Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Complexity of Physical Problems and a Swarm Algorithm for k-Clique Search in Physical Graphs

As the complexity of systems increases, so does the need of examining the nature of complexity itself. This work discusses the domain of physical swarm problems, in which a swarm of mobile agents is employed for solving physical graph problems (where a certain amount of travel effort in required for every movement along the graph’s edges). A new kind of complexity scheme, suitable for this domain, is discussed by examining a central problem of this domain — the physical k-clique problem. In this problem, a swarm comprising of mobile agents travels along the vertices of a physical graph G, searching for a clique of size k. Thus, the complexity of the problem is measured in travel efforts (instead of in computation resources). In order to share information between the agents, two communication models are discussed — a complete knowledge sharing (referred to as centralized shared memory) and a distributed shared memory model, where the mobile agents can store and extract information using the graph’s vertices. The work presents a search algorithm for the agents, and discusses its performance under each communication model. The major contribution of this work is demonstrating the strength of the distributed shared memory model. Although this model is much easier to implement and maintain, is highly fault tolerant and has high scalability, the quality of the results it produces is very high, compared to the strongest model of complete knowledge sharing.
Look at those two!: The precuneus role in unattended third‐person perspective of social interactions

Human beings often observe other people's social interactions without being a part of them. Whereas the implications of some brain regions (e.g. amygdala) have been extensively examined, the implication of the precuneus remains yet to be determined. Here we examined the implication of the precuneus in third‐person perspective of social interaction using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants performed a socially irrelevant task while watching the biological motion of two agents acting in either typical (congruent to social conventions) or atypical (incongruent to social conventions) ways. When compared to typical displays, the atypical displays elicited greater activation in the central and posterior bilateral precuneus, and in frontoparietal and occipital regions. Whereas the right precuneus responded with greater activation also to upside down than upright displays, the left precuneus did not. Correlations and effective connectivity analysis added consistent evidence of an interhemispheric asymmetry between the right and left precuneus. These findings suggest that the precuneus reacts to violations of social expectations, and plays a crucial role in third‐person perspective of others' interaction even when the social context is unattended. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5190–5203, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
EEG-microstate dependent emergence of perceptual awareness

We investigated whether the differences in perceptual awareness for stimuli at the threshold of awareness can arise from different global brain states before stimulus onset indexed by the EEG microstate. We used a metacontrast backward masking paradigm in which subjects had to discriminate between two weak stimuli and obtained measures of accuracy and awareness while their EEG was recorded from 256 channels. Comparing targets that were correctly identified with and without awareness allowed us to contrast differences in awareness while keeping performance constant for identical physical stimuli. Two distinct pre-stimulus scalp potential fields (microstate maps) dissociated correct identification with and without awareness, and their estimated intracranial generators were stronger in primary visual cortex before correct identification without awareness. This difference in activity cannot be explained by differences in alpha power or phase which were less reliably linked with differential pre-stimulus activation of primary visual cortex. Our results shed a new light on the function of pre-stimulus activity in early visual cortex in visual awareness and emphasize the importance of trial-by-trials analysis of the spatial configuration of the scalp potential field identified with multichannel EEG.
Efficacy and Safety of Switching From the DPP-4 Inhibitor Sitagliptin to the Human GLP-1 Analog Liraglutide After 52 Weeks in Metformin-Treated Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy and safety of switching from sitagliptin to liraglutide in metformin-treated adults with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In an open-label trial, participants randomized to receive either liraglutide (1.2 or 1.8 mg/day) or sitagliptin (100 mg/day), each added to metformin, continued treatment for 52 weeks. In a 26-week extension, sitagliptin-treated participants were randomly allocated to receive instead liraglutide at either 1.2 or 1.8 mg/day, while participants originally randomized to receive liraglutide continued unchanged. RESULTS Although 52 weeks of sitagliptin changed glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) by −0.9% from baseline, additional decreases occurred after switching to liraglutide (1.2 mg/day, −0.2%, P = 0.006; 1.8 mg/day, −0.5%, P = 0.0001). Conversion to liraglutide was associated with reductions in fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (1.2 mg/day, −0.8 mmol/L, P = 0.0004; 1.8 mg/day, −1.4 mmol/L, P < 0.0001) and body weight (1.2 mg/day, −1.6 kg; 1.8 mg/day, −2.5 kg; both P < 0.0001) and with an increased proportion of patients reaching HbA1c <7% (from ∼30% to ∼50%). Overall treatment satisfaction, assessed by the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire, improved after switching to liraglutide (pooled 1.2 and 1.8 mg/day, 1.3; P = 0.0189). After switching, mostly transient nausea occurred in 21% of participants, and minor hypoglycemia remained low (3–4% of participants). Continuing liraglutide treatment at 1.2 mg/day and 1.8 mg/day for 78 weeks reduced HbA1c (baseline 8.3 and 8.4%, respectively) by −0.9 and −1.3%, respectively; FPG by −1.3 and −1.7 mmol/L, respectively; and weight by −2.6 and −3.1 kg, respectively, with 9–10% of participants reporting minor hypoglycemia. CONCLUSIONS Glycemic control, weight, and treatment satisfaction improved after switching from sitagliptin to liraglutide, albeit with a transient increase in gastrointestinal reactions.
Screening High School Students for Eating Disorders: Results of a National Initiative

Introduction Early identification and treatment of disordered eating and weight control behaviors may prevent progression and reduce the risk of chronic health consequences. Methods The National Eating Disorders Screening Program coordinated the first-ever nationwide eating disorders screening initiative for high schools in the United States in 2000. Students completed a self-report screening questionnaire that included the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) and items on vomiting or exercising to control weight, binge eating, and history of treatment for eating disorders. Multivariate regression analyses examined sex and racial/ethnic differences. Results Almost 15% of girls and 4% of boys scored at or above the threshold of 20 on the EAT-26, which indicated a possible eating disorder. Among girls, we observed few significant differences between ethnic groups in eating disorder symptoms, whereas among boys, more African American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Latino boys reported symptoms than did white boys. Overall, 25% of girls and 11% of boys reported disordered eating and weight control symptoms severe enough to warrant clinical evaluation. Of these symptomatic students, few reported that they had ever received treatment. Conclusion Population screening for eating disorders in high schools may identify at-risk students who would benefit from early intervention, which could prevent acute and long-term complications of disordered eating and weight control behaviors.
Asset Return Dynamics Under Bad Environment-Good Environment Fundamentals

We introduce a "bad environment-good environment" technology for consumption growth in a consumption-based asset pricing model. Using the preference structure from Campbell and Cochrane (1999), the model generates realistic time-varying volatility, skewness and kurtosis in fundamentals while still permitting closed-form solutions for asset prices. The model not only fits standard salient asset prices features including means and volatilities for equity returns and risk free rates, but also generates a realistic variance premium and option prices.
Molecular Detection and Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in Chicken, Beef, and Lamb Meat Consumed in Northwestern Iran

Background: Toxoplasma gondii, the obligate, intracellular parasite afflicts human in diverse ways such as ingestion of tissue cysts in undercooked meat. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and genotyping of Toxoplasma isolated from meat samples being consumed in East Azerbaijan, Northwest of Iran. Methods: Overall, 150 samples including chicken, beef and lamb meat were collected from retailers in different regions of Tabriz, northwestern Iran during April to September 2014. Molecular detection was done by amplifying B1 gene and T. gondii surface antigen 2 (SAG2) loci. For genotyping of T. gondii, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was performed using Sau3AI and HhaI restriction enzymes. Finally, three positive isolate from each host was sequenced to evaluate and phylogenetic analysis. Results: Overall, 26 (17.33%) samples were positive for T. gondii including 4 (8%) isolate from chicken, 8 (16%) isolates from cattle and 14 (28%) isolates from sheep. According to the RFLP patterns, sequencing and phylogenetic results, all of the samples were identified as genotype I. Conclusion: The results indicated a potential risk of transmission of the disease through the consumption of infected meat. This is particularly important especially for pregnant women and immuno-compromised patients and this suggests that the training on the prevention of infection is necessary.
Conceptual DFT Descriptors of Amino Acids with Potential Corrosion Inhibition Properties Calculated with the Latest Minnesota Density Functionals

Amino acids and peptides have the potential to perform as corrosion inhibitors. The chemical reactivity descriptors that arise from Conceptual DFT for the twenty natural amino acids have been calculated by using the latest Minnesota family of density functionals. In order to verify the validity of the calculation of the descriptors directly from the HOMO and LUMO, a comparison has been performed with those obtained through ΔSCF results. Moreover, the active sites for nucleophilic and electrophilic attacks have been identified through Fukui function indices, the dual descriptor Δf(r) and the electrophilic and nucleophilic Parr functions. The results could be of interest as a starting point for the study of large peptides where the calculation of the radical cation and anion of each system may be computationally harder and costly.
Tai Chi Intervention Increases Progenitor CD34+ Cells in Young Adults

Tai Chi has been shown to have many great health benefits. However, few research attempts have been made to explore the effects of practicing TCC on life span. This study provides direct evidence of Tai Chi's antiaging effects. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study to compare the rejuvenating and antiaging effects among Tai Chi group (TCC) and brisk walking group (BW) and no exercise habit group (NEH). Thirty-two participants were selected out of a possible 60 based on a survey, and they were separated into three groups: the TCC group (practicing for more than 1 year), the BW group (practicing for more than 1 year), and the NEH group. The CD34+ cell counts in peripheral blood of the participants was determined, and the Kruskal–Wallis test was used to evaluate and compare the antiaging effects of the three groups. Of the 32 participants in this study, the participants in the TCC group (N = 10) outperformed the NEH group (N = 12) with respect to the number of CD34+ progenitor cells. No significant difference was found between the TCC group and the BW group. TCC practice sustained for more than 1 year may be an intervention against aging as effective as BW in terms of its benefits on the improvement of CD34+ number.
Rational Inattention in Macroeconomics: A Survey

In this paper we survey recent works on rational inattention (RI) in macroeconomics within the dynamic linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) setting. We first discuss how RI affects consumption smoothness and sensitivity, precautionary savings, asset pricing, portfolio choice, and aggregate fluctuations in the univariate case. We then discuss the applications of RI to macroeconomic models of permanent income and price-setting in the multivariate case. Finally, we briefly discuss how RI can be applied to non-LQG settings.
Laplacian Eigenvalues and Distances Between Subsets of a Manifold

In this paper we give a new method to convert results dealing with graph theoretic (or Markov chain) Laplacians into results concerning Laplacians in analysis, such as on Riemannian manifolds. We illustrate this method by using the results of [CGY97] to prove λ1 ≤ 1 dist(X,Y ) ( cosh−1 √ μXc μY c μX μY )2 . for λ1 the first positive Neumann eigenvalue on a connected compact Riemannian manifold, and X,Y any two disjoint sets (and where Xc is the complement of X). This inequality has a version for the k-th positive eigenvalue (involving k+1 disjoint sets), and holds more generally for all “analytic” Laplacians described in [CGY97]. We show that this inequality is optimal “to first order,” in that it is impossible to obtain an inequality of this form with the right-hand-side divided by 1 + for any fixed constant > 0.
Hypervariable Domains of nsP3 Proteins of New World and Old World Alphaviruses Mediate Formation of Distinct, Virus-Specific Protein Complexes

ABSTRACT Alphaviruses are a group of single-stranded RNA viruses with genomes of positive polarity. They are divided into two geographically isolated groups: the Old World and the New World alphaviruses. Despite their similar genome organizations and virion structures, they differ in many aspects of pathogenesis and interaction with the host cell. Here we present new data highlighting previously unknown differences between these two groups. We found that nsP3 proteins of Sindbis virus (SINV) and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) form cytoplasmic complexes with different morphologies and protein compositions. Unlike the amorphous aggregates formed by SINV nsP3 and other Old World alphavirus-specific nsP3s, VEEV nsP3 forms unique, large spherical structures with striking symmetry. Moreover, VEEV nsP3 does not interact with proteins previously identified as major components of SINV nsP3 complexes, such as G3BP1 and G3BP2. Importantly, the morphology of the complexes and the specificity of the interaction with cellular proteins are largely determined by the hypervariable domain (HVD) of nsP3. Replacement of the VEEV nsP3 HVD with the corresponding domain of SINV nsP3 rendered this protein capable of interaction with G3BPs. Conversely, replacement of the SINV nsP3 HVD with that of VEEV abolished SINV nsP3's interaction with G3BPs. The replacement of natural HVDs with those from heterologous viruses did not abrogate virus replication, despite these fragments demonstrating very low levels of sequence identity. Our data suggest that in spite of the differences in morphology and composition of the SINV- and VEEV-specific nsP3 complexes, it is likely that they have similar functions in virus replication and modification of the cellular environment.
Learning Word Representations by Jointly Modeling Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relations

Vector space representation of words has been widely used to capture fine-grained linguistic regularities, and proven to be successful in various natural language processing tasks in recent years. However, existing models for learning word representations focus on either syntagmatic or paradigmatic relations alone. In this paper, we argue that it is beneficial to jointly modeling both relations so that we can not only encode different types of linguistic properties in a unified way, but also boost the representation learning due to the mutual enhancement between these two types of relations. We propose two novel distributional models for word representation using both syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations via a joint training objective. The proposed models are trained on a public Wikipedia corpus, and the learned representations are evaluated on word analogy and word similarity tasks. The results demonstrate that the proposed models can perform significantly better than all the state-of-the-art baseline methods on both tasks.
Who Takes Precautionary Action in the Face of the New H1N1 Influenza? Prediction of Who Collects a Free Hand Sanitizer Using a Health Behavior Model

Background In order to fight the spread of the novel H1N1 influenza, health authorities worldwide called for a change in hygiene behavior. Within a longitudinal study, we examined who collected a free bottle of hand sanitizer towards the end of the first swine flu pandemic wave in December 2009. Methods 629 participants took part in a longitudinal study assessing perceived likelihood and severity of an H1N1 infection, and H1N1 influenza related negative affect (i.e., feelings of threat, concern, and worry) at T1 (October 2009, week 43–44) and T2 (December 2009, week 51–52). Importantly, all participants received a voucher for a bottle of hand sanitizer at T2 which could be redeemed in a university office newly established for this occasion at T3 (ranging between 1–4 days after T2). Results Both a sequential longitudinal model (M2) as well as a change score model (M3) showed that greater perceived likelihood and severity at T1 (M2) or changes in perceived likelihood and severity between T1 and T2 (M3) did not directly drive protective behavior (T3), but showed a significant indirect impact on behavior through H1N1 influenza related negative affect. Specifically, increases in perceived likelihood (β = .12), severity (β = .24) and their interaction (β = .13) were associated with a more pronounced change in negative affect (M3). The more threatened, concerned and worried people felt (T2), the more likely they were to redeem the voucher at T3 (OR = 1.20). Conclusions Affective components need to be considered in health behavior models. Perceived likelihood and severity of an influenza infection represent necessary but not sufficient self-referential knowledge for paving the way for preventive behaviors.
Diffusion-Weighted MRI Findings in Patients with Capsular Warning Syndrome

Background and Purpose: The ‘capsular warning syndrome’ (CWS) of recurrent stereotyped episodes of motor or sensory dysfunction is clinically well recognized, and is associated with a high risk of imminent lacunar infarction with permanent deficits resembling those of CWS. However, the pathophysiology of CWS has not been well characterized. We report a clinicoanatomic correlation with MR imaging studies in the acute and chronic phases in patients with CWS. Material and Methods: Between April 1997 and March 2001, we prospectively studied 8 patients, mean age 73.3 years, presenting with 4–17 motor or sensorimotor transient ischemic attacks (TIAs; duration 2–90 min) up to 3 days after onset of the first episode. Four patients were free of symptoms between the attacks and had no residua, whereas 4 patients developed a pure motor or sensorimotor stroke within 1–3 days after symptom onset. Diffusion-weighted echoplanar MRI (DWI) and T2-weighted MRI studies were performed within 1 week after symptom onset and were repeated 1–2 months later. Results: Seven of the 8 patients had an appropriate lesion on DWI in the acute phase. DWI abnormalities in the 3 patients with TIAs were 4–10 mm in diameter and confined to the lateral thalamus or medial globus pallidus without involving the internal capsule, whereas 4 patients who developed a stroke had abnormalities localized to the putamen extending to corona radiata (3 patients), or the pontomesencephalic junction (1 patient). All 6 patients who underwent follow-up MRI had an infarct on T2-weighted images corresponding to, but usually smaller than, the acute phase DWI abnormality. Conclusions: Small infarcts in the basal ganglia or the pons, close to central motor pathways, appear to be the primary lesion in CWS. The pathophysiology of CWS is complex, and may involve hemodynamic mechanisms in penetrating arterial territories, as well as molecular mechanisms, such as peri-infarct depolarizations affecting adjacent motor pathways.
Enabling Concurrent Failure Recovery for Regenerating-Coding-Based Storage Systems: From Theory to Practice

Data availability is critical in distributed storage systems, especially when node failures are prevalent in real life. A key requirement is to minimize the amount of data transferred among nodes when recovering the lost or unavailable data of failed nodes. This paper explores recovery solutions based on regenerating codes, which have been designed to provide fault-tolerant storage and minimum bandwidth. Existing optimal regenerating codes are designed for single node failures. We build a system called CORE, which augments existing optimal regenerating codes for the recovery of a general number of failures including single and concurrent failures. We show theoretically that CORE achieves the minimum possible bandwidth for most cases. We implement a CORE prototype and evaluate it atop an HDFS cluster testbed with up to 20 storage nodes. We demonstrate that our CORE prototype conforms to our theoretical findings and achieves bandwidth savings when compared to the conventional recovery approach based on erasure codes.
Comparison of the Antioxidant Effects of Quercitrin and Isoquercitrin: Understanding the Role of the 6″-OH Group

The role of the 6″-OH (ω-OH) group in the antioxidant activity of flavonoid glycosides has been largely overlooked. Herein, we selected quercitrin (quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside) and isoquercitrin (quercetin-3-O-glucoside) as model compounds to investigate the role of the 6″-OH group in several antioxidant pathways, including Fe2+-binding, hydrogen-donating (H-donating), and electron-transfer (ET). The results revealed that quercitrin and isoquercitrin both exhibited dose-dependent antioxidant activities. However, isoquercitrin showed higher levels of activity than quercitrin in the Fe2+-binding, ET-based ferric ion reducing antioxidant power, and multi-pathways-based superoxide anion-scavenging assays. In contrast, quercitrin exhibited greater activity than isoquercitrin in an H-donating-based 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging assay. Finally, in a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl assay based on an oxidatively damaged mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) model, isoquercitrin performed more effectively as a cytoprotector than quercitrin. Based on these results, we concluded that (1) quercitrin and isoquercitrin can both indirectly (i.e., Fe2+-chelating or Fe2+-binding) and directly participate in the scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) to protect MSCs against ROS-induced oxidative damage; (2) the 6″-OH group in isoquercitrin enhanced its ET and Fe2+-chelating abilities and lowered its H-donating abilities via steric hindrance or H-bonding compared with quercitrin; and (3) isoquercitrin exhibited higher ROS scavenging activity than quercitrin, allowing it to improve protect MSCs against ROS-induced oxidative damage.