Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overexpression of S100A4 protein may be associated with the development and progression of pancreatic cancer

Aim: Accumulated evidence has suggested a relationship between S100A4 protein expression and the development and progression of pancreatic cancer (PC) while its role in diagnosis and prognosis of PC still keeps inconsistent. To obtain definitive associations between S100A4 and PC, a meta-analysis was conducted. Materials and Methods: The PubMed and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were electronically searched to identify studies reporting an association between S100A4 protein and PC. Statistical analyses were undergone with the utilization of STATA version 12.0 software. Results: Nine clinical studies with a total of 545 tumor samples were included in the meta-analysis. Results revealed that increased S100A4 expression were associated with the tumor-node-metastasis stages of PC (III-IV vs. I-II: odds ratio [OR] =5.50, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] =3.13–9.67, P < 0.001). Also, compared with 1–2 histologic grade of PC samples, S100A4 protein was expressed more frequently in samples with 3–4 histologic grade (grades 1–2 vs. grades 3–4: OR = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.05–6.24, P = 0.038). Conclusion: This meta-analysis showed that overexpression of S100A4 seems to be associated with tumor progression and poor prognosis of PC patients.
Promoting Gait Recovery and Limiting Neuropathic Pain After Spinal Cord Injury

Most persons living with a spinal cord injury experience neuropathic pain in the months following their lesion, at the moment where they receive intensive gait rehabilitation. Based on studies using animal models, it has been proposed that central sensitization in nociceptive pathways (maladaptive plasticity) and plasticity related to motor learning (adaptive plasticity) share common neural mechanisms and compete with each other. This article aims to address the discrepancy between the growing body of basic science literature supporting this hypothesis and the general belief in rehabilitation research that pain and gait rehabilitation represent two independent problems. First, the main findings from basic research showing interactions between nociception and learning in the spinal cord will be summarized, focusing both on evidence demonstrating the impact of nociception on motor learning and of motor learning on central sensitization. Then, the generalizability of these findings in animal models to humans will be discussed. Finally, the way potential interactions between nociception and motor learning are currently taken into account in clinical research in patients with spinal cord injury will be presented. To conclude, recommendations will be proposed to better integrate findings from basic research into future clinical research in persons with spinal cord injury.
Location of Corneal Epithelial Stem Cells

The longstanding concept that corneal epithelial stem cells reside mainly in the limbus is supported by the absence of major corneal epithelial differentiation markers, that is, K3 and K12 keratins, in limbal basal cells (these markers are expressed, however, in corneal basal cells, thus distinguishing the mode of keratin expression in corneal epithelium from that of all other stratified epithelia), the centripetal migration of corneal epithelial cells, the exclusive location of slow-cycling cells in the limbal basal layer, the superior in vitro proliferative potential of limbal epithelial cells, and the transplanted limbal cells' ability to reconstitute corneal epithelium in vivo (reviewed in refs 1–4). Moreover, previous data indicate that corneal and conjunctival epithelia represent two separate cell lineages (reviewed in refs 1–4). Majo et al. 5 suggested, however, that corneal and conjunctival epithelia are equipotent, and that identical oligo-potent stem cells are present throughout the corneal, limbal and conjunctival epithelia. We point out here that these suggestions are inconsistent with many known growth, differentiation and cell migration properties of the anterior ocular epithelia. Majo et al. suggested that corneal and conjunctival stem cells are equipotent because corneal epithelial cells could form goblet cells, and because cultured (thus somewhat 'de-differentiated') pig corneal and conjunctival cells shared a similar phenotype 5. They may have overlooked, however, reports showing that cultured rabbit corneal/ limbal epithelial cells, but not conjunctival cells, expressed K3/K12 keratins 6–8 ; conversely, conjunctival epithelial cells, but not corneal cells, formed goblet cells when transplanted into athymic mice 8,9. Similar phenotypic specificity was preserved in cultured human limbal/corneal and conjunctival cells 10. Moreover, human and rabbit studies showed that limbal epithelial cells, but not conjunctival cells, could restore a true corneal epithelium (reviewed in ref. 4). These data have established that limbal/corneal and conjunctival epithelia are not equipotent and that they represent two distinct cell lineages governed by their own stem cells (reviewed in refs 4, 9 and 10). Majo et al. suggested that corneal epithelium contained stem cells because corneal epithelium gave rise to large colonies, serially transplanted mouse central corneal epithelium could regenerate, and transplanted mouse limbal cells did not migrate centripetally 5. Although their data showed that some pig corneal cells have significant proliferative potential, this property is not unique to stem cells: some transit amplifying cells such as hair matrix are known to be able to divide numerous times. Hence, a more meaningful test is to …
An effective approach to group recommendation based on belief propagation

Recommender systems have been an active research topic for the past decade. Previous studies have primarily focused on recommendations to a single user. Recently, several interesting approaches to make group recommendations have been proposed. However, the accuracy of existing approaches is significantly affected by the size and cohesiveness of a group. In this paper, we present a novel approach that makes effective group recommendations regardless of the group size or cohesiveness. We first model the relationships between a set of users and a set of items as a bipartite graph from the ratings information. On this graph, we employ the belief propagation to determine probabilistically the target user group's preference on items. We also propose a new group type that reflects real-life groups effectively and helps better evaluation of group recommendation approaches. Through extensive experiments on a real-life data set, we show that the proposed approach is more accurate than the existing ones up to 20%.
Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation for Time-Varying OFDMA Relay Systems With Hybrid Energy Supplies

This paper investigates the energy-efficient resource allocation for orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access relay systems, where the system is supplied by the conventional utility grid and a renewable energy generator equipped with a storage device. The optimal usage of radio resource depends on the characteristics of the renewable energy generation and the mobile traffic, which exhibit both temporal and spatial diversities. The Lyapunov optimization method is used to decompose the problem into the joint flow control, radio resource allocation, and energy management without knowing a priori knowledge of system statistics. It is proven that the proposed algorithm can result in close-to-optimal performance with capacity-limited data buffer and storage device. Simulation results show that the flexible tradeoff between the system utility and the conventional energy consumption can be achieved. Compared with other schemes, the proposed algorithm demonstrates better performance.
Leg length, sitting height, and body proportions references for achondroplasia: New tools for monitoring growth

Achondroplasia is the most common form of inherited disproportionate short stature. We report leg length, sitting height, and body proportion curves for achondroplasia. Seven centile format of sitting height, leg length, sitting height/leg length ratio, sitting height/height ratio, and head circumference/height ratio were estimated by the LMS method. The Q‐test was applied to assess the goodness of fit. For comparison, centiles of sitting height and leg length were graphed using Argentine national growth references for achondroplasia and non‐achondroplasia populations. The sample consisted of 342 children with achondroplasia (171 males, 171 females) aged 0–18 years. The median (interquartile range) number of measurements per child was 6 (3, 12) for sitting height and 8 (3, 13) for head circumference. Median leg length increased from 14 cm at age 1 week to 44 and 40 cm (males and females, respectively) in achondroplasia adolescents which is 3.5 cm shorter than non‐achondroplasia children at age 1 week and, 38 cm shorter at adolescence. Median sitting height increased from 34 cm at birth to 86 and 81 in adolescents’ boys and girls respectively, only 5 cm shorter than non‐achondroplasia children. Sitting height/leg length decreased from 2.61 at birth to approximately 1.90 at adolescent. Median head circumference/height ratio decreased from 0.79 at birth to 0.46 at 18 years in both sexes. Growth of lower limbs is affected early in life and becomes more noticeable throughout childhood. The disharmonic growth between the less affected trunk and the severely affected limbs determine body disproportion in achondroplasia.
Annual Research Review: The state of autism intervention science progress, target psychological and biological mechanisms and future prospects

BACKGROUND There has been recent systematic review of key evidence in psychosocial intervention in autism but little review of biological treatments. METHODS We analyse the current literature from the perspective of intervention and mechanism targets across social and biological development. RESULTS The overall quality of trials evidence in autism intervention remains relatively low, despite some recent progress. Many treatments in common use have little or no evidence base. This is very concerning in such an important disorder. A variety of psychosocial interventions can show effect to improve some short-term effects on children's immediate dyadic social interactions, for instance with caregivers. But showing true effectiveness in this developmental disorder requires generalisation of such effects into wider social contexts, on autism symptoms and in long-term progress in development. Only a few interventions so far have begun to show this. A number of early phase interventions on biological targets have shown real promise, but none has yet progressed to larger scale effectiveness trials on behavioural or symptom outcomes. CONCLUSIONS There has been enough progress in psychosocial intervention research now to be able to begin to identify some evidence-based practice in autism treatment. To consolidate and improve outcomes, the next phase of intervention research needs improved trial design, and an iterative approach building on success. It may also include the testing of potential synergies between promising biological and psychosocial interventions.
A modification of intraluminal middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion model for ischemic stroke with laser Doppler flowmetry guidance in mice

Stroke is one of the common causes of death and disability in the world. The intraluminal middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) model is a “gold standard” in surgical ischemic stroke models. Here, we optimized the procedure of this model by ligating on external carotid artery (ECA) stump and two ligatures prepared on internal carotid artery, which could improve the success and survival rate in mice. The results show that ECA approach was superior to common carotid artery approach. Meanwhile, we found that the exposure of pterygopalatine artery was not an essential step for MCAO/R model in mice.
Characterization and Antimicrobial Activity of Silver Doped Hydroxyapatite Obtained by the Microwave Method

In this study, silver (Ag) doped hydroxyapatite (HA) was produced by the microwave method and its antimicrobial activity was investigated. The physical, chemical and structural characteristics of the material were determined using multi-purpose X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), and scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) apparatus. The amount of silver in the solutions of silver-doped hydroxyapatite obtained were determined with the use of an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy instrument (ICP-OES). The minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) of the silver doped hydroxyapatite (Ag-HA) against the test microorganisms was determined by the Broth Microdilution method. It was established that a concentration of 2.09-12.25 µg/ml was effective against gram-negative bacteria ( Escherichia coli ATCC 12228 , Salmonella typhimurium CCM 5445, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Klebsiella pneumoniae CCM 2318), and 4.18-12.25 µg/ml was effective against gram-positive bacteria ( Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538-P , Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212) and the yeast Candida albicans ATCC 10239. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.ms.22.3. 12133
rpsftm: An R Package for Rank Preserving Structural Failure Time Models

Treatment switching in a randomised controlled trial occurs when participants change from their randomised treatment to the other trial treatment during the study. Failure to account for treatment switching in the analysis (i.e. by performing a standard intention-to-treat analysis) can lead to biased estimates of treatment efficacy. The rank preserving structural failure time model (RPSFTM) is a method used to adjust for treatment switching in trials with survival outcomes. The RPSFTM is due to Robins and Tsiatis (1991) and has been developed by White et al. (1997, 1999). The method is randomisation based and uses only the randomised treatment group, observed event times, and treatment history in order to estimate a causal treatment effect. The treatment effect, ψ, is estimated by balancing counter-factual event times (that would be observed if no treatment were received) between treatment groups. G-estimation is used to find the value of ψ such that a test statistic Z(ψ) = 0. This is usually the test statistic used in the intention-to-treat analysis, for example, the log rank test statistic. We present an R package that implements the method of rpsftm.
Task-set generator for schedulability analysis using the TACLebench benchmark suite

Currently, real-time embedded systems evolve towards complex systems using new state of the art technologies such as multi-core processors and virtualization techniques. Both technologies require new real-time scheduling algorithms. For uniprocessor scheduling, utilization-based evaluation methodologies are well-established. For multi-core systems and virtualization, evaluating and comparing scheduling techniques using the tasks' parameters is more realistic. Evaluating such scheduling techniques requires relevant and standardised task sets. Scheduling algorithms can be evaluated at three levels: 1) using a mathematical model of the algorithm, 2) simulating the algorithm and 3) implementing the algorithm on the target platform. Generating task sets is straightforward in the case of the first two levels; only the parameters of the tasks are required. Evaluating and comparing scheduling algorithms on the target platform itself, however, requires executable tasks matching the predefined standardised task sets. Generating those executable tasks is not standardized yet. Therefore, we developed a task-set generator that generates reproducible, standardised task sets that are suitable at all levels. Besides generating the tasks' parameters, it includes a method that generates executables by combining publicly available benchmarks with known execution times. This paper presents and evaluates this task-set generator.
Study on Cytocompatability and Animal Implantation Test of Foam SiC

Foam SiC was prepared by macromolecule pyrogenation combined with reaction bonding method.The osteoblast-like cells MG63 were seeded and cultured in vitro on the foam SiC and observed under both SEM and TEM to further evaluate the cytocompatability of this novel material.The feasibility of the foam SiC as a bone replacement material for clinical treatment was also studied by establishing an animal model for repairing mandibular critical-sized defects in rabbits,and by using general observation,histological observation and bone histomorphometry.The results show that MG63 cells attach and grow well on the surface of the foam SiC,which indicates that the foam SiC is non-toxic and possesses good cytocompatibility.The 26 tested rabbits are all in healthy conditions and the wounds are healed completely.The different degree of osteogenesis is observed on both periphery and inner mesh of the foam SiC at each time point,and the foam SiC shows no adverse effect to the process of bone repair.It is found that both the rate of tetracycline fluorescence labeling and the new bone area on the foam SiC are lower than those of hydroxyapatite(HA) after 4w implantation,but there are no statistical differences after both 8w and 24w implantations,indicating that the foam SiC should be similar to HA in osteo-conduction ability judging from the long-term repair effect to mandibular defects.
Biobed system to reduce four pesticide organophosphorus point contamination at farm level.

A potential method for cleaning water from point-source pollution by organic compounds using biological reactors. In this study, five reactors were tested for their ability to retain and degrade pesticides. The pesticides tested were the insecticide chlorpyriphos ethyl (CE), malathion (MAL), dimethoate (DIM) and methamidophos (MET). The reactors were filled with differing mixtures of soil, bleaching earth and straw. The reactor volume was 10 L. Forced circulation of the contaminated solution was programmed to decontaminate the solution. Both retention and degradation of the compounds by the reactors was studied. The degradation rate of the pesticides in the reactors was fast. The reactors retained CE, MAL and DIM very strongly, and retained MET less strongly. The half-life of all pesticides in the reactors was less than 21 days, compared to literature values of 60–70 days in soil. The combined retention and fast degradation make the biofilter a feasible technique to reduce spill-related and point environmental contamination by pesticides. The technique is most effective against persistent pesticides, while for mobile pesticides, the efficiency can be improved with several passages of the contaminated solution through biofilters.
Bayesian Optimal Data Detector for Hybrid mmWave MIMO-OFDM Systems With Low-Resolution ADCs

Hybrid analog–digital precoding architectures and low-resolution analog-to-digital converter (ADC) receivers are two solutions to reduce hardware cost and power consumption for millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems with large antenna arrays. In this study, we consider a mmWave MIMO-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receiver with a generalized hybrid architecture in which a small number of radio frequency (RF) chains and low-resolution ADCs are employed simultaneously. Owing to the strong nonlinearity introduced by low-resolution ADCs, the task of data detection is challenging, particularly achieving a Bayesian optimal data detection. This study aims to fill this gap. By using a generalized expectation consistent signal recovery technique, we propose a computationally efficient data detection algorithm that provides a minimum mean-square error estimate on data symbols and is extended to a mixed-ADC architecture. Considering particular structure of MIMO-OFDM channel matrix, we provide a low-complexity realization in which only fast fourier transform (FFT) operation and matrix-vector multiplications are required. Furthermore, we present an analytical framework to study the theoretical performance of the detector in the large-system limit, which can precisely evaluate the performance expressions, such as mean-square error and symbol error rate. Based on this optimal detector, the potential of adding a few low-resolution RF chains and high-resolution ADCs for a mixed-ADC architecture is investigated. Simulation results confirm the accuracy of our theoretical analysis and can be used for system design rapidly. The results reveal that adding a few low-resolution RF chains to original unquantized systems can obtain significant gains.
Optimizing Therapeutic Effect of Aurora B Inhibition in Acute Myeloid Leukemia with AZD2811 Nanoparticles

Barasertib (AZD1152), a highly potent and selective aurora kinase B inhibitor, gave promising clinical activity in elderly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. However, clinical utility was limited by the requirement for a 7-day infusion. Here we assessed the potential of a nanoparticle formulation of the selective Aurora kinase B inhibitor AZD2811 (formerly known as AZD1152-hQPA) in preclinical models of AML. When administered to HL-60 tumor xenografts at a single dose between 25 and 98.7 mg/kg, AZD2811 nanoparticle treatment delivered profound inhibition of tumor growth, exceeding the activity of AZD1152. The improved antitumor activity was associated with increased phospho-histone H3 inhibition, polyploidy, and tumor cell apoptosis. Moreover, AZD2811 nanoparticles increased antitumor activity when combined with cytosine arabinoside. By modifying dose of AZD2811 nanoparticle, therapeutic benefit in a range of preclinical models was further optimized. At high-dose, antitumor activity was seen in a range of models including the MOLM-13 disseminated model. At these higher doses, a transient reduction in bone marrow cellularity was observed demonstrating the potential for the formulation to target residual disease in the bone marrow, a key consideration when treating AML. Collectively, these data establish that AZD2811 nanoparticles have activity in preclinical models of AML. Targeting Aurora B kinase with AZD2811 nanoparticles is a novel approach to deliver a cell-cycle inhibitor in AML, and have potential to improve on the clinical activity seen with cell-cycle agents in this disease. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(6); 1031–40. ©2017 AACR.
ASK: A Framework for Data Acquisition and Activity Recognition

This work puts forward a framework for the acquisition and processing of biosignals to indicate strain on the knee inflicted by human everyday activities. Such a framework involves the appropriate equipment in devices and sensors to capture factors that inflict strain on the knee, the long-term recording and archiving of corresponding multi-sensory biosignal data, the semi-automatic annotation and segmentation of these data, and the person-dependent or person-adaptive automatic recognition of strain. In this paper we present first steps toward our goal, i.e. person-dependent recognition of a small set of human everyday activities. The focus here is on the fully automatic end-to-end processing from signal input to recognition output. The framework was applied to collect and process a small pilot dataset from one person for a proof-of-concept validation and achieved 97% accuracy in recognizing instances of seven daily activities.