propagation of sound waves from the sound source to ear drums, which contain most of information for localization. However, HRTFs are highly individual-dependent, and thus because of the difference of anthropometric features between subjects, individual-ization of HRTFs is a great challenge for accurate localization perception in virtual auditory displays (VAD). In this paper, we propose a sparsity-constrained weight mapping method termed SWM to obtain individual HRTFs. The key idea behind SWM is to obtain optimal weights to combine HRTFs from the training subjects based on the relationship of anthropometric features between the target subject and the training subjects. To this end, SWM learns two sparse representations between the target subject and the training subjects in terms of anthropometric features and HRTFs, respectively. A non-negative sparse model is used for this purpose when considering the non-negative property of the anthropometric features. Then, we build a mapping between the two weight vectors using a nonlinear regression. Furthermore, an iterative data extension method is proposed in order to increase training samples for mapping model. The objective and subjective experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms other methods in terms of log-spectral distortion (LSD) and localization accuracy.
A variable selection approach in the multivariate linear model: an application to LC-MS metabolomics data

Abstract Omic data are characterized by the presence of strong dependence structures that result either from data acquisition or from some underlying biological processes. Applying statistical procedures that do not adjust the variable selection step to the dependence pattern may result in a loss of power and the selection of spurious variables. The goal of this paper is to propose a variable selection procedure within the multivariate linear model framework that accounts for the dependence between the multiple responses. We shall focus on a specific type of dependence which consists in assuming that the responses of a given individual can be modelled as a time series. We propose a novel Lasso-based approach within the framework of the multivariate linear model taking into account the dependence structure by using different types of stationary processes covariance structures for the random error matrix. Our numerical experiments show that including the estimation of the covariance matrix of the random error matrix in the Lasso criterion dramatically improves the variable selection performance. Our approach is successfully applied to an untargeted LC-MS (Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) data set made of African copals samples. Our methodology is implemented in the R package MultiVarSel which is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN).
An Intelligent Bandwidth Manager for CNN Applications on Embedded Devices

Adapting complex Convolution Neural Network (CNN) applications on embedded processors is a challenge due to the massive memory bandwidth and computational requirements. In particular, the CNN memory bandwidth requirement poses a huge challenge for the processors with Scratch Pad Memory (SPM), usually of limited size. In this paper, we present an Intelligent Bandwidth Manager (IBWM) to efficiently handle the CNN bandwidth for SPM based processors. The proposed IBWM is a two fold approach which includes Intelligent SPM Manager (ISM) to optimize the number of accesses to SDRAM by analysing the data patterns, and Feature Map Compression (FMC) to further reduce the bandwidth by exploiting the feature map data sparsity. The IBWM is independent of any processor architecture and can be adopted in any processor with SPM. The proposed IBWM is experimented with ResNet-50 [1] and AlexNet [2] networks on a Samsung Reconfigurable Processor (SRP) [3] for various SPM sizes. The SDRAM bandwidth results show, 2x improvement compared to MIT Eyeriss [4] for AlexNet, and 4x-8x improvement compared to primitive bandwidth management techniques for AlexNet and ResNet-50. The proposed method achieves the bandwidth closer to the minimum possible bandwidth.
Physical pain recruits the nucleus accumbens during social distress in borderline personality disorder

Abstract Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often engage in dangerous self‐injurious behaviors (SIBs) as a maladaptive technique to decrease heightened feelings of distress (e.g. negative feelings caused by social exclusion). The reward system has recently been proposed as a plausible neural substrate, which may influence the interaction between social distress and physical pain processing in patients that engage in SIBs. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 20 adult BPD patients with a history of SIBs and 23 healthy controls (HCs), we found a hyper‐activation of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and amygdala when painful stimuli were presented to BPD patients (but not HCs) in a state of heightened distress, induced via social exclusion. This differential NAcc activity was mediated by anxious attachment style, which is a key developmental feature of the disorder. Altogether, these results suggest a neural mechanism underlying the pathophysiology of SIBs in these patients, which is likely reinforced via the reward system.
BRCA1 and BRCA2 5′ noncoding region variants identified in breast cancer patients alter promoter activity and protein binding

The widespread use of next generation sequencing for clinical testing is detecting an escalating number of variants in noncoding regions of the genome. The clinical significance of the majority of these variants is currently unknown, which presents a significant clinical challenge. We have screened over 6,000 early‐onset and/or familial breast cancer (BC) cases collected by the ENIGMA consortium for sequence variants in the 5′ noncoding regions of BC susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, and identified 141 rare variants with global minor allele frequency < 0.01, 76 of which have not been reported previously. Bioinformatic analysis identified a set of 21 variants most likely to impact transcriptional regulation, and luciferase reporter assays detected altered promoter activity for four of these variants. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that three of these altered the binding of proteins to the respective BRCA1 or BRCA2 promoter regions, including NFYA binding to BRCA1:c. ‐287C>T and PAX5 binding to BRCA2:c. ‐296C>T. Clinical classification of variants affecting promoter activity, using existing prediction models, found no evidence to suggest that these variants confer a high risk of disease. Further studies are required to determine if such variation may be associated with a moderate or low risk of BC.
The Conversation Continues: the Effect of Lyrics and Music Complexity of Background Music on Spoken-Word Recognition

Background music in social interaction settings can hinder conversation. Yet, little is known of how specific properties of music impact speech processing. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the effect of the 1) complexity of the background music, and 2) the presence versus absence of sung lyrics on spoken-word recognition in background music. To answer these questions, a word identification experiment was run in which Dutch participants listened to Dutch CVC words embedded in stretches of background music in four conditions: low/high complexity and with lyrics/music-only, and at three SNRs. Music stretches with and without lyrics were sampled from the same song in order to control for factors beyond the complexity of the music and the presence of lyrics. The results showed a clear negative impact of more complex music and the presence of lyrics in background music on spoken-word recognition. The results open a path for future work, and suggest that social spaces (e.g., restaurants, cafes and bars) should make careful choices of music to promote conversation.
Sex- and Mode-specific Responses to Eccentric Muscle Fatigue

Abstract The primary purpose of the present investigation was to examine sex-related differences as a result of fatiguing eccentric muscle actions on torque, muscle blood flow, electromyography, and mechanomyography. Eighteen men and 18 women performed peak torque trials prior to (pretest), immediately after (posttest), and 5-min after (recovery) completing 50 submaximal (60% of eccentric peak torque), eccentric, isokinetic (180°·s −1) muscle actions of the elbow flexors. Electromyographic and mechanomyographic responses were simultaneously recorded from the biceps brachii muscle, and muscle blood flow was measured at pretest, posttest and recovery. There were sex- and mode-specific responses for torque, but there were no sex-specific muscle blood flow or neuromuscular responses. From pretest to posttest, torque decreased (80.0–88.2% of pretest) for both the men and women. At recovery concentric peak torque recovered to a greater extent in women (95.0% of pretest) than men (88.0% of pretest), while eccentric peak torque recovered to a greater extent in men (88.9% of pretest) than women (86.9% of pretest). The sex-specific torque responses were not associated with different motor control strategies or differences in the occlusion of muscle blood flow between the men and women. For both men and women, eccentric fatiguing exercise is manifested similarly during isometric muscle actions, but not during eccentric and concentric muscle actions.
Partial nephrectomy is not associated with an overall survival advantage over radical nephrectomy in elderly patients with stage Ib‐II renal masses: An analysis of the national cancer data base

Partial nephrectomy (PN) is recommended for localized T1a (≤4 cm) renal masses and is preferred over radical nephrectomy (RN) for amenable T1b/T2 (>4 cm) tumors. The objective of the current study was to assess overall survival (OS) differences between PN and RN in patients with T1 and T2 renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
Perceptual Sensitivity to Spectral Change in Australian English Close Front Vowels: An Electroencephalographic Investigation

Speech scientists have long noted that the qualities of naturally-produced vowels do not remain constant over their durations – regardless of being nominally “monophthongs” or “diphthongs”. Recent acoustic corpora show that there are consistent patterns of first (F1) and second (F2) formant frequency change across different vowel categories. The three Australian English (AusE) close front vowels /iː, ɪ, ɪə/ provide a striking example: while their midpoint or mean F1 and F2 frequencies are virtually identical, their spectral change patterns distinctly differ. The present study utilizes a pre-attentive discrimination paradigm with electroencephalography to assess AusE listeners’ perceptual sensitivity to close front vowels with different F1 × F2 trajectory lengths (TLs) and directions (TDs). When TLs are modest, there is an asymmetry in perceptual sensitivity: closing vowels, e.g., /iː/ whose trajectory terminates high in the F1 × F2 vowel space, are perceptually prominent, whereas centering vowels, e.g., /ɪ, ɪə/ whose trajectories end more centrally, are not. However, when TLs are exaggerated, the asymmetry in the perceptual sensitivity to the two TDs is substantially reduced. The results indicate that, despite the distinct patterns of spectral change of AusE /iː, ɪ, ɪə/ in production, its perceptual relevance is not uniform, but rather vowel-category dependent.
Podocytes contribute, and respond, to the inflammatory environment in lupus nephritis

Lupus nephritis (LN) affects up to 80% of juvenile onset systemic lupus erythematosus patients, leading to end stage renal failure requiring dialysis or transplantation in 10–15%. Podocytes are specialized epithelial cells of the glomerulus known to be a key site of damage in glomerular diseases. However, their roles in LN have yet to be fully identified. This project aims to identify structural and functional roles of podocytes in an in vitro model of LN. Conditionally immortalized podocytes were treated with proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-α, and IFN-γ) alone and in combination in an in vitro model of LN and were assessed for their structural and functional characteristics. Podocytes produce TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, VEGF, granulocyte-monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) at relatively low levels under basal conditions; stimulation with IL-1β led to increased secretion of IL-6 (P = 0.011), IL-8 (P = 0.05), VEGF (P = 0.02), and M-CSF (P = 0.03). Stimulation with TNF-α led to increased secretion of M-CSF (P = 0.049) and stimulation with IFN-γ led to novel production of IL-10 (P = 0.036) and interferon-γ-inducible protein-10 (P = 0.036). Podocytes demonstrate a reduction in the area covered by filamentous-actin in response to IL-1β treatment within 1 h (P = 0.011), which is restored by 24 h, associated with an increase in the level of intracellular calcium but not with increased cell death. Podocytes contribute to the inflammatory milieu in LN through cytokine/chemokine secretion and respond to the inflammatory milieu via rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton leading to effacement, a well-known method of protection against apoptosis in these cells. This demonstrates that podocytes are involved in the pathogenesis of LN.
On Convolutional LSTM Modeling for Joint Wake-Word Detection and Text Dependent Speaker Verification

The task of personalized keyword detection system which also performs text dependent speaker veriﬁcation (TDSV) has received substantial interest recently. Conventional approaches to this task involve the development of the TDSV and wake-up-word detection systems separately. In this paper, we show that TDSV and keyword spotting (KWS) can be jointly modeled using the convolutional long short term memory (CLSTM) model architecture, where an initial convolutional feature map is further processed by a LSTM recurrent network. Given a small amount of training data for developing the CLSTM sys-tem, we show that the model provides accurate detection of the presence of the keyword in spoken utterance. For the TDSV task, the MTL model can be well regularized using the CLSTM training examples for personalized wake up task. The experiments are performed for KWS wake up detection and TDSV using the combined speech recordings from Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and LibriSpeech corpus. In these experiments with multiple keywords, we illustrate that the proposed approach of MTL signiﬁcantly improves the performance of previously proposed neural network based text dependent SV systems. We also experimentally illustrate that the CLSTM model provides signiﬁ-cant improvements over previously proposed keyword detection systems as well (average relative improvements of 30 % over previous approaches).