Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of DBCCR1 as a suppressor in the development of lung cancer that is associated with increased DNA methyltransferase 1

Accumulating evidence has pointed to a role of the CpG island hypermethylation in the regulation of cancer-related genes in tumor progression. However, the biological impacts in cancer pathogenesis associated with down-regulation of such gene targets remains elusive. Here we focused on a potential target of hypermethylation, DBCCR1 (deleted in bladder cancer chromosome region 1), a gene encoding a candidate tumor suppressor. We found that the expression of DBCCR1 is significantly lower in the lung cancer tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues of patients. Importantly, the decreased DBCCR1 was found correlated with more advanced stages of cancer, and with a significantly shorter survival of patients. Genetic silencing DBCCR1 in human lung cancer cell line A549 resulted in an enhanced proliferation, migration, and invasion capacity. Conversely, restoring DBCCR1 expression blocked the growth and inhibited the ability of cancer cell in migration and invasion. Interestingly, DBCCR1 attenuates the expression of DNMT1 (DNA methyltransferase 1), suggesting a reciprocal regulation between genetic silencing of cancer suppressor genes and activating DNA methylation. Our data thus implicates DBCCR1 downregulation as a potential module in the pathogenesis of lung cancer through DNA methylation.
A Clinical Survey of Partial Dentures (II)

In order to estimate the long-term clinical effects of wearing partial dentures, the authors Undertook follow-up on 2140 dentures with which 1564 patients were fitted at Tokyo Medical and Dental University.Clinical examinations were performed at the time when the dentures were inserted.Six months to five and a half years thereafter a questionnaire was sent out to each case to ask several simple questions on the dentures, and to attend for re-examination.1158 cases replied to the questionnaires, and 772 of them appeared for re examination.As based on the results derived chiefly from the replies to the questionnaires, the following conclusions were drawn:1.The patients were asked if they were wearing their dentures.The 28.03 percent of examined partial dentures were discarded.In these examined dentures the 21.78 percent of the dentures made of cast cobalt-chromium or gold alloy skeleton with acrylic resin saddles were discarded, and also the 32.56 percent of dentures in acrylic resin with clasps and bars in wrought metal discarded.The rate of discarded dentures in the former was remarkably higher than in the later, and the chi-square test at 5 percent level showed a significant difference between them. But in the rate of discarded dentures was no discrepancy between maxillary and mandibular dentures, among dentures provided for patients of different ages, and between those of men and women.The rate of discarded dentures remained about 10 percent for a year and a half after the examined dentures were inserted.But afterwards it increased to 30 percent after three years and three months following their insertion. And it approached 40 percent after four years and nine months.Furthermore it increased rapidly to 64 percent after five years and three months.In unilateral free-end posterior dentures, unilateral bounded posterior dentures and unilateral combined posterior dentures, the rate of discarded dentures reached 30 percent as early as two years after they were inserted.But in bilateral combined posterior dentures the rate increased to 30 percent after three years following their insertion, and in both bilateral free-end posterior dentures and bilateral bounded posterior dentures, it rose rather slower to 30 percent until fourth year. With the exception of unilateral combined anterior and posterior dentures in which the rate rose to 30 percent after three years, the rate of anterior and posterior dentures increased considerably slower to 30 percent. Namely the rate of bilateral combined anterior and posterior dentures reached 30 percent after four years.In both bilateral free-end anterior and posterior dentures, and bilateral bounded anterior and posterior dentures, it increased to 30 percent until fifth year. In unilateral free-end anterior and posterior dentures, and in unilateral bounded anterior and posterior dentures, the rate of discarded dentures did not reach to 30 percent within five years following their insertion, although a small number of them.
Intragranular Precipitation in Inconel 706: 3D Atom‐Probe and HRTEM Investigations

The microstructure of Inconel 706 alloy was studied by three‐dimensional atom probe (3DAP) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) after two heat treatments: direct ageing (DA) and modified stabilization heat treatment (MST). Both heat treatments produced intermetallic γ’ and γ” phases in nanometer size. The microchemical information of the individual γ’ and γ” precipitates as well as of the γ'/γ” and γ“/γ'/γ” co‐precipitates was obtained by 3DAP. Atom probe analysis on individual precipitates showed different partitioning behaviour compared to that of co‐precipitates. Small clusters of Nb were found around individual γ’ precipitates.
Study of target tracking and recovery with low resolution image series

Object tracking is one of the most important tasks in computer vision. It is aimed to track and identify the targets in every frame automatically, thus making it possible extracting the targets in the frames for the post-processing. The described method encompasses two important issues in image tracking system that have received increased attention in the few years: moving object tracking and object recognition. It is based on kernel algorithm and due to the continuously changing background and moving targets, object tracking has been a challenging task. We review strategies under kernel algorithm and successfully track and restore the image.
Plastid-bearing sea slugs fix CO2 in the light but do not require photosynthesis to survive

Several sacoglossan sea slugs (Plakobranchoidea) feed upon plastids of large unicellular algae. Four species—called long-term retention (LtR) species—are known to sequester ingested plastids within specialized cells of the digestive gland. There, the stolen plastids (kleptoplasts) remain photosynthetically active for several months, during which time LtR species can survive without additional food uptake. Kleptoplast longevity has long been puzzling, because the slugs do not sequester algal nuclei that could support photosystem maintenance. It is widely assumed that the slugs survive starvation by means of kleptoplast photosynthesis, yet direct evidence to support that view is lacking. We show that two LtR plakobranchids, Elysia timida and Plakobranchus ocellatus, incorporate 14CO2 into acid-stable products 60- and 64-fold more rapidly in the light than in the dark, respectively. Despite this light-dependent CO2 fixation ability, light is, surprisingly, not essential for the slugs to survive starvation. LtR animals survived several months of starvation (i) in complete darkness and (ii) in the light in the presence of the photosynthesis inhibitor monolinuron, all while not losing weight faster than the control animals. Contrary to current views, sacoglossan kleptoplasts seem to be slowly digested food reserves, not a source of solar power.
Economics, Ethics, and End-of-Life Care

Context In November 1994, Oregon became the first US state to legalize physician-assisted suicide (PAS) as an option for end-of-life care. Objective This study compares the attitudes and experiences of medical students in Oregon regarding PAS to those of fourth-year medical students in the United States outside Oregon. Design A survey of all students at the Oregon Health Sciences University and fourth-year medical students at 3 non-Oregonian US medical schools. Participants Oregon medical students returned 227 questionnaires (58%), and 113 were returned from control schools (33%). Results A similar percentage of both study groups favored the legalization of PAS (64% vs 66%; P = .74). If the practice were legal, 55% of the total surveyed reported they “might be willing towritealethalprescription,”(50%Oregonstudentsvs60%con-trol; P = .13 and 44% fourth-year Oregon students vs 60% control; P = .04). Among fourth-year students, 20% reported a request by a patient to the student or a preceptor for a lethal prescription in the past year (26% vs 16%; P = .09). Conclusions This study demonstrates support for and willingness by many medical students to participate in PAS. Some medical students reported observation of PAS during their train-ing experience. Fourth-year Oregon students reported signifi-cantly less willingness than other students to provide a patient with a lethal prescription, perhaps indicating hesitancy to include PAS in clinical practice.
Fairy rings caused by a killer fungus foster plant diversity in species-rich grassland

Questions: Does the fairy ring fungus Agaricus campestris affects spatial distribution of co-existing plant species? Is ring development related to changes of soil physical, chemical, enzymatic and microbiological properties? What are the causes of weakening and subsequent luxuriance of vegetation during fairy ring dynamics in the soil?
Remediation of Radiation-Induced Cognitive Dysfunction through Oral Administration of the Neuroprotective Compound NSI-189

Clinical management of primary and secondary central nervous system (CNS) malignancies frequently includes radiotherapy to forestall tumor growth and recurrence after surgical resection. While cranial radiotherapy remains beneficial, adult and pediatric brain tumor survivors suffer from a wide range of debilitating and progressive cognitive deficits. Although this has been recognized as a significant problem for decades, there remains no clinical recourse for the unintended neurocognitive sequelae associated with these types of cancer treatments. In previous work, multiple mechanisms have been identified that contribute to radiation-induced cognitive dysfunction, including the inhibition of neurogenesis caused by the depletion of radiosensitive populations of stem and progenitor cells in the hippocampus. To explore the potential neuroprotective properties of a pro-neurogenic compound NSI-189, Long-Evans rats were subjected to a clinically relevant fractionated irradiation protocol followed by four weeks of NSI-189 administered daily by oral gavage. Animals were then subjected to five different behavioral tasks followed by an analysis of neurogenesis, hippocampal volume and neuroinflammation. Irradiated cohorts manifested significant behavioral decrements on all four spontaneous exploration tasks. Importantly, NSI-189 treatment resulted in significantly improved performance in four of these tasks: novel place recognition, novel object recognition, object in place and temporal order. In addition, there was a trend of improved performance in the contextual phase of the fear conditioning task. Importantly, enhanced cognition in the NSI-189-treated cohort was found to persist one month after the cessation of drug treatment. These neurocognitive benefits of NSI-189 coincided with a significant increase in neurogenesis and a significant decrease in the numbers of activated microglia compared to the irradiated cohort that was given vehicle alone. The foregoing changes were not accompanied by major changes in hippocampal volume. These data demonstrate that oral administration of a pro-neurogenic compound exhibiting anti-inflammatory indications could impart long-term neurocognitive benefits in the irradiated brain.
GSR hand: Linear-parallel and self-adaptive hand with gear and sliding-rod mechanisms

Circular parallel hands require manipulators to cooperate with hands while grasping objects, so that their control methods are complicated. This paper introduces a linear pinch into self-adaptive grasping and proposes a novel hybrid grasping mode, a linear-parallel and self-adaptive (Linear-PASA) mode. This paper designs a new robot hand for Linear-PASA mode (GSR Hand). The GSR Hand has three double-joint GSR fingers. Each finger is driven by one motor, through gear and sliding-rod mechanisms and an idle-stroke kinematic pair and double spring-limit. To achieve the Linear-PASA function: According to different shapes and locations of objects, the GSR finger can maintain the posture of the second phalange and move the second phalange to clamp the object grasped parallel and linearly, it can also rotate the second phalange to envelope grasp the object self-adaptively when the first phalange is blocked by the object. The result of the simulation and experiment indicate that GSR hand can realize Linear-PASA mode.
Model-based branching point detection in single-cell data by K-branches clustering

Motivation The identification of heterogeneities in cell populations by utilizing single-cell technologies such as single-cell RNA-Seq, enables inference of cellular development and lineage trees. Several methods have been proposed for such inference from high-dimensional single-cell data. They typically assign each cell to a branch in a differentiation trajectory. However, they commonly assume specific geometries such as tree-like developmental hierarchies and lack statistically sound methods to decide on the number of branching events. Results We present K-Branches, a solution to the above problem by locally fitting half-lines to single-cell data, introducing a clustering algorithm similar to K-Means. These halflines are proxies for branches in the differentiation trajectory of cells. We propose a modified version of the GAP statistic for model selection, in order to decide on the number of lines that best describe the data locally. In this manner, we identify the location and number of subgroups of cells that are associated with branching events and full differentiation, respectively. We evaluate the performance of our method on single-cell RNA-Seq data describing the differentiation of myeloid progenitors during hematopoiesis, single-cell qPCR data of mouse blastocyst development and artificial data. Availability An R implementation of K-Branches is freely available at https://github.com/theislab/kbranches Contact fabian.theis@helmholtz-muenchen.de
MagiSign: User Identification/Authentication Based on 3D Around Device Magnetic Signatures

—In this paper, we present “MagiSign”, a new user identification/authentication technique based on 3D magnetic signatures created in the space around a (mobile) device. The main idea is to influence magnetic (compass) sensor embedded in some mobile devices (e.g., iPhone 3GS, G1/2 Android) using a properly shaped magnet. The user draws 3D signatures in the 3D space around the device using a magnet (e.g., pen, rod, ring shaped). This is what we call as “3D Magnetic Signature”. The temporal pattern of change in the magnetic field around the device is sensed and registered by the internally embedded magnetic sensor. For authentication/identification,
Laser Ablatin of Dental Hard Tissue

This paper discusses ablation of dental hard tissue using pulsed lasers. It focuses particularly on the relevant tissue and laser parameters and some of the basic ablation processes that are likely to occur. The importance of interstitial water and its phase transitions is discussed in some detail along with the ablation processes that may or may not directly involve water. The interplay between tissue parameters and laser parameters in the outcome of the removal of dental hard tissue is discussed in detail.
Hand pose estimation and motion recognition using egocentric RGB-D video

Manipulation performed by humans contains a lot of information that helps robots to learn how to handle objects. Since hand poses and motions are related to manipulated objects, extracting this information is one of the important tasks for robotics community. This paper presents a framework to recognize human manipulations including hand motions, hand poses, and shapes of manipulated objects using egocentric RGB-D videos. Our framework is straightforward but powerful through the efficient use of depth information and egocentric vision. We estimate hand poses with an example-based method through the limited appearances of the hand in egocentric vision. First, from a sensed point cloud, our framework distinguishes hands, manipulated objects and an environment using skin color detection and limitation on the range of the moving hand. Next, we estimate a hand pose by aligning the extracted hand point cloud with a pre-recorded database of hand point clouds of different poses. The position and orientation of the head-mounted sensor are estimated to acquire the hand motion in the world coordinate system. Then, the type of hand motion is classified using Dynamic Programming matching between a series of velocity vectors of estimated and a database of wrist trajectories. Finally, we experiment the effectiveness of our framework for hand motion recognition to validate our work.
Buckwheat phenolic metabolites in health and disease

Abstract Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench, F. tataricum Gaertner) groats and flour have been established globally as nutritional foods because of their high levels of proteins, polyphenols and minerals. In some regions, buckwheat herb is used as a functional food. In the present study, reports of in vitro studies, preclinical and clinical trials dealing with the effect of buckwheat and its metabolites were reviewed. There are numerous reports of potential health benefits of consuming buckwheat, which may be in the form of food, dietary supplements, home remedies or possibly pharmaceutical drugs; however, adverse effects, including those resulting from contamination, must be considered. There are reports of antioxidative activity of buckwheat, which contains high levels of rutin and quercetin. On the other hand, both cytotoxic and antigenotoxic effects have been shown. Reduction of hyperlipidaemia, reduction of blood pressure and improved weight regulation have been suggested. Consuming buckwheat may have a beneficial effect on diabetes, since lower postprandial blood glucose and insulin response have been reported. In addition, buckwheat metabolites, such as rutin, may have intrinsic protective effects in preserving insulin signalling. Rutin has also been suggested to have potential therapeutic applications for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The literature indicates that buckwheat is safe to consume and may have various beneficial effects on human health.
Manipulation of Autophagy in Phagocytes Facilitates Staphylococcus aureus Bloodstream Infection

ABSTRACT The capacity for intracellular survival within phagocytes is likely a critical factor facilitating the dissemination of Staphylococcus aureus in the host. To date, the majority of work on S. aureus-phagocyte interactions has focused on neutrophils and, to a lesser extent, macrophages, yet we understand little about the role played by dendritic cells (DCs) in the direct killing of this bacterium. Using bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs), we demonstrate for the first time that DCs can effectively kill S. aureus but that certain strains of S. aureus have the capacity to evade DC (and macrophage) killing by manipulation of autophagic pathways. Strains with high levels of Agr activity were capable of causing autophagosome accumulation, were not killed by BMDCs, and subsequently escaped from the phagocyte, exerting significant cytotoxic effects. Conversely, strains that exhibited low levels of Agr activity failed to accumulate autophagosomes and were killed by BMDCs. Inhibition of the autophagic pathway by treatment with 3-methyladenine restored the bactericidal effects of BMDCs. Using an in vivo model of systemic infection, we demonstrated that the ability of S. aureus strains to evade phagocytic cell killing and to survive temporarily within phagocytes correlated with persistence in the periphery and that this effect is critically Agr dependent. Taken together, our data suggest that strains of S. aureus exhibiting high levels of Agr activity are capable of blocking autophagic flux, leading to the accumulation of autophagosomes. Within these autophagosomes, the bacteria are protected from phagocytic killing, thus providing an intracellular survival niche within professional phagocytes, which ultimately facilitates dissemination.
Antithrombotic Effects of DX-9065a, a Direct Factor Xa Inhibitor

Summary Background Recent evidence suggests that TF may play a causal role in acute coronary syndromes, and may be an important therapeutic target. Several inhibitors of TF, coagulation factors VIIa and Xa are under investigation as novel antithrombotic approaches. We compared the antithrombotic effects of DX-9065a, a new FXa inhibitor, vs. enoxaparin. Methods and Results The protocol was an open-label crossover study. Subjects (n = 6) participated in 3 consecutive study-arms: a) enoxaparin + ASA (1 mg/Kg s. c + 162 mg/day X 3 days), b) three escalating doses of DX-9065a (1 mg bolus + 0.25 mg/h X 2 h, followed by an additional 1 mg bolus + 0.625 mg/h X 2 h and, a final 1 mg bolus + 1.25 mg/h X 2 h), and c) the same doses of DX-9065a in Arm 2 plus ASA pre-treatment. The antithrombotic effects were assessed using the Badimon perfusion chamber at each dose level. The administration of DX-9065a whether alone or combined with ASA significantly inhibited thrombus formation at high and low shear rate conditions while enoxaparin did not have a significant effect. Furthermore, these antithrombotic effects were obtained without significant prolongations of the standard coagulation parameters as those induced by enoxaparin. Conclusions The direct inhibition of FXa by DX-9065a appears to be a safe and effective new approach for preventing the thrombotic complications of atherosclerotic disease. The clinical effectiveness of the direct FXa inhibitors should be further investigated.
Graph Query Reformulation with Diversity

We study a problem of graph-query reformulation enabling explorative query-driven discovery in graph databases. Given a query issued by the user, the system, apart from returning the result patterns, also proposes a number of specializations (i.e., supergraphs) of the original query to facilitate the exploration of the results. We formalize the problem of finding a set of reformulations of the input query by maximizing a linear combination of coverage (of the original query's answer set) and diversity among the specializations. We prove that our problem is hard, but also that a simple greedy algorithm achieves a (1/2)-approximation guarantee. The most challenging step of the greedy algorithm is the computation of the specialization that brings the maximum increment to the objective function. To efficiently solve this step, we show how to compute the objective-function increment of a specialization linearly in the number of its results and derive an upper bound that we exploit to devise an efficient search-space visiting strategy. An extensive evaluation on real and synthetic databases attests high efficiency and accuracy of our proposal.