Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
OVOL2 in metastasis prevention in NPC

Metastasis remains a critical - and largely elusive - target in the race to prevent cancer-related deaths. Such is true in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), where the presentation or development of metastatic disease is usually fatal. In this edition of Theranostics, Qi et al. demonstrate a critical role of the zinc-finger transcription factor, OVOL2, in suppressing metastasis and maintaining an epithelial phenotype. These data add to the depth of understanding of the metastatic program in NPC, and may eventually lead to a druggable target in late-stage NPC.
Hypoxia/Reoxygenation of Rat Renal Arteries Impairs Vasorelaxation via Modulation of Endothelium-Independent sGC/cGMP/PKG Signaling

Ischemia/reperfusion injury holds a key position in many pathological conditions such as acute kidney injury and in the transition to chronic stages of renal damage. We hypothesized that besides a reported disproportional activation of vasoconstrictor response, hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) adversely affects endothelial dilatory systems and impairs relaxation in renal arteries. Rat renal interlobar arteries were studied under isometric conditions. Hypoxia was induced by application of 95% N2, 5% CO2 for 60 min to the bath solution, followed by a 10 min period of reoxygenation (95% O2, 5% CO2). The effect of H/R on relaxation was assessed using various inhibitors of endothelial dilatory systems. mRNA expression of phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5), NADPH oxidases (NOX), and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms were determined using qRT-PCR; cGMP was assayed with direct cGMP ELISA. Acetylcholine induced relaxation was impaired after H/R. Inhibition of the NOS isoforms with L-NAME, and cyclooxygenases (COXs) by indomethacin did not abolish the H/R effect. Moreover, blocking the calcium activated potassium channels KCa3.1 and KCa2.1, the main mediators of the endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor, with TRAM34 and UCL1684, respectively, showed similar effects in H/R and control. Arterial stiffness did not differ comparing H/R with controls, indicating no impact of H/R on passive vessel properties. Moreover, superoxide was not responsible for the observed H/R effect. Remarkably, H/R attenuated the endothelium-independent relaxation by sodium nitroprusside, suggesting endothelium-independent mechanisms of H/R action. Investigating the signaling downstream of NO revealed significantly decreased cGMP and impaired relaxation during PDE5 inhibition with sildenafil after H/R. Inhibition of PKG, the target of cGMP, did not normalize SNP-induced relaxation following H/R. However, the soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) inhibitor ODQ abolished the H/R effect on relaxation. The mRNA expressions of the endothelial and the inducible NOS were reduced. NOX and PDE5 mRNA were similarly expressed in H/R and control. Our results provide new evidence that impaired renal artery relaxation after H/R is due to a dysregulation of sGC leading to decreased cGMP levels. The presented mechanism might contribute to an insufficient renal reperfusion after ischemia and should be considered in its pathophysiology.
Determinants of meat quality: tenderness

Meat quality is a term used to describe a range of attributes of meat. Consumer research suggests that tenderness is a very important element of eating quality and that variations in tenderness affect the decision to repurchase. The present paper highlights recent information on the factors that affect tenderness. While the precise aetiology is not fully understood, a number of factors have been shown to affect tenderness. Of these factors, postmortem factors, particularly temperature, sarcomere length and proteolysis, which affect the conversion of muscle to meat, appear most important. However, it is now becoming clear that variation in other factors such as the muscle fibre type composition and the buffering capacity of the muscle together with the breed and nutritional status of the animals may also contribute to the observed variation in meat tenderness.
A powerful approach reveals numerous expression quantitative trait haplotypes in multiple tissues

Motivation Recently many studies showed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affect gene expression and contribute to development of complex traits/diseases in a tissue context-dependent manner. However, little is known about haplotype's influence on gene expression and complex traits, which reflects the interaction effect between SNPs. Results In the present study, we firstly proposed a regulatory region guided eQTL haplotype association analysis approach, and then systematically investigate the expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) haplotypes in 20 different tissues by the approach. The approach has a powerful design of reducing computational burden by the utilization of regulatory predictions for candidate SNP selection and multiple testing corrections on non-independent haplotypes. The application results in multiple tissues showed that haplotype-based eQTLs not only increased the number of eQTL genes in a tissue specific manner, but were also enriched in loci that associated with complex traits in a tissue-matched manner. In addition, we found that tag SNPs of eQTL haplotypes from whole blood were selectively enriched in certain combination of regulatory elements (e.g. promoters and enhancers) according to predicted chromatin states. In summary, this eQTL haplotype detection approach, together with the application results, shed insights into synergistic effect of sequence variants on gene expression and their susceptibility to complex diseases. Availability and implementation The executable application 'eHaplo' is implemented in Java and is publicly available at http://grass.cgs. hku.hk/limx/ehaplo/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Measuring the quality of various version an object-oriented software utilizing CK metrics

There are many object-oriented software quality measurement techniques. One of them is CK metric. This paper utilizes CK metrics to measure qualities per version of an open source software namely Statcato. Measurements are done in each class, each version of the software. The measurement is used to analyze the quality of the software. This paper concludes that the quality of software has improved during its lifecycle, although its features increase.
Supplementary Material for Surface Networks

This note contains the appendices of the paper Surface Networks. A The Dirac Operator The quaternions H is an extension of complex numbers. A quaternion q 2 H can be represented in a form q = a + bi + cj + dk where a, b, c, d are real numbers and i, j, k are quaternion units that satisfy the relationship i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = 1. vj
Media encoding in science fiction television: Battlestar Galactica as a site of critical cultural production

We examine the television show Battlestar Galactica (BSG) through interviews with creative people working on the show to illustrate the production context of the show and the science fiction (sf) genre. Media scholars suggest sf stories are critical stories about our political systems and our anxieties about new technologies, social change, race, gender, class, and religious conflicts. We investigate constraints and agency in the production of BSG as a site of critical cultural commentary and the politics of racial and gender representation in the series. We find that the creators behind BSG struggle with the moral and political nature of the stories they create, within the constraints of power, social structures, and a neoliberal economy and in doing so actively participate in their own acts of meaning-making in the production process.
A perceptual typology of standard language situations in the Low Countries

This chapter introduces and pools speaker evaluation data in support of empirical criteria to measure abstract concepts such as ‘standard language ideology’ and ‘standard language ideal’. The four criteria – speaker prestige, accent status, perceived beauty, and communal consensus – are subsequently invoked to answer (controversial) questions about the current standard language status of Netherlandic and Belgian Dutch. The basic hypothesis to be tested in this respect is the suggestion that Netherlandic Dutch has retained but relaxed its standard, while Belgian Dutch is currently a standardless variety. Let us first define a standard language in terms of the three criteria Auer (2011: 490) outlines. A standard language is:
Effect of collagen gel stiffness on neurite extension

Although collagen is commonly used as components of tissue-engineered nerve-guidance channels, little is known about the effect of the mechanical properties of commonly used gel concentrations on the extension of neurites. This study focused on neurite extension of dissociated chick dorsal root ganglia in vitro over a range of collagen concentrations (0.4–2.0 mg/ml). Neurite length increased in all gels between day 1 and day 4, except at the highest collagen concentration, where a 9% decrease was noted at day 4. Although maximum neurite extension was seen in lower concentration gels (0.6–0.8 mg/ml), mechanical stiffness of each gel significantly increased with increasing concentration, from 2.2 Pa at 0.4 mg/ml to 17.0 Pa at 2.0 mg/ml. A previous model of mechanical stiffness versus neurite outgrowth did not fit this data well, likely because of interactions between the growth cone and the collagen fibers. Overall, these results provided insight regarding factors that influence neurite elongation and may be utilized to further optimize tissue-engineered scaffolds.
Generalized Fragment Picking in Rosetta: Design, Protocols and Applications

The Rosetta de novo structure prediction and loop modeling protocols begin with coarse grained Monte Carlo searches in which the moves are based on short fragments extracted from a database of known structures. Here we describe a new object oriented program for picking fragments that greatly extends the functionality of the previous program (nnmake) and opens the door for new approaches to structure modeling. We provide a detailed description of the code design and architecture, highlighting its modularity, and new features such as extensibility, total control over the fragment picking workflow and scoring system customization. We demonstrate that the program provides at least as good building blocks for ab-initio structure prediction as the previous program, and provide examples of the wide range of applications that are now accessible.
Reactions to conspecifics as novel stimuli in protein malnourished and socially isolated rhesus monkeys

Dobson, Ted E. , M.A., Winter 1978 Psychology Reactions to Conspecifics as Novel Stimuli in Protein Malnourished and Socially Isolated Rhesus Monkeys (132 pp.) Director: David A. Strobel 5 An exploratory study of the effects of protein-calorie malnutrition and partial social isolation on various reactions to the novel pres­ ence of a conspecific was conducted with 16 juvenile rhesus monkeys. Diet and rearing condition were varied in a factorial design, with two levels of protein intake, two levels of social contact, and six repeated measures. The dietary manipulation involved the feeding of a low protein or a high protein diet from 120 days of age. Rearing condition was varied by housing subjects either individually or in groups of four. Testing took place in a specially designed operant chamber, separated by clear plexiglas from an adjoining compartment. Subjects were trained to press a bar for food reward on an FI-60 second schedule of reinforcement and then stimulus animals were unexpectedly introduced into the adjoining chamber. Measures of bar pressing suppression and five incidental behavior categories were taken. The predictions of two principal, opposing hypotheses were tested. For the measure related to the suppression of bar pressing, a main effect for rearing condition and the suggestion of a diet x rearing condition interaction were found. Other main effects and interac­ tions involving most of the incidental behavior categories were also found, such that a proposed increase in fearful ness of nutritionally or socially deprived subjects received more support than the sugges­ tion of insensitivity to social cues on the part of these subjects. However, neither alternative hypothesis accounted for a preponderance of the observed reactions.
Experimental characterization of the body-coupled communications channel

Body-coupled communications (BCC), in which the human body is used as a communications channel, has been shown to be a promising solution for wireless body-area networks (WBANs). For successful deployment of these BCC-based WBANs, it is necessary to develop a clear understanding of the channel behavior. Therefore, this paper presents the key characteristics of the capacitively-coupled on-body channel used for BCC. This is based on an experimental study, which was carried out with a specifically designed measurement system. The goal of the study was to reveal the influence of electrode design, electrode position and body motion on the propagation loss and to characterize the experienced interference. It is concluded that the maximum propagation loss for the whole body channel is below 80 dB. Moreover, the frequency dispersion and the influence of body movement on channel attenuation are shown to be much smaller than for radio frequency (RF) WBAN channels. From the results we conclude that BCC can result in a simpler, more robust, and lower-power WBAN than what is achievable with traditional RF solutions.
Aldaulactone – An Original Phytotoxic Secondary Metabolite Involved in the Aggressiveness of Alternaria dauci on Carrot

Qualitative plant resistance mechanisms and pathogen virulence have been extensively studied since the formulation of the gene-for-gene hypothesis. The mechanisms involved in the quantitative traits of aggressiveness and plant partial resistance are less well-known. Nevertheless, they are prevalent in most plant-necrotrophic pathogen interactions, including the Daucus carota–Alternaria dauci interaction. Phytotoxic metabolite production by the pathogen plays a key role in aggressiveness in these interactions. The aim of the present study was to explore the link between A. dauci aggressiveness and toxin production. We challenged carrot embryogenic cell cultures from a susceptible genotype (H1) and two partially resistant genotypes (I2 and K3) with exudates from A. dauci strains with various aggressiveness levels. Interestingly, A. dauci-resistant carrot genotypes were only affected by exudates from the most aggressive strain in our study (ITA002). Our results highlight a positive link between A. dauci aggressiveness and the fungal exudate cell toxicity. We hypothesize that the fungal exudate toxicity was linked with the amount of toxic compounds produced by the fungus. Interestingly, organic exudate production by the fungus was correlated with aggressiveness. Hence, we further analyzed the fungal organic extract using HPLC, and correlations between the observed peak intensities and fungal aggressiveness were measured. One observed peak was closely correlated with fungal aggressiveness. We succeeded in purifying this peak and NMR analysis revealed that the purified compound was a novel 10-membered benzenediol lactone, a polyketid that we named ‘aldaulactone’. We used a new automated image analysis method and found that aldaulactone was toxic to in vitro cultured plant cells at those concentrations. The effects of both aldaulactone and fungal organic extracts were weaker on I2-resistant carrot cells compared to H1 carrot cells. Taken together, our results suggest that: (i) aldaulactone is a new phytotoxin, (ii) there is a relationship between the amount of aldaulactone produced and fungal aggressiveness, and (iii) carrot resistance to A. dauci involves mechanisms of resistance to aldaulactone.
Warm Ionized Medium throughout the Sagittarius–Carina Arm

Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper observations of Hα and [S ii] λ6716 emission are used to trace the vertical distribution and physical conditions of the warm ionized medium along the Sagittarius–Carina arm. CO emission, tracing cold molecular gas in the plane of the Galaxy, is used as a guide to isolate Hα and [S ii] λ6716 emission along individual spiral arms. Exponential scale heights of electron density squared (or emission measure) are determined using Hα emission above (below) the midplane to be along the near Sagittarius arm, along the near Carina arm, and along the far Carina arm. The emission measure scale height tends to increase as a function of Galactocentric radius along the Sagittarius–Carina arm for . Physical conditions of the ionized gas are analyzed using the [S ii]/Hα line ratio, which more closely traces IHα than height above the plane, z, suggesting a stronger relationship with the in situ electron density. We interpret this result as further evidence for the majority of the observed diffuse emission originating from in situ ionized gas as opposed to scattered light from classical H ii regions in the plane.
Dealing with Insufficient Location Fingerprints in Wi-Fi Based Indoor Location Fingerprinting

The development of the Internet of Things has accelerated research in the indoor location fingerprinting technique, which provides value-added localization services for existing WLAN infrastructures without the need for any specialized hardware. The deployment of a fingerprinting based localization system requires an extremely large amount of measurements on received signal strength information to generate a location fingerprint database. Nonetheless, this requirement can rarely be satisfied in most indoor environments. In this paper, we target one but common situation when the collected measurements on received signal strength information are insufficient, and show limitations of existing location fingerprinting methods in dealing with inadequate location fingerprints. We also introduce a novel method to reduce noise in measuring the received signal strength based on the maximum likelihood estimation, and compute locations from inadequate location fingerprints by using the stochastic gradient descent algorithm. Our experiment results show that our proposed method can achieve better localization performance even when only a small quantity of RSS measurements is available. Especially when the number of observations at each location is small, our proposed method has evident superiority in localization accuracy.
OVOL2 links stemness and metastasis via fine-tuning epithelial-mesenchymal transition in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Rationale: Metastasis is the leading cause of disease-related death among patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Mounting evidence suggest that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is crucial for cancer cells to acquire metastatic ability. In this study, we aim to clarify the extent to which EMT is involved in various cancer properties and identify novel markers for predicting the prognosis of NPC patients. Methods: Two cellular models derived from the same NPC cell line with distinct metastasis ability were used for microarray analysis to identify key transcriptional factors that drive metastasis. Cell migration and invasion were analyzed by wound healing and Transwell analysis. Lung metatasis was determined by tail vein injection assay. Cancer stemness was analyzed using colony formation and xenograft assay. The EMT extent was evaluated using immunoblotting, RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence of EMT markers. The value of OVOL2 in prognosis was determined by immunohistochemistry in NPC biopsies. Results: OVOL2 was the most significantly down-regulated EMT transcription factor (EMT-TF) in cellular models of NPC metatasis. Low levels of OVOL2 were associated with poor overall survival of NPC patients and the reduced expression is partly due to promoter methylation and epithelial dedifferentiation. Knockout of OVOL2 in epithelial-like NPC cells partially activates EMT program and significantly promotes cancer stemness and metastatic phenotypes. Conversely, ectopically expression of OVOL2 in mesenchymal-like cells leads to a partial transition to an epithelial phenotype and reduced malignancy. Reversing EMT by depleting ZEB1, a major target of OVOL2, does not eliminate the stemness advantage of OVOL2-deficient cells but does reduce their invasion capacity. A comparison of subpopulations at different stages of EMT revealed that the extent of EMT is positively correlated with metastasis and drug resistance; however, only the intermediate EMT state is associated with cancer stemness. Conclusion: Distinct from other canonical EMT-TFs, OVOL2 only exhibits modest effect on EMT but has a strong impact on both metastasis and tumorigenesis. Therefore, OVOL2 could serve as a prognostic indicator for cancer patients.
PBF: A New Privacy-Aware Billing Framework for Online Electric Vehicles with Bidirectional Auditability

Recently an online electric vehicle (OLEV) concept has been introduced, where vehicles are propelled through the wirelessly transmitted electrical power from the infrastructure installed under the road while moving. The absence of secure-and-fair billing is one main hurdle to widely adopt this promising technology. This paper introduces a secure and privacy-aware fair billing framework for OLEV on the move through the charging plates installed under the road. We first propose two extreme lightweight mutual authentication mechanisms, a direct authentication and a hash chain-based authentication between vehicles and the charging plates that can be used for different vehicular speeds on the road. Second we propose a secure and privacy-aware wireless power transfer on move for the vehicles with bidirectional auditability guarantee by leveraging game-theoretic approach. Each charging plate transfers a fixed amount of energy to the vehicle and bills the vehicle in a privacy-aware way accordingly. Our protocol guarantees secure, privacy-aware, and fair billing mechanism for the OLEVs while receiving electric power from the road. Moreover our proposed framework can play a vital role in eliminating the security and privacy challenges in the deployment of power transfer technology to the OLEVs.
“This guy says I should talk like that all the time”: Challenging intersecting ideologies of language and gender in an American Stuttering English comedienne's stand-up routine

Abstract American Stuttering English (ASE) speakers (or ‘persons who stutter’ in pathological perspectives) have historically had tense relationships with comedic representations of their speech. Mainstream representations pathologize and ridicule stuttering, rather than appreciate it as a legitimate language variety. These depictions also increase non-ASE speakers' ‘possessive investment’ (Lipsitz 1995) in Standard American Fluent English as the dominant language variety. Recently, some ASE speakers have reinterpreted ASE and comedic portrayals of their speech using stand-up comedy. This article analyzes the comedic work of Rona B, an ASE comedienne. Using data on her YouTube channel, I argue that Rona B draws on her intersectional experiences as a female ASE speaker to construct a voice that critiques both the political agendas of anti-linguistic discrimination, which downplays gender, and of antisexism, which minimizes sociolinguistic differences. This study expands on contemporary calls in sociolinguistics that position intracategorical intersectionality as key for analyzing performances on language variation. (Gender, variation, American Stuttering English, performance, stand-up comedy, language ideologies)*