Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rare cell isolation and recovery on open-channel microfluidic chip

The ability to accurately detect and analyze rare cells in a cell population is critical not only for the study of disease progression but also for next flow cytometry systems in clinical application. Here, we report the development of a prototype device, the ‘Rare cell sorter’, for isolating and recovering single rare cells from whole blood samples. On this device, we utilized an open-channel microfluidic chip for rare cell isolation. And the advantage of open-channel allows us to recover the isolated rare cell directly from the chip. We set the circulating tumor cell (CTC) as a target cell. For the clinical experiment, CTCs were isolated from blood samples collected from patients with metastatic breast cancer and healthy volunteers. There was a significant difference in the number of CTCs between the patients with metastatic breast cancer and healthy volunteers. To evaluate the damage to cells during isolation and recovery, we performed an RNA integrity assay using RNA extracted from CTCs recovered from the chip and found that our process for single CTC isolation and recovery is mild enough for gene analysis of CTCs.
Draft Genome Sequence of Pseudomonas hussainii Strain MB3, a Denitrifying Aerobic Bacterium Isolated from the Rhizospheric Region of Mangrove Trees in the Andaman Islands, India

ABSTRACT The genome sequence of Pseudomonas hussainii MB3, isolated from the rhizospheric region of mangroves in the Andaman Islands, is comprised of 3,644,788 bp and 3,159 protein coding genes. Draft genome analysis indicates that MB3 is an aerobic bacterium capable of performing assimilatory sulfate reduction, dissimilatory nitrate reduction, and denitrification.
Relationship of Preference Judgments to Typicality, Novelty, and Mere Exposure

Two theories of aesthetic preference are reviewed. According to Berlyne's psychobiological theory, the main determinants of aesthetic preference are collative variables such as complexity and novelty, and preference is generally related to its determinants in an inverted-U manner. Recent findings contrary to these predictions are briefly reviewed. According to Martindale's cognitive theory, the main determinant of aesthetic preference is prototypicality or meaningfulness, and preference is usually related to its determinants in a monotonic or U-shaped fashion. Three experiments concerning preference for semantic category exemplars are reported. Typicality accounted for eight or nine times more of explained variance in preference than did long-term novelty, short-term novelty, or mere exposure. Preference was related to both typicality and collative variables by monotonic or U-shaped functions.
Simulation of the field emission diode oscillator with photonic crystal resonator

Diode oscillator with a field-emission cathode placed in a photonic crystal resonator is considered. Start-oscillation current for the X-band oscillator design [1] is predicted theoretically and compared with numerical simulations using 1.5D PIC code. Simulations show rather high output power and efficiency for reasonable values of cathode current density.
Uniform distribution of sequences of integers

Plastic compositions containing a three component system consisting of (1) polyethylene, (2) certain bis-phenoxy compounds having the formula: WHEREIN Z is bromine, m and m' are each integers having a value of 5, and alkylene is a straight chain carbon group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms, and (3) an enhancing agent, hereinafter defined.
How Does Masculinity Impact on Health? A Quantitative Study of Masculinity and Health Behavior in a Sample of UK Men and Women

© 2014 American Psychological Association. Masculinity is implicated in men's health practices (e.g., Courtenay, 2000). However, there is little quantitative work in the U.K. that examines this relationship for both men and women. This study addressed this gap in the literature and examined the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between elements of masculinity and positive (physical activity, unsaturated fat, fruit, and fiber) and negative (smoking, alcohol, and saturated fat intake) health behaviors. A community sample of 182 men and 274 women (mean age = 35.89 years) were recruited from a call center and a local authority in the North East of England. Participants completed self-report measures of Masculine Gender Role Stress (MGRS), Male Role Norms (MRN), Extended Personal Attributes (EPAQ), and Health Behaviors. Hierarchical regression analysis controlled for the effects of age, education, and ethnicity and revealed that aspects of masculinity measured by the MGRSS and the MRNS predicted worse health behaviors for both men and women (i.e., lower levels of positive health behaviors and higher levels of negative health behaviors), although these relationships were more numerous and stronger for men. Agency traits measured by the EPAQ were predictive of increased physical activity regardless of gender, and less saturated fat intake for men. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for and applications to health promotion.
A constraint-driven system for contract assembly

We present an approach for modelling the structure and coarse content of legal documents with a view to providing automated support for the drafting of contracts and contract database retrieval. The approach is designed to be applicable where contract drafting is based on model-form contracts or on existing examples of a similar type. The main features of the approach are: (1) the representation addresses the structure and the interrelationships between the constituent parts of contracts, bu i not the [ext of the document itselfi (2) the representation of documents is separated from the mechanisms that manipulate it; and (3) the drafting process is subject to a collection of explicitly stated constraints that govern the structure of the documents. We describe the representation of document instances and of ‘generic Llocuments’, which are data structures used to drive the creation of new document instances, and we show extracts from a sample session to illustrate the features of a prototype system implemented in MacProlog,
Macrophage-Derived Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 and -9 Promote the Progression of Cerebral Aneurysms in Rats

Background and Purpose— Mechanisms of initiation, progression and rupture of cerebral aneurysms have not yet been fully understood despite its clinical significance. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of proteinases which are involved in the remodeling of vascular walls. In the present study, we investigated the significance of MMPs in the progression of cerebral aneurysms. Methods— Cerebral aneurysms were experimentally induced in 7-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats. MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression was examined by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR. Gelatinase activity in aneurysmal walls was assessed by in situ zymography. A selective inhibitor for MMP-2, -9 and -12, tolylsam, was used to examine the effect of inhibition of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Results— Macrophages infiltrated in arterial walls of experimentally induced rat cerebral aneurysms and expressed MMP-2 and -9. Macrophage infiltration and MMP expression was increased with the progression of aneurysms. Gelatinase activity attributable to MMP-2 and MMP-9 increased in arterial walls of rat cerebral aneurysms. Furthermore, tolylsam reduced the ratio of advanced aneurysms in our rat model. Conclusions— These data suggest that macrophage-derived MMP-2 and -9 may play an important role in the progression of cerebral aneurysms. The findings of this study will shed a new light into the pathogenesis of cerebral aneurysms and highlight the importance of inflammatory response causing the degeneration of extracellular matrix in the process of this disease.
Multiple source tracking by sequential posterior kernel density estimation through GSCT

This paper introduces a novel framework for tracking the TDOAs of multiple sources whose acoustic activities overlap in time. Assuming the number of sources to be known, multiple disjoint particle filters estimate the posterior kernel density of the propagation parameters. An approximated instantaneous kernel density is provided through the Generalized State Coherence Transform, which improves the source interference rejection across the dimensions using a frequency-normalized non-linearity. Results obtained from an experimental evaluation on synthetic data show that the proposed framework enables localization and tracking of bidimensional TDOAs for 7 competitive sources recorded under reverberant conditions and with only 3 microphones.
Single-port laser-amplifier modulators for local access

We describe a single-port, reflective, waveguide modulator based on semiconductor laser amplifier technology. The single-port geometry reduces the high packaging cost associated with two-port waveguide modulators, while the internal gain of the amplifier compensates for splitting and coupling losses. A modulator with a bulk active layer showed a reflection-mode chip gain of 17 dB at /spl lambda/=1.56 /spl mu/m. When driven with pseudorandom digital data at 100 Mb/s, extinction ratios of >12 dB were observed over the broad wavelength range (20 nm) needed for wavelength division multiplexed systems. Bit-error-rate tests confirmed that there was no distortion penalty, compared to a LiNbO/sub 3/ reference modulator.
Persons living on a disability grant in Mpumalanga province: An insider perspective

In Mpumalanga province, more than 45 000 persons with disability receive a disability grant. Although research regarding social grants in general and disability grants specifically had previously been conducted from various perspectives, none has been carried out in Mpumalanga and none to explore the impact of the disability grant on the lives of the recipients. The objective of the study was to gain an understanding of the impact of the disability grant on the lives of recipients living in Mpumalanga. The study was conducted as a contextual, exploratory and qualitative study. The target population was persons with a disability receiving a disability grant. Data gathering was conducted in October 2010 using a semi-structured interview technique. The data were analysed in terms of the social and economic impact of the disability grant in the life of the participant. A combination of three qualitative data analysis methods was used to analyse the data. The qualitative findings indicate that although it is an individual grant, the disability grant was used to support the whole family and was frequently the family's only income. Food, clothes and electricity was most frequently bought with the disability grant. Food often did not last for a month. The families were living precariously and any crisis, for example lapsing of the grant, would result in hunger and desperation as a result of their complete dependence on the disability grant. Without insight in how people live their lives, registered nurses may give health education to patients that they cannot implement, perpetuating the burden of disease in South Africa.
Morpheme Level Feature-based Language Models for German LVCSR

One of the challenges for Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) of German is its complex morphology and high level of compounding. It leads to high Out-of-vocabulary (OOV) rates, and poor Language Model (LM) probabilities. In such cases, building LMs on morpheme level can be considered a better choice. Thereby, higher lexical coverage and lower LM perplexities are achieved. On the other side, a successful approach to improve the LM probability estimation is to incorporate features of words using feature-based LMs. In this paper, we use features derived for morphemes as well as words. Thus, we combine the benefits of both morpheme level and feature rich modeling. We compare the performance of stream-based, class-based and factored LMs (FLMs). Relative reductions of around 1.5% in Word Error Rate (WER) are achieved compared to the best previous results obtained using FLMs.
An Efficient Feature Selection Algorithm for Computer-aided Polyp Detection

We present an efficient feature selection algorithm for computer aided detection (CAD) computed tomographic (CT) colonography. The algorithm (1) determines an appropriate piecewise linear network (PLN) model by cross validation, (2) applies the orthonormal least square (OLS) procedure to the PLN model utilizing a Modified Schmidt procedure, and (3) uses a floating search algorithm to select features that minimize the output variance. The undesirable "nesting effect" is prevented by the floating search approach, and the piecewise linear OLS procedure makes this algorithm very computationally efficient because the Modified Schmidt procedure only requires one data pass during the whole searching process. The selected features are compared to those obtained by other methods, through cross validation with support vector machines (SVMs).
Pacifiers Disrupt Adults’ Responses to Infants’ Emotions

Research shows that pacifiers disrupt infants' mimicry of facial expressions. This experiment examines whether pacifiers interfere with caretakers' ability to mimic infants' emotions. Adults saw photographs of infants with or without a pacifier. When infants had pacifiers, perceivers showed reduced EMG activity to infants' smiles. Smiles of infants using a pacifier were also rated as less happy than smiles depicted without a pacifier. The same pattern was observed for expressions of distress: adults rated infants presented with pacifiers as less sad than infants without pacifiers. We discuss deleterious effects of pacifier use for the perceiver's resonance with a child's emotions.
Reactivity and Attachment Security Genetic and Caregiving-Based Contributions to Infant Attachment : Unique Associations With Distress

In the longitudinal study reported here, we examined genetic and caregiving-based contributions to individual differences in infant attachment classifications. For 154 mother-infant pairs, we rated mothers’ responsiveness to their 6-month-old infants during naturalistic interactions and classified infants’ attachment organization at 12 and 18 months using the Strange Situation procedure. These infants were later genotyped with respect to the serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR). Maternal responsiveness uniquely predicted infants’ attachment security. Infants’ 5-HTTLPR variation uniquely predicted their subtype of attachment security at 12 months and their subtype of attachment insecurity at 12 and 18 months. The short allele for 5-HTTLPR was associated with attachment classifications characterized by higher emotional distress. These findings suggest that 5-HTTLPR variation contributes to infants’ emotional reactivity and that the degree to which caregivers are responsive influences how effectively infants use their caregivers for emotion regulation. Theoretical implications for the study of genetic and caregiving influences are discussed.
Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Associates of Pinus contorta in Soils Associated with a Hot Spring in Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

ABSTRACT Molecular methods and comparisons of fruiting patterns (i.e., presence or absence of fungal fruiting bodies in different soil types) were used to determine ectomycorrhizal (EM) associates of Pinus contorta in soils associated with a thermal soil classified as ultra-acidic to extremely acidic (pH 2 to 4). EM were sampled by obtaining 36 soil cores from six paired plots (three cores each) of both thermal soils and forest soils directly adjacent to the thermal area. Fruiting bodies (mushrooms) were collected for molecular identification and to compare fruiting body (above-ground) diversity to below-ground diversity. Our results indicate (i) that there were significant decreases in both the level of EM infection (130 ± 22 EM root tips/core in forest soil; 68 ± 22 EM root tips/core in thermal soil) and EM fungal species richness (4.0 ± 0.5 species/core in forest soil; 1.2 ± 0.2 species/core in thermal soil) in soils associated with the thermal feature; (ii) that the EM mycota of thermal soils was comprised of a small set of dominant species and included very few rare species, while the EM mycota of forest soils contained a few dominant species and several rare EM fungal species; (iii) that Dermocybe phoenecius and a species of Inocybe, which was rare in forest soils, were the dominant EM fungal species in thermal soils; (iv) that other than the single Inocybe species, there was no overlap in the EM fungal communities of the forest and thermal soils; and (v) that the fungal species forming the majority of the above-ground fruiting structures in thermal soils (Pisolithus tinctorius, which is commonly used in remediation of acid soils) was not detected on a single EM root tip in either type of soil. Thus, P. tinctorius may have a different role in these thermal soils. Our results suggest that this species may not perform well in remediation of all acid soils and that factors such as pH, soil temperature, and soil chemistry may interact to influence EM fungal community structure. In addition, we identified at least one new species with potential for use in remediation of hot acidic soil.
Human retinoblastoma cells are resistant to apoptosis induced by death receptors: role of caspase-8 gene silencing.

PURPOSE Fas ligand (FasL) and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)/Apo2L are members of the TNFalpha family that can trigger apoptosis in susceptible cells via respective death receptors (DRs). FasL cross-links its receptor Fas, resulting in recruitment and proteolytic activation of caspase-8, which initiates the downstream apoptotic cascade. TRAIL signals through its receptors DR4 and DR5, which can activate caspase-8 as well. This study was undertaken to investigate the functional status of the FasL and TRAIL apoptotic pathways in retinoblastoma (Rb) cells. METHODS The human Rb cell lines Y79 and WERI-Rb1 were evaluated for their response to the Fas cross-linking antibody CH11 and recombinant TRAIL, as well as for cell surface presence and mutational status of Fas, DR4, and DR5 by flow cytometry and genomic DNA sequencing, respectively. The expression of caspase-8 and its inhibitor FLIP, as well as their recruitment to the DR signaling complex were studied by immunoblot analysis. RESULTS Rb cells express Fas, DR4, and DR5 on their surfaces, yet were resistant to DR-mediated apoptosis. This was not due to DR mutations or secretion of the soluble decoy Fas, antiapoptotic NF-kappaB activity, or FLIP overexpression, but to the absence of caspase-8 expression. The demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine restored caspase-8 expression and sensitivity to DR-mediated apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS Rb cells are resistant to DR-mediated apoptosis because of a deficiency in caspase-8 expression secondary to epigenetic gene silencing by overmethylation. The data help delineate the apoptotic pathways in Rb cells and suggest that the combination of demethylating agents with DR-activating modalities, such as TRAIL receptor monoclonal antibodies, may benefit patients with retinoblastoma.
Randomized trees for human pose detection

This paper addresses human pose recognition from video sequences by formulating it as a classification problem. Unlike much previous work we do not make any assumptions on the availability of clean segmentation. The first step of this work consists in a novel method of aligning the training images using 3D Mocap data. Next we define classes by discretizing a 2D manifold whose two dimensions are camera viewpoint and actions. Our main contribution is a pose detection algorithm based on random forests. A bottom-up approach is followed to build a decision tree by recursively clustering and merging the classes at each level. For each node of the decision tree we build a list of potentially discriminative features using the alignment of training images; in this paper we consider Histograms of Orientated Gradient (HOG). We finally grow an ensemble of trees by randomly sampling one of the selected HOG blocks at each node. Our proposed approach gives promising results with both fixed and moving cameras.
Externalizing Behaviors in Multicultural Children of Immigrant Mothers

Children and adolescents from multicultural families with an immigrant mother tend to experience stress due to problems with cross-cultural adaptation in South Korea, which has a homogeneous cultural identity. This study explored the impact of acculturative stress on externalizing behavior problems (e.g., aggressiveness and delinquency) among 121 elementary, middle, and high school students in Gyeonggi. It analyzed the mediating effects of acculturative stress on externalizing behaviors using structural equation modeling with bootstrapping method. The results showed that stress experienced in relation to cultural adaptation indirectly affected externalizing behaviors through school maladaptation. This indicates that while acculturative stress itself does not directly affect the externalizing behaviors of children and adolescents with immigrant mothers, it does appear to increase the difficulty of adjusting to the school environment, and as the maladaptation worsens, externalizing behaviors may subsequently develop. Schools must function as a protective environment against externalizing behavior problems associated with acculturative stress.
Comparing the effect of mefenamic Acid and vitex agnus on intrauterine device induced bleeding.

INTRODUCTION Increased bleeding is the most common cause of intrauterine device (IUD) removal. The use of alternative therapies to treat bleeding has increased due to the complications of medications. But most alternative therapies are not accepted by women. Therefore, conducting studies to find the right treatment with fewer complications and being acceptable is necessary. This study aimed to compare the effect of mefenamic acid and vitex agnus castus on IUD induced bleeding. METHODS This was a double blinded randomized controlled clinical trial. It was conducted on 84 women with random allocation in to two groups of 42 treated with mefenamic acid and vitex agnus capsules taking three times a day during menstruation for four months. Data were collected by demographic questionnaire and Higham 5 stage chart (1 month before the treatment and 4 months during the treatment). , Paired t-test, independent t-test, chi-square test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurements, and SPSS software were used to determine the results. RESULTS Mefenamic acid and vitex agnus significantly decreased bleeding. This decrease in month 4 was 52% in the mefenamic acid group and 47.6% in the vitex agnus group. The mean bleeding score changes was statistically significant between the two groups in the first three months and before the intervention. In the mefenamic acid group, the decreased bleeding was significantly more than the vitex agnus group. However, during the 4(th) month, the mean change was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION Mefenamic acid and vitex agnus were both effective on IUD induced bleeding; however, mefenamic acid was more effective.
A Machine Learning Approach to Identification and Resolution of One-Anaphora

We present a machine learning approach to identifying and resolving one-anaphora. In this approach, the system first learns to distinguish different uses of instances of the word one; in the second stage, the antecedents of those instances of one that are classified as anaphoric are then determined. We evaluated our approach on written texts drawn from the informative domains of the British National Corpus (BNC), and achieved encouraging results. To our knowledge, this is the first learning-based system for the identification and resolution of one-anaphora.