Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perception of the combined effects of smoking and alcohol on cancer risks in alcoholics

La presente etude traite de la perception des effets combines de l'alcool et du tabac sur les risques de cancer. La methode utilisee est une application de la Theorie Fonctionnelle de la cognition. Quarante huit participants des deux sexes, alcooliques et non alcooliques ont estime le risque de cancer a partir de situations decrivant un niveau de consommation d'alcool et de cigarettes. Puis les participants ont repondu a un questionnaire a propos des effets de l'alcool et du tabac sur le risque de cancer. Les resultats montrent que (a) les evaluations de risques par les alcooliques sont plus faibles que celles des non alcooliques, (b) contrairement a l'opinion medicale courante, les participants alcooliques aussi bien que les non alcooliques pensent que s'adonner seulement a un de ces deux comportements represente un risque maximal pour la sante et (c) les reponses des participants dans la tâche d'integration contredisent la connaissance qu'ils declarent dans les questionnaires.
Food Color Induced Hepatotoxicity in Swiss Albino Rats, Rattus norvegicus

Objective: Certain dietary constituents can induce toxicity and play a critical role in the development of several hepatic disorders. Tartrazine, metanil yellow and sunset yellow are widely used azo dyes in food products, so the present study is aimed to investigate the food color induced hepatotoxicity in Swiss albino rats. Materials and Methods: Swiss albino rats were divided into four groups, each group having six animals. Group I served as control, Group II, Group III and Group IV were administered with 25, 50 and 75 mg/kg body weight blend of sunset yellow, metanil yellow and tartrazine for 30 days. Hepatotoxicity in rats treated with a blend of these food colors was studied by assessing parameters such as serum total protein, serum albumin, serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) as well as hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA). The activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH) and catalase (CAT) were assessed. Results: Significantly increased concentrations of serum total protein, serum albumin, serum ALP and hepatic MDA and significantly lowered levels of SOD, reduced GSH and CAT in the liver tissue of treated animals were observed when compared with control animals. The alteration in the liver includes necrosis of hepatocytes, infiltration and vacuolation. Conclusion: The result indicates that consumption of food color in diet induces liver tissue damage. The used doses of food color were mostly attributable to hepatocellular damage and drastic alteration in antioxidant defense system.
Prognostic role of lymphocyte to monocyte ratio for patients with pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) was recently reported as a prognostic factor of pancreatic cancer (PC). However, the prognostic role of LMR in PC remains inconsistent and inconclusive. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of LMR in patients with PC through meta-analysis. Methods Eligible studies inquiring into the connection between LMR and survival of patients with PC were collected and extracted by searching PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science up to May 9, 2017. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and the 95% CIs were calculated to assess the prognostic value of LMR on overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival/recurrence-free survival/time to progression (DFS/RFS/TTP). Results A total of 1,795 patients with PC from 8 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled analysis indicated that elevated LMR predicted a favorable OS (HR =0.56, 95% CI: 0.38–0.83, P=0.004) and DFS/RFS/TTP in PC patients (HR =0.38, 95% CI: 0.15–0.95, P=0.04). Prognostic values of LMR on OS were observed in subgroups with all ethnicities, treatment with surgery, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage of III–IV, and LMR cut-off value ≥3. In addition, low LMR was significantly connected with gender and AJCC stage. Conclusion An elevated LMR is associated with favorable survival in patients with pancreatic cancer.
Video-based Big Data Analytics in Cyberlearning Shuangbao ( Paul ) Wang Metonymy Labs

In this paper, we present a novel system, inVideo, for video data analytics, and its use in transforming linear videos into interactive learning objects. InVideo is able to analyze video content automatically without the need for initial viewing by a human. Using a highly efficient video indexing engine we developed, the system is able to analyze both language and video frames. The time-stamped commenting and tagging features make it an effective tool for increasing interactions between students and online learning systems. Our research shows that inVideo presents an efficient tool for learning technology research and increasing interactions in an online learning environment. Data from a cybersecurity program at the University of Maryland show that using inVideo as an adaptive assessment tool, interactions between student–student and student–faculty in online classrooms increased significantly across 24 sections program-wide.
stereotactic body radiotherapy or stereotactic ablative radiotherapy versus surgery for patients with T 1-3 n 0 M 0 non-small cell lung cancer : a systematic review and meta-analysis

and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php). OncoTargets and Therapy 2017:1
Group Consensus Tracking Control of Dynamical Multi-Agent Systems with Time Delays via Pinning Leader-Follower Approach

In this paper, we focus on studying the group consensus tracking issue of single-integrator and secondintegrator multi-agent systems with fixed communication topology and time delays under a pinning control protocol, respectively. For the former, We aim to propose some necessary and/or sufficient group consensus tracking conditions by using Lyapunov-Krasovskii function. For the latter, the observer-based bounded group consensus tracking control problem of second-order multi-agent systems in a disturbance environment is investigated, and some sufficient bounded group consensus tracking criteria are established. Moreover, this paper proposes a method of graph refactoring to find the relationship between the communication topology graph and matrix. Finally, numerical simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of our theoretical results.
Supplemenation of selenium attenuates cisplatin induced podocyte injury via BCL-2 / BAX / caspase-3 pathway

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element and micronutrient primarily discovered in selenoproteins, and involves in the regulation of redox and antioxidant cytoprotection through the glutathioneand the thioredoxindependent redox, and therefore this study aims to elucidate the prevention of Se on the cisplatin induced podocyte damage, and further explores its potential mechanism. To address it, murine podocyte cells-5 was selected and treated with gradient cisplatin, including 7.5 μg/ml, 15 μg/ml and 30 μg/ml, and the cell proliferation activity, the expression level of methane dicarboxylic aldehyde (MDA), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and glutathione (GSH), the cell apoptosis level was determined to validate the optimal concentration. Based on it, after Se treatment, the cell proliferation activity, the expression level of MDA, GSH-Px and GSH, and the protein expression level of apoptosis associated proteins, including B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2 Associated X (Bax) and Caspase-3 was examined. As expected, when different dosages of cisplatin were added, both cell survival rate and GSH expression level were significantly decreased, and the expression level of MDA and GSH-Px and the cell apoptosis level were significantly increased, the results also showed that 15 μg/ml of cisplatin was the optimal concentration. However, after Se treatment, both cell survival rate and GSH expression level were significantly increased when compared to that of cisplatin-treated group, and the expression level of MDA, GSH-Px and the cell apoptosis were significantly decreased when compared to that of cisplatin-treated group. In addition, the level of protein expression of BCL-2 was significantly decreased after cisplatin treatment, but was significantly increased after Se treatment, similarly, that of BAX and Caspase-3 was significantly increased after cisplatin treatment, and was significantly decreased after Se treatment, these indicated that cisplatin had a significant cytotoxicity, and Se could reduce the cytotoxicity of cisplatin via the decrease of oxidative stress and cell apoptosis level, these exhibited a significant application value in clinic.
Vertical distribution of the tick Ixodes ricinus and tick-borne pathogens in the northern Moravian mountains correlated with climate warming (Jeseníky Mts., Czech Republic).

A study of the vertical distribution of the common tick Ixodes ricinus and tick-borne pathogens--tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. --was performed in the highest part of the Jeseniky mountain area (the Hrubý Jesenik Mts. with the highest summit Praded, 1,491 m above see level). Altogether 1,253 specimens of all tick stages (607 larvae, 614 nymphs, 8 females and 24 males) were collected at the altitude 990-1,300 m above sea level on 12 collection sites by the flagging method. Altogether 1,207 ticks (8 females, 24 males, 568 nymphs and 607 larvae) were examined for the presence of tick-borne encephalitis virus and B. burgdorferi s.l. None of the samples contained TBEV, 35 samples (6% of adult ticks, 5% of nymphs, 0.7% of larvae) were positive for B. burgdorferi s.l. The most prevalent genospecies were B. afzelii (44%), B. garinii (28%), less frequent were B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (5%), B. valaisiana (3%). The rather large number of ticks (in absolute numbers as well as recounted to the index: average number of nymphs/worker/collection hour) and the presence of all developmental stages clearly demonstrate that there are viable local tick populations in all the sites, and that recorded ticks were not randomly individuals brought into higher altitudes by birds or game animals. The results are compared with the long-term (2002-2007) monitoring of the tick altitudinal distribution in the Krkonose Mts. and the conditions, which allow ticks to establish local populations up to the timberline in both mountain areas, are discussed. Simultaneously, changes in climatic conditions (especially the air temperature) monitored at 3 meteorological stations in the area of the Jeseníky Mts. were compared with the records from another 8 stations in other mountain areas in the Czech Republic. A very similar statistically significant trend of increasing mean air temperatures during the last three decades is found at all analyzed stations. The trend is most pronounced in the spring and summer months with the highest activity of I. ricinus ticks.
Breeding habitat selection in cliff swallows: the effect of conspecific reproductive success on colony choice

Summary 1. One way that animals may select breeding sites is by assessing the reproductive success of conspecifics in one season and settling the next year in those habitat patches where success collectively had been greatest. This sort of habitat assessment may promote the formation of colonies at high quality sites. 2. We examined whether cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, in south-western Nebraska used conspecific breeding performance to choose colony sites. 3. Reproductive success at colony sites varied spatially within seasons and between seasons, and was autocorrelated at a site from one year to the next, but not over longer time intervals. Cliff swallows thus met the conditions for potential use of information on conspecific breeding performance. 4. Among sites re-used in consecutive years, those with highest collective success in one season showed the greatest rates in colony growth the next season, including the greatest influx of immigrants. 5. The probability of colony-site re-use in successive years increased with collective reproductive success and average breeder body mass (a measure of individual condition) the previous season. 6. Cliff swallows probably use conspecific breeding performance in selecting colonies. This mechanism is one component of habitat selection that also includes attraction to conspecifics and assessment of an individual's own success.
Life Stress, Genes, and Depression: Multiple Pathways Lead to Increased Risk and New Opportunities for Intervention

Major depression is a common, severe, chronic, and often life-threatening illness. There is a growing appreciation that, far from being a disease with purely psychological manifestations, major depression is a systemic disease with deleterious effects on multiple organ systems. Stressful life events have a substantial causal association with depression, and there is now compelling evidence that even early life stress constitutes a major risk factor for the subsequent development of depression. The emerging evidence suggests that the combination of genetics, early life stress, and ongoing stress may ultimately determine individual responsiveness to stress and the vulnerability to psychiatric disorders, such as depression. It is likely that genetic factors and life stress contribute not only to neurochemical alterations, but also to the impairments of cellular plasticity and resilience observed in depression. Recent preclinical and clinical studies have shown that signaling pathways involved in regulating cell plasticity and resilience are long-term targets for the actions of antidepressant agents. Agents capable of reversing the hypothesized impairments of cellular resilience, reductions in brain volume, and cell death or atrophy in depression have the potential of becoming new therapeutic classes of antidepressant drugs. Novel cellular targets include agents targeting neurotrophic pathways, glucocorticoid signaling, phosphodiesterase activity, and glutamatergic throughput. The future development of treatments that more directly target molecules in critical CNS (central nervous system) signaling pathways that regulate cellular plasticity thus hold promise as novel, improved long-term treatments for major depression. This STKE Review with 2 figures and 122 references concerns the interaction between stress, genetic factors, and vulnerability to depression. Evidence suggests that the combination of genetics, early life stress, and ongoing stress determine how an individual responds to stress and his vulnerability to psychiatric disorders, such as depression. It is likely that genetic factors and life stress contribute not only to alterations in various neurotransmitter systems, but also to the impairments of cellular plasticity and resilience that are observed in depression. Increased understanding of the specific cellular and neurochemical alterations that contribute to depression, and of the intracellular signaling pathways that underlie cellular plasticity and resilience, may lead to the identification of novel therapeutic targets and, therefore, to the development of novel antidepressant therapies.
Bone segmentation using discrete tomography

Aims Bone studies in X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) are targeted towards analyzing a stack of virtual slices and calculating bone parameters in order to assess the differences in structures between, for example, control and diseased animals. Due to the small number of different materials under investigation, bone studies are ideal for discrete tomography, which is a new reconstruction technique. This method can be applied if the scanned object is known to consist of only a few materials; the prior knowledge on the grey values of each of these materials is then exploited to obtain a reconstruction that contains only these values. Reconstructing a stack of images with only a discrete set of grey values avoids the subjective segmentation step of global thresholding, mostly used in bone studies. A second advantage is that discrete tomography generally requires fewer projection images due to the use of prior knowledge. This is important when dose constraints determine the image quality, which is the case for in-vivo small animal studies. The aim of this work is to present the first results on a real 3D dataset using the Discrete Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (DART). A comparison is made of the calculated trabecular morphometric parameters on the datasets obtained with the standard reconstruction and segmentation methods and with discrete tomography, both using 100%, 50% and 25% of the commonly used number of projection images.
Anticancer Agent Shikonin Is an Incompetent Inducer of Cancer Drug Resistance

Purpose Cancer drug resistance is a major obstacle for the success of chemotherapy. Since most clinical anticancer drugs could induce drug resistance, it is desired to develop candidate drugs that are highly efficacious but incompetent to induce drug resistance. Numerous previous studies have proven that shikonin and its analogs not only are highly tumoricidal but also can bypass drug-transporter and apoptotic defect mediated drug resistance. The purpose of this study is to investigate if or not shikonin is a weak inducer of cancer drug resistance. Experimental Design Different cell lines (K562, MCF-7, and a MDR cell line K562/Adr), after repeatedly treated with shikonin for 18 months, were assayed for drug resistance and gene expression profiling. Results After 18-month treatment, cells only developed a mere 2-fold resistance to shikonin and a marginal resistance to cisplatin and paclitaxel, without cross resistance to shikonin analogs and other anticancer agents. Gene expression profiles demonstrated that cancer cells did strongly respond to shikonin treatment but failed to effectively mobilize drug resistant machineries. Shikonin-induced weak resistance was associated with the up-regulation of βII-tubulin, which physically interacted with shikonin. Conclusion Taken together, apart from potent anticancer activity, shikonin and its analogs are weak inducers of cancer drug resistance and can circumvent cancer drug resistance. These merits make shikonin and its analogs potential candidates for cancer therapy with advantages of avoiding induction of drug resistance and bypassing existing drug resistance.
An Evolutionary Computational Method for N-Connection Subgraph Discovery

The problem of n-connection subgraph discovery (n-CSDP for short) is to find a small sized subgraph that can well capture the relationship among the n given nodes in a large graph. However there have been very few researches directly addressing the CSDP problem. Furthermore the currently available methods, for example, the electricity analogues based algorithm can only be suitable for tackling the 2-keynodes CSDP and does not work any more when n is greater than two. To deal with this problem, we propose an effective approach to discover the subgraph in two stages. In the first stage, we propose a neighbor-growth based method to extract a relatively bigger candidate subgraph compared with that of result subgraph. In the second stage, an evolutionary algorithm for optimizing the result subgraph is proposed. For this purpose, UTM code, a transformed representation of the adjacent matrix of graphs is designed to encode the topology of subgraph as individuals. Then corresponding evolutionary operators able to be directly performed on UTM code are given. Thus the efficiency of the algorithm is largely improved. The experimental results obtained on two real large scale graphs with different topology characteristics demonstrate that our method solves n-connection subgraph discovery problems effectively
Health Risk Due to Sixteen PAHs in Residential Street Soils from Industrial Region, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

The close proximity of soils to humans can significantly influence human exposure through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal absorption to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil and consequently may cause health risks. PAHs are released to the environment mainly from pyrogenic sources and petrogenic sources. On the basis of their toxicity, some PAHs have been classified as probable carcinogens and a few others as possible carcinogens to humans, therefore, sixteen PAH compounds have been listed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as priority pollutants. Globally, several studies have been carried out on PAHs in soils and their health implications; however, a few references on human health risk due to PAHs through soil are available for rapidly industrializing India. This study was focused on human health risk of priority sixteen PAHs in residential soils from industrial region, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. On the basis of observed lower concentrations of total sixteen PAHs than the guideline values, the estimated average daily intakes (lifetime average daily dose) of PAHs through soil were lower than the recommended index dose for humans. Consequently, the estimated cancer risk (incremental lifetime cancer risk) was within the acceptable risk distribution range (10 -6 -10 -4 ) for human adults and children. Observed PAHs concentrations were dominated by high molecular weight PAHs, and seven carcinogenic PAHs accounted for 52 % out of the ∑16 PAHs. Studied soils were classified as mild contaminated with PAHs, thus may be categorized with low health risk to humans residing in the vicinity.
LSQ : The Linked SPARQL Queries Dataset Technical Report

In this report, we present LSQ – a Linked Dataset describing SPARQL queries extracted from the logs of a variety of four prominent public SPARQL endpoints. We argue that this dataset has a variety of uses for the SPARQL research community. For example, it can be used generate benchmarks on the fly by selecting real-world queries with specific characteristics that we describe. LSQ can also be used to conduct analyses of what SPARQL (1.1) query features are most often used to interrogate endpoints. Other use cases include characterising the behaviour of the different types of agents that are using these endpoints or finding out what queries agents are asking about a given resource. In more detail, we first motivate our dataset by reference to a number of concrete use cases, extracting a list of requirements. Next we discuss how we describe SPARQL queries in RDF, using a mix of existing vocabularies (e.g., SPIN) and a custom vocabulary. We present the hosting methods that we provide and remark on issues relating to sustainability. To conclude, we show some high-level examples of the types of conclusions that we can draw from our LSQ about the current state of SPARQL adoption on the Web.
In the Infant’s Mind’s Ear

Do infants implicitly name visually fixated objects whose names are known, and does this information influence their preference for looking at other objects? We presented 18-month-old infants with a picture-based phonological priming task and examined their recognition of named targets in primed (e.g., dog-door) and unrelated (e.g., dog-boat) trials. Infants showed better recognition of the target object in primed than in unrelated trials across three measures. As the prime image was never explicitly named during the experiment, the only explanation for the systematic influence of the prime image on target recognition is that infants, like adults, can implicitly name visually fixated images and that these implicitly generated names can prime infants’ subsequent responses in a paired visual-object spoken-word-recognition task.