Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pemetrexed Induces S-Phase Arrest and Apoptosis via a Deregulated Activation of Akt Signaling Pathway

Pemetrexed is approved for first-line and maintenance treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The protein kinase Akt/protein kinase B is a well-known regulator of cell survival which is activated by pemetrexed, but its role in pemetrexed-mediated cell death and its molecular mechanisms are unclear. This study showed that stimulation with pemetrexed induced S-phase arrest and cell apoptosis and a parallel increase in sustained Akt phosphorylation and nuclear accumulation in the NSCLC A549 cell line. Inhibition of Akt expression by Akt specific siRNA blocked S-phase arrest and protected cells from apoptosis, indicating an unexpected proapoptotic role of Akt in the pemetrexed-mediated toxicity. Treatment of A549 cells with pharmacological inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), wortmannin and Ly294002, similarly inhibited pemetrexed-induced S-phase arrest and apoptosis and Akt phosphorylation, indicating that PI3K is an upstream mediator of Akt and is involved in pemetrexed-mediated cell death. Previously, we identified cyclin A-associated cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (Cdk2) as the principal kinase that was required for pemetrexed-induced S-phase arrest and apoptosis. The current study showed that inhibition of Akt function and expression by pharmacological inhibitors as well as Akt siRNA drastically inhibited cyclin A/Cdk2 activation. These pemetrexed-mediated biological and molecular events were also observed in a H1299 cell line. Overall, our results indicate that, in contrast to its normal prosurvival role, the activated Akt plays a proapoptotic role in pemetrexed-mediated S-phase arrest and cell death through a mechanism that involves Cdk2/cyclin A activation.
The GLN3 gene product is required for transcriptional activation of allantoin system gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We show that mutation at the GLN3 locus results in decreased steady-state levels of DAL7, DUR1,2, CAR1, and URA3 mRNAs derived from cultures grown in the presence of inducer. Basal levels of these RNA species, however, were not significantly affected by a gln3 mutation. The GLN3 product appears to affect gene expression in two ways. The pleiotropic requirement of GLN3 for induced gene expression probably derives from the need of the GLN3 product for inducer uptake into the cell and its loss in gln3 mutants. We also demonstrate that transcriptional activation, mediated by the DAL5 and DAL7 upstream activation sequences, requires a functional GLN3 gene product. This observation identified transcriptional activation as the most likely point of GLN3 participation in the expression of allantoin system genes.
Creation of ARS activity in yeast through iteration of non‐functional sequences

Replication origins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been identified through the clonning of autonomous replication sequence (ARS) elements that allow the extrachromosonal maintenance of plasmid molecules. ARS activity requires a close matcht to an 11 bp consensus sequence and A+T‐rich flanking DNA. ARS elements with a wide range of capacities for promoting plasmid maintenance have been described. We determined the ARS activity of plasmid with inserts consisting of repetitions of a 64 bp 100% A+T sequence that has sequence similarities to known ARS elements. An insert with approximately four repeats did not yield transformants, but inserts with either eight or eleven repeats did. The cooperative of ARS activity did not require a contiguous arrangement since a plasmid containing two inserts of four repeats each, separated by about 1 kb, was functional. Our results show that a charge from non‐function to function can be accomplished by the cumulative action of individually inactive sequences. We conclude that the probability of replication initiation is too low with only four repeats to allow plasmid maintenance, but the overall probability is increased by further sequence iteration to provide origin activity. We suggest that chromosomes may contain streches with dispersed, weak origin elements, each undetected by the conventional ARS assay, that in sum provide origin function.
Subchip multipath delay estimation for downlink WCDMA system based on Teager-Kaiser operator

Accurate detection and estimation of overlapping fading multipath components is vital for many communication systems, particularly for positioning technologies. Traditional approaches used for channel estimation generally fail in estimating closely-spaced multipath components in code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems. Here, we present a highly efficient technique for asynchronous downlink WCDMA multipath delay estimation with subchip resolution capability based on nonlinear Teager-Kaiser operator concept. The behavior of this technique is influenced considerably by the pulse shape waveform. Both rectangular and root raised cosine pulse shaping filters are considered.
Incorporating Price-Responsive Demand in Energy Scheduling Based on Consumer Payment Minimization

In the restructured power industry, demand responsiveness is a key factor whose importance will be boosted due to the impetus provided by the development of smart grids. Within the context of pool-based electricity markets, this paper addresses the incorporation of price-responsive demand in multiperiod energy scheduling driven by consumer payment minimization. Although consumer payment minimization has drawn considerable attention mainly in an operational setting and also recently under a planning framework, available models and solution approaches typically neglect demand-side participation. The proposed scheduling model considers a marginal pricing scheme as well as the effects of both network constraints and intertemporal constraints associated with generation operation. Modeling demand-side participation leads to bilinear payment terms that significantly increase the mathematical complexity of the optimization process.The resulting problem is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear bilevel program for which no exact solution technique is currently available. This paper presents a novel methodology by which the original bilevel and bilinear problem is converted into an equivalent single-level mixed-integer linear program suitable for efficient off-the-shelf software. This transformation is based on the application of duality theory of linear programming, integer algebra, and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions. The proposed approach has been successfully applied to the IEEE 118-bus system.
First-principles interatomic potential of silica applied to molecular dynamics.

A new method to provide interatomic pair potentials from ab initio Hartree-Fock self-consistent-field calculations is proposed; potentials are calculated for model clusters of silica (Si${\mathrm{O}}_{2}$). They are tested in the molecular-dynamics simulation of crystalline states, in which four known polymorphs of silica are shown to be dynamically stable.
In Alzheimer's Disease, Hypometabolism in Low-Amyloid Brain Regions May Be a Functional Consequence of Pathologies in Connected Brain Regions

In patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), prominent hypometabolism has been observed in brain regions with minor amyloid load. These hypometabolism-only (HO) areas cannot be explained merely as a consequence of local amyloid toxicity. The aim of this multimodal imaging study was to explore whether such HO phenomenon may be related to pathologies in functionally connected, remote brain regions. Nineteen AD patients and 15 matched controls underwent examinations with [(11)C]PiB-PET and [(18)F]FDG-PET. Voxel-based statistical group comparisons were performed to obtain maps of significantly elevated amyloid burden and reduced cerebral glucose metabolism, respectively, in patients. An HO area was identified by subtraction of equally thresholded result maps (hypometabolism minus amyloid burden). To identify the network typically functionally connected to this HO area, it was used as a seed region for a functional connectivity analysis in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 17 elderly healthy controls. The resulting intrinsic connectivity network (HO-ICN) was retransferred into the brains of AD patients to be able to analyze pathologies within this network in the positron emission tomography (PET) datasets. The most prominent HO area was detected in the left middle frontal gyrus of AD patients. The HO-ICN in healthy controls showed a major overlap with brain areas significantly affected by both amyloid deposition and hypometabolism in patients. This association was substantiated by the results of region-of-interest-based and voxel-wise correlation analyses, which revealed strong correlations between the degree of hypometabolism within the HO region and within the HO-ICN. These results support the notion that hypometabolism in brain regions not strongly affected by locoregional amyloid pathology may be related to ongoing pathologies in remote but functionally connected regions, that is, by reduced neuronal input from these regions.
An Access Control Model for Avoiding Outsourcing Risks

the security Outsourcing companies can provide several security services to its customer organizations, but the customer organizations should avoid Outsourcing security risks which emerge from providing security services to the customers through open environments or malicious behaviors which the security providers at Outsourcing companies may carry out. For this problem we propose a new methodology represented in a security design model which combine Cryptography and Access Control techniques to prevent the external security providers of an Outsourcing company to access the sensitive data assets of the customer organizations. We could achieve the realism of this methodology through a proposed algorithm in MATLAP Language. Using our new access control model, the customer organizations can control and manage the external access rights of security providers of specific Outsourcing Company which the customer organization communicated with it
HIF-1–dependent repression of equilibrative nucleoside transporter (ENT) in hypoxia

Extracellular adenosine (Ado) has been implicated as central signaling molecule during conditions of limited oxygen availability (hypoxia), regulating physiologic outcomes as diverse as vascular leak, leukocyte activation, and accumulation. Presently, the molecular mechanisms that elevate extracellular Ado during hypoxia are unclear. In the present study, we pursued the hypothesis that diminished uptake of Ado effectively enhances extracellular Ado signaling. Initial studies indicated that the half-life of Ado was increased by as much as fivefold after exposure of endothelia to hypoxia. Examination of expressional levels of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter (ENT)1 and ENT2 revealed a transcriptionally dependent decrease in mRNA, protein, and function in endothelia and epithelia. Examination of the ENT1 promoter identified a hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF-1)–dependent repression of ENT1 during hypoxia. Using in vitro and in vivo models of Ado signaling, we revealed that decreased Ado uptake promotes vascular barrier and dampens neutrophil tissue accumulation during hypoxia. Moreover, epithelial Hif1 α mutant animals displayed increased epithelial ENT1 expression. Together, these results identify transcriptional repression of ENT as an innate mechanism to elevate extracellular Ado during hypoxia.
Language Identification of Encrypted VoIP Traffic: Alejandra y Roberto or Alice and Bob?

Voice over IP (VoIP) has become a popular protocol for making phone calls over the Internet. Due to the potential transit of sensitive conversations over untrusted network infrastructure, it is well understood that the contents of a VoIP session should be encrypted. However, we demonstrate that current cryptographic techniques do not provide adequate protection when the underlying audio is encoded using bandwidth-saving Variable Bit Rate (VBR) coders. Explicitly, we use the length of encrypted VoIP packets to tackle the challenging task of identifying the language of the conversation. Our empirical analysis of 2,066 native speakers of 21 different languages shows that a substantial amount of information can be discerned from encrypted VoIP traffic. For instance, our 21-way classifier achieves 66% accuracy, almost a 14-fold improvement over random guessing. For 14 of the 21 languages, the accuracy is greater than 90%. We achieve an overall binary classification (e.g., "Is this a Spanish or English conversation? ") rate of 86.6%. Our analysis highlights what we believe to be interesting new privacy issues in VoIP.
Review of space radiation interaction with ZERODUR

ZERODUR has been and is still being successfully used as mirror substrates for a large number of space missions. Improvements in CNC machining at SCHOTT allow to achieve extremely light weighted substrates incorporating very thin ribs and face sheets. This paper is reviewing data published on the interaction of space radiation with ZERODUR. Additionally, this paper reports on considerations and experiments which are needed to confidently apply an updated model on ZERODUR behavior under space radiation for extremely light weighted ZERODUR substrates.
Three-potential formalism for the three-body Coulomb scattering problem

We propose a three-potential formalism for the three-body Coulomb scattering problem. The corresponding integral equations are mathematically well behaved and can succesfully be solved by the Coulomb-Sturmian separable expansion method. The results show perfect agreements with existing low-energy n-d and p-d scattering calculations. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
vAssist : the virtual interactive assistant for daily home-care

The "Ambient Assisted Living" program supports the vAssist project for the European community. The portable devices (smartphones) are the keys to integrate open-source systems of Voice/Video over IP and Automatic Speech Recognition in order to produce a centralised and interactive virtual assistant for daily activities. The assistant in this behavior is here called "the Butler" and provides personalised health care and security, being able to handle the detection of distress expressions and vocal commands. The target population are handicaps and elderly people living alone at home.
Conceptual knowledge discovery--a human-centered approach

In this paper, we discuss Conceptual Knowledge Discovery in Databases (CKDD) as it is developing in the field of Conceptual Knowledge Processing. Conceptual Knowledge Processing is based on the mathematical theory of Formal Concept Analysis, which has become a successful theory for data analysis during the last two decades. CKDD aims to support a human-centered process of discovering knowledge from data by visualizing and analyzing the conceptual structure of the data. Basic to the philosophy of CKDD is the idea that only the human analyst is able to make meaningful decisions, and that the analysis tools should not oversimplify the data, but help the analyst to deal with the complex situation. We discuss how the management system TOSCANA for conceptual information systems is supporting those goals of CKDD, and illustrate it by two applications in database marketing and flight movement analysis. Finally, we present a new tool for conceptual deviation discovery, C HIANTI .
Development of Lectin-Linked Immunomagnetic Separation for the Detection of Hepatitis A Virus

The accuracy and sensitivity of PCR-based methods for detection of hepatitis A virus (HAV) are dependent on the methods used to separate and concentrate the HAV from the infected cells. The pH and ionic strength affect the binding affinity of the virus to cells. In this study, we initially investigated the effects of pH (4.0–10.0) and metal ions (Fe2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Mg2+, K+, and Ca2+) on the binding of HAV to oyster digestive cells. The lowest relative binding (RB) of HAV to the cells was found at pH 4.0 and in FeSO4 solution (64.6% and 68.1%, respectively). To develop an alternative to antibody-dependent immunomagnetic separation prior to detection of HAV using RT-PCR, the binding of HAV to five lectins, peanut agglutinin (PNA), Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA), Helix pomatia agglutinin (HPA), Ulex europaeus agglutinin (UEA-1) and soybean agglutinin (SBA), was evaluated using ELISAs. SBA showed significantly higher RB to HAV than the other lectins tested. In addition, HAV could be concentrated within 30 min using SBA-linked magnetic bead separation (SMS) prior to the RT-PCR assay. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of using SMS combined with RT-PCR to detect HAV at dilutions ranging from 10−1–10−4 of a HAV stock (titer: 104 TCID50/mL).
Stereo reconstruction from multiperspective panoramas

A new approach to computing a panoramic (360 degrees) depth map is presented in this paper. Our approach uses a large collection of images taken by a camera whose motion has been constrained to planar concentric circles. We resample regular perspective images to produce a set of multiperspective panoramas and then compute depth maps directly from these resampled panoramas. Our panoramas sample uniformly in three dimensions: rotation angle, inverse radial distance, and vertical elevation. The use of multiperspective panoramas eliminates the limited overlap present in the original input images and, thus, problems as in conventional multibaseline stereo can be avoided. Our approach differs from stereo matching of single-perspective panoramic images taken from different locations, where the epipolar constraints are sine curves. For our multiperspective panoramas, the epipolar geometry, to the first order approximation, consists of horizontal lines. Therefore, any traditional stereo algorithm can be applied to multiperspective panoramas with little modification. In this paper, we describe two reconstruction algorithms. The first is a cylinder sweep algorithm that uses a small number of resampled multiperspective panoramas to obtain dense 3D reconstruction. The second algorithm, in contrast, uses a large number of multiperspective panoramas and takes advantage of the approximate horizontal epipolar geometry inherent in multiperspective panoramas. It comprises a novel and efficient 1D multibaseline matching technique, followed by tensor voting to extract the depth surface. Experiments show that our algorithms are capable of producing comparable high quality depth maps which can be used for applications such as view interpolation.
College Students' Use of Cocaine

After experiencing a period of rapid decline between 1986 and 1994, cocaine use is once again on the rise in the United States. The increased prevalence of use among college students is particularly troubling because of its potential impact on human capital acquisition and long-term labor market success. Merging information on the price of cocaine and marijuana from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency with data on cocaine use from the College Alcohol Study, we investigate the demand for cocaine in the college population. We find evidence that participation in cocaine use by college students is responsive to changes in the price of cocaine and marijuana and that cocaine and marijuana are economic complements for this population. Further investigation revealed significant differences in the demand for cocaine by those less than age 21 and those at least age 21, years, with the younger age group being more responsive to changes in the price of cocaine. No difference is found, however, in the demand for cocaine across gender.
Unusual Attenuation Recovery Process After Fiber Optic Cable Irradiation

At present, the number of optical cables in nuclear power plants has been increasing. Fiber optic cables are commonly used at nuclear power plants in instrumentation and control systems but they are usually used in environments without radiation. Nevertheless, currently, the number of applications in NPP containment with radiation is increasing. One of the most prevalent effects of radiation exposure is an increase of signal attenuation (signal loss). This is the result of fiber darkening due to radiation exposure and it is the main limitation factor in application of fiber optics in radiation environment. However, after the irradiation, the fiber optics go through a "recovery process" during which the optical properties improve again; i.e. attenuation decreases. However, we have found cable, where the expected healing process after few days changed its trend and the attenuation increased again to a value well above the attenuation just after the irradiation. This paper describes experiments that were carried out to explain this unusual recovery behaviour.
Aerosolization of Crude Oil‐Dispersant Slicks Due to Bubble Bursting

Bubble bursting is a primary source of marine aerosols, yet little is known about particle emissions due to the bubble bursting in slicks containing oil‐dispersant mixtures. In this study, bubbles with mode sizes of 86 μm (denoted as small), 178 μm (medium), and 595 μm (large) are injected into a seawater column covered by slicks of crude oil, pure dispersant, and dispersant premixed with oil at a ratio of 1:25. The aerosol size distributions are monitored in the 0.5‐ to 20‐μm and 10‐ to 380‐nm ranges both in clean and ambient air environments. In ambient air, a tenfold increase in submicron particle concentration occurs when large bubbles burst on slicks of 500‐μm dispersant premixed with oil at a ratio of 1:25 oil or 50‐μm pure dispersant. Yet, in multiple tests performed at different ambient particle concentrations, the elevated size distributions persistently maintain the same shape as that of the ambient air. In contrast, smaller bubbles and tests not involving dispersants do not cause such an increase. Nanodroplets are also generated by large bubbles in particle‐free air, but their concentrations are much lower. All plumes generate micron‐sized aerosols, but trends vary. For the same contaminant, the microdroplet concentration decreases with increasing slick thickness. Particularly striking is a reduction of 2 orders of magnitude in the microdroplet concentration when medium and small bubbles burst on 500‐μm crude oil slicks. Chemical analysis of air and particulates collected from filters sampling the particles confirms the presence of airborne oil above the slicks.
Anti-carcinogenic Effects of the Flavonoid Luteolin

Luteolin is a flavonoid which is part of our daily nutrition in relatively low amounts (less than 1 mg/day). Nevertheless, some epidemiological studies suggest an inverse correlation between luteolin intake and the risk of some cancer types. Luteolin displays specific anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic effects, which can only partly be explained by its anti-oxidant and free radical scavenging capacities. Luteolin can delay or block the development of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo by protection from carcinogenic stimuli, by inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, by induction of cell cycle arrest and by induction of apoptosis via intrinsic and extrinsic signaling pathways. When compared to other flavonoids, luteolin was usually among the most effective ones, inhibiting tumor cell proliferation with IC50 values between 3 and 50 µM in vitro and in vivo by 5 to 10 mg/kg i.p., intragastric application of 0.1–0.3 mg/kg/d, or as food additive in concentrations of 50 to 200 ppm. Luteolin has been shown to penetrate into human skin, making it also a candidate for the prevention and treatment of skin cancer.