Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct Observation of the Crystallization of Carbon-Coated Amorphous Mg-Bearing Silicate Grains

In a previous paper, we demonstrated that the crystallization of amorphous Mg-bearing silicate grains to the Mg2SiO4 crystal took place at 800C in vacuum. The crystallization started from the grain surface. The phenomenon of the pre-nucleation states corresponded to the stall state suggested and clariﬁed by IR spectroscopy by Hallenback and Nuth have been directly observed at the temperature range of 650 to 800C. On the crystallization of cometary silicates, Yamamoto et al have proposed a chemical heating model as a mechanism of crystallization of cometary silicate, and have shown that the chemical heating mechanism loads to the crystallization degree needed to explain the observed strength of the cometary crystalline features. In order to laboratory analogies on this model, the amorphous Mg-bearing silicate grains which crystallized at 800C were covered with amorphous carbon layer. Since the amorphous carbon layer on the surface of CdTe nanoparticle was crystallized to the graphite layer by heating at 500C, inﬂuence of graphite structure alteration on the surface to the central Mg-bearing silicate grains have been examined by in-situ experiment in the transmission electron microscope. It was found that pre-nucleation did not observe but the crystallization took place at 600C which is lower in previous report. Therefore, the chemical energy due to the graphitization lowered the crystallization temperature.
Lymphocytes from HIV‐infected individuals show aberrant inositol polyphosphate metabolism which reverses after zidovudine therapy

Lymphocytes or lymphoblastoid cells that have been infected by HIV in vitro or exposed to its envelope glycoprotein (gp120) show abnormal inositol polyphosphate-mediated signal transduction and associated defects in calcium regulation. Such cells behave as though they were chronically activated and fail to respond to further activating signals. We now show that similar changes are seen in lymphocytes obtained from HIV-infected subjects at various stages of infection, despite the fact that only a minority of such cells are infected. Furthermore, the defect in the phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis pathway in lymphocytes obtained from AIDS patients reverses after treatment with zidovudine, in parallel with improvements in phytohaemagglutinin-induced proliferative response and interferon-γ production.
Valuation of Liquidity Discount: An Option-Theoretical Approach

It introduced an option-theoretical approach to value illiquidity security discount, taking an empirical study about the close-end fund discount for example. The empirical results show that illiquidity can't be a main reason of CEF puzzle in china. However, the empirical research shows it is practical by using lookback option approach to evaluate illiquidity security discount. This approach can help governor and investors to get valuable information. Firstly, the analytical bounds on the value of illiquidity provides useful information for making policy decisions. Secondly, it provides reasonable exchange price for investors.
Testing cognitive function in elderly populations: the PROSPER study

Objectives: For large scale follow up studies with non-demented patients in which cognition is an endpoint, there is a need for short, inexpensive, sensitive, and reliable neuropsychological tests that are suitable for repeated measurements. The commonly used Mini-Mental-State-Examination fulfils only the first two requirements. Methods: In the PROspective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk (PROSPER), 5804 elderly subjects aged 70 to 82 years were examined using a learning test (memory), a coding test (general speed), and a short version of the Stroop test (attention). Data presented here were collected at dual baseline, before randomisation for active treatment. Results: The tests proved to be reliable (with test/retest reliabilities ranging from acceptable (r=0.63) to high (r=0.88) and sensitive to detect small differences in subjects from different age categories. All tests showed significant practice effects: performance increased from the first measurement to the first follow up after two weeks. Conclusion: Normative data are provided that can be used for one time neuropsychological testing as well as for assessing individual and group change. Methods for analysing cognitive change are proposed.
Meeting report: building bridges for diverse professors of tomorrow.

How can you inspire young minority scholars to pursue an academic career in the professoriate? How do these scholars acquire the necessary skills to be an effective educator and mentor? The Institute on Teaching and Mentoring provides a unique forum for minority scholars to interact with role models across disciplines and learn about key issues young scholars are likely to face in their future academic careers. This four-day conference was the country’s largest gathering of underrepresented doctoral students and made a lasting impression on its attendees (Figure 1). The 2004 meeting, organized by the Compact for Faculty Diversity, was held in Atlanta, GA (October 21–24). Topics in plenary presentations and minisymposia focused on diversity issues, teaching and mentoring workshops, and preparation for future academic careers. This report will focus on the structure of this meeting, its content, impact on those in attendance, and the efforts of a program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at bridging the gap between young minority scientists and their future academic research careers.
Towards Automatic Inference of Task Hierarchies in Complex Systems

As Web services increasingly weave their way into our everyday lives, their dependability has become of critical importance [16]. Software defects, however, continue to plague such services, contributing to either degraded performance or down time. The most difficult bugs are the ones that make the system deviate from its expected execution behavior. Their root causes are usually buried in convoluted application logic, making their detection and analysis difficult. The inherent complexity of such systems further obstructs understanding such unexpected runtime behavior. Typical Web services involve multiple tiers, a hierarchy of functional abstractions, and high degrees of concurrency. They usually execute user-level tasks, e.g., processing client requests, in a series of stages, which can be distributed across multiple machines, processes, and threads, using events and asynchronous messages as notification mechanisms. Verifying the behavior of such individual tasks therefore becomes a very challenging problem since developers have to reconstruct the task flow by linking together pieces of its execution throughout the system. Conceptually, developers can represent such execution as a hierarchical task model that is consistent with the layered design of the system. Each task in the hierarchy represents the execution of a component or a stage at a particular layer. A task at a higher layer executes by completing several dependent child tasks at lower layers. For instance, Figure 1 illustrates the task hierarchy of committing user data in PacificA, a distributed storage system [12] similar to Google BigTable [6]. The top task has two sequential child tasks corresponding to the local and the remote commit. Each child task issues two parallel RPC calls as lower tasks to storage nodes, and an RPC call further invokes send and recv functions as tasks inside the network library for passing messages. At the bottom layer, each leaf task corresponds to sequential execution of code between synchronization points. Based on the task model, developers can better understand the structures of components and their dependencies, and use debugging tools (e.g., Pip [15] and DS [13]) to instrument the system and verify the behavior of tasks at appropriate layers. However, existing tools require developers to manually specify task models. For example, Pip relies on developer-provided “expectations” (a hierarchical task Session::RecvPacket
Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Behaviour and Productivity of Growing Pigs

This study examined the effects of enriching the environment on the behaviour and productivity of pigs, in an attempt to assess changes in welfare. A total of 102 pigs were housed in either barren or enriched housing from birth to slaughter. The barren environments were defined as intensive housing and the enriched environments incorporated extra space, an area which contained peat and straw in a rack. Enriching the environment reduced both the amount of time pigs spent inactive and the time involved in harmful social and aggressive behaviour. Tail biting was absent from the enriched environment but four pigs were removed from barren pens with severe tail damage. Pigs housed in enriched environments spent longer durations in exploratory behaviour than those in barren housing, and young pigs in enriched environments performed locomotory behaviour more frequently than their counterparts in barren environments. Overall growth rates were similar in both treatments. These results indicate that welfare is improved by enrichment with substrates and suggest that barren pens should be modified to provide these facilities.
Down-regulation of Human DNA-(Cytosine-5) Methyltransferase Induces Cell Cycle Regulators p16 ink4A and p21WAF/Cip1 by Distinct Mechanisms*

A common event in the development of human neoplasia is the loss of growth regulatory tumor suppressor functions. Methylation of 5′ CpG islands of tumor suppressor genes and elevated levels of the DNA-(cytosine-5)-methyltransferase enzyme (DNA MeTase) are also prevalent features of human neoplasia. However, direct evidence that elevated DNA MeTase levels alter gene expression and influence oncogenesis has been difficult to obtain, in part due to the lack of specific DNA MeTase inhibitors. Here we show that specific reduction of cellular DNA MeTase levels in human cancer cells with potent antisense inhibitors: 1) causes demethylation of the p16 ink4A gene promoter; 2) causes re-expression of the p16ink4A protein; 3) leads to accumulation of the hypophosphorylated form of the retinoblastoma protein (pRb); and 4) inhibits cell proliferation. Stepwise reduction of cellular DNA MeTase protein levels also induced a corresponding rapid increase in the cell cycle regulator p21WAF/Cip1 protein demonstrating a regulatory link between DNA MeTase and the growth regulator p21WAF/Cip1 that is independent of methylation of DNA. These results suggest that the elevated levels of DNA MeTase seen in cancer cells can inhibit tumor suppressors by distinct mechanisms involving either transcriptional inactivation through DNA methylation or by a methylation independent regulation.
Functionality of the spindle checkpoint during the first meiotic division of mammalian oocytes.

The spindle checkpoint ensures accurate chromosome segregation by delaying anaphase until all chromosomes are correctly aligned on the microtubule spindle. Although this mechanism is conserved throughout eukaryotic evolution, it is unclear whether it operates during meiosis in female mammals. The results of the present study show that in mouse oocytes spindle alterations prevent both chromosome segregation and MPF (M phase promoting factor) inactivation during the first meiotic M phase. Moreover, the spindle checkpoint component budding uninhibited by benzimidazole 1 (BUB1) localizes to kinetochores and is phosphorylated until anaphase of both meiotic M phases. Both localization and phosphorylation are similar to those observed in oocytes at microtubule depolymerization. In addition, the kinetochore localization and phosphorylation of BUB1 do not depend on the MOS/. /MAPK pathway. These data indicate that the spindle checkpoint is probably active during meiotic maturation in mouse oocytes. BUB1 remains associated with kinetochores and is phosphorylated during the metaphase arrest of the second meiotic M phase, indicating that this protein may also play a role in the natural metaphase II arrest in mammalian oocytes.
Colorectal Carcinogenesis: A Cellular Response to Sustained Risk Environment

The current models for colorectal cancer (CRC) are essentially linear in nature with a sequential progression from adenoma through to carcinoma. However, these views of CRC development do not explain the full body of published knowledge and tend to discount environmental influences. This paper proposes that CRC is a cellular response to prolonged exposure to cytotoxic agents (e.g., free ammonia) as key events within a sustained high-risk colonic luminal environment. This environment is low in substrate for the colonocytes (short chain fatty acids, SCFA) and consequently of higher pH with higher levels of free ammonia and decreased mucosal oxygen supply as a result of lower visceral blood flow. All of these lead to greater and prolonged exposure of the colonic epithelium to a cytotoxic agent with diminished aerobic energy availability. Normal colonocytes faced with this unfavourable environment can transform into CRC cells for survival through epigenetic reprogramming to express genes which increase mobility to allow migration and proliferation. Recent data with high protein diets confirm that genetic damage can be increased, consistent with greater CRC risk. However, this damage can be reversed by increasing SCFA supply by feeding fermentable fibre as resistant starch or arabinoxylan. High protein, low carbohydrate diets have been shown to alter the colonic environment with lower butyrate levels and apparently greater mucosal exposure to ammonia, consistent with our hypothesis. Evidence is drawn from in vivo and in vitro genomic and biochemical studies to frame experiments to test this proposition.
Critical review of beige adipocyte thermogenic activation and contribution to whole-body energy expenditure

Abstract Beige (or brite, “brown in white”) adipocytes are uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1)-positive cells residing in white adipose depots that, depending on the conditions, behave either as classic white adipocytes, storing energy as lipids, or as brown adipocytes, dissipating energy from oxidative metabolism as heat through non-shivering thermogenesis. Because of their thermogenic potential and, therefore, possible usage to treat metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, beige cells have attracted the attention of many scientists worldwide aiming to develop strategies to safely recruit and activate their thermogenic activity. Indeed, in recent years, a large variety of conditions, molecules (including nutrients) and signaling pathways were reported to promote the recruitment of beige adipocytes. Despite of those advances, the true contribution of beige adipocyte thermogenesis to whole-body energy expenditure is still not completely defined. Herein, we discuss some important aspects that should be considered when studying beige adipocyte biology and the contribution to energy balance and whole-body metabolism.
Comparison of algorithms for pre-processing of SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry data

MOTIVATION Surface-enhanced laser desorption and ionization (SELDI) time of flight (TOF) is a mass spectrometry technology. The key features in a mass spectrum are its peaks. In order to locate the peaks and quantify their intensities, several pre-processing steps are required. Though different approaches to perform pre-processing have been proposed, there is no systematic study that compares their performance. RESULTS In this article, we present the results of a systematic comparison of various popular packages for pre-processing of SELDI-TOF data. We evaluate their performance in terms of two of their primary functions: peak detection and peak quantification. Regarding peak quantification, the performance of the algorithms is measured in terms of reproducibility. For peak detection, the comparison is based on sensitivity and false discovery rate. Our results show that for spectra generated with low laser intensity, the software developed by Ciphergen Biosystems (ProteinChip Software 3.1 with the additional tool Biomarker Wizard) produces relatively good results for both peak quantification and detection. On the other hand, for the data produced with either medium or high laser intensity, none of the methods show uniformly better performances under both criteria. Our analysis suggests that an advantageous combination is the use of the packages MassSpecWavelet and PROcess, the former for peak detection and the latter for peak quantification.
Extrathyroid extension of well-differentiated papillary thyroid microcarcinoma on US.

BACKGROUND Extrathyroidal extension is an important factor to determine the extent of thyroid surgery. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of high-resolution ultrasound (US) for predicting the extrathyroidal extension of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). METHODS This study included a total of 221 PTMCs in 181 patients. PTMC was defined as thyroid papillary carcinoma equal or less than 1 cm in size. The US findings, such as contact and disruption of thyroid capsule, were evaluated to predict the extrathyroidal extension of thyroid carcinoma. We calculated the diagnostic accuracy and odds ratio for each US finding. RESULTS Of the 221 PTMCs, extrathyroidal extension was present in 89 (40.3%) based on pathologic results. The mean size was not significantly different between PTMCs with and without extrathyroidal extension (p = 0.527). When the degree of contact was high, extrathyroidal extension of the thyroid cancer was high (p < 0.0001). Considering the odds ratio, Az value, and positive predictive value of each US finding, more than 25% contact with the adjacent capsule is the most accurate measurement for predicting extrathyroidal extension. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that the presence and degree of contact between a PTMC and the adjacent capsule as found on preoperative US can provide an useful predictive information about an extrathyroidal extension.
The combination of p53 mutation and neu/erbB-2 amplification is associated with poor survival in node-negative breast cancer.

PURPOSE Increases in neu/erbB-2 have been implicated in breast cancer prognosis, but do not predict all recurrences. On the basis of evidence that p53 mutation is involved in the development of human neoplasia, we examined the prognostic value of p53 alterations in combination with neu/erbB-2 amplification. PATIENTS AND METHODS A consecutive series of women were observed for recurrence and death (median follow-up of 85 months) and tumors from 543 individuals were analyzed for p53 mutation status and neu/erbB-2 amplification. Exons 4 through 10 of the p53 gene were analyzed by single-stranded conformational polymorphism and mutations were confirmed by DNA sequencing. The association of p53 mutation status and neu/erbB-2 amplification with risk of recurrence and death was examined in survival analyses with traditional and histologic markers as prognostic factors. RESULTS p53 mutations occurred in 24.5% of the axillary node-negative breast carcinomas. Mutations were more frequent in carcinomas with neu/erbB-2 amplification: 38.9% compared with only 20.9% in those without neu/erbB-2 amplification. We found elevated risks of disease recurrence and overall mortality in patients with both p53 mutation and neu/erbB-2 amplification in their tumor compared with patients with neither or only one of the alterations. This increase persisted with adjustment for other prognostic factors (relative risk, 2.32; P =.002 for recurrence; relative risk, 2.22; P =.004 for death). CONCLUSION Evaluation of tumors for p53 mutations may be beneficial to identify women at higher risk of disease recurrence and death when the tumor has neu/erbB-2 amplification, but in the absence of neu/erbB-2 amplification, the presence of p53 mutation may not provide additional independent prognostic information.
Photonic switched true time delay beam forming network integrated on silica waveguide circuits

This paper proposes an integrated variable true time delay (TTD) beam forming network (BFN) on the silica-based optical waveguide circuits. This BFN has thermooptic switches and variable time delay lines. The variable TTD unit test was carried out under the 2.5 GHz microwave frequency range. The experimental results show that the phase error, that is the difference from the designed value, is less than or equal to 0.6 degrees and the amplitude error is less than or equal to 0.5 dB. These results also show adequate performance for a variable delay line. This silica-based beam former will be one of the excellent alternatives for the phased array antennas. <<ETX>>
Comparisons of Resource Costs and Success Rates between Immediate and Delayed Breast Reconstruction Using DIEP or SIEA Flaps under a Well-Controlled Clinical Trial

Background: Every year many patients diagnosed with breast cancer are subjected to mastectomy. Some of them choose to undergo breast reconstruction to restore their body image. Immediate or delayed reconstruction is possible, depending on medical, financial, and emotional considerations. High success rate and cost-effectiveness are two important factors that may guide decision making in the management plan. The objective of this study was to compare the resource costs and success rates of immediate and delayed breast reconstructions using either deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) or superficial inferior epigastric artery (SIEA) flaps. The resource cost is referred to as the cost of operation and hospitalization. Methods: From September of 2000 through August of 2001, 42 patients underwent immediate (n = 21) or delayed (n = 21) unilateral breast reconstruction using either a DIEP (n = 30) or SIEA (n = 12) flap by one surgeon. Results: There were no statistical differences in resource costs, success, and complication rates between DIEP and SIEA flaps in both the immediate and delayed breast reconstruction groups. Conclusions: Using either a DIEP or SIEA flap as the autologous tissue, delayed breast reconstruction is as cost-effective as immediate reconstruction.
A note on the structure of bilattices

A notion of bilattice was first proposed by Ginsberg as a general framework for many applications. Related notions were further investigated and applied for various goals by Fitting. In the present paper a general definition of bilattices is proposed, which covers all particular cases that have actually been used in the literature. It is shown also that in the finite case every bilattice in our sense is graphically representable by a special type of a two-dimensional diagram.