Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lobular Carcinoma in Situ: A 29-Year Longitudinal Experience Evaluating Clinicopathologic Features and Breast Cancer Risk.

PURPOSE The increased breast cancer risk conferred by a diagnosis of lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) is poorly understood. Here, we review our 29-year longitudinal experience with LCIS to evaluate factors associated with breast cancer risk. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients participating in surveillance after an LCIS diagnosis are observed in a prospectively maintained database. Comparisons were made among women choosing surveillance, with or without chemoprevention, and those undergoing bilateral prophylactic mastectomies between 1980 and 2009. RESULTS One thousand sixty patients with LCIS without concurrent breast cancer were identified. Median age at LCIS diagnosis was 50 years (range, 27 to 83 years). Fifty-six patients (5%) underwent bilateral prophylactic mastectomy; 1,004 chose surveillance with (n = 173) or without (n = 831) chemoprevention. At a median follow-up of 81 months (range, 6 to 368 months), 150 patients developed 168 breast cancers (63% ipsilateral, 25% contralateral, 12% bilateral), with no dominant histology (ductal carcinoma in situ, 35%; infiltrating ductal carcinoma, 29%; infiltrating lobular carcinoma, 27%; other, 9%). Breast cancer incidence was significantly reduced in women taking chemoprevention (10-year cumulative risk: 7% with chemoprevention; 21% with no chemoprevention; P < .001). In multivariable analysis, chemoprevention was the only clinical factor associated with breast cancer risk (hazard ratio, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.15 to 0.50). In a subgroup nested case-control analysis, volume of disease, which was defined as the ratio of slides with LCIS to total number of slides reviewed, was also associated with breast cancer development (P = .008). CONCLUSION We observed a 2% annual incidence of breast cancer among women with LCIS. Common clinical factors used for risk prediction, including age and family history, were not associated with breast cancer risk. The lower breast cancer incidence in women opting for chemoprevention highlights the potential for risk reduction in this population.
Scalable and near real-time burst detection from eCommerce queries

In large scale online systems like Search, eCommerce, or social network applications, user queries represent an important dimension of activities that can be used to study the impact on the system, and even the business. In this paper, we describe how to detect, characterize and classify bursts in user queries in a large scale eCommerce system. We build upon the approaches discussed in KDD 2002 "Bursty and Hierarchical Structure in Streams" [3] and apply them to a high volume industrial context. We describe how to identify bursts on a near real-time basis, classify them, and apply them to build interesting merchandizing applications.
Consistent Procedures for Cluster Tree Estimation and Pruning

For a density f on Rd, a high-density cluster is any connected component of {x : f (x) ≥ λ}, for some λ > 0. The set of all high-density clusters forms a hierarchy called the cluster tree of f . We present two procedures for estimating the cluster tree given samples from f . The first is a robust variant of the single linkage algorithm for hierarchical clustering. The second is based on the k-nearest neighbor graph of the samples. We give finite-sample convergence rates for these algorithms, which also imply consistency, and we derive lower bounds on the sample complexity of cluster tree estimation. Finally, we study a tree pruning procedure that guarantees, under milder conditions than usual, to remove clusters that are spurious while recovering those that are salient.
Price Effects and the Commerce Clause: The Case of State Wine Shipping Laws

In the wake of Granholm v. Heald, numerous states passed new laws to regulate interstate direct shipment of alcohol that would seem to contradict the spirit, if not the explicit content, of the Commerce Clause. We build on existing scholarship analyzing the empirical impacts of direct shipment barriers to identify how these new laws are likely to influence local market conditions. Drawing on new data that measure posted winery prices and aggregate production levels in 2002 and 2004, we demonstrate how many of these new laws would be expected to effectively diminish, if not altogether remove, the benefits that would normally accrue to consumers from legalized interstate direct shipment of wine. Although empirical analysis of price effects currently plays a very limited role in dormant Commerce Clause cases, our analysis suggests how price data can be used to ascertain whether a state restriction constitutes discrimination against out-of-state economic interests.
Is endothelin-1 an aggravating factor in the development of acute pancreatitis?

OBJECTIVE We have reported previously that cerulein-induced edematous pancreatitis would transform into hemorrhagic pancreatitis by administration of endothelin-1 in rats. In the present study, we tried to protect rat model from developing into hemorrhagic pancreatitis with BQ123 (an ETA receptor antagonist). METHODS The rat model was made by 5-hour restraint water-immersion stress and two intraperitoneal injections of cerulein (40 micrograms/kg) at hourly interval. BQ123 (3 or 6 mg/kg) was administered intravenously 30 minutes before and 2 hours after the first cerulein injection. RESULTS Acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis was induced in all rats treated with cerulin + stress. The score for pancreatic hemorrhage was 2.4 +/- 0.2 in this group. In the rats pretreated with BQ123, the score was reduced to 1.0 +/- 0.0, pancreas wet weight and serum amylase activity were significantly reduced, and histologic alterations in the pancreas lightened, also the local pancreatic blood flow improved without affecting the systemic blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that endothelin-1 should play a role in aggravating the development of acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis, through its action on the pancreatic microcirculation.
Specific transcription factors stimulate simian virus 40 and polyomavirus origins of DNA replication

The origins of DNA replication (ori) in simian virus 40 (SV40) and polyomavirus (Py) contain an auxiliary component (aux-2) composed of multiple transcription factor binding sites. To determine whether this component stimulated replication by binding specific transcription factors, aux-2 was replaced by synthetic oligonucleotides that bound a single transcription factor. Sp1 and T-antigen (T-ag) sites, which exist in the natural SV40 aux-2 sequence, provided approximately 75 and approximately 20%, respectively, of aux-2 activity when transfected into monkey cells. In cell extracts, only T-ag sites were active. AP1 binding sites could replace completely either SV40 or Py aux-2. Mutations that eliminated AP1 binding also eliminated AP1 stimulation of replication. Yeast GAL4 binding sites that strongly stimulated transcription in the presence of GAL4 proteins failed to stimulate SV40 DNA replication, although they did partially replace Py aux-2. Stimulation required the presence of proteins consisting of the GAL4 DNA binding domain fused to specific activation domains such as VP16 or c-Jun. These data demonstrate a clear role for transcription factors with specific activation domains in activating both SV40 and Py ori. However, no correlation was observed between the ability of specific proteins to stimulate promoter activity and their ability to stimulate origin activity. We propose that only transcription factors whose specific activation domains can interact with the T-ag initiation complex can stimulate SV40 and Py ori-core activity.
Target-sensitive systems: Analysis and implementation issues

Several real-time applications include tasks in which the output must be produced at precise time instants, rather than “within” a deadline, and the overall system performance significantly degrades when the task is executed too late or too early with respect to the desired time. This paper illustrates one of such applications and takes it as a reference case study to propose a general approach to show how to derive the timing constraints from the application requirements, how to implement the application on top of a realtime kernel, identifying the operating system features necessary to enforce such constraints, and how to analyze the schedulability of the task set. A set of experimental results are also presented to validate the proposed approach.
Styles and Strategies of a Vietnamese and an Indonesian Student in Learning English

The present paper is a report of an investigation on the styles and strategies used by a Vietnamese and an Indonesian student in learning English. The subjects were a Vietnamese who was taking English bridging courses and an Indonesian formally taking ELICOS at Curtin University of Technology, W.A. The objective of the study was to find out what makes up the styles and strategies of the two subjects. The result of the study was projected to provide bases for ELT practices, particularly, regarding the styles and strategies of Asian ESL/EFL learners, in general, and Vietnamese and Indonesian students, in particular
JNK/SAPK Signaling Is Essential for Efficient Reprogramming of Human Fibroblasts to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Reprogramming of somatic cells to the phenotypic state termed “induced pluripotency” is thought to occur through three consecutive stages: initiation, maturation, and stabilisation. The initiation phase is stochastic but nevertheless very important as it sets the gene expression pattern that permits completion of reprogramming; hence a better understanding of this phase and how this is regulated may provide the molecular cues for improving the reprogramming process. c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK)/stress‐activated protein kinase (SAPKs) are stress activated MAPK kinases that play an essential role in several processes known to be important for successful completion of the initiation phase such as cellular proliferation, mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) and cell cycle regulation. In view of this, we postulated that manipulation of this pathway would have significant impacts on reprogramming of human fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells. Accordingly, we found that key components of the JNK/SAPK signaling pathway increase expression as early as day 3 of the reprogramming process and continue to rise in reprogrammed cells throughout the initiation and maturation stages. Using both chemical inhibitors and RNA interference of MKK4, MKK7 and JNK1, we tested the role of JNK/SAPK signaling during the initiation stage of neonatal and adult fibroblast reprogramming. These resulted in complete abrogation of fully reprogrammed colonies and the emergence of partially reprogrammed colonies which disaggregated and were lost from culture during the maturation stage. Inhibition of JNK/SAPK signaling resulted in reduced cell proliferation, disruption of MET and loss of the pluripotent phenotype, which either singly or in combination prevented establishment of pluripotent colonies. Together these data provide new evidence for an indispensable role for JNK/SAPK signaling to overcome the well‐established molecular barriers in human somatic cell induced reprogramming. Stem Cells 2016;34:1198–1212
Features, segments, and the sources of phonological primitives

I review the role of distinctive features in early generative theory, focusing on their multifaceted role as defined by Chomsky Halle (1968) for capturing contrast, phonological patterns, and the phonetic realization of these patterns. Based on evidence from these multiple aspects of phonological representation, I conclude that the characterization of segments as combinations of universally-defined distinctive features is approximately, but not literally, correct. This leads to the question of how young children learn the elements of their phonology to achieve the knowledge of an adult phonological system? Crucially the evidence suggests that how we learn is not the same as what we know. Rather, an approximately categorical and compositional system is learned out of a more continuous, gradient one.
TiQi: A natural language interface for querying software project data

Software projects produce large quantities of data such as feature requests, requirements, design artifacts, source code, tests, safety cases, release plans, and bug reports. If leveraged effectively, this data can be used to provide project intelligence that supports diverse software engineering activities such as release planning, impact analysis, and software analytics. However, project stakeholders often lack skills to formulate complex queries needed to retrieve, manipulate, and display the data in meaningful ways. To address these challenges we introduce TiQi, a natural language interface, which allows users to express software-related queries verbally or written in natural language. TiQi is a web-based tool. It visualizes available project data as a prompt to the user, accepts Natural Language (NL) queries, transforms those queries into SQL, and then executes the queries against a centralized or distributed database. Raw data is stored either directly in the database or retrieved dynamically at runtime from case tools and repositories such as Github and Jira. The transformed query is visualized back to the user as SQL and augmented UML, and raw data results are returned. Our tool demo can be found on YouTube at the following link:http://tinyurl.com/TIQIDemo.
A Novel C2C E-Commerce Recommender System Based on Link Prediction: Applying Social Network Analysis

Social network analysis emerged as an important research topic in sociology decades ago, and it has also attracted scientists from various fields of study like psychology, anthropology, geography and economics. In recent years, a significant number of researches has been conducted on using social network analysis to design e-commerce recommender systems. Most of the current recommender systems are designed for B2C e-commerce websites. This paper focuses on building a recommendation algorithm for C2C e-commerce business model by considering special features of C2C e-commerce websites. In this paper, we consider users and their transactions as a network; by this mapping, link prediction technique which is an important task in social network analysis could be used to build the recommender system. The proposed tow-level recommendation algorithm, rather than topology of the network, uses nodes features like: category of items, ratings of users, and reputation of sellers. The results show that the proposed model can be used to predict a portion of future trades between users in a C2C commercial network.
Estimation of low bone mass using forearm and calcaneum bone mineral density in young Indian population

“Osteoporosis” is the state of an individual having low bone mineral density (BMD) and in this way it get to be distinctly weaker and inclined to break with no significant injury. In India, many individuals are experiencing this condition. Aim and objectives: The Main aim of this study to predict the future low bone mass in younger adults using Peripheral dual x-ray absorptiometry and also to find the co-relational aspect of both genders with forearm and calcaneum bone mineral density measurements. Materials and methods: In this study 72, younger adults aged ranged from 18–25 years were incorporated. A grown-up matured over 25 years were avoided. In every subject, BMD of Forearm and calcaneum were measured by (pDXA). The back propagation neural network classifier is used in the diagnosing of low bone mass and Statistical tool was used to find the co-relational aspect of various BMD measurements. Results: The both calcaneum BMD were strongly correlated (p<0.05) with weight and body mass index of men, whereas in women group the left calcaneum BMD was correlated with body height at the level of p<0.05. The accuracy of the classifier was found to be 88.3 % and 97.6% with left forearm and right calcaneum BMD in both genders. Conclusion: The result suggest calcaneum BMD measured by pDXA shows statistically high significant correlation with demographic features of both genders and it will help in the evaluation of low bone mass.
Dissecting the genetic control of natural variation in salt tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana accessions

Many accessions (ecotypes) of Arabidopsis have been collected. Although few differences exist among their nucleotide sequences, these subtle differences induce large genetic variation in phenotypic traits such as stress tolerance and flowering time. To understand the natural variability in salt tolerance, large-scale soil pot experiments were performed to evaluate salt tolerance among 350 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. The evaluation revealed a wide variation in the salt tolerance among accessions. Several accessions, including Bu-5, Bur-0, Ll-1, Wl-0, and Zu-0, exhibited marked stress tolerance compared with a salt-sensitive experimental accession, Col-0. The salt-tolerant accessions were also evaluated by agar plate assays. The data obtained by the large-scale assay correlated well with the results of a salt acclimation (SA) assay, in which plants were transferred to high-salinity medium following placement on moderate-salinity medium for 7 d. Genetic analyses indicated that the salt tolerance without SA is a quantitative trait under polygenic control, whereas salt tolerance with SA is regulated by a single gene located on chromosome 5 that is common among the markedly salt-tolerant accessions. These results provide important information for understanding the mechanisms underlying natural variation of salt tolerance in Arabidopsis.
Identification of Small Molecules That Suppress Ricin-Induced Stress-Activated Signaling Pathways

Ricin is a member of the ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) family of plant and bacterial toxins. In this study we used a high-throughput, cell-based assay to screen more than 118,000 compounds from diverse chemical libraries for molecules that reduced ricin-induced cell death. We describe three compounds, PW66, PW69, and PW72 that at micromolar concentrations significantly delayed ricin-induced cell death. None of the compounds had any demonstrable effect on ricin's ability to arrest protein synthesis in cells or on ricin's enzymatic activity as assessed in vitro. Instead, all three compounds appear to function by blocking downstream stress-induced signaling pathways associated with the toxin-mediated apoptosis. PW66 virtually eliminated ricin-induced TNF-α secretion by J774A.1 macrophages and concomitantly blocked activation of the p38 MAPK and JNK signaling pathways. PW72 suppressed ricin-induced TNF-α secretion, but not p38 MAPK and JNK signaling. PW69 suppressed activity of the executioner caspases 3/7 in ricin toxin- and Shiga toxin 2-treated cells. While the actual molecular targets of the three compounds have yet to be identified, these data nevertheless underscore the potential of small molecules to down-regulate inflammatory signaling pathways associated with exposure to the RIP family of toxins.
Notice of RetractionThe theory of Silicon Valley and its enlightenment to the developmentof high-technology industrial cluster in China

Information industrial cluster, the Silicon Valley of U.S.A, is the most success and typical industrial cluster. This text has analysed the characteristic of Silicon Valley at first, and thought that the good game rule and unique system system, Knowledge-intensive, floating high-quality workforce and perfect entrepreneur atmosphere, the interaction between university, research institution, service organization, government and enterprise is main factors of success in Silicon Valley. In developing our country high and new technology industrial development zone industry experience that may draw lessons from establish the system of perfect risk investment, put forth effort to make it on the basis of studying and competing a group of culture of collection shut, set up sound intermediary system, establish the cooperation in perfect "production, teaching, research" mechanism, etc.
Intonation Structure and Disfluency Detection in Stuttering

Despite traditional evidence that lexically-stressed content words are the most common loci of disfluencies in stuttered speech (Natke, et al., 2002; Prins, et al., 1991; Brown 1938), the fact that certain function words—crucially, those directly preceding stressed content words—are also disfluently produced (Au-Yeung, et al., 1998; Howell & Sackin, 2000), suggests that the actual trigger of a disfluency occurs later than the speech perturbation itself. It was hypothesized in this paper that stutterers’ disfluencies would be accompanied by more prosodic irregularities prior to the actual disfluency than would non-stutterers’ disfluencies, and that the underlying disfluencies would be triggered by metrically prominent material in the phrase. Three stutterers and their age-matched controls were recorded performing a spontaneous narration of a picture book. Results supported the hypothesis that metrically prominent, or pitch-accented, words would attract a higher rate of stuttered disfluencies than would unaccented words. Stutterers also produced a higher percentage of their disfluencies on the nuclei of words than did controls; moreover, these disfluencies attracted pitch accents more often than did those of controls, providing further evidence of anomalous derivative disfluencies surfacing in advance of underlying ones.
Design‐based stereological estimation of hepatocyte number, by combining the smooth optical fractionator and immunocytochemistry with anti‐carcinoembryonic antigen polyclonal antibodies

Abstract: Background/Aims: Hepatocytes (HEP) have been the major target for structural quantification in the liver, but an estimation of their total number (N), their percentage in relation to the global number of liver cells and the evaluation of the percentage of binucleated hepatocytes (BnHEPs) have never been performed with modern design‐based stereological techniques. The establishment of sound technical guidelines and baseline quantitative data in non‐pathological conditions are relevant to properly evaluate HEP hyperplasia and BnHEP responses.
Execution of Macrophage Apoptosis by Mycobacterium avium through Apoptosis Signal-regulating Kinase 1/p38 Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Signaling and Caspase 8 Activation*

Macrophage apoptosis is an important component of the innate immune defense machinery (against pathogenic mycobacteria) responsible for limiting bacillary viability. However, little is known about the mechanism of how apoptosis is executed in mycobacteria-infected macrophages. Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) was activated in Mycobacterium avium-treated macrophages and in turn activated p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase. M. avium-induced macrophage cell death could be blocked in cells transfected with a catalytically inactive mutant of ASK1 or with dominant negative p38 MAP kinase arguing in favor of a central role of ASK1/p38 MAP kinase signaling in apoptosis of macrophages challenged with M. avium. ASK1/p38 MAP kinase signaling was linked to the activation of caspase 8. At the same time, M. avium triggered caspase 8 activation, and cell death occurred in a Fas-associated death domain (FADD)-dependent manner. The death signal induced upon caspase 8 activation linked to mitochondrial death signaling through the formation of truncated Bid (t-Bid), its translocation to the mitochondria and release of cytochrome c. Caspase 8 inhibitor (z-IETD-FMK) could block the release of cytochrome c as well as the activation of caspases 9 and 3. The final steps of apoptosis probably involved caspases 9 and 3, since inhibitors of both caspases could block cell death. Of foremost interest in the present study was the finding that ASK1/p38 signaling was essential for caspase 8 activation linked to M. avium-induced death signaling. This work provides the first elucidation of a signaling pathway in which ASK1 plays a central role in innate immunity.