Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AIVAT: A New Variance Reduction Technique for Agent Evaluation in Imperfect Information Games

Evaluating agent performance when outcomes are stochastic and agents use randomized strategies can be challenging when there is limited data available. The variance of sampled outcomes may make the simple approach of Monte Carlo sampling inadequate. This is the case for agents playing heads-up no-limit Texas hold'em poker, whereman-machine competitions typically involve multiple days of consistent play by multiple players, but still can (and sometimes did) result in statistically insignificant conclusions. In this paper, we introduce AIVAT, a low variance, provably unbiased value assessment tool that exploits an arbitrary heuristic estimate of state value, as well as the explicit strategy of a subset of the agents. Unlike existing techniques which reduce the variance from chance events, or only consider game ending actions, AIVAT reduces the variance both from choices by nature and by players with a known strategy. The resulting estimator produces results that significantly outperform previous state of the art techniques. It was able to reduce the standard deviation of a Texas hold'em poker man-machine match by 85\% and consequently requires 44 times fewer games to draw the same statistical conclusion. AIVAT enabled the first statistically significant AI victory against professional poker players in no-limit hold'em.Furthermore, the technique was powerful enough to produce statistically significant results versus individual players, not just an aggregate pool of the players. We also used AIVAT to analyze a short series of AI vs human poker tournaments,producing statistical significant results with as few as 28 matches.
An RNA-targeted therapy for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa

Abstract Functional impairment or complete loss of type VII collagen, caused by mutations within COL7A1, lead to the severe recessive form of the skin blistering disease dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). Here, we successfully demonstrate RNA trans-splicing as an auspicious repair option for mutations located in a wide range of exons by fully converting an RDEB phenotype in an ex vivo pre-clinical mouse model based on xenotransplantation. Via a self-inactivating (SIN) lentiviral vector a 3′ RNA trans-splicing molecule, capable of replacing COL7A1 exons 65–118, was delivered into type VII collagen deficient patient keratinocytes, carrying a homozygous mutation in exon 80 (c.6527insC). Following vector integration, protein analysis of an isolated corrected single cell clone showed secretion of the corrected type VII collagen at similar levels compared to normal keratinocytes. To confirm full phenotypic and long-term correction in vivo, patches of skin equivalents expanded from the corrected cell clone were grafted onto immunodeficient mice. Immunolabelling of 12 weeks old skin specimens showed strong expression of human type VII collagen restricted to the basement membrane zone. We demonstrate that the RNA trans-splicing technology combined with a SIN lentiviral vector is suitable for an ex vivo molecular therapy approach and thus adaptable for clinical application.
The central role of corticotrophin‐releasing factor (CRF‐41) in psychological stress in rats.

1. We investigated the central role of corticotrophin‐releasing factor (CRF‐41) in psychological stress‐induced responses, including cardiovascular, thermoregulatory and locomotive activity in free‐moving rats. 2. Psychological stress was induced by cage‐switch stress. After rats were placed in the novel environment, blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and locomotive activity significantly increased. The intracerebroventricular (I.C.V.) injection of alpha‐helical CRF(9‐41), a CRF‐41 receptor antagonist, significantly attenuated the stress‐induced hypertension, tachycardia, hyperthermia and increase in locomotive activity. However, in unstressed rats, the I.C. V. injection of alpha‐helical CRF(9‐41) had no effect on physiological parameters measured in this study. 3. In unstressed rats, the I.C. V. injection of CRF‐41 (1 microgram and 10 micrograms) increased blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and locomotive activity in a dose‐dependent manner. The changes in these responses were quite similar to those observed during cage‐switch stress. 4. The results suggest that central CRF‐41 plays an important role in psychological stress‐induced hypertension, hyperthermia, tachycardia and increase in locomotive activity. However, it is likely that central CRF‐41 does not contribute to normal cardiovascular and body temperature regulation when rats are free from stress.
Placebo Adherence, Clinical Outcomes, and Mortality in the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Hormone Therapy Trials

BackgroundMedication adherence may be a proxy for healthy behaviors and other factors that affect outcomes. Prior studies of the association between placebo adherence and health outcomes have been limited primarily to men enrolled in clinical trials and cardiovascular disease outcomes. We examined associations between adherence to placebo and the risk of fracture, coronary heart disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality in the 2 Women's Health Initiative hormone therapy randomized trials. MethodsPostmenopausal women randomized to placebo with adherence measured at least once were eligible for analysis. Time-varying adherence was assessed by dispensing history and pill counts. Outcome adjudication was based on physician review of medical records. Cox proportional hazards models evaluated the relation between high adherence (≥80%) to placebo and various outcomes, referent to low adherence (<80%). ResultsA total of 13,444 postmenopausal women were under observation for 106,066 person-years. High placebo adherence was inversely associated with most outcomes including hip fracture [hazard ratio (HR), 0.50; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.33-0.78], myocardial infarction (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.50-0.95), cancer death (HR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.43-0.82), and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.51-0.80) after adjustment for potential confounders. Women with low adherence to placebo were 20% more likely to have low adherence to statins and osteoporosis medications. ConclusionsIn the Women's Health Initiative clinical trials, high adherence to placebo was associated with favorable clinical outcomes and mortality. Until the healthy behaviors and/or other factors for which high adherence is a proxy can be better elucidated, caution is warranted when interpreting the magnitude of benefit of medication adherence.
No increase in the prevalence of asthma, allergies, and atopic sensitisation among children in Germany: 1992–2001

Background: From 1970 to 1990 increasing rates of asthma and allergic sensitisation were observed in several countries. The aim of this study was to investigate time trends in the prevalence of asthma and allergic sensitisation among school children in Germany between 1992 and 2001. Methods: Parental reports of asthma, hay fever, and wheezing and measurements of specific serum IgE antibodies were investigated in six serial cross sectional surveys of 9–11 year old school children in three study areas in south west Germany. Results: A total of 6762 school children of mean age 10 years (mean participation rate 77.9%) took part in the investigation in the three study areas. Over the 9 year study period no increase in the prevalence of current wheezing and asthma was observed. In addition, the prevalence of atopic sensitisation remained unchanged during the observation period. Conclusions: These data, using parental reports and objective measures of allergy, suggest that there has been no further increase in the prevalence of asthma and atopy since 1992. The epidemic may thus have reached a plateau.
Bone-Targeted Therapy: Phase II Study of Strontium-89 in Combination With Alternating Weekly Chemohormonal Therapies for Patients With Advanced Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer

Objectives:Bone-targeted therapy that combines strontium-89 (Sr-89) with alternating weekly chemohormonal therapy may improve clinical outcomes in patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. This phase II study investigated the addition of Sr-89 to an alternating weekly regimen of doxorubicin and ketoconazole with paclitaxel and estramustine in patients with progressive prostate cancer and bone involvement. Methods:Twenty-nine patients with progressive adenocarcinoma of the prostate and osteoblastic bone metastases who failed conventional hormonal therapy were registered for the study. Of those, 27 were treated with Sr-89 on day 1 of week 1. On weeks 1, 3, and 5, patients received doxorubicin (20 mg/m2 on day 1) and oral ketoconazole (400 mg 3 times a day for 7 days). On weeks 2, 4, and 6, patients received paclitaxel (100 mg/m2) and oral estramustine (280 mg 3 times a day for 7 days). No treatment was given during weeks 7 and 8. Cycles were repeated every 8 weeks. Results:A ≥50% reduction in prostate-specific antigen level was maintained for at least 8 weeks in 77.7% of the patients (21 patients) at 16 weeks and in 66.6% (18 patients) at 32 weeks. The median progression-free survival was 11.27 months (range, 1.83–29.53), and the median overall survival was 22.67 months (1.83–57.73+). Two patients died during study because of disease progression. Overall, the chemotherapy combined with Sr-89 was well tolerated. Conclusions:Our results demonstrate that the combination of alternating weekly chemohormonal therapies with Sr-89 demonstrates a prolonged progression-free and overall survival with acceptable toxicity. Further investigation of combination therapies with Sr-89 is warranted.
Modeling Asphalt Pavement Rutting under Accelerated Testing

ABSTRACT This paper presented a developed mechanistic-empirical (ME) model for simulating the rutting depth of asphalt pavements under the accelerated testing. This model is based on the power law of vertical strain, and it empirically correlates the layer rutting depth to the cyclic deflection. The total rutting depth is an integration of permanent deformation of each layer at different loading history period, and the layer deflection is determined by the finite element (FE) modeling. The layer interface is simulated by the surface-to-surface contact model, assuming that there is no normal separation but frictional sliding is allowed at the interface. The permanent deformation parameters are determined by the laboratory repeated loading tests on cylindrical specimens, in which the applied deviatoric stress levels can be estimated using the multi-layered or FE program to simulate the stress state of in-situ pavements. The ME model was implemented utilizing the field test under the accelerated-loading-facility (ALF) testing, and results have shown reasonable agreements between the modeled rutting depths and measurements. Thickness and modulus of pavement layer have significant influences on rutting depth based on this ME model.
Altered expression of mucins throughout the colon in ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Regional differences in the biology of the colonic epithelium may determine the extent of involvement by ulcerative colitis. Novel monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were used in this study to investigate regional heterogeneity in the colonic mucosa. METHODS: MAbs generated using a method of tolerisation against common antigens in the proximal colon and distal colon were used for immunoperoxidase staining, comparative histochemistry, immunoblotting, and slot-blot analysis. RESULTS: The colon specific MAbs 5F1 (IgG3) and 6G4 (IgM) stained goblet cell contents throughout the normal distal colon but staining was markedly reduced in the proximal colon (p < 0.0001). In the distal colon of patients with ulcerative colitis, whether quiescent or actively inflamed, reactivity was reduced compared with controls (p < 0.05, p < 0.001 respectively). By contrast, an overall increase in staining was seen in the uninflamed proximal colon in ulcerative colitis compared with controls (p < 0.02). Comparative staining with high iron diamine and biochemical analyses indicated that MAb 6G4 was reactive with mucin bearing sulphate or O-acetylated sialic acid groups, or both. CONCLUSIONS: Regional differences in the staining characteristics of normal colonic mucin have been shown using novel monoclonal antibodies. The pattern of mucin expression throughout the colon in ulcerative colitis is altered even in the absence of histological changes.
Personal Social Graph as an anonymous vehicle for P2P applications: The cost of renting trusted connections

We introduce a trusted self-organized network infrastructure for running anonymous P2P applications, which leverages real-life social links and the basic need for privacy that each individual converts into a carefully built structure dubbed Personal Social Graph (PSG). The PSG is a list owned by each person (enacted by a node in the infrastructure graph), with entries that represent strict trust relationships with other individuals. Each entry consists of a friend's identity and a set of encryption keys, established out-of-band for the purpose of secure communication between the owner and the friend. The real-life small-world connections result in a large network of interconnected PSGs, which we refer to as the Personal Social Graph Network (PSGN). The PSGN is meant to be universal, used as a trusted infrastructure by various distributed applications that encompass subsets of PSGN nodes. In this paper we consider only data-exchange applications relying on in-network caching. Since many applications share the trusted resources of this infrastructure, we introduce a cost per social network edge, incurred whenever the application rents the trusted edge for data exchange in the application context. We assume that the cost is zero when both vertices belong to the application. As edge utilization may be accounted for in a distributed way, the overconsumption could be ultimately sanctioned by the excommunication of the application from the PSGN. For dissemination strategies designed to evenly cache the data across peer nodes, we study the cost of the PSGN usage to a P2P application as a function of the application popularity and activity. We find that the dissemination that caches data as linear combinations of different source packets is costlier than simple packet replication in unit-size data-cache buffers, but manages to fully and evenly distributes the content among application nodes. In addition, adapting the dissemination infrastructure to each application by using a PSGN subgraph that encompasses the application nodes, and the nodes directly attached to them, we lower the price of renting. This is position paper that explores the social infrastructure as a shared resource.
Data classification with radial basis function networks based on a novel kernel density estimation algorithm

This work presents a novel learning algorithm for efficient construction of the radial basis function (RBF) networks that can deliver the same level of accuracy as the support vector machines (SVMs) in data classification applications. The proposed learning algorithm works by constructing one RBF subnetwork to approximate the probability density function of each class of objects in the training data set. With respect to algorithm design, the main distinction of the proposed learning algorithm is the novel kernel density estimation algorithm that features an average time complexity of O(nlogn), where n is the number of samples in the training data set. One important advantage of the proposed learning algorithm, in comparison with the SVM, is that the proposed learning algorithm generally takes far less time to construct a data classifier with an optimized parameter setting. This feature is of significance for many contemporary applications, in particular, for those applications in which new objects are continuously added into an already large database. Another desirable feature of the proposed learning algorithm is that the RBF networks constructed are capable of carrying out data classification with more than two classes of objects in one single run. In other words, unlike with the SVM, there is no need to resort to mechanisms such as one-against-one or one-against-all for handling datasets with more than two classes of objects. The comparison with SVM is of particular interest, because it has been shown in a number of recent studies that SVM generally are able to deliver higher classification accuracy than the other existing data classification algorithms. As the proposed learning algorithm is instance-based, the data reduction issue is also addressed in this paper. One interesting observation in this regard is that, for all three data sets used in data reduction experiments, the number of training samples remaining after a na/spl inodot//spl uml/ve data reduction mechanism is applied is quite close to the number of support vectors identified by the SVM software. This paper also compares the performance of the RBF networks constructed with the proposed learning algorithm and those constructed with a conventional cluster-based learning algorithm. The most interesting observation learned is that, with respect to data classification, the distributions of training samples near the boundaries between different classes of objects carry more crucial information than the distributions of samples in the inner parts of the clusters.
NMR Structure and IgE Epitopes of Blo t 21, a Major Dust Mite Allergen from Blomia tropicalis*

Background: Blo t 21 is a paralogue of the group 5 allergen with comparable allergenicity. Results: Blo t 21 has an additional conformational IgE epitope and only a low to moderate cross-reactivity with Blo t 5. Conclusion: Blo t 21 represents a novel group of major allergen in the dust mite Blomia tropicalis. Significance: The structure and IgE epitopes of Blo t 21 allow design of hypoallergen for immunotherapy. Blo t 21 is a paralogue of the group 5 allergen, Blo t 5, a major allergen from the dust mite Blomia tropicalis. Blo t 21 has moderate sequence identity (40.7%) to Blo t 5 and low to moderate cross-reactivity to Blo t 5. In B. tropicalis, the most prevalent and allergenic allergens are in the order of Blo t 21, Blo t 5, and Blo t 7. Here, we determined the NMR solution structure of Blo t 21, which represents the first structure of the group 21 dust mite allergen. The structure of Blo t 21 closely resembles the structures of Blo t 5 and Der p 5, comprising three anti-parallel α-helices arranged in a helical bundle. Using site-directed mutagenesis and specific IgE binding ELISA, Blo t 21 was found to contain both conserved and unique charged IgE epitope residues at the L2 loop region and on helix α3. Cross-inhibition assays confirmed that Blo t 21 has a low to moderate cross-reactivity with Blo t 5 and Der p 5 and represents a novel group of major allergen in B. tropicalis. In addition to group 5 allergens, Blo t 21 has also a low to moderate cross-reactivity with group 21 allergens from Dermatophagoides mites, confirming that B. tropicalis is a major and distinct source of dust mite allergens.
Implementation of two tests for measuring sensitivity to temporal fine structure

Abstract Objective: To implement two methods for measuring sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) for use in assessing effects of hearing loss and age that may not be apparent from the audiogram. Design: The TFS1 test was described by Moore and Sek (2009). The task is to discriminate a harmonic complex tone from a tone in which all frequency components are shifted upwards by the same amount in Hz. The TFSLF test was described by Hopkins and Moore (2010a). The task is to detect changes in lateral position of a binaurally presented tone based on interaural phase difference (IPD). Both tests have been implemented in software that can be run on a PC with a good-quality sound card. The software includes a routine for measuring the absolute threshold at the test frequency. Results: For each test, an experimental run at a single frequency takes about three minutes. Practice tasks (frequency discrimination of pure tones for TFS1 and discrimination of changes in lateral position based on interaural level difference for TFSLF) are also implemented that are similar to the main task, but easier. Conclusions: The software implementation allows sensitivity to TFS to be measured quickly without a requirement for specialized equipment.
The role of working memory on measuring mental models of physical systems

Up until now there has been no agreement on what a mental model of a physical system is and how to infer the mental model a person has. This paper describes research aimed at solving these problems by proposing that a Mental Model is a dynamic representation created in WM by combining information stored in LTM (the Conceptual Model of the system) and characteristics extracted from the environment. Three experiments tested hypotheses derived from this proposal. Implications for research on Mental Model are discussed.
Imaging Characteristics of Hyperfunctioning Parathyroid Adenomas Using Multiphase Multidectector Computed Tomography: A Quantitative and Qualitative Approach

Objective: The objective of the study was to characterize the enhancement pattern of hyperfunctioning parathyroid adenomas on multiphase multidetector computed tomography (CT) or 4-dimensional CT. Methods: We retrospectively studied the enhancement patterns of 48 pathologically confirmed parathyroid adenomas with 4-dimensional CT, compliant with institutional review and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Region-of-interest analysis was done at baseline and at arterial (25 seconds), venous (55 seconds), and delayed (85 seconds) enhancement phases over the adenoma and adjacent normal thyroid tissue. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was done. Discriminant functions were calculated using a multivariate logistic regression model, and receiver operating characteristic curves were measured. Results: Adenomas are lower than thyroid in density, demonstrate avid early contrast enhancement, and show rapid wash-out of contrast. Adenomas and thyroid had baseline Hounsfield unit attenuations of 35 ± 11 and 94 ± 21 and enhancement percentage change from baseline to arterial of 493% ± 328% and 132% ± 148%, respectively (P < 0.0001 both). Quantitative analysis showed that these 2 measures of baseline density and the percentage change from baseline to arterial were the most powerful discriminatory features, with contrast wash-out from arterial peak to venous phase being a less powerful discriminator. Several discriminant functions were derived, the best of which was: X = 13.74 − (0.207 × baseline Hounsfield unit) − (0.006 × percent density change from baseline to arterial). X > 0.2 classifies tissue as parathyroid with high certainty (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.98; specificity, 0.938; sensitivity, 0.999). Conclusions: Parathyroid adenomas have a characteristic enhancement pattern that can be distinguished from thyroid tissue: the key diagnostic discriminators are baseline density, percentage change in density from baseline to arterial enhancement, and percentage decrease in density from arterial to venous phases.
Optical transcutaneous link for low power, high data rate telemetry

A low power and high data rate wireless optical link for implantable data transmission is presented in this paper. In some neural prosthetic applications particularly in regard to neural recording system, there is a demand for high speed communication between an implanted device and an external device. An optical transcutaneous link is a promising implantable telemetry solution, since it shows lower power requirements than RF telemetry. In this paper, this advantage is further enhanced by using a modified on-off keying and a simple custom designed low power VCSEL driver. This transmitter achieves an optical transcutaneous link capable of transmitting data at 50 Mbps through the 4 mm tissue, with a tolerance of 2 mm misalignment and a BER of less than 10-5, while the power consumption is only 4.1 mW or less.