julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9 is upregulated in the endothelium and tumor cells in melanoma brain metastasis
2014-01-01

Aim: The cytokine receptor tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9 (TNFRSF9) is mainly considered to be a co-stimulatory activation marker in hematopoietic cells. Several preclinical models have shown a dramatic beneficial effect of treatment approaches targeting TNFRSF9 with agonistic antibodies. However, preliminary clinical phase I/II studies were stopped after the occurrence of several severe deleterious side effects. In a previous study, it was demonstrated that TNFRSF9 was strongly expressed by reactive astrocytes in primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors, but was largely absent from tumor or inflammatory cells. The aim of the present study was to address the cellular source of TNFRSF9 expression in the setting of human melanoma brain metastasis, a highly immunogenic tumor with a prominent tropism to the CNS. Methods: Melanoma brain metastasis was analyzed in a cohort of 78 patients by immunohistochemistry for TNFRSF9 and its expression was correlated with clinicopathological parameters including sex, age, survival, tumor size, number of tumor spots, and BRAF V600E expression status. Results: Tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9 was frequently expressed independently on both melanoma and endothelial cells. In addition, TNFRSF9 was also present on smooth muscle cells of larger vessels and on a subset of lymphomonocytic tumor infiltrates. No association between TNFRSF9 expression and patient survival or other clinicopathological parameters was seen. Of note, several cases showed a gradual increase in TNFRSF9 expression on tumor cells with increasing distance from blood vessels, an observation that might be linked to hypoxia-driven TNFRSF9 expression in tumor cells. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the cellular source of TNFRSF9 in melanoma brain metastasis largely exceeds the lymphomonocytic pool, and therefore further careful (re-) assessment of potential TNFRSF9 functions in cell types other than hematopoietic cells is needed. Furthermore, the hypothesis of hypoxia-driven TNFRSF9 expression in brain metastasis melanoma cells requires further functional testing.
Towards Rigorous Study of Artistic Style: A New Psychophysical Paradigm
2014-01-01

What makes one artist’s style so different from another’s? How do we perceive these differences? Studying the perception of artistic style has proven difficult. Observers typically view several artworks and must group them or rate similarities between pairs. Responses are often driven by semantic variables, such as scene type or the presence/absence of particular subject matter, which leaves little room for studying how viewers distinguish a Degas ballerina from a Toulouse-Lautrec ballerina, for example. In the current paper, we introduce a new psychophysical paradigm for studying artistic style that focuses on visual qualities and avoids semantic categorization issues by presenting only very local views of a piece, thereby precluding object recognition. The task recasts stylistic judgment in a psychophysical texture discrimination framework, where visual judgments can be rigorously measured for trained and untrained observers alike. Stimuli were a dataset of drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his imitators studied by the computer science community, which showed that statistical analyses of the drawings’ local content can distinguish an authentic Bruegel from an imitation. Our non-expert observers also successfully discriminated the authentic and inauthentic drawings and furthermore discriminated stylistic variations within the categories, demonstrating the new paradigm’s feasibility for studying artistic style perception. At the same time, however, we discovered several issues in the Bruegel dataset that bear on conclusions drawn by the computer vision studies of artistic style.
Bank Financing with Structured Products How to make Contingent Convertibles work
2014-01-01

"Die Unternehmung" zählt mit ihrem Konzept, theoretischen Anspruch und Praxisrelevanz in qualitativ hochwertigen Beiträgen zu verbinden, zu den führenden deutschsprachigen Fachzeitschriften der Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
THE PUZZLING JET AND PULSAR WIND NEBULA OF IGR J11014-6103
2014-01-01

IGR J11014-6103 is a hard X-ray source discovered by INTEGRAL. Follow-up X-ray and radio observations revealed an elongated pulsar wind nebula formed by a neutron star escaping supersonically its parent supernova remnant SNR MSH 11-61A. The pulsar also emits highly collimated jets extending perpendicularly to the direction of motion. The jet has a continuous helical structure extending up to more than 10 parsecs. IGR J11014-6103 is a laboratory to study jet ejection in the wind of a pulsar and to constrain the core collapse supernova mechanism responsible for the observed pulsar kick velocity in excess of 1000 km/s.
Development of a Provisional Model to Improve Transitional Care for Female Adolescents with a Rare Genital Malformation as an Example for Orphan Diseases
2014-01-01

Deficits of care exist during the transitional period, when young people with ongoing needs of support to achieve their physical, social, and psychological potential are entering adulthood. This study aims to develop a patient oriented, structured provisional model to improve transitional care for adolescents with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuester-Hauser-Syndrome as an example for orphan diseases, where problems of access and continuity are even more complex. The study is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF-Funding Code 01GY1125). The target patient group are young females with this disorder, treated at the Centre for Rare Genital Malformations in Women (ZSGF), University Hospital of Tuebingen. The study comprises five phases: an appraisal of literature, assessment of patients (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>25</mml:mn></mml:math>), parents’, partners’, and health and social care providers’ (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>24</mml:mn></mml:math>) needs and experienced deficits in care and support in a qualitative approach, construction of a provisional model via scenario technique, followed by communicative validation (including interested public,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>100</mml:mn></mml:math>), preference finding, and identification of patient-oriented quality aims for follow-up. Quantitative data from questionnaires and chart review (as sociodemographic data, nonresponder analysis, and preference rating) are worked up for descriptive statistics. The results provide a platform for the development of future multidisciplinary transitional intervention programs in orphan diseases.
Natural history and morphology of the hoverfly Pseudomicrodon biluminiferus and its parasitic relationship with ants nesting in bromeliads
2014-01-01

The syrphid subfamily Microdontinae is characterized by myrmecophily of their immature stages, i.e., they develop in ant nests. Data on natural history of microdontines are scarce, especially in the Neotropics. Based on fieldwork in southern Brazil, this study provided new data on development and ecology of the hoverfly Pseudomicrodon biluminiferus (Hull) (Diptera: Syrphidae) as well as the first morphological descriptions of male genitalia, larvae, and pupa. Immature specimens were specifically found in colonies of the ant species Crematogaster limata Smith (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) found in rosettes of the bromeliad species Aechmea lindenii (E. Morren) Baker (Poales: Bromeliaceae) and A. nudicaulis (L.) Grisebach. Third instar larvae were observed preying on ant larvae, revealing the parasitic nature of P. biluminiferus . In this and several other aspects, the natural history of P. biluminiferus is similar to that of Holarctic microdontine species. Exceptions include: (i) indications that adults of P. biluminiferus outlast the winter months (in contrast to 3 (rd) instar larvae in Holarctic species) and (ii) P. biluminiferus ’ relationship with bromeliads. The importance of bromeliads for this host-parasite system is evaluated in this paper. The single occurrence of another, unidentified microdontine species’ pupae in a nest of the ant species Camponotus melanoticus Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is reported.
UNIFORM SPANNING TREES ON SIERPI NSKI GRAPHS
2014-01-01

We study spanning trees on Sierpi nski graphs (i.e., nite approxima- tions to the Sierpi nski gasket) that are chosen uniformly at random. We prove existence of a limit measure and derive a number of structural results, for instance on the degree distribution. The connection between uniform spanning trees and loop-erased random walk is then exploited to prove convergence of the latter to a continuous stochastic process akin to the Brownian motion or the Schramm- Loewner evolution. Some geometric properties of this limit process, such as the Hausdor dimension, are investigated as well. The method is also applicable to other self-similar graphs with a sucient degree of symmetry.
LEXICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEENTUSCAN DIALECTSAND STANDARD ITALIAN:ACCOUNTING FOR GEOGRAPHICAND SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC VARIATION USING GENERALIZEDADDITIVE MIXED MODELING
2014-01-01

This study uses a generalized additive mixed-effects regression model to predict lexical differences in Tuscan dialects with respect to standard Italian. We used lexical information for 170 concepts used by 2060 speakers in 213 locations in Tuscany. In our model, geographical position was found to be an important predictor, with locations more distant from Florence having lexical forms more likely to differ from standard Italian. In addition, the geographical pattern varied significantly for low versus high frequency concepts and older versus younger speakers. Younger speakers generally used variants more likely to match the standard language. Several other factors emerged as significant. Male speakers as well as farmers were more likely to use a lexical form different from standard Italian. In contrast, higher educated speakers used lexical forms more likely to match the standard. The model also indicates that lexical variants used in smaller communities are more likely to differ from standard Italian. The impact of community size, however, varied from concept to concept. For a majority of concepts, lexical variants used in smaller communities are more likely to differ from the standard Italian form. For a minority of concepts, however, lexical variants used in larger communities are more likely to differ from standard Italian. Similarly, the effect of the other community- and speaker-related predictors varied per concept. These results clearly show that the model succeeds in teasing apart different forces influencing the dialect landscape and helps us to shed light on the complex interaction between the standard Italian language and the Tuscan dialectal varieties. In addition, this study illustrates the potential of generalized additive mixed-effects regression modeling applied to dialect data.
Quaternion extensions with restricted ramification
2014-01-01

In any normal number field having , the quaternion group of order , as Galois group over the rationals, at least two finite primes must ramify. The classical example by Dedekind of such a field is extraordinary in that it is totally real and only
Multimodality imaging of a subtotally obstructive right ventricular myxoma in an asymptomatic 10-year-old girl
2014-01-01

A 10-year-old girl presented with a supraventricular tachycardia. A heart murmur was detected during a clinical examination; therefore, echocardiography was performed. This revealed a giant right ventricular myxoma that subtotally obstructed the right ventricular outflow tract. A myxoma in the right ventricle is uncommon in children. This rare intracardiac tumor was examined using multimodality imaging, and the patient underwent surgical resection. The pathologic features confirmed our suspicion and revealed an encapsulated tumor with myxomatoid stroma containing focal hemorrhages.
Relationship between renal calculi and the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke: results from the EPIC-Potsdam study
2014-01-01

Background: Renal calculi are related to obesity and metabolic syndrome and may indicate an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but data from prospective cohort studies are sparse.Therefore, the authors investigated the association between renal calculi and the risk of cardiovascular disease endpoints in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam study.Methods: The study population comprised 24,490 individuals aged mainly 35-65 years, who were free of cardiovascular diseases at recruitment (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998).Information about the presence of renal calculi at baseline was ascertained via questionnaires.For all incident cases of myocardial infarction and stroke, confirmation was obtained from the attending physician.Hazard rate ratios (HR) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression.Results: During a mean follow-up of 8.1±1.6 years, 494 cases of cardiovascular disease were identified.Among persons with renal calculi (n=2,645), incidence rates were higher and selected cardiovascular risk factors were more common than among those without renal calculi.In multivariable adjusted models, no association between renal calculi and the risk of cardiovascular diseases (HR=1.05,95% confidence interval (CI): 0.82-1.34)was observed.Endpoint specific analyses revealed similar results.In subanalyses restricted to fatal endpoints, a more than twofold increased risk of fatal myocardial infarction was observed in persons with renal calculi, but this association did not reach statistical significance (HR=2.33,95% CI: 0.88-6.13).The HR of fatal stroke was 1.24 (95% CI: 0.46-3.33) in persons with renal calculi compared to those without.Conclusions: The authors observed a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in individuals with renal calculi but no independent relationship between the presence of renal calculi and the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke.
Evaluation of Positron Emission Tomographic Tracers for Imaging of Papillomavirus-Induced Tumors in Rabbits
2014-01-01

In this study, simultaneous positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was employed to evaluate the feasibility of the PET tracers 2-deoxy-2- 18 F-fluoro-D-glucose ( 18 F-FDG), 11 C-choline, and 18 F-fluorothymidine ( 18 F-FLT) to detect papillomavirus-induced tumors in an established rabbit model system. The combined PET/MR allowed the analysis of tracer uptake of the tumors using the morphologic information acquired by MR. New Zealand White rabbits were infected with cottontail rabbit papillomavirus genomes and were imaged for up to 10 months with a simultaneous PET/MR system during the course of infection. The uptake characteristics of the PET tracers 11 C-choline and 18 F-FLT of tumors and reference tissues were examined relative to the clinical standard, 18 F-FDG. Tracer biodistribution of various organs was measured by gamma-counting after the last PET scan and compared to the in vivo PET/MR 18 F-FDG uptake. Increased tracer uptake was found 2 months postinfection in primary tumors with 18 F-FDG and 11 C-choline, whereas 18 F-FLT failed to detect the tumors at all measured time points. Our data show that the PET tracer 18 F-FDG is superior for imaging papillomavirus-induced tumors in rabbits compared to 11 C-choline and 18 F-FLT. However, 11 C-choline imaging, which has previously been applied to detect various tumor entities in patients, appears to be an alternative to 18 F-FDG.
Occupational segregation and organizational characteristics. Empirical evidence for Germany
2014-01-01

This article studies the extent of occupational gender segregation in Germany and analyzes the influence of organizational characteristics on the extent of firm level segregation. We use the 2004 and 2008 survey waves of the Linked-Employer-Employee dataset at the IAB (LIAB) and estimate panel data models for the identification of effects on the corrected dissimilarity index. We find that the link between the level of segregation and organizational characteristics such as gender mainstreaming, formalization and the proportion of women in management positions depends on features of organizational demographics. The results can be utilized by businesses and politics to identify levers for the reduction of segregation.
Modeling Perspective-Taking by Correlating Visual and Proprioceptive Dynamics
2014-01-01

How do we manage to step into another person’s shoes and eventually derive the intention behind observed behavior? We propose a connectionist neural network (NN) model that learns self-supervised a prerequisite of this social capability: it adapts its internal perspective in accordance to observed biological motion. The model first learns predictive correlations between proprioceptive motion and a corresponding visual motion per-spective. When a novel view of a biological motion is pre-sented, the model is able to transform this view to the closest perspective that was seen during training. In effect, the model realizes a translation-, scale-, and rotation-invariant recogni-tion of biological motion. The NN is an extended adaptive resonance model that incorporates self-supervised error back-propagation and parameter bootstrapping by neural noise. It segments and correlates relative, visual and proprioceptive ve-locity kinematics, gradually refining the emerging representa-tions from scratch. As a result, it is able to adjust its internal perspective to novel views of trained biological motion pat-terns. Thus, we show that it is possible to take the perspective of another person by correlating proprioceptive motion with relative, visual motion, and then allowing the adjustment of the visual frame of reference to other views of similar motion patterns.
Growth and Chemosensitivity of Gastric Adenocarcinoma and Non-Malignant Cell Lines in Response to Novel Anti-Cancer Drug Combinations
2014-01-01

&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Background:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt; To design novel polychemotherapy regimens for gastric adenocarcinoma therapy with wider therapeutic windows using a novel duplex drug (D-D). &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Methods:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt; Two gastric adenocarcinoma (MKN-45 and 23132/87) and 2 non-malignant (NHDF and CCL-241) cell lines were treated with different drug regimens that included different doses of the standard triple-drug combination epirubicin (E) + cisplatin (C) + 5-fluorouracil (5-FU, F), i.e. ECF, and a new D-D that combined 2′-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5FdU) and 3′ethinylcytidine. The cells were cultured for 14 days and the effect of the drug combinations was evaluated using CASY cell counting technology. &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Results:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt; Overall growth inhibition of the cell lines with ECF was not cancer cell line-specific. Replacing 5-FU in ECF with a D-D resulted in greater growth inhibition of cancer cells than of the non-malignant cell lines and the inversion of the chemosensitivity of MKN-45 and 23132/87 cells. The type and quantity of the combined drug regimen determined the cytotoxicity and chemosensitivity of the cell lines. &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt; The cytotoxicity and tumour-cell specificity of standard single drugs can be markedly changed and determined using multidrug combinations that include D-Ds.
Tuned sensitivity towards H2S and NH3 with Cu doped barium strontium titanate materials
2014-01-01

The different amount of Cu-doped Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) thick film materials have been tested for their gas-sensing performances towards NH3 and H2S under dry and 50% relative humidity (RH) background conditions. The optimum NH3 sensitivity was attained with 0.1mol% Cu-doped BST whereas the selective detection of H2S was highlighted using 5mol% Cu-doped BST material. No cross-sensitivity effects to CO, NO2, CH4 and SO2 were observed for all tested materials operated at their optimum temperature (200°C) under humid conditions (50% RH). The presence of humidity clearly enhances the gas sensitivity to NH3 and H2S detection.
Slanted Orthogonal Drawings: Model, Algorithms and Evaluations
2014-01-01

We introduce a new model in the context of non-planar orthogonal\\ngraph drawing that we call slanted orthogonal graph drawing. While in traditional\\northogonal drawings each edge is made of alternating axis-aligned\\nline segments, in slanted orthogonal drawings intermediate diagonal segments\\non the edges are permitted, which allows for: (a) smoothening\\nthe bends of the produced drawing (as they are replaced by pairs of “halfbends”),\\nand, (b) emphasizing the crossings of the drawing (as they always\\nappear at the intersection of two diagonal segments). We present an approach\\nto compute bend-optimal slanted orthogonal representations, an\\nefficient heuristic to compute close-to-optimal slanted orthogonal drawings\\nwith respect to the total number of bends in quadratic area, and\\na corresponding LP formulation, when insisting on bend-optimality. On\\nthe negative side, we show that bend-optimal slanted orthogonal drawings\\nmay require exponential area. -
The Effects of 5-Hydroxytryptophan in Combination with Different Fatty Acids on Gastrointestinal Functions: A Pilot Experiment
2014-01-01

Background. Fat affects gastric emptying (GE). 5-Hydroxythryptophan (5-HTP) is involved in central and peripheral satiety mechanisms. Influence of 5-HTP in addition to saturated or monounsaturated fatty acids (FA) on GE and hormone release was investigated. Subjects/Methods. 24 healthy individuals (12f : 12m, 22–29 years, BMI 19–25.7 kg/m2) were tested on 4 days with either 5-HTP + short-chain saturated FA (butter), placebo + butter, 5-HTP + monounsaturated FA (olive oil), or placebo + olive oil in double-blinded randomized order. Two hours after FA/5-HTP or placebo intake, a 13 C octanoid acid test was conducted. Cortisol, serotonin, cholecystokinin (CCK), and ghrelin were measured, as were mood and GE. Results. GE was delayed with butter and was normal with olive (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn mathvariant="normal">0.05</mml:mn></mml:math>) but not affected by 5-HTP. 5-HTP supplementation did not affect serotonin levels. Food intake increased plasma CCK (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mi>F</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>6.136</mml:mn></mml:math>;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.05</mml:mn></mml:math>) irrespective of the FA. Ghrelin levels significantly decreased with oil/5-HTP (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><mml:mi>F</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>9.166</mml:mn></mml:math>;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>). The diurnal cortisol profile was unaffected by FA or 5-HTP, as were ratings of mood, hunger, and stool urgency. Conclusion. Diverse FAs have different effects on GE and secretion of orexigenic and anorexigenic hormones. Supplementation of 5-HTP had no effect on plasma serotonin and central functions. Further studies are needed to explain the complex interplay.