Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered expression of the human base excision repair gene NTH1 in gastric cancer.

A base excision repair enzyme, NTH1, has activity that is capable of removing oxidized pyrimidines, such as thymine glycol (Tg), from DNA. To clarify whether the NTH1 gene is involved in gastric carcinogenesis, we first examined the NTH1 expression level in eight gastric cancer cell lines, and the results showed that NTH1 expression was downregulated in all of them, including cell line AGS. Next, a comparison of excisional repair activity against Tg by empty vector-transfected AGS clones and FLAG-NTH1-expressing AGS clones showed that a low NTH1 expression level led to low capacity to repair the damaged base in the gastric epithelial cells. Reduced messenger RNA expression of NTH1 was also detected in 36% (18/50) of primary gastric cancers. Moreover, immunohistochemical analysis revealed that NTH1 was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm in 24% (12/50) of the primary gastric cancers in contrast to the nuclear localization in non-cancerous tissue, suggesting impaired excisional repair ability for nuclear DNA. No associations between clinicopathological factors and NTH1 expression level or localization pattern were detected in the gastric cancers. Next, we found two novel genetic polymorphisms, i.e. c. -163C>G and c. -241_-221del, in the NTH1 promoter region, and a luciferase assay showed that both were associated with reduced promoter activity. However, there were no associations between the polymorphisms and risk of gastric cancer in a gastric cancer case-control study. These findings suggested that downregulation of NTH1 expression and abnormal localization of NTH1 may be involved in the pathogenesis of a subset of gastric cancers.
STABILITY AND CHANGE IN THE SUPPLY CHAINS OF MULTINATIONAL PLANTS

The paper explores the extent of stability and change in the supply chains of multinational plants, using data from a sample of 50 plants in Yorkshire and Humberside (UK). Distinctively the ‘voices’ of plant managers are used to explain the observed patterns. Overall, the supply chains of MNE plants were characterised by high levels of stability during the five-year period under consideration. This stability is explained by a lack of alternative suppliers, satisfaction with existing suppliers, perceived benefits derived from continuity, sunk costs in existing suppliers, and, in some cases, managerial complacency. Where supply chain patterns have changed, changes are associated with changes in production, changes in supply chain strategy, or exogenous factors, such as heightened competition or changes the geography of potential suppliers. On the whole, recent changes have seen an increase in sourcing from suppliers outside the UK.
Spatial Node Distribution in the Random Waypoint Mobility Model

The random waypoint model (RWP) is one of the most widely used mobility models in performance analysis of ad hoc networks. We analyze two key properties of the RWP model in a given convex area: the stationary spatial distribution for the location of the node and the mean length of a leg (line between two waypoints). A general expression is given for the spatial node distribution in the form of a one-dimensional integral, giving the density up to a normalization constant. The mean length of a leg can be obtained through the normalization constant or by an alternative expression in the form of a two-dimensional integral. Similar analytical results are also given for a modied version of RWP, where the waypoints are chosen randomly on the perimeter. Additionally, we utilize our analytical results and present several simulation methods that allow an ecien t generation of samples from the spatial node distribution. The analytical results are illustrated through numerical examples.
Bartok : Music Time Period Classification

Previous work has high classification accuracy when classifying music genres that are very different [1] (e.g. rock vs. pop, jazz vs. classical), but little machine learning research has been done to classify music by subgenres within a larger genre that describe temporally and stylistically similar music. In this paper, we apply machine learning to classify classical music by time period. To do so, we used supervised learning algorithms (Naïve Bayes and SVM), unsupervised algorithms (knearest neighbors), and ensemble algorithms (AdaBoost) on a uniformly distributed data set, comprised of over 4,000 MIDI files extracted from an online collection. We then analyze and discuss the performance of our classifier.
Center-Based Indexing in Vector and Metric Spaces

The paper addresses the problem of indexing data for k nearest neighbors (k-nn) search. Given a collection of data objects and a similarity measure the searching goal is to find quickly the k most similar objects to a given query object. We present a top-down indexing method that employs a widely used scheme of indexing algorithms. It starts with the whole set of objects at the root of an indexing tree and iteratively splits data at each level of indexing hierarchy. In the paper two different data models are considered. In the first, objects are represented by vectors from a multi-dimensional vector space. The second, more general, is based on an assumption that objects satisfy only the axioms of a metric space. We propose an iterative k-means algorithm for tree node splitting in case of a vector space and an iterative k-approximate-centers algorithm in case when only a metric space is provided. The experiments show that the iterative k-means splitting procedure accelerates significantly k-nn searching over the one-step procedure used in other indexing structures such as GNAT, SS-tree and M-tree and that the relevant representation of a tree node is an important issue for the performance of the search process. We also combine different search pruning criteria used in BST, GHT nad GNAT structures into one and show that such a combination outperforms significantly each single pruning criterion. The experiments are performed for benchmark data sets of the size up to several hundreds of thousands of objects. The indexing tree with the k-means splitting procedure and the combined search criteria is particularly effective for the largest tested data sets for which this tree accelerates searching up to several thousands times.
Testosterone replacement therapy and the heart: friend, foe or bystander?

The role of testosterone therapy (TTh) in cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes is still controversial, and it seems will remain inconclusive for the moment. An extensive body of literature has investigated the association of endogenous testosterone and use of TTh with CVD events including several meta-analyses. In some instances, a number of studies reported beneficial effects of TTh on CVD events and in other instances the body of literature reported detrimental effects or no effects at all. Yet, no review article has scrutinized this body of literature using the magnitude of associations and statistical significance reported from this relationship. We critically reviewed the previous and emerging body of literature that investigated the association of endogenous testosterone and use of TTh with CVD events (only fatal and nonfatal). These studies were divided into three groups, “beneficial (friendly use)”, “detrimental (foe)” and “no effects at all (bystander)”, based on their magnitude of associations and statistical significance from original research studies and meta-analyses of epidemiological studies and of randomized controlled trials (RCT’s). In this review article, the studies reporting a significant association of high levels of testosterone with a reduced risk of CVD events in original prospective studies and meta-analyses of cross-sectional and prospective studies seems to be more consistent. However, the number of meta-analyses of RCT’s does not provide a clear picture after we divided it into the beneficial, detrimental or no effects all groups using their magnitudes of association and statistical significance. From this review, we suggest that we need a study or number of studies that have the adequate power, epidemiological, and clinical data to provide a definitive conclusion on whether the effect of TTh on the natural history of CVD is real or not.
Robust Fuzzy-Possibilistic C-Means Algorithm

In allusion to the disadvantages that fuzzy c-means algorithm is sensitive to noise and possibilistic c-means is easy to generate superposition cluster center, a novel algorithm (FPCM) which simultaneously produces both memberships and possibilities was proposed in 1997. However, FPCM still uses a norm-induced distance, as a consequence, its performance on the noisy data is not strong enough. In this paper, a new algorithm using the "kernel method" based on the classical FPCM is presented and called as robust fuzzy-possibilistic algorithm (RFPCM). RFPCM adopts a new kernel-induced metric in the data space to replace the original Euclidean norm metric in FPCM. Experiments on the artificial and real datasets show that RFPCM has better clustering performance and is more robust to noise than FPCM and PCM.
Outage probability performance of hybrid forwarding for wireless relaying

Hybrid forwarding scheme for wireless relaying is able to adapt to changing channel conditions by switching between amplify & forward and decode & forward, so as to decrease the energy consumption, time delay and complexity in practical system. The strategy evaluates the SNR at the relay and set it as the selection criteria. Although the BER performance for hybrid forwarding has been analyzed before, very little research has been focused on outage probability. In this paper, we analyze the outage probability performance the introduced strategy and derive a closed-form of analytical solution of outage probability using hybrid forwarding in wireless relaying system.
A Case Study on Experiential Learning in a First-Year General Education Course

Experiential-learning provides opportunities for students that feature a variety of high-impact practices including first-year seminars, internships, community learning, collaborative projects, and capstone seminars. To offer these high-impact practices for students, faculty from across disciplines and majors must be willing to incorporate these opportunities within their courses and degrees. Indiana University Kokomo has offered two successful programs to support these high-impact practices. One program, the Kokomo Experience and You (KEY), supports faculty in the development and implementation of events and activities to support student learning. The other, the Student Success Academy Faculty Fellows Program, provided faculty members the opportunity to examine research and concepts so that they can better promote student success in their classrooms. Building on the success of these two programs, a third initiative, the Experiential Learning Academy (ELA), was launched in 2018, funded by a Reimagining the First Years mini-grant from AASCU.
The Role of Geography in Human Adaptation

Various observations argue for a role of adaptation in recent human evolution, including results from genome-wide studies and analyses of selection signals at candidate genes. Here, we use genome-wide SNP data from the HapMap and CEPH-Human Genome Diversity Panel samples to study the geographic distributions of putatively selected alleles at a range of geographic scales. We find that the average allele frequency divergence is highly predictive of the most extreme FST values across the whole genome. On a broad scale, the geographic distribution of putatively selected alleles almost invariably conforms to population clusters identified using randomly chosen genetic markers. Given this structure, there are surprisingly few fixed or nearly fixed differences between human populations. Among the nearly fixed differences that do exist, nearly all are due to fixation events that occurred outside of Africa, and most appear in East Asia. These patterns suggest that selection is often weak enough that neutral processes—especially population history, migration, and drift—exert powerful influences over the fate and geographic distribution of selected alleles.
Storage Virtualization Based Asynchronous Remote Mirror

Computerized data becomes more and more critical in today’s digital life. With the help of redundant hardware and software, remote mirror can keep information systems alive by seamless service switching, even encountering site corruptions. Unfortunately, existing mirror systems have some limitations such as restrictions to specific storage devices and/or low level drivers. In this paper, we design a storage virtualization based asynchronous remote mirror system, named as SVAM (Storage Virtualization based Asynchronous Mirror). First, SVAM utilizes a logical volume structure, AMLV (Asynchronous Mirror Logic Volume), to provide data protection and make it the basic data container. This way, there is no device and driver dependency at all. Secondly, we present a server free mechanism to offload mirror related jobs to SAN IO nodes, therefore good performance can be expected. Finally, SVAM incorporates an advanced mirror protocol to support seamless service switching while keeping low network bandwidth overhead. Experiments and evaluation results demonstrate that SVAM has the ability to provide high reliability while only introduce little overhead: tolerated a site corruption while kept providing service, the cost was only 12.3% more time.
Incidence and severity of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae, group A Streptococcus, and group B Streptococcus infections among pregnant and postpartum women.

BACKGROUND The epidemiology of streptococcal infection in pregnant and postpartum women is poorly described in recent literature. We used data from multistate surveillance for invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae, group A Streptococcus (GAS), and group B Streptococcus (GBS) infections to estimate disease incidence and severity in these populations. METHODS Cases were reported through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Active Bacterial Core surveillance, an active population- and laboratory-based system. A case was defined as illness in a woman aged 15-44 years with streptococcus isolated from a normally sterile body site during 2007-2009. Pregnant or postpartum status was recorded at the time of culture. Incidence was calculated as cases per 1000 woman-years with use of national Census data; 95% confidence intervals were calculated on the basis of λ distribution. We used multivariable logistic regression to explore associations between pregnant or postpartum status and hospital length of stay, a marker of disease severity. RESULTS We identified 1848 cases in women; 6.0% of women were pregnant, and 7.5% were postpartum. Pregnant women had a higher mean incidence of GBS disease, compared with nonpregnant women (0.04 cases per 1000 woman-years [range, 0.03-0.05 cases per 1000 woman-years] vs 0.02 cases per 1000 woman-years [range, 0.02-0.02 cases per 1000 woman-years]). Postpartum women had elevated mean incidence of all 3 pathogens, compared with nonpregnant women (S. pneumoniae: 0.15 cases per 1000 woman-years [range, 0.09-0.25 cases per 1000 woman-years] vs 0.052 cases per 1000 woman-years [range, 0.049-0.056 cases per 1000 woman-years]; GAS: 0.56 cases per 1000 woman-years [range, 0.42-0.70 cases per 1000 woman-years] vs 0.019 cases per 1000 woman-years [range, 0.017-0.021 cases per 1000 woman-years]; GBS: 0.49 cases per 1000 woman-years [range, 0.36-0.64 cases per 1000 woman-years] vs 0.018 [range, 0.016-0.020 cases per 1000 woman-years]). Neither pregnancy nor postpartum status was associated with longer length of stay among women infected with any of the 3 pathogens. CONCLUSIONS Although invasive streptococcal infections do not appear to be more severe in pregnant or postpartum women, postpartum women have a 20-fold increased incidence of GAS and GBS, compared with nonpregnant women.
Insulin-like Growth Factor-I Receptors Are Overexpressed and Predict a Low Risk in Human Breast Cancer 1

IGF-I receptor (IGFR) content and its prognostic significance were evaluated in human breast cancer specimens using a sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay (V. Pezzino et al., Metabolism, 40: 861, 1991). The prognostic significance of IGFR expression was investigated by two dif ferent approaches: (a) detectable IGFR content was measured in 82% of specimens in a consecutive series of 184 human breast cancers and in 32% of 19 normal breast tissues. The average IGFR content in breast cancer was nearly 10-fold higher than the value observed in normal breast tissue (7.6. Â±0.8 versus 0.8 Â±0.1 ng/0.1 mg protein, mean Â±SEM; P < 0.001). IGFR content was positively correlated with estrogen (ER) and insulin receptor content (r = 0.269 and 0.515, respectively, Pearson correlation) but not with progesterone receptors (PR). No significant correlation was observed between IGFR content and a variety of tumor parameters (tu mor size, lymph node involvement, grade) and host characteristics (age, body mass index, menopausa! status); (ft) IGFR content was measured in a noncontinuous series of 265 primary breast cancer specimens subdivided into 136 high-risk and 129 low-risk specimens on the basis of being either negative (ER-/PR-/aneuploid/high S-phase) or positive (ER+/PR+/ diploid/low S-phase) for four well-established prognostic factors. IGFR levels were significantly higher in the low-risk group (6.4 Â±0.4 ng/0.1 mg protein, mean Â±SEM) than in the high-risk group (3.6 Â±0.5: /' < 0.0001, Wilcoxon sum rank test). In summary, our data indicate that there is an elevated IGFR content in most human breast cancers compared with normal breast tissue and that an elevated IGFR content is a favorable prognostic indicator.
Molecular Dynamics Reveal Binding Mode of Glutathionylspermidine by Trypanothione Synthetase

The trypanothione synthetase (TryS) catalyses the two-step biosynthesis of trypanothione from spermidine and glutathione and is an attractive new drug target for the development of trypanocidal and antileishmanial drugs, especially since the structural information of TryS from Leishmania major has become available. Unfortunately, the TryS structure was solved without any of the substrates and lacks loop regions that are mechanistically important. This contribution describes docking and molecular dynamics simulations that led to further insights into trypanothione biosynthesis and, in particular, explains the binding modes of substrates for the second catalytic step. The structural model essentially confirm previously proposed binding sites for glutathione, ATP and two Mg2+ ions, which appear identical for both catalytic steps. The analysis of an unsolved loop region near the proposed spermidine binding site revealed a new pocket that was demonstrated to bind glutathionylspermidine in an inverted orientation. For the second step of trypanothione synthesis glutathionylspermidine is bound in a way that preferentially allows N1-glutathionylation of N8-glutathionylspermidine, classifying N8-glutathionylspermidine as the favoured substrate. By inhibitor docking, the binding site for N8-glutathionylspermidine was characterised as druggable.
Complete and incomplete randomized NP problems

A randomized decision problem is a decision problem together with a probability function on the instances. Leonid Levin [Lev1] generalized the NP completeness theory to the case of properly defined randomized NP (shortly, RNP) problems and proved the completeness of a randomized version of the bounded tiling problem with respect to (appropriately generalized) Ptime reductions. Levin's proof naturally splits into two parts; a randomized version of the bounded halting problem is proved complete and then reduced to Randomized Tiling. David Johnson [Jo] provided some intuition behind Levin's definitions and proofs, and challenged readers to find additional natural complete RNP problems.
Concomitant appearance of intrinsic thermotolerance and storage of trehalose in Saccharomyces cerevisiae during early respiratory phase of batch-culture is CIF1-dependent.

Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that exhibit varied capacities for accumulation of trehalose were tested for intrinsic thermotolerance. Yeast that accumulated trehalose rapidly in early respiratory phase showed equally rapid attainment of thermotolerance, whereas a strain unable to accumulate trehalose at this stage of culture showed markedly delayed appearance of thermotolerance. These results were obtained using closely related but non-isogenic diploids and so it is possible that variable factors other than trehalose were responsible for the observed thermotolerance effects. Therefore, a pair of isogenic diploid S. cerevisiae strains was generated to facilitate further testing of whether trehalose functions in intrinsic stress tolerance. Both isogenic strains inherited a partially reverted cif1 phenotype, designated CPR, from the trehalose-deficient progenitor that had been used in construction of the non-isogenic strains. The CPR phenotype permitted growth on glucose but not accumulation of trehalose, indicating that not all cif1-related deficiencies were suppressed in the CPR strains. However, one of the isogenic CPR pair was cif1/cif1 and failed to accumulate trehalose, whilst the other was cif1/CIF1 and was able to accumulate this sugar. The trehalose-proficient strain showed intrinsic stress tolerance whereas the trehalose-deficient strain was sensitive to heat stress during early respiratory growth. These results suggest that one or more functions of CIF1, not operating in the cif1/cif1(CPR) strains, are important for intrinsic thermotolerance of yeast in early respiratory phase. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Understanding anthropomorphisation in social robotics

This paper discusses different approaches to anthropomorphism in social robotics. While anthropomorphisation in robotics is often understood as the human tendency to perceive robots as humanlike in response to stimuli provided by machines, the authors argue that it is also an interpretative process which is highly subjective and limited in duration. To project human characteristics onto robots means to attribute qualities that robots do not have. Thus, in order to understand the nature of user engagement in human-robot interaction, it is of crucial importance to have a clear understanding of anthropomorphism in the field of social robotics.
Induction of Apatite by the Cooperative Effect of Amelogenin and the 32-kDa Enamelin

Extracellular matrix proteins are considered to play essential roles in controlling the nucleation, growth, and organization of hydroxyapatite crystals during enamel formation. The effects of amelogenin and the 32-kDa enamelin proteins on apatite nucleation were investigated by a steady-state gel diffusion device containing 10% gelatin gels loaded with 0, 0.75%, and 1.5% (w/w) native porcine amelogenins. It was found that the induction time for hydroxyapatite precipitation was strongly increased by the presence of amelogenins, suggesting an inhibitory effect of apatite nucleation. Addition of 18 μg/mL of 32-kDa enamelin to 10% gelatin also caused inhibition of nucleation. Remarkably, addition of 18 and 80 μg/mL of 32-kDa enamelin in gels containing 1.5% amelogenin accelerated the nucleation process in a dose-dependent manner. Our observations strongly suggest that the 32-kDa enamelin and amelogenins cooperate to promote nucleation of apatite crystals and propose a possible novel mechanism of mineral nucleation during enamel biomineralization.