Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Detection of Prostate Cancer by Methylation-Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction from Urine Specimens

Summary Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) represents the second most prevalent malignancy among males, which is characterized by a high mortality rate. The aim of our study was to evaluate the methylation status of glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) in urine specimens from males with PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and its usefulness in distinguishing between males with PCa and BPH by noninvasive methods. Methods: Voided urine specimens were collected from 65 patients with PCa and 45 patients with BPH. Genomic DNA was isolated and subjected to bisulfite modification. Methylation status of the GSTP1 gene was determined by conventional methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) analysis. Results: Promoter hypermethylation of the GSTP1 gene in voided urine samples was found in 63 of 65 (97%) males with PCa and in 5 of 45 (11%) males with BPH. The sensitivity and specificity of GSTP1 in discriminating between PCa and BPH males were 98% and 89%, respectively. Conclusions: Gene analysis of GSTP1 using conventional MSP in urine specimens can be used as a noninvasive biomarker to distinguish between men with malignant and benign prostatic diseases. Kratak sadržaj Uvod: Kancer prostate (KP) predstavlja drugi najčešći malig- nitet kod muškaraca, koji se odlikuje visokom stopom mor- taliteta. Cilj studije bio je da se odredi status metilacije gluta- tion S-transferaze P1 (GSTP1) u uzorcima urina uzetim od muškaraca sa KP i benignom hiperplazijom prostate (BHP), kao i njegova korisnost u razlikovanju muškaraca sa KP i muškaraca sa BHP pomoću neinvazivnih metoda. Metode: Čisti uzorci urina uzeti su od 65 pacijenata sa KP i 45 pacijenata sa BHP Genomska DNK je izolovana i pod- vrgnuta bisulfitnoj modifikaciji. Status metilacije gena GSTP1 odreden je konvencionalnom analizom lančane reakcije polimeraze specifične za metilaciju (MSP). Rezultati: Hipermetilacija promotera gena GSTP1 u čistim uzorcima urina otkrivena je kod 63 od 65 (97%) muškaraca sa KP i kod 5 od 45 (11%) muškaraca sa BHP Osetljivost i specifičnost GSTP1 za diskriminisanje između KP i BHP bile su 98% i 89%. Zaključak: Genska analiza GSTP1 u uzorcima urina pomoću konvencionalne metode MSP može se koristiti kao neinva- zivan biomarker za razlikovanje muškaraca sa malignim i benignim oboljenjima prostate.
Improved p-delta learning algorithm

This paper presents a modified version of the p-Delta learning algorithm. The algorithm can be used for training a parallel perceptron regardless of the application. There are three significant changes from the original algorithm: an adaptive learning rate, a conscience mechanism and an adaptive margin enhancement mechanism. The changes offer an improved speed, stability and noise margin at the expense of complexity. The higher complexity can be a drawback if the algorithm is intended to be implemented in hardware.
Does prostatitis increase the risk of prostate cancer ? A meta-analysis

Inflammation might play an important role in the pathogenesis of cancers such as those of the stomach, liver and bladder. Therefore, in order to clarify whether prostatitis can increase the risk of prostate cancer (PCa), we performed this meta-analysis to determine the possible correlation between prostatitis and the risk of PCa. A systematic search was performed using the PubMed, Embase, Medline, and Web of Science databases and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) through September 3, 2016. This meta-analysis was conducted with STATA version 12.0 statistical software. The strength of the association expressed as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 27 previous publications consisting of 15,762 cases and 92,547 controls were involved in this meta-analysis. Prostatitis was significantly associated with an increased risk of PCa in the overall population (OR=1.74, 95% CI=1.46-2.07, P=0.000). In the stratified analysis by geographical region, significant association were found among Asian population (OR=3.54, 95% CI=2.60-4.82, P=0.000). Notably, associations were also uncovered in almost all other subgroup analyses, such as decade of publication, type of controls, etc. No significant publication bias was found in this meta-analysis (P=0.823 for Egger’s test and P=0.559 for Begg’s test). It appears to be an association between prostatitis and PCa risk, especially in Asian population. Given that the decreasing incidence of prostatitis has a number of other health benefits, patients should be encouraged to seek treatment for prostatitis to enhance their overall health and decrease their risk of PCa.
Investigation of ice cloud microphysical properties of DCSs using aircraft in situ measurements during MC3E over the ARM SGP site

Six deep convective systems (DCSs) with a total of 5589 five‐second samples and a range of temperatures from −41°C to 0°C during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) were selected to investigate the ice cloud microphysical properties of DCSs over the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. The ice cloud measurements of the DCS cases were made by the University of North Dakota Citation II research aircraft, and the ice cloud properties were derived through the following processes. First, the instances of supercooled liquid water in the ice‐dominated cloud layers of DCSs have been eliminated using multisensor detection, including the Rosemount Icing Detector, King and Cloud Droplet Probes, as well as 2DC and Cloud Imaging Probe images. Then the Nevzorov‐measured ice water contents (IWCs) at maximum diameter Dmax < 4000 µm are used as the best estimation to determine a new mass‐dimensional relationship. Finally, the newly derived mass‐dimensional relationship (a = 0.00365, b = 2.1) has been applied to a full spectrum of particle size distributions (PSDs, 120–30,000 µm) constructed from both 2DC and High‐Volume Precipitation Spectrometer measurements to calculate the best‐estimated IWCs of DCSs during MC3E. The averages of the total number concentrations (Nt), median mass diameter (Dm), maximum diameter (Dmax), and IWC from six selected cases are 0.035 cm−3, 1666 µm, 8841 µm, and 0.45 g m−3, respectively. The gamma‐type‐size distributions are then generated matching the observed PSDs (120–30,000 µm), and the fitted gamma parameters are compared with the observed PSDs through multimoment assessments including first moment (Dm), third moment (IWC), and sixth moment (equivalent radar reflectivity, Ze). For application of observed PSDs to the remote sensing community, a series of empirical relationships between fitted parameters and Ze values has been derived, and the bullet rosette ice crystal backscattering relationship has been suggested for ground‐based remote sensing.
Starting to Stop: Young Offenders’ Desistance from Crime

This article explores the complexities of the interplay between structural and agentic changes in 21 young offenders’ lives as they start to stop offending. The young people’s ability to desist from crime was dependent upon their engagement with a ‘hook for change’, their development of prosocial relationships and ‘knifing off’ of elements of their offending past, the extent of their identity change, and their confidence about desistance. Desistance was less likely in the absence of a ‘hook’ and where offenders were running a ‘condemnation script’. The study challenges previous research that argues that desistance from crime in adolescence is unlikely.
What do accumulation records of single ice cores in Greenland represent

[1] It is investigated to what extent multiannual accumulation time series from Greenland reflect dynamic and thermodynamic processes and how representative single accumulation series are for the entire ice sheet. Furthermore, it is examined whether accumulation is related to low-level atmospheric temperatures. For this purpose, two kinds of regression models are developed which linearly relate multiannual accumulation records to meteorological mean fields. Seven ice cores from north to central Greenland and the NCEP Reanalysis data are used for the period from 1948 to 1992. In order to reduce noise, the data are smoothed with a weighted 5-year running mean. The downscaling technique is based on a stepwise multiple linear regression. One group of regression models distinguishes between dynamic and thermodynamic atmospheric effects. For that reason, stream functions are used in a first step to describe the dynamically controlled accumulation, whereas the thermodynamically controlled accumulation is determined by temperature in a second step. For six of the ice cores, these regression models describe more than 56% of the variability of the smoothed accumulation series, confirming that they represent to a large extent atmospheric states. Multiannual accumulation variability is found to dominantly represent circulation variability. However, the circulation fields that are linked with accumulation show marked differences among the cores concerning the represented seasons, areas, and structures. Thus local accumulation generally represents only regional-scale climate features, which are probably to a great extent influenced by orography. Furthermore, regression models using only 700 hPa temperature as predictor show that a general linear relationship between accumulation and temperature does not exist over this 45-year time interval. Therefore paleoaccumulation rates derived from isotopic temperatures should be interpreted with caution. Moreover, it is not reasonable to describe accumulation by means of temperature in mass balance models for the Greenland ice sheet in decadal timescales.
Methodology for the development of antithrombotic therapy and prevention of thrombosis guidelines: Antithrombotic Therapy and Prevention of Thrombosis, 9th ed: American College of Chest Physicians Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines.

BACKGROUND To develop the Antithrombotic Therapy and Prevention of Thrombosis, 9th ed: ACCP Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines (AT9), the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) assembled a panel of clinical experts, information scientists, decision scientists, and systematic review and guideline methodologists. METHODS Clinical areas were designated as articles, and a methodologist without important intellectual or financial conflicts of interest led a panel for each article. Only panel members without significant conflicts of interest participated in making recommendations. Panelists specified the population, intervention and alternative, and outcomes for each clinical question and defined criteria for eligible studies. Panelists and an independent evidence-based practice center executed systematic searches for relevant studies and evaluated the evidence, and where resources and evidence permitted, they created standardized tables that present the quality of the evidence and key results in a transparent fashion. RESULTS One or more recommendations relate to each specific clinical question, and each recommendation is clearly linked to the underlying body of evidence. Judgments regarding the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were based on approaches developed by the Grades of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation Working Group. Panel members constructed scenarios describing relevant health states and rated the disutility associated with these states based on an additional systematic review of evidence regarding patient values and preferences for antithrombotic therapy. These ratings guided value and preference decisions underlying the recommendations. Each topic panel identified questions in which resource allocation issues were particularly important and, for these issues, experts in economic analysis provided additional searches and guidance. CONCLUSIONS AT9 methodology reflects the current science of evidence-based clinical practice guideline development, with reliance on high-quality systematic reviews, a standardized process for quality assessment of individual studies and the body of evidence, an explicit process for translating the evidence into recommendations, disclosure of financial as well as intellectual conflicts of interest followed by management of disclosed conflicts, and extensive peer review.
A technique for simulating strong ground motion using hybrid Green's function

A method for simulating strong ground motion for a large earthquake based on synthetic Green's function is presented. We use the synthetic motions of a small event as Green's functions instead of observed records of small events. Ground motions from small events are calculated using a hybrid scheme combining deterministic and stochastic approaches. The long-period motions from the small events are deterministically calculated using the 3D finite-difference method, whereas the high-frequency motions from them are stochastically simulated using Boore's method. The small-event motions are synthesized summing the long-period and short-period motions after passing them through a pair of matched filters to follow the omega-squared source model. We call the resultant time series “hybrid Green's functions” (HGF). Ground motions from a large earthquake are simulated by following the empirical Green's function (EGF) method. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method at simulating ground motion from the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake (Mw 6.9).
Historical development of seismic imaging technique - An Overview

Old scriptures mention that early studies carried out by Rishis/sages have helped in developing various tools and techniques to unravel the mysteries associated with the Earth. Recognition of the ensuing events of disaster like storms, cloudbursts, fire etc. by prehistoric man was mostly done through sound and light waves . Like in the present day, his understanding of disasters like earthquakes was limited, as he was not having requisite knowledge to probe the interior of the earth. It is mentioned in some old scriptures that the ancient man tried to guess the location and onset of earthquake activity, from the unusual behaviour of some animals and insects.Varahamihira mentioned in Brihat Samhita that earthquake prediction can be done observing abnormal cloud formations. Specific details of their studies need to be extracted from earlier scriptures, to add to our knowledge base. Even though sound waves have historically been used to understand vibrations of various frequencies, and to decipher signals coming from within the Earth, no systematic development in imaging the internal structure of the earth began until the mid 19th century. A concise exposition of the historical development of seismic imaging techniques is included in this article, to expose the reader to the focused studies carried out by eminent scientists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The very fact that earlier studies combined theory and practice points out to the importance of these early studies and the strong scientific base they have created for subsequent developments. During the last 50 to 60 years considerable progress has been achieved not only in imaging basement structure but also sub basement crustal and sub crustal lithospheric structure. Theoretically supported experiments and their use in producing results help in holistically developing various scientific studies. Such a holistic development has been achieved in the seismic imaging of the subsurface formations extending from near surface depths to sub crustal columns. The basic objective in summarizing these chronological developments is to provide a broad understanding of the evolution and development of seismic imaging techniques (covering both analog and digital eras). Such an understanding is essential to properly use present day higher quality data acquisition and processing gadgets and would help producing high quality subsurface images, with time and space parameters as essential inputs. It is now well established that area specific attributes and time dependant variations alone can help in better understanding the intricate processes associated with subsurface structures and tectonics. The passive seismic based mega Arrays have indeed yielded excellent images of deep interior and provided useful information on the crust-mantle interactions. Global Array data and area specific 4-D seismic images of different dimensions, hopefully, would provide apt answers to many of the problems linked to the structure and evolution of the crust and sub crustal lithosphere.
Bandwidth and Latency Sensitivity of Parallel Applications in a Wide-Area System

As parallel architectures become larger, interconnects become increasingly hierarchical, resulting in an increasing gap in memory access times. Exactly how application performance will be affected by this gap is unclear. In this paper we study the effect of a gap of orders of magnitude in bandwidth and latency. Our system consists of local Myrinet clusters of Pentium Pros connected by dedicated wide-area ATM links. We use applications with a medium to high level of communication, that have been optimized for such a two-level system. The results show a surprisingly large tolerance to gaps in bandwidth and latency. Four out of six applications achieve adequate speedup for a wide-area latency up to 30–100 millisecond, implying the feasibility of cluster computing up to a distance of 10,000 miles.
Yield-stress fluid deposition in circular channels

Since the pioneering works of Taylor and Bretherton, the thickness $h$ of the film deposited behind a long bubble invading a Newtonian fluid is known to increase with the capillary number power $2/3$ ( $h\sim RCa^{2/3}$ ), where $R$ is the radius of the circular tube and $Ca$ is the capillary number, comparing the viscous and capillary effects. This law, known as Bretherton’s law, is valid only in the limit of $Ca<0.01$ and negligible inertia and gravity. We revisit this classical problem when the fluid is a yield-stress fluid (YSF) exhibiting both a yield stress and a shear-thinning behaviour. First, we provide quantitative measurement of the thickness of the deposited layer for Carbopol, a Herschel–Bulkley fluid, in the limit where the yield stress is of a similar order of magnitude to the capillary pressure and for $0.1<Ca<1$ . To understand our observations, we use scaling arguments to extend the analytical expression of Bretherton’s law to YSFs in circular tubes. In the limit of $Ca<0.1$ , our scaling law, in which the adjustable parameters are set using previous results concerning non-Newtonian fluids, successfully retrieves several features of the literature. First, it shows that (i) the thickness deposited behind a Bingham YSF (exhibiting a yield stress only) is larger than for a Newtonian fluid and (ii) the deposited layer increases with the amplitude of the yield stress. This is in quantitative agreement with previous numerical results concerning Bingham fluids. It also agrees with results concerning pure shear-thinning fluids in the absence of yield stress: the shear-thinning behaviour of the fluid reduces the deposited thickness as previously observed. Last, in the limit of vanishing velocity, our scaling law predicts that the thickness of the deposited YSF converges towards a finite value, which presumably depends on the microstructure of the YSF, in agreement with previous research on the topic performed in different geometries. For $0.1<Ca<1$ , the scaling law fails to describe the data. In this limit, nonlinear effects must be taken into account.
Evaluation of Information Technology (It) Investments on Bank Returns: Evidence from Nigerian Banks.

No bank can afford to ignore the need to adopt measures that will quicken the processing and transmission of business information, as well as saving time and cost, hence, the need for information technology in banking business. Notwithstanding the numerous benefits of information technology, information technology procurement requires huge investments outlay. Whether the level of investment done in IT actually brings real benefits to the banks, is still a matter of debate in academic circles. This paper therefore, evaluates the effect of information technology investment on bank returns. Our model was structured in a way that it showed the effect and the relationship between information technology expenditure and bank returns. OLS stated in a multiple form was applied to data generated from a sample of banks that survived the 2005 regulatory bank consolidation exercise in Nigeria. The analysis suggests that information technology expenditure has a negative relationship with bank profitability indicating that IT expenditures of all the studied banks do not increase bank profitability, but rather decreases it insignificantly. Keywords: Information technology; bank returns; level of IT investment; correlation; effe
New Digital Snow Load Map for the Area of the Czech Republic

Transition from national to European standards for reliability assessment of structures is connected with many problems in the Czech Republic. One of them is an expressive increase in design values of climatic actions, mainly of snow and wind loads. Higher design values of snow and wind loads increase the price of the structure. In this paper, special attention is focused on the new digital ground snow load map of the Czech Republic that was developed in cooperation between VSB-Technical University Ostrava and Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. Key-Words: snow, reliability of structures, snow load, map, MWLR, probabilistic methods
Wildfire Management and Forecasting Fire Potential: The Roles of Climate Information and Social Networks in the Southwest United States

AbstractContinuing progress in the fields of meteorology, climatology, and fire ecology has enabled more proactive and risk-tolerant wildland fire management practices in the United States. Recent institutional changes have also facilitated the incorporation of more advanced climate and weather research into wildland fire management. One of the most significant changes was the creation of Predictive Services in 1998, a federal interagency group composed, in part, of meteorologists who create climate- and weather-based fire outlooks tailored to fire manager needs. Despite the numerous forecast products now available to fire managers, few studies have examined how these products have affected their practices. In this paper the authors assess how fire managers in the Southwest region of the United States perceive and incorporate different types of information into their management practices. A social network analysis demonstrates that meteorologists have become central figures in disseminating information in.
Congruences for Siegel modular forms

— We employ recent results on Jacobi forms to investigate congruences and filtrations of Siegel modular forms of degree 2. In particular, we determine when an analog of Atkin’s U(p)-operator applied to a Siegel modular form of degree 2 is nonzero modulo a prime p. Furthermore, we discuss explicit examples to illustrate our results. Résumé. — Nous utilisons des résultats récents sur les formes de Jacobi pour étudier des congruences et des filtrations des formes modulaires de Siegel de degré 2. En particulier, nous déterminons quand un analogue de l’opérateur U(p) d’Atkin appliqué à une forme modulaire de Siegel du degré 2 est non nul modulo un nombre premier p. Nous donnons des exemples explicites pour illustrer ces résultats.