Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PAK1 and Therapy Resistance in Melanoma

Malignant melanoma claims more lives than any other skin malignancy. While primary melanomas are usually cured via surgical excision, the metastatic form of the disease portents a poor prognosis. Decades of intense research has yielded an extensive armamentarium of anti-melanoma therapies, ranging from genotoxic chemo- and radiotherapies to targeted interventions in specific signaling pathways and immune functions. Unfortunately, even the most up-to-date embodiments of these therapies are not curative for the majority of metastatic melanoma patients, and the need to improve their efficacy is widely recognized. Here, we review the reports that implicate p21-regulated kinase 1 (PAK1) and PAK1-related pathways in the response of melanoma to various therapeutic modalities. Ample data suggest that PAK1 may decrease cell sensitivity to programmed cell death, provide additional stimulation to growth-promoting molecular pathways, and contribute to the creation of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Accordingly, there is mounting evidence that the concomitant inhibition of PAK1 enhances the potency of various anti-melanoma regimens. Overall, the available information suggests that a safe and effective inhibition of PAK1-dependent molecular processes would enhance the potency of the currently available anti-melanoma treatments, although considerable challenges in implementing such strategies still exist.
QTL mapping and candidate gene analysis of low‐temperature tolerance at the germination stage of soybean

When soybean seeds encounter low temperature during germination, the vigour and germination of soybean seeds are affected, which leads to a lack of seedlings and weak seedlings, resulting in yield reduction. In‐depth analysis of the genetic mechanism of soybean seed germination tolerance to low‐temperature stress and the cultivation of soybean‐tolerant varieties is the key to resisting low‐temperature stress at the germination stage. In the present study, a chromosome segment substitution line (CSSL) population constructed by wild soybean ZYD00006 and cultivated soybean SN14 was used to map three quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Five candidate genes were obtained by gene annotation, GO enrichment analysis and protein function prediction. The candidate genes were subjected to bioinformatics analysis, qRT‐PCR analysis, trypsin activity analysis and soluble protein content analysis. The results showed that the secondary and tertiary structures of the Glyma.09G162700 proteins were mutated. Within 0–72 h, the expression of Glyma.09G162700 in the two materials with different tolerances was consistent, and the change in trypsin activity was consistent with the change in protein expression. Through haplotype analysis, Glyma.09G162700 produced two haplotypes at −2420 bp. The germination rate (GR) and relative germination rate (RGR) of the two haplotypes were significantly different, indicating that the two haplotypes have wide applicability in soybean resources. In summary, Glyma.09G162700 may be a candidate gene for low‐temperature tolerance at the germination stage of soybean. These results provide an important theoretical basis and marker information for analysing the mechanism of low‐temperature tolerance in soybean germination stage and cultivating low‐temperature‐tolerant varieties.
Enabling efficient machine learning with device-to-algorithm co-design of spintronic hardware: opportunities and challenge

Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence on various cognitive tasks, including computer vision and natural language processing, have been accompanied by a surge in hardware development to meet the high computational requirements. However, machine intelligence processed in conventional von-Neumann architectures are still orders of magnitude more inefficient than the biological brain. Moreover, building energy-efficient ML hardware accelerators for edge applications faces further challenges, due to constraints of power budget and on-chip memory. Hence, fundamentally new approaches are needed to sustain a continuous growth in the performance of computers beyond the end of CMOS technology roadmap. In order to achieve a better match between the hardware primitives and computational models, exploring new paradigms of computing necessitates a multi-disciplinary endeavor across the stack consisting of devices, circuits, hardware architectures, and learning algorithms. Specifically, such holistic endeavors will involve exploration of novel learning algorithms inspired by bio-plausible principles, design of hardware architectures best suited for data-intensive machine learning models, together with the creation and integration of novel device technologies (such as spintronic devices) that can efficiently mimic neuronal/synaptic operations in biological brains. In this talk, I will discuss our recent exploration of exploiting spintronic devices for emerging computing paradigms such as analog in-memory computing, systolic array, and neuromorphic computing in pursuit of robust and efficient ML hardware. I will first present sparsity-aware device circuit co-design of spin-orbit-torque MRAM for robust crossbar-based ML inference engine. Significant energy improvement with near-software accuracy is demonstrated leveraging robust crossbar arrays with low precision analog-to-digital conversion. We further investigate technology selection among various emerging non-volatile memory under realistic area budgets, and identified the scenarios where spin-orbit-torque MRAM may have advantages in the hardware performance compared to non-volatile memory. Moreover, towards the development of bio-plausible neuromorphic hardware I will introduce a multi-granular spintronic device that can mimic a leaky integrate-and-fire spiking neuron with compact footprints and high energy efficiency. Incorporation of such neuronal devices into the training of a deep convolution spiking neural network for image classification demonstrates improved robustness against various types of noise injection. We conclude with a brief discussion on potential opportunities and directions for future work.
A brief history of the Indus River

Abstract The Indus River system is one of the largest rivers on the Asian continent, but unlike the Ganges-Brahmaputra system, the drainage of the Indus is dominated by the western Tibetan Plateau, Karakoram and tectonic units of the Indus Suture Zone, rather than the High Himalaya. The location of the river system relative to the Indus Suture Zone explains the deep exhumation north of that line in the Karakoram, compared with the modest erosion seen further east in Tibet. The modern Indus cuts Paleogene fluvial sedimentary rocks of the Indus Group located along the Indus Suture Zone in Ladakh, northern India. After the final marine incursion within the Indus Group in the early Eocene (<54.6 Ma), palaeo-current indicators changed from a north-south flow to an axial, westward pattern, synchronous with a marked change in sediment provenance involving erosion of South Tibet. The Indus probably was initiated by early Tibetan uplift following the India-Asia collision. The river has remained stationary in the suture since Early Eocene time, cutting down through its earlier deposits as they were deformed by northward folding and thrusting associated with the Zanskar backthrust at c. 20 Ma. The Indus appears to have been located close to its present position within the foreland basin since at least Mid-Miocene time (c. 18 Ma), and to have migrated only c. 100 km east since Early Eocene time. In the Arabian Sea Paleogene fan sedimentation was significant since at least Mid-Eocene time (c. 45 Ma). Sediment flux to the mid fan and shelf increased during Mid-Miocene time (after 16 Ma) and can be correlated with uplift of the Murray Ridge preventing sediment flow into the Gulf of Oman, tectonic uplift and erosion in the Karakoram and western Lhasa Block, and an enhanced monsoon triggered by that same uplift. Sedimentation rates fell during Late Miocene to Recent time. The Indus represents 18% of the total Neogene sediment in the basins that surround Asia, much more than all the basins of Indochina and East Asia combined (c. 11%). Unlike the rivers of East Asia, which have strongly interacted as a result of eastward propagating deformation in that area, the Indus has remained uninterrupted and represents the oldest known river in the Himalayan region.
CÁNCER DE PRÓSTATA ASOCIADO A SÍNDROME METABÓLICO

El cáncer de próstata es la segunda causa de muerte a nivel mundial y el más común a nivel global. Es esencial conocer y establecer la relación entre los factores de riesgo como el síndrome metabólico y la enfermedad, con el fin de fomentar estrategias de prevención y manejo precoz para disminuir la morbilidad y mortalidad por esta enfermedad. Se realizó una búsqueda de información científica mediante la estrategia PICOT, además de los términos DeCS/MeSH; la calidad del estudio se la realizó mediante PRISMA 2020. Se realizaron búsquedas bibliográficas en bases de datos como PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane y MEDLINE, se encontró 2.136 estudios y se seleccionaron por pertinencia cuatro (dos metaanálisis y dos revisiones sistemáticas). Una revisión sistemática con un total de 388.844 participantes y tres meta análisis con 251.646 participantes concluyen que la presencia de síndrome metabólico se asocia con un aumento del 17% en el riesgo de desarrollar cáncer de próstata OR: 1,17; IC95% :1,1 – 1,36 (p 0,04). Además el riesgo de desarrollar cáncer de próstata de alto grado (Gleason ≥ 8) se asoció con síndrome metabólico OR: 1,89; IC95% :1,5 – 2,38 (p 0,0001). Existe asociación entre el síndrome metabólico y el cáncer de próstata, por lo que se podría fomentar políticas de prevención e intervención para cambiar el impacto de esta neoplasia a nivel mundial.
Premonitory acoustic emissions and stick‐slip in natural and smooth‐faulted Westerly granite

[1] A stick-slip event was induced in a cylindrical sample of Westerly granite containing a preexisting natural fault by loading at constant confining pressure of 150 MPa. Continuously recorded acoustic emission (AE) data and computer tomography (CT)-generated images of the fault plane were combined to provide a detailed examination of microscale processes operating on the fault. The dynamic stick-slip event, considered to be a laboratory analog of an earthquake, generated an ultrasonic signal that was recorded as a large-amplitude AE event. First arrivals of this event were inverted to determine the nucleation site of slip, which is associated with a geometric asperity on the fault surface. CT images and AE locations suggest that a variety of asperities existed in the sample because of the intersection of branch or splay faults with the main fault. This experiment is compared with a stick-slip experiment on a sample prepared with a smooth, artificial saw-cut fault surface. Nearly a thousand times more AE were observed for the natural fault, which has a higher friction coefficient (0.78 compared to 0.53) and larger shear stress drop (140 compared to 68 MPa). However at the measured resolution, the ultrasonic signal emitted during slip initiation does not vary significantly between the two experiments, suggesting a similar dynamic rupture process. We propose that the natural faulted sample under triaxial compression provides a good laboratory analogue for a field-scale fault system in terms of the presence of asperities, fault surface heterogeneity, and interaction of branching faults.
Automatic Segmentation of Pancreas and Pancreatic Tumor: A Review of a Decade of Research

In the current era of machine learning and radiomics, one of the challenges is the automatic segmentation of organs and tumors. Tumor detection is mostly based on a radiologist’s manual reading, which necessitates a high level of professional abilities and clinical experience. Moreover, increasing the high volume of images makes radiologists’ assessments more challenging. Artificial intelligence (AI) can assist clinicians in diagnosing cancer at an early stage by providing a solution for assisted medical image analysis. The automated segmentation of tumor is better realized through conventional segmentation methods and, nowadays, through machine learning and deep learning techniques. The segmentation of abdominal organs and tumors from various imaging modalities has gained much attention in recent years. Among these, pancreas and pancreatic tumor are the most challenging to segment and have recently drawn a lot of attraction. The main objective of this paper is to give a summary of different automated approaches for the segmentation of pancreas and pancreatic tumors and to perform a comparative analysis using various indices such as dice similarity coefficient (DSC), sensitivity (SI), specificity (SP), precision (Pr), recall and Jaccard index (JI), etc. Finally, the limitations and future research perspectives of pancreas and tumor segmentation are summarized.
Parameterization of Urban Characteristics for Global Climate Modeling

To help understand potential effects of urbanization on climates of varying scales and effects of climate change on urban populations, urbanization must be included in global climate models (GCMs). To properly capture the spatial variability in urban areas, GCMs require global databases of urban extent and characteristics. This article describes methods and characteristics used to create a data set that can be utilized to simulate urban systems on a global scale within GCMs. The data set represents three main categories of urban properties: spatial extent, urban morphology, and thermal and radiative properties of building materials. Spatial extent of urban areas is derived from a population density data set and calibrated within thirty-three regions of similar physical and social characteristics. For each region, four classes of urbanization are identified and linked to a set of typical building morphology, thermal, and radiative characteristics. In addition, urban extent is simulated back in time to 1750 based on national historical population and urbanization trends. A sample set of simulations shows that the urban characteristics do change urban heat island outcomes. In general the simulations show greater urban heat islands with increasing latitude, in agreement with observations. [Supplemental material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Annals of the Association of American Geographers for the following free supplemental resource: (1) a table of the Global Data Set of Urban and Building Properties © 2007–2009. ]
Immunohistochemical Expression of Glutathione Peroxidase-2 (Gpx-2) and Its Clinical Relevance in Colon Adenocarcinoma Patients

Glutathione peroxidase 2 (Gpx-2) is a selenoenzyme with antioxidant capabilities that may play a role in cancer development. Hence, we investigated the immunohistochemical expression of Gpx-2 protein in colon adenocarcinoma samples derived from patients with colon adenocarcinoma who did not receive any form of treatment prior to the surgical procedure. The associations between the immunohistochemical expression of Gpx-2 and clinical parameters were analysed using the Chi2 test and Fisher’s exact test. A Kaplan–Meier analysis and the log-rank test were used to verify the relationship between the intensity of Gpx-2 expression and the 5-year survival rate of patients. In total, 101 (80.80%) samples had strong Gpx-2 protein expression and 24 (19.20%) samples were characterized with low expression. The high expression of Gpx-2 was correlated with the histological grade of the tumour (p < 0.001), PCNA immunohistochemical expression (p < 0.001), depth of invasion (p = 0.001) and angioinvasion (p < 0.001). We can conclude that high expression of Gpx-2 is correlated with reduced survival of colon adenocarcinoma patients (log-rank, p < 0.001).
Microbioirrigation of marine sediments in dysoxic environments: Implications for early sediment fabric formation and diagenetic processes

It is manifest in the study of dysoxic sediments from the geological record that infaunal burrowing is considered so severely limited by the lack of dissolved oxygen as to be nonexistent. Although the effects of megafauna and macrofauna on sedimentary and geochemical processes are well known, the effects of meiofauna are largely ignored. Here we document abundant meiofauna in the recent severely dysoxic, laminated sediments from the Santa Barbara basin, California margin, and also microcavities and microtunnels in laminated deglacial sediments from Palmer Deep, west Antarctic Peninsula, that we interpret to be open, relict nematode burrows. Santa Barbara basin box-core subcores were sieved to quantify metazoan abundance, and others were embedded with resin for examination of meiofaunal life positions using confocal microscopy. Metazoan densities in the surface centimeters of sediment range from 80.7 to 117.9 cm −3 , and nematode populations, together with their abundant burrows, remain quite high to at least 3 cm. Scanning electron microscope analysis of fractured surfaces in Palmer Deep sediments revealed that the rigid diatom ooze framework aids the preservation of ∼50 μm diameter open nematode burrows. These structures were observed to at least 40 m below the seafloor surface. This is the first description of a nematode-produced open burrow network preserved in the geological record. Optical microscopy of resin-embedded thin sections revealed widespread sediment redistribution without significant lamina disruption. The implications of abundant nematode burrows in surface sediments, and their preservation in the geological record, are wide ranging for both modern and ancient dysoxic marine environments, including for determining early sediment fabric production, geochemical processes, and diagenetic reactions in the oxic and suboxic zones.
Contribution of hypolimnetic water on metalimnetic dissolved oxygen minima in a reservoir

A minimum in the dissolved oxygen distribution of numerous lakes and reservoirs has been observed to develop in the metalimnion during the stratified period. This minimum is usually explained by the accumulation of organic matter from the overlying layer of water. The introduction of organic matter from the interflow of storm water is also a likely contributor to the accelerated oxygen depletion within the metalimnion. Data are presented that demonstrate that even during low flow periods, water containing reduced species in the deeper upstream section of DeGray Reservoir, Arkansas, is being incorporated into a density current and transported advectively through the metalimnetic region. This mechanism may contribute significantly to the development of metalimnetic dissolved oxygen minima in reservoirs with similar stratification and flow characteristics to DeGray Reservoir.
Indoor and outdoor atmospheric ion mobility spectra, diurnal variation, and relationship with meteorological parameters

We report measurements of small ion mobility spectra and concentrations made over a 5 month period using a Gerdien‐type ion mobility spectrometer at one indoor site in central Bristol, UK, and one indoor and one outdoor site in a semirural area. We assess the diurnal variation in ion concentration and mobility, variability with meteorological parameters, and features within the ion mobility spectra. Ion concentration (typically in the range 100–1000 cm−3) was highest overnight and lowest in late morning and afternoon. Total conductivity also followed this trend suggesting that small ions contribute more to conductivity than larger charged particles, although at the semirural site, indoor activity produced charged aerosol intermittently, while infiltration of outdoor aerosol contributed at the urban site. Negative ion mobility (typically 1.6–1.9 cm2 V−1 s−1) was higher overnight than at other times, while positive ion mobility (typically 1.2–1.4 cm2 V−1 s−1) showed no diurnal variability. In general, temperature, pressure, wind speed, and water vapor pressure were inversely related to both concentration and mobility, except outdoors when (negative) mobility increased with increasing temperature and pressure, while increased relative humidity was associated with higher ion mobilities and concentrations. Analysis of high‐resolution mobility spectra revealed several mobilities for each polarity at which peaks were identified across all sites, suggesting similarity in composition but with varying importance at each site. Intermediate ions (mobilities 0.2–0.3 cm2 V−1 s−1) were observed at the outdoor site, but individual nucleation events which may be associated with them were not identifiable.
In vitro and in vivo evaluation of the antimicrobial effectiveness of non‐medicated hydrophobic wound dressings

Abstract There is an increasing use of non‐medicated wound dressing with claims of irreversible bacterial binding. Most of the data are from in vitro models which lack clinical relevance. This study employed a range of in vitro experiments to address this gap and we complemented our experimental designs with in vivo observations using dressings obtained from patients with diabetes‐related foot ulcers. A hydrophobic wound dressing was compared with a control silicone dressing in vitro. Test dressings were placed on top of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge suspension with increasing concentrations of suspension inoculum in addition to supplementation with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or increased protein content (IPC). Next, we used the challenge suspensions obtained at the end of the first experiment, where bacterial loads from the suspensions were enumerated following test dressing exposure. Further, the time‐dependent bacterial attachment was investigated over 1 and 24 h. Lastly, test dressings were exposed to a challenge suspension with IPC, with or without the addition of the bacteriostatic agent Deferiprone to assess the impacts of limiting bacterial growth in the experimental design. Lastly, two different wound dressings with claims of bacterial binding were obtained from patients with chronic diabetes‐related foot ulcers after 72 h of application and observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Bacteria were enumerated from each dressing after a 1‐h exposure time. There was no statistical difference in bacterial attachment between both test dressings when using different suspension inoculum concentrations or test mediums. Bacterial attachment to the two test dressings was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) when IPC was used instead of PBS. In the challenge suspension with PBS, only the hydrophobic dressing achieved a statistically significant reduction in bacterial loads (0.5 ± 0.05 log colony forming units; p = 0.001). In the presence of IPC, there was no significant reduction in bacterial loads for either test dressing. When bacterial growth was arrested, attachment to the test dressings did not increase over time, suggesting that the number of bacteria on the test dressings increases over time due to bacterial growth. SEM identified widespread adsorption of host fouling across the test dressings which occurred prior to microbial binding. Therein, microbial attachment occurred predominantly to host fouling and not directly to the dressings. Bacterial binding is not unique to dialkylcarbamoyl chloride (DACC) dressings and under clinically relevant in vitro conditions and in vivo observations, we demonstrate (in addition to previously published work) that the bacterial binding capabilities are not effective at reducing the number of bacteria in laboratory models or human wounds.