Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Convallatoxin, a Dual Inducer of Autophagy and Apoptosis, Inhibits Angiogenesis In Vitro and In Vivo

Autophagy and apoptosis are important processes that control cellular homeostasis and have been highlighted as promising targets for novel cancer therapies. Here, we identified convallatoxin (CNT), isolated from Antiaris toxicaria, as a dual inducer of autophagy and apoptosis. CNT exerts cytotoxic effects on a number of cancer and normal cell lines and induces apoptosis by increasing caspase-3 and poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage. Moreover, dose- and time-dependent autophagic activity was detected in CNT-treated cells, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/p70S6K signal pathway inhibition was observed. Notably, CNT inhibits human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) growth and exerts anti-angiogenic activity in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the naturally occurring compound, CNT, is a novel anti-angiogenic compound via dual inducing of autophagy and apoptosis.
Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the Biotin Carboxyl Carrier Subunits of Heteromeric Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase in Gossypium

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase is an important enzyme, which catalyzes acetyl-CoA’s carboxylation to produce malonyl-CoA and to serve as a committed step for de novo fatty acid biosynthesis in plastids. In this study, 24 putative cotton BCCP genes were identified based on the lately published genome data in Gossypium. Among them, 4, 4, 8, and 8 BCCP homologs were identified in Gossypium raimondii, G. arboreum, G. hirsutum, and G. barbadense, respectively. These genes were divided into two classes based on a phylogenetic analysis. In each class, these homologs were relatively conserved in gene structure and motifs. The chromosomal distribution pattern revealed that all the BCCP genes were distributed equally on corresponding chromosomes or scaffold in the four cotton species. Segmental duplication was a predominant duplication event in both of G. hirsutum and G. barbadense. The analysis of the expression profile showed that 8 GhBCCP genes expressed in all the tested tissues with changed expression levels, and GhBCCP genes belonging to class II were predominantly expressed in developing ovules. Meanwhile, the expression analysis for the 16 cotton BCCP genes from G. raimondii, G. arboreum and G. hirsutum showed that they were induced or suppressed by cold or salt stress, and their expression patterns varied among different tissues. These findings will help to determine the functional and evolutionary characteristics of the BCCP genes in Gossypium species.
A push-type groupware system to facilitate small group collaboration

In this study, we are trying to develop a general-purpose groupware system for uniform open groups that integrate in itself all main tools necessary for collaboration and cooperation online to achieve common goals at shorter times, ensure fast information transfer and decrease the amount of necessary administration. The system consists of a number of tools that reflect actions of one member at all the nodes of the system, giving awareness for collaboration and increasing its effectiveness. In comparison with other applications that have been designed for knowledge sharing, our system pushes necessary information through the network so that no manual search and download are necessary if one of the group members possesses it. Thus the speed of training, knowledge and information sharing is accelerated and participation of the group members will be increased. By developing the system, we are trying to provide shared workspace for all main platforms as well.
A Neural-network Algorithm for All k Shortest Paths Problem

One of the fundamental computations for network analysis is to calculate the shortest path (SP) and all k shortest paths (KSP) between two nodes. Finding SP and KSP in a large graph is not trivial since the computation time increases as the number of nodes and edges increases. A recent neural network algorithm for calculating SP showed its advantage of not depending on the number of nodes and edges but the topology of a graph. Reasonable performance of the algorithm was reported. However, this algorithm is limited to the SP problem. This paper reports the progress of extending a neural network algorithm to solve the KSP problem. How to apply the new KSP algorithm to a whole-genome sequencing problem is also discussed.
Toxicity and bioavailability of copper nanoparticles to the terrestrial plants mung bean (Phaseolus radiatus) and wheat (Triticum aestivum): Plant agar test for water‐insoluble nanoparticles

Because of their insolubility in water, nanoparticles have a limitation concerning toxicity experiments. The present study demonstrated a plant agar test for homogeneous exposure of nanoparticles to plant species. The effect of Cu nanoparticles on the growth of a plant seedling was studied, and bioaccumulation of nanoparticles was investigated. All tests were conducted in plant agar media to prevent precipitation of water‐insoluble nanoparticles in test units. The plant species were Phaseolus radiatus (mung bean) and Triticum aestivum (wheat). Growth inhibition of a seedling exposed to different concentrations of Cu nanoparticles was examined. Copper nanoparticles were toxic to both plants and also were bioavailable. The 2‐d median effective concentrations for P. radiatus and T. aestivum exposed to Cu nanoparticles were 335 (95% confidence level, 251–447) and 570 (450–722) mg/L, respectively. Phaseolus radiatus was more sensitive than T. aestivum to Cu nanoparticles. A cupric ion released from Cu nanoparticles had negligible effects in the concentration ranges of the present study, and the apparent toxicity clearly resulted from Cu nanoparticles. Bioaccumulation increased with increasing concentration of Cu nanoparticles, and agglomeration of particles was observed in the cells using transmission‐electron microscopy–energy‐dispersive spectroscopy. The present study demonstrated that the plant agar test was a good protocol for testing the phytotoxicity of nanoparticles, which are hardly water soluble.
Design Issues in a Bare PC Web Server

We present a bare PC Web server design that runs on any Intel 386 based PC without any hard disk and other supporting software. This server design is based on simplicity and minimal functionality. We identify design issues related to such server and provide our preliminary performance measurements in comparison with IIS and Apache servers. We have found that our Web server performs comparable to commercial servers and it can be enhanced to perform even better when it is optimized for certain design factors. This work also has motivated us to pursue further research in building bare PC Web servers that can be scalable to run large applications. In addition, as the Web server is self-contained with all necessary code, it inherently provides ubiquity on the network, which allows for moving the server dynamically on the network during emergency and catastrophic situations. Furthermore, bare PC software may also provide alternate ways of building secure systems for critical applications
Estimation of Forest Topsoil Properties Using Airborne LiDAR-Derived Intensity and Topographic Factors

Forest topsoil supports vegetation growth and contains the majority of soil nutrients that are important indices of soil fertility and quality. Therefore, estimating forest topsoil properties, such as soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (Total N), pH, litter-organic (O-A) horizon depth (Depth) and available phosphorous (AvaP), is of particular importance for forest development and management. As an emerging technology, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can capture the three-dimensional structure and intensity information of scanned objects, and can generate high resolution digital elevation models (DEM) using ground echoes. Moreover, great power for estimating forest topsoil properties is enclosed in the intensity information of ground echoes. However, the intensity has not been well explored for this purpose. In this study, we collected soil samples from 62 plots and the coincident airborne LiDAR data in a Korean pine forest in Northeast China, and assessed the effectiveness of both multi-scale intensity data and LiDAR-derived topographic factors for estimating forest topsoil properties. The results showed that LiDAR-derived variables could be robust predictors of four topsoil properties (SOM, Total N, pH, and Depth), with coefficients of determination (R2) ranging from 0.46 to 0.66. Ground-returned intensity was identified as the most effective predictor for three topsoil properties (SOM, Total N, and Depth) with R2 values of 0.17–0.64. Meanwhile, LiDAR-derived topographic factors, except elevation and sediment transport index, had weak explanatory power, with R2 no more than 0.10. These findings suggest that the LiDAR intensity of ground echoes is effective for estimating several topsoil properties in forests with complicated topography and dense canopy cover. Furthermore, combining intensity and multi-scale LiDAR-derived topographic factors, the prediction accuracies (R2) were enhanced by negligible amounts up to 0.40, relative to using intensity only for topsoil properties. Moreover, the prediction accuracy for Depth increased by 0.20, while for other topsoil properties, the prediction accuracies increased negligibly, when the scale dependency of soil–topography relationship was taken into consideration.
Semi-Global 3D Line Modeling for Incremental Structure-from-Motion

Recovering 3D information from a single moving camera is a widely studied field in the area of computer vision (e.g. [1]). Most of these Structurefrom-Motion (SfM) approaches are based on so-called interest points (e.g. corners) in images, which can be accurately matched using powerful descriptors like SIFT [7]. Hence the output is usually a sparse 3D point cloud along with the camera poses for all successfully integrated images. While previous methods were only able to perform pose estimation and 3D reconstruction in an offline way, there are now more and more incremental SfM approaches available (e.g. [4]). Since conventional SfM approaches are based on interest points, the distribution of the obtained 3D points is usually not uniform throughout the whole reconstruction. This is due to the fact that such interest points are usually located on highly textured areas, but not on homogeneous regions or along edges. Since the result of SfM pipelines is often used as basis to generate a more dense result or for localization and navigation tasks, it would be beneficial to generate additional complementary 3D information in an efficient way. From a SfM point of view, using line segments is especially interesting for urban and indoor environments, where linear structures frequently occur. While interest points are located mostly on richly textured image locations, line segments usually mark the boundaries of objects. Hence, incorporating such features in an online SfM pipeline to create 3D line segments naturally leads to a more complete 3D representation of the underlying scene, which is beneficial for all kinds of subsequent applications. We propose a novel approach which generates 3D line models in a semi-global way directly on-the-fly, based solely on the output of a conventional incremental SfM pipeline. The goal of our method is to generate additional complementary 3D information to improve the sparse 3D representation of the scene. In this approach, we consider the SfM pipeline as a black box and do not interfere with the pose estimation procedure. We show that 3D line reconstructions can be obtained very efficiently by using purely geometric constraints, or by additionally incorporating appearance and collinearity information. Our approach enables accurate 3D reconstruction of texture-less as well as textured man-made objects, including complex structures such as wiry objects. Figure 1 shows a reconstruction result obtained by an incremental SfM system [4], followed by a surface generation method [5], with and without the usage of additional 3D line segments obtained by our proposed method. As we can see, additional 3D information significantly improves the completeness and overall appearance of the resulting reconstructions. For more technical details, we kindly refer to the full paper.
Refining Pathways: A Model Comparison Approach

Cellular signalling pathways consolidate multiple molecular interactions into working models of signal propagation, amplification, and modulation. They are described and visualized as networks. Adjusting network topologies to experimental data is a key goal of systems biology. While network reconstruction algorithms like nested effects models are well established tools of computational biology, their data requirements can be prohibitive for their practical use. In this paper we suggest focussing on well defined aspects of a pathway and develop the computational tools to do so. We adapt the framework of nested effect models to focus on a specific aspect of activated Wnt signalling in HCT116 colon cancer cells: Does the activation of Wnt target genes depend on the secretion of Wnt ligands or do mutations in the signalling molecule β-catenin make this activation independent from them? We framed this question into two competing classes of models: Models that depend on Wnt ligands secretion versus those that do not. The model classes translate into restrictions of the pathways in the network topology. Wnt dependent models are more flexible than Wnt independent models. Bayes factors are the standard Bayesian tool to compare different models fairly on the data evidence. In our analysis, the Bayes factors depend on the number of potential Wnt signalling target genes included in the models. Stability analysis with respect to this number showed that the data strongly favours Wnt ligands dependent models for all realistic numbers of target genes.
Ethic of Care versus Ethic of Justice? The Gender- Corruption Nexus: Testing the New Conventional Wisdom

Ce papier utilise des donnees empiriques sur le Ghana afin d’examiner comment, le genre, en tant que systeme social, genere des dilemmes moraux dans le secteur public. Les hommes et les femmes se sentent obligees de choisir des conditions privees de moralite dans le secteur de l’ethique publique. Ce papier demontre que les references qui delimitent les personnalites comportementales sexuees et qui sont utilisees pour justifier le plus haut degre de standard ethique des femmes peut aussi etre potentiellement source de corruption, si les femmes essaient de respecter les attentes en matiere de genre dans la conduite des obligations publiques. Fondamentalement, le papier argumente que l’ethique sexuee- supposant la division entre ethique de la compassion et ethique de la justice- pourrait perpetuer des comportements qui nient l’ethique du secteur public, mais se conforme a l’ethique sociale. En utilisant les travaux de Carol Gilligan (1982) sur la theorie du developpement moral, il conclut, inter alia, que le recrutement des femmes dans le secteur public devrait etre promu en tant que droit plutot qu’a partir de leur probite morale presumee superieure. Promouvoir les femmes dans le services publics sur la base de leur ethique superieure pourrait s’averer contre-productif si les espoirs etaient decus.
A new fuzzy-rough feature selection algorithm for mammographic risk analysis

Mammographie risk analysis is a useful means for the early diagnosis of breast cancer. There are many efforts have been devoted to improving the performance of the relevant assessment technologies. This paper presents an invasive weed optimization (IWO) based fuzzy-rough feature selection method for mammographic risk assessment. The advantage of IWO is that the offspring individuals are randomly spread around their parents according to a Gaussian distribution during the evolution process. Such Gaussian distribution is designated with a dynamical standard deviation. Therefore, the optimization algorithm can explore a new solution space aggressively. The diversity of the species can be maintained in the early and middle iterations, and the optimal individuals will be found in the final iteration of feature selection. The mechanism of IWO ensures a global optimal solution for the heuristic search. The performance of IWO is compared against the feature selection methods with ant colony optimization (ACO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). In the last chapter, the experimental results indicate that the use of IWO entails better performance for the problem of mammographic risk analysis according to both dimensionality reduction and classification accuracy.
HISTOCHEMICAL IDENTIFICATION OF SIALIC (NEURAMIXIC) ACIDS

i hse prcsens( tcchunio tnes for thse histochsenusicah locmilizmtt ionu of similio’ micid mire based ons thse use of neurmimuuinsi(! mise, ann enszvnne which, accordinug to Gottschsmilk (Biochim. Biophys. Acta 23: 645, 1957), cleaves the a-ke(osidic linikmsge joinimsg useuramusiusic acids to mini adjmicent sugar. Thsis enszymnse was first inutnoduced ins huistochsenusistrv by Spicer ansol Warrens (.1. Histochem. 8: 324, 1960). Hosu-ever, as (hey noted lmiter (ibid. 9: 400, 1961), in sonuse cases sites kmsowms to lie rids ins sialic acids, as thse sublingua! amso! (hue subnusaxil! ary glansds of the rat, give no loss of stmiinsability with azure A and mi! ciams blue evens after prolonsged inicubatiomss ins neuramusinsidase. So it would lie usefu! to have a nuethsod that coulol shiow directly tise presensee of sia! ic acids. Klemsk amid Lamsgerbeimss (Hoppe-Seylers Z. physiol. (‘hemn. 270: 185, 1941) proposed a mssethod baseol ons (hue red co! our developed by thuese eonsspoumids ins (hue presemice of (hse Bial reagent. Ins 1955 l)ieze! (Naturwissenschaften 42: 487, 1955), duninsg Isis his(ochsemmsicmi! studies on sonsue disturbanuces o)f nservous systemns, perfornmued this nnethod on hsisto! ogica! sectionis. Hut (he 60-nsinuute exposure of the sectiouss to HC1 fumuses oftemu destroyed tissues, leavinug ously a diffuse reddish coloration. Beside thsis (he concentrations of HC1 ins the reagent was too huighu so thuat other suhistances, as cerebrosides, could give mufmilse positive. Fronus (hue accunrate stuolies and nsuodifieations of Sventserhuolmss (Arkiv Keini 10: 577, 1957) on (he Hial reaction for sialic acids, we propose here a (echunic whichs is easy to performss ansd gives good results. Cut frozen sec(ionss, formusalin fixed, at 10-15 , attmichs thenus to slides amid let dry. Spray (he sections with the Hial reagent as modified by Svennerholmus: Orcinol 200 nug CuSO4, 0.1 ill 0.25 cc HC! , 12 N 80 cc Make up (he volume to 100 cc with distilled water. (Let stamsd four hours before use. If stored at 0#{176}C (he so! u(ion is stable for a week). Then p! aee sections face down on a glass framsie ins a preheated container, which has on (he bottom a thins layer of comscentrated HCI, at 70#{176}Cfor 5-10 nsinut.es. Dry (he sections in air. Clear in xylene, nsount in Canada balsanns. Results: sites containing siahic acids are coloured ins various shades of red; (he structure of (issues reniains general! y well preserved. The colour fades within a day. To test (he specificity of this method we performned it on these substances adsorbed on filter paper: msietoxyneuralssinie acid kindly supp! ied by Professor K! enk of the University of K#{246}ln, N -acetylneuransinie acid obtained through (he courtesy of Professor Svennerholm of the University of Goteborg, cerebroside, cephalin, hyaluronic acid, heparin, ribonucleic acid. We obtained a positive reaction ously ins (he ease of metoxyand N -aee(ylmseuramisinic acid.
Effective sphere and setting of road network patterns by fractal analysis for ambulance movement

This study aimed to construct an evaluation technique by visualizing the effective sphere and setting of a road network by fractal dimension analysis to form the basis for road maintenance and improvement standards, and operating efficiency. As a criterion for protection of life, the initiation time of the treatment is considered an appraisal standard, and the numerical fractal value is shown to have a relationship with emergency medical transport.
Postoperative Evaluation of Health-Related Quality-of-Life (HRQoL) of Patients With Lumbar Degenerative Spondylolisthesis After Instrumented Posterolateral Fusion (PLF): A prospective Study With a 2-Year Follow-Up

Background: Several studies have compared instrumented PLF with other surgical approaches in terms of clinical outcomes, however little is known about the postoperative HRQoL of patients, especially as regards to degenerative spondylolisthesis. Methods: A group of 62 patients, 30 women (48,4%) and 32 men (51,6%) with mean age 56,73 (SD +/- 9,58) years old, were selected to participate in a 2-year follow-up. Their pain was assessed via the visual analogue scale (VAS) for low back pain (VASBP) and leg pain (VASLP) separately. Their HRQoL was evaluated by the Short Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36). Both scales, VAS and SF36, were measured and re-assessed at 10 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 2 years. Results: VASBP, VASLP and each parameter of SF36 presented statistically significant improvement (p<0.01). VASBP, VASLP and SF36 scores did not differ significantly between men and women (p≥0.05). The most notable amelioration of VASBP, VASLP was observed within the first 10 days and the maximum improvement within the first 3 months. From that point, a stabilization of the parameters was observed. The majority of SF36 parameters, and especially PF (physical functioning) and BP (bodily pain), presented statistically significant improvement within the follow up depicting a very similar improvement pattern to that of VAS. Conclusion: We conclude that instrumented PLF ameliorates impressively the HRQoL of patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis after 2 years of follow-up, with pain recession being the most crucial factor responsible for this improvement.
Quick estimate of the regulatory virtually safe dose based on the maximum tolerated dose for rodent bioassays.

With a limited subset of National Cancer Institute/National Toxicology Program (NCI/NTP) bioassays, Gaylor (Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol. 9, 101-108, 1989) showed that the regulatory virtually safe dose (VSD), corresponding to an estimated lifetime cancer risk of less than 10(-6), could be estimated within a factor of 10 simply by dividing the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), estimated from the results of a 90-day study, by 380,000. The purpose of this current study was to extend the analysis to all carcinogens in the Carcinogenic Potency Database (CPDB) utilizing the TD50 (average daily dose rate in mg/kg body wt/day that was estimated to halve the probability of remaining tumor-free at a specified tissue site throughout a 2-year study). Using the relationship between the upper bound on the low-dose slope (q1*) and the TD50 reported by Krewski et al. (Risk Anal. 13, 383-398, 1993) and the ratio of the maximum dose tested (Max-D)/TD50 obtained in our present analysis, an estimate of the regulatory VSD was given by the MTD/740,000, for NCI/NTP rodent carcinogens. This was about a factor of two lower than the limited analysis conducted by Gaylor. There was little difference when the chemicals were divided into mutagens and nonmutagens. Ninety-six percent (134 of the 139 NCI/NTP rodent carcinogens) of the regulatory VSDs calculated from the individual TD50s obtained from the 2-year bioassays were within a factor of 10 of the MTD/740,000. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)