Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stem Cell Marker CD133 Affects Clinical Outcome in Glioma Patients

Purpose: The CD133 antigen has been identified as a putative stem cell marker in normal and malignant brain tissues. In gliomas, it is used to enrich a subpopulation of highly tumorigenic cancer cells. According to the cancer stem cell hypothesis, CD133-positive cells determine long-term tumor growth and, therefore, are suspected to influence clinical outcome. To date, a correlation between CD133 expression in primary tumor tissues and patients' prognosis has not been reported. Experimental Design: To address this question, we analyzed the expression of the CD133 stem cell antigen in a series of 95 gliomas of various grade and histology by immunohistochemistry on cryostat sections. Staining data were correlated with patient outcome. Results: By multivariate survival analysis, we found that both the proportion of CD133-positive cells and their topological organization in clusters were significant (P < 0.001) prognostic factors for adverse progression-free survival and overall survival independent of tumor grade, extent of resection, or patient age. Furthermore, proportion of CD133-positive cells was an independent risk factor for tumor regrowth and time to malignant progression in WHO grade 2 and 3 tumors. Conclusions: These findings constitute the first conclusive evidence that CD133 stem cell antigen expression correlates with patient survival in gliomas, lending support to the current cancer stem cell hypothesis.
Characterization of the gene encoding the autotrophic ATP sulfurylase from the bacterial endosymbiont of the hydrothermal vent tubeworm Riftia pachyptila

ATP sulfurylase is a key enzyme in the energy-generating sulfur oxidation pathways of many chemoautotrophic bacteria. The utilization of reduced sulfur compounds to fuel CO2 fixation by the still-uncultured bacterial endosymbionts provides the basis of nutrition in invertebrates, such as the tubeworm Riftia pachyptila, found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The symbiont-containing trophosome tissue contains high levels of ATP sulfurylase activity, facilitating the recent purification of the enzyme. The gene encoding the ATP sulfurylase from the Riftia symbiont (sopT) has now been cloned and sequenced by using the partial amino acid sequence of the purified protein. Characterization of the sopT gene has unequivocally shown its bacterial origin. This is the first ATP sulfurylase gene to be cloned and sequenced from a sulfur-oxidizing bacterium. The deduced amino acid sequence was compared to those of ATP sulfurylases reported from organisms which assimilate sulfate, resulting in the discovery that there is substantial homology with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae MET3 gene product but none with the products of the cysDN genes from Escherichia coli nor with the nodP and nodQ genes from Rhizobium meliloti. This and emerging evidence from other sources suggests that E. coli may be atypical, even among prokaryotic sulfate assimilators, in the enzyme it employs for adenosine 5'-phosphosulfate formation. The sopT gene probe also was shown to specifically identify chemoautotrophic bacteria which utilize ATP sulfurylase to oxidize sulfur compounds.
Leukemia Inhibitory Factor, Oncostatin M, IL-6, and Stem Cell Factor mRNA Expression in Human Thymus Increases with Age and Is Associated with Thymic Atrophy1

The roles that thymus cytokines might play in regulating thymic atrophy are not known. Reversing thymic atrophy is important for immune reconstitution in adults. We have studied cytokine mRNA steady-state levels in 45 normal human (aged 3 days to 78 years) and 34 myasthenia gravis thymuses (aged 4 to 75 years) during aging, and correlated cytokine mRNA levels with thymic signal joint (sj) TCR δ excision circle (TREC) levels, a molecular marker for active thymopoiesis. LIF, oncostatin M (OSM), IL-6, M-CSF, and stem cell factor (SCF) mRNA were elevated in normal and myasthenia gravis-aged thymuses, and correlated with decreased levels of thymopoiesis, as determined by either decreased keratin-positive thymic epithelial space or decreased thymic sjTRECs. IL-7 is a key cytokine required during the early stages of thymocyte development. Interestingly, IL-7 mRNA expression did not fall with aging in either normal or myasthenia gravis thymuses. In vivo administration of LIF, OSM, IL-6, or SCF, but not M-CSF, i.p. to mice over 3 days induced thymic atrophy with loss of CD4+, CD8+ cortical thymocytes. Taken together, these data suggest a role for thymic cytokines in the process of thymic atrophy.
Big Data for Development: A Review of Promises and Challenges

type="main" xml:id="dpr12142-abs-0001"> The article uses a conceptual framework to review empirical evidence and some 180 articles related to the opportunities and threats of Big Data Analytics for international development. The advent of Big Data delivers a cost-effective prospect for improved decision-making in critical development areas such as healthcare, economic productivity and security. At the same time, the well-known caveats of the Big Data debate, such as privacy concerns and human resource scarcity, are aggravated in developing countries by long-standing structural shortages in the areas of infrastructure, economic resources and institutions. The result is a new kind of digital divide: a divide in the use of data-based knowledge to inform intelligent decision-making. The article systematically reviews several available policy options in terms of fostering opportunities and minimising risks.
Sybil Defense Techniques in Online Social Networks: A Survey

The problem of malicious activities in online social networks, such as Sybil attacks and malevolent use of fake identities, can severely affect the social activities in which users engage while online. For example, this problem can affect content publishing, creation of friendships, messaging, profile browsing, and commenting. Moreover, fake identities are often created to disseminate spam, use the private information of other users, commit fraud, and so on. A malicious person can generate numerous fake accounts for these purposes to reach a large number of trustworthy users. Thus, these types of malicious accounts must be detected and deactivated as quickly as possible. However, this objective is challenging, because a fake account can exhibit trustworthy behaviors and have a type of name that will prevent it from being detected by the security system. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of literature from 2006 to 2016 on Sybil attacks in online social networks and use of social networks as a tool to analyze and prevent these attack types. We first review existing Sybil attack definitions, including those in the context of online social networks. We then discuss a new taxonomy of Sybil attack defense schemes and methodologies. Finally, we compare the literature and identify areas for further research in Sybil attacks in online social networks.
Polyfunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T Cell Responses to Tuberculosis Antigens in HIV-1–Infected Patients before and after Anti-Retroviral Treatment

Tuberculosis (TB) kills 2 million people per year and infection with HIV is the most potent known risk factor for progression to active TB. An understanding of the immune response to TB Ags in HIV-infected patients is required to develop optimal TB vaccines and diagnostics. We assessed polyfunctional (IFN-γ+IL-2+TNF-α+) T cell responses to TB Ags in three groups of HIV-1–infected patients dependent on their TB status, CD4 counts, and anti-retroviral exposure. We found that although the proportion of IFN-γ cells in response to TB Ags was higher in patients with low CD4 counts, the responding cells changed from a polyfunctional CD4+ to a monofunctional CD8+ response. The overall polyfunctionality of the cells was restored by 12 mo of anti-retroviral therapy and primarily involved CD4+ T cells with an effector memory phenotype. These findings have major implications for diagnosis of TB and in vaccine development strategies for TB in HIV-1–infected patients.
Intermediate-Band Surface Photometry of the Edge-on Galaxy NGC 4565

We present a deep, 42.79 hr image of the nearby, edge-on galaxy NGC 4565 in the Beijing-Arizona-Taipei-Connecticut 6660 Å band using the large-format CCD system on the 0.6 m Schmidt telescope at the Xinglong Station of the National Astronomical Observatories of China. Following the procedures previously developed by our team for the analysis of deep images of galaxies, we obtain a final image that is calibrated to an accuracy of 0.02 mag in zero point and for which we can measure galaxy surface brightness to an accuracy of 0.25 mag at a surface brightness of 27.5 mag arcsec-2 at 6660 Å, corresponding to a distance of 22 kpc from the center of the disk. The integrated magnitude of NGC 4565 in our filter is m6660 = 8.99 (=R magnitude of 9.1) to a surface brightness of 28 mag arcsec-2. We analyze the faint outer parts of this galaxy using a two-dimensional model comprised of three components: an exponential thin disk, an exponential thick disk, and a power-law halo. Combined with a need to provide a cutoff radius for the disk, a total of 12 parameters are included in our model. We determine the best values of our model parameters via 10,000 random initial values, 3700 of which converge to final values. We then plot the χ2 for each converged fit versus parameter value for each of the 12 parameters. The thin-disk and thick-disk parameters that we determine here are consistent with those of previous studies of this galaxy. However, our very deep image permits a better determination of the power-law fit to the halo, constraining this power law to be between r-3.2 and r-4.0, with a best-fit value of r-3.88. We find the axis ratio of the halo to be 0.44 and its core radius to be 14.4 kpc (for an adopted distance of 14.5 Mpc). We also agree with others that the bulge of NGC 4565 is fitted well by an exponential luminosity distribution with a scale height similar to that found for the thin disk.
TDR response properties and their use in the estimation of soil permittivity

Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is an important method for soil science applications. In this paper, the properties of the TDR responses of Debye 's dielectrics are addressed and exploited to facilitate the estimation of soil permittivity. The study is based on the decomposition of the response into a sequence of echoes, and on the analysis of their relationship with the probe and the dielectric parameters. Practical rules for the selection of the measurement setup parameters and for the processing of the measured waveforms are given.
GlottDNN - A Full-Band Glottal Vocoder for Statistical Parametric Speech Synthesis

GlottHMM is a previously developed vocoder that has been successfully used in HMM-based synthesis by parameterizing speech into two parts (glottal flow, vocal tract) according to the functioning of the real human voice production mechanism. In this study, a new glottal vocoding method, GlottDNN, is proposed. The GlottDNN vocoder is built on the principles of its predecessor, GlottHMM, but the new vocoder introduces three main improvements: GlottDNN (1) takes advantage of a new, more accurate glottal inverse filtering method, (2) uses a new method of deep neural network (DNN) -based glottal excitation generation, and (3) proposes a new approach of band-wise processing of full-band speech. The proposed GlottDNN vocoder was evaluated as part of a full-band state-of-the-art DNN-based text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis system, and compared against the release version of the original GlottHMM vocoder, and the well-known STRAIGHT vocoder. The results of the subjective listening test indicate that GlottDNN improves the TTS quality over the compared methods.
Mechanism and biological significance of constitutive expression of MGSA/GRO chemokines in malignant melanoma tumor progression

By reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction, enzymelinked immunosorbent assay, and immunohistochemistry, MGSA‐α, ‐β, ‐γ, and CXCR2 mRNA expression and proteins are detected in 7 out of 10 human melanoma lesions. The biological consequence of constitutive expression of the MGSA/GRO chemokine in immortalized melanocytes was tested in SCID and nude mouse models. Continuous expression of MGSA/GRO‐α, ‐β, or ‐γ in immortalized melan‐a mouse melanocytes results in nearly 100% tumor formation for each of the clones tested, whereas clones expressing only the neomycin resistance vector form tumors <10% of the time. Moreover, antibodies to the MGSA/GRO proteins slow or inhibit the formation of tumors in the SCID mouse model and block the angiogenic response to conditioned medium from the tumor‐producing clones. Transcription of the MGSA/ GRO chemokines is regulated by an enhancesomelike complex comprised of the nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB), HMG(I)Y, IUR, and Sp1 elements. In Hs294T melanoma cells the half life of the IκB protein is shortened in comparison to normal retinal epithelial cells, facilitating the endogenous nuclear localization of NF‐κB. We propose that this endogenous nuclear NF‐κB, working in concert with the 115‐κDa IUR‐binding factor, promotes constitutive expression of MGSA/GRO genes. J. Leukoc. Biol.62: 588–597; 1997.
An Evolutionary Perspective on Self-Organized Division of Labor in Social Insects

Division of labor is a complex phenomenon observed throughout nature. Theoretical studies have focused either on its emergence through self-organization mechanisms or on its adaptive consequences. We suggest that the interaction of self-organization, which undoubtedly characterizes division of labor in social insects, and evolution should be further explored. We review the factors empirically shown to influence task choice. In light of these factors, we review the most important self-organization and evolutionary models for division of labor and outline their advantages and limitations. We describe ways to unify evolution and self-organization in the theoretical study of division of labor and recent results in this area. Finally, we discuss some benchmarks and primary challenges of this approach.
Wideband Stub-Loaded Slotline Antennas Under Multi-Mode Resonance Operation

A novel center-fed wideband slotline antenna is proposed using the multi-mode resonance concept. By symmetrically introducing one or two pairs of slot stubs along the slotline resonator near the nulls of electric field distribution of the second odd-order mode, two modes are excited in a single slotline radiator. With the help of these stubs, the second odd-order mode can be gradually merged with its first counterpart, resulting in a wideband radiation characteristic with two resonances. Prototype antennas are then designed and fabricated to experimentally validate the principle and design approach. It is shown that the operation fractional bandwidth of the proposed slotline antenna could be effectively increased to 31.5% while keeping an inherent narrow slot structure.
High Maternal HIV-1 Viral Load During Pregnancy Is Associated With Reduced Placental Transfer of Measles IgG Antibody

Background:Studies among HIV-1-infected women have demonstrated reduced placental transfer of IgG antibodies against measles and other pathogens. As a result, infants born to women with HIV-1 infection may not acquire adequate passive immunity in utero and this could contribute to high infant morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable population. Methods:To determine factors associated with decreased placental transfer of measles IgG, 55 HIV-1-infected pregnant women who were enrolled in a Nairobi perinatal HIV-1 transmission study were followed. Maternal CD4 count, HIV-1 viral load, and HIV-1-specific gp41 antibody concentrations were measured antenatally and at delivery. Measles IgG concentrations were assayed in maternal blood and infant cord blood obtained during delivery to calculate placental antibody transfer. Results:Among 40 women (73%) with positive measles titers, 30 (75%) were found to have abnormally low levels of maternofetal IgG transfer (<95%). High maternal HIV-1 viral load at 32 weeks' gestation and at delivery was associated with reductions in placental transfer (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0056, respectively) and infant measles IgG concentrations in cord blood (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0073, respectively). High maternal HIV-1-specific gp41 antibody titer was also highly correlated with both decreased placental transfer (P = 0.0080) and decreased infant IgG (P < 0.0001). Conclusions:This is the first study to evaluate the relationship between maternal HIV-1 viremia, maternal HIV-1 antibody concentrations, and passive immunity among HIV-1-exposed infants. These data support the hypothesis that high HIV-1 viral load during the last trimester may impair maternofetal transfer of IgG and increases risk of measles and other serious infections among HIV-1-exposed infants.
Characterization of brimonidine transport in retinal pigment epithelium.

PURPOSE To investigate the involvement of carrier-mediated transport mechanisms in brimonidine transport in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). METHODS The transport of [3H]-brimonidine in bovine RPE-choroid explants was evaluated in a modified Ussing chamber. The uptake of [3H]brimonidine was evaluated in differentiated ARPE-19 cells cultured on permeable transwell filters. RESULTS The transport of brimonidine into (choroid-to-retina transport [inward]) and out of (retina-to-choroid transport [outward]) the eye in bovine RPE-choroid explants was temperature dependent. Both inward and outward brimonidine transport decreased at 5 microM compared with 10 nM. The melanin pigmentation of RPE did not significantly affect tissue permeability at either brimonidine dose. A saturable component was identified for the inward transport with the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant and a maximum transport rate of 51 microM and 148 pmol/(cm2 x h), respectively. Both apical (representing retina-to-choroid transport) and basolateral (representing choroid-to-retina transport) brimonidine uptake in ARPE-19 cells showed temperature dependence. Apical uptake was higher than basolateral uptake at 37 degrees C and was decreased to 70% in the presence of NaN3 or in the absence of extracellular Na+. Besides alpha2-agonists, apical uptake was inhibited by verapamil, desipramine, and quinidine, but not by MPP+ (1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium), TEA (tetraethylammonium), decynium-22, carnitine, PHA (p-aminohippurate), alanine, or inosine. Basolateral brimonidine uptake increased by 35% at extracellular pH of 6 and decreased by 50% under cell-depolarized conditions of high medium K+ and 1 microM valinomycin. Temperature-dependent components of basolateral uptake were not saturated at doses up to 2 mM. CONCLUSIONS A carrier-mediated transport process for brimonidine in RPE was demonstrated in bovine RPE-choroid explants and polarized ARPE-19 cells. This transport system may play a significant role in modulating the movement of brimonidine into and out of the eye.
Information agents and cultural differences as determinants of country’s reputation and its subsequent effects on tourism prospects of a country in sustained crises

The current study aims to examine the influence of information agents and cultural differences in reputation building of Pakistan and its subsequent effects on tourism prospects of the country. The data were collected from foreign and local students studying in Chinese and Malaysian universities. The results determined that the perceptions attributed to Pakistan vary considerably around the world, with more favorable views in China, Middle East, and Africa and the least affirmative views in Europe and North America. The media and the Pakistani diaspora had statistically significant but a diametrical relationship with Pakistan’s reputation. Pakistani diaspora are playing an instrumental role in cultivating a favorable reputation of Pakistan, as affirmative impressions of Pakistan were determined in the foreign audience through them. On the other hand, the perceptions constituted through media have a strong negative influence on the reputation of Pakistan. Lastly, social appeal, cultural appeal, and physical appeal of Pakistan are optimistically received and influence the people’s intention to visit Pakistan, but Pakistan has a very low leadership appeal, which does not allow it to communicate an appealing vision of the country to the world. For policy makers and academicians, it is recommended that a reality-induced framework would work best for countries suffering from sustained crises instead of an advertising-led marketing model of country branding. Thus, the present study bears theoretical and practical relevance by adding to the branding theory of countries in crisis.
In-router cache performance under long-term video request traffic in CCN: A simulation-based study

Content centric network (CCN) has been regarded as one of the most promising architecture solution for the future Internet, which has great advantages in support of content delivery services, such as Video-on-demand (VoD) application. Although there are some existing models proposed for the cache performance in CCN router, few of them consider the case of video request traffic. In this paper, we focus on this issue, and investigate the steady state performance of the in-router cache system under a serial of continuous VoD requests. Without loss of generalization, we adopt a simplest kind of caching policy, i.e. threshold-based caching, in our model. In our simulation, we firstly study the caching performance with regular synthetic VoD request traffic, and then extent to the irregular random VoD request traffic. The simulation results show the existence of steady-state performance of CCN router. This conclusion will be helpful for the design of CCN caching policy for the future VoD applications.
Interest in Testing for Genetic Susceptibility to Lung Cancer among Black College Students “At Risk” of Becoming Cigarette Smokers

Receptivity to genetic testing for lung cancer susceptibility was assessed among African American college freshmen, who held attitudes favorable towards or had experimented with cigarette smoking. Students (n = 95) completed a telephone survey that assessed beliefs about genetics and lung cancer risk, interest in genetic testing, and expectations about the test outcome. Interest in being tested was moderately high (mean, 5; SD, 2.2; scale of 1-7) and highest among those who believed lung cancer was influenced by genetics (r = 0.22, P < 0.05) and those who expected to be at high risk (r = 0.27, P < 0.05). Overall, 34% thought if tested, the result would show high risk for lung cancer. In multivariate analyses, students' test result expectation was the only significant predictor of interest in testing. Those who believed the test would show them to be at higher risk were thrice more likely to be interested in testing than those who thought the test would show that they were at lower risk (odds ratio, 2.99; confidence interval, 1.03-8.64; P = 0.04). Future research is needed to understand how young adults will respond to genetic susceptibility feedback that confirms or contradicts their expectations about personal risks of smoking. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2005;14(12):2978–81)
Use of existing planners to solve single-player games

Solving single player games in GDL is highly related to solving a planning task. PDDL is a common language for defining planning domains and problems. Using a planner that exists for PDDL might be useful in solving a GDL game. This paper provides a translation scheme for a subset of GDL games into PDDL planning tasks and compares the results of specific planners to the Fluxplayer.