Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drug-drug interaction relation extraction with deep convolutional neural networks

Drug-Drug Interaction (DDI) relation extraction is a multi-class classification problem that aims to predict the interaction between drugs in a sentence. The configuration of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in relation extraction usually applied shallow architecture layers, which may make the information in given input text is not fully captured, thus fail to capture a long sentence containing the detected drug relation or some irrelevant word captured during the feature extraction process. This paper proposed an extending depth of the CNN layer called DeepCNN for DDI relation extraction. The DeepCNN learns the high quality of the learning representation so that it is able to cover long input sentences as the typical of DDIExtraction dataset. We use multi-channel word-embedding to enlarge the vocabulary and decrease the number of unknown words, and Adam update rule to automatically learn the network parameters of DeepCNN for DDI relation extraction. The experiments show that the architecture of 10 layers DeepCNN successfully obtained the significant improvement compared to the previous CNN method in DDI relation extraction. The result proves that CNN is a robust and well-deserved for DDI relation extraction.
Gold Nanoparticles for Modulating Neuronal Behavior

Understanding the detailed functioning and pathophysiology of the brain and the nervous system continues to challenge the scientific community, particularly in terms of scaling up techniques for monitoring and interfacing with complex 3D networks. Nanotechnology has the potential to support this scaling up, where the eventual goal would be to address individual nerve cells within functional units of both the central and peripheral nervous system. Gold nanoparticles provide a variety of physical and chemical properties that have attracted attention as a light-activated nanoscale neuronal interface. This review provides a critical overview of the photothermal and photomechanical properties of chemically functionalized gold nanoparticles that have been exploited to trigger a range of biological responses in neuronal tissues, including modulation of electrical activity and nerve regeneration. The prospects and challenges for further development are also discussed.
Phosphorylation of the PTEN Tail Regulates Protein Stability and Function

ABSTRACT The PTEN gene is a tumor suppressor localized in the frequently altered chromosomal region 10q23. The tumor suppressor function of the PTEN protein (PTEN) has been linked to its ability to dephosphorylate the lipid second-messenger phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate and phosphatidylinositol 3,4-bisphosphate and, by doing so, to antagonize the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway. The PTEN protein consists of an amino-terminal phosphatase domain, a lipid binding C2 domain, and a 50-amino-acid C-terminal domain (the “tail”) of unknown function. A number of studies have shown that the tail is dispensable for both phosphatase activity and blocking cell growth. Here, we show that the PTEN tail is necessary for maintaining protein stability and that it also acts to inhibit PTEN function. Thus, removing the tail results in a loss of stability but does not result in a loss of function because the resultant protein is more active. Furthermore, tail-dependent regulation of stability and activity is linked to the phosphorylation of three residues (S380, T382, and T383) within the tail. Therefore, the tail is likely to mediate the regulation of PTEN function through phosphorylation.
Obesity and prostate cancer

Purpose of review To investigate the association between obesity and prostate cancer (PCa). Recent findings Obesity has been proposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of PCa through different biological mechanisms that include deregulation of the insulin axis, sex hormone secretion, adipokines signaling, and oxidative stress. Hypertrophic peritumoral adipocytes may also facilitate the local spread of PCa through the chemo-attraction of tumor cells. Clinical studies demonstrate that obesity might have clinical implications also in disease detection and management. Obese men have been shown to be less likely to be diagnosed with early-stage disease. Moreover, they are at increased risk of experiencing upgrading and upstaging when managed with active surveillance. However, the association between obesity and the risk of PCa recurrence and mortality after radical treatment is still debated. Summary Obesity may facilitate the development and progression of PCa trough different biologic mechanisms that may pose obese men at higher risk of advanced and high-grade disease. However, the association between obesity and long-term oncologic outcome after radical treatments appears unclear.
A Novel data Pre-processing method for multi-dimensional and non-uniform data

We are in the era of data analytics and data science which is on full bloom. There is abundance of all kinds of data for example biometrics based data, satellite images data, chip-seq data, social network data, sensor based data etc. from a variety of sources. This data abundance is the result of the fact that storage cost is getting cheaper day by day, so people as well as almost all business or scientific organizations are storing more and more data. Most of the real data is multi-dimensional, non-uniform, and big in size, such that it requires a unique pre-processing before analyzing it. In order to make data useful for any kind of analysis, pre-processing is a very important step. This paper presents a unique and novel pre-processing method for multi-dimensional and non-uniform data with the aim of making it uniform and reduced in size without losing much of its value. We have chosen biometric signature data to demonstrate the proposed method as it qualifies for the attributes of being multi-dimensional, non-uniform and big in size. Biometric signature data does not only captures the structural characteristics of a signature but also its behavioral characteristics that are captured using a dynamic signature capture device. These features like pen pressure, pen tilt angle, time taken to sign a document when collected in real-time turn out to be of varying dimensions. This feature data set along with the structural data needs to be pre-processed in order to use it to train a machine learning based model for signature verification purposes. We demonstrate the success of the proposed method over other methods using experimental results for biometric signature data but the same can be implemented for any other data with similar properties from a different domain.
Excavations at Kommos (Crete) during 1986-1992

Res. d'A. : Recent excavation in the southern area at Kommos has exposed most of a Late Minoan (LM) building, house X, with extensive small finds. The very large ashlar Building T, set near the sea and perhaps functioning partially as an emporium, can be describe as palatial or even as a palace, now that its plan is more completely known with the discovery of its south and east borders. Building P, set upon much of the east wing of T, can now understood as a series of at least six broad and completely undivided galleries, open on the west to the seashore. The suggestion made in the past the galleries housed ships during the winter, nonsailling months finds further support from the excavations of these past seasons
Evaluation of Antioxidant Properties of Salacia Macrosperma Leaf Extracts

In the present study experiments were carried out to determine the total phenolic content and their comparative antioxidant activities in relation to phenol content employing Folin-ciocalteu, DPPH, and ABTS assays of the different solvent extracts of the plant S. macrosperma. It was found that on an average, the plant extract with higher levels of phenol content had higher antioxidant activity. The antioxidant activities were found to be highest and lowest at methenolic and hexane extracts, respectively in both the assays. At 1mg/ml concentration, DPPH and ABTS assays showed highest activity in the methanol extract of 84 and 99% respectively. The presence of phenolic compounds was confirmed by HPLC.
Vernakalant is superior to ibutilide for achieving sinus rhythm in patients with recent-onset atrial fibrillation: a randomized controlled trial at the emergency department

Aims Ibutilide is a rapid‐acting antiarrhythmic drug with worldwide use for conversion of recent‐onset atrial fibrillation. Vernakalant, approved in the EU in 2010, is likewise used intravenously, with proven efficacy and safety compared with placebo and amiodarone in randomized clinical trials. The aim of our study was to compare the time to conversion and the conversion rate within 90 min in patients with recent‐onset atrial fibrillation treated with vernakalant or ibutilide. Methods and results A randomized controlled trial registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01447862) was performed in 100 patients with recent‐onset atrial fibrillation treated at the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Patients received up to two short infusions of vernakalant (n = 49; 3 mg/kg followed by 2 mg/kg if necessary) or ibutilide (n = 51; 1 mg followed by another 1 mg if necessary) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Clinical and laboratory variables, adverse events, conversion rates, and time to conversion were recorded. Time to conversion of AF to sinus rhythm was significantly shorter in the vernakalant group compared with the ibutilide group (median time: 10 vs. 26 min, P = 0.01), and likewise the conversion success within 90 min was significantly higher in the vernakalant group (69 vs. 43%, log‐rank P = 0.002). No serious adverse events occurred. Conclusion Vernakalant was superior to ibutilide in converting recent‐onset atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm in the emergency department setting.
Transforming Well-Being in Wuppertal—Conditions and Constraints

Conventional welfare production is unsustainable. A societal emphasis on (green) economic growth may therefore be superseded by an extended concept of well-being. Taking a transformative approach, science may take part in catalysing this challenging transformation of both the understanding and the level of well-being. Instead of economic growth at the expense of sustainability, we aim to cooperatively refocus on integrating economic, social and ecological perspectives into a more holistic, sustainable approach to individual and municipal well-being in Wuppertal (Germany). Therefore, the research team investigates and develops concepts of local sustainable well-being production, e.g., by employing a new indicator system and the real-world laboratory approach. What are the conditions and constraints of transforming well-being in Wuppertal and most particularly of the role of scientists in this endeavour? Answering this research question with a comparative case study approach, we have analysed our resources, processes, contexts and normativity. The results show that the role of ‘transformative scientists’ in Wuppertal faces constraints of timing and funding, as well as challenges from the different demands of science and practice. Hampered co-design interacts with role conflicts. Open-minded stakeholders are crucial for local well-being transformation, as is the awareness that urban residential districts have bottomed out. However, the normative sustainability claims of the transformative research project are not fully shared by all of its stakeholders, which is both necessary and challenging for transformative research.
Improving the Performance of an FMCW Indoor Localization System by Optimizing the Ranging Estimator

This work presents a three dimensional localization system for indoor environments based on Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave radar technology. An optimization of the Symmetric Double Sided Two Way Ranging estimator is proposed to improve the accuracy of the positioning algorithms. Moreover, the most promising positioning techniques, Recursive Least Square Method and Extended Kalman Filter, are analyzed. Measurements are presented that demonstrate that our proposal improves significantly the accuracy of the 3D positioning algorithms.
The Compact Polarimetry Alternative for Spaceborne SAR at Low Frequency

In spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a single-polarization on-transmit offers twice the swath width compared to full polarization. This is linked to SAR system design issues, and, without getting into the technical details deserving by themselves a full paper, we can just mention the swath characteristics of ALOS PALSAR (the Advanced Land Observing Satellite, Phased Array L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar), reducing from 70 km for the dual-pol mode to 30 km for the full polarization mode. The reduced coverage in the full polarization mode has a harmful impact on the revisit time, which is always a major drive for the Earth-observing community. The options chosen up to now for dual-pol system designs (or single-polarization on-transmit) rely on a linear polarization on-transmit [either horizontal (H) or vertical (V)], with two orthogonal polarizations on-receive. Souyris and Raney in earlier papers proposed more pertinent alternatives for the selection of the transmit polarization leading to a better characterization of the scattering mechanisms. In this paper, the analysis is pursued in more depth by including the effect of the ionosphere on the wave propagation and extending the applications to polarimetric interferometry SAR (PolInSAR). A compact mode is developed where the transmit polarization is circular, whereas the only constraint on the two receiving polarizations is independence. Indeed, the choice of the polarizations of the two receive channels does not matter, as any polarization on-receive can be synthesized from these two measurements. This is, however, not the case for the unique transmit polarization. At a low frequency, where the ionosphere has a significant effect, the circular transmit polarization is the only sensible option, as it provides an effective constant polarization as seen by the scattering surface. This is an essential condition for a meaningful multitemporal analysis. Both the polarimetric SAR applications and the PolInSAR applications in the context of this compact polarimetry (CP) mode are explored. A pseudocovariance matrix can be reconstructed following Souyris' proposed approach for distributed targets and is shown to be very similar to the full polarimetric (FP) covariance matrix. The reconstruction of the cross-polarized Sigma0 is shown to be reliable and to have very low sensitivity to Faraday rotation. A PolInSAR vegetation height inversion for P-band is presented and applied to the CP data with a level of performance that is similar to the one derived from FP (a 1.2-m root-mean-square height error on the ONERA Airborne radar (RAMSES) data over the Landes Forest). A procedure is developed to correct for the ionospheric effects for the PolInSAR acquisition in the FP or CP mode and is assessed on the data simulated from an airborne acquisition. The results demonstrate that the technique is efficient and robust. The calibration of CP data is identified as an important challenge to be solved, and some clues are provided to address the problem.
Cell Cycle and Senescence Inhibition of TWIST 1 Leads to Activation of Oncogene-Induced Senescence in Oncogene-Driven Non – Small Cell Lung Cancer

A large fraction of non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) are dependent on defined oncogenic driver mutations. Although targeted agents exist forEGFRandEML4-ALK–drivenNSCLCs, no therapies target themost frequently found driver mutation, KRAS. Furthermore, acquired resistance to the currently targetable driver mutations is nearly universally observed. Clearly a novel therapeutic approach is needed to target oncogene-drivenNSCLCs.We recently showed that the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor Twist1 cooperates with mutant Kras to induce lung adenocarcinoma in transgenicmousemodels and that inhibition of Twist1 in thesemodels led toKras-induced senescence. In the current study, we examine the role ofTWIST1 in oncogene-driven humanNSCLCs. Silencing of TWIST1 inKRAS-mutant humanNSCLC cell lines resulted in dramatic growth inhibition and either activation of a latent oncogene-induced senescence program or, in some cases, apoptosis. Similar effects were observed in EGFR mutation–driven and c-Met–amplified NSCLC cell lines. Growth inhibition by silencing of TWIST1 was independent of p53 or p16 mutational status and did not require previously defined mediators of senescence, p21 and p27, nor could this phenotype be rescued by overexpression of SKP2. In xenograft models, silencing of TWIST1 resulted in significant growth inhibition ofKRAS-mutant,EGFR-mutant, and c-Met–amplifiedNSCLCs. Remarkably, inducible silencing of TWIST1 resulted in significant growth inhibition of established KRAS-mutant tumors. Together these findings suggest that silencing of TWIST1 in oncogene driver–dependent NSCLCs represents a novel and promising therapeutic strategy. Mol Cancer Res; 11(4); 1–10. 2013 AACR.
Promoting the selection of low-fat milk in elementary school cafeterias in an inner-city Latino community: evaluation of an intervention.

OBJECTIVES This study examined the effects of a school-based intervention designed to promote the consumption of low-fat white milk at lunchtime in 6 elementary schools in an inner-city, primarily Latino neighborhood. METHODS A multifaceted intervention based on social marketing techniques was delivered at 3 randomly selected schools. The school was the unit of assignment and analysis; 6902 children were involved in the study. Milk selection and consumption were measured by sampling discarded milk and/or tallying milk carton disappearance at baseline, immediately postintervention, and at 3 to 4 months follow-up. RESULTS Immediately postintervention, the mean proportion of sampled milk cartons that contained low-fat milk increased in the intervention schools, from 25% to 57%, but remained constant at 28% in the control schools. Differences between intervention and control schools remained significant at 3 to 4 months follow-up. The intervention was not associated with a decrease in overall milk consumption. CONCLUSIONS A school-based intervention can lead to significant increases in student consumption of low-fat milk.
Acetylcholine synthesis and release following continuous intracerebral administration of NGF in adult and aged Fischer-344 rats

NGF promotes the survival and enhances the neurotransmitter phenotype of basal forebrain and striatal cholinergic neurons in brain of rat. The objective of the present study was to determine whether stimulations of the cholinergic neuronal markers ChAT and high-affinity choline uptake are reflected in enhanced synthesis and release of ACh. Enhancement of ACh release in brain of adult and aged rats could result in increased cholinergic neurotransmission, and altered animal behavior. NGF (1.2 micrograms/d) was administered intracerebroventricularly for 2 weeks by osmotic minipump to male Fischer-344 rats aged 4 and 24 months. Cholinergic neuronal functional parameters were measured in frontal cortex, hippocampus, and striatum. In young adult rats, increased ChAT and choline uptake activities were accompanied by enhanced ACh synthesis, basal and depolarization-induced release of both endogenous and newly synthesized transmitter, with the largest effect generally being observed in striatum. In aged animals, the responses to NGF were less uniform. Whereas the pattern for changes in ChAT activity was similar to that seen in younger animals, choline uptake activity was increased only in frontal cortex and striatum. Coincidentally, ACh synthesis was also increased only in these two brain regions. ACh content of synaptosomes was not affected by age or NGF treatment, and the ACh levels in microwaved samples of striatum and basal forebrain were not affected by NGF treatment. However, profound deficits in both basal and evoked release of newly synthesized ACh were observed in the aged rats. NGF treatment had no significant effect on the basal release of newly synthesized ACh in aged rats. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) in the assessment of inflammatory activity of rheumatoid arthritis patients in remission

Abstract Background: Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a biomarker increasingly used for the assessment of systemic inflammation. We aimed to evaluate suPAR for the assessment of inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in remission. Methods: In our cross-sectional study we measured plasma suPAR and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels as well as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in 120 RA patients at various stages of disease activity and 29 healthy age-matched controls. Results: suPAR, CRP and ESR values were higher in RA patients compared to healthy individuals. When suPAR levels were analyzed according to DAS28 scores of RA patients, suPAR level in the subgroup with DAS28≤2.6 was lower than in the subgroup with DAS28>2.6, but still higher than in controls [4.45 (3.33–5.56) ng/mL vs. 3.66 (3.10–4.67) ng/mL vs. 2.80 (2.06–3.42) ng/mL, p<0.0001, median (interquartile range)]. In contrast, CRP and ESR values were comparable in the subgroup with DAS28≤2.6 and in healthy individuals. We further analyzed the correlation between the number of tender and/or swollen joints and suPAR levels in RA patients in remission. suPAR values were significantly higher in patients with four tender and/or swollen joints than in patients with 2–3 or 0–1 tender and/or swollen joints. Conclusions: While CRP and ESR values indicate remission of the chronic inflammatory process in RA, suPAR values are still elevated compared to healthy individuals. suPAR might be particularly valuable in the recognition of inflammatory activity in patients who are in remission according to DAS28 scores but have symptoms of tender and/or swollen joints.
UMH-MG 0101 Scalar perturbations in a primordial inflationary scenario

We compute the spectral index for scalar perturbations generated in a primordial inflationary model. In this model, the transition of the inflationary phase to the radiative era is achieved through the decay of the cosmological term leading a second order phase transition and the characteristics of the model allow to implement a set of initial conditions where the perturbations display a thermal spectrum when they emerge from the horizon. The obtained value for the spectral index is equal to 2, a result that depends very weakly on the various parameters of the model and on the initial conditions used. PACS number(s): 04.20. Cv. , 04.20. Me