Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noisy Matrix Completion Under Sparse Factor Models

This paper examines a general class of noisy matrix completion tasks, where the goal is to estimate a matrix from observations obtained at a subset of its entries, each of which is subject to random noise or corruption. Our specific focus is on settings where the matrix to be estimated is well-approximated by a product of two (a priori unknown) matrices, one of which is sparse. Such structural models-referred to here as sparse factor models-have been widely used, for example, in subspace clustering applications, as well as in contemporary sparse modeling and dictionary learning tasks. Our main theoretical contributions are estimation error bounds for sparsity-regularized maximum likelihood estimators for the problems of this form, which are applicable to a number of different observation noise or corruption models. Several specific implications are examined, including scenarios where observations are corrupted by additive Gaussian noise or additive heavier-tailed (Laplace) noise, Poisson-distributed observations, and highly quantized (e.g., 1 b) observations. We also propose a simple algorithmic approach based on the alternating direction method of multipliers for these tasks, and provide experimental evidence to support our error analyses.
Zoledronic acid induces significant and long-lasting modifications of circulating angiogenic factors in cancer patients.

PURPOSE The commercial availability of zoledronic acid, a third generation bisphosphonate, prompted us to evaluate the modifications in angiogenic cytokines levels after a single i.v. infusion of this drug. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Thirty consecutive cancer patients with scintigraphic and radiographic evidence of bone metastases were treated with a single infusion of 4 mg of zoledronic acid before any chemotherapy. The patients were prospectively evaluated for circulating levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) just before and at 1, 2, 7, and 21 days after zoledronic acid infusion. RESULTS Basal serum VEGF median levels were significantly decreased at days 2 (-23%), 7 (-28%), and 21 (-34%) after zoledronic acid infusion (P = 0.0498, 0.0090, and 0.0011, respectively). Serum PDGF levels were significantly decreased by 25% 1 day after zoledronic acid infusion (P = 0.0032). This effect on circulating PDGF levels persisted for 2 days after bisphosphonate infusion (P = 0.0050). PDGF levels had returned to values similar to the median basal value at 7 and 21 days. Moreover, a linear regression model with variance analysis showed a significant positive correlation between basal VEGF and PDGF values but not at the following time points. No significant differences were recorded in platelet levels, WBC count, or hemoglobin concentration before and after zoledronic acid single infusion. CONCLUSIONS This study confirms that zoledronic acid could have an in vivo antiangiogenic property through a significant and long-lasting reduction in serum VEGF levels.
An Interprofessional Quality Improvement Project to Implement Maternal/Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact During Cesarean Delivery

Immediate skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her newborn has been associated with successful breastfeeding outcomes. One of the challenges nurses face in promoting skin-to-skin occurs in the operating room during a cesarean delivery. Utilizing an interprofessional approach for this quality improvement project, we successfully implemented skin-to-skin contact for all eligible mother/infant couplets after cesarean birth. Exclusive breastfeeding rates for these women increased as a result.
The Relationship between Physical Activity and Bone during Adolescence Differs according to Sex and Biological Maturity

This study examines the relationships between bone mass, physical activity, and maturational status in healthy adolescent boys and girls. Methods. Ninety-nine early high-school (Year 9) students were recruited. Physical activity and other lifestyle habits were recorded via questionnaire. Anthropometrics, muscle power, calcaneal broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), bone mineral content (BMC), and lean tissue mass were measured. Maturity was determined by Tanner stage and estimated age of peak height velocity (APHV). Results. Boys had greater APHV, weight, height, muscle power, and dietary calcium than girls (P < .05). Boys exhibited greater femoral neck BMC and trochanteric BMC while girls had higher BUA and spine BMAD (P < .05). Physical activity and vertical jump predicted BMAD and BUA most strongly for boys whereas years from APHV were the strongest predictor for girls. Conclusion. Sex-specific relationships exist between physical activity, maturity and bone mass during adolescence.
Cryptographic Enforcement of Language-Based Information Erasure

Information erasure is a formal security requirement that stipulates when sensitive data must be removed from computer systems. In a system that correctly enforces erasure requirements, an attacker who observes the system after sensitive data is required to have been erased cannot deduce anything about the data. Practical obstacles to enforcing information erasure include: (1) correctly determining which data requires erasure, and (2) reliably deleting potentially large volumes of data, despite untrustworthy storage services. In this paper, we present a novel formalization of language-based information erasure that supports cryptographic enforcement of erasure requirements: sensitive data is encrypted before storage, and upon erasure, only a relatively small set of decryption keys needs to be deleted. This cryptographic technique has been used by a number of systems that implement data deletion to allow the use of untrustworthy storage services. However, these systems provide no support to correctly determine which data requires erasure, nor have the formal semantic properties of these systems been explained or proven to hold. We address these shortcomings. Specifically, we study a programming language extended with primitives for public-key cryptography, and demonstrate how information-flow control mechanisms can automatically track data that requires erasure and provably enforce erasure requirements even when programs employ cryptographic techniques for erasure.
Catalytic Subunit Stoichiometry within the Cellulose Synthase Complex1[W]

Three distinct catalytic subunits are present in an equimolecular ratio in the cellulose synthase complex. Cellulose synthesis is driven by large plasma membrane-inserted protein complexes, which in plants have 6-fold symmetry. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), functional cellulose synthesis complexes (CSCs) are composed of at least three different cellulose synthase catalytic subunits (CESAs), but the actual ratio of the CESA isoforms within the CSCs remains unresolved. In this work, the stoichiometry of the CESAs in the primary cell wall CSC was determined, after elimination of CESA redundancy in a mutant background, by coimmunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry using label-free quantitative methods. Based on spectral counting, we show that CESA1, CESA3, and CESA6 are present in a 1:1:1 molecular ratio.
Extended Finite-State Machine Induction Using SAT-Solver

In the paper we describe the extended finite-state machine (EFSM) induction method that uses SAT-solver. Input data for the induction algorithm is a set of test scenarios. The algorithm consists of several steps: scenarios tree construction, compatibility graph construction, Boolean formula construction, SAT-solver invocation and finite-state machine construction from satisfying assignment. These extended finite-state machines can be used in automata-based programming, where programs are designed as automated controlled objects. Each automated controlled object contains a finite-state machine and a controlled object. The method described has been tested on randomly generated scenario sets of size from 250 to 2000 and on the alarm clock controlling EFSM induction problem where it has greatly outperformed genetic algorithm.
Clofarabine in combination with pegylated asparaginase in the frontline treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a feasibility report from the CoALL 08‐09 trial

Clofarabine was the latest new drug to be approved, in 2004, for relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). To investigate its value in the frontline treatment of ALL we applied clofarabine 5 × 40 mg/m2 in combination with pegylated asparaginase (PEG‐ASP) 1 × 2500 iu/m2 in high risk ALL patients as a novel post‐induction element in the German Co‐operative Study Group for treatment of ALL (CoALL) trial 08‐09. Newly diagnosed ALL patients, defined by a significant minimal residual disease (MRD) load at the end of induction (B‐progenitor ALL at day 29 ≥ 10−4 and T‐ALL at day 43 ≥ 10−3) were eligible for this phase II trial. All other patients received the standard treatment consisting of high‐dose cytarabine (HIDAC) 4 × 3 g/m² in combination with Peg‐ASP 2500 iu/m². Forty‐two patients (39 B‐progenitor; 3 T‐ALL) fulfilled the criteria, were stratified and received the clofarabine/PEG‐ASP treatment resulting in 24/39 (61%) MRD‐negative B‐progenitor patients compared to 18/39 (46%) after HIDAC/PEG‐ASP in CoALL 07‐03. Overall, the toxicity profile of clofarabine/PEG‐ASP was similar to HIDAC/PEG‐ASP without unexpected severe side effects. Clofarabine combined with PEG‐ASP is safe and effective in the frontline treatment of ALL. A prospective, randomized trial is warranted to evaluate the antileukaemic efficacy of clofarabine versus HIDAC combined with PEG‐ASP.
Dominant-limb range-of-motion and humeral-retrotorsion adaptation in collegiate baseball and softball position players.

CONTEXT Biomechanically, the motions used by baseball and softball pitchers differ greatly; however, the throwing motions of position players in both sports are strikingly similar. Although the adaptations to the dominant limb from overhead throwing have been well documented in baseball athletes, these adaptations have not been clearly identified in softball players. This information is important in order to develop and implement injury-prevention programs specific to decreasing the risk of upper extremity injury in softball athletes. OBJECTIVE To compare range-of-motion and humeral-retrotorsion characteristics of collegiate baseball and softball position players and of baseball and softball players to sex-matched controls. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Research laboratories and athletic training rooms at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Fifty-three collegiate baseball players, 35 collegiate softball players, 25 male controls (nonoverhead athletes), and 19 female controls (nonoverhead athletes). INTERVENTION(S) Range of motion and humeral retrotorsion were measured using a digital inclinometer and diagnostic ultrasound. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Glenohumeral internal-rotation deficit, external-rotation gain, total glenohumeral range of motion, and humeral retrotorsion. RESULTS Baseball players had greater glenohumeral internal-rotation deficit, total-range-of-motion, and humeral-retrotorsion difference than softball players and male controls. There were no differences between glenohumeral internal-rotation deficit, total-range-of-motion, and humeral-retrotorsion difference in softball players and female controls. CONCLUSIONS Few differences were evident between softball players and female control participants, although range-of-motion and humeral-retrotorsion adaptations were significantly different than baseball players. The throwing motions are similar between softball and baseball, but the athletes adapt to the demands of the sport differently; thus, stretching/strengthening programs designed for baseball may not be the most effective programs for softball athletes.
Use of a lipophilic cation to monitor electrical membrane potential in the intact rat lens.

PURPOSE Tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP+) is a permeant lipophilic cation that accumulates in cultured cells and tissues as a function of the electrical membrane potential across the plasma membrane. This study was undertaken to determine whether TPP+ can be used for assessing membrane potential in intact lenses in organ culture. METHODS Rat lenses were cultured in media containing 10 microM TPP+ and a tracer level of 3H-TPP+ for various times. 3H-TPP+ levels in whole lenses or dissected portions of lenses were determined by liquid scintillation counting. Ionophores, transport inhibitors, and neurotransmitters were also added to investigate their effects on TPP+ uptake. RESULTS. Incubation of lenses in low-K+ balanced salt solution and TC-199 medium, containing physiological concentrations of Na+ and K+, led to a biphasic accumulation of TPP+ in the lens that approached equilibrium by 12 to 16 hours of culture. The TPP+ equilibrated within 1 hour in the epithelium but penetrated more slowly into the fiber mass. The steady state level of TPP+ accumulation in the lens was depressed by 90% when the lenses were cultured in a medium containing high K+. The calculated membrane potential for the normal rat lens in TC-199 was -75 +/- 3 mV. Monensin (1 microM) and nigericin (1 microM), Na+H+ and K+H+ exchangers respectively, as well as the protonophore carbonylcyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP, 10 microM) and the calcium ionophore A23187 (10 microM), abolished TPP+ accumulation and caused cloudiness of the lenses. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine at 50 microM decreased TPP+ accumulation in the lens, but this effect could be prevented by simultaneous application of 1 mM atropine. CONCLUSIONS TPP+ accumulation can be used as an indicator of changes in membrane potential in intact lenses, but because of the long time required to reach steady state, its utility is limited. The slow accumulation of TPP+ and its slow efflux from the lens under conditions known to depolarize membranes are consistent with a diffusion barrier in the deep cortex and nucleus of the lens.
Scenario Based Education as a Framework for Understanding Students Engagement and Learning in a Project Management Simulation Game

In this paper I describe s how students use a project management simulation game based on an attack-defense mechanism where two teams of players compete by challenging each other’s projects. The project management simulation game is intended to be played by pre-service construction workers and engineers. The gameplay has two parts: a planning part, where the player make managerial decisions about his construction site, and a challenge part where the player chooses between typical problems to occur on the opponent’s construction site. Playing the game involves analyzing both your own and you opponent’s building project for weak spots. The intention of the project management simulation game, is to provide students with an increased sensitivity towards the relation between planning and reality in complex construction projects. The project management simulation game can be interpreted both as a competitive game and as a simulation. Both of these views are meaningful and can be seen as supporting learning. Emphasizing the simulation aspect let us explain how students learn by being immersed into a simulated world, where the players identify with specific roles, live out specific situations, and experiment with relevant parameters. Emphasizing the competition game aspect we can see how play and competition allow players to experience intrinsic motivation and engagement, as well as thinking strategically about their choices, and hence put attention towards all the things that can go wrong in construction work. The goal of the paper is to investigate empirically how these two understandings influence game experience and learning outcome. This question is approached by qualitative post-game interviews about the experienced fun, competition and realism. Specific attention is given to how the understandings of the experience (for instance as a game and as a simulation) is entangled when the students describe their experience. Using the concepts frame and domain it is analyzed how the students conceptualize and make meaning of the particular educational scenario manifested by the project management simulation game. We take as an outset that students interpret the situations in the project management simulation game as relating to one or several domains, especially the domains competition and simulation. Results suggest that the views of the scenario as a competition and as a simulation do coexist, and that these views merge in a subtle way. The players consider the game to be both a realistic simulation of construction site work and a fun competition in which they try to beat their opponents and these two views do not seem to create cognitive conflicts. In the discussion it is explored how aspects of the design affords this double conceptualization (e.g. the “manage mode” and “challenge mode”), and finally it is discussed how we can explain why the players experience the challenges that they pose on each other as a natural part of the gameplay, but not as a realistic aspect of the game as a simulation.
Early versus late recombinant factor VIIa in combat trauma patients requiring massive transfusion.

BACKGROUND Coagulopathy is a consequence of severe trauma, especially in massively transfused patients (>or=10 units of red blood cells in 24 hours), and is associated with increased mortality. We hypothesized that recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa) administered to massive transfusion patients before transfusion of 8 units of blood (early) would reduce transfusion requirements compared with rFVIIa after 8 units (late). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed records for trauma admissions to combat support hospitals in Iraq between January 2004 and October 2005. Patients requiring a massive transfusion and receiving rFVIIa were identified. Groups were divided into those who received rFVIIa early or late. RESULTS Of 5,334 trauma patients (civilian and military), 365 (6.8%) required massive transfusion. Of these, 117 (32%) received rFVIIa. Complete records for blood transfusions were available for 61 patients: 90% had penetrating trauma, 17 received rFVIIa early, and 44 received it late. At admission, temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, Glasgow Coma Scale score, base deficit, hemoglobin, platelets, prothrombin time/International Normalized Ratio, and Injury Severity Score were similar in both groups as were administered units of fresh frozen plasma, fresh whole blood, cryoprecipitate (cryo), and crystalloid. The early rFVIIa group required fewer units of blood during the first 24-hour period (mean 20.6 vs. 25.7, p=0.048) and fewer units of stored red blood cells (mean 16.7 vs. 21.7, p=0.049). Early and late mortality (33.3% vs. 34.2%, p=NS), acute respiratory distress syndrome (5.9 vs. 6.8%, p=NS), infection (5.9% vs. 9.1%, p=NS), and thrombotic events (0% vs. 2.3%, p=NS) were similar. CONCLUSIONS Early administration of rFVIIa decreased red blood cell use by 20% in trauma patients requiring massive transfusion.
Emotional Processing and Political Judgment: Toward Integrating Political Psychology and Decision Neuroscience

Emotional processing and political judgment 2 CONTENTS 1. In tro du ctio n 2. T heo ry a. The weight of traditional dichotomies b. The meanings of cognition and emotion i. Cognition ii. Emotion c. The centrality of the social d. Recurrent multilevel appraisal: a proposal for emotional processing in decision making 3. Met ho d a. The signal relationship: neural activity and the BOLD response b. Individual differences in the brain c. fMRI activations are tentative associations d. The limits of the lesion method 4. Ev ide nce a. Decision and Emotion b. Social Judgment and Emotion i. Mood and social attribution ii. Neural systems and social judgment 5. Con clusio ns Emotional processing and political judgment 3 1. In tro du ctio n Political psychology and decision neuroscience are both interdisciplinary fields aiming at empirically informed and testable models of human judgment and decision making. Although the contexts and scopes of the fields are not identical, they overlap considerably. Moving both fields forward while maximizing their explanatory power and conceptual coherence requires energetic multilevel development (Damasio et al. 2001; Cacioppo et al. 2000). One arena for fruitful interaction, as evidenced in the literature by the contributions in this volume, is the development of models that take account of how emotional processes work in human judgment and decision making, especially in political decisions. Attention to the role of emotional processes is also prominent in yielding progress at the interface between neuroscience and another key decision science, behavioral economics, in the field of neuroeconomics (Sanfey et al. 2003; We argue that the developing field of decision neuroscience, particularly where emotional processes are an intense focus of study, offers political psychology new handles on human behavior and mentation with which to investigate political judgment and decision making. Developing this interdisciplinary effort requires a clear acknowledgment of the theoretical and methodological challenges ahead, along with strategies for answering them. Along with considering important challenges, the paper articulates a theoretical framework designed both to offer responses to the stated challenges and to inform the discussion of empirical findings that follow. Specifically, the framework allows that emotional processes contribute critically to human judgment and decision making in various ways, including in ways that constitute and do not oppose adaptive outcomes. The rest of the paper considers recent work in areas relating emotional processes to prudential decision making and reward, and social judgment, and closes …
Concise Review: Mesenchymal Stem/Multipotent Stromal Cells: The State of Transdifferentiation and Modes of Tissue Repair—Current Views

Mesenchymal stem cells or multipotent stromal cells (MSCs) isolated from the bone marrow of adult organisms were initially characterized as plastic adherent, fibroblastoid cells with the capacity to generate heterotopic osseous tissue when transplanted in vivo. In recent years, MSCs or MSC‐like cells have been shown to reside within the connective tissue of most organs, and their surface phenotype has been well described. A large number of reports have also indicated that the cells possess the capacity to transdifferentiate into epithelial cells and lineages derived from the neuroectoderm. The broad developmental plasticity of MSCs was originally thought to contribute to their demonstrated efficacy in a wide variety of experimental animal models of disease as well as in human clinical trials. However, new findings suggest that the ability of MSCs to alter the tissue microenvironment via secretion of soluble factors may contribute more significantly than their capacity for transdifferentiation in tissue repair. Herein, we critically evaluate the literature describing the plasticity of MSCs and offer insight into how the molecular and functional heterogeneity of this cell population, which reflects the complexity of marrow stroma as an organ system, may confound interpretation of their transdifferentiation potential. Additionally, we argue that this heterogeneity also provides a basis for the broad therapeutic efficacy of MSCs.
A scientific look at seasonality of symptom severity in atopic dermatitis.

In this month's Journal of Investigative of Dermatology,Kramer et al (2005) present their findings on seasonality of symptom severity for atopic dermatitis (AD) in a panel of 39 German children aged 9 years who were followed up intensively between the months of March and September, 1999. Although their finding that outdoor temperatures and pollen were associated with disease flares may not come as a big surprise to many readers, three points are worthy of comment with respect to this study.