Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An immune-inspired information-theoretic approach to the problem of ICA over a Galois field

The problem of independent component analysis (ICA) was firstly formulated and studied in the context of real-valued signals and mixing models, but, recently, an extension of this original formulation was proposed to deal with the problem within the framework of finite fields. In this work, we propose a strategy to deal with ICA over these fields that presents two novel features: (i) it is based on the use of a cost function built directly from an estimate of the mutual information and (ii) it employs an artificial immune system to perform the search for efficient separating matrices, in contrast with the existing techniques, which are based on search schemes of an exhaustive character. The new proposal is subject to a comparative analysis based on different simulation scenarios and the work is concluded by an analysis of perspectives of practical application to digital and genomic data mining.
Point prevalence of psychiatric disorders during the second trimester of pregnancy: a population-based study.

OBJECTIVE This study was undertaken to determine the point prevalence of psychiatric disorders during the second trimester of pregnancy in a population-based sample of pregnant women. STUDY DESIGN Participants were 1795 consecutive pregnant women attending routine ultrasound screening at two obstetric clinics in Northern Sweden during 1 year. The Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) was used for evaluating. RESULTS Overall, 1734 (96.6%) of the women filled in the PRIME-MD patient questionnaire. Psychiatric disorders were present in 14.1% of the women. Major depression was prevalent in 3.3% of patients and minor depression in 6.9% of patients. Anxiety disorders were encountered in 6.6% of patients. Women with psychiatric disorders displayed significantly more somatic symptoms and more pronounced fear of childbirth. Among diagnosed patients, only 5.5% had some form of treatment. CONCLUSION The prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in this unselected population of pregnant women was high and the majority of the women were found to be undiagnosed and untreated.
Virtual Full-Duplex Buffer-Aided Relaying in the Presence of Inter-Relay Interference

In this paper, we study virtual full-duplex (FD) buffer-aided relaying to recover the loss of multiplexing gain caused by half-duplex (HD) relaying in a multiple relay network, where each relay is equipped with a buffer and multiple antennas, through joint opportunistic relay selection (RS) and beamforming (BF) design. The main idea behind virtual FD buffer-aided relaying is that the source and one of the relays simultaneously transmit their own information to another relay and the destination, respectively. In such networks, interrelay interference (IRI) is a crucial problem, which has to be resolved like self-interference in the FD relaying. In contrast to previous work that neglected IRI, we propose joint RS and BF schemes taking IRI into consideration by using multiple antennas at the relays. To maximize average end-to-end rate, we propose a weighted sum-rate maximization strategy assuming that adaptive rate transmission is employed in both the source to relay and relay to destination links. Then, we propose several BF schemes cancelling or suppressing IRI in order to maximize the weighted sum-rate. Numerical results show that our proposed optimal, zero-forcing, and minimum mean square error BF-based RS schemes asymptotically approach the ideal FD relaying upper bound when increasing the number of antennas and/or the number of relays.
Predictors of Discontinuation of Antipsychotic Therapy in Patients with Acute Schizophrenia: A 1-Year Observational Study with More Than 1000 Patients

Discontinuation of antipsychotic therapy has been a significant clinical issue among patients with schizophrenia, since the patients who discontinued antipsychotic treatment showed worse clinical and functional outcomes, and higher risks of relapse of schizophrenia symptoms and hospitalization. We conducted a post-hoc analysis of a post-marketing research with a 12-month follow-up period to identify the predictors for discontinuation of antipsychotic monotherapy in Japan. This is a prospective, naturalistic multicenter observational study, designed to evaluate the discontinuation rates of olanzapine monotherapy and non-olanzapine antipsychotic monotherapy in Japanese adult patients with acute schizophrenia. Patients were treatment-naive, or had switched from other antipsychotics or from poly-pharmacotherapy to oral antipsychotic monotherapy. We analyzed the correlation of discontinuation of antipsychotic monotherapy with baseline characteristics of patients. A total of 1089 patients (578 patients treated with olanzapine and 511 with non-olanzapine antipsychotics) were eligible for analysis. By the end of the 12-month study period, 614 patients (56.4%) discontinued antipsychotic therapy. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated significantly lower discontinuation rates in all patients treated with antipsychotics: older age (Odds ratio [OR], 0.871; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.797 to 0.953; p = 0.003), outpatient status (OR, 0.508; 95% CI, 0.383 to 0.675; p
Land Use Changes and Consequent CO2 Emissions due to US Corn Ethanol Production: A Comprehensive Analysis

The basic objective of this research was to estimate land use changes associated with US corn ethanol production up to the 15 billion gallon Renewable Fuel Standard level implied by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. We also used the estimated land use changes to calculate Greenhouse Gas Emissions associated with the corn ethanol production. * The research underlying this report was partially funded by Argonne National Laboratory. We are deeply indebted to Dr. Michael Wang for his many contributions to this research. Throughout the process, he has consistently posed excellent questions that have stimulated more thinking and modifications on our part. Also, for this final paper, he provided an excellent set of insightful suggestions and comments that have improved the paper significantly. Of course, the authors are solely responsible for the content of and any errors in the report.
Severe Obesity in Children and Adolescents: Identification, Associated Health Risks, and Treatment Approaches A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

Severe obesity afflicts between 4% and 6% of all youth in the United States, and the prevalence is increasing. Despite the serious immediate and long-term cardiovascular, metabolic, and other health consequences of severe pediatric obesity, current treatments are limited in effectiveness and lack widespread availability. Lifestyle modification/behavior-based treatment interventions in youth with severe obesity have demonstrated modest improvement in body mass index status, but participants have generally remained severely obese and often regained weight after the conclusion of the treatment programs. The role of medical management is minimal, because only 1 medication is currently approved for the treatment of obesity in adolescents. Bariatric surgery has generally been effective in reducing body mass index and improving cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors; however, reports of long-term outcomes are few, many youth with severe obesity do not qualify for surgery, and access is limited by lack of insurance coverage. To begin to address these challenges, the purposes of this scientific statement are to (1) provide justification for and recommend a standardized definition of severe obesity in children and adolescents; (2) raise awareness of this serious and growing problem by summarizing the current literature in this area in terms of the epidemiology and trends, associated health risks (immediate and long-term), and challenges and shortcomings of currently available treatment options; and (3) highlight areas in need of future research. Innovative behavior-based treatment, minimally invasive procedures, and medications currently under development all need to be evaluated for their efficacy and safety in this group of patients with high medical and psychosocial risks.
Diurnal and annual mean weather cycles over Nsukka, Nigeria during 2010/2011

This study analyzed the mean diurnal and annual cycles of weather elements over Nsukka using the data for 2010 and 2011. It is found that diurnally the peak/trough values occur as follows: temperature (15/06 hrs), relative humidity (06/15 hrs), atmospheric pressure (10/17 hrs), and wind speed (16/19 hrs). The occurrence of the maximum in temperature prior that of wind speed suggests that the dominant winds over Nsukka may be thermally driven. The mean annual peaks/troughs are viz; temperature (March/August), wind speed (December/October), relative humidity (August/January), rainfall (September/December and January) and atmospheric pressure (July/April). A roughly curvilinear fit is found between the annual rainfall and relative humidity: while rainfall appears insensitive to humidity changes during the drier months, its response tends to be linear during the rainy season. http://dx.doi. org/10.4314/njt.v37i2. 31
Visual cognition during real social interaction

Laboratory studies of social visual cognition often simulate the critical aspects of joint attention by having participants interact with a computer-generated avatar. Recently, there has been a movement toward examining these processes during authentic social interaction. In this review, we will focus on attention to faces, attentional misdirection, and a phenomenon we have termed social inhibition of return (Social IOR), that have revealed aspects of social cognition that were hitherto unknown. We attribute these discoveries to the use of paradigms that allow for more realistic social interactions to take place. We also point to an area that has begun to attract a considerable amount of interest—that of Theory of Mind (ToM) and automatic perspective taking—and suggest that this too might benefit from adopting a similar approach.
A Programmable High-Voltage Compliance Neural Stimulator for Deep Brain Stimulation in Vivo

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is one of the most effective therapies for movement and other disorders. The DBS neurosurgical procedure involves the implantation of a DBS device and a battery-operated neurotransmitter, which delivers electrical impulses to treatment targets through implanted electrodes. The DBS modulates the neuronal activities in the brain nucleus for improving physiological responses as long as an electric discharge above the stimulation threshold can be achieved. In an effort to improve the performance of an implanted DBS device, the device size, implementation cost, and power efficiency are among the most important DBS device design aspects. This study aims to present preliminary research results of an efficient stimulator, with emphasis on conversion efficiency. The prototype stimulator features high-voltage compliance, implemented with only a standard semiconductor process, without the use of extra masks in the foundry through our proposed circuit structure. The results of animal experiments, including evaluation of evoked responses induced by thalamic electrical stimuli with our fabricated chip, were shown to demonstrate the proof of concept of our design.
The Effect of Casein Protein Prior to Sleep on Fat Metabolism in Obese Men

We have previously shown that ingesting protein at night before sleep is either beneficial or non-detrimental to metabolism, health, and body composition in obese women. However, the overnight protein-induced lipolytic actions and mechanism for improved metabolism and body composition have not been fully established. Therefore, in a crossover design, twelve obese men (age, 27.0 ± 2.2 years) were randomly assigned to ingest (within 30 min of sleep) casein protein (CAS, 120 kcal) or a non-nutritive placebo (PLA) before going to sleep. Markers of fat metabolism (lipolysis, substrate utilization, growth hormone), insulin, glucose, resting energy expenditure (REE), and appetite (questionnaire and ghrelin) were measured. During sleep and the next morning, interstitial glycerol from the subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (SCAAT) was measured using microdialysis. There were no differences in SCAAT glycerol (overnight: CAS, 177.4 ± 26.7; PLA, 183.8 ± 20.2 μmol/L; morning: CAS, 171.6 ± 19.1; PLA, 161.5 ± 18.6 μmol/L), substrate utilization, REE, or any blood markers between CAS and PLA. Desire to eat was greater for CAS compared to baseline (p = 0.03), but not different from PLA (baseline: 39 ± 6, CAS: 62 ± 8, PLA: 55 ± 5 mm). CAS consumption before sleep did not affect fat or glucose metabolism, REE, or suppress appetite in hyperinsulemic obese men. CAS may be consumed before sleep without impeding overnight or morning fat metabolism in young, obese men.
Half a century of antidepressant drugs: on the clinical introduction of monoamine oxidase inhibitors, tricyclics, and tetracyclics. Part I: monoamine oxidase inhibitors.

MILESTONES OF PHARMACOLOGICAL TREATMENT The 50th anniversary of antidepressant pharmacotherapy is worth remembering. We review the onset of drug treatment with convincing antidepressive efficacy in 2 parts, and in this first part, we recapitulate on the development and clinical introduction of monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI). Before the clinical introduction of the first antidepressants, imipramine and iproniazid, the therapeutic choice in dealing with mood disorders was extremely small. In the early 20th century, the agents used were chloral hydrate, barbiturates, amphetamines, and even opiate derivatives in agitated melancholic patients. During the first half of that century biological treatments were insulin coma, chemical and electric shock therapy, or the famous and widespread Bsleep cures. [ Available chemical preparations were only some nonspecific ones, such as succinic dinitrite, malonic nitrite, or lactic acid with rather unsatisfactory antidepressant results. In the 1950s, a veritable revolution took place in the fields of psychopharmacology and psychiatry with the clinical introduction of the main groups of psychoactive substances still used today. Chance played an important role in the discovery of the majority of psychotropic drugs in the early phases of psychopharmacology; in addition, a large dose of wisdom and astute clinical observation3 was truly important to the final results of these research processes. It suffices to highlight, apart from the discovery of imipramine and the psychiatric use of iproniazid, the discovery of the antimanic properties of lithium in 1949, the clinical introduction of chlorpromazine in 1952 and meprobamate in 1954, and, finally, the introduction of chlordiazepoxide in 1960. This contributes to the 1950s being considered to be the Bgolden decade of psychopharmacology. [
Variable respiration rates of incubated permafrost soil extracts from the Kolyma River lowlands, north-east Siberia

ABSTRACT Thawing permafrost supplies dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to aquatic systems; however, the magnitude, variability and fate of this DOC is not well constrained. Our objective was to examine DOC respiration from seasonally thawed and near-surface (<1.5 m) permafrost soils collected from five locations in the Kolyma River Basin, north-east Russia. We measured soil organic carbon (OC) content, water-soluble macronutrients (DOC, NH4, PO4) and the heterotrophic respiration potentials of soil extract DOC in five-day laboratory incubations. DOC concentrations ranged from 2.8 to 27.9 mg L−1 (n = 14). Carbon respiration was 0.03–0.47 mg C (n = 16) and 8.7–31.4%, total DOC (n = 14). While DOC concentration was a function of soil OC concentration, we did not find a relationship between C respiration and soil OC or DOC concentrations. Respiration was highest in the top active layer, but varied widely among sites, and lowest at the bottom of the active layer. Respiration from yedoma varied across sites (0.04–0.47 mg C respired, 8.7–31.4% total DOC). Despite the small sample size, our study indicates near-surface soils and permafrost are spatially variable in terms of both soil OC content and C respiration rates, and also that OC contents do not predict C respiration rates. While a larger sample size would be useful to confirm these results at broader geographic scales, these initial results suggest that soil OC heterogeneity should be considered in efforts to determine the fate of soil OC released from permafrost-dominated terrestrial ecosystems to aquatic ecosystems following permafrost thaw.
Role of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis P55 Efflux Pump in Intrinsic Drug Resistance, Oxidative Stress Responses, and Growth

ABSTRACT Bacterial efflux pumps have traditionally been studied as low-level drug resistance determinants. Recent insights have suggested that efflux systems are often involved with fundamental cellular physiological processes, suggesting that drug extrusion may be a secondary function. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis, little is known about the physiological or drug resistance roles of efflux pumps. Using Mycobacterium bovis BCG as a model system, we showed that deletion of the Rv1410c gene encoding the P55 efflux pump made the strain more susceptible to a range of toxic compounds, including rifampin (rifampicin) and clofazimine, which are first- and second-line antituberculosis drugs. The efflux pump inhibitors carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) and valinomycin inhibited the P55-determined drug resistance, suggesting the active export of the compounds by use of the transmembrane proton and electrochemical gradients as sources of energy. In addition, the P55 efflux pump mutant was more susceptible to redox compounds and displayed increased intracellular redox potential, suggesting an essential role of the efflux pump in detoxification processes coupled to oxidative balance within the cell. Finally, cells that lacked the p55 gene displayed smaller colony sizes and had a growth defect in liquid culture. This, together with an increased susceptibility to the cell wall-targeting compounds bacitracin and vancomycin, suggested that P55 is needed for proper cell wall assembly and normal growth in vitro. Thus, P55 plays a fundamental role in oxidative stress responses and in vitro cell growth, in addition to contributing to intrinsic antibiotic resistance. Inhibitors of the P55 efflux pump could help to improve current treatments for tuberculosis.
The marriage of bisimulations and Kripke logical relations

There has been great progress in recent years on developing effective techniques for reasoning about program equivalence in ML-like languages---that is, languages that combine features like higher-order functions, recursive types, abstract types, and general mutable references. Two of the most prominent types of techniques to have emerged are *bisimulations* and *Kripke logical relations (KLRs)*. While both approaches are powerful, their complementary advantages have led us and other researchers to wonder whether there is an essential tradeoff between them. Furthermore, both approaches seem to suffer from fundamental limitations if one is interested in scaling them to inter-language reasoning. In this paper, we propose *relation transition systems (RTSs)*, which marry together some of the most appealing aspects of KLRs and bisimulations. In particular, RTSs show how bisimulations' support for reasoning about recursive features via *coinduction* can be synthesized with KLRs' support for reasoning about local state via *state transition systems*. Moreover, we have designed RTSs to avoid the limitations of KLRs and bisimulations that preclude their generalization to inter-language reasoning. Notably, unlike KLRs, RTSs are transitively composable.
Wideband Circularly Polarized Cavity-Backed Asymmetric Crossed Bowtie Dipole Antenna

A single-feed, cavity-backed, circularly polarized (CP) antenna is designed for wideband wireless applications. The antenna is made up of asymmetric crossed bowtie dipoles and achieves broadband characteristics in terms of impedance and 3-dB axial-ratio (AR) bandwidths. A double vacant-quarter printed ring with orthogonal asymmetric bowties is employed for CP radiation and then combined with slot-mode radiation to significantly enhance the CP operation bandwidth. Measurements of an optimized antenna prototype with an overall size of 0. 88λo × 0. 88λo × 0. 23λo at 2.4 GHz show that it can yield an impedance bandwidth of approximately 57% and a 3-dB AR bandwidth of approximately 51%. In addition, a unidirectional CP radiation pattern with a high broadside average gain of 9.6 dBic was achieved across the operating bandwidth.
Computational design of mechanical characters

We present an interactive design system that allows non-expert users to create animated mechanical characters. Given an articulated character as input, the user iteratively creates an animation by sketching motion curves indicating how different parts of the character should move. For each motion curve, our framework creates an optimized mechanism that reproduces it as closely as possible. The resulting mechanisms are attached to the character and then connected to each other using gear trains, which are created in a semi-automated fashion. The mechanical assemblies generated with our system can be driven with a single input driver, such as a hand-operated crank or an electric motor, and they can be fabricated using rapid prototyping devices. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach by designing a wide range of mechanical characters, several of which we manufactured using 3D printing. While our pipeline is designed for characters driven by planar mechanisms, significant parts of it extend directly to non-planar mechanisms, allowing us to create characters with compelling 3D motions.
TIMOLOL AND BETAXOLOL ON PLASMA LIPIDS IN INDIAN PATIENTS OF PRIMARY OPEN-

Background: The -blockers adversely affect plasma lipids. Aim: To evaluate the effect of topical timolol and betaxolol on plasma lipids. Setting and Design: The present prospective randomised single-blind parallel study was conducted in Postgraduate Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in collaboration with Postgraduate Department of Ophthalmology of a medical college. Materials and Methods: Sixteen (23 eyes) and 12 (20 eyes) patients of primary open-angle glaucoma with intraocular pressure (IOP) more than 26 mmHg were randomised to receive timolol maleate 0.5% and betaxolol hydrochloride 0.5%, respectively, as one drop twice a day instillation for 12 weeks. Lipid profile and IOP of each patient were recorded at 0, 6 and 12 weeks. Plasma lipids were estimated by standard method using photoelectric colorimeter. Statistical Analysis: Effects of the individual drug on study parameters were analysed by using student’s paired t-test, and inter-group comparison was done by using unpaired t-test. P-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant; 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated according to the standard procedures laid down. Results: In the present study, topical timolol raised total cholesterol by 17.50 ± 2.69 mg% (p < 0.0001), LDL cholesterol by 16.27 ± 2.48 mg% (p < 0.0001), TG cholesterol by 14.56 ± 2.58 mg% (p = 0.0002), VLDL cholesterol by 2.91 ± 0.51 mg% (p = 0.0002), TC:HDL by 0.56 ± 0.07 (p < 0.0001), LDL:HDL by 0.47 ± 0.11 (p < 0.0001) and reduced HDL cholesterol by 1.68 ± 0.07 mg% (p = 0.035) after 12 weeks, while topical betaxolol produced insignificant effect on plasma lipids. Topical timolol and betaxolol lowered IOP by 13.05 ± 1.53 and 7.58 ± 0.90 mmHg, respectively, after 6 weeks and by 16.12 ± 1.67 and 8.535 ± 0.983 mmHg, respectively, after 12 weeks (p < 0.001). Conclusions: In the present study, topical instillation of betaxolol was found to be superior to topical timolol with better safety profile (plasma lipids).