Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in concentration of DNA in serum and plasma during storage of blood samples.

Cell-free DNA in serum and plasma has been suggested to have diagnostic potential because associations between DNA concentrations and several disorders have been described (1). The concentration of cell-free DNA circulating in plasma and serum has been analyzed in several studies and used as an interchangeable index of the quantity of circulating DNA in blood (2)(3)(4). However, it is known that the DNA concentration in serum is ∼3- to 24-fold higher than in plasma (3)(4)(5)(6). Recently published articles in this journal showed that various preanalytical factors of blood sampling and processing can affect the DNA concentration in plasma (5)(7)(8), but these findings do not explain the difference between plasma and serum concentrations of DNA mentioned above. Comparative investigations of the preanalytical conditions influencing the DNA concentration in serum and plasma are lacking. In addition, reference intervals for the concentration of cell-free DNA in serum were established without considering these factors (9). Thus, to complement the data of Lui et al. (5), we analyzed the influence of time delay in blood processing for plasma and serum at room temperature and at 4 °C. Venous blood samples from 10 healthy volunteers (5 females and 5 males; mean age, 42 years) were simultaneously collected in …
GABAergic Cells Are the Major Postsynaptic Targets of Mossy Fibers in the Rat Hippocampus

Dentate granule cells communicate with their postsynaptic targets by three distinct terminal types. These include the large mossy terminals, filopodial extensions of the mossy terminals, and smalleren passant synaptic varicosities. We examined the postsynaptic targets of mossy fibers by combining in vivo intracellular labeling of granule cells, immunocytochemistry, and electron microscopy. Single granule cells formed large, complex “mossy” synapses on 11–15 CA3 pyramidal cells and 7–12 hilar mossy cells. In contrast, GABAergic interneurons, identified with immunostaining for substance P-receptor, parvalbumin, and mGluR1a-receptor, were selectively innervated by very thin (filopodial) extensions of the mossy terminals and by small en passant boutons in both the hilar and CA3 regions. These terminals formed single, often perforated, asymmetric synapses on the cell bodies, dendrites, and spines of GABAergic interneurons. The number of filopodial extensions and small terminals was 10 times larger than the number of mossy terminals. These findings show that in contrast to cortical pyramidal neurons, (1) granule cells developed distinct types of terminals to affect interneurons and pyramidal cells and (2) they innervated more inhibitory than excitatory cells. These findings may explain the physiological observations that increased activity of granule cells suppresses the overall excitability of the CA3 recurrent system and may form the structural basis of the target-dependent regulation of glutamate release in the mossy fiber system.
FZD6 expression is negatively regulated by miR-199a-5p in human colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC), the third most common cancer worldwide, also has the highest rate of cancer-related morbidity and mortality. WNT signaling is initiated by binding of WNT to various receptors, including frizzleds (FZDs), and plays a critical role in CRC and other tumor development by regulating proliferation, differentiation, migration, apoptosis, and polarity. Among the members of the FZD family, FZD6 is broadly expressed in various tissues, and its overexpression has been reported in several cancers, suggesting an important role in cancer development. In this study, we investigated the expression of FZD6 in patients with CRC and found it to be increased in tumors, as compared to paired adjacent non-tumor tissues. Additionally, we found that FZD6 expression was negatively regulated by miR199a5p in CRC cells. These results suggest that overexpression of FZD6, mediated by reduced expression of miR-199a-5p, may play an important role in the development of CRC. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(6): 360-366]
A Little More, a Lot Better: Improving Path Quality by a Simple Path Merging Algorithm

Sampling-based motion planners are an effective means for generating collision-free motion paths. However, the quality of these motion paths (with respect to quality measures such as path length, clearance, smoothness or energy) is often notoriously low, especially in high-dimensional configuration spaces. We introduce a simple algorithm for merging an arbitrary number of input motion paths into a hybrid output path of superior quality, for a broad and general formulation of path quality. Our approach is based on the observation that the quality of certain sub-paths within each solution may be higher than the quality of the entire path. A dynamic-programming algorithm, which we recently developed for comparing and clustering multiple motion paths, reduces the running time of the merging algorithm significantly. We tested our algorithm in motion-planning problems with up to 12 degrees of freedom. We show that our algorithm is able to merge a handful of input paths produced by several different motion planners to produce output paths of much higher quality.
Global Bifurcation of Shilnikov Type in a Double-Gyre Ocean Model

Abstract The dynamics of an idealized wind-driven double-gyre circulation in an ocean basin are studied from a dynamical systems point of view in an effort to better understand its variability. While previous analyses of this circulation have mostly dealt with local bifurcations of steady states and limit cycles, this study demonstrates the importance of considering global bifurcations as well. In one case, a coherent picture of the global dynamics spanning a range of parameters from where there are only stable steady-state solutions to where there is chaotic eddy shedding is presented. A simple but novel use of power spectra along with dynamical projections of the dynamics suggests that just beyond the regime in which there are only stable steady states, the system exhibits a complicated global bifurcation known as the “Shilnikov phenomenon. ”
Enhanced TFRC for high quality video streaming over high bandwidth delay product networks

Transmission control protocol friendly rate control (TFRC) is designed to mainly provide optimal service for unicast applications, such as multimedia streaming in the best-effort Internet environment. However, high bandwidth networks with large delays present an environment where TFRC may have a problem in utilizing the full bandwidth. TFRC inherits the slow-start mechanism of TCP Reno, but this is a time-consuming process that may require many round-trip-times (RTTs), until an appropriate sending rate is reached. Another disadvantage inherited from TCP Reno is the RTT-unfairness problem, which severely affects the performance of long-RTT flows. In this paper, we suggest enhanced TFRC for high quality video streaming over high bandwidth delay product networks. First, we propose a fast startup scheme that increases the data rate more aggressively than the slow-start, while mitigating the overshooting problem. Second, we propose a bandwidth estimation method to achieve more equitable bandwidth allocations among streaming flows that compete for the same narrow link with different RTTs. Finally, we improve the responsiveness of TFRC in the presence of severe congestion. Simulation results have shown that our proposal can achieve a fast startup and provide fairness with competing flows compared to the original TFRC.
Direct Effects of Base Money on Aggregate Demand: Theory and Evidence

Meltzer (1999a) shows that real monetary base growth is a significant determinant of consumption growth in the United States, controlling for the short-term real interest rate. In this paper, it is shown that the same property of base money holds for total output (relative to trend or potential) in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The standard optimising IS-LM model cannot account for this result, but it is shown that it can once the long-term nominal interest rate is included in the money demand function. Because the long-term real rate matters for aggregate demand, the presence of the long-term nominal rate in the money demand function increases the effect of nominal money stock changes on real aggregate demand when prices are sticky.
The Silenced Borderland: A Dialogue Between the University of Michigan's Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center and the Campus Community

5 Introduction.6 SAPAC, The Divided Campus, and the Attempt to Create an Open Forum for Dialogue Chapter I.13 Sexual Assault on Campus: The Feminist Legacy, Anthropology, and the Creation of Social Boundaries Chapter II.35 Will You Be My Friend? The Implications of Social Boundaries and Micro-Organization in the Campus Community Chapter III.60 SAPAC: Friendships, Feminisms, and the Formation of Boundaries Chapter IV.94 I ♥ Consensual Sex: The Debate Surrounding Informed Consent and Rape in the Campus Community Concluding Remarks.117 The Silenced Borderland Appendices.125 Bibliography.136
Study of Bug Prediction Approaches

The Bug resides in the software system causes new bugs damages the software reputation and increases the cost of bug fixing effort. So it is compulsory to know or predict the existence of bug as soon as possible and remove residing bugs timely. In this paper we reviewed the previously used approaches like Code Churn, Fine Grained Source Code Changes (SCC), Fine Grained Bug Severity Prediction and also try to find their limitations.
Mapping p53 Mutations in Low-Grade Glioma: A Voxel-Based Neuroimaging Analysis

Brain tumor location has prognostic implications so these authors explored whether location also correlated with p53 status in 182 patients. Tumors occurring in the left medial temporal and right anterior temporal lobes were associated with high expression of mutant p53 and had significantly worse progression-free survival. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Brain tumor location has proved to be a prognostic factor that may be associated with features of neoplastic origin. Mutation of p53 is an atypical genetic change that occurs during tumorigenesis. Thus, a potential correlation may exist between tumor location and p53 status. The purpose of the current study was to identify anatomic characteristics of mutant p53 expression by using quantitative neuroimaging analyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Preoperative MR images from 182 patients with histologically confirmed low-grade gliomas were retrospectively analyzed. All tumors were manually marked and registered to the standard space. Using a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping analysis, we located brain regions associated with a high occurrence of p53 mutation and corrected them by using a permutation test. The acquired clusters were further included as a factor in survival analyses. RESULTS: Statistical analysis demonstrated that the left medial temporal lobe and right anterior temporal lobe were specifically associated with high expression of mutant p53. Kaplan-Meier curves showed that tumors located in these regions were associated with significantly worse progression-free survival compared with tumors occurring elsewhere. CONCLUSIONS: Our voxel-level imaging analysis provides new evidence that genetic changes during cancer may have anatomic specificity. Additionally, the current study suggests that tumor location identified on structural MR images could potentially be used for customized presurgical outcome prediction.
Mobile enhancement of motivation in schizophrenia: A pilot trial of a personalized text message intervention for motivation deficits

Motivation deficits remain an unmet treatment need in schizophrenia. Recent preclinical research has identified novel mechanisms underlying motivation deficits, namely impaired effort-cost computations and reduced future reward-value representation maintenance, that may serve as more effective treatment targets to improve motivation. The main aim of this study was to test the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a translational mechanism-based intervention, MEMS (Mobile Enhancement of Motivation in Schizophrenia), which leverages mobile technology to target these mechanisms with text-messages. Fifty-six participants with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder were randomized to MEMS ( n = 27) or a control condition ( n = 29). All participants set recovery goals to complete over eight-weeks. The MEMS group also received personalized, interactive text-messages each weekday to support motivation. Retention and engagement in MEMS was high: 92.6% completed 8 weeks of MEMS, with an 86.1% text-message response rate, and 100% reported that they were satisfied with the text-messages. Compared to the control condition, the MEMS group had significantly greater improvements in interviewer-rated motivation and anticipatory pleasure and obtained significantly more recovery-oriented goals at the end of the 8-week period. There were no significant group differences in performance-based effort-cost computations and future reward-value representations, self-reported motivation, quality of life, functioning, or additional secondary outcomes of positive symptoms, mood symptoms, or neurocognition. Results suggest that MEMS is feasible as a
Modeling Emotions and Other Motivations in Synthetic Agents

We present Cathexis, a distributed, computational model which offers an alternative approach to model the dynamic nature of different affective phenomena, such as emotions, moods and temperaments, and provides a flexible way of modeling their influence on the behavior of synthetic autonomous agents. The model has been implemented as part of an extensible, object-oriented framework which provides enough functionality for agent developers to design emotional agents that can be used in a variety of applications including entertainment (e.g. synthetic agents for interactive drama, video games, etc.), education (e.g. Intelligent Tutoring Systems), and human-computer interfaces.
Tight moments-based bounds for queueing systems

We present a new tool to analyze three queueing systems which have defied exact analysis so far: (i) the classical M/G/k multi-server system, (ii) queueing systems with fluctuating arrival and service rates, and (iii) the M/G/1 round-robin queue. We argue that rather than looking for exact expressions for the mean response time as a function of the job size distribution, a more fruitful approach is to find distributions which minimize or maximize the mean response time given the first n moments of the job size distribution. We prove that for the M/G/k system in light traffic, and given n=2 and 3 moments, these 'extremal' distributions are given by principal representations of the moment sequence. Furthermore, if we restrict the distributions to lie in the class of Completely Monotone (CM) distributions, then for all the three queueing systems, for any n, the extremal distributions under the appropriate "light traffic" asymptotics are hyper-exponential distributions with finite number of phases. We conjecture that the property of extremality should be invariant to the system load, and thus our light traffic results should hold for general load as well.
Prediction of Tangerine Mass Based on Geometrical Properties

Tangerines are frequently graded on the basis of size, but it may be more suitable and economical to develop a system which grades by mass. In this study, nine linear regression models for predicting tangerine mass from some geometrical properties of tangerine such as length (L), diameter (D), geometrical mean diameter (GMD), first projected area (PA ), second projected area (PA ), criteria area (CAE) and estimated volume based 12 on an oblate spheroid assumed shape (V ) were suggested. Models were divided into three main Sp classifications, i.e. first classification (outer dimensions), second classification (projected areas) and third classification (estimated volume). The statistical results of the study indicated that in order to predict tangerine mass based on outer dimensions, the mass model based on GMD as M = - 150.5 +43.94 GMD with R = 0.89 can 2
Linking Faculty Expectations and Student Goals to the Assessment of Quantitative Capabilities.

MFOI/PC01 Plus Postage. *College Students; Demonstration Programs; Higher Education; *Mathematics Skills; 'Mathematics Tests; *Prerequisites; *Student Evaluation The University of Wisconsin-Madison is using a novel assessment process to find whether rising juniors have the quantitative skills needed for success in their chosen upper-division courses. Sampling from departments across the campus, information is gathered about quantitative skills used in specific courses and the extent to which students can show these important skills at the start of the semester. Instructors play a key role in helping to design free-response tests reflecting capabilities expected of students from the first week and essential for success in the course. Two important characteristics of this form of assessment are direct faculty involvement and close ties to student goals and backgrounds. It was found that the reflection, contacts, and dialogues promoted by this form of a sessment are at least as important as the test results. This paper briefly outlines the assessment procedure, highlights some findings about instructor expectations and student capabilities, and describes a variety of ways that the program has had a local impact.
REDISTRIBUTION AND TAX EXPENDITURES: THE EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT

This paper examines the distributional and behavioral effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). We chart the growth of the program over time, and argue that several expansions show that real responses to taxes are important. We use tax data to show the distribution of benefits by income and family size, and examine the impacts of hypothetical reforms to the credit. Finally, we calculate the efficiency effects of marginal changes to EITC parameters.
Poster: Is Carmen Better than George? Testing the Exploratory Tester Using HCI Techniques

Exploratory software testing is an activity which can be carried out by both untrained and formally trained testers. In this paper, we propose using Human Computer Interaction (HCI) techniques to carry out a study of exploratory testing strategies used by the two groups of testers. This data will be used to make recommendations to companies with regards to the mix of skills and training required for testing teams.
Threshold Voltage Start-up Boost Converter for Sub-mA Applications

A threshold voltage start-up (TVS) scheme for a boost converter is presented. The TVS converter could start up at the average threshold voltage of the fabrication process, and converts a fluctuating (energy harvesting) input of 0.2 V to 0.9 V to a regulated output of 1.2 V. It operates in discontinuous conduction mode with peak current control (and thus operates with pulse frequency modulation) to reduce switching loss at light loads. The converter was designed with an AMS 0.35 mum CMOS process and measured 675 mumtimes615 mum. The maximum efficiency is 83% at an output current of 1 mA with an input voltage of 0.9 V.
Spreading influence values over weighted relationships among users of several social networks

There exist numerous analytic tools for computing the social influence of users. Although it is common to find individuals who actively collaborate in several social networks, existing tools do not consider their overall activity; on the contrary, they compute levels by focusing just on a specific online community. Besides, in most of the existing approaches the users' influence grows with the levels of their contacts, regardless of the kind of relationship established among them. We think that this measure is not fair/objective because the influence of a contact should be just spread to an individual when both take an active part and intensely interact to each other in the social network. This paper proposes a new influence metric which (i) weights dynamically the relationships within a group of individuals by considering their global collaboration in several online communities simultaneously, and (ii) spreads the influence levels over these weighted relationships. As a result, a user's influence increases when he/she is narrowly related to other influential individuals. The benefits of our metric against existing tools have been experimentally validated in a system that promotes free tourist resources and activities through the most influential users in Facebook and Twitter.
Commitment to an Emerging Organizational Field, Institutional Entrepreneurship, and the Perception of Opportunity: An Enactment Theory

Given an indifferent institutional environment, ongoing commitment to an emerging organizational field is critical. We build and test an enactment theory of commitment that holds that commitment is driven by institutional entrepreneurship, specifically actions to educate stakeholders, but that this factor is mediated by perception of an opportunity that rests on beliefs in industry attractiveness, superior products and services, and the likelihood of disruptive exogenous change. We illustrate this theory with findings from surveys of energy efficiency and renewable energy businesses. The results highlight the central role of actions to educate stakeholders. When an institutional domain is not yet fully established, the effect of entrepreneurs' actions to educate stakeholders is not just external, but has an important inward function of bolstering the entrepreneurs' ongoing commitment to the emerging field.
A High Density Map for Navigating the Human Polycomb Complexome

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are major determinants of gene silencing and epigenetic memory in higher eukaryotes. Here, we used a robust affinity purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS) approach to systematically map the human PcG protein interactome, uncovering an unprecedented breadth of PcG complexes. The obtained high density protein interaction data identified new modes of combinatorial PcG complex formation with proteins previously not associated with the PcG system, thus providing new insights into their molecular function and recruitment mechanisms to target genes. Importantly, we identified two human PR-DUB de-ubiquitination complexes, which comprise the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase OGT1 and a number of transcription factors. By further mapping chromatin binding of PR-DUB components genome-wide, we conclude that the human PR-DUB and PRC1 complexes bind distinct sets of target genes and impact on different cellular processes in mammals.
Efficacy and safety of a gauze pad containing hyaluronic acid in treatment of leg ulcers of venous or mixed origin: a double‐blind, randomised, controlled trial

Topical hyaluronic acid (HA) is routinely used in the local treatment of chronic wounds, but few data have been reported to date. A 60‐day double‐blind, randomised, controlled superiority trial was designed to investigate the efficacy and safety of a gauze pad containing HA in local treatment of venous leg ulcers, compared with its neutral vehicle. The primary endpoint was the percentage of wound size reduction after 45 days. Totally 89 patients were included. At day 45, the percentage of ulcer surface reduction was significantly greater in the HA group (73 ± 4·6%) versus neutral vehicle group (46 ± 9·6%) (P = 0·011). The number of healed ulcers was significantly higher in the HA group at day 45 (31·1% versus 9·3% respectively) and day 60 (37·8% versus 16·3% respectively; P < 0·05). At day 30, pain intensity based on visual analogue scale was significantly lower in the HA group (12·4 mm ± 2·6 versus 22·8 mm ± 3·8; P = 0·026). Tolerance of both treatments was comparable in the two groups. HA gauze pad, in local treatment of venous leg ulcers, was significantly more effective than the neutral vehicle on wound size reduction, healed ulcers rate and pain management with a good safety profile.