Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Simple Mathematical Model Based on the Cancer Stem Cell Hypothesis Suggests Kinetic Commonalities in Solid Tumor Growth

Background The Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) hypothesis has gained credibility within the cancer research community. According to this hypothesis, a small subpopulation of cells within cancerous tissues exhibits stem-cell-like characteristics and is responsible for the maintenance and proliferation of cancer. Methodologies/Principal Findings We present a simple compartmental pseudo-chemical mathematical model for tumor growth, based on the CSC hypothesis, and derived using a “chemical reaction” approach. We defined three cell subpopulations: CSCs, transit progenitor cells, and differentiated cells. Each event related to cell division, differentiation, or death is then modeled as a chemical reaction. The resulting set of ordinary differential equations was numerically integrated to describe the time evolution of each cell subpopulation and the overall tumor growth. The parameter space was explored to identify combinations of parameter values that produce biologically feasible and consistent scenarios. Conclusions/Significance Certain kinetic relationships apparently must be satisfied to sustain solid tumor growth and to maintain an approximate constant fraction of CSCs in the tumor lower than 0.01 (as experimentally observed): (a) the rate of symmetrical and asymmetrical CSC renewal must be in the same order of magnitude; (b) the intrinsic rate of renewal and differentiation of progenitor cells must be half an order of magnitude higher than the corresponding intrinsic rates for cancer stem cells; (c) the rates of apoptosis of the CSC, transit amplifying progenitor (P) cells, and terminally differentiated (D) cells must be progressively higher by approximately one order of magnitude. Simulation results were consistent with reports that have suggested that encouraging CSC differentiation could be an effective therapeutic strategy for fighting cancer in addition to selective killing or inhibition of symmetric division of CSCs.
Characterization of RAT, an autolysis regulator in Staphylococcus aureus

In trying to identify genetic loci involved in the regulation of cap5 genes in Staphylococcus aureus, we isolated a transposon mutant that exhibited a growth defect, enhanced autolysis and increased sensitivity to Triton X‐100 and penicillin, attributable in part to increased murein hydrolase activity. Analysis of the chromosomal sequence flanking the transposon insertion site revealed that the gene disrupted in the mutant encodes an open reading frame of 147 amino acids. We named this gene rat, which stands for regulator of autolytic activity. Sequence analysis indicated that Rat is homologous to the MarR and, to a lesser extent, the SarA protein families. Mutations in rat resulted in decreased expression of known autolytic regulators lytSR, lrgAB and arlRS. Gel shift studies indicated that Rat binds to the lytRS and arlRS promoters, thus confirming Rat as a DNA‐binding protein to these known repressors of autolytic activity. As anticipated, rat appears to be a negative regulator of autolysin genes including lytM and lytN. These data suggest that the rat gene product is an important regulator of autolytic activity in S. aureus.
New approaches to the Moon's isotopic crisis

Recent comparisons of the isotopic compositions of the Earth and the Moon show that, unlike nearly every other body known in the Solar System, our satellite's isotopic ratios are nearly identical to the Earth's for nearly every isotopic system. The Moon's chemical make-up, however, differs from the Earth's in its low volatile content and perhaps in the elevated abundance of oxidized iron. This surprising situation is not readily explained by current impact models of the Moon's origin and offers a major clue to the Moon's formation, if we only could understand it properly. Current ideas to explain this similarity range from assuming an impactor with the same isotopic composition as the Earth to postulating a pure ice impactor that completely vaporized upon impact. Several recent proposals follow from the suggestion that the Earth–Moon system may have lost a great deal of angular momentum during early resonant interactions. The isotopic constraint may be the most stringent test yet for theories of the Moon's origin.
Brazilian Red Propolis—Chemical Composition and Botanical Origin

Propolis contains resinous substances collected by honey bees from various plant sources and has been used as a traditional folk medicine since ca 300 BC. Nowadays, the use of evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasing rapidly and so is the use of propolis in order to treat or support the treatment of various diseases. Much attention has been focused on propolis from Populus sp. (Salicaceae) and Baccharis dracunculifolia (Asteracea), but scientific information about the numerous other types of propolis is still sparse. We gathered six samples of red propolis in five states of Northeastern Brazil. The beehives were located near woody perennial shrubs along the sea and river shores. The bees were observed to collect red resinous exudates on Dalbergia ecastophyllum (L) Taub. (Leguminosae) to make propolis. The flavonoids of propolis and red resinous exudates were investigated using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and reversed-phase high-performance thin-layer chromatography. We conclude that the botanical origin of the reddish propolis is D. ecastophyllum. In areas where this source (D. ecastophyllum) was scarce or missing, bees were collecting resinous material from other plants. Propolis, which contained the chemical constituents from the main botanical origin, showed higher antimicrobial activity.
p53 protein accumulation and gene mutations in multifocal esophageal precancerous lesions from symptom free subjects in a high incidence area for esophageal carcinoma in Henan, China

Multifocal occurrence of precancerous and cancerous lesions of the esophagus has been observed among individuals in a high incidence area for esophageal carcinoma in Henan Province, China. Results from recent studies suggest that p53 protein accumulation and mutation occur early in the pathogenesis of esophageal carcinoma. Discordant p53 gene mutations have been observed in invasive carcinoma and preinvasive lesions from a patient with esophageal carcinoma. The p53 alterations in multifocal precancerous lesions from symptom‐free subjects, however, have not been investigated. METHOD. Two biopsy samples, one each from the middle‐third and the lower‐third of the esophagus, from each subject, were taken from 55 symptom‐free subjects in a high incidence area for esophageal cancer in Huixian, Henan Province, China. p53 protein accumulation and p53 gene mutation were analyzed in multifocal esophageal precancerous lesions from these subjects. RESULTS. Histopathologic examination showed that among the 110 biopsies, 20 had dysplasia, 72 had basal cell hyperplasia, and 18 had normal epithelia. Concurrent lesions at the middle‐ and lower‐third biopsy occurred in 2 subjects with dysplasia (2 of 55 subjects, 4%) and 26 subjects with basal cell hyperplasia (26 of 55 subjects, 47%). Analysis by immunohistochemistry showed high concurrent rates of p53 protein accumulation (51 of 55 subjects, 93%). p53 sequence analysis of 32 samples from 16 subjects identified missense mutations in 5. In one subject, there were different mutations in the middle‐third biopsy (codon 161, GCC→GAC) and the lower‐third biopsy (codon 159, GCC→CCC). A single mutation was detected in the other four subjects in either the middle‐ or lower‐third biopsy. CONCLUSIONS. The present findings indicate that p53 protein accumulation and mutations occur in the early stages of human esophageal carcinogenesis. Independent somatic mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gene and protein accumulation in different regions of the esophageal “field” might be key molecular events in multifocal esophageal carcinogenesis. Cancer 1996;77:1244‐9.
Comparison of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Specific Inhibitory Activities in Saliva and Other Human Mucosal Fluids

ABSTRACT Several human mucosal fluids are known to possess an innate ability to inhibit human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection and replication in vitro. This study compared the HIV-1 inhibitory activities of several mucosal fluids, whole, submandibular/sublingual (sm/sl), and parotid saliva, breast milk, colostrum, seminal plasma, and cervicovaginal secretions, from HIV-1-seronegative donors by using a 3-day microtiter infection assay. A wide range of HIV-1 inhibitory activity was exhibited in all mucosal fluids tested, with some donors exhibiting high levels of activity while others showed significantly lower levels. Colostrum, whole milk, and whole saliva possessed the highest levels of anti-HIV-1 activity, seminal fluid, cervicovaginal secretions, and sm/sl exhibited moderate levels, and parotid saliva consistently demonstrated the lowest levels of HIV-1 inhibition. Fast protein liquid chromatography gel filtration studies revealed the presence of at least three distinct peaks of inhibitory activity against HIV-1 in saliva and breast milk. Incubation of unfractionated and fractionated whole saliva with antibodies raised against human lactoferrin (hLf), secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI), and, to a lesser extent, MG2 (high-molecular-weight mucinous glycoprotein) reduced the HIV-1 inhibitory activity significantly. The results suggest that hLf and SLPI are two key components responsible for HIV-1 inhibitory activity in different mucosal secretions. The variation in HIV inhibitory activity between the fluids and between individuals suggests that there may be major differences in susceptibility to HIV infection depending both on the individual and on the mucosal fluid involved.
Resistin and Visfatin Expression in HCT-116 Colorectal Cancer Cell Line

Adipocytokines, hormones secreted from adipose tissue, have been shown to be associated with many cancers such as breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. Recent studies have indicated that resistin and visfatin, two of these adipokines have high level plasma concentrations in colorectal cancer patients and may be promising biomarkers for colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to identify whether the colorectal cancer cell line, HCT-116, itself is the source of these two adipokines secretion. Resistin and visfatin expression were investigated in HCT-116 by RT – PCR at mRNA level and confirmed by ELISA at protein level. Visfatin showed a high expression at both mRNA and protein levels in HCT-116. Conversely, resistin was not expressed in either cell lysate or supernatant. These results showed that HCT-116 colorectal cancer cells secrete and express visfatin endogenously. However, they are not the main source of resistin and the high level of resistin in colorectal cancer may be due to monocytes and other inflammatory cells which increase in proinflammation status of cancer. Taken together, visfatin may act on colorectal cancer cell in an autocrine manner while resistin may act in a paracrine manner.
Quinine, a Blocker of Neuronal Cx36 Channels, Suppresses Seizure Activity in Rat Neocortex In Vivo

Summary: Purpose: The selective contribution of neuronal gap junction (GJ) communication via connexin 36 (Cx36) channels to epileptogenesis and to the maintenance and propagation of seizures was investigated in both the primary focus and the mirror focus by using pharmacologic approaches with the 4‐aminopyridine in vivo epilepsy model.
Change-a-LOD: Does the Schema on the Linked Data Cloud Change or Not?

Recent work analyzing changes on the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud on fine-grained weekly snapshots shows that vocabularies published on the cloud are highly static. While this result is quite expected, there is another kind of schematic information that can be observed on the LOD cloud: the use of the vocabularies in the cloud. With use, we mean the combinations of sets of properties and sets of types to describe the resources in a specific domain. Current literature does not tackle this question sufficiently. In order to gain insight into how the use of vocabularies on the LOD cloud changes over time, we present illustrating examples and a formalization of the research question. Subsequently, we present early results of experiments applied on weekly snapshots that show that the use of vocabularies indeed changes quite a lot over time.
Connectivity and Capacity of Multi-Channel Wireless Networks with Channel Switching Constraints

This paper argues for the need to address the issue of multi-channel network performance under constraints on channel switching. We present examples from emergent directions in wireless networking to motivate the need for such a study, and introduce some models to capture channel switching constraints. For some of these models, we study connectivity and capacity of a wireless network comprising n randomly deployed nodes, equipped with a single interface each, when there are c=O(logn) channels of equal bandwidth W/c available. We consider an adjacent (c,f) channel assignment where a node may switch between f adjacent channels, but the adjacent channel block is randomly assigned. We show that the per-flow capacity for this channel assignment model is Theta(Wradic(f/cnlogn)). We then show the adjacent (c,2) assignment maps to the case of untuned radios. We also consider a random (c,f) assignment where each node may switch between a pre-assigned random subset of f channels. For this model, we prove that per-flow capacity is O(Wradic(prnd/nlogn)) (where prnd=1-(1-f/c)(1-f/(c-1)). (1-f/(c-f+1)) and Omega(Wradic(f/cnlogn))).
Penetration of human metastatic melanoma cells through an authentic dermal-epidermal junction is associated with dissolution of native collagen types IV and VII

The events occurring during the penetration of melanoma cells through the dermal-epidermal junction, which is the first crucial step in the process of metastasis, are poorly understood, partly because no suitable tissue models exist. In thein vitromodel reported here, two melanoma clones (T1C3, which generates lung metastases in experimental animals, and IC8, which does not) derived from a single parental cell line were co-seeded with normal allogenic keratinocytes onto acellular human de-epidermized dermis with preserved intact basement membrane and cultured for up to 1 month at an air-liquid interface. Histological, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies showed that melanoma cells from the metastatic clone (T1C3), but not from the non-metastatic clone (IC8), penetrated the dermal-epidermal junction to invade the dermis after 3 weeks of culture. Local invasion was associated with the dissolution of the native epidermal basement membrane collagens type IV and VII. Confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis demonstrated that numerous T1C3 cells were able to colonize the interstitial dermis and to rapidly penetrate empty dermal cavities. Our model represents a significant technical advance over others currently available since: (i) the organized three-dimensional architecture of the native dermal-epidermal junction is preserved; (ii) the active invasion process coincides with the dissolution of native components of the epidermal basement membrane, i.e. collagen types IV and VII; and (iii) the ability of melanoma cells to cross the dermal-epidermal junction correlates with their metastatic potential. This model provides a valuable tool for the study of the time-course of the cellular and molecular events that occur during the earliest steps of invasion in cutaneous melanoma. It also offers new opportunities to study the possible role of the keratinocyte environment in melanoma invasion.
Diagram Understanding in Geometry Questions

Automatically solving geometry questions is a long-standing AI problem. A geometry question typically includes a textual description accompanied by a diagram. The first step in solving geometry questions is diagram understanding, which consists of identifying visual elements in the diagram, their locations, their geometric properties, and aligning them to corresponding textual descriptions. In this paper, we present a method for diagram understanding that identifies visual elements in a diagram while maximizing agreement between textual and visual data. We show that the method's objective function is submodular; thus we are able to introduce an efficient method for diagram understanding that is close to optimal. To empirically evaluate our method, we compile a new dataset of geometry questions (textual descriptions and diagrams) and compare with baselines that utilize standard vision techniques. Our experimental evaluation shows an F1 boost of more than 17% in identifying visual elements and 25% in aligning visual elements with their textual descriptions.
DataStations : Ubiquitous Transient Storage for Mobile Users

In this paper, we describe DataStations , an architecture that provides ubiquitous transient storage to arbitrary mobile applications. Mobile users can utilize a nearby DataStation as a proxy cache for their remote home file servers, as a file server to meet transient storage needs, and as a platform to share data and collaborate with other users over the wide area. A user can roam among DataStations, creating, updating and sharing files via a native file interface using a uniform file name space throughout. Our architecture provides transparent migration of file ownership and responsibility among DataStations and a user’s home file server. This design not only ensures file permanence, but also allows DataStations to reclaim their resources autonomously, allowing the system to incrementally scale to a large number of DataStations and users. The unique aspects of our DataStation design are its decentralized but uniform name space, its locality-aware peer replication mechanism, and its highly flexible consistency framework that lets users select the appropriate consistency mechanism on a per-file replica basis. Our evaluation demonstrates that DataStations can support low-latency access to remote files as well as ad-hoc data sharing and collaboration by mobile users, without compromising consistency or data safety.
Compositionality in Synchronous Data Flow: modular code generation from hierarchical SDF graphs

A widespread model of computation, particularly suited for signal processing applications, which are often a key element in cyber-physical systems, is Synchronous (or Static) Data Flow (SDF). But hierarchical SDF models are not compositional: a composite SDF actor (e.g., actor P of Figure 1) cannot be represented as an atomic SDF actor without loss of information that can lead to deadlocks (Figure 2). To solve this problem, we propose in [1] DSSF profiles (Figure 3). DSSF (Deterministic SDF with Shared FIFOs) forms a compositional abstraction of composite actors that can be used for modular compilation. We provide algorithms for automatic synthesis of non-monolithic DSSF profiles of composite actors given DSSF profiles of their sub-actors. We show how different tradeoffs can be explored when synthesizing such profiles, in terms of size of the generated profile versus reusability (preserving information necessary to avoid deadlocks) as well as algorithmic complexity. We show that our method guarantees maximal reusability and report on a prototype implementation in Ptolemy II.
Failure Analysis of Roller Neck at a Cardboard Production Plant

In this paper corrosion-fatigue failure of a roller in a cardboard production plant has been analyzed. The failure occurred at the bearing neck of the roller. Mechanical and chemical properties of the roller are determined and the fracture surface is investigated. Forces applied on the roller is examined, stress calculations are carried out and fatigue safety factor is calculated. Stress analysis is also applied to roller and bearing neck by using Finite Element Method (FEM) and the results are compared with the calculated values. Because of very high safety factor, reasons for failure are investigated and effects of fatigue failure are determined. These effects are corrosion-fatigue, working conditions and notch effect. In conclusion precautions which have to be taken to prevent a similar failure is explained by using FEM.
Modeling of dynamic threshold voltage in high K gate stack and the application in FinFET reliability

A modeling study of dynamic threshold voltage in high K gate stack is reported in this paper. Both slow transient (STCE) and fast transient charging effect (FTCE) are included in this model. Finally, this model is applied in FinFET reliability and circuit performances are simulated. The result shows that, the drain circuit (Id) degradation in FinFET is much more obvious than normal MOSFETs with the same processes and the variation of Id is slower in higher temperature. However, the dynamic threshold voltage in high K stack seems not affect the delay time of reverser simulated by HSPICE.
Activation of natural killer cells and induction of interferon after injection of mouse hepatitis virus type 3 in mice

High levels of natural killer (NK) cell activity and high titers of interferon were observed in the peritoneal exudate of C57BL/6 mice 20 to 50 h after injection of mouse hepatitis virus type 3 (MHV3) but not during the first 10 h after infection. C57BL/6 mice were susceptible to MHV3 infection and showed high titers of MHV3 in the peritoneal exudate 48 h after infection. A/J mice, in contrast, were resistant to the dose that killed 100% of the C57BL/6 mice (10 macrophage-infecting doses) and showed considerably lower virus titers than those shown by C57BL/6 mice. NK cell activity and interferon titers were significantly lower in the peritoneal exudate of A/J mice than in that of C57BL/6 mice. Serum interferon titers were also lower in A/J mice. Thus, our data show an inverse relationship between resistance and the levels of these two parameters. The data suggest that, in contrast to the situation observed with certain herpesviruses, interferon and NK cells may not be of overwhelming importance in the defense of mice against MHV3.
Auxin metabolism rates and implications for plant development

Studies of auxin metabolism rarely express their results as a metabolic rate, although the data obtained would often permit such a calculation to be made. We analyze data from 31 previously published papers to quantify the rates of auxin biosynthesis, conjugation, conjugate hydrolysis, and catabolism in seed plants. Most metabolic pathways have rates in the range 10 nM/h–1 μM/h, with the exception of auxin conjugation, which has rates as high as ~100 μM/h. The high rates of conjugation suggest that auxin metabolic sinks may be very small, perhaps as small as a single cell. By contrast, the relatively low rate of auxin biosynthesis requires plants to conserve and recycle auxin during long-distance transport. The consequences for plant development are discussed.
Classifying What-Type Questions by Head Noun Tagging

Classifying what-type questions into proper semantic categories is found more challenging than classifying other types in question answering systems. In this paper, we propose to classify what-type questions by head noun tagging. The approach highlights the role of head nouns as the category discriminator of what-type questions. To reduce the semantic ambiguities of head noun, we integrate local syntactic feature, semantic feature and category dependency among adjacent nouns with Conditional Random Fields (CRFs). Experiments on standard question classification data set show that the approach achieves state-of-the-art performances.