Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variant CD44 expression is enriching for a cell population with cancer stem cell-like characteristics in human lung adenocarcinoma

Background: Preliminary studies have identified cancer stem cells (CSCs) in various cancers and there are several ongoing clinical studies targeting these cells. CD44 (standard or variant isoforms) and/or aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) expression is the most commonly used markers for the identification of CSCs. The goal of the current study was to examine the ability of CD44v, either alone or in combination with ALDH, to identify CSCs within human lung cancer cells lines. Methods: We examined several lung adenocarcinoma cell lines for the ability of CD44v and/or ALDH expression to enrich for cells with CSC characteristics such as in vitro differential proliferation rate, chemotherapeutic-resistance, tumorsphere formation, and in vivo tumorigenicity. We also compared their in vivo secondary tumor formation, and histological characteristics of their xenograft tumors, and examined their expression of PD-L1, EGFR, xCT, and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Results: Both CD44vhigh/ALDHhigh and CD44vhigh/ALDHlow cells were enriched in cells with CSC characteristics, with the CD44vhigh/ALDHlow cells being more proliferative and more resistant to chemotherapeutics, whereas CD44vhigh/ALDHhigh cells were more efficient in forming tumorspheres in vitro, in making primary xenograft tumors, and in propagating secondary tumors in vivo. Applying stricter sorting gates to select for cells with the highest CD44v/ALDH expression caused the CD44vhigh/ALDHlow cells to lose their high proliferation rates and chemotherapeutic resistance ability, but enriched for the tumorsphere-forming cells among the CD44vhigh/ALDHhigh and CD44vhigh/ALDHlow cells. CD44vhigh expression was associated with PD-L1 and xCT expression in both H1650 and HCC827 cells. This association was not modified by ALDH expression in the H1650 cell line. However, in the HCC827 cell line, ALDH expression was negatively associated with PD-L1 and positively associated with xCT expression. Conclusion: Lung adenocarcinoma cells with high CD44v expression are enriched for CSCs. Addition of ALDH as an enrichment marker bestowed some CSCs characteristics to CD44vhigh/ALDHlow cells and others to CD44vhigh/ALDHhigh cells. We propose that lung adenocarcinoma contains different CSCs, each of them endowed with different CSC characteristics.
First-Week Protein and Energy Intakes Are Associated With 18-Month Developmental Outcomes in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants

OBJECTIVE. We sought to evaluate the association between early protein and energy intake and neurodevelopment and growth of extremely low birth weight (<1000 g) infants. STUDY DESIGN. Daily protein and energy intakes were collected by chart review for the first 4 weeks of life on 148 extremely low birth weight survivors. A total of 124 infants (84%) returned for evaluation at 18 months' corrected age. Bivariate analysis tested correlations between weekly protein or energy intakes and Bayley Mental Development Index, Psychomotor Development Index, or growth at 18 months. Separate regression models evaluated contributions of protein (grams per kilogram per day) and energy intake (kilojoules per kilogram per day) to the Mental Development Index, Psychomotor Development Index, and growth, while controlling for known confounders. RESULTS. After adjusting for confounding variables, week 1 energy and protein intakes were each independently associated with the Mental Development Index. During week 1, every 42 kJ (10 kcal)/kg per day were associated with a 4.6-point increase in the Mental Development Index and each gram per kilogram per day in protein intake with an 8.2-point increase in the Mental Development Index; higher protein intake was also associated with lower likelihood of length <10th percentile. CONCLUSIONS. Increased first-week protein and energy intakes are associated with higher Mental Development Index scores and lower likelihood of length growth restrictions at 18 months in extremely low birth weight infants. Emphasis should be placed on providing more optimal protein and energy during this first week.
The Privacy Coach: Supporting customer privacy in the Internet of Things

The Privacy Coach is an application running on a mobile phone that supports customers in making privacy decisions when confronted with RFID tags. The approach we take to increase customer privacy is a radical departure from the mainstream research efforts that focus on implementing privacy enhancing technologies on the RFID tags themselves. Instead the Privacy Coach functions as a mediator between customer privacy preferences and corporate privacy policies, trying to find a match between the two, and informing the user of the outcome. In this paper we report on the architecture of the Privacy Coach, and show how it enables users to make informed privacy decisions in a user-friendly manner. We also spend considerable time to discuss lessons learnt and to describe future plans to further improve on the Privacy Coach concept.
Consistent hemodynamic response function estimation in functional MRI by first order differencing

Non-parametric hemodynamic response function (HRF) estimation in noisy functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) plays an important role when investigating the temporal dynamic of a brain region response during activations. Assuming the drift Lipschitz continuous; a new algorithm for non-parametric HRF estimation is derived in this paper. The proposed algorithm estimates the HRF by applying a first order differencing to the fMRI time series samples. It is shown that the proposed HRF estimator is √(N) consistent. Its performance is assessed using both simulated and a real fMRI data sets obtained from an event-related fMRI experiment. The application results reveal that the proposed HRF estimation method is efficient both computationally and in term of accuracy.
A PRIVACY-PRESERVING PERSONALIZED WEB SEARCH ( PWS ) FRAMEWORK UPS

Personalized Web Search has established to improve the quality of various search services on the Internet. Due to tremendous data opportunities in the internet, the privacy protection is very important to preserve user search behaviors and their profiles. In the existing system the generalized algorithm namely Greedy DP algorithm were applied to protect private data’s in personalized search engine. The existing systems failed to resist sequential and background knowledge adversaries who has the broader background knowledge such as richer relationship among topics. The proposed framework introduces vector quantization approach piecewise on the datasets which segmentize each row of datasets and that quantization approach is performed on each segment, using the proposed approach which later is again united to form a transformed data set. The proposed work is implemented and is analyzed using certain parameters such as Precision, Recall, Frequency Measure, Distortion and Computational Delay.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Free Will, and Control

Abstract: In psychiatric literature obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is often linked to the issue of ‘control. ’ More precisely, one of the views on OCD is that there is some ‘extra’ or ‘excessive’ control. In this paper, I turn to the philosophy of free will to get a different conceptual angle on OCD and its relationship to control. A line of thought that can be derived from the philosophy of free will suggests that OCD should not be considered as a condition of ‘extra’ control. In fact, OCD would be characterized by a decrease of control. I argue that this view, however open to debate, may have practical implications for therapy.
METHODS TO APPLY OPERATORS IN A STEADY STATE EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHM

A particular steady-state strategy of evolution with a small sized population is studied in this paper. After comparison with GA and ES, we specially focus our attention on the choice of genetic operators, and the way to apply them. Knowing that it is not possible to reach a universal heuristic able to choose the genetic operators and to manage them, we present methods where the genetic operators themselves are evaluated according to their performance. Thanks to those methods, we observe improvements in order to optimize classical problems.
Genetic studies in NZB mice. I. Spontaneous autoantibody production

The appearance of naturally occurring thymocytotoxic autoantibodies (NTA) and spontaneously produced antibodies to single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) was studied in NZB, and DBA/2 mice and their F1 and backcross progeny. NTA production was markedly decreased in males; however, castrated males produced quantities of NTA similar to those of females. Because the amount of NTA was influenced by sex hormones, it was necessary to gonadectomize all progeny to determine the mode of inheritance. Such studies suggested that NTA production was determined by a single locus with a gene dosage (codominant) mode of expression. The spontaneous production of antibodies to ssDNA appeared to be inherited as a single dominant genetic trait. The quantity of anti- ssDNA was also found to be under additional regulation; either a gene dosage effect or more likely a regulatory gene. The genes controlling the presence and quantity of ssDNA antibodies were not linked to the gene controlling the appearance of NTA.
Stabilization mechanisms of a supercritical hydrogen / oxygen flame By

The design and optimization of liquid-fuel rocket engines is a major scientific and technological challenge. Despite some sixty years of continuous development, basic features such as flame length, flame stabilization, ignition or the occurrence of combustion instabilities are still difficult to predict. The numerical simulation of such flows is made particularly challenging by the extreme thermodynamic conditions. The pressure in the combustion chamber is usually much larger than the critical pressure of the mixture, resulting in both modeling and numerical issues that are not encountered at ambient conditions. In this paper, numerical simulations of H2/O2 transcritical flames that account for all this complexity, are presented in detailed numerical simulations. First, the structure of the flame is analyzed: despite being mostly a diffusion flame, a peculiar structure involving the oxidization of dissociated products is highlighted. Then the influence of a design parameter is studied: it is shown that the thickness of the injector lip has a significant impact on the heat-release rate. Finally, preliminary computations of conjugate heat transfer are presented. Because of the high reactivity of hydrogen, the flame position is weakly affected, despite significant preheating of the reactants by the hot injector lip.
Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Vowels in Cleft Palate Children with or without Hypernasality

Objectives. To clarify the difference between Lyapunov exponents (LEs) for cleft palate (CP) patients with hypernasality versus without hypernasality and to investigate the relationship between their LEs and nasalance scores (NSs). Material and Methods. Six CP patients with severe hypernasality (mean age 9.2 years) and six CP patients without hypernasality (mean age 8.0 years) were enrolled. Five Japanese vowels were recorded at 44.1 KHz, and the NSs were measured simultaneously. The mean first LE (mLE1) from all one-second intervals was computed. Results. The mLE1 for /o/ in patients with hypernasality was significantly higher than that in patients without hypernasality. The correlation coefficients between the mLE1 and NS for all vowels were not statistically different. Conclusion. The voice signal of /o/ for the patients with hypernasality was more instable than in those without hypernasality. The chaotic phenomenon was independent of nasal resonance in CP voice.
Gang Injunctions under Heat from Equal Protection: Selective Enforcement as a Way to Defeat Discrimination

Gang injunctions are quasi-civil/criminal remedies meant to enjoin alleged gang members from engaging in activities in furtherance of gang objectives. They have been issued primarily in California in the last two decades.1 On the surface, gang injunctions might seem like a good idea for protecting the welfare of the community from the boisterous activities of 2 alleged gang members. But a closer look yields an Equal Protection problem: The injunctions prohibit defendants from doing what others can do 3 solely based on their arbitrarily conferred gang affiliation status. The situation is more troubling when many of the people labeled as "gang bangers" are poor minorities.
Two-Phase sinusoidal Power-Clocked Quasi-Adiabatic Logic Circuits

This paper presents the design and performance analysis of the dual-rail encoded and sense-amplifier structured 2N–2P, 2N–2N2P, IPGL and PFAL quasi-adiabatic circuits operated by two-phase sinusoidal power-clock sources. The energetics of these families are studied for varying power-clock voltages. The drivability characteristics are evaluated using capacitive loads. The performance validation is made through 8-bit and 16-bit adder circuits using an integrated power-clock generator. Optimal adiabatic gain values are achieved for 2N–2N2P and IPGL circuits across a wide frequency range. Energy recovery comparison between the four-phase ramp and two-phase sine power-clocks is made. The results demonstrate the efficiency of sinusoidal power clock at both the high and the low frequency ranges of operation. The circuits were designed using 180 nm CMOS technology.
Building a better wireless mousetrap: need for more realism in simulations

Reliable network simulators are important tools for research and development in the field of wireless communication. Although the ns-2 simulator is quite popular for testing wireless network protocols in industry and academia, it is more than clear that it needs numerous improvements in order to produce results fitting to realistic scenarios. There are many PHY/MAC modelling parameters that contribute to the overall accuracy but are not taken into account in the current ns-2 versions. In this paper we stress out the importance of adaptive error models, propagation and mobility models and better interference calculation. We propose a SNIR-based error model in order to reliably simulate the behaviour of the wireless channel and facilitate more realistic results of WLAN simulations. The results prove that our extensions are suitable and allow precise simulations of static WLAN scenarios.
Tacrolimus and Cyclosporine A Inhibit Allostimulatory Capacity and Cytokine Production of Human Myeloid Dendritic Cells

Myeloid dendritic cells (DCs) are pivotal in the recognition of alloantigens and, therefore, in the induction of allograft rejection. Induction of alloreactive T cell proliferation by myeloid DCs depends on the maturation of DCs, the expression of costimulatory molecules, and the cytokine environment. This study investigated the effects of tacrolimus and cyclosporine A (CsA) on DC maturation and allostimulatory capacity. Myeloid DCs were propagated from normal blood monocytes with interleukin (IL) 4 and GM-CSF for 7 days in the presence or absence of tacrolimus (FK506; 10 nM) or CsA (1 μg/mL). Exposure of DCs during maturation to tacrolimus or CsA resulted in no significant change in the expression of DC phenotypic markers, including CD80, CD86, and HLA Class I and II antigens determined by flow cytometry. T cell proliferation in one-way, mixed-leukocyte reaction experiments revealed a decreased allostimulatory capacity of DCs that matured in the presence of tacrolimus or CsA compared with untreated controls (P<0.02). Production of inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor α (P<0.04) and IL-12 (P<0.04) in response to lipopolysaccharide (1 μg/mL) or staphylococcal enterotoxin B (1 μg/mL) induction was significantly reduced in DCs exposed to tacrolimus or CsA during maturation. In contrast, production of the immuninhibitory cytokine IL-10 was not decreased in tacrolimus- or CsA-treated DCs. These results suggest that tacrolimus and CsA inhibit the allostimulatory capacity of in vitro-generated myeloid DCs without significant effects on DC phenotypic maturation. Decreased production of IL-12 and tumor necrosis factor α, but not of IL-10, is likely to contribute to the impaired accessory-cell function of tacrolimus- and CsA-treated DCs. Thus, tacrolimus and CsA can inhibit recognition of alloantigens by decreasing the accessory-cell capacity of monocyte-derived myeloid DCs.
Non-Traditional Entrants to Higher Education: They Talk about People like Me

Non-Traditional Entrants To Higher Education: They Talk About People Like Me, by Marion Bowl. Sterling, VA: Trentham Books, 2003. 192 pp., $26.50, paperback. This book tells the personal and educational stories of thirty-two non-traditional students in the British higher education system. In the United Kingdom, non-traditional is defined as students who are older than the usual eighteen to twenty-five year old undergraduate demographic. The term non-traditional is also used to describe students of ethnic minority and/or disadvantaged backgrounds. As is the case in the United States, these students are most often underrepresented in postsecondary settings. The author, Marion Bowl, interviews these students and effectively narrates the triumphs and challenges of their educational journeys. Students interviewed for the book were of African, Caribbean, Asian, and Caucasian descent. All participants took part in Birmingham Reachout, a government-sponsored, community-based initiative designed to provide opportunities for working-class and minority citizens living in a disadvantaged section of Birmingham, England. The author served as the project's coordinator and its only full-time worker, thus enabling her to develop close working relationships with the participants. These relationships aided trust-building, resulting in revealing discussions that yielded rich, qualitative personal accounts. The research on which the book is based was conducted over a five-year period. The book is divided into two parts and is comprised of twelve reader-friendly chapters. In Part One, Talking About Education, readers are introduced to each participant through profiles that offer glimpses into their lives. In subsequent chapters, the participants' experiences are recounted through narratives that are interspersed with verbatim comments. Stories about past educational frustrations, getting into higher education, juggling time and money, and adjustment to college are shared. A highlight of the publication is the final chapter of Part One- The First Year: Learning from Experience. Participants provide nuggets of practical wisdom gleaned from their induction into academe. Many of these lessons are personal and reach far beyond the ivy-covered walls of the university. In Part Two, Paradoxes in Widening Participation, the author relates the findings of her research to current educational policies and practices of college admissions, curriculum, student advising, and financial aid. …
Equal Sum Subsets : Complexity of VariationsMark Cieliebak

We start an investigation into the complexity of variations of the Equal Sum Subsets problem, a basic problem in which we are given a set of numbers and are asked to nd two disjoint subsets of the numbers that add up to the same sum. While Equal Sum Subsets is known to be NP-complete, only very few studies have investigated the complexity of its variations. In this paper, we show NP-completeness for two very natural variations, namely Factor-r Sum Subsets, where we need to nd two subsets such that the ratio of their sums is exactly r, and k Equal Sum Subsets, where we need to nd k subsets of equal sum. In an eeort to gain an intuitive understanding of what makes a variation of Equal Sum Subsets NP-hard, we study several variations of Equal Sum Subsets in which we introduce additional requirements that a solution must fullll (e.g., the cardinalities of the two sets must diier by exactly one), and prove NP-hardness for these variations. Finally, we investigate and show NP-hardness for the Equal Sum Subsets from Two Sets problem and its variations, where we are given two sets and we need to nd two subsets of equal sum. Our results leave us with a family of NP-complete problems that gives insight on the sphere of NP-completeness around Equal Sum Subsets.
A mobile ad hoc bio-sensor network

Recent research shows that animals can be guided remotely by stimulating regions of the brain. Therefore, it is possible to set up an animal mobile sensor network for search and rescue operations. Applications of such an animal sensor network have great importance to society, including natural disaster recovery, homeland security and military operations. In this paper, the system architecture and operation is introduced, and major challenges and issues are discussed. Because of its unique challenge, a simple and efficient routing scheme is devised for this special ad hoc network. Each animal needs to carry a backpack to perform sensing and network communications. The implementation of a backpack prototype is presented, and a simple network is set up to capture and transfer video sensor data.
Muscle Contraction Contractions, by Muscle Type

A top-down view of skeletal muscle Muscle fiber generates tension through the action of actin and myosin cross-bridge cycling. While under tension, the muscle may lengthen, shorten or remain the same. Although the term 'contraction' implies shortening, when referring to the muscular system, it means muscle fibers generating tension with the help of motor neurons (the terms twitch tension, twitch force and fiber contraction are also used).
Hydrographic Data Management using GIS Technologies

Recent advances in marine data sensing technologies, such as multibeam echo sounders, LIDAR, and high speed, high resolution side scan sonars raises a series of data management challenges for the hydrographer. The days of small, single point data collection are vanishing fast and it is now more appropriate to ask how many gigabytes of data will be generated daily or even hourly during survey operations. With vast amounts of data now a reality, the questions of data storage, maintenance and access must be addressed. Additionally, marine data collection has become extremely expensive. It would seem logical that there is an emerging need for efficient and precise data management systems to store, maintain, and distribute extremely large data sets.