Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systematic Review: Perioperative Systemic Therapy for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: Approximately 16% of patients with renal cell carcinomas (RCC) present with stage IV disease at time of diagnosis. Treatment options for metastatic clear cell RCC, the most common histologic subtype, have proliferated over the past decade and include a combination of surgery and systemic therapy. The selection of systemic agent and best timing of systemic therapy in relation to nephrectomy is an area of active research. Objective: To evaluate the evidence for perioperative systemic therapy, including presurgical and postsurgical, for metastatic RCC. Methods: A systematic literature search using PubMed and MEDLINE databases was performed in January 2017 for articles related to perioperative systemic therapy in metastatic RCC using key word search terms. The authors screened the search results and identified selected publications by predetermined inclusion criteria and consensus. Expert opinion was obtained to assess for publications missed by search. Results: Early phase clinical trials of antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors prior to cytoreductive nephrectomy in select patients show that these systemic agents are safe and effective in the presurgical setting. There are no randomized data evaluating pre- or post-surgical systemic therapy in metastatic RCC. Conclusions: Retrospective and early-phase prospective studies on the use and timing of systemic therapy in relation to cytoreductive nephrectomy in metastatic RCC show that standard of care antiangiogenic agents are safe and effective in the perioperative setting, though randomized data are still lacking. Pre-surgical immune checkpoint therapy for metastatic RCC has strong biologic rationale and holds promise. Sequential tumor sampling in neoadjuvant and presurgical trials is necessary to determine biomarkers of response and resistance.
Nutrient Characteristics of Well-mixed Coastal Waters off Perth, Western Australia

Abstract Seasonal cycles and horizontal distribution of temperature, salinity and dissolved nutrients over a 3-year period are described for coastal waters off Perth, Western Australia. Adjacent oceanic nutrient concentrations are low and there is little terrestrial runoff. The coastal waters contain nutrients in low concentrations, yet support highly productive benthic macrophyte communities. The waters are well mixed and characterized by summer maxima of phosphate and salinity and winter maxima of silicate and nitrate. Horizontal differences in nitrate concentrations within a semi-enclosed lagoon during autumn and winter appear to be due in part to a decrease with depth in the ability of benthic communities to reduce nitrate concentrations in the overlying water.
Discovery of Novel Plasmodium falciparum Pre-Erythrocytic Antigens for Vaccine Development

Background Nearly 100% protection against malaria infection can be achieved in humans by immunization with P. falciparum radiation-attenuated sporozoites (RAS). Although it is thought that protection is mediated by T cell and antibody responses, only a few of the many pre-erythrocytic (sporozoite and liver stage) antigens that are targeted by these responses have been identified. Methodology Twenty seven P. falciparum pre-erythrocytic antigens were selected using bioinformatics analysis and expression databases and were expressed in a wheat germ cell-free protein expression system. Recombinant proteins were recognized by plasma from RAS-immunized subjects, and 21 induced detectable antibody responses in mice and rabbit and sera from these immunized animals were used to characterize these antigens. All 21 proteins localized to the sporozoite: five localized to the surface, seven localized to the micronemes, cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum or nucleus, two localized to the surface and cytoplasm, and seven remain undetermined. PBMC from RAS-immunized volunteers elicited positive ex vivo or cultured ELISpot responses against peptides from 20 of the 21 antigens. Conclusions These T cell and antibody responses support our approach of using reagents from RAS-immunized subjects to screen potential vaccine antigens, and have led to the identification of a panel of novel P. falciparum antigens. These results provide evidence to further evaluate these antigens as vaccine candidates. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00870987 ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00392015
A future concept of coordinated orbit control of colocated geostationary satellites

Present-day ground-based stationkeeping of colocated geostationary satellites restricts the number of satellites which can be safely maintained within a common control box of typically +/- 0.1 grad in latitude and longitude. In order to avoid drawbacks such as close approaches, mutual interferences and large-scale ground control effort a new concept of coordinated orbit control is presented. The features are concentration of control activities on one ground control station and nominally on one of the colocated satellites. The latter performs relative orbit control with respect to the other satellites employing inter-satellite laser tracking, onboard relative orbit determination and onboard relative correction maneuver calculation. To demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed concept, simulation results for a seven satellite cluster are presented.
First Insights into the Genome Sequence of the Cellulolytic Bacterium Clostridium hungatei DSM 14427

ABSTRACT Clostridium hungatei is an obligate anaerobic and spore-forming bacterium, which was isolated from soil. It ferments carbohydrates, such as cellulose or d-glucose. C. hungatei is able to fix nitrogen. The draft genome consists of 1 chromosome (4.902 Mb) with 4,246 predicted protein-coding genes.
Simulating wave-surge interaction in a non-tidal bay during cyclone Gudrun in January 2005

Cyclone Gudrun (Erwin) crossed the Baltic Sea in 8-9 January 2005. The maximum sustained wind speed measured over the Baltic Proper reached 28 m/s (gusts 37.5 m/s) and prior the high surge (2.75 m in Pärnu city), wind blew mainly from the sector SW-WSW. The hydrodynamic consequences, coastal damages and wave conditions in Baltic Proper and Gulf of Finland resulting from windstorm Gudrun have been analyzed previously. Lacking was the knowledge of wave-surge interaction and the role of wave induced setup. The aim of this paper is to study the effects of surge upon surface wave field dynamics and to reconstruct the possible wave induced set-up at a natural beach by means of numerical modeling. Modeling system consisting of a spectral wave model SWAN and non-hydrostatic depth-averaged free surface flow model SWASH was implemented. Spectral model was implemented to describe wave conditions in the Baltic Sea during the passage of cyclone and for providing boundary data to SWASH model, which in turn is used to calculate setup and inundation. Modeling relies profoundly on the quality of modeled wind fields -hence the accuracy of downscaled ERA40 wind fields during cyclone Gudrun is analyzed. We conclude an overall good level of agreement between modeled winds and observations and suggest using it in further modeling studies. Significant wave height in Pärnu bay increases up to 1 m by taking into account the additional deepening of water due to surge. The transformation of waves over the swash zone results in wave induced setup of 0.51 m and additional inundation of 130 m.
The theory of artificial satellites in terms of the orbital true longitude

The author's previous theory of the artificial satellite is derived in terms of the disturbed eccentric anomaly. The present development, in terms of the orbital true longitude, is a substantial improvement over the earlier work in that it leads to the faster convergence for large eccentricities and to a smaller number of terms in the series representing the perturbations. Moreover, each approximation of the radius vector and of the parameters determining the position of the orbit plane is obtained not in the form of a truncated infinite series but in the form of trigonometric polynomials in two arguments. These arguments are the mean true anomaly and the mean argument of the latitude. The present theory, like the previous one, permits the computation of perturbations of any desired order. Thus, any future information about earth's gravitational field can easily be included.
Corneal Sensitivity and Dry Eye Symptoms in Patients with Keratoconus

Purpose To investigate corneal sensitivity to selective mechanical, chemical, and thermal stimulation and to evaluate their relation to dry eye symptoms in patients with keratoconus. Methods Corneal sensitivity to mechanical, chemical, and thermal thresholds were determined using a gas esthesiometer in 19 patients with keratoconus (KC group) and in 20 age-matched healthy subjects (control group). Tear film dynamics was assessed by Schirmer I test and by the non-invasive tear film breakup time (NI-BUT). All eyes were examined with a rotating Scheimpflug camera to assess keratoconus severity. Results KC patients had significatly decreased tear secretion and significantly higher ocular surface disease index (OSDI) scores compared to controls (5.3±2.2 vs. 13.2±2.0 mm and 26.8±15.8 vs. 8.1±2.3; p<0.001). There was no significant difference in NI-BUT between the two groups (KC: 9.8±4.8 vs. control: 10.7±3.8; p>0.05). The mean threshold for selective mechanical (KC: 139.2±25.8 vs. control: 109.1±24.0 ml/min), chemical (KC: 39.4±3.9 vs. control: 35.2±1.9%CO2), heat (KC: 0.91±0.32 vs. control: 0.54±0.26 Δ°C) and cold (KC: 1.28±0.27 vs. control: 0.98±0.25 Δ°C) stimulation in the KC patients were significantly higher than in the control subjects (p<0.001, for all parameters). No correlation was found between age and mechanical, chemical, heat or cold thresholds in the patients with KC (p>0.05), whereas in the control subjects both mechanical (r = 0.52, p = 0.02), chemical (r = 0.47, p = 0.04), heat (r = 0.26, p = 0.04) and cold threshold (r = 0.40, p = 0.03) increased with age. In the KC group, neither corneal thickness nor tear flow, NI-BUT or OSDI correlated significantly with mechanical, chemical, heat or cold thresholds (p>0.05 for all variables). Conclusions Corneal sensitivity to different types of stimuli is decreased in patients with keratoconus independently of age and disease severity. The reduction of the sensory input from corneal nerves may contribute to the onset of unpleasant sensations in these patients and might lead to the impaired tear film dynamics.
Design of Secured Key Generation Algorithm using Fingerprint Based Biometric Modality

Many high-secure applications are using biometrics for natural, user-friendly and quick authentication. Cryptography is meant to make sure the secrecy and authenticity of message and protecting the confidentiality of the cryptographic keys is one among the numerous problems to be dealt with. Researchers are examining suggests that to utilize biometric options of the user to get sturdy and repeatable cryptographic keys rather than a memorable password. This may be efficiently solved by the combination of biometrics with cryptography. This paper presents ways for generating the strong bio-crypt key based mostly on fingerprint. Fingerprint biometric modality is predominantly thought of due to its two vital characteristics uniqueness and permanence that's ability to stay unchanged over the lifetime. I. INTRODUCTION Among all the biometric modalities, fingerprint-based identification is the oldest methodology, that has been successfully employed in numerous applications. Most are known to possess distinctive, immutable fingerprints. The individuality of a fingerprint will be determined by the pattern of ridges and furrows as well as the trivialities points. Trivialities points are native ridge characteristics that occur at either a ridge bifurcation or a ridge ending.
Occlusion-Based Cooperative Transport with a Swarm of Miniature Mobile Robots

This paper proposes a strategy for transporting a large object to a goal using a large number of mobile robots that are significantly smaller than the object. The robots only push the object at positions where the direct line of sight to the goal is occluded by the object. This strategy is fully decentralized and requires neither explicit communication nor specific manipulation mechanisms. We prove that it can transport any convex object in a planar environment. We implement this strategy on the e-puck robotic platform and present systematic experiments with a group of 20 e-pucks transporting three objects of different shapes. The objects were successfully transported to the goal in 43 out of 45 trials. When using a mobile goal, teleoperated by a human, the object could be navigated through an environment with obstacles. We also tested the strategy in a 3-D environment using physics-based computer simulation. Due to its simplicity, the transport strategy is particularly suited for implementation on microscale robotic systems.
Deterministic paternity exclusion using RAPD markers

The Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique can potentially provide hundreds of polymorphic markers for use by ecologists studying mating systems in natural populations. We consider here the implications of the dominance displayed by RAPD markers for deterministic paternity assignment. Our goal was to provide a means for assessing the costs associated with such a study for ecologists who might be considering the use of RAPD markers for paternity analysis. The theoretical expected proportion of offspring for which all males except the true father can be excluded (PET) is calculated for both dominant and codominant marker systems. The ability to assign paternity unambiguously generally increases with the number of loci and the frequency of the recessive allele (but only up to a point), and decreases with increasing sample size (number of individuals surveyed). The gain in PET with decreasing sample size is unexpectedly slight. Not surprisingly, the performance of dominant markers at paternity exclusion is, in general, greatly exceeded by codominant markers, with the exception of the case in which the frequency of the recessive allele is high at all loci. In this case, codominant markers perform only slightly better than do dominant markers. Thus, a researcher should expect to score more than 50 RAPD loci for each offspring for most applications of paternity exclusion analysis. While this may at first seem too costly, ameliorating factors include (i) more than one locus can often be scored from one primer, (ii) one can ‘pick‐andchoose’ the loci of greatest value from among those identified in a preliminary survey, (iii) a considerable degree of automation of the technique is possible, and (iv) some applications may be less stringent in the degree of exclusion required (i.e. fractional paternity assignment).
Two-Way Relaying Under the Presence of Relay Transceiver Hardware Impairments

Hardware impairments in physical transceivers are known to have a deleterious effect on communication systems; however, very few contributions have investigated their impact on relaying. This paper quantifies the impact of transceiver impairments in a two-way amplify-and-forward configuration. More specifically, the effective signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratios at both transmitter nodes are obtained. These are used to deduce exact and asymptotic closed-form expressions for the outage probabilities (OPs), as well as tractable formulations for the symbol error rates (SERs). It is explicitly shown that non-zero lower bounds on the OP and SER exist in the high-power regime-this stands in contrast to the special case of ideal hardware, where the OP and SER go asymptotically to zero.
Live imaging of effector cell trafficking and autoantigen recognition within the unfolding autoimmune encephalomyelitis lesion

We tracked pathogenic myelin basic protein-specific CD4+ effector T cells in early central nervous system (CNS) lesions of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) by combining two-photon imaging and fluorescence video microscopy. We made two key observations: (a) the majority of the cells (65%) moved fast (maximal speed 25 μm/min) and apparently nondirected through the compact tissue; and (b) a second group of effector T cells (35%) appeared tethered to a fixed point. Polarization of T cell receptor and adhesion molecules (lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1) towards this fixed point suggests the formation of immune synapses. Nonpathogenic, ovalbumin-specific T cells were not tethered in the CNS and did not form synapse-like contacts, but moved through the tissue. After intrathecal injection of antigen, 40% of ovalbumin-specific T cells became tethered. Conversely, injection of anti–major histocompatibility complex class II antibodies profoundly reduced the number of stationary pathogenic T cells within the CNS (to 15%). We propose that rapid penetration of the CNS parenchyma by numerous autoimmune effector T cells along with multiple autoantigen-presentation events are responsible for the fulminate development of clinical EAE.
Image segmentation and tissue characterization in three-dimensional intravascular ultrasound images

In this paper, we report an automated approach to plaque tissue characterization in three-dimensional intravascular ultrasound images. Our previously reported automated method for coronary wall and plaque segmentation in intravascular ultrasound pullback sequences represent the first step of the method. Tissue characterization into two classes of soft and hard plaque is based on texture analysis and pattern recognition. Texture description features included gray- level-based measures, co-occurrence matrices, run length measures, and fractal-based measures. Performance of the method was assessed in cadaveric coronary arteries by comparison to the observer-defined plaque composition. Overall classification correctness of 90% was achieved.
Targeted Therapy Database (TTD): A Model to Match Patient's Molecular Profile with Current Knowledge on Cancer Biology

Background The efficacy of current anticancer treatments is far from satisfactory and many patients still die of their disease. A general agreement exists on the urgency of developing molecularly targeted therapies, although their implementation in the clinical setting is in its infancy. In fact, despite the wealth of preclinical studies addressing these issues, the difficulty of testing each targeted therapy hypothesis in the clinical arena represents an intrinsic obstacle. As a consequence, we are witnessing a paradoxical situation where most hypotheses about the molecular and cellular biology of cancer remain clinically untested and therefore do not translate into a therapeutic benefit for patients. Objective To present a computational method aimed to comprehensively exploit the scientific knowledge in order to foster the development of personalized cancer treatment by matching the patient's molecular profile with the available evidence on targeted therapy. Methods To this aim we focused on melanoma, an increasingly diagnosed malignancy for which the need for novel therapeutic approaches is paradigmatic since no effective treatment is available in the advanced setting. Relevant data were manually extracted from peer-reviewed full-text original articles describing any type of anti-melanoma targeted therapy tested in any type of experimental or clinical model. To this purpose, Medline, Embase, Cancerlit and the Cochrane databases were searched. Results and Conclusions We created a manually annotated database (Targeted Therapy Database, TTD) where the relevant data are gathered in a formal representation that can be computationally analyzed. Dedicated algorithms were set up for the identification of the prevalent therapeutic hypotheses based on the available evidence and for ranking treatments based on the molecular profile of individual patients. In this essay we describe the principles and computational algorithms of an original method developed to fully exploit the available knowledge on cancer biology with the ultimate goal of fruitfully driving both preclinical and clinical research on anticancer targeted therapy. In the light of its theoretical nature, the prediction performance of this model must be validated before it can be implemented in the clinical setting.
Demonstration of Telcordia's Database Reconciliation and Data Quality Analysis Tool

This demonstration illustrates how a comprehensive database reconciliation tool can provide the ability to characterize data-quality and data-reconciliation issues in complex real-world applications. Telcordia’s data reconciliation and data quality analysis tool includes rapid generation of appropriate pre-processing and matching rules applied to a training set created from samples of the data. Once tuned, the appropriate rules can be applied efficiently to the complete data sets. The tool uses a modular Java-based architecture that allows for customized matching functions and iterative runs that build upon previously learned information. It has been applied to several real database reconciliation problems. Telcordia has been able to provide significant insights to clients who recognize that they have data reconciliation problems but cannot determine root causes effectively using currently available off-the-shelf tools. A description of the analysis of a duplicate-record problem in a set of taxpayer databases is included in this report to illustrate the effective use of the tool.
Collection Guiding: A new framework for handling large multimedia collections

We propose a novel approach for the management of large multimedia collections. Our aim is to emphasize content management rather than document retrieval. In our framework, the collection itself is considered as a coherent entity bearing its own specific properties. We show that by characterizing optimal structures on the collection, we are able to create adaptive symbolic presentations of the collection under various viewpoints. We base on these visualizations our new exploration strategy where the user is literally guided within the collection content organized with respect to its inherent properties.
The Genetic Architecture of Complex Traits in Teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis): New Evidence From Association Mapping

Previous association analyses showed that variation at major regulatory genes contributes to standing variation for complex traits in Balsas teosinte, the progenitor of maize. This study expands our previous association mapping effort in teosinte by testing 123 markers in 52 candidate genes for association with 31 traits in a population of 817 individuals. Thirty-three significant associations for markers from 15 candidate genes and 10 traits survive correction for multiple testing. Our analyses suggest several new putative causative relationships between specific genes and trait variation in teosinte. For example, two ramosa genes (ra1 and ra2) associate with ear structure, and the MADS-box gene, zagl1, associates with ear shattering. Since zagl1 was previously shown to be a target of selection during maize domestication, we suggest that this gene was under selection for its effect on the loss of ear shattering, a key domestication trait. All observed effects were relatively small in terms of the percentage of phenotypic variation explained (<10%). We also detected several epistatic interactions between markers in the same gene that associate with the same trait. Candidate-gene-based association mapping appears to be a promising method for investigating the inheritance of complex traits in teosinte.