Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tumor pH controls the in vivo efficacy of weak acid and base chemotherapeutics

The extracellular pH of tumor tissue is significantly lower than the extracellular pH of normal tissue, whereas the intracellular pH of both tissues is similar. In principle, extracellular acidity may be expected to enhance the intracellular uptake and cytotoxicity of weak acid chemotherapeutics that are membrane permeable in their uncharged state and inhibit the efficacy of weak bases. However, procedures for assessing the role of the gradient as a determinant of drug efficacy in vivo by altering the pH gradient may also alter drug availability and thus mask or exaggerate the effect of the gradient change. In the present study, we have altered the extracellular pH of tumors and compared the effect of the resultant pH gradient change on the efficacy of a weak acid versus a weak base. This experimental design gives rise to a change in the ratio of chlorambucil- to doxorubicin-induced tumor growth delay, independent of possible changes in drug availability. The extracellular pH of the 54A human tumor in NCr/Sed/nu/nu mice was altered by administration of 5 mg/g i.v. glucose. The resultant 0.2 pH unit increase in the tumor cell pH gradient gives rise to a predicted 2.3-fold increase in the ratio of chlorambucil to doxorubicin growth delay. The experimentally measured change in the growth delay ratio was 2.1. The results provide compelling evidence that the pH gradient in a determinant of the efficacy of weak electrolytes in the complex in vivo environment and may be exploited for the treatment of cancer. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(5):1275–9]
The Modified Temperature Field of Ceramic Roller Kiln Based on DEPSO Algorithm

The relationship between ceramic roller kiln simulation model building parameters and temperature field uniformity is extremely difficult work. In this paper, DEPSO-CFD, a system integrated of an algorithm of hybrid particle swarm (PSO) with Differential Evolution (DE) operator, termed DEPSO, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), is proposed to meet the demand. And with the help of the efficient parallel calculation, the ceramic roller kiln temperature field uniformity is mainly researched by using Fluent and DEPSO algorithm. It proves that the system is of high speed and of excellent parameter exploration capability, and the final computational example is got; thus parallel-DEPSO-CFD is of great academic value and significant applicable value.
Breast Cancer Antiestrogen Resistance 3 (BCAR3) Promotes Cell Motility by Regulating Actin Cytoskeletal and Adhesion Remodeling in Invasive Breast Cancer Cells

Metastatic breast cancer is incurable. In order to improve patient survival, it is critical to develop a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate metastasis and the underlying process of cell motility. Here, we focus on the role of the adaptor molecule Breast Cancer Antiestrogen Resistance 3 (BCAR3) in cellular processes that contribute to cell motility, including protrusion, adhesion remodeling, and contractility. Previous work from our group showed that elevated BCAR3 protein levels enhance cell migration, while depletion of BCAR3 reduces the migratory and invasive capacities of breast cancer cells. In the current study, we show that BCAR3 is necessary for membrane protrusiveness, Rac1 activity, and adhesion disassembly in invasive breast cancer cells. We further demonstrate that, in the absence of BCAR3, RhoA-dependent signaling pathways appear to predominate, as evidenced by an increase in RhoA activity, ROCK-mediated phosphorylation of myosin light chain II, and large ROCK/mDia1-dependent focal adhesions. Taken together, these data establish that BCAR3 functions as a positive regulator of cytoskeletal remodeling and adhesion turnover in invasive breast cancer cells through its ability to influence the balance between Rac1 and RhoA signaling. Considering that BCAR3 protein levels are elevated in advanced breast cancer cell lines and enhance breast cancer cell motility, we propose that BCAR3 functions in the transition to advanced disease by triggering intracellular signaling events that are essential to the metastatic process.
Taxonomy and challenges of rendezvous algorithms in cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio network (CRN) is a new networking paradigm in which unlicensed users with cognitive radios can opportunistically access idle channels in the spectrum of licensed users without causing interference. Rendezvous is a fundamental and essential operation for unlicensed users to meet and establish a communication link on a common channel, so that information exchange and data communication can be carried out. This article presents a comprehensive review of existing rendezvous algorithms and a possible taxonomy. We focus on the most representative rendezvous algorithms and summarize their characteristics. The article further highlights research directions of future study on rendezvous.
Phenotypic variation and leaf fluctuating asymmetry in isolated populations of an endangered dwarf birch Betula ovalifolia in Hokkaido, Japan

Betula ovalifolia is an endangered tetraploid that is restricted to two isolated sites, Betsukai and Sarabetsu, in Hokkaido, Japan. Among 50 ramets sampled along transect(s) in the each site, 45 genets in Betsukai and 49 in Sarabetsu were discriminated by simple sequence repeat (SSR) phenotypes. Multivariate patterns in seven measurements for leaf morphology and frequency distributions of fragment lengths in four SSRs significantly differed between Betsukai and Sarabetsu, but the ranges of the morphological measurements and fragment lengths were largely overlapped between the two sites. In spite of the smaller population size in Sarabetsu than in Betsukai, coefficients of variation in most leaf measurements and richness/diversity of fragment lengths in all the SSRs were not smaller in Sarabetsu than in Betsukai. This result suggests that both morphological and molecular variation has been maintained even in the smaller population. Leaf fluctuating asymmetry (FA) was higher in Sarabetsu than in Betsukai. Longer and narrower leaves had higher FA than shorter and wider leaves. However, SSR variation was not significantly associated with leaf FA. These results imply that environmental stress due to dryness of habitats and competition with other plants, which may be stronger in Sarabetsu than in Betsukai, causes both the difference in leaf shape and the increase in leaf FA.
Constructing practical Fuzzy Extractors using QIM

Fuzzy extractors are a powerful tool to extract randomness from noisy data. A fuzzy extractor can extract randomness only if the source data is discrete while in practice source data is continuous. Using quantizers to transform continuous data into discrete data is a commonly used solution. However, as far as we know no study has been made of the effect of the quantization strategy on the performance of fuzzy extractors. We construct the encoding and the decoding function of a fuzzy extractor using quantization index modulation (QIM) and we express properties of this fuzzy extractor in terms of parameters of the used QIM. We present and analyze an optimal (in the sense of embedding rate) two dimensional construction. Our 6-hexagonal tiling construction offers ( log2 6 / 2-1) approx. 3 extra bits per dimension of the space compared to the known square quantization based fuzzy extractor.
Fast Multigrid Optimal Mass Transport for Image Registration and Morphing

In this paper we present a novel, computationally efficient algorithm for nonrigid 2D image registration based on the work of Haker et al.[1, 2]. We formulate the registration task as an Optimal Mass Transport (OMT) problem based on the Monge-Kantorovich theory. This approach gives a number of advantages over other conventional registration methods: (1) It is parameter free and no landmarks need to be specified, (2) it is symmetrical and the energy functional has a unique minimiser, and (3) it can register images where brightness constancy is an invalid assumption. Our algorithm solves the Optimal Mass Transport program via multi-resolution, multi-grid, and parallel methodologies on a consumer graphics processing unit (GPU). Although solving the OMT problem has been shown to be computationally expensive in the past, we show that our approach is almost two orders magnitude faster than previous work and is capable of finding transport maps with optimality measures (mean curl) previously unattainable by other works (which directly influences the quality of registration). We give results where the algorithm was used to register 2D short axis cardiac MRI images and to morph two image sets from a SOHO solar flare image sequence.
Facial Sketch Synthesis Using 2D Direct Combined Model-Based Face-Specific Markov Network

A facial sketch synthesis system is proposed, featuring a 2D direct combined model (2DDCM)-based face-specific Markov network. In contrast to the existing facial sketch synthesis systems, the proposed scheme aims to synthesize sketches, which reproduce the unique drawing style of a particular artist, where this drawing style is learned from a data set consisting of a large number of image/sketch pairwise training samples. The synthesis system comprises three modules, namely, a global module, a local module, and an enhancement module. The global module applies a 2DDCM approach to synthesize the global facial geometry and texture of the input image. The detailed texture is then added to the synthesized sketch in a local patch-based manner using a parametric 2DDCM model and a non-parametric Markov random field (MRF) network. Notably, the MRF approach gives the synthesized results an appearance more consistent with the drawing style of the training samples, while the 2DDCM approach enables the synthesis of outcomes with a more derivative style. As a result, the similarity between the synthesized sketches and the input images is greatly improved. Finally, a post-processing operation is performed to enhance the shadowed regions of the synthesized image by adding strong lines or curves to emphasize the lighting conditions. The experimental results confirm that the synthesized facial images are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the input images as well as the ground-truth sketches provided by the same artist. The representing power of the proposed framework is demonstrated by synthesizing facial sketches from input images with a wide variety of facial poses, lighting conditions, and races even when such images are not included in the training data set. Moreover, the practical applicability of the proposed framework is demonstrated by means of automatic facial recognition tests.
The impact of a high versus a low glycaemic index breakfast cereal meal on verbal episodic memory in healthy adolescents

Abstract In this study, healthy adolescents consumed either (i) a low glycaemic index breakfast cereal meal or (ii) a high glycaemic index breakfast cereal meal, before completing a test of verbal episodic memory in which the memory materials were encoded under conditions of divided attention. Analysis of remembering/forgetting indices revealed that the high glycaemic index breakfast group remembered significantly more items relative to the low glycaemic index breakfast group after a long delay. The superior performance observed in the high glycaemic index group, relative to the low glycaemic index group, may be due to the additional glucose availability provided by the high glycaemic index meal at the time of memory encoding. This increased glucose availability may be necessary for effective encoding under dual task conditions.
Robust information propagation through noisy neural circuits

Sensory neurons give highly variable responses to stimulation, which can limit the amount of stimulus information available to downstream circuits. Much work has investigated the factors that affect the amount of information encoded in these population responses, leading to insights about the role of covariability among neurons, tuning curve shape, etc. However, the informativeness of neural responses is not the only relevant feature of population codes; of potentially equal importance is how robustly that information propagates to downstream structures. For instance, to quantify the retina’s performance, one must consider not only the informativeness of the optic nerve responses, but also the amount of information that survives the spike-generating nonlinearity and noise corruption in the next stage of processing, the lateral geniculate nucleus. Our study identifies the set of covariance structures for the upstream cells that optimize the ability of information to propagate through noisy, nonlinear circuits. Within this optimal family are covariances with “differential correlations”, which are known to reduce the information encoded in neural population activities. Thus, covariance structures that maximize information in neural population codes, and those that maximize the ability of this information to propagate, can be very different. Moreover, redundancy is neither necessary nor sufficient to make population codes robust against corruption by noise: redundant codes can be very fragile, and synergistic codes can—in some cases—optimize robustness against noise.
A Touch Screen Interface for Point-Of-Sale Applications in Retail Stores

iii Abstract This thesis describes the development of a touch screen prototype for a Point-Of-Sale (POS) application. POS is a demanding environment that requires the interface to be responsive, accurate and easy to use. This, in combination with the special needs that arise from touch screen interaction, makes it a prime candidate for design driven by findings in human-computer interaction. A theoretic walkthrough of touch screen specific problems was conducted to clarify why a touch screen Graphical User Interface (GUI) requires special attention. Touch screen problem areas include handedness, finger resolution and lack of tactile feedback. The theoretical findings are made more concrete with a set of 14 guidelines for designing touch screen GUIs. The guidelines are specifically made for POS applications where the users are experts. The guidelines were used to design the touch screen prototype that was based on an existing Java POS application and therefore fully functional. The concrete guidelines answer the question of how to design a touch screen GUI. Results from informal evaluations of the prototype imply that the guidelines have been useful and that the recommendations they provide are valid. Preface v Preface When I first came to Extenda, the subject of my thesis and the goal of the project were unspecified. The only thing both parts knew, was that I should do something that would be a challenge for me and useful to Extenda. I had initially contacted Extenda with a proposal to improve their POS system , which I had been using as a cashier for several years. They liked my idea, but thought I would be more useful in some other project. The question was which one. After an initial meeting, we decided that I should work on a touch screen prototype that was due to be presented before the end of the year. This, being a big challenge, made me feel both excited and a bit worried about the high expectations. Due to some unfortunate events I also became the only person involved in the project. Now, four months later, I have crossed the finish line. When the project started, I never thought it would be possible to finish in time, but here I am, writing this preface with the prototype running on a touch screen monitor a few meters away.
Nerves and nerve plexuses of the human vertebral column.

The origin, distribution, and termination pattern of nerves supplying the vertebral column and its associated structures have been studied in the human fetus by means of an acetylcholinesterase whole-mount method. The vertebral column is surrounded by ventral and dorsal nerve plexuses which are interconnected. The ventral nerve plexus consists of the nerve plexus associated with the anterior longitudinal ligament. This longitudinally oriented nerve plexus has a bilateral supply from many small branches of the sympathetic trunk, rami communicantes, and perivascular nerve plexuses of segmental arteries. In the thoracic region, the ventral nerve plexus also is connected to the nerve plexuses of costovertebral joints. The dorsal nerve plexus is made up of the nerve plexus associated with the posterior longitudinal ligament. This nerve plexus is more irregular and receives contributions only from the sinu-vertebral nerves. The sinu-vertebral nerves originate from the rami communicantes and, in the cervical region, also from the nerve plexus of the vertebral artery. Thick and thin sinu-vertebral nerves are found. Most frequently three types of thick sinu-vertebral nerves are observed, i.e., ascending, descending, or dichotomizing ones. Finally, the distribution of the branches of the ventral and dorsal nerve plexuses and of the sinu-vertebral nerves is described.
On the decomposition of k-valued rational relations

We give a new, and hopefully more easily understandable, structural proof of the decomposition of a $k$-valued transducer into $k$ unambiguous functional ones, a result established by A. Weber in 1996. Our construction is based on a lexicographic ordering of computations of automata and on two coverings that can be build by means of this ordering. The complexity of the construction, measured as the number of states of the transducers involved in the decomposition, improves the original one by one exponential. Moreover, this method allows further generalisation that solves the problem of decomposition of rational relations with bounded length-degree, which was left open in Weber's paper.
Low molecular weight mRNA encodes a protein that controls serotonin 5- HT1c and acetylcholine M1 receptor sensitivity in Xenopus oocytes

Serotonin 5-HT1c and acetylcholine M1 receptors activate phosphoinositidase, resulting in an increased formation of IP3 and 1,2 diacylglycerol. In Xenopus oocytes injected with mRNA encoding either of these receptors, Ca2+ released from intracellular stores in response to IP3 then opens Ca(2+)-gated Cl-channels. In the present experiments, oocytes expressing a transcript from a cloned mouse serotonin 5-HT1c receptor were exposed to identical 15-s pulses of agonist, administered 2 min apart; the second current response was two to three times that of the first. However, in those oocytes coinjected with the 5-HT1c receptor transcript and a low molecular weight fraction (0.3-1.5 kb) of rat brain mRNA, the second current response was approximately 50% of the first. Thus, the low molecular weight RNA encodes a protein (or proteins) that causes desensitization. Experiments using fura-2 or a Ca(2+)-free superfusate indicated that desensitization of the 5-HT1c receptor response does not result from a sustained elevation of intracellular Ca2+ level or require the entry of extracellular Ca2+. Photolysis of caged IP3 demonstrated that an increase in IP3 and a subsequent rise in Ca2+ do not produce desensitization of either the IP3 or 5-HT1c peak current responses. Furthermore, in oocytes coinjected with the low molecular weight RNA and a transcript from the rat M1 acetylcholine receptor, the M1 current response was greatly attenuated. Our data suggest that the proteins involved in attenuation of the M1 current response and desensitization of the 5-HT1c current response may be the same.
Anaemia in schoolchildren in eight countries in Africa and Asia

Abstract Objective To report on the haemoglobin concentrations and prevalence of anaemia in schoolchildren in eight countries in Africa and Asia. Design Blood samples were collected during surveys of the health of schoolchildren as a part of programmes to develop school-based health services. Setting Rural schools in Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania and Vietnam. Subjects Nearly 14 000 children enrolled in basic education in three age ranges (7–11 years, 12–14 years and Ä15 years) which reflect the new UNICEF/WHO thresholds to define anaemia. Results Anaemia was found to be a severe public health problem (defined as >40% anaemic) in five African countries for children aged 7–11 years and in four of the same countries for children aged 12–14 years. Anaemia was not a public health problem in the children studied in the two Asian countries. More boys than girls were anaemic, and children who enrolled late in school were more likely to be anaemic than children who enrolled closer to the correct age. The implications of the four new thresholds defining anaemia for school-age children are examined. Conclusions Anaemia is a significant problem in schoolchildren in sub-Saharan Africa. School-based health services which provide treatments for simple conditions that cause blood loss, such as worms, followed by multiple micronutrient supplements including iron, have the potential to provide relief from a large burden of anaemia.
Cell-aware Production test results from a 32-nm notebook processor

This paper describes a new approach for significantly improving overall defect coverage for CMOS-based designs. We present results from a defect-oriented cell-aware (CA) library characterization and pattern-generation flow and its application to 1,900 cells of a 32-nm technology. The CA flow enabled us to detect cell-internal bridges and opens that caused static, gross-delay, and small-delay defects. We present highvolume production test results from a 32-nm notebook processor to which CA test patterns were applied, including the defect rate reduction in PPM that was achieved after testing 800,000 parts. We also present cell-internal diagnosis and physical failure analysis results from one failing part.
OneSpace: shared depth-corrected video interaction

Video conferencing commonly employs a video portal metaphor to connect individuals from remote spaces. In this work, we explore an alternate metaphor, a shared depth-mirror, where video images of two spaces are fused into a single shared, depth-corrected video space. We realize this metaphor in OneSpace, where the space respects virtual spatial relationships between people and objects as if all parties were looking at a mirror together. We report preliminary observations of OneSpace's use, noting that it encourages cross-site, full-body interactions, and that participants employed the depth cues in their interactions. Based on these observations, we argue that the depth mirror offers new opportunities for shared video interaction.