Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Award Number: W81XWH-08-1-0453 TITLE: Development of Mouse Models of Ovarian Cancer for Studying Tumor Biology and Testing Novel Molecularly Targeted Therapeutic Strategies. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Purpose: Genetically engineered mouse (GEM) models of ovarian cancer that closely recapitulate their human tumor counterparts may be invaluable tools for preclinical testing of novel therapeutics. We studied murine ovarian endometrioid adenocarcinomas (OEA) arising from conditional dysregulation of canonical WNT and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway signaling to investigate their response to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs and mTOR or AKT inhibitors. Experimental Design: OEAs were induced by injection of adenovirus expressing Cre recombinase (AdCre) into the ovarian bursae of Apc;Pten mice. Tumor-bearing mice or murine OEA-derived cell lines were treated with cisplatin and paclitaxel, mTOR inhibitor rapamycin, or AKT inhibitors API-2 or perifosine. Treatment effects weremonitored in vivoby tumor volume andbioluminescence imaging, in vitro by WST-1 proliferation assays, and in OEA tissues and cells by immunoblotting and immunostaining for levels and phosphorylation status of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway components. Results: Murine OEAs developed within 3 weeks of AdCre injection and were not preceded by endometriosis. OEAs responded to cisplatin þ paclitaxel, rapamycin, and AKT inhibitors in vivo. In vitro studies showed that response to mTOR and AKT inhibitors, but not conventional cytotoxic drugs, was dependent on the status of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling. AKT inhibition in APC /PTEN tumor cells resulted in compensatory upregulation of ERK signaling. Conclusions: The studies show the utility of this GEMmodel of ovarian cancer for preclinical testing of novel PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling inhibitors and provide evidence for compensatory signaling, suggesting that multiple rather than single agent targeted therapy will be more efficacious for treating ovarian cancers with activated PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling. Clin Cancer Res; 17(23); 7359–72. 2011 AACR.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF BODY MASS INDEX AND WEIGHT SPECIFIC QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG STUDENTS OF PNU

The main objective of this study is to provide the relationship of Body Mass Index and the weight specific quality of life with psychological factors (i.e., self-esteem, and psychological well-being) among university students of Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU), Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Body mass Index (BMI) was calculated by using standards of World Health Organization. Three psychological measures validated and translated in Arabic language, namely, Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES), Brief psychological well-being scale (PWS) and impact of weight on quality of life (IWQoL) questionnaire were applied. Female university students (N=500) enrolled in bachelors’ programs were approached to gather data. Pearson correlation was conducted to measure the relationship of BMI and weight specific quality of life and further with self-esteem and wellbeing. Additionally, correlation is computed to measure the relationship of BMI and weight specific quality of life with health-related factors. Statistically significant correlation (r=0.306, p< .01) was found between BMI and quality of life that confirms the relationship of actual weight with the perception of weight and quality of life. Moreover, BMI was found having significant negative correlation with wellbeing (r=-.531, p<.01). Weight specific quality of life was also found having negative correlation of self-esteem and wellbeing respectively (r=.145, p<.01; r=-.207, p<.01). Further weight specific quality of life was having significant negative correlation with frequency of physical exercise, subjective assessment of health and body-image (r=-.131, p<.01, r=-.094, p<.01, r=-.159, p<.01). Findings are significant due to first of its kind, using translated and validated Arabic language scales in Saudi Arabia. Findings are highlighting the involvement of psychological constructs in relation with BMI and weight specific quality of life among female university students. Psychological constructs of self-esteem, wellbeing and weight specific quality of life can be considered and utilized to improve various health promotion policies and to organize awareness programs for female youth.
Understanding Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Physical Exercise in Patients with Cancer Understanding Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Physical Exercise in Patients with Cancer

Many patients with cancer experience muscle wasting and weakness. Muscle wasting in patients with cancer can be caused by cachexia and sarcopenia. Both cachexia and sarcopenia involve inflammation and oxidative stress. However, they differ in the underlying mechanisms that lead to muscle wasting. Cachexia involves the release of inflammatory cytokines due to cancer, while sarcopenia involves inflammation due to aging. Physical exercise has shown effectiveness for improving physical function, ability, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with cancer cachexia. On the other hand, no studies have investi- gated the relationship between physical exercise and sarcopenia in elderly patients with cancer. Previous studies showed effectiveness for improving physical function in elderly patients with cancer. In the future, more studies are required on physical exercise in sarcopenic elderly patients with cancer. patients with cancer. Studies investigating the combined effect of physical exercise and nutritional therapies such as branched chain amino acids in cancer rehabilitation are required to improve patient outcomes in the future.
Hypergraph $F$-designs for arbitrary $F$

We solve the existence problem for $F$-designs for arbitrary $r$-uniform hypergraphs $F$. In particular, this shows that, given any $r$-uniform hypergraph $F$, the trivially necessary divisibility conditions are sufficient to guarantee a decomposition of any sufficiently large complete $r$-uniform hypergraph $G=K_n^{(r)}$ into edge-disjoint copies of $F$, which answers a question asked e.g. by Keevash. The graph case $r=2$ forms one of the cornerstones of design theory and was proved by Wilson in 1975. The case when $F$ is complete corresponds to the existence of block designs, a problem going back to the 19th century, which was first settled by Keevash. More generally, our results extend to $F$-designs of quasi-random hypergraphs $G$ and of hypergraphs $G$ of suitably large minimum degree. Our approach builds on results and methods we recently introduced in our new proof of the existence conjecture for block designs.
PEDIATRIC HYPERTENSION EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HYPERTENSION IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Hypertension (HT) is a leading cause of adult morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is estimated to affect approximately 1 billion persons globally, and accounts for 7 million deaths yearly [1-2]. In adults, HT is well known as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease [1]. In children and adolescents blood pressure (BP) levels at which long-term cardiovascular risk increases have not been well established. Regardless, HT in children and adolescents is the focus of numerous studies that have examined intermediate measures of target organ injury as well as BP tracking into adulthood. Of recent interest in pediatric HT is the attempt to accurately determine prevalence and establish secular trends, especially given the well-documented association of BP with body mass index (BMI) in children [2-5] and the marked increase in prevalence of childhood adiposity worldwide [6-11]. Several studies in the United States have demonstrated increases in mean BP and prevalence of HT, trends that are in part attributable to the increased prevalence of obesity. However, worldwide data has shown variable trends in BP and HT in children, making it difficult to ascertain the true prevalence of the condition and the impact of the epidemic of obesity on BP. The purpose of this review is to discuss the epidemiology of HT in children and adolescents, including factors that influence its prevalence and known outcome measures of pediatric HT.
Unraveling Stakeholders’ Discourses Regarding Sustainable Development and Biodiversity Conservation in Greece

The designation and implementation of adaptive conservation strategies able to respond to changing socio-ecological conditions, requires understanding protected areas as complex, interconnected social-ecological systems able to reconcile human needs with biodiversity conservation (Davidson-Hunt & Berkes, 2003). This consideration leads to perceiving ecosystems involved in biodiversity conservation and the social, political and economic processes and structures behind their management, as interrelated. Sustainable development has been considered, at least the last two decades, as an integrative concept aiming at combining ecological, economic and social issues. However, the concept of sustainable development has received much criticism, whereas the outcomes of successfully combing economic development, social welfare and ecological sustainability can be characterized as quite mixed.
Composing a Cross-platform Development Environment Using Maven

It is challenging to develop a cross-platform application, that is, an application that runs on multiple platforms. It requires not only code reuse but also an individual building or compilation for each platform, possibly with different development tools. In this paper, we show a simple approach for creating a cross-platform application using Maven, a build tool. We configure a cross-platform development environment by composing a set of platform-specific tools or integrated development environments (IDE’s). The key idea of our approach is to use Maven to immediately propagate changes made using one platform tool, or IDE, to other platforms. For this, we decompose an application into platformindependent and platform-dependent parts and make the individual tools and IDE’s share the platform-independent part in the form of a reusable component or library. We explain our approach in detail by creating a sample application that runs on the Java platform and the Android platform. The development environment consists of IntelliJ IDEA (for Java) and Android Studio. Our approach provides a way to set up a custom, cross-platform development environment by letting software developers pick platform-specific tools of their choices. This helps maximize code reuse in a multi-platform application and creates a continuous integration environment.
Isolation and Characterization of Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria from Wastewaters in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Lubricants are very often found in nature under waste-oil forms and represent for the environment a real danger of pollution due to the difficulty of their biodegradation. The situation is especially worrying in most developing countries in particular those of Sub-Saharan Africa due to the absence of regulation or control. The present work aims to isolate bacterial strains able to degrade hydrocarbons which can later be used in biotechnology for environments depollution. Oil-contaminated wastewater samples were collected in Ouagadougou city (Burkina Faso) and then used as source of bacterial isolation. Appropriate amounts of samples were inoculated to a mineral salt medium (MS) with Total Quartz 9000 oil as sole carbon and energy source and then incubated for enrichment, prior to microbe isolation. Two bacterial strains namely S2 and S7 were isolated from the enrichment cultures. The strains were tested for their ability to degrade other hydrocarbons (i.e. gasoline, diesel oil, brake oil) and for temperature, pH and salt concentration ranges for growth before their biochemical characteristics were defined. Based on their morphological, physiological and biochemical traits, strains S2 and S7 belong to Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas genera, respectively.
Optimal coordination method of opportunistic array radars for multi‐target‐tracking‐based radio frequency stealth in clutter

Opportunistic array radar is a new radar system that can improve the modern radar performance effectively. In order to improve its radio frequency stealth ability, a novel coordination method of opportunistic array radars in the network for target tracking in clutter is presented. First, the database of radar cross section for targets is built, then the signal‐to‐noise ratio for netted radars is computed according to the radar cross section and range of target. Then the joint probabilistic data association algorithm of tracking is improved with consideration of emitted power of the opportunistic array radar, which has a main impact on detection probability for tracking in clutter. Finally, with the help of grey relational grade and covariance control, the opportunistic array radar with the minimum radiated power will be selected for better radio frequency stealth performance. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm not only has excellent tracking accuracy in clutter but also saves much more radiated power comparing with other methods.
The impact of nuclear masses near closed shells on r-process abundances

We have performed for the first time a complete $r$-process mass sensitivity study in the $N=82$ region. We take into account how an uncertainty in a single nuclear mass propagates to influence important quantities of neighboring nuclei, including Q-values and reaction rates. We demonstrate that nuclear mass uncertainties of $\pm0.5$ MeV in the $N=82$ region result in up to an order of magnitude local change in $r$-process abundance predictions. We identify key nuclei in the study whose mass has a substantial impact on final $r$-process abundances and could be measured at future radioactive beam facilities.
An Inclusive Framework for Developing Video Games for Learning

Games are a type of vehicle with which society is changing at present-day. But how the games themselves will be changed by society, is an interesting question to ask for enhancing and initiating better design of games. As participation in gaming upsurges around the world and across a larger part of the population, it is obvious that games are not only an entertainment medium for children or young people anymore. Games can be used to accomplish different purposes for different groups of people in the society. Design and use of games for learning and/or educational purpose has been an important research field for several years. However, this research field is yet to deliver expected achievement and result, despite many efforts and resources put into it. Factors that are important to consider for designing a game that will motivate users to active involvement in playing a game for active learning, are crucial for the successfulness of the design of such a game. The design goal for educational games would be to produce games that motivate users and thereby achieve effective learning. This paper proposes a framework in which the parameters of what users want from a game are considered for the development of games for learning. The framework is based on the previous research and theory of Richard Rouse (2001), who defined different dimensions of game design in terms of learning. The proposed framework is important in order to investigate and assess the success of existing games used for learning. Also the framework can provide better understanding as a requirement engineering tool for game designers, who are to design games for learning and educational purposes in the future. The proposed framework was verified using a small quantitative analysis. It was found that, while some parameters of the framework indeed have significance for designing games for learning, there are additional factors that need to be discovered by further analysis and research to enhance the usability of the framework.
DEVELOPMENT OF STORY TEXT-TO-SPEECH SYSTEM BASED ON STORY GENRES

Storytelling is a distinct speaking style which embraces various expressive subtleties aimed to draw the attention of the children. Studies have shown that Text-to-speech (TTS) systems have the tendency of not conveying the right emotion expressivity in their speech outputs. The objective of this work is to develop prosody models to capture the story semantics present in the Hindi children stories. In this work, we have considered three prosodic parameters to be modeled: duration, intonation, and intensity of the syllables. We have proposed textual (positional, contextual and phonological) and storysemantic features for modeling the prosody. The proposed prosody models will be integrated with the TTS framework to synthesize speech in storytelling style. We used Classification and Regression Tree (CART), Feed-forward neural network (FFNN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for modeling the prosody. We pose the problem of modeling the prosody as a data driven statistical transformation from input text onto the feature space to capture the implicit prosodic and semantic knowledge of the syllables. The evaluation of the models was carried out using objective and subjective measures. A framework is designed to further improve the performance of the prosody models by including the story genre specific prosody modeling. The three genres of the story considered are Folk-tale, Legendary, and Fable. The subjective evaluation of the synthesized story speech shows the proposed framework is capable of improving the storytelling style.
Adverse drug reactions in internal medicine units at a university hospital: A descriptive pilot study

Introduction: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. Objectives: This study was designed to describe the frequency, severity, and causality of ADRs in internal medicine units at a third-level university hospital. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was performed at internal medicine units, by means of a structured format, review of clinical records, and interview of hospitalized patients. The Naranjo algorithm was applied to patient adverse events to define causality. Additionally, ADRs were classified according to the Rawlins and Thompson criteria. Results: One hundred patients (50 men and 50 women) were included in the study. Ninety nine (99) adverse events were found among the patients. The Naranjo algorithm was applied to adverse events, resulting in twenty nine (29) probable ADRs, twenty (20) possible ADRs and fifty (50) doubtful ADRs. Cardiovascular drugs and antibiotics were the most frequent therapeutic groups associated with ADRs. In addition, two preventable medication errors were identified. Conclusions: Frequency of ADRs was similar to the number reported in other studies in internal medicine units. It is necessary to systematize efforts of pharmacological surveillance in hospital wards, toward an opportune detection and prevention of ADRs.
Guava Improvement in India and Future Needs

Guava (Psidium guajava L; Myrtaceae) is an important fruit crop of India. High heterozygosity and frequent cross pollination resulted in the present day variability in seedling populations from which promising genotypes have been selected. As of now, there are about 160 cultivars available in India, among which 'Allahabad Safeda' and 'Sardar' varieties are widely cultivated. Crop improvement work attempted in India resulted in release of several superior selections / hybrids. Also, interspecific hybrids resistant to guava wilt were developed at CISH, Lucknow which are graft compatible with commercial varieties of P. guajava. The use of new biotechnological tools like DNA fingerprinting to study the extent of genetic variation among cultivars, rapid multiplication through in vitro shoot-tip culture needs to be employed extensively. Attempts need to be made to spot genetic markers for wilt resistance to improve efficiency in developing wilt resistant clones and rootstocks. Survey to identify superior genotypes with Allahabad Safeda traits and high density planting characters like early bearing, compact plant type, favourable response to pruning, good branch angle to minimize branch breakage even under heavy bearing, and, with a high fruit : shoot ratio need to be paid due attention. Work on aneuploidy breeding, development of autotetraploids and in vitro genetic manipulation of somatic cells needs to be intensified.
Value Chain of Poultry Hatcheries in Bangladesh : A Comparative Study of SMES versus Large Players by Porter's Value Chain Model

The contribution of animal farming subsector to GDP of Bangladesh at constant price is 1.66 percent, of which more than fifty percent is contributed by poultry industry. Poultry hatchery is the backbone of this industry. This research has tried to explore the value chain dynamics and challenges of integration faced by SMEs vis-à-vis larger poultry hatcheries. The research framework is designed along Porter’s value chain model. Primary data were collected from20 chief executives and senior management professionals from hatcheries of varied sizes that supply more than 60% of the demand for chicks.The research has found that larger hatcheriesenjoy significant competitive advantage over their SME counterparts due to extensive value chain presence, use of modern technologies, methods and processes, stronger brand image, proper marketing activities, effective customer services, better economies of scale and scope, continuous technological development, proper people management and stronger infrastructural support.
Radyasyona Maruz Bırakılmış Sıçanlarda Spermatozoa Özellikleri ve Testislerde Yarattığı Hasar Üzerine Vitamin C’nin Koruyucu Rolü

The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of vitamin C on sperm characteristics and testes in male rats exposed gamma radiation (2 Gy). A total of 21 adult male wistar albino rats (8 weeks of age, weighing 180-220 g) were divided into three groups. Control, radiotherapy (received scrotal γ-radiation of 2 Gy as a single dose) and radiotherapy + vitamin C treated rats (during the 55 days after irradiation, 500 mg vitamin C/500 ml water daily orally). Testes samples from all groups were taken at day 55 post-irradiation and epididymal sperm characteristics, all-genital organs weights and testes histology were evaluated. Radiotherapy decreased significantly the sperm motility, concentration, left testes and epididymis weights, Johnsen’s biopsy score and seminiferous tubular diameter but it increased the sperm head defects as compared to the Control group (P<0.05). The administration of vitamin C only reduced the harmful effects of radiotherapy on the seminiferous tubular diameter (P<0.05). It has been concluded that the radiotherapy may cause alteration in the genital organ weights, spermatologic and hystologic parameters in rats and administration of vitamin C may be slightly beneficial for seminiferous tubular diameter following testicular irradiation during the radiotherapy.
Contribution of Gas and Electric Stoves to Residential Ultrafine Particle Concentrations between 2 and 64 nm: Size Distributions and Emission and Coagulation Rates

Three indoor sources (a gas stove, an electric stove, and an electric toaster oven) of ultrafine particles (UFPs) have been studied in an instrumented test house on the campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Previous studies have reported the concentration of ultrafine particles indoors due to cooking, but have been limited to particles with diameters greater than 10 nm. New technology now makes it possible to measure particles as small as 2 nm. Therefore, NIST conducted a study to measure typical concentrations and estimate emission rates and coagulation rates of UFPs in the size range from 2 to 64 nm. More than 150 tests were completed. Peak concentrations from the gas and electric stovetop burners/coils occurred at a particle size of approximately 5 nm. Total number concentrations were as much as 10 times greater than reported in previous studies of particle sizes above 10 nm. Because of these high concentrations of very small particles, coagulation was the dominant proces.