Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consensus Statement

• The hepatitis C epidemic is a public health crisis. • Services are already struggling to cope with the burden of infection and liver disease. • Significant resources must urgently be directed at improving prevention and delivery of care. • High priority for case finding should be given to former injecting drug users. • Community-based and specialist nurse-led services should be provided. • The requirement for liver biopsy to determine selection of patients for therapy is no longer essential for all patients. • Access to treatment should be broadened to all those who might benefit.
Digital image analysis improves precision of PD‐L1 scoring in cutaneous melanoma

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have become a successful treatment in metastatic melanoma. The high response rates in a subset of patients suggest that a sensitive companion diagnostic test is required. The predictive value of programmed death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) staining in melanoma has been questioned due to inconsistent correlation with clinical outcome. Whether this is due to predictive irrelevance of PD‐L1 expression or inaccurate assessment techniques remains unclear. The aim of this study was to develop a standardised digital protocol for the assessment of PD‐L1 staining in melanoma and to compare the output data and reproducibility to conventional assessment by expert pathologists.
Salivary gland stem cells: A review of development, regeneration and cancer

Salivary glands are responsible for maintaining the health of the oral cavity and are routinely damaged by therapeutic radiation for head and neck cancer as well as by autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren's syndrome. Regenerative approaches based on the reactivation of endogenous stem cells or the transplant of exogenous stem cells hold substantial promise in restoring the structure and function of these organs to improve patient quality of life. However, these approaches have been hampered by a lack of knowledge on the identity of salivary stem cell populations and their regulators. In this review we discuss our current knowledge on salivary stem cells and their regulators during organ development, homeostasis and regeneration. As increasing evidence in other systems suggests that progenitor cells may be a source of cancer, we also review whether these same salivary stem cells may also be cancer initiating cells.
A sequence‐coupled vector‐projection model for predicting the specificity of GalNAc‐transferase

The specificity of GalNAc‐transferase is consistent with the existence of an extended site composed of nine sub‐sites, denoted by R4, R3, R2, Rb R0, R1, R2′, R3′, and R4, where the acceptor at R0 is either Ser or Thr to which the reducing monosaccharide is being anchored. To predict whether a peptide will react with the enzyme to form a Ser‐ or Thr‐conjugated glycopeptide, a new method has been proposed based on the vector‐projection approach as well as the sequence‐coupled principle. By incorporating the sequence‐coupled effect among the subsites, the interaction mechanism among subsites during glycosylation can be reflected and, by using the vector projection approach, arbitrary assignment for insufficient experimental data can be avoided. The very high ratio of correct predictions versus total predictions for the data in both the training and the testing sets indicates that the method is self‐consistent and efficient. It provides a rapid means for predicting O‐glycosylation and designing effective inhibitors of GalNAc‐transferase, which might be useful for targeting drugs to specific sites in the body and for enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of genetic disorders.
Elastic Structure Preserving (ESP) Control for Compliantly Actuated Robots

Physical compliance can be considered one of the key technical properties a robot should exhibit to increase its mechanical robustness. In addition, the accompanying temporal energy-storing capabilities enable explosive and energy efficient cyclic motions. But these advantages come at a price, as compliance introduces unwanted intrinsic oscillatory dynamics, underactuation, and reduces the natural frequency of the plant. These aspects make control of the link configuration variables a challenging task. This paper presents two novel control methods for implementing link-side motion tracking capabilities and injecting a desired damping characteristic to suppress link vibrations along the reference trajectory for compliantly actuated robots with nonlinear elastic characteristics. We prove their uniform global asymptotic stability by invoking a theorem by Matrosov. Both approaches, namely elastic structure preserving (ESP) and ESP+, have in common that they preserve the link-side inertial properties and the elastic structure of the original plant dynamics, hence the name ESP control. Apart from that, ESP control focuses on preserving the inertial properties of motor dynamics. While ESP+ control aims at minimizing the dynamic shaping on the motor side. The performance of the feedback control laws have been evaluated on the Hand Arm System from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), a variable stiffness robot arm, where the stiffness in each of its joints is highly nonlinear. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimentally validated tracking controller for compliantly actuated, multijoint robots with nonlinear elastic elements.
Effect of Temperature Humidity Index on Semen Quality of Bovine Bull

Artificial insemination (AI) of cattle in India is expanding day by day to improve the production potential and genetic merit of our indigenous cows, superior germplasm have been introduced all over India. The success and efficiency of the programme primarily depends on the successful selection of fertile bulls. It is well known that the superior sire can only produce best quality semen. There are many factors that may affect the effectiveness of AI in field condition. The semen characteristics are the major factors that influence conception in cattle and therefore, a determinant of efficiency of reproduction. Among various factors involved, quality of semen is of important consideration. The bulls used for AI at Pantnagar are mostly crossbred and pure Sahiwal, The adaptability and efficiency of such cross-bred bulls and pure Sahiwal in hot and humid climate as prevailing in Pantnagar are not known. A thorough knowledge of environment related variations particularly temperature and humidity in semen characteristics of these breeds is very important.
Psychometric findings and normative values for the CLEFT-Q based on 2434 children and young adult patients with cleft lip and/or palate from 12 countries

BACKGROUND: Patients with cleft lip and/or palate can undergo numerous procedures to improve appearance, speech, dentition and hearing. We developed a cleft-specific patient-reported outcome instrument to facilitate rigorous international measurement and benchmarking. METHODS: Data were collected from patients aged 8–29 years with cleft lip and/or palate at 30 hospitals in 12 countries between October 2014 and November 2016. Rasch measurement theory analysis was used to refine the scales and to examine reliability and validity. Normative CLEFT-Q values were computed for age, sex and cleft type. RESULTS: Analysis led to the refinement of an eating and drinking checklist and 12 scales measuring appearance (of the face, nose, nostrils, teeth, lips, jaws and cleft lip scar), health-related quality of life (psychological, social, school, speech distress) and speech function. All scales met the requirements of the Rasch model. Analysis to explore differential item functioning by age, sex and country provided evidence to support the use of a common scoring algorithm for each scale for international use. Lower (worse) scores on CLEFT-Q scales were associated with having a speech problem, being unhappy with facial appearance, and needing future cleft-related treatments, providing evidence of construct validity. Normative values for age, sex and cleft type showed poorer outcomes associated with older age, female sex and having a visible cleft. INTERPRETATION: The CLEFT-Q represents a rigorously developed instrument that can be used internationally to collect and compare evidence-based outcomes data from patients aged 8–29 years of age with cleft lip and/or palate.
Computation Offloading and Resource Allocation in Mixed Fog/Cloud Computing Systems With Min-Max Fairness Guarantee

Cooperation between the fog and the cloud in mobile cloud computing environments could offer improved offloading services to smart mobile user equipment (UE) with computation intensive tasks. In this paper, we tackle the computation offloading problem in a mixed fog/cloud system by jointly optimizing the offloading decisions and the allocation of computation resource, transmit power, and radio bandwidth while guaranteeing user fairness and maximum tolerable delay. This optimization problem is formulated to minimize the maximal weighted cost of delay and energy consumption (EC) among all UEs, which is a mixed-integer non-linear programming problem. Due to the NP-hardness of the problem, we propose a low-complexity suboptimal algorithm to solve it, where the offloading decisions are obtained via semidefinite relaxation and randomization, and the resource allocation is obtained using fractional programming theory and Lagrangian dual decomposition. Simulation results are presented to verify the convergence performance of our proposed algorithms and their achieved fairness among UEs, and the performance gains in terms of delay, EC, and the number of beneficial UEs over existing algorithms.
Genotypes and Genetic Variability of Hepatitis B Virus

Sequence heterogeneity is a feature of hepatitis B virus (HBV), the prototype member of the family Hepadnaviridae. Based on an intergroup divergence of greater than 7.5% across the complete genome, HBV has been classified phylogenetically into 9 genotypes, A-I, with a putative 10th genotype ‘J', isolated from a single individual. With between approximately 4 and 8% intergroup nucleotide divergence across the complete genome and good bootstrap support, genotypes A-D, F, H, and I are classified further into subgenotypes. There is a broad and highly statistically significant correlation between serological subtypes and genotypes, and in some cases, serological subtypes can be used to differentiate subgenotypes. The genotypes, and certain subgenotypes, have distinct geographical distributions and are important in both the clinical manifestation of infection and response to antiviral therapy. HBV genotypes/subgenotypes and genetic variability of HBV are useful in epidemiological and transmission studies, tracing human migrations, and in predicting the risk for the development of severe liver disease and response to antiviral therapy. Moreover, knowledge of the genotype/subgenotype is important in implementing preventative strategies. Thus, it is crucial that new strains are correctly assigned to their respective genotype/subgenotype and consistent, unambiguous, and generally accepted nomenclature is utilized.
Native Bee Diversity and Pollen Foraging Specificity in Cultivated Highbush Blueberry (Ericaceae: Vaccinium corymbosum l.) Plantings in Rhode Island

Approximately 87% of flowering plants in the world are pollinated by animals. Bees are some of the most economically and ecologically important pollinators, necessary for the production of about one third of all crops. One such crop is highbush blueberry, grown throughout Rhode Island in small acreages. I conducted a survey of the bee species foraging on managed blueberry farms throughout Rhode Island, and analyzed their preference for blueberry pollen. I identified species using the DiscoverLife bee guides and confirmed the determinations with a taxonomist. I analyzed pollen loads, calculating percent blueberry pollen collected to determine which species were the most specific when in blueberry patches. Most bee species nest underground. Andrena spp. are known to typically prefer sandy soils near forest edges or openings, but individual species data tends to focus on the biology and behavior of the bee and not soil characteristics. We discovered nests of Andrena crataegi Robertson underneath apple trees while collecting bees from commercial and research highbush blueberry plantings in Rhode Island. We identified the soil texture, percent organic matter, bulk density, and pH of the soil at the nest site. Depending on depth, the soil was found to be either silt loam or silt, percent organic matter ranged from 2.6-8.4%, bulk density ranged from 1.0-1.5 g/cm, and pH ranged from 4.8-5.0. Further study is required to better understand the nesting requirements of this bee, with consideration of how site specific characteristics influence the agriculturally significant bee species in an area.
Scalable Algorithms for NFA Multi-Striding and NFA-Based Deep Packet Inspection on GPUs

Finite state automata (FSA) are used by many network processing applications to match complex sets of regular expressions in network packets. In order to make FSA-based matching possible even at the ever-increasing speed of modern networks, multi-striding has been introduced. This technique increases input parallelism by transforming the classical FSA that consumes input byte by byte into an equivalent one that consumes input in larger units. However, the algorithms used today for this transformation are so complex that they often result unfeasible for large and complex rule sets. This paper presents a set of new algorithms that extend the applicability of multi-striding to complex rule sets. These algorithms can transform nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) into their multi-stride form with reduced memory and time requirements. Moreover, they exploit the massive parallelism of graphical processing units for NFA-based matching. The final result is a boost of the overall processing speed on typical regex-based packet processing applications, with a speedup of almost one order of magnitude compared to the current state-of-the-art algorithms.
A Tailored Letter Based on Electronic Health Record Data Improves Gestational Weight Gain Among Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: The Gestational Diabetes’ Effects on Moms (GEM) Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE Evaluate whether a tailored letter improved gestational weight gain (GWG) and whether GWG mediated a multicomponent intervention’s effect on postpartum weight retention among women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A cluster-randomized controlled trial of 44 medical facilities (n = 2,014 women) randomized to usual care or a multicomponent lifestyle intervention delivered during pregnancy (tailored letter) and postpartum (13 telephone sessions) to reduce postpartum weight retention. The tailored letter, using electronic health record (EHR) data, recommended an end-of-pregnancy weight goal tailored to prepregnancy BMI and GWG trajectory at GDM diagnosis: total GWG at the lower limit of the IOM range if BMI ≥18.5 kg/m2 or the midpoint if <18.5 kg/m2 and weight maintenance if women had exceeded this. The outcomes for this study were the proportion of women meeting the Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines for weekly rate of GWG from GDM diagnosis to delivery and meeting the end-of-pregnancy weight goal. RESULTS The tailored letter significantly increased the proportion of women meeting the IOM guidelines (72.6% vs. 67.1%; relative risk 1.08 [95% CI 1.01–1.17]); results were similar among women with BMI <25.0 kg/m2 (1.07 [1.00–1.15]) and ≥25.0 kg/m2 (1.08 [0.98–1.18]). Thirty-six percent in the intervention vs. 33.0% in usual care met the end-of-pregnancy weight goal (1.08 [0.99–1.18]); the difference was statistically significant among women with BMI <25.0 kg/m2 (1.28 [1.05–1.57]) but not ≥25.0 kg/m2 (0.99 [0.87–1.13]). Meeting the IOM guidelines mediated the effect of the multicomponent intervention in reducing postpartum weight retention by 24.6% (11.3–37.8%). CONCLUSIONS A tailored EHR-based letter improved GWG, which mediated the effect of a multicomponent intervention in reducing postpartum weight retention.
Effects of knockout of the receptor for advanced glycation end‐products on bone mineral density and synovitis in mice with intra‐articular fractures

Our group employed the mouse closed intra‐articular fracture (IAF) model to test the hypothesis that the innate immune system plays a role in initiating synovitis and post‐traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) in fractured joints. A transgenic strategy featuring knockout of the receptor for advanced glycation end‐products (RAGE −/−) was pursued. The 42 and 84 mJ impacts used to create fractures were in the range previously reported to cause PTOA at 60 days post‐fracture. MicroCT (μCT) was used to assess fracture patterns and epiphyseal and metaphyseal bone loss at 30 and 60 days post‐fracture. Cartilage degeneration, synovitis, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP‐3, ‐13) expression were evaluated by histologic analyses. In wild‐type mice, μCT imaging showed that 84 mJ impacts led to significant bone loss at 30 days (p < 0.05), but recovered to normal at 60 days. Bone losses did not occur in RAGE−/− mice. Synovitis was significantly elevated in 84 mJ impact wild‐type mice at both endpoints (30 day, p = 0.001; 60 day, p = 0.05), whereas in RAGE−/− mice synovitis was elevated only at 30 days (p = 0.02). Mankin scores were slightly elevated in both mouse strains at 30 days, but not at 60 days. Immunohistochemistry revealed significant fracture‐related increases in MMP‐3 and −13 expression at 30 days (p < 0.05), with no significant difference between genotypes. These findings indicated that while RAGE −/− accelerated recovery from fracture and diminished synovitis, arthritic changes were temporary and too modest to detect an effect on the pathogenesis of PTOA. © 2018 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:2439–2449, 2018.
A survey on network community detection based on evolutionary computation

Uncovering community structures of a complex network can help us to understand how the network functions. Over the past few decades, network community detection has attracted growing research interest from many fields. Many community detection methods have been developed. Network community structure detection can be modelled as optimisation problems. Due to their inherent complexity, these problems often cannot be well solved by traditional optimisation methods. For this reason, evolutionary algorithms have been adopted as a major tool for dealing with community detection problems. This paper presents a survey on evolutionary algorithms for network community detection. The evolutionary algorithms in this survey cover both single objective and multiobjective optimisations. The network models involve weighted/unweighted, signed/unsigned, overlapping/non-overlapping and static/dynamic ones.
Acoustic Assessment of Beauveria bassiana (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) Effects on Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) Larval Activity and Mortality

ABSTRACT Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) is an economically important pest of palm trees in the subtropics. Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo-Crivelli) Vuillemin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae), has been shown to be pathogenic against R. ferrugineus in laboratory and field studies. However, because they remain inside the trunks until adulthood, the slowing of feeding and increases in mortality of internally feeding R. ferrugineus larvae over time after B. bassiana treatment has not been established. To explore the potential of acoustic methods to assess treatment effects, sound impulses produced by untreated, 104-, and 106-conidia ml-1 B. bassiana-treated larvae in palms were recorded for 23 d, after which the palms were dissected and the larvae examined. Analyses were performed to identify trains of impulses with characteristic patterns (bursts) produced frequently by moving and feeding larvae but only rarely (3–8% of the larval rate) by interfering background noise or tree vibrations. The rates of bursts, the counts of larval impulses per burst, and the rates of impulses in bursts decreased significantly over time in both B. bassiana treatments but not in the control. This supports a hypothesis that larvae had briefer movement and feeding bouts as they became weaker after infection, which reduced the counts of larval impulses per burst, the rates of bursts, and the rates of impulses in bursts. There is considerable potential for use of acoustic methods as tools for nondestructive assessment of effects of biological control treatments against internally feeding insect pests.
MiR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 mediate renal cell carcinoma progression by targeting alpha‐2,3‐sialyltransferase IV and the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/Akt pathway

Tumor metastasis is a major cause of cancer‐related death in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been widely known to modulate proliferation invasion, metastasis, and apoptosis of cancer cells. In this study, we aimed to investigate the function and novel target of miR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 in RCC. The levels of miR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 were significantly increased in RCC tissues and RCC cell lines. Alpha‐2,3‐Sialyltransferase IV (ST3GalIV) was highly expressed in adjacent nontumor tissues and human normal proximal tubular cell line HK‐2 compared to RCC tissues and cell lines. ST3GalIV expression was negatively correlated with miR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224. Further analysis indicated that miR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 directly targeted ST3GalIV. MiR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 increased cell proliferation and migration by directly inhibiting ST3GalIV, and this effect was reversed by co‐transfection with ST3GalIV in vitro. Overexpression of miR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 increased RCC cell proliferation in vivo. Furthermore, the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway was mediated by miR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 in RCC cell lines. Collectively, these results suggested that miR‐193a‐3p and miR‐224 played an important role in regulation of RCC by targeting ST3GalIV via PI3K/Akt pathway.
Finite-time and fixed-time leader-following consensus for multi-agent systems with discontinuous inherent dynamics

ABSTRACT This paper is concerned with finite-time and fixed-time consensus of multi-agent systems in a leader-following framework. Different from conventional leader-following tracking approaches where inherent dynamics satisfying the Lipschitz continuous condition is required, a more generalised case is investigated: discontinuous inherent dynamics. By nonsmooth techniques, a nonlinear protocol is first proposed to achieve the finite-time leader-following consensus. Then, based on fixed-time stability strategies, the fixed-time leader-following consensus problem is solved. An upper bound of settling time is obtained by using a new protocol, and such a bound is independent of initial states, thereby providing additional options for designers in practical scenarios where initial conditions are unavailable. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.