Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mining Preferences from Spatial-Temporal Data

The discovery of preferences in space and time is important in a variety of applications. In this paper we first establish the correspondence between a set of preferences in space and time and density estimates obtained from observations of spatial-temporal features recorded within large databases. We perform density estimation using both kernel methods and mixture models. The density estimates constitute a probabilistic representation of preferences. We then present a point process transition density model for space-time event prediction that hinges upon the density estimates from the preference discovery process. The added dimension of preference discovery through feature space analysis enables our model to outperform traditional preference modeling approaches. We demonstrate this performance improvement using a criminal incident database from Richmond, Virginia. Criminal incidents are humaninitiated events that may be governed by criminal preferences over space and time. We applied our modeling technique to breaking and entering crimes committed in both residential and commercial settings. Our approach effectively recovers the preference structure of the criminals and enables one-week ahead forecasts of threatened areas. This capability to accommodate all measurable features, identify the key features, and quantify their relationship with event occurrence over space and time makes this approach applicable to domains other than law enforcement.
Sex as a strategy against rapidly evolving parasites

Why is sex ubiquitous when asexual reproduction is much less costly? Sex disrupts coadapted gene complexes; it also causes costs associated with mate finding and the production of males who do not themselves bear offspring. Theory predicts parasites select for host sex, because genetically variable offspring can escape infection from parasites adapted to infect the previous generations. We examine this using a facultative sexual crustacean, Daphnia magna, and its sterilizing bacterial parasite, Pasteuria ramosa. We obtained sexually and asexually produced offspring from wild-caught hosts and exposed them to contemporary parasites or parasites isolated from the same population one year later. We found rapid parasite adaptation to replicate within asexual but not sexual offspring. Moreover, sexually produced offspring were twice as resistant to infection as asexuals when exposed to parasites that had coevolved alongside their parents (i.e. the year two parasite). This fulfils the requirement that the benefits of sex must be both large and rapid for sex to be favoured by selection.
Inferring Selection Intensity and Allele Age from Multilocus Haplotype Structure

It is a challenging task to infer selection intensity and allele age from population genetic data. Here we present a method that can efficiently estimate selection intensity and allele age from the multilocus haplotype structure in the vicinity of a segregating mutant under positive selection. We use a structured-coalescent approach to model the effect of directional selection on the gene genealogies of neutral markers linked to the selected mutant. The frequency trajectory of the selected allele follows the Wright-Fisher model. Given the position of the selected mutant, we propose a simplified multilocus haplotype model that can efficiently model the dynamics of the ancestral haplotypes under the joint influence of selection and recombination. This model approximates the ancestral genealogies of the sample, which reduces the number of states from an exponential function of the number of single-nucleotide polymorphism loci to a quadratic function. That allows parameter inference from data covering DNA regions as large as several hundred kilo-bases. Importance sampling algorithms are adopted to evaluate the probability of a sample by exploring the space of both allele frequency trajectories of the selected mutation and gene genealogies of the linked sites. We demonstrate by simulation that the method can accurately estimate selection intensity for moderate and strong positive selection. We apply the method to a data set of the G6PD gene in an African population and obtain an estimate of 0.0456 (95% confidence interval 0.0144−0.0769) for the selection intensity. The proposed method is novel in jointly modeling the multilocus haplotype pattern caused by recombination and mutation, allowing the analysis of haplotype data in recombining regions. Moreover, the method is applicable to data from populations under exponential growth and a variety of other demographic histories.
Drug Sensitivity and Molecular Diversity of M. tuberculosis in Cameroon: A Meta-analysis

Tuberculosis (TB) represents one of the most challenging threats to global human health. M. tuberculosis causes about 8.8 million new cases of active tuberculosis and 1.1 million deaths annually. According to Cameroon’s National TB Control Program (NTBCP), tuberculosis still remains a major public health problem: an important cause of mortality and morbidity, with a negative impact on the socio-economic condition of the population. This paper is a meta-analysis review of the molecular diversity and drug sensitivity trends to first line TB drugs and the threat of multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains to the TB control programs in Cameroon. A very large selection of papers from the last 20 years was done through Google, Google scholar, Pub Med using as keys words ‘Mycobacterium tuberculosis, tuberculosis, resistance to first and second line drugs, molecular typing, Cameroon’. The paper to be selected for analysis must have dealt with at least one of the key words and must have been carried out in at least one of the regions of Cameroon. The selected paper was red and the required information for the review was then extracted. Investigations of genetic polymorphism of M. tuberculosis complex strains from humans in Cameroon has shown M. tuberculosis sensu stricto to be the predominant agent of TB cases, with the preponderance of the LAM10 family genotype and large shift of M. africanum. The resistance to all first line anti-TB drugs has declined significantly, however, the general rates of anti-TB drug resistance remain high in some regions, underscoring the need for greater enforcement of control strategies in the country.
Using Experimental Economics to Measure Social Capital and Predict Financial Decisions

Questions remain as to whether results from experimental economics are generalizable to real decisions in nonlaboratory settings. Furthermore, questions persist about whether social capital helps mitigate information asymmetries in credit markets. I examine whether behavior in two laboratory games, Trust and a Public Goods, predicts loan repayments to a Peruvian group-lending microfinance program. Since this program relies on social capital to enforce repayment, this tests the external validity of the games. Individuals identified as "trustworthy" by the Trust Game are indeed less likely to default on their loans. No similar support is found for the game's identification of "trusting" individuals.
Sexual dimorphism of cortisol metabolism is maintained in elderly subjects and is not oestrogen dependent

The net interconversion of inactive cortisone to active cortisol by 11β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11βHSD1) may determine hepatic and adipose tissue exposure to glucocorticoid action. Cortisol metabolism exhibits a sexual dimorphism with an apparently lower activity of 11βHSD1 in females that, in an animal model, has been attributed to the effects of oestrogen. The aim of this study is to determine whether the sexual dimorphism of cortisol metabolism persists between post‐menopausal, oestrogen‐deficient women and elderly men.
Polymorphisms of 5,10-methylenetetralydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), fruit and vegetable intake, and the risk of stomach cancer

Abstract Stomach cancer is a serious public health problem in China. 5,10-Methylenetetralydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) may be involved in both DNA methylation and DNA synthesis. Folate deficiency is associated with cancer risk that may be modulated by a genetic variation in the MTHFR gene in folate metabolism. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the association between polymorphisms of the MTHFR gene and the risk of stomach cancer. This study also explored the modification effects of fruit and vegetable intake (one of the main constituents is folate) on the risk of this disease. A population-based case-control study was conducted in Taixing, China, consisting of 206 newly diagnosed cases with primary stomach cancer and 415 healthy population controls. Polymorphisms of MTHFR C677T and A1298C were assayed by polymerase chain reaction-restricted fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) techniques. The data were analysed using the logistic regression model. No obvious association between the MTHFR A1298C polymorphism and the risk of stomach cancer was observed in this study. The frequencies of 677 C/C, C/T, and T/T were 34.5, 50.9, and 14.6%, respectively, in controls. The frequency of the MTHFR 677 wild homozygotic genotype was 25.8% in cases, which was lower than that in controls (34.5%). The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for the MTHFR 677 any T genotype was 2.05 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.26–3.34) when compared with the C/C genotype. In the low fruit and vegetable intake group an increasing trend was observed with the T allele exposure, p=0.0056. The adjusted ORs were 1.68 (95% CI = 0.86–3.29) for the C/T genotype and 3.58 (95% CI = 1.46–8.75) for the T/T genotype, respectively. The MTHFR 677 any T genotype was associated with an increased risk of primary stomach cancer among the Chinese population. Folate deficiency might modify the MTHFR gene polymorphism and influence the risk of stomach cancer.
Lack of Association between EBV and Breast Carcinoma

Multiple conflicting findings have been presented which indicate that EBV may be found in anywhere from 0% to 51% of breast carcinomas. When EBV has been found causally associated with other human cancers, its DNA and one or more of its viral products have been detected in most tumor cells of a given biopsy. To test whether EBV has such an association with breast cancer, we measured the number of viral DNA molecules per cell in matched normal and tumor biopsies from 45 patients using real-time quantitative PCR. In no case could EBV DNA consistently be detected, with either of two different probes, at levels above 0.1 molecules per cell in two sections of the tumor samples. These levels of detection match those detected in EBV-negative cell lines and therefore likely represent noise in the assays. Equally importantly, the distribution of these low signals was the same between tumors and their matched normal controls. We conclude that EBV does not contribute to the development of breast cancers as it does to epithelial cancers such as nasopharyngeal and gastric carcinomas or to Burkitt's and Hodgkin's lymphomas.
Antimetastatic Effect of Halichondramide, a Trisoxazole Macrolide from the Marine Sponge Chondrosia corticata, on Human Prostate Cancer Cells via Modulation of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition

Halichondramide (HCA), a trisoxazole-containing macrolide isolated from the marine sponge Chondrosia corticata has been shown to exhibit cytotoxicity and antifungal activities. In our previous study, HCA was also found to exhibit antiproliferative activity against a variety of cancer cells. However, the precise mechanism of action of HCA in the antitumor activity remains to be elucidated. In the present study, we identified the antimetastatic activity of HCA in the highly metastatic PC3 human prostate cancer cells. HCA showed potent growth inhibitory activity of the PC3 cells with an IC50 value of 0.81 µM. Further analysis revealed that HCA suppressed the expression of a potential metastatic biomarker, phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 (PRL-3), in PC3 cells. The suppression of PRL-3 by HCA sequentially down-regulates the expression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) subunits p85 and p110. The antimetastatic effect of HCA was also correlated with the down-regulation of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and the modulation of cadherin switches N-cadherin and E-cadherin. In addition, HCA also effectively suppressed the migration and invasion of PC3 cells. These findings suggest that halichondramide might serve as a potential inhibitor of tumor cell metastasis with the modulation of PRL-3.
Demographic Analysis of Complications of Warfarin Treatment and Factors Affecting Mortality Varfarin Kullanan Hastalarda Meydana Gelen Komplikasyonlarin Demografik Analizi ve Mortalite Üzerine Etkili Faktörler

Objective: This study investigated the demographic analysis of complications of warfarin therapy and the factors affecting mortality. Material and Methods: The digital medical records of patients who applied to our Emergency Clinic with warfarin overdose between September 2007 and September 2010 were retrieved and patient files were assessed retrospectively. Cases were classified into two groups in terms of INR level and hemorrhagic complications; patients with an INR level greater than 3.5 and a hemorrhagic complication, and patients with an INR level greater than 3.5 and no hemorrhagic complication. Furthermore, cases with a hemorrhagic complication were divided into two subgroups as those who died and those who survived. Results: The study enrolled 151 cases presenting to our emergency clinic with warfarin overdose. Among these, 50.3% (n=76) were males and 49.7% (n=75) were females. Mean age was 60.80±16.11 years. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of sex and age. Hemorrhagic complication was present in 66.89% (n=101) while absent in 33.11% (n=50). PT and INR levels were significantly higher in patients with hemorrhage compared to those without (for PT 90.98±26.52 vs. 55.51±12.70, respectively; p<0.001; for INR 8.97±11.29 vs. 4.63±0.68, respectively; p=0.042). In patients with a hemorrhagic complication who died, the PT level was significantly higher, and hematocrit and platelet levels were significantly lower than those of patients who survived a hemorrhagic complication (p<0.001, p=0.033, and p=0.009, respectively). Conclusion: Education in warfarin use, regular follow-ups, self-monitorization, and increased distribution of home-type coagulometry devices will decrease the frequency of complications. (JAEM 2013; 12: 139-44)
Effect of oxygen on acetylene reduction by photosynthetic bacteria

The effect of dissolved oxygen concentration on nitrogenase activity was studied in three species of photosynthetic bacteria. The O2 concentration in the cell suspension was measured with an O2 electrode inserted into the reaction vessel. Acetylene reduction by whole cells of Rhodopseudomonas capsulata, Rhodospirillum rubrum, and Chromatium vinosum strain D was inhibited 50% by 0.73, 0.32, and 0.26 microM O2, respectively. The inhibition of the activity by O2 in R. capsulata usually was reversed completely by reestablishing anaerobic conditions. In R. rubrum and C. vinosum the inhibition was only partially reversible. The respiration rate of R. capsulata was the highest of the three, that of R. rubrum was intermediate, and that of C. vinosum was lowest. R. capsulata and R. rubrum cells were broken after their acetylene reduction activity in vivo had been completely inhibited by O2, and nitrogenase was found to be active in vitro. A concentration of cyanide that did not affect acetylene reduction activity, but which inhibited 75 to 90% of the O2 uptake by whole cells of R. capsulata, shifted the O2 concentration causing 50% inhibition of nitrogenase activity from 0.73 microM to 2.03 microM. These results are in accordance with the assumption that within a limited range of O2 concentrations, the respiratory activity of the cells is enough to scavenge the O2 and to keep the interior of the cells essentially anaerobic. It is suggested that O2 inhibits nitrogenase activity by competing for a limited supply of electrons. When cyanide is present, respiration is slower but is adequate to keep the nitrogenase environment in the cell anaerobic. The lower respiration rate may allow a greater proportion of the electrons to be used for acetylene reduction.
Practical LR error recovery

We present a practical, language independent mechanism for error recovery in LR parsers. The method is easy to implement in existing parser generators. It uses only the normal parse tables and a small amount of symbol cost information. It is possible to use compressed parse tables with the method, as well as other LR augmentations such as precedence and associativity declarations. The method is efficient enough to be used in environments where space and time are at a premium. Our method utilizes a number of previous error recovery ideas: forward moves in the input after detection of errors to incorporate right context, recovery choice based on weighted costs, and the use of special productions to indicate major productions in the grammar for error recovery. The method also makes use of semantic information in choosing between possible recovery actions. We have implemented the method in a production Pascal translator which has been in use for instruction at a number of universities for two years. We report here on measurements of our system on a standard data base of Pascal programs with errors.
An Efficient Motion Detection and Tracking Scheme for Encrypted Surveillance Videos

Performing detection on surveillance videos contributes significantly to the goals of safety and security. However, performing detection on unprotected surveillance video may reveal the privacy of innocent people in the video. Therefore, striking a proper balance between maintaining personal privacy while enhancing the feasibility of detection is an important issue. One promising solution to this problem is to encrypt the surveillance videos and perform detection on the encrypted videos. Most existing encrypted signal processing methods focus on still images or small data volumes; however, because videos are typically much larger, investigating how to process encrypted videos is a significant challenge. In this article, we propose an efficient motion detection and tracking scheme for encrypted H.264/AVC video bitstreams, which does not require the previous decryption on the encrypted video. The main idea is to first estimate motion information from the bitstream structure and codeword length and, then, propose a region update (RU) algorithm to deal with the loss and error drifting of motion caused by the video encryption. The RU algorithm is designed based on the prior knowledge that the object motion in the video is continuous in space and time. Compared to the existing scheme, which is based on video encryption that occurs at the pixel level, the proposed scheme has the advantages of requiring only a small storage of the encrypted video and has a low computational cost for both encryption and detection. Experimental results show that our scheme performs better regarding detection accuracy and execution speed. Moreover, the proposed scheme can work with more than one format-compliant video encryption method, provided that the positions of the macroblocks can be extracted from the encrypted video bitstream. Due to the coupling of video stream encryption and detection algorithms, our scheme can be directly connected to the video stream output (e.g., surveillance cameras) without requiring any camera modifications.
Nonnegative Local Coordinate Factorization for Image Representation

Recently, nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) has become increasingly popular for feature extraction in computer vision and pattern recognition. NMF seeks two nonnegative matrices whose product can best approximate the original matrix. The nonnegativity constraints lead to sparse parts-based representations that can be more robust than nonsparse global features. To obtain more accurate control over the sparseness, in this paper, we propose a novel method called nonnegative local coordinate factorization (NLCF) for feature extraction. NLCF adds a local coordinate constraint into the standard NMF objective function. Specifically, we require that the learned basis vectors be as close to the original data points as possible. In this way, each data point can be represented by a linear combination of only a few nearby basis vectors, which naturally leads to sparse representation. Extensive experimental results suggest that the proposed approach provides a better representation and achieves higher accuracy in image clustering.
Interactions between double-stranded RNA regulators and the protein kinase DAI

The interferon-induced protein kinase DAI, the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-activated inhibitor of translation, plays a key role in regulating protein synthesis in higher cells. Once activated, in a process that involves autophosphorylation, it phosphorylates the initiation factor eIF-2, leading to inhibition of polypeptide chain initiation. The activity of DAI is controlled by RNA regulators, including dsRNA activators and highly structured single-stranded RNAs which block activation by dsRNA. To elucidate the mechanism of activation, we studied the interaction of DAI with RNA duplexes of discrete sizes. Molecules shorter than 30 bp fail to bind stably and do not activate the enzyme, but at high concentrations they prevent activation by long dsRNA. Molecules longer than 30 bp bind and activate the enzyme, with an efficiency that increases with increasing chain length, reaching a maximum at about 85 bp. These dsRNAs fail to activate at high concentrations and also prevent activation by long dsRNA. Analysis of complexes between dsRNA and DAI suggests that at maximal packing the enzyme interacts with as little as a single helical turn of dsRNA (11 bp) but under conditions that allow activation the binding site protects about 80 bp of duplex. When the RNA-binding site is fully occupied with an RNA activator, the complex appears to undergo a conformational change.
Understanding the EORTC QLQ-BM22, the module for patients with bone metastases

Bone metastases are a frequent complication of cancer. With advances in effective systemic treatment and supportive care, the survival of patients with bone metastases has improved substantially. Treatment options for bone metastases have been expanding, as reflected in the latest clinical trials testing newer generations of bisphosphonates and increased use of orthopedic surgery. There is a great need to monitor not only the benefits but also the side effects of these treatments. Any interventions should aim primarily at improving the quality of life (QoL) in this group of terminal patients. The use of validated bone metastases-specific QoL instruments should be promoted for use in both daily practice and clinical trials. In response to the need for a comprehensive bone metastases-specific QoL instrument, which has been lacking until now, we have developed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QoL Group Bone Metastases Module (QLQ-BM22) according to the module development guidelines of the EORTC Quality of Life Group (QLG). As bone metastases patients are palliative and often demonstrate rapid deterioration, we will conduct Phase IV testing of the EORTC QLQ-BM22 alongside the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL palliative core questionnaire to ease patient burden when completing the study assessments. The international validation of the Bone Metastases Module will facilitate measurement of important QoL issues in palliative care trials. Healthcare professionals will be able to reliably follow their patients’ QoL, help patients in choosing treatments and assess the cost–effectiveness of the treatments. Bone metastases clinical trial QoL outcomes will be compared across trials through the utilization of a consistent and valid module questionnaire.