Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulatory T cells that co-express RORγt and FOXP3 are pro-inflammatory and immunosuppressive and expand in human pancreatic cancer

ABSTRACT Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is highly infiltrated by CD4+T cells that express RORγt and IL-17 (TH17). Compelling evidence from the tumor microenvironment suggest that regulatory T cells (Treg) contribute to TH17 mediated inflammation. Concurrently, PDAC patients have elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines that may lead to TH17 associated functional plasticity in Treg. In this study, we investigated the phenotype and functional properties of Treg in patients with PDAC. We report that PDAC patients have elevated frequency of FOXP3+Treg, which exclusively occurred within the FOXP3+RORγt+Treg compartment. The FOXP3+RORγt+Treg retained FOXP3+Treg markers and represented an activated subset. The expression of RORγt in Treg may indicate a phenotypic switch toward TH17 cells. However, the FOXP3+RORγt+Treg produced both TH17 and TH2 associated pro-inflammatory cytokines, which corresponded with elevated TH17 and TH2 immune responses in PDAC patients. Both the FOXP3+Treg and FOXP3+RORγt+Treg from PDAC patients strongly suppressed T cell immune responses, but they had impaired anti-inflammatory properties. We conclude that FOXP3+RORγt+Treg have a dual phenotype with combined pro-inflammatory and immunosuppressive activity, which may be involved in the pathogenesis of PDAC.
Influence of the Binomial Crossover in the DE Variants Based on the Robot Design with Optimum Mechanical Energy

Differential evolution (DE) is a powerful algorithm to find an optimal solution in real world problems. Nevertheless, the binomial crossover parameter is an important issue for the success of the algorithm. The proper selection of the binomial crossover parameter depends on the problem at hand. In this work, the effect of the binomial crossover in the DE/Rand/1/bin, DE/Best/1/Bin and DE/Current to rand/1/Bin is empirically studied and analyzed in the optimum design of the kinematic and the dynamic parameters of links for a parallel robot. The optimum design minimizes mechanical energy and consequently reduces the energy provided by the actuator. Based on the experimental results, the range of crossover parameter values that properly explores the search space is obtained. The importance of finding a proper crossover parameter is highlighted. In addition, the optimal design shows a decrease in the parallel robot mechanical energy compared with non-optimal design.
KR14 Emergent Behavior in Systems of Systems

As the development of systems of systems becomes more important in global ventures, so does the issues of emergent behavior. The challenge for systems engineers is to predict and analyze emergent behavior, especially undesirable behavior, in systems of systems. In this paper we briefly discuss definitions of emergent behavior, describe a large‐scale system of system that exhibits emergent behavior, review previous approaches to analyzing emergent behavior, and then present a system modeling and simulation approach that has promise of allowing systems engineers to analyze potential emergent behavior in large scale systems of systems.
A protocol‐driven approach to automatically finding authoritative answers to consumer health questions in online resources

The purpose of this research was to establish an upper bound on finding answers to health‐related questions in MedlinePlus and other online resources. Seven reference librarians tested a set of protocols to determine whether it was possible to use the types and foci of the questions extracted from customer requests submitted to the National Library of Medicine to find authoritative answers to these questions. Librarians tested the protocols manually to determine if the process was sufficiently robust and accurate to later automate. Results indicated that the extracted terms provide enough information to find authoritative answers for about 60% of questions and that certain question types are more likely to result in authoritative answers than others. The question corpus and analysis performed for this project will inform automatic question answering systems, and could lead to suggestions for new content to include in MedlinePlus. This approach can serve as an example to researchers interested in methods of evaluating question answering tools and the contents of online databases.
Using a coding standard to improve program quality

Program quality represents the most significant part of software quality control that assures all characteristics of software products to satisfy the user's explicit and implicit needs. Though software processes have to be improved to enhance software quality. We address the problems of software products at the source code level, and deal with those problems by using a coding standard. We describe a quality assurance method using coding standards in program design and implementation, and report our program quality improvement practices and observations using a Java programming coding standard.
Beyond GDP and Back: What is the Value-Added by Additional Components of Welfare Measurement?

Recently, building on the highly polarizing Stiglitz report, a growing literature suggests that statistical offices and applied researchers explore other aspects of human welfare apart from material well-being, such as job security, crime, health, environmental factors and subjective perceptions. To explore the additional information of these indicators, we analyze data on the macro level from the German Federal Statistical Office combined with micro level data from the German SOEP (1991-2008) on the personal work situation and subjective feelings concerning several aspects of life. Employing the indicators suggested by the Stiglitz Report, we find that much of the variation in many well-being measures can indeed be captured well by the hard economic indicators as used in the literature, especially by GDP and the unemployment rate. This suggests that the hard indicators are still a reasonable and quite robust gauge of well-being of a country. And yet, we also see that these correlations are far from perfect, thus giving considerable hope that there is room for a broader statistical reporting.
Deadline Constrained Cloud Computing Resources Scheduling through an Ant Colony System Approach

Cloud computing resources scheduling is essential for executing workflows in the cloud platform because it relates to both execution time and execution cost. In this paper, we adopt a model that optimizes the execution cost while meeting deadline constraints. In solving this problem, we propose an Improved Ant Colony System (IACS) approach featuring two novel strategies. Firstly, a dynamic heuristic strategy is used to calculate a heuristic value during an evolutionary process by taking the workflow topological structure into consideration. Secondly, a double search strategy is used to initialize the pheromone and calculate the heuristic value according to the execution time at the beginning and to initialize the pheromone and calculate heuristic value according to the execution cost after a feasible solution is found. Therefore, the proposed IACS is adaptive to the search environment and to different objectives. We have conducted extensive experiments based on workflows with different scales and different cloud resources. We compare the result with a particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach and a dynamic objective genetic algorithm (DOGA) approach. Experimental results show that IACS is able to find better solutions with a lower cost than both PSO and DOGA do on various scheduling scales and deadline conditions.
Sleep and morningness‐eveningness in the ‘middle’ years of life (20–59y)

SUMMARY The following four issues were assessed in a group of 110 adults between the age of 20 and 59y: (1) the effect of age (regarded as a continuous variable) on polysomnographic sleep characteristics, habitual sleep‐diary patterns, and subjective sleep quality; (2) the effects of age on morningness‐eveningness; (3) the effects of morningness‐eveningness on sleep, after controlling for the effects of age; and (4) the role of morningness‐eveningness as a mediator of the age and sleep relationship. Increasing age was related to earlier habitual waketime, earlier bedtime, less time in bed and better mood and alertness at waketime. In the laboratory, increasing age was associated with less time asleep, increased number of awakenings, decreased sleep efficiency, lower percentages of slow‐wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, higher percentages of Stage 1 and 2, shorter REM latency and reduced REM activity and density. Increasing age was also associated with higher morningness scores. After controlling for the effects of age, morningness was associated with earlier waketime, earlier bedtime, less time in bed, better alertness at waketime, less time spent asleep, more wake in the last 2 h of sleep, decreased REM activity, less stage REM (min and percentage), more Stage 1 (min and percentage) and fewer minutes of Stage 2. For one set of variables (night time in bed, waketime, total sleep time, wake in the last 2 h of sleep and minutes of REM and REM activity), morningness‐eveningness accounted for about half of the relationship between age and sleep. For another set of variables (bedtime, alertness at waketime, percentages of REM and Stage 1), morningness‐eveningness accounted for the entire relationship between age and sleep. In conclusion, age and morningness were both important predictors of the habitual sleep patterns and polysomnographic sleep characteristics of people in the middle years of life (20‐59 y).
Brefeldin A: Deciphering an Enigmatic Inhibitor of Secretion

The fungal macrocyclic lactone brefeldin A (BFA) has proved to be of great value as an inhibitor of protein trafficking in the endomembrane system of mammalian cells ([Sciaky et al., 1997][1]). BFA has also often been used as an inhibitor of secretion and vacuolar protein transport in plant cells,
Automatic non-standard hyphenation in OpenOffice

The hyphenation algorithm of OpenOffice.org 2.0. 2 is a generalization of TEX’s hyphenation algorithm that allows automatic non-standard hyphenation by competing standard and non-standard hyphenation patterns. With the suggested integration of linguistic tools for compound decomposition and word sense disambiguation, this algorithm would be able to do also more precise non-standard and standard hyphenation for several languages.
Threat determines affective startle potentiation

Affective startle modulation often is attributed to the valence dimension of applied foreground stimuli, whereas alternative views refer to specific discrete emotions. Based on the idea of the startle reflex being a protective mechanism, the significance of threat to the acoustic startle response was tested. Affectively charged pictures were selected according to their quantified discrete-emotional distinctness: pictures primarily evoking sadness, anger, and disgust (low valence); pictures primarily evoking fear (threat; moderately low valence); and pictures primarily evoking happiness (high valence). Electromyography (EMG) of the orbicularis oculi muscle revealed substantial startle potentiation by the fear evoking stimuli. Moreover, evidence was found that disgust bears a strong relation to the startle reflex. In line with other recent studies the reported findings suggest that startle is being increased by threat to one's physical integrity, as is signaled by the discrete emotions of fear and disgust.
Integrating Agricultural Landscapes with Biodiversity Conservation in the Mesoamerican Hotspot

CELIA A. HARVEY,∗‡‡‡ OLIVER KOMAR,† ROBIN CHAZDON,‡ BRUCE G. FERGUSON,§ BRYAN FINEGAN,∗∗ DANIEL M. GRIFFITH,†† MIGUEL MARTINEZ-RAMOS,‡‡ HELDA MORALES,§ RONALD NIGH,§§ LORENA SOTO-PINTO,§ MICHIEL VAN BREUGEL,∗∗∗ AND MARK WISHNIE††† ∗Department of Agriculture and Agroforestry, CATIE, Apdo 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica †Programa de Ciencias para la Conservacion, SalvaNATURA, Colonia Flor Blanca, 33 Avenida Sur #640, San Salvador, El Salvador ‡Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268-3043, U.S.A. §Departamento de Agroecoloǵia, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Panamericana y Periferico Sur s-n, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico ∗∗Department of Natural Resources and Environment, CATIE, Apdo 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica ††Biodiversity of BOSAWAS Biosphere Reserve, Saint Louis Zoo, Managua, Nicaragua ‡‡Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, UNAM, AP 27-3 Santa Maŕia de Guido, CP 58089, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico §§Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropoloǵia Social, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico ∗∗∗Centre for Ecosystem Studies, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands †††Equator Environmental, LLC, 250 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A.
Kahler versus Non-Kahler Compactifications

We review our present understanding of heterotic compactifications on non-Kahler complex manifolds with torsion. Most of these manifolds can be obtained by duality chasing a consistent F-theory compactification in the presence of fluxes. We show that the duality map generically leads to non-Kahler spaces on the heterotic side, although under some special conditions we recover Kahler compactifications. The dynamics of the heterotic theory is governed by a new superpotential and minimizing this superpotential reproduces all the torsional constraints. This superpotential also fixes most of the moduli, including the radial modulus. We discuss some new connections between Kahler and non-Kahler compactifications, including some phenomenological aspects of the latter compactifications.
Reflection on Youth Violence

Young people are not the perpetrators of many violent acts; however, the amount of violence experienced by young people, either as perpetrators or victims, needs to be reduced. To do so, Howard Sercombe argues, requires the redefinition of violence as the intent to do harm, and the acknowledgment of forms of violence other than physical. Communities can then tackle cyclical violence by reducing the sum of violence against young people, and increasing their care for young people to make it harder for them not to care for others.
Mindfulness i et kropsårvågenheds perspektiv

Osterlandsk filosofi och religion, eller levnadsvisdom, gor efterhand allt tydligare insteg i vasterlandets foregivet vetenskapliga lakekonst; ”beprovad erfarenhet” inom modern somatisk och psykisk behandlingspraxis har vidgats markant, och omfattar nu i stigande grad alternativa tekniker som i Sverige pa senare tid dessutom givits beteckningen ”komplementara” i amerikansk efterfoljd – dar talar man om ”complementary and alternative medicine”. Fran Buddhismens attafaldiga vag till Nirvana har vasterlandsk psykologi och psykiatri lanat in den sjunde dygden, eller elementet, pa svenska ”ratt” eller ”skicklig” medvetenhet, pa engelska ”right mindfulness”. Bakom denna utveckling star framfor allt professorn vid University of Massachusetts Medical School, Jon Kabat-Zinn, vars behandlingsprogram Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for narvarande ar foremal for ett antal utvarderande forskningsprojekt vid amerikanska National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Reinhard Stelter har behallit beteckningen ”mindfulness” i sin artikel, men erbjuder en rad danska begrepp som vart och ett fangar en bit av det som mindfulness innefattar. Artikeln ar en avgransad rapportering fran ett forskningsprojekt inom ramen for KUFAB, Kobenhavns Universitets Forskningsgruppe vedrorende Alternativ Behandling, dar man vid sidan av akupunktur och zonterapi studerar effekterna av mindfulness-meditation i Kabat-Zinns efterfoljd. Stelter ar i det har sammanhanget sarskilt intresserad av de kroppsliga aspekterna av behandling av lattare neuroser och stressymptom med den har specifika formen av meditation. Utifran ett case med en kvinna med panikangestsymptom, som i dagboksanteckningar och intervjuer berattar om mindfulness-behandlingen och dess foljder for henne, sluter sig artikelforfattaren till att mindfulness mer an val torde lampa sig som teknik for mental traning inom ramen for idrottspsykologisk konsultation.
Long-term outcome for 120 Japanese patients with Takayasu's disease. Clinical and statistical analyses of related prognostic factors.

BACKGROUND Patients with Takayasu's disease, a chronic inflammatory arteriopathy of unknown cause, have variable clinical courses, and predictors of the long-term outcome are not well understood. We studied prognostic factors of this disease, based on follow-up results, and a new prognostic classification was proposed. METHODS AND RESULTS Life-table methods and Cox regression analyses were applied to clinical data on 120 patients who had been prospectively followed for a median of 13 years (range, 1 month to 34 years). The overall survival rate at 15 years after the diagnosis was 82.9% and remained the same for the remainder of the follow-up period. Univariate Cox analyses revealed that of the six dichotomous variables evaluated at diagnosis, four were statistically significant predictors, including complications (Takayasu's retinopathy, hypertension, aortic regurgitation, and aneurysm), pattern of the past clinical course, age of the patient, and calendar year of diagnosis. Thus, the 15-year survival was 66.3% versus 96.4% for patients with and without a major complication, 67.9% versus 92.9% for patients with and without a progressive course, 58.3% versus 92.7% for age > 35 years and < or = 35 years, and 79.9% versus 96.5% for patients diagnosed in 1957 through 1975 and in 1976 through 1990, respectively. The delay in diagnosis and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were of marginal significance. The multivariate Cox analysis showed that only two of the above variables were statistically independent predictors, ie, the major complication and the progressive course. In addition to these two factors, ESR was the third predictor, if the Cox stepwise elimination procedure was performed. These three predictors used in various combinations made a total of 1822 classifications theoretically feasible. Of these, a three-stage classification was selected as the best one, based on the Akaike information criterion. The presence of both major complication and progressive course (stage 3) was the worst prognostic indicator (43% survival at 15 years). In contrast, no patient died who had neither of these manifestations or who had a progressive course but an elevated ESR as well (stage 1). CONCLUSIONS The long-term outcome for patients with Takayasu's disease seems best predicted by two major prognostic factors, ie, complications and the pattern of the past clinical course, as well as by ESR. Aggressive medical and surgical treatment may be considered for patients with a major complication and a progressive course (stage 3).
Social Capital and Community Governance

Community governance is the set of small group social interactions that, with market and state, determine economic outcomes. We argue (i) community governance addresses some common market and state failures but typically relies on insider-outsider distinctions that may be morally repugnant and economically costly; (ii) the individual motivations supporting community governance are not captured by either selfishness or altruism; (iii) communities, markets and states are complements, not substitutes; (iv) when poorly designed, markets and states crowd out communities; (v) some distributions of property rights are better than others at fostering community governance; and (vi) communities will probably increase in importance in the future.
"show-me": water consumption at a glance to promote water conservation in the shower

Water is a scarce resource worldwide. Yet, we have many opportunities to conserve it. One particular opportunity for water conservation is the shower, because depending on the shower head and shower habits, an individual can save many liters of fresh water each day. Feedback proved to be an effective method to promote sustainable behavior. Therefore, in this paper we suggest to promote water conservation by providing feedback in form of an ambient display that can easily be integrated in current shower types. We built a prototype to study the potential of such a feedback device. These shower water meter (show-me) display the amount of water, that is used during one shower in form of LEDs assembled on a stick. Thus, an increasing water level is visualized. The user study revealed two groups. The subjects who considered themselves as ecologically conscious changed their behavior and turned the water down or off while soaping. Also, they are willing to pursue this behavior. Other subjects who did not have the goal to act more sustainable, were surprised about their water consumption and tried to reduce it. However, after the removal of the show-me device they did not maintain their behavior and fell back into their previous habit.
Procedure guideline for somatostatin receptor scintigraphy with (111)In-pentetreotide.

William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan; New York Hospital–Cornell Medical, New York, NY; Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis, Missouri; University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts; University Hospital Dijkzigt, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; and Third Medical School, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Bayesian Inference for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Applications and Software Implementation

The topic of this thesis is estimation of nonlinear dynamical systems, focusing on the use of methods such as particle filtering and smoothing. There are three areas of contributions: software implementation, applications of nonlinear estimation and some theoretical extensions to existing algorithms. The common theme for all the work presented is the pyParticleEst software framework, which has been developed by the author. It is a generic software framework to assist in the application of particle methods to new problems, and to make it easy to implement and test new methods on existing problems. The theoretical contributions are extensions to existing methods, specifically the Auxiliary Particle Filter and the Metropolis Hastings Improved Particle Smoother, to handle mixed linear/nonlinear models using Rao Blackwellized methods. This work was motivated by the desire to have a coherent set of methods and model-classes in the software framework so that all algorithms can be applied to all applicable types of models. There are three applications of these methods discussed in the thesis. The first is the modeling of periodic autonomous signals by describing them as the output of a second order system. The second is nonlinear grey-box system identification of a quadruple-tank laboratory process. The third is simultaneous localization and mapping for indoor navigation using ultrasonic range-finders. (Less)
4.6 A 1/2.3inch 20Mpixel 3-layer stacked CMOS Image Sensor with DRAM

In recent years, the performance of cellphone cameras has improved, and is becoming comparable to that of SLR cameras. However, the big difference between cellphone cameras and SLR cameras is the distortion due to the rolling exposure of CMOS image sensors (CISs) because cellphone cameras cannot have a mechanical shutters [1]. In addition to this technical problem, the demands for high quality in dark situations and for movies are increasing. Frame-level signal processing can solve these problems, but previous generations of CIS could not achieve both high-speed readout and accessible I/F speed. This paper presents 3-layer-stacked back-illuminated CMOS Image Sensor (3L-BI-CIS) with mounted DRAM as the frame memory.