Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MiR-101 Is Involved in Human Breast Carcinogenesis by Targeting Stathmin1

Background MicroRNA-101 (miR-101) expression is negatively associated with tumor growth and blood vessel formation in several solid epithelial cancers. However, the role of miR-101 in human breast cancer remains elusive. Results MiR-101 was significantly decreased in different subtypes of human breast cancer tissues compared with that in adjacent normal breast tissues (P<0.01). Up-regulation of miR-101 inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and promoted cell apoptosis in ER alpha-positive and ER alpha-negative breast cancer cells and normal breast cells. Down-regulation of miR-101 displayed opposite effects on cell growth and metastasis. Further investigation revealed a significant inverse correlation between the expression of miR-101 and Stathmin1 (Stmn1), and miR-101 could bind to the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of Stmn1 to inhibit Stmn1 translation. The inhibition of cell growth and metastasis induced by up-regulation of miR-101 was partially restored by overexpresson of Stmn1. Knockdown of Stmn1 attenuates the down-regulation of miR-101-mediated enhancement of cell growth and metastasis. More importantly, in vivo analysis found that Stmn1 mRNA and protein level in different subtypes of human breast cancer tissues, contrary to the down-regulation of miR-101, were significantly elevated. Conclusions This study demonstrates that down-regulation of miR-101 in different subtypes of human breast cancer tissues is linked to the increase of cellular proliferation and invasiveness via targeting Stmn1, which highlights novel regulatory mechanism in breast cancer and may provide valuable clues for the future clinical diagnosis of breast cancer.
[Estimation of actual report rates using data from the survey of physicians, dentists and pharmacists].

PURPOSES Physicians, dentists and pharmacists are required to report to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare every two years by law in Japan and the Survey of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists (SPDP) is carried out based on the information provided. Because report omissions are known to occur with the SPDP, we estimated the actual report rates. METHODS The report rate is usually estimated by diving the number of persons reporting by the number of total registrants in each registration year, but the survival rate is not considered in this method. We therefore estimated the report rates of registrants after 1955, using data from the SPDP between the years 1982 and 2000, without considering the survival rate, and then estimated the report rates of registrants after 1955, using data from the 2000 SPDP, this time considering the survival rate. We also compared the report rates among physicians, dentists and pharmacists. RESULTS In the year 2000 SPDP, the report rates (physicians, dentists and pharmacists) without considering the survival rate were 87.08%, 84.98% and 71.58%, respectively. The respective values considering the survival rate were 90.30%, 87.15% and 72.98%, respectively. The improvement in the report rate for pharmacists was less than those for physicians or dentists. With physicians and dentists, when the survival rates were taken into consideration, rates were more than 90% between 1965 and 2000, except for a temporary decline around 1990. With pharmacists, however, lower rates were observed in the earlier years of registration. The reasons for the differences in report rates for physicians, dentists and pharmacists were thought to be as follows: 1) There are more women pharmacists than physicians or dentists. 2) The survival rate of pharmacists is higher than for physicians or dentists. 3) The mean registration age of pharmacists is younger than that of physicians or dentists. CONCLUSIONS Differences exist with report rates of physicians, dentists and pharmacists, and these appear due to variation in the gender ratio and age distribution.
Reality built for two: a virtual reality tool

Researchers have been working with head mounted displays and virtual reality (VR) since 1965 when Ivan Sutherland published his first paper on the subject1. This work has centered on a single user within virtual space. The literature has covered applications such as telerobotics, virtual control panels, architectural simulation and scientific visualization.Several factors now militate toward broadening the range of VR applications: developments in hardware and software, as well as a growing readiness in many fields to incorporate VR. User interface constraints of VR systems need to change in response to this changing user profile. Design of environments and behaviors in virtual worlds should be simple and accessible to experts in many fields. With the advent of multi-user systems, communications will become a major application of virtual reality.VPL has recently developed a system that allows more than one user to share a virtual space. The forms and behaviors of virtual worlds are specified graphically, so that non-programmers can design them. The system, called Reality Built for Two, will be demonstrated at the Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics.
Predicting air quality using ARIMA, ARFIMA and HW smoothing

Air quality indices (AQIs), used to classify and report the ambient air quality all across the world, computed for pol- lutants SPM, RSPM, NO2 and SO2 for the city Chandigarh using 24-hourly data revealed, RSPM as one of the main responsible air pollutants. Three time series models viz. ARIMA, ARFIMA and Holt and Winters (HW) smoothing techniques are employed to assess and predict the air quality status with respect to responsible pollutant RSPM. Various model selection criteria like Mean Absolute Error, Mean Absolute Percentage Error, Root Mean Square Error, and Bias corrected Akaike's information criterion (AICC) suggested ARFIMA as the appropriate model. Different long memory tests also justify the use of ARFIMA model and its comparison with ARIMA and HW smoothing techniques yield improved estimators/predictors for the responsible pollutant RSPM.
A cellular automaton model for microcarrier cultures

In order to achieve high cell densities anchoragedependent cells are commonly cultured on microcarriers, where spatial restrictions to cell growth complicates the determination of the growth kinetics. To design and operate large‐scale bioreactors for microcarrier cultures, the effect of this spatial restriction to growth, referred to as contact inhibition, must be decoupled from the growth kinetics. In this article, a cellular automaton approach is recommended to model the growth of anchorage‐dependent cells on microcarriers. The proposed model is simple to apply yet provides an accurate representation of contact‐inhibited cell growth on microcarriers. The distribution of the number of neighboring cells per cell, microcarrier surface areas, and inoculation densities are taken into account with this model. When compared with experimental data for Vero and MRC‐5 microcarrier cultures, the cellular automaton predictions were very good. Furthermore, the model can be used to generate contact‐inhibition growth curves to decouple the effect of contact‐inhibition from growth kinetics. With this information, the accurate determination of kinetic parameters, such as nutrient uptake rates, and the effects of other environmental factors, such as toxin levels, may be determined. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Object Classes For Numerical Analysis

The current state of software development for numerical simulation is unnecessarily cumbersome and time consuming. The language numerical analysts use to communicate ideas with each other is fairly standard, even across language barriers. There have been successful e(cid:11)orts in computer aided designing (CAD) and visualization to make software systems which are designed so that tasks are performed in a way similar to the way they are commonly described. This is su(cid:14)cient to us to indicate that if the interface between numerical subroutines and software were designed along similar lines, software development would be easier, quicker, more (cid:13)exible, and could reuse more of previous development e(cid:11)orts. We present some examples of what the design of such a numerical analysis object system might be. The examples use a prototype C++ implementation.
Soil Moisture Retrieval from Active Spaceborne Microwave Observations: An Evaluation of Current Techniques

The importance of land surface-atmosphere interactions, principally the effects of soil moisture, on hydrological, meteorological, and ecological processes has gained widespread recognition over recent decades. Its high spatial and temporal variability however, makes soil moisture a difficult parameter to measure and monitor effectively using traditional methods. Microwave remote sensing technology has demonstrated the potential to map and monitor relative soil moisture changes over large areas at regular intervals in time and also the opportunity of measuring, through inverse modelling, absolute soil moisture values. This ability has been demonstrated under a variety of topographic and land cover conditions using both active and passive microwave instruments. The purpose of this paper is to review the current status of soil moisture determination from active microwave remote sensing systems and to highlight the key areas of research that will have to be addressed to achieve routine use of the proposed retrieval approaches.
Smoke Yields of Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamines in Relation to FTC Tar Level and Cigarette Manufacturer: Analysis of the Massachusetts Benchmark Study

Objectives. This research assessed the relationship between the deliveries of carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “tar” ratings of US commercial cigarettes. Methods. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to assess the explanatory power of FTC tar, the particular manufacturer, and other cigarette characteristics to predict the yields of four TSNAs (N′-nitrosonornicotine [NNN], 4-(N-methyl-N-nitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone [NNK], N′-nitrosoanatabine [NAT], and N′-nitrosoanabasine [NAB]) in 26 US commercial brands tested in the 1999 Massachusetts Benchmark Study. Results. When FTC tar alone was used to predict TSNA yield, the squared correlation coefficient (R2) was only 38% for NNN, 76% for NNK, 46% for NAT, and 49% for NAB. Inclusion of manufacturer-specific variables significantly (p < 0.001) increased the estimated R2 for three of the four species of nitrosamine to: 78% for NNN, 88% for NNK, and 81% for NAT. Inclusion of other cigarette characteristics (filter type, paper permeability, tobacco weight, tip dilution) did not reduce the significance of the manufacturer-specific effects. Federal Trade Commission nicotine and carbon monoxide (CO) yields were no better at predicting TSNA levels. Conclusions. FTC ratings for tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide do not tell the entire story about the comparative yields of toxic agents in marketed cigarette brands. The significant manufacturer-specific effects suggest that proprietary blending and processing of tobacco matter as well. Public, brand-by-brand disclosure of the yields of TSNA and possibly other smoke constituents appears to be warranted.
An Approach to Customization of Compiler Directives for Application-Specific Code Transformations

High-performance computing (HPC) applications have been specialized for their target systems to achieve high performances. Hence, their performances are not portable to other systems. This performance portability problem leads to higher costs for maintaining HPC applications, because the life of an HPC application is usually much longer than that of an HPC system. Therefore, an HPC application needs to be migrated to a new system. Compiler directives can ease such application migration with minor modification of the original code. However, existing compiler directives cannot always satisfy users' requirements. In some cases, customizing the compiler directives for application-specific code transformations is required in order to achieve a high performance as well as high performance portability by using different performance optimizations for individual systems. This paper proposes a mechanism that allows programmers to customize existing compiler directives. To describe the specification of the customized directives, such as directive names, clauses, and their arguments, this paper also presents an XML-based format for customizing directives. The evaluation results show that the proposed approach can customize OpenMP directives to generate multiple code versions that are executed in different ways. With auto-tuning techniques, it is expected that programmers can select the best code version.
Laser ultrasonic method for determination of crystallographic orientation of large grain metals by spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy (SRAS)

This thesis presents a crystallographic orientation determination technique which is based on a laser ultrasonic method: spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy (SRAS). Surface acoustic waves (SAW) propagate on a solid surface with a phase velocity that is frequency independent, but which varies with the crystallographic orientation. By comparing the SRAS results with the calculated SAW velocities, the orientation of crystal can be determined. The SRAS technique allow the SAW velocity to be recorded in two slightly different approaches. According to the formula v=λf, the velocity v can be obtained by varying the k-vector (λ) or frequency f of the wave while the another multiplier is fixed. K-SRAS is implemented by firing a laser beam with a fixed intensity modulation frequency through a spatial light modulator (SLM); the SAW velocity is determined by varying the fringe spacing of the SLM image. F-SRAS uses a broadband (sharp pulse) laser, the beam passes through a chrome photomask with fixed fringe spacing, and the peak frequency is used to determine the SAW velocity. Scans are performed on single or multiple-grain titanium alloy, aluminium and nickel samples by both methods. The contrast of the velocity maps give adequate information of grain size and location. A SAW velocity model is developed according to the elastic constants and mass density of the material. The orientation of crystals can be determined by comparing the SRAS results and the SAW velocity model. The SAW velocities in different propagation directions are measured on nickel, aluminium and titanium α samples with known orientations, and agree well with the predicted velocities from the model. An overlap function is introduced as a search algorithm to link the SRAS results to the SAW velocity model. The results are compared with measurements taken using the Laue back-reflection technique; they gave very close crystallographic orientation with acceptable error within the industrial limit. At the end of the thesis, consideration is given to further research in the acoustic modelling and data processing algorithms that would improve the technique in the future.
Influence of nanometre‐sized notch and water on the fracture behaviour of single crystal silicon microelements

The influence of a notch and a water environment on the quasi-static and fatigue fracture behaviour was investigated in single crystal silicon microelements. The tests were conducted in smooth and notched microcantilever beam samples. Smooth specimens were prepared by micromachining (photo-etching) of (110) silicon wafers. For some specimens, a nanometre-sized notch was machined 100 pm away from the sample root by using a focused ion beam system. A machining condition was optimized, and the V-shaped notch was successfully introduced. The radius of curvature of the notch, measured by an atomic force microscope (AFM), decreased with an increase in notch depth, and ranged from about 20 to 100 nm. Single-crystal Si microelements deformed elastically until final failure, which was of a brittle nature. The maximum fracture strength of a smooth microcantilever specimen reached about 7.7 GPa, which was higher than that obtained in millimetre-sized single crystal Si samples. However, the fracture strength decreased with an increase in notch depth, even though the notch depth was of the order of a nanometre, This means that a nanometre deep notch, which is often regarded as surface roughness in ordinary-sized mechanical components, caused a decrease in the fracture strength of Si microelements. The fracture initiated at the notch, and then the {111} crack propagated in the direction normal to the sample surface. Fatigue tests were also conducted in laboratory air and in pure water at a stress cycle frequency of 0.1 Hz and a stress ratio of 0.1. In laboratory air, no fatigue damage was observed even though the surface was nanoscopically examined by an AFM. However, when the fatigue tests were conducted in pure water, the fatigue lives in water were decreased. Crack formation on the {111} plane was promoted by a synergistic effect of the dynamic loading and the water environment. Atomic force microscopy was capable of imaging the nanoscopic cracks, which caused failure in water.
Recognising the clothing categories from free-configuration using Gaussian-Process-based interactive perception

In this paper, we propose a Gaussian Process-based interactive perception approach for recognising highly-wrinkled clothes. We have integrated this recognition method within a clothes sorting pipeline for the pre-washing stage of an autonomous laundering process. Our approach differs from reported clothing manipulation approaches by allowing the robot to update its perception confidence via numerous interactions with the garments. The classifiers predominantly reported in clothing perception (e.g. SVM, Random Forest) studies do not provide true classification probabilities, due to their inherent structure. In contrast, probabilistic classifiers (of which the Gaussian Process is a popular example) are able to provide predictive probabilities. In our approach, we employ a multi-class Gaussian Process classification using the Laplace approximation for posterior inference and optimising hyper-parameters via marginal likelihood maximisation. Our experimental results show that our approach is able to recognise unknown garments from highly-occluded and wrinkled configurations and demonstrates a substantial improvement over non-interactive perception approaches.
Nicotinic Receptor Modulation of Dopamine Transporter Function in Rat Striatum and Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Nicotine activates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) on dopamine (DA) terminals to evoke DA release, which subsequently is taken back up into the terminal via the DA transporter (DAT). nAChRs may modulate DAT function thereby contributing to the regulation of synaptic DA concentrations. The present study determined the dose-response for nicotine (0.1-0.8 mg/kg, s.c.) to modulate DA clearance in striatum and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) using in vivo voltammetry in urethane anesthetized rats and determined if this effect was mediated by nAChRs. Exogenous DA (200 μM) was pressure-ejected at 5-min intervals until reproducible baseline signals were obtained. Subsequently, nicotine or saline was administered, and DA pressure ejection continued at 5-min intervals for 60 min. In both striatum and mPFC, signal amplitude decreased by ∼20% across the 60-min session in saline-injected rats. A monophasic dose-response curve was found in striatum, with a maximal 50% decrease in signal amplitude after 0.8 mg/kg. In contrast, a U-shaped dose-response curve was found in mPFC, with a maximal 50% decrease in signal amplitude after 0.4 mg/kg. Onset of nicotine response occurred 10 to 15 min after injection in both brain regions; however, the amount of time before maximal response was 45 and 30 min in striatum and mPFC, respectively. Mecamylamine (1.5 mg/kg) completely inhibited the nicotine-induced (0.8 and 0.4 mg/kg) decrease in signal amplitude in striatum and mPFC, respectively, indicating mediation by nAChRs. Thus, nicotine enhances DA clearance in striatum and mPFC in a mecamylamine-sensitive manner, indicating that nAChRs modulate DAT function in these brain regions.
'Auto-Presentation': a multi-agent system for building automatic multi-modal presentation of a topic from World Wide Web information

The system, 'Auto-Presentation', builds a presentation automatically by parsing, summarizing and correlating information collected from the Internet based knowledge sources after receiving the presentation topic from the user. The system, with the help of a group of character based software-agents, presents the topic verbally with accompanied slides and different gestures. The paper provides brief introduction and describes the architecture and explains different components of 'Auto-Presentation'. We describe necessary algorithms. The paper depicts some test results and evaluations.
Genetic Analysis of the Salmonella enterica Type III Secretion-Associated ATPase InvC Defines Discrete Functional Domains

ABSTRACT An essential component of all type III secretion systems is a highly conserved ATPase that shares significant amino acid sequence similarity to the β subunit of the F0F1 ATPases and is thought to provide the energy for the secretion process. We have performed a genetic and functional analysis of InvC, the ATPase associated with the Salmonella enterica type III secretion system encoded within its pathogenicity island 1. Through a mutagenesis analysis, we have identified amino acid residues that are essential for specific activities of InvC, such as nucleotide hydrolysis and membrane binding. This has allowed us to define discrete domains of InvC that are specifically associated with different essential activities of this protein.
Analysis of Surface Reaction Mechanisms on Electrically Non-Conductive Zirconia, Occurring within the Spark Erosion Process Chain

Electrically insulating high performance ceramics like zirconia are increasingly used for high technological applications due to their extraordinary properties. Meanwhile even the spark erosion process can be used to structure non-conductive ceramics by using an assisting electrode (AE). This conductive AE is placed on top of the work piece to enable the process. The electrical contact is sustained during the process by carbonic residua of cracked oil used as a dielectric. For an enhanced understanding of the removal mechanisms during the spark erosion process of such non-conductive ceramics, we analysed the surface of ceramic samples during the entire spark erosion process chain. In our investigation a zirconium oxide with yttrium oxide stabilisation was chosen. For this purpose X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was performed. The XRD results showed that the zirconium oxide reacts under the presence of carbonic residua during processing into zirconium carbide. This material supports sustaining the conductivity additionally, as it is conductive itself. In a subsequent thermal cleaning step with oxide atmosphere (T = 750°C), remaining carbonic residua are oxidised and thus removed. The XRD measurements after cleaning showed that the zirconium carbide was no longer detectable. Instead a monoclinic zirconium phase was found. This shows that a reverse reaction of zirconium carbide into zirconium oxide took place. To prevent the formation of a non-stabilised monoclinic phase, the oven process was adapted to higher temperatures of 900°C with higher heating and active cooling rates of up to 10 K/s. This adjustment shows that the monoclinic phase can be supressed and the reverse reaction leads to a tetragonal zirconium oxide like the bulk material.