Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
E1A-engineered human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells as carriers and amplifiers for adenovirus suppress hepatocarcinoma in mice

Gene therapy is an attractive approach for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Nevertheless, efficient transgene delivery remains a challenge. In this study, we explored a new targeted system based on human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs), which were engineered to deliver adenovirus to tumor sites, and to replicate and assemble into new adenovirus against HCC. Our results showed that HUMSCs infected by Ad-hTERTp-IL24 followed by LentiR.E1A infection could specifically migrate to HepG2 tumor cells and support adenoviral replication in vitro and in vivo 36 h after LentiR.E1A infection. Ad-hTERTp-IL24 specifically inhibited HepG2 cells growth, and this inhibitory effect was enhanced by low doses of 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), because the expression levels of coxsackie adenovirus receptor (CAR) and integrin ανβ3 on tumor cells were significantly increased, causing higher viral uptake. Compared with the no treatment groups, Ad-hTERTp-IL24 and LentiR.E1A co-loaded HUMSCs exhibited significant anti-tumor activity in vivo, particularly in combination with low doses of 5-Fu. In summary, this study provides a promising targeted gene therapeutic strategy dependent on the tumor tropism of HUMSCs, to improve the outcome of virotherapy for tumor patients especially those with metastatic diseases.
Does calling structure information improve the accuracy of fault prediction?

Previous studies have shown that software code attributes, such as lines of source code, and history information, such as the number of code changes and the number of faults in prior releases of software, are useful for predicting where faults will occur. In this study of an industrial software system, we investigate the effectiveness of adding information about calling structure to fault prediction models. The addition of calling structure information to a model based solely on non-calling structure code attributes provided noticeable improvement in prediction accuracy, but only marginally improved the best model based on history and non-calling structure code attributes. The best model based on history and non-calling structure code attributes outperformed the best model based on calling and non-calling structure code attributes.
Approximation Algorithms for Capacitated Location Routing

An approximation algorithm for an optimization problem runs in polynomial time for all instances and is guaranteed to deliver solutions with bounded optimality gap. We derive such algorithms for different variants of capacitated location routing, an important generalization of vehicle routing where the cost of opening the depots from which vehicles operate is taken into account. Our results originate from combining algorithms and lower bounds for different relaxations of the original problem; along with location routing we also obtain approximation algorithms for multidepot capacitated vehicle routing by this framework. Moreover, we extend our results to further generalizations of both problems, including a prize-collecting variant, a group version, and a variant where cross-docking is allowed. We finally present a computational study of our approximation algorithm for capacitated location routing on benchmark instances and large-scale randomly generated instances. Our study reveals that the quality of the computed solutions is much closer to optimality than the provable approximation factor.
A Systems Approach Identifies Essential FOXO3 Functions at Key Steps of Terminal Erythropoiesis

Circulating red blood cells (RBCs) are essential for tissue oxygenation and homeostasis. Defective terminal erythropoiesis contributes to decreased generation of RBCs in many disorders. Specifically, ineffective nuclear expulsion (enucleation) during terminal maturation is an obstacle to therapeutic RBC production in vitro. To obtain mechanistic insights into terminal erythropoiesis we focused on FOXO3, a transcription factor implicated in erythroid disorders. Using an integrated computational and experimental systems biology approach, we show that FOXO3 is essential for the correct temporal gene expression during terminal erythropoiesis. We demonstrate that the FOXO3-dependent genetic network has critical physiological functions at key steps of terminal erythropoiesis including enucleation and mitochondrial clearance processes. FOXO3 loss deregulated transcription of genes implicated in cell polarity, nucleosome assembly and DNA packaging-related processes and compromised erythroid enucleation. Using high-resolution confocal microscopy and imaging flow cytometry we show that cell polarization is impaired leading to multilobulated Foxo3 -/- erythroblasts defective in nuclear expulsion. Ectopic FOXO3 expression rescued Foxo3 -/- erythroblast enucleation-related gene transcription, enucleation defects and terminal maturation. Remarkably, FOXO3 ectopic expression increased wild type erythroblast maturation and enucleation suggesting that enhancing FOXO3 activity may improve RBCs production. Altogether these studies uncover FOXO3 as a novel regulator of erythroblast enucleation and terminal maturation suggesting FOXO3 modulation might be therapeutic in disorders with defective erythroid maturation.
Intrainformant agreement and family functioning in depressed and nondepressed parents and their children

Abstract This investigation examined perceptions of family functioning, marital satisfaction, and parent-child bonding in 65 families (child, mother, father) with one or more depressed parents and 26 families with no depressed parent. Intrainformant agreement between offspring and their parents across family functioning measures was examined for the two proband groups. Results revealed more dysfunction in family adaptability, cohesiveness, and parent-child bonding and lower levels of marital satisfaction in the depressed as compared to the nondepressed proband group. Analyses of intrainformant data revealed no significant differences in levels of agreement between informants from the two proband groups for any of the raters. There was, however, significant agreement between informants in both proband groups. Thus, differential reports of family functioning are attributable to variations in perception of functioning, rather than to different levels of internal consistency in reporting across raters in depr.
An Eye-Fixation Analysis of Choice Processes for Consumer Nondurables

The nature of the choice process for commonly purchased nondurables was examined by tracking eye fixations in a laboratory simulation of supermarket shelving. The observed process contains three stages that were interpreted as (1) orientation, (2) evaluation, and (3) verification. Orientation consisted of an overview of the product display, although some initial screening out of alternatives also occurred. The evaluation stage, the longest by far, was dominated by direct comparisons between two or three alternative products. The last stage, devoted to verification of the tentatively chosen brand-size, mainly examined alternatives with few or no previous fixations. Greater familiarity with a product category led to a choice process that was shorter and that focused on fewer alternatives, but these effects were confined to the evaluation stage. The findings are fully compatible with the general view that the choice process is constructed to adapt to the immediate purchase environment. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.
High Speed VLSI Architecture for AES-Galois / Counter Mode

Galois/Counter Mode of Operation (GCM) is a block cipher mode operation used to provide encryption and authentication using universal Hashing based on multiplication over binary Galois/Finite Field.GCM can be implemented on both hardware and software effectively and efficiently. GCM supports pipelined and parallelized implementations to have minimal computational latency in order to be useful at high data rates. However need for continual performance improvement is still presented due to continuous increase in network bandwidth and inefficiency of existing parallelization methods. This paper presents use of modified parallel GHASH module and modified key Expansion module to improve overall efficiency. GCM architecture is modeled in Verilog HDL and Simulated in Xilinx ISE. ASIC implementation is done on 130 nm CMOS technology. Test case 4 of NIST submission for Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) is also verified.
Real‐Time Caustics

We present a new algorithm to render caustics. The algorithm discretizes the specular surfaces into samplepoints. Each of the sample points is treated as a pinhole camera that projects an image of the incoming lightonto the diffuse receiver surfaces. Anti‐aliasing is performed by considering the local surface curvature at thesample points to filter the projected images. The algorithm can be implemented using programmable texturemapping hardware. It allows to render caustics in fully dynamic scenes in real‐time on current PC hardware.
Intelligent control battery equalization for series connected lithium-ion battery strings

An intelligent battery equalization scheme based on fuzzy logic control is presented to adaptively control the equalizing process of series-connected lithium-ion batteries. The proposed battery equalization scheme is a bidirectional dc-dc converter with energy transferring capacitor that can be used to design the bidirectional nondissipative equalizer for a battery balancing system. Furthermore, it can be designed as a ripple-free converter for improving the input current distortion of the battery charge supply power system. A fuzzy-logic-controlled strategy is constructed with a set of membership functions to prescribe the cells equalizing behavior within a safe equalizing region for rapid cell voltage balancing. The simulation and experimental results show the advantage of the predicted equalizing performance of the lithium-ion battery stacks. The proposed fuzzy logic control battery equalization controller can abridge the equalization time about 32%. The proposed method maintains safe operation during the charge/discharge state in each lithium-ion cell of the battery strings.
Intellectual capital and corporate performance in knowledge‐intensive SMEs

Purpose – In recent years a significant number of intellectual capital (IC) metrics has been developed and applied in many organizations. However, there is still a strong need to specify the relations among the different categories of intellectual assets that exist in the context of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SME), and to determine the way these assets affect financial performance. This paper has a dual scope; first, to specify these relations, and, second, to explore the impact of IC on corporate performance.Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses are tested through a survey conducted on Greek knowledge‐intensive SMEs of the service sector. Firms' perceptions regarding intellectual capital categories, which were measured through the answers given on a structured questionnaire, and accounting data gathered from financial databases were combined.Findings – The findings indicate that the interaction of certain categories of intellectual assets in SMEs is in some aspects different from the pattern e.
Gene Expression of Enzymes Required for the De Novo Synthesis and Degradation of Pyrimidines in Rat Peripheral Tissues and Brain

Tissue-specific expression of the genes coding for the six enzymes of the de novo pyrimidine synthesis and for the first enzyme of the degradation pathway, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), was analyzed in the rat using the in situ hybridization technique. Transcripts of the biosynthetic enzymes were detected in liver, kidney, and spleen with the highest expression in the white pulp. DPD was also transcribed in these organs with a striking layer-specific localization of DPD mRNA and protein in the kidney. All enzyme mRNAs were present in brain at low levels, but with region- and cell-specific differences. The relatively high expression in cortical regions including cerebellum and hippocampus points to a fundamental role of pyrimidine metabolism in brain function.
Dragons and dinosaurs: The child's capacity to differentiate fantasy from reality.

MORISON, PATRICIA, and GARDNER, HOWARD. Dragons and Dinosaurs: The Child's Capacity to Differentiate Fantasy from Reality. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 642-648. Despite the indisputable importance of fantasy in children's lives, little is known about their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. The present study was conducted to gain information on the extent to which this means of classifying experience is available to and used by children. In addition, the contributions of the power exhibited by a character, the source from which the character is drawn, and the competing modes of classification were assessed. A 3-card sorting task was administered to 20 subjects at each of 4 grades (K, 2, 4, 6). For each set, subjects were given 2 opportunities to make pairings and to offer explanations for their pairings. In addition, subjects were asked to place 20 pictures into piles of "real" and "pretend" figures. The results document a regular improvement with age in the use of fantasy classifications and explanations. Furthermore, fantasy groupings were more likely to occur when the competing mode of response was categorical and when the characters to be sorted were potent and were drawn from the same source. Fantasy explanations proved infrequent at the younger grades; moreover, children at all ages were less prone to offer fantasy explanations than to make fantasy pairings and to sort on that basis when explicitly instructed to do so.
Generating random star-shaped polygons

In this paper we deal with two problems on star-shaped polygons. At (cid:28)rst, we present a Las-Vegas algorithm that uniformlyat random creates a star-shaped polygon whose vertices are given by a point set S of n points in the plane that does not admit degenerated star-shaped polygons. The expected running time of the algorithm is O(n 2 logn) and it uses O(n) memory. We call a star-shaped polygon degenerated if its kernel has 0 area. Secondly, we show how to count all star-shaped polygons whose vertices are a subset of S in O(n 5 logn) time and O(n) space. The algorithm can also be used for random uniform generation. We also present lower and upper bounds on the number of star-shaped polygons.
A Novel Fuzzy Associative Memory Architecture for Stock Market Prediction and Trading

In this paper, a novel stock trading framework based on a neuro-fuzzy associative memory FAM architecture is proposed. The architecture incorporates the approximate analogical reasoning schema AARS to resolve the problem of discontinuous staircase response and inefficient memory utilization with uniform quantization in the associative memory structure. The resultant structure is conceptually clearer and more computationally efficient than the Compositional Rule Inference CRI and Truth Value Restriction TVR fuzzy inference schemes. The local generalization characteristic of the associative memory structure is preserved by the FAM-AARS architecture. The prediction and trading framework exploits the price percentage oscillator PPO for input preprocessing and trading decision making. Numerical experiments conducted on real-life stock data confirm the validity of the design and the performance of the proposed architecture.
Study of execution parallelism by resource partitioning in hadoop YARN

Hadoop YARN is a widely used distributed computing framework mainly used for big data processing. Yet Another Resource Negotiator (YARN) was introduced in Hadoop 2.0 to solve the scalability issues of the earlier realization. Hadoop YARN in combination with Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) can be considered as a distributed operating system with capabilities similar to that of the proprietary Tandem Nonstop kernel. Now it is possible to use YARN as a general purpose framework for distributed computing. When a job is divided into tasks and distributed among the nodes of a cluster and further distributed on different CPU cores of the nodes, parallelism in the execution of tasks plays a major role in the completion time of jobs. In distributed computing frameworks, a global scheduler distributes the tasks of the workloads among the nodes and the local schedulers manages the tasks submitted to the nodes. Hadoop YARN partitions the system resources into containers and launches the tasks in them. YARN does not provide a single configuration parameter to define the number of containers that will be deployed concurrently on the nodes of the cluster. The number of concurrent containers depends on the fraction of the resources allocated to them. If the resources are divided with coarse granularity, the number of containers that can run in parallel will be limited. If the resources are divided with fine granularity, a larger number of containers can be run in parallel. When a Hadoop job is deployed on cloud platforms, it is required to select adequate resources for the platform to meet the deadlines in execution time. To guarantee maximum performance with minimum resources, we need to configure the YARN framework for optimum concurrency level in execution. This paper studies how to control the parallelism in execution of tasks by controlling the number of concurrent containers and how the execution time of jobs depends on the concurrency level of tasks.
Phonemic Fluency and Brain Connectivity in Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Pilot Study

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in developed nations, has been associated with poor performance on tests of phonemic fluency. This pilot study sought to (1) characterize the relationship between phonemic fluency and resting-state functional brain connectivity in AMD patients and (2) determine whether regional connections associated with phonemic fluency in AMD patients were similarly linked to phonemic fluency in healthy participants. Behavior-based connectivity analysis was applied to resting-state, functional magnetic resonance imaging data from seven patients (mean age=79.9±7.5 years) with bilateral AMD who completed fluency tasks prior to imaging. Phonemic fluency was inversely related to the strength of functional connectivity (FC) among six pairs of brain regions, representing eight nodes: left opercular portion of inferior frontal gyrus (which includes Broca's area), left superior temporal gyrus (which includes part of Wernicke's area), inferior parietal lobe (bilaterally), right superior parietal lobe, right supramarginal gyrus, right supplementary motor area, and right precentral gyrus. The FC of these reference links was not related to phonemic fluency among 32 healthy individuals (16 younger adults, mean age=23.5±4.6 years and 16 older adults, mean age=68.3±3.4 years). Compared with healthy individuals, AMD patients exhibited higher mean connectivity within the reference links and within the default mode network, possibly reflecting compensatory changes to support performance in the setting of reduced vision. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that phonemic fluency deficits in AMD reflect underlying brain changes that develop in the context of AMD.
The efficacy of two modified proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching techniques in subjects with reduced hamstring muscle length

Difference scores in knee extension angle and electromyographic (EMG) activity were quantified before and after modified proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) hold-relax (HR) and hold-relax-antagonist contraction (HR-AC) stretching procedures in 35 healthy individuals with reduced hamstring muscle length bilaterally (knee extension angle <160°). Participants were randomly assigned each PNF procedure to opposite lower extremities. Knee extension values were measured by using a goniometer. EMG data were collected for 10 seconds before and immediately after each PNF stretching technique and normalized to maximum voluntary isometric contraction (% MVIC). A significant time by stretch-type interaction was detected (F1,34 = 21.1; p < 0.001). Angles of knee extension for HR and HR-AC were not different prior to stretching (p = 0.45). Poststretch knee extension angle was greater in the HR-AC condition than the HR condition (p < 0.007). The proportion of subjects who exceeded the minimal detectable change (MDC95) with the HR-AC stretch (97%) did not differ (p = 0.07) from the proportion who exceeded the MDC95 with the HR stretch (80%). Because EMG activation increased (p < 0.013) after the HR-AC procedure, it is doubtful a relationship exists between range of motion improvement after stretching and inhibition of the hamstrings. On average the 10-second modified HR procedure produced an 11° gain in knee extension angle within a single stretch session.
The Functional Binding Site for the C-Type Lectin–Like Natural Killer Cell Receptor Ly49a Spans Three Domains of Its Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Ligand

Natural killer (NK) cells express receptors that recognize major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules and regulate cytotoxicity of target cells. In this study, we demonstrate that Ly49A, a prototypical C-type lectin–like receptor expressed on mouse NK cells, requires species-specific determinants on β2-microglobulin (β2m) to recognize its mouse MHC class I ligand, H-2Dd. The involvement of β2m in the interaction between Ly49A and H-2Dd is also demonstrated by the functional effects of a β2m-specific antibody. We also define three residues in α1/α2 and α3 domains of H-2Dd that are critical for the recognition of H-2Dd on target cells by Ly49A. In the crystal structure of the Ly49A/H-2Dd complex, these residues are involved in hydrogen bonding to Ly49A in one of the two potential Ly49A binding sites on H-2Dd. These data unambiguously indicate that the functional effect of Ly49A as an MHC class I–specific NK cell receptor is mediated by binding to a concave region formed by three structural domains of H-2Dd, which partially overlaps the CD8 binding site.
X-Linked Ocular Albinism: An Oculocutaneous Macromelanosomal Disorder

• Three unrelated kindreds with the Nettleship-Falls type of X-linked ocular albinism were studied. Postmortem examination of the eyes of an affected man revealed the presence of macromelanosomes in the pigment epithelia. Skin biopsy specimens of this patient, seven other affected male, and nine carrier female kindred members revealed the presence of Fontana-positive and dopa oxidase-positive macromelanosomes within the epidermis and dermis. Although clinically this disorder has been considered to be a form of albinism confined to the eyes, these findings indicate that an unusual disturbance in melanosome production characterized by macromelanosome formation affects the skin and the eyes. Histopathologic study of the skin is a useful adjunct in the diagnosis of X-linked ocular albinism, both in the affected and the carrier states. Linkage studies confirmed the close association of the Xg blood group with this disorder.
Advection and Taylor–Aris dispersion in rivulet flow

Motivated by the need for a better understanding of the transport of solutes in microfluidic flows with free surfaces, the advection and dispersion of a passive solute in steady unidirectional flow of a thin uniform rivulet on an inclined planar substrate driven by gravity and/or a uniform longitudinal surface shear stress are analysed. Firstly, we describe the short-time advection of both an initially semi-infinite and an initially finite slug of solute of uniform concentration. Secondly, we describe the long-time Taylor–Aris dispersion of an initially finite slug of solute. In particular, we obtain the general expression for the effective diffusivity for Taylor–Aris dispersion in such a rivulet, and discuss in detail its different interpretations in the special case of a rivulet on a vertical substrate.