Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Update on clinical trials in colorectal cancer peritoneal metastasis

Abstract Background/purpose: Peritoneal metastases (PM) arising from colorectal cancer (CRC) can be treated using cytoreductive surgery (CRS) combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in select patients. Objective: To review clinical trials that were reported during the 10th International Congress on Peritoneal Surface Malignancies and dedicated to the treatment of CRC-PM. Methods: Ten clinical trials were presented at the 10th Peritoneal Surface Oncology Group International (PSOGI) meeting in November 2016 in Washington DC. The flow charts of the studies were identified on ClinicalTrials.gov. Additional data were collected regarding the author’s presentations during the meeting. Results: Four trials (Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish) focussed on a preventive strategy to decrease the rate of CRC-PM. Inclusions were closed for the French study – ProphyloCHIP. Two trials were specific, with one American study dedicated to appendix cancer and one French study testing phase 1 intraperitoneal oxaliplatin drug administration. CRS and HIPEC for PM were compared in others trials with different intraperitoneal treatments without hyperthermia or with no intraperitoneal treatment or with intravenous chemotherapy. Inclusions were closed for the French study – PRODIGE 7. Conclusion: The number of recruiting trials evaluating CRS and HIPEC in the prevention or therapy of CRC PM is increasing, and these have been activated in the US and different European countries. It could be postulated that in less than a decade, clinical results will change the common practice and validate the impact of PSOGI on cancer treatment.
Plasma Cytokine Predictors of Tuberculosis Recurrence in Antiretroviral-Treated Human Immunodeficiency Virus-infected Individuals from Durban, South Africa

Background Immune correlates of tuberculosis (TB) risk in populations infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remain understudied, despite HIV being associated with a high burden of TB disease. Here we describe plasma cytokine correlates of TB recurrence in a well-characterized cohort of HIV-infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy (ART) with a history of prior TB cure. Methods Study participants were drawn from a prospective cohort study initiated at the conclusion of a randomized clinical trial in which individuals presented with untreated HIV infection and active pulmonary TB. At baseline, ART was initiated, and TB successfully cured. Participants were screened for TB recurrence quarterly for up to 4 years. TB recurrent cases (n = 63) were matched to controls (n = 123) on sex, study arm assignment in the original trial, and month of enrollment with a subset of cases sampled longitudinally at several time-points. Results Three cytokines were associated with increased rates of TB recurrence in univariate models: interleukin 6 (IL6) (odds ratio [OR] 2.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.34-5.28, P = .005), IP10 (OR 4.62, 95% CI 1.69-12.65, P = .003), monokine induced by IFN-γ (MIG) (OR 3.11, 95% CI 1.10-8.82, P = .034). Conversely, interferon β (IFNβ) was associated with decreased TB risk (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.13-0.87, P = .025). Following multivariate analyses adjusting for covariates IL6, interleukin 1β (IL1β), and interleukin 1Rα (IL1Rα) were associated with increased risk and IFNβ with decreased TB risk. Longitudinal analysis showed that levels of many TB-associated markers, including IL6, IP10, sCD14, and interferon γ (IFNγ) are reduced following TB treatment. Conclusion These data show that TB recurrence, in HIV-infected individuals on ART is predicted by biomarkers of systemic inflammation, many of which are implicated in more rapid HIV disease progression. Clinical Trials Registration NCT 01539005.
A modification of the CSP algorithm for infinite languages

Constraint Satisfaction Problem on finite sets is known to be NP-complete in general but certain restrictions on the constraint language can ensure tractability. It was proved that if a constraint language has a weak near unanimity polymorphism then the corresponding constraint satisfaction problem is tractable, otherwise it is NP-complete. In the paper we present a modification of the algorithm that works in polynomial time even for infinite constraint languages.
A Center-Free Control Strategy for the Coordination of Multiple Photovoltaic Generators

Coordinated regulation for the outputs from renewable energy sources is an appealing issue in future smart grid. This paper presents a distributed control strategy for multiple photovoltaic generators (PVs), which makes all the PVs have the same reserve ratio with respect to their maximum available power, but also makes their aggregated output support power network by providing power regulation service within the power limit. In addition, an estimation method is proposed to get the maximum available power of PV. The proposed control strategy is nearly center-free, i.e., there is no centralized station which collects the output of each PV and sends the power command to each PV, and only uses local communication networks (CNs) to avoid expensive sometimes unreliable, long distance communications. Simulation results based on the IEEE standard 123-bus distribution system are presented and discussed, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.
Effect of halloysite on structure and properties of melt-drawn PCL/PLA microfibrillar composites

The study deals with the modification of mechanical properties of poly (! -caprolactone) (PCL)/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) system using the microfibrillar composite (MFC) concept. As the in-situ formation of PLA fibrils by melt drawing was impossible due to flow instability during extrusion, the system was modified by adding halloysite nanotubes (HNT) using different mixing protocols. The resulting favourable effect on the rheological parameters of the components allowed successful melt drawing. Consequently, PLA fibrils formation combined with the reinforcement of components by HNT and increased PLA crystallinity lead to a biocompatible and biodegradable material with good performance suitable for a broad range of applications. The best results, comparable with analogous MFC modified with layered silicate (oMMT), have been achieved at a relatively low content of HNT of 3%, in spite of its lower reinforcing ability in a single nanocomposite. This indicates that modifying MFC by HNT, including fibrils and interface parameters, is more complex in comparison with the undrawn system.
Development and characterization of HBsAg-loaded Eudragit nanoparticles for effective colonic immunization

Abstract The present study was undertaken with an aim to investigate the potential of targeting colonic mucosa following oral vaccine delivery to generate prophylactic humoral and mucosal immune response. In present study, response surface methodology (RSM) using the central composite design (CCD) was applied for optimization of process and composition to get uniform, stable reproducible eudragit nanoparticles suitable for targeting to colon. The optimized formulation had the composition of 173 μg HBsAg, 250 mg polymers concentration (4:1 combination of Eudragit S-100 and L-100) and 2% w/v Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) along with adjuvant Monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA). Mean particle size of optimized nanoparticles was found to be 730.4 nm, entrapment efficiency (58.38%) and polydispersity index of 0.185. Fluorescent spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and antigen integrity by SDS-PAGE established that antigen structure was preserved during and after formulation development. In-vitro release studies in different intestinal pH concluded antigen release at mild alkaline conditions. Real time fluorescence animal imaging confirmed the effective absorption and distribution of NPs at colon resulted in improved immune response. Present study concludes that Eudragit nanoparticles offers strong potential in colon targeting of vaccines through oral immunization.
A non-negative matrix factorization based method for predicting disease-associated miRNAs in miRNA-disease bilayer network

Motivation Identification of disease-associated miRNAs (disease miRNAs) is critical for understanding disease etiology and pathogenesis. Since miRNAs exert their functions by regulating the expression of their target mRNAs, several methods based on the target genes were proposed to predict disease miRNA candidates. They achieved only limited success as they all suffered from the high false-positive rate of target prediction results. Alternatively, other prediction methods were based on the observation that miRNAs with similar functions tend to be associated with similar diseases and vice versa. The methods exploited the information about miRNAs and diseases, including the functional similarities between miRNAs, the similarities between diseases, and the associations between miRNAs and diseases. However, how to integrate the multiple kinds of information completely and consider the biological characteristic of disease miRNAs is a challenging problem. Results We constructed a bilayer network to represent the complex relationships among miRNAs, among diseases and between miRNAs and diseases. We proposed a non-negative matrix factorization based method to rank, so as to predict, the disease miRNA candidates. The method integrated the miRNA functional similarity, the disease similarity, and the miRNA-disease associations seamlessly, which exploited the complex relationships within the bilayer network and the consensus relationship between multiple kinds of information. Considering the correlation between the candidates related to various diseases, it predicted their respective candidates for all the diseases simultaneously. In addition, the sparseness characteristic of disease miRNAs was introduced to generate more reliable prediction model that excludes those noisy candidates. The results on 15 common diseases showed a superior performance of the new method for not only well-characterized diseases but also new ones. A detailed case study on breast neoplasms, colorectal neoplasms, lung neoplasms, and 32 other diseases demonstrated the ability of the method for discovering potential disease miRNAs. Availability The web service for the new method and the list of predicted candidates for all the diseases are available at http://www.bioinfolab. top . Contact xuanping@hlju.edu. cn ; zhang@hlju.edu. cn ; lijzh@hit.edu. cn.
Comparison of Strategies of Treatment with Ranibizumab in Newly-Diagnosed Cases of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

PURPOSE In several case-studies improved outcomes have been reported after switching from a pro-re-nata (PRN)- to a treat-and-extend (T&E)-based therapeutic approach in cases of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). We therefore wished to compare the effects of instigating 2 different protocols in newly-diagnosed nAMD undergoing treatment with Ranibizumab. METHODS The outcomes of a PRN- and a T&E-based regime were retrospectively compared in treatment-naïve eyes under therapy with Ranibizumab for minimally 12 months in a routine clinical setting. The primary outcome measures included the proportion of the eyes with intraretinal fluid in OCT and visual stability after the initial drug-loading phase. RESULTS The comparative case-series included 107 eyes (PRN: 68; T&E: 39). During the 2-year follow-up period, a similar number of clinical examinations were performed in the 2 groups (PRN: 14.0 ± 6.2; T&E 13.4 ± 4.4; P = 0.97), whereas the number of injections that were administered differed for the first (PRN: 5.5 ± 2.0 vs. T&E 6.8 ± 2.4; P = 0.008) and the second year (PRN: 1.9 ± 2.0 vs. T&E 3.8 ± 2.3; P = 0.002). The proportion of eyes with intraretinal fluid after the initial drug-loading phase remained stable (PRN: from 33.8% to 36.4%; T&E: from 25.6% to 29.0%); so, too, did the central retinal thickness and the visual acuity. CONCLUSION Despite a limited sample size, this retrospective analysis revealed the anatomical and the functional improvements during the 2-year follow-up period to be not roughly different for the 2 strategies. However, when the PRN-approach is instigated, the risk of under-treatment due to lapses in visits or to over-extensions in the intervals between treatments may be underestimated.
Numerical Study on Mould Powder Entrapment Caused by Vortexing in a Continuous Casting Process

Unsteady three‐dimensional turbulent flow phenomena are seen to have a major impact on steel quality in the continuous casting process. Usually steel mould powder is placed on top of the mould in order to use it as a lubricant between the solidifying steel and the mould and to prevent heat losses from the molten steel. It is well known that mould powder entrapment into the molten steel lowers the quality of the final steel products significantly. This can be caused by a vortexing flow at the interface between mould powder and molten steel near the submerged entry nozzle (SEN).
Positioning Based on Tightly Coupled Multiple Sensors: A Practical Implementation and Experimental Assessment

During the last decade, the number of applications for land transportation that depend on systems for accurate positioning has significantly increased. Unfortunately, systems based on low-cost global navigation satellite system (GNSS) components harshly suffer signal impairments due to the environment surrounding the antenna, but new designs based on deeper data fusion and on the combination of different signal processing techniques can overcome limitations without the introduction of expensive components. Supported by a complete mathematical model, this paper presents the design of a real-time positioning system that is based on the tight integration of extremely low-cost sensors and a consumer-grade global positioning system receiver. The design has been validated experimentally through a series of tests carried out in real scenarios. The performance of the new system is compared against a standalone GNSS receiver and survey-grade professional equipment. The results show that a carefully designed and constrained integration of low-cost sensors can have performance comparable to that of an expensive professional equipment.
Bilingual chunk alignment in statistical machine translation

In this paper a new algorithm called multilayer filtering (MLF) is proposed for extracting bilingual alignment chunks automatically from a Chinese-English parallel corpus. Multiple layers are used to extract bilingual chunks according to different features of chunks in the bilingual corpus. And the alignment chunks are one-to-one corresponding with each other. The chunking and alignment algorithm doesn't rely on the information from tagging, parsing, syntax analyzing or segmenting for Chinese corpus as most conventional algorithms do. Preliminary experimental results show that the algorithm achieves a good performance in chunking and alignment. Moreover, the translations generated by this algorithm are much better than the results generated by the baseline (word-based statistical machine translation).
Complete Genome Sequences of New Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Viruses from the Senescence-Accelerated Mouse (SAM): Molecular and Phylogenetic Analyses

Approximately 10% of the mouse genome is constituted by endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), and a number of mouse ERVs remain active. Many copies of endogenous murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs) are detected in the genomes of inbred mouse strains. Some of these MuLVs are transcriptionally active or produce infectious virus particles. Previously, we identified partial env sequences of new xenotropic MuLVs (X-MuLVs) from a senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM) strain. In the present study, we investigated and characterized the complete sequences of the X-MuLVs. The complete genomes and open reading frames (ORFs) of two X-MuLVs, designated xmlv15 and xmlv18 (accession nos. HQ154630 and HQ154631, respectively), were molecularly cloned from the genome of the SAM mice. We confirmed that the xmlv15 and xmlv18 sequences are distinct from all known MuLV genomes and are most similar to DG-75 MuLV. Moreover, we found that common strains of laboratory mice carry our newly identified xmlvs. Additionally, the expression levels of xmlv15-related sequences were much higher in C57BL and ICR mice than in the SAM strains without any stimulators. Our findings suggest that a specific group of endogenous MuLVs is constitutively expressed in the brain and that they may participate in normal functions and/or pathogenic conditions.
In silico identification and design of potent peptide inhibitors against PDZ-3 domain of Postsynaptic Density Protein (PSD-95)

Unique intrinsic properties of peptides like low toxicity, high biological activity, and specificity make them attractive therapeutic agents. PDZ-binding peptide inhibitors have been demonstrated for curing of Alzheimer, Parkinson, Dementia, and other central nervous system ailments. In this article, we report the successful use of an integrated computational protocol to analyze the structural basis of how peptides bind to the shallow groove of the third PDZ domain (PDZ-3) from the postsynaptic density (PSD-95) protein. This protocol employs careful and precise computational techniques for design of new strategy for predicting novel and potent peptides against PDZ protein. We attempted to generate a pharmacophore model using crystal structure of peptide inhibitor bound to the PDZ-3. A highly specific and sensitive generated pharmacophore model was used for screening virtual database generated using different combination of amino acid substitutions as well as decoy peptide database for its sensitivity and specificity. Identified hit peptides were further analyzed by docking studies, and their stability analyzed using solvated molecular dynamics. Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics (QM/MM) interaction energy and GMX-PBSA scoring schemes were used for ranking of stable peptides. Computational approach applied here generated encouraging results for identifying peptides against PDZ interaction model. The workflow can be further exercised as a virtual screening technique for reducing the search space for candidate target peptides against PDZ domains.
Does large-sized cities' urbanisation predominantly degrade environmental resources in China? Relationships between urbanisation and resources in the Changjiang Delta Region

Outward expansion of urban lands in the developing nations is often associated with a substantial loss of environmental resources such as forests, wetlands, freshwater and cash crop fields. Yet, determining how different aspects of urbanisation – such as city population size and spread pattern of built-up lands – contribute to the cumulative loss of resources remains controversial. In this study, data sets were constructed describing changes to land cover across 65,200 grid cells at 1 km2 spatial resolution for China's Changjiang Delta Region over the past 60 years. The results showed that the region lost 12.2% of total resource sites. The distribution of resource degradation showed a highly dispersed pattern and was not confined to a few intense areas associated with large cities. No empirical evidence was found that city population size alone accurately predicts the distribution of resource loss. Very large cities (N = 4) contributed 35% to the total loss, demonstrating impacts similar to those of much more scattered towns (N = 230). Urban expansion of large cities may lead to extensive resource loss; however, a set of non-linear mechanisms, such as the diminishing effects of per-unit area urban spread on resources and interactions between urban patterns and the size of urban spread, can also play a significant role in downsizing the negative effects of large cities on resource sites. Thus, effective urban policies should carefully weigh the cumulative urban spread mechanisms of both large and small cities responsible for spatially dispersed degradation of environmental resources.
Internal pressure measurements for control of explosive spalling in refractory castables

Lors du chauffage initial de betons refractaires a liant hydraulique, la deshydratation de la phase ciment provoque de hauts niveaux de pressions de vapeur internes, pouvant entrainer un eclatement explosif. On a developpe et teste une sonde capable de mesurer in situ ces pressions internes. Les correlations des donnees de deshydratation du ciment et de pression permettent d'envisager des modifications des schemas de chauffage pour reduire ces eclatements
Deficient transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 function contributes to compromised [Ca2+] homeostasis in human autosomal‐dominant polycystic kidney disease cells

Autosomal‐dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a devastating disorder that is charac‐terized by a progressive decline in renal function as a result of the development of fluid‐filled cysts. Defective flow‐mediated [Ca2+]i responses and disrupted [Ca2+]i homeostasis have been repeatedly associated with cyst progression in ADPKD. We have previously demonstrated that the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 (TRPV4) channel is imperative for flow‐mediated [Ca2+]i responses in murine distal renal tubule cells. To determine whether compromised TRPV4 function contributes to aberrant Ca2+ regulation in ADPKD, we assessed TRPV4 function in primary cells that were cultured from ADPKD and normal human kidneys (NHKs). Single‐channel TRPV4 activity and TRPV4‐dependent Ca2+ influxes were drastically reduced in ADPKD cells, which correlated with distorted [Ca2+]i signaling. Whereas total TRPV4 protein levels were comparable in NHK and ADPKD cells, we detected a marked decrease in TRPV4 glycosylation in ADPKD cells. Tunicamycin‐induced deglycosylation inhibited TRPV4 activity and compromised [Ca2+]i signaling in NHK cells. Overall, we demonstrate that TRPV4 glycosylation and channel activity are diminished in human ADPKD cells compared with NHK cells, and that this contributes significantly to the distorted [Ca2+]i dy‐namics. We propose that TRPV4 stimulation may be beneficial for restoring [Ca2+]i homeostasis in cyst cells, thereby interfering with ADPKD progression. —Tomilin, V. , Reif, G. A. , Zaika, O. , Wallace, D. P., Pochynyuk, O. Deficient transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 function contributes to compromised [Ca2+]i ho‐meostasis in human autosomal‐dominant polycystic kidney disease cells. FASEB J. 32, 4612‐4623 (2018). www.fasebj. org
Exploration Behaviors, Body Representations, and Simulation Processes for the Development of Cognition in Artificial Agents

Sensorimotor control and learning are fundamental prerequisites for cognitive development in humans and animals. Evidence from behavioural sciences and neuroscience suggests that motor and brain development are strongly intertwined with the experiential process of \textit{exploration}, where internal body representations are formed and maintained over time. In order to guide our movements, our brain must hold an internal model of our body and constantly monitor its configuration state. How can sensorimotor control using such low-level body representations enable the development of more complex cognitive and motor capabilities? Although a clear answer has still not been found for this question, several studies suggest that processes of mental simulation of action-perception loops are likely to be executed in our brain and are dependent on internal body representations. Therefore, the capability to re-enact sensorimotor experience might represent a key mechanism behind the implementation of higher cognitive capabilities, such as behaviour recognition, arbitration and imitation, sense of agency and self-other distinction. Addressed mainly to researchers on autonomous motor and mental development in artificial agents, this work aims at gathering the latest development in the study on exploration behaviours, on internal body representations, on internal models, and on mechanisms for internal sensorimotor simulations. Relevant studies in human and animal sciences are discussed and a parallel to similar investigations in robotics is presented.