Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased Oxidative Stress as a Selective Anticancer Therapy

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are closely related to tumorgenesis. Under hypoxic environment, increased levels of ROS induce the expression of hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) in cancer stem cells (CSCs), resulting in the promotion of the upregulation of CSC markers, and the reduction of intracellular ROS level, thus facilitating CSCs survival and proliferation. Although the ROS level is regulated by powerful antioxidant defense mechanisms in cancer cells, it is observed to remain higher than that in normal cells. Cancer cells may be more sensitive than normal cells to the accumulation of ROS; consequently, it is supposed that increased oxidative stress by exogenous ROS generation therapy has an effect on selectively killing cancer cells without affecting normal cells. This paper reviews the mechanisms of redox regulation in CSCs and the pivotal role of ROS in anticancer treatment.
Mass Definitions for Boson Stars in Brans Dicke Gravity

We consider boson stars in Brans Dicke gravity, focusing on general ω weak field solutions and ω = −1 strong field solutions. We discuss three definitions of quasilocal mass adapted to the spherical symmetry of the solutions: the Schwarzschild mass, the Keplerian mass and the Tensor mass, and discuss how the asymptotic values of these masses may be derived from an ADM-like formula. We show that in all solutions there is a region in which the Schwarzschild mass has a negative gradient and that in the weak field limit, the ADM mass of the star is negative for ω < −1. We reject the Schwarzschild and ADM masses as descriptions of the quasilocal and total energies of the star. The Tensor and Keplerian masses are well behaved for all weak field solutions and all ω = −1 strong field solutions. However, the maximum Keplerian mass solution does not correspond to the maximum rest mass solution and so we reject the Keplerian mass as a measure of the star's energy. The maximum Tensor mass solution does have this property, and we conjecture that this quantity correctly describes the energy of the star.
The Intersection of Carnivores and Humans: Addressing current challenges in carnivore ecology, conservation, and management

Author(s): Yovovich, Veronica | Advisor(s): Wilmers, Christopher C | Abstract: Conflict between humans and carnivores, be it competition for space, food (wild prey or livestock), or other resources, has led to carnivore declines across the globe. Conservation goals can no longer be accomplished solely by setting aside protected areas. An expanding human population is increasingly forcing us to create new viable strategies to coexist with wildlife across rapidly changing landscapes. Managing the needs of our growing human population while also maintaining the resources necessary for large carnivore survival will become increasingly important. This will require building new understandings of coupled human-carnivore systems, and developing innovative tools for conflict mitigation. Preventing conflict is critical for minimizing negative impacts to people and predators alike, and an important first step is understanding the interactions between the two.My research uses a variety of tools to explore the influence of anthropogenic activities on various components of puma (Puma concolor) behavior and ecology in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. In my first chapter, I describe the spatial interaction between anthropogenic activities and habitat for sensitive puma reproductive behaviors. I found that future development will shrink suitable habitat and increase patchiness, making it increasingly difficult for pumas to locate and access suitable nursery and communication areas. My second chapter addresses the spatial interactions between humans, top carnivores, herbivores, and woody plants. This research links a human-initiated trophic cascade to changes in individual plant architecture, changes which have the potential to create a positive feedback loop further amplifying the influence of these altered relationships. My final chapter evaluates the agreement between GPS- and stable isotope-based methods for estimating carnivore diets and integrates puma energetics to predict prey consumption. I found that stable isotope analyses and GPS cluster methods showed similar prey item use on the population-level, but differed significantly on an individual-level.
An integrated approach to the symbolic control design of nonlinear systems with infinite states specifications

In this paper we address the problem of symbolic control design of nonlinear control systems with infinite states specifications, modelled by differential equations. An algorithm for the design of symbolic controllers is presented, which integrates the construction of the discrete abstractions of the plant and of the specification with the design of the controller. This integrated algorithm reduces the space complexity of the control design computations, as formally discussed in the paper and further illustrated through an illustrative example.
The Compact Discontinuous Galerkin (CDG) Method for Elliptic Problems

We present a compact discontinuous Galerkin (CDG) method for an elliptic model problem. The problem is first cast as a system of first order equations by introducing the gradient of the primal unknown, or flux, as an additional variable. A standard discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is then applied to the resulting system of equations. The numerical interelement fluxes are such that the equations for the additional variable can be eliminated at the element level, thus resulting in a global system that involves only the original unknown variable. The proposed method is closely related to the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method [B. Cockburn and C. -W. Shu, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. , 35 (1998), pp. 2440-2463], but, unlike the LDG method, the sparsity pattern of the CDG method involves only nearest neighbors. Also, unlike the LDG method, the CDG method works without stabilization for an arbitrary orientation of the element interfaces. The computation of the numerical interface fluxes for the CDG method is slightly more involved than for the LDG method, but this additional complication is clearly offset by increased compactness and flexibility. Compared to the BR2 [F. Bassi and S. Rebay, J. Comput. Phys., 131 (1997), pp. 267-279] and IP [J. Douglas, Jr., and T. Dupont, in Computing Methods in Applied Sciences (Second Internat. Sympos., Versailles, 1975), Lecture Notes in Phys. 58, Springer, Berlin, 1976, pp. 207-216] methods, which are known to be compact, the present method produces fewer nonzero elements in the matrix and is computationally more efficient.
Research on Event Prediction Algorithm Based on Event Sequence Semantic

Event prediction in event stream is an important problem in temporal data mining. However, existing event prediction algorithms are based on string prediction in which a character represents an event or an event type, do not take into account event sequence semantic and can not predict for infrequent event sequences. In this paper, an event prediction algorithm based on event sequence semantic called SVClustering-SVR is proposed to predict probability of target event occurrence in event stream in appointed interval. We build a vector structure called semantic vector to express event sequence semantic, and then utilize the attributes of standardizing semantic vector and confidence of rule which is generated by event sequences and target event to form samples space. Finally, we use Support Vector Regression (SVR) to build prediction model. To improve the accuracy of prediction, we also define semantic distance between event sequences and cluster semantic vectors. SVClustering-SVR algorithm can predict for infrequent event sequences and those not appeared in training set. Experimental results show the effectiveness of SVClustering-SVR algorithm.
Image Transmission over Multipath Fading Channel and Image Denoising using Directional Weighted Median Filter

noise is often introduced into images during transmission contaminating the images due to channel errors. Based on the noise values, impulse noise can be classified as Fixed Valued Impulsive Noise or Salt and Pepper Noise(SPN) and Random Valued Impulsive Noise(RVIN). In this paper, an inpainting algorithm is presented based on Directional Weighted Median(DWM) Filter to denoise both the noises caused due to image transmission over multipath fading channel. The algorithm diffuses median value of pixels from the exterior area into the inner area and thus preserves the edges and fine details. The random valued impulsive noise and salt and pepper noise due to wireless channel modeled are simulated using MATLAB channel objects. The detection algorithm combined with the image correction based on DWMF shows better performance in terms of Peak Signal-to- Noise Ratio(PSNR) and Mean Absolute Error(MAE).
Bidirectionality between pain and insomnia symptoms: a prospective study.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a bidirectional relationship between pain and insomnia symptoms over the course of a year. DESIGN A longitudinal design with a 1-year follow-up was used. METHODS From a randomly selected sample of the adult general population (N= 3,000), 1,746 individuals filled out a baseline and 1-year follow-up survey on pain, insomnia symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS Pain (OR = 1.64) and anxiety symptoms increased the risk for the incidence of insomnia symptoms (R(2) = . 125) and pain (OR = 1.98), anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms were related to the persistence of insomnia symptoms (R(2) = . 212). Gender and anxiety symptoms increased the risk for the incidence of pain (R(2) = . 073); and age, insomnia symptoms (OR = 1.49), anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms were associated with the persistence of pain (R(2) = . 187). CONCLUSION While pain was linked to future insomnia symptoms and insomnia symptoms to the persistence of pain over the course of a year, insomnia symptoms was not associated with the incidence of pain. The results, thus, partly argue against bidirectionality between pain and insomnia symptoms.
Juxtacortical Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis: Assessment of Gray Matter Involvement Using Phase Difference-enhanced Imaging (PADRE)

Purpose: In multiple sclerosis (MS), a juxtacortical lesion at the border between the gray matter (GM) and subcortical white matter (WM) may often involve the GM. A recently developed, phase-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique “phase difference enhanced imaging (PADRE)” can delineate the GM and WM clearly due to the difference in myelin concentration. We evaluated whether PADRE is useful for the detection of GM involvement in the juxtacortical MS lesions. Methods: One neuroradiologist reviewed the conventional MRI in 13 MS patients and selected 48 juxtacortical lesions. At the first reading session with the conventional MRI alone (T2-weighted imaging, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery), two other neuroradiologists classified the lesions into three patterns according to their anatomical locations: (a) subcortical WM lesions involving the subcortical WM alone; (b) intracortical (IC) lesions involving the GM alone; (c) mixed GM/subcortical WM (mixed) lesions involving the both subcortical WM and GM. We defined the subcortical WM as a WM within a distance of 10 mm from inner edge of the GM. For the analyses, we excluded the white matter lesions further than 10 mm from inner edge of the GM. At the second reading session MRI and PADRE were available and the radiologists re-evaluated their prior classification. Results: At the first reading session, 27 lesions were classified as (a), 1 as (b), and 20 as (c). Therefore, a total of 21 lesions (44%) were judged to involve the GM. At the second reading session, the classification of 15 (31%) lesions changed; all 15 lesions were judged to involve the GM on the PADRE. Interobserver agreement (kappa value) was 0.84 for the first- and 0.95 for the second reading session. Conclusion: PADRE is useful for detecting GM involvement of the juxtacortical MS lesions.
Undifferentiated connective tissue disease with antibodies to Ro/SSa: clinical features and follow-up of 148 patients.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical and serologic profile, the rate of progression to well defined CTD and the possible predictors of disease evolution in patients affected by UCTD with antibodies anti-RoISSA. METHODS 148 patients diagnosed as UCTD were retrospectively evaluated. Antibodies to SSA/Ro were determined by counter-immunoelectrophoresis and ELISA. RESULTS Thirty-six patients (24.3%) developed a well-defined CTD after a mean follow-up of 4.5 years. Most patients developed primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) (50%) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (30.5%). Leukopenia and xerophthalmia developed more frequently in the group of patients evolving to defined CTDs (p < 0.0032 and p < 0.0063). Leukopenia independently predicted the evolution in CTD by multivariate regression analysis (p < 0.019). Anti-dsDNA predicted the evolution in SLE (p < 0.0207), while the presence of additional anti-ENA specificity to anti-Ro/SSA was not associated with the outcome. CONCLUSION 24.3% of patients with UCTD and antibodies to Ro/SSA can progress in a relatively short period of time to well-defined CTDs. The development of primary SS could be predicted by xerophthalmia and SLE by the appearance of anti-dsDNA antibodies.
Tachykinins activate guinea‐pig alveolar macrophages: involvement of NK2 and NK1 receptors

1 The effects of substance P (SP), neurokinin A (NKA) and neurokinin B (NKB) were evaluated on superoxide anion () production by guinea‐pig alveolar macrophages (AM). 2 SP dose‐dependently (ED50 = 0.7 nm) evoked production from guinea‐pig AM; the N‐terminal heptapeptide, SP(1–7), was ineffective. In the presence of thiorphan (10−5 m), an enkephalinase inhibitor, the stimulating effects of SP were not significantly modified. NKA and NKB were both able to induce production from guinea‐pig AM, ED50 values being 0.1 and 1.3 nm, respectively. Therefore, the rank order of activity of natural tachykinins was NKA > SP > NKB. Tachykinin‐evoked effects were quantitatively similar to those elicited by the autacoid mediator PAF‐acether and less than those induced by the synthetic peptide N‐formylmethionyl‐leucyl‐phenylalanine (FMLP). 3 The NK2 receptor agonist [β‐Ala8]‐NKA (4–10) dose‐dependently evoked production from guinea‐pig AM; the NK1 receptor agonist [Pro9]‐SP sulphone acted only at high concentrations, while the NK3 receptor agonist [Me, Phe7]‐NKB was ineffective. 4 These findings indicate that guinea‐pig AM possess NK2 and possibly some NK1 tachykinin receptors and further suggest tachykinin involvement in lung pathophysiology.
An LDA-smoothed relevance model for document expansion: a case study for spoken document retrieval

Document expansion (DE) in information retrieval (IR) involves modifying each document in the collection by introducing additional terms into the document. It is particularly useful to improve retrieval of short and noisy documents where the additional terms can improve the description of the document content. Existing approaches to DE assume that documents to be expanded are from a single topic. In the case of multi-topic documents this can lead to a topic bias in terms selected for DE and hence may result in poor retrieval quality due to the lack of coverage of the original document topics in the expanded document. This paper proposes a new DE technique providing a more uniform selection and weighting of DE terms from all constituent topics. We show that our proposed method significantly outperforms the most recently reported relevance model based DE method on a spoken document retrieval task for both manual and automatic speech recognition transcripts.
SLAM and Localization of People with a Mobile Robot using a RGB-D Sensor

The evolution of Robotics lead us to aspire replacing human beings by autonomous robotic systems in the most discomforting or dangerous situations, and even to have them performing tasks that humans are incapable of. Such situations are often encountered when facing a catastrophic scenario and human rescue teams put themselves at risk in their heroic attempt to rescue victims. In nowadays society, the human life is highly valued and, consequently, Search and Rescue (SaR) missions became of extreme importance, precisely because their accomplishment can save several human lives. For that reason, rescue teams are heavily trained and, since they also comprise human beings, heavily equipped. However, they often lack technological tools to perform their mission better and in safety. The main objective of this work is to study, develop and validate a fully-integrated robotic system to eventually explore catastrophic scenarios, by providing a map of the area and the people it detected while performing its task. This is a vital information in SaR missions, and this work aims at achieving this without risking a human life in the process. To that end, a mobile robot with a Red-Blue-Green and Depth (RGB-D) sensor mounted on its top was used. Furthermore, all approaches and methods were implemented in Robot Operating System (ROS) and thoroughly analyzed to assess their accuracy and performance. However, due to hardware limitations, the results are comprehensively not optimal, but they still provide useful information that might be of great help in SaR missions. Moreover, the study and analysis of this type of sensor and its usability are valuable and are now available for upcoming developments. This work is part of the Cooperation between Human and rObotic teams in catastroPhic INcidents (CHOPIN) project, which intends to develop a support system for small-scale SaR missions in urban catastrophic scenarios by exploiting human-robot cooperation.
The relation between adult height and haemorrhagic and ischaemic stroke in the Renfrew/Paisley study

Adult height is a useful marker of fetal growth, growth and nutrition in childhood and childhood infections. Studies reporting inverse associations between height and stroke therefore provide support for the hypothesis that exposures acting in early life are important determinants of risk of stroke.1 2 However, few studies have been able to examine the association between height and stroke subtype. We recently showed that height is inversely related to ischaemic stroke, but because of small numbers it was not possible to robustly analyse the association between height and haemorrhagic stroke.1 A Norwegian study has shown a stronger inverse association with haemorrhagic compared with ischaemic stroke, but adjustment for socioeconomic position was not possible.2We recently reported a significant inverse association between height and stroke mortality in both men and women in the Renfrew/Paisley cohort.3 Here we examine the association between height and subtype of incident stroke in this cohort. The Renfrew/Paisley study, carried out between 1972 and 1976, involved 15 406 (almost 80%) residents aged 45–64 years from the towns of Renfrew and Paisley. Participants were representative of the population of the west of Scotland. Full …
Predominant Staphylococcus aureusIsolated from Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea Is Clinically Relevant and Produces Enterotoxin A and the Bicomponent Toxin LukE-LukD

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus was isolated as the predominant or only isolate from cultures of stools of 60 patients over 2 years in a university hospital, leading to the collection of 114 isolates. Diarrhea was observed in 90% of the patients. Ninety-eight percent of the patients had received antibiotics in the month before the diarrhea. Ninety-two percent of the S. aureus isolates were methicillin resistant. S. aureus was encountered with antibiotic-associated diarrhea among 47 quite elderly patients affected or not affected by a gastrointestinal disease. Among the antimicrobial treatments, cessation of the previous therapy when possible or rapid application of oral vancomycin therapy was the most appropriate. Analysis of total DNA by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed 27 different SmaI pulsotypes distributed in 15 clusters. The pulsotypes never differed for related isolates from a single patient, even if they originated from patients with bacteremia. S. aureus was not isolated as the predominant isolate in cultures of stools of 57 patients who received an antimicrobial treatment for more than 5 days without diarrhea. Occurence of production of both enterotoxin A and the bicomponent leucotoxin LukE-LukD by the S. aureus isolates was significantly different from that by random isolates. The results strongly suggest that when predominant in stool samples, S. aureus should be considered a possible etiologic agent for some cases of antibiotic-associated diarrhea.
Dorsoventral patterning of the Xenopus eye: a collaboration of Retinoid, Hedgehog and FGF receptor signaling

In the developing spinal cord and telencephalon, ventral patterning involves the interplay of Hedgehog (Hh), Retinoic Acid (RA) and Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) signaling. In the eye, ventral specification involves Hh signaling, but the roles of RA and FGF signaling are less clear. By overexpression assays in Xenopus embryos, we found that both RA and FGF receptor (FGFR) signaling ventralize the eye, by expanding optic stalk and ventral retina, and repressing dorsal retina character. Co-overexpression experiments show that RA and FGFR can collaborate with Hh signaling and reinforce its ventralizing activity. In loss-of-function experiments, a strong eye dorsalization was observed after triple inhibition of Hh, RA and FGFR signaling, while weaker effects were obtained by inhibiting only one or two of these pathways. These results suggest that the ventral regionalization of the eye is specified by interactions of Hh, RA and FGFR signaling. We argue that similar mechanisms might control ventral neural patterning throughout the central nervous system.
Combined Head - Eye Tracking for Immersive Virtual Reality

Real-time gaze tracking is a promising interaction technique for virtual environments. Immersive projection-based virtual reality systems such as the CAVE TM allow users a wide range of natural movements. Unfortunately, most head and eye movement measurement techniques are of limited use during free head and body motion. An improved head-eye tracking system is proposed and developed for use in immersive applications with free head motion. The system is based upon a head-mounted video-based eye tracking system and a hybrid ultrasound-inertial head tracking system. The system can measure the point of regard in a scene in real-time during relatively large head movements. The system will serve as a flexible testbed for evaluating novel gaze-contingent interaction techniques in virtual environments. The calibration of the head-eye tracking system is one of the most important issues that need to be addressed. In this paper, a simple view-based calibration method is proposed.