Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association Between Family History and Coronary Heart Disease Death Across Long-Term Follow-Up in Men: The Cooper Center Longitudinal Study

Background— Family history of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been well studied as an independent risk factor for CHD events in the short term (<10 years). However, data are sparse on the association between family history and risk for CHD across long-term follow-up. Methods and Results— We included 49 255 men from the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study. Premature family history of CHD was defined as the presence of angina, myocardial infarction, angioplasty, or bypass surgery in a relative <50 years of age. Cause-specific mortality was obtained from the National Death Index. The association between premature family history and cardiovascular disease (CVD) or CHD death was compared across 3 unique follow-up periods (0–10, >10–20, and >20 years). Lifetime risk was estimated by use of a modified survival analytic technique adjusted for competing risk with non-CVD death as the competing event. After 811 708 person-years of follow-up, there were 919 CHD deaths and 1456 CVD deaths. After adjustment for traditional risk factors, premature family history was associated with CHD mortality >10 to 20 years (1.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.14–2.22) and >20 years (1.43; 95% confidence interval, 1.05–1.95) with wider confidence intervals at 0 to 10 years (1.32; 95% confidence interval, 0.76–2.31). Similar findings were observed for CVD mortality. Compared with men without a family history of coronary artery disease, premature family history was associated with an ≈50% higher lifetime risk for both CHD and CVD mortality (13.7% versus 8.9% and 21% versus 14.1%, respectively). Conclusion— Premature family history was associated with a persistent increase in both CHD and CVD mortality risk across long-term follow-up, resulting in significantly higher lifetime risk estimates.
Enhanced Visual Temporal Resolution in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Cognitive functions that rely on accurate sequencing of events, such as action planning and execution, verbal and nonverbal communication, and social interaction rely on well-tuned coding of temporal event-structure. Visual temporal event-structure coding was tested in 17 high-functioning adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mental- and chronological-age matched typically-developing (TD) individuals using a perceptual simultaneity paradigm. Visual simultaneity thresholds were lower in individuals with ASD compared to TD individuals, suggesting that autism may be characterised by increased parsing of temporal event-structure, with a decreased capability for integration over time. Lower perceptual simultaneity thresholds in ASD were also related to increased developmental communication difficulties. These results are linked to detail-focussed and local processing bias.
Spinner: Scalable Graph Partitioning in the Cloud

In this paper, we present a graph partitioning algorithm to partition graphs with trillions of edges. To achieve such scale, our solution leverages the vertex-centric Pregel abstraction provided by Giraph, a system for large-scale graph analytics. We designed our algorithm to compute partitions with high locality and fair balance, and focused on the characteristics necessary to reach wide adoption by practitioners in production. Our solution can (i) scale to massive graphs and thousands of compute cores, (ii) efficiently adapt partitions to changes to graphs and compute environments, and (iii) seamlessly integrate in existing systems without additional infrastructure. We evaluate our solution on the Facebook and Instagram graphs, as well as on other large-scale, real-world graphs. We show that it is scalable and computes partitionings with quality comparable, and sometimes outperforming, existing solutions. By integrating the computed partitionings in Giraph, we speedup various real-world applications by up to a factor of 5.6 compared to default hash-partitioning.
Predictive Coding and the Slowness Principle: An Information-Theoretic Approach

Understanding the guiding principles of sensory coding strategies is a main goal in computational neuroscience. Among others, the principles of predictive coding and slowness appear to capture aspects of sensory processing. Predictive coding postulates that sensory systems are adapted to the structure of their input signals such that information about future inputs is encoded. Slow feature analysis (SFA) is a method for extracting slowly varying components from quickly varying input signals, thereby learning temporally invariant features. Here, we use the information bottleneck method to state an information-theoretic objective function for temporally local predictive coding. We then show that the linear case of SFA can be interpreted as a variant of predictive coding that maximizes the mutual information between the current output of the system and the input signal in the next time step. This demonstrates that the slowness principle and predictive coding are intimately related.
VR PTSD Exposure Therapy Results with Active Duty OIF/OEF Combatants

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is reported to be caused by traumatic events that are outside the range of usual human experience including military combat, violent personal assault, being kidnapped or taken hostage and terrorist attacks. Reports indicate that at least 1 out of 6 Iraq War veterans are exhibiting symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD. Virtual Reality exposure therapy has been previously used for PTSD with reports of positive outcomes. This paper will present a brief description of the USC/ICT Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan PTSD therapy application and present clinical outcome data from active duty patients treated at the Naval Medical Center-San Diego (NMCSD) as of October 2009. Initial outcomes from the first twenty patients to complete treatment indicate that 16 no longer meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD at post treatment. Research and clinical tests using the Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan software are also currently underway at Weill Cornell Medical College, Emory University, Fort Lewis and WRAMC along with 20 other test sites.
Arabidopsis Ensemble Reverse-Engineered Gene Regulatory Network Discloses Interconnected Transcription Factors in Oxidative Stress[W]

Applying a combination of algorithms on an Arabidopsis abiotic stress gene expression compendium generated system-wide predictions of transcription regulatory interactions and functional relationships. This joined computational and experimental approach identified a set of transcription factors that highly regulate one another and function in detoxification during oxidative stress. The abiotic stress response in plants is complex and tightly controlled by gene regulation. We present an abiotic stress gene regulatory network of 200,014 interactions for 11,938 target genes by integrating four complementary reverse-engineering solutions through average rank aggregation on an Arabidopsis thaliana microarray expression compendium. This ensemble performed the most robustly in benchmarking and greatly expands upon the availability of interactions currently reported. Besides recovering 1182 known regulatory interactions, cis-regulatory motifs and coherent functionalities of target genes corresponded with the predicted transcription factors. We provide a valuable resource of 572 abiotic stress modules of coregulated genes with functional and regulatory information, from which we deduced functional relationships for 1966 uncharacterized genes and many regulators. Using gain- and loss-of-function mutants of seven transcription factors grown under control and salt stress conditions, we experimentally validated 141 out of 271 predictions (52% precision) for 102 selected genes and mapped 148 additional transcription factor-gene regulatory interactions (49% recall). We identified an intricate core oxidative stress regulatory network where NAC13, NAC053, ERF6, WRKY6, and NAC032 transcription factors interconnect and function in detoxification. Our work shows that ensemble reverse-engineering can generate robust biological hypotheses of gene regulation in a multicellular eukaryote that can be tested by medium-throughput experimental validation.
Autologous Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells Intrathecal Transplantation in Chronic Stroke

Cell therapy is being widely explored in the management of stroke and has demonstrated great potential. It has been shown to assist in the remodeling of the central nervous system by inducing neurorestorative effect through the process of angiogenesis, neurogenesis, and reduction of glial scar formation. In this study, the effect of intrathecal administration of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) is analyzed on the recovery process of patients with chronic stroke. 24 patients diagnosed with chronic stroke were administered cell therapy, followed by multidisciplinary neurorehabilitation. They were assessed on functional independence measure (FIM) objectively, along with assessment of standing and walking balance, ambulation, and hand functions. Out of 24 patients, 12 improved in ambulation, 10 in hand functions, 6 in standing balance, and 9 in walking balance. Further factor analysis was done. Patients of the younger groups showed higher percentage of improvement in all the areas. Patients who underwent cell therapy within 2 years after the stroke showed better changes. Ischemic type of stroke had better recovery than the hemorrhagic stroke. This study demonstrates the potential of autologous BMMNCs intrathecal transplantation in improving the prognosis of functional recovery in chronic stage of stroke. Further clinical trials are recommended. This trial is registered with NCT02065778.
Robust non-monotonic relationship between output correlation and strength of inhibitory feedback

A non-monotonic relationship between the output correlation and the strength of inhibitory feedback in a two-layer network of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is found in the present paper, which indicates that the inhibitory connection does not always enhance the correlative activities of neurons as revealed by previous studies. By numerical simulations, we also find that the non-monotonic relationship is preserved with heterogeneous firing threshold and inhibitory feedback gain. Therefore, the non-monotonic relationship is robust which tolerates a moderate level of heterogeneity in the network.
Rickettsia rickettsii (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) in Amblyomma americanum (Acari: Ixodidae) from Kansas

ABSTRACT The role of lone star ticks as vectors for Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) remains poorly described. We compared the entomological inoculation rates (EIRs) for Rickettsia spp. for representative sites in Missouri and Kansas, states that frequently report RMSF each year. Hostseeking ticks were collected during 2006 and pooled tick homogenates analyzed by polymerase chain reaction to detect probable R. rickettsii, with confirmation for multiple gene targets performed on individual ticks from pools that screened positive. Of 870 adult and nymphal lone star ticks, Amblyomma americanum (L.), 0.46% contained DNA of Rickettsia rickettsii. Interestingly, two of these positive ticks were concurrently infected by R. amblyommii. More than 90% of lone star tick pools contained R. amblyommii DNA. Of 169 dog ticks that were analyzed, none were infected by R. rickettsii. The entomological inoculation rate for spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae within lone star ticks was an order of magnitude greater than that for dog ticks. We conclude that lone star ticks may be epidemiologically significant vectors of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and of spotted fever group rickettsiae.
An integral formula in Kahler geometry with applications

We establish an integral formula on a smooth, precompact domain in a Kahler manifold. We apply this formula to study holomorphic extension of CR functions. Using this formula we prove an isoperimetric inequality in terms of a positive lower bound for the Hermitian curvature of the boundary. Combining with a Minkowski type formula on the complex hyperbolic space we prove that any closed, embedded hypersurface of constant mean curvature must be a geodesic sphere, provided the hypersurface is Hopf. A similar result is established on the complex projective space.
Serendipitous Discovery of Short Peptides from Natural Products as Tyrosinase Inhibitors

Tyrosinase, which is the crucial copper-containing enzyme involved in melanin synthesis, is strongly associated with hyperpigmentation disorders, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease; thus, it has attracted considerable interest in the fields of medicine and cosmetics. The known tyrosinase inhibitors show numerous adverse side effects, and there is a lack of safety regulations governing their use. As a result, there is a need to develop novel inhibitors with no toxicity and long-term stability. In this study, we use molecular docking and pharmacophore modeling to construct a reasonable and reliable pharmacophore model, called Hypo 1, that could be used for identifying potent natural products with crucial complementary functional groups for mushroom tyrosinase inhibition. It was observed that, out of 47,263 natural compounds, A5 structurally resembles a dipeptide (WY) and natural compound B16 is the equivalent of a tripeptide (KFY), revealing that the C-terminus tyrosine residues play a key role in tyrosinase inhibition. Tripeptides RCY and CRY, which show high tyrosinase inhibitory potency, revealed a positional and functional preference for the cysteine residue at the N-terminus of the tripeptides, essentially determining the capacity of tyrosinase inhibition. CRY and RCY used the thiol group of cysteine residues to coordinate with the Cu ions in the active site of tyrosinase and showed reduced tyrosinase activity. We discovered the novel tripeptide CRY that shows the most striking inhibitory potency against mushroom tyrosinase (IC50 = 6.16 μM); this tripeptide is more potent than the known oligopeptides and comparable with kojic acid-tripeptides. Our study provides an insight into the structural and functional roles of key amino acids of tripeptides derived from the natural compound B16, and the results are expected to be useful for the development of tyrosinase inhibitors.
Readability statistics of patient information leaflets in a Speech and Language Therapy Department.

BACKGROUND Information leaflets are commonly used in Speech and Language Therapy Departments. Despite widespread use, they can be of variable quality. AIMS To revise current departmental leaflets using the National Health Service (NHS) Toolkit for Producing Patient Information and to test the effect that this has on the readability scores of the text. METHODS & PROCEDURES Twenty existing leaflets were revised with the help of the NHS Toolkit for Producing Patient Information. Readability statistics were calculated for each leaflet before and after revision. OUTCOMES & RESULTS The mean Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score and the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level (FKRGL) were significantly better in the revised leaflets (p<0.01 and <0.01, respectively). The variability of readability outcome measures was lower in the revised group. Only 25% of the original leaflets met recommended levels of readability, while 75% of the revised leaflets met these standards. CONCLUSIONS Readability is a vital component to consider in the production of information leaflets. Following simple guidelines on the production of leaflets for patients considerably improves their quality.
Pyruvate: An in vivo marker of cestodal infestation of the human brain on proton MR spectroscopy

To study intracranial cestodal cysts using in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) in an effort to identify metabolite(s) that may help in recognizing the parasitic etiology and, perhaps, viability of such tapeworm cysts. Cestodal infestations of the human central nervous system (CNS)—cysticercosis and hydatidosis—are not rare. Identification of a scolex is considered diagnostic of cysticercosis on imaging. In its absence, however, the features are non‐specific.
Pigs transgenic for human thrombomodulin have elevated production of activated protein C

Petersen B, Ramackers W, Tiede A, Lucas‐Hahn A, Herrmann D, Barg‐Kues B, Schuettler W, Friedrich L, Schwinzer R, Winkler M, Niemann H. Pigs transgenic for human thrombomodulin have elevated production of activated protein C. Xenotransplantation 2009; 16: 486–495. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Stochastic Maximum-Likelihood Method for MIMO Propagation Parameter Estimation

In this paper, we derive a stochastic maximum-likelihood (ML) method for estimating spatio-temporal parameters for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. Such estimators are needed in propagation studies where extensive channel measurements and sounding are required. These are seminal tasks in the process of developing advanced channel models. The proposed method employs an angular von Mises distribution model which is appropriate for angular data observed in channel measurement campaigns. The signal model is stochastic, and consequentially the method is particularly useful for estimation of the diffuse scattering component. This approach leads to lower complexity and faster convergence in comparison to deterministic models. These benefits are due to lower dimensionality of the model, leading to a simpler optimization problem. The statistical performance of the estimator is studied by establishing the Crameacuter-Rao lower bound (CRLB) and comparing the variances. The simulations show that the variance of the proposed estimation technique reaches the CRLB for relatively small sample size. The estimator is robust in the sense that meaningful results are obtained when applied to data generated by channel models other than the one used in its derivation
Core knowledge, naming and the acquisition of the fundamental (folk)biologic concept ‘alive’.

I begin by describing (in broad strokes) a collaborative research venture in which my colleagues and I have focused on the acquisition of folkbiologic knowledge. We adopt a cross-linguistic, cross-cultural view to ask a) what capacities young children bring to the task of acquisition and b) how the environment (including the objects and events that populate that child’s world, the language used to describe them, and the cultural practices invoked to highlight them) shapes the process of acquisition. The work presented here focuses in children’s construal of the concept ‘alive’ or ‘living thing’. 1 After describing briefly the populations we have included thus far and our research strategy for identifying the contributions of language and culture in the acquisition of the concept ‘alive’, I offer evidence from 4to 10-year-old children from the US, Indonesia, and Mexico. This work reveals important commonalities in early development and also illustrates an intimate connection between culture, language and conceptual organization in the evolution of knowledge. I close with a discussion of the advantages of combining psychological, linguistic and anthropologic methods. in developing theories.
An analysis of Wikipedia digital writing

This paper is a presentation of a doctoral research in progress focused on a new genre: online encyclopaedias. The introduction to Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica Online will be followed by a presentation of wiki as a new textual genre. Wikipedia analysis will focus firstly on the investigation of the “WikiLanguage”, the language used in official encyclopaedic articles. Secondly, the “WikiSpeak”, the spoken-written language used by Wikipedians in their backstage and informal community, will be taken into account. The initial findings of this research seem to suggest that, the language of the Wikipedia’s co-authored articles is formal and standardized in a way similar to that found in Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. By contrast, the WikiSpeak, as a new variety of NetSpeak Jargon, can be considered as a creative domain, an independent and individual expression of linguistic freedom of self-representation, characterizing the wiki Computer Mediated Discourse Community.
Reliability and energy efficiency in multi-hop IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a very appealing solution for many practical applications. Recently, WSNs have also been deployed in industrial scenarios, even for critical applications. Two major requirements are needed for an effective deployment of WSNs in such scenarios. The first is energy efficiency, as a network lifetime in the order of months or years is usually required. The other is reliability, since an even moderate message loss cannot be tolerated in critical applications. In this paper we evaluate the performance of the IEEE 802.15. 4 standard in multi-hop WSNs where sleep/wakeup scheduling protocols are used for energy conservation. We show through extensive simulation results that the MAC parameter settings significantly impact on the performance. We demonstrate how an appropriate tuning of the MAC parameters can improve the reliability of communications, resulting in a very high delivery ratio. In addition, our solution also obtains a low energy expenditure.
Spectrum Sharing Scheme Between Cellular Users and Ad-hoc Device-to-Device Users

In an attempt to utilize spectrum resources more efficiently, protocols sharing licensed spectrum with unlicensed users are receiving increased attention. From the perspective of cellular networks, spectrum underutilization makes spatial reuse a feasible complement to existing standards. Interference management is a major component in designing these schemes as it is critical that licensed users maintain their expected quality of service. We develop a distributed dynamic spectrum protocol in which ad-hoc device-to-device users opportunistically access the spectrum actively in use by cellular users. First, channel gain estimates are used to set feasible transmit powers for device-to-device users that keeps the interference they cause within the allowed interference temperature. Then network information is distributed by route discovery packets in a random access manner to help establish either a single-hop or multi-hop route between two device-to-device users. We show that network information in the discovery packet can decrease the failure rate of the route discovery and reduce the number of necessary transmissions to find a route. Using the found route, we show that two device-to-device users can communicate with a low probability of outage while only minimally affecting the cellular network, and can achieve significant power savings when communicating directly with each other instead of utilizing the cellular base station.
Biological functions and role of CCN1/Cyr61 in embryogenesis and tumorigenesis in the female reproductive system

Cysteine-rich angiogenic inducer 61 (CCN1/Cyr61) is a prompt response transcription product activated by growth factors. As a member of the CCN family, it mediates cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, migration, adhesion and synthesis of the extracellular matrix by binding directly to the integrins and heparin sulfate proteoglycans or activating multiple signaling transduction pathways. It has previously been demonstrated that CCN1/Cyr61 exhibits an important role in the female reproductive system during embryogenesis and tumorigenesis. However, the functions of CCN1/Cyr61 in the female reproductive system have not been systematically investigated, therefore, the primary aim of the present review is to introduce the role and function of CCN1/Cyr61 in the female reproductive system. The current review presents the molecular structure and biological function of CCN1/Cyr61 and provides detailed data on its expression pattern and contribution to the female reproductive system, including the role in embryogenesis and tumorigenesis.