Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of Interferon Gamma +874T/A Polymorphism and Leukemia Risk

AbstractInterferon gamma (IFN-&ggr;) has antitumor and antiproliferative effects, and previous studies indicated IFN-&ggr; +874T/A (rs2430561) polymorphism were related to the risk of many types of cancer. However, the association between IFN-&ggr; +874T/A polymorphism and leukemia risk remained controversial.We performed a comprehensive meta-analysis based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses statement (PRISMA). Electronic database of Embase, Pubmed, and the Cochrane Library were searched for eligible articles published up to December 13, 2015. The association between genetic polymorphisms and leukemia risk was measured by odds ratios (ORs) and its corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A total of 8 studies amounting to 420 patients and 767 control subjects were retrieved for this study. Although associations between IFN-&ggr; +874T/A polymorphism and overall leukemia risks were lacking, decreased chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) risk was detected in the allelic model (T vs A, OR=0.660, 95%CI = 0.483–0.902, P = 0.009, I2 = 0.0% and P = 0.863 for heterogeneity), the codominant model (TT vs AA, OR = 0.472, 95%CI = 0.247–0.902, P = 0.023, I2 = 0.0% and P = 0.994 for heterogeneity), and dominant model (TT + TA vs AA, OR = 0.457, 95%CI = 0.285–0.734, P = 0.001, I2 = 40.3% and P = 0.195 for heterogeneity) by using fixed-effect model separately. On the contrary, results indicated T carries have an increased chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) risk in dominant model (TT + TA vs AA, OR = 1.783, 95%CI = 1.236–2.573, P = 0.002, I2 = 19.0% and P = 0.295 for heterogeneity). This study suggests IFN-&ggr; +874T/A polymorphism are related to CML and CLL risk. In addition, our work also points out IFN-&ggr; +874T/A polymorphism may play dual contrasting role in leukemia risk.
Severe CD4 T Cell-Mediated Immunopathology in Murine Schistosomiasis Is Dependent on IL-12p40 and Correlates with High Levels of IL-171

C57BL/6 mice infected with the helminth Schistosoma mansoni develop small hepatic granulomas around parasite eggs, but concomitant immunization with soluble schistosome egg Ags (SEA) in CFA (SEA/CFA) causes marked exacerbation of the lesions in a Th1-dominated environment characterized by high levels of IFN-γ. We explored the cause of the severe immunopathology by using IL-12p40−/− and IL-12p35−/− mice. SEA/CFA-immunized IL-12p40−/− mice, incapable of making IL-12 or IL-23, were completely resistant to high pathology, and their SEA-stimulated lymphoid cells failed to secrete significant IFN-γ or IL-17. In contrast, SEA/CFA-immunized IL-12p35−/− mice, able to make IL-23 but not IL-12, developed severe lesions that correlated with high levels of IL-17, low IFN-γ, and an expansion of activated CD4 T cells with a CD44high/CD62Llow memory phenotype. In vivo administration of neutralizing anti-IL-17 mAb markedly inhibited hepatic granulomatous inflammation. Importantly, CBA mice, a naturally high pathology strain, also displayed elevated IL-17 levels comparable to those seen in the SEA/CFA-immunized BL/6 mice, and their lesions were similarly reduced by in vivo treatment with anti-IL-17. Our findings indicate that an IL-17-producing T cell population, likely driven by IL-23, significantly contributes to severe immunopathology in schistosomiasis.
Building an Infrastructure of Community Collaboration

Successful efforts to address community issues through collaboration are found in every part of the country, in communities of all sizes. These efforts have produced lasting change, yet many of the toughest challenges remain. The strategies that supported the growth of collaboration over the past decade appear to be necessary, but not sufficient, for these powerful challenges.
A Robust Fuzzy Clustering Technique with Spatial Neighborhood Information for Effective Medical Image Segmentation

Medical image segmentation demands an efficient and robust segmentation algorithm against noise. The conventional fuzzy c-means algorithm is an efficient clustering algorithm that is used in medical image segmentation. But FCM is highly vulnerable to noise since it uses only intensity values for clustering the images. This paper aims to develop a novel and efficient fuzzy spatial c-means clustering algorithm which is robust to noise. The proposed clustering algorithm uses fuzzy spatial information to calculate membership value. The input image is clustered using proposed ISFCM algorithm. A comparative study has been made between the conventional FCM and proposed ISFCM. The proposed approach is found to be outperforming the conventional FCM.
Structure, Cooperation, and the Flow of Market Information

This article explores the potential impact of individual consumer decisions to transmit or withhold word-of-mouth information on the flow of information in a market. Information flow is examined in networks composed of graphs and nodes, where graphs represent channels that foster information flow and nodes represent sentient decision makers who can potentially impede or foster information flow. We assert that actors in embedded markets first judge the moral hazards imposed by the information they consider for transmission and the social context of transmission, and then moderate their decisions to transmit the information in light of these judgements. We analyze this process using a modified version of Marshall Sahlins's social exchange theory, examine the plausibility of this analysis using two laboratory experiments, and explore the consequences of this behavior at the aggregate level using a computer simulation. Our view highlights the importance of the interplay of individuals and their social context for understanding word-of-mouth processes.
Shared metacognition in integrative negotiation

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the unique effect that shared metacognition has on negotiation – over and above the effect of simply having similar views.Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was conducted where it was systematically varied whether the negotiators explicitly knew or did not know that their opponent had a similar view of the negotiation task.Findings – Results showed that having shared metacognition promoted: cooperative negotiation, accurate insight into the opponent's point values (which was correlated with increased joint gain), and increased satisfaction regarding the negotiation outcome. Moreover, this was the case across different conditions in which negotiators' negotiation task view and motivation were varied.Practical implications – The paper suggests that negotiators and mediators can benefit by developing a common understanding of the negotiation and explicitly exchanging this understanding with each other (establishing shared metacognition) prior to enga.
Toward Exploring Stakeholder and Professional Information Sources About Cormorant Management in the Great Lakes

We aim to inform double-crested cormorant management in the Great Lakes Basin by revealing where natural resource professionals (e.g., state, provincial, federal, and tribal agency employees) and non-professional stakeholders (e.g., anglers, bird enthusiasts, and tourism interests) are exposed to, and seek out, information about cormorants. Using a snowball sampling procedure, we conducted 109 semi-structured interviews with professionals and stakeholders engaged in cormorant management in northern Lake Huron. Both professionals and stakeholders identified social networks as their greatest source of cormorant-related information. Most participants also indicated they would reach out to someone in their social network if they were seeking new information about cormorants. Our findings suggest a need to better understand how networks operate in the context of wildlife management. Given that networks were a shared information source among both professionals and stakeholders, managers may consider coordinating their future communication efforts with communities and their networks, rather than individuals, in mind.
The Attitudes and Practices of Israeli Adult Probation Officers Regarding the Use of the Criminal Fine

During the past three decades, numerous Western justice systems have begun to focus on the search for alternatives to imprisonment. One alternative that began to receive increased attention in recent years is the criminal fine. This study has been aimed at examining the discretion of Israeli adult probation officers in recommending the use of criminal fines, analyzing their fining policy—in reference to the ideology of the Israeli adult probation service and clarifying the future tendencies of its use. Key findings from the research include the following: (a) Israeli adult probation officers hold negative attitudes towards the use of this sanction, (b) most participants claim that their professional training does not offer the knowledge and ability to recommend or set monetary sanctions, and (c) most interviewees totally ignore the subject of criminal fine enforcement.
A pneumococcal surface protein (PspB) that exhibits the same protease sensitivity as streptococcal R antigen

A monoclonal antibody against Streptococcus pneumoniae, designated T4A49, detected a 64,000-molecular-weight protein that was immunologically unrelated to the previously described surface protein PspA. This new protein, designated PspB, was pepsin sensitive and trypsin resistant, as is the R antigen of type 28 group A streptococci.
Extracorporeal Life Support Increases Survival After Prolonged Ventricular Fibrillation Cardiac Arrest in the Rat

Background: Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may increase end organ perfusion and thus survival when conventional CPR fails. The aim was to investigate, if after ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest in rodents ECLS improves outcome compared with conventional CPR. Methods: In 24 adult male Sprague–Dawley rats (460–510 g) resuscitation was started after 10 min of no-flow with ECLS (consisting of an open reservoir, roller pump, and membrane oxygenator, connected to cannulas in the jugular vein and femoral artery, n = 8) or CPR (mechanical chest compressions plus ventilations, n = 8) and compared with a sham group (n = 8). After return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), all rats were maintained at 33°C for 12 h. Survival to 14 days, neurologic deficit scores and overall performance categories were assessed. Results: ECLS leads to sustained ROSC in 8 of 8 (100%) and neurological intact survival to 14 days in 7 of 8 rats (88%), compared with 5 of 8 (63%) and 1 of 8 CPR rats. The median survival time was 14 days (IQR: 14–14) in the ECLS and 1 day (IQR: 0 to 5) for the CPR group (P = 0.004). Conclusion: In a rat model of prolonged ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest, ECLS with mild hypothermia produces 100% resuscitability and 88% long-term survival, significantly better than conventional CPR.
Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in Individual Bovine Preimplantation Embryos Produced by Nuclear Transfer: Improper Reprogramming of Genes Required for Development1

Abstract Using an interwoven-loop experimental design in conjunction with highly conservative linear mixed model methodology using estimated variance components, 18 genes differentially expressed between nuclear transfer (NT)- and in vitro fertilization (IVF)-produced embryos were identified. The set is comprised of three intermediate-filament protein genes (cytokeratin 8, cytokeratin 19, and vimentin), three metabolic genes (phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase 1, mitochondrial acetoacetyl-coenzyme A thiolase, and α-glucosidase), two lysosomal-related genes (prosaposin and lysosomal-associated membrane protein 2), and a gene associated with stress responses (heat shock protein 27) along with major histocompatibility complex class I, nidogen 2, a putative transport protein, heterogeneous nuclear ribonuclear protein K, mitochondrial 16S rRNA, and ES1 (a zebrafish orthologue of unknown function). The three remaining genes are novel. To our knowledge, this is the first report comparing individual embryos produced by NT and IVF using cDNA microarray technology for any species, and it uses a rigorous experimental design that emphasizes statistical significance to identify differentially expressed genes between NT and IVF embryos in cattle.
Mechanism and kinetics of pore formation in membranes by water-soluble amphipathic peptides

How antimicrobial peptides form pores in membranes is of interest as a fundamental membrane process. However, the underlying molecular mechanism, which has potential applications in therapeutics, nonviral gene transfer, and drug delivery, has been in dispute. We have resolved this mechanism by observing the time-dependent process of pore formation in individual giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) exposed to a melittin solution. An individual GUV first expanded its surface area at constant volume and then suddenly reversed to expanding its volume at constant area. The area expansion, the volume expansion, and the point of reversal all match the results of equilibrium measurements performed on peptide–lipid mixtures. The mechanism includes a negative feedback that makes peptide-induced pores stable with a well defined size, contrary to the suggestion that peptides disintegrate the membrane in a detergent-like manner.
Community Correlates of Serious Assaults on Police

Violence against police officers is a widely held concern for the law enforcement profession. Prior research into this problem has focused almost exclusively on individual, situational, or ecological correlates at the city or higher levels of aggregation rather than at the neighborhood level, potentially masking important local variation. This study examines block-group-level risk factors for serious assaults on police from a criminal opportunity perspective. Data for the study included 603 aggravated assaults on police in Boston, arrestee location data, violent crimes known to the police for the years 1993 to 1999, and 1990 census data. Findings indicate strong associations between serious assaults on police and block groups characterized by high arrestee density, criminogenic conditions, and propensity for violence.
Everything you always wanted to know about synchronization but were afraid to ask

This paper presents the most exhaustive study of synchronization to date. We span multiple layers, from hardware cache-coherence protocols up to high-level concurrent software. We do so on different types of architectures, from single-socket -- uniform and non-uniform -- to multi-socket -- directory and broadcast-based -- many-cores. We draw a set of observations that, roughly speaking, imply that scalability of synchronization is mainly a property of the hardware.
A Simulated Annealing Based Inexact Oracle for Wasserstein Loss Minimization

Learning under a Wasserstein loss, a.k. a. Wasserstein loss minimization (WLM), is an emerging research topic for gaining insights from a large set of structured objects. Despite being conceptually simple, WLM problems are computationally challenging because they involve minimizing over functions of quantities (i.e. Wasserstein distances) that themselves require numerical algorithms to compute. In this paper, we introduce a stochastic approach based on simulated annealing for solving WLMs. Particularly, we have developed a Gibbs sampler to approximate effectively and efficiently the partial gradients of a sequence of Wasserstein losses. Our new approach has the advantages of numerical stability and readiness for warm starts. These characteristics are valuable for WLM problems that often require multiple levels of iterations in which the oracle for computing the value and gradient of a loss function is embedded. We applied the method to optimal transport with Coulomb cost and the Wasserstein non-negative matrix factorization problem, and made comparisons with the existing method of entropy regularization.
Problems in Analyzing Elements of Mass Culture: Notes on the Popular Song and Other Artistic Productions

James T. Carey's recent analysis of changing patterns in the popular song ("Changing Courtship Patterns in the Popular Song," American Journal of Sociology 74 [May]: 720-3 1) displays a problem long confronted by students of mass society: To what extent can cultural expressions be taken as valid indicators of social behavior or of shifting aspects of mood and national character? His analysis is admirable in that it replicates the earlier study of Horton. It is provocative in that it suggests what many sociologists now feel: that elements of rapid change now characterize the nation's youth. His remarks on the shifting character of the intimate relationship between 1955 and 1966 suggest that rules are being rewritten regarding the nature of the self and its affiliations with others. Notwithstanding these features, I fear that Carey's analysis reveals a number of the problems inherent in any investigation that attempts to relate attitudes to behavior when no direct observation of the involved subjects is undertaken. In this brief note I should like to indicate four problems involved in analyzing aspects of popular culture, be this the study of popular songs, novels, paintings, or poetry. In the main, my remarks are directed to the tradition represented by Carey's work, and not to his study per se. A fundamental problem in such studies stems from the long tradition that has regarded artistic productions as social facts. By regarding such productions as social facts, the analyst is relieved of the burden of demonstrating what meanings these productions have for the artist and his audience. It is too frequently assumed that such meanings can be identified by a capable analyst, independent of the interpretations brought to such works by the artist or his audience. In my judgment, artistic productions must be seen as interactional creations, the meanings of which arise out of the interactions directed to them by the artist and his audience. This is well seen in the long tradition of religious paintings which attempt to recreate the Crucifixion. Each century has produced its own meanings of this event, and these meanings are couched in different s yles of dress, different gestures, and different symbols attached to the Christ figure. In no sense can the meaning of the event or the painting be judged independent of the meanings brought to it by the artist and his time. If artistic productions are seen as interactional creations, a second problem must be recognized. A work of art may not evoke the same response in
The Diversification of Zika Virus: Are There Two Distinct Lineages?

Zika virus (ZIKV) has caused explosive epidemics in the Pacific and the Americas, posing a serious threat to public health. Conventional opinion advocates that ZIKV evolved into two distinct lineages, namely, African and Asian. Descendants of this latter lineage dispersed globally causing major epidemics. However, based on shared amino acid replacements and phylogenetic analyses, it was recently contentiously proposed that the Asian lineage was a direct descendant of the African lineage. To address this contentious issue, we reconstructed a phylogenetic tree of ZIKV using the method based on shared amino acid replacements and found that ZIKV evolved into two distinct lineages. This supports the conventional phylogenetic divergence pattern of ZIKV. Evidence of recombination and sequencing errors was identified among the large collection of ZIKV. As such problematic sequences could confound the phylogenetic analyses, they were removed. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses using the improved sequence data enabled estimates for the divergence time in the past of the African and Asian lineages of ∼180 years ago. Moreover, we found that the Asian lineage viruses did not evolve at an elevated rate. Our findings provide additional support for the conventional opinion that the Asian lineage of ZIKV diverged from the African lineage.
Performance Appraisal Process Research in the 1980s: What Has It Contributed to Appraisals in Use?

Abstract In the early 1980s, Landy and Farr (1980) and Feldman (1981) redirected performance appraisal research from issues related to the development of psychometrically sound rating scales to those involving the cognitive processes of raters. Since that time, several reviews have attempted to translate principles from social cognition and cognitive psychology to the specific conditions of formal appraisal systems in work-oriented organizations. In addition, a number of empirical studies have been conducted on this topic. This article reviews empirical research during the 1980s that focused on performance appraisal processes, particularly the research that has focused upon rating accuracy. The review is structured around a three-stage process model of gathering, storing, and retrieving information about social stimuli for the purposes of rating performance. Factors affecting this process are clustered into four categories: appraisal settings, ratees, raters, and the nature of the scales used for the appraisal. Once reviewed, the research is evaluated in terms of its contributions to improving the quality of appraisal systems as they are used in organizations.
Supraphysiological levels of GDF11 induce striated muscle atrophy

Growth and differentiation factor (GDF) 11 is a member of the transforming growth factor β superfamily recently identified as a potential therapeutic for age‐related cardiac and skeletal muscle decrements, despite high homology to myostatin (Mstn), a potent negative regulator of muscle mass. Though several reports have refuted these data, the in vivo effects of GDF11 on skeletal muscle mass have not been addressed. Using in vitro myoblast culture assays, we first demonstrate that GDF11 and Mstn have similar activities/potencies on activating p‐SMAD2/3 and induce comparable levels of differentiated myotube atrophy. We further demonstrate that adeno‐associated virus‐mediated systemic overexpression of GDF11 in C57BL/6 mice results in substantial atrophy of skeletal and cardiac muscle, inducing a cachexic phenotype not seen in mice expressing similar levels of Mstn. Greater cardiac expression of Tgfbr1 may explain this GDF11‐specific cardiac phenotype. These data indicate that bioactive GDF11 at supraphysiological levels cause wasting of both skeletal and cardiac muscle. Rather than a therapeutic agent, GDF11 should be viewed as a potential deleterious biomarker in muscle wasting diseases.
HLanc: Heterogeneous Parallel Implementation of the Implicitly Restarted Lanczos Method

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has been used as a ubiquitous accelerator for general purpose computing, such as linear algebra routines and numerical methods. The implicitly restarted Lanczos method (IRLM) is well suited for solving the partial eigenvalue problem for large symmetric sparse matrices, which is important in many real world applications. In this paper, we present the HLanc library, a parallel implementation of IRLM on the heterogeneous CPU-GPU architecture employing the CUDA programming model. The HLanc library is designed with separated heterogeneous parallel IRLM solvers and sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SPMV) operators. The SPMV operators hide the details about the storage of sparse matrices from the IRLM solvers, so the solvers can work with any spare matrix formats. Especially the SPMV operators and IRLM solvers can be combined arbitrarily for achieving the best performance of CPU-GPU heterogeneous system. The HLanc is evaluated using eight sparse matrices with the NVIDIA GTX 480 and GTX TITAN Black GPUs. The results show that HLanc achieves 15 times speedup than the ARPACK library and scales well across different GPU generations.