Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Azo-dyes and Experimental Liver Tumours

Introduction Several hundreds of cancer-producing chemical compounds are now known. By far the largest group, which contains all the very potent carcinogens, consists of compounds, mostly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and simple derivatives of these, which give tumours at the site of application. Malignant tumours, resulting from prolonged contact of the tissues with the chemical compound, may be induced in many different tissues and organs. Repeated application to the skin gives epitheliomas, subcutaneous injection (in solution or in the solid state) gives tumours of connective tissue (sarcomas), and by suitable application cancer may be induced in the lung, mammary gland, liver, kidney, spleen, brain, prostate and uterus, and in bone and in other tissues also. Several different species are susceptible, e.g. rats, mice, guineapigs, rabbits, hamsters and fowls. Different species and different organs vary very widely in their response to a particular compound, and different compounds also show considerable variation in their action. These variations are, on the whole, quantitative rather than qualitative. Yet, while many derivatives of I :e-benzanthracene are equally effective in producing both skin tumours and subcutaneous tumours in mice, some of them give tumours more rapidly by the injection technique. On the other hand, derivatives of 3:4-benzphenanthrene have proved much more effective when applied to the skin (Badger, Cook, Hewett, Kennaway, Kennaway & Martin, 1942). All the evidence is consistent with the view that these polycyclic hydrocarbons act directly on the cells. A second group of compounds having cancer-producing properties comprises the oestrogenic substances, both natural and artificial. These compounds do not in general produce tumours at the site of application, but their administration by any route to female mice results in a large increase in the incidence of mammary carcinoma. It now * See notice on p. 306. 245
Do transnational corporations care about labour standards

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investment, or the activities of transnational corporations, and core labour standards. It discusses the channels through which labour standards may influence foreign direct investment and presents the results of an empirical test of that linkage. The results show that, contrary to the conventional wisdom that transnational corporations engage predominately in countries with low standards, higher labour standards are positively associated with foreign direct investment inflows. Concerns about ? social dumping? or ? a race to the bottom? on such standards appear to be mistaken. This result even holds for poor developing countries.
Beyond multi-class : structured learning for machine translation

In this thesis, we explore and present machine learning (ML) approaches to a particularly challenging research area – machine translation (MT). The study aims at replacing or developing each component in the MT system with an appropriate discriminative model, where the ultimate goal is to create a powerful MT system with cutting-edge ML techniques. The study regards each sub-problem encountered in the MT field as a classification or regression problem. To model specific mappings in MT tasks, the modern machine learning paradigm known as “structured learning” is pursued. This approach goes beyond classic multiclass pattern classification and explicitly models certain dependencies in the target domain. Different algorithmic variants are then proposed for constructing the ML-based MT systems: the first application is a kernel-based MT system, that projects both input and output into a very high-dimensional linguistic feature space and makes use of the maximum margin regression (MMR) technique to learn the relations between input and output. It is amongst the first MT systems that work with pure ML techniques. The second application is the proposal of a max-margin structure (MMS) approach to phrase translation probability modelling in an MT system. The architecture of this approach is shown to capture structural aspects of the problem domains, leading to demonstrable performance improvements on machine translation. Finally the thesis describes the development of a phrase reordering model for machine translation, where we have compared different ML methods and discovered a particularly efficient paradigm to solve this problem.
Does Risk Explain Anomalies? Evidence from Expected Return Estimates

We construct accounting-based costs of equity for dollar neutral long-short trading strategies formed on a comprehensive list of anomaly variables. These variables include book-to-market, size, composite issuance, net stock issues, abnormal investment, asset growth, investment-to-assets, accruals, earnings surprises, failure probability, return on assets, and short-term prior returns. Our findings are striking. Except for the value premium, cost of equity estimates differ dramatically from average realized returns. If accounting-based costs of equity are reasonable proxies for expected returns, the evidence implies that returns of most anomalies are unexpected, and that mispricing, not risk, is the main driving force of capital markets anomalies.
Crystal structure of human 53BP1 BRCT domains bound to p53 tumour suppressor

The BRCT (BRCA1 C‐terminus) is an evolutionary conserved protein–protein interacting module found as single, tandem or multiple repeats in a diverse range of proteins known to play roles in the DNA‐damage response. The BRCT domains of 53BP1 bind to the tumour suppressor p53. To investigate the nature of this interaction, we have determined the crystal structure of the 53BP1 BRCT tandem repeat in complex with the DNA‐binding domain of p53. The structure of the 53BP1–p53 complex shows that the BRCT tandem repeats pack together through a conserved interface that also involves the inter‐domain linker. A comparison of the structure of the BRCT region of 53BP1 with the BRCA1 BRCT tandem repeat reveals that the interdomain interface and linker regions are remarkably well conserved. 53BP1 binds to p53 through contacts with the N‐terminal BRCT repeat and the inter‐BRCT linker. The p53 residues involved in this binding are mutated in cancer and are also important for DNA binding. We propose that BRCT domains bind to cellular target proteins through a conserved structural element termed the ‘BRCT recognition motif’.
From Bugs to Decision Support - Leveraging Historical Issue Reports in Software Evolution

Software developers in large projects work in complex information landscapes and staying on top of all relevant software artifacts is an acknowledged challenge. As software systems often evolve over many years, a large number of issue reports is typically managed during the lifetime of a system, representing the units of work needed for its improvement, e.g., defects to fix, requested features, or missing documentation. Efficient management of incoming issue reports requires the successful navigation of the information landscape of a project. In this thesis, we address two tasks involved in issue management: Issue Assignment (IA) and Change Impact Analysis (CIA). IA is the early task of allocating an issue report to a development team, and CIA is the subsequent activity of identifying how source code changes affect the existing software artifacts. While IA is fundamental in all large software projects, CIA is particularly important to safety-critical development. Our solution approach, grounded on surveys of industry practice as well as scientific literature, is to support navigation by combining information retrieval and machine learning into Recommendation Systems for Software Engineering (RSSE). While the sheer number of incoming issue reports might challenge the overview of a human developer, our techniques instead benefit from the availability of ever-growing training data. We leverage the volume of issue reports to develop accurate decision support for software evolution. We evaluate our proposals both by deploying an RSSE in two development teams, and by simulation scenarios, i.e., we assess the correctness of the RSSEs' output when replaying the historical inflow of issue reports. In total, more than 60,000 historical issue reports are involved in our studies, originating from the evolution of five proprietary systems for two companies. Our results show that RSSEs for both IA and CIA can help developers navigate large software projects, in terms of locating development teams and software artifacts. Finally, we discuss how to support the transfer of our results to industry, focusing on addressing the context dependency of our tool support by systematically tuning parameters to a specific operational setting.
Virtual Yamahoko parade with vibration

With the development of computer graphics and virtual reality technologies, extensive researches have been carried out on digital archiving of cultural properties. For decades, tangible cultural heritage contents including historical crafts, archaeological sites, and historical buildings have been digitally archived. Recently, digital archiving of intangible culture heritage contents, such as traditional festivals and behaviors of participants in cultural events have attracted more and more attention. Yamahoko Parade of Gion Festival, one of the most famous festivals in Japan, becomes a symbolic landscape in Kyoto. During the festival, 32 floats (yama and hoko) representing each local neighborhood parade in the city center. We conduct researches to restore and represent this exciting event, full of Kyoto's tangible and intangible culture and tradition, with cutting-edge technologies such as laser scanning, CG modeling, motion capture system, 4D-GIS, high fidelity sound recording, and vibration system.
Officers' Shortage: Viewpoints from Stakeholders

This qualitative research looked into the views and opinions of the different stakeholders in the shipping/manning on the shortage of qualified and competent officers to handle modern ships of today. This shortage poses the biggest challenge shipping companies are currently facing. An in-depth interview of the participants was utilized in the data gathering for this study. It also looked into what maritime schools can do to help solve this problem. Findings showed that there are many sectors involved and have contributed to the present shortage of officers, namely: the shipping companies, the manning companies, the maritime schools, government agencies and the attitude of the seafarers themselves, not to mention the continuing demand for new vessels brought about by globalization of trade and industry.
TT Virus Infection in French Hemodialysis Patients: Study of Prevalence and Risk Factors

ABSTRACT The TT virus (TTV) is a recently discovered DNA virus which was first identified in patients with non-A to -G hepatitis following blood transfusion. In this study, we tested 150 attendees of two hemodialysis (HD) units of the public hospitals of Marseilles, France, for the presence of TTV genome by using a PCR-based methodology. The overall prevalence of TTV viremia was 28% (compared to 5.3% in blood donors from the same region). We demonstrated the existence of chronic infections and superinfections by strains belonging to different genotypes. The prevalence of infection was higher in patients originating from Africa, in patients with previous blood transfusion or organ transplantation, in patients with antibody to hepatitis B core antigen, and in those with diabetes mellitus. A high prevalence of TTV infection (50%) was also observed in a population of patients with diabetes mellitus but without renal disease. No significant relationship was found between TTV viremia and hepatitis C virus or GB virus C, transaminases, age, sex, and duration of HD treatment. The PCR amplification products (located in open reading frame 1 of the TTV genome) were sequenced. These genomic sequences were submitted to phylogenetic analysis by using the Jukes-Cantor algorithm for distance determination and the neighbor-joining method for tree building. In several instances, sequences from viruses isolated in a HD unit were grouped in the same phylogenetic cluster. These results together with the different distribution of cases in the two HD units suggest there is viral transmission within each.
Modeling and Prediction of People's Needs (Vision Paper)

Unrest in the society emerges when people's reasonable needs are ignored. Nowadays, the proliferation of data acquisition and data sharing technologies enables users all over the world to publicly express their needs. A new type of Interactive "Petition" Platforms (IPP) for compiling and organizing people's societal needs is experiencing fast growing but without much attention in the research community. In this paper we propose to explore and exploit the information from IPPs for social good in three stages: (i) Descriptive learning: characterize the petition process, using IPP data for automated storytelling, compiling comments into a concise article capturing the evolution of a story in space and time. (ii) Predictive learning: forecast the petition results, to predict which petitions will be successful, (iii) Prescriptive learning: auto-generate new petitions thus forecasting where and when the users will have a need under which topic. Breaking into this entirely new field of describing, predicting and prescribing human needs promises a plethora of application for the benefit of all.
Potential Role of Migratory Quail in Spreading of Some Zoonotic Pathogens in Egypt

This study aimed to illustrate the potential role of wild migratory quails in the epidemiology of some zoonotic pathogens in Egypt. Ninety four apparently healthy migratory quails were collected from public markets after being trapped during hunting season from the North Sinai. Oral, cloaca and organs (liver, lung and heart) swabs were collected for bacteriological and viral examination. Bacteriological examination revealed high percentage of lactose fermenter bacteria (48.9%) including E. coli spp. (37.2%) and Salmonella spp. (24.4%). Three out of 12 (25%) of Salmonella spp. Isolates were S. enterica subspecies typhimurium. Other bacteria isolation rate was differed such as Staphylococcusaureus spp. (19.1%), Proteus spp. (7.4%), Listeria spp. (4.2%) and Klepsila spp. (3.1%). E. coli spp. and Salmonella spp. isolates were further examined by API20and PCR techniques. Antibiogram testing against 32 E. coli spp. and 12 Salmonella spp. isolates, revealed multi-drug resistance pattern and high sensitivity to enrofloxacin, nitrofuranation and ofloxacine. Parasitological examination revealed that 35 (37.2%) quails were infected with chewing lice (Phithiraptera spp.). Intestinal infection with Heterakis spp. and/or Ascarida spp. Was detected in 27 (28.7%) quails. All quails were negative for avian influenza virus by direct detection by Rt-PCR for oral and cloaca swabs followed by inoculation in embryonated chicken eggs. In conclusion, the migratory quails might play a potential role in dispersion of zoonosis in Egypt.
Designing Mobile-based Application for Quantifying IT Business Value

Abstract North Sulawesi province is fostering regional development towards a society which have values, prosperous and competitive cultures. Information Technology (IT) have become a key enabler to accelerate region developments. To optimize IT utilization, local government can used IT Valuation Matrix framework, to identify all IT Business Value which derived from each IT investing type, and then be quantify in reasonable and responsible manner. IT Valuation Matrix framework also provide best practices to assessing local government IT investment. This article shows the process of designing mobile-android based applications for quantifying IT Business Value based on IT Valuation Matrix method. Using Disciplined Agile Delivery methodology, which based on agility and object-oriented approach, the application that meet user expectations and needs, can be developed.
Arginine starvation-associated atypical cellular death involves mitochondrial dysfunction, nuclear DNA leakage, and chromatin autophagy

Significance Nutritional starvation therapy is under intensive investigation because it provides a potentially lower toxicity with higher specificity than conventional cancer therapy. Autophagy, often triggered by starvation, represents an energy-saving, pro-survival cellular function; however, dysregulated autophagy could also lead to cell death, a process distinct from the classic caspase-dependent apoptosis. This study shows how arginine starvation specifically kills tumor cells by a novel mechanism involving mitochondria dysfunction, reactive oxygen species generation, DNA leakage, and chromatin autophagy, where leaked DNA is captured by giant autophagosomes. These results not only provide insights into the fundamental process of metabolic stress-based cancer therapy but also uncover a new cell-death mechanism. Autophagy is the principal catabolic prosurvival pathway during nutritional starvation. However, excessive autophagy could be cytotoxic, contributing to cell death, but its mechanism remains elusive. Arginine starvation has emerged as a potential therapy for several types of cancers, owing to their tumor-selective deficiency of the arginine metabolism. We demonstrated here that arginine depletion by arginine deiminase induces a cytotoxic autophagy in argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS1)-deficient prostate cancer cells. Advanced microscopic analyses of arginine-deprived dying cells revealed a novel phenotype with giant autophagosome formation, nucleus membrane rupture, and histone-associated DNA leakage encaptured by autophagosomes, which we shall refer to as chromatin autophagy, or chromatophagy. In addition, nuclear inner membrane (lamin A/C) underwent localized rearrangement and outer membrane (NUP98) partially fused with autophagosome membrane. Further analysis showed that prolonged arginine depletion impaired mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation function and depolarized mitochondrial membrane potential. Thus, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production significantly increased in both cytosolic and mitochondrial fractions, presumably leading to DNA damage accumulation. Addition of ROS scavenger N-acetyl cysteine or knockdown of ATG5 or BECLIN1 attenuated the chromatophagy phenotype. Our data uncover an atypical autophagy-related death pathway and suggest that mitochondrial damage is central to linking arginine starvation and chromatophagy in two distinct cellular compartments.
El Niño-Like Pattern in Ice Age Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperature

Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the cold tongue of the eastern equatorial Pacific exert powerful controls on global atmospheric circulation patterns. We examined climate variability in this region from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present, using a SST record reconstructed from magnesium/calcium ratios in foraminifera from sea-floor sediments near the Galápagos Islands. Cold-tongue SST varied coherently with precession-induced changes in seasonality during the past 30,000 years. Observed LGM cooling of just 1.2°C implies a relaxation of tropical temperature gradients, weakened Hadley and Walker circulation, southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, and a persistent El Niño–like pattern in the tropical Pacific. This is contrasted with mid-Holocene cooling suggestive of a La Niña–like pattern with enhanced SST gradients and strengthened trade winds. Our results support a potent role for altered tropical Pacific SST gradients in global climate variations.
Plastic Optical Fiber pH Sensor Using a Sol-Gel Sensing Matrix

Because it is the most ubiquitous species encountered in chemical reactions, hydrogen ion occupies a very special place in chemistry and biology, most of the chemical and biological processes being dependent on its activity. From the analytical point of view, the abundance of hydrogen ions is quantified in terms of pH, the negative logarithm of its activity. Its importance is evident by considering that, if the pH of the human blood changes as little as 0.03 pH units or less, the functioning of the body will be greatly impaired; also, brain pH decreases from normal pH of 7.4 to a pH of 6.75 during the brain insult and a continuous monitoring system would be beneficial in the treatment of comatose neurosurgical patients and those who have suffered traumatic brain injury, ischemic brain insult and so forth (Zauner, 1995). Furthermore, the kind of animals and plants living in lakes, rivers and oceans depends on pH values, as well as pH of soil affects the livability of plants. For this reason, the use of pH sensors is widely diffused in various fields to monitor chemical and biological processes and it is finding an increasing number of applications in medicine, biomedicine, industry and environmental monitoring.
Reconfigurable architectures for general-purpose computing

General-purpose computing devices allow us to (1) customize computation after fabrication and (2) conserve area by reusing expensive active circuitry for different functions in time. We define RP-space, a restricted domain of the general-purpose architectural space focussed on reconfigurable computing architectures. Two dominant features differentiate reconfigurable from special-purpose architectures and account for most of the area overhead associated with RP devices: (1) instructions which tell the device how to behave, and (2) flexible interconnect which supports task dependent dataflow between operations. We can characterize RP-space by the allocation and structure of these resources and compare the efficiencies of architectural points across broad application characteristics. Conventional FPGAs fall at one extreme end of this space and their efficiency ranges over two orders of magnitude across the space of application characteristics. Understanding RP-space and its consequences allows us to pick the best architecture for a task and to search for more robust design points in the space. Our DPGA, a fine-grained computing device which adds small, on-chip instruction memories to FPGAs is one such design point. For typical logic applications and finite-state machines, a DPGA can implement tasks in one-third the area of a traditional FPGA. TSFPGA, a variant of the DPGA which focuses on heavily time-switched interconnect, achieves circuit densities close to the DPGA, while reducing typical physical mapping times from hours to seconds. Rigid, fabrication-time organization of instruction resources significantly narrows the range of efficiency for conventional architectures. To avoid this performance brittleness, we developed MATRIX, the first architecture to defer the binding of instruction resources until run-time, allowing the application to organize resources according to its needs. Our focus MATRIX design point is based on an array of 8-bit ALU and register-file building blocks interconnected via a byte-wide network. With today's silicon, a single chip MATRIX array can deliver over 10 Gop/s (8-bit ops). On sample image processing tasks, we show that MATRIX yields 10-20$\times$ the computational density of conventional processors. Understanding the cost structure of RP-space helps us identify these intermediate architectural points and may provide useful insight more broadly in guiding our continual search for robust and efficient general-purpose computing structures. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)