Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct comparison of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal pro-BNP secretion and extent of coronary artery stenosis in patients with stable coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether coronary artery stenosis affects the secretion of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) from the heart independent of ventricular dysfunction. Therefore, this study evaluated the relationship between BNP and NT-proBNP secretion, plasma levels and the severity of coronary artery stenosis in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS AND RESULTS Plasma levels of BNP and NT-proBNP in the aortic root (AO) and coronary sinus (CS) in 251 consecutive patients with stable CAD were measured. The transcardiac increase of NT-proBNP was significantly increased with the severity of coronary artery stenosis (p=0.012), but that of BNP was not (p=0.116). The molar ratio of the (CS-AO) NT-pro-BNP/(CS-AO) BNP increased with the severity of coronary artery stenosis (p=0.019) and decreased after coronary revascularization (p=0.018, n=36). Step-wise multivariate linear regression analyses were used to detect independent predictors of the (CS-AO) NT-proBNP among 10 variables including hemodynamic parameters and the Gensini score, which is a measure of the extent and severity of CAD. Among these variables, left ventricular ejection fraction (p<0.0001), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (p=0.003) and log Gensini score (p=0.008) were significant independent predictors. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that the transcardiac increase of NT-proBNP from the heart increases with the severity of coronary artery stenosis independent of hemodynamic overload, and plasma NT-proBNP may be superior to BNP to assess disease severity in CAD patients.
Unsupervised Feature Selection Using Feature Similarity

In this article, we describe an unsupervised feature selection algorithm suitable for data sets, large in both dimension and size. The method is based on measuring similarity between features whereby redundancy therein is removed. This does not need any search and, therefore, is fast. A new feature similarity measure, called maximum information compression index, is introduced. The algorithm is generic in nature and has the capability of multiscale representation of data sets. The superiority of the algorithm, in terms of speed and performance, is established extensively over various real-life data sets of different sizes and dimensions. It is also demonstrated how redundancy and information loss in feature selection can be quantified with an entropy measure.
Bitcoin Network Measurements for Simulation Validation and Parameterization

Bitcoin is gaining increasing popularity nowadays, even though the crypto-currencies field has plenty of digital currencies that have emerged before the adoption of Bitcoin idea. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency which relies on set of miners to maintain a distributed public ledger and peer-to-peer network to broadcast transactions. In this paper, we analyse how transactions validation is achieved by transactions propagation round trip and how transactions dissemination throughout the network can lead to inconsistencies in the view of the current transactions ledger by different nodes. We then measure the transactions propagation delay in the real Bitcoin network and how it is affected by the number of nodes and network topology. This measurement enables a precise validation of any simulation model of the Bitcoin network. Large-scale measurements of the real Bitcoin network are performed in this paper. This will provide an opportunity to parameterize any model of the Bitcoin system accurately.
On Reverse Feature Engineering of Syntactic Tree Kernels

In this paper, we provide a theoretical framework for feature selection in tree kernel spaces based on gradient-vector components of kernel-based machines. We show that a huge number of features can be discarded without a significant decrease in accuracy. Our selection algorithm is as accurate as and much more efficient than those proposed in previous work. Comparative experiments on three interesting and very diverse classification tasks, i.e. Question Classification, Relation Extraction and Semantic Role Labeling, support our theoretical findings and demonstrate the algorithm performance.
Ficolin-2 Defends against Virulent Mycobacteria Tuberculosis Infection In Vivo, and Its Insufficiency Is Associated with Infection in Humans

Human ficolin-2 (ficolin-2/P35) is a lectin complement pathway activator that is present in normal human plasma and is associated with infectious diseases; however, little is known regarding the roles and mechanisms of ficolin-2 during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. Here, we describe our novel findings that the ficolin-2 serum levels of 107 pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients were much lower compared with 107 healthy controls. In vitro analysis showed that ficolin-2 bound to the virulent Mtb H37Rv strain much more strongly than to the non-virulent M. bovis BCG and M. smegmatis. Ficolin-2 bound to the surface glycolipid portion of H37Rv and blocked H37Rv infection in human lung A549 cells. Opsonophagocytosis was also promoted by ficolin-2. Importantly, we found that administration of exogenous ficolin-2 had a remarkable protective effect against virulent Mtb H37Rv infection in both C57BL/6J and BALB/c mice. Ficolin-A (a ficolin-2-like molecule in mouse) knockout mice exhibited increased susceptibility to H37Rv infection. We further demonstrated that ficolin-2 could defend against virulent Mtb H37Rv infection at least partially by activating JNK phosphorylation and stimulating the secretion of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-17, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and nitric oxide (NO) production by macrophages. Our data provide a new immunotherapeutic strategy against TB based on the innate immune molecule ficolin-2 and indicate that ficolin-2 insufficiency is associated with higher susceptibility to infection in humans.
CO-EVOLUTIONARY MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM WITH SPECIATION AND RESOURCE SHARING MECHANISMS

Niching techniques for evolutionary algorithms are used in order to locate basins of attraction of the local minima of multi-modal fitness functions. Co-evolutionary techniques are aimed at overcoming limited adaptive capabilities of evolutionary algorithms resulting from the loss of useful population diversity. In this paper the idea of niching co-evolutionary multi-agent system (NCoEMAS) is introduced. In such a system the species formation phenomena occurs within one of the preexisting species as a result of co-evolutionary interactions. The results of experiments with Rastrigin and Schwefel multi-modal test functions aimed at the comparison of NCoEMAS to other niching techniques are presented. Also, the influence of resource sharing mechanism’s parameters on the quality of speciation processes in NCoEMAS are investigated.
Protein networks in induced sputum from smokers and COPD patients

Rationale Subtypes of cigarette smoke-induced disease affect different lung structures and may have distinct pathophysiological mechanisms. Objective To determine if proteomic classification of the cellular and vascular origins of sputum proteins can characterize these mechanisms and phenotypes. Subjects and methods Individual sputum specimens from lifelong nonsmokers (n=7) and smokers with normal lung function (n=13), mucous hypersecretion with normal lung function (n=11), obstructed airflow without emphysema (n=15), and obstruction plus emphysema (n=10) were assessed with mass spectrometry. Data reduction, logarithmic transformation of spectral counts, and Cytoscape network-interaction analysis were performed. The original 203 proteins were reduced to the most informative 50. Sources were secretory dimeric IgA, submucosal gland serous and mucous cells, goblet and other epithelial cells, and vascular permeability. Results Epithelial proteins discriminated nonsmokers from smokers. Mucin 5AC was elevated in healthy smokers and chronic bronchitis, suggesting a continuum with the severity of hypersecretion determined by mechanisms of goblet-cell hyperplasia. Obstructed airflow was correlated with glandular proteins and lower levels of Ig joining chain compared to other groups. Emphysema subjects’ sputum was unique, with high plasma proteins and components of neutrophil extracellular traps, such as histones and defensins. In contrast, defensins were correlated with epithelial proteins in all other groups. Protein-network interactions were unique to each group. Conclusion The proteomes were interpreted as complex “biosignatures” that suggest distinct pathophysiological mechanisms for mucin 5AC hypersecretion, airflow obstruction, and inflammatory emphysema phenotypes. Proteomic phenotyping may improve genotyping studies by selecting more homogeneous study groups. Each phenotype may require its own mechanistically based diagnostic, risk-assessment, drug- and other treatment algorithms.
Toward an evolvable model of development for autonomous agent synthesis

We are interested in the synthesis of autonomous agents using evolutionary techniques. Most work in this area utilizes a direct mapping from genotypic space to phenotypic space. In order to address some of the limitations of this approach, we present a simplified yet biologically defensible model of the developmental process. The design issues that arise when formulating this model at the molecular, cellular and organismal level are discussed, and for each of these issues we describe how they were resolved in our implementation. We present and analyze some of the morphologies that can be explored using this model, specifically one that has agent-like properties. In addition, we demonstrate that this developmental model can be evolved.
Phase and group-delay characteristics of signal-averaged electrocardiograms from patients with ventricular tachycardia

Fourier analysis of the signal-averaged ECG (SAECG) has previously revealed significant differences in magnitude spectra that differentiate patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) from those without VT. To determine additional distinguishing features in the frequency domain, the authors analyzed phase spectra of SAECG's of sinus beats from 57 patients with VT, 65 without VT, and 20 normal controls. Unwrapped phase spectra from SAECG's of the entire cardiac cycle were calculated with respect to three fiducial points: onset of the P and Q waves, and the negative of the slope of the phase (group delay for frequencies in the band, which accounted for 97.5% of the energy in the vector magnitude of the Frank SAECG leads. Phase spectra of SAECG's from patients with VT differed from the non-VT patients at frequencies /spl ges/21 Hz (p=0.000039) for the P-wave fiducial, at frequencies /spl ges/60 Hz (p=0.00085) for the Q-wave fiducial, and at frequencies /spl ges/62 Hz (p=0.0035) for the 97.5% energy fiducial. Group delays in SAECG's from patients with and without VT differed from 10 to 26 Hz (p=0.000016) for the P-wave fiducial, and from 14 to 24 Hz (p=0.00000070) for the Q-wave fiducial. Group delays with respect to the Q-wave fiducial in the VT patients in the 14-24 Hz band were, on average, 9 ms and 5 ms longer than those of the non-VT's and normals, respectively. Thus, phase spectra of SAECG's contain previously undetected features that together with magnitude may be helpful in improving methods for stratifying the risk of VT. <<ETX>>
Enhanced Activity of Supported Ni Catalysts Promoted by Pt for Rapid Reduction of Aromatic Nitro Compounds

To improve the activities of non-noble metal catalysts is highly desirable and valuable to the reduced use of noble metal resources. In this work, the supported nickel (Ni) and nickel-platinum (NiPt) nanocatalysts were derived from a layered double hydroxide/carbon composite precursor. The catalysts were characterized and the role of Pt was analysed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The Ni2+ was reduced to metallic Ni0 via a self-reduction way utilizing the carbon as a reducing agent. The average sizes of the Ni particles in the NiPt catalysts were smaller than that in the supported Ni catalyst. The electronic structure of Ni was affected by the incorporation of Pt. The optimal NiPt catalysts exhibited remarkably improved activity toward the reduction of nitrophenol, which has an apparent rate constant (Ka) of 18.82 × 10−3 s−1, 6.2 times larger than that of Ni catalyst and also larger than most of the reported values of noble-metal and bimetallic catalysts. The enhanced activity could be ascribed to the modification to the electronic structure of Ni by Pt and the effect of exposed crystal planes.
The International Journal of Biostatistics An Application of Collaborative Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation in Causal Inference and Genomics

A concrete example of the collaborative double-robust targeted likelihood estimator (CTMLE) introduced in a companion article in this issue is presented, and applied to the estimation of causal effects and variable importance parameters in genomic data. The focus is on nonparametric estimation in a point treatment data structure. Simulations illustrate the performance of C-TMLE relative to current competitors such as the augmented inverse probability of treatment weighted estimator that relies on an external non-collaborative estimator of the treatment mechanism, and inefficient estimation procedures including propensity score matching and standard inverse probability of treatment weighting. C-TMLE is also applied to the estimation of the covariate-adjusted marginal effect of individual HIV mutations on resistance to the antiretroviral drug lopinavir. The influence curve of the C-TMLE is used to establish asymptotically valid statistical inference. The list of mutations found to have a statistically significant association with resistance is in excellent agreement with mutation scores provided by the Stanford HIVdb mutation scores database.
Mortality among HIV-1– and Human Herpesvirus Type 8–Affected Mother-Infant Pairs in Zambia

Objective: To determine the respective trends in mortality of Zambian mother-infant pairs based on maternal infection with HIV-1 and human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8). Methods: A prospective cohort study was done on Zambian mother-infant pairs, stratified by maternal serologic status and followed from 6 weeks postdelivery for 48 months. Statistical analysis of the differences in the calculated mortality rates among the four groups was done using Stata 7.0. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazard models were used to measure subject survival time. Results: Between September 1998 and March 2002, a total of 1,425 mother-infant pairs were enrolled. The crude mortality rate among children born to dually infected mothers was ∼9 times higher (245.90 deaths per 1,000 live births) when compared with the death ratio of children born to seronegative mothers (24.63 deaths per 1,000 live births). The incidence rate for death was 0.34/1,000 in infants of co-infected mothers in comparison with 0.32/1,000 among HIV-1–infected mothers, 0.0336/1,000 among uninfected mothers, and 0.0403/1,000 among HHV-8–infected mothers (χ2 = 154.56; P < 0.01). Infants of co-infected mothers had a comparable risk of death in comparison with infants infected with HIV-1 alone {hazard ratio, 9.91 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 5.08-19.37] for co-infected versus 9.26 [95% CI, 4.75-18.07] for HIV-1–infected alone}. Infants of mothers infected only with HHV-8 also had comparable survival in comparison with uninfected infants (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.56-2.61). Conclusion: Infants born to mothers dually infected with both HIV-1 and HHV-8 have comparable survival with infants exposed to HIV-1 alone. Infants born to mothers infected only with HHV-8 have comparable survival with uninfected infants. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(9):2238–43)
Tramtrack regulates different morphogenetic events during Drosophila tracheal development

Tramtrack (Ttk) is a widely expressed transcription factor, the function of which has been analysed in different adult and embryonic tissues in Drosophila. So far, the described roles of Ttk have been mainly related to cell fate specification, cell proliferation and cell cycle regulation. Using the tracheal system of Drosophila as a morphogenetic model, we have undertaken a detailed analysis of Ttk function. Ttk is autonomously and non-autonomously required during embryonic tracheal formation. Remarkably, besides a role in the specification of different tracheal cell identities, we have found that Ttk is directly involved and required for different cellular responses and morphogenetic events. In particular, Ttk appears to be a new positive regulator of tracheal cell intercalation. Analysis of this process in ttk mutants has unveiled cell shape changes as a key requirement for intercalation and has identified Ttk as a novel regulator of its progression. Moreover, we define Ttk as the first identified regulator of intracellular lumen formation and show that it is autonomously involved in the control of tracheal tube size by regulating septate junction activity and cuticle formation. In summary, the involvement of Ttk in different steps of tube morphogenesis identifies it as a key player in tracheal development.
Renal Allograft Fibrosis: Biology and Therapeutic Targets

Renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis is the final common pathway of progressive renal diseases. In allografts, it is assessed with tubular atrophy as interstitial fibrosis/tubular atrophy (IF/TA). IF/TA occurs in about 40% of kidney allografts at 3–6 months after transplantation, increasing to 65% at 2 years. The origin of renal fibrosis in the allograft is complex and includes donor‐related factors, in particular in case of expanded criteria donors, ischemia‐reperfusion injury, immune‐mediated damage, recurrence of underlying diseases, hypertensive damage, nephrotoxicity of immunosuppressants, recurrent graft infections, postrenal obstruction, etc. Based largely on studies in the non‐transplant setting, there is a large body of literature on the role of different cell types, be it intrinsic to the kidney or bone marrow derived, in mediating renal fibrosis, and the number of mediator systems contributing to fibrotic changes is growing steadily. Here we review the most important cellular processes and mediators involved in the progress of renal fibrosis, with a focus on the allograft situation, and discuss some of the challenges in translating experimental insights into clinical trials, in particular fibrosis biomarkers or imaging modalities.
Offline Memory Reprocessing: Involvement of the Brain's Default Network in Spontaneous Thought Processes

Background Spontaneous thought processes (STPs), also called daydreaming or mind-wandering, occur ubiquitously in daily life. However, the functional significance of STPs remains largely unknown. Methodology/Principal Finding Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we first identified an STPs-network whose activity was positively correlated with the subjects' tendency of having STPs during a task-free state. The STPs-network was then found to be strongly associated with the default network, which has previously been established as being active during the task-free state. Interestingly, we found that offline reprocessing of previously memorized information further increased the activity of the STPs-network regions, although during a state with less STPs. In addition, we found that the STPs-network kept a dynamic balance between functional integration and functional separation among its component regions to execute offline memory reprocessing in STPs. Conclusion/Significance These findings strengthen a view that offline memory reprocessing and STPs share the brain's default network, and thus implicate that offline memory reprocessing may be a predetermined function of STPs. This supports the perspective that memory can be consolidated and modified during STPs, and thus gives rise to a dynamic behavior dependent on both previous external and internal experiences.
Automatic Detection and Classification of Buried Objects in GPR Images Using Genetic Algorithms and Support Vector Machines

This work presents a novel pattern recognition approach for the automatic analysis of ground penetrating radar (GPR) images. The developed system comprises pre-processing, segmentation, object detection and material recognition stages. Object detection is done using an innovative unsupervised strategy based on genetic algorithms (GA) that allows to localize linear/hyperbolic patterns in GPR images. Object material recognition is approached as a classification issue, which is solved by means of a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Results on synthetic images show that the proposed system exhibits promising performances both in terms of object detection and material recognition.
Fusion of Sensor Data in Siemens Car Navigation System

Car navigation systems have three main tasks, namely 1) positioning; 2) routing; and 3) navigation (guidance). Positioning of the car is carried out by appropriately combining information from several sensors and information sources, including odometers, gyroscopes, Global Positioning System (GPS) information, and digital maps. This paper describes two sensor-fusion steps implemented in commercial Siemens car navigation systems. The first step is the fusion of the odometer, gyroscope, and GPS sensory information. The dynamic model of the car movement is implemented in a Kalman filter, which relays the GPS signal as a teacher. In the second step, the available digital map is used to find the most likely position on the roads. Contrary to the standard application of the digital map, where the current estimated car position is just projected on the road map, the approach presented here compares the features of the integrated vehicle path with the features of the candidate roads from the digital map. In addition, this paper presents the results of the experimental drives. The developed car navigation system was awarded the best car navigation system among ten competing systems in 2002 by the Auto Build magazine
Planning for a successful merger or acquisition: Lessons from an Australian study

Mergers and acquisitions (MA examine the due diligence process in screening a merger or acquisition; and evaluate previous experience in successful MA its particular value was removing managerial ego and justifying the business case. Finally, there was mixed evidence on the value of experience, with improved results from using a flexible framework of assessment.
Integration of small and large packet-level FEC codes with data carousels for reliable multicast transport over satellite links

Automatic repeat request (ARQ), data carousels and packet-level forward error correction (PLFEC) are fundamental techniques for combating packet loss in point-to-multipoint communications. Generally speaking, ARQ-based techniques are unattractive due to the feedback implosion they generate. Furthermore, in broadcast/multicast wireless networks, radio resources are scarce and feedback may not be an option at all. Two error mitigation mechanisms that become relevant in this scenario are data carousels and PLFEC. In this work, we consider the application of these two techniques as components of an integrated layer in satellite environments. We also investigate the impact of the type of PLFEC code, small or large, on the main user-oriented performance metric of the data carousels, the average content download time