Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Models for Seismic Vulnerability Analysis of Power Networks: Comparative Assessment

Electric power networks are spatially distributed systems, subject to different magnitude and recurrence of earthquakes, that play a fundamental role in the well‐being and safety of communities. Therefore, identification of critical components is of paramount importance in retrofit prioritization. This article presents a comparison of five seismic performance assessment models (M1 to M5) of increasing complexity. The first two models (M1 and M2) approach the problem from a connectivity perspective, whereas the last three (M3 to M5) consider also power flow analysis. To illustrate the utility of the five models, the well‐known IEEE‐118 test case, assumed to be located in the central United States, is considered. Performances of the five models are compared using both system‐level and component‐level measures. Spearman rank correlation ρ is computed between results of each model. Highest ρ values, at both system‐ and component‐level, are obtained, as expected, between M1 and M2, and within models M3 to M5. The ρ values between component‐level measures are relatively high across all models, indicating that simpler ones (M1 and M2) are appropriate for vulnerability assessment and retrofit prioritization. The complex flow‐based models (M3 to M5) are suitable if actual performance of the systems is desired, as it is the case when the power network is considered within a larger set of interconnected infrastructural systems.
Induction of labour: a comparison of two methods with particular concern to patient acceptability

Induction of labour is a common obstetric intervention. When the cervix is unfavourable ripening agents are used, commonly prostaglandin E 2. There are several methods of administration of prostaglandin E 2 and little comparative work has been performed as to their acceptability by patients. Patients undergoing induction of labour by prostaglandin E 2 were randomised to receive either intravaginal gel or an intravaginal slow-release pessary. Patient satisfaction with the method received was then assessed. Sixty-nine patients were randomised, 34 to receive gel and 35 to receive a pessary. Median scores for satisfaction of the induction process were the same for both methods; however, satisfaction with the labour was increased with those who had been randomised to the pessary group (median pessary=5, gel=4). There may be a marginal improvement in patient satisfaction when a slow-release intravaginal prostaglandin E 2 pessary is used for the induction of labour.
Demonstration of immune responses against devil facial tumour disease in wild Tasmanian devils

Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is a recently emerged fatal transmissible cancer decimating the wild population of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). Biting transmits the cancer cells and the tumour develops in the new host as an allograft. The literature reports that immune escape mechanisms employed by DFTD inevitably result in host death. Here we present the first evidence that DFTD regression can occur and that wild devils can mount an immune response against the disease. Of the 52 devils tested, six had serum antibodies against DFTD cells and, in one case, prominent T lymphocyte infiltration in its tumour. Notably, four of the six devils with serum antibody had histories of DFTD regression. The novel demonstration of an immune response against DFTD in wild Tasmanian devils suggests that a proportion of wild devils can produce a protective immune response against naturally acquired DFTD. This has implications for tumour–host coevolution and vaccine development.
A Novel Similarity Measure for Intrusion Detection using Gaussian Function

In this paper the major objective is to design and analyze the suitability of Gaussian similarity measure for intrusion detection. The objective is to use this as a distance measure to find the distance between any two data samples of training set such as DARPA Data Set, KDD Data Set. This major objective is to use this measure as a distance metric when applying k- means algorithm. The novelty of this approach is making use of the proposed distance function as part of k-means algorithm so as to obtain disjoint clusters. This is followed by a case study, which demonstrates the process of Intrusion Detection. The proposed similarity has fixed upper and lower bounds. The proposed similarity measure satisfies all properties of a typical similarity measure.
Further Evidence for Bias in Observational Studies of Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness: The 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) Pandemic

Abstract Preinfluenza periods have been used to test for uncontrolled confounding in studies of influenza vaccine effectiveness, but some authors have claimed that confounding differs in preinfluenza and influenza periods. We tested this claim by comparing estimates of the vaccine-mortality association during the 2009/2010 influenza year, when there was essentially no circulation of seasonal influenza in the United States, and 2007/2008, a typical influenza year. We pooled data on seniors (adults aged ≥65 years) from 7 US managed care organizations that participated in the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project. We defined influenza vaccination, all-cause mortality, and potential confounders from administrative databases. We quantified the vaccine-mortality association using Cox regression. During 2007/2008, the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.44 prior to influenza season, 0.62 during influenza season, and 0.71 after influenza season. A similar pattern was observed during 2009/2010, when any effect of seasonal influenza vaccine observed during all time periods must have resulted from confounding: 0.65 during the autumn, 0.80 during the winter, and 0.84 during the summer. In a year with minimal seasonal influenza, we found no evidence that confounding in autumn preinfluenza periods is qualitatively different from confounding in winter. This supports the use of preinfluenza periods as control time periods in studies of influenza vaccine effectiveness.
Network‐based genomic discovery: application and comparison of Markov random‐field models

Summary. As biological knowledge accumulates rapidly, gene networks encoding genomewide gene–gene interactions have been constructed. As an improvement over the standard mixture model that tests all the genes identically and independently distributed a priori, Wei and co‐workers have proposed modelling a gene network as a discrete or Gaussian Markov random field (MRF) in a mixture model to analyse genomic data. However, how these methods compare in practical applications is not well understood and this is the aim here. We also propose two novel constraints in prior specifications for the Gaussian MRF model and a fully Bayesian approach to the discrete MRF model. We assess the accuracy of estimating the false discovery rate by posterior probabilities in the context of MRF models. Applications to a chromatin immuno‐precipitation–chip data set and simulated data show that the modified Gaussian MRF models have superior performance compared with other models, and both MRF‐based mixture models, with reasonable robustness to misspecified gene networks, outperform the standard mixture model.
Green fluorescent protein incorporation by mouse myoblasts may yield false evidence of myogenic differentiation of human haematopoietic stem cells

Aims: Haematopoietic CD34+ stem cells are able to differentiate into skeletal muscle, a potentially invaluable tool for treating degenerative diseases such as muscular dystrophy. However, some studies argue that the differentiative potential of these cells might have been overestimated. In vitro studies provide a controlled environment in which to investigate this point.
Subtypes and variants of Mycoplasma pneumoniae: local and temporal changes in Germany 2003–2006 and absence of a correlation between the genotype in the respiratory tract and the occurrence of genotype-specific antibodies in the sera of infected patients

SUMMARY Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a frequent cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Three subtypes and three variants of M. pneumoniae have been described showing sequence differences in the main P1 adhesin. Between 2003 and 2006 we collected respiratory tract samples of adult outpatients with symptoms of pneumonia in a German nationwide network and detected M. pneumoniae by real-time PCR in 140 specimens. The strains were typed by sequencing and demonstrated the circulation of subtypes 1 and 2 and variants 2a and 2b. The overall number of isolates belonging to the two variant genotypes increased during the investigation period but the relationship of subtypes and variants within the participating local centres varied strongly. ELISA experiments using sera of acute-phase patients with a known M. pneumoniae type in the respiratory tract resulted in no correlation of IgA and IgG antibodies to subtype- and variant-specific regions of the P1 gene with the genotype of the M. pneumoniae strain causing the actual infection.
Molecular Diagnostics of Fine Needle Aspiration for the Presurgical Screening of Thyroid Nodules

“The incidence of thyroid cancer, the most common endocrine malignancy, is rising. The two most common types of thyroid cancer are papillary and follicular” thyroid carcinomas. “Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of thyroid nodules” can permit to detect many genetic mutations and other molecular alterations, including RAS and BRAF point mutations, PAX8/peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ and “RET/PTC rearrangements, occurring in thyroid papillary and follicular carcinomas” (more than 70% of cases), which can be used successfully to improve the diagnosis “and the management of patients with thyroid nodules”. The most extensive experience has been accumulated with “the diagnostic use of BRAF mutation”, which is highly specific for malignancy. “Testing FNA samples for a panel of mutations” that typically includes RAS, BRAF, PAX8/PPARγ and RET/PTC could permit to achieve the biggest diagnostic impact. “The accuracy of cancer diagnosis in thyroid nodules could be improved significantly using these and other emerging molecular markers”.
Spatial properties of goldfish ganglion cells

We systematically classified goldfish ganglion cells according to their spatial summation properties using the same techniques and criteria used in cat and monkey research. Results show that goldfish ganglion cells can be classified as X-, Y-, or W-like based on their responses to contrast-reversal gratings. Like cat X cells, goldfish X-like cells display linear spatial summation. Goldfish Y-like cells, like cat Y cells, respond with frequency doubling at all spatial positions when the contrast-reversal grating consists of high spatial frequencies. There is also a third class of neurons, which is neither X- nor Y-like; many of these cells' properties are similar to those of the "not-X" cells found in the eel retina. Spatial filtering characteristics were obtained for each cell by drifting sinusoidal gratings of various spatial frequencies and contrasts across the receptive field of the cell at a constant temporal rate. The spatial tuning curves of the cell depend on the temporal parameters of the stimulus; at high drift rates, the tuning curves lose their low spatial frequency attenuation. To explore this phenomenon, temporal contrast response functions were derived from the cells' responses to a spatially uniform field whose luminance varied sinusoidally in time. These functions were obtained for the center, the surround, and the entire receptive field. The results suggest that differences in the cells' spatial filtering across stimulus drift rate are due to changes in the interaction of the center and surround mechanisms; at low temporal frequencies, the center and surround responses are out-of-phase and mutually antagonistic, but at higher temporal rates their responses are in-phase and their interaction actually enhances the cell's responsiveness.
Further extensions of Clifford circuits and their classical simulation complexities

Extended Clifford circuits straddle the boundary between classical and quantum computational power. Whether such circuits are efficiently classically simulable seems to depend delicately on the ingredients of the circuits. While some combinations of ingredients lead to efficiently classically simulable circuits, other combinations, which might just be slightly different, lead to circuits which are likely not. We extend the results of Jozsa and Van den Nest [Quant. Info. Comput. 14, 633 (2014)] by studying two further extensions of Clifford circuits. First, we consider how the classical simulation complexity changes when we allow for more general measurements. Second, we investigate different notions of what it means to "classically simulate" a quantum circuit. These further extensions give us 24 new combinations of ingredients compared to Jozsa and Van den Nest, and we give a complete classification of their classical simulation complexities. Our results provide more examples where seemingly modest changes to the ingredients of Clifford circuits lead to "large" changes in the classical simulation complexities of the circuits, and also include new examples of extended Clifford circuits that exhibit "quantum supremacy", in the sense that it is not possible to efficiently classically sample from the output distributions of such circuits, unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses.
A Lethal Case of Sphingomonas paucimobilis Bacteremia in an Immunocompromised Patient

Sphingomonas paucimobilis is a yellow-pigmented, glucose nonfermenting, aerobic, Gram negative bacillus of low pathogenicity. This organism was found in the implantation of indwelling catheters, sterile intravenous fluid, or contaminated hospital environment such as tap and distilled water, nebulizer, ventilator, and hemodialysis device. A 55-year-old female was hospitalized for diabetic foot ulcer in the presence of multiple comorbidities: diabetes mellitus, colonic tuberculosis, end-stage renal disease, and indwelling catheters for central venous catheter and hemodialysis. The patient passed away on the 44th day of admission due to septic shock. The organism found on blood culture on the 29th day of admission was multidrug resistant S. paucimobilis. Severe infection and septic shock due to S. paucimobilis have been reported particularly in immunocompromised patients, but there has been only one reported case of death in a premature neonate with septic shock. This is the first reported lethal case of S. paucimobilis bacteremia in an adult patient.
Improved Code Construction for Synchronization Error Correction

—Minimum distance (MD), maximum likelihood (ML), and maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoding is considered for synchronization error correcting (SEC) codes with known codeword boundaries when transmitted over the Binary Sub-stitution, Insertion and Deletion channel. It is shown that MD decoding is sub-optimal, unlike ML or MAP decoding. Based on ML and MAP decoding, a new measure called the Change Probability is deﬁned for SEC codes. A simulated annealing algorithm is then used to design new codes based on this measure. It is shown that the symbol error rate performance of these new codes is marginally better than that of Varshamov-Tenengol’ts single error-correcting codes and signiﬁcantly better than Helberg multiple-error correcting codes. Compared to a double error-correcting Helberg code of length 17 the symbol error rate performance is improved by an order of magnitude for the same decoding complexity. To improve performance when codeword boundaries are not known, we use Time Varying Block (TVB) codes consisting of a set of SEC codes applied in a random sequence. Finally, a TVB code is used as an inner code in a concatenated system with a standard error-correcting outer code, improving performance over a similar system that uses an improved watermark string in the Davey-MacKay construction.
A UNIFORM HISTORY FOR GALAXY EVOLUTION

Recent observations indicate a remarkable similarity in the properties of evolving galaxies at fixed mass and redshift, prompting us to consider the possibility that most galaxies may evolve with a common history encompassing star formation, quasar accretion, and eventual quiescence. We quantify this by defining a synchronization timescale for galaxies as a function of mass and redshift that characterizes the extent to which different galaxies of a common mass are evolving in the same manner at various cosmic epochs. We measure this synchronization timescale using nine different star-forming galaxy observations from the literature and Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar observations spanning 0 < z ≲ 6. Surprisingly, this synchronization timescale is a constant, approximately 1.5 Gyr for all combinations of mass and time. We also find that the ratio between the stellar mass of galaxies turning off star formation and black hole mass of turnoff quasars is approximately 30:1, much lower than the 500:1 for quiescent galaxies at low redshift. As a result, we propose a model in which the star-forming “main sequence,” analogous quasar behavior, and other observations form a galactic evolution “main sequence,” in which star formation occurs earliest, followed by supermassive black hole accretion, and feedback between the two are dominated by deterministic rather than stochastic processes.
Comparison of transrectal ultrasound prostatic volume estimation with magnetic resonance imaging volume estimation and surgical specimen weight in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia

There are relatively few reports in the literature comparing transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in estimating the volume of the prostate in the management of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In this study, we compared volumes determined by TRUS with MRI and TRUS‐estimated weights with surgical specimen weights. The main findings of this study were (a) TRUS and MRI measurement of prostate volumes are quite similar; and (b) TRUS underestimates (by 10%) the prostatic weight as determined from the surgical specimens. A better volume estimate can thus be obtained by multiplying the TRUS measurement by a factor of 1.10. We conclude that because TRUS is cheap, user‐friendly, noninvasive, and equally as accurate as MRI, it should be the preferred modality in the follow‐up of BPH patients. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Better Process Mapping and Sparse Quadratic Assignment

Communication and topology-aware process mapping is a powerful approach to reduce communication time in parallel applications with known communication patterns on large, distributed memory systems. We address the problem as a quadratic assignment problem (QAP) and present algorithms to construct initial mappings of processes to processors and fast local search algorithms to further improve the mappings. By exploiting assumptions that typically hold for applications and modern supercomputer systems such as sparse communication patterns and hierarchically organized communication systems, we obtain significantly more powerful algorithms for these special QAPs. Our multilevel construction algorithms employ perfectly balanced graph partitioning techniques and exploit the given communication system hierarchy in significant ways. We present improvements to a local search algorithm of Brandfass et al. (2013) and further decrease the running time by reducing the time needed to perform swaps in the assignment as well as by carefully constraining local search neighborhoods. We also investigate different algorithms to create the communication graph that is mapped onto the processor network. Experiments indicate that our algorithms not only dramatically speed up local search but also, due to the multilevel approach, find much better solutions in practice.
Pulley friction compensation for winch-integrated cable force measurement and verification on a cable-driven parallel robot

In a cable-driven parallel robot, elastic cables are used to manipulate the end effector within the workspace. Cable force measurement is necessary for several control algorithms like cable force control, contact control, or load identification. The cable force sensor can be placed directly at the connection point on the platform or somewhere along the cable using pulleys. The pulleys between the force sensor and the platform disturb the force measurement accuracy due to friction. This paper deals with modeling and compensation of the friction. The friction behavior in the drive train with focus on the effects of the pulleys is non-trivial, as the cable movement consists of microscopic and macroscopic movements and standstills. Friction models from Coulomb and Dahl are adapted to deal with the pulley friction. The experimental evaluation showed an improvement of 70% with respect to the uncompensated case.
Fruit, vegetable and bean intake and mortality from cardiovascular disease among Japanese men and women: the JACC Study

To examine the association of plant-based food intakes with CVD and total mortality among Japanese. In the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk, 25 206 men and 34 279 women aged 40–79 years, whose fruit, vegetable and bean intakes were assessed by questionnaire at baseline in 1988–90, were followed for 13 years. Deaths from total stroke, stroke subtypes, CHD and total CVD, according to the International Classification for Diseases 10th Revision, were registered. During 756 054 person-years of follow-up, there were 559 deaths from total stroke, 258 from CHD, 1207 from total CVD and 4514 from total mortality for men, and for women, 494, 194, 1036 and 3092, respectively. Fruit intake was inversely associated with mortality from total stroke (the multivariable hazard ratio (HR (95 % CI)) in the highest v. lowest quartiles = 0·67 (0·55, 0·81)), total CVD (HR = 0·75 (0·66, 0·85)) and total mortality (HR = 0·86 (0·80, 0·92)). Vegetable intake was inversely associated with total CVD (HR = 0·88 (0·78, 0·99)). Bean intake was inversely associated with other CVD (HR = 0·79 (0·64, 0·98)), total CVD (HR = 0·84 (0·74, 0·95)) and total mortality (HR = 0·90 (0·84, 0·96)). Further adjustment for other plant-based foods did not alter the association of fruit intake with mortality from total stroke, total CVD and total mortality, but attenuated the associations of vegetables and beans with mortality risk. In conclusion, intakes of plant-based foods, particularly fruit intake, were associated with reduced mortality from CVD and all causes among Japanese men and women.
B cell stimulatory factor 1 (interleukin 4) is a potent costimulant for normal resting T lymphocytes

Resting T cells proliferate in response to B cell stimulatory factor 1 (BSF-1; interleukin 4) plus phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). This response is obtained with highly purified T cells and is density independent, suggesting that accessory cells are not required. Both L3T4+ and Lyt-2+ T cells respond to BSF-1 plus PMA. Although BSF-1 alone does not cause T cell proliferation, it maintains the viability of small, dense T cells, indicating that it acts on resting T cells. Furthermore, BSF-1 is required early in the proliferative response of resting T cells to BSF-1 plus PMA, further supporting the concept that it acts on G0 or early G1 cells. However, BSF-1 is also needed late in the first round of division of T cells stimulated with BSF-1 plus PMA. Removing BSF-1 at 24 h of stimulation prevents entry into S phase. These results indicate that BSF-1 is involved in both the induction of competence and in the progression phases of T cell division.