Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Src drives the Warburg effect and therapy resistance by inactivating pyruvate dehydrogenase through tyrosine-289 phosphorylation

The Warburg effect, which reflects cancer cells' preference for aerobic glycolysis over glucose oxidation, contributes to tumor growth, progression and therapy resistance. The restraint on pyruvate flux into mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in cancer cells is in part attributed to the inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex. Src is a prominent oncogenic non-receptor tyrosine kinase that promotes cancer cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis and resistance to conventional and targeted therapies. However, the potential role of Src in tumor metabolism remained unclear. Here we report that activation of Src attenuated PDH activity and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Conversely, Src inhibitors activated PDH and increased cellular ROS levels. Src inactivated PDH through direct phosphorylation of tyrosine-289 of PDH E1α subunit (PDHA1). Indeed, Src was the main kinase responsible for PDHA1 tyrosine phosphorylation in cancer cells. Expression of a tyrosine-289 non-phosphorable PDHA1 mutant in Src-hyperactivated cancer cells restored PDH activity, increased mitochondrial respiration and oxidative stress, decreased experimental metastasis, and sensitized cancer cells to pro-oxidant treatment. The results suggest that Src contributes to the Warburg phenotype by inactivating PDH through tyrosine phosphorylation, and the metabolic effect of Src is essential for Src-driven malignancy and therapy resistance. Combination therapies consisting of both Src inhibitors and pro-oxidants may improve anticancer efficacy.
A Two-Phase Load-Balancing Framework of Parallel GIS Operations

The ever-increasing of the large geospatial datasets and the widely application of the complex geocomputation make the parallel processing of GIS an important component of high-performance computing. The paper introduces a two-phase load-balancing scheme for the parallel GIS operations in distributed environment. The paper focus on the parallel framework design and parallel strategy implement of the spatial operations in GIS. Two major aspects of the spatial data partitioning and dynamic load schedule are discussed in detail, declustering the massive data sets into two parts hierarchically: the dynamic share data and the static local data. In the experimental test, we build up the analytical cost model and evaluate the utilize rate of computational power and I/O resource, and analyze the efficiency of the proposed parallel prototype.
Prognostic value of Ki-67 expression in renal cell carcinomas.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to determine the prognostic power of Ki-67 immunostaining in renal cell carcinomas (RCC). METHODS Clinical follow-up data were reviewed in 111 RCC and the results of Ki-67 immunolabelling were correlated to standard prognostic factors and survival data of the patients. RESULTS Ki-67 expression correlated with tumor grade (p < 0.0001) and mitotic activity (p < 0.0001). In survival analysis Ki-67 expression could be used to divide patients into different prognostic groups (p = 0.0003). In separate analysis with M0 tumors Ki-67 immunolabelling was a powerful predictor of survival (p = 0.0016) as well as disease-free survival (DFS; p = 0.0067). In T1-2N0M0 tumors Ki-67 immunolabelling was superior (p = 0.0005) to other prognostic factors in survival analysis as well as in predicting DFS (p = 0.0006). Grade-2 tumors could be separated into distinct prognostic groups according to Ki-67 labelling (p = 0.0098). In Cox's multivariate analysis Ki-67 was an independent prognostic factor in all three subgroups of RCC. CONCLUSIONS The results show that Ki-67 expression is an independent prognostic factor in renal adenocarcinoma and could be applied in defining proper therapy for patients suffering from this malignancy.
Search-Based Automatic Image Annotation via Flickr Photos Using Tag Expansion

Exponentially growing photo collections motivate the needs for automatic image annotation for effective manipulations (e.g., search, browsing). Most of the prior works rely on supervised learning approaches and are not practical due to poor performance, out-ofvocabulary problem, and being time-consuming in acquiring training data and learning. In this work, we argue automatic image annotation by search over user-contributed photo sites (e.g., Flickr), which have accumulated rich human knowledge and billions of photos. The intuition is to leverage surrounding tags from those visually similar Flickr photos for the unlabeled image. However, the tags are generally few and noisy. To tackle such challenges, we propose a novel solution in three folds: (1) a tag expansion method to solve the sparsity of user-contributed tags; (2) improving tag relevance estimation by visual consistency between candidate annotations and the unlabeled image, and (3) the semantic tag consistence among candidate tags. Experimenting over Flickr photo benchmarks and requiring no additional keywords, we show that the proposed method significantly outperforms prior works and even provide more diverse annotations.
Ancient DNA as a multidisciplinary experience

Investigation into DNA from archeological remains offers an inestimable tool for unraveling the history of humankind. However, a series of basic and technical difficulties renders the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) molecules troublesome, depending either on their own peculiar characteristics or on the complexity of processes affecting the bone matrix over time, all compromising the preservation of ancient DNA. This review underlines the contribution of many different disciplines, in particular molecular biology and genetics, to overcome these obstacles. The role of each expertise is illustrated to appropriately address the questions arising in aDNA investigations. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The capacity of target silencing by Drosophila PIWI and piRNAs

Although Piwi proteins and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) genetically repress transposable elements (TEs), it is unclear how the highly diverse piRNA populations direct Piwi proteins to silence TE targets without silencing the entire transcriptome. To determine the capacity of piRNA-mediated silencing, we introduced reporter genes into Drosophila OSS cells, which express microRNAs (miRNAs) and piRNAs, and compared the Piwi pathway to the Argonaute pathway in gene regulation. Reporter constructs containing several target sites that were robustly silenced by miRNAs were not silenced to the same degrees by piRNAs. However, another set of reporters we designed to enable a large number of both TE-directed and genic piRNAs to bind were robustly silenced by the PIWI/piRNA complex in OSS cells. These reporters show that a bulk of piRNAs are required to pair to the reporter's transcripts and not the reporter's DNA sequence to engage PIWI-mediated silencing. Following our genome-wide study of PIWI-regulated targets in OSS cells, we assessed candidate gene elements with our reporter platform. These results suggest TE sequences are the most direct of PIWI regulatory targets while coding genes are less directly affected by PIWI targeting. Finally, our study suggests that the PIWI transcriptional silencing mechanism triggers robust chromatin changes on targets with sufficient piRNA binding, and preferentially regulates TE transcripts because protein-coding transcripts lack a threshold of targeting by piRNA populations. This reporter platform will facilitate future dissections of the PIWI-targeting mechanism.
Cognitive Screening in Asia: Recognizing the Role of the Patient-Family Unit

Background/Aims: Cognitive screening programmes may improve awareness and help at-risk subjects receive earlier medical attention. Cognitive profiles of subjects who attend cognitive screening by personal choice (self-referred) compared to those where the referral was initiated by family members (family-referred) were compared. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of community subjects attending a cognitive screening initiative. Performance on the MMSE, Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), Elderly Cognitive Assessment Questionnaire (ECAQ) and Even Briefer Assessment Scale for Depression was evaluated. Results: A total of 342 subjects with a mean age of 59.2 ± 9.0 years were screened. Overrepresentation of Chinese and Indian subjects and underrepresentation of Malay subjects was noted. The prevalence of cognitive impairment ranged from 7.0 to 9.6% depending on the screening instrument used. Of the 342 subjects, 267 were self-referred, while 75 subjects were family-referred. Family-referred subjects had lower MMSE (p < 0.001), lower ECAQ (p < 0.001) and lower FAB (p < 0.001) scores but were not more depressed compared to self-referred subjects (p = 0.904). Only the difference in ECAQ scores remained significant after adjustment for baseline differences in age and education. The prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolaemia was not statistically different between the 2 groups. Conclusions: Family members play a crucial role in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment, especially in older subjects with fewer years of education.
The effect of physical multimorbidity, mental health conditions and socioeconomic deprivation on unplanned admissions to hospital: a retrospective cohort study

Background: Multimorbidity, the presence of more than 1 long-term disorder, is associated with increased use of health services, but unplanned admissions to hospital may often be undesirable. Furthermore, socioeconomic deprivation and mental health comorbidity may lead to additional unplanned admissions. We examined the association between unplanned admission to hospital and physical multimorbidity, mental health and socioeconomic deprivation. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from 180 815 patients aged 20 years and older who were registered with 40 general practices in Scotland. Details of 32 physical and 8 mental health morbidities were extracted from the patients’ electronic health records (as of Apr. 1, 2006) and linked to hospital admission data. We then recorded the occurrence of unplanned or potentially preventable unplanned acute (nonpsychiatric) admissions to hospital in the subsequent 12 months. We used logistic regression models, adjusting for age and sex, to determine associations between unplanned or potentially preventable unplanned admissions to hospital and physical multimorbidity, mental health and socioeconomic deprivation. Results: We identified 10 828 (6.0%) patients who had at least 1 unplanned admission to hospital and 2037 (1.1%) patients who had at least 1 potentially preventable unplanned admission to hospital. Both unplanned and potentially preventable unplanned admissions were independently associated with increasing physical multimorbidity (for ≥ 4 v. 0 conditions, odds ratio [OR] 5.87 [95% confidence interval (CI) 5.45–6.32] for unplanned admissions, OR 14.38 [95% CI 11.87–17.43] for potentially preventable unplanned admissions), mental health conditions (for ≥ 1 v. 0 conditions, OR 2.01 [95% CI 1.92–2.09] for unplanned admissions, OR 1.80 [95% CI 1.64–1.97] for potentially preventable unplanned admissions) and socioeconomic deprivation (for most v. least deprived quintile, OR 1.56 [95% CI 1.43–1.70] for unplanned admissions, OR 1.98 [95% CI 1.63–2.41] for potentially preventable unplanned admissions). Interpretation: Physical multimorbidity was strongly associated with unplanned admission to hospital, including admissions that were potentially preventable. The risk of admission to hospital was exacerbated by the coexistence of mental health conditions and socioeconomic deprivation.
Nonlinear Dynamics in COMEX Gold Futures Basis : LSTAR-EGARCH

Research on the basis nonlinearity has been widely concerned in recent papers. Better understandings of the basis nonlinearity would be significant for hedging strategies and arbitrage behaviors both practically and theoretically. This paper attempts to examine the nonlinear dynamics of COMEX gold futures basis using a modified LSTAR-EGARCH model with t-distributed error. Empirical results demonstrate the gold futures basis of COMEX have nonlinear properties, asymmetric changes, long memory of volatility, and asymmetric responses in volatility to positive and negative shocks.
Contributions of the piriform fossa of female speakers to vowel spectra

The bilateral cavities of the piriform fossa are the side branches of the vocal tract and produce anti-resonance(s) in the transfer function. This effect has been known for male vocal tracts, but female data were few. This study investigates contributions of the piriform fossa to vowel spectra in female vocal tracts by means of MRI-based vocal-tract modeling and acoustic experiment with the water-filling technique. Results from three female subjects indicate that the piriform fossa generates one or two dips in the frequency region of 4–6 kHz. Experiment for filling each cavity separately demonstrated that the spectral patterns vary greatly across the conditions for filling both, left and right cavities. The result suggests that the cavities interact with each other, and the phenomena contribute to determining spectral envelopes in the higher frequencies.
AndroZoo++: Collecting Millions of Android Apps and Their Metadata for the Research Community

We present a growing collection of Android apps collected from several sources, including the official Google Play app market and a growing collection of various metadata of those collected apps aiming at facilitating the Android-relevant research works. Our dataset by far has collected over five million apps and over 20 types of metadata such as VirusTotal reports. Our objective of collecting this dataset is to contribute to ongoing research efforts, as well as to enable new potential research topics on Android Apps. By releasing our app and metadata set to the research community, we also aim at encouraging our fellow researchers to engage in reproducible experiments. This article will be continuously updated based on the growing apps and metadata collected in the AndroZoo project. If you have specific metadata that you want to collect from AndroZoo and which are not yet provided by far, please let us know. We will thereby prioritise it in our collecting process so as to provide it to our fellow researchers in a short manner.
The potential oscillations observed in the olfactory epithelium, nerve and bulb of the toad and frog.

The potential oscillations appearing in the olfactory epithelium, nerve and bulb were studied in the toad and the frog.1. Characteristic potential oscillations were found very frequently in the olfactory epithelium of the toad and the frog. They appeared superimposed on the on-or the off-slow potential at the onset or the cessation of olfactory stimulation.2. The olfactory nerve and bulb show potential oscillations in response to odour stimulation. They are mutually identical in frequency, phase and shape.3. The oscillations in the olfactory epithelium are entirely different in frequency, magnitude, shape and time of appearance from those in the olfactory nerve and bulb. It was concluded that there are two kinds of potential oscillations in the lower olfactory nervous system.4. The potential oscillations in the olfactory bulb of the toad and the frog were compared with those in mammals. The origin of the oscillation was considered.
PVC gel soft actuator-based wearable assist wear for hip joint support during walking

Plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel and mesh electrode-based soft actuators have considerable potential to provide new types of artificial muscle, exhibiting similar responsiveness to biological muscle in air, >10% deformation, >90 kPa output stress, variable stiffness, long cycle life (>5 million cycles), and low power consumption. We have designed and fabricated a prototype of walking assist wear using the PVC gel actuator in previous study. The system has several advantages compared with traditional motor-based exoskeletons, including lower weight and power consumption, and no requirement for rigid external structures that constrain the wearer’s joints. In this study, we designed and established a control and power system to making the whole system portable and wearable outdoors. And we designed two control strategies based on the characteristics of the assist wear and the biological kinematics. In a preliminary experimental evaluation, a hemiparetic stroke patient performed a 10 m to-and-fro straight line walking task with and without assist wear on the affected side. We found that the assist wear enabled natural movement, increasing step length and decreasing muscular activity during straight line walking. We demonstrated that the assistance effect could be adjusted by controlling the on-off time of the PVC gel soft actuators. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed system and suggest the feasibility of PVC gel soft actuators for developing practical soft wearable assistive devices, informing the development of future wearable robots and the other soft actuator technologies for human movement assistance and rehabilitation.
Increased matrix metalloproteinase-9 concentration and activity after stimulation with interleukin-17 in mouse airways

Background: The proteolytic enzyme matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 can degrade structural compounds such as the extracellular matrix and the basement membrane in the airways and lungs. MMP-9 has therefore been implicated in remodelling of the airways and lungs during severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: The effect of the T lymphocyte derived proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-17 on MMP-9 protein release and activity in the airways was studied in vivo and in vitro. Results: In vivo, intranasal stimulation of mice with IL-17 induced the release of the precursor molecule proMMP-9 in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, associated with a pronounced local accumulation of neutrophils that stained positive for MMP-9. Stimulation with IL-17 also increased the concentration of free soluble MMP-9 that was proteolytically active as determined by a gelatinase substrate assay. The concentration of MMP-9 in BAL fluid had a strong positive correlation with the number of neutrophils; the amount of MMP-9 per neutrophil was not increased by IL-17 stimulation. In vitro, stimulation of mouse neutrophils with IL-17 did not increase the concentration of proMMP-9 in the conditioned medium. Conclusion: Local stimulation with IL-17 increases the concentration of biologically active MMP-9 as well as its precursor molecule in mouse airways in vivo. This increase in proteolytic load is probably mainly due to an increased number of neutrophils and not to an increase in the release of MMP-9 from each neutrophil. These findings indicate a link between the T lymphocyte cytokine IL-17 and increased proteolytic load in the airways which may be relevant for chronic inflammatory airway diseases such as severe asthma and COPD.
Gremlin Activates the Smad Pathway Linked to Epithelial Mesenchymal Transdifferentiation in Cultured Tubular Epithelial Cells

Gremlin is a developmental gene upregulated in human chronic kidney disease and in renal cells in response to transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is one process involved in renal fibrosis. In tubular epithelial cells we have recently described that Gremlin induces EMT and acts as a downstream TGF-β mediator. Our aim was to investigate whether Gremlin participates in EMT by the regulation of the Smad pathway. Stimulation of human tubular epithelial cells (HK2) with Gremlin caused an early activation of the Smad signaling pathway (Smad 2/3 phosphorylation, nuclear translocation, and Smad-dependent gene transcription). The blockade of TGF-β, by a neutralizing antibody against active TGF-β, did not modify Gremlin-induced early Smad activation. These data show that Gremlin directly, by a TGF-β independent process, activates the Smad pathway. In tubular epithelial cells long-term incubation with Gremlin increased TGF-β production and caused a sustained Smad activation and a phenotype conversion into myofibroblasts-like cells. Smad 7 overexpression, which blocks Smad 2/3 activation, diminished EMT changes observed in Gremlin-transfected tubuloepithelial cells. TGF-β neutralization also diminished Gremlin-induced EMT changes. In conclusion, we propose that Gremlin could participate in renal fibrosis by inducing EMT in tubular epithelial cells through activation of Smad pathway and induction of TGF-β.
Teichmüller space via Kuranishi families

In this partly expository note we construct Teichm¨ uller space by patching together Kuranishi families. We also discuss the basic properties of Te- ichmspace, and in particular show that our construction leads to simplifica- tions in the proof of Teichmtheorem asserting that the genus g Teichm¨ uller
Local levels of inflammatory mediators in uncontrolled type 2 diabetic subjects with chronic periodontitis.

AIM The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of a wide panel of cyto/chemokines in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of uncontrolled type 2 diabetic subjects as compared with non-diabetic subjects with periodontitis. METHODS Twenty-six uncontrolled type 2 diabetic subjects (glycated haemoglobin levels >7.5%) and 20 non-diabetic subjects with chronic periodontitis were enrolled in this study. The levels of 14 cyto/chemokines were measured in the GCF of healthy and diseased sites of the diabetic and non-diabetic subjects using multiplex bead immunoassays. RESULTS The concentrations of eotaxin, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, interleukin (IL)-6, tumour necrosis factor-α and IL-12 were higher in healthy and diseased sites of diabetic than non-diabetic subjects, after adjustment for multiple comparisons (p < 0.0035). CONCLUSION Uncontrolled type 2 diabetes mellitus modulated the local levels of several cyto/chemokines at both healthy and diseased periodontal sites in favour of a proinflammatory profile, which may partially explain the greater susceptibility of diabetic subjects to periodontal breakdown.
Haptic feedback of gaze gestures with glasses: localization accuracy and effectiveness

Wearable devices including smart eyewear require new interaction methods between the device and the user. In this paper, we describe our work on the combined use of eye tracking for input and haptic (touch) stimulation for output with eyewear. Input with eyes can be achieved by utilizing gaze gestures which are predefined patterns of gaze movements identified as commands. The frame of the eyeglasses offers three natural contact points with the wearer's skin for haptic stimulation. The results of two user studies reported in this paper showed that stimulation moving between the contact points was easy for users to localize, and that the stimulation has potential to make the use of gaze gestures more efficient.
Electrochemical and kinetic performance of amorphous/nanostructured TiNi-based intermetallic compound with Nb substitution synthesized by mechanical alloying

The electrochemical behavior of TiNi_(1− x )Nb_x ( x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2) ternary intermetallic compounds synthesized by mechanical alloying was investigated and compared to that of binary TiNi. The structure of 20-h milled product with initial stoichiometric composition of TiNi_0. 95Nb_0.05 was found to be amorphous/nanostructured. Upon cycling, this ternary milled product exhibited the highest discharge capacity (166.1 mA h/g) after 10 cycles and best cycle stability (∼91%) while those of the binary TiNi were 147 mA h/g and ∼83%, respectively; i.e., slight amount of Nb substitution (0.05 mol) for Ni in the TiNi not only increased discharge capacity and cycle stability but also enhanced the kinetics of hydrogen absorption/desorption through increasing the exchange current density and hydrogen diffusion coefficient. However, additional Nb content was found to have negative effect on electrochemical properties; this was related to the existence of Nb element in addition to the ternary amorphous/nanocrystalline structures.