Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Induction of anoikis by sodium arsenite in rat hepatoma FGC4 cells: comparison with cadmium chloride and implications for assessment of regulation of heat shock protein 70

Context: Arsenic, a toxic metalloid with major health concerns, elicits upregulation of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in rat hepatoma FGC4 cells, together with evidence of detachment of viable cells from the growth substratum. Objective: To determine if this cell detachment was linked to anoikis, and the impact of this on measurement of HSP70 expression. Materials and methods: FGC4 cells were exposed to sodium arsenite, and detached and attached cells were taken for assessment of cell viability, activation of procaspase-3, and expression of HSP70. Results: Exposure to sodium arsenite led to loss of viable cells from the substratum, associated with apoptosis in detached, but not attached, cells. Upregulation of HSP70 of a similar magnitude was demonstrated in both cell populations. Exposure of cells to cadmium chloride, a toxic metal, also of major environmental concern and believed to act by an oxidative stress mechanism, produced very little release of viable cells from the culture substratum, was not associated with apoptosis, but did elicit a modest upregulation of HSP70 in both cell populations. Discussion: Exposure of FGC4 cells to sodium arsenite elicits anoikis, a form of anchorage-dependent apoptosis, and assessment of the level of HSP70 upregulation in such cells should take account of the detached cell population. Further, the data suggest that this phenomenon is selective to sodium arsenite, rather than to another toxic element that shares a similar mechanism of toxicity.
Establishment of Characteristic Gut Bacteria during Development of the Honeybee Worker

ABSTRACT Previous surveys have shown that adult honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers harbor a characteristic gut microbiota that may play a significant role in bee health. For three major phylotypes within this microbiota, we have characterized distributions and abundances across the life cycle and among gut organs. These distinctive phylotypes, called Beta, Firm-5, and Gamma-1 (BFG), were assayed using quantitative PCR, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) microscopy, and the experimental manipulation of inoculation routes within developing bees. Adult workers (9 to 30 days posteclosion) contained a large BFG microbiota with a characteristic distribution among gut organs. The crop and midgut were nearly devoid of these phylotypes, while the ileum and rectum together contained more than 95% of the total BFG microbiota. The ileum contained a stratified community in which the Beta and Gamma-1 phylotypes dominated, filling the longitudinal folds of this organ. Deep sequencing of 16S rRNA genes showed clear differences among communities in midgut, ileum, and rectum. In contrast with older workers, larvae and newly emerged workers contain few or no bacteria, and their major food source, bee bread, lacks most characteristic phylotypes. In experiments aimed at determining the route of inoculation, newly emerged workers (NEWs) sometimes acquired the typical phylotypes through contact with older workers, contact with the hive, and emergence from the brood cell; however, transmission was patchy in these assays. Our results outline a colonization pattern for the characteristic phylotypes through A. mellifera ontogeny. We propose the names “Candidatus Snodgrassella alvi” and “Candidatus Gilliamella apicola” for the Beta and Gamma-1 phylotypes, respectively.
Inhibition of boar sperm hyaluronidase activity by tannic acid reduces polyspermy during in vitro fertilization of porcine oocytes

Summary The present study was conducted to examine the effects of three polyphenols (tannic acid, apigenin and quercetin) on hyaluronidase activity and in vitro fertilization (IVF) parameters. Among them, tannic acid showed by far the strongest potency for blocking hyaluronidase activity extracted from preincubated boar sperm, causing a dose-dependent inhibition over the range of 2–10 μg/ml. When cumulus-intact and cumulus-free oocytes were inseminated in IVF medium containing tannic acid, the penetration and the polyspermy rates were significantly decreased in the presence of 10 μg/ml tannic acid compared with those in the absence of tannic acid, and the addition of 5 μg/ml tannic acid significantly reduced the polyspermy rate (p < 0.05) compared with that of the control while maintaining the high penetration rate. However, apigenin and quercetin had no effect on the rate of polyspermy. Interestingly, the incidence of polyspermy was significantly reduced in oocytes inseminated with sperm pretreated with 5 μg/ml tannic acid (p < 0.05), although the pretreatment of oocytes had no effect against the polyspermy after insemination with untreated sperm. Treatment with tannic acid caused neither a protective proteolytic modification of the zona pellucida matrix before fertilization, nor a reduction of the proteolytic activity of acrosomal contents or the number of zona-bound spermatozoa. These data suggest that an appropriate concentration of tannic acid prevents polyspermy through the inhibition of sperm hyaluronidase activity during IVF of porcine oocytes.
Superresolution of hyperspectral images using spectral unmixing and sparse regularization

Unlike multispectral (MSI) and panchromatic (PAN) images, the spatial resolution of hyperspectral images (HSI) is limited. In many applications, HSI with a high spectral as well as spatial resolution are required. In this paper, a new method for superresolution of HSI is introduced. A high resolution HSI (HRHSI) is constructed by using the linear spectral unmixing model and making use of a MSI of the same scene. As a regularization, we apply a sparse representation of the HSI, obtained by constructing a dictionary of unrelated PAN images. Experiments show that the reconstruction quality is higher than some the well-known HSI spatial resolution enhancement methods.
Neonatal stimulation of 5‐HT2 receptors reduces androgen receptor expression in the rat anteroventral periventricular nucleus and sexually dimorphic preoptic area

Masculinization of the brain is dependent upon a perinatal surge in testosterone. It also requires a transient decrease in hypothalamic 5‐HT concentration and turnover and an increase in androgen receptor (AR) expression during the second postnatal week. We have previously shown that increasing 5‐HT activity over this period in male or androgenized female rats feminizes their adult behaviour and also feminizes the size of their anteroventral periventricular nucleus (AVPV) and sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area (SDN‐POA). To investigate the role of 5‐HT in sexual differentiation of the brain, 5‐HT activity was raised over postnatal days 8–16 in male, female and androgenized female rats by daily administration of the 5‐HT2 receptor agonist (–)[2,5 dimethoxy‐4‐iodophenyl]‐2‐amino propane hydrochloride [(–)DOI]. By postnatal day 18, the size of the AVPV and SDN‐POA was sexually dimorphic; their sizes were feminized by (–)DOI treatment. In the absence of (–)DOI treatment, there were significantly more AR‐immunoreactive cells in the AVPV of males, and in the SDN‐POA of males and androgenized females, than in those of females on postnatal day 18. (–)DOI treatment reduced the number of AR‐immunoreactive cells in the AVPV and SDN‐POA of males and androgenized females, but not of females, by postnatal day 18. These results suggest that 5‐HT2 receptor activation can influence sexual differentiation of the brain by controlling AR expression.
Endovascular treatment of unruptured wide-necked intracranial aneurysms: comparison of dual microcatheter technique and stent-assisted coil embolization

Background Endovascular treatment of wide-necked aneurysms is challenging. Stent-assisted coiling (SAC) is associated with increased complications and requires dual antiplatelet therapy. Objective To compare treatment of unruptured, wide-necked aneurysms with a dual-microcatheter technique (DMT) versus SAC. Methods Between 2006 and 2011, 100 patients with unruptured wide-necked intracranial aneurysms were treated with DMT and 160 with SAC. Over time there was a significant decrease in the use of SAC and a corresponding increase in DMT. The investigators matched 60 patients treated with DMT blinded to outcome in a 1:2 fashion based on maximal aneurysm dome diameter with 120 patients treated with SAC. Outcomes were determined with conditional (matched) multivariate analysis. Results There were no significant differences in patient or aneurysm characteristics between cohorts, including aneurysm diameter, neck width, or volume. Overall packing density and coil volume achieved was not significantly different between cohorts. There were higher rates of overall complications in those receiving SAC (19.2%) compared with DMT (5.0%; p=0.012), but no significant difference in major complications (8.3% vs 1.7%, respectively; p=0.103). At a mean follow-up of 27.0±18.9 months, rates of retreatment did not differ between DMT (15.1%) and SAC (17.7%). Delayed in-stent stenosis occurred in five patients and in-stent thrombosis in four patients treated with SAC. There was no difference in favorable functional outcome (modified Rankin score 0–2) between those treated with DMT (90.6%) compared with SAC (91.2%). Conclusions DMT and SAC are effective endovascular approaches for unruptured, wide-necked aneurysms; however, DMT may result in less morbidity. Further long-term studies are necessary to determine the optimal indications for these treatment options.
Stem diameter in relation to plant water status.

An instrument containing a linear variable differential transformer was constructed to obtain continuous, nondestructive measurements of both short term changes in stem diameter and long term growth. In cotton plants, stem diameter, leaf water potential, and leaf relative water content are all closely related to net radiation at the top of the canopy. Leaves from the east and west sides of a plant show slight, but consistent differences in diurnal water potential patterns.Stem diameter and leaf water potential are not related by a single-valued function, since there is a diurnal hysteresis between the two, and growth causes an increase in diameter each night. However, the instrument can be used to monitor long term stem diameter growth.
Weighted regularized laplacian interpolation for consolidation of highly-incomplete time varying point clouds

Recently, there has been increasing interest in real-time processing of time varying point clouds (TVPCs) ideally suited for real time applications such as immersive tele-presence systems and gaming. Although the resolution and accuracy of the modern 3D scanners are constantly improving, the captured 3D point clouds are usually highly incomplete, stressing the need of completion approaches with low computational requirements. In this paper, we introduce a novel regularized Laplacian interpolation approach for a fast and effective consolidation of a TVPC. Extensive evaluation studies, carried out using a collection of different incomplete TVPCs, verify that the proposed technique achieves plausible reconstruction output despite the constraints posed by arbitrarily complex and motion scenarios.
The challenges of gamifying CSR communication

Purpose A growing number of research report positive effects of gamification, that is the introduction of game elements to non-game contexts, on stakeholder intentions and behaviors. Hence, gamification is proposed as an effective tool for organizations to educate their stakeholders about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability-related topics. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors ask whether gamification can communicate matters of social and environmental concern. Based on three consecutive experimental studies, the authors show that there are boundary conditions to the effectiveness of gamified communication on stakeholder attitude, intention and behavior. Findings The authors find positive, negative and insignificant effects of gamification on pro-environmental attitude, intention and behavior. Based on these ambiguous results, the authors conclude with a call for more rigorous forms of designing gamified experiences to foster stakeholder learning and highlight and develop several such future research and engagement opportunities. Originality/value The study is the first to apply gamification to the context of corporate and in particular CSR communication. It is furthermore one of the first studies that actually research the effects of gamification empirically, and in controlled experimental conditions.
Covariance Matrix Differencing for Coherent Source DOA Estimation Under Unknown Noise Field

In this paper, we propose an algorithm to estimate the one- and two-dimensional direction of arrival angles (DOAs) from the coherent incident sources. We can apply our proposed algorithm for more practical situations even when the unknown noise covariance matrix is in a complex symmetric Toeplitz form; whereas the Prasad's method requires that the unknown noise should be in a real symmetric Toeplitz form. Our proposed method is based on the difference between the forward/backward spatial smoothing for the data covariance matrix and the Hermition of the backward spatial smoothing. This covariance matrix difference is introduced to eliminate the noise components from the array structure. The numerical results verify that the proposed method gives more accurate estimation and superior performance than the conventional root MUSIC of the forward/backward spatial smoothing.
Combination chemotherapy of drug-resistant Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense infections in mice using DL-alpha-difluoromethylornithine and standard trypanocides

Combinations of DL-alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO; eflornithine; Ornidyl) with either suramin or melarsen oxide were found to be effective against acute laboratory model infections with Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. We used clinical isolates known to be resistant to these drugs when used singly. An infection with a melarsen oxide-refractory isolate was cured by a combination of low-dose DFMO (0.5% in the drinking water) plus low-dose suramin (1 mg/kg of body weight given intraperitoneally). Another strain, moderately resistant to arsenical drugs, was cured with combinations of 4% DFMO with 5 mg of melarsen oxide per kg. Furthermore, a combination of DFMO (2% in the drinking water) and suramin (20 mg/kg) provided a 100% cure rate in a central nervous system model, although the same doses of these drugs used singly were completely ineffective. The synergism of DFMO and suramin against an acute infection was improved when suramin was given at the end of the DFMO administration. No adverse interactions were observed when high doses of DFMO combined with high doses of suramin were administered to uninfected mice. These results suggest that combinations of DFMO and suramin should be examined clinically for activity in arsenical-drug-refractory cases of East African sleeping sickness.
Hip and calcaneal bone loss increase with advancing age: Longitudinal results from the study of osteoporotic fractures

It is uncertain whether or how rapidly elderly women continue to lose bone with advancing age. To determine rates of change in bone mass at the hip and at the calcaneus in elderly women and to compare these rates of change among estrogen users and nonusers, we prospectively measured rates of change in bone mineral density (BMD) at the total hip and its four subregions (mean ± SD, 3.55 ± 0.29 years between examinations) and at the calcaneus (mean ± SD, 5.69 ± 0.33 years between examinations) in 5698 community‐dwelling white women aged 65 years or older at the baseline examination. The rate of decline in total hip BMD steadily increased from 2.5 mg/cm2/year (95% confidence interval 2.0 to 2.9) in women 67–69 years old to 10.4 mg/cm2/year in those aged 85 or older (95% confidence interval 8.4 to 12.4). The rate of bone loss also increased with aging at all subregions of the hip and at the calcaneus. The average loss of bone from the total hip is sufficient to increase the risk of hip fracture by 21% per 5 years in women aged 80 years or older. Compared with nonusers, current estrogen users had a 33% lower age‐adjusted mean rate of loss at the total hip (2.9 vs 4.3 mg/cm2/year, p ≤ 0.0001) and a 35% lower age‐adjusted mean rate of loss at the calcaneus (3.9 vs 6.0 mg/cm2/year, p ≤ 0.0001). The rate of bone loss in the hip and calcaneus steadily increases with advancing age in older women. Estrogen therapy may significantly decrease this loss. Efforts to understand and prevent bone loss should include elderly women.
Glucagon-like peptide 2 improves intestinal wound healing through induction of epithelial cell migration in vitro-evidence for a TGF--beta-mediated effect.

BACKGROUND/AIMS In vitro studies suggest that glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2), secreted from enteroendocrine cells in the gastrointestinal tract after food intake, is able to ameliorate mucosal injury in settings of human disease characterized by injury and dysfunction of the intestinal mucosal epithelium. We evaluated this potential of GLP-2 after epithelial trauma by using two in vitro models measuring intestinal epithelial cell proliferation and cell migration. MATERIALS AND METHODS Injuries were induced in confluent monolayers of the small intestinal cells lines IEC-6 and IEC-18, as well as in the colonic cell lines Caco-2 and Colo 320. GLP-2 (50-500 nM) or other peptides were added to the media. Wound healing was investigated after 24 h by quantification of the number of cells migrating across the wound edge. Proliferation of cells was assessed by using photometric mitochondrial incorporation measurement of MTT (3-[4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide). Monoclonal TGF-beta antibodies were added to wounded monolayers to examine whether the GLP-2-induced wound healing was TGF-beta-mediated. RESULTS Migration assessments revealed a significant stimulation of GLP-2-induced migration in IEC-6 and IEC-18 monolayers compared to the placebo group. No effect was observed in the colon cancer cell lines Caco-2 and Colo 320. Results of the proliferation assays show a significant inhibition of proliferation by GLP-2 in small intestinal cell lines whereas a dose-dependent stimulation of proliferation in colonic epithelial cells was observed. Addition of neutralizing TGF-beta1 antibodies to wounded IEC-6 and IEC-18 monolayers incubated with GLP-2 significantly reduced the number of migrating cells to the level of the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS In our in vitro model, it was shown that the GLP-2-induced improvement of intestinal wound healing is TGF-beta-mediated. These effects were predominant in the epithelium of the small intestine compared to colonic epithelium. Our findings provide further insight into mechanisms leading to GLP-2-induced mucosal wound healing. These results suggest that GLP-2 or analogues of this peptide may potentially be useful for the treatment of intestinal disorders characterized by injury and ineffective repair of the intestinal mucosa.
Chain reactions of a collaborative buyer–supplier relationship: the mediating role of relationship quality on innovation performance

This paper explores a collaborative buyer–supplier relationship (BSR) at multiple echelons of a supply chain by considering contractual fairness and power imbalance at the final stage as enablers and relationship quality as a mediating factor. A research model investigates the effects of contractual fairness, power sources, and relationship quality in terms of normative and instrumental relationship quality on chain reactions of a collaborative BSR and supplier innovation performance. The research results based on the data from 209 first-tier supplying firms in South Korea find that collaborative BSR with the buyer facilitates collaborative BSR with the supplier. Contractual fairness and referent power source enhance collaborative BSR by increasing the supplier’s normative relationship quality to the buyer. Diffusion of collaborative BSR along the supply chain leads to higher innovation performance of the supplier. The findings of this study provide useful insights about how to enhance innovation capabilities through building a collaborative BSR and relationship quality along the entire supply chain.
Are Disagreements Agreeable? Evidence from Information Aggregation

Disagreement measures are known to predict cross-sectional stock returns but fail to predict market returns. This paper proposes a partial least squares disagreement index by aggregating information across individual disagreement measures and shows that this index significantly predicts market returns both in- and out-of-sample. Consistent with the theory in Atmaz and Basak (2018), the disagreement index asymmetrically predicts market returns with greater power in high sentiment periods, is positively associated with investor expectations of market returns, predicts market returns through a cash flow channel, and can explain the positive volume-volatility relationship.
Widespread somatic L1 retrotransposition occurs early during gastrointestinal cancer evolution

Somatic L1 retrotransposition events have been shown to occur in epithelial cancers. Here, we attempted to determine how early somatic L1 insertions occurred during the development of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Using L1-targeted resequencing (L1-seq), we studied different stages of four colorectal cancers arising from colonic polyps, seven pancreatic carcinomas, as well as seven gastric cancers. Surprisingly, we found somatic L1 insertions not only in all cancer types and metastases but also in colonic adenomas, well-known cancer precursors. Some insertions were also present in low quantities in normal GI tissues, occasionally caught in the act of being clonally fixed in the adjacent tumors. Insertions in adenomas and cancers numbered in the hundreds, and many were present in multiple tumor sections, implying clonal distribution. Our results demonstrate that extensive somatic insertional mutagenesis occurs very early during the development of GI tumors, probably before dysplastic growth.
Real‐time recognition and tracking for augmented reality books

An augmented reality book (AR book) is an application in which such multimedia elements as virtual 3D objects, movie clips, or sound clips are augmented to a conventional book using augmented reality technology. It can provide better understanding about the contents and visual impressions for users. For AR books, this paper presents a markerless tracking method, which recognizes and tracks a large number of pages in real‐time, even on PCs with low computation power. For fast recognition with respect to a large number of pages, we propose a generic randomized forest that is an extension of a randomized forest. In addition, we define the spatial locality of the subregions in an image to resolve the problem of a dropping recognition rate under a complex background. For tracking with minimal jittering, we also propose the adaptive keyframe‐based tracking method, which automatically updates the current frame as a keyframe when it describes the page better than the existing one. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Automatic Phase Detection and Structure Extraction of MPI Applications

In this paper we present an automatic system able to detect the internal structure of executions of high-performance computing applications. This automatic system is able to rule out non-significant regions of executions, to detect redundancies, and, finally, to select small but significant execution regions. This automatic detection process is based on spectral analysis (wavelet transform, Fourier transform, etc.) and works detecting the most important frequencies of the application’s execution. These main frequencies are strongly related to the internal loops of the application’s source code. The automatic detection of small but significant execution regions shown in the paper reduces the load of the performance analysis process remarkably.