Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insights into Biochemical Alteration in Cancer‐Associated Fibroblasts by using Novel Correlative Spectroscopy

Abstract The microenvironment of a tumor changes chemically and morphologically during cancer progression. Cancer‐stimulated fibroblasts promote tumor growth, however, the mechanism of the transition to a cancer‐stimulated fibroblast remains elusive. Here, the multi‐modal spectroscopic methods Fourier transform infrared imaging (FTIRI), X‐ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X‐ray fluorescence imaging (XFI) are used to characterize molecular and atomic alterations that occur in cancer‐stimulated fibroblasts. In addition to chemical changes in lipids (olefinic and acyl chain) and protein aggregation observed with FTIRI, a new infrared biomarker for oxidative stress in stimulated fibroblasts is reported. Oxidative stress is observed to cause lipid peroxidation, which leads to the appearance of a new band at 1721 cm−1, assigned to 4‐hydroxynonenal. Complementary to FTIRI, XFI is well suited to determining atom concentrations and XAS can reveal the speciation of individual elements. XFI reveals increased concentrations of P, S, K, Ca within stimulated fibroblasts. Furthermore, XAS studies reveal alterations in the speciation of S and Ca in stimulated fibroblasts, which might provide insight into the mechanisms of cancer progression. Using XFI, not only is the concentration change of individual elements observed, but also the subcellular localization. This study demonstrates the wealth of biochemical information provided by a multi‐modal imaging approach and highlights new avenues for future research into the microenvironment of breast tumors.
Mechanical Embolectomy for Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Anterior Cerebral Circulation: The Gothenburg Experience during 2000–2011

Safety and efficacy of intra-arterial treatment using the AmplatzGooseNeck device in acute anterior circulation strokes were assessed in 156 patients. High recanalization rates were obtained with the AmplatzGooseNeck snare without any device-related complications. Favorable outcome, mortality, and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage were comparable with results of newer embolectomy devices. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Intra-arterial treatment of proximal occlusions in the cerebral circulation have become an important tool in the management of acute ischemic stroke. Our goal was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intra-arterial acute ischemic stroke treatment performed in our institution in consecutive patients with anterior circulation occlusion during 2000–2011. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We identified, in our data base, 156 consecutive cases with anterior acute ischemic stroke treated intra-arterially during 2000–2011. Stroke severity was defined according to the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, the results of the procedure were defined according to the modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction score, and clinical outcome was defined according to the modified Rankin scale, with favorable outcome ≤2 at 90 days. RESULTS: The mean admission NIHSS score was 19.4 (median, 20), with a mean time from stroke onset to groin puncture of 197 minutes (median, 171 minutes). The embolectomy tool of choice was the Amplatz GooseNeck snare (83%). Successful recanalization (modified TICI 2b +3) was seen in 74% of cases. A mRS ≤ 2 at 90 days was seen in 42% with a mortality rate of 17% and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage in 4%. CONCLUSIONS: A high recanalization rate was obtained with the Amplatz GooseNeck snare without any device-related complications. Favorable outcome, mortality, and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage are comparable with results of newer embolectomy devices.
Real-time eye localization, blink detection, and gaze estimation system without infrared illumination

Gaze tracking systems have high potential to be used as natural user interface devices; however, the mainstream systems are designed with infrared illumination, which may be harmful for human eyes. In this paper, a real-time eye localization, blink detection, and gaze estimation system is proposed without infrared illumination. To deal with various lighting conditions and reflections on the iris, the proposed system is based on a continuously updated color model for robust iris detection. Moreover, the proposed algorithm employs both the simplified and the original eye images to achieve the balance between robustness and accuracy. Experimental results show that the proposed system can achieve the accuracy of 96.8% for blink detection and the accuracy of 1.973 degree for gaze estimation with the processing speed of 10-11fps. The performance is comparable to previous works with infrared illumination.
On the usefulness of self-organizing maps for the clustering problem in vector quantization

Neural networks have been applied almost everywhere in image analysis, processing and compression. Kohonen’s self-organizing feature maps (SOM) offers one approach that has also been applied for the clustering problem. The aim of this study is to find out the suitability of the SOM algorithm for the clustering problem. Specifically we want to find out how the algorithm compare with other clustering algorithms as measured by the quality of the clustering results, but also considering the robustness, reliability and usability of the algorithm.
LRP6 is internalized by Dkk1 to suppress its phosphorylation in the lipid raft and is recycled for reuse

β-catenin-mediated Wnt signaling is crucial in animal development and tumor progression. The phosphorylation of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6), a single-span transmembrane Wnt receptor, plays a vital role in this signaling. Dickkopf1 (Dkk1) has been shown to inhibit the Wnt— β-catenin pathway, but the mechanism is not yet clear. Here, evidence is presented that Wnt3a-dependent phosphorylation of LRP6 occurs in the lipid raft and that Dkk1 inhibits the formation of a complex between LRP6 and casein kinase 1γ (CK1γ) by removing LRP6 from the lipid raft. Dkk1 internalized LRP6 in a Rab5-dependent mechanism to prevent phosphorylation mediated by CK1γ. The internalized LRP6 was recycled back in a Rab11-dependent mechanism to the cell-surface membrane, and the recycled LRP6 again responded to Wnt3a and Dkk1. Internalized Dkk1 was trafficked in a Rab7-mediated route and degraded in the lysosome. These results suggest that Dkk1 induces the internalization of LRP6 to suppress its phosphorylation in the lipid raft and allows subsequent recycling of LRP6 so that it can be reused for signaling.
Developing web fully-integrated conversational assistant agents

In this paper we describe a framework, called Divalite dedicated to the development of Web-based Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) for research purposes. This context prompts two specific requirements, entailing original features: (i) Divalite agents are implemented as Document Object Model (DOM) elements so they can interact dynamically and at a fine-grained level with the Web page content; (ii) Divalite agents are implemented in full client mode making it quick and easy to develop and deploy experimental studies. We present the architecture and the DOM-integration of the virtual characters. The resulting capacities are compared with those of similar tools and gains in terms of developing costs are measured.
State Capacity , Local Governance , and Economic Development in Vietnam ∗

There has been a large divergence in economic prosperity between Northeast and Southeast Asia since the mid-20th century, and the governance organizations and norms of Asian societies plausibly help explain this divergence. This study examines the impacts of different historical governance norms on development using Vietnam as a laboratory. Northern Vietnam (Dai Viet) was ruled by a bureaucratic state inherited from China. It governed through a centralized, competitively selected bureaucracy, and the village was the fundamental administrative unit. Southern Vietnam was a peripheral tributary of the Khmer (Cambodian) Empire. It followed a patron-client model with weaker, more personalized power relations and no village intermediation. The Khmer region was not brought under Vietnam’s control until just prior to French colonization. We use a regression discontinuity design across the Dai Viet-Khmer boundary to compare villages that had a bureaucratic state to nearby areas that had a patron-client state. We find that areas historically under the bureaucratic state have higher living standards today. Using rich data from South Vietnam and the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam, we document that in villages with a bureaucratic historical state, citizens have been better able to organize for public goods and redistribution through stronger local governments and civil society. However, today foreign companies are less likely to invest in historically bureaucratic areas, which have a long history of being relatively closed towards outsiders. Overall the study suggests that the bureaucratic state in East Asia deeply embedded in civil society played a central role in this region’s growth.
A Case Study on Cross-Platform Development Frameworks for Mobile Applications and UX

Cross-platform development frameworks for mobile applications promise important advantages in cost cuttings and easy maintenance, posing as a very good option for organizations interested in the design of mobile applications for several platforms. Given that platform conventions are especially important for the User eXperience (UX) of mobile applications, the usage of a framework where the same code defines the behavior of the app in different platforms could have a negative impact in the UX. This paper describes a study where two independent teams have designed two different versions of a mobile application, one using a framework that generates Android and iOS versions automatically, and another team using native tools. The alternative versions for each platform have been evaluated with 37 users with a combination of a laboratory usability test and a longitudinal study. The results show that differences are minimal in the Android platform, but in iOS, even if a reasonably good UX can be obtained with the usage of this framework by an UX-conscious design team, a higher level of UX can be obtained directly developing with a native tool.
Okapi at TREC{2

This paper reports on City University's work on the TREC{2 project from its commencement up to November 1993. It includes many results which were obtained after the August 1993 deadline for submission of o cial results. For TREC{2, as for TREC{1, City University used versions of the Okapi text retrieval system much as described in [2] (see also [3, 4]). Okapi is a simple and robust set-oriented system based on a generalised probabilistic model with facilities for relevance feedback, but also supporting a full range of deterministic Boolean and quasi-Boolean operations. For TREC{1 [1] the \standard" Robertson{Sparck Jones weighting function was used for all runs (equation 1, see also [5]). City's performance was not outstandingly good among comparable systems, and the intention for TREC{2 was to develop and investigate a number of alternative probabilistic term-weighting functions. Other possibilities included varieties of query expansion, database models enabling paragraph retrieval and the use of phrases obtained by query parsing. Unfortunately, a prolonged disk failure prevented realistic test runs until almost the deadline for submission of results. A full inversion of the disks 1 and 2 database was only achieved a few hours before the nal automatic runs. None of the new weighting functions (Section 1.1) was properly evaluated until after the results had been submitted to NIST; we have since discovered that several of these models perform much better than the weighting functions used for the o cial runs, and most of the results reported herein are from these later runs.
Sharing Gesture Contents among Heterogeneous Robots

This paper proposes to share gesture contents among heterogeneous robots. In this paper, we classify gestures in two types; pointing gesture and track gesture. Criteria of classification is factors which are essential for each gesture. Pointing gestures are used for pointing somewhere around a robot. Trajectory of a gesture is important for track gesture. Track gestures can keep its essential factors by moving track horizontally or vertically. We made gesture translation algorithms for each classification and achieved sharing semantic information of gesture contents. We carried out quantitative evaluation with simulations, and qualitative evaluation with questionnaire.
Molecular mechanism of inhibition of estrogen-induced cathepsin D gene expression by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in MCF-7 cells

17 beta-Estradiol (E2) induces cathepsin D mRNA levels and intracellular levels of immunoreactive protein in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) alone does not affect cathepsin D gene expression in this cell line; however, in cells cotreated with TCDD and E2, TCDD inhibited E2-induced cathepsin D mRNA levels, the rate of gene transcription, and levels of immunoreactive protein. The inhibitory responses were observed within 30 to 120 min after the cells were treated with TCDD. TCDD also inhibited E2-induced secreted alkaline phosphatase activity in aryl hydrocarbon (Ah)-responsive MCF-7 and wild-type mouse Hepa 1c1c7 cells cotransfected with the human estrogen receptor (hER) and the pBC12/S1/pac plasmid, which contains the 5' promoter region (-296/+57) of the cathepsin D gene and an alkaline phosphatase reporter gene. The E2-responsive ER/Sp1 sequence (-199 to -165) in the cathepsin D 5' region contains an imperfect GTGCGTG (-175/-181) xenobiotic responsive element (XRE); the role of this sequence in Ah responsiveness was investigated in gel electrophoretic mobility shift assays and with plasmid constructs containing a wild-type ER/Sp1 oligonucleotide or a mutant ER/Sp1-"XRE" oligonucleotide containing two C-->A mutations in the XRE sequence (antisense strand). In plasmid constructs which contained a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene and the wild-type ER/Sp1 promoter sequence, E2-induced chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity and mRNA levels were inhibited by TCDD whereas no inhibition was observed with the mutant ER/Sp1-"XRE" plasmids. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that the nuclear or transformed cytosolic Ah receptor complex blocked formation of the ER-Sp1 complex with the wild-type but not the ER/Sp1 mutant oligonucleotide. Moreover, incubation of the wild-type bromodeoxyuridine-substituted ER/Sp1 oligonucleotide with the nuclear Ah receptor complex gave a specifically bound cross-linked 200-kDa band. These data demonstrate that Ah receptor-mediated inhibition of E2-induced cathepsin D gene expression is due to disruption of the ER-Sp1 complex by targeted interaction with an overlapping XRE.
To join or not to join: the illusion of privacy in social networks with mixed public and private user profiles

In order to address privacy concerns, many social media websites allow users to hide their personal profiles from the public. In this work, we show how an adversary can exploit an online social network with a mixture of public and private user profiles to predict the private attributes of users. We map this problem to a relational classification problem and we propose practical models that use friendship and group membership information (which is often not hidden) to infer sensitive attributes. The key novel idea is that in addition to friendship links, groups can be carriers of significant information. We show that on several well-known social media sites, we can easily and accurately recover the information of private-profile users. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that uses link-based and group-based classification to study privacy implications in social networks with mixed public and private user profiles.
Preserving Neural Retina Through Re‐Emerging Herbal Interventions

Eye related diseases such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, cataract, conjunctivitis are very common worldwide. With the current scenario India will be among the top five countries in the number of glaucoma cases. Limited discovery of successful drugs for the treatment of such diseases led scientists to look towards the use of conventional sources for treatment. Herbal extracts from Ayurveda have remained an important part of treatment regime in many parts of world even today. For this reason, local herbs possessing curative properties are still being used by local inhabitants due to its anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Because retinal damage involves alterations in oxidative enzymes, blood flow changes and increase in apoptotic signals, herbal extracts are being tested for their ability to moderate antioxidant machinery and trigger neuroprotective pathways. The present review summarizes some of such herbal extracts which have been tested for their neuroprotective role in eye related diseases. The active components that exert neuroprotective effects have also been discussed along with possible mechanisms of action. J. Cell. Biochem. 115: 1659–1668, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Marker-less tracking for AR: a learning-based approach

Estimating the pose of a camera (virtual or real) in which some augmentation takes place is one of the most important parts of an augmented reality (AR) system. The availability of powerful processors and fast frame grabbers has made the use of vision-based trackers commonplace due to their accuracy as well as flexibility and ease of use. Current vision-based trackers are based on tracking of markers. The use of markers increases robustness and reduces computational requirements. However, their use can be very complicated, as they require maintenance. Direct use of scene features for tracking, therefore, is desirable. To this end, we describe a general system that tracks the position and orientation of a camera observing a scene without visual markers. Our method is based on a two-stage process. In the first stage, a set of features is learned with the help of an external tracking system during use. The second stage uses these learned features for camera tracking when the system in the first stage decides that it is possible to do so. The system is very general so that it can employ any available feature tracking and pose estimation system for learning and tracking. We experimentally demonstrate the viability of the method in real-life examples.
An association of hyperglycemia with plasma malondialdehyde and atherogenic lipid risk factors in newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetic patients

Background: Oxidative stress (OS) generated by hyperglycemia, is one of the major focuses of recent research related to diabetes mellitus. Studying associations between hyperglycemia, OS and atherogenic dyslipidemia (AD) is therefore important. Materials and Methods: Plasma was obtained form a total of 52 subjects with newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and 52 healthy controls to study associations between hyperglycemia, lipid risk factors for atherogenicity and malondialdehyde (MDA), a lipid peroxidation product. Ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) was evaluated as a measure of total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Results: Diabetic patients had significantly higher (P < 0.05) plasma triglycerides (TG)), very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C), TG to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C), atherogenic index (AI), and MDA. Whereas FRAP levels were depleted significantly in the patients compared to that of controls (P = 0.000). Pearson correlation analyses showed MDA correlates significantly with Fasting blood sugar (r = 0.39, P = 0.004), TG/HDL-C (r = 0.45, P = 0.001), and AI (r = 0.40, P = 0.003), and a significant negative correlation with LDL-C (r = -0.33, P = 0.019) which was lost upon nullifying the effect of FBS by partial correlation analysis (r = -0.28, P = 0.050). Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis showed high Area under curve for TG/HDL-C and AI (0.62; P = 0.03). Conclusion: Hyperglycemia of diabetes is associated with elevated levels of plasma MDA. This study suggests that TG/HDL-C and AI may be particularly useful as atherogenic risk predictors in newly diagnosed patients with T2DM.
Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy in insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus: prevalence and estimated risk of coronary heart disease in the general population

Abstract. May O, Arildsen H, Damsgaard EM, Mickley H (Odense University Hospital, Odense, and Horsens Hospital, Horsens, Denmark). Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy in insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus: prevalence and estimated risk of coronary heart disease in the general population. J Intern Med 2000; 248: 483–491.
Association Analysis of the Cubilin (CUBN) and Megalin (LRP2) Genes with ESRD in African Americans.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Genetic variation in the cubilin (CUBN) gene is associated with albuminuria and CKD. Common and rare coding variants in CUBN and the gene encoding its transport partner megalin (LRP2) were assessed for association with ESRD in blacks. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Sixty-six CUBN and LRP2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected and analyzed in this multistage study. Exome sequencing data from 529 blacks with type 2 diabetes (T2D) -associated ESRD and 535 controls lacking T2D or nephropathy (the Type 2 Diabetes Genes [T2D-GENES] Consortium) were first evaluated, focusing on coding variants in CUBN and LRP2; 15 potentially associated SNPs identified from the T2D-GENES Consortium as well as 51 other selected SNPs were then assessed in an independent T2D-ESRD sample set of blacks (the Affymetrix Axiom Biobank Genotyping Array [AXIOM]; 2041 patients with T2D-ESRD, 627 patients with T2D without nephropathy, and 1140 nondiabetic, non-nephropathy controls). A meta-analysis combining the T2D-GENES Consortium and the AXIOM data was performed for 18 overlapping SNPs. Additionally, all 66 SNPs were genotyped in the Wake Forest School of Medicine samples of blacks with nondiabetic ESRD (885 patients with nondiabetic ESRD and 721 controls). Association testing with ESRD was performed in models including age, sex, African ancestry proportion, and apolipoprotein L1 gene renal-risk variants. RESULTS CUBN SNP rs1801239 (I2984V), previously associated with albuminuria, was significantly associated with T2D-ESRD in blacks (the T2D-GENES Consortium and the AXIOM meta-analysis, P=0.03; odds ratio, 1.31; 95% confidence interval, 1.03 to 1.67; minor allele frequency =0.028). A novel LRP2 missense variant, rs17848169 (N2632D), was also significantly protective from T2D-ESRD (the T2D-GENES Consortium and the AXIOM, P<0.002; odds ratio, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.29 to 0.75; meta-analysis minor allele frequency =0.007). Neither SNP was associated with T2D when contrasting patients with T2D with controls lacking diabetes. CUBN and LRP2 SNPs were not associated with nondiabetic etiologies of ESRD. CONCLUSIONS Evidence for genetic association exists between a cubilin and a rare megalin variant with diabetes-associated ESRD in populations with recent African ancestry.