Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TATA-dependent enhancer stimulation of promoter activity in mice is developmentally acquired

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) thymidine kinase (tk) promoter activity depends on four transcription factor binding sites, one of which is a TATA box sequence, and the presence of either a cis-acting enhancer sequence or a transactivator protein. Studies presented here show that this TATA box was required for promoter activity only after cells began to differentiate and then only when promoter activity was stimulated by either an enhancer or a transactivator. When the HSV tk promoter was utilized by mouse embryos from the one-cell to eight-cell stage of development or by undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells, disruption of the HSV tk TATA box by site-specific mutations did not reduce promoter activity. This was true even when HSV tk promoter activity was stimulated strongly by either the embryo-responsive polyomavirus F101 enhancer or its natural transactivator, the HSV ICP4 gene product. However, stimulated expression was dependent on a distal Sp1 DNA binding site. Similarly, disruption of the TATA box did not reduce tk promoter activity in primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts or in immortalized 3T3 mouse fibroblasts; in fact, promoter activity was increased up to 2.6-fold. However, in these differentiated cells, stimulation of the HSV tk promoter by either the F101 enhancer or ICP4 protein required the TATA box. HSV tk promoter activity also was dependent on its TATA box in the mouse oocyte, a terminally differentiated cell with an endogenous transactivating activity. These results reveal that the need for a TATA box is developmentally acquired and depends on at least two parameters: the differentiated state of the cell and stimulation of the promoter by either an enhancer or a transactivator.
Information Flow Solipsism in an Exploratory Study of Beliefs About Twitter

There is a dearth of research on the public’s beliefs about how social media technologies work. To help address this gap, this article presents the results of an exploratory survey that probes user and non-user beliefs about the techno-cultural and socioeconomic facets of Twitter. While many users are well-versed in producing and consuming information on Twitter, and understand Twitter makes money through advertising, the analysis reveals gaps in users’ understandings of the following: what other Twitter users can see or send, the kinds of user data Twitter collects through third parties, Twitter and Twitter partners’ commodification of user-generated content, and what happens to Tweets in the long term. This article suggests the concept of “information flow solipsism” as a way of describing the resulting subjective belief structure. The article discusses implications information flow solipsism has for users’ abilities to make purposeful and meaningful choices about the use and governance of social media spaces, to evaluate the information contained in these spaces, to understand how content users create is utilized by others in the short and long term, and to conceptualize what information other users experience.
Drug-Induced Senescent Multiple Myeloma Cells Elicit NK Cell Proliferation by Direct or Exosome-Mediated IL15 Trans-Presentation

Low-dose chemotherapy induced a senescent phenotype in multiple myeloma cells, which enhanced expression of IL15 and membrane IL15/IL15RA complex. This promoted IL15 transpresentation that enhanced NK cell activation and proliferation, providing insights for the use of senescence-based therapies. Treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) cells with sublethal doses of genotoxic drugs leads to senescence and results in increased NK cell recognition and effector functions. Herein, we demonstrated that doxorubicin- and melphalan-treated senescent cells display increased expression of IL15, a cytokine involved in NK cell activation, proliferation, and maturation. IL15 upregulation was evident at the mRNA and protein level, both in MM cell lines and malignant plasma cells from patients’ bone marrow (BM) aspirates. However, IL15 was detectable as a soluble cytokine only in vivo, thus indicating a functional role of IL15 in the BM tumor microenvironment. The increased IL15 was accompanied by enhanced expression of the IL15/IL15RA complex on the membrane of senescent myeloma cells, allowing the functional trans-presentation of this cytokine to neighboring NK cells, which consequently underwent activation and proliferation. We demonstrated that MM cell–derived exosomes, the release of which was augmented by melphalan treatment in senescent cells, also expressed IL15RA and IL15, and their interaction with NK cells in the presence of exogenous IL15 resulted in increased proliferation. Altogether, our data demonstrated that low doses of chemotherapeutic drugs, by inducing tumor cell senescence and a senescence-associated secretory phenotype, promoted IL15 trans-presentation to NK cells and, in turn, their activation and proliferation, thus enhancing NK cell–tumor immune surveillance and providing new insights for the exploitation of senescence-based cancer therapies. Cancer Immunol Res; 6(7); 860–9. ©2018 AACR.
Effective feature descriptor-based new framework for off-line text-independent writer identification

Feature engineering is a key factor of machine learning applications. It is a fundamental process in writer identification of handwriting, which is an active and challenging field of research for many years. We propose a conceptually computationally efficient, yet simple and fast local descriptor referred to as Block Wise Local Binary Count (BW-LBC) for offline text-independent writer identification of handwritten documents. Proposed BW-LBC operator, which characterizes the writing style of each writer, is applied to a set of connected components extracted and cropped from scanned handwriting samples (documents or set of words/text lines) where each labeled component is seen as a texture image. The feature vectors computed from the components in all the writing samples are then fed to the 1NN (Nearest Neighbor) classifier to identify the writer of the query documents. Simulated experiments are performed on three challenging and publicly available handwritten databases (IFN/ENIT, AHTID/MW, and CVL) containing handwritten texts in Arabic and English languages, respectively. Experimental results show that our proposed system combined with BW-LBC descriptor demonstrate superior performance on the Arabic script and competitive performance on the English one against the old and recent writer identification systems of the state-of-the-art.
ANALISIS ATAS PENGAKUAN PENDAPATAN PAJAK DAN MIGAS SAAT PERMULAAN IMPLEMENTASI BASIS AKRUAL PADA AKUNTANSI PEMERINTAH PUSAT

The Central Government has started to implement the accrual basis in 2015. The beginning of those implementation was interesting to study mainly how the revenue recognition after accounting basis changed. This study aimed to understand and interpret revenue recognition at the beginning of accrual basis implementation. This study used a qualitative methodology with an interpretive paradigm and a case study approach. The interesting results of this study showed some understanding and interpretation. First, the government lost the right of income from oil and gas due to inconsistency of tax rates between contract and tax treaty. Secondly, there was no disclosure change in oil and gas non-tax revenues because it still used net principle so that the Governmentâ€™s rights and obligations not well-identified. Thirdly, some bureaucrats had utility motive at oil and gas property tax by utilizing a collection fee. Fourth, the recognition of Government-Tax Borne contained inequity and burdensome Indonesian people because made an addition in mandatory spending, which was funded from the government debt and greater tax collection. The accrual basis implementation should be able to bring a greater good through the use of accounting information in decision-making and public policy. Â Abstrak Â Pemerintah Pusat telah memulai penerapan basis akrual pada tahun 2015. Permulaan implementasi ini menarik untuk diteliti terutama mengenai pengakuan pendapatan setelah basis akuntansi berubah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memahami dan memaknai pengakuan pendapatan pada awal implementasi basis akrual. Penelitian ini menggunakan metodologi kualitatif dengan paradigma interpretif dan pendekatan studi kasus untuk mengungkap dan menafsirkan permasalahan yang ada. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan beberapa hasil pemahaman dan penafsiran yang menarik. Pertama, Pemerintah kehilangan hak negara dari PPh Migas karena penggunaan tarif pajak yang tidak konsisten antara kontrak dan tax treaty. Kedua, tidak ada perubahan pengungkapan PNBP Migas karena masih menggunakan asas neto sehingga substansi hak kewajiban dan negara dalam pengakuan pendapatan PNBP migas tidak diketahui dengan pasti. Ketiga, terdapat motif utilitas sebagian birokrat dalam pengenaan PBB Migas dengan memanfaatkan biaya pemungutan. Keempat, pengakuan pajak ditanggung pemerintah mengandung substansi ketidakadilan dan memberatkan rakyat Indonesia karena menambah mandatory spending yang dibiayai dari utang negara dan pemungutan pajak yang lebih besar. Implementasi basis akrual seharusnya dapat membawa kebaikan yang lebih besar melalui pemanfaatan informasi akuntansi dalam pengambilan keputusan dan kebijakan publik.
Tropisetron alleviate early post‐operative pain after gynecological laparoscopy in sevoflurane based general anaesthesia: A randomized, parallel‐group, factorial study

Studies have suggested that 5‐hydroxytryptamine‐3A (5‐HT‐3A) receptor antagonists may have analgesic effects. This randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, factorial study tested the hypothesis that 5‐HT‐3A receptor antagonist tropisetron attenuates post‐operative pain in women receiving either sevoflurane or propofol based anaesthesia.
Predictors of nonresponse to cognitive behavioural therapy or venlafaxine using glucose metabolism in major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND Longitudinal neuroimaging investigations of antidepressant treatment offer the opportunity to identify potential baseline biomarkers associated with poor outcome. METHODS To explore the neural correlates of nonresponse to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or venlafaxine (VEN), we compared pretreatment (18)F-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography scans of participants with major depressive disorder responding to either 16 weeks of CBT (n = 7) or VEN treatment (n = 9) with treatment nonresponders (n = 8). RESULTS Nonresponders to CBT or VEN, in contrast to responders, exhibited pretreatment hypermetabolism at the interface of the pregenual and subgenual cingulate cortices. LIMITATIONS Limitations of our study include the small sample sizes and the absence of both arterial sampling to determine absolute glucose metabolism and high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging coregistration for region-of-interest analyses. CONCLUSION Our current findings are consistent with those reported in previous studies of relative hyperactivity in the ventral anterior cingulate cortex in treatment-resistant populations.
Isolated So-Called Apraxia of Eyelid Opening: Report of 10 Cases and a Review of the Literature

So-called apraxia of eyelid opening (scAEO) has been described chiefly in the context of extrapyramidal disorders. We described 10 new patients with scAEO developing in the absence of any other CNS sign and reviewed the 11 cases with isolated scAEO reported in the literature. Combining our patients and those from the literature, peak age at onset was in the 6th decade and there was a female preponderance of 2:1. The characteristic inability to initiate lid elevation was frequently associated with failure to sustain lid elevation, thus suggesting that eyelid motor control may be abnormal in isolated scAEO. Antecedent events included ocular signs and symptoms consistent with diseases of eyes or face (4 cases in our series and 2 in the literature), chronic treatment with flunarizine (1 case), and family history of dystonia (1 case). Flunarizine discontinuation led to sustained remission of the eyelid disturbance. Overall, these clues suggest the involvement of the extrapyramidal system in the pathophysiology of isolated scAEO. Familial clustering of isolated scAEO in one of our patients may be in favor of a genetic contribution. In our series, botulinum toxin administration close to the pretarsal part of the orbicularis oculi muscle significantly improved scAEO in 8/10 cases, whereas orbital/preseptal injection had no effect. We conclude that the term ‘apraxia’ may not be the correct descriptive term even when the eyelid disturbance occurs without any other CNS disease.
Mutualistic Biofilm Communities Develop with Porphyromonas gingivalis and Initial, Early, and Late Colonizers of Enamel

ABSTRACT Porphyromonas gingivalis is present in dental plaque as early as 4 h after tooth cleaning, but it is also associated with periodontal disease, a late-developing event in the microbial successions that characterize daily plaque development. We report here that P. gingivalis ATCC 33277 is remarkable in its ability to interact with a variety of initial, early, middle, and late colonizers growing solely on saliva. Integration of P. gingivalis into multispecies communities was investigated by using two in vitro biofilm models. In flow cells, bacterial growth was quantified using fluorescently conjugated antibodies against each species, and static biofilm growth on saliva-submerged polystyrene pegs was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR using species-specific primers. P. gingivalis could not grow as a single species or together with initial colonizer Streptococcus oralis but showed mutualistic growth when paired with two other initial colonizers, Streptococcus gordonii and Actinomyces oris, as well as with Veillonella sp. (early colonizer), Fusobacterium nucleatum (middle colonizer), and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (late colonizer). In three-species flow cells, P. gingivalis grew with Veillonella sp. and A. actinomycetemcomitans but not with S. oralis and A. actinomycetemcomitans. Also, it grew with Veillonella sp. and F. nucleatum but not with S. oralis and F. nucleatum, indicating that P. gingivalis and S. oralis are not compatible. However, P. gingivalis grew in combination with S. gordonii and S. oralis, demonstrating its ability to overcome the incompatibility when cultured with a second initially colonizing species. Collectively, these data help explain the observed presence of P. gingivalis at all stages of dental plaque development.
Phase II Study to Topotecan and Cisplatin in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma remains a highly chemoresistant neoplasm and is a common malignancy with poor prognosis in Korea. We performed a phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and toxicities of topotecan and cisplatin combination chemotherapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: Between November 1999 and May 2001, ten patients with histologically proven hepatocellular carcinoma were enrolled in this study. The median age was 54 (range: 53–74) years and all were male. Six patients demonstrated stage IV, 1 stage IIIC, 2 stage IIIB and 1 stage IIIA. Six patients showed a ECOG performance status of 1. The treatment regimen consisted of topotecan 1.25 mg/m2 and cisplatin 20 mg/m2 for 5 days. The treatment was repeated every 4 weeks. Toxicities were evaluated according to WHO toxicity criteria. Results: All ten patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. There was only one patient who achieved partial response. The overall response rate was 10% (95% C.I.) and the response duration was 46 weeks. The median survival of all patients was 21 (range: 17–54+) weeks. During a total of 24 cycles, neutropenia of WHO grade 3 and 4 occurred in 33%, thrombocytopenia in 33% and anemia in 21%. In non-hematologic toxicity, diarrhea and hepatoxicity of grade 3 occurred in 1 and 2 patients, respectively. But there was no treatment-related death. Conclusion: When used in this dose and schedule, topotecan and cisplatin combination chemotherapy does not seem to be effective for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
Yen or Yuan? The Law of One Price and Economic Integration in Asia

Using highly comparable local retail prices of 146 goods and services across 18 Asian countries over 1990â€“2014, we analyse price dispersion and test convergence to the law of one price (LOP) for these prices around three price benchmarksâ€”Asiaâ€ average, Japan and China pricesâ€”to gain insight about market integration in overall Asia as well relative integration of Asian economies to Japan and China. Crossâ€ Asia price dispersion around Chinaâ€ price benchmark, for both tradables and nonâ€ tradables, diminishes significantly over the sample period whereas that around Japanâ€ price benchmark increases considerably, particularly after the 2008 crisis. There is convergence to the LOP for about half of goods and services in Chinaâ€ and Asiaâ€ average price benchmarks. The percentage of convergent prices is significantly smaller in Japanâ€ price benchmark. Direct estimates of the convergence speed parameter also confirm these observations. Overall, our results show evidence of increasing economic integration in Asia in the last two decades. The process of price convergence appears to be driven by the emergence of China as the centre of economic gravity in the region. There is much room for improvement as economic integration in Asia is still far below that in Europe in the 1990s or USA in the 1980s.
The Effects of Telencephalic Lesions on Visually Mediated Prey Orienting Behavior in the Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens)

In this paper, we report studies aimed at characterizing the relationship between forebrain and midbrain systems involved in the control of prey orienting behavior in the leopard frog. In frogs, unilateral forebrain lesions, like unilateral tectal lobe lesions, have their most prominent effects in the contralateral monocular visual field. Such lesions produce partial reductions in response frequency in the binocular visual field as well. Similar sequelae follow unilateral tectal lobe removal. These findings suggest that the effects of unilateral forebrain removal can be largely attributed to removal of a facilitating influence on the tectal lobe on the same side of the brain. In the case of both forebrain and midbrain lesions, behavior was assayed not only in terms of the frequency with which animals responded to stimuli at various locations in the visual field (as is usually done) but also in terms of the latency of whatever responses were observed. A striking inverse relationship between response frequency and response latency was found, both in lesioned and in normal frogs. This relationship has not previously been noticed, doesn’t appear to be an obvious consequence of any existing models of the neuronal circuitry underlying anuran orienting behavior, and is difficult to account for in terms of the time scales associated with axonal conduction times and synaptic delays. It may be easier to account for in terms of the responses to perturbation of large interacting systems of neurons, and this possibility seems worthy of further exploration.
The Code of Putinism

Is Vladimir Putin a pragmatist or an ideologue? And if he is an ideologue, then what exactly is Putinism? Putin seems like an unlikely founder of an -ism, and for many years, experts tended to depict him as a pragmatist. Recently, however, especially since the domestic tightening of the screws from 2012, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the subsequent war in Ukraine, Putin is said to have gone ideological.
Underwritten Dividend Reinvestment Plans and Conflicts of Interest

We examine conflicts of interests arising from the pricing of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) in underwritten dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs). A DRIP is a type of SEO that enables shareholders automatically to reinvest their dividend entitlements in the issuing company’s shares. The underwriters have an incentive to sell stock during the DRIP pricing period in order to hedge price risk and/or to reduce the price at which shares are issued. Using individual brokers’ transactions, we show that underwriting brokers engage in an abnormally high level of selling during the issue pricing period. Comparison of pricing period returns between stocks with underwritten DRIPs and a matched sample of non-underwritten DRIPs shows that significantly more negative returns accrue to firms that have their issues underwritten.
Multiple cag genotypes of Helicobacter pylori isolates colonize the oesophagus in individual hosts in a Venezuelan population

Purpose. Multiple Helicobacter pylori strains colonize and coexist in the stomach of one single patient, carrying heterogeneous distributions of cag genotypes. The oesophagus provides a niche for H. pylori colonization; however, little is known about its adaptive role. Methodology. Using PCR for cagA, cagE and virB11 genes from cag‐pathogenicity island (PAI) and Etest for antimicrobial susceptibility test, we determined cag‐PAI genotypes associated with H. pylori virulence, when positive cultures were matching in both the stomach and the oesophagus (96 isolates; 8 out of 80 dyspeptic patients). Results. The stomach showed complete cag‐PAI islands in 77 % of the isolates, whereas the oesophagus showed complete cag‐PAI islands only in 44 % of the isolates. Expression of CagA and interleukin 8 correlated with inflammatory processes and histopathological changes in the stomach, but not in the oesophagus. Different cag‐PAI profiles were found in both mucosae of an individual host, and at least one oesophagus profile corresponded to one profile identified in stomach. The antibiotic resistance profiles showed variability in the colonization by single or mixed H. pylori isolates in the gastric and oesophageal mucosa both intra‐ and inter‐individuals. Conclusion. These results demonstrate colonization with multiple H. pylori isolates in the oesophageal mucosa, like those found in the stomach of individual hosts. H. pylori was characterized by a dominant partial island, low interleukin 8 induction with lower histopathological damage and lower antibiotic resistance, suggesting that the microenvironmental changes in individual hosts select less virulent isolates in the oesophagus than in the stomach. New approaches to ensure effective eradication therapy in multi‐resistant H. pylori strains must be developed.
Primary receiver detection using load modulation in cognitive radio

A new primary receiver detection method in cognitive radio for OFDM system is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, the OFDM signal is modulated by load modulation at the primary system. Due to the modulation, spurious components appear in guard band of the OFDM system. Then, the secondary receiver detects the direction of the primary receiver through estimating the direction of the spurious components. Numerical results shows that the primary receiver in several meters from the secondary receiver can be detected using the radio wave of terrestrial digital broadcasting.