Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structure-Based Design of Altered MHC Class II–Restricted Peptide Ligands with Heterogeneous Immunogenicity

Insights gained from characterizing MHC–peptide–TCR interactions have held the promise that directed structural modifications can have predictable functional consequences. The ability to manipulate T cell reactivity synthetically or through genetic engineering might thus be translated into new therapies for common diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders. In the current study, we determined the crystal structure of HLA-DR4 in complex with the nonmutated dominant gp100 epitope gp10044–59, associated with many melanomas. Altered peptide ligands (APLs) were designed to enhance MHC binding and hence T cell recognition of gp100 in HLA-DR4+ melanoma patients. Increased MHC binding of several APLs was observed, validating this approach biochemically. Nevertheless, heterogeneous preferences of CD4+ T cells from several HLA-DR4+ melanoma patients for different gp100 APLs suggested highly variable TCR usage, even among six patients who had been vaccinated against the wild-type gp100 peptide. This heterogeneity prevented the selection of an APL candidate for developing an improved generic gp100 vaccine in melanoma. Our results are consistent with the idea that even conservative changes in MHC anchor residues may result in subtle, yet crucial, effects on peptide contacts with the TCR or on peptide dynamics, such that alterations intended to enhance immunogenicity may be unpredictable or counterproductive. They also underscore a critical knowledge gap that needs to be filled before structural and in vitro observations can be used reliably to devise new immunotherapies for cancer and other disorders.
A Complex Multilayer Screen-Printed Electroluminescent Watch Display on Fabric

A screen-printed electroluminescent (EL) digital watch display on fabric is presented. This paper demonstrates the process of creating interactive printed smart fabrics suitable for a broad range of applications. In order to control the display, a series of tracks were printed that are 400 μm wide with a pitch of 1 mm; these dimensions are lower than the previously reported literature for connections to an EL lamp. An optimized design for a bus bar layer is designed, modeled, and tested. The design improvement reduces the amount of the emitting area covered by an opaque conductor and is shown to have no negative impact on the function of the EL lamp. The design for the EL watch display includes 28 EL lamps on fabric forming four seven-segment displays. The display is the first demonstration of multiple EL seven-segment displays on fabric. The brightness is characterized and compared to commercially available blue EL lamps. The watch segments had similar brightness to commercially available lamps.
Conflicting Messages: Overweight and Obesity Advertisements and Articles in Black Magazines

Three-quarters of U.S. Black women are overweight or obese, putting them at increased risk of multiple diseases, poorer quality of life, and a shorter life span. Media provide important normative information regarding overweight and obesity. This study examines Black women's magazines' food and non-alcoholic beverage advertisements and overweight and obesity editorial content to determine whether the products advertised and the articles' content models or inhibits healthy diet and physical activity as strategies to prevent and overcome overweight and obesity. Five hundred food and non-alcoholic beverage ads and 31 related articles printed in a sample of Ebony (n = 60), Essence (n = 60), and Jet (n = 60) magazines during a 20-year period were content analyzed. Overall, results show the vast majority of advertisements in all three magazines consistently advertised foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in empty calories and low in nutritional value. In contrast, a majority of the articles named balanced diet/fewer calories and physical activity as solutions for preventing and overcoming overweight and obesity. Implications for framing public health issues using media advocacy theory are offered.
Phonological Ambiguity Modulates Resolution of Semantic Ambiguity During Reading: An fMRI Study of Hebrew

Objectives: The current fMRI study examined the role of phonology in the extraction of meaning from print in each hemisphere by comparing homophonic and heterophonic homographs (ambiguous words in which both meanings have the same or different sounds respectively, e.g., bank or tear). The analysis distinguished between the first phase, in which participants read ambiguous words without context, and the second phase in which the context resolves the ambiguity. Method: Native Hebrew readers were scanned during semantic relatedness judgments on pairs of words in which the first word was either a homophone or a heterophone and the second word was related to its dominant or subordinate meaning. Results: In Phase 1 there was greater activation for heterophones in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), pars opercularis, and more activation for homophones in bilateral IFG pars orbitalis, suggesting that resolution of the conflict at the phonological level has abolished the semantic ambiguity for heterophones. Reduced activation for all ambiguous words in temporo-parietal regions suggests that although ambiguity enhances controlled lexical selection processes in frontal regions it reduces reliance on bottom-up mapping processes. After presentation of the context, a larger difference between the dominant and subordinate meaning was found for heterophones in all reading-related regions, suggesting a greater engagement for heterophones with the dominant meaning. Conclusions: Altogether these results are consistent with the prominent role of phonological processing in visual word recognition. Finally, despite differences in hemispheric asymmetry between homophones and heterophones, ambiguity resolution, even toward the subordinate meaning, is largely left lateralized.
Medical cost and frequent mental distress among the non-elderly US adult population.

BACKGROUND Frequent mental distress (FMD) is an important measure of perceived poor mental health. With the rising cost of health care, it is not uncommon for working adults to delay seeking care. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between avoidance of medical care due to cost and FMD among the non-elderly US population. METHODS We analyzed data from 282 044 non-elderly US population from a 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess the association between avoidance of medical care due to cost and FMD adjusted for covariates. RESULTS The overall prevalence of FMD in the non-elderly population was 11.1%; whereas it was 24.2% for those reporting avoiding medical care due to cost. Approximately 18% of the population had no health insurance coverage and the prevalence of FMD was significantly greater in this group. The odds of FMD were >2-fold elevated for respondents who were unable to see a doctor because of cost (adjusted odds ratio: 2.40, 99% confidence interval: 2.19, 2.63). CONCLUSIONS These findings highlight the need for affordable medical care for reducing mental distress and improving population health.
Spatial Competition and Cross-Border Shopping: Evidence from State Lotteries

This paper investigates competition between jurisdictions in the context of cross-border shopping for state lottery tickets. We first develop a simple theoretical model in which consumers choose between state lotteries and face a trade-off between travel costs and the price of a fair gamble, which is declining in the size of the jackpot and the odds of winning. Given this trade-off, the model predicts that per-resident sales should be more responsive to prices in small states with densely populated borders, relative to large states with sparsely populated borders. Our empirical analysis focuses on the multi-state games of Powerball and Mega Millions, and the identification strategy is based upon high-frequency variation in prices due to the rollover feature of lottery jackpots. The empirical results support the predictions of the model. The magnitude of these effects is large, suggesting that states do face competitive pressures from neighboring lotteries, but the effects vary significantly across states.
A Social Network Analysis Comparison of an Experienced and a Novice Instructor in Online Teaching

The most productive learning experience for students whether online or in face-to-face classes can often be the interaction among students and with an instructor. Online teaching and Social Network Analysis (SNA) offer the opportunity to examine intellectual social networking and strategies that promotes student interaction which can enhance learning. This study focuses on two online courses in which we used Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques to evaluate and compare student and instructor interactions of two online courses (Lesley University, Cambridge, MA and Instituto Piaget, Lisbon, Portugal). One course was taught by an experienced online instructor and the other by an instructor new to the online teaching format. We describe and present some of the main features of SNA such as degree of participation, density of interaction, linkage, formation of subsets, distribution of centrality among the participants as well as network patterns. Although the countries and content of the courses were different, SNA allowed us to make comparisons using objective statistical methods. We found that the instructional approach has a clear effect on interactions. In addition, we noted that under some instructional circumstances a multi-star pattern of interaction was created which is an undocumented SNA pattern. We also observed that SNA can be useful in studying online course interactions leading to enhanced learning.
Early Modern Humans

AbstractPerceptions of the emergence and spread of modern humans have changed recently through the reanalysis of fossils, an improved geochronological framework, and the discovery of a few specimens. Early modern humans in various portions of the Old World exhibit complex and varying mosaics of archaic, modern, and regional morphological characteristics. On the basis of this pattern, in conjunction with the emerging chronology of the earliest modern humans, the paleontological data indicate an assimilation model for modern human origins, in which the earliest modern humans emerged in eastern Africa, dispersed briefly into southwestern Asia, and then subsequently spread into the remainder of Africa and southern Asia, eventually into higher latitude Eurasia. The earliest modern humans outside of the core area of eastern Africa can be understood only if a variable degree of admixture with regional groups of late archaic humans occurred. Current and expected fossil and molecular data are unlikely to illuminat.
How immigrant adolescents' self‐views in school and family context relate to academic success in Germany

Immigrants' sense of self can be derived both from being members of their ethnic in-group and their country of residence. We examined how the ways in which immigrant adolescents integrate these self-views in relation to academic success in German schools. Students describe themselves at school and when with family. Using a standardized literacy performance test, analyses revealed that immigrants whose school-related self-view did not include Germany were less successful: Students who described their self as including both aspects of their ethnic group and Germany, and students who saw themselves predominantly as German, outperformed students with purely ethnic school-related selves. As expected, though, an ethnic family-related self-view did not have a negative impact on scholastic achievements.
A Cooperative MAC with Efficient Spectrum Sensing Algorithm for Distributed Opportunistic Spectrum Networks

The spectrum scarcity has led to rethink in the current frequency spectrum usage and develop a new concept of wireless networking. Opportunistic Spectrum Networks (OSNs) have been considered as a promising solution to the problem of spectrum shortage. In this paper, in order to compensate for the need of complex hardware, a novel and efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) framework that integrates a kind of cooperative spectrum sensing method at the physical layer into a cooperative MAC protocol is developed for distributed OSNs considering the requirements of both the primary and secondary users. For the MAC framework, an innovative deterministic sensing policy called Allocated-group Sensing Policy (ASP) is proposed to identify the spectrum opportunities based on a dynamic ID numbering approach, and its effectiveness is demonstrated by comparison with two random sensing policies. Moreover, a computationally simple but efficient sensing algorithm is developed to assist each sensing user to identify the optimal number of channels to sense and the optimal sensing duration. It is demonstrated that the proposed cooperative MAC framework can efficiently achieve the ultimate goal of the OSNs even with only a small number of sensing users each equipped with a single cognitive radio transceiver.
Sodium-Hydrogen Exchange Inhibition During Ventricular Fibrillation: Beneficial Effects on Ischemic Contracture, Action Potential Duration, Reperfusion Arrhythmias, Myocardial Function, and Resuscitability

Background—Inhibition of the sarcolemmal sodium-hydrogen exchanger isoform-1 (NHE-1) is emerging as a promising novel strategy for ameliorating myocardial injury associated with ischemia and reperfusion. We investigated whether NHE-1 inhibition (with cariporide) could minimize mechanical and electrical myocardial abnormalities that develop during ventricular fibrillation (VF) and improve outcome using a porcine model of closed-chest resuscitation. Methods and Results—Two groups of 8 pigs each were subjected to 8 minutes of untreated VF and randomized to receive either a 3-mg/kg bolus of cariporide or 0.9% NaCl immediately before an 8-minute interval of conventional closed-chest resuscitation. Cariporide prevented progressive increases in left ventricular free-wall thickness (from 1.0±0.2 to 1.5±0.3 cm with NaCl, P <0.001 versus 0.9±0.1 to 1.1±0.3 cm with cariporide, P =NS), maintained the coronary perfusion pressure above resuscitability thresholds (10±8 versus 19±3 mm Hg before attempting defibrillation, P <0.05), and increased resuscitability (2 of 8 versus 8 of 8, P <0.005). In 2 additional groups of 4 pigs each subjected to a briefer interval of untreated VF, cariporide ameliorated postresuscitation shortening of the action potential duration (APD) at 30%, 60%, and 90% repolarization (ie, APD60 at 2 minutes after resuscitation; 75±29 versus 226±16 ms, P <0.05), minimized postresuscitation ventricular ectopic activity preventing recurrent VF, and lessened postresuscitation myocardial dysfunction. Conclusions—NHE-1 inhibition may represent a highly potent novel strategy for resuscitation from VF that can ameliorate myocardial manifestations of ischemic injury and improve the effectiveness and outcome of closed-chest resuscitation.
Violent Behavior in College Student Dating Relationships: Implications for Campus Service Providers*

Dating violence among students is one of the more common types of campus violence facing university administrators and service providers. This study provides a descriptive analysis of the nature and extent of self-reported use of aggression as well as victimization in dating relationships among random samples of 995 currently dating and 1391 never married students at a large urban university. Results indicate that dating violence is limited to relatively minor acts of aggression and is more likely in relationships of greater degrees of intimacy and commitment Both males and females report using physical aggression against daring partners and both also report victimization by their partners. Most such incidences occur off campus and few report their victimization to campus agencies designed to handle domestic violence. Implications for campus service providers are discussed.
Untraceable Mobile Node Authentication in WSN

Mobility of sensor node in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) brings security issues such as re-authentication and tracing the node movement. However, current security researches on WSN are insufficient to support such environments since their designs only considered the static environments. In this paper, we propose the efficient node authentication and key exchange protocol that reduces the overhead in node re-authentication and also provides untraceability of mobile nodes. Compared with previous protocols, our protocol has only a third of communication and computational overhead. We expect our protocol to be the efficient solution that increases the lifetime of sensor network.
Feature-based extraction of plucking and expression styles of the electric bass guitar

In this paper,we present a feature-based approach for the classification of different playing techniques in bass guitar recordings. The applied audio features are chosen to capture typical instrument sounds induced by 10 different playing techniques. A novel database that consists of approx. 4300 isolated bass notes was assembled for the purpose of evaluation. The usage of domain-specific features in a combination of feature selection and feature space transformation techniques improved the classification accuracy by over 27% points in comparison to a state-of-the-art baseline system. Classification accuracy reached 93.25% and 95.61% for the recognition of plucking and expression styles respectively.
Neurochemistry immune systems interaction in depression

Background: Many studies have shown that the balance between Th1 cytokines and Th2 cytokines plays a role in modulation of cellular responses in the brain during psychological stress and psychiatric disorders. The Th3 cytokine, transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFβ1), has been shown to regulate the balance between Th1 and Th2 cytokines. However, the role of TGFβ1 in the psychoimmunology of depression has never been explored. Methods: A total of 40 depressed patients and 80 normal controls were recruited. The plasma levels of IFNγ, IL4, and TGFβ1 were studied at the time of admission and 8 weeks after antidepressant treatment. Results: The proportion of patients who showed immunoreactivity to IFNγ and IL4 in the plasma, and the plasma IFNγ /IL4 ratio, were significantly higher in depressed patients than in controls. The IFNγ/TGFβ1 ratio was also higher in depressed patients, and TGFβ1 levels showed a significant negative correlation with the HDRS depression scale. After treatment, TGFβ1 level increased significantly, and the IFNγ/IL4 ratio decreased significantly, in the patient group. However, Th1 changes in male and female showed different trend such as Th1 arm was decreased after the treatment in all male whereas it was increased in premenopausal age women. Limitations: Replication and extension using a larger sample size are required. Conclusions: The Th1 and Th2 cytokine imbalance was observed in subpopulation of depressed patients. TGFβ1 seemed to play a role in the pathophysiology of depression in this population. Moreover, antidepressant treatment was found to affect the Th1/Th2 balance through the action of TGFβ1.
AP Association Optimization and CCA Threshold Adjustment in Dense WLANs

Dense deployment of wireless local area networks (WLANs) is part of the next generation Wi-Fi and standardization (802.11ax) efforts are underway. However, dense deployment of WLAN access points (APs) faces increased interference and uncoordinated association of user stations (STAs) with APs, which degrade network throughput. To assess the potential of improving uplink throughput in the presence of interference using AP association coordination, we propose an association optimization algorithm that matches STAs to APs in dense WLAN (DWLAN). While existing cell breathing approaches suggest tuning of APs' beacon powers for association control, the proposed approach utilizes uplink signal- interference-noise ratio (SINR) of stations (STAs) to coordinate STA-AP association. In order to further coordinate interference and increase spatial reuse, an algorithm is proposed to adjust the clear channel assessment (CCA) threshold of the 802.11 MAC protocol in each AP cell to address the problem of overlapped basic service set (OBSS) that degrades overall network throughput. Performance evaluation reveals that our SINR-based AP association coordination and CCA threshold adjustment schemes achieve significant increase in per-user throughput in a DWLAN.
Correlates of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale Method Effects

Investigators of personality assessment are becoming aware that using positively and negatively worded items in questionnaires to prevent acquiescence may negatively impact construct validity. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) has demonstrated a bifactorial structure typically proposed to result from these method effects. Recent work suggests that these method effects may have substantive meaning. These studies examined the relation between method effects associated with positively and negatively worded items in the RSES and primary, broad personality constructs: approach and avoidance motivation and the "Big Five" (emotional stability, extraversion, intellect, agreeableness, and conscientiousness). A series of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that method effects are required in the measurement model of self-esteem and are related to important personality constructs.
Linear Programming-Based Decoding of Turbo-Like Codes and its Relation to Iterative Approaches

In recent work (Feldman and Karger [8]), we introduced a new a pproach to decoding turbo-like codes based on linear programming (LP). We gave a precise characterization of the noise patterns that cause decoding error under the binar y symmetric and additive white Gaussian noise channels. We used this characterization to p rove that the word error rate is bounded by an inverse polynomial in the code length. Furth ermore, for any turbo-like code, our algorithm has the ML certificateproperty: whenever it outputs a code word, it is guaranteed to be the maximum-likelihood (ML) code word. In this paper we extend these results and give an iterative de coder whose output is equivalent to that of the LP decoder. We also extend the ML cer tifi ate property to the more efficient iterativetree reweighted max-product message-passing algorithm developed by Wainwright, Jaakkola, and Willsky [13]: we show that whenev er this algorithm converges to a code word, it must be the ML code word. Finally, we demonstrate experimentally that the noise patt erns that cause decoding error in the LP decoder also cause decoding error in the stand ard iterative sum-product and max-product (min-sum) message-passing algorithms. Conse quently, the deterministically constructible interleaver used by the LP decoder to achieve its bounds on error rate is useful in practice not only for the LP decoder, but for these s tandard iterative decoders as
Inferring protein-protein interactions using interaction network topologies

We describe two novel methods for predicting protein interactions, using only the topology of an observed protein interaction network. The first method searches the protein interaction network for defective cliques (i.e. nearly complete complexes of pair wise interacting proteins), and predicts the interactions that complete them. The second method computes the diffusion distance between each pair of proteins and then infers an interaction when such distance is below a given threshold. We show that both methods have a good predictive performance and compare their results.