Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The insulin‐like growth factor I generation test in the investigation of short stature

Genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity in patients with growth hormone (GH) insensitivity syndrome suggests that partial defects exist in the GH receptor. The insulin‐like growth factor I (IGF‐I) generation test was assessed as a means of identifying partial GH receptor defects in a heterogeneous group of 22 prepubertal children with short stature. In a subgroup of nine patients with peak GH levels of 63.7 ± 3.7 mU/l during a glucagon tolerance test, the response to the IGF‐I generation test was no different from that for the group as a whole (peak GH, 43.3 ± 4.5 mU/l), despite the fact that this subgroup exhibited a negative relationship between height SDS and peak GH and a positive relationship between height SDS and IGF binding protein‐3. This preliminary study therefore suggests that the IGF‐I generation test in its present form will not be useful as a primary screening test for partial GH insensitivity. Despite this, the IGF‐I generation test has been extremely useful in the confirmation of the diagnosis of GHIS and may therefore also prove useful in the confirmation of partial defects in the GH receptor. A subgroup of short children with peak GH levels above 40 mU/l had some characteristics of partial GH receptor deficiency. These children, to whom GH therapy would not normally be given, may respond better to recombinant human IGF‐I.
Stratified Transfer Learning for Cross-domain Activity Recognition

In activity recognition, it is often expensive and time-consuming to acquire sufficient activity labels. To solve this problem, transfer learning leverages the labeled samples from the source domain to annotate the target domain which has few or none labels. Existing approaches typically consider learning a global domain shift while ignoring the intra-affinity between classes, which will hinder the performance of the algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel and general cross-domain learning framework that can exploit the intra-affinity of classes to perform intra-class knowledge transfer. The proposed framework, referred to as Stratified Transfer Learning (STL), can dramatically improve the classification accuracy for cross-domain activity recognition. Specifically, STL first obtains pseudo labels for the target domain via majority voting technique. Then, it performs intra-class knowledge transfer iteratively to transform both domains into the same subspaces. Finally, the labels of target domain are obtained via the second annotation. To evaluate the performance of STL, we conduct comprehensive experiments on three large public activity recognition datasets (i.e., OPPORTUNITY, PAMAP2, and UCI DSADS), which demonstrates that STL significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art methods w.r. t. classification accuracy (improvement of 7.68%). Furthermore, we extensively investigate the performance of STL across different degrees of similarities and activity levels between domains. And we also discuss the potential of STL in other pervasive computing applications to provide empirical experience for future research.
Electrocardiographic predictors of coronary heart disease.

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) differs in Evans County, Georgia, white and black males in terms of its lower occurrence in black males, less definite age relationship, and less dependence on the usual coronary risk factors. The common electrocardiographic manifestations or precursors of IHD differ markedly in frequency and prognostic import in the two groups. The ECG patterns of Evans County black males are much more similar to those of Jamaican and South African black males than to those of Evans County white males or white males in other studies performed in the United States or elsewhere.
Lost and Found: detecting small road hazards for self-driving vehicles

Detecting small obstacles on the road ahead is a critical part of the driving task which has to be mastered by fully autonomous cars. In this paper, we present a method based on stereo vision to reliably detect such obstacles from a moving vehicle. The proposed algorithm performs statistical hypothesis tests in disparity space directly on stereo image data, assessing freespace and obstacle hypotheses on independent local patches. This detection approach does not depend on a global road model and handles both static and moving obstacles. For evaluation, we employ a novel lost-cargo image sequence dataset comprising more than two thousand frames with pixelwise annotations of obstacle and free-space and provide a thorough comparison to several stereo-based baseline methods. The dataset will be made available to the community to foster further research on this important topic4. The proposed approach outperforms all considered baselines in our evaluations on both pixel and object level and runs at frame rates of up to 20 Hz on 2 mega-pixel stereo imagery. Small obstacles down to the height of 5 cm can successfully be detected at 20 m distance at low false positive rates.
The Effect of Particle Size on the Deposition of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles in Different Skin Layers: A Histological Study

Purpose: In the present study the effect of particle size, as a substantial parameters in skin penetration, on the deposition depth and rate of SLNs in different layers of skin was explored. Methods: SLNs in different particle size ranges (80, 333 and 971 nm) made of Precirol as solid lipid were prepared using hot melt homogenization technique and pigmented by Rhodamine B to be able to be tracked in the skin under inspection of fluorescent microscopy. After 0.5 h, 3 h, 6 h and 24 h of SLNs administration on rat skin, animals were sacrificed and exercised skins were sliced by a freeze microtome. SLNs were monitored in the skin structure under fluorescence microscope. Results: The size of SLNs played a crucial role in the penetration to deep skin layers. The sub100 nm size range of SLNs showed the most promising skin penetration rate and depth mainly via hair follicles. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicated that the selection of an appropriate size of particles may be a valuable factor impacting the therapeutic outcomes of dermal drug administration.
Thermal-Aware Design and Test Techniques for Two-and Three-Dimensional Networks-on-Chip

To alleviate interconnect scaling problem, Network-on-Chip (NoC) has evolved as a standard to design advanced Multiprocessor System-on-Chip (MPSoC). Furthermore, three-dimensional (3D) integration has been proposed recently as an alternative to meet interconnection scaling demands. To design three-dimensional NoC (3D NoC) based systems, the communication channel across vertical direction of an extended router can be implemented by Through-Silicon-Via (TSV), which are often limited in number. The challenge in combining both the approaches of 3D and NoC is to come up with the association of routers of the 3D fabric with the cores of the application (known as application mapping) and proper placement of limited number of TSVs. The strategy should make efficient usage of the available hardware resources and be able to accommodate all the cores satisfying the communication needs. This work reports a number of application mapping and TSV placement strategies for 3D NoC design. Apart from performance, power and temperature have become two other dominant constraints in chip designs. Thermal problems are also exacerbated with the transition from 2D to 3D. To remove heat from stacked silicon layers and alleviate the hotspots, thermal-vias can be utilized. However, thermal-vias consume area and thus increase the IC cost. The thermal challenge can be addressed by judicious placement of cores and thermal-vias in the chip. This work has proposed a number of techniques to address this problem. Thermal-safety during testing also cannot be ignored. High local temperatures during test may create local hotspots that may lead to chip burn-out, and as a result, yield loss. The variance in temperature across the chip changes the delay of different parts of the chip. This may cause some good chips to fail delay test and/or some bad chips to pass, affecting the yield and quality of products. The work has also proposed both exact and heuristic methods to address the thermal-aware NoC test scheduling problem.
Highly Conjugative pMG1-Like Plasmids Carrying Tn1546-Like Transposons That Encode Vancomycin Resistance in Enterococcus faecium

ABSTRACT A total of 12 VanA-type vancomycin-resistant enterococci, consisting of 10 Enterococcus faecium isolates and two Enterococcus avium isolates, were examined in detail. The vancomycin resistance conjugative plasmids pHTα (65.9 kbp), pHTβ (63.7 kbp), and pHTγ (66.5 kbp) were isolated from each of three different E. faecium strains. The plasmids transferred highly efficiently between enterococcus strains during broth mating and were homologous with pMG1 (Gmr; 65.1 kb).
Atorvastatin Prevents Endothelial Dysfunction in Mesenteric Arteries From Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats: Role of Cyclooxygenase 2–Derived Contracting Prostanoids

We investigated the effect of atorvastatin on cyclooxygenase (COX) contribution to endothelial dysfunction in spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) mesenteric resistance arteries. Atorvastatin (10 mg/kg per day, oral gavage) or its vehicle was administered for 2 weeks to male SHR or Wistar-Kyoto rats. Endothelial function of mesenteric arteries was assessed by pressurized myograph. In Wistar-Kyoto rats, relaxation to acetylcholine was inhibited by NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester and unaffected by SC-560 (COX-1 inhibitor), DuP-697 (COX-2 inhibitor), or ascorbic acid. In SHRs, the response to acetylcholine was attenuated, less sensitive to NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester, unaffected by SC-560, and enhanced by DuP-697 or SQ-29548 (thromboxane-prostanoid receptor antagonist) to a similar extent. Endothelium-dependent relaxation was normalized by ascorbic acid or apocynin (NADPH oxidase inhibitor), which also restored the inhibition by NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester. In atorvastatin-treated SHRs, relaxation to acetylcholine was normalized, fully sensitive to NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester, and not affected by SC-560, DuP-697, SQ 29548, or antioxidants. Dihydroethidium assay showed an increased intravascular superoxide generation in SHRs, which was abrogated by atorvastatin. RT-PCR revealed a COX-2 induction in SHR arteries, which was downregulated by atorvastatin. The release of prostacyclin and 8-isoprostane was higher from SHR than Wistar-Kyoto mesenteric vessels. COX-2 inhibition and apocynin decreased 8-isoprostane without affecting prostacyclin levels. Atorvastatin increased phosphorylated extracellular signal–regulated kinase 1/2, pAkt, peNOS1177, and inducible NO synthase levels in SHR mesenteric vessels and decreased 8-isoprostane release. In conclusion, COX-2–derived 8-isoprostane contributes to endothelial dysfunction in SHR mesenteric arteries. Atorvastatin restores NO availability by increasing phosphorylated extracellular signal–regulated kinase 1/2, pAkt, peNOS1177, and inducible NO synthase levels and by abrogating vascular NADPH oxidase–driven superoxide production, which also results in a downregulation of COX-2–dependent 8-isoprostane generation.
Bayesian phylogeography of influenza A/H3N2 for the 2014-15 season in the United States using three frameworks of ancestral state reconstruction

Ancestral state reconstructions in Bayesian phylogeography of virus pandemics have been improved by utilizing a Bayesian stochastic search variable selection (BSSVS) framework. Recently, this framework has been extended to model the transition rate matrix between discrete states as a generalized linear model (GLM) of genetic, geographic, demographic, and environmental predictors of interest to the virus and incorporating BSSVS to estimate the posterior inclusion probabilities of each predictor. Although the latter appears to enhance the biological validity of ancestral state reconstruction, there has yet to be a comparison of phylogenies created by the two methods. In this paper, we compare these two methods, while also using a primitive method without BSSVS, and highlight the differences in phylogenies created by each. We test six coalescent priors and six random sequence samples of H3N2 influenza during the 2014–15 flu season in the U.S. We show that the GLMs yield significantly greater root state posterior probabilities than the two alternative methods under five of the six priors, and significantly greater Kullback-Leibler divergence values than the two alternative methods under all priors. Furthermore, the GLMs strongly implicate temperature and precipitation as driving forces of this flu season and nearly unanimously identified a single root state, which exhibits the most tropical climate during a typical flu season in the U.S. The GLM, however, appears to be highly susceptible to sampling bias compared with the other methods, which casts doubt on whether its reconstructions should be favored over those created by alternate methods. We report that a BSSVS approach with a Poisson prior demonstrates less bias toward sample size under certain conditions than the GLMs or primitive models, and believe that the connection between reconstruction method and sampling bias warrants further investigation.
Mapping coastal environments with lidar and EM on Mustang Island, Texas, U.S.

We explore whether lidar (light detection and ranging) and EM (electromagnetic induction) can improve the accuracy and resolution of wetland mapping that has historically been based chiefly on analysis of aerial photographs. Using Mustang Island on the central Texas coast as an example, we exploit (1) the known strong relationship between elevation and coastal habitat by comparing a lidar-derived digital elevation model (DEM) with existing wetland maps and detailed vegetation transects, and (2) another known strong relationship between soil and water salinity and coastal habitat by collecting and comparing EM-derived conductivity data with elevation and vegetation type across the island.
Molecular architecture of the yeast Mediator complex

The 21-subunit Mediator complex transduces regulatory information from enhancers to promoters, and performs an essential role in the initiation of transcription in all eukaryotes. Structural information on two-thirds of the complex has been limited to coarse subunit mapping onto 2-D images from electron micrographs. We have performed chemical cross-linking and mass spectrometry, and combined the results with information from X-ray crystallography, homology modeling, and cryo-electron microscopy by an integrative modeling approach to determine a 3-D model of the entire Mediator complex. The approach is validated by the use of X-ray crystal structures as internal controls and by consistency with previous results from electron microscopy and yeast two-hybrid screens. The model shows the locations and orientations of all Mediator subunits, as well as subunit interfaces and some secondary structural elements. Segments of 20–40 amino acid residues are placed with an average precision of 20 Å. The model reveals roles of individual subunits in the organization of the complex. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.08719. 001
The metric and strong coupling limit of the M5-brane

We find the analog of the Boillat metric of Born–Infeld theory for the M5-brane. We show that it provides the propagation cone of all 5-brane degrees. In an arbitrary background field, this cone never lies outside the Einstein cone. An energy momentum tensor for the three-form is defined and shown to satisfy the Dominant Energy Condition. The theory is shown to be well defined for all values of the magnetic field but there is a limiting electric field strength. We consider the strong coupling limit of the M5-brane and show that the corresponding theory is conformally invariant and admits infinitely many conservation laws. On reduction to the Born–Infeld case this agrees with the work of Bialynicki-Birula.
Composing OS extensions safely and efficiently with Bascule

Library OS (LibOS) architectures implement the OS personality as a user-mode library, giving each application the flexibility to choose its LibOS. This approach is appealing for many reasons, not least the ability to extend or customise the LibOS. Recent work with Drawbridge [29] showed that an existing commodity OS (Windows 7) could be refactored to produce a LibOS while retaining application compatibility. This paper presents Bascule, an architecture for LibOS extensions based on Drawbridge. Rather than relying on the application developer to customise a LibOS, Bascule allows OS-independent extensions to be attached at runtime. Extensions interpose on a narrow binary interface of primitive OS abstractions, such as files and virtual memory. Thus, they are independent of both guest and host OS, and composable at runtime. Since an extension runs in the same process as an application and its LibOS, it is safe and efficient. Bascule demonstrates extension reuse across diverse guest LibOSes (Windows and Linux) and host OSes (Windows and Barrelfish). Current extensions include file system translation, checkpointing, and architecture adaptation.
Cellflow: A Parallel Application Development Environment with Run-Time Support for the Cell BE Processor

The Cell BE processor provides both scalable computation power and flexibility, and it is already being adopted for many computational intensive applications. Despite of its merits, it also presents many challenges, as it is now widely known that is very difficult to program the Cell BE in an efficient manner. Hence, the creation of an efficient software development framework is becoming the key challenge for this computational platform. We propose a novel software toolkit, called Cellflow, which enables developers to quickly build multi-task applications for Cell-based platform. We support programmers from the initial stage of their work, through a development-time software infrastructure, to the final stage of the application development, proposing a safe and easy-to-use explicit parallel programming model. Experimental results show that in Cellflow we reduced to minimum the abstraction gap between the optimization and development phases.
Routing with Guaranteed Delivery in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

We consider routing problems in ad hoc wireless networks modeled as unit graphs in which nodes are points in the plane and two nodes can communicate if the distance between them is less than some fixed unit. We describe the first distributed algorithms for routing that do not require duplication of packets or memory at the nodes and yet guarantee that a packet is delivered to its destination. These algorithms can be extended to yield algorithms for broadcasting and geocasting that do not require packet duplication. A byproduct of our results is a simple distributed protocol for extracting a planar subgraph of a unit graph. We also present simulation results on the performance of our algorithms.
Visual processing of emotional dynamic faces in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

INTRODUCTION The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a neurogenetic syndrome. Individuals affected by this syndrome present poor social functioning and a high risk for the development of psychiatric disorders. Accurate emotion recognition and visual exploration of faces represent important skills for appropriate development of social cognition in individuals with 22q11DS. For these reasons, there is elevated interest in establishing relevant ways to test the mechanisms associated with emotion recognition in patients with 22q11DS. METHODS This study investigated emotional recognition and visual exploration of emotional faces in persons with 22q11DS, with a dynamic emotion task using an eye-tracking device. To our knowledge, no previous studies have used emotional dynamic stimuli with 22q11DS, despite improved ecological validity of dynamic stimuli compared with static images. Furthermore, these stimuli provide the opportunity to collect reaction times, as indicators of the emotional intensity necessary for identifying each emotion. RESULTS In our task, we observed comparable accuracy in emotion recognition in the 22q11DS and healthy control groups. However, individuals with 22q11DS were slower to recognise the emotions. They also spent less time looking at the nose during happy and fearful faces. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that individuals with 22q11DS may need either more time or more pronounced emotional cues to correctly label facial expressions.
Nuclear DNA analyses in genetic studies of populations: practice, problems and prospects

Population‐genetic studies have been remarkably productive and successful in the last decade following the invention of PCR technology and the introduction of mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA markers. While mitochondrial DNA has proven powerful for genealogical and evolutionary studies of animal populations, and microsatellite sequences are the most revealing DNA markers available so far for inferring population structure and dynamics, they both have important and unavoidable limitations. To obtain a fuller picture of the history and evolutionary potential of populations, genealogical data from nuclear loci are essential, and the inclusion of other nuclear markers, i.e. single copy nuclear polymorphic (scnp) sequences, is clearly needed. Four major uncertainties for nuclear DNA analyses of populations have been facing us, i.e. the availability of scnp markers for carrying out such analysis, technical laboratory hurdles for resolving haplotypes, difficulty in data analysis because of recombination, low divergence levels and intraspecific multifurcation evolution, and the utility of scnp markers for addressing population‐genetic questions. In this review, we discuss the availability of highly polymorphic single copy DNA in the nuclear genome, describe patterns and rate of evolution of nuclear sequences, summarize past empirical and theoretical efforts to recover and analyse data from scnp markers, and examine the difficulties, challenges and opportunities faced in such studies. We show that although challenges still exist, the above‐mentioned obstacles are now being removed. Recent advances in technology and increases in statistical power provide the prospect of nuclear DNA analyses becoming routine practice, allowing allele‐discriminating characterization of scnp loci and microsatellite loci. This certainly will increase our ability to address more complex questions, and thereby the sophistication of genetic analyses of populations.