Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma agonists suppress adrenocortical tumor cell proliferation and induce differentiation.

CONTEXT Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) have been implemented into clinical practice for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus as specific peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-gamma ligands. Moreover, recent evidence has suggested that TZDs might have favorable effects in the treatment of a variety of tumors as differentiation-inducing agents. Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare tumor entity with poor prognosis due to its highly malignant phenotype and lack of effective treatment options. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of TZDs on adrenocortical cancer cells. RESULTS PPARgamma mRNA expression was detectable in all adrenocortical tumors including ACCs at similar levels. Furthermore, incubation of the adrenocortical tumor cell line NCI h295 with the PPARgamma agonist rosiglitazone led to a decrease in cell viability, a decrease of cellular proliferation, and an increase in apoptosis as well as steroidogenesis. On the molecular level, NCI h295 cells expressed higher levels of ACTH receptor (melanocortin receptor-2) mRNA upon treatment, whereas cyclin E mRNA was reduced, thus reflecting a shift toward an expression pattern found in less aggressive adrenocortical tumors in vivo. Accordingly, luciferase experiments confirmed an increased promoter activity for the melanocortin receptor-2 after stimulation with rosiglitazone. Coincubation with the specific PPARgamma antagonist GW9662 demonstrated the inhibition of TZD-induced increase in steroidogenesis, whereas growth suppression upon TZD treatment was not affected by GW9662. CONCLUSIONS Thus, both PPARgamma-dependent and PPARgamma-independent effects of TZD treatment are likely to contribute to the observed phenotypical effects on NCI h295 cells. Taken together, these data indicate that TZDs might have the potential to become an additional treatment option as differentiation-inducing agents in patients with ACC.
A study of environmental web disclosures and financial performance of mainland Chinese dually listed companies

China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, yet studies have shown that it has a poor corporate governance structure. Researchers have also discovered various problems with corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and corporate environmental responsibility in Mainland Chinese firms. Unlike China, large corporations in Western countries do not generally buy products from firms that have poor environmental practices. Firms use environmental disclosure statements in their annual reports to secure legitimacy because stakeholders admire environmental disclosure more than other socially responsible activity. In addition, firms use corporate websites to build a reputation among stakeholders that is beyond the requirements of corporate disclosure. Many studies in Western developed countries have documented a positive association between a firm’s level of environmental disclosure and its financial performance. There are few studies in developing countries, especially in Mainland China. This study therefore explored the relationship between discretionary environmental disclosure and the financial performance of Mainland Chinese firms. By analysing relevant literature and theoretical frameworks, the study adopted a multidimensional focus on environmental disclosures and legitimacy in order to answer a number of research questions.
Mobile Mixed-Reality Interfaces That Enhance Human–Robot Interaction in Shared Spaces

Although user interfaces with gesture-based input and augmented graphics have promoted intuitive human-robot interactions (HRI), they are often implemented in remote applications on research-grade platforms requiring significant training and limiting operator mobility. This paper proposes a mobile mixed-reality interface approach to enhance HRI in shared spaces. As a user points a mobile device at the robot's workspace, a mixed-reality environment is rendered providing a common frame of reference for the user and robot to effectively communicate spatial information for performing object manipulation tasks, improving the user's situational awareness while interacting with augmented graphics to intuitively command the robot. An evaluation with participants is conducted to examine task performance and user experience associated with the proposed interface strategy in comparison to conventional approaches that utilize egocentric or exocentric views from cameras mounted on the robot or in the environment, respectively. Results indicate that, despite the suitability of the conventional approaches in remote applications, the proposed interface approach provides comparable task performance and user experiences in shared spaces without the need to install operator stations or vision systems on or around the robot. Moreover, the proposed interface approach provides users the flexibility to direct robots from their own visual perspective (at the expense of some physical workload) and leverages the sensing capabilities of the tablet to expand the robot's perceptual range.
Sirolimus therapy for fibromatosis and multifocal renal cell carcinoma in a child with tuberous sclerosis complex

A male with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) developed a chest wall fibromatosis and bilateral multifocal renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The fibromatosis tumor was initially resected during infancy but recurred 5 years later. At that time, bilateral RCC was also detected, leading to the resection of the more extensively affected right kidney. In an attempt to avoid bilateral nephrectomies, the patient was treated with the mTOR inhibitor sirolimus. Within 6 months of therapy, the fibromatosis and remaining RCC tumors responded substantially with minimal adverse effects. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2010;54:1035–1037 © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
“Try Not to Judge”: Mothers of Substance Exposed Infants

Purpose:To describe the hospital experiences of mothers who give birth to substance-exposed infants. Study Design and Methods:Secondary analysis of data from a larger study that was focused on the experiences of Mexican-American mothers in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) was conducted. Semistructured interviews with five women who were recovering addicts on methadone were analyzed. Each of their infants spent time in an NICU following birth. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results:Four themes were identified: (a) “try not to judge,” (b) “scoring” the baby, (c) “share with me,” and (d) “I'm the mother here! ” Clinical Implications:The quality of the relationship between the mothers and the nurses in the NICU was a crucial aspect of the mothers' experiences and may have an effect on long-term outcomes. Women with addictions often have other significant risk factors that may further jeopardize their ability to mother; therefore, it is essential to develop a strong support network. Nurses can be instrumental in organizing resources for this population of women. Judging behaviors may have a detrimental effect on women with addictions. Maternal adaptation to the mothering role can be enhanced by making reasonable efforts to include the mother in the care of the infant.
Inverse Relationship between Severity of Experimental Pyelonephritis and Nitric Oxide Production in C3H/HeJ Mice

ABSTRACT The contribution of nitric oxide to host resistance to experimental pyelonephritis is not well understood. We examined whether the inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis alters the sensitivity of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) responder (C3H/HeN) and nonresponder (C3H/HeJ) mice to experimental Escherichia coli pyelonephritis. C3H/HeJ and C3H/HeN mice were implanted subcutaneously with minipumps containing an inhibitor of nitric oxide,NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), or a corresponding vehicle. Ascending urinary tract infection by bladder catheterization with two strains of E. coli, an O75 strain bearing Dr fimbriae and an O75 strain bearing P fimbriae, was developed in tested animals. Twenty-four hours following bladder infection, the kidneys of C3H/HeN and C3H/HeJ mice were colonized at a similar rate. However, 5 weeks postinoculation, C3H/HeN mice cleared infection while C3H/HeJ mice showed persistent colonization. Twenty-four hours following infection, C3H/HeN mice treated with l-NAME showed no significant increase of renal tissue infection compared to the saline-treated control group. However,l-NAME-treated C3H/HeJ mice showed an approximately 100-fold increase in E. coli infection rate compared to the saline-treated controls in the Dr+ group but showed no change compared to those in the P+ group. Dissemination of Dr+E. coli but not P+E. coli to the liver and uterus was significantly enhanced withl-NAME treatment in C3H/HeJ mice only. Nitric oxide had no direct killing effect on E. coli in vitro. Nitrite production by various organs was found to be significantly lower in C3H/HeJ mice than in C3H/HeN mice. Alteration of nitric oxide and LPS responsiveness was significantly associated with the increased sensitivity of C3H/HeJ mice to experimental Dr+ but not to P+E. coli pyelonephritis. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that nitric oxide synthase activity in concert with LPS responsiveness may participate in the antibacterial defense mechanisms of the C3H mouse urinary tract. This phenomenon is strain dependent and possibly related to the invasive properties ofE. coli.
Boosting tag-based search in social media sites

The availability and pervasive use of smart mobile devices makes it easy to upload videos and photos to the social websites and label them with any arbitrary tags from anywhere and anytime. This paper exploits the social tagging information and reveals the latent hidden tags which might be relevant to a social media item to improve the tag-based search process. The proposed approach predicts links in undirected weighted tripartite graph. From a graph-based proximity perspective, our approach finds the appropriate personalized item in response to the user's query as well as uncovers the hidden tags potentially relevant to a given item. We evaluate our method on real-world social tagging system collected from MovieLens. The experimental evaluation shows that enriching the low annotated items with hidden tags improves the tag-based search performance.
Foreign Banks in Promoting Trade in Rwanda - Case Study of Equity Bank

This study aimed to establishing “The role of foreign banks in promoting trade in Rwanda” a case study “Equity bank Ltd”. The methodology used was a descriptive survey design using both qualitative and quantitative methods and used, the total sample size of 94 respondents composed by 7 employees of Equity Bank/Musanze Branch and 87 traders in Muhoza sector. Using simple random sampling technique. Both primary and secondary data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and documentary review as data collection tools. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis and presented by frequency table and percentage.
Automatic Impedance Monitoring and Patient Alert Feature in Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators:

Recent advances in implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) technology have enabled implementation of an automatic monitoring feature in ICDs that provides daily measurements of several technical parameters such as battery status, pacing, and high‐voltage impedance. The system alerts the patient with an audible alarm to contact the physician in case the measured parameters are not within normal limits. Early detection of intermittent and potentially serious complications justifies routine use of this feature. This report describes a patient with an ICD who died suddenly due to ventricular fibrillation, which was not appropriately treated by the device. The cause of device malfunction was most likely an intermittent lead fracture that was not detected by the automatic impedance monitoring and alert feature of this device. Based on these data, potential benefits and theoretical pitfalls of automatic impedance monitoring and alert features are discussed.
Toward the Evolution of Wireless Powered Communication Networks for the Future Internet of Things

With the ever-increasing speed of technological advances, more and more objects are being connected to the Internet every day and the world is moving toward the next generation of the Internet, the so called Internet of Things (IoT). However, numerous challenges need to be addressed for the widespread adoption of the IoT paradigm. Energy scarcity is one of these challenges. Recently, the advent of energy harvesting has relaxed energy limitation concerns. Specifically, RF energy harvesting has attracted a large amount of research due to its clear advantages over other energy harvesting methods. Lately, the extensive research in the RF energy harvesting domain has led to the emergence of wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs), where energy-constrained users are powered by wireless energy transfer of an integrated energy and information access point referred to as a hybrid access point (HAP). In this article, we review the research conducted in the field of WPCN and discuss opportunities for further extensions of these networks. Looking from the IoT point of view, we also present some of the points that must be taken into account for impeccable operation of WPCN in the IoT environment.
Detection of retinal vessels in fundus images through transfer learning of tissue specific photon interaction statistical physics

Loss of visual acuity on account of retina-related vision impairment can be partly prevented through periodic screening with fundus color imaging. Largescale screening is currently challenged by inability to exhaustively detect fine blood vessels crucial to disease diagnosis. In this work we present a framework for reliable blood vessel detection in fundus color imaging through inductive transfer learning of photon-tissue interaction statistical physics. The source task estimates photon-tissue interaction as a spatially localized Poisson process of photons sensed by the RGB sensor. The target task identifies vascular and non-vascular tissues using knowledge transferred from source task. The source and target domains are retinal images obtained using a color fundus camera with white-light illumination. In experimental evaluation with the DRIVE database, we achieve the objective of vessel detection with max. avg. accuracy of 0.9766 and kappa of 0.8213.
Non‐Hodgkin lymphoma subtype distribution, geodemographic patterns, and survival in the US: A longitudinal analysis of the National Cancer Data Base from 1998 to 2011

The World Health Organization classification of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) was introduced in 2001. However, its incorporation into clinical practice is not well‐described. We studied the distribution of NHL subtypes in adults diagnosed from 1998 to 2011, evaluated time trends, geo‐demographic correlates, and changes in 5‐year overall survival (OS). We obtained data prospectively collected by the National Cancer Data Base, which covers 70% of US cancer cases. There were 596,476 patients diagnosed with NHL. The major subtypes were diffuse large B‐cell (32.5%), chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL; 18.6%), follicular (17.1%), marginal zone (8.3%), mantle cell (4.1%), peripheral T‐cell not‐otherwise‐specified (1.7%), Burkitt (1.6%), hairy cell (1.1%), lymphoplasmacytic (1.1%), and NHL not‐otherwise‐specified (10.8%). Over the study period, the proportion of NHL not‐otherwise‐specified declined by half, while marginal zone lymphoma doubled. The distribution of major and rare NHL subtypes varied according to demographics but less so geographically or by type of treatment facility. We noted several novel findings among Hispanics (lower proportion of CLL/SLL, but higher Burkitt lymphoma and nasal NK/T‐cell lymphoma), Asians (higher enteropathy‐associated T‐cell and angioimmunoblastic T‐cell lymphomas), Blacks (higher hepatosplenic T‐cell lymphoma), and Native Americans (similar proportions of CLL/SLL and nasal NK/T‐cell lymphoma as Asians). With the exception of peripheral T‐cell not‐otherwise‐specified and hairy cell leukemia, 5‐year OS has improved for all the major NHL subtypes. Am. J. Hematol. 90:790–795, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
An Emotional Scene Retrieval Framework for Lifelog Videos Using Ensemble Clustering

A lifelog video retrieval framework is proposed for the better utilization of a large amount of lifelog video data. The proposed method retrieves emotional scenes such as the scenes in which a person in the video is smiling, considering that a certain important event could happen in most of emotional scenes. The emotional scene is detected on the basis of facial expression recognition using a wide variety of facial features. The authors adopt an unsupervised learning approach called ensemble clustering in order to recognize the facial expressions because supervised learning approaches require sufficient training data, which make it quite troublesome to apply to large-scale video databases. The retrieval performance of the proposed method is evaluated by means of an emotional scene detection experiment from the viewpoints of accuracy and efficiency. In addition, a prototype retrieval system is implemented based on the proposed emotional scene detection method.
Working Together is Success: Examining Cross-Functional Team Performance in the Global Apparel Supply Chain

Cross-functional teams have been utilized in many companies as a way to organize employees from different specialties to create new products or processes with lower development costs, faster speed to market, greater innovation, and better product design and quality (Sarin & Mahajan, 2001). Denison, Hart, and Kahn (1996) point out cross-functional teams differ from conventional teams in that team members are usually from different organizational departments, teams may be assigned temporarily depending on the task, and members typically have different organizational expectations and reviews. Additionally, cross-functional teams have become an increasingly popular way to link multiple teams across a supply chain (Chen & Paulraj, 2004). However, this unique nature of cross-functional teams may create challenges in group dynamics and even interpersonal conflict, eventually hurting the team’s performance.
Pharmacology and toxicology of diflunisal.

Abstract 1 Diflunisal, a new salicylate, possesses anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activity. It was found to be about 7.5-13 times more active than aspirin as an analgesic (Randall-Selitto assay in rats) and as an anti-inflammatory agent (carrageenin foot oedema and adjuvant arthritis in rats). 2 Diflunisal was 1.4 times as active as aspirin as an antipyretic in the rat and about three times as potent in reducing lameness induced by injecting urate crystals into the knee joint of dogs. 3 Diflunisal inhibited adenosine diphosphate, adrenaline and thrombin-induced aggregation of human platelets in vitro. The concentrations required were 18-35 times higher than those needed with aspirin. 4 After single doses, both diflunisal and aspirin induced gastric haemorrhages in starved rats. This was evident only after relatively large doses of diflunisal, whereas aspirin induced gastric changes after pharmacologically active amounts. 5 Diflunisal, but not aspirin, after single doses, produced perforations of the small intestine in the rat. The dose levels required were considerably above those that would demonstrate anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity. 6 In oral subacute toxicity studies in rats and dogs of 14 weeks' duration, diflunisal and aspirin produced similar gastric and renal toxicity. Both produced focal oedema, haemorrhage and small ulcers in one or both species. Renal changes were limited to a slight degree of oedema of the papilla in the rat and dog. Diflunisal, but not aspirin, produced intestinal lesions of the small bowel in the rat but not the dog. The changes with either drug were largely limited to the higher levels used (50-200 mg/kg/d).
Attributes regrouping in fuzzy rule based classification systems

In fuzzy rule based classification systems, a high number of predictive attributes leads to an explosion of the number of generated rules and can affect the learning algorithm precision. Thus, the increase of the number of features can degrade the predictive capacity of the fuzzy rule based classification systems. In this article, we propose a supervised learning method by automatic generation of fuzzy classification rules, entitled SIFCO. This method is adapted to the representation and the prediction of high-dimensional pattern classification problems. This characteristic is obtained by studying the attributes regrouping by correlation research among the training set elements. This approach, checked experimentally, guarantees an important reduction of rules number without altering too much good classification rates. Several experiences were carried out on various data in order to compare SIFCO with other rules based learning methods.
Fuzzy inference system for finger vein biometric images

As a latest biometric technique, finger vein recognition has been proved to be one of the most reliable biometric technology for personal authentication and security. The uncertainties and ambiguity in finger vein extraction can be handled more efficiently using fuzzy theory based techniques. Mamdani based fuzzy inference system is presented in this paper for locating the vein patterns in a finger vein image. A comparative analysis of the results is performed with some of the standard techniques.
Periodic Breathing in Infants: A Model Study

A model has been adapted to explain periodic breathing in infants during sleep. Using parameter values determined in various studies by others, it is shown that the respiratory control system of certain infants is marginally stable so that a small change in one or more of the parameters can cause periodic breathing with a period of about 14 s.
Turbo product codes for partial response channels

The partial response channel can be viewed as a rate-1 encoder in which the output alphabet differs from the input alphabet. In serially concatenated coding schemes, the partial response channel can serve as the inner encoder. Recent work has focused on convolutional codes and parity-check codes as the outer code in such serial concatenation schemes. This work focuses instead on the use of product codes as the outer code. Systems using both hard and soft decoding, with both iterative and non-iterative decoding, are presented. Simulation results are presented comparing performance of product codes which use Reed-Solomon and BCH codes as the constituent codes.