Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing the patient with osteogenesis imperfecta: a multidisciplinary approach

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heterogeneous heritable connective tissue disorder characterized by low bone density. The type and severity of OI are variable. The primary manifestations are fractures, bone deformity, and bone pain, resulting in reduced mobility and function to complete everyday tasks. OI affects not only the physical but also the social and emotional well-being of children, young people, and their families. As such, medical, surgical, and allied health professionals’ assessments all play a role in the management of these children. The multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of children and young people living with OI seeks to provide well-coordinated, comprehensive assessments, and interventions that place the child and family at the very center of their care. The coordinated efforts of a multidisciplinary team can support children with OI to fulfill their potential, maximizing function, independence, and well-being.
Synchronization in Weighted Uncorrelated Complex Networks in a Noisy Environment: Optimization and Connections with Transport Efficiency

Motivated by synchronization problems in noisy environments, we study the Edwards-Wilkinson process on weighted uncorrelated scale-free networks. We consider a specific form of the weights, where the strength (and the associated cost) of a link is proportional to (kikj)beta with ki and kj being the degrees of the nodes connected by the link. Subject to the constraint that the total edge cost is fixed, we find that in the mean-field approximation on uncorrelated scale-free graphs, synchronization is optimal at beta*= -1 . Numerical results, based on exact numerical diagonalization of the corresponding network Laplacian, confirm the mean-field results, with small corrections to the optimal value of beta*. Employing our recent connections between the Edwards-Wilkinson process and resistor networks, and some well-known connections between random walks and resistor networks, we also pursue a naturally related problem of optimizing performance in queue-limited communication networks utilizing local weighted routing schemes.
Provenance Map Orbiter: Interactive Exploration of Large Provenance Graphs

Provenance systems can produce enormous provenance graphs that can be used for a variety of tasks from determining the inputs to a particular process to debugging entire workflow executions or tracking difficult-to-find dependencies. Visualization can be a useful tool to support such tasks, but graphs of such scale (thousands to millions of nodes) are notoriously difficult to visualize. This paper presents the Provenance Map Orbiter, a tool for interactively exploring large provenance graphs using graph summarization and semantic zoom. It presents its users with a high-level abstracted view of the graph and the ability to incrementally drill down to the details.
Prospective Monitoring of Epstein-Barr Virus DNA in Adult Renal Transplant Recipients During the Early Posttransplant Period: Role of Mycophenolate Mofetil

Background. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease. We monitored the incidence of EBV viraemia in adult renal transplant recipients and investigated the association with clinical parameters. Methods. Whole blood from 115 renal transplant patients was tested regularly by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for EBV DNA during the first 90 days posttransplantation. Results. Sixty four of 115 (56%) patients had detectable EBV DNA in blood (>100 copies/mL) on at least one occasion. The median time to first DNA detection was 15 days post-transplant and median viral load was 598 copies/mL (range 119–53,649 copies/mL). Multivariate Cox-regression analyses showed that patients receiving mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) on the day of transplant had a significantly lower risk of EBV viraemia compared to those who received no MMF (Hazard ratio=0.518, 95% CI 0.307–0.875, p=0.014). Conclusions. EBV viraemia is common during the early posttransplant period in adult renal transplant recipients. Our results suggest a role of MMF in preventing EBV viraemia, however further work is required to identify the mechanism(s) involved.
A basic replicon of virulence-associated plasmids of Shigella spp. and enteroinvasive Escherichia coli is homologous with a basic replicon in plasmids of IncF groups

Shigella species and enteroinvasive Escherichia coli strains carry a large (120- to 140-megadalton) plasmid called pINV, which contains genes essential for the invasiveness of these pathogens. Hybridization with specific probes derived from the RepFIC and RepFIB replicons of the IncF1 Ent plasmid P307 showed that pINVs present in 35 clinical isolates are homologous with RepFIC but not RepFIB, regardless of the serogroup of the Shigella or E. coli strain. RepFIC of P307, in turn, is very similar to RepFIIA replicons of IncFII R plasmids. These and other related replicons constitute the RepFIIA family. With one pINV, pWR110, a plasmid of Shigella flexneri 5, we demonstrated the existence of a functional replicon, RepINV, with a restriction map similar to that of RepFIIA of plasmid R1. We isolated the putative inc RNA coding region of RepINV, which is a major determinant of incompatibility. The nucleotide sequence of the RepINV-inc RNA-coding region was determined and compared with the corresponding sequences of RepFIC and RepFIIA. The differences were small, but apparently were sufficient to affect the target specificity of the inc RNAs, thus rendering the replicons compatible with each other. We conclude that pINVs present in Shigella spp. and enteroinvasive E. coli constitute a homogeneous group, containing one basic replicon that belongs to the RepFIIA family of replicons.
Corruption Dynamics: The Golden Goose Effect

Theoretical work on disciplining corrupt agents has emphasized the role of expected future rents? for example, efficiency wages. Yet taken seriously this approach implies that illicit future rents should also deter corruption. We study this "golden goose" effect in the context of a statutory wage increase in India's employment guarantee scheme, comparing official microrecords to original household survey data to measure corruption. We estimate large golden goose effects that reduced the total impact of the wage increase on theft by roughly 64 percent. In short, rent expectations matter
Dynamic Factor Models with Time-Varying Parameters: Measuring Changes in International Business Cycles

We develop a dynamic factor model with time-varying factor loadings and stochastic volatility in both the latent factors and idiosyncratic components. We employ this new measurement tool to study the evolution of international business cycles in the post-Bretton Woods period, using a panel of output growth rates for nineteen countries. We find: 1) statistical evidence of a decline in volatility for most countries, with the timing, magnitude, and source (international or domestic) of the decline differing across countries; 2) some evidence of a decline in business cycle synchronization for Group of Seven (G-7) countries, but otherwise no evidence of changes in synchronization for the sample countries, including European and euro-area countries; and 3) convergence in the volatility of business cycles across countries.
Genetic mapping of horizontal stripes in Lake Victoria cichlid fishes: benefits and pitfalls of using RAD markers for dense linkage mapping

The genetic dissection of naturally occurring phenotypes sheds light on many fundamental and longstanding questions in speciation and adaptation and is a central research topic in evolutionary biology. Until recently, forward‐genetic approaches were virtually impossible to apply to nonmodel organisms, but the development of next‐generation sequencing techniques eases this difficulty. Here, we use the ddRAD‐seq method to map a colour trait with a known adaptive function in cichlid fishes, well‐known textbook examples for rapid rates of speciation and astonishing phenotypic diversification. A suite of phenotypic key innovations is related to speciation and adaptation in cichlids, among which body coloration features prominently. The focal trait of this study, horizontal stripes, evolved in parallel in several cichlid radiations and is associated with piscivorous foraging behaviour. We conducted interspecific crosses between Haplochromis sauvagei and H. nyererei and constructed a linkage map with 867 SNP markers distributed on 22 linkage groups and total size of 1130.63 cM. Lateral stripes are inherited as a Mendelian trait and map to a single genomic interval that harbours a paralog of a gene with known function in stripe patterning. Dorsolateral and mid‐lateral stripes were always coinherited and are thus under the same genetic control. Additionally, we directly quantify the genotyping error rates in RAD markers and offer guidelines for identifying and dealing with errors. Uncritical marker selection was found to severely impact linkage map construction. Fortunately, by applying appropriate quality control steps, a genotyping accuracy of >99.9% can be reached, thus allowing for efficient linkage mapping of evolutionarily relevant traits.
SINR Bounds for Broadcast Channels with Zero-Forcing Beamforming and Limited Feedback

Channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) enables high rates in multiuser systems with multiple transmit antennas, as it can be used for multiplexing gain and multiuser diversity. However, CSIT is often obtained through information fedback from the users, and it can be severely quantized to limit overhead. In this case, transmitting to multiple users will typically cause interference among them, which degrades the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). In this letter, we derive bounds on this SINR, assuming that the transmitter uses zero-forcing beamforming, and that active users are almost orthogonal to one another. Simulation results show that our bounds may be used as a metric for user scheduling.
Tracking Initiative in Collaborative Dialogue Interactions

In this paper, we argue for the need to distinguish between task and dialogue initiatives, and present a model for tracking shifts in both types of initiatives in dialogue interactions. Our model predicts the initiative holders in the next dialogue turn based on the current initiative holders and the effect that observed cues have on changing them. Our evaluation across various corpora shows that the use of cues consistently improves the accuracy in the system's prediction of task and dialogue initiative holders by 2-4 and 8-13 percentage points, respectively, thus illustrating the generality of our model.
A Privacy-Preserving Fuzzy Keyword Search Scheme over Encrypted Cloud Data

Fuzzy keyword search is an important and necessary functionality for information retrieval in modern cloud storage services, since cloud users may submit queries with typos errors or have deficient knowledge about the underlying keywords of cloud data sets. However, for the purpose of privacy preservation, data is usually encrypted before outsourcing to the cloud, which greatly compromises the data utilization flexibility and efficiency. In this paper, we propose F2SE as a novel fuzzy keyword search scheme over encrypted cloud data. Using keyword fingerprint extraction and secure kNN encryption, F2SE can achieve a top-k ranked fuzzy keyword search according to the keyword similarity. Meanwhile, F2SE can return keywords containing special sub strings customized by cloud users with deficient background knowledge, which can be used for exploratory search or uncertain search. Thorough security analysis shows F2SE is KPA-secure while extensive experiments over real data sets demonstrate that F2SE has a low memory overhead and practical searching time cost.
Quality of Life in Youth With Tourette's Syndrome and Chronic Tic Disorder

This study sought to examine quality of life (QoL) in clinic-referred children and adolescents (n = 59, M age = 11.4±2.6 years) with a chronic tic disorder. The QoL scores for tic patients were lower than for healthy controls but higher than for the psychiatric sample on the majority of domains. Children's self-reported QoL scores and a measure of tic severity were moderately and inversely correlated. Parent reports of their child's QoL were weakly related to tic severity. Correlations between parent and child ratings of QoL for children ages 8 to 11 years were generally higher than those for youth ages 12 to 17 years. Finally, externalizing behavior moderated the relations between tic severity and parent-rated QoL, such that tic severity was significantly associated with parent-rated QoL for children with below average externalizing symptoms but not for children 3with above average externalizing symptoms.
Role of PPE18 Protein in Intracellular Survival and Pathogenicity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Mice

Background Ever since its discovery the mycobacterial proline-proline-glutamic acid (PPE) family of proteins has generated a huge amount of interest. Understanding the role of these proteins in the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is important. We have demonstrated earlier that the PPE18 protein of Mtb induces IL-10 production in macrophages with subsequent downregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-12 and TNF-α and favors a T-helper (Th) 2-type of immune response. Methodology/Principal Findings Using a ppe18 genetic knock-out Mtb strain, we have now carried out infection studies in mice to understand the role of PPE18 in Mtb virulence. The studies reveal that lack of PPE18 leads to attenuation of Mtb in vivo. Mice infected with the ppe18 deleted strain have reduced infection burden in lung, liver and spleen and have better survival rates compared to mice infected with the wild-type Mtb strain. Conclusions/Significance Taken together our data suggest that PPE18 could be a crucial virulence factor for intracellular survival of Mtb.
Value of gallium-67 scintigraphy in monitoring the renal activity in lupus nephritis.

In this study, we evaluated the relationship between the gallium uptake in the kidneys and the results of renal biopsy. The renal uptake of gallium in 32 patients with lupus nephritis were evaluated according to the classification of the World Health Organization, the activity index (AI), and the chronicity index (CI). AI was significantly higher in patients with a positive gallium scan when compared with patients with a negative gallium scan (p = 0.0007). However, change in gallium uptake was not related to the CI or WHO classification (p = 0.68 and p = 0.79 respectively). Of the 16 patients with AI > or = 9, 13 (81.25%) had a positive gallium scan, while only 3 (18.7%) of the patients with AI < 9 had a positive scan. In addition, all patients (100%) with AI > or = 11 showed a positive gallium scan. We conclude that renal imaging with gallium has a good correlation with AI, and may be a useful alternative to renal biopsy in patients with lupus nephritis.
A step-by-step guide to systematically identify all relevant animal studies

Before starting a new animal experiment, thorough analysis of previously performed experiments is essential from a scientific as well as from an ethical point of view. The method that is most suitable to carry out such a thorough analysis of the literature is a systematic review (SR). An essential first step in an SR is to search and find all potentially relevant studies. It is important to include all available evidence in an SR to minimize bias and reduce hampered interpretation of experimental outcomes. Despite the recent development of search filters to find animal studies in PubMed and EMBASE, searching for all available animal studies remains a challenge. Available guidelines from the clinical field cannot be copied directly to the situation within animal research, and although there are plenty of books and courses on searching the literature, there is no compact guide available to search and find relevant animal studies. Therefore, in order to facilitate a structured, thorough and transparent search for animal studies (in both preclinical and fundamental science), an easy-to-use, step-by-step guide was prepared and optimized using feedback from scientists in the field of animal experimentation. The step-by-step guide will assist scientists in performing a comprehensive literature search and, consequently, improve the scientific quality of the resulting review and prevent unnecessary animal use in the future.
Modeling Endogenous Social Networks: the Example of Emergence and Stability of Cooperation without Refusal

Aggregated phenomena in social sciences and economics are highly dependent on the way individuals interact. To help understanding the interplay between socio-economic activities and underlying social networks, this paper studies a sequential prisoner's dilemma with binary choice. It proposes an analytical and computational insight about the role of endogenous networks in emergence and sustainability of cooperation and exhibits an alternative to the choice and refusal mechanism that is often proposed to explain cooperation. The study focuses on heterogeneous equilibriums and emergence of cooperation from an all-defector state that are the two stylized facts that this model successfully reconstructs.
Design of intelligent materials with self-diagnosing function for preventing fatal fracture

Hybrid composites containing both conductive fibres with a small value of ultimate elongation and insulating fibers with a large value of ultimate elongation show promise as intelligent materials with a self-diagnosing function for preventing fatal fracture. Three types of carbon fiber and one type of glass fibre were tested as conductive fibers and insulating fibers, respectively. A tremendous change in electrical resistance was seen at the transition point where the conductive fibers fractured, and this point could be controlled through suitable selection of the type of conductive fiber according to its value of ultimate elongation. Permanent residual electrical resistance was observed even after the removal of load, and the change was dependent on the maximum strain applied in the past trials. In the application of this method, changes in the electrical resistance of CFGFRP-reinforced concretes were measured during and after loading.
Influences of Physical Training on the Heart of Dogs

To investigate the effects of physical training on cardiac dimensions and function, eight dogs were exercised for 12 weeks by treadmill running 1 hour/ day, 5 days/week. Five dogs were confined in cages as controls for an 8-week period. Heart rates were monitored by telemetry during rest and exercise. Maximum QRS spatial magnitudes were calculated from records of McFee lead electrocardiograms. Left ventricular end-diastolic dimensions were determined radiographically by the bead and clip technique. No statistically significant changes occurred during the control period. Training produced statistically significant decreases in heart rate at rest (72 beats/min to 49 beats/min, P < 0.005) and at a standard work load of 6.1 mph on a level treadmill (205 beats/ min to 158 beats/min, P < 0.005) and statistically significant increases in work load (5.4 mph to 9.1 mph, P < 0.005) at a standard heart rate of 194 beats/min. Improvements were rapid during the first 4 weeks of training but gradual during the remaining 8 weeks. Training caused small but statistically significant increases in left ventricular end-diastolic wall thickness (8.7 mm to 9.3 mm, P < 0.0025), estimated left ventricular mass (83.6 g to 91.2 g, P < 0.01), and maximum (McFee) QRS spatial magnitude (4.0 mv to 4.8 mv, P < 0.05).
A Novel Biosynthetic Pathway Providing Precursors for Fatty Acid Biosynthesis and Secondary Metabolite Formation in Myxobacteria*

Short chain carboxylic acids are well known as the precursors of fatty acid and polyketide biosynthesis. Iso-fatty acids, which are important for the control of membrane fluidity, are formed from branched chain starter units (isovaleryl-CoA and isobutyryl-CoA), which in turn are derived from the degradation of leucine and valine, respectively. Branched chain carboxylic acids are also employed as starter molecules for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, e.g. the therapeutically important anthelmintic agent avermectin or the electron transport inhibitor myxothiazol. During our studies on myxothiazol biosynthesis in the myxobacterium, Stigmatella aurantiaca, we detected a novel biosynthetic route to isovaleric acid. After cloning and inactivation of the branched chain keto acid dehydrogenase complex, which is responsible for the degradation of branched chain amino acids, the strain is still able to produce iso-fatty acids and myxothiazol. Incorporation studies employing deuterated leucine show that it can only serve as precursor in the wild type strain but not in theesg mutant. Feeding experiments using13C-labeled precursors show that isovalerate is efficiently made from acetate, giving rise to a labeling pattern in myxothiazol that provides evidence for a novel branch of the mevalonate pathway involving the intermediate 3,3-dimethylacryloyl-CoA. 3,3-Dimethylacrylic acid was synthesized in deuterated form and fed to the esg mutant, resulting in strong incorporation into myxothiazol and iso-fatty acids. Similar experiments employingMyxococcus xanthus revealed that the discovered biosynthetic route described is present in other myxobacteria as well.
NEXT: In-Network Nonconvex Optimization

We study nonconvex distributed optimization in multiagent networks with time-varying (nonsymmetric) connectivity. We introduce the first algorithmic framework for the distributed minimization of the sum of a smooth (possibly nonconvex and nonseparable) function-the agents' sum-utility-plus a convex (possibly nonsmooth and nonseparable) regularizer. The latter is usually employed to enforce some structure in the solution, typically sparsity. The proposed method hinges on successive convex approximation techniques while leveraging dynamic consensus as a mechanism to distribute the computation among the agents: each agent first solves (possibly inexactly) a local convex approximation of the nonconvex original problem, and then performs local averaging operations. Asymptotic convergence to (stationary) solutions of the nonconvex problem is established. Our algorithmic framework is then customized to a variety of convex and nonconvex problems in several fields, including signal processing, communications, networking, and machine learning. Numerical results show that the new method compares favorably to existing distributed algorithms on both convex and nonconvex problems.