Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current Trends in ATRA Delivery for Cancer Therapy

All-Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA) is the most active metabolite of vitamin A. It is critically involved in the regulation of multiple processes, such as cell differentiation and apoptosis, by activating specific genomic pathways or by influencing key signaling proteins. Furthermore, mounting evidence highlights the anti-tumor activity of this compound. Notably, oral administration of ATRA is the first choice treatment in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) in adults and NeuroBlastoma (NB) in children. Regrettably, the promising results obtained for these diseases have not been translated yet into the clinics for solid tumors. This is mainly due to ATRA-resistance developed by cancer cells and to ineffective delivery and targeting. This up-to-date review deals with recent studies on different ATRA-loaded Drug Delivery Systems (DDSs) development and application on several tumor models. Moreover, patents, pre-clinical, and clinical studies are also reviewed. To sum up, the main aim of this in-depth review is to provide a detailed overview of the several attempts which have been made in the recent years to ameliorate ATRA delivery and targeting in cancer.
Standardized uptake values and ratios on 68Ga-DOTATATE PET-computed tomography for normal organs and malignant lesions and their correlation with Krenning score in patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors

The aim was to estimate the physiological standardized uptake values (SUVs) on 68Ga-DOTATATE PET-computed tomography (CT) in normal organs and metastatic tumor lesions (both standard and delayed), and correlating the uptake values and ratios with Krenning Scores (K-score) in patients with metastatic/advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) undergoing PET-CT studies for their management work-up. A total of 32 patients of metastatic NET with 95 discrete tumor lesions were included in this analysis. These patients underwent standard whole-body PET-CT following injection of 2–3 mCi (74–111 MBq) of 68Ga-DOTATATE at 1–1.5 h. The normal physiological SUVmean of the liver and spleen and SUVmax and SUVmean of tumor lesions were estimated by an in-built automated procedure. These patients also underwent a delayed scan (2.5–3 h) and the same parameters were obtained for the delayed study. The tumorous lesions were further classified on the basis of K-score, and this was correlated with the mean SUVmax on both early and delayed scans. SUVmean ratios (tumor-to-liver and tumor-to-spleen) were also calculated for both time-points and correlated with individual K-scores. In lesions with K-score 4, the mean SUVmax was 32.5 in early and 30.5 in delayed scan, for lesions with K-score of 3 and 2, the mean SUVmax were 17.3, 20, and 9.3, 9.2, respectively, while in K-score 1 (n = 1), the delayed mean SUVmax was found to be more than early mean SUVmax (3.2 to 2.3). Statistical significance was evaluated by paired t test, and the changes in SUVmax was found to be statistically insignificant (P > 0.05) in all 3 K-scores. The paired t test was also performed between early and delayed tumor/liver and tumor/spleen mean SUVmean ratios, and no significant changes were observed across all K scores. The mean SUVmean values of the liver in the standard 1-h scan and delayed scans were 8.05 (range: 3–15) and 8.17 (range: 3.2–16), while for spleen, the values were 18 (range: 8.4–36.7) and 20 (range: 10–38.6), respectively. Statistically significant changes were observed in delayed spleen SUVmean values compared to the early scan (P < 0.05), while for liver SUVmean, the difference was not significant. Thus, in the present study, the SUVmax and SUVmean (range and mean values) for normal liver and spleen, and malignant NET lesions, and tumor-to-liver and tumor-to-spleen SUVmean ratios of different K-scores were generated. As could be theoretically expected in receptor-based PET-CT, there was no significant change in the delayed scan compared to the standard 1–1.5 h values
McDRAM v2: In-Dynamic Random Access Memory Systolic Array Accelerator to Address the Large Model Problem in Deep Neural Networks on the Edge

The energy efficiency of accelerating hundreds of MB-large deep neural networks (DNNs) in a mobile environment is less than that of a server-class big chip accelerator because of the limited power budget, silicon area, and smaller buffer size of static random access memory associated with mobile systems. To address this challenge and provide powerful computing capability for processing large DNN models in power/resource-limited mobile systems, we propose McDRAM v2, which is a novel in-dynamic random access memory (DRAM) systolic array accelerator architecture. McDRAM v2 makes the best use of large in-DRAM bandwidths for accelerating various DNN applications. It can handle large DNN models without off-chip memory accesses, in a fast and efficient manner, by exposing the large DRAM capacity and large in-DRAM bandwidth directly to an input systolic array of a processing element matrix. Additionally, it maximizes data reuse using a systolic multiply–accumulate (MAC) structure. The proposed architecture maximizes the utilization of large-scale MAC units by judiciously exploiting the DRAM’s internal bus and buffer structure. An evaluation of large DNN models in the fields of image classification, natural language processing, and recommendation systems shows that it achieves 1.7 times tera operations per second (TOPS), 3.7 times TOPS/watt, and 8.6 times TOPS/mm2 improvements over a state-of-the–art mobile graphics processing unit accelerator, and 4.1 times better energy efficiency over a state-of-the-art server-class accelerator. Moreover, it incurs a minimal overhead, i.e., a 9.7% increase in area, and uses less than 4.4 W of peak operating power.
Breast Cancer: The Accuracy of The Paus in Detecting pN2 and Factors that Lead to the True- and False-Negative Results

The condition of Axillary Lymph Nodes (ALN) is the most important prognostic factor in breast cancer and is relevant to the choice of breast cancer treatment tactics [1,2]. There is a strong correlation between the number of damaged axillary lymph nodes and the risk of breast cancer regeneration [3]. Since 1994, Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB) has become a gold standard for assessing the status of the axillary lymph nodes. The sentinel lymph node is hypothetically the lymph node or group of lymph nodes that the primary cancer cells reach first. If the sentinel lymph node is intact, the probability that the tumor will not spread is high. According to several studies, when metastases are detected and the secondary Axillary Lymph Nodes Dissection (ALND) is performed, in 40-70% of cases, additionally removed lymph nodes were healthy [4]. When isolated tumor cells or micrometastases are found after SLNB, the removal of other lymph nodes in the axilla is not recommended [5]. A randomized ACOSOG Z0011 study was presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) in 2010, which found that survival and the risk of recurrence was very similar in patients with T1 or T2 tumors and during SLNB 1 or 2 damaged lymph nodes who had ALND and those who did not [5].
HPV and Cervical Cancer Screening Awareness: A Case-control Study in Nigeria

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and other germane parameters are considered the leading cause of cervical cancer in women in this study. Our aim is to create awareness about HPV and cervical cancer among both males and females in Nigeria. We developed a risk-score (HAT-Human Papillomavirus Assessment Test) which was used to determine the risk factor(s) with the highest/lowest risk factors for HPV associated infections in both men and women, and cervical cancer progression in women.
COVID-19 and Involvement of the Corpus Callosum: Potential Effect of the Cytokine Storm?

SUMMARY: Neurologic findings are being increasingly recognized in coronavirus disease 2019. We present a patient with a unique involvement of the corpus callosum that we relate to the cytokine storm seen in patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. As the infection is increasingly seen around the world, recognition of these unique patterns may facilitate early identification of the progression of this disease and potentially facilitate appropriate management.
Micellization Behaviour of Linear and Nonlinear Block Copolymers Based on Poly(n-hexyl isocyanate) in Selective Solvents

Block copolymers have attracted significant scientific and economic interest over the last decades due to their ability to self-assemble into ordered structures both in bulk and in selective solvents. In this work, the self-assembly behaviour of both linear (diblocks, triblocks and pentablocks) and nonlinear (miktoarm stars and a block-graft) copolymers based on poly(n-hexyl isocyanate), PHIC, were studied in selective solvents such as n-heptane and n-dodecane. A variety of experimental techniques, namely static and dynamic light scattering, dilute solution viscometry and atomic force microscopy, were employed to study the micellar structural parameters (e.g., aggregation number, overall micellar size and shape, and core and shell dimensions). The effect of the macromolecular architecture, the molecular weight and the copolymer composition on the self-assembly behaviour was studied. Spherical micelles in equilibrium with clusters were obtained from the block copolymers. Thermally stable, uniform and spherical aggregates were found from the triblock copolymers. The poly(n-hexyl isocyanate)-b-polyisoprene-b-poly(n-hexyl isocyanate),-HIH copolymers tend to adopt closed loop conformation, leading to more elongated cylindrical-type structures upon increasing the concentration. Clustering effects were also reported in the case of the pentablock terpolymers. The topology of the blocks plays an important role, since the poly(n-hexyl isocyanate)-b-polystyrene-b-polyisoprene-b-polystyrene-b-poly(n-hexyl isocyanate), HSISH terpolymer shows intermicellar fusion of spherical micelles, leading to the formation of extended networks. The formation of spherical micelles in equilibrium with clusters was obvious in the case of the miktoarm stars, whereas the block-graft copolymer shows the existence of mainly unimolecular micelles.
A Reappraisal of the Evolutionary and Developmental Pathway of Apomixis and Its Genetic Control in Angiosperms

Apomixis sensu stricto (agamospermy) is asexual reproduction by seed. In angiosperms it represents an easy byway of life cycle renewal through gamete-like cells that give rise to maternal embryos without ploidy reduction (meiosis) and ploidy restitution (syngamy). The origin of apomixis still represents an unsolved problem, as it may be either evolved from sex or the other way around. This review deals with a reappraisal of the origin of apomixis in order to deepen knowledge on such asexual mode of reproduction which seems mainly lacking in the most basal angiosperm orders (i.e., Amborellales, Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales, also known as ANA-grade), while it clearly occurs in different forms and variants in many unrelated families of monocots and eudicots. Overall findings strengthen the hypothesis that apomixis as a whole may have evolved multiple times in angiosperm evolution following different developmental pathways deviating to different extents from sexuality. Recent developments on the genetic control of apomixis in model species are also presented and adequately discussed in order to shed additional light on the antagonist theories of gain- and loss-of-function over sexuality.
Interactions of β and γENaC with Nedd4 Can Be Facilitated by an ERK-mediated Phosphorylation*

Phosphorylation of the epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) has been suggested to play a role in its regulation. Here we demonstrate that phosphorylating the carboxyl termini of the β and γ subunits facilitates their interactions with the ubiquitin ligase Nedd4 and inhibits channel activity. Three protein kinases, which phosphorylate the carboxyl termini of β and γENaC, have been identified by an in vitro assay. One of these phosphorylates βThr-613 and γThr-623, well-conserved C-tail threonines in the immediate vicinity of the PY motifs. Phosphorylation of γThr-623 has also been demonstrated in vivo in channels expressed inXenopus oocytes, and mutating βThr-613 and γThr-623 into alanine increased the channel activity by 3.5-fold. Effects of the above phosphorylations on interactions between ENaC and Nedd4 have been studied using surface plasmon resonance. Peptides having phospho-threonine at positions β613 or γ623 bind the WW domains of Nedd4 two to three times better than the non-phosphorylated analogues, due to higher association rate constants. Using a number of different approaches it was demonstrated that the protein kinase acting on βThr-613 and γThr-623 is the extracellular regulated kinase (ERK). It is suggested that an ERK-mediated phosphorylation of βThr-613 and γThr-623 down-regulates the channel by facilitating its interaction with Nedd4.
Ablation of the Brca1–Palb2 Interaction Phenocopies Fanconi Anemia in Mice

A new Brca1 mouse model for Fanconi anemia (FA) complementation group S provides a system in which to study phenotypes observed in human FA patients including bone marrow failure. Heterozygous mutations in the BRCA1 gene predispose women to breast and ovarian cancer, while biallelic BRCA1 mutations are a cause of Fanconi anemia (FA), a rare genetic disorder characterized by developmental abnormalities, early-onset bone marrow failure, increased risk of cancers, and hypersensitivity to DNA-crosslinking agents. BRCA1 is critical for homologous recombination of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB). Through its coiled-coil domain, BRCA1 interacts with an essential partner, PALB2, recruiting BRCA2 and RAD51 to sites of DNA damage. Missense mutations within the coiled-coil domain of BRCA1 (e.g., L1407P) that affect the interaction with PALB2 have been reported in familial breast cancer. We hypothesized that if PALB2 regulates or mediates BRCA1 tumor suppressor function, ablation of the BRCA1–PALB2 interaction may also elicit genomic instability and tumor susceptibility. We generated mice defective for the Brca1–Palb2 interaction (Brca1 L1363P in mice) and established MEF cells from these mice. Brca1L1363P/L1363P MEF exhibited hypersensitivity to DNA-damaging agents and failed to recruit Rad51 to DSB. Brca1L1363P/L1363P mice were viable but exhibited various FA symptoms including growth retardation, hyperpigmentation, skeletal abnormalities, and male/female infertility. Furthermore, all Brca1L1363P/L1363P mice exhibited macrocytosis and died due to bone marrow failure or lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia with activating Notch1 mutations. These phenotypes closely recapitulate clinical features observed in patients with FA. Collectively, this model effectively demonstrates the significance of the BRCA1–PALB2 interaction in genome integrity and provides an FA model to investigate hematopoietic stem cells for mechanisms underlying progressive failure of hematopoiesis and associated development of leukemia/lymphoma, and other FA phenotypes. Significance: A new Brca1 mouse model for Fanconi anemia (FA) complementation group S provides a system in which to study phenotypes observed in human FA patients including bone marrow failure. See related commentary by Her and Bunting, p. 4044
Implementation intentions and prospective memory function in late adulthood.

Prospective memory (PM) is a critically important component of memory that often declines in late adulthood. Implementation intentions, an encoding strategy, consisting of an explicit if-then "I will . " statement, has been effectively used to enhance older adults' prospective memory function. However, it remains to be established whether forming a mental representation of carrying out the task when forming the intention enhances these age effects, as well as whether the type of cue (event or time based) moderates age-related benefits. To test these questions, we randomly allocated 125 younger and 125 older adults to 1 of 5 conditions, in which they were directed to use different strategies when forming their PM intentions (Statement Only, Imagine in Game, Statement and Imagine Combined, Imagine in Daily Life, Control). The results indicated that use of the implementation intentions statement alone and in combination with forming a mental representation of carrying out the task substantially enhanced older adults' event- but not time-based PM. In addition, while the Statement Only condition reduced age-related difficulties for event-based tasks, the condition that combined this statement with visualization led to the greatest reduction in age effects. These data suggest that both rehearsing the implementations intention in the specific statement format combined with visualizing may be optimally effective for enhancing PM function in late adulthood but that the type of PM cue is an important moderator of these age effects. In addition to theoretical implications, these results may inform the refinement of interventions focused on enhancing PM function in late adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
A human-machine partnered approach for identifying social media signals of elevated traumatic grief in Chicago gang territories

There is a critical need to improve trauma-informed services in structurally marginalized communities impacted by violence and its associated traumatic grief. For community residents, particularly gang-associated youth, repeated exposure to traumatic grief causes serious adverse effects that may include negative health outcomes, delinquency, and future violent offenses. The recent proliferation of digital social media platforms, such as Twitter, provide a novel and largely underutilized resource for responding to these issues, particularly among these difficult-to-reach communities. In this paper, we explore the potential for using a human-machine partnered approach, wherein qualitative fieldwork and domain expertise is combined with a computational linguistic analysis of Twitter content among 18 gang territories/neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side. We first employ in-depth interviews and observations to identify common patterns by which residents in gang territories/neighborhoods express traumatic grief on social media. We leverage these qualitative findings, supplemented by domain expertise and computational techniques, to gather both traumatic grief- and gang-related tweets from Twitter. We next utilize supervised machine learning to construct a binary classification algorithm to eliminate irrelevant tweets that may have been gathered by our automated query and extraction techniques. Last, we confirm the validity, or ground truth, of our computational findings by enlisting additional domain expertise and further qualitative analyses of the specific traumatic events discussed in our sample of Twitter content. Using this approach, we find that social media provides useful signals for identifying moments of increased collective traumatic grief among residents in gang territories/neighborhoods. This is the first study to leverage Twitter to systematically ground the collective online articulations of traumatic grief in traumatic offline events occurring in violence-impacted communities. The results of this study will be useful for developing more effective tools—including trauma-informed intervention applications—for community organizations, violence prevention initiatives, and other public health efforts.
High neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio associated with progression to critical illness in older patients with COVID-19: a multicenter retrospective study

This retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate the correlation of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) with critical illness in older patients with COVID-19, and evaluate the prognostic power of the NLR at admission. We enrolled 232 patients with COVID-19, aged ≥60 y, in Zhejiang province from January 17 to March 3, 2020. Primary outcomes were evaluated until April 13. Cox regression was performed for prognostic factors. Twenty-nine (12.5%) patients progressed to critical illness. Age, shortness of breath, comorbidities including hypertension, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, higher NLR, lower albumin levels, and multiple mottling and ground-glass opacity were associated with progression. In the multivariate analysis, older age (hazard ratio [HR] 1.121, confidence interval [CI] 1.070-1.174, P<0.001), heart disease (HR 2.587, CI 1.156-5.787, P=0.021), higher NLR (HR 1.136, CI 1.094-1.180, P < 0.001), and multiple mottling and ground-glass opacity (HR 4.518, CI 1.906-10.712, P<0.001) remained critical illness predictors. The NLR was independently associated with progression to critical illness; the relationship was significant and graded (HR: 1.16 per unit; 95% CI: 1.10-1.22; P for trend < 0.001). Therefore, NLR can be adopted as a prognostic tool to assist healthcare providers predict the clinical outcomes of older patients suffering from COVID-19.
REIN: Flexible Mesh Generation from Point Clouds

3D reconstruction from sparse point clouds is a challenging problem. Existing methods interpolate from point clouds to produce meshes, but the performance decreases with the number of points. To address this, we propose an algorithm that looks at the global structure while reconstructing the surface one vertex at a time. Experimental results on ShapeNet and ModelNet10 show 81.5% Chamfer Distance and 14% Point Normal Similarity average improvement compared to Ball Pivoting Algorithm (BPA) and Poisson Surface Reconstruction (PSR). Qualitatively, the generated meshes have a closer similarity to the ground truth. Results on ShapeNet Patched illustrate significant improvement in mesh quality compared to BPA and PSR. The code is available at https://github.com/rangeldaroya/rein.
Kepler Data Release 3 Notes

This describes the collection of data and the processing done on it so when researchers around the world get the Kepler data sets (which are a set of pixels from the telescope of a particular target (star, galaxy or whatever) over a 3 month period) they can adjust their algorithms fro things that were done (like subtracting all of one particular wavelength for example). This is used to calibrate their own algorithms so that they know what it is they are starting with. It is posted so that whoever is accessing the publicly available data (not all of it is made public) can understand it . (most of the Kepler data is under restriction for 1 - 4 years and is not available, but the handbook is for everyone (public and restricted) The Data Analysis Working Group have released long and short cadence materials, including FFls and Dropped Targets for the Public. The Kepler Science Office considers Data Release 3 to provide "browse quality" data. These notes have been prepared to give Kepler users of the Multimission Archive at STScl (MAST) a summary of how the data were collected and prepared, and how well the data processing pipeline is functioning on flight data. They will be updated for each release of data to the public archive and placed on MAST along with other Kepler documentation, at http:// archive.stsci. edu/kepler/documents.html . Data release 3 is meant to give users the opportunity to examine the data for possibly interesting science and to involve the users in improving the pipeline for future data releases. To perform the latter service, users are encouraged to notice and document artifacts, either in the raw or processed data, and report them to the Science Office.