Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interleukin-17-based cytokine signaling as a determinant for tumor immune microenvironment with prognostic value in triple-negative breast cancer

Background: Only a proportion of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is immunotherapy-responsive. We hypothesized that the tumor microenvironment (TME) might influence the outcomes of TNBC and investigated the relevant signaling pathways. Methods: RNA-seq data of 115 TNBC samples and 112 normal adjacent tissues were retrieved for ESTIMATE, CIBERSORTx, X2K, KEGG, and GSVA analyses. The immune score (IS) and stromal score (SS) were calculated and correlated with the overall survival (OS) in TNBC. Finally, we validated the altered transcription factor (TF) genes in the cBioPortal. Results: The SS is a good predictor of the OS (better survival in SS-low patients; P = 0.0081). In line with these results, when compared with IS-low/SS-high patients, IS-high/SS-low patients showed a better OS (P = 0.045). Moreover, macrophages were polarized toward the M2 phenotypes in IS-low/SS-high patients (P < 0.001). Compared with IS-low/SS-high patients, CIBERSORTx also showed that IS-high/SS-low patients had an increased number of memory B cells, CD8+ T cells (14.8% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.0286), activated CD4+ memory T cells, follicular helper T cells, and activated NK cells in the TME; additionally, fewer resting NK cells were detected in the TME (P = 0.0108). Additionally, there were 284 upregulated and 367 downregulated DEGs (Differentially Expressed Genes) in IS-high/SS-low, and 187 upregulated and 183 downregulated DEGs in IS-low/SS-high patients. KEGG analysis further revealed that the DEGs were enriched in the IL-17 and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathways. Of note, as per the cBioPortal platform, we discovered that 13% of ER-negative, HER2-unamplified BC patients harbored IL17RA deep deletions and 25% harbored TRAF3IP2 amplifications; interestingly, the nine altered TF genes were associated with significantly worse relapse-free survival and OS, in the context of 2,377 and 4,819 BC patients, respectively.Conclusions: The TME with different immune cell components influences the survival of TNBC patients. IS-high/SS-low patients show a better overall survival. Further studies are required to examine whether an immune/stromal state also predicts the response to immunotherapy.
Coating of HAp/CaTiO3 Multilayer on Titanium Substrates by Hydrothermal Method

A multilayer material consisting of hydroxyapatite (HAp) and calcium titanate (CaTiO3) was hydrothermally synthesized on a titanium substrate. The titanium substrate was treated with a mixed solution of CaCl2 and KOH at 150°C to form a CaTiO3 layer. The thickness of the CaTiO3 layer increased with increasing KOH concentration, but the adhesion between the coating layer and the substrate diminished. In an alkaline solution such as KOH, titanium substrates dissolved and reacted with calcium ions, and a CaTiO3 layer precipitated on the substrate. A layer of HAp formed on the CaTiO3 coating layer from the mixed solution containing CaCl2, K2HPO4 and KOH, when the molar ratio of Ca/P was less than 1.67, which was the ratio of stoichiometric HAp. Calcium was supplied from both the reacting solution and the CaTiO3 layer, and was precipitated as HAp. Decomposition of a part of CaTiO3, and the consequent supply of Ca from the coating layer were necessary to form the HAp layer. The multilayer formed without peeling, when HAp was precipitated on the CaTiO3 layer at 220°C for 24h with a pH of 8-10. The adhesion force between the substrate and the CaTiO3 layer did not decrease after the formation of HAp, though the force decreased with increasing KOH concentration during synthesis of the CaTiO3 layer. After soaking the HAp/CaTiO3 multilayer in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 35 d at 37°C, the multilayer was covered with very fine needlelike particles of HAp, though neither the surface of the CaTiO3 coating layer nor the titanium substrate were altered after the same treatment.
Nonprecious bimetallic NiFe‐layered hydroxide nanosheets as a catalyst for highly efficient electrochemical water splitting

It has become highly necessary to advance stable, cost‐effective, and energy‐efficient hydrogen production using non‐precious metal‐based water electrolysis to replace the increasing demand for fossil fuels and maintain environmental safety. Herein, we present the synthesis of non‐precious bimetallic Ni1‐xFex‐layered hydroxide nanosheet films by using a chemical‐bath deposition technique for use as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts for electrochemical water electrolysis. Remarkably, the optimized Ni0.50Fe0. 50‐layered hydroxide electrode exhibited excellent OER activity in 1 M potassium hydroxide electrolyte while having a low overpotential of 239.7 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with a small Tafel slope of 38.02 mV dec−1. It was electrochemically stable over 100 hours of continuous OER operation, thereby showing its excellent electrochemical stability. The results from a post‐OER study reveal that catalytically active OER sites are associated with the formation of a nickel oxyhydroxide intermediate on the surface of the electrode. The maximum synergy among good electronic conductivity, high diffusion coefficient, and enlarged electrochemically active sites was obtained by optimizing the Ni/Fe ratio and thereby, the OER activity.
Defeating Populists: The Case of 2019 Istanbul Elections

ABSTRACT How can populist competitive authoritarian regimes be defeated through elections? In this article, we focus on the 2019 municipal campaign strategy of the opposition Istanbul candidate Ekrem İmamoglu as a case study of a successful challenge to a populist competitive authoritarian regime. We argue that such regimes may be prone to defeat when their opponents use what we call an ‘inverted populist’ strategy. This strategy involves three key elements: adopting an indirect and gradualist approach that avoids direct confrontation with the populist leader and the popular values s/he represents, redefining the ‘the people’ by including previously excluded groups, and promising redistribution to disadvantaged groups.
Somatic mutations in homologous recombination pathway predict favourable prognosis after immunotherapy across multiple cancer types

Background: Homologous recombination (HR) pathway was recently implicated in modifying the tumor immune microenvironment and thus might serve as a candidate biomarker of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment. We aimed to comprehensively explore the clinical and molecular significance of HR mutations in ICI treatment across multiple cancer types.Methods: We analyzed the clinical and genomic data of 1,752 ICI-treated patients and 4,605 non-ICI-treated patients from cBioPortal, TCGA, and ICGC databases. The impacts of HR mutations on tumor mutations burden (TMB), neoantigen load (NAL), microsatellite instability (MSI), immune molecular characteristics, and multi-omics events were further investigated.Results: HR mutations corelated with improved prognosis in ICI-treated bladder cancer (BLCA), colorectal cancer (CRC), and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), while in non-ICI cohorts, HR mutations were not associated with prognosis and even suggested unfavorable prognosis. Multivariable Cox analysis demonstrated HR mutations were an independent predictive factor for ICI treatment. Moreover, HR mutations could accurately predict high level of TMB, NAL, and MSI, and displayed the more prevalent incidence than TMB-high, NAL-high, and microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H), which indicated that HR mutations might be an ideal surrogate for TMB, NAL, and MSI estimation. HR mutations were also proven to correlate with the tumor microenvironment, immunity characteristics, immune checkpoints profiles, and substantial multi-omics alteration events.Conclusions: HR mutations are predictive of improved clinical outcomes in BLCA, CRC, and NSCLC treated with ICI instead of non-ICI, and might be a promising surrogate for TMB, NAL, and MSI estimation in ICI treatment.
Hybrid breast reconstruction: a systematic review of current trends and future directions

Department of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA Contributions: (I) Conception and design: All authors; (II) Administrative support: All authors; (III) Provision of study materials or patients: All authors; (IV) Collection and assembly of data: All authors; (V) Data analysis and interpretation: All authors; (VI) Manuscript writing: All authors; (VII) Final approval of manuscript: All authors. Correspondence to: Dr. Dung H. Nguyen, MD. Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, 900 Blake Wilbur, MC 5348, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. Email: nguyendh@stanford.edu.
A virtual machine migration policy for multi-tier application in cloud computing based on game theory

Cloud computing technology provides shared computing which can be accessed over the Internet. When cloud data centers are flooded by end-users, how to efficiently manage virtual machines to balance both economical cost and ensure QoS becomes a mandatory work to service providers. Virtual machine migration feature brings a plenty of benefits to stakeholders such as cost, energy, performance, stability, availability. However, stakeholder's objectives are usually conflicted with each other. Also, the optimal resource allocation problem in cloud infrastructure is usually NP-Hard or NP-Complete class. In this paper, the virtual migration problem is formulated by applying game theory to ensure both load balance and resource utilization. The virtual machine migration algorithm, named V2PQL, is proposed based on Markov Decision Process and Q-learning algorithm. The results of the simulation demonstrate the efficiency of our proposal which are divided into training phase and extraction phase. The proposed V2PQL policy has been benchmarked to the Round-Robin policy in order to highlight their strength and feasibility in policy extraction phase.
Distributed Sampled-Data Nonfragile Consensus Filtering Over Sensor Networks With Topology Switching and Transmission Delay

This article concerns the distributed sampled-data nonfragile consensus filter design for a continuous-time linear system with respect to exogenous disturbance. A network of sensor nodes is employed to monitor the plant. The information from each sensor node and its neighbors is aperiodically sampled while collaboratively transmitted in the network, where the phenomena of switching directed topologies and network-induced transmission delay are unavoidably existent. The estimated state of the plant at each node is updated by a consensus of state estimates from its neighbors. By acquiring the sensor output measurement, a Luenberger-type filter is constructed not only to provide robustness against some level of filter gain perturbations, but also to guarantee the asymptotic stability of the resultant filtering error system with an $H_{\infty }$ performance requirement. Based on algebraic graph theory, nonfragile synthesis technique and Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional method, the filter parameters are characterized in terms of some feasible solutions to certain linear matrix inequalities. The theoretical analysis is validated by numerical simulations.
The genetic diversity of heat shock protein 70 gene at promoter and 5' untranslated region in beef cattle

This study was aimed to identify genetic diversity in the promoter area and 5' UTR (untranslated region) HSP70 (heat shock protein 70) gene in several beef cattle in Indonesia. A total of 86 blood samples of Bali, Madura, PO (Peranakan Ongole), Limousine, and BB (Belgian Blue) cattle were used in this study. The extracted DNA of all blood samples was then analyzed using the direct sequencing method. The genotyping results showed the presence of five SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) in the promoter region, namely g. -393T>C, g. -343C>A, g. -202T>C and g. -69T>G and three SNPs at 5' UTR, i.e., g.19A>G, g.45C>T, and g. 100_101ins30. The frequency of SNP alleles found in PO, Limousine, and BB cattle was in equilibrium, whereas in Bali and Madura cattle populations, the allele frequency was disequilibrium. In general, the level of diversity of observed alleles ranged from low to high (0.26-1.00), where SNP g.19A>G had the widest variety. It was successfully revealed in this analysis that the SNP g. -69T>G binds to both the NF-Y and CAAT box transcription factor. In addition, the 30 bp (base pair) insertions (g.100_101ins30) that were identified in Bali and Madura cattle have never been reported in previous research studies.
A Theoretical Investigation of the Stability, Electronic, Optical, and Thermoelectric Properties of BaLiP

The density functional theory and post density functional theory techniques are used to investigate the properties of BaLiP for potential applications in photovoltaic and thermoelectric (TE) applications. Density functional calculations of the cohesive energy, phonon‐dispersion, and elastic constant studies establish structural, dynamical, and mechanical stability of the compound. Density functional calculations show that BaLiP is a direct bandgap semiconductor while optical properties at the Bethe–Salpeter equation level of approximation suggest that BaLiP is anisotropic with the optical bandgaps of 2.22 and 1.59 eV for in‐plane and out‐of‐plane absorption, respectively. A maximum absorption coefficient of 4.35×105 cm−1 for in‐plane and 5.02×105 cm−1 for out‐of‐plane absorption in the visible range at 2.69 and 2.63 eV is found, respectively. Lattice thermal conductivity is computed using a Boltzmann transport equation approach. The calculations reveal that the average lattice thermal conductivity is 2.495 Wm−1 K−1 at room temperature. The figure of merit, which is the main criterion for estimating the TE potential of a material, is estimated to have a maximum of 0.6 at 1000 K at a hole carrier concentration of 1019 cm−3 . This study shows that BaLiP has some promise as a candidate for applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and TE applications.
Latent trait models for perceived risk assessment using a Covid-19 data survey

Aim of the contribution is analyzing potential events that may negatively impact individuals, assets, and/or the environment, and making judgments about the perceived personal and social riskiness of Covid-19 compared to other hazards belonging to health (AIDS, cancer, infarction), environmental (climate change), behavioral (serious car accidents), and technological (nuclear weapons) domains. The comparative risk analysis has been performed on a survey data collected during the first Italian Covid-19 lockdown. An item response theory model for polytomously scored items has been implemented for the analysis of the positioning of Covid-19 with respect to the other hazards in terms of perceived risk. Among the attributes determining the hazard's perceived risk, Covid-19 distinguishes for the knowledge of risks from the hazard, media attention, and fear caused by the hazard in the peers. Besides, through a latent regression analysis, the role of some individual characteristics on the perceived risk for Covid-19 has been examined. Our contribution allows us to disentangle among several aspects of hazards and describe the main factors affecting the perceived risk. It also contributes to determine if existing control measures are perceived as adequate and the interest for new media with related impact on a person's reaction.
The Role of Parental Involvement in Narrowing the Academic Achievement Gap for High School Students With Elevated Emotional and Behavioral Risks

Parental involvement in school is an undoubtedly important element of a student’s educational experience and outcomes. Students with elevated emotional and behavioral risks (EBR) tend to experience poor educational outcomes, and research suggests varying levels of parental involvement across domains for these at-risk students. However, there is minimal research on the links between elevated EBR, parental involvement, and academic achievement for high school students. The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which (a) parental involvement differed between high school students with elevated EBR and students without EBR, (b) parental involvement was related to academic outcomes, and (c) the gap in academic achievement between students with elevated EBR and students without EBR could be attributed to differences in parental involvement. To address these questions, we fit a structural equation model using data from the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009. The results demonstrated that (a) parental involvement was significantly lower in multiple domains for students with elevated EBR, (b) was significantly associated with academic outcomes, and (c) differences in parental involvement could account for a significant proportion of the achievement gap. Research limitations, directions for future research directions, and implications are discussed.
Sustainable Infrastructure Projects: Systemic versus Traditional Delivery Models

Sustainability involves multiple environmental, technical, social and economic factors, and such complex analysis requires systemic solutions. Delivery models are key to achieving system benefits and enhancing sustainable development in infrastructure investments. They define the phases of a project, incentive structures, risk sharing and the relationships among the actors in it. They are usually developed early in the project and determine the project dynamics and outcomes. We compared traditional delivery models with systemic ones. We identified and illustrated elements that differ between them through two cases. The contribution is an increased understanding of how systemic infrastructure delivery models can adapt to changes in their environment. We also found that sustainability is vastly under-researched in systemic infrastructure delivery, but that its potential to deliver benefits to PPP infrastructures is substantial.
Factors Influencing Small-Scale Fishers’ Individual Perceived Wellbeing Satisfaction in Southern Benin

In southern Benin, the rapid growth of demographics and the need for fishery products have forced public managers to adopt various management measures in the face of anti-ecological methods used by fishers; however, these strategies are often formulated independent from the context. These measures have not remained without consequence on the daily lives of fishers. This paper examines factors influencing fishers’ individual perceived wellbeing satisfaction using the social-ecological system framework. Data on 205 small-scale fishers’ demographic information, perception of job, and individual wellbeing satisfaction and governance subsystems were collected and analysed by the use of an ordered logistic regression. The results demonstrate that job satisfaction and ownership of water bodies (in contradiction to Ostrom’s advocation for commons management) affected fishers’ individual perceived wellbeing satisfaction. Fishers likely value ownerships, affecting their perceived wellbeing mainly in the South East. The prohibition of certain fishing gear decreases fishers’ individual perceived wellbeing, indicating their attachment to these. Therefore, the question remains as to whether or not the scenarios of eco-sustainability of artisanal fisheries can be managed in the same manner as those related urban dwellers and the public sector. This is in particular reference to the line between urban land property rights, urban dwellers and the state, and property rights on water bodies, fishers, and the state.
The Effect of Challenging Stressors on Job Involvement of Post-90s Employees: A Study on the Moderating Effect of Job Values

Young employees in enterprises are facing increasing pressure from time and work knowledge input. Among the factors affecting the degree of work input, the pressure is common and realistic. Based on the survey data of 201 employees, this study explored the “Double-edged”effect of challenging stressors on post-90s employees’work engagement, and examined the moderating effect of employees’work values. The results show that time pressure and work knowledge input pressure in challenging stressors have an inverted U-shaped effect on post-90s employees’work input The interpersonal harmony factor in the employee’s work values weakens the inverse U-shaped effect of time pressure on work input, and the compensation and welfare value plays a positive role in the linear relationship between time pressure and work input The internal preference factors in values showed positive moderating relationship between the two dimensions of challenging stressors and the linear relationship of job involvement.
What university makes a public good?

ABSTRACT Relations between China and the United States will invariably influence the future of the human and natural world. New theory [Marginson, Simon, and Lili Yang. 2021. “Individual and Collective Outcomes of Higher Education; A Comparison of Anglo-American and Chinese Approaches. ” Globalisation, Societies and Education. ] opened a space for more work on how higher education might support something like the second sort of future by generating collective or public goods. This response essay holds two assumptions: (1) Universities in both the Anglo-American and Sinic spheres are universities; (2) universities in the Anglo-American sphere are comparable to universities in the Sinic sphere, even when the point of comparison is to contrast. Empirical scholarship that investigates public good outcomes in different cultural and political formations will need some concept of the university to guide research. Operationalised concepts need to be manageable abstractions of real objects or processes. In this essay, I consider what each conception of the public good suggests about the usefulness of several of about the university. The university ideas considered here are the transactional university, the global research university, and the third university.
Multi-Scale Feature Fusion with Adaptive Weighting for Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Classification

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the prime cause of blindness in people who suffer from diabetes. Automation of DR diagnosis could help a lot of patients avoid the risk of blindness by identifying the disease and making judgments at an early stage. The main focus of the present work is to propose a feasible scheme of DR severity level detection under the MobileNetV3 backbone network based on a multi-scale feature of the retinal fundus image and improve the classification performance of the model. Firstly, a special residual attention module RCAM for multi-scale feature extraction from different convolution layers was designed. Then, the feature fusion by an innovative operation of adaptive weighting was carried out in each layer. The corresponding weight of the convolution block is updated in the model training automatically, with further global average pooling (GAP) and division process to avoid over-fitting of the model and removing non-critical features. In addition, Focal Loss is used as a loss function due to the data imbalance of DR images. The experimental results based on Kaggle APTOS 2019 contest dataset show that our proposed method for DR severity classification achieves an accuracy of 85.32%, a kappa statistic of 77.26%, and an AUC of 0.97. The comparison results also indicate that the model obtained is superior to the existing models and presents superior classification performance on the dataset.