Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STAT3 Signaling Is Activated Preferentially in Tumor‐Initiating Cells in Claudin‐Low Models of Human Breast Cancer

In breast cancer, a subset of tumor‐initiating cells (TIC) or “cancer stem cells” are thought to be responsible for tumor maintenance, treatment resistance, and disease recurrence. While current breast cancer stem cell markers (e.g., CD44high/CD24low/neg, ALDH positive) have allowed enrichment for such cells, they are not universally expressed and may actually identify distinct TIC subpopulations in the same tumor. Thus, additional markers of functional stem cells are needed. The STAT3 pathway is a critical regulator of the function of normal stem cells, and evidence is accumulating for its important role in breast cancer stem cells. However, due to the lack of a method for separating live cells based on their level of STAT3 activity, it remains unknown whether STAT3 functions in the cancer stem cells themselves, or in surrounding niche cells, or in both. To approach this question, we constructed a series of lentiviral fluorescent (enhanced green fluorescent protein, EGFP) reporters that enabled flow cytometric enrichment of cells differing in STAT3‐mediated transcriptional activity, as well as in vivo/in situ localization of STAT3 responsive cells. Using in vivo claudin‐low cell line xenograft models of human breast cancer, we found that STAT3 signaling reporter activity (EGFP+) is associated with a subpopulation of cancer cells enriched for mammosphere‐forming efficiency, as well as TIC function in limiting dilution transplantation assays compared to negative or unsorted populations. Our results support STAT3 signaling activity as another functional marker for human breast cancer stem cells thus making it an attractive therapeutic target for stem‐cell‐directed therapy in some breast cancer subtypes. Stem Cells 2014;32:2571–2582
Impact of popularity evolution on P2P-based VoD delivery over next-generation optical access networks

The increasing success of Video on Demand services poses several challenges to both network operators and service providers. Due to their heavy bandwidth requirement and the high concentration of requests during peak times, implementing VoD services efficiently without compromising the Quality of Service of customers is not a trivial task. To alleviate this problem, several caching strategies have been proposed in literature.
Heterogeneity of anti‐U demonstrable by the use of papain‐treated red cells

When red cells (RBCs) are treated with papain, one form of the U antigen, which we have named UPS (U papain‐sensitive), is almost completely removed or denatured. A second form, UPR (U papain‐resistant), remains unaltered on the treated RBCs. Tests on 42 examples of anti‐U showed that two contained only anti‐UPS, 19 contained only ‐UPR, and 21 contained separable ‐UPS and ‐UPR. In those sera containing both antibodies, anti‐UPR was always the stronger of the two. These findings suggest 1) that UPS is located on the Ss sialoglycoprotein (glycophorin B) at a position distal to a papain‐sensitive site or that the cleavage point is within the portion of the SGP that comprises UPS, and 2) that UPR is located between the papain‐sensitive site and the RBC membrane. The UPS determinant was not denatured by neuraminidase, L‐cysteine, trypsin, ficin, or α‐chymotrypsin, and it was only partially denatured by pronase. The finding that RBCs treated with para‐chloromercuribenzoic acid or para‐chloromercuriphenyl sulfonic acid did not react with anti‐UPR but did continue to react with anti‐UPS suggests that the in situ configuration of UPR, but not UPS, is dependent on the presence of one or more disulfide bonds. RBCs of the S−s−U+(weak) phenotype were shown to carry markedly reduced amounts of both UPS and UPR.
Optical absorption and light scattering in microcrystalline silicon thin films and solar cells

Optical characterization methods were applied to a series of microcrystalline silicon thin films and solar cells deposited by the very high frequency glow discharge technique. Bulk and surface light scattering effects were analyzed. A detailed theory for evaluation of the optical absorption coefficient α from transmittance, reflectance and absorptance (with the help of constant photocurrent method) measurements in a broad spectral region is presented for the case of surface and bulk light scattering. The spectral dependence of α is interpreted in terms of defect density, disorder, crystalline/amorphous fraction and material morphology. The enhanced light absorption in microcrystalline silicon films and solar cells is mainly due to a longer optical path as the result of an efficient diffuse light scattering at the textured film surface. This light scattering effect is a key characteristic of efficient thin-film-silicon solar cells.
NAVNEX: an hybrid system which learns navigation situations in real time

The paper introduces NAVNEX (Navigation and Neural Explorer), a hybrid system, neural and symbolic/procedural, well suited for real time extraction of navigation situations during incremental explorations of unknown environments performed by an autonomous mobile robot. Real time performances are obtained through the parallelization of the activities necessary to extract relevant information: reactive planning and navigation, environment reconstruction via self-organization, symbolic (topological) analysis of reconstructed maps. The neural part of the system is based on two self-organizing neural networks which learn the obstacle boundaries and the free space maps, while the symbolic/procedural part is composed of a library of heuristic algorithms which analyze the neural maps on a topological bases, playing the role of "situation recognizers". An incremental merging algorithm is also presented, which integrates in real time the spatio-temporal information of reconstructed graphs of navigation situations. <<ETX>>
An insert-based enzymatic cell culture system to rapidly and reversibly induce hypoxia: investigations of hypoxia-induced cell damage, protein expression and phosphorylation in neuronal IMR-32 cells

SUMMARY Ischemia-reperfusion injury and tissue hypoxia are of high clinical relevance because they are associated with various pathophysiological conditions such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms causing cell damage are still not fully understood, which is at least partially due to the lack of cell culture systems for the induction of rapid and transient hypoxic conditions. The aim of the study was to establish a model that is suitable for the investigation of cellular and molecular effects associated with transient and long-term hypoxia and to gain insights into hypoxia-mediated mechanisms employing a neuronal culture system. A semipermeable membrane insert system in combination with the hypoxia-inducing enzymes glucose oxidase and catalase was employed to rapidly and reversibly generate hypoxic conditions in the culture medium. Hydrogen peroxide assays, glucose measurements and western blotting were performed to validate the system and to evaluate the effects of the generated hypoxia on neuronal IMR-32 cells. Using the insert-based two-enzyme model, hypoxic conditions were rapidly induced in the culture medium. Glucose concentrations gradually decreased, whereas levels of hydrogen peroxide were not altered. Moreover, a rapid and reversible (onoff) generation of hypoxia could be performed by the addition and subsequent removal of the enzyme-containing inserts. Employing neuronal IMR-32 cells, we showed that 3 hours of hypoxia led to morphological signs of cellular damage and significantly increased levels of lactate dehydrogenase (a biochemical marker of cell damage). Hypoxic conditions also increased the amounts of cellular procaspase-3 and catalase as well as phosphorylation of the pro-survival kinase Akt, but not Erk1/2 or STAT5. In summary, we present a novel framework for investigating hypoxia-mediated mechanisms at the cellular level. We claim that the model, the first of its kind, enables researchers to rapidly and reversibly induce hypoxic conditions in vitro without unwanted interference of the hypoxia-inducing agent on the cultured cells. The system could help to further unravel hypoxia-associated mechanisms that are clinically relevant in various tissues and organs.
Methods to extract impervious surface areas from satellite images

Impervious surface area (ISA) is an important parameter for many environmental or socioeconomic relevant studies. The unique characteristics of remote sensing data made it the primary data source for ISA mapping at various scales. This paper summarizes general ISA mapping procedure and major techniques and discusses impacts of scale issues on selection of remote sensing data and corresponding algorithms. Previous studies have indicated that ISA mapping remains a challenge, especially in urban–rural frontiers and in covering a large area. Effectively employing rich spatial information in high spatial resolution imagery through texture and object-based methods is valuable. Data fusion of multi-resolution images and spectral mixture analysis are common approaches to reduce the mixed pixel problem in medium spatial resolution images such as Landsat. Coarse spatial resolution images such as MODIS and DMSP-OLS are valuable for national and global ISA mapping but more research is needed to effectively integrate multisource/scale data for improving mapping performance. Development of an optimal procedure corresponding to specific study areas and purposes is required to generate accurate ISA mapping results.
INSULIN-TREATED SWINE ( SUS SCROFA ) *

-1. Diabetes had no significant effect on IGFBP-3 message and serum levels however, subsequent insulin treatment caused more than a two-fold increase in both hepatic IGFBP-3 mRNA and serum levels above controls (P < 0.05). 2. The induction of diabetes in pigs significantly increased the steady state levels of IGFBP-2 mRNA in the liver of young swine (P < 0.05). 3. Both liver message and serum IGFBP-2 were reduced to control levels with insulin therapy. 4. We report here that in addition to its affects on IGFBP-2, insulin is involved in the regulation of IGFBP-3 expression.
Effect of structural anisotropy on anchor loss mismatch and predicted case drift in future micro-Hemispherical Resonator Gyros

The effect of structural anisotropy leading to anchor loss mismatch in micro-Hemispherical Resonator Gyros (micro-HRGs) is investigated by developing an anchor loss model based on finite element analysis. Worst-case lower bound estimates for the anchor loss component of the quality factor (Q) are found based on the computed frequency difference between a clamped support and a free support interface. The Young's modulus of the finite element model is varied in a 4th-harmonic pattern in the circumferential direction of the micro-HRG, resulting in splitting of the Q and resonance frequency of the otherwise degenerate gyro wineglass mode pair, allowing prediction of the case drift performance.
Using Arabidopsis genetic sequences to teach bioinformatics

This article describes a new approach to teaching bioinformatics using Arabidopsis genetic sequences. Several open‐ended and inquiry‐based laboratory exercises have been designed to help students grasp key concepts and gain practical skills in bioinformatics, using Arabidopsis leucine‐rich repeat receptor‐like kinase (LRR RLK) genetic sequences. In these exercises, students are asked to explore the intimate relationship between the structure and functions of LRR RLKs and to understand the diverse signaling roles of LRR RLKs in Arabidopsis. Students are also required to identify LRR RLK paralogs and orthologs and to analyze their evolutionary and functional relationships using bioinformatics software. Through these exercises, students are expected to gain the ability to search databases to retrieve genetic data and analyze them using a variety of bioinformatics tools.
Wireless Healthcare Monitoring System for Home

— A healthcare monitoring system is presented in this paper. This system is based on ultra-low power sensor nodes and a personal server, which is based on hardware and software extensions to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)/Smartphone. The sensor node collects data from the body of a patient and sends it to the personal server where the data is processed, displayed and made ready to be sent to a healthcare network, if necessary. The personal server consists of a compact low power receiver module and equipped with a Smartphone software. The receiver module takes less than 30 × 30 mm board size and consumes approximately 25 mA in active mode.
Polarity Identification of Movie Reviews

One approach to the assessment of overall opinion polarity (OvOP) of reviews, a concept defined in this paper, is the use of supervised machine learning mechanisms. In this paper, the impact of lexical feature selection and feature generalization, applied to reviews, on the precision of two probabilistic classifiers (Naïve Bayes and Markov Model) with respect to OvOP identification is observed. Feature generalization based on hypernymy as provided by WordNet, and feature selection based on part-ofspeech (POS) tags are evaluated. A ranking criterion is introduced, based on a function of the probability of having positive or negative polarity, which makes it possible to achieve 100% precision with 10% recall. Movie reviews are used for training and testing the probabilistic classifiers, which achieve 80% precision.
Associations of depressive symptoms with gender, body mass index and dyspnea in primary care COPD patients.

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that severe COPD is associated with depressive symptoms, possibly linked to exacerbations, dyspnea and hospitalisation. However, scarce data are available in primary care where most patients suffer from mild or moderate disease. OBJECTIVE We aimed to reveal associations of depressive symptoms with demographic and clinical characteristics in mild to moderate COPD. METHODS Cross-sectional data on lung function measurements, exacerbation frequency, dyspnea, comorbidity, smoking behaviour, body mass index (BMI), age, gender and depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory) of 147 primary care patients were assessed in multiple logistic regression analyses. RESULTS Patients suffered from mild to moderate obstruction (FEV1 63.6% pred, range 45.1% to 82.1%). Female gender (OR 4.8, 95% CI 2.1 to 10.8), BMI > 25 (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.8) and current smoking (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.01 to 5.3) were univariately associated with depressive symptoms, while in a multivariate logistic model only female gender (OR 4.0, 95% CI 1.6 to 9.9), BMI > 25 (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.7) and dyspnea (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.9) were independently associated with depressive symptoms. Conclusion. These data suggest that in primary care depressive symptoms in COPD seem to be related with female gender, BMI and dyspnea. In this study, lung function, exacerbation rate, smoking behaviour, age and comorbidity are not independently associated with depressive symptoms in COPD of mild to moderate severity.
Fatigue analysis of large-span steel structure induced by high speed train

The special passenger railway from Wuhan to Guangzhou is the longest special passenger railway in China, and also with the features of the highest technical standards and the largest investment scales. The station adopted the structural form of combination of bridge and building, which is difficult to analyze its dynamic behavior and structural stability. Numerical calculation model for moving loads and bridge is established by the software ANSYS based on the basic theory of dynamic response of simple supported beam under moving loads, in which the high speed train was modeled by a series of moving loads. The time history and Fourier spectrum of reaction at bearings are obtained. And dynamic response of upper large-span grid structure is calculated under the above reaction. The stress state of the large-span grid structure, vibration mode and its weak parts are determined. Stresses time history at the weak parts are extracted and load spectrums are obtained by rain-flow counting method. The fatigue life of the upper large-span grid structure under high-speed train load is calculated, which shows that the structures is safe in its design service life.
A review of CAD-based robot path planning for spray painting

Purpose – Paint path planning for industrial robots is critical for uniform paint distribution, process cycle time and material waste, etc. However, paint path planning is still a costly and time‐consuming process. Currently paint path planning has always caused a bottle‐neck for manufacturing automation because typical manual teaching methods are tedious, error‐prone and skill‐dependent. Hence, it is essential to develop automated tool path‐planning methods to replace manual paint path planning. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing automated tool path‐planning methods, and investigate their advantages and disadvantages.Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of a review of automated tool path‐planning methods, to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the current technologies.Findings – Paint path planning is a very complicated task considering complex parts, paint process requirements and complicated spraying tools. There are some research and development effort.
Security and Dynamic Encryption System in Mobile Ad-Hoc Network

Wireless network technology enables computing devices to communicate with each other without any physical medium. Compared with wired networks, wireless communication provides better connectivity and mobility, which allows mobile devices to access other local area networks or the Internet at anytime and anywhere. The benefits of flexible routing, global connectivity and a highly adaptive potential make mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) suitable for a wide range of applications in both military and commercial environments, such as battlefields, disaster relief operations, mobile device/ personal networking, mobile information sharing and vehicular networks (Kant et al., 2005); (Liu et al., 2007). However, maintaining security in wireless ad-hoc networks is quite challenging. First, unlike wired networks that at least have some degree of physical protection, wireless communication over radio waves lacks defined and restricted boundaries. Anyone can connect to the network as long as the transmitted signal strength is strong enough to cover the area (Chan et al., 2005), and therefore, security attacks on data communication, such as passive eavesdropping, packet injection or even violations of confidentiality are widespread. Second, the end-to-end communication in MANET cannot rely on any fixed infrastructure, such as a base station or access points (AP); thus, existing security protocols that are based on a centralized or infrastructure-based network environment will not work in this mobile environment (Hubaux et al., 2001). Third, in order to achieve better network throughput in such a highly dynamic environment, the default routing protocol does not implement any security protection during end-to-end communication. In addition, the trust relationships between each node are very low as a consequence of the frequently changing topology and membership. Because of this, many attacks can be launched against the routing protocol, giving hackers a major opportunity to insert themselves as one of the cooperative nodes in the network. Therefore, the security protection that is used to ensure the integrity of the mobile ad-hoc network should not only repel external attacks, but also prevent internal attacks launched against the network from any compromised node. Most security mechanisms rely on data encryption, which is a message combined with a secret key to generate a ciphertext that cannot be revived without the original key. This encryption mechanism can prevent any unauthorized user from gaining access to the secured communication. However, a fixed secret key is vulnerable to deciphering by
Moral distress and structural empowerment among a national sample of Israeli intensive care nurses.

AIM The aim of this study was to determine levels of structural empowerment, moral distress, and the association between them among intensive care nurses. BACKGROUND Structural empowerment is the ability to access sources of power. Moral distress is the painful feelings experienced when a person knows the right thing to do but cannot do so due to external constraints. Several studies suggest a theoretical relationship between these concepts. DESIGN Cross-sectional, descriptive correlational study. METHODS Members of the Evidence Based Nursing Practice Committee of the Israeli Society for Cardiology and Critical Care Nurses recruited a convenience sample of intensive care nurses from their respective institutions and units. Nurses were asked to complete three questionnaires (demographic and work characteristics, Moral Distress Scale, and the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-II). Data were collected between May-September 2009. RESULTS Intensive Care nurses had moderate levels of structural empowerment, low levels of moral distress frequency, and moderately high moral distress intensity. A weak correlation was found between moral distress frequency and structural empowerment. No other structural empowerment component was associated with moral distress. Work characteristics as opposed to demographic characteristics were more associated with the study variables. CONCLUSIONS This study weakly supports the association between structural empowerment and moral distress. It also provides further evidence to the theory of structural empowerment as characterized in the critical care environment. Further studies are indicated to determine what other factors might be associated with moral distress.
A client-side Web agent for document categorization

The authors propose a client‐side agent for exploring and categorizing documents on the World Wide Web. As the user browses the Web using a usual Web browser, this agent is designed to aid the user by classifying the documents the user finds most interesting into clusters. The agent carries out the task completely automatically and autonomously, with as little user intervention as the user desires. The principal novel components in this agent that make it possible are a scalable hierarchical clustering algorithm and a taxonomic label generator. In this paper, the overall architecture of this agent is described and the details of the algorithms within its key components are discussed.
LCoS-Based Wavelength-Selective Switch for Future Finer-Grid Elastic Optical Networks Capable of All-Optical Wavelength Conversion

A finer-grid wavelength-selective switch (WSS) based on liquid crystal on silicon is proposed, fabricated, and demonstrated. Based on the cost-effective method, namely combined lenses technique, the focal length is increased so that both the bandwidth setting resolution and grid granularity is improved from 12.5 to 6.25 GHz compared with the conventional WSS. To demonstrate its utility, we apply this finer-grid WSS to a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer structure and an all-optical wavelength conversion (AOWC) module. To enable a finer-grid WSS, the performance of a finer-grid elastic optical network (EON) capable of AOWC is also investigated. Different from the conventional AOWC scheme for fixed-grid WDM networks, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a four-wave-mixing-based AOWC module specifically for EON. In addition to physical experiments, an optical network's control and management scheme corresponding to the designed physical scenario is also investigated. Experimental and simulation results show that the proposed method achieves higher spectrum efficiency, lower blocking probability, finer switching granularity, and higher conversion resolution.