Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Translating Imaging Results into Tumor Biology: FDG-PET and The Response to Chemoradiation in Human Cervical Carcinoma

18F-fluoro-deoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is a molecular imaging technique that can be used to monitor treatment-related changes in tumor glucose uptake. In cervical cancer, the FDG-PET response is predictive of survival outcome after chemoradiation. In an effort to understand the signaling pathways that regulate the FDG-PET response in cervical cancer, gene expression profiling was performed. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) identified alterations in expression of genes from the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in tumors with incomplete FDG-PET response after chemoradiation. Pretreatment phosphorylation and activation of AKT is common in cervical cancer, and patients whose tumors have increased pAKT expression prior to treatment have inferior survival outcomes after standard chemoradiation. Recently, activating mutations in the PIK3CA gene have been identified that are associated with poor prognosis after chemoradiation in cervical cancer. These results suggest that targeted inhibition of PI3K/AKT may improve response to chemoradiation in cervical cancer.
FAQ on π-Calculus

Let P and Q denote processes. Then • P | Q denotes a process composed of P and Q running in parallel. • a(x). P denotes a process that waits to read a value x from the channel a and then, having received it, behaves like P. • ā〈x〉. P denotes a process that first waits to send the value x along the channel a and then, after x has been accepted by some input process, behaves like P. • (νa)P ensures that a is a fresh channel in P. (Read the Greek letter “nu” as “new.”) • ! P denotes an infinite number of copies of P, all running in parallel. • P + Q denotes a process that behaves like either P or Q. • 0 denotes the inert process that does nothing.
L’analyse comparative de la performance entre les entreprises publiques et les entreprises privées: le problème de mesure et son impact sur les résultats

De nombreuses recherches ont ete realisees au cours des 30 dernieres annees pour verifier si la forme de propriete a un effet determinant sur la performance. Cette etude met en lumiere le probleme de mesure qui caracterise ce type de recherche et qui decoule des disparites, parfois importantes, entre les objectifs poursuivis par les entreprises publiques et les entreprises privees. Nous procedons a une revue des etudes empiriques dans le domaine en prenant soin d’identifier les situations ou le probleme de mesure est le plus manifeste. Nous en evaluons l’impact sur les resultats. Dans l’ensemble, les resultats de notre analyse suggerent que les differences d’objectifs entre les entreprises expliquent en partie leurs differences de performance.
AutoBI - a tool for automatic toBI annotation

This paper describes the AuToBI tool for automatic generation of hypothesized ToBI labels. While research on automatic prosodic annotation has been conducted for many years, AuToBI represents the first publicly available tool to automatically detect and classify the breaks and tones that make up the ToBI annotation standard. This paper describes the feature extraction routines as well as the classifiers used to detect and classify the prosodic events of the ToBI standard. Additionally, we report performance evaluating AuToBI models trained on the Boston Directions Corpus on the Columbia Games Corpus. By evaluating on distinct speakers domains and recording conditions, this evaluation represents an accurate representation of the performance of the system when applied to novel spoken material.
Frequent Transmission of Gonorrhea in Men Who Have Sex with Men

The rate of gonorrhea is much higher in men who have sex with men than in heterosexuals. Because of unique behavioral characteristics, asymptomatic sites of infection, mainly the pharynx, are principal drivers of gonorrhea prevalence in men who have sex with men. On the basis of this observation, we call for interventions.
Identifying High Quality Carding Services in Underground Economy using Nonparametric Supervised Topic Model

Over the years, cybercriminals increasingly joined the underground economy to exchange malicious services for conducting data breaches crimes. As many service providers are rippers, most cybercriminals rely on a few high quality services. To this end, cybercriminals post customer reviews evaluating the purchase experience and the service quality. To identify high quality services, researchers face two major challenges – the cybercriminal-specific language and the scale of the underground economy. This study presents a text-mining-based system for identifying high quality services by analyzing customer reviews. A novel supervised topic model is designed to accommodate the heterogeneous and uncertain nature of customer reviews. We further designed a variational algorithm for model inference. Moreover, we collected real data from two underground economy forums for English-speaking and Russian-speaking cybercriminals as our research testbed. Our research contributes to the practice of understanding and mitigating underground economy by providing cybersecurity researchers and practitioners with actionable intelligence.
An Efﬁcient Multi-Dimensional Index for Cloud Data Management

Recently, the cloud computing platform is getting more and more attentions as a new trend of data management. Currently there are several cloud computing products that can provide various services. However, currently the cloud platforms only support simple keyword-based queries and can’t answer complex queries efﬁ-ciently due to lack of efﬁcient index techniques. In this paper we propose an efﬁcient approach to build multi-dimensional index for Cloud computing system. We use the combination of R-tree and KD-tree to organize data records and offer fast query processing and efﬁcient index maintenance. Our approach can process typical multi-dimensional queries including point queries and range queries efﬁciently. Besides, frequent change of data on big amount of machines makes the index maintenance a challenging problem, and to cope with this problem we proposed a cost estimation-based index update strategy that can effectively update the index structure. Our experiments show that our indexing techniques improve query efﬁciency by an order of magnitude compared with alternative approaches, and scale well with the size of the data. Our approach is quite general and independent from the underlying infrastructure and can be easily carried over for implementation on various Cloud computing platforms.
Socio-Demographic Correlates of Involvement in School Bullying among Adolescents in Southern Taiwan

Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the socio-demographic correlates of victimization and perpetration of passive and active bullying in a large, representative population of Taiwanese adolescent students in grades 7 through 12. Methods: Victimization and perpetration of passive and active bullying in 6,178 adolescents were determined using of the self-reported Chinese version of the School Bullying Experience Questionnaire (C-SBEQ). We examined the associations between various subtypes of bullying involvement and gender, age, residential background, and parental educational level. Results: The results indicated that boys were more likely than girls to report all subtypes of bullying involvement experiences (p＜0.001) except for victimization of passive bullying. Younger students were more likely than older ones to report all subtypes of bullying victimization and perpetration-victimization (p＜0.001) but not bullying perpetration. Adolescent students who lived in rural areas were more likely to report victimization of passive bullying and perpetration of active bullying than those who lived in urban areas (p＜0.001). No difference in the subtypes of bullying involvement was found between adolescent students who had low and high parental educational levels. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that age, gender and urban-rural differences existed in subtypes of bullying involvement in adolescents. These socio-demographic correlates must be taken into consideration when developing programs for prevention, detection, and intervention of school bullying among adolescents.
Evaluation of PCR-Based Assay for Diagnosis of Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis in Human Serum Samples

ABSTRACT A nested PCR assay was developed for the detection of spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae in serum samples. The assay was based on specific primers derived from the rickettsial outer membrane protein B gene (rompB) of Rickettsia conorii. An SFG rickettsia-specific signal is obtained from R. akari, R. japonica, R. sibirica, and R. conorii. Other bacterial species tested did not generate any signal, attesting to the specificity of the assay. As few as seven copies of the rompB gene of R. conorii could be detected in 200 μl of serum sample. The assay was evaluated with a panel of sera obtained from patients with acute-phase febrile disease tested by immunofluorescent antibody assay (IFA). The SFG rickettsia-specific DNA fragment was detected in 71 out of 100 sera, which were proven to have immunoglobulin M antibodies against SFG rickettsial antigen by IFA. The results were further confirmed by restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing analysis of the DNA fragments. The results indicated that this PCR assay is suitable for the diagnosis of spotted fever group rickettsiosis in Korea.
A microfabricated 96‐well wound‐healing assay

This article presents a microfabricated 96‐well wound‐healing assay enabling high‐throughput measurement of cellular migration capabilities. Within each well, the middle area is the wound region, made of microfabricated gold surface with self‐assembled PEG repellent for cell seeding. After the formation of a cellular confluent monolayer around the wound region, collagen solution was applied to form three‐dimensional matrix to cover the PEG surface, initiating the wound‐healing process. By interpreting the numbers of migrated cells into the wound regions as a function of specific stimuli with different concentrations, EC50 (half‐maximal effective concentration) was obtained. Using H1299 as a model, values of EC50 were quantified as 8% and 160 ng/ml for fetal bovine serum and CXCL12, respectively. In addition, the values of EC50 were demonstrated not to be affected by variations in compositions of extracellular matrix and geometries of wounds, which can thus be regarded as an intrinsic marker. Furthermore, the migration capabilities of a second cell type (HeLa) were characterized by the developed wound‐healing assay, producing EC50 of 2% when fetal bovine serum was used as the stimuli. These results validated the proposed high‐throughput wound‐healing assay, which may function as an enabling tool in studying cellular capabilities of migration and invasion. © 2017 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Ontogeny of the Pre-Bötzinger Complex in Perinatal Rats

The aim of this study was to provide a systematic examination of the ontogenesis of the mammalian respiratory rhythm generating center, the pre-Bötzinger complex (pre-BötC). A combination of immunohistochemical markers and electrophysiological recordings was used to determine the time of inception of the pre-BötC and the developmental changes during the perinatal period in rats spanning from embryonic day 15 (E15) to postnatal day 7. The first clear indication of neurons immunopositive for neurokinin-1 receptors (NK1Rs) and somatostatin expression, two proposed markers for pre-BötC neurons, was at ∼E17. Birth dating of neurons in the ventrolateral medulla using 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine demonstrated that NK1R-positive neurons populating the area of the pre-BötC during late E16-E18 are born at E12.5-E13.5, ∼2 d later than adjacent NK1R-positive neurons in the ventrolateral medulla. Extracellular recordings of neuronal populations within the pre-BötC of perinatal medullary slice preparations demonstrated that the onset of rhythmical respiratory discharge commences at ∼E17. Application of substance P, a ligand for NK1R receptors, to the media bathing E17 medullary slice and brainstem-spinal cord preparations resulted in a marked increase in respiratory frequency. These data provide insights into the ontogeny of the pre-BötC, giving fundamental information on the genesis, settlement, and inception of rhythmic activity within the group of neurons proposed to be responsible for the respiratory rhythm generation. Furthermore, this provides the foundation for further analyses of cell lineage, the transcriptional control of respiratory neuronal development, and electrophysiological and pharmacological properties of the pre-BötC during the prenatal period.
Bell's palsy: aetiology, clinical features and multidisciplinary care

Bell's palsy is a common cranial neuropathy causing acute unilateral lower motor neuron facial paralysis. Immune, infective and ischaemic mechanisms are all potential contributors to the development of Bell's palsy, but the precise cause remains unclear. Advancements in the understanding of intra-axonal signal molecules and the molecular mechanisms underpinning Wallerian degeneration may further delineate its pathogenesis along with in vitro studies of virus–axon interactions. Recently published guidelines for the acute treatment of Bell's palsy advocate for steroid monotherapy, although controversy exists over whether combined corticosteroids and antivirals may possibly have a beneficial role in select cases of severe Bell's palsy. For those with longstanding sequaelae from incomplete recovery, aesthetic, functional (nasal patency, eye closure, speech and swallowing) and psychological considerations need to be addressed by the treating team. Increasingly, multidisciplinary collaboration between interested clinicians from a wide variety of subspecialties has proven effective. A patient centred approach utilising physiotherapy, targeted botulinum toxin injection and selective surgical intervention has reduced the burden of long-term disability in facial palsy.
Extracting semantic relations from Portuguese corpora using lexical-syntactic patterns

The growing investment on automatic extraction procedures, together with the need for extensive resources, makes semi-automatic construction a new viable and efficient strategy for developing of language resources, combining accuracy, size, coverage and applicability. These assumptions motivated the work depicted in this paper, aiming at the establishment and use of lexical-syntactic patterns for extracting semantic relations for Portuguese from corpora, part of a larger ongoing project for the semi-automatic extension of WordNet.PT. 26 lexical-syntactic patterns were established, covering hypernymy/hyponymy and holonymy/meronymy relations between nominal items, and over 34 000 contexts were manually analyzed to evaluate the productivity of each pattern. The set of patterns and respective examples are given, as well as data concerning the extraction of relations - right hits, wrong hits and related hits-, and the total of occurrences of each pattern in CPRC. Although language-dependent, and thus clearly of obvious interest for the development of lexical resources for Portuguese, the results depicted in this paper are also expected to be helpful as a basis for the establishment of patterns for related languages such as Spanish, Catalan, French or Italian.
Studies on antibody avidity at the cellular level. Effects of immunological paralysis and administered antibody

The avidity of antibodies produced by single cells has been studied using inhibition of hemolytic plaque formation by free antigen as a test system. The effect of a paralyzing injection of antigen into mice immunized with heterologous albumins was studied. After a lag period of approximately two days the number of plaque‐forming cells (PFC) decreased in the paralyzed mice. The PFC that remained in the paralyzed animals released antibodies with a low avidity for the antigen as compared to control PFC. The impact of an injection of antibody into immune mice was then studied. A reduction in the number of PFC was found in the antiserum suppressed animals. The remaining PFC released antibody of a relatively high avidity for the antigen. The data support the concept of a similar binding constant for the cell‐associated antibody‐like receptor operating in induction of immunity and paralysis and the antibody released from the cell after stimulation.
The Influence of Michel Foucault on Accounting Research

Abstract During the past few years, some of the most challenging work on the history and sociology of accounting has been inspired by the work of Michel Foucault. Following a recent intervention by Neimark (1990), this paper attempts an appraisal of the achievements and potential of this body of work. The paper argues that the application to accounting of Foucault's concept of disciplinary power has been misleading in important respects. in Foucault's portrayal, disciplinary regimes involves a continuous and comprehensive surveillance of individual conduct. In contrast, a key feature of accounting systems is that they shift emphasis away from behavioural details and onto economic outcomes. Foucault also depicts disciplinary regimes as operating primarily through a discursive constitution of the subject. Besides making it difficult to see how the constituted individual can ever resist accounting controls, this involves the dubious assumption that the disciplinary effect of accounting information is independent of physical and material sanctions. In Foucault's work, the concept of disciplinary power was intended to encapsulate the characteristic exercise of power in modernity. The use of such a high-level concept in accounting research naturally tends to suppress detail. In consequence, the approach offers little purchase on such everyday phenomena as change accounting systems, the relationships between accounting and other means of managerial control and the differences between accounting systems in different contexts. A second generation of Foucauldian research has drawn its inspiration from his studies of governmentality rather than of disciplinary regimes. In this approach, accounting is seen as a form of action at a distance and attention is focused on the processes of translation whereby the discursive conditions of possibility of particular uses of accounting come into being. This is a theoretical advance in that an account is offered of the diffusion and change of accounting technique. On the other hand, there are theoretical difficulties involved in attempting to specify the discursive conditions of forms of accounting control. On the methodological front, both Foucauldian genealogy and its extension via the sociology of translation pose questions of validity which have received little attention in their accounting application. Both appear to call for much the same kind of evidence as the methods of traditional history. The paper suggests some possible lines of advance. Most of the difficulties of the power-knowledge approach stem from the theoretical enclosure of motive perception within the concept of discourse. Whilst this might be tackled by the introduction of a concept of real interests, or simply by opening up motive to empirical investigation, both moves would call for a radical rethink of the treatment of subjectivity and disciplinary power. The governmentality approach would be strengthened by allowing material circumstances into the analysis, along side the discursive conditions of possibility.
Dabigatran, rivaroxaban, or apixaban versus enoxaparin for thromboprophylaxis after total hip or knee replacement: systematic review, meta-analysis, and indirect treatment comparisons

Objective To analyse clinical outcomes with new oral anticoagulants for prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism after total hip or knee replacement. Design Systematic review, meta-analysis, and indirect treatment comparisons. Data sources Medline and CENTRAL (up to April 2011), clinical trials registers, conference proceedings, and websites of regulatory agencies. Study selection Randomised controlled trials of rivaroxaban, dabigatran, or apixaban compared with enoxaparin for prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism after total hip or knee replacement. Two investigators independently extracted data. Relative risks of symptomatic venous thromboembolism, clinically relevant bleeding, deaths, and a net clinical endpoint (composite of symptomatic venous thromboembolism, major bleeding, and death) were estimated using a random effect meta-analysis. RevMan and ITC software were used for direct and indirect comparisons, respectively. Results 16 trials in 38 747 patients were included. Compared with enoxaparin, the risk of symptomatic venous thromboembolism was lower with rivaroxaban (relative risk 0.48, 95% confidence interval 0.31 to 0.75) and similar with dabigatran (0.71, 0.23 to 2.12) and apixaban (0.82, 0.41 to 1.64). Compared with enoxaparin, the relative risk of clinically relevant bleeding was higher with rivaroxaban (1.25, 1.05 to 1.49), similar with dabigatran (1.12, 0.94 to 1.35), and lower with apixaban (0.82, 0.69 to 0.98). The treatments did not differ on the net clinical endpoint in direct or indirect comparisons. Conclusions A higher efficacy of new anticoagulants was generally associated with a higher bleeding tendency. The new anticoagulants did not differ significantly for efficacy and safety.
Serum Glutamate Levels Correlate with Gleason Score and Glutamate Blockade Decreases Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion and Induces Apoptosis in Prostate Cancer Cells

Purpose: During glutaminolysis, glutamine is catabolized to glutamate and incorporated into citric acid cycle and lipogenesis. Serum glutamate levels were measured in patients with primary prostate cancer or metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPCa) to establish clinical relevance. The effect of glutamate deprivation or blockade by metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (GRM1) antagonists was investigated on prostate cancer cells' growth, migration, and invasion to establish biologic relevance. Experimental Design: Serum glutamate levels were measured in normal men (n = 60) and patients with primary prostate cancer (n = 197) or mCRPCa (n = 109). GRM1 expression in prostatic tissues was examined using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Cell growth, migration, and invasion were determined using cell cytotoxicity and modified Boyden chamber assays, respectively. Apoptosis was detected using immunoblotting against cleaved caspases, PARP, and γ-H2AX. Results: Univariate and multivariate analyses showed significantly higher serum glutamate levels in Gleason score ≥ 8 than in the Gleason score ≤ 7 and in African Americans than in the Caucasian Americans. African Americans with mCRPCa had significantly higher serum glutamate levels than those with primary prostate cancer or benign prostate. However, in Caucasian Americans, serum glutamate levels were similar in normal research subjects and patients with mCRPC. IHC showed weak or no expression of GRM1 in luminal acinar epithelial cells of normal or hyperplastic glands but high expression in primary or metastatic prostate cancer tissues. Glutamate deprivation or blockade decreased prostate cancer cells' proliferation, migration, and invasion and led to apoptotic cell death. Conclusions: Glutamate expression is mechanistically associated with and may provide a biomarker of prostate cancer aggressiveness. Clin Cancer Res; 18(21); 5888–901. ©2012 AACR.