Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Lung Immune Prognostic Index Discriminates Survival Outcomes in Patients with Solid Tumors Treated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have revolutionized the treatment landscape of several solid tumor types. However, as patient outcomes are heterogeneous, clinical tools to aid in prognostication are needed. The Lung Immune Prognostic Index (LIPI) correlates with outcomes in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with ICI, but its applicability beyond NSCLC is poorly defined. We sought to determine whether LIPI is associated with overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and objective response rate (ORR) in a pooled, real-world, retrospective cohort of patients with solid tumors treated with ICI. Of the total pooled cohort (N = 578), 47.2%, 38.2% and 14.5% of patients were stratified into good, intermediate and poor LIPI group, respectively. Median OS were 22.8 (95% CI 17.4–29.5), 7.8 (95% CI 6.6–9.6), and 2.5 months (95% CI 1.4–3.4) (p < 0.0001). Median PFS were 9.9 (95% CI 7.2–11.5), 3.6 (95% CI 2.7–4.3), and 1.4 months (95% CI 1.2–2.2) (p < 0.0001). ORR was also associated with LIPI group (p < 0.001). Intermediate and poor LIPI were independently prognostic of OS compared to good LIPI, with hazard ratios (HR) of 1.8 (95% CI 1.4–2.3, p < 0.001) and 3.6 (95% CI 2.5–5.1, p < 0.001), respectively. These data are the first to suggest that in a real-world setting, the prognostic value of LIPI may be tumor agnostic.
Amygdala activity to angry and fearful faces relates to bullying and victimization in adolescents

Relational bullying and victimization are common social experiences during adolescence, but relatively little functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research has examined the neural correlates of bullying and victimization in adolescents. The aim of the present study was to address this gap by examining the association between amygdala activity to angry and fearful faces and peer relational bullying and victimization in a community-based sample of adolescents. Participants included 49 adolescents 12-15 years old who underwent fMRI scanning while completing an emotional face matching task. Results indicated that interactions between amygdala activity to angry and fearful faces predicted self-reported relational bullying and victimization. Specifically, a combination of higher amygdala activity to angry faces and lower amygdala activity to fearful faces predicted more bullying behavior, whereas a combination of lower amygdala activity to angry faces and lower amygdala activity to fearful faces predicted less relational victimization. Exploratory whole-brain analyses also suggested that increased rostral anterior cingulate cortex activity to fearful faces was associated with less bullying. These results suggest that relational bullying and victimization are related to different patterns of neural activity to angry and fearful faces, which may help in understanding how patterns of social information processing predict these experiences.
Nitrate Poisoning due to Ingestion of Cabbages (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.) (Brassicaceae) in Kitui County, Kenya

Nitrate toxicosis associated with consumption of cabbages (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.) (Brassicaceae) was diagnosed in a small herd comprising of ten goats in Matinyani ward, Kitui West sub-County of Kitui County in Kenya. The clinical signs were ataxia, ruminal tympany, bluish-brown mucous membranes, rapid and difficult breathing, incoordination, head pressing, aggressive movements, jugular distension, increased heart rates, tremors, and coma. Six goats died of intoxication. Dark brown/chocolate-colored and poorly clotted blood was the prominent necropsy finding. There was limited froth in the trachea and bronchi consistent with mild pulmonary oedema. There were liver congestion, pericarditis, and enlarged and congested kidneys with pinpoint haemorrhages. Four other affected goats were treated with intramuscular antihistamines and oral administration of ivermectin. No further mortality was observed after the treatment. Cabbages fed to goats had 6.6% nitrate on dry matter (DM) basis , while ruminal contents had 5.55% nitrate on dry matter basis (DM). Dark brown blood collected at postmortem had a methemoglobin fraction of 78%. Forage nitrate levels of 0.5% and above are potentially dangerous, with acute poisoning likely to occur if the nitrate level exceeds 1%. Death can occur when blood methemoglobin levels rise up to 67–90%. Findings from the current study are indicative of nitrate-nitrite toxidrome associated with ingestion of cabbages.
Collaborative Methods to Reduce the Disastrous Effects of the Overlapping ON Problem in DASH

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ABSTRACT -------------------------------------------------------------- The performance of today ’ s adaptive video streaming players (DASH) is severely hindered by overlapping ON-OFF patterns that occurs during a streaming session . High switching rates, freezing and skipping annoy users resulting in poor user-QoE. This paper attempts to overcome the ON-OFF problem by keeping players aware of each other ’ s downloads and inter-request times. Using this a player is able to better predict future player actions and reschedule their downloads to produce least conflicts with others. If a player ’ s start segment download overlaps with the end of one or more players ’ current downloads within a certain time t 1 it waits until the download of others completes before starting its own download. Conversely if too many players are sharing the bottleneck link a player will hold of its download by a time t 2 enabling others to move towards completion of their downloads. This reduces the overlap of its download with other players. Both these methods help reduce competition at the bottleneck and produces a more balanced sharing of network resources.
An exploratory study on the lived experiences of hoarding in Singapore

Abstract Research studies have revealed that people with hoarding typically collect and keep items due to their aesthetic appeal, utility and strong emotional attachment to the items resulting in clutter and limiting living spaces. This study aims to explore the experiences of individuals with hoarding disorder to understand and describe—the patterns and reasons for hoarding, experiences with decluttering and the impact of hoarding disorder on significant others and society in the context of a multi‐ethnic urban Asian country. A total of 12 participants with hoarding disorder were recruited and interviewed using a simple semi‐structured interview guide designed for the study. The resulting transcribed interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The mean age of the participants was 56.7 years (SD = 14.5). Nine super‐ordinate and discrete but interconnecting themes emerged from the qualitative interviews: types of hoarded items, sources of hoarded items, ways of storing/arranging hoarded items, help‐seeking/treatment contact, reasons for hoarding, experiences with decluttering, impact upon family, community and self, restricting hoarding behaviours and insight. Key themes identified in the study are consistent with the literature on studies on hoarding which have been done in other populations. Hoarding in the community has serious consequences for individuals with hoarding disorder and others living in the community, which is compounded by the lack of insight among these individuals. There is a pressing need to increase public awareness and recognition of hoarding behaviours to aid efforts in bringing timely and appropriate services to the affected individuals.
The MM Alternative to EM

The EM algorithm is a special case of a more general algorithm called the MM algorithm. Specific MM algorithms often have nothing to do with missing data. The first M step of an MM algorithm creates a surrogate function that is optimized in the second M step. In minimization, MM stands for majorize--minimize; in maximization, it stands for minorize--maximize. This two-step process always drives the objective function in the right direction. Construction of MM algorithms relies on recognizing and manipulating inequalities rather than calculating conditional expectations. This survey walks the reader through the construction of several specific MM algorithms. The potential of the MM algorithm in solving high-dimensional optimization and estimation problems is its most attractive feature. Our applications to random graph models, discriminant analysis and image restoration showcase this ability.
Title Which Kobani ? A Case Study on the Role of Spatial Statistics and Semantics for Coreference Resolution Across

Identifying the same places across di↵erent gazetteers is a key prerequisite for spatial data conflation and interlinkage. Conventional approaches mostly rely on combining spatial distance with string matching and structural similarity measures, while ignoring relations among places and the semantics of place types. In this work, we propose to use spatial statistics to mine semantic signatures for place types and use these signatures for coreference resolution, i.e., to determine whether records form di↵erent gazetteers refer to the same place. We implement 27 statistical features for computing these signatures and apply them to the type and entity levels to determine the corresponding places between two gazetteers, which are GeoNames and DBpedia. The city of Kobani, Syria, is used as a running example to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. The experimental results show that the proposed signatures have the potential to improve the performance of coreference resolution.
Case study of the diurnal variability of chemically active species with respect to boundary layer dynamics during DOMINO

Abstract. We study the interactions between atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) dynamics and atmospheric chemistry using a mixed-layer model coupled to chemical reaction schemes. Guided by both atmospheric and chemical measurements obtained during the DOMINO (Diel Oxidant Mechanisms in relation to Nitrogen Oxides) campaign (2008), numerical experiments are performed to study the role of ABL dynamics and the accuracy of chemical schemes with different complexity: the Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers, version 4 (MOZART-4) and a reduced mechanism of this chemical system. Both schemes produce satisfactory results, indicating that the reduced scheme is capable of reproducing the O3-NOx-VOC-HOx diurnal cycle during conditions characterized by a low NOx regime and small O3 tendencies (less than 1 ppb per hour). By focusing on the budget equations of chemical species in the mixed-layer model, we show that for species like O3, NO and NO2, the influence of entrainment and boundary layer growth is of the same order as chemical production/loss. This indicates that an accurate representation of ABL processes is crucial in understanding the diel cycle of chemical species. By comparing the time scales of chemical reactive species with the mixing time scale of turbulence, we propose a classification based on the Damkohler number to further determine the importance of dynamics on chemistry during field campaigns. Our findings advocate an integrated approach, simultaneously solving the ABL dynamics and chemical reactions, in order to obtain a better understanding of chemical pathways and processes and the interpretation of the results obtained during measurement campaigns.
A Fast Algorithm to Enumerate Fixed Density Bracelets

A bracelet is the lexicographically smallest k-ary string equivalent under rotation and reversal. A bracelet is said to be of fixed density, if the number of occurrences of the symbol 0 in the string is fixed. In this work, we present a simple recursive scheme to list bracelets with fixed density d. We claim that our scheme is optimal in terms of time requirements, as it takes constant time on the average to list a binary bracelet with fixed density. We use sophisticated combinatorial techniques to prove our claim.
Evaluation of Targeted Delivery to the Brain Using Magnetic Immunoliposomes and Magnetic Force

Magnetic nanoparticles have great prospects for drug delivery purposes, as they can be designed with various surface coatings and conjugated with drugs and targeting moieties. They also have a unique potential for precise delivery when guided by magnetic force. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) denotes the interface between the blood and brain parenchyma and hinders the majority of drugs from entering the brain. Red fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles were encapsulated in liposomes and conjugated to antibodies targeting the rat transferrin receptor (OX26) to form magnetic immunoliposomes. These magnetic immunoliposomes enhanced the uptake by rat brain capillary endothelial cells (BCECs) in vitro. In situ brain perfusion in young rats high in the endogenous expression of transferrin receptors by BCECs, revealed enhanced uptake of magnetic immunoliposomes when compared to naked magnetic nanoparticles or non-targeted magnetic liposomes. When applying the external magnetic force, the magnetic nanoparticles were detected in the brain parenchyma, suggesting transport across the BBB. Ultrastructural examination of the immunoliposomes, unfortunately, was unable to confirm a complete encapsulation of all naked nanoparticles within the liposomes, suggesting that the data on the brain could derive from particles being released from the liposomes under influence of external magnetic force; hence hypothesizes on external magnetic force as a qualifier for dragging targeted magnetic immunoliposomes through the BBB. In conclusion, our results suggest that transport of magnetic nanoparticles present in BCECs by targeted delivery to the transferrin receptor may undergo further transport into the brain when applying magnetic force. While magnetic immunoliposomes are targetable to BCECs, their design to enable further transport across the BBB when applying external magnetic force needs further improvement.
BREEDING GRAIN CROPS TO INCREASE ADAPTABILITY (review)

The most essential feature of promising varieties is their adaptability, i.e., an ability to withstand environmental effects, which reduce productivity. Adaptation under plantenvironment interaction, and the use of self-regulation mechanisms of yield formation and habitat-forming environmental processes influenced by plants take a central place in the evolution theory and plant breeding (Z.V. Andreeva et al, 2014). The review considers the adaptive potential of grain crops and the main concepts, characteristics and tasks of plant breeding for adaptability. The purpose of such breeding is to obtain the varieties with high resistance to unfavorable conditions. The concepts of stability, plasticity, homeostasis and resistance to stressors are discussed. In a broad sense, the genotypeenvironment interaction reflects plant response to any changes of the environment. In a narrower sense, the concept is used to describe the productivity change of genotypes in different environmental conditions. This interaction is crucial to increase crop production. The interactions and interrelations of genotype and environment are various and complicated. They greatly depend on genotype and a factor chosen as environmental agent or conditions (V.A. Zykin et al, 2005). A slight difference between genotypic potential and its phenotypic manifestation indicates a less response of a particular genotype to the environmental factors. Various methods are helpful to identify potential productivity and adaptability of the varieties. The estimates of adaptability and plasticity allow to determine reliably the differences among breeding material and gives an additional information to select valuable parental forms possessing adaptive traits. Special breeding methods which depend on environmental conditions and a phase of plant ontogenesis are necessary to create crop varieties and hybrids that have a good adaptability (A.P. Golovchenko, 2001).
MATHEMATICAL WELFARE ASSESSMENT MODEL OF CHICKEN BREEDER FLOCKS

BOZAKOVA, N. , S. POPOVA-RALCHEVA, V. SREDKOVA, V. GERZILOV, S. ATANASOVA, A. ATANASOV, L. SOTIROV and N. GEORGIEVA, 2012. Mathematical welfare assessment model of chicken breeder flocks. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 18: 278-287 The aim of the present study was to evaluate the mathematical welfare assessment model of New Hampshire breeder flocks reared under different production systems and to examine the effect of welfare improvement during the hot period by dietary supplementation with zinc and vitamin C. For this purpose, changes in poultry behaviour, blood corticosterone concentrations and some biochemical blood indices were determined. Using a mathematical welfare assessment model, the integrated assessment of poultry welfare (PW) of breeders reared indoor on litter was PW=33.33 %. It was based upon statistically significant changes in different behavioral traits, higher blood corticosterone (P<0.001), cholesterol (P<0.001), glucose (P<0.001), triglycerides (P<0.01), compared to birds reared in the free-range system. Free range- reared breeders had a PW=60%. The dietary supplementation of 35 mg/kg zinc and 250 mg/kg vitamin C contributed to reduction of the adverse effect of stressors in both rearing systems and to improvement of poultry welfare to PW= 60% in indoor-reared breeders and up to 80% in free range-reared breeders.
Optimal path for a quantum teleportation protocol in entangled networks

Bellman's optimality principle has been of enormous importance in the development of whole branches of applied mathematics, computer science, optimal control theory, economics, decision making, and classical physics. Examples are numerous: dynamic programming, Markov chains, stochastic dynamics, calculus of variations, and the brachistochrone problem. Here we show that Bellman's optimality principle is violated in a teleportation problem on a quantum network. This implies that finding the optimal fidelity route for teleporting a quantum state between two distant nodes on a quantum network with bi-partite entanglement will be a tough problem and will require further investigation.
NTRC: A Key Regulatory Hub in Carbon Metabolism and Redox Balance in Developing Tomato Fruits

By acting as a redox regulatory factor, NADPH-dependent thioredoxin reductase C (NTRC) is involved in many metabolic processes as well as plastid biogenesis. It is the only isoform, out of three, localized to chloroplasts. Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ) NTRC has been extensively studied in
Factors affecting the occurrence of psychotic symptoms in chronic methamphetamine users

Abstract Studies of risk for psychotic symptoms in methamphetamine users have focused primarily on drug use immediately before symptoms had appeared. Here we assessed factors reflecting characteristics of lifetime methamphetamine use before the appearance of psychotic symptoms. Four hundred ninety-five methamphetamine users (322 men, 173 women) were studied with consideration of the following features of methamphetamine use: age of initiation, maximum single dose, number of uses at or near the maximum dose, longest period of daily use, average dosage during that period, number of heavy use periods, and number of sustained abstinence periods (>1 month). Use of drugs other than methamphetamine and family history of schizophrenia were also considered. Retrospective self-reports of psychotic symptoms were obtained on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Factors associated with the occurrence of initial psychotic symptom(s) were identified using logistic regression. Later age of initiation, more uses at maximal or near maximal dosage, and more periods of prolonged abstinence were identified as protective factors. We conclude that early methamphetamine use can promote psychotic symptoms, possibly by altering neurodevelopment, whereas long abstinence periods may protect by allowing recovery. Negative associations of the appearance of psychotic symptom(s) with frequent high-dose administration suggest protection through tolerance.
Chapter 1 Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( HIV ) Infection and Cancer

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection confers an increased risk for the development of many cancers. Although the incidences of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-defining malignancies have declined since the advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART), a number of non-AIDS–defining cancers appear more common in HIV-1–infected individuals relative to the general population. ART-treated HIV-1–infected subjects are also aging, leading to an increased cancer burden in these populations. However, longevity alone is not sufficient to explain these epidemiologic trends. A causative link between HIV-1–induced immune suppression and elevated cancer risk is well defined in certain malignancies; however, the direct role of HIV-1 replication products in oncogenesis remains unclear. Nevertheless, it is evident that cooperation between HIV-1 and co-infecting viruses in targeting immune compartments as well as nonimmune microenvironments can regulate both the development and progression of cancer. Treating cancer in HIV-1–infected patients remains challenging due to drug interactions, compounded side effects and intensified immunosuppression from chemotherapy and/or radiation. While survival of HIV-1–infected patients with certain cancers now rivals that of their uninfected counterparts, a better understanding of HIV-1–induced oncogenesis, viral mechanisms of immune perturbation, nonimmune microenvironmental abnormalities and outcomes of therapy will provide the basis for better diagnosis and management of cancer.
A Graph-based Approach to Solving SLAM: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

The ability to map a previously unseen environment is often considered a prerequisite for any truly autonomous robot. Since sensors and motors are often imprecise, it is necessary to find a way to identify and correct error as it accumulates. This problem is often referred to as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and it has been an active area of research in the field of robotics for the last 20 years. The goal of this project was to implement GraphS LAM [7], a solution to the SLAM problem. This algorithm adjusts the robot positions and the map in order to minimize disagreement between measurements. Ultimately, the algorithm was successfully implemented; however, a small issue with the camera offset still needs to be corrected before the algorithm can be applied to real-world scenarios.
Physico-chemical and antioxidant properties of new sweet cherry cultivars from Iaşi, Romania

Fruit samples analyzed in this paper were harvested in 2008 and 2009 from seven new sweet cherry cultivars, namely 'Cetăţuia', 'Cătălina', 'Bucium', 'Golia', 'Maria', 'Ştefan', 'Tereza', as well as from the cultivar 'Boambe de Cotnari', which is most widespread in the Iasi area, in North-Eastern Romania. The period from flowering to full maturity was between 56-76 days. 'Cetăţuia' and 'Cătălina' were the earliest cultivars, while 'Boambe de Cotnari' and 'Maria', the latest ripening ones. Fruit width ranged between 17.0 mm and 23.0 mm and fruit weight ranged from 3.9 g and 7.4 g, but statistical differences between 'Boambe de Cotnari', 'Bucium', and 'Maria' were non-significant. Soluble solids content in different cultivars was between 14.5 °Brix and 17.8 °Brix. The lowest values were recorded in 'Golia' and 'Ştefan', and the highest, in 'Boambe de Cotnari'. The lowest values of reducing sugar content were in cultivars 'Golia' and 'Bucium' (9.5 g 100 g -1 fresh fruit), while 'Ştefan' and 'Cetăţuia' had the highest reducing sugar content (12.2 g 100 g -1 fresh fruit). Titratable acidity was between 0.5 and 0.9 g malic acid 100 g -1 fresh fruit, 'Cătălina' and 'Golia' having the lowest values, while 'Tereza' and 'Bucium' had the largest. The antioxidant capacity of fruits, expressed as mg ascorbic acid 100 mL -1 fruit's methanolic extract, ranged between 4.2 (in 'Bucium') and 18.6 (in 'Ştefan'). There was a non-significant relationship between the number of days from full bloom until fruit maturation and chemical properties.