Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting the prostate for destruction through a vascular address

Organ specific drug targeting was explored in mice as a possible alternative to surgery to treat prostate diseases. Peptides that specifically recognize the vasculature in the prostate were identified from phage-displayed peptide libraries by selecting for phage capable of homing into the prostate after an i.v. injection. One of the phage selected in this manner homed to the prostate 10–15 times more than to other organs. Unselected phage did not show this preference. The phage bound also to vasculature in the human prostate. The peptide displayed by the prostate-homing phage, SMSIARL (single letter code), was synthesized and shown to inhibit the homing of the phage when co-injected into mice with the phage. Systemic treatment of mice with a chimeric peptide consisting of the SMSIARL homing peptide, linked to a proapoptotic peptide that disrupts mitochondrial membranes, caused tissue destruction in the prostate, but not in other organs. The chimeric peptide delayed the development of the cancers in prostate cancer-prone transgenic mice (TRAMP mice). These results suggest that it may be possible to develop an alternative to surgical prostate resection and that such a treatment may also reduce future cancer risk.
Translation-coupled Translocation of Yeast Fumarase into Mitochondria in Vivo*

Fumarase represents proteins that cannot be imported into mitochondria after the termination of translation (post-translationally). Utilizing mitochondrial and cytosolic versions of the tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease, we show that mitochondrially targeted fumarase harboring a TEV protease recognition sequence is efficiently cleaved by the mitochondrial but not by the cytosolic TEV protease. Nonetheless, fumarase was readily cleaved by cytosolic TEV when its import into mitochondria was slowed down by either (i) disrupting the activity of the TOM complex, (ii) lowering the growth temperature, or (iii) reducing the inner membrane electrochemical potential. Accessibility of the fumarase nascent chain to TEV protease under such conditions was prevented by low cycloheximide concentrations, which impede translation. In addition, depletion of the ribosome-associated nascent polypeptide-associated complex (NAC) reduced the fumarase rate of translocation into mitochondria and exposed it to TEV cleavage in the cytosol. These results indicate that cytosolic exposure of the fumarase nascent chain depends on both translocation and translation rates, allowing us to discuss the possibility that import of fumarase into mitochondria occurs while the ribosome is still attached to the nascent chain.
Device closure of residual shunt after percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale.

AIMS To summarise our experiences of device closure of residual shunt after transcatheter closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO). METHODS AND RESULTS Since October 1997 implantation of a second closure device was attempted in 40 patients with a moderate or large residual shunt after implantation of a PFO closure device. The mean age of the patients was 51 years. Implantation of a second closure device was technically successful in 39/40 patients (98 %). The following devices were implanted: Premere (n=20), Amplatzer PFO (n=13), STARFlex (n=4), Helex (n=1), Angelwings (n=1). During a mean follow-up of 36+/-29 months complete closure was achieved in 27 patients (69 %). The remaining shunt was small in nine patients, moderate in one and large in two. One patient with a moderate and one patient with a large residual shunt received a third device. The third patient was sent to surgery. One patient died 21 days after implantation of a third closure device due to acute pericardial tamponade. No other complications occurred. CONCLUSIONS Transcatheter implantation of a second closure device after PFO closure is feasible. Complete closure can be achieved in the majority of patients.
Workplace factors that encourage and discourage gambling amongst gaming venue employees: an employees' perspective (Conference publication)

This paper reports on the second stage of a multi-stage qualitative study into gambling by gaming venue employees and aspects of working in gaming venues that are perceived to influence staff gambling. The paper draws on face-to-face interviews with 34 club, 14 hotel and 18 casino employees. From these data, the paper extracts over 50 reasons why working in a gaming venue can encourage staff gambling, and these are grouped into eight workplace factors - frequent interaction with gamblers, frequent exposure to gambling, influence of fellow employees, influence of management, workplace stress, working shift work, frequent exposure to gambling marketing and promotions, and 'other' workplace factors. However, dozens of reasons why working in a venue discourages staff gambling are also associated with these factors. The data also reveal numerous reasons why the venues' responsible gambling training and their other responsible gambling measures may not deter staff from gambling or at least encourage them to gamble responsibly. As such, this is the first known comprehensive study worldwide to examine the relationship between working in a gambling environment and employee gambling. It builds on an earlier stage of data collection that gathered opinions on this issue from 32 gambling counsellors in Queensland Australia. Subsequent stages have sought opinions from venue managers, problem gamblers and peak industry bodies, and these results will be reported in additional papers to provide inclusive and stakeholder-based perspectives.
19 Autoantigen-Specific Immunotherapy

The incidence of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is increasing dramatically and new treatment modalities are needed urgently. Arising from autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic ┚cells, T1D manifests itself when less than 10-20% of functional ┚-cells remain in the islets and is characterized as a disorder of glucose regulation due to the insufficient production of insulin. Insulin is a hormone secreted by pancreatic islet ┚-cells and its main function is to move blood sugar into cells where it is stored and later used for energy. In T1D, the ┚-cells are destroyed by the patients’ immune cells leading to limited or no insulin production. Without enough insulin, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream instead of entering the cells, causing symptoms of hyperglycemia. Chronic hyperglycemia can lead to many serious complications. Insulin replacement therapy is the current standard for treatment involving injection of recombinant insulin. Normal pancreatic insulin secretion is exquisitely sensitive to the minute-to-minute changes in blood glucose and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) and cannot be mimicked precisely by exogenous insulin injections. Thus, while insulin treatment successfully prolongs the life of affected individuals, it fails to prevent some of the serious complications of T1D that adversely affect quality of life and ultimately lead to significant morbidity and mortality. An alternative promising therapy is islet cell transplantation, but this suffers from several drawbacks including limited pancreatic islet tissue from cadaveric donors, the requirement for lifelong immunosuppression, and the increased risk of infection due to non-specific suppression of the immune system. To cure T1D, researchers are pursuing combined immunological and biological strategies for restoring ┚-cell mass. Strategies for increasing ┚-cell mass include promoting endogenous pancreatic ┚-cell regeneration, reprogramming non-pancreatic cells into insulin-producing cells (IPCs), and generating unlimited autologous pancreatic ┚-cells from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells of the T1D patients. At the same time, there is considerable interest in approaches for modulating and suppressing autoimmunity to pancreatic ┚-cells and surrogates of IPCs. An individual’s pancreatic ┚-cell mass is tightly regulated according to insulin demand, reflecting a balance between the rate of ┚-cell replication, regeneration/reprogramming, and the rate of ┚-cell apoptosis. Research efforts are focusing on how best to expand, reprogram, or generate ┚-cells or their surrogates from pancreatic stem/precursor cells, non-pancreatic adult/stem cells, or the iPS cells of T1D patients for ┚-cell replacement therapy. However, without preventing ongoing autoimmune
Wilms' Tumor Protein Wt1 Is an Activator of the Anti-Müllerian Hormone Receptor Gene Amhr2

ABSTRACT The Wilms' tumor protein Wt1 plays an essential role in mammalian urogenital development. WT1 mutations in humans lead to a variety of disorders, including Wilms' tumor, a pediatric kidney cancer, as well as Frasier and Denys-Drash syndromes. Phenotypic anomalies in Denys-Drash syndrome include pseudohermaphroditism and sex reversal in extreme cases. We have used cDNA microarray analyses on Wt1 knockout mice to identify Wt1-dependent genes involved in sexual development. The gene most dramatically affected by Wt1 inactivation was Amhr2, encoding the anti-Müllerian hormone (Amh) receptor 2. Amhr2 is an essential factor for the regression of the Müllerian duct in males, and mutations in AMHR2 lead to the persistent Müllerian duct syndrome, a rare form of male pseudohermaphroditism. Here we show that Wt1 and Amhr2 are coexpressed during urogenital development and that the Wt1 protein binds to the promoter region of the Amhr2 gene. Inactivation and overexpression of Wt1 in cell lines was followed by immediate changes of Amhr2 expression. The identification of Amhr2 as a Wt1 target provides new insights into the role of Wt1 in sexual differentiation and indicates, in addition to its function in early gonad development and sex determination, a novel function for Wt1, namely, in Müllerian duct regression.
Series PMU data-based state estimation technique for WAMS application

In a modern transmission system, wide area monitoring system (WAMS), which is capable to perform real time monitoring and control, is employed. State estimation process using PMU data is one of the important parts in WAMS since the current operating condition of the power system should be represented precisely. Practically, the measurement errors due to the communication congestion are existed and it may cause the estimation error. For this purpose, the novel state estimation method based on the least absolute value (LAV) is proposed. The proposed method requires series time slot of PMU data to minimize the measurement error effect. Then, the proposed method is used to enhance the WAMS preventive action scheme. The modified IEEE 57 bus system with multiple renewable energy (RE) generations and line contingency scenarios are used to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, the proposed method result is compared to the traditional weighted least square (WLS) and LAV, in term of accuracy and security. Finally, it can be concluded that the proposed method can effectively increase the estimation accuracy under the measurement error condition.
Design, Analysis and Experimental Evaluation of a Gas-Fuel-Powered Actuator for Robotic Hoppers

Field robots often need to overcome obstacles multiple times their own size when exploring the environment. To address this need, we revisit a concept where a compact mechanical hopping actuator powered by gas-fuel was designed and tested. The idea is further refined, analyzed and realized in this reported study, characterized by a double-piston structure and a magnetic latch. Analysis is performed on the postcombustion dynamics to obtain the takeoff velocity of the actuator, which determines its jumping height. An experimental setup is constructed to test the design in indoor and outdoor environments. Laboratory (indoor) tests were carried out to obtain the takeoff parameters of the actuator, including the postcombustion pressure, takeoff velocity and force of the piston rod against the ground (ground reaction force). The expected high power output was observed, which justifies the actuation method for high payload applications. A takeoff velocity of 5.98 m/s was achieved at a relatively low charge pressure of propane and nitrous oxide, showing potential for higher performance at higher charge pressure to be investigated further. Finally, the outdoor experiment was performed and the actuator was demonstrated to jump 2.1 m high, with a payload of 2.43 kg and the body weight of 0.74 kg, which showed the high payload capability (~ 3.3 times body weight) of this actuator. Experiments also showed that higher postcombustion pressure and jumping height could be achieved by varying the mixing ratios of propane and nitrous oxide, peaking at the stoichiometric ratio for complete combustion. A metric defined as normalized payload was proposed as a means to compare the normalized performance of the hopping actuator against various robots with different means of power in the literature.
Compasses, Magnets, Water Microscopes: Annotation of Terminology in a Diachronic Corpus of Scientific Texts

The specialised lexicon belongs to the most prominent attributes of specialised writing: Terms function as semantically dense encodings of specialised concepts, which, in the absence of terms, would require lengthy explanations and descriptions. In this paper, we argue that terms are the result of diachronic processes on both the semantic and the morpho-syntactic level. Very little is known about these processes. We therefore present a corpus annotation project aiming at revealing how terms are coined and how they evolve to fit their function as semantically and morpho-syntactically dense encodings of specialised knowledge. The scope of this paper is two-fold: Firstly, we outline our methodology for annotating terminology in a diachronic corpus of scientific publications. Moreover, we provide a detailed analysis of our annotation results and suggest methods for improving the accuracy of annotations in a setting as difficult as ours. Secondly, we present results of a pilot study based on the annotated terms. The results suggest that terms in older texts are linguistically relatively simple units that are hard to distinguish from the lexicon of general language. We believe that this supports our hypothesis that terminology undergoes diachronic processes of densification and specialisation.
The Filipino report card on pro poor services

The Filipino report card survey was conducted in spring 2000 by the World Bank in collaboration with Social Weather Stations (SWS), an independent survey research organization in the Philippines. The survey included 1,200 households distributed across four regions. The report card asked poor Filipinos about constraints they encountered in accessing public services, their views on the quality and adequacy of services, and the responsiveness of government officials. In keeping with global best practice, the client satisfaction with Philippine public services was measured by comparing it with customer satisfaction with private sector services. Through the report card, the Filipinos could voice their opinion and demand improvement in services meant to benefit the poor. The report card feedback revealed a high degree of dissatisfaction among the poor clients. The analysis of survey results provided insight into citizens' priorities and problems and raised the issue of how different services could better meet people's needs especially the needs of the poor. The citizens now have the authority and control over the quality of services that they receive and through the report card they can express their satisfaction or hold the agencies accountable if they are not satisfied. To assure continuous improvement in service delivery to the citizens, the government is now keen on getting such feedback regularly and there is a felt need to institutionalize these report cards.
What is your diagnosis?

A P2L2 woman aged 35 years presented to our outpatient department with amenorrhea of 8 months with episodes of on-and-off heavy bleeding per vaginum. She had a history of laparoscopic right salpingectomy for right tubal ectopic pregnancy 8 months previously, which was confirmed on histopathology (HPE). When she presented to us, she was carrying ultrasonography (USG) of her pelvis, computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and pelvis, and several human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG) reports of last 8 months. Imaging was absolutely normal and beta-hCG values were showing a waxing and waning course (Figure 1), but never came below a discriminatory zone despite two courses of methotrexate (MTX) in doses of 50 mg/m2 in single dose regimens. A provisional diagnosis of pregnancy of unknown location (PUL) was made at that time because a pregnancy test was positive, serum beta-hCG was 10,304 IU/L, and no intra or extra-uterine gestation could be cited on ultrasound. She had no spells of abdominal pain or fainting attacks. On being referred to our unit, we evaluated her on the lines of gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) in view of persistently high beta-hCG for the last 8 months (graphical presentation of beta-hCG shown in Figure 1). Routine blood investigations, chest X-ray, USG pelvis, as well as CT chest and brain were found as normal. We did not repeat CT of the abdomen and pelvis. Considering persistently high beta-hCG values without any evidence of pregnancy on imaging, two courses of single agent chemotherapy (MTX-FA) in a multiple dosage regimen (Inj. MTX 1 mg/kg/day on days 1, 3, 5, and 7, and Inj. Folinic acid 15 mg on day 2, 4, 6, and 8) was given intravenously, 2 weeks apart; however, beta-hCG value remained high. Quiz 154
HDR Brachitherapy for Basal Cell Carcinoma

Aim: to evaluate tumor control, toxicity and cosmesis in patients with relapse of basal cell carcinoma (BSC) who underwent high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT)using a regimen of hypofractionation. Case presentation: A 93-year-old male, Karnosky Performace Status 90%, was diagnosed to have a relapse of BSC. A biopsy confirmed a relapse of BSC. The patient underwent HDR-BT with 192 Ir. The prescription dose of 50 Gy in 20 fractions of 2.5 Gy was delivered daily. The Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCA v4.0) toxicity scale was used to asses acute toxicity and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) scale was used to asses late toxicity related to cosmesis. The treatment was well tolerated. Clinically, the lesion completely regressed. The skin acute toxicity was grade 2 CTCA v4.0 and late toxicity grade 1EORTC. When the patient was consulted about his cosmetic result, he was satisfied. At the median follow-up of 7 months, the patient was alive and disease-free. Conclusion: the HDR-BT can be an effective and safe treatment option for selected elderly patients with relapse skin cancer.
Transduction of a Positive Crossmatch into a Negative Crossmatch through Immunosuppressive Therapy

We report the case of a female prospective recipient of a living donor kidney transplantation where the crossmatch could be changed by means of immunosuppressive therapy. This is a first case-report demonstrating that caused by immunosuppressive treatment a positive x-match can be converted into a negative x-match successfully. After receiving an immunosuppressive therapy with 500 mg CellCept (MMF) twice a day for 6 months the x-match became negative as was checked 4 times subsequently. The patient’s sera prior to transplantatectomia showed after DTT-treatment (destruction of IgM antibodies) positive results in T-cell x-match, a reaction abviously caused by destruction of IgM anti-idiotypic antibodies. Anti-idiotypic antibodies (i.e. anti-antibodies) in most cases belong to the IgM-class and are known to suppress anti-HLA-antibodies biologically. Possibly, the graft was surviving for this long period (of about 12 years) because the anti-donor antibodies were suppressed by IgM antiidiotypic antibodies of the recipient. However, after the CellCept therapy neither a positive CDC or Flow x-match result, nor a PRA with specific antibodies remained. This could be verified by monthly repeated x-matches between the recipient and the prospective living donor. Interestingly, after destruction of possible IgM-antibody specificities the phenomenon of the preectomia sera was observed again, i. e. due to destruction of IgM anti-idiotypic specificities the serum showed slightly positive x-match results with CD8 + donor T cells. It was demonstrated that immunosuppressive therapy with CellCept (MMF) made it possible to transfer a positive x-match into a negative current x-match. This transformation of the current xmatch is caused by depression of the antibody formation in the Bcell population as indicated by the company producing CellCept.
Transport Governance and Ownership

This chapter describes transport governance and ownership from a geographical perspective. It is important to understand the role of the state in transport because territorial governments are heavily involved in the management and ownership of transport activities; the strategies and policies they adopt over time will shape the development of transport infrastructure and services in a variety of ways at a variety of spatial scales. In addition to military and national security considerations, taken as a whole, state interventions in the transport sector seek to promote economic development and efficiency while pursuing social objectives such as widespread mobility and accessibility, and addressing environmental imperatives like global warming and local air quality.
Protection of access privacy in un-trusted storage

With the emergence of cloud computing, outsourcing data services to cloud servers is becoming more and more prevalent. Along with this arise also security and privacy concerns. Particularly, it is an important concern to the user that the service provider itself may be malicious and breach the secrecy and privacy of users. Although encrypting data content has been a common practice, it does not relieve the concerns, because users data access pattern is not preserved and researchers have found that a wide range of private information could be conveniently revealed by observing the access pattern. It is, therefore, critical to investigate the problem of protecting users access pattern privacy in untrusted storage. Existing solutions that provide strict protection to the privacy of access pattern incur very high overhead, such as high bandwidth cost, long round-trip delay and/or large user side storage. The high overhead is a major barrier that hampers the adoption of these solutions in practice. Although strict protection of access pattern privacy is attractive, less strict protection, such as protecting the privacy of long-term access pattern, is also very useful in practice. Based on these considerations, we investigate the problem of protecting the long-term access pattern privacy in un-trusted storage and propose two light-weight schemes to preserve the privacy of long-term access pattern. We conduct rigorous proofs and extensive evaluations to demonstrate that the proposed schemes can hide the data access pattern in the long run, and the number of accesses required to preserve the access pattern privacy is reasonable in many situations. With outsourced data storage, keyword based query is a critical and primitive function for the users to access the data of their interest. Similar to access pattern, exposure of query pattern also leads to the leakage of sensitive information about the queried keyword and data. We show that without proper protection of both the query trapdoor and the access pattern, the query pattern may be exposed readily.