Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of ShenQi FuZheng Injection in Combination with Chemotherapy versus Chemotherapy Alone on the Improvement of Efficacy and Immune Function in Patients with Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Objective To evaluate the effect of ShenQi FuZheng Injection (SFI) on cellular immunity and clinical efficacy in patients with advanced non small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) when combined with chemotherapy. Methods Electronic databases including EMBASE, PUBMED, the conference proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Cochrane, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Chinese Biological Medical disc(CBM) were searched, until July, 2015. The randomized controlled clinical studies reporting results of efficacy and immune function were collected according to the inclusion criteria. Cochrane handbook 5.1. 0 was applied to assess the quality of included trials and Revman 5 software was used for data analysis. Results Fifteen studies including 1006 cases of advanced NSCLC were included based on the inclusion criteria. The results of meta-analysis showed that there were significant differences in percentages of CD3+ cells (SMD = 13.48; 95%CI: 8.11–18.85; p<0.01), CD4+ cells (SMD = 10.78; 95%CI, 6.38–15.18; p<0.01), NK [WMD = 8.59, 95% CI(3.97, 13.21), p = 0.003], and ratio of CD4+/ CD8+ (SMD = 0.32; 95%: 0.28–0.36; p<0.01) between SFI combination group and control group, whereas the difference was not significant in CD8+ (SMD = -1.44; 95%CI, -4.53–1.65; p = 0.36). Funnel plot, Begg's rank correlation test and Egger's linear regression analysis indicated that there was significant publication bias across studies. Conclusion SFI is effective to improve the efficacy of chemotherpay and function of cellular immunity in NSCLC patients, however, high quality RCTs are needed to further confirm the findings.
Deficits in reach target selection during inactivation of the midbrain superior colliculus

Purposive action requires the selection of a single movement goal from multiple possibilities. Neural structures involved in movement planning and execution often exhibit activity related to target selection. A key question is whether this activity is specific to the type of movement produced by the structure, perhaps consisting of a competition among effector-specific movement plans, or whether it constitutes a more abstract, effector-independent selection signal. Here, we show that temporary focal inactivation of the primate superior colliculus (SC), an area involved in eye-movement target selection and execution, causes striking target selection deficits for reaching movements, which cannot be readily explained as a simple impairment in visual perception or motor execution. This indicates that target selection activity in the SC does not simply represent a competition among eye-movement goals and, instead, suggests that the SC contributes to a more general purpose priority map that influences target selection for other actions, such as reaches.
Effect of the Active Fraction of Flos Daturae on IFN-γ Induced Apoptosis in Immortalized Human Epidermal Keratinocyte Cells (HaCAT)

The present study is to investigate the effect of the active fraction of Flos Daturae (AF-FD) (dried flower of Datura metel L.) on IFN-� induced apoptosis in a human keratinocyte cell line (HaCAT), which is a widely accepted mimic model of psoriasis. Accordingly, we used MTT and LDH to assay cell viability, FCM and Hoechst 33342 staining to assay cell apoptosis, and Western blotting to assay the expression of keratin 17 (K17). Administration of IFN-� (5-125 U/mL) decreased MTT reduction and increased LDH leakage in a dose-dependent manner. Twenty-five U/mL IFN-� ele- vated apoptosis significantly. The experimental results showed that AF-FD at the concentrations of 25 and 50 μg/mL alle- viated the IFN-� -induced inhibition of MTT reduction by 12.58% and 17.51%, and decreased LDH leakage by 14.47% and 15.83%, respectively. Through FCM and Hoechst 33342 staining, it was found that AF-FD can lower IFN-� induced apoptosis at the concentrations of 12.5-50 μg/mL. The administration of 25 μg/mL AF-FD attenuated the IFN-� induced over-expression of K17 from 206.32% to 178.83%. The effect of AF-FD on K17 expression may play a key role in pro- tecting HaCAT cells from apoptosis.
A Denotational Semantics of Concepts in ODP Information Language

Distributed systems can be very large and complex and the many different considerations which influence their design can result in a substantial body of specification, which needs a structuring framework if it is to be managed successfully. The purpose of the RM-ODP is to define such a framework. The Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) provides a framework within which support of distribution, inter-working and portability can be integrated. It defines: an object model, architectural concepts and architecture for the development of ODP systems in terms of five viewpoints. However, RM-ODP is a meta-norm, and several ODP standards have to be defined. Indeed, the viewpoint languages are abstract in sense that they define what concepts should be supported and not how these concepts should be represented using the UML/OCL meta-modeling approach. In this paper, we report on the definition and address of the syntax and semantics for a fragment of ODP object concepts defined in the RM-ODP foundations part and in the information language. These concepts are suitable for describing and constraining ODP information viewpoint specifications.
An Improved Phage Display Procedure for Identification of Lipopolysaccharide‐Binding Peptides

We successfully implemented several modifications to the regular phage display procedure and significantly improved the lipopolysaccharides‐binding properties of the peptides selected. Specifically, the number of biopannings was increased and peptides with consensus sequences were obtained. A dual selection procedure (referred to as subtractive panning) was used to simultaneously select for the desired target and deselect for an undesired target, thereby increasing the binding specificity. In addition, binding and washing conditions in the subtractive panning were also modified to favor the selection of peptides with higher binding strength. As a result, two peptides, ASFPPAF and SSHTISF, were identified with much improved binding properties compared to those selected with regular panning. The binding specificities of these two peptides, as measured by the ratio of phages bound to the desired and undesired targets, were severalfold higher than previously reported. These modifications could easily be implemented with many other target molecules, indicating the general applicability of the procedure.
Stereo Evaluation of Cartosat-1 Data for French and Catalonian Test Sites

DLR's Remote Sensing Technology Institute has more than 20 years of experience in developing spaceborne stereo scanners (MEOSS, MOMS) and the corresponding stereo evaluation software systems. It takes part in the CARTOSAT-1 Scientific Assessment Program (C-SAP) as a principal investigator for a Catalonian test site (TS-10) and as Co-Investigator for a French test site (TS-5, Mausanne-les-Alpilles). Rational polynomial coefficients (RPC) are provided by the distributing Indian agency as a universal sensor model for each scene of the CARTOSAT-1 stereo pairs. These RPC have to be corrected via ground control points (GCP) as they are derived from orbit and attitude information with an accuracy far worse than the pixel size of 2.5 m (normally, post facto pointing accuracy is in the range of a few hundred meters). GCP of sufficient (sub-pixel) accuracy are derived from high-resolution orthoimages of the Catalonian Survey Institute (ICC) and from JRC DGPS campaigns, respectively. The GCP are identified in the aft images of the stereo pairs because of their superior radiometric quality and then transferred to the fore images via local least squares matching. From these GCP an affine correction to the delivered RPC is estimated. The residual vectors at the GCP are reduced to sub-pixel values. Because of zero denominator problems with the original RPC in small regions of the stereo pairs new RPC are estimated Using the corrected RPC and mass tie points from automatic image matching the digital surface models (DSM) are derived from the CARTOSAT-1 stereo pairs via forward intersection and subsequent interpolation. These DSM are compared to the available sufficiently accurate DEM/DSM provided by ICC and JRC. For the comparison a 3D shift between the individual DSM is estimated via least squares adjustment. Height accuracies (in terms of 1 σ) of 2.5-4 m are achieved. The shifts between the orthoimages of the two looking directions computed on the basis of the reference DEM and the computed DSM are assessed via image matching and are found to be in sub-pixel range.
The Geometry of Ecological Interactions: Pair Approximations for Different Spatial Geometries

The standard assumption underlying the formulation of models for population dynamics (such as the logistic growth equation, the Lotka–Volterra predator–prey model, and the Kermack and McKendrick epidemiological equations, to name a few) is that populations spread homogeneously through space and that individuals mix rapidly. It is not a new insight that spatial structure is often an essential component of the ecological (and evolutionary) dynamics of populations, and there have been many approaches to understanding the various consequences of spatial structure. In this chapter I address one of the more recently developed techniques for modeling spatial population dynamics. The oldest approach is to assume that populations are subdivided into different discrete subpopulations that are linked through migration (the “metapopulation” approach). This may be a reasonable assumption for certain systems (groups of parasites living in different hosts, for example), but space often has a more a continuous aspect. For example, a forest may be highly structured without having clear boundaries between subpopulations. Such situations are often modeled using a diffusion formalism, but this approach has its shortcomings as well. In particular, when one considers spatial spread of a population (or gene), individuality (discreteness) and its associated stochasticity may be important (Durrett and Levin 1994b). In a diffusion model, the rate of population growth is determined by the spread of “nano-individuals” at the wave front, whereas in reality it is often determined by the more erratic process of dispersal and subsequent successful settlement of individuals. Not only might this give quantitatively wrong estimates [e.g., the conditions under which an epidemic can arise; see Chapter 6 and Jeltsch et al. (1997)], it can also yield qualitatively wrong
Perspective rectification in vehicle number plate recognition using 2D-2D transformation of Planar Homography

Perspective rectification is an important part of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. If the number plate is captured from non-orthogonal position, the recognition performance will be low due to perspective distortion on the number plate image. Planar Homography can be used to correct camera perspective to obtain clear and straight image of the number plate. Perspective rectification is performed by determining position of 4 corner points of the object in the image and finding the homography matrix that defines the movement of those corner points at new location. Experimental results show that the proposed method improves the recognition accuracy by 3% compared with conventional method without perspective rectification.
High-resolution gas-chromatographic analysis of the volatile constituents of body fluids, with use of glass capillary columns.

Trace volatile constituents of human urine, serum, and cerebrospinal fluid were concentrated on a porous polymer precolumn, and resolved with high-efficiency glass capillary columns. Thin-film glass columns facilitate effective resolution of underivatized compounds within the volatility range up to docosane in relatively short analysis times. Glass capillary columns coated with stationary phases of different polarity were used. Recorded volatile metabolic profiles of human urine are altered after the sample is treated with β-glucuronidase and sulphatase.
Tourism and the economy : understanding the economics of tourism

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. Many countries see it as a passport to their economic development; others express concern that uncontrolled tourism may overwhelm their natural, cultural, social and physical resources. The question of how best to harness tourism for the good of host communities is increasingly debated and forms the basis of this book. Written in an accessible style for a general audience as well as professionals, it applies an economic way of thinking to tourism to help readers gain a better understanding of this dynamic global industry.
Language Identification: a Neural Network Approach

One of the first tasks when building a Natural Language application is the detection of the used language in order to adapt the system to that language. This task has been addressed several times. Nevertheless most of these attempts were performed a long time ago when the amount of computer data and the computational power were limited. In this article we analyze and explain the use of a neural network for language identification, where features can be extracted automatically, and therefore, easy to adapt to new languages. In our experiments we got some surprises, namely with the two Chinese variants, whose forced us for some language-dependent tweaking of the neural network. At the end, the network had a precision of 95%, only failing for the Portuguese language.
Functional Analysis of the Kunitz Trypsin Inhibitor Family in Poplar Reveals Biochemical Diversity and Multiplicity in Defense against Herbivores1[C][W][OA]

We investigated the functional and biochemical variability of Kunitz trypsin inhibitor (KTI) genes of Populus trichocarpa × Populus deltoides. Phylogenetic analysis, expressed sequence tag databases, and western-blot analysis confirmed that these genes belong to a large and diverse gene family with complex expression patterns. Five wound- and herbivore-induced genes representing the diversity of the KTI gene family were selected for functional analysis and shown to produce active KTI proteins in Escherichia coli. These recombinant KTI proteins were all biochemically distinct and showed clear differences in efficacy against trypsin-, chymotrypsin-, and elastase-type proteases, suggesting functional specialization of different members of this gene family. The in vitro stability of the KTIs in the presence of reducing agents and elevated temperature also varied widely, emphasizing the biochemical differences of these proteins. Significantly, the properties of the recombinant KTI proteins were not predictable from primary amino acid sequence data. Proteases in midgut extracts of Malacosoma disstria, a lepidopteran pest of Populus, were strongly inhibited by at least two of the KTI gene products. This study suggests that the large diversity in the poplar (Populus spp.) KTI family is important for biochemical and functional specialization, which may be important in the maintenance of pest resistance in long-lived plants such as poplar.
A unified framework for virtual passive bipedal gait generation

It is well known a fine tuned unpowered biped machine can passively walk down a gentle slope. The in-depth understanding of the passivity is helpful to design more efficient bipedal gaits. In this paper, we investigate the principle mechanism of passive dynamic walking and propose a unified framework for virtual passive bipedal gait generation. The framework shows the physical system's kinetic energy varies inversely proportional to the imitated virtual system's potential energy. Based on this property we propose a kinetic energy tracking control law to realize virtual passive dynamic walking on any slopes in any virtual gravity fields. Numerical simulations are given to support our proposal.
The Measurement and Trend of Inequality: Comment

In the September 1975 issue of this Review, Morton Paglin posits a new summary statistic, the "Paglin-Gini," which he uses to measure and analyze the level and trend of income inequality in the United States. This measure intends to recognize only income differences among families unrelated to the observed age-income profile as contributing to meaningful income inequality. This is to be contrasted with the standard Lorenz-Gini, in which all differences in income among living units contribute to inequality. Paglin's measure indicates substantially less inequality in the United States than is indicated by the Lorenz-Gini. Moreover, Paglin-inequality falls considerably in the post-World War II period while other measures indicate very little change in inequality over this period. Paglin is addressing an important problem. For the postwar period when the age distribution, the length of time spent in school, and the propensity of the young and the old to form their own households have all changed rapidly, the trend in the conventional Gini coefficient has no obvious normative interpretation. However, it is often given one. Unfortunately, Paglin's proposed index of inequality does not meet its objective and, even if it did, its normative content would be no clearer than that of the standard measure. Indeed, no single indicator is sufficient to capture trends in normatively relevant inequality without further analysis. Like any other time-series, a time-series of inequality must be approached with a well-specified, multivariate model. After describing Paglin's procedure in the next section, we challenge his measure in Section II. In Section III, Paglin's interpretation of policy-relevant inequality is questioned, and in Section IV the implications of the Paglin-Gini for the equity of the transfer system are analyzed. Section V is a summary of our critique.
Study of the optimum pulse-width of clock signal in optical and gates for application in ultra-fast OTDM networks

In this paper we study the effect of the clock signal's pulse width on the bit error rate (BER) of optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) networks. The receiver is considered to have a non-ideal optical clock recovery and, therefore, there is a time mismatch between the clock and data signals, which is called phase error. In this work, the phase error is modeled as a zero mean Gaussian random variable. Using this model, and considering Gaussian pulses for the data and clock signals, the BER of the receiver is calculated analytically. In numerical results, the BER is plotted versus the pulse width of the clock signal for different phase errors, and also for various bit intervals. Finally, the system is simulated and compared with the analytical results and an optimum value for the pulse width of the clock signal is obtained.
Controls on soil methane fluxes: Tests of biophysical mechanisms using stable isotope tracers

Understanding factors that control methane exchange between soils and the atmosphere remains one of the highest priorities for climate change research. Here we use a novel isotope‐based technique to investigate the relative importance of three mechanisms for explaining landscape‐scale variations in soil methane emissions: (1) consumption of methane by methanotrophic bacteria, (2) quantity of carbon mineralization, or (3) relative amounts of carbon flow through nonmethanogenic versus methanogenic mineralization pathways. Application of a new, nondisruptive, 13CH4 isotope pool dilution technique permitted us to evaluate these mechanisms by distinguishing gross methane fluxes through both productive and consumptive pathways. We quantified each of these pathways in surface soils across broad moisture gradients in tropical montane environments in the Hawaiian Islands and temperate ecosystems in the northeastern United States. We found only limited support for the consumption control hypothesis because consumption was only important in dry soils. We also failed to find support for the carbon supply hypothesis, in that rates of carbon mineralization did not explain the observed variability in net fluxes across landscapes. Rather, dramatic differences in methane production, and thus emission, depended on surprisingly small diversions of soil carbon flow from nonmethanogenic to methanogenic pathways: on average, soils were a net source of methane to the atmosphere if more than 0.04% of total carbon mineralization passed through methanogenic pathways. We infer that fine‐scale heterogeneity of soil redox status is critical for regulating soil methane fluxes.
Discriminant Uncorrelated Neighborhood Preserving Projections

Dimensionality reduction is a crucial step for pattern recognition. Recently, a new kind of dimensionality reduction method, manifold learning, has attracted much attention.Among them, Neighborhood Preserving Projections (NPP) is one of the most promising techniques. In this paper, a novel manifold learning method called Discriminant Uncorrelated Neighborhood Preserving Projections (DUNPP), is proposed. Based on NPP, DUNPP takes into account the between-class information and designs a new dierencebased optimization objective function with uncorrelated constraint. DUNPP not only preserves the within-class neighboring geometry, but also maximizes the between-class distance. Moreover, the features extracted via DUNPP are statistically uncorrelated with minimum redundancy, which is desirable for many pattern analysis applications. Thus it can obtain the stronger discriminant power. Experimental results on standard face database demonstrate the eectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Performance and Energy Efficient Hardware-Based Scheduler for Symmetric/Asymmetric CMPs

As thread level parallelism in applications has continued to expand, so has research in chip multi-core processors. Since more and more applications become multi-threaded we expect to find a growing number of threads executing on a machine. Consequently, the operating system will require increasingly larger amounts of CPU time to schedule these threads efficiently. Instead of perpetuating the trend of performing more complex thread scheduling in the operating system, we propose a hardware implementation of the Thread Lock Section-aware Scheduling (TLSS) scheduling mechanism. This lightweight mechanism helps to identify multi-threaded application bottlenecks such as thread synchronization sections and complements the Fairness-aware Scheduler method. It is, to our knowledge, the first hardware based lock section-aware scheduling that is energy attentive and can be applied to both asymmetric and symmetric CMPs. It achieves an average performance gains of 10.9 percent (geometric mean) compared to the state-of-the-art Linux OS Scheduler when applied on the Symmetrical Chip Multi-Processor (SCMP). At the same time, it is 81 percent more EDP (energy-delay product) efficient when applied on an Asymmetrical Chip Multi-Processor (ACMP) and compared to the Linux OS Scheduler on an SCMP, where ACMP and SCMP take relatively the same chip area.