Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Involvement of JNK-mediated pathway in EGF-mediated protection against paclitaxel-induced apoptosis in SiHa human cervical cancer cells

We investigated the signalling pathways by which epidermal growth factor (EGF) modulates paclitaxel-induced apoptosis in SiHa human cervical cancer cells. SiHa cells exposed to paclitaxel underwent apoptosis, which was strongly inhibited by EGF. This inhibition of apoptosis by EGF was not altered by pharmacological blockade of phosphatidylinositol 3′-OH kinase (PI-3K) with the PI-3K specific inhibitor LY294002 or blockade of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase (MEK) with the MEK specific inhibitor PD98059, or by transfection of the cells with PI-3K or MEK dominant-negative expression vectors. EGF did not stimulate PI-3K/Akt, MEK/MAPK, or p38 MAPK activity in SiHa cells but did transiently activate the c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). Co-exposure of SiHa cells to SB202190 at concentrations that inhibit JNK abolished the protective effect of EGF on SiHa cells against paclitaxel-induced apoptosis. Our findings indicate that the JNK signaling pathway plays an important role in EGF-mediated protection from paclitaxel-induced apoptosis in SiHa cells. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign www.bjcancer. com
Face Liveness Detection Using a Light Field Camera

A light field camera is a sensor that can record the directions as well as the colors of incident rays. This camera is widely utilized from 3D reconstruction to face and iris recognition. In this paper, we suggest a novel approach for defending spoofing face attacks, like printed 2D facial photos (hereinafter 2D photos) and HD tablet images, using the light field camera. By viewing the raw light field photograph from a different standpoint, we extract two special features which cannot be obtained from the conventional camera. To verify the performance, we compose light field photograph databases and conduct experiments. Our proposed method achieves at least 94.78% accuracy or up to 99.36% accuracy under different types of spoofing attacks.
ZnO Nanostructure Templates as a Cost-Efficient Mass-Producible Route for the Development of Cellular Networks

The development of artificial surfaces which can regulate or trigger specific functions of living cells, and which are capable of inducing in vivo-like cell behaviors under in vitro conditions has been a long-sought goal over the past twenty years. In this work, an alternative, facile and cost-efficient method for mass-producible cellular templates is presented. The proposed methodology consists of a cost-efficient, two-step, all-wet technique capable of producing ZnO-based nanostructures on predefined patterns on a variety of substrates. ZnO—apart from the fact that it is a biocompatible material—was chosen because of its multifunctional nature which has rendered it a versatile material employed in a wide range of applications. Si, Si3N4, emulated microelectrode arrays and conventional glass cover slips were patterned at the micrometer scale and the patterns were filled with ZnO nanostructures. Using HeLa cells, we demonstrated that the fabricated nanotopographical features could promote guided cellular adhesion on the pre-defined micron-scale patterns only through nanomechanical cues without the need for further surface activation or modification. The basic steps of the micro/nanofabrication are presented and the results from the cell adhesion experiments are discussed, showing the potential of the suggested methodology for creating low-cost templates for engineered cellular networks.
Synthesis of Research Paper: The SAGE Guideline Model: Achievements and Overview

The SAGE (Standards-Based Active Guideline Environment) project was formed to create a methodology and infrastructure required to demonstrate integration of decision-support technology for guideline-based care in commercial clinical information systems. This paper describes the development and innovative features of the SAGE Guideline Model and reports our experience encoding four guidelines. Innovations include methods for integrating guideline-based decision support with clinical workflow and employment of enterprise order sets. Using SAGE, a clinician informatician can encode computable guideline content as recommendation sets using only standard terminologies and standards-based patient information models. The SAGE Model supports encoding large portions of guideline knowledge as re-usable declarative evidence statements and supports querying external knowledge sources.
Modeling and simulation method to find and eliminate bottlenecks in production logistics systems

The paper presents the method of modeling and simulation of production logistics systems. Finding and eliminating bottlenecks is the main goal of this method. Production system is identified using IDEF0 methodology. The model is constructed as a system of equations, which describe the elements of the production system in the relationships between them. The special category of resources - logistics resources is distinguished. A special parameter called “flow” is introduced. The algorithms to compute this parameter and to use it in order to find and eliminate bottlenecks are described. The results of simulation experiment are presented.
Scale-Selective Verification of Rainfall Accumulations from High-Resolution Forecasts of Convective Events

Abstract The development of NWP models with grid spacing down to ∼1 km should produce more realistic forecasts of convective storms. However, greater realism does not necessarily mean more accurate precipitation forecasts. The rapid growth of errors on small scales in conjunction with preexisting errors on larger scales may limit the usefulness of such models. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether improved model resolution alone is able to produce more skillful precipitation forecasts on useful scales, and how the skill varies with spatial scale. A verification method will be described in which skill is determined from a comparison of rainfall forecasts with radar using fractional coverage over different sized areas. The Met Office Unified Model was run with grid spacings of 12, 4, and 1 km for 10 days in which convection occurred during the summers of 2003 and 2004. All forecasts were run from 12-km initial states for a clean comparison. The results show that the 1-km model was the most skillfu.
Renormalization group flows from holography supersymmetry and a c theorem

We obtain first order equations that determine a supersymmetric kink solution in fivedimensional N = 8 gauged supergravity. The kink interpolates between an exterior anti-de Sitter region with maximal supersymmetry and an interior anti-de Sitter region with one quarter of the maximal supersymmetry. One eighth of supersymmetry is preserved by the kink as a whole. We interpret it as describing the renormalization group flow in N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory broken to an N = 1 theory by the addition of a mass term for one of the three adjoint chiral superfields. A detailed correspondence is obtained between fields of bulk supergravity in the interior anti-de Sitter region and composite operators of the infrared field theory. We also point out that the truncation used to find the reduced symmetry critical point can be extended to obtain a new N = 4 gauged supergravity theory holographically dual to a sector of N = 2 gauge theories based on quiver diagrams. We consider more general kink geometries and construct a c-function that is positive and monotonic if a weak energy condition holds in the bulk gravity theory. For evendimensional boundaries, the c-function coincides with the trace anomaly coefficients of the holographically related field theory in limits where conformal invariance is recovered.
Executive dysfunction and memory impairment in idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder

Background: Idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) might be a stage in the development of neurodegenerative disorders, especially Parkinson disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Recent studies showing a slowing of waking EEG in iRBD suggest that iRBD is associated with cognitive impairment. Objective: To compare patients with iRBD on measures of cognitive function and quantitative waking EEG. Methods: Fourteen patients with iRBD and 14 healthy control subjects matched for age and educational level were studied. Subjects underwent an extensive neuropsychological evaluation and waking EEG recordings. Results: Compared to controls, patients with iRBD showed a lower performance on neuropsychological tests measuring attention, executive functions, and verbal memory. Moreover, patients with iRBD showed EEG slowing (higher delta and theta power) during wakefulness in all brain areas compared to controls. However, no correlation was found between performance on cognitive tests and quantitative waking EEG in patients with iRBD. Conclusion: This study shows a co-occurrence of impaired cognitive profile and waking EEG slowing in patients with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder similar to that observed in early stages of some synucleinopathies.
Recent developments in control and optimization of swarm systems: A brief survey

Swarm systems (or multi-agent systems) become increasingly beneficial in performing complex tasks. In recent years, several branches of control and optimization for swarm systems have been developed based on different purposes and scenarios. In this survey, some recent developments on control and optimization for swarm systems (or multi-agent systems) are reviewed, including progress in consensus, formation, flocking, containment, optimization, and sensor networks.
Effects of tamoxifen vs raloxifene on the risk of developing invasive breast cancer and other disease outcomes: the NSABP Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) P-2 trial.

CONTEXT Tamoxifen is approved for the reduction of breast cancer risk, and raloxifene has demonstrated a reduced risk of breast cancer in trials of older women with osteoporosis. OBJECTIVE To compare the relative effects and safety of raloxifene and tamoxifen on the risk of developing invasive breast cancer and other disease outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene trial, a prospective, double-blind, randomized clinical trial conducted beginning July 1, 1999, in nearly 200 clinical centers throughout North America, with final analysis initiated after at least 327 incident invasive breast cancers were diagnosed. Patients were 19,747 postmenopausal women of mean age 58.5 years with increased 5-year breast cancer risk (mean risk, 4.03% [SD, 2.17%]). Data reported are based on a cutoff date of December 31, 2005. INTERVENTION Oral tamoxifen (20 mg/d) or raloxifene (60 mg/d) over 5 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incidence of invasive breast cancer, uterine cancer, noninvasive breast cancer, bone fractures, thromboembolic events. RESULTS There were 163 cases of invasive breast cancer in women assigned to tamoxifen and 168 in those assigned to raloxifene (incidence, 4.30 per 1000 vs 4.41 per 1000; risk ratio [RR], 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.82-1.28). There were fewer cases of noninvasive breast cancer in the tamoxifen group (57 cases) than in the raloxifene group (80 cases) (incidence, 1.51 vs 2.11 per 1000; RR, 1.40; 95% CI, 0.98-2.00). There were 36 cases of uterine cancer with tamoxifen and 23 with raloxifene (RR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.35-1.08). No differences were found for other invasive cancer sites, for ischemic heart disease events, or for stroke. Thromboembolic events occurred less often in the raloxifene group (RR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.54-0.91). The number of osteoporotic fractures in the groups was similar. There were fewer cataracts (RR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.68-0.92) and cataract surgeries (RR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.68-0.99) in the women taking raloxifene. There was no difference in the total number of deaths (101 vs 96 for tamoxifen vs raloxifene) or in causes of death. CONCLUSIONS Raloxifene is as effective as tamoxifen in reducing the risk of invasive breast cancer and has a lower risk of thromboembolic events and cataracts but a nonstatistically significant higher risk of noninvasive breast cancer. The risk of other cancers, fractures, ischemic heart disease, and stroke is similar for both drugs. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00003906.
Gallager error-correcting codes for binary asymmetric channels

We derive critical noise levels for Gallager codes on asymmetric channels as a function of the input bias and the temperature. Using a statistical mechanics approach we study the space of codewords and the entropy in the various decoding regimes. We further discuss the relation of the convergence of the message passing algorithm with the endogenous property and complexity, characterizing solutions of recursive equations of distributions for cavity fields.
Poliomyelitis prevention in the United States: introduction of a sequential vaccination schedule of inactivated poliovirus vaccine followed by oral poliovirus vaccine. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)

These revised recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) replace recommendations on poliomyelitis issued in 1982 and 1987, and present a new ACIP poliovirus vaccination policy that increases reliance on inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). This change in policy is the most substantive since the introduction of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) in 1961. ACIP has determined that the risk-benefit ratio associated with the exclusive use of OPV for routine immunization has changed because of rapid progress in global polio eradication efforts. In particular, the relative benefits of OPV to the U.S. population have diminished because of the elimination of wild-virus-associated poliomyelitis in the Western Hemisphere and the reduced threat of poliovirus importation into the United States. The risk for vaccine-associated poliomyelitis caused by OPV is now judged less acceptable because of the diminished risk for wild-virus-associated disease (indigenous or imported). Consequently, ACIP recommends a transition policy that will increase use of IPV and decrease use of OPV during the next 3-5 years. The revised recommendations include three options for poliovirus vaccination, all of which meet acceptable standards of care: sequential vaccination with IPV followed by OPV, OPV alone, or IPV alone. For overall public health benefit, ACIP recommends a sequential vaccination schedule of two doses of IPV followed by two doses of OPV for routine childhood vaccination. Vaccination schedules that include OPV alone or IPV alone are also acceptable and are preferred in some situations (e.g., IPV alone is recommended for children who are immunosuppressed; OPV alone is preferred for children who begin the primary vaccination schedule after 6 months of age). Implementation of these recommendations should reduce the risk for vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis and facilitate a transition to exclusive use of IPV following further progress in global polio eradication.
The Barriers to Overthrowing Internet Feudalism

Today's Internet scarcely resembles the mythological image of it as a fundamentally democratic system. Instead, users are at the whims of a small number of providers who control nearly everything about users' experiences on the Internet. In response, researchers and engineers have proposed, over the past decade, many systems to re-democratize the Internet, pushing control over data and systems back to the users. Yet nearly all such projects have failed. In this paper we explore why: what are the goals of such systems and what has caused them to run aground?
Radar surveys of the Rutford Ice Stream onset zone, West Antarctica: indications of flow (in)stability?

Abstract We present 1 and 100 MHz ground-based radar data from the onset region of Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica, which indicate the form and internal structure of isochrones. In the flow-parallel lines, modelled isochrone patterns reproduce the gross pattern of the imaged near-surface layers, assuming steady-state flow velocity from GPS records and the current accumulation rate for the last 200 years. We interpret this as indicating overall stability in flow in the onset region of Rutford Ice Stream throughout this period. However, in the cross-flow lines some local variability in accumulation is seen in areas close to the ice-stream margin where a number of tributaries converge towards the ice-stream onset zone. Episodic surface lowering events are observed followed by rapid fill episodes. The fill events indicate deposition towards the northwest, most likely generated by storm winds, which blow at an oblique angle to ice flow. More problematic is explaining the generation of episodic surface lowering in this area. We speculate this may be due to: changing ice-flow direction in the complex tributary area of the onset zone; a change in basal sediments or sedimentary landforms; a change in basal melt rates or water supply; or episodic lake drainage events in the fjord systems of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands. The study highlights the difficulty of assessing flow stability in the complex onset regions of West Antarctic ice streams.
Zebrafish Xenograft: An Evolutionary Experiment in Tumour Biology

Though the cancer research community has used mouse xenografts for decades more than zebrafish xenografts, zebrafish have much to offer: they are cheap, easy to work with, and the embryonic model is relatively easy to use in high-throughput assays. Zebrafish can be imaged live, allowing us to observe cellular and molecular processes in vivo in real time. Opponents dismiss the zebrafish model due to the evolutionary distance between zebrafish and humans, as compared to mice, but proponents argue for the zebrafish xenograft’s superiority to cell culture systems and its advantages in imaging. This review places the zebrafish xenograft in the context of current views on cancer and gives an overview of how several aspects of this evolutionary disease can be addressed in the zebrafish model. Zebrafish are missing homologs of some human proteins and (of particular interest) several members of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family of proteases, which are known for their importance in tumour biology. This review draws attention to the implicit evolutionary experiment taking place when the molecular ecology of the xenograft host is significantly different than that of the donor.
An Efficient and Scalable Algorithm for Multi-Relational Frequent Pattern Discovery

We propose MRFPDA, an efficient and scalable algorithm for multi-relational frequent pattern discovery. We incorporate in the algorithm an optimal refinement operator to provide an improvement of the efficiency of candidate generation. Furthermore, MRFPDA utilizes a new strategy of sharing computations to avoid redundant computations in the candidate evaluation. In our experiments, it is shown that on small datasets the performance of MRFPDA is comparable with the performance of the state-of-the-art of multi-relational frequent pattern discovery, and on large datasets MRFPDA is more scalable than two existing approaches
Adaptive Automation Triggered by EEG-Based Mental Workload Index: A Passive Brain-Computer Interface Application in Realistic Air Traffic Control Environment

Adaptive Automation (AA) is a promising approach to keep the task workload demand within appropriate levels in order to avoid both the under- and over-load conditions, hence enhancing the overall performance and safety of the human-machine system. The main issue on the use of AA is how to trigger the AA solutions without affecting the operative task. In this regard, passive Brain-Computer Interface (pBCI) systems are a good candidate to activate automation, since they are able to gather information about the covert behavior (e.g., mental workload) of a subject by analyzing its neurophysiological signals (i.e., brain activity), and without interfering with the ongoing operational activity. We proposed a pBCI system able to trigger AA solutions integrated in a realistic Air Traffic Management (ATM) research simulator developed and hosted at ENAC (École Nationale de l'Aviation Civile of Toulouse, France). Twelve Air Traffic Controller (ATCO) students have been involved in the experiment and they have been asked to perform ATM scenarios with and without the support of the AA solutions. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed pBCI system, since it enabled the AA mostly during the high-demanding conditions (i.e., overload situations) inducing a reduction of the mental workload under which the ATCOs were operating. On the contrary, as desired, the AA was not activated when workload level was under the threshold, to prevent too low demanding conditions that could bring the operator's workload level toward potentially dangerous conditions of underload.
Improvements on the pronunciation prefix tree search organization

The need for ever more efficient search organizations persists as the size and complexity of the knowledge sources used in continuous speech recognition (CSR) tasks continues to increase. We address efficiency issues associated with a search organization based on pronunciation prefix trees (PPTs). In particular we present (1) a mechanism that eliminates redundant computations in non-reentrant trees, (2) a comparison of two methods for distributing language model probabilities in PPTs, and (3) report results on two look ahead pruning strategies. Using the 1994 DARPA 20 k NAB word bigram for the male segment of si dev5m 92 (the 5k speaker independent development test set for the WSJ), the error rate was 12.2% with a real-time factor of 1.0 on a 120 MHz Pentium.
A Phase I Study on Adoptive Immunotherapy Using Gene-Modified T Cells for Ovarian Cancer

Purpose: A phase I study was conducted to assess the safety of adoptive immunotherapy using gene-modified autologous T cells for the treatment of metastatic ovarian cancer. Experimental Design: T cells with reactivity against the ovarian cancer–associated antigen α-folate receptor (FR) were generated by genetic modification of autologous T cells with a chimeric gene incorporating an anti-FR single-chain antibody linked to the signaling domain of the Fc receptor γ chain. Patients were assigned to one of two cohorts in the study. Eight patients in cohort 1 received a dose escalation of T cells in combination with high-dose interleukin-2, and six patients in cohort 2 received dual-specific T cells (reactive with both FR and allogeneic cells) followed by immunization with allogeneic peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Results: Five patients in cohort 1 experienced some grade 3 to 4 treatment-related toxicity that was probably due to interleukin-2 administration, which could be managed using standard measures. Patients in cohort 2 experienced relatively mild side effects with grade 1 to 2 symptoms. No reduction in tumor burden was seen in any patient. Tracking 111In-labeled adoptively transferred T cells in cohort 1 revealed a lack of specific localization of T cells to tumor except in one patient where some signal was detected in a peritoneal deposit. PCR analysis showed that gene-modified T cells were present in the circulation in large numbers for the first 2 days after transfer, but these quickly declined to be barely detectable 1 month later in most patients. An inhibitory factor developed in the serum of three of six patients tested over the period of treatment, which significantly reduced the ability of gene-modified T cells to respond against FR+ tumor cells. Conclusions: Large numbers of gene-modified tumor-reactive T cells can be safely given to patients, but these cells do not persist in large numbers long term. Future studies need to employ strategies to extend T cell persistence. This report is the first to document the use of genetically redirected T cells for the treatment of ovarian cancer.