Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Le couple franco-allemand et la dimension géopolitique de la crise de l'euro

Les compromis franco-allemands destines a preserver l’euro afin d’eviter une fracture europeenne placent le couple franco-allemand a la charniere de l’Union europeenne. Les representations nationales allemandes et francaises differenciees a propos de l’economie sociale de marche, mais aussi du positionnement dans la mondialisation, structurent pourtant les strategies respectives et les compromis negocies pour gerer la crise de l’euro qui se prolonge depuis 2010. L’enjeu du centre de gravite geopolitique de l’Union europeenne fut souligne par le differend a propos de l’echelle de gestion de la crise : la zone euro privilegiee par les Francais, ou l’Europe a 27 par les Allemands. La crise de l’euro est aussi un test du degre de solidarite vis-a-vis de la mondialisation entre les Allemands et les Francais dont les visions relatives aux finalites europeennes, un carrefour des reseaux mondialises ou une Europe protection, entrent en divergence.
Hydroxyurea inhibition of DNA synthesis in ascites tumor.

Hydroxyurea has recently been shown to be of value in the treatment of certain malignancies. ', 2 Frenkel et al.3 have reported interference in the conversion of tritiated cytidylic acid into deoxycytidylic acid by bone marrow of rats treated with hydroxyurea. It is the purpose of this report to describe an investigation of the effect of hydroxyurea on the incorporation of P32 into the nucleic acids of a mouse ascites tumor. Materials and Methods. -An ascites tumor, originally a lymphosarcoma, which has been in use in our laboratory for several years,4 was used as the tissue for these studies. Following intraperitoneal inoculation of 0.1 ml of ascitic fluid from a tumor-bearing mouse into C3H mice, the tumor grows rapidly, yielding 2-4 ml of ascitic fluid containing about 50 per cent cells on the sixth to the eighth day. The animals were sacrificed and several tumors pooled to obtain the desired volume. A solution containing P32 as orthophosphate was added, such that the final concentration was 50 ,uc/ml. Tumor cells, with P32 added, could be maintained for several hours in an ice bath with no significant incorporation of isotope into nucleic acid and without loss of synthetic capacity when subsequently incubated at 370C. The tumor fluid was transferred in volumes of 0.4 ml into tubes containing 0.1 ml of saline with and without the inhibitor under study. The preparation was then incubated for the desired length of time at 370 with gentle shaking. The reaction was stopped by transferrring the tubes to an ice bath and adding 2.5 ml of 5 per cent trichloroacetic acid. The preparations were homogenized in Potter-Elvehjem tubes and centrifuged for 10 min at 600 g, following which a portion of the supernate was transferred to an ashing tube for subsequent evaluation of the acid-soluble phosphorus. The acid-insoluble residue was washed five times in cold 5 per cent trichloroacetic acid, and the nucleic acids extracted in a boiling water bath in 10 per cent NaCl buffered to pH 7.8. The nucleic acids were precipitated from the extract with two volumes of 95 per cent ethanol, the RNA was hydrolyzed with 0.1 N NaOH, and the DNA reprecipitated with trichloroacetic acid and hydrolyzed by methods previously described.4 All samples-acid-soluble, RNA, and DNA-were wet-ashed, diluted to volume, counted with an end-window Geiger tube, and analyzed for phosphorus content. The activity of each sample was calculated as counts per minute per microgram of phosphorus per milliliter, and the activity of the DNA and RNA was then divided by the acid-soluble precursor pool activity to give the relative specific activity of DNA and RNA. In evaluating the effect of the inhibitor the relative specific activity of a treated sample is compared to that in untreated controls and is referred to as the comparative specific activity, expressed as per cent of control. Results. -Table 1 indicates the relationship of concentration of hydroxyurea to incorporation of P32 into DNA and RNA. Almost 90 per cent inhibition of DNA
Normalisation of Historical Text Using Context-Sensitive Weighted Levenshtein Distance and Compound Splitting

Natural language processing for historical text imposes a variety of challenges, such as to deal with a high degree of spelling variation. Furthermore, there is often not enough linguistically annotated data available for training part-of-speech taggers and other tools aimed at handling this specific kind of text. In this paper we present a Levenshtein-based approach to normalisation of historical text to a modern spelling. This enables us to apply standard NLP tools trained on contemporary corpora on the normalised version of the historical input text. In its basic version, no annotated historical data is needed, since the only data used for the Levenshtein comparisons are a contemporary dictionary or corpus. In addition, a (small) corpus of manually normalised historical text can optionally be included to learn normalisation for frequent words and weights for edit operations in a supervised fashion, which improves precision. We show that this method is successful both in terms of normalisation accuracy, and by the performance of a standard modern tagger applied to the historical text. We also compare our method to a previously implemented approach using a set of hand-written normalisation rules, and we see that the Levenshtein-based approach clearly outperforms the hand-crafted rules. Furthermore, the experiments were carried out on Swedish data with promising results and we believe that our method could be successfully applicable to analyse historical text for other languages, including those with less resources.
Projekt Quebex: A Query by Example System for Audio Retrieval

This paper describes an audio retrieval system, Quebex that works on raw audio data. The system is able to retrieve songs that are rhythmically and timbrewise similar from a database of 700 songs. A new algorithm is proposed that attempts to match two songs temporally in terms of timbre, using a simple dynamic time warping algorithm. A sieving technique is used to eliminate unlikely candidates from further processing and a ranking system among the rhythm, spectral and temporal features is used to retrieve songs. Initial results have shown great promise for the approach as it retrieves remixes and dubbed songs within the top 10 retrievals
Central Mechanisms Mediating Thrombospondin-4-induced Pain States*

Peripheral nerve injury induces increased expression of thrombospondin-4 (TSP4) in spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia that contributes to neuropathic pain states through unknown mechanisms. Here, we test the hypothesis that TSP4 activates its receptor, the voltage-gated calcium channel Cavα2δ1 subunit (Cavα2δ1), on sensory afferent terminals in dorsal spinal cord to promote excitatory synaptogenesis and central sensitization that contribute to neuropathic pain states. We show that there is a direct molecular interaction between TSP4 and Cavα2δ1 in the spinal cord in vivo and that TSP4/Cavα2δ1-dependent processes lead to increased behavioral sensitivities to stimuli. In dorsal spinal cord, TSP4/Cavα2δ1-dependent processes lead to increased frequency of miniature and amplitude of evoked excitatory post-synaptic currents in second-order neurons as well as increased VGlut2- and PSD95-positive puncta, indicative of increased excitatory synapses. Blockade of TSP4/Cavα2δ1-dependent processes with Cavα2δ1 ligand gabapentin or genetic Cavα2δ1 knockdown blocks TSP4 induced nociception and its pathological correlates. Conversely, TSP4 antibodies or genetic ablation blocks nociception and changes in synaptic transmission in mice overexpressing Cavα2δ1. Importantly, TSP4/Cavα2δ1-dependent processes also lead to similar behavioral and pathological changes in a neuropathic pain model of peripheral nerve injury. Thus, a TSP4/Cavα2δ1-dependent pathway activated by TSP4 or peripheral nerve injury promotes exaggerated presynaptic excitatory input and evoked sensory neuron hyperexcitability and excitatory synaptogenesis, which together lead to central sensitization and pain state development.
The Interaction Between Statins and Exercise: Mechanisms and Strategies to Counter the Musculoskeletal Side Effects of This Combination Therapy.

BACKGROUND Broad indications for the use of statin medications are resulting in more patients using these therapies. Simultaneously, healthcare professionals are strongly advocating recommendations to increase exercise training (ET) as a means of decreasing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and improving other parameters of fitness. METHODS We review the literature to explore mechanisms that may increase the risk of statin/ET interactions, examine the benefits and risks of combining ET and statin use, and offer strategies to minimize the hazards of this combination therapy. RESULTS The combined use of statins and ET can result in health gains and decreased CVD risk; however, multiple factors may increase the risk of adverse events. Some of the events that have been reported with the combination of statins and ET include decreased athletic performance, muscle injury, myalgia, joint problems, decreased muscle strength, and fatigue. The type of statin, the dose, drug interactions, genetic variants, coenzyme Q10 deficiency, vitamin D deficiency, and underlying muscle diseases are among the factors that may predispose patients to intolerance of this combined therapy. CONCLUSION Effective strategies exist to help patients who may be intolerant of combined statin therapy and ET so they may benefit from this proven therapy. Careful attention to identifying high-risk groups and strategies to prevent or treat side effects that may occur should be employed.
Biomarkers predictive for clinical efficacy of taxol-based chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer.

BACKGROUND Several studies looked for tumor biomarkers predictive for paclitaxel sensitivity but till now no reliable biomarkers are available. The aim of this study was to verify the potential predictive value of beta-tubulin III and IV, vascular endothelial growth factor-receptor (VEGFR-1), HER2/neu and microvessel density (mVD), in a group of 70 patients with advanced breast cancer (ABC) treated with paclitaxel-based chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Immunohistochemical analysis (ICA) of HER2, VEGFR-1, mVd, beta-tubulin III and beta-tubulin IV expression were performed in a series of 72 advanced breast cancer. Furthermore apoptotic fraction with TUNEL analysis was evaluated. RESULTS beta-tubulin III ICA expression was predictive of progression after chemotherapy. In fact only 2% of the patients with low beta-tubulin III expression progressed after paclitaxel chemotherapy vs 38% of those with high beta-tubulin III tumor expression (P=0.000; by chi(2)). This evidence was confirmed by a logistic regression analysis (OR 28.789; 95% CI 3.212-258,072; P=0.004). There was not a significant association between other biomarkers' characteristics and clinical response to chemotherapy. A Cox multivariate analysis, with overall survival as a dependent variable, showed that only HER2 expression was independently associated (OR 2.39; 95% CI 1.09-5.23; P=0.03) with overall survival. CONCLUSIONS We suggest that class III beta-tubulin immunohistochemical expression analysis could be a potentially relevant tumor biomarker for paclitaxel resistance in advanced breast cancer patients.
Invasion of Melanoma Cells by Mycoplasma hyorhinis: Enhancement by Protease Treatment

ABSTRACT Mycoplasma hyorhinis (strain MCLD) was recently isolated from a melanoma cell culture. Growth of MCLD was considerably improved by 24 serial passages in a modified Hayflick's mycoplasma medium. Transmission electron microscopy showed that MCLD exhibits a polymorphic appearance, with ovoid or elongated cells frequently harboring an electron-dense core at one of the poles. Adherence of M. hyorhinis to melanoma cells followed saturation kinetics. Furthermore, although M. hyorhinis has been considered to remain attached to the surface of the host cells, we show for the first time, qualitatively by confocal laser scanning microscopy and quantitatively by a gentamicin resistance assay, that MCLD is able to invade melanoma cells. The ingested mycoplasmas were randomly distributed in the cytoplasm, tending to concentrate near the plasma membrane. Both adherence to and invasion of melanoma cells by M. hyorhinis strain MCLD were dramatically enhanced by mild proteolytic digestion with proteinase K (2.5 μg/mg cell protein for 2.5 min at 37°C) that affected the surface-exposed proteins of this organism, mainly the major 47-kDa lipoprotein. We suggest that the intracellular location of M. hyorhinis strain MCLD is a privileged niche, which may explain the survival of M. hyorhinis in tissue cultures. The enhanced binding to and invasion of melanoma cells by protease treatment may be due to either the activation or the enhanced exposure of an adhesin(s) on the mycoplasmal cell surface.
Aspiration of the Subcutaneous Insulin Injection: Clinical Evaluation of Needle Size and Amount of Subcutaneous Fat

Investigating the rationale for a particular technique can reveal the surprising finding that some techniques are not based on scientific research. Aspiration of the insulin syringe is an example of a technique that evolved based on assumption. In a study designed to challenge the need to aspirate during insulin administration, 204 injections that were aspirated yielded no blood return. The historical and research literature supports the finding that aspiration never was proven to be a reliable indicator of correct subcutaneous needle placement. Because inadvertent intramuscular injection of insulin has been documented, diabetes educators need a reliable method to individualize insulin administration techniques to decrease the risk of incorrect needle placement. Until a reliable method is available, the literature supports lifting a skinfoldfor all subcutaneous insulin injections.
Using diamond ranking as visual cues to engage young people in the research process

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to describe and consider the use of diamond ranking activities as visual cues to elicit ideas, prompt reflection and promote discussion amongst pupils (aged 10‐13), teachers and other staff in two qualitative research studies.Design/methodology/approach – The activities included nine photographs as visual cues, and participants cut out these pictures and stuck them onto a piece of A3 paper in a diamond shape, ranking them by position where their preferred picture is at the top and the most disliked at the bottom.Findings – Importantly, participants also annotated their diamond with qualitative comments and explanations.Originality/value – This article explores the use of diamond ranking as visual cues – a tool within qualitative research that is under‐developed – as a way of engaging participants in the research process. Issues explored include inclusivity, active discussions and applicability to a wide range of people.
Neighborhood search techniques of evolutionary algorithms for solving multilevel lot-sizing problems

The multi-level lot-sizing (MLLS) problem has been widely studied but still plays an important role in the efficient operation of modern manufacturing and assembly processes. The MLLS problem without restrictive assumption on the product structure is difficult to be solved because it is NP-hard and the situation is even exacerbated by the increasing structure complexity of modern products. Several evolutionary algorithms have been developed recently in literature to solve acceptable solutions for the MLLS problem within reasonable time, such as genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, swarm particle optimization, soft optimization based on segmentation, ant colony optimization and variable neighborhood search. In this paper we investigate the implemental techniques used by these evolutionary algorithms for solve the MLLS problem. We found that the distance and change range are two main factors that influence much the effectives of these neighborhood-search-based evolutionary algorithms. These insights can help developing more efficient evolutionary algorithms, and as an example, we developed an iterated neighborhood search(INS) algorithm which shows its good performances when tested against two benchmark problem sets(small-sized and medium-sized).
Characterization of phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamins and antioxidant activities of selected Malaysian wild edible plants

This study was carried out to characterize phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamins and the antioxidant activity of selected wild edible plants. Plant extracts were purified, and phenolic compounds comprising 11 phenolic acids (hydroxybenzoic acid and hydrocinnamic acid) and 33 flavonoids (including catechin, glycosides and aglycones) were analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography - Diode Array Detector (HPLC-DAD). Furthermore, the contents of ascorbic acid and tocopherol ((α and γ tocopherol) and carotenoids (lutein and β-carotene) were also determined. The major phenolics identified consisted of glycosides of flavones (apigenin and luteolin) and flavonols (kaempferol and quercetin). Among the phenolic acids identified after hydrolysis, coumaric acid was the predominant phenolic acid in all the extracts of wild plants. Ascorbic acid [53.8 mg/100 g fresh weight (FW)] and β-carotene (656.5 mg/100 g FW) showed the highest content in the leaf of Heckeria umbellatum. In conclusion, the leaves of H. umbellatum, Aniseia martinicensis and Gonostegia hirta have excellent potential in the future to emerge as functional ingredients.
8.2 Fully integrated low-drop-out regulator based on event-driven PI control

Modern SoC designs employ a number of power domains, many of which are often implemented by low-drop-out (LDO) regulators. The key overhead of the existing LDO design is the large off-chip output capacitor (Cout) for compensating a large/fast change in load current (ILOAD). Miniaturizing and thus integrating COUT on a chip is highly desirable and theoretically possible by shortening the control loop latency. This can be achieved by employing a higher sampling frequency (FCLK) in a synchronous time-driven digital LDO [1] and a high-speed amplifier in an analog LDO [2]. However, large power consumption and the resulting low current efficiency are often inevitable. In this work, we aim to break this trade-off between passive size and efficiency by introducing an event-driven (ED) control scheme. We design the level-crossing event detector and the ED PI controller for short latency. The power dissipation is kept small since no event occurs in the steady state. We prototype a 400μA class LDO with typical VIN=0.5V and VOUT=0.45V in 65nm, achieving a small voltage droop (VDROOP) of 40mV (<;9% of set-point voltage [VSP] of 450mV) with an on-chip integrated COUT of 0.4nF and the peak current efficiency of 96.3%.
A genetic epidemiological study of carcinoma of the fallopian tube.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this work was to evaluate the importance of genetic factors in the etiology of fallopian tube cancer. METHODS All pathologically confirmed cases of fallopian tube cancer diagnosed in Ontario from 1990 to 1998 were identified from the records of the Ontario Cancer Registry. Living patients were approached to provide information about their family history and to provide a blood sample for testing for mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. RESULTS A modest increase in the risk of ovarian cancer (relative risk (RR) = 2.2; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.4, 6.3) and of early-onset breast cancer (RR = 2.4; 95% CI = 0.6, 6.1) was observed in the first-degree relatives of the fallopian cancer cases. Five of the forty-four cases were positive for a mutation in BRCA1 (11%) and two were positive for a BRCA2 mutation (5%). Five of eighteen women diagnosed at or before age 55 were positive (28%). Two of the seven mutation carriers had a strong family history of breast and ovarian cancer, and three carriers had a modest family history. Three of the forty-four cases were Jewish, and of these, two carried a founder mutation characteristic of this population. CONCLUSIONS Fallopian tube carcinoma should be considered to be a clinical component of the hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome, and may be associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. Genetic evaluation should be offered to women who present with fallopian tube carcinoma. It is important to consider the risk of fallopian tube carcinoma when prophylactic oophorectomy is performed in high-risk women.
Fast recycling of Escherichia coli ribosomes requires both ribosome recycling factor (RRF) and release factor RF3

A complete translation system has been assembled from pure initiation, elongation and termination factors as well as pure aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetases. In this system, ribosomes perform repeated rounds of translation of short synthetic mRNAs which allows the time per translational round (the recycling time) to be measured. The system has been used to study the influence of release factor RF3 and of ribosome recycling factor RRF on the rate of recycling of ribosomes. In the absence of both RF3 and RRF, the recycling time is ∼40 s. This time is reduced to ∼30 s by the addition of RF3 alone and to ∼15 s by the addition of RRF alone. When both RF3 and RRF are added to the translation system, the recycling time drops to <6 s. Release factor RF3 is seen to promote RF1 cycling between different ribosomes. The action of RRF is shown to depend on the concentration of elongation factor‐G. Even in the presence of RRF, ribosomes do not leave the mRNA after termination, but translate the same mRNA several times. This shows that RRF does not actively eject mRNA from the terminating ribosome. It is proposed that terminating ribosomes become mobile on mRNA and ready to enter the next translation round only after two distinct steps, catalysed consecutively by RF3 and RRF, which are slow in the absence of these factors.
Early Childhood Teachers’ Use of Effective Instructional Practices and the Collateral Effects on Young Children’s Behavior

This investigation examined the effects of a classroom-based intervention, Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Training: Competent Learners Achieving School Success (BEST in CLASS), on teacher behaviors and child outcomes in early childhood classrooms. First, we examined the effects of professional development training and practice-based coaching (including performance feedback) on teachers’ implementation and maintenance of the BEST in CLASS model practices. Next, we examined the effects of teachers’ implementation of these practices on young children’s engagement and problem behaviors. Using a descriptive nonexperimental design, 10 teachers and 19 children received the intervention. Findings indicated that teachers’ use of the BEST in CLASS practices including rules, precorrection, opportunities to respond, behavior-specific praise, and instructive and corrective feedback increased from baseline to completion of the intervention and these increases maintained. In addition, children’s engagement increased while their problem behaviors decreased. Although these results are promising, the current investigation has limitations and the results should be viewed with caution.