Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diffusible signals and epigenetic timing cooperate in late proximo-distal limb patterning

Developing vertebrate limbs initiate proximo-distal patterning by interpreting opposing gradients of diffusible signaling molecules. We report two thresholds of proximo-distal signals in the limb bud: a higher threshold that establishes the upper-arm to forearm transition; and a lower one that positions a later transition from forearm to hand. For this last transition to happen, however, the signal environment seems to be insufficient, and we show that a timing mechanism dependent on histone acetylation status is also necessary. Therefore, as a consequence of the time dependence, the lower signaling threshold remains cryptic until the timing mechanism reveals it. We propose that this timing mechanism prevents the distal transition from happening too early, so that the prospective forearm has enough time to expand and form a properly sized segment. Importantly, the gene expression changes provoked by the first transition further regulate proximo-distal signal distribution, thereby coordinating the positioning of the two thresholds, which ensures robustness. This model is compatible with the most recent genetic analyses and underscores the importance of growth during the time-dependent patterning phase, providing a new mechanistic framework for understanding congenital limb defects.
Review Paper: The Impact of Mobile Handheld Technology on Hospital Physicians' Work Practices and Patient Care: A Systematic Review

The substantial growth in mobile handheld technologies has heralded the opportunity to provide physicians with access to information, resources, and people at the right time and place. But is this technology delivering the benefits to workflow and patient care promised by increased mobility? The authors conducted a systematic review to examine evidence regarding the impact of mobile handheld technology on hospital physicians' work practices and patient care, focusing on quantification of the espoused virtues of mobile technologies. The authors identified thirteen studies that demonstrated the ability of personal digital assistants (PDAs) to positively impact on areas of rapid response, error prevention, and data management and accessibility. The use of PDAs demonstrates the greatest benefits in contexts where time is a critical factor and a rapid response crucial. However, the extent to which these devices improved outcomes and workflow efficiencies because of their mobility was largely absent from the literature. The paucity of evidence calls for much needed future research that asks explicit questions about the impact the mobility of devices has on work practices and outcomes.
Peripheral Sensory Neuropathy Associates With Micro- or Macroangiopathy

OBJECTIVE—To assess associations between peripheral sensory neuropathy (PSN) and other diabetes-related complications. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD—In an area-based cohort of type 2 diabetic subjects, we investigated 156 subjects (age 61.7 ± 7.2 years and diabetes duration 7.0 ± 5.7 years) by questionnaires, clinical examinations, blood and urine sampling, and review of medical records. RESULTS—Prevalence of PSN, assessed by monofilament and neurothesiometer testing, increased with severity of retinopathy (50% frequency in moderate and 100% in severe or proliferative retinopathy; P = 0.02). Vibration perception threshold was higher in subjects with retinopathy (25.6 ± 8.9 vs. 20.5 ± 8.9 V; P = 0.007). PSN was more common in subjects with overt nephropathy, with higher vibration perception thresholds, than in subjects without overt nephropathy. Subjects with PSN but no retinopathy had twice the prevalence of peripheral vascular disease (PVD) (52%) as subjects with both PSN and retinopathy (19%; P = 0.05). In subjects with PSN alone, PVD was three times more likely (52%) than in subjects without PSN (16%; P = 0.001). In multivariate analysis, PSN was independently associated with PVD (odds ratio 2.31; P = 0.007), age (1.12; P = 0.008), male sex (2.01; P = 0.02), and HDL cholesterol (0.21; P < 0.05) and tended to be independently associated with IGF-1 binding protein (1.03; P = 0.05) but not with diabetes duration or A1C. CONCLUSIONS—In a representative population of type 2 diabetes, PSN is related to microvascular and macrovascular pathology. PSN is possibly affected by the IGF axis.
Analysis of Probabilistic Optimal Power Flow Taking Account of the Variation of Load Power

This paper presents a probabilistic optimal power flow (POPF) algorithm taking account of the variation of load power. In the algorithm, system load is taken as a random vector, which allows us to consider the uncertainties and correlations of load. By introducing the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) function, the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions of POPF system are transformed equivalently into a set of nonsmooth nonlinear algebraic equations. Based on a first-order second-moment method (FOSMM), the POPF model which represents the probabilistic distributions of solution is determined. Using the subdifferential, the model which includes nonsmooth functions can be solved by an inexact Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The proposed algorithm is verified by three test systems. Results are compared with the two-point estimate method (2PEM) and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The proposed method requires less computational burden and shows good performance when no line current is at its limit.
Improving Principal Direction Divisive Clustering

Clustering is a very important topic in machine learning and knowledge discovery research. Many methods have been proposed, each based on dierent assumptions and models. In this paper we propose an improvement of the Principal Direction Divisive Partitioning algorithm. The proposed algorithm merges concepts from density estimation and projection-based methods towards a fast and ecient clustering algorithm, capable of dealing with high dimensional data. Experimental results show improved partitioning performance compared to other popular methods. Moreover, we explore the problem of automatically determining the number of clusters that is central in cluster analysis.
Two-state Markov-chain Poisson nature of individual cellphone call statistics

Unfolding the burst patterns in human activities and social interactions is a very important issue especially for understanding the spreading of disease and information and the formation of groups and organizations. Here, we conduct an in-depth study of the temporal patterns of cellphone conversation activities of 73 339 anonymous cellphone users, whose inter-call durations are Weibull distributed. We find that the individual call events exhibit a pattern of bursts, that high activity periods are alternated with low activity periods. In both periods, the number of calls are exponentially distributed for individuals, but power-law distributed for the population. Together with the exponential distributions of inter-call durations within bursts and of the intervals between consecutive bursts, we demonstrate that the individual call activities are driven by two independent Poisson processes, which can be combined within a minimal model in terms of a two-state first-order Markov chain, giving significant fits for nearly half of the individuals. By measuring directly the distributions of call rates across the population, which exhibit power-law tails, we purport the existence of power-law distributions, via the ‘superposition of distributions’ mechanism. Our findings shed light on the origins of bursty patterns in other human activities.
Nursing staff perceptions of the use of physical restraint in institutional care of older people in Finland.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To describe the perceptions of nursing staff on the use of physical restraints in institutional care of older people. BACKGROUND Physical restraint of older people is a common practice in institutional care in many countries, including Finland. As the nursing staff plays a major role in deciding on physically restraining older patient and in the care the patient receives, new research information is needed on the nursing staff's attitudes towards the use of physical restraints. DESIGN A qualitative study. METHOD The data consisted of focus group interviews with staff and supervisors. There were four focus groups: nurses, practical nurses, institutional assistants and care supervisors. RESULTS In addition to traditional methods of restraint, such as belts and locked doors, the nursing staff also used indirect restraint by removing the patient's mobility aid. Factors contributing to the use of restraints included requests by the patient's family members to use restraint to ensure the patient's safety and social reasons, in the form of lack of legislation on the use of restraint. The use of restraints caused feelings of guilt among the nursing staff, but on the other hand, it was seen as a way of making older patient feel more secure. CONCLUSIONS There is a need for official guidelines on the use of physical restraints in care of older people. This would require the entire nursing team to make a joint decision on the use of restraints and constant reassessment of the need of using restraints. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The results of the study provide nursing staff and supervisors a chance to ethically deliberate and evaluate their own work. Alternative practices for physical restraint can also be directly applied to practical care of older people.
On the importance of components of the modulation spectrum for speaker verification

We provide an analysis of the relative importance of components of the modulation spectrum for speaker veri(cid:12)-cation. The aim is to remove less relevant components and reduce system sensitivity to acoustic disturbances while improving veri(cid:12)cation accuracy. Spectral components between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz are found to contain the most useful speaker information. We discuss this result in the context of RASTA processing and cepstral mean subtraction. When compared to cepstral mean subtraction that retains components up to 50 Hz, lowpass (cid:12)ltering to 10 Hz with downsampling by 75% is found to signi(cid:12)cantly im- prove robustness in mismatched The downsampling results in a large computational savings.
TGA Transcription Factors Activate the Salicylic Acid-Suppressible Branch of the Ethylene-Induced Defense Program by Regulating ORA59 Expression1[C][W]

Two antagonistic hormonal pathways merge at the promoter of a crucial activator of one of the pathways. Salicylic acid (SA), a hormone essential for defense against biotrophic pathogens, triggers increased susceptibility of plants against necrotrophic attackers by suppressing the jasmonic acid-ethylene (ET) defense response. Here, we show that this disease-promoting SA effect is abolished in plants lacking the three related TGACG sequence-specific binding proteins TGA2, TGA5, and TGA6 (class II TGAs). After treatment of plants with the ET precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), activation of all those genes that are suppressed by SA depended on class II TGAs. Rather than TGA binding sites, GCC-box motifs were significantly enriched in the corresponding promoters. GCC-box motifs are recognized by members of the superfamily of APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTORs (ERFs). Of 11 activating ACC-induced APETALA2/ERFs, only ORA59 (for OCTADECANOID-RESPONSIVE ARABIDOPSIS APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR domain protein59) and ERF96 were strongly suppressed by SA. ORA59 is the master regulator of the jasmonic acid-ET-induced defense program. ORA59 transcript levels do not reach maximal levels in the tga2 tga5 tga6 triple mutant, and this residual activity cannot be suppressed by SA. The ORA59 promoter contains an essential TGA binding site and is a direct target of class II TGAs as revealed by chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments. We suggest that class II TGAs at the ORA59 promoter constitute an important regulatory hub for the activation and SA suppression of ACC-induced genes.
Application of Mixed Effects Limits of Agreement in the Presence of Multiple Sources of Variability: Exemplar from the Comparison of Several Devices to Measure Respiratory Rate in COPD Patients

Introduction The Bland-Altman limits of agreement method is widely used to assess how well the measurements produced by two raters, devices or systems agree with each other. However, mixed effects versions of the method which take into account multiple sources of variability are less well described in the literature. We address the practical challenges of applying mixed effects limits of agreement to the comparison of several devices to measure respiratory rate in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods Respiratory rate was measured in 21 people with a range of severity of COPD. Participants were asked to perform eleven different activities representative of daily life during a laboratory-based standardised protocol of 57 minutes. A mixed effects limits of agreement method was used to assess the agreement of five commercially available monitors (Camera, Photoplethysmography (PPG), Impedance, Accelerometer, and Chest-band) with the current gold standard device for measuring respiratory rate. Results Results produced using mixed effects limits of agreement were compared to results from a fixed effects method based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) and were found to be similar. The Accelerometer and Chest-band devices produced the narrowest limits of agreement (-8.63 to 4.27 and -9.99 to 6.80 respectively) with mean bias -2.18 and -1.60 breaths per minute. These devices also had the lowest within-participant and overall standard deviations (3.23 and 3.29 for Accelerometer and 4.17 and 4.28 for Chest-band respectively). Conclusions The mixed effects limits of agreement analysis enabled us to answer the question of which devices showed the strongest agreement with the gold standard device with respect to measuring respiratory rates. In particular, the estimated within-participant and overall standard deviations of the differences, which are easily obtainable from the mixed effects model results, gave a clear indication that the Accelerometer and Chest-band devices performed best.
Unipolar Differential Logic for Large-Scale Integration of Flexible aIGZO Circuits

A new unipolar differential logic (UDL) for the large-scale integration of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (aIGZO) digital circuits is proposed. Only single-threshold single-gate and aIGZO thin-film transistors are required. The proposed UDL logic gates are very insensitive to transistor parameter variations (i.e., threshold voltage, mobility, off-current, and subthreshold slope), which are inherently due to large-area low-temperature fabrication processes and operating conditions. To assess the UDL effectiveness, a wide range of parameter variations is considered: and, owing to the proposed architecture up to 1.5 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math></inline-formula> 10<sup>7</sup> UDL gates that can be integrated with a yield that is greater than 90%.
Disruption of Memory Reconsolidation Erases a Fear Memory Trace in the Human Amygdala: An 18-Month Follow-Up

Fear memories can be attenuated by reactivation followed by disrupted reconsolidation. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we recently showed that reactivation and reconsolidation of a conditioned fear memory trace in the basolateral amygdala predicts subsequent fear expression over two days, while reactivation followed by disrupted reconsolidation abolishes the memory trace and suppresses fear. In this follow-up study we demonstrate that the behavioral effect persists over 18 months reflected in superior reacquisition after undisrupted, as compared to disrupted reconsolidation, and that neural activity in the basolateral amygdala representing the initial fear memory predicts return of fear. We conclude that disrupting reconsolidation have long lasting behavioral effects and may permanently erase the fear component of an amygdala-dependent memory.
The effect of fading on the achievable rate of cooperative sensor networks with misinformed sensors

Communication from a cooperative sensor network to a mobile access point is considered in this paper. Sensors are assumed to be informed with a global message and some nodes are misinformed with random messages. The multiple access channel is i.i. d. fading and the realization of the channel state is known to the access point only. An achievable rate is derived for the information retrieval process when multiple sensors are activated at a time. For a Gaussian multiple access channel under a total network power constraint, the optimal number of simultaneous transmissions is investigated under three fading scenarios: non-fading, unit-gain, and Rayleigh-fading. With Gaussian code books, the optimal number of simultaneous transmissions varies in the three fading environments.
The Disease Burden of Taenia solium Cysticercosis in Cameroon

Background Taenia solium cysticercosis is an important zoonosis in many developing countries. Human neurocysticercosis is recognised as an important cause of epilepsy in regions where the parasite occurs. However, it is largely underreported and there is a lack of data about the disease burden. Because a body of information on human and porcine cysticercosis in Cameroon is becoming available, the present study was undertaken to calculate the impact of this neglected zoonosis. Methods Both the cost and Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) estimations were applied. All necessary parameters were collected and imported in R software. Different distributions were used according to the type of information available for each of the parameters. Findings Based on a prevalence of epilepsy of 3.6%, the number of people with neurocysticercosis-associated epilepsy was estimated at 50,326 (95% CR 37,299–65,924), representing 1.0% of the local population, whereas the number of pigs diagnosed with cysticercosis was estimated at 15,961 (95% CR 12,320–20,044), which corresponds to 5.6% of the local pig population. The total annual costs due to T. solium cysticercosis in West Cameroon were estimated at 10,255,202 Euro (95% CR 6,889,048–14,754,044), of which 4.7% were due to losses in pig husbandry and 95.3% to direct and indirect losses caused by human cysticercosis. The monetary burden per case of cysticercosis amounts to 194 Euro (95% CR 147–253). The average number of DALYs lost was 9.0 per thousand persons per year (95% CR 2.8–20.4). Interpretation This study provides an estimation of the costs due to T. solium cysticercosis using country-specific parameters and including the human as well as the animal burden of the zoonotic disease. A comparison with a study in South Africa indicates that the cost of inactivity, influenced by salaries, plays a predominant role in the monetary burden of T. solium cysticercosis. Therefore, knowing the salary levels and the prevalence of the disease might allow a rapid indication of the total cost of T. solium cysticercosis in a country. Ascertaining this finding with additional studies in cysticercosis-endemic countries could eventually allow the estimation of the global disease burden of cysticercosis. The estimated number of DALYs lost due to the disease was higher than estimates already available for some other neglected tropical diseases. The total estimated cost and number of DALYs lost probably underestimate the real values because the estimations have been based on epilepsy as the only symptom of cysticercosis.
Cd44 Is a Major E-Selectin Ligand on Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells

E-selectin plays a critical role in mediating tissue-specific homing of T cells into skin, and of primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) into bone marrow (BM). Though it is known that a glycoform of PSGL-1 (CLA) functions as the principal E-selectin ligand on human T lymphocytes, the E-selectin ligand(s) of human HPCs has not been identified. We used a shear-based adherence assay to analyze and define the E-selectin ligand activity of membrane proteins from human HPCs. Our data show that PSGL-1 expressed on human HPCs is an E-selectin ligand, and that HPCs also express a previously unrecognized E-selectin ligand, CD44. The E-selectin ligand activity of CD44 is conferred by the elaboration of sialylated, fucosylated binding determinants on N-glycans. This glycoform of CD44 is expressed on primitive CD34+ human HPCs, but not on more mature hematopoietic cells. Under physiologic flow conditions, this molecule mediates E-selectin–dependent rolling interactions over a wider shear range than that of PSGL-1, and promotes human HPC rolling interactions on E-selectin expressed on human BM endothelial cells. These findings offer new insights into the structural biology and physiology of CD44, and into the molecular basis of E-selectin–dependent adhesive interactions that direct homing of human HPC to BM.
How Much Data Are Enough? A Statistical Approach With Case Study on Longitudinal Driving Behavior

Big data has shown its uniquely powerful ability to reveal, model, and understand driver behaviors. The amount of data affects the experiment cost and conclusions in the analysis. Insufficient data may lead to inaccurate models, whereas excessive data lead to waste resources. For projects that cost millions of dollars, it is critical to determine the right amount of data needed. However, how to decide the appropriate amount has not been fully studied in the realm of driver behaviors. This paper systematically investigates this issue to estimate how much naturalistic driving data (NDD) is needed for understanding driver behaviors from a statistical point of view. A general assessment method is proposed using a Gaussian kernel density estimation to catch the underlying characteristics of driver behaviors. We then apply the Kullback–Leibler divergence method to measure the similarity between density functions with differing amounts of NDD. A max–minimum approach is used to compute the appropriate amount of NDD. To validate our proposed method, we investigated the car-following case using NDD collected from the University of Michigan Safety Pilot Model Deployment program. We demonstrate that from a statistical perspective, the proposed approach can provide an appropriate amount of NDD capable of capturing most features of the normal car-following behavior, which is consistent with the experiment settings in many literatures.
New Physics Scenarios in $b \to c \ell {\bar \nu}_\ell$ decays

The latest BaBar measurements of the ratios ${\cal R}(D^{(*)})=\displaystyle{\frac{{\cal B}(B \to D^{(*)} \tau {\bar \nu}_\tau)}{{\cal B}(B \to D^{(*)} \mu {\bar \nu}_\mu)}}$ deviate from the Standard Model predictions at the global level of 3.4$\sigma$. A possibility to reproduce these experimental ratios without affecting other modes which do not show similar deviations is to consider new physics scenarios producing an additional tensor operator in the effective weak Hamiltonian. I describe the impact of such an operator in semileptonic $B \to D^{(*)}$ modes and in semileptonic $B$ and $B_s$ decays to excited positive parity charmed mesons. In particular, I discuss the most effective observables able to discriminate new physics from the Standard Model.