Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two survivin polymorphisms are cooperatively associated with bladder cancer susceptibility

Abnormal survivin expression has been reported to be involved in many types of cancer. A single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), C‐31G, located in the promoter region of survivin reportedly may alter the mRNA level, while the significance of the nonsynonymous SNP A9194G in exon 4 has not yet been clarified. Here, the association between the two survivin SNPs and bladder cancer susceptibility and progression was investigated in 235 patients with bladder cancer and 346 healthy controls. Regarding the C‐31G SNP, subjects with the CC genotype had a significantly higher risk of bladder cancer compared to those with the GG + CG genotype [odds ratio (OR) = 1.85, p = 0.001]. Regarding the A9194G SNP, the presence of the G allele was associated with a significantly reduced risk with a gene dosage effect (OR = 0.69, p = 0.002). Using the C‐A haplotype as a reference, the G‐G haplotype was associated with a significantly lower risk (OR = 0.11, p = 0.00006), indicating the cooperative effect of the two SNPs. Immunohistological evaluation of surgical specimens showed that cancer cells of the C‐31G CC genotype had significantly higher nuclear survivin expression than those of the C‐31G GG + CG genotype. With reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction analysis, a significantly higher survivin mRNA expression level was observed in surgical specimens with an increase in the number of the C‐31G C allele (p = 0.016). These results indicate that the two SNPs have a significant and cooperative influence on bladder cancer susceptibility.
Challenges of loss and grief in palliative care nursing.

The article discusses the effect of patient deaths and dying episodes to palliative care professionals who have developed affectionate bonds with the deceased. Health professionals who are emotionally attached to their patients are noted to be negatively affected with bereavement episodes and experience the sense of loss. The lack of models for health professionals in coping with patient deaths is also mentioned.
A Prototype Compton Camera Array for Localization and Identification of Remote Radiation Sources

A functional prototype two-plane Compton camera array for localization and identification of remote radiation sources, consisting of four PVT and four NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors with PMT readout, is presented. The large-volume, 76 × 76 ×76 mm scintillators provide a broad field of view for scattered photons and facilitate maximum efficiency at moderate cost. Each detector is equipped with a voxelSPEC, a compact electronic module that provides high voltage for the PMT, signal processing, detector stabilization, and an Ethernet communication interface. The voxelSPEC delivers list-mode event data with nanosecond precision timing over non-proprietary Ethernet and makes a system extension very easy. A software package has been developed for real-time data processing and image reconstruction. Advantages in the hard- and software allow stable, unattended operation of the camera array for many days, and provide easy-to-read information on the radiation source in real time. Measurements with the prototype array have been performed for a few standard scenarios and geometries to verify the model predications obtained by Monte-Carlo simulations. Simulations have been further performed to explore larger camera arrays with 2 × 4 × 4, 2 × 8 × 8, 2 × 10 × 10, 2 × 13 × 13 and 2 × 16 × 16 detectors.
The degree of variation in DNA sequence recognition among four Drosophila homeotic proteins.

The homeodomain has been implicated as a major determinant of biological specificity for the homeotic selector (HOM) genes. We compare here the DNA sequence preferences of homeodomains encoded by four of the eight Drosophila HOM proteins. One of the four, Abdominal‐B, binds preferentially to a sequence with an unusual 5′‐T‐T‐A‐T‐3′ core, whereas the other three prefer 5′‐T‐A‐A‐T‐3′. Of these latter three, the Ultrabithorax and Antennapedia homeodomains display indistinguishable preferences outside the core while Deformed differs. Thus, with three distinct binding classes defined by four HOM proteins, differences in individual site recognition may account for some but not all of HOM protein functional specificity. We further show that amino acid residues within the N‐terminal arm are responsible for the sequence specificity differences between the Ultrabithorax and Abdominal‐B homeodomains. Similarities and differences at the corresponding positions within the N‐terminal arms are conserved in the vertebrate Abdominal‐B‐like HOM proteins, which play critical roles in limb specifications as well as in regional specification along the anterior‐posterior axis. This and other patterns of residue conservation suggest that differential DNA sequence recognition may play a role in HOM protein function in a wide range of organisms.
'Stative' *-e- revisited

L'A. s'interesse dans cet article de morphosyntaxe historique au probleme des verbes en ē- dans la famille indo-europenne. Les verbes en ē- sont des formes verbales statives, inchoatives, ou passives, dont la caracteristique morphologique pertinente est le suffixe reconstructible *-ē- < *-eh1-. L'article consiste en une enquete visant a faire l'inventaire des formation en ē-. L'A. denombre 3 types principaux de formes: (1) instrumentaux predicats en *-eh1; (2) presents derives en *-eh1-ie/o-; (3) noms et adjectifs en *-eh1- suivis d'un suffixe nominal. Parallelement, il explique dans ce cadre theorique la stabilite apophonique du statif *-ē-.
Importance of 5‐hydroxytryptamine receptors on intestinal afferents in the regulation of visceral sensitivity

Abstract Serotonin (5‐HT) plays an important role as a signalling molecule in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The regulation of GI sensitivity via 5‐HT is mediated by specific 5‐HT receptor subytypes on intrinsic and extrinsic afferents. This review discusses visceral afferent hypersensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and the importance of 5HT3, 5HT4, and 5HT2B receptor‐mediated mechanisms in the regulation of visceral sensitivity.
FDA Approval Summary: Olaparib Monotherapy in Patients with Deleterious Germline BRCA-Mutated Advanced Ovarian Cancer Treated with Three or More Lines of Chemotherapy

On December 19, 2014, the FDA approved olaparib capsules (Lynparza; AstraZeneca) for the treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) advanced ovarian cancer who have been treated with three or more prior lines of chemotherapy. The BRACAnalysis CDx (Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc.) was approved concurrently. An international multicenter, single-arm trial enrolled 137 patients with measurable gBRCAm-associated ovarian cancer treated with three or more prior lines of chemotherapy. Patients received olaparib at a dose of 400 mg by mouth twice daily until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The objective response rate (ORR) was 34% with median response duration of 7.9 months in this cohort. The most common adverse reactions (≥20%) in patients treated with olaparib were anemia, nausea, fatigue (including asthenia), vomiting, diarrhea, dysgeusia, dyspepsia, headache, decreased appetite, nasopharyngitis/pharyngitis/upper respiratory infection, cough, arthralgia/musculoskeletal pain, myalgia, back pain, dermatitis/rash, and abdominal pain/discomfort. Myelodysplatic syndrome and/or acute myeloid leukemia occurred in 2% of the patients enrolled on this trial. Clin Cancer Res; 21(19); 4257–61. ©2015 AACR.
Evaluating a thermal icon for the enhancement of mobile feedback perception in noisy and bumpy environments

The shortcoming of commonly used mobile feedbacks, e.g., audio and vibrotactile, is that they are often not suitable for some environments, such as in very loud and bumpy locations. The aim of this experiment is to evaluate how much thermal feedback increases user perception of mobile feedback in the situations where the audio and vibrotactile feedbacks may be suppressed due to noise and vibration. The two situations with interference, i.e., noise and vibration, were simulated. The perception of uni- and multimodal feedbacks, combined with a cold thermal icon, was tested as a means of a mobile device delivering notifications to users. Eleven stimuli were presented to subjects while six of those with the thermal icon were applied to the wrist of subjects. Experimental results showed that thermal feedback has potentials to be used solo or together with other feedbacks to enhance user perception in unsuitable situations. Furthermore, multimodal feedbacks, especially those with thermal stimulus, were reported to be more detectable than others. These insights indicate that thermal feedback may provide a salient alternative for user notification in modern mobile and wearable devices.
The prevalence of vestibular symptoms in migraine or tension-type headache.

BACKGROUND We assessed frequency of vestibular symptoms in Headache Clinic patients over 10 years. METHODS A descriptive study of 5111 consecutive patients with tension-type headache or migraine, analyzed for dizziness/ vertigo accompanying headache and for a lifetime history of motion-sickness, cyclic vomiting, recurrent abdominal pain or atopy. Migraine patients were re-grouped as those with vestibular symptoms (dizziness/vertigo or motion sickness) and those without and their data then re-analyzed. RESULTS There were 1880 migraine patients and 3231 tension-type headache patients. Significantly more migraine patients than tension-type headache patients experienced vestibular symptoms (p< 0.0001). The migraine with vestibular symptoms group was significantly younger (p< 0.05) had more aura, more phonophobia with migraine attacks (p< 0.0001). Menstruation and reported sleep problems impacted on headaches. While past history of cyclical vomiting, recurrent abdominal pain or atopy was about twice as common in migraine with aura and it was also more common in migraine with vestibular symptoms than migraine without vestibular symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Vestibular symptoms are common in migraine patients. Migraine with vestibular symptoms might constitute a special group, one more likely to have had cyclic vomiting, recurrent abdominal pain or atopy.
The Prior Can Often Only Be Understood in the Context of the Likelihood

A key sticking point of Bayesian analysis is the choice of prior distribution, and there is a vast literature on potential defaults including uniform priors, Jeffreys’ priors, reference priors, maximum entropy priors, and weakly informative priors. These methods, however, often manifest a key conceptual tension in prior modeling: a model encoding true prior information should be chosen without reference to the model of the measurement process, but almost all common prior modeling techniques are implicitly motivated by a reference likelihood. In this paper we resolve this apparent paradox by placing the choice of prior into the context of the entire Bayesian analysis, from inference to prediction to model evaluation.
Shortened telomeres in the expanded CD28-CD8+ cell subset in HIV disease implicate replicative senescence in HIV pathogenesis.

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that the expanded population of non-proliferative CD28-CD8+ T cells in HIV disease have shortened telomeres, thereby providing evidence that increased rounds of CD8+ cell division occur during HIV disease, possibly leading to replicative senescence and exhaustion of CD8+ T-cell responses. DESIGN CD8+ cells play a central role in control of HIV infection. In late HIV disease, an expanded population of CD28-CD8+ cells with reduced proliferative potential has been documented. A similar population of CD28-CD8+ cells has been identified in ageing humans, where telomere length measurements have suggested that these cells have reached the irreversible state of replicative senescence. METHODS CD8+ cells from HIV-infected and control subjects were sorted by flow cytometry into CD28+ and CD28- fractions. Telomere lengths were determined as mean terminal restriction fragment (TRF) lengths by Southern hybridization. RESULTS The TRF lengths of sorted CD28-CD8+ cells in HIV-infected subjects ranged between 5 and 7 kilobases (kb) and were significantly shorter than TRF lengths of CD28-CD8+ cells in uninfected subjects (P = 0.003). The TRF length in CD28-CD8+ cells from HIV-infected subjects was the same as that observed for centenarian peripheral blood mononuclear cells and is compatible with a state of replicative senescence. CONCLUSIONS The shortened telomeres in the CD28-CD8+ cells in HIV-infected subjects and the poor proliferative potential of these cells identifies CD8+ cell replicative senescence as a newly described feature of HIV disease. Our results provide a mechanism for the loss of CD8+ cell control of viral replication that accompanies advanced HIV disease. Replicative senescence may contribute to exhaustion of the T-cell response as a result of chronic HIV disease. Whether this phenomenon occurs in other chronic viral infections is unknown.
Expert Systems With Applications

Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm is nature inspired global optimization algorithm based on the brood parasitic behavior of cuckoos. It has proved to be an eﬃcient algorithm as it has been successfully applied to solve a large number of problems of different areas. CS employs Lévy ﬂights to generate step size and to search the solution space effectively. The local search is carried out using switch probability in which certain percentages of solutions are removed. Though CS is an effective algorithm, still its performance can be improved by incorporating the exploration and exploitation during the search process. In this work, three modiﬁed versions of CS are proposed to improve the properties of exploration and exploitation. All these versions employ Cauchy operator to generate the step size instead of Lévy ﬂights to eﬃciently explore the search space. Moreover, two new concepts, division of population and division of generations, are also introduced in CS so as to balance the exploration and exploitation. The proposed versions of CS are tested on 24 standard benchmark problems with different dimension sizes and varying population sizes and the effect of probability switch has been studied. Apart from this, the best of the proposed versions is also tested on CEC 2015 benchmark suite. The modiﬁed algorithms have been statistically tested in comparison to the state-of-the-art algorithms, namely grey wolf optimization (GWO), differential evolution (DE), ﬁreﬂy algorithm (FA), ﬂower pollination algorithm (FPA) and bat algorithm (BA). The numerical and statistical results prove the superiority of the proposed versions with respect to other popular algorithms available in the literature.
Oxytocin–Oxytocin Receptor Systems Facilitate Social Defeat Posture in Male Mice

Social stress has deteriorating effects on various psychiatric diseases. In animal models, exposure to socially dominant conspecifics (i.e., social defeat stress) evokes a species-specific defeat posture via unknown mechanisms. Oxytocin neurons have been shown to be activated by stressful stimuli and to have prosocial and anxiolytic actions. The roles of oxytocin during social defeat stress remain unclear. Expression of c-Fos, a marker of neuronal activation, in oxytocin neurons and in oxytocin receptor‒expressing neurons was investigated in mice. The projection of oxytocin neurons was examined with an anterograde viral tracer, which induces selective expression of membrane-targeted palmitoylated green fluorescent protein in oxytocin neurons. Defensive behaviors during double exposure to social defeat stress in oxytocin receptor‒deficient mice were analyzed. After social defeat stress, expression of c-Fos protein was increased in oxytocin neurons of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, supraoptic nucleus, and paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus. Expression of c-Fos protein was also increased in oxytocin receptor‒expressing neurons of brain regions, including the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus and ventrolateral periaqueductal gray. Projecting fibers from paraventricular hypothalamic oxytocin neurons were found in the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus and in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray. Oxytocin receptor‒deficient mice showed reduced defeat posture during the second social defeat stress. These findings suggest that social defeat stress activates oxytocin-oxytocin receptor systems, and the findings are consistent with the view that activation of the oxytocin receptor in brain regions, including the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus and the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray, facilitates social defeat posture.
Multicore Enablement for Embedded and Cyber Physical Systems (Dagstuhl Seminar 13052)

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 13052 “Multicore Enablement for Embedded and Cyber Physical Systems”. During the seminar the participants from industry and academia actively discussed chances and problems of multicore processors in embedded in cyber-physical systems. The focus of the seminar was on the exchange of experiences and discussion of the challenges of reusable and transferable multicore technologies. Those were covered in the individual talks and plenum discussions. Beside that, working groups have been formed to discuss and present important topics in detail, which are also part of this report. Seminar 27. January to 01. February, 2013 – www.dagstuhl. de/13052 1998 ACM Subject Classification C.1. 4 Parallel Architectures
A comparison of dietary habits among women in Japan and Hawaii

Abstract Objective: To compare the dietary habits of Japanese women in Japan with those of Japanese and Caucasian women living in Hawaii. Design: Data from two previous cross-sectional studies conducted within two years in Hawaii and Gifu, Japan were pooled and analysed. Dietary intakes were assessed with validated food-frequency questionnaires and urine samples were collected for isoflavone measurement. Setting: Participants were recruited through mammography clinics in both locations. Subjects: In Hawaii, 164 Caucasian and 146 Japanese women; in Japan, 206 women. Results: Dietary habits differed considerably by ethnicity and location. In comparison to the Caucasian diet, the diet in Japan was relatively low in fat and high in carbohydrates and protein, whereas the Japanese women in Hawaii reported intermediate intakes. Japanese women in Gifu consumed a diet that was relatively high in fish, soy, eggs and vegetables, and low in fruits, dairy products and meat. In contrast, the Caucasian women consumed the most dairy products and fruits and the Japanese women in Hawaii reported the highest grain and meat intakes. Conclusions: The diet of Japanese women in Hawaii appeared to be a combination of foods eaten in Japan and the dietary habits of Caucasian women in Hawaii, but eating habits in Japan are also different from traditional nutritional patterns. This study illustrates several problems related to dietary comparisons across populations and provides information for future investigations on chronic disease risk.
Models for human postural regulation that include realistic delays and partial observations

The quietly standing human is modeled by a two-segment inverted pendulum controlled by an ankle torque. Both the control and the observations are significantly delayed and corrupted by exogenous noise, as they are in reality. Three controllers of this plant are derived and compared. The first is an MPC-based controller that approximately optimizes a performance criterion that is quartic in the state and quadratic in the control. The second is an LQG optimal controller. The third is a PID controller proposed by Peterka [6]. The controllers are shown to exhibit several of the experimentally observed phenomena related to sway.
The natural history of periodontal bone loss in germfree and gnotobiotic rats infected with periodontopathic microorganisms.

A new technique for evaluating the vertical component of bone loss in rats is described in which silicone base impression material is utilized. The extent and pattern of bone loss in germfree rats is compared to the bone loss in gnotobiotic animals infected with either Streptococcus mautans strain 6715 or with Actinomyces naeslundii strain I or with Actinomyces viscosus strain T 14. In general, after approximately 60 days of infection the gnotobiotic animals demonstrated patterns of bone loss similar to germfree animals although the extent of loss was more marked. The major increases in bone loss (both horizontal and vertical) were observed in the period between 60 and 90 days of infection. The major destruction offurs on the lingual aspects of maxillary molars. Vertical bone loss was greater in A. naeslundii infected animals than in S. mutans infected animals.
Rational Transparency Choice in Financial Market Equilibrium

Add a stage of signal acquisition to a canonical model of portfolio choice.Under fully revealing asset price, investors' information demand reflects their choice of transparency. In reducing uncertainty, financial transparency raises expected asset price and thus benefits holders of the risky asset. At a natural transparency limit, however, investors pay to inhibit further disclosure in order to forestall the erosion of the asset's expected excess return. The natural transparency limit varies with the portfolio position. There is a dominant investor with a risky asset endowment modestly above market average who single-handedly determines transparency in equilibrium. The dominant investor strictly improves welfare for investors with similar endowments but strictly reduces welfare for others when acquiring signals beyond their natural transparency limits. The welfare consequences of financial transparency are thus intricately linked to the wealth distribution.
Elevation of Cellular NAD Levels by Nicotinic Acid and Involvement of Nicotinic Acid Phosphoribosyltransferase in Human Cells*

NAD plays critical roles in various biological processes through the function of SIRT1. Although classical studies in mammals showed that nicotinic acid (NA) is a better precursor than nicotinamide (Nam) in elevating tissue NAD levels, molecular details of NAD synthesis from NA remain largely unknown. We here identified NA phosphoribosyltransferase (NAPRT) in humans and provided direct evidence of tight link between NAPRT and the increase in cellular NAD levels. The enzyme was abundantly expressed in the small intestine, liver, and kidney in mice and mediated [14C]NAD synthesis from [14C]NA in human cells. In cells expressing endogenous NAPRT, the addition of NA but not Nam almost doubled cellular NAD contents and decreased cytotoxicity by H2O2. Both effects were reversed by knockdown of NAPRT expression. These results indicate that NAPRT is essential for NA to increase cellular NAD levels and, thus, to prevent oxidative stress of the cells. Kinetic analyses revealed that NAPRT, but not Nam phosphoribosyltransferase (NamPRT, also known as pre-B-cell colony-enhancing factor or visfatin), is insensitive to the physiological concentration of NAD. Together, we conclude that NA elevates cellular NAD levels through NAPRT function and, thus, protects the cells against stress, partly due to lack of feedback inhibition of NAPRT but not NamPRT by NAD. The ability of NA to increase cellular NAD contents may account for some of the clinically observed effects of the vitamin and further implies a novel application of the vitamin to treat diseases such as those associated with the depletion of cellular NAD pools.