Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling Cytomegalovirus Infection in Mouse Tumor Models

The hypothesis that cytomegalovirus (CMV) modulates cancer is evolving. Originally discovered in glioblastoma in 2002, the number of cancers, where intratumoral CMV antigen is detected, has increased in recent years suggesting that CMV actively affects the pathobiology of certain tumors. These findings are controversial as several groups have also reported inability to replicate these results. Regardless, several clinical trials for glioblastoma are underway or have been completed that target intratumoral CMV with anti-viral drugs or immunotherapy. Therefore, a better understanding of the possible pathobiology of CMV in cancer needs to be ascertained. We have developed genetic, syngeneic, and orthotopic malignant glioma mouse models to study the role of CMV in cancer development and progression. These models recapitulate for the most part intratumoral CMV expression as seen in human tumors. Additionally, we discovered that CMV infection in Trp53−/+ mice promotes pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcomas. These mouse models are not only a vehicle for studying pathobiology of the viral-tumor interaction but also a platform for developing and testing cancer therapeutics.
Pharmacokinetic modeling of the hepatobiliary transport mediated by cooperation of uptake and efflux transporters

Hepatocytes express various transporters in the sinusoidal and canalicular membrane, which mediate hepatic uptake and canalicular efflux, forming directional transport from the sinusoid to the bile. Drug-drug interactions and genetic polymorphisms of the transporters are known to cause variations in transporter function. This review focuses on pharmacokinetic modeling of hepatobiliary transport of drugs to explain the alteration of the disposition of drugs caused by such variations, based on the clearance concept. For modeling and simulation, pravastatin and dibromosulfophthalein have been used as model compounds which are known to undergo transpoter-mediated hepatic uptake followed by biliary excretion. Pharmacokinetic modeling of hepatobiliary transport illustrates the concept of the rate-determining process in overall hepatobiliary transport.
Zinc and Copper Concentrations in Human Milk and Infant Formulas

Objective Available accurate data on the concentrations of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in human milk throughout lactation and infant formulas is important both for formulating nutritional requirements for substances and to provide a base line for the understanding the physiology of their secretion. The objective of this study was to analyze the concentrations of zinc and copper in infant formulas and human milk during prolonged lactation. Levels of these metals were examined in relation to selected parameters such as age, weight, height, education and occupation of mothers. Methods Thirty mothers referred to the selected clinics in Tehran entered the study. Human milk samples were collected at 2 months postpartum. Zinc and copper concentrations were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Findings The mean values of Zn and Cu in human milk were 2.95±0.77mg/L and 0.36±0.11 mg/L. The mean values of Zn and Cu in infant formulas were 3.98±0.25 mg/L and 0.53±0.17mg/L. Conclusion No significant relationship was found between levels of trace elements in human milk and evaluated parameters such as age, weight, height, education and occupation of mothers. The concentrations of zinc and copper in breast milk were lower than those reported in the literature.
Structure of the novel membrane-coating material in proton-secreting epithelial cells and identification as an H+ATPase

Specialized proton-secreting cells known collectively as mitochondria- rich cells are found in a variety of transporting epithelia, including the kidney collecting duct (intercalated cells) and toad and turtle urinary bladders. These cells contain a population of characteristic tubulovesicles that are believed to be involved in the shuttling of proton pumps (H+ATPase) to and from the plasma membrane. These transporting vesicles have a dense, studlike material coating the cytoplasmic face of their limiting membranes and similar studs are also found beneath parts of the plasma membrane. We have recently shown that this membrane coat does not contain clathrin. The present study was performed to determine the structure of this coat in rapidly frozen and freeze-dried tissue, and to determine whether the coat contains a major membrane protein transported by these vesicles, a proton pumping H+ATPase. The structure of the coat was examined in proton-secreting, mitochondria-rich cells from toad urinary bladder epithelium by rapidly freezing portions of apical membrane and associated cytoplasm that were sheared away from the remainder of the cell using polylysine-coated coverslips. Regions of the underside of these apical membranes as large as 0.2 micron2 were decorated by studlike projections that were arranged into regular hexagonal arrays. Individual studs had a diameter of 9.5 nm and appeared to be composed of multiple subunits arranged around a central depression, possibly representing a channel. The studs had a density of approximately 16,800 per micron2 of membrane. Similar arrays of studs were also found on vesicles trapped in the residual band of cytoplasm that remained attached to the underside of the plasma membrane, but none were seen in adjacent granular cells. To determine whether these arrays of studs contained H+ATPase molecules, we examined a preparation of affinity-purified bovine medullary H+ATPase, using the same technique, after incorporation of the protein eluted from a monoclonal antibody affinity column into phospholipid liposomes. The affinity-purified protein was shown to be capable of ATP-dependent acidification. In such preparations, large paracrystalline arrays of studs identical in appearance to those seen in situ were found. The dimensions of the studs as well as the number per square micrometer of membrane were identical to those of toad bladder mitochondria-rich cells: 9.5 nm in diameter, 16,770 per micron2 of membrane. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
3D Embedded multi-core: Some perspectives

3D technologies using Through Silicon Vias (TSV) have not yet proved their viability for being deployed in large-range products. In this paper, we investigate three promising perspectives for short to medium terms adoption of such technology in high-end System-on-Chip built around multi-core architectures: the wide bus concept will help solving high bandwidth requirements with external memory. 3D Network-on-Chip is a promising solution for increased modularity and scalability. We show that an efficient implementation provides an available bandwidth outperforming classical interfaces. Finally, we put in perspective the active interposer concept which aims at simplifying and improving power, test and debug management.
Department of Information Systems London School of Economics and Political Science Working Paper Series 98

This paper analyzes one of the first ERP implementation projects within a prestigious US university, an initiative that opened organizational ‘doors’ to multiple narratives of the unknown whose presence challenged system localization efforts. We use an interpretive, case-study-based narrative methodology adopting a time sensitive, actor -network perspective, to highlight the University’s choice to implement a standard ERP package and the negotiations that allowed the technology to be compromised. Much of the research in this area has tended toward snapshot actor-network analyses that foreground the agency and role of technology in negatively subverting ERP projects. This study provides a more balanced conceptualization of computermediated change efforts, where the ‘locally accepted’ ERP system results from a highly progressive and non-linear process of translation involving negotiations with many alien influences. Small, punctuated moments are interwoven to affect change and result in the future becoming colonized through the unfolding of day-to-day events.
Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy with a remote controlled robot.

PURPOSE Robotics in surgery is a recent innovation. This technology offers a number of attractive features in laparoscopy. It overcomes the difficulties with fixed port sites by restoring all 6 degrees of freedom at the instrument tips, provides new possibilities for miniaturization of surgical tasks and allows remote controlled surgery. We investigated the applicability of remote controlled robotic surgery to laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS Our previous experience with laparoscopic prostatectomy served as a basis for adapting robotic surgery to this procedure. A surgeon at a different location who activated the tele-manipulators of the da Vinci* robotic system performed all steps of the intervention. A scrub nurse and second surgeon who stood at patient side had limited roles to port and instrument placement, exposure of the operative field, assistance in hemostasis and removal of the operative specimen. Our patient was a 63-year-old man presenting with a T1c tumor discovered on 1 positive sextant biopsy with a 3+3 Gleason score and 7 ng. /ml. preoperative serum prostate specific antigen. RESULTS The robot provided an ergonomic surgical environment and remarkable dexterity enhancement. Operating time was 420 minutes, and the hospital stay lasted 4 days. The bladder catheter was removed 3 days postoperatively, and 1 week later the patient was fully continent. Pathological examination showed a pT3a tumor with negative margins. CONCLUSIONS Robotically assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is feasible. This new technology enhances surgical dexterity. Further developments in this field may have new applications in laparoscopic tele-surgery.
Research on Optimizing Software Project Process Based Risk Control Method

This paper presents a new approach for assessing and optimizing software project process based on software risk control, which evaluates and optimizes software project process from the view of controlling the software project risks. This paper gives a model for optimizing software risk control is given and a discrete optimization algorithm based on dynamic programming together with an example of using above method to solve a problem. By improving the old passive post-project control into an active effective pre-action, this new method can greatly promote the possibility of success of software projects
Data Management: The Spirit to Pursuit Peak Performance on Many-Core Processor

to date, most of many-core prototypes employ tiled topologies connected through on-chip networks. The throughput and latency of the on-chip networks usually become to the bottleneck to achieve peak performance especially for communication intensive applications. Most of studies are focus on on-chip networks only, such as routing algorithms or router micro-architecture, to improve the above metrics. The salient aspect of our approach is that we provide a data management framework to implement high efficient on-chip traffic based on overall many-core system. The major contributions of this paper include that: (1) providing a novel tiled many-core architecture which supports software controlled on-chip data storage and movement management; (2) identifying that the asynchronous bulk data transfer mechanism is an effective method to tolerant the latency of 2-D mesh on-chip networks. At last, we evaluate the 1-D FFT algorithm on the framework and the performance achieves 47.6 Gflops with 24.8% computation efficiency.
Road extraction from ETM panchromatic image based on Dual-Edge Following

Research on road extraction from digital imagery is motivated by the need for data acquisition and update for geographic information systems (GIS). Roads usually have parallelism of road sides, and on the images, especially the edge map, there are dual edges for each road. In this paper, we propose an approach for automatically extracting road from ETM panchromatic image with a resolution of 15 meters based on Dual-Edge Following. Our approach uses the edge detector with embedded confidence (EDEC, Peter Meer, 2001) to detect road edge, then traces road to generate road candidates by Dual-Edge Following, next exploits the perceptual organization based on probability to link the road segments. Dual-Ddge Following use edge information of both road sides to search for road segments which can improve the precision of road segments. The experiment with ETM panchromatic image in Xinjiang, China shows the validity of the approach.
Community perspective on a model to reduce teenage pregnancy.

DESIGN Qualitative methodology was used to validate elements of an educational career youth developmental model (ECYDM) to reduce teenage pregnancy among African American teens in two inner city urban communities. The specific aims of the study were to gain understanding of the factors contributing to teenage pregnancy and to identify a pregnancy prevention programme relevant to the needs of African American youth. METHODS Data were collected from a convenience purposive sample of 43 African American teens and adults. Teen participants included males and non-pregnant, pregnant, and parent females. Adult participants included parents, school staff, and community clergies. Data were collected using demographic questionnaires, structured individual and focus group interviews. Approval from the Institutional Review Board was obtained before conducting the study. FINDINGS Findings supported elements of the ECYDM as a pregnancy prevention programme for African American teens in inner city urban communities. Participants identified an educational-career motivational programme that utilizes mentoring to teach, counsel, and provide information to improve youths' health, education, career, and social outcomes as the pregnancy prevention programme for youth in urban communities. CONCLUSIONS These findings have important implications for future programme design and research. Teenage pregnancy must be addressed within the context of the individual, family, and community. Community partnership and collaboration of resources is necessary to reduce teenage pregnancy. Educational-career programmes are needed to provide information and knowledge to young men and women to make sound informed decisions. Continued qualitative research is also needed to gain understanding of pregnancy prevention programmes.
Heart Rate Variability Analysis in the Assessment of Autonomic Function in Heart Failure

Heart rate is not static, but rather changes continuously in response to physical and mental demands. In fact, an invariant heart rate is associated with disease processes such as heart failure. Heart rate variability analysis is a noninvasive technique used to quantify fluctuations in heart rate. In this article, the authors review neural control of heart rate, briefly describe heart rate variability, and summarize research data demonstrating that heart failure is associated with altered heart rate variability. In addition, the authors present evidence that heart failure patients with decreased heart rate variability are at risk for future cardiac events, heart transplantations, and death.
Real-time Automatic Emotion Recognition from Body Gestures

Although psychological research indicates that bodily expressions convey important affective information, to date research in emotion recognition focused mainly on facial expression or voice analysis. In this paper we propose an approach to realtime automatic emotion recognition from body movements. A set of postural, kinematic, and geometrical features are extracted from sequences 3D skeletons and fed to a multi-class SVM classifier. The proposed method has been assessed on data acquired through two different systems: a professionalgrade optical motion capture system, and Microsoft Kinect. The system has been assessed on a "six emotions" recognition problem, and using a leave-one-subject-out cross validation strategy, reached an overall recognition rate of 61.3% which is very close to the recognition rate of 61.9% obtained by human observers. To provide further testing of the system, two games were developed, where one or two users have to interact to understand and express emotions with their body.
Interrelated factors of chinese old folks' life satisfaction rating

Objective: To investigate the interrelated factors of chinese old folks' life satisfaction rating. Methods:801 Chinese old folks were investigated with LSR(life satisfaction rating scale), compared with age, study experience,earning and other factors by impersonality and personality index of LSR. Results: Defense style,interest, life event, age, earning, sicken and cure are the important interralated factors of chinese old folks' life satisfaction rating. Conclusion:The infection of personality factors is more important than one of impersonality factors for chinese old folks' satisfaction rating.
Empirical Investigation of Customers’ Perception and AdoptionTowards Islamic Banking Services in Morocco

The main purpose of the study is to examine the willingness of the Moroccan customers to adopt Islamic banking services and the factors that may influence their decision. A total of 200 questionnaires were randomly distributed to Moroccan banking customers, out of which 146 were properly filled and returned. Multiple regression and one sample t-test were subsequently applied. The results showed that uncertainty, relative advantage, compatibility, awareness as well as subjective norm, have a significant impact on the attitude towards Islamic banking services in Morocco. Likewise, normative belief was also found to have a significant influence on subjective norm, with particular reference to the parents, siblings, peers and colleagues, as the main referent groups. In addition, facilitating conditions was found to have a significant influence on perceived behavioural control and finally attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control were found to have a significant impact on the intention to adopt Islamic banking services in Morocco. It is worth noting that complexity does not have any influence on attitude and self efficacy does not have any influence on perceived behavioural control as well. On the other hand, the results have also shown that the Moroccan customers are willing to shift to Islamic banking services, with a slight preference of long run adoption i.e. three years and above. This study is one of the earliest to be conducted on customers’ perception and willingness to adopt Islamic banking services in Morocco. The study also extends the decomposed theory of planned behaviour to a different setting and also to a different area of study.
Effect of Exogenous Abscisic Acid and Methyl Jasmonate on Anthocyanin Composition, Fatty Acids, and Volatile Compounds of Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis vinifera L.) Grape Berries

The anthocyanin composition, fatty acids, and volatile aromas are important for Cabernet Sauvignon grape quality. This study evaluated the effect of exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) on the anthocyanin composition, fatty acids, lipoxygenase activity, and the volatile compounds of Cabernet Sauvignon grape berries. Exogenous ABA and MeJA improved the content of total anthocyanins (TAC) and individual anthocyanins. Lipoxygenase (LOX) activity also increased after treatment. Furthermore, 16 fatty acids were detected. The linoleic acid concentration gradually increased with ABA concentration. The fatty acid content decreased with increasing MeJA concentration and then increased again, with the exception of linoleic acid. After exogenous ABA and MeJA treatment, the C6 aroma content increased significantly. Interestingly, the exogenous ABA and MeJA treatments improved mainly the content of 1-hexanol, hexanal, and 2-heptanol. These results provide insight into the effect of plant hormones on wine grapes, which is useful for grape quality improvement.
Topology Re-Configuration for On-Chip Networks with Back-Tracking

multiple applications is a critical feature of an NoC when several different applications are integrated into a single modern and complex multi-core system-on-chip or chip multiprocessor. In this paper, a novel reconfigurable architecture for networks-on-chip (NoC) on which arbitrary application-specific topologies can be implemented with backtracking which provides guaranteed throughput is presented. The proposed NoC supports multiple applications by configuring its topology to the topology which matches the input application and also supports a dead-and-live lock free dynamic path set-up scheme. The re-configurability can be achieved by changing the inter-router connections to some predefined configuration corresponding to the application. This increases the support for higher number of applications which further increases the traffic congestion leading to path blockages and substantially to data loss. To manage the blockages and to support a dead and live lock free dynamic path set-up scheme we go for back-tracking. This can be achieved with an efficient and proper design of on-chip switching nodes. This paper first introduces the proposed reconfigurable topology and then deals with the back-tracking feature. Finally the architecture is valuated for power and area.
Exploitation of multicore systems in a Java virtual machine

The Java®programming language and the Java virtual machine (JVM®) are intended to provide a level of abstraction from the underlying hardware and operating system (OS). This abstraction poses challenges from a performance perspective, because developers are often unable to make use of best-practice approaches during software development for their deployed OSs and hardware platforms. The rise of multicore processor systems has been swift and has changed many software developers' underlying assumptions with respect to the hardware over the last ten years. The role of the JVM is to hide such platform complexity by adapting appropriately through runtime analysis and reaction to application behavior. The JVM is an essential component for exploiting the full potential of multicore processor systems through effective management of the memory subsystem, removing impediments to application and system scalability with respect to the number of logical processors, producing efficient and highly optimized code, and providing user tools for monitoring and analysis. This paper reviews the key techniques and tools available in the IBM Developer Kit for the Java 6 release for managing and optimizing Java for multicore processor environments and describes performance results to demonstrate the effectiveness of such tools and techniques.
Challenges for Securing Cyber Physical Systems

We discuss three key challenges for securing cyberphysical systems: (1) understanding the threats, and possible consequences of attacks, (2) identifying the unique properties of cyber-physical systems and their differences from traditional IT security, and (3) discussing security mechanisms applicable to cyberphysical systems. In particular, we analyze security mechanisms for: prevention, detection and recovery, resilience and deterrence of attacks.