Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Effect of Therapeutic Stem Cells on TRAIL Resistant and Sensitive Medulloblastomas

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are emerging as novel cell-based delivery agents; however, a thorough investigation addressing their therapeutic potential in medulloblastomas (MB) has not been explored to date. In this study, we engineered human MSC to express a potent and secretable variant of a tumor specific agent, tumor necrosis factor-apoptosis-inducing ligand (S-TRAIL) and assessed the ability of MSC-S-TRAIL mediated MB killing alone or in combination with a small molecule inhibitor of histone-deacetylase, MS-275, in TRAIL-sensitive and -resistant MB in vitro and in vivo. We show that TRAIL sensitivity/resistance correlates with the expression of its cognate death receptor (DR)5 and MSC-S-TRAIL induces caspase-3 mediated apoptosis in TRAIL-sensitive MB lines. In TRAIL-resistant MB, we show upregulation of DR4/5 levels when pre-treated with MS-275 and a subsequent sensitization to MSC-S-TRAIL mediated apoptosis. Using intracranially implanted MB and MSC lines engineered with different combinations of fluorescent and bioluminescent proteins, we show that MSC-S-TRAIL has significant anti-tumor effects in mice bearing TRAIL-sensitive and MS-275 pre-treated TRAIL-resistant MBs. To our knowledge, this is the first study that explores the use of human MSC as MB-targeting therapeutic-vehicles in vivo in TRAIL-sensitive and resistant tumors, and has implications for developing effective therapies for patients with medulloblastomas.
Feature-matching and extended Kalman filter for stereo ego-motion estimation

Vision-based ego-motion estimation is a widely used method for identifying movements and poses of robots or equipped vehicles utilizing one or more attached cameras. This paper proposes a feature-matching-based method for estimating ego-motion using a calibrated two-camera stereo system. Detected features are separated into two candidate sets. Distant features are selected to provide information, about the rotational components of movements whereas features at closer distance are used to estimate translational components. An extended Kalman filter is used to eliminate the white noise, in order to get a better prediction of both positional and rotational estimations. The method aims to minimise both projection (3D) errors and flow (2D) errors, to ensure a good pair of translation and rotation measures frame by frame. Experiments are carried out for trajectory estimation, and for projection and flow error evaluation.
Proxemics in Human-Computer Interaction (Dagstuhl Seminar 13452)

In 1966, anthropologist Edward Hall coined the term "proxemics. " Proxemics is an area of study that identifies the culturally dependent ways in which people use interpersonal distance to understand and mediate their interactions with others. Recent research has demonstrated the use of proxemics in human-computer interaction (HCI) for supporting users' explicit and implicit interactions in a range of uses, including remote office collaboration, home entertainment, and games. One promise of proxemics is the realization of context-aware environments, which have been extensively pursued since Marc Weiser's seminal paper, "The computer for the 21st century," written in 1991. However, the potential of proxemics in HCI is still underexplored and many research questions remain unanswered. With the growing interest in using proxemics, we organized the Dagstuhl Seminar 13452 on the topic. "Proxemics in Human-Computer Interaction," was held from November 3-8, 2013, and it brought together established experts and young researchers from fields particularly relevant to Proxemic Interactions, including computer science, social science, cognitive science, and design. Through an open keynote, mini talks, brainstorming, and discussion in breakout sessions, seminar attendees identified and discussed challenges and developed directions for future research of proxemics in HCI.
No Periodicity Revealed for an “Eclipsing” Ultraluminous Supersoft X-Ray Source in M81

Luminous supersoft X-ray sources found in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds are likely white dwarfs that steadily or cyclically burn accreted matter on their surface, which are promising Type Ia supernova progenitors. Observations of distant galaxies with Chandra and XMM-Newton have revealed supersoft sources that are generally hotter and more luminous, including some ultraluminous supersoft sources (ULSs) that are possibly intermediate-mass black holes of a few thousand solar masses. In this paper we report our X-ray spectral and timing analysis for M81-ULS 1, a ULS in the nearby spiral galaxy M81. M81-ULS 1 has been persistently supersoft in 17 Chandra ACIS observations spanning 6 years, and its spectrum can be described by either a kTbb ≈ 70 eV blackbody for a ~1.2 M☉ white dwarf, or a kTin ≈ 80 eV multicolor accretion disk for a ≳103 M☉ intermediate-mass black hole. In two observations, the light curves exhibited dramatic flux drop/rise on timescales of 103 s, reminiscent of eclipse ingress/egress in eclipsing X-ray binaries. However, the exhaustive search for periodicity in the reasonable range of 50 ks to 50 days failed to reveal an orbital period. The failure to reveal any periodicity is consistent with the long period (≥30 yr) predicted for this system given the optical identification of the secondary with an asymptotic giant star. In addition, the eclipse-like dramatic flux changes in hours are hard to explain under the white dwarf model, but can in principle be explained by disk temperature changes induced by accretion rate variations under the intermediate-mass black hole model.
The Diversity Order of the Semidefinite Relaxation Detector

In this paper, we consider the detection of binary (antipodal) signals transmitted in a spatially multiplexed fashion over a fading multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel and where the detection is done by means of semidefinite relaxation (SDR). The SDR detector is an attractive alternative to maximum-likelihood (ML) detection since the complexity is polynomial rather than exponential. Assuming that the channel matrix is drawn with independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) real-valued Gaussian entries, we study the receiver diversity and prove that the SDR detector achieves the maximum possible diversity. Thus, the error probability of the receiver tends to zero at the same rate as the optimal ML receiver in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) limit. This significantly strengthens previous performance guarantees available for the semidefinite relaxation detector. Additionally, it proves that full diversity detection is also possible in certain scenarios when using a noncombinatorial receiver structure.
Dantzig selector for audio data reconstruction

The paper aims at applying a sparse representation technique named Dantzig selector (DS) for audio signal decoding and reconstruction. Dantzig selector is compared with another sparse signal representation variant called gradient projection for sparse reconstruction (GPSR). The comparison is performed in terms of their ability to efficiently compact different types of signals when those signals are represented thorough specific numbers of measurements, employing mean squared error as similarity measure between the original and reconstructed signal. For synthetic spikes data and moderate number of measurements, DS leaded to more accurate signal reconstruction, while the GPSR became more efficient with an increase of the measurements number. However, for the audio data, DS constantly outperformed GPSR for varying number of measurements. Moreover their efficiency is assessed with respect to the number of non-zero values (cardinality). As the signal becomes denser, DS shows superior performance over GPSR for synthetic spikes data.
Impact Study of Nonverbal Facial Cues on Spontaneous Chatting with Virtual Humans

JVRB, 10(2013), no. 6. - Non-verbal communication (NVC) is considered to represent more than 90 percent of everyday communication. In virtual world, this important aspect of interaction between virtual humans (VH) is strongly neglected. This paper presents a user-test study to demonstrate the impact of automatically generated graphics-based NVC expression on the dialog quality: first, we wanted to compare impassive and emotion facial expression simulation for impact on the chatting. Second, we wanted to see whether people like chatting within a 3D graphical environment. Our model only proposes facial expressions and head movements induced from spontaneous chatting between VHs. Only subtle facial expressions are being used as nonverbal cues - i.e. related to the emotional model. Motion capture animations related to hand gestures, such as cleaning glasses, were randomly used to make the virtual human lively. After briefly introducing the technical architecture of the 3D-chatting system, we focus on two aspects of chatting through VHs. First, what is the influence of facial expressions that are induced from text dialog? For this purpose, we exploited an emotion engine extracting an emotional content from a text and depicting it into a virtual character developed previously [GAS11]. Second, as our goal was not addressing automatic generation of text, we compared the impact of nonverbal cues in conversation with a chatbot or with a human operator with a wizard of oz approach. Among main results, the within group study -involving 40 subjects- suggests that subtle facial expressions impact significantly not only on the quality of experience but also on dialog understanding.
A backbone-based theory of protein folding

Under physiological conditions, a protein undergoes a spontaneous disorder ⇌ order transition called “folding. ” The protein polymer is highly flexible when unfolded but adopts its unique native, three-dimensional structure when folded. Current experimental knowledge comes primarily from thermodynamic measurements in solution or the structures of individual molecules, elucidated by either x-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy. From the former, we know the enthalpy, entropy, and free energy differences between the folded and unfolded forms of hundreds of proteins under a variety of solvent/cosolvent conditions. From the latter, we know the structures of ≈35,000 proteins, which are built on scaffolds of hydrogen-bonded structural elements, α-helix and β-sheet. Anfinsen showed that the amino acid sequence alone is sufficient to determine a protein's structure, but the molecular mechanism responsible for self-assembly remains an open question, probably the most fundamental open question in biochemistry. This perspective is a hybrid: partly review, partly proposal. First, we summarize key ideas regarding protein folding developed over the past half-century and culminating in the current mindset. In this view, the energetics of side-chain interactions dominate the folding process, driving the chain to self-organize under folding conditions. Next, having taken stock, we propose an alternative model that inverts the prevailing side-chain/backbone paradigm. Here, the energetics of backbone hydrogen bonds dominate the folding process, with preorganization in the unfolded state. Then, under folding conditions, the resultant fold is selected from a limited repertoire of structural possibilities, each corresponding to a distinct hydrogen-bonded arrangement of α-helices and/or strands of β-sheet.
Nematic elastomers with aligned carbon nanotubes: New electromechanical actuators

We demonstrate, for the first time, the large electromechanical response in nematic liquid-crystalline elastomers filled with a very low ( ~ 0.01%) concentration of carbon nanotubes, aligned along the nematic director at preparation. The nanotubes create a very large effective dielectric anisotropy of the composite. Their local field-induced torque is transmitted to the rubber elastic network and is registered as the exerted uniaxial stress of order ~ 1 kPa in response to a constant field of order ~ 1 MV/m. We investigate the dependence of the effect on field strength, nanotube concentration and reproducibility under multiple field-on and -off cycles. The results indicate the potential of the nanotube-nematic elastomer composites as electrically driven actuators.
Preliminary study of a novel method for conveying corrected image volumes in surgical navigation

Commercial image‐guided surgery systems rely on the fundamental assumption that preoperative medical images represent the physical state of the patient in the operating room. The guidance display typically consists of a three‐dimensional (3D) model derived from medical images and three orthogonal views of the imaging data. A challenging question in image‐guided surgery is: what happens when the images used in the guidance display no longer correspond to the current geometric state of the anatomy and guidance information is still desirable?
Fuzzy adaptive control of a class of MISO nonlinear systems

Abstract: This paper presents a fuzzy adaptive control of a class of MISO nonlinear systems. The dynamic behaviour of each MISO systems is composed of a nonlinear term, interactions effect between the inputs, and disturbances. In these circumstances, adaptive control becomes very difficult to implement and not always an evident task. Thus, the MISO system is approximated by the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model. The advantage of this approximation is beneficial in the sense that it allows for converting the nonlinear problem into a linear one. In this respect, the coupling, nonlinearity and unmodeled dynamics are easily compensated. The identification and the control are conducted at the level of each local linear model based on fuzzy approach. The computational load and the complexity of nonlinear approach are reduced and permit wide applicability. The validity and the performance are tested numerically.
Spiritual Care Education of Health Care Professionals

Nurses and health care professionals should have an active role in meeting the spiritual needs of patients in collaboration with the family and the chaplain. Literature criticizes the impaired holistic care because the spiritual dimension is often overlooked by health care professionals. This could be due to feelings of incompetence due to lack of education on spiritual care; lack of inter-professional education (IPE); work overload; lack of time; different cultures; lack of attention to personal spirituality; ethical issues and unwillingness to deliver spiritual care. Literature defines spiritual care as recognizing, respecting, and meeting patients’ spiritual needs; facilitating participation in religious rituals; communicating through listening and talking with clients; being with the patient by caring, supporting, and showing empathy; promoting a sense of well-being by helping them to find meaning and purpose in their illness and overall life; and referring them to other professionals, including the chaplain/pastor. This paper outlines the systematic mode of intra-professional theoretical education on spiritual care and its integration into their clinical practice; supported by role modeling. Examples will be given from the author’s creative and innovative ways of teaching spiritual care to undergraduate and post-graduate students. The essence of spiritual care is being in doing whereby personal spirituality and therapeutic use of self contribute towards effective holistic care. While taking into consideration the factors that may inhibit and enhance the delivery of spiritual care, recommendations are proposed to the education, clinical, and management sectors for further research and personal spirituality to ameliorate patient holistic care.
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Colonization: A Three-Year Prospective Study in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Italy

Background Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major etiological agent of infection in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Routes of entry of this organism can be different and the transmission pathway complex. Colonized neonates are the main endogenous reservoir. Methods and Results We conducted a prospective three-year study on MRSA colonization recruiting 722 neonates admitted between 2009 and 2012. Nasal swabs were cultured weekly and MRSA isolates were submitted to molecular typing. The annual incidence density of acquisition of MRSA ranged from a maximum of 20.2 cases for 1000 patient-days during the first year to a minimum of 8.8 cases in the second one to raise again up to 13.1 cases during the third year. The mean weekly colonization pressure fluctuated from 19.1% in the first year to 13.4% in the second year and 16.8% in the third year. It significantly correlated with the number of MRSA acquisitions in the following week. Overall, 187 (25.9%) subjects tested positive for MRSA. A non multiresistant, tst positive, ST22-MRSA-IVa spa t223 strain proved to be endemic in the NICU, being identified in 166 (88.8%) out of 187 colonized neonates. Sporadic or epidemic occurrence of other strains was detected. Conclusions An MRSA strain belonging to the tst1 positive, UK-EMRSA-15/ “Middle Eastern Variant” appeared to be endemic in the NICU under investigation. During the three-year period, substantial changes occurred in case-mix of patients moving towards a higher susceptibility to MRSA colonization. The infection control procedures were able to decrease the colonization rate from more than 40% to approximately 10%, except for an outbreak due to a CA-MRSA strain, ST1-MRSA-IVa, and a transient increase in the colonization prevalence rate coincident with a period of substantial overcrowding of the ward. Active surveillance and molecular typing contributed to obtain a reliable picture of the MRSA dissemination in NICU.
A Modified Gradient Boosting Trees Methods To Transform Social Networking Features Into Embeddings

We propose a novel answer for cross-webpage cool start item suggestion, which expects to prescribe items from online business sites to clients at long range informal communication destinations in "frosty begin" circumstances, an issue which has once in a while been investigated some time recently. A noteworthy test is the manner by which to use information separated from long range interpersonal communication destinations for cross-site icy begin item suggestion. We propose to utilize the connected clients crosswise over interpersonal interaction destinations and online business sites (clients who have long range interpersonal communication accounts and have made buys on internet business sites) as an extension to guide clients' informal communication elements to another element portrayal for item suggestion. In particular, we propose learning both clients' and items' element portrayals (called client embeddings and item embeddings, individually) from information gathered from online business sites utilizing repetitive neural systems and afterward apply a changed angle boosting trees technique to change clients' person to person communication highlights into client embeddings. We then build up a component based lattice factorization approach which can use the learnt client embeddings for frosty begin item suggestion.
Occupational exposure of workers to pesticides: Toxicogenetics and susceptibility gene polymorphisms

Farm workers are often exposed to pesticides, which are products belonging to a specific chemical group that affects the health of agricultural workers and is mostly recognized as genotoxic and carcinogenic. The exposure of workers from Piauí, Brazil, to these hazardous chemicals was assessed and cytogenetic alterations were evaluated using the buccal micronucleus assay, hematological and lipid parameters, butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity and genetic polymorphisms of enzymes involved in the metabolism of pesticides, such as PON1, as well as of the DNA repair system (OGG1, XRCC1 and XRCC4). Two groups of farm workers exposed to different types of pesticides were evaluated and compared to matched non-exposed control groups. A significant increase was observed in the frequencies of micronuclei, kariorrhexis, karyolysis and binucleated cells in the exposed groups (n = 100) compared to controls (n = 100). No differences were detected regarding the hematological parameters, lipid profile and BChE activity. No significant difference was observed either regarding DNA damage or nuclear fragmentation when specific metabolizing and DNA repair genotypes were investigated in the exposed groups.
Exponential Time Differencing for Stiff Systems

We develop a class of numerical methods for stiff systems, based on the method of exponential time differencing. We describe schemes with second- and higher-order accuracy, introduce new Runge? Kutta versions of these schemes, and extend the method to show how it may be applied to systems whose linear part is nondiagonal. We test the method against other common schemes, including integrating factor and linearly implicit methods, and show how it is more accurate in a number of applications. We apply the method to both dissipative and dispersive partial differential equations, after illustrating its behavior using forced ordinary differential equations with stiff linear parts.
New Media, New Relationship to Participation? A Closer Look at Youth News Repertoires and Political Participation

This study extends past research on the relationship between news use and participation by examining how youth combine news exposure across an array of media devices, sources, and services. Results from a national survey of U.S. youth ages 12 to 17 reveal four distinct news repertoires. We find that half of youth respondents are news avoiders who exhibit the lowest levels of participation. The other half of youth respondents are characterized by one of three patterns of news use, each distinct in how they seek out (or avoid) using new media platforms and sources for news, and in their levels of participation.
Supporting competency-assessment through a learning analytics approach using enriched rubrics

Universities have increasingly emphasized competencies as central elements of students' development. However, the assessment of these competencies is not an easy task. The availability of data that learners generate in computer mediated learning offers great potential to study how learning takes place, and thus, to gather evidences for competency-assessment using enriched rubrics. The lack of data interoperability and the decentralization of those educational applications set out a challenge to exploit trace data. To face these problems we have designed and developed SCALA (Scalable Competence Assessment through a Learning Analytics approach), an analytics system that integrates usage -how the user interacts with resources- and social -how students and teachers interact among them-trace data to support competency assessment. The case study of SCALA presents teachers a dashboard with enriched rubrics of blended datasets obtained from six assessment learning activities, performed with a group of 28 students working teamwork competency. In terms of knowledge discovery, we obtain results applying clustering and association rule mining algorithms. Thus, we provide a visual analytics tool ready to support competency-assessment.
Linking Humour to Blogs Analysis: Affective Traits in Posts

The Web 2.0 technologies are gradually changing our intercommunication habits. Means such as forums, blogs, wikis, social networks, etc., are a clear sample about the importance of these tools for expressing and sharing contents, ideas, opinions and so on. From the Natural Language Processing perspective, these technologies are a rich mine for tasks such as Sentiment Analysis, Automatic Humour Recognition or Opinion Mining. In this preliminary study we considered the importance of affectiveness information for blogs analysis. We focused on analysing a set of posts retrieved from a corpus of blogs related to humour in order to find the most salient items to represent the affectiveness in such sources. The results indicate that, in terms of a simple counting, there are affective features more linked to some moods than others.