Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radiation Therapy-Induced Tumor Invasiveness Is Associated with SDF-1-Regulated Macrophage Mobilization and Vasculogenesis

Radiation therapy (RT) remains the front-line treatment for high-grade gliomas; however, tumor recurrence remains the main obstacle for the clinical success of RT. Using a murine astrocytoma tumor cell line, ALTS1C1, the present study demonstrates that whole brain irradiation prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice, although the mice eventually died associated with increased tumor infiltration. Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis indicated that RT decreased the microvascular density (MVD) of the primary tumor core, but increased the MVD of the tumor invasion front. RT also increased the number of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and the expression of stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) at the tumor invasion front. SDF-1 expression suppressed by siRNA (SDFkd tumors) showed a decrease in RT-enhanced tumor invasiveness, leading to prolonged survival of mice bearing these tumors. The invasion front in SDFkd tumors showed a lower MVD and TAM density than that in the islands of the control or irradiated ALTS1C1 tumors. Our results indicate that tumor-secreted SDF-1 is one key factor in RT-induced tumor invasiveness, and that it exerts its effect likely through macrophage mobilization and tumor revascularization.
Pre-operative optimisation of lung function

The anaesthetic management of patients with pre-existing pulmonary disease is a challenging task. It is associated with increased morbidity in the form of post-operative pulmonary complications. Pre-operative optimisation of lung function helps in reducing these complications. Patients are advised to stop smoking for a period of 4–6 weeks. This reduces airway reactivity, improves mucociliary function and decreases carboxy-haemoglobin. The widely used incentive spirometry may be useful only when combined with other respiratory muscle exercises. Volume-based inspiratory devices have the best results. Pharmacotherapy of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease must be optimised before considering the patient for elective surgery. Beta 2 agonists, inhaled corticosteroids and systemic corticosteroids, are the main drugs used for this and several drugs play an adjunctive role in medical therapy. A graded approach has been suggested to manage these patients for elective surgery with an aim to achieve optimal pulmonary function.
Bem-estar animal na agricultura do século XXI

O tema do bem-estar tende atualmente a integrar o debate sobre os problemas éticos da agricultura industrial em relação à qualidade do ambiente e à segurança alimentar. Discutimos neste texto a definição de bem-estar animal de acordo com diversos autores, o modo como pode ser avaliado cientificamente; os principais motivos que levam as pessoas a se preocuparem com o bem-estar de animais de fazenda; os problemas que influenciam o bem-estar animal na criação zootécnica e, finalmente, sugerimos meios para melhorar o bem-estar dos animais zootécnicos. Existem, em nossa opinião, várias soluções para o problema da fome do mundo e do sofrimento de milhões de animais, que não envolvem excluir uma das questões em favor da outra. Sugerimos que parte do esforço de cientistas interessados no tema seja investido no desenvolvimento de tecnologias para sistemas de criação animal sustentáveis uma vez que estes consideram necessariamente os efeitos da agricultura no meio ambiente e no bem-estar das populações humanas e animais.
Control of tibialis anterior FES envelop for unilateral drop foot gait correction using NARX neural network

In this paper a control methodology based on artificial neural networks (ANN) is proposed for control of ankle dorsiflexion in patients with unilateral drop foot. In the presented strategy, the electrical stimulation intensity for the disabled tibialis anterior (TA) muscle is controlled considering the existing coordination patterns between activities of the ipsilateral ankle dorsiflexor muscles and the contralateral ankle plantarflexor muscles during normal gait. Based on this coordination, in each gait cycle the TA muscle of one leg acts in close simultaneity with the calf muscle of the opposite leg. Therefore in this paper a dynamic ANN has been trained in a predictive manner, to forecast the disabled TA muscle activity based on the input from the healthy calf muscle of the opposite leg. The predicted TA activation is then used to control the TA muscle FES intensity in real time. Seven healthy volunteers participated in the experiments. Surface electromyogram was recorded from TA and calf muscle simultaneously on the opposite legs while walking in different gait frequencies. Results obtained from the controller are quite promising and show impressive generalization ability between subjects.
Myocardial Rupture following Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

We present the first case of severe cardiotoxicity of carbon monoxide leading to myocardial rupture and fatal outcome. 83-year-old woman was hospitalized 4 hours after the fire in her house with no respiratory or cardiac symptoms. After two days, she has suffered sudden collapse leading to cardiac arrest. Postmortem examination revealed intramural haemorrhage with myocardial rupture at the apex of the left ventricle. Minimal stenosis was noted in the proximal coronary arteries with no evidence of distal occlusion or any other long-standing heart disease. This case supports recommendations for targeted cardiovascular investigations in cases of CO poisoning.
InGaAsSb/InP Double Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors Grown by Solid-Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy

This letter investigates the dc characteristics of a double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) with a compressively strained InGaAsSb base, which is grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy. The novel InP/InGaAsSb HBT has a lower base/emitter (B/E) junction turn-on voltage, a lower offset voltage, and a junction ideality factor closer to unity than the conventional InP/InGaAs composite collector DHBT. These characteristics are attributed to the transistor's type-I B/E junction and type-II base/collector junction, which facilitates carrier transport for low power, high current density, and high-speed operation. Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), InP/InGaAsSb, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
Approximation algorithms for embedding general metrics into trees

We consider the problem of embedding general metrics into trees. We give the first non-trivial approximation algorithm for minimizing the multiplicative distortion. Our algorithm produces an embedding with distortion (c log n)O(√log Δ), where c is the optimal distortion, and Δ is the spread of the metric (i.e. the ratio of the diameter over the minimum distance). We give an improved O(1)-approximation algorithm for the case where the input is the shortest path metric over an unweighted graph. Moreover, we show that by composing our approximation algorithm for embedding general metrics into trees, with the approximation algorithm of [BCIS05] for embedding trees into the line, we obtain an improved approximation algorithm for embedding general metrics into the line. We also provide almost tight bounds for the relation between embedding into trees and embedding into spanning subtrees. We show that for any unweighted graph G, the ratio of the distortion required to embed G into a spanning subtree, over the distortion of an optimal tree embedding of G, is at most O(log n). We complement this bound by exhibiting a family of graphs for which the ratio is Ω(log n/log log n).
Source Cues in Online News: Is the Proximate Source More Powerful than Distal Sources?

With the rise of intermediaries such as portals, social-bookmarking sites, and microblogs, online news is often carried through multiple sources. However, the perceived credibility of different source cues attached to a single news story can be quite different. So, how do readers evaluate the story? Do users factor in all distal sources, or do they simply refer to the proximate source delivering the news? Using a 2 (involvement) × 2 (proximal source credibility) × 2 (distal source credibility) full-factorial between-subjects experiment (N = 231), we found that while highly involved readers considered both types of sources, low-involvement readers were primarily influenced by the proximate source.
The variability of levodopa response in Parkinson's disease: Is sensitization reversible?

We read with great interest the article by Piboolnurak et al. Indeed, the most important finding in this study is the reduction of levodopa (L-dopa) response 3 to 5 years after subthalamic stimulation. Pharmacologic tests were performed using preoperative L-dopa challenge dosages while stimulation was switched OFF. These results go along previously reported results on the reduced ability of L-dopa to induce dyskinesia after subthalamic stimulation (STN DBS). Hariz and Johansson reported several cases in which abrupt DBS failure led to a severe Parkinson’s disease (PD) worsening that failed to respond to L-dopa. On a larger scale, Piboolnurak et al. reported, in their well-designed study, a major reduction in L-dopa response which can be attributed to the reduction or withdrawal of the long-term administration of L-dopa allowed by STN DBS; this observation may be due to the loss of dopamine receptor sensitivity caused by the chronic intermittent administration of Ldopa. Indeed, this phenomenon did not occur in PD patients after GPi DBS, as they maintained a relatively similar dopaminergic treatment after surgery. A changing response to L-dopa after STN stimulation and reduction of L-dopa dosage is further supported by our observation of two patients whose Kinetra battery’s life ended after more than 5 years of successful treatment and a 73% decline of dopaminergic needs. The replacement of pulse generators had to be delayed for 2 weeks for financial problems. In the first few days after stimulation withdrawal, a high L-dopa daily dose failed to improve severe parkinsonian symptoms; the response, however, progressively improved and reached comparable preoperative benefit after more than a week of continuous treatment. The observation by Piboolnurak et al. should not therefore necessarily be considered as a sign of permanent loss of Ldopa efficacy after STN DBS. We believe that the significant reduction in the long-term administration of L-dopa reduced L-dopa-induced dyskinesia and then lowered L-dopa response. The ensuing reduction of receptor sensitivity could have been reversed if patients were maintained on L-dopa.
Reduced platelet activation and platelet aggregation in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis

Abstract Results from previous studies regarding platelet function in liver cirrhosis are discordant. The aim was to investigate platelet activation and platelet aggregation in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis. We included 27 patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis and 22 healthy individuals. A recently established flow cytometric approach was used to measure platelet activation and platelet aggregation independent of sample platelet count. Platelet aggregation was further investigated using light transmission aggregometry (LTA) (for platelet count >100 × 109/L). Platelet agonists were adenosine diphosphate, thrombin receptor-activating peptide, arachidonic acid, collagen, and collagen-related peptide. Patients had lower median platelet count than healthy individuals, 125 × 109/L (interquartile range [IQR] 90˗185) versus 240 × 109 (IQR 204˗285), p < 0.001. Platelet activation levels in stimulated samples were lower in patients versus healthy individuals, e.g., after collagen-related peptide stimulation, the median percentage of platelets positive for activated glycoprotein IIb/IIIa was 85% (IQR 70–94) in patients versus 97% (IQR 94–99) in healthy individuals, p < 0.001; lower platelet activation capacity being associated with low platelet count and Child–Pugh class B/C cirrhosis. Flow cytometric platelet aggregation was reduced in patients for collagen-related peptide and for adenosine diphosphate, e.g., platelet aggregation (mean ± standard deviation) was 57% ± 4 in patients versus 70% ± 1 in healthy individuals for collagen-related peptide, p = 0.01. Light LTA showed reduced collagen-induced platelet aggregation in some patients compared with healthy individuals. In conclusion, platelet function was reduced in some patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis and the severity was associated with platelet count and severity of liver cirrhosis.
Inverter-Based Low-Voltage CCII- Design and Its Filter Application

This paper presents a negative type secondgeneration current conveyor (CCII-). It is based on an inverter-based low-voltage error amplifier, and a negative current mirror. The CCIIcould be operated in a very low supply voltage such as ±0.5 V. The proposed CCIIhas wide input voltage range (±0.24 V), wide output voltage (±0.24 V) and wide output current range (±24 mA). The proposed CCIIhas no on-chip capacitors, so it can be designed with standard CMOS digital processes. Moreover, the architecture of the proposed circuit without cascoded MOSFET transistors is easily designed and suitable for low-voltage operation. The proposed CCIIhas been fabricated in TSMC 0. 18μm CMOS processes and it occupies 1189.911178. 43μm (include PADs). It can also be validated by low voltage CCII filters.
Mammalian Sleep Dynamics: How Diverse Features Arise from a Common Physiological Framework

Mammalian sleep varies widely, ranging from frequent napping in rodents to consolidated blocks in primates and unihemispheric sleep in cetaceans. In humans, rats, mice and cats, sleep patterns are orchestrated by homeostatic and circadian drives to the sleep–wake switch, but it is not known whether this system is ubiquitous among mammals. Here, changes of just two parameters in a recent quantitative model of this switch are shown to reproduce typical sleep patterns for 17 species across 7 orders. Furthermore, the parameter variations are found to be consistent with the assumptions that homeostatic production and clearance scale as brain volume and surface area, respectively. Modeling an additional inhibitory connection between sleep-active neuronal populations on opposite sides of the brain generates unihemispheric sleep, providing a testable hypothetical mechanism for this poorly understood phenomenon. Neuromodulation of this connection alone is shown to account for the ability of fur seals to transition between bihemispheric sleep on land and unihemispheric sleep in water. Determining what aspects of mammalian sleep patterns can be explained within a single framework, and are thus universal, is essential to understanding the evolution and function of mammalian sleep. This is the first demonstration of a single model reproducing sleep patterns for multiple different species. These wide-ranging findings suggest that the core physiological mechanisms controlling sleep are common to many mammalian orders, with slight evolutionary modifications accounting for interspecies differences.
Experimental Designs in Software Engineering : D-Optimal and Covering Array Designs

For over a century, Design of Experiment (DOE) techniques have been applied to testing within large problem domains such as agriculture, chemistry, medicine, and industrial design. Recently, the application of DOE has appeared in component-based software testing. This is a natural extension, as software testing is a complex problem that suffers from a combinatorial explosion. Exhaustive testing is not possible in most systems. In this paper, we focus on three areas: (1) the application of DOE techniques to software testing, (2) improved algorithms for screening tests involving categorical factors, and (3) construction methods for generating covering arrays.
Reputation as emotional experiences - the use of psychophysiological measurements in corporate reputation research

We suggest that human emotions should be considered and studied as factors in reputation formation. In this paper we ponder the possibilities psychophysiological study of emotions can offer to organizational reputation research. We describe the experimental protocol for studying reputation and emotions with the psychophysiological methods, present our two on-going research projects and offer some empirical results from our first experiments.
Inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway by delphinidin, an anthocyanidin in pigmented fruits and vegetables

Inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have generated considerable hope for cancer treatment, specifically for lung and breast cancers. Therefore, identification of a natural, nontoxic agent(s) as an inhibitor of EGFR is of considerable importance. Delphinidin, an anthocyanidin present in pigmented fruits and vegetables, possesses potent antioxidant and antiproliferative properties. In our study, employing EGFR positive breast cancer AU‐565 cells and immortalized MCF‐10A cells, we evaluated the effect of delphinidin on EGFR and its downstream signaling pathways. Delphinidin (5–40 μM; 3 hr) treatment of both AU‐565 cells and MCF‐10A cells inhibited the (i) phosphorylation of EGFR, (ii) activation of PI3K, (iii) phosphorylation of AKT and MAPK. Further, delphinidin treatment of AU‐565 cells inhibited EGF‐induced autophosphorylation of EGFR, AKT and MAPK, activation of PI3K and cell invasion. We then compared the growth inhibitory effects of delphinidin (5–40 μM; 48 hr), and found that it resulted in a decrease in cell growth of AU‐565 and MCF‐10A cells but had only minimal effects on normal mammary epithelial 184A1 cells. Treatment of AU‐565 cells with delphinidin resulted in (i) induction of apoptosis, (ii) cleavage of PARP protein, (iii) activation of caspase‐3 and (iv) downregulation of Bcl‐2 with an increase in the expression of Bax. In summary, our study identifies a naturally occurring dietary agent delphinidin as an effective inhibitor of EGFR signaling in breast cancer cells. We suggest that delphinidin could be developed as an agent for the management of EGFR positive human cancers. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Generic Tool Supporting Cache Designs and Optimisation on Shared Memory Systems

For multi-core architectures, improving the cache performance is crucial for the overall system performance. In contrast to the common approach to design caches with the best trade-off between performance and costs, this work favours an application specific cache design. Therefore, an analysis tool capable of exhibiting the reason of cache misses has been developed. The results of the analysis can be used by system developers to improve cache architectures or can help programmers to improve the data locality behaviour of their programs. The SPLASH-2 benchmark suite is used to demonstrate the abilities of the analysis model.
Efficient Algorithms for Fuzzy Qualitative Temporal Reasoning

Fuzzy qualitative temporal relations have been proposed to reason about events whose temporal boundaries are ill defined. Although the corresponding reasoning tasks are in the same complexity class as their crisp counterparts, in practice, the scalability of fuzzy temporal reasoners may be insufficient for applications that require a high expressivity and deal with a large number of events. On the other hand, transitivity rules can be used to make sound but incomplete inferences in polynomial time, utilizing a variant of Allen's path-consistency algorithm. The aim of this paper is to investigate how this polynomial time algorithm can be improved without altering its time complexity. To this end, we establish a characterization of 2-consistency of fuzzy temporal relations and provide transitivity rules that are significantly stronger than those resulting from straightforwardly generalizing transitivity rules for crisp temporal relations. We furthermore provide experimental evidence for the effectiveness of our improved algorithm.
Efficient tiling patterns for reconfigurable gate arrays

This article does a purely mathematical analysis based on generic models, and the idea is to investigate the possibility of using tiling patterns other than Manhattan grid in FPGAs. The goal of our research is to evolve FPGA architectures with advances in technology, and specifically better utilization of available interconnect layers. We propose a method to evaluate tiling patterns based on the first principles ( i.e Rent's Rule, Donath's result, equivalence of wire flux and wire length). We show that, use of tiling patterns formed with higher order polygons can improve the speed and area performances of an FPGA. This gain is highly dependent on depopulation schemes and other parameters. However for generic tiling patterns with crossbar switchboxes there is a 22% gain in area for the hexagonal tiling pattern, and a 30% gain in area for the octagonal tiling pattern. Moreover the average interconnect length is around 15% lesser for hexagonal and 31% lesser for the octagonal tiling compared to square tiling. We can expect a proportional increase in speed. We also present a comparative plot of total interconnect lengths for these tiling patterns and the hierarchical gate arrays The physical realizability of these tiling patterns in CMOS are to be investigated. We present a layout scheme for both hexagonal and octagonal FPGAs. To our knowledge standard processes support 45° metal lines, whereas 60° lines can be etched using non-standard processes. We must keep in mind, that in practice one must use some sort of depopulation and staggering scheme, and these results provide only an idea of gains that can be achieved. The actual interconnect structure is of course dependent on several factors (i.e available interconnect layers, difficulty of fabrication, required speed/area, evolution of CMOS technology etc). Our future research direction will be to choose an efficient interconnect strategy based on this and previous researches, as well as experimental results
Comparison Between Whole-Body Vibration, Light-Emitting Diode, and Cycling Warm-up on High-Intensity Physical Performance During Sprint Bicycle Exercise

Abstract Teles, MC, Fonseca, IAT, Martins, JB, de Carvalho, MM, Xavier, M, Costa, SJ, de Avelar, NCP, Ribeiro, VGC, Salvador, FS, Augusto, L, Mendonça, VA, and Lacerda, ACR. Comparison between whole-body vibration, light-emitting diode, and cycling warm-up on high-intensity physical performance during sprint bicycle exercise. J Strength Cond Res 29(6): 1542–1550, 2015—The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of light-emitting diode (LED) irradiation and whole-body vibration (WBV) delivered either in isolation or combination (LED + WBV), warm-up (WU), and a control (C) treatment on performance during a sprint bicycle exercise. Ten cyclists performed a 30-second sprint cycle test under these conditions. The LED light was applied at 4 points bilaterally. Whole-body vibration consisted of 5 minutes of squats associated with WBV. LED + WBV consisted of WBV followed by LED therapy. Warm-up consisted of 17 minutes of moderate-intensity bicycle exercise. Control consisted of 10 minutes at rest. Blood lactate (BL) and ammonia (BA) levels and skin temperature (ST) were determined. Peak power (842 ± 117 vs. 800 ± 106 vs. 809 ± 128 W [p = 0.02 and p = 0.01]), relative power (12.1 ± 1.0 vs. 11.5 ± 0.9 vs. 11.6 ± 1.0 W·kg−1 [p = 0.02 and p = 0.02]), and relative work (277 ± 23 vs. 263 ± 24 vs. 260 ± 23 J·kg−1 [p = 0.02 and p = 0.003]) were higher in the WU group compared with the control and LED groups. In the LED + WBV group, peak (833 ± 115 vs. 800 ± 106 W [p = 0.02]) and relative (11.9 ± 0.9 vs. 11.5 ± 0.9 W·kg−1 [p = 0.02]) power were higher than those in the control group, and relative work (272 ± 22 vs. 260 ± 23 J·kg−1 [p = 0.02]) were improved compared with the LED group. There were no differences for BL, BA, and ST. The findings of this study confirmed the effectiveness of a warm-up as a preparatory activity and demonstrated that LED + WBV and WBV were as effective as WU in improving cyclist performance during a sprint bicycle exercise.