Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Appraising MicroRNA-155 as a Noninvasive Diagnostic Biomarker for Cancer Detection

AbstractCancer has been a major public health issue all over the world and cancer patients diagnosed at early stages have a comparatively favorable prognosis. The association between specific dysregulated expressed microRNA-155 (miRNA-155, miR-155) and tumorigenesis has been identified by numerous studies. However, perplexity and inconsistence arise from a wide range of studies due to heterogeneity. Therefore, this meta-analysis was carried out to validate the association between miR-155 and tumorigenesis together with the clinical applicability of miR-155.Relevant studies were searched, identified, and selected from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Sinomed, and Wanfang database until July 5, 2015. Then, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the summary receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated to assess the overall performance miR-155 for cancer detection.A total of 25 studies were included in the meta-analysis with a total number of 1896 cancer patients and 1226 healthy controls. The overall sensitivity and specificity was 76.8% (95%CI: 71.1–81.7%) and 82.9% (95% CI: 77.5–87.3%), respectively. In addition, the pooled AUC and partial AUC was 0.867 and 0.718, respectively. Results from subgroup analyses suggested that the diagnostic accuracy of miR-155 in the Caucasian group was significantly higher than that in the Asian group. Similarly, serum sample type may provide better diagnostic value of miR-155 than plasma. Apart from that, miR-155 in breast cancer achieved the highest accuracy compared with miR-155 in other types of cancer.Results from meta-analysis suggested that miR-155 had great potential as a novel noninvasive biomarker for human cancer detection, particularly when breast cancer or Caucasian is involved. However, well-designed cohort or case control studies with large sample size should be implemented to confirm the diagnostic value of miR-155.
Snake Energy Analysis and Result Validation for a Mobile Laser Scanning Data-Based Automated Road Edge Extraction Algorithm

The negative impact of road accidents cannot be ignored in terms of the very sizeable social and economic loss. Road infrastructure has been identified as one of the main causes of the road accidents. They are required to be recorded, located, measured, and classified in order to schedule maintenance and identify the possible risk elements of the road. Toward this, an accurate knowledge of the road edges increases the reliability and precision of extracting other road features. We have developed an automated algorithm for extracting road edges from mobile laser scanning (MLS) data based on the parametric active contour or snake model. The algorithm involves several internal and external energy parameters that need to be analyzed in order to find their optimal values. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the snake energy parameters involved in our road edge extraction algorithm. Their optimal values enable us to automate the process of extracting edges from MLS data for tested road sections. We present a modified external energy in our algorithm and demonstrate its utility for extracting road edges from low and nonuniform point density datasets. A novel validation approach is presented, which provides a qualitative assessment of the extracted road edges based on direct comparisons with reference road edges. This approach provides an alternative to traditional road edge validation methodologies that are based on creating buffer zones around reference road edges and then computing quality measure values for the extracted edges. We tested our road edge extraction algorithm on datasets that were acquired using multiple MLS systems along various complex road sections. The successful extraction of road edges from these datasets validates the robustness of our algorithm for use in complex route corridor environments.
Quinolone Induction of qnrVS1 in Vibrio splendidus and Plasmid-Carried qnrS1 in Escherichia coli, a Mechanism Independent of the SOS System

ABSTRACT Plasmid-carried qnrS1 is derived from Vibrio splendidus chromosomal qnrVS1. qnrVS1 transcripts increased 21- to 34-fold with subinhibitory concentrations of ciprofloxacin but much less with mitomycin. No LexA binding sites were upstream of qnrS1 or qnrVS1, and similar induction levels were observed in lexA-positive and lexA-negative Escherichia coli strains with native qnrS1 plasmid pMG306 but not with pUC18-cloned qnrS1 or qnrVS1. Thus, qnrS1 induction by quinolones is independent of the SOS system and requires sequence besides that of the structural gene.
Incidence, Prevalence, and Mortality Trends in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease over 2001 to 2011: A Public Health Point of View of the Burden

Background. An increase of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence was reported in Canada despite the decline of the main risk factor. Objectives. To estimate incidence, prevalence, and mortality of COPD from 2001 to 2011 and establish the COPD burden by the evaluation of the age-period-cohort effects on incidence trends and the comorbidities prevalence estimations. Methods. A retrospective population-based cohort was built using Quebec health administrative data. Change in trends was measured by relative percentage of changes and by joinpoint regression. After a descriptive analysis of the trends, an age-period-cohort analysis was performed on incidence rates. Results. Overall increase in prevalence along with a decrease of incidence and all-cause mortality was observed. Over time, all age-standardized trends were higher in men than women. Despite higher rates, the number of incident and prevalent cases in women exceeds men since 2004. The curve analysis by age groups showed over time a downshift for both sexes in incidence and all-cause mortality. Further analysis showed the presence of a cohort effect in women. Conclusion. The burden of COPD has risen over time. Women younger than 65 years old have been identified as at-risk group for healthcare planning.
A novel 2-D pair-matching algorithm using the special relation between the transition matrices and the autocorrelation matrix of the signals

In this paper, a novel pair-matching algorithm is developed for two-dimensional (2-D) direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. In the proposed algorithm, firstly we take the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the cross-correlation matrix of two uniform linear arrays (ULAs). Next we extract the square root of the singular values. Lastly we multiply the left singular vectors and right singular vectors by the square root of the corresponding singular values respectively and obtain the new singular vectors which are called the modified singular vectors. After this processing, there exists a special relation between the transition matrices from the modified singular vectors to the steering vectors and the autocorrelation matrix of the signals. Exploiting this relation, the pair-matching procedure of the azimuth and elevation angles is carried out effectively. The simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
On the threshold hyperbolic GARCH models

In the flnancial market, the volatility of flnancial assets plays a key role in the problem of measuring market risk in many investment decisions. Insights into economic forces that may contribute to or amplify volatility are thus important. The flnancial market is characterized by regime switching between phases of low volatility and phases of high volatility. Nonlinearity and long memory are two salient features of volatility. To jointly capture the features of long memory and nonlinearity, a new threshold time series model with hyperbolic generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity is considered in this article. A goodness of flt test is derived to check the adequacy of the fltted model. Simulation and empirical results provide further support to the proposed model. AMS 2000 subject classifications: Primary 91B84; secondary 62M10.
Opportunistic multicast scheduling for unicast transmission in MIMO-OFDM system

We propose a opportunistic multicast scheduling scheme to exploit content reuse when there is asynchronicity in user requests. A unicast transmission setup is used for content delivery, while multicast transmission is employed opportunistically to reduce wireless resource usage. We then develop a multicast scheduling scheme for the downlink multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal-frequency division multiplexing system in IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN). At each time slot, the scheduler serves the users by either unicast or multicast transmission. Out-sequence data received by a user is stored in user's cache for future use. Multicast precoding and user selection for multicast grouping are also considered and compliance with the IEEE 802.11 WLAN transmission protocol. The scheduling scheme is based on the Lyapunov optimization technique, which aims to maximize system rate. The resulting scheme has low complexity and requires no prior statistical information on the channels and queues. Furthermore, in the absence of channel error, the proposed scheme restricts the worst case of frame dropping deadline, which is useful for delivering real-time traffic. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms existing techniques by 17 % to 35 % in term of user capacity.
Knowledge-based Automatic Labeling of Cortical Sulci in 3-D Brain MR Images Using Fuzzy Modeling

Atrophy of human brain is observed as the progress of dementia. The atrophy occurs at the different rate on each gyrus. Therefore, calculating the atrophy for each gyrus helps us for estimating the degree of progress and for the purpose of distinguish diagnosis. The gyri of interest can be found by labeling cortical sulci. This paper aims to propose a fully automated method for labeling the cortical sulci in three-dimensional (3-D) human brain magnetic resonance (MR) images. To evaluate our method, we applied the proposed method to find the superior frontal sulcus. precentral sulcus and central sulcus. Comparison between the automatically labeled sulci and the manually drawn lines by a physician showed that the labeled lines correctly found the location and shape of these sulci.
Kleenex: compiling nondeterministic transducers to deterministic streaming transducers

We present and illustrate Kleenex, a language for expressing general nondeterministic finite transducers, and its novel compilation to streaming string transducers with essentially optimal streaming behavior, worst-case linear-time performance and sustained high throughput. Its underlying theory is based on transducer decomposition into oracle and action machines: the oracle machine performs streaming greedy disambiguation of the input; the action machine performs the output actions. In use cases Kleenex achieves consistently high throughput rates around the 1 Gbps range on stock hardware. It performs well, especially in complex use cases, in comparison to both specialized and related tools such as GNUawk, GNUsed, GNUgrep, RE2, Ragel and regular-expression libraries.
Learning English during the summer: A comparison of two domestic programs for pre-adolescents

Contexts that promote intensive second language (L2) experiences (typically, stay abroad, immersion, etc.) are reported to facilitate language development; yet, little is known about such programs when they are addressed to school-age learners in their home country. The present study examines the experiences of learners aged 11–13 years who participated in two domestic summer programs: a group of 58 learners on an overnight summer camp and a group of 47 learners at a language school. While the learners on both programs received English lessons on a daily basis, only those in the summer camp were exposed to English during non-language related activities. L2 development was assessed by administering three productive tasks and students’ experiences were recorded using questionnaires and via on-site observations. Our results indicate that the learners in both settings underwent significant L2 improvement in spite of the short duration of the two programs (three to four weeks). The results also highlight the challenge that domestic intensive programs face in seeking to maximize L2 use.
The Neural Representation of Time: An Information-Theoretic Perspective

A prominent finding in psychophysical experiments on time perception is Weber's law, the linear scaling of timing errors with duration. The ability to reproduce this scaling has been taken as a criterion for the validity of neurocomputational models of time perception. However, the origin of Weber's law remains unknown, and currently only a few models generi- cally reproduce it. Here, we use an information-theoretical framework that considers the neuronal mechanisms of time perception as stochastic processes to investigate the statistical origin of Weber's law in time perception and also its frequently observed deviations. Under the assumption that the brain is able to compute optimal estimates of time, we find that Weber's law only holds exactly if the estimate is based on temporal changes in the variance of the process. In contrast, the timing errors scale sublinearly with time if the systematic changes in the mean of a process are used for estimation, as is the case in the majority of time perception models, while estimates based on temporal correlations result in a superlinear scaling. This hierarchy of temporal information is preserved if several sources of temporal information are available. Furthermore, we consider the case of multiple stochastic processes and study the examples of a covariance-based model and a model based on synfire chains. This approach reveals that existing neurocomputational models of time perception can be classified as mean-, variance- and correlation-based processes and allows predictions about the scaling of the resulting timing errors.
Urinary tract infections in hospitalized inflammatory bowel disease patients: A 10‐year experience

Background: Cystitis is the most common genitourinary complication in Crohn's disease (CD). We assessed the prevalence of and risk factors for urinary tract infections (UTI) in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Methods: Among the 1173 IBD patients of the “Nancy IBD cohort” seen between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009, 56 hospitalized patients had 76 documented UTI. Prevalence of UTI in IBD was calculated using rates of UTI among non‐IBD patients hospitalized during the same period. The cases were compared to 175 matched IBD patients without UTI hospitalized during the same period to identify risk factors for UTI. Results: Prevalence of UTI was 4% in IBD patients versus 3.3% in non‐IBD patients (P = 0.1). Prevalence of UTI was 4.5% and 2.1% in ulcerative colitis (UC) and CD patients, respectively (P = 0.6). Risk factors for UTI in CD patients were perianal disease (odds ratio [OR] = 2.28, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06–4.89; P = 0.04) and colonic disease (OR = 2.42, 95% CI, 1.05–5.58; P = 0.04). Male gender (OR = 0.38, 95% CI, 0.17–0.85, P = 0.02) and noncomplicated behavior (OR = 0.26, 95% CI, 0.11–0.60, P = 0.002) were protective factors against UTI in CD. In UC patients, age over 40 years (OR = 9.59, 95% CI, 1.93–47.74; P = 0.006) and disease duration over 11 months (OR = 10.77, 95% CI, 1.68–68.89, P = 0.01) were risk factors for UTI. Male gender was negatively associated with UTI (OR = 0.04, 95% CI, 0.01–0.36, P = 0.00006). Conclusions: Hospitalized IBD patients are not at increased risk of UTI. Risk factors for UTI include perianal disease and colonic disease in CD and age and longer disease duration in UC. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2011;)
Construction, Use, and Validation of Psychological Scales

企画の趣旨 吉田 寿夫・石井 秀宗 教育心理学の研究において多用されている質問紙尺 度を用いた個人差の測定法に関する理解を深めること を目的として,本セミナーを企画した。 直接観察することができない構成概念を対象として 測定を行うことが一般的である心理学にとって,妥当 性の問題は非常に重要である。 しかしながら,本邦に おける現状はというと,型にはまった安易な方法に よって作成された尺度に関して,これまた型にはまっ た極めて安易な検討をしただけで「妥当性が確認され た」という判断が下され,それで「みそぎ」が済んだ とみなしていると推察される研究が多くみられる。 そ して,このような甘い判断のもとに多くの構成概念と それを測定するための(妥当性に関して多くの問題がある と考えられる)尺度が提唱・作成され, 類似した構成概 念および尺度の乱立」という望ましからざる状況も生 じてしまっていると思われる。 本セミナーでは,以上のような現状に鑑み,質問紙 尺度の作成と使用,および妥当性の検討に関する基本 的事項について,現状の問題点の指摘や改善の方策の 提言を含めた話題提供をお願いした。 以下は,講演者 に執筆していただいたセミナーのまとめである。
Perirhinal and postrhinal cortices of the rat: Interconnectivity and connections with the entorhinal cortex

The cortical regions dorsally adjacent to the posterior rhinal sulcus in the rat can be divided into a rostral region, the perirhinal cortex, which shares features of the monkey perirhinal cortex, and a caudal region, the postrhinal cortex, which has connectional attributes similar to the monkey parahippocampal cortex. We examined the connectivity among the rat perirhinal (areas 35 and 36), postrhinal, and entorhinal cortices by placing anterograde and retrograde tracers in all three regions. There is a dorsal‐to‐ventral cascade of connections in the perirhinal and entorhinal cortices. Dorsal area 36 projects strongly to ventral area 36, and ventral area 36 projects strongly to area 35. The return projections are substantially weaker. The cascade continues with the perirhinal to entorhinal connections. Area 35 is more strongly interconnected with the entorhinal cortex, ventral area 36 somewhat less strongly, and dorsal area 36 projects only weakly to the entorhinal cortex. The postrhinal‐to‐perirhinal connections also follow this general pattern. The postrhinal cortex is more heavily connected with dorsal area 36 than with ventral area 36 and is more heavily connected with area 36 than with area 35. The rostral portion of the postrhinal cortex has the strongest connections with the perirhinal cortex. Like in the monkey, the perirhinal and postrhinal cortices have different patterns of projections to the entorhinal cortex. The perirhinal cortex is preferentially connected with the rostrolateral portion of the entorhinal cortex. The postrhinal cortex projects to a part of this same region but is also connected to caudal and medial portions of the entorhinal cortex. The perirhinal and postrhinal projections to the entorhinal cortex originate in layers III and V and terminate preferentially in layers II and III. J. Comp. Neurol. 391:293–321, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Transcription Factor TCFAP2C/AP-2γ Cooperates with CDX2 To Maintain Trophectoderm Formation

ABSTRACT In mammals, cell lineage specification is established at the blastocyst stage. At this stage, transcription factor Cdx2 represses pluripotency genes, thus promoting extraembryonic trophoblast fate. Recently, transcription factor Gata3 was shown to act in a parallel pathway in promoting trophoblast cell fate, suggesting that there are more factors working in the trophoblast lineage. Here, we report that the transcription factor Tcfap2c is expressed at a high level in the trophectoderm and is able to induce trophoblast fate in embryonic stem cells. Trophoblast fate induced by Tcfap2c does not require Cdx2 and vice versa, suggesting that the molecules act in alternative pathways. However, both Tcfap2c and Cdx2 are required for the upregulation of Elf5, a marker of trophoblast stem cell maintenance, suggesting that both factors are required for stable trophoblast induction. Tcfap2c-induced trophoblast-like cells are stable in long-term culture, indicating that they are capable of self-renewal. Tcfap2c-controlled trophoblast maintenance involves the induction of Cdx2 and the repression of the pluripotency factor Nanog. Tcfap2c-induced trophoblast-like cells differentiate to trophoblast derivatives in vitro and contribute to the trophectoderm in blastocysts in vivo. Taken together, these observations suggest that Tcfap2c and Cdx2 cooperate to override the pluripotency program and establish the extraembryonic trophoblast maintenance program in murine embryos.
Loss of androgen receptor binding to selective androgen response elements causes a reproductive phenotype in a knockin mouse model

Androgens influence transcription of their target genes through the activation of the androgen receptor (AR) that subsequently interacts with specific DNA motifs in these genes. These DNA motifs, called androgen response elements (AREs), can be classified in two classes: the classical AREs, which are also recognized by the other steroid hormone receptors; and the AR-selective AREs, which display selectivity for the AR. For in vitro interaction with the selective AREs, the androgen receptor DNA-binding domain is dependent on specific residues in its second zinc-finger. To evaluate the physiological relevance of these selective elements, we generated a germ-line knockin mouse model, termed SPARKI (SPecificity-affecting AR KnockIn), in which the second zinc-finger of the AR was replaced with that of the glucocorticoid receptor, resulting in a chimeric protein that retains its ability to bind classical AREs but is unable to bind selective AREs. The reproductive organs of SPARKI males are smaller compared with wild-type animals, and they are also subfertile. Intriguingly, however, they do not display any anabolic phenotype. The expression of two testis-specific, androgen-responsive genes is differentially affected by the SPARKI mutation, which is correlated with the involvement of different types of response elements in their androgen responsiveness. In this report, we present the first in vivo evidence of the existence of two functionally different types of AREs and demonstrate that AR-regulated gene expression can be targeted based on this distinction.
Mr Darcy and Mr Toad, gentlemen: distributional names and their kinds

This paper investigates the representation of proper names in distributional semantics. We define three properties we expect names to display: uniqueness (being a unique entity), instantiation (being an instance of a relevant kind) and individuality (being separable from the subspace of concepts). We show that taking a standard distribution as the representation of a name does not satisfy those properties particularly well. We propose an alternative method to compute a name vector, which relies on re-weighting the distribution of the appropriate named entity type – in effect, producing an individual out of a kind. We illustrate the behaviour of such representations over some characters from two English novels.
Simulation of Interleaved Buck Converter Fed PMBLDC Drive System with Input Disturbance

This paper proposes an interleaved buck converter (IBC) with input disturbance to feed a low voltage Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor (PMBLDC) drive. PMBLDC is one of the best electrical drives that have increasing popularity, due to their high efficiency, reliability, good dynamic response and very low maintenance. This makes the interest of simulating an ideal PMBLDC motor and its associated Drive System. In this work an IBC is used to control the PMBLDC motor. It has three active switches which are connected in series and a coupling capacitor is employed in the power path. It has the advantages of low switching losses, improved step down conversion ratio, higher efficiency, higher switching frequency, low inductor power loss and reduced ripple current. A disturbance circuit is introduced in the input stage of the interleaved buck converter, which analysis the performance of the PMBLDC at variations in the input. The simulation of the interleaved buck converter fed PMBLDC motor drive system with input disturbance circuit is done using the software package MATLAB/SIMULINK. The features, operation and simulation results of the IBC fed PMBLDC drive system with input disturbance results are presented in this paper to verify the theoretical analysis.