Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Roles of Cancerous Immunoglobulins and Potential Applications in Cancer Immunodiagnostics and Immunotherapy

RP215 is a monoclonal antibody generated against the cell extract of the ovarian cancer cell clone, OC-3-VGH has been shown to react with a carbohydrate-associated epitope located mainly on the heavy chains of immunoglobulins expressed on the surface of most cancer cells. In contrast, these cancerous immunoglobulins, designated in general as CA215, are not found on normal human B cells. Upon isolation from the shed medium of cultured cancer cells, CA215 and cancerous immunoglobulins were found to recognize numerous human serum protein components or fragments, of which both antiand pro-cancer activities have been identified. These observations strongly support the hypothesis of dual functional roles for immunoglobulins expressed by cancer cells. Through decades of investigations, it was also revealed that apoptosis and complementdependent cytotoxicity can be induced by RP215 or its humanized forms, as well as by antibodies against antigen receptors, such as those against immunoglobulins or TCRs. For example, RP215 and anti-antigen receptors were found to demonstrate a high degree of correlation in terms of the regulations of many genes involved in the growth and proliferation of cancer cells (e.g. NFκB-1, IgG, P21, cyclin D1, ribosomal P1, and c-fos), as well as for toll-like receptors. Furthermore, significant dose-dependent reductions of implanted tumors were also observed following treatment with RP215 in nude mouse animal models. RP215-based immunodiagnostics were also developed for monitoring of the serum levels of CA215 among cancer patients. Judging from these experimental observations, humanized RP215 may be a suitable candidate for antibody-based anti-cancer drug Gregory Lee1,2* 1UBC Center for Reproductive Health, Canada 2Department of Pathology, Shantou University Medical School, China *Corresponding author: Gregory Lee, UBC Center for Reproductive Health, 9117 Shaughnessy Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 6R9, Canada, Tel: 778-322-4651; Email: leecyg@gmail.com Published Date: July 27, 2015
Effects of Taurine Depletion on Body Weight and Mouse Behavior during Development

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) plays an important role in various physiological functions and is abundant in the brain and skeletal muscle. Extracellular taurine is an endogenous agonist of gamma-aminobutyric acid type A and glycine receptors. Taurine actively accumulates in cells via the taurine transporter (TauT). Adult taurine-knockout (TauT−/−) mice exhibit lower body weights and exercise intolerance. To further examine the physiological role of taurine, we examined the effect of its depletion on mouse behavior, startle responses, muscular endurance, and body weight during development from postnatal day 0 (P0) until P60. In the elevated plus maze test, TauT−/− mice showed decreased anxiety-like behavior. In addition, TauT−/− mice did not show a startle response to startle stimuli, suggesting they have difficulty hearing. Wire-hang test revealed that muscular endurance was reduced in TauT−/− mice. Although a reduction of body weight was observed in TauT−/− mice during the developmental period, changes in body weight during 60% food restriction were similar to wild-type mice. Collectively, these results suggest that taurine has important roles in anxiety-like behavior, hearing, muscular endurance, and maintenance of body weight.
Assessment of sexual behavior and serostatus disclosure among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) attending antiretroviral therapy center in tertiary care Hospital, Baroda

Introduction: As more and more people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) live longer and enjoy healthier lives because of antiretroviral therapy, there are an increasing number of sexual transmissions of HIV. It is exceedingly important to assess the proportion of unsafe sexual practices among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) and their disclosure status so that behavioral intervention can be designed optimally for them in order to curb secondary HIV transmission and potential reinfection with different or drug resistant strain of HIV. Aim: To assess sexual behavior and serostatus disclosure of PLWHAs attending antiretroviral therapy (ART) center in Vadodara. Settings and Design: The current cross-sectional study was carried out at ART center of a tertiary care hospital - Shree Sayaji General (SSG) Hospital, Vadodara after taking necessary permissions and approval from institutional review board (IRB). Materials and Methods: A semistructured questionnaire was used for interview with PLWHA who are on ART after taking written and informed consent. Data was entered and analyzed using Epi Info software. Results: A total of 175 PLWHAs were enrolled in this study. Forty-three percent of the PLWHAs practiced premarital sex, while 15% of them practiced extramarital sex (EMS). Nearly 90% of these sexual practices were unsafe. Fifty-eight percent of the PLWHAs continued these unsafe sexual practices even after HIV diagnosis. Nearly 20% of the PLWHAs did not receive any counseling regarding sexual behavior. Ninety-five percent of respondents had disclosed their serostatus to their spouse. Conclusions: Still a remarkable proportion of PLWHAs indulge in unsafe sexual practices and the most common reason encountered among them was desire for child. Although majority of the participants had disclosed their serostatus to their spouse, many respondents did not mention their serostatus to other sexual partners. There is a need to stress on the importance of safe sex among PLWHAs not only to prevent transmission to their partners, but also to help them avoid receiving potentially resistant HIV strains in case of seroconcordant couples. A need-based sexual behavior-related motivational counseling needs to be focused on.
Fucoxanthinol Promotes Apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 Cells by Attenuating Laminins–Integrins Axis

Fucoxanthinol (FxOH), the main metabolite of the marine carotenoid fucoxanthin, exerts anti-cancer effects. However, fragmentary information is available on the growth-inhibiting effects of FxOH on breast cancer (BC). We investigated the growth-inhibiting effects of FxOH on human BC cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells), and the underlying mechanisms, differently from previous studies, by using comprehensive transcriptome analysis. The molecular mechanisms of FxOH were evaluated using flow cytometry, microarray, Western blotting, and gene knockdown analyses. FxOH (20 μM) significantly induced apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Transcriptome analysis revealed that FxOH modulated the following 12 signaling pathways: extracellular matrix (ECM), adhesion, cell cycle, chemokine and cytokine, PI3K/AKT, STAT, TGF-β, MAPK, NF-κB, RAS/Rho, DNA repair, and apoptosis signals. FxOH downregulated the levels of laminin β1, integrin α5, integrin β1, integrin β4, cyclin D1, Rho A, phosphorylated (p)paxillin (Tyr31), pSTAT3(Ser727), and pSmad2(Ser465/467), which play critical roles in the 12 signaling pathways mentioned above. Additionally, FxOH upregulated the levels of pERK1/2(Thr202/Tyr204) and active form of caspase-3. Integrin β1 or β4 knockdown significantly inhibited the growth of MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. These results suggest that FxOH induces apoptosis in human BC cells through some core signals, especially the ECM–integrins axis, and the downstream of cell cycle, STAT, TGF-β, RAS/Rho, MAPK, and/or DNA repair signals.
Acolhimento com Classificação de Risco: Avaliação de Serviços Hospitalares de Emergência

Objective:Current paper evaluates admittance of risk-classified cases in two hospital emergency services.Methods:The exploratory, descriptive and quantitative research was undertaken between March and May 2013, with 47 nursing professionals at two hospital emergency units in the state of Parana, Brazil, who answered the questionnaire.Results:Acceptance of Risk-classified Cases was reported hazardous at the two units; the lowest rates refer to issues on the place the accompanying person would stay and to discussions on the flowchart. The best assessment occurred in the attendance of less serious cases.Conclusion:The hazardous assessment at the two health units was mainly due to the non-compliance with certain basic principles of its guidelines of the Acceptance of Risk-classified Cases.
Deep Video Analysis Methods for Surgical Skills Assessment in Cataract Surgery

It is important for a graduate surgical trainee in ophthalmology to have a strong understanding of how to proficiently perform cataract surgery. The surgical training curriculum should incorporate methodical assessments of surgical skills and improve trainee surgeons’ expertise to maintain patient safety. Prior rating scales for cataract surgery are highly dependant on the subjective opinion of the observing grader and are time consuming. This project is intended to develop a deep learning model for skill evaluation in cataract surgery using raw surgery videos that can supplement human review. An advanced convolutional neural network model is leveraged in this work and was evaluated using a large custom dataset. Videos from four phases in cataract surgery were used to quantify the model performance. Our model yielded an average accuracy of 82% for all four phases of cataract surgery.
Systematic Identification of Essential Genes Required for Yeast Cell Wall Integrity: Involvement of the RSC Remodelling Complex

Conditions altering the yeast cell wall lead to the activation of an adaptive transcriptional response mainly governed by the cell wall integrity (CWI) mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Two high-throughput screenings were developed using the yTHC collection of yeast conditional mutant strains to systematically identify essential genes related to cell wall integrity, and those required for the transcriptional program elicited by cell wall stress. Depleted expression of 52 essential genes resulted in hypersensitivity to the dye Calcofluor white, with chromatin organization, Golgi vesicle transport, rRNA processing, and protein glycosylation processes, as the most highly representative functional groups. Via a flow cytometry-based quantitative assay using a CWI reporter plasmid, 97 strains exhibiting reduced gene-reporter expression levels upon stress were uncovered, highlighting genes associated with RNA metabolism, transcription/translation, protein degradation, and chromatin organization. This screening also led to the discovery of 41 strains displaying a basal increase in CWI-associated gene expression, including mainly putative cell wall-related genes. Interestingly, several members of the RSC chromatin remodelling complex were uncovered in both screenings. Notably, Rsc9 was necessary to regulate the gene expression of CWI-related genes both under stress and non-stress conditions, suggesting distinct requirements of the RSC complex for remodelling particular genes.
Circularity and Reliability in Measurement

The direct use of a physical law for the purpose of measurement creates a problem of circularity: the law needs to be empirically tested in order to ensure the reliability of measurement, but the testing requires that we already know the value of the quantity to be measured. This problem is discussed through some detailed examples of energy measurements in quantum physics; three major methods are analyzed in their interrelation, with a focus on the method of “material retardation. ” It seems that the only reasonable solution is to establish the law needed for the measurement by relying on an alternate method of measurement. This solution is also circular, since it amounts to letting different measurement methods justify each other. However, this circularity can be fruitful for the process of concept building; meaning can be created in a web of interconnected measurement methods.
The DD-Cell: a Double Side Entropic Source exploitable as PUF and TRNG

In this work we demonstrate that the DD-cell, previously proposed by the authors to implement weak PUFs, can behave also as a TRNG, thus allowing the implementation of PUF and TRNG primitives based on the same entropy source. The proposed architecture has been implemented on a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA device, and both PUF and TRNG functions have been verified through an extensive measurement campaign involving PVT variations. Measurements results have shown that the entropy of a DD-cell can reach a value higher than 0.99 without requiring any post-processing.
Carcass traits of goats finished with different levels of concentrate supplementation and kept on caatinga enriched with Urochloa trichopus

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the carcass traits of crossbred F1 goats (Boer x non-descript breed) finished on thinned caatinga pasture enriched with signal grass (Urochloa trichopus Stapf.), and receiving supplementation. Twenty-four crossbred F1 goats with 27.00 ± 3.32 kg body weight were used. The supplement was designed to meet the nutritional requirements and animals receiving the highest supplementation level could gain 150g per day. For data analysis, a completely randomized design was adopted, with four treatments (supplementation levels of 0.0%; 0.5%; 1.0% and 1.5% body weight) and six replications (animals). Data were subjected to analysis of variance and regression. Supplementation resulted in an increasing linear effect for slaughter weight, hot carcass weight, cold carcass weight, empty body weight, hot carcass yield and cold carcass yield; and a quadratic effect for biological yield. Weight loss by cooling was not influenced by supplementation. For the results of subjective evaluations, only conformation was influenced by supplementation (P<0.05). For morphometry, a positive linear effect of supplementation was found for thorax perimeter, croup perimeter, croup width, thorax width. The level of supplementation caused a positive linear effect on the weight of most non-edible carcass components, and there was no influence of supplementation on most variables for yield. It can be concluded that increasing levels of supplementation up to 1.5% body weight for F1 goats (Boer x non-descript breed) kept on caatinga pasture results in higher carcass weight and yield.
An Empirical Identification Issue of the Bifactor Item Response Theory Model

Using the bifactor item response theory model to analyze data arising from educational and psychological studies has gained popularity over the years. Unfortunately, using this model in practice comes with challenges. One such challenge is an empirical identification issue that is seldom discussed in the literature, and its impact on the estimates of the bifactor model’s parameters has not been demonstrated. This issue occurs when an item’s discriminations on the general and specific dimensions are approximately equal (i.e., the within-item discriminations are similar in strength), leading to difficulties in obtaining unique estimates for those discriminations. We conducted three simulation studies to demonstrate that within-item discriminations being similar in strength creates problems in estimation stability. The results suggest that a large sample could alleviate but not resolve the problems, at least when considering sample sizes up to 4,000. When the discriminations within items were made clearly different, the estimates of these discriminations were more consistent across the data replicates than that observed when the discriminations within the items were similar. The results also show that the similarity of an item’s discriminatory magnitudes on different dimensions has direct implications on the sample size needed in order to consistently obtain accurate parameter estimates. Although our goal was to provide evidence of the empirical identification issue, the study further reveals that the extent of similarity of within-item discriminations, the magnitude of discriminations, and how well the items are targeted to the respondents also play factors in the estimation of the bifactor model’s parameters.
Somatostatin Receptor Targeted PET-Imaging for Diagnosis, Radiotherapy Planning and Theranostics of Meningiomas: A Systematic Review of the Literature

The aims of the present systematic review are to: (1) assess the diagnostic performance of somatostatin receptor (SSR)targeted positron emission tomography (PET) with different tracers and devices in patients affected by meningiomas; and (2) to evaluate the theranostic applications of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) in meningiomas. A systematic literature search according to PRISMA criteria was made by using two main databases. Only studies published from 2011 up to March 2022 in the English language with ≥10 enrolled patients were selected. Following our research strategy, 17 studies were included for the assessment. Fourteen studies encompassed 534 patients, harboring 733 meningiomas, submitted to SSR-targeted PET/CT (n = 10) or PET/MRI (n = 4) for de novo diagnosis, recurrence detection, or radiation therapy (RT) planning (endpoint 1), while 3 studies included 69 patients with therapy-refractory meningiomas submitted to PRRT (endpoint 2). A relevant variation in methodology was registered among diagnostic studies, since only a minority of them reported histopathology as a reference standard. PET, especially when performed through PET/MRI, resulted particularly useful for the detection of meningiomas located in the skull base (SB) or next to the falx cerebri, significantly influencing RT planning. As far as it concerns PRRT studies, stable disease was obtained in the 66.6% of the treated patients, being grade 1–2 hematological toxicity the most common side effect. Of note, the wide range of the administered activities, the various utilized radiopharmaceuticals (90Y-DOTATOC and/or 177Lu-DOTATATE), the lack of dosimetric studies hamper a clear definition of PRRT potential on meningiomas’ management.
A meta-analysis of the association of ApaI, BsmI, FokI, and TaqI polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor gene with the risk of polycystic ovary syndrome in the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office population

Abstract Background The results of case-control studies on the association between vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) polymorphisms and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are inconclusive. Objective We aimed to more precisely evaluate the correlation between the ApaI, BsmI, FokI, and TaqI VDR gene polymorphisms and PCOS susceptibility. Materials and Methods PubMed, Scopus, Science Citation Index, and Google Scholar databases were searched to retrieve related reports released up to the end of 2020. To evaluate the association strength of the VDR gene polymorphisms with PCOS risk, pooled odds ratios (OR) with a 95% confidence interval were determined. Results In total, 1,119 subjects (560 PCOS cases and 559 controls) from 7 studies were included which met the inclusion criteria. A statistically significant association between the TaqI polymorphism and PCOS susceptibility was found in the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office population (T vs. t: OR = 0.715; TT vs. tt: OR = 0.435, p < 0.001; TT vs. Tt+tt: OR = 0.696, p = 0.01; tt vs. TT+Tt: OR = 1.791, p < 0.001). It was found that the ApaI variant was a risk factor in the dominant inheritance model (AA vs. Aa+aa: OR = 1.466, p = 0.01) and the FokI polymorphism was a protective factor in the recessive inheritance model (ff vs. FF+Ff: OR = 0.669, p = 0.04). The VDR BsmI polymorphism did not show association with PCOS susceptibility. Conclusion Our meta-analysis revealed that the VDR ApaI in the dominant model, VDR FokI in the recessive model, and VDR TaqI polymorphisms in all genetic models are associated with vulnerability to PCOS. However, further studies with a larger sample size are required.
The Use of Antibiotics for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infections in Two Government Hospitals in Taif, Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Study

Background Surgical site infections (SSIs) are among the most common postoperative complications. To reduce the occurrence of surgical wound infections, suitable antimicrobials should be administered. Aim of the work This study investigated the prophylactic use of antibiotics to prevent SSIs, in terms of agents and/or combination preferences, and the adherence of surgeons to both national and international guidelines of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis in Taif city government hospitals. Methods This is a retrospective study using a chart review of patients' medical records in two government hospitals in Taif city, Saudi Arabia, from July 2016 to July 2018. While maintaining the confidentiality of the patient’s data, it was collected and analyzed using the chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests, and the difference between means was tested using the student’s t-test. Results Prophylactic antibiotics were used in 157 patients who had surgery (Group 1) while 52 patients did not receive preoperative antibiotics (Group 2). The most commonly used prophylactic antibiotics were metronidazole, cefuroxime, cefazolin, and ceftriaxone. Other antimicrobials used included cefotaxime, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, cephalexin, and amoxicillin. Surgical site infections developed in one patient of those who received antibiotics preoperatively and in three Group 2 patients. The mean hospital length of stay in Group 1 was 38.5±9.2 hours, and 57.3±12.1 hours in Group 2 patients. The types of antibiotics used were generally within the scope of national and international recommended guidelines. Conclusion The use of preoperative prophylactic antibiotics significantly reduces the development of surgical site infections and the mean length of hospital stay. Various antimicrobial drugs that were used prophylactically in surgical practice are within the recommendations of both national and international guidelines.
Quantum Behaved Particle Swarm Optimization-Based Deep Transfer Learning Model for Sugarcane Leaf Disease Detection and Classification

Plant diseases pose a major challenge in the agricultural sector, which affects plant development and crop productivity. Sugarcane farming is a highly organized part of farming. Owing to the desirable condition for sugarcane cultivation, India stands among the second largest producers of sugarcane over the globe. At the same time, sugarcane gets easily affected by multifarious diseases which significantly influence crop productivity. The recently developed computer vision (CV) and deep learning (DL) models with an effective design can be employed for the detection and classification of diseases in sugarcane plant. The disease detection in sugarcane plant is not accurate in the existing techniques. This paper presents a quantum behaved particle swarm optimization based deep transfer learning (QBPSO-DTL) model for sugarcane leaf disease detection and classification which produces high accuracy. The proposed QBPSO-DTL method is designed and trained for the prediction of diseased leaf images. The proposed QBPSO-DTL technique encompasses the design of optimal region growing segmentation to determine the affected regions in the leaf image. In addition, the SqueezeNet model is employed as a feature extractor and the deep stacked autoencoder (DSAE) model is applied as a classification model. Finally, the hyperparameter tuning of the DSAE model is carried out by using the QBPSO algorithm. For demonstrating the enhanced outcomes of the QBPSO-DTL approach, a wide range of experiments were implemented and the results ensured the improvements of the QBPSO-DTL model.