Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DFMO/eflornithine inhibits migration and invasion downstream of MYCN and involves p27Kip1 activity in neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial pediatric tumor. NB patients over 18 months of age at the time of diagnosis are often in the later stages of the disease, present with widespread dissemination, and often possess MYCN tumor gene amplification. MYCN is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of a number of genes including ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), a rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of polyamines. Inhibiting ODC in NB cells produces many deleterious effects including G1 cell cycle arrest, inhibition of cell proliferation, and decreased tumor growth, making ODC a promising target for drug interference. DFMO treatment leads to the accumulation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27Kip1 protein and causes p27Kip1/Rb-coupled G1 cell cycle arrest in MYCN-amplified NB tumor cells through a process that involves p27Kip1 phosphorylation at residues Ser10 and Thr198. While p27Kip1 is well known for its role as a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, recent studies have revealed a novel function of p27Kip1 as a regulator of cell migration and invasion. In the present study we found that p27Kip1 regulates the migration and invasion in NB and that these events are dependent on the state of phosphorylation of p27Kip1. DFMO treatments induced MYCN protein downregulation and phosphorylation of Akt/PKB (Ser473) and GSK3-β (Ser9), and polyamine supplementation alleviated the DFMO-induced effects. Importantly, we provide strong evidence that p27Kip1 mRNA correlates with clinical features and the survival probability of NB patients.
Short Course in the Microbiome

Over the past decade, it has become evident that the microbiome is an important environmental factor that affects many physiological processes, such as cell proliferation and differentiation, behaviour, immune function and metabolism. More importantly, it may contribute to a wide variety of diseases, including cancer, inflammatory diseases, metabolic diseases and responses to pathogens. We expect that international, integrative and interdisciplinary translational research teams, along with the emergence of FDA-approved platforms, will set the framework for microbiome-based therapeutics and diagnostics. We recognize that the microbiome ecosystem offers new promise for personalized/precision medicine and targeted treatment for a variety of diseases. The short course was held as a four-session webinar series in April 2015, taught by pioneers and experts in the microbiome ecosystem, covering a broad range of topics from the healthy microbiome to the effects of an altered microbiome from neonates to adults and the long term effects as it is related to disease, from asthma to cancer. We have learned to appreciate how beneficial our microbes are in breaking down our food, fighting off infections and nurturing our immune system, and this information provides us with ideas as to how we can manipulate our microbiome to prevent certain diseases. However, given the variety of applications, there are scientific challenges, though there are very promising areas in reference to the clinical benefits of understanding more about our microbiome, whether in our gut or on our skin: the outlook is bright. A summary of the short course is presented as a meeting dispatch.
Toward Big Data Value Engineering for Innovation

This article articulates the requirements for an effective big data value engineering method. It then presents a value discovery method, called Eco-ARCH (Eco-ARCHitecture), tightly integrated with the BDD (Big Data Design) method for addressing these requirements, filling a methodological void. Eco-ARCH promotes a fundamental shift in design thinking for big data system design – from "bounded rationality" for problem solving to "expandable rationality" for design for innovation. The Eco-ARCH approach is most suitable for big data value engineering when system boundaries are fluid, requirements are ill-defined, many stakeholders are unknown and design goals are not provided, where no architecture pre-exists, where system behavior is non-deterministic and continuously evolving, and where co-creation with consumers and prosumers is essential to achieving innovation goals. The method was augmented and empirically validated in collaboration with an IT service company in the energy industry to generate a new business model that we call "eBay in the Grid".
DRacGAP, a novel Drosophila gene, inhibits EGFR/Ras signalling in the developing imaginal wing disc.

We have identified a novel Drosophila gene, DRacGAP, which behaves as a negative regulator of &Rgr;-family GTPases DRac1 and DCdc42. Reduced function of DRacGAP or increased expression of DRac1 in the wing imaginal disc cause similar effects on vein and sensory organ development and cell proliferation. These effects result from enhanced activity of the EGFR/Ras signalling pathway. We find that in the wing disc, DRac1 enhances EGFR/Ras-dependent activation of MAP Kinase in the prospective veins. Interestingly, DRacGAP expression is negatively regulated by the EGFR/Ras pathway in these regions. During vein formation, local DRacGAP repression would ensure maximal activity of Rac and, in turn, of Ras pathways in vein territories. Additionally, maximal expression of DRacGAP at the vein/intervein boundaries would help to refine the width of the veins. Hence, control of DRacGAP expression by the EGFR/Ras pathway is a previously undescribed feedback mechanism modulating the intensity and/or duration of its signalling during Drosophila development.
Access and Barriers to Postsecondary Education: Evidence from the Youth in Transition Survey

Abstract We exploit the Youth in Transition Survey, Cohort A, to investigate access and barriers to postsecondary education (PSE). We first look at how access to PSE by age 21 is related to family characteristics, including family income and pa- rental education. We find that the effects of the latter significantly dominate those of the former. Among the 25% of all youths who do not access PSE, 23% of this group state that they had no PSE aspirations and 43% report no barriers. Only 22% of the 25% who do not access PSE (or 5.5% of all youths in our sam- ple) claim that “finances” constitute a barrier. Further analysis suggests that affordability per se is an issue in only a minority of those cases where finances are cited, suggesting that the real problem for the majority of those reporting fi - nancial barriers may be that they do not perceive PSE to be of sufficient value to be worth pursuing: “it costs too much” may mean “it is not worth it” rather than “I cannot afford to go. ” Our general conclusion is that cultural factors are the principal determinants of PSE participation. Policy implications are discussed. Resume Nous avons scrute les donnees de l’Enquete aupres de jeunes en transition (cohorte A) afin de comprendre les facteurs qui menent aux etudes postsecondaires et ceux qui y font obstacle. Pour ce faire, nous avons d’abord analysecomment l’acces aux etudes a l’age de 21 ans etait lie aux caracteristiques familiales, comme le revenu familial et le niveau de scolarite des parents. Nous avons alors constate que les effets de cette derniere caracteristique l’emportaient sur le revenu familial. En outre, parmi le quart de tous les jeunes qui n’ont pas eu acces a des etudes postsecondaires, 23 % ont indique qu’ils n’avaient pas l’intention de poursuivre leurs etudes, tandis que 43 % ont indique qu’aucun obstacle ne les y opposait. A peine 22 % (ou 5,5 % des jeunes de notre echantillon) des jeunes qui ne poursuivent pas leurs etudes ont indique que l’aspect financier constituait un obstacle. Toutefois, une analyse plus poussee a revele que l’accessibilite financiere aux etudes ne constituait un probleme que dans une minorite des cas, ce qui laisse sous-entendre que la majorite de ceux qui ont indique se heurter a des obstacles financiers aux etudes postsecondaires pourrait ne pas considerer celles-ci comme une valeur digne d’interet. Par exemple, « cela coute trop cher » pourrait signifier « cela n’en vaut pas la peine » plutot que « je ne peux pas me le permettre ». Notre conclusion generale identifie les facteurs culturels, comme les principales caracteristiques menant a la poursuite d’etudes postsecondaires. Enfin, l’etude aborde egalement les incidences sur les politiques generales.
Formula-based TCP throughput prediction with available bandwidth

In the research area of TCP throughput prediction, the well-known throughput model, a function of loss rate, has some disadvantages such as difficulty of loss rate estimation and low accuracy under congestion. This letter proposes a new throughput model by a function of available bandwidth. Our model improves the accuracy in TCP throughput prediction by removing loss rate, which is usually hard to measure accurately, in the throughput function. Our formula-based predictor is validated by real experiments on LAN environments.
Automatic disfluency removal on recognized spontaneous speech - rapid adaptation to speaker-dependent disfluencies

In this paper, we investigate methods to adapt a system for disfluency removal to different data properties. A gradient descent algorithm for parameter optimization is presented which achieves 85.1% recall and 93.1% precision on the English Verbmobil corpus and 53.0% recall and 79.0% precision on the Mandarin Chinese CallHome corpus. This compares to the results produced with hand-optimization on the test set. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of cross-validation and training set selection on recognizer output. Finally, we examined speaker dependent disfluency production behavior and clustered training data accordingly in order to improve the overall system.
The Meaning of the Built Environment: A Nonverbal Communication Approach

"Rapoport is concerned with the meanings which buildings, their contents, and their inhabitants convey, and the conclusions which can be drawn therefrom for procedures of architectural design to satisfy the people who will ultimately live in these buildings.A challenging book on a subject that has had insufficient attention in the past. "? Man and Environment "Fills a significant gap: it introduces the notion of environmental meaning so clearly that no reader will doubt the basic premise that the environment holds meaning as part of a cultural system of symbols, and influences our actions and our determinations of social order. "? Design Book Review "This is the second edition of a book first published in 1982.Enthusiastic and inquiring as the reader is brought into the writer's thought processes. "? Progress in Human Geography (England) "It has merits not to be found in any other book in this much-discussed and little understood subject, to wit: it is short, it is simple, and it is useful. It is even, in parts, entertaining.a book which will help architects to do their job better. " Architecture Australia
[Ocular complications of adjuvant interferon therapy for malignant melanoma: a review].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE In dermatology, interferon Alfa 2 is used in adjuvant therapy of melanoma (stage IIa/b) as well as in treatment of cutaneous lymphoma or melanoma (stage III or higher). In the past 2 years, several case reports have described interferon-induced ocular side effects, including sudden loss of vision and ischemic retinopathy. We wondered if incidence and prognosis of ocular complications were elevated in patients receiving an adjuvant treatment of melanoma with interferons. PATIENTS/METHODS We analyzed 1334 reports of adverse effects of interferons, which had been spontaneously reported in Germany since 1990. RESULTS 8.4% of all reported adverse effects of interferons were ocular. More than the half of these patients developed significant visual loss including retinal ischemia. CONCLUSIONS These data underscore the importance to inform patients concerning ocular adverse effects and emphasize the need to monitor the retina during adjuvant interferon therapy.
Genetic Diversity of Filamentous Cyanobacteria from Shore Regions of Okinawa

Benthic marine cyanobacteria are ubiquitous oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria and they form major components of various communities, including epiphytic, epilithic and microbial mats, in coral reef environments. Filamentous groups may form almost monospecific macroscopic colonies, and sometimes make potentially harmful algal blooms (HABs). HABs bring serious problems for marine tourism but marine filamentous cyanobacteria are good resource for drug discovery. However, cultivation and identification of such filamentous cyanobacteria are difficult and there are taxonomic confusions. In this study, we investigate 17 samples from coral reef area of 10 localities in Okinawa. Macroscopic mats or cushions of filamentous cyanobacteria were collected. The samples were divided into three parts: (1) for morphological observation, (2) for molecular work, and (3) cultivation for further study. Dominant cyanobacteira of each sample identified morphologically as Anabaena, Hydrocoleum, Lyngbya, Oscillatoria, Phormidium, Schizothrix and Symploca. Molecular results of partial 16S rDNA sequences revealed six groups that composed of heterocystous group, Leptolyngbya group, Symploca group, Moorea group, Oscillatoria group and unknown group, respectively. Some samples corroborated between morphology and molecular results but some were not. In addition, four out of six groups closely related with natural product producers. These results suggest that there are high biodiversity of marine benthic filamentous cyanobacteria in Okinawa that may become seeds of HABs as well as providing promising resources for drug discovery.
Changing Preschool Children's Attitudes into Behavior towards Selected Environmental Issues: An Action Research Study.

The purpose of this study is to provide the transform of attitudes into behavior of 60-72 month of age children continued early childhood education toward environmental issues. Collaborative action research method of qualitative design was used. The whole participants of the study were 60-72 months of age children who were attending in an early childhood education center supervised by Ministry of National Education in Kartal District, in Istanbul. The data source of this study is the face to face interviews with 14 preschool children. In addition to the interviews with children, the teacher’s reports were used. Besides, in the research, it was seen that children generally have ecocentric attitudes towards paper consumption, environmental protection, recycling and living habits especially in residence and transportation preferences. However, in observation report of classroom teacher, it was seen that they did not behave in an ecocentric manner. After the action plan applied, classroom teacher has indicated a difference in children’s behavior.
Utility-optimal random access without message passing

Random access has been studied for decades as a simple and practical wireless medium access control (MAC). Some of the recently developed distributed scheduling algorithms for throughput or utility maximization also take the form of random access, although extensive message passing among the nodes is required. In this paper, we would like to answer this question: is it possible to design a MAC algorithm that can achieve the optimal network utility without message passing? We provide the first positive answer to this question through a simple Aloha-type random access protocol. We prove the convergence of our algorithm for certain sufficient conditions on the system parameters, e.g., with a large enough user population. If each wireless node is capable of decoding the source MAC address of the transmitter from the interferring signal, then our algorithm indeed converges to the global optimal solution of the NUM problem. If such decoding is inaccurate, then the algorithm still converges, although optimality may not be always guaranteed. Proof of these surprisingly strong performance properties of our simple random access algorithm leverages the idea from distributed learning: each node can learn as much about the contention environment through the history of collision as through instantaneous but explicit message passing.
A Taxonomy of Query Auto Completion Modes

Query auto completion mechanisms assist users to formulate search requests by suggesting possible queries corresponding to incomplete text they have typed. Keystroke by keystroke, these mechanisms proceed by finding matching strings from resources such as logs that have captured the behavior of previous users; they might also be informed by key phrases extracted from indexed documents, including, for example, anchor-text strings. Here we explore the range of ways, or modes, in which strings might be thought of as "matching" a partially typed query, and hence develop a taxonomy of possible approaches, each requiring different implementation structures and algorithms. Past work in the field has typically focused on only one or another of the modes, creating a lack of clarity as to exactly what challenge is being addressed. We use our taxonomy to survey options for auto completion and provide preliminary measurements in regard to their computational cost, using a range of public implementations.
Targeted Analysis of Whole Genome Sequence Data to Diagnose Genetic Cardiomyopathy

Background—Cardiomyopathy is highly heritable but genetically diverse. At present, genetic testing for cardiomyopathy uses targeted sequencing to simultaneously assess the coding regions of >50 genes. New genes are routinely added to panels to improve the diagnostic yield. With the anticipated $1000 genome, it is expected that genetic testing will shift toward comprehensive genome sequencing accompanied by targeted gene analysis. Therefore, we assessed the reliability of whole genome sequencing and targeted analysis to identify cardiomyopathy variants in 11 subjects with cardiomyopathy. Methods and Results—Whole genome sequencing with an average of 37× coverage was combined with targeted analysis focused on 204 genes linked to cardiomyopathy. Genetic variants were scored using multiple prediction algorithms combined with frequency data from public databases. This pipeline yielded 1 to 14 potentially pathogenic variants per individual. Variants were further analyzed using clinical criteria and segregation analysis, where available. Three of 3 previously identified primary mutations were detected by this analysis. In 6 subjects for whom the primary mutation was previously unknown, we identified mutations that segregated with disease, had clinical correlates, and had additional pathological correlation to provide evidence for causality. For 2 subjects with previously known primary mutations, we identified additional variants that may act as modifiers of disease severity. In total, we identified the likely pathological mutation in 9 of 11 (82%) subjects. Conclusions—These pilot data demonstrate that ≈30 to 40× coverage whole genome sequencing combined with targeted analysis is feasible and sensitive to identify rare variants in cardiomyopathy-associated genes.
Crystal structure of 1-(piperidin-1-yl)butane-1,3-dione

In the title compound, C9H15NO2, the piperidine ring exhibits a chair conformation. The butanedione subunit exhibits a conformation with the ketone C atom in an eclipsed position with respect to the amide carbonyl group. In the crystal, a two-dimensional layered arrangement is formed by hydrogen bonds of the C—H⋯O type between the methyl group and the exocyclic methylene unit as donor sites and the amide carbonyl O atom as the acceptor of a bifurcated hydrogen bond. These layers are oriented parallel to the ab plane.
Impact of On-Chip Interconnect on the Performance of 3-D Integrated Circuits With Through Silicon Vias: Part I

Circuit-level models are developed to determine the upper bound on the performance of a 3-D IC link with through silicon vias (TSVs). It is shown that the performance of a 3-D link is limited not only by the on-chip interconnect RC, driver resistance, and TSV capacitance, but also by the current carrying capacity of the on-chip wires connecting the TSV to the input/output (I/O) driver. The models developed in this paper are used to optimize the I/O driver size, the number of on-chip wires connecting the TSV to the driver, and the data-rate to maximize the aggregate bandwidth per unit energy. Furthermore, in order to maximize the aggregate bandwidth of a 3-D link, it is shown that splitting the TSV array into smaller subarrays and placing the I/O drivers closer to the TSVs is better compared with having large TSV arrays.
Determinants of the Rural Nonfarm Economy in Tajikistan

This paper explores determinants of participation, intensity and the magnitude of the rural nonfarm economy (RNFE) in Tajikistan. Conducting analysis at the district level, in addition to traditional individual and household levels, helps to test the impact of institutional determinants of the RNFE invariant at the micro level. We have found that rural residents in Tajikistan are mostly pushed into nonfarm activities in areas with scarce land resources of poor quality. Moreover, market imperfections in the agricultural sector are also found to induce participation and intensity of the rural nonfarm activities. While nonfarm activities are found to be mostly driven by "push" factors, poor education and the access to infrastructure are found to be important barriers constraining the poor from participation in nonfarm activities.
Recognizing a facial image from a police sketch

This paper presents a theory and practical computations for the recognition of a facial image given a police-artist sketch. First, the facial features of the police sketch are located automatically. Then, regions centered at these positions that contain high intensity variations are temporarily removed. Then a standardization step transforms the sketch image into a "photograph-like" image. After this transformation, the high intensity variation regions that were removed are placed back into the standardized image. The resulting image is then passed to the recognition part of our algorithm. In this stage, principle component analysis is performed on both the standardized image to be recognized and the facial images of the training set. Results using actual police sketches and arrest photographs are presented. <<ETX>>