Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autophagic activity dictates the cellular response to oncogenic RAS

RAS is frequently mutated in human cancers and has opposing effects on autophagy and tumorigenesis. Identifying determinants of the cellular responses to RAS is therefore vital in cancer research. Here, we show that autophagic activity dictates the cellular response to oncogenic RAS. N-terminal Apoptosis-stimulating of p53 protein 2 (ASPP2) mediates RAS-induced senescence and inhibits autophagy. Oncogenic RAS-expressing ASPP2(Δ3/Δ3) mouse embryonic fibroblasts that escape senescence express a high level of ATG5/ATG12. Consistent with the notion that autophagy levels control the cellular response to oncogenic RAS, overexpressing ATG5, but not autophagy-deficient ATG5 mutant K130R, bypasses RAS-induced senescence, whereas ATG5 or ATG3 deficiency predisposes to it. Mechanistically, ASPP2 inhibits RAS-induced autophagy by competing with ATG16 to bind ATG5/ATG12 and preventing ATG16/ATG5/ATG12 formation. Hence, ASPP2 modulates oncogenic RAS-induced autophagic activity to dictate the cellular response to RAS: to proliferate or senesce.
Quality, and not Just Quantity, of Education Accounts for Differences in Psychometric Performance between African Americans and White Non-Hispanics with Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract The effect of race on cognitive test performance in the evaluation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains controversial. One factor that may contribute substantially to differences in cognitive test performance in diverse populations is education. The current study examined the extent to which quality of education, even after controlling for formal years of education, accounts for differences in cognitive performance between African Americans and White Non-Hispanics (WNHs). The retrospective cohort included 244 patients diagnosed with AD who self-identified as African Americans (n = 51) or WNHs (n = 193). The Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR) was used as an estimate of quality of education. In an analysis that controlled for traditional demographics, including age, sex, and years of formal education, African Americans scored significantly lower than WNHs on the Mini-Mental State Examination, as well as on neuropsychological tests of memory, attention, and language. However, after also adjusting for reading level, all previously observed differences were significantly attenuated. The attenuating effect remained even after controlling for disease severity, indicating that reading scores are not confounded by severity of dementia. These findings suggest that quality, and not just quantity, of education needs to be taken into account when assessing cognitive performance in African Americans with AD. (JINS, 2012, 18, 277–285)
E-Learning: A Management-Oriented Fourfold Strategy in Some East African Universities

Technology can be conceived as an art, a process or a product. In the case of Information Technology (IT), it can refer to computers, telecommunications equipment and other technologies associated with automation. It has an impact on individuals, organisations and society (French 1992, p. 518). These technologies have to support the creation, maintenance, manipulation and storage of information. It has its respective methods and applications. An Information Communication Technology (ICT) system can include: hardware, software, data and procedures. The Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) offer educators an opportunity to provide learners with innovative and new virtual environments that can eventually stimulate and enhance the learning process (Brown, 2002). The transformation of the education sector generally, and the e-learning sector specifically, is AbsTRACT
Self-management activities in diabetes care: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To identify the range of self-management activities people diagnosed with diabetes engage in to manage their disease, the frequency of use, and whether self-management practices change over time. METHODS A systematic review of the literature was undertaken. Thirty-two studies identified through electronic databases met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. RESULTS The study found that people living with diabetes undertake regular self-management activities and that compliance with medication regimes is high. Adherence, however, varied with respect to blood glucose testing, diet, physical activity and foot care. Levels of physical activity were not found to change over time. Evidence suggests that some people with diabetes modify their self-management practices in response to factors such as holidays. CONCLUSIONS The review suggests that the majority of people with diabetes self-manage, although there is variation in adherence to key self-management activities. How self-management practices change over time and whether this impacts on health outcomes is an area for future research.
Liver transplantation and autoimmune liver diseases

Liver transplantation (LT) is an effective treatment for patients with end‐stage autoimmune liver diseases such as primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and autoimmune hepatitis. Indications for LT for these diseases do not differ substantially from those used for other acute or chronic liver diseases. Despite the good outcomes reported, the recurrence of autoimmune liver disease is relatively common in the allograft. In addition, it has become apparent that autoimmunity and autoimmune liver disease can arise de novo after transplantation for nonautoimmune liver disorders. An awareness of the existence of recurrent autoimmune liver diseases and de novo autoimmune hepatitis after LT has important clinical implications because their management differs from the standard antirejection treatment and is similar to the management of classic autoimmune liver diseases in the native liver. Liver Transpl 19:1065‐1077, 2013. © 2013 AASLD.
Excessive iodine intake, water chemicals and endemic goitre in a Sudanese coastal area

Abstract Objective To study the associations between intakes of iodine and water chemicals and the thyroid gland status of schoolchildren living in the coastal city of Port Sudan. Design In our previous nationwide study on goitre, it was observed that the prevalence of goitre was high in Port Sudan city despite high urinary iodine excretion. A cross-sectional study including schoolchildren aged 6–12 years was designed. Measurements determined the prevalence of goitre, urinary iodine concentration and thiocyanate secretion in casual urine samples, serum levels of thyroxine, triiodothyronine, thyroid-stimulating hormone and thyroglobulin, as well as the levels of Cl–, F–, Ca2+, Mg2+ and total hardness of drinking water. Subjects Schoolchildren (n 654) aged 6–12 years. Setting Port Sudan city is located at the western bank of the Red Sea. The city is surrounded by a mountainous area known as the Red Sea Hills. It is the main sea port in the Sudan, inhabited by ethnically and socio-economically heterogeneous populations. Results The prevalence of goitre in Port Sudan was 34·86 % while the median urinary iodine concentration was 46·4 μg/dl. Out of thirty-one pupils from Port Sudan, twenty-four (77·42 %) were found to have urinary iodine concentration greater than 30 μg/dl and twelve (38·71 %) had different degrees of biochemical hypothyroidism. Excessive concentrations of Cl–, Ca2+, Mg2+ and water hardness (369·2, 116·48, 60·21 and 539·0 mg/l, respectively) were detected in drinking water samples collected from Port Sudan that exceeded levels permitted by the WHO. Conclusions The coastal city of Port Sudan is a goitre-endemic area. In contrast to other Sudanese cities in which endemic goitre is related to iodine deficiency, goitre in Port Sudan is associated with iodine excess. Water chemicals seemed to have no effects on thyroid status.
Daily cost of an intensive care unit day: The contribution of mechanical ventilation*

Objective:To quantify the mean daily cost of intensive care, identify key factors associated with increased cost, and determine the incremental cost of mechanical ventilation during a day in the intensive care unit. Design:Retrospective cohort analysis using data from NDCHealth’s Hospital Patient Level Database. Setting:A total of 253 geographically diverse U.S. hospitals. Patients:The study included 51,009 patients ≥18 yrs of age admitted to an intensive care unit between October 1, 2002, and December 31, 2002. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Days of intensive care and mechanical ventilation were identified using billing data, and daily costs were calculated as the sum of daily charges multiplied by hospital-specific cost-to-charge ratios. Cost data are presented as mean (±sd). Incremental daily cost of mechanical ventilation was calculated using log-linear regression, adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics. Approximately 36% of identified patients were mechanically ventilated at some point during their intensive care unit stay. Mechanically ventilated patients were older (63.5 yrs vs. 61.7 yrs, p < .0001) and more likely to be male (56.1% vs. 51.8%, p < 0.0001), compared with patients who were not mechanically ventilated, and required mechanical ventilation for a mean duration of 5.6 days ± 9.6. Mean intensive care unit cost and length of stay were $31,574 ± 42,570 and 14.4 days ± 15.8 for patients requiring mechanical ventilation and $12,931 ± 20,569 and 8.5 days ± 10.5 for those not requiring mechanical ventilation. Daily costs were greatest on intensive care unit day 1 (mechanical ventilation, $10,794; no mechanical ventilation, $6,667), decreased on day 2 (mechanical ventilation:, $4,796; no mechanical ventilation, $3,496), and became stable after day 3 (mechanical ventilation, $3,968; no mechanical ventilation, $3,184). Adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics, the mean incremental cost of mechanical ventilation in intensive care unit patients was $1,522 per day (p < .001). Conclusions:Intensive care unit costs are highest during the first 2 days of admission, stabilizing at a lower level thereafter. Mechanical ventilation is associated with significantly higher daily costs for patients receiving treatment in the intensive care unit throughout their entire intensive care unit stay. Interventions that result in reduced intensive care unit length of stay and/or duration of mechanical ventilation could lead to substantial reductions in total inpatient cost.
Konzept für Bildanalysen in Hochdurchsatz-Systemen am Beispiel des Zebrabärblings

With image-based high-throughput experiments, new challenges arise in both, the design of experiments and the automated analysis. To be able to handle the massive number of single experiments and the corresponding amount of data, a comprehensive concept for the design of experiments and a new evaluation method is needed. This work proposes a new method for an optimized experiment layout that enables the determination of parameters, adapted for the needs of automated image analysis. Furthermore, a catalogue of new image analysis modules, especially developed for zebrafish analysis, is presented. The combination of both parts offers the user, usually a biologist, an approach for high-throughput zebrafish image analysis, which enables the extraction of new signals and optimizes the design of experiments. The result is a reduction of data amount, redundant information and workload as well as classification errors.
Dividends of development: Securities markets in the history of US capitalism, 1866–1922

The unprecedented importance of finance in our societies, as well as its central role in provoking economic crises, has generated an enormous interest in understanding the historical origins and evolution of modern financial systems. Today the U.S. economy is seen as an archetype of a capitalist system in which securities markets play a central role. Moreover, these markets have had a high profile in some of the most dramatic moments in U.S. history, often in the context of crises. Dividends of Development: Securities Markets in the History of U.S. Capitalism, 1865-1922, explains how U.S. securities markets became central to the institutional fabric of U.S. capitalism. After the Civil War, these markets had a narrowly circumscribed relationship to the country's real economy, being largely dominated by railroad securities. Moreover, their role in the U.S. financial system was of limited significance given the relatively modest resources that financial institutions committed to investment in, and lending on, corporate securities. That situation was to undergo fundamental change from the Civil War through the end of World War 1 but the development of U.S. securities markets did not occur as a result of a smooth, or even, linear process. Instead, the book shows that the transformation of U.S. securities markets occurred through a process that was volatile and time-consuming, unscripted by powerful actors, and driven, above all else, by the dramatic but unstable character of the nation's economic development. These claims about the trajectory, the operation, and the underlying dynamics of the development of U.S. securities markets are brought together in a novel synthesis that portrays the historical evolution of securities markets in the United States as the "dividends" of the country's distinctive trajectory of economic development.
Virtual passive dynamic walking and energy-based control laws

It has been shown that a simplest walker with suitable parameter choice can walk down a gentle slope without any control forces and generate its steady walking pattern utilizing gravity effect automatically. On the floor, however, the robot cannot exhibit passive walk, so any application methods of passive walk to active walker on the horizontal floor has not been studied yet. In this paper we introduce "virtual passive dynamic walking" with virtual gravity field which acts as a driving force for the biped robot. The robot can walk on the floor without any control torque except virtual gravity effect. Since the modified gravity field seems to be very close to real condition, the generated walking pattern seems to be natural. Further, multi-pattern walking with respect to energy level is proposed. With the proposed method, safety and energy-effective control of biped walking robot can be realized.
A geographic routing algorithm based on Cat Swarm Optimization for vehicular ad-hoc networks

Geographic routing protocols require only local information for routing decisions and thus is considered very efficient in large-scale wireless networks such as Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). In geographic routing, one of the neighbor of sender vehicle is selected as next forwarding vehicle to forward the message to the destination nodes. Various geographic routing protocols have been proposed in literature for efficient selection of next forwarding vehicle. However, these protocols show inadequate performance due to unique characteristics of VANETs such as high mobility, low bandwidth, and restricted movement. In this paper, a novel geographic routing (GR) protocol based on Cat Swarm Optimization (CSO), namely CSO-GR is proposed that aims to efficiently find optimized position of next forwarding vehicle in highly dynamic vehicular environment. A fitness function to optimize impact of various parameters on the selection of next forwarding vehicle is suggested. Performance of the proposed protocol is assessed via simulation. Significant improvement can be seen in the performance of proposed protocol with regard to packet delivery ratio and normalized routing load.
Fault-Tolerant Design Considerations and Control Strategies for Aerospace Drives

This paper considers existing more electric technologies in commercial aircraft and observes modern reliability data and redundancy techniques to highlight the reasons restricting the application of new components featuring electric drives and electromechanical actuation. Two techniques for maintaining a constant torque when faulted are applied to two very different fault-tolerant drives. Taking into consideration the test results and reliability data, conclusions are drawn as to the suitability of these and other drive configurations with regard to the stringent aerospace reliability and fault tolerance standards.
CT Intensity Distribution Curve (Histogram) Analysis of Patients Undergoing Antiangiogenic Therapy for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the median versus mean attenuation obtained from histograms in the response assessment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) target lesions in patients treated with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors. MATERIALS AND METHODS Imaging findings of 19 patients with RCC and treated with a VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor that included a baseline study and at least two follow-up studies were retrospectively analyzed. Histograms of target lesions were created from ROI measurements, and mean and median lesion attenuation were obtained. Shift of mean and median was used to classify response of lesions between baseline CT and the first follow-up examination according to the Choi criteria; morphology, attenuation, size, and structure (MASS) criteria; and the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). RECIST classification of the last follow-up CT examination was considered the reference standard. RESULTS Among the 19 patients (six women, 13 men; mean age, 60 ± 8 [SD] years; body mass index, 24.5 ± 4.6 kg/m2), three (16%) had evidence of disease progression; nine (47%), partial response; and seven (37%), stable disease. Temporal change in the shape of the histograms from or to gaussian occurred in 11 of the 19 (58%) lesions, which accounted for a significant difference between mean (64.3 ± 38.5 HU) and median (71.0 ± 36.5 HU) lesion attenuation (p < 0.001). According to the shift of median for outcome analysis, the number of properly classified lesions increased from 12 of 19 (63%) to 13 of 19 (68%) for the Choi criteria and from 14 of 19 (74%) to 15 of 19 (79%) for the MASS criteria. CONCLUSION Mean and median attenuation of RCC target lesions differed significantly. Use of shift of median rather than shift of mean increased the number of accurate classifications of lesions at the first follow-up CT examination.
Mutations in the PPPY Motif of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Matrix Protein Reduce Virus Budding by Inhibiting a Late Step in Virion Release

ABSTRACT The N terminus of the matrix (M) protein of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and of other rhabdoviruses contains a highly conserved PPPY sequence (or PY motif) similar to the late (L) domains in the Gag proteins of some retroviruses. These L domains in retroviral Gag proteins are required for efficient release of virus particles. In this report, we show that mutations in the PPPY sequence of the VSV M protein reduce virus yield by blocking a late stage in virus budding. We also observed a delay in the ability of mutant viruses to cause inhibition of host gene expression compared to wild-type (WT) VSV. The effect of PY mutations on virus budding appears to be due to a block at a stage just prior to virion release, since electron microscopic examination of PPPA mutant-infected cells showed a large number of assembled virions at the plasma membrane trapped in the process of budding. Deletion of the glycoprotein (G) in addition to these mutations further reduced the virus yield to less than 1% of WT levels, and very few particles were assembled at the cell surface. This observation suggested that G protein aids in the initial stage of budding, presumably during the formation of the bud site. Overall, our results confirm that the PPPY sequence of the VSV M protein possesses L domain activity analogous to that of the retroviral Gag proteins.
Accelerating Large-Scale HPC Applications Using FPGAs

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are conventionally considered as 'glue-logic'. However, modern FPGAs are extremely competitive compared to state-of-the-art CPUs for commercial HPC workloads, such as those found in Oil and Gas and Finance. For example, an FPGA accelerated system can be 31-37 times faster than an equivalently sized conventional machine, and consume 1/39 of the power. The key to achieving the best performance in FPGA accelerators, while maintaining correctness, is optimization of arithmetic units and data types to suit the range/precision at each point in the computation. The flexibility of the FPGA to implement non-standard arithmetic, combined with a data-flow programming model that instantiates a separate unit for each arithmetic operator in the code provides a wide design space. As such, FPGA computing offers significant opportunity for arithmetic research into 'large scale' HPC applications, where there is an opportunity to move away from standard IEEE formats, either to improve precision compared to the CPU version or to increase speed.
Study of graphite/NCA Li-ion cell degradation during accelerated aging tests — Data analysis of the SIMSTOCK project

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of aging data from the French SIMSTOCK program in order to evaluate the influence of several aging factors on capacity fade and impedance increase of graphite/NCA Li-ion batteries over accelerated aging tests. Test protocols (cycling and check-up) are presented, and the behavior of battery under aging is described. An equivalent-circuit model is used to extract the various contributions of the impedance spectra. Finally, the influence of the aging factors on capacity fade and impedance increase is discussed.
miRNAs as potential therapeutic targets and diagnostic biomarkers for cardiovascular disease with a particular focus on WO2010091204

ABSTRACT Introduction: A number of miRNAs have been reported to be critically involved in the regulation of cardiovascular disease (CVDs). Therefore, the development of potent analogues/inhibitors for miRNAs have thus become a key focus in the present drug discovery. In this review, we discuss the basic research and clinical use of miRNAs as the early diagnosis and therapeutic targets for CVD. We have also focused on the efficiency of therapeutically targeting miR-499, which is considered as one of the most promising molecules for treating CVDs. Areas covered: In this review, we have discussed the patents and patent applications related to miRNAs detected in CVD patients published in recent years. This review also covers the expression pattern of miR-499, as well as it highlights functions of its inhibitors in CVD. We used Google and Pubmed search engines to find relevant patents. Expert opinion: Although a massive number of miRNAs are patented as CVD biomarkers, further work is absolutely required to evaluate the reliable diagnostic values and therapeutic potential of these candidates. Overall, targeting miRNAs is definitely a promising strategy to be investigated for diagnosis and treatment of CVDs in future, however, the delivery system and off-targets effects are still a difficult challenge need to be elucidated.