Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE SCID MOUSE REACTION TO HUMAN PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR LEUKOCYTE ENGRAFTMENT: NEUTROPHIL RECRUITMENT INDUCED EXPRESSION OF A WIDE SPECTRUM OF MURINE CYTOKINES AND MOUSE LEUKOPOIESIS, INCLUDING THYMIC DIFFERENTIATION

In this study, we describe the kinetics of host immune reactions occurring in mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) at different times after the intraperitoneal injection of human peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes (huPBL). At 24 hr, a massive neutrophil recruitment and an induced expression of a wide spectrum of murine cytokine mRNA (i.e., interleukin [IL]-10, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α and interferon [IFN]-γ) occurred in the huPBL-SCID mouse peritoneal cavity. By using ELISAs specific for mouse cytokines, large amounts of IL-1-α, TNF-α, IL-6, and IFN-γ were detected in the peritoneal washings of huPBL-SCID mice 1 day after intraperitoneal injection. IL-6 and IFN-γ production persisted for up to 2 weeks after PBL transplantation. Medullary and extramedullary expansion of the SCID mouse hematopoietic cells also occurred in the chimeras as early as 1 week after injection, together with a marked thymic differentiation (murine CD4+/CD8+ cells) at 10–12 weeks after transplantation. On the whole, these results indicate that, after huPBL injection, SCID mice mount a complex multistage immune response. These host reactions should be taken into consideration for any accurate interpretation of results obtained using the huPBL-SCD3 model. The control of responses (by means of specific antibodies to murine cytokines and to granulocytes or through the use of anti-inflammatory drugs) may be helpful in improving the engraftment of huPBL in SCID mice and in furthering our knowledge of the T and B cell-independent natural immune reactions.
Computationally Efficient Characterization of Standard Cells for Statistical Static Timing Analysis

Computationally Efficient Characterization of Standard Cells for Statistical Static Timing Analysis by Sharon H. Chou Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology June, 2008 Submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology May, 2009 ©2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved.
Targeted magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for tumor imaging and therapy

Magnetic iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles with a long blood retention time, biodegradability and low toxicity have emerged as one of the primary nanomaterials for biomedical applications in vitro and in vivo. IO nanoparticles have a large surface area and can be engineered to provide a large number of functional groups for cross-linking to tumor-targeting ligands such as monoclonal antibodies, peptides, or small molecules for diagnostic imaging or delivery of therapeutic agents. IO nanoparticles possess unique paramagnetic properties, which and generate significant susceptibility effects resulting in strong T2 and T2* contrast, as well as T1 effects at very low concentrations for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is widely used for clinical oncology imaging. We review recent advances in the development of targeted IO nanoparticles for tumor imaging and therapy.
Gender-specific Association between Polymorphism of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF 936C > T) Gene and Patients with Stomach Cancer

Purpose Angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth, progression, and metastasis of tumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) overexpression has been associated with advanced stage and poor survival in several cancers. We investigated the present case-control study to determine whether there is an association between the VEGF 936C > T polymorphism and stomach cancer. Patients and Methods The association of functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the VEGF gene with stomach cancer development was evaluated in a case-control study of 154 Korean stomach cancer patients. Genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. Results Our results revealed significant association of T allele-bearing genotypes with increased risk for stomach cancer development. Genotype frequencies of the VEGF 936C > T polymorphisms were significantly different between patient and control groups (CT, AOR: 2.007, 95% CI: 1.277 - 3.156, TT, AOR: 4.790, 95% CI: 1.174 - 19.539, CT + TT, AOR: 2.147, 95% CI: 1.382 - 3.337). When stratified by gender and age, genotype frequencies were significantly different for stomach cancer in women and in patients younger than 55 years (in women, CT, OR: 3.049, 95% CI: 1.568 - 5.930, CT+TT, OR: 3.132, 95% CI: 1.638 - 5.990; in < 55 years, CT, OR: 3.306, 95% CI: 1.413 - 7.732, CT + TT, OR: 3.967, 95% CI: 1.729 - 9.104). In addition, this association partially remained in cases with intestinal and diffuse-type stomach cancer. Conclusion Our present study suggests that the VEGF 936C > T polymorphism is a susceptibility factor for stomach cancer, at least in Korean.
An Automatic Summarization Service System Based on Web Services

Web Services technology is a burgeoning technology that has received tremendous amount of attention in the software in recent years. An automatic summarization service system is introduced in the paper. The system is based on automatic summarization technique and web services technique. It can offer users the summarization services, which can automatically and directly transform a long text of a web page into a more condensed one to help people’s reading. The system is made up of 4 parts: Management Web Services, Automatic Summarization application, Client and Web Site. The architecture and detailed function of each part are illustrated in the paper. Management Web Services is the core of the system, which is responsible for security, charge and management of the services. The major innovative characteristics of the system are its facility to use, user friendliness and its adaptability to user’s needs, being a Chinese language system. A demonstration of the service system is also given in the paper.
Baculovirus-Induced Climbing Behavior Favors Intraspecific Necrophagy and Efficient Disease Transmission in Spodoptera exigua

Shortly prior to death, many species of Lepidoptera infected with nucleopolyhedrovirus climb upwards on the host plant. This results in improved dissemination of viral occlusion bodies over plant foliage and an increased probability of transmission to healthy conspecific larvae. Following applications of Spodoptera exigua multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus for control of Spodoptera exigua on greenhouse-grown sweet pepper crops, necrophagy was observed by healthy S. exigua larvae that fed on virus-killed conspecifics. We examined whether this risky behavior was induced by olfactory or phagostimulant compounds associated with infected cadavers. Laboratory choice tests and olfactometer studies, involving infected and non-infected cadavers placed on spinach leaf discs, revealed no evidence for greater attraction of healthy larvae to virus-killed over non-infected cadavers. Physical contact or feeding on infected cadavers resulted in a very high incidence of transmission (82–93% lethal disease). Observations on the behavior of S. exigua larvae on pepper plants revealed that infected insects died on the uppermost 10% of foliage and closer to the plant stem than healthy conspecifics of the same stage, which we considered clear evidence of baculovirus-induced climbing behavior. Healthy larvae that subsequently foraged on the plant were more frequently observed closer to the infected than the non-infected cadaver. Healthy larvae also encountered and fed on infected cadavers significantly more frequently and more rapidly than larvae that fed on non-infected cadavers. Intraspecific necrophagy on infected cadavers invariably resulted in virus transmission and death of the necrophagous insect. We conclude that, in addition to improving the dissemination of virus particles over plant foliage, baculovirus-induced climbing behavior increases the incidence of intraspecific necrophagy in S. exigua, which is the most efficient mechanism of transmission of this lethal pathogen.
No Effect of Folic Acid Supplementation on Global DNA Methylation in Men and Women with Moderately Elevated Homocysteine

A global loss of cytosine methylation in DNA has been implicated in a wide range of diseases. There is growing evidence that modifications in DNA methylation can be brought about by altering the intake of methyl donors such as folate. We examined whether long-term daily supplementation with 0.8 mg of folic acid would increase global DNA methylation compared with placebo in individuals with elevated plasma homocysteine. We also investigated if these effects were modified by MTHFR C677T genotype. Two hundred sixteen participants out of 818 subjects who had participated in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial were selected, pre-stratified on MTHFR C677T genotype and matched on age and smoking status. They were allocated to receive either folic acid (0.8 mg/d; n = 105) or placebo treatment (n = 111) for three years. Peripheral blood leukocyte DNA methylation and serum and erythrocyte folate were assessed. Global DNA methylation was measured using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and expressed as a percentage of 5-methylcytosines versus the total number of cytosine. There was no difference in global DNA methylation between those randomized to folic acid and those in the placebo group (difference = 0.008, 95%CI = −0.05,0.07, P = 0.79). There was also no difference between treatment groups when we stratified for MTHFR C677T genotype (CC, n = 76; CT, n = 70; TT, n = 70), baseline erythrocyte folate status or baseline DNA methylation levels. In moderately hyperhomocysteinemic men and women, long-term folic acid supplementation does not increase global DNA methylation in peripheral blood leukocytes. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00110604
Heat shock proteins and hypometabolism: adaptive strategy for proteome preservation

To survive under harsh environmental conditions many organisms retreat into hypometabolic states where metabolic rate may be reduced by 80% or more and energy use is reprioritized to emphasize key functions that sustain viability and provide cytoprotection. ATP-expensive activities, such as gene expression, protein turnover (synthesis and degradation), and the cell cycle, are largely shut down. As a consequence, mechanisms that stabilize the existing cellular proteome can become critical for long-term survival. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are well-known for their actions as chaperones that act to fold new proteins or refold proteins that are damaged. Indeed, they are part of the "minimal stress proteome" that appears to be a ubiquitous response by all cells as they attempt, successfully or unsuccessfully, to deal with stress. The present review summarizes evidence that HSPs are also a conserved feature of natural animal hypometabolism including the phenomena of estivation, hibernation, diapause, cold-hardiness, anaerobiosis, and anhydrobiosis. That is, organisms that retreat into dormant or torpid states in anticipation that environmental conditions may become too difficult for normal life also integrate the use of HSPs to protect their proteome while hypometabolic. Multiple studies show a common upregulation of expression of hsp genes and/or HSP proteins prior to or during hypometabolism in organisms as diverse as ground squirrels, turtles, land snails, insects, and brine shrimp and in situations of both preprogrammed dormancies (eg, seasonal or life stage specific) and opportunistic hypometabolism (eg, triggered by desiccation or lack of oxygen). Hence, HSPs are not just a "shock" response that attempts to rescue cells from damaging stress but are a key protective strategy that is an integral component of natural states of torpor and dormancy.
Improving search relevance for implicitly temporal queries

Many web search queries have implicit intents associated with them that, if detected and used effectively, can be used to improve search quality. For example, a user who enters the query “toyota camry” may wish to find the official web page for the car, reviews about the car, or the location of the closest Toyota dealership. However, since the user only entered a couple of keywords, it may be difficult to accurately determine which of these implicit intents the user actually meant. Given such an ambiguous query, a search engine must use personalization, click information, query log analysis, and other means for determining implicit intent. Rather than solving the general problem of automatically determining user intent, we focus on queries that have a temporally dependent intent. Temporally dependent queries are queries for which the best search results change with time. Simple examples include “new years” and “presidential elections”, which are events that recur over time. The search results for these queries should reflect the freshest, most current results. A slightly more complex example is the query “turkey”. For this query, it may be useful to return turkey recipes or cooking instructions around the Thanksgiving holiday and travel information during peak vacation times. In all of our examples thus far, the events have occurred with (mostly) predictable periodicity. However, for queries such as “oldest person alive”, the best result changes unpredictably, making it difficult for search engines to consistently return correct results. Therefore, temporally dependent queries come in many different forms and pose many challenges to search engines. In this paper, we investigate a subset of temporal queries that we call implicitly year qualified queries. A year qualified query is a query that contains a year. An implicitly year qualified query is a query that does not actually contain a year, but yet the user may have implicitly formulated the query with a specific year in mind. An example implicitly year qualified query is “miss universe”. It is plausible that the user actually meant “miss universe 2008”, “miss universe 2007”, or maybe even“miss universe 1990”, yet did not actu-
Looking for Respite and Support: Technological Opportunities for Spousal Caregivers

Our research aims at informing the design of technological solutions to alleviate the stress resulting from the involvement of spouses of Alzheimer's disease patients as caregivers. For so doing, we have observed and analyzed the different offline solutions that are offered by a healthcare network in the Aube region (North-East of France). We discuss the key factors that we have identified for building an effective support network and identify five perspectives for the development of an online social support platform to lower the burden of spousal caregivers.
Geotourism: A Systematic Literature Review

Geotourism is one of the newest concepts within tourism studies today. The popularity of geotourism has likewise grown rapidly over the past few decades. This rapidly growing popularity and the growing body of research on geotourism create the need for a comprehensive review of existing literature on the subject. The present study aims to systematically review scientific literature on geotourism published over the past two decades by identifying what knowledge has been produced on geotourism in the scientific literature and by analyzing the evolving research trends in geotourism during the same time period. The results reveal that researchers are placing an increasing focus on geotourism. A geographical analysis of the study areas indicates a true global distribution, encompassing studies of 53 countries altogether. Most of the research focusses on identifying, describing, and assessing the geoheritage of the areas in question together with their geotourism potential. The volume of research on these topics is growing at a rapid pace. Other common research topics as regards geotourism include management of geotourism and geoheritage, new geosite/geomorphosite assessment models, together with other methodological approaches. The results further indicate that researchers are less interested in geotourism stakeholders such as tourists and local communities, and that only a very small number of studies examine geotourism in the context of sustainable development. The vast majority of the studies utilize empirical data as the basis of the research or for the testing of proposed models and methodology. The present review identifies a need for a larger body of empirical research focusing on (i) sustainability of geotourism, including actual impacts of geotourism on the geoheritage and on the ecosystems of geotourism areas, (ii) knowledge on effective management of the main challenges of geotourism, as well as (iii) on stakeholders and their complex interrelations, including the effects of geotourism on local communities and their well-being.
Berberine protects against cytokine-induced inflammation through multiple pathways in undifferentiated C2C12 myoblast cells.

Obesity is associated with skeletal muscle insulin resistance and the development of metabolic syndrome. Undifferentiated skeletal muscle cells are sensitive to oxidative stress. Berberine hydrochloride (BBR) improves insulin resistance and exhibits anti-inflammatory properties. However, the underlying mechanism and the cell signaling pathways involved remain largely elusive. We therefore investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of BBR and the signaling pathways using skeletal C2C12 myoblast cells. Undifferentiated C2C12 myoblast cells were treated with interleukin-1β (IL-1β) alone or in combination with tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the presence or absence of BBR. We found that BBR reduced the cytokine-induced expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and stress-related kinases including, p-38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK), NF-kB, and Stress-activated protein kinases /Jun amino-terminal kinases (SAPK/JNK) in C2C12 myoblast cells. Furthermore, BBR reversed cytokine-mediated suppression of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK-α), Sirtuin-1(SIRT-1), and PPAR-γ coactivator 1-α (PGC-1α). In addition, cytokine induced reduction of mitochondrial marker proteins and function were rescued after BBR treatment. Catalase, an antioxidant enzyme, was elevated after BBR treatment. Our results demonstrate that BBR ameliorates cytokine-induced inflammation. The anti-inflammatory effect of BBR in skeletal progenitor cells is mediated through pathways including activation of the AMPKα-SIRT-1-PGC-1 α, inhibition of the Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 4 (MKK4)-SAP/JUNK-C-JUN as well as protection of mitochondrial bioenergetics . BBR may be a potential medication for metabolic syndrome.
A case report dysregulated neutrophil extracellular traps in a patient with propylthiouracil-induced anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis

Rationale: Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are immune defence systems that release extracellular chromatin and myeloid granules including myeloperoxidase (MPO) to kill pathogens. An experimental animal study recently demonstrated that disordered NETs induced by propylthiouracil (PTU) could contribute to the production of MPO anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) and the development of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). However, the role of dysregulated NETs in the pathogenesis of human AAV remains unclear. Patient concerns: We report a 19-year-old woman with Graves’ disease on PTU presented fever, polyarthralgia, and lung hemorrhage with high titer of MPO-ANCA. This patient had a variety of atypical ANCAs and disordered NETs in vitro. Diagnoses: A diagnosis of PTU-induced AAV (PTU-AAV). Interventions: The PTU was discontinued and she was treated with immunosuppressants and plasmapheresis for reducing pathogenic autoantibodies. Outcomes: Clinical manifestations including fever, polyarthralgia, and lung hemorrhage were on remission with a decrease of dysregulated NETs. Lessons: The clinical course of this PTU-AAV case indicated that dysregulated NETs would play a role in the development of ANCA and the pathogenesis of AAV.
Neighbor Diversification-Based Collaborative Filtering for Improving Recommendation Lists

Recommendation systems are popular information filtering tools that help people find what they want. Accuracy is the most widely used metric for evaluating recommendation systems. Recently, many research works have focused on new measurements beyond the accuracy of recommendation systems. In this paper, we propose a neighbor diversification collaborative filtering algorithm to improve the recommendation lists. By using Movie lens dataset for empirical analysis, we investigated the influence of neighbor diversity to the recommendation accuracy, diversity, novelty and coverage. Intensive experimental results proved the efficiency of our proposed algorithm for improving recommendation lists.
Residence in Proximity of an Iron Foundry and Risk of Lung Cancer in the Municipality of Trieste, Italy, 1995–2009

We assessed the risk of lung cancer in people living near the iron foundry located within the city of Trieste, Northeastern Italy. Between 1995 and 2009, all incident cases of lung cancer and corresponding population were considered. A deposition model of the foundry-specific emissions of SO2 defined: “nearby”, “urban”, and “outlying” areas. Rate ratios (RRs) and annual percent changes (APCs) were computed. Among nearby residents, significantly increased risks of lung cancer were noted in men below age 75 years (RR = 1.35 vs. urban area; 95% CI: 1.03–1.77). In women, and in men aged 75 years or older, no significant RRs were observed. Conversely, people living in the outlying area appeared to be at lower risk than residents in the urban area- in all age groups, in men (RR = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.78–0.98) and in women (RR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.62–0.88). Negative statistically significant APC was recorded in men living in urban areas (–2.6%), whereas in women APC significantly increased among those living in the urban area (+2.3%). Multiple interpretations for this observation are plausible, since several factors might have modified and/or confounded the risk of lung cancer, including air pollution from other sources and road traffic, occupational and smoking patterns.
Tracking heat-resistant, cold-thriving fluid milk spoilage bacteria from farm to packaged product.

Control of psychrotolerant endospore-forming spoilage bacteria, particularly Bacillus and Paenibacillus spp. , is economically important to the dairy industry. These microbes form endospores that can survive high-temperature, short-time pasteurization; hence, their presence in raw milk represents a major potential cause of milk spoilage. A previously developed culture-dependent selection strategy and an rpoB sequence-based subtyping method were applied to bacterial isolates obtained from environmental samples collected on a New York State dairy farm. A total of 54 different rpoB allelic types putatively identified as Bacillus (75% of isolates), Paenibacillus (24%), and Sporosarcina spp. (1%) were identified among 93 isolates. Assembly of a broader data set, including 93 dairy farm isolates, 57 raw milk tank truck isolates, 138 dairy plant storage silo isolates, and 336 pasteurized milk isolates, identified a total of 154 rpoB allelic types, representing an extensive diversity of Bacillus and Paenibacillus spp. Our molecular subtype data clearly showed that certain endospore-forming bacterial subtypes are present in the dairy farm environment as well as in the processing plant. The potential for entry of these ubiquitous heat-resistant spoilage organisms into milk production and processing systems, from the dairy farm to the processing plant, represents a considerable challenge that will require a comprehensive farm-to-table approach to fluid milk quality.