Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Will this Course Increase or Decrease Your GPA? Towards Grade-aware Course Recommendation

In order to help undergraduate students towards successfully completing their degrees, developing tools that can assist students during the course selection process is a significant task in the education domain. The optimal set of courses for each student should include courses that help him/her graduate in a timely fashion and for which he/she is well-prepared for so as to get a good grade in. To this end, we propose two different grade-aware course recommendation approaches to recommend to each student his/her optimal set of courses. The first approach ranks the courses by using an objective function that differentiates between courses that are expected to increase or decrease a student's GPA. The second approach combines the grades predicted by grade prediction methods with the rankings produced by course recommendation methods to improve the final course rankings. To obtain the course rankings in the first approach, we adapt two widely-used representation learning techniques to learn the optimal temporal ordering between courses. Our experiments on a large dataset obtained from the University of Minnesota that includes students from 23 different majors show that the grade-aware course recommendation methods can do better on recommending more courses in which the students are expected to perform well and recommending fewer courses in which they are expected not to perform well in than grade-unaware course recommendation methods.
STRATOCONCEPTION CONTRIBUTION FOR RAPID TOOLING IN DIE CASTING : FROM THE DESIGN TO EXPERIMENTS

This paper presents the advantage of rapid tooling and more specifically the Stratoconception process in order to realize a die casting mould. A test case of a die casting mould is presented. A complete procedure has been developed in order to improve the efficiency of the tooling especially thanks to improved cooling channels. This procedure includes not only the numerical simulations of the heat transfer and the thermomechanical behaviour of the tooling as a help to design but also the manufacturing of the tooling and experimental manipulations.
The direct and indirect costs of untreated insomnia in adults in the United States.

OBJECTIVES To estimate the direct and indirect cost burden of untreated insomnia among younger adults (age 18-64), and to estimate the direct costs of untreated insomnia for elderly patients (age 65 and over). DESIGN A retrospective, observational study comparing insomnia patients to matched samples without insomnia. SETTINGS Self-insured, employer sponsored health insurance plans in the U.S. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS 138,820 younger adults and 75,558 elderly patients with insomnia, plus equal-sized, matched comparison groups. INTERVENTIONS NA. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Direct costs included inpatient, outpatient, pharmacy, and emergency room costs for all diseases, for six months before an index date. The index date for insomnia patients was the date of diagnosis with or the onset of prescription treatment for insomnia, some-time during July 1, 1999-June 30, 2003. Non-insomnia patients were assigned the same index dates as the insomnia patients to whom they were matched. Indirect costs included costs related to absenteeism from work and the use of short-term disability programs. Propensity score matching was used to find insomnia and non-insomnia patients who had similar demographics, location, health plan type, comorbidities, and drug use patterns. Regression analyses controlled for factors that were different even after matching was completed. We found that average direct and indirect costs for younger adults with insomnia were about $1,253 greater than for patients without insomnia. Among the elderly, direct costs were about $1,143 greater for insomnia patients. CONCLUSIONS Insomnia is associated with a significant economic burden for younger and older patients.
Heterogeneous Beliefs , Option Prices , and Volatility Smiles ∗

In an economy in which investors with different time preferences have heterogeneous beliefs about a dividend’s mean growth rate, the volatility of the stock that claims the dividend is stochastic in equilibrium. The prices of the vanilla European options that are written on this stock admit closed-form solutions, hence their hedging deltas. The Black-Scholes implied volatility surface exhibits the observed patterns that are widely documented in various options markets and depends on the wealth distribution, investors’ beliefs, and subjective discount rates. In addition, the prices of barrier options and hedging deltas can be approximated at any desired level of accuracy. In some cases, barrier and one-touch option prices and their hedging deltas can be closely bounded by closed-form formulae. In summary, the options pricing model that is developed in this paper not only offers a rationale for the observed implied volatility patterns in an equilibrium setting but also is easy to use in practice. ∗I would like to thank Phil Dybvig, Heber Farnsworth, and seminar participants at the CICF2006 and City University of Hong Kong for helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies. †Department of Finance, Faculty of Business Administration, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. , Hong Kong. Tel: +852 2609 7757, Fax: +852 2603 6586, Email: lit o@cuhk.edu. hk .
Inhibition of Fractalkine Ameliorates Murine Collagen-Induced Arthritis1

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with massive infiltration of inflammatory cells in the synovium of multiple joints. We and others have shown that fractalkine (FKN/CX3CL1), a chemokine expressed on fibroblast-like synoviocytes and endothelial cells in RA synovium, may contribute to the accumulation of T cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells, which express CX3CR1, the receptor for FKN. This interaction might be involved in adhesion of the inflammatory cells to endothelial cells, migration into the synovium, and cytokine production. In this study, we examined the effect of FKN inhibition on murine collagen-induced arthritis. Anti-FKN mAb significantly lowered clinical arthritis score compared with control Ab, and reduced infiltration of inflammatory cells and bone erosion in the synovium. However, anti-FKN mAb did not affect the production of either serum anti-collagen type II (CII) IgG or IFN-γ by CII-stimulated splenic T cells. Furthermore, treatment with anti-FKN mAb inhibited migration of adoptively transferred splenic macrophages into the inflamed synovium. Our results suggest that anti-FKN mAb ameliorates arthritis by inhibiting infiltration of inflammatory cells into the synovium. Thus, FKN can be a new target molecule for the treatment of RA.
Posttranslational Modification of Maize Chloroplast Pyruvate Orthophosphate Dikinase Reveals the Precise Regulatory Mechanism of Its Enzymatic Activity1[C][W][OPEN]

Change in light intensity, rather than light/dark transition, regulates the activity of pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase in maize via reversible phosphorylation at Thr-527. In C4 plants, pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK) activity is tightly dark/light regulated by reversible phosphorylation of an active-site threonine (Thr) residue; this process is catalyzed by PPDK regulatory protein (PDRP). Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of PPDK lead to its inactivation and activation, respectively. Here, we show that light intensity rather than the light/dark transition regulates PPDK activity by modulating the reversible phosphorylation at Thr-527 (previously termed Thr-456) of PPDK in maize (Zea mays). The amount of PPDK (unphosphorylated) involved in C4 photosynthesis is indeed strictly controlled by light intensity, despite the high levels of PPDK protein that accumulate in mesophyll chloroplasts. In addition, we identified a transit peptide cleavage site, uncovered partial amino-terminal acetylation, and detected phosphorylation at four serine (Ser)/Thr residues, two of which were previously unknown in maize. In vitro experiments indicated that Thr-527 and Ser-528, but not Thr-309 and Ser-506, are targets of PDRP. Modeling suggests that the two hydrogen bonds between the highly conserved residues Ser-528 and glycine-525 are required for PDRP-mediated phosphorylation of the active-site Thr-527 of PPDK. Taken together, our results suggest that the regulation of maize plastid PPDK isoform (C4PPDK) activity is much more complex than previously reported. These diverse regulatory pathways may work alone or in combination to fine-tune C4PPDK activity in response to changes in lighting.
Gut microbiome in multiple sclerosis: The players involved and the roles they play

ABSTRACT The human gut contains trillions of bacteria (microbiome) that play a major role in maintaining a healthy state for the host. Perturbation of this healthy gut microbiome might be an important environmental factor in the pathogenesis of inflammatory autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Others and we have recently reported that MS patients have gut microbial dysbiosis (altered microbiota) with the depletion of some and enrichment of other bacteria. However, the significance of gut bacteria that show lower or higher abundance in MS is unclear. The majority of gut bacteria are associated with certain metabolic pathways, which in turn help in the maintenance of immune homeostasis of the host. Here we discuss recent MS microbiome studies and the possible mechanisms through which gut microbiome might contribute to the pathogenesis of MS.
Improved defibrillation thresholds with large contoured epicardial electrodes and biphasic waveforms.

A reduction in the shock strength required for defibrillation would allow use of a smaller automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and would reduce the possibility of myocardial damage by the shock. Most internal defibrillation electrodes require 5 to 25 J for successful defibrillation in human beings and in dogs. In an attempt to lower the shock strength needed for defibrillation, we designed two large titanium defibrillation patch electrodes that were contoured to fit over the right and left ventricles of the dog heart, covering areas of approximately 33 and 39 cm2, respectively. In six anesthetized open-chest dogs, the electrodes were secured directly to the epicardium and ventricular fibrillation was induced by 60 Hz alternating current. Truncated exponential monophasic and biphasic shocks were given 10 sec later and defibrillation thresholds (DFTs) were determined. The DFT was 159 +/- 48 V, 3.2 +/- 1.9 J (mean +/- SD) for 10 msec monophasic shocks and 106 +/- 22 V, 1.3 +/- 0.4 J, for biphasic shocks with both phase durations equal to 5 msec (5-5 msec). The experiment was repeated in another six dogs in which the electrodes were secured to the pericardium. The mean DFT was not significantly higher than that for the electrodes on the epicardium: 165 +/- 27 V, 3.1 +/- 1.2 J for 10 msec monophasic shocks and 116 +/- 19 V, 1.6 +/- 0.5 J for 5-5 msec biphasic shocks. Low DFTs were also obtained with biphasic shocks in which the duration of the first phase was longer than that of the second. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A systematic review of dental late effects in survivors of childhood cancer

Survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for dental late effects. This systematic review summarizes associations between treatment exposures and dental late effects among survivors of childhood cancer. We included investigations with at least 20 study participants conducted for 2 or more years after completion of childhood, adolescent, or young adult cancer therapy. This review suggests both independent and additive effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy on dental complications, and identifies vulnerable groups with specific host and treatment characteristics. This summary provides information that will assist clinicians to prevent, detect, and facilitate early intervention for dental late effects. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014;61:407–416. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A rectangular additive convolution for polynomials

We define the rectangular additive convolution of polynomials with nonnegative real roots as a generalization of the asymmetric additive convolution introduced by Marcus, Spielman and Srivastava. We then prove a sliding bound on the largest root of this convolution. The main tool used in the analysis is a differential operator derived from the "rectangular Cauchy transform" introduced by Benaych-Georges. The proof is inductive, with the base case requiring a new nonasymptotic bound on the Cauchy transform of Gegenbauer polynomials which may be of independent interest.
Lack of relations of hostility, negative affect, and high-risk behavior with low plasma lipid levels in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested that low plasma cholesterol levels or cholesterol lowering may increase the risk of suicide and violent death. Increased aggression, risk-taking behavior, or depression has been associated with low cholesterol levels in some studies. METHODS A total of 4240 subjects of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, aged 23 to 35 years, were included in the study. Analyses were stratified by race (black or white) and sex. Persons in the lowest 10% of plasma total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were compared with the other participants in each race/sex group, using standardized measures of hostility, anger suppression, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. The relations between 5-year change in hostility and 5-year change in lipid levels also were examined. The relations between lipid levels and high-risk behavior (e.g., violent arguments or having a gun at home) were examined in a subset of subjects. All analyses were adjusted for relevant covariates. RESULTS In cross-sectional analyses, low total cholesterol levels were not related to any of the psychological measures in any race/sex group. Among black women only, low low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was related to greater anxiety, and low triglycerides were related to lower anger suppression (P < or = .002). Among white men only, increases in hostility during the 5-year follow-up were related to increases in triglycerides (P < .01), but changes in hostility were unrelated to changes in cholesterol levels. Among a subset of 371 subjects with initially elevated total cholesterol (> or = 5.17 mmol/L [> or = 200 mg/dL]) and a non-medicated decrease of 0.52 mmol/L (> or = 20 mg/dL) or more during 5 years, hostility decreased in a univariate analysis (P < .001). High-risk behaviors also were not associated with low lipid levels. CONCLUSION The results do not support a consistent relation between hostility, negative affect, or high-risk behaviors with low lipid levels or lipid-lowering among young adults.
miRNA Biomarkers in Cyst Fluid Augment the Diagnosis and Management of Pancreatic Cysts

Purpose: The diagnosis of pancreatic cystic lesions has increased dramatically. Most are benign, whereas some, such as intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN), represent precursors of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Therapeutic stratification of IPMNs is challenging without precise information on dysplasia grade and presence of invasion. We assessed the diagnostic benefit of using miRNAs as biomarkers in pancreatic cyst fluid, focusing on IPMNs because of their frequency and malignant potential. Experimental Design: RNA was extracted from 55 microdissected formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) IPMN specimens, and 65 cyst fluid specimens aspirated following surgical resection. Expression of 750 miRNAs was evaluated with TaqMan miRNA Arrays using 22 FFPE and 15 cyst fluid specimens. Differential expression of selected miRNA candidates was validated in 33 FFPE and 50 cyst fluid specimens using TaqMan miRNA Assays. Results: We identified 26 and 37 candidate miRNAs that distinguish low-grade from high-grade IPMNs using FFPE and cyst fluid specimens, respectively. A subset of 18 miRNAs, selected from FFPE and cyst fluid data, separated high-grade IPMNs from low-grade IPMNs, serous cystadenomas (SCA) and uncommon cysts, such as solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPN) and cystic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNET). A logistic regression model using nine miRNAs allowed prediction of cyst pathology implying resection (high-grade IPMNs, PanNETs, and SPNs) versus conservative management (low-grade IPMNs, SCAs), with a sensitivity of 89%, a specificity of 100%, and area under the curve of 1. Conclusions: We found candidate miRNAs that helped identify patients with high-grade IPMN and exclude nonmucinous cysts. These classifiers will require validation in a prospective setting to ultimately confirm their clinical usefulness. Clin Cancer Res; 18(17); 4713–24. ©2012 AACR.
Probabilistic checkpointing in time warp parallel simulation

In the Time Warp (TW) protocol, the system state must be checkpointed to facilitate the rollback operation. While increasing the checkpointing frequency increases the state saving cost, an infrequent scheme also escalates the coast forward effort when a large number of executed events are redone. This paper proposes a probabilistic approach to checkpointing. We derive the rollback probability, and compute the expected coast forward effort if a state is not saved. To reduce implementation overheads, the rollback probability and coast forward cost are predetermined and make available at runtime as a lookup table. Based on the derived expectation, a store vector is saved only if the expected coast forward effort is larger than the state saving cost and vice versa. Our experiments show that the cost model reduces the simulation elapsed time by close to 30% as compared to saving the system state after each event execution, and saving the system state at a predefined interval.
BUSINESS PROCESS MODELLING : A NEW METHODOLOGY AND EMPIRICAL EVALUATION

A plethora of methods have been proposed for conceptual modelling, although very few have practically been utilized in the field of Information Systems (IS), specifically. Lack of an appropriate methodology to accommodate for both practical and theoretical aspects appears to be a deficiency of process modelling methodologies. In the present study, first, a methodology, as an artefact of design science for business process modelling, is proposed; next, a method, based on user perceptions, is presented for the evaluation of the quality of methodology. A theoretical model, as an aspect of evaluation procedure, is considered for defining the relevant dimensions of quality, measured by a practical instrument. This makes possible the prediction of acceptance likelihood of the methodology. To empirically test the methodology, four classes of data were collected through a number of experiments with the participation of graduate students and practitioners in IS from Malaysia and Iran. The data provided the required evidence for the evaluation and analysis of the usefulness of methodology.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy: a systematic review of techniques, indications and empirical evidence.

PURPOSE Psychodynamic psychotherapy is one of the most frequently applied methods of psychotherapy in clinical practice. However, it is the subject of controversial discussion, especially with regard to empirical evidence. In this article we aim to give an up-to-date description of the treatment and to review the available empirical evidence. Evidence is reviewed for both efficacy and mechanisms of change of short- and moderate-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Furthermore, results of effectiveness studies of long-term psychoanalytic therapy are reviewed. METHODS With regard to efficacy, a protocol for a Cochrane review for (short-term) psychodynamic psychotherapy is available specifying inclusion criteria for efficacy studies. RESULTS Twenty-three randomized controlled trials of manual-guided psychodynamic psychotherapy applied in specific psychiatric disorders provided evidence that psychodynamic psychotherapy is superior to control conditions (treatment-as-usual or wait list) and, on the whole, as effective as already established treatments (e.g. cognitive-behavioural therapy) in specific psychiatric disorders. With regard to process research, central assumptions of psychodynamic psychotherapy were confirmed by empirical studies. CONCLUSIONS Further research should include both efficacy studies (on specific forms of psychodynamic psychotherapy in specific mental disorders) and effectiveness studies complementing the results from experimental research settings. Future process research should address the complex interactions among interventions, patient's level of functioning, helping alliance and outcome.
A Near-Annual Pacific Ocean Basin Mode

Some fairly regular and nearly annual variability in the equatorial Pacific after the major 1997/98 El Nino event is studied. Sea level, sea surface temperature (SST), and surface wind anomalies of this variability are tied together in a way similar to the slow cycles of El Nino-Southern Oscillations (ENSO). Despite a slightly longer-than-annual time scale, similar variability was also found in the datasets prior to 1997/98. This fast- coupled mode is superimposed on the slow 3-5-yr ENSO cycles in the tropical Pacific. It contributed to the occurrences of some minor El Nino and La Nina events. Zonal currents associated with the equatorial waves play a dominating role in generating SST anomalies of this fast mode through anomalous zonal advection. It is suggested that this fast mode may be best understood as a coupled Pacific Ocean basin (POB) mode. The existence of this fast mode, which appears independent of the slow ENSO mode, has important implications in understanding and predicting the tropical Pacific SST anomaly.
AutoSF: Searching Scoring Functions for Knowledge Graph Embedding

Scoring functions (SFs), which measure the plausibility of triplets in knowledge graph (KG), have become the crux of KG embedding. Lots of SFs, which target at capturing different kinds of relations in KGs, have been designed by humans in recent years. However, as relations can exhibit complex patterns that are hard to infer before training, none of them can consistently perform better than others on existing benchmark data sets. In this paper, inspired by the recent success of automated machine learning (AutoML), we propose to automatically design SFs (AutoSF) for distinct KGs by the AutoML techniques. However, it is non-trivial to explore domain- specific information here to make AutoSF efficient and effective. We firstly identify a unified representation over popularly used SFs, which helps to set up a search space for AutoSF. Then, we propose a greedy algorithm to search in such a space efficiently. The algorithm is further sped up by a filter and a predictor, which can avoid repeatedly training SFs with same expressive ability and help removing bad candidates during the search before model training. Finally, we perform extensive experiments on benchmark data sets. Results on link prediction and triplets classification show that the searched SFs by AutoSF, are KG dependent, new to the literature, and outperform the state-of- the-art SFs designed by humans. 1