Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Xproj: a framework for projected structural clustering of xml documents

XML has become a popular method of data representation both on the web and in databases in recent years. One of the reasons for the popularity of XML has been its ability to encode structural information about data records. However, this structural characteristic of data sets also makes it a challenging problem for a variety of data mining problems. One such problem is that of clustering, in which the structural aspects of the data result in a high implicit dimensionality of the data representation. As a result, it becomes more difficult to cluster the data in a meaningful way. In this paper, we propose an effective clustering algorithm for XML data which uses substructures of the documents in order to gain insights about the important underlying structures. We propose new ways of using multiple sub-structuralinformation in XML documents to evaluate the quality of intermediate cluster solutions, and guide the algorithms to a final solution which reflects the true structural behavior in individual partitions. We test the algorithm on a variety of real and synthetic data sets.
Understanding human dynamics from large-scale location-centric social media data : analysis and applications. (Exploration de la dynamique humaine basée sur des données massives de réseaux sociaux de géolocalisation : analyse et applications)

Human dynamics is an essential aspect of human centric computing. As a transdisciplinary research field, it focuses on understanding the underlying patterns, relationships, and changes of human behavior. By exploring human dynamics, we can understand not only individual’s behavior, such as a presence at a specific place, but also collective behaviors, such as social movement. Understanding human dynamics can thus enable various applications, such as personalized location based services. However, before the availability of ubiquitous smart devices (e.g., smartphones), it is practically hard to collect large-scale human behavior data. With the ubiquity of GPS-equipped smart phones, location based social media has gained increasing popularity in recent years, making large-scale user activity data become attainable. Via location based social media, users can share their activities as real-time presences at Points of Interests (POIs), such as a restaurant or a bar, within their social circles. Such data brings an unprecedented opportunity to study human dynamics. In this dissertation, based on large-scale location centric social media data, we study human dynamics from both individual and collective perspectives. From individual perspective, we study user preference on POIs with different granularities and its applications in personalized location based services, as well as the spatial-temporal regularity of user activities. From collective perspective, we explore the global scale collective activity patterns with both country and city granularities, and also identify their correlations with diverse human cultures
Optimal quantization for the one-dimensional uniform distribution with Rényi-α-entropy constraints

We establish the optimal quantization problem for probabilities under constrained Renyi-$\alpha$-entropy of the quantizers. We determine the optimal quantizers and the optimal quantization error of one-dimensional uniform distributions including the known special cases $\alpha = 0$ (restricted codebook size) and $\alpha = 1$ (restricted Shannon entropy).
Xenoantibodies to porcine non-galactose α1,3 galactose antigens in non-human primates cross-react and cause apoptosis to human endothelial cells

Xenoantibodies show a particular reactivity to endothelial cells of multiple species. This cross-reactivity is considered negligible in most of the cases, and xenoantibodies are disregarded in assays determining anti-endothelial cell antibodies. However, there is also evidence that xenoantibodies may cause apoptosis to endothelial cells of several species. In this study we examined in non-human primates the characteristics of anti-porcine xenoantibodies targeting non-galactose α1,3-galactose (Gal) antigens, boosted by exposure to porcine red blood cells (PRBC) and the depletion of anti-Gal antibodies with GAS914. Production of anti-non-Gal antibodies correlated on day 10 with an augmented IgM and IgG antibody reactivity to L35 (porcine lymphoblastic cells). On days 20 and 30 there was an increased binding of IgG to AOC-40 (porcine endothelial cells), which paralleled an IgG antibody binding to HMEC-1 (human microvascular endothelial cells). These antibodies caused the apoptosis of AOC-40 and HMEC-1 cells through two different pathways, with and without DNA fragmentation, respectively. Western blotting of anti-non-Gal antibodies showed the increased intensity of several protein bands in AOC-40 and HMEC-1 lysates, and the transient detection of a few new bands, compared to samples before PRBC injection. Treatment with cyclophosphamide in one animal led to the virtual disappearance of anti-non-Gal antibody binding to AOC-40 and HMEC-1 proteins without modifying the cell surface antibody reactivity or apoptosis of these cells. Therefore, exposure of baboons to PRBC increases xenoantibody binding to porcine lymphoblastic cells and to porcine and human endothelial cells. The xenoantibodies caused apoptosis of porcine and human endothelial cells by apparently targeting non-protein antigens. This study substantiates a cross-reactivity of xenoantibodies to endothelial cells from different species, which may be particularly relevant if there is a xenogeneic exposure. In this setting, disregarding these antibodies may impair the proper assessment of the prevalence and role of anti-endothelial cell antibodies in human and animal disorders.
Urinary Creatinine Excretion Rate and Mortality in Persons With Coronary Artery Disease: The Heart and Soul Study

Background— In persons with coronary artery disease, low body mass index is associated with greater mortality; however, it is uncertain whether low muscle mass is a risk factor for mortality in this setting. Methods and Results— In this study, 903 individuals with coronary artery disease provided 24-hour urine collections. We measured urine creatinine and volume and calculated creatinine excretion rate, a marker of muscle mass. Cox proportional-hazards models evaluated the association of creatinine excretion rate with mortality risk. Over a median follow-up of 6.0 years, 232 participants (26%) died. Compared with the highest sex-specific creatinine excretion rate tertile, the lowest tertile (<1068 mg/d in men, <766 mg/d in women) was associated with >2-fold risk of mortality (hazard ratio, 2.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.51 to 3.51) in models adjusted for age, sex, race, cystatin C–based estimated glomerular filtration rate, body mass index, traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, and C-reactive protein levels. The association was essentially unaltered with further adjustment for physical fitness, left ventricular mass, left ventricular ejection fraction, or fasting insulin and glucose levels. Conclusions— Lower creatinine excretion rate is strongly associated with mortality in outpatients with coronary artery disease, independently of conventional measures of body composition, kidney function, and traditional coronary artery disease risk factors. Future studies should determine whether low creatinine excretion rate may be a modifiable risk factor for mortality among persons with coronary artery disease, potentially through resistive exercise training or nutrition interventions.
Constructing Reliable Gradient Exploration for Online Learning to Rank

With the rapid development of information retrieval (IR) systems, online learning to rank (OLR) approaches, which allow retrieval systems to automatically learn best parameters from user interactions, have attracted great research interests in recent years. In OLR, the algorithms usually need to explore some uncertain retrieval results for updating current parameters meanwhile guaranteeing to produce quality retrieval results by exploiting what have already been learned, and the final retrieval results is an interleaved list from both exploratory and exploitative results. However, existing OLR algorithms perform exploration based on either only one stochastic direction or multiple randomly selected stochastic directions, which always involve large variance and uncertainty into the exploration, and may further harm the retrieval quality. Moreover, little historical exploration knowledge is considered when conducting current exploration. In this paper, we propose two OLR algorithms that improve the reliability of the exploration by constructing robust exploratory directions. First, we describe a Dual-Point Dueling Bandit Gradient Descent (DP-DBGD) approach with a Contextual Interleaving (CI) method. In particular, the exploration of DP-DBGD is carefully conducted via two opposite stochastic directions and the proposed CI method constructs a qualified interleaved retrieval result list by taking historical explorations into account. Second, we introduce a Multi-Point Deterministic Gradient Descent (MP-DGD) method that constructs a set of deterministic standard unit basis vectors for exploration. In MP-DGD, each basis direction will be explored and the parameter updating is performed by walking along the combination of exploratory winners from the basis vectors. We conduct experiments on several datasets and show that both DP-DBGD and MP-DGD improve the online learning to rank performance over 10% compared with baseline methods.
Electronic Gaming and Psychosocial Adjustment

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The rise of electronic games has driven both concerns and hopes regarding their potential to influence young people. Existing research identifies a series of isolated positive and negative effects, yet no research to date has examined the balance of these potential effects in a representative sample of children and adolescents. The objective of this study was to explore how time spent playing electronic games accounts for significant variation in positive and negative psychosocial adjustment using a representative cohort of children aged 10 to 15 years. METHODS: A large sample of children and adolescents aged 10 to 15 years completed assessments of psychosocial adjustment and reported typical daily hours spent playing electronic games. Relations between different levels of engagement and indicators of positive and negative psychosocial adjustment were examined, controlling for participant age and gender and weighted for population representativeness. RESULTS: Low levels (<1 hour daily) as well as high levels (>3 hours daily) of game engagement was linked to key indicators of psychosocial adjustment. Low engagement was associated with higher life satisfaction and prosocial behavior and lower externalizing and internalizing problems, whereas the opposite was found for high levels of play. No effects were observed for moderate play levels when compared with non-players. CONCLUSIONS: The links between different levels of electronic game engagement and psychosocial adjustment were small (<1.6% of variance) yet statistically significant. Games consistently but not robustly associated with children’s adjustment in both positive and negative ways, findings that inform policy-making as well as future avenues for research in the area.
Comparing frontal cranial profiles in archaic and modern Homo by morphometric analysis

Archaic and modern human frontal bones are known to be quite distinct externally, by both conventional visual and metric evaluation. Internally this area of the skull has been considerably less well‐studied. Here we present results from a comparison of interior, as well as exterior, frontal bone profiles from CT scans of five mid‐Pleistocene and Neanderthal crania and 16 modern humans. Analysis was by a new morphometric method, Procrustes analysis of semi‐landmarks, that permits the statistical comparison of curves between landmarks. As expected, we found substantial external differences between archaic and modern samples, differences that are mainly confined to the region around the brow ridge. However, in the inner median‐sagittal profile, the shape remained remarkably stable over all 21 specimens. This implies that no significant alteration in this region has taken place over a period of a half‐million years or more of evolution, even as considerable external change occurred within the hominid clade spanning several species. This confirms that the forms of the inner and outer aspects of the human frontal bone are determined by entirely independent factors, and further indicates unexpected stability in anterior brain morphology over the period during which modern human cognitive capacities emerged. Anat Rec (New Anat): 257:217–224, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Recognition of Welding Defects in Radiographic Images by Using Support Vector Machine Classifier

Radiographic testing method is often used for detecting defects as a non-destructive testing method. In this paper, an automatic computer-aided detection system based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) was implemented to detect welding defects in radiographic images. After extracting potential defects, two group features: texture feat ures and morphological features are extr acted. Afterwards SVM criteria and receiver operating characteristic curves are used to select features. Then Top 16 best features are used as inputs to a designed SVM classifier. The behavior of the proposed classification method is compared with various other classification techniques: k-means, linear discriminant, k-nearest neighbor classifiers and feed forward neural network. The results show the efficiency proposed method based on the support vector machine.
EEG Abnormalities in Autism: What is the Significance?

The first electroencephalographic (EEG) study in autism was published in 1964, and it reported EEG abnormalities in 58% of the autistic children studied [1], later research focused on epileptiform EEG abnormalities. In examining the prevalence of epileptiform abnormalities in all autistic patients, irrespective of clinical seizure history, wide variants in prevalence rates were obtained, ranging from 10.3% to 72.4% [2]. However, epileptiform abnormalities also exist in normal children and have a prevalence range of 1.5 5% [3].
Did the Elimination of Mandatory Retirement Affect Faculty Retirement Flows?

A special exemption from the 1986 Age Discrimination Act allowed colleges and universities to enforce mandatory retirement of faculty at age 70 until 1994. We compare faculty turnover rates at a large sample of institutions before and after the federal law change, and at a set of institutions that were covered by earlier state laws prohibiting compulsory retirement. Retirement rates at institutions that enforced mandatory retirement exhibited sharp 'spikes' at ages 70 and 71. About 90 percent of professors who were still teaching at age 70 retired within two years. After the elimination of compulsory retirement the retirement rates of 70 and 71-year-olds fell to levels comparable to 69-year-olds, and over one-half of 70-year-olds were still teaching two years later. These findings indicate that U.S. colleges and universities will experience a rise in the number of older faculty over the coming years. The increase is likely to be larger at private research universities, where a higher fraction of faculty has traditionally remained at work until age 70.
Uric acid is a danger signal of increasing risk for osteoarthritis through inflammasome activation

Uric acid (UA) is known to activate the NLRP3 (Nacht, leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain containing protein 3) inflammasome. When activated, the NLRP3 (also known as NALP3) inflammasome leads to the production of IL-18 and IL-1β. In this cohort of subjects with knee osteoarthritis (OA), synovial fluid uric acid was strongly correlated with synovial fluid IL-18 and IL-1β. Synovial fluid uric acid and IL-18 were strongly and positively associated with OA severity as measured by both radiograph and bone scintigraphy, and synovial fluid IL-1β was associated with OA severity but only by radiograph. Furthermore, synovial fluid IL-18 was associated with a 3-y change in OA severity, on the basis of the radiograph. We conclude that synovial fluid uric acid is a marker of knee OA severity. The correlation of synovial fluid uric acid with the two cytokines (IL-18 and IL-1β) known to be produced by uric acid-activated inflammasomes and the association of synovial fluid IL-18 with OA progression, lend strong support to the potential involvement of the innate immune system in OA pathology and OA progression.
Self-Administration of Intravenous Buprenorphine and the Buprenorphine/Naloxone Combination by Recently Detoxified Heroin Abusers

Buprenorphine is a partial μ-opioid agonist and κ-opioid antagonist currently under development as a maintenance medication for heroin dependence. Because of concerns about illicit diversion of buprenorphine, a combination tablet containing buprenorphine and naloxone has been developed. The present study evaluated the reinforcing effects of intravenously administered placebo, buprenorphine alone (BUP; 2 and 8 mg), and the buprenorphine/naloxone combination (BUP/NX; 2 mg of buprenorphine plus 0.5 mg of naloxone, and 8 mg of buprenorphine plus 2 mg of naloxone) in recently detoxified heroin abusers during a 6-week inpatient study. Participants (n = 6) were detoxified from heroin over approximately 1 week immediately after admission. During the next 5 weeks, the reinforcing effects of placebo, BUP, and BUP/NX were evaluated. Participants first received a dose of drug and $20 and then were given the opportunity to self-administer either the dose or $20 during choice sessions. Progressive ratio break point values were significantly higher after active drug, compared with placebo, but they did not significantly differ as a function of dose or drug. In contrast, positive subjective ratings were higher after administration of BUP compared with BUP/NX, and these ratings increased in a dose-dependent manner. BUP and the combination had few effects on performance. Relative to placebo, both BUP and BUP/NX decreased pupil diameter, but there were no significant differences in pupil diameter as a function of drug or dose. These results demonstrate that both BUP and BUP/NX served as reinforcers under these conditions and that they may have similar abuse liability in recently detoxified individuals who abuse heroin.
Sall1 regulates cortical neurogenesis and laminar fate specification in mice: implications for neural abnormalities in Townes-Brocks syndrome

SUMMARY Progenitor cells in the cerebral cortex undergo dynamic cellular and molecular changes during development. Sall1 is a putative transcription factor that is highly expressed in progenitor cells during development. In humans, the autosomal dominant developmental disorder Townes-Brocks syndrome (TBS) is associated with mutations of the SALL1 gene. TBS is characterized by renal, anal, limb and auditory abnormalities. Although neural deficits have not been recognized as a diagnostic characteristic of the disease, ∼10% of patients exhibit neural or behavioral abnormalities. We demonstrate that, in addition to being expressed in peripheral organs, Sall1 is robustly expressed in progenitor cells of the central nervous system in mice. Both classical- and conditional-knockout mouse studies indicate that the cerebral cortex is particularly sensitive to loss of Sall1. In the absence of Sall1, both the surface area and depth of the cerebral cortex were decreased at embryonic day 18.5 (E18.5). These deficiencies are associated with changes in progenitor cell properties during development. In early cortical progenitor cells, Sall1 promotes proliferative over neurogenic division, whereas, at later developmental stages, Sall1 regulates the production and differentiation of intermediate progenitor cells. Furthermore, Sall1 influences the temporal specification of cortical laminae. These findings present novel insights into the function of Sall1 in the developing mouse cortex and provide avenues for future research into potential neural deficits in individuals with TBS.
PTGVLR: fast MLP learning using parallel tangent gradient with variable learning rates

In this paper, we propose a MLP learning algorithm based on the parallel tangent gradient with modified variable learning rates, PTGVLR. Parallel tangent gradient uses parallel tangent deflecting direction instead of the momentum. Moreover, we use two separate and variable learning rates one for the gradient descent and the other for accelerating direction through parallel tangent. We test PTGVLR optimization method for optimizing a two dimensional Rosenbrock function and for learning of some well-known MLP problems, such as the parity generators and the encoders. Our investigations show that the proposed MLP learning algorithm, PTGVLR, is faster than similar adaptive learning methods.
X‐ray crystallographic and mass spectrometric structure determination and functional characterization of succinylated porin from rhodobacter capsulatus: Implications for ion selectivity and single‐channel conductance

The role of charges near the pore mouth has been discussed in theoretical work about ion channels. To introduce new negative charges in a channel protein, amino groups of porin from Rhodobacter capsulatus 37b4 were succinylated with succinic anhydride, and the precise extent and sites of succinylations and structures of the succinyl‐porins determined by mass spectrometry and X‐ray crystallography. Molecular weight and peptide mapping analyses using matrix‐assisted laser desorption‐ionization mass spectrometry identified selective succinylation of three lysine‐ϵ‐amino groups (Lys‐46, Lys‐298, Lys‐300) and the N‐terminal α‐amino group. The structure of a tetra‐succinylated porin (TS‐porin) was determined to 2.4 Å and was generally found unchanged in comparison to native porin to form a trimeric complex. All succinylated amino groups found in a mono/di‐succinylated porin (MS‐porin) and a TS‐porin are localized at the inner channel surface and are solvent‐accessible: Lys‐46 is located at the channel constriction site, whereas Lys‐298, Lys‐300, and the N‐terminus are all near the periplasmic entrance of the channel. The Lys‐46 residue at the central constriction loop was modeled as succinyl‐lysine from the electron density data and shown to bend toward the periplasmic pore mouth. The electrical properties of the MS‐ and TS‐porins were determined by reconstitution into black lipid membranes, and showed a negative charge effect on ion transport and an increased cation selectivity through the porin channel. The properties of a typical general diffusion porin changed to those of a channel that contains point charges near the pore mouth. The single‐channel conductance was no longer a linear function of the bulk aqueous salt concentration. The substantially higher cation selectivity of the succinylated porins compared with the native protein is consistent with the increase of negatively charged groups introduced. These results show tertiary structure‐selective modification of charged residues as an efficient approach in the structure‐function evaluation of ion channels, and X‐ray crystallography and mass spectrometry as complementary analytical tools for defining precisely the chemically modified structures.