Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does topology control reduce interference?

Topology control in ad-hoc networks tries to lower node energy consumption by reducing transmission power and by confining interference, collisions and consequently retransmissions. Commonly low interference is claimed to be a consequence to sparseness of the resulting topology. In this paper we disprove this implication. In contrast to most of the related work claiming to solve the interference issue by graph sparseness without providing clear argumentation or proofs, we provide a concise and intuitive definition of interference. Based on this definition we show that most currently proposed topology control algorithms do not effectively constrain interference. Furthermore we propose connectivity-preserving an spanner constructions that are interference-minimal.
Utilization of intensive care unit days in a Canadian medical-surgical intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVES To analyze the utilization of intensive care unit (ICU) days in a Canadian medical-surgical ICU and to identify ICU patients with prolonged ICU length of stay (LOS). DESIGN Prospective descriptive study. SETTING A Canadian tertiary care medical-surgical ICU. PATIENTS Consecutive patients admitted to an adult medical-surgical ICU. Neurosurgical, cardiac surgical, and coronary care unit patients were excluded. MEASUREMENTS For each ICU admission, patient demographics, diagnosis, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, ICU LOS, and hospital mortality were collected. The patients' risk of death was calculated using the APACHE II equation. Admissions were stratified by ICU LOS into four groups: 1 to 2, 3 to 6, 7 to 13, and > or = 14 days. Among the four LOS groups, the number of ICU days and observed and predicted death rates were compared. Admissions were also stratified by risk of death into five probability range quintiles. Among the five risk groups, ICU LOS was compared between survivors and nonsurvivors. RESULTS A total of 1,960 admissions utilized 9,298 ICU days. ICU LOS (mean +/- SEM) was 4.74 +/- 0.2 (median, 2; range, 1 to 178) days. Short-stay patients (ICU LOS < or = 2 days) accounted for 60.3% of total admissions but consumed only 16.4% of total ICU days. Long-stay patients (ICU LOS > or = 14 days) accounted for 7.3% of total admissions but consumed 43.5% of total ICU days. Among the long-stay patients, the most common reasons for admission were pneumonia, multiple trauma, neuromuscular weakness, and septic shock. The mortality for long-stay patients approached 50%. When analyzed by patients' mortality risks, those with a risk of death >0.8 (predicted to die) or <0.2 (predicted to live) whose outcomes were opposite to that predicted had twice the ICU LOS compared with patients whose outcomes were consistent with prediction. CONCLUSION In a Canadian medical-surgical ICU, patients with ICU LOS > or = 14 days accounted for 7.3% of total admissions but consumed 43.5% of total ICU days. Identification of patients with prolonged ICU LOS who would ultimately die in the ICU may lead to earlier withdrawal of therapy in these patients, resulting in a substantial reduction in suffering and cost savings. In our study population, outcome prediction using the APACHE II equation did not provide sufficient power to accurately discriminate between nonsurvivors and survivors.
Air Pollution and Long-Term Mental Health

We study the long-term consequences of air pollution on mental health, using a natural experiment in Indonesia. We find that exposure to severe air pollution has significant and persistent consequences on mental health. An extra standard deviation in the pollution index raises the probability of clinical depression measured 10 years past exposure by almost 1%. Women in particular seem to be more affected, but some effects persist for men as well. Pollution exposure increases the likelihood of clinical depression for women and also the severity of depressive symptoms for both sexes. It is not clear if men are more resistant to pollution or they simply recover faster from it. Education, perceived economic status, and marriage seem to be the best mitigators for these negative effects.
Improving Mouse Controlling and Movement for People with Parkinson’s Disease and Involuntary Tremor Using Adaptive Path Smoothing Technique via B-Spline

Many input devices are available for interacting with computers, but the computer mouse is still the most popular device for interaction. People who suffer from involuntary tremor have difficulty using the mouse in the normal way. The target participants of this research were individuals who suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Tremor in limbs makes accurate mouse movements impossible or difficult without any assistive technologies to help. This study explores a new assistive technique—adaptive path smoothing via B-spline (APSS)—to enhance mouse controlling based on user’s tremor level and type. APSS uses Mean filtering and B-spline to provide a smoothed mouse trajectory. Seven participants who have unwanted tremor evaluated APSS. Results show that APSS is very promising and greatly increases their control of the computer mouse. Result of user acceptance test also shows that user perceived APSS as easy to use. They also believe it to be a useful tool and intend to use it once it is available. Future studies could explore the possibility of integrating APSS with one assistive pointing technique, such as the Bubble cursor or the Sticky target technique, to provide an all in one solution for motor disabled users.
Preschool Anxiety Disorders: Comprehensive Assessment of Clinical, Demographic, Temperamental, Familial, and Life Stress Correlates

This study examined correlates of preschoolers' anxiety disorders using a comprehensive, multimethod design. Participants included a community sample of 541 three-year-old children, of whom 106 (19.6%) met criteria for at least 1 anxiety disorder. Child and parental psychopathology and life stress were assessed with clinical interviews. Child temperament and parenting behavior were assessed with laboratory observations. Mothers and fathers reported on their parenting styles. Compared to preschoolers with no anxiety disorder, preschoolers with an anxiety disorder were more likely to meet criteria for comorbid depressive and oppositional defiant disorders and to exhibit greater temperamental behavioral inhibition and lower positive affectivity, and more sleep problems. Children with anxiety disorders also experienced more stressful life events in the previous 6 months, and their mothers had a higher rate of current anxiety disorders. Compared to children with other anxiety disorders, children with only specific phobia exhibited a somewhat different pattern of associations than children with other anxiety disorders. Overall, the findings suggest that many of the correlates observed in older youth with anxiety disorders are also observed in preschoolers.
Joint Independent Subspace Analysis Using Second-Order Statistics

This paper deals with a novel generalization of classical blind source separation (BSS) in two directions. First, relaxing the constraint that the latent sources must be statistically independent. This generalization is well-known and sometimes termed independent subspace analysis (ISA). Second, jointly analyzing several ISA problems, where the link is due to statistical dependence among corresponding sources in different mixtures. When the data are one-dimensional, i.e., multiple classical BSS problems, this model, known as independent vector analysis (IVA), has already been studied. In this paper, we combine IVA with ISA and term this new model joint independent subspace analysis (JISA). We provide full performance analysis of JISA, including closed-form expressions for minimal mean square error (MSE), Fisher information and Cramér-Rao lower bound, in the separation of Gaussian data. The derived MSE applies also for non-Gaussian data, when only second-order statistics are used. We generalize previously known results on IVA, including its ability to uniquely resolve instantaneous mixtures of real Gaussian stationary data, and having the same arbitrary permutation at all mixtures. Numerical experiments validate our theoretical results and show the gain with respect to two competing approaches that either use a finer block partition or a different norm.
Characterization of primary human keratinocytes transformed by human papillomavirus type 18

Primary human epithelial cells were cotransfected with pHPV-18 and pSV2neo, and cell strains were generated by selecting in G418. One cell strain (FE-A), which exhibits an extended life span, is currently in its 30th passage. In comparison, control cultures can only be maintained up to the seventh passage. Southern blot analysis revealed the presence of at least one intact, integrated viral genome in these cells. FE-A cells showed altered growth properties, characterized by a change in morphology, and clonal density. Differentiation markers analyzed by Western blotting (immunoblotting), such as cytokeratins and involucrin, indicated that the cells resembled a partially differentiated epithelial population. Increased expression of the 40-kilodalton cytokeratin was observed in FE-A cells, similar to that observed in simian virus 40-immortalized human keratinocytes (M. Steinberg and V. Defendi, J. Cell Physiol. 123:117-125, 1985). FE-A cells were also found to be defective in their response to terminal differentiation stimuli. Calcium and 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate treatment induced normal epithelial cells to differentiate, whereas the human papillomavirus 18 (HPV-18)-containing keratinocytes were resistant to these signals, indicating their partially transformed nature. These cells were not able to induce tumors in nude mice over a period of up to 8 months. A second cell strain, FE-H18L, also generated by transfecting HPV-18, also exhibited an extended life span and similar alterations in morphology. Viral RNA transcribed from the early region of HPV-18 was detected in both cell strains by Northern (RNA) blot analysis. These cell strains should provide a useful model for determining the role of HPV in carcinogenesis.
Socioeconomic Status, Subjective Social Status, and Perceived Stress: Associations with Stress Physiology and Executive Functioning

Several studies have investigated associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and indicators of children's physiological and cognitive self-regulation. Although objective measures of family SES may be good proxies for families' experiences of disadvantage, less is known about subjective aspects of families' experiences. We hypothesize that subjective social status (SSS) and perceived stress may be important independent predictors of children's stress physiology and executive functioning (EF). Eighty-two children from diverse SES backgrounds were administered EF measures and provided saliva samples for cortisol assay. Caregivers reported on objective SES, SSS, and perceived stress. Results suggest that SES and SSS are both independently and positively related to EF. In models predicting stress physiology, higher perceived stress was associated with lower baseline cortisol. Moreover, SES and age interacted to predict cortisol levels such that among younger children, lower SES was associated with higher cortisol, whereas among older children, lower SES was associated with lower cortisol. Results highlight the importance of considering both objective and subjective indicators of families' SES and stressful experiences in relation to multiple aspects of children's self-regulation.
Targeting survivin using a combination of miR-494 and survivin shRNA has synergistic effects on the suppression of prostate cancer growth

Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) remains an obstacle in the current treatment provided for prostate cancer (PCa). Survivin, an apoptosis inhibitor, has been found to be involved in the progression of PCa, and is a promising candidate target for CRPC therapy. Micro (mi) RNAs are involved in the progression of PCa through the regulation of multiple genes. One of the objectives of the present study was to investigate the effect of miRNA (miR)-494 on the expression of survivin, as well as on PCa growth. The present study also aimed to assess whether co-transfecting miR-494 with survivin short hairpin (sh)RNA has synergistic effects on suppressing PCa proliferation or the expression of survivin. Gene Expression Omnibus datasets with clinical PCa miRNA expression profiles were utilized to analysis the expression of miR-494 in Ca, compared with normal prostate samples. PC3 cells, a CRPC cell line, were transfected with either an miR-494 expression adenovius, a survivin shRNA adenovirus or the two together, to examine their effect on PCa growth and the expression of survivin in vitro and in vivo. miR-494 was downregulated in PCa tissue samples and in the PC-3 cell line. miR-494 targeted survivin at the translational level in PCa. Overexpression of miR-494 and silencing survivin RNA through the use of survivin shRNA inhibited the expression of survivin and attenuated PC-3 cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Notably, co-transfecting miR-494 with survivin shRNA had synergistic effects on suppressing prostate cancer proliferation via further suppression of the expression of survivin. These results suggested that using multiple methods to inhibit the function of survivin may have improved efficacy for treating PCa.
Ethanol acutely and reversibly suppresses excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac myocytes.

We used adult rat cardiac myocytes to examine the acute effects of 0.1-5.0% (vol/vol) ethanol (ETOH) on 1) the cytosolic [Ca2+] (Cai) transient measured as the change in indo 1 fluorescence at 410/490 nm and contraction elicited by electrical stimulation of single cells and 2) the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ content in cell suspensions. During stimulation at 1 Hz, clinically relevant ETOH correlations (0.1-0.15% [vol/vol]) caused a 10-15% decrease in the contraction amplitude, measured by myocyte edge tracking, without decreasing the Cai transient that initiates contraction. At higher ETOH concentrations (1-5% [vol/vol]), ETOH caused profound contractile depression and also reduced the magnitude of the Cai transient. These effects were reversed within minutes of ETOH washout. Addition of norepinephrine (10 microM) to the bathing solution or an increase in bathing [Ca2+] in the continued presence of ETOH could also reverse its effects. The relation of the amplitude of the Cai transient to the contraction amplitude measured across a range of bathing [Ca2+] was shifted by ETOH, such that for a given Cai transient a marked reduction in contraction amplitude occurred. In unstimulated myocyte suspensions, ETOH (1-5% [vol/vol]) caused a concentration-dependent depletion of SR Ca2+ content, manifested as a diminution in the Cai increase elicited by caffeine in the presence of extracellular EGTA and no added Ca2+. Thus, in rat cardiac myocytes a reduction in the myofilament Ca2+ response, possibly due to a decrease in myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity, is a mechanism for contractile depression due to clinically relevant ETOH concentrations. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Food-Derived Bioactive Peptides on Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

Chronic diseases such as atherosclerosis and cancer are now the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Inflammatory processes and oxidative stress underlie the pathogenesis of these pathological conditions. Bioactive peptides derived from food proteins have been evaluated for various beneficial effects, including anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. In this review, we summarize the roles of various food-derived bioactive peptides in inflammation and oxidative stress and discuss the potential benefits and limitations of using these compounds against the burden of chronic diseases.
Improving Shape Retrieval by Spectral Matching and Meta Similarity

We propose two computational approaches for improving the retrieval of planar shapes. First, we suggest a geometrically motivated quadratic similarity measure, that is optimized by way of spectral relaxation of a quadratic assignment. By utilizing state-of-the-art shape descriptors and a pairwise serialization constraint, we derive a formulation that is resilient to boundary noise, articulations and nonrigid deformations. This allows both shape matching and retrieval. We also introduce a shape meta-similarity measure that agglomerates pairwise shape similarities and improves the retrieval accuracy. When applied to the MPEG-7 shape dataset in conjunction with the proposed geometric matching scheme, we obtained a retrieval rate of 92.5%.
The Distribution of Obesity Phenotypes in HIV-Infected African Population

The distribution of body size phenotypes in people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has yet to be characterized. We assessed the distribution of body size phenotypes overall, and according to antiretroviral therapy (ART), diagnosed duration of the infection and CD4 count in a sample of HIV infected people recruited across primary care facilities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Adults aged ≥ 18 years were consecutively recruited using random sampling procedures, and their cardio-metabolic profile were assessed during March 2014 and February 2015. They were classified across body mass index (BMI) categories as normal-weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2), overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30 kg/m2), and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), and further classified according to their metabolic status as “metabolically healthy” vs. “metabolically abnormal” if they had less than two vs. two or more of the following abnormalities: high blood glucose, raised blood pressure, raised triglycerides, and low HDL-cholesterol. Their cross-classification gave the following six phenotypes: normal-weight metabolically healthy (NWMH), normal-weight metabolically abnormal (NWMA), overweight metabolically healthy (OvMH), overweight metabolically abnormal (OvMA), obese metabolically healthy (OMH), and obese metabolically abnormal (OMA). Among the 748 participants included (median age 38 years (25th–75th percentiles: 32–44)), 79% were women. The median diagnosed duration of HIV was five years; the median CD4 count was 392 cells/mm3 and most participants were on ART. The overall distribution of body size phenotypes was the following: 31.7% (NWMH), 11.7% (NWMA), 13.4% (OvMH), 9.5% (OvMA), 18.6% (OMH), and 15.1% (OMA). The distribution of metabolic phenotypes across BMI levels did not differ significantly in men vs. women (p = 0.062), in participants below vs. those at or above median diagnosed duration of HIV infection (p = 0.897), in participants below vs. those at or above median CD4 count (p = 0.447), and by ART regimens (p = 0.205). In this relatively young sample of HIV-infected individuals, metabolically abnormal phenotypes are frequent across BMI categories. This highlights the importance of general measures targeting an overall improvement in cardiometabolic risk profile across the spectrum of BMI distribution in all adults with HIV.
The balance between initial training and lifelong adaptation in evolving robot controllers

A central aim of robotics research is to design robots that can perform in the real world; a real world that is often highly changeable in nature. An important challenge for researchers is therefore to produce robots that can improve their performance when the environment is stable, and adapt when the environment changes. This paper reports on experiments which show how evolutionary methods can provide lifelong adaptation for robots, and how this evolutionary process was embodied on the robot itself. A unique combination of training and lifelong adaptation are used, and this paper highlights the importance of training to this approach.
Predicting Kala-Azar Disease Manifestations in Asymptomatic Patients with Latent Leishmania donovani Infection by Detection of Antibody against Recombinant K39 Antigen

Clinically visceral leishmaniasis is suspected in only a fraction of infected persons, as the majority of these may not have clinical manifestations and remain asymptomatic. There is scanty information on diagnosing latent infections and predicting disease in asymptomatic persons. We therefore carried out a study on asymptomatic contacts of patients with visceral leishmaniasis and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis by using methods for detection of antibody to recombinant K39 (rK39) antigen. A total of 240 patients with leishmaniasis and 150 asymptomatic contacts were tested for anti-rK39 immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA antibodies. Fifty-five asymptomatic persons were found to be seropositive. These individuals were monitored every 3 months for 1 year. On follow-up, 43.9% of the asymptomatic seropositive contacts developed kala-azar within the first 3 months, and a cumulative total of 69% developed kala-azar within 1 year. The rest remained asymptomatic and self-healed the infection. The sensitivity and specificity of rK39 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and dipstick tests were 100%, while an in-house-developed latex agglutination test had 80% sensitivity. The antibody profile showed that the IgG anti-rK39 antibodies reached a titer of up to 10(-6) within 6 months of infection, started declining thereafter, and completely disappeared in 2 to 3 years in successfully treated cases. Significant titers of IgA antibodies were detectable a little earlier than those of IgG antibodies and were undetectable after 6 months. The study showed that mass screening of family members and contacts by using anti-rK39 ELISA could be a highly reliable tool for early diagnosis and to plan prophylactic treatment of latently infected asymptomatic carriers to eradicate kala-azar.
Analysis of mutant Moloney murine leukemia viruses containing linker insertion mutations in the 3' region of pol

Twelve linker insertion mutations have been constructed in the 3' part of the pol gene of Moloney murine leukemia virus. This region of the Moloney murine leukemia virus genome encodes IN or p46pol, which is required for integration of the retroviral DNA into the host cell chromosome. Viral proteins synthesized by these mutants were used to pseudotype a neo-containing retroviral vector. Ten of twelve linker insertion mutant pseudotypes were unable to generate stable proviruses in infected mouse cells, as measured by the formation of G418-resistant colonies. Two mutants mapping at the 3' terminus of the IN-encoding region were competent for the formation of stable vector proviruses (hundreds of G418-resistant colonies per mutant pseudotype-infected plate). Representative linker insertion mutants were also tested for the ability to synthesize viral unintegrated DNA in newly infected cells. All assayed mutants were capable of synthesizing all normal forms of viral unintegrated DNA. The structure of integrated vector proviruses generated by defective and nondefective linker insertion mutants was also analyzed. All replication-competent mutants generated normal proviruses, while the few obtainable proviruses generated by replication-defective mutants were sometimes aberrant in structure. These results argue strongly (and confirm previous data) that the IN-encoding region of pol does not play a significant role in DNA synthesis, but is absolutely required for the formation of normal proviral DNA.