Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using the MMPI to Assess Reported Cognitive Disturbances and Somatization as a Core Feature of Complex PTSD

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) clinical scales as well as 4 sets of MMPI items known to be sensitive to neurological dysfunction (closed head injury, cerebrovascular disorder) were administered to survivors of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse and to non-abused adults. As predicted, relative to the comparison group of psychiatric patients, the abused participants scored significantly higher on Scale 8 (Schizophrenia) and on all 4 sets of items associated with neurological dysfunction. The results suggest that early abuse/trauma is associated with cognitive disturbances and somatization. Findings appear to support the conceptualization of these psychophysical experiences as a central part of what is often called “complex posttraumatic stress disorder. ” Limitations and suggestions for further study are discussed.
The infrared and optical variability of OJ 287

In this paper, the long-term historical optical (UBVRI) and near-infrared (JHK) data are presented with some new observations in the optical (February 1994-January 1995) and near-infrared (November 1995) bands included for BL Lac object OJ 287. The new optical data in V-band are in agreement with the results reported by other authors (Sillanpaa et al. 1996a; Arimoto et al. 1997), a close correlation between the color index of B - V and the magnitude V has been obtained from our new observations. The new infrared observations presented here indicate that the source was at a high level in the infrared band during the observation period. From the available literature, we have got that the largest variations for UBVRIJHK bands are respectively: Delta U = 4. (m)72; Delta B = 5. (m)93; Delta V = 5. (m)18; Delta R = 4. (m)45; Delta I = 4. (m)07; Delta J = 3. (m)87; Delta H = 3. (m)78; Delta K = 3. (m)54. A strong correlation is found between the optical and near-infrared bands when the DCF method is used, which suggests that these two bands have the same emission mechanism.
The Growing Popularity of Prescription Opioid Injection in Downtown Montréal: New Challenges for Harm Reduction

Starting in 2007, a 2-year study based on ethnographic methodology was carried out downtown Montréal, Canada. A thematic analysis of observational and interview-based notes was conducted. Illicit prescription opioid (PO) use was widespread among street-based participants. Injection was the main mode of PO administration observed among users. Some injection practices such as “doing a wash” could pose new challenges in terms of prevention of infections. More research is needed to examine the role of illicit PO use in the development of opiate addiction and to better understand drug-using contexts that put PO users at risk of infections. The study's limitations are noted.
Activation Patterns of Purkinje Fibers During Long-Duration Ventricular Fibrillation in an Isolated Canine Heart Model

Background— The roles of Purkinje fibers (PFs) and focal wave fronts, if any, in the maintenance of ventricular fibrillation (VF) are unknown. If PFs are involved in VF maintenance, it should be possible to map wave fronts propagating from PFs into the working ventricular myocardium during VF. If wave fronts ever arise focally during VF, it should be possible to map them appearing de novo. Methods and Results— Six canine hearts were isolated, and the left main coronary artery was cannulated and perfused. The left ventricular cavity was exposed, which allowed direct endocardial mapping of the anterior papillary muscle insertion. Nonperfused VF was induced, and 6 segments of data, each 5 seconds long, were analyzed during 10 minutes of VF. During 36 segments of data that were analyzed, 1018 PF or focal wave fronts of activation were identified. In 534 wave fronts, activation was mapped propagating from working ventricular myocardium to PF. In 142 wave fronts, activation was mapped propagating from PF to working ventricular myocardium. In 342 wave fronts, activation was mapped arising focally. More than 1 of these 3 patterns could occur in the same wave front. Conclusions— PFs are highly active throughout the first 10 minutes of VF. In addition to retrograde propagation from the working ventricular myocardium to PFs, antegrade propagation occurs from PFs to working ventricular myocardium, which suggests PFs are important in VF maintenance. Prior plunge needle recordings in dogs indicate activation propagates from the endocardium toward the epicardium after 1 minute of VF, which suggests that focal sites on the endocardium may represent foci and not breakthrough. If so, in addition to reentry, abnormal automaticity or triggered activity may also occur during VF.
De-Novo Design of Antimicrobial Peptides for Plant Protection

This work describes the de-novo design of peptides that inhibit a broad range of plant pathogens. Four structurally different groups of peptides were developed that differ in size and position of their charged and hydrophobic clusters and were assayed for their ability to inhibit bacterial growth and fungal spore germination. Several peptides are highly active at concentrations between 0,1 and 1 µg/ml against plant pathogenic bacteria, such as Pseudomonas syringae, Pectobacterium carotovorum, and Xanthomonas vesicatoria. Importantly, no hemolytic activity could be detected for these peptides at concentrations up to 200 µg/ml. Moreover, the peptides are also active after spraying on the plant surface demonstrating a possible way of application. In sum, our designed peptides represent new antimicrobial agents and with the increasing demand for antimicrobial compounds for production of “healthy” food, these peptides might serve as templates for novel antibacterial and antifungal agents.
Maintaining limited-range connectivity among second-order agents

In this paper we consider ad-hoc networks of robotic agents with double integrator dynamics. For such networks, the connectivity maintenance problems are: (i) do there exist control inputs for each agent to maintain network connectivity, and (ii) given desired controls for each agent, can one compute the closest connectivity-maintaining controls in a distributed fashion. The proposed solution is based on three contributions. First, we define and characterize admissible sets for double integrators to remain inside disks. Second, we establish an existence theorem for the connectivity maintenance problem by introducing a novel state-dependent graph, called the double-integrator disk graph. Finally, we design a distributed "flow-control" algorithm to compute optimal connectivity-maintaining controls
Hypertriglyceridemia is associated with preβ-HDL concentrations in subjects with familial low HDL Published, JLR Papers in Press, May 16, 2005. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M400480-JLR200

Preβ-HDL particles act as the primary acceptors of cellular cholesterol in reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). An impairment of RCT may be the reason for the increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in subjects with familial low HDL. We studied the levels of serum preβ-HDL and the major regulating factors of HDL metabolism in 67 subjects with familial low HDL and in 64 normolipidemic subjects. We report that the subjects with familial low HDL had markedly reduced preβ-HDL concentrations compared with the normolipidemic subjects (17.4 ± 7.2 vs. 23.4 ± 7.8 mg apolipoprotein A-I/dl; P < 0.001). A positive correlation was observed between preβ-HDL concentration and serum triglyceride (TG) level (r = 0.334, P = 0.006). In addition, serum TG level was found to be the strongest predictor of preβ-HDL concentration in subjects with familial low HDL. The activities of cholesteryl ester transfer protein and hepatic lipase were markedly increased in subjects with familial low HDL without a significant correlation to preβ-HDL concentration. Our results support the hypothesis that impaired RCT is one mechanism behind the increased risk for CHD in subjects with familial low HDL.
Detailed Analysis of a Contiguous 22-Mb Region of the Maize Genome

Most of our understanding of plant genome structure and evolution has come from the careful annotation of small (e.g., 100 kb) sequenced genomic regions or from automated annotation of complete genome sequences. Here, we sequenced and carefully annotated a contiguous 22 Mb region of maize chromosome 4 using an improved pseudomolecule for annotation. The sequence segment was comprehensively ordered, oriented, and confirmed using the maize optical map. Nearly 84% of the sequence is composed of transposable elements (TEs) that are mostly nested within each other, of which most families are low-copy. We identified 544 gene models using multiple levels of evidence, as well as five miRNA genes. Gene fragments, many captured by TEs, are prevalent within this region. Elimination of gene redundancy from a tetraploid maize ancestor that originated a few million years ago is responsible in this region for most disruptions of synteny with sorghum and rice. Consistent with other sub-genomic analyses in maize, small RNA mapping showed that many small RNAs match TEs and that most TEs match small RNAs. These results, performed on ∼1% of the maize genome, demonstrate the feasibility of refining the B73 RefGen_v1 genome assembly by incorporating optical map, high-resolution genetic map, and comparative genomic data sets. Such improvements, along with those of gene and repeat annotation, will serve to promote future functional genomic and phylogenomic research in maize and other grasses.
Low-Power Low-Voltage Analog Circuit Design Using Hierarchical Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents application and effectiveness of Hierarchical particle swarm optimization (HPSO) algorithm for automatic sizing of low-power analog circuits. For the purpose of comparison, circuits are also designed using PSO and Genetic Algorithm (GA). CMOS technologies from 0.35 µm down to 0.13 µm are used. PVT (process, voltage, temperature) variations are considered during the design of circuits. We show that HPSO algorithm converges to a better solution, compared to PSO and GA. For CMOS Miller OTA, even performance of the circuit designed by HPSO algorithm is better than the performance of recently reported manually designed circuit. For the first time, design of this OTA, in 0.4 V supply voltage, is also presented. For this new design, HPSO algorithm has taken 23.5 minutes of CPU time on a Sun system with1.2 GHz processor and 8 GB RAM.
User perspectives on the usability of a regional health information exchange

OBJECTIVE We assessed the usability of a health information exchange (HIE) in a densely populated metropolitan region. This grant-funded HIE had been deployed rapidly to address the imminent needs of the patient population and the need to draw wider participation from regional entities. DESIGN We conducted a cross-sectional survey of individuals given access to the HIE at participating organizations and examined some of the usability and usage factors related to the technology acceptance model. MEASUREMENTS We probed user perceptions using the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction, an author-generated Trust scale, and user characteristic questions (eg, age, weekly system usage time). RESULTS Overall, users viewed the system favorably (ratings for all usability items were greater than neutral (one-sample Wilcoxon test, p<0.0014, Bonferroni-corrected for 35 tests). System usage was regressed on usability, trust, and demographic and user characteristic factors. Three usability factors were positively predictive of system usage: overall reactions (p<0 0.01), learning (p<0.05), and system functionality (p<0.01). Although trust is an important component in collaborative relationships, we did not find that user trust of other participating healthcare entities was significantly predictive of usage. An analysis of respondents' comments revealed ways to improve the HIE. CONCLUSION We used a rapid deployment model to develop an HIE and found that perceptions of system usability were positive. We also found that system usage was predicted well by some aspects of usability. Results from this study suggest that a rapid development approach may serve as a viable model for developing usable HIEs serving communities with limited resources.
Multimodality Therapy for Esophageal Cancer.

Adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapeutic principles have in recent years received increasing attention in the management of patients with esophageal cancer. A series of randomized prospective trials has convincingly demonstrated that adjuvant postoperative radiation or chemotherapy does not result in a survival advantage after a complete tumor resection. The available data on the role of neoadjuvant preoperative therapy in patients with adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus are not yet conclusive. While neoadjuvant therapy may undoubtedly reduce the tumor mass in a substantial portion of patients, a series of randomized controlled trials has shown that compared with primary resection, a multimodal approach does not result in a survival benefit in patients with locoregional, i.e., potentially resectable, tumors. In contrast, in patients with locally advanced tumors, i.e., tumors in which a complete tumor removal with primary surgery appears unlikely, neoadjuvant therapy allows a marked downstaging of the primary tumor and thus significantly increases the chance for complete tumor removal on subsequent surgery. However, only patients with objective clinical or histopathological response to preoperative therapy appear to benefit from this approach. Compared with preoperative chemotherapy alone, combined radiochemotherapy increases the rate of response but may also increase postoperative morbidity and mortality. Neoadjuvant therapy should therefore currently be performed only in experienced centers within the context of clinical trials. The identification of factors which would facilitate prediction of the response to neoadjuvant therapy is currently the focus of several studies. Furthermore, more effective and less toxic preoperative therapy regimens are required to increase the response rates and combat systemic recurrences.
Early Cognitive Deficits in Type 2 Diabetes: A Population-Based Study

Evidence links type 2 diabetes to dementia risk. However, our knowledge on the initial cognitive deficits in diabetic individuals and the factors that might promote such deficits is still limited. This study aimed to identify the cognitive domains initially impaired by diabetes and the factors that play a role in this first stage. Within the population-based Swedish National Study on Aging and Care–Kungsholmen, 2305 cognitively intact participants aged ≥60 y were identified. Attention/working memory, perceptual speed, category fluency, letter fluency, semantic memory, and episodic memory were assessed. Diabetes (controlled and uncontrolled) and prediabetes were ascertained by clinicians, who also collected information on vascular disorders (hypertension, heart diseases, and stroke) and vascular risk factors (VRFs, including smoking and overweight/obesity). Data were analyzed with linear regression models. Overall, 196 participants (8.5%) had diabetes, of which 144 (73.5%) had elevated glycaemia (uncontrolled diabetes); 571 (24.8%) persons had prediabetes. In addition, diabetes, mainly uncontrolled, was related to lower performance in perceptual speed (β – 1.10 [95% CI – 1.98, – 0.23]), category fluency (β – 1.27 [95% CI – 2.52, – 0.03]), and digit span forward (β – 0.35 [95% CI – 0.54, – 0.17]). Critically, these associations were present only among APOE ɛ4 non–carriers. The associations of diabetes with perceptual speed and category fluency were present only among participants with VRFs or vascular disorders. Diabetes, especially uncontrolled diabetes, is associated with poorer performance in perceptual speed, category fluency, and attention/primary memory. VRFs, vascular disorders, and APOE status play a role in these associations.
Complexities of convex combinations and bounding the generalization error in classification

We introduce and study several measures of complexity of functions from the convex hull of a given base class. These complexity measures take into account the sparsity of the weights of a convex combination as well as certain clustering properties of the base functions involved in it. We prove new upper confidence bounds on the generalization error of ensemble (voting) classification algorithms that utilize the new complexity measures along with the empirical distributions of classification margins, providing a better explanation of generalization performance of large margin classification methods.
Mitral Ratio of Peak Early to Late Diastolic Filling Velocity as a Predictor of Mortality in Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults: The Strong Heart Study

Background—With aging, left ventricular filling tends to decrease in early diastole, reducing the mitral ratio of peak early to late diastolic filling velocity (E/A). However, the prognostic significance of low or high E/A in older adults remains to be elucidated in population-based samples. Methods and Results—Doppler echocardiograms were analyzed in 3008 American Indian participants in the second Strong Heart Study examination who had no more than mild mitral or aortic regurgitation. Participants were followed for a mean of 3 years after Doppler echocardiography to assess risks of all-cause and cardiac death associated with E/A <0.6 or >1.5; 2429 (81%) participants had normal E/A ratio, 490 (16%) had E/A <0.6, and 89 (3%) had E/A >1.5. All-cause mortality was higher with E/A <0.6 or E/A >1.5 (12% and 13% versus 6%), as was cardiac mortality (4.5% and 6.5% versus 1.6%; both P <0.001). Adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, HDL and LDL cholesterol, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, and low ejection fraction (<40%), the relative risk of all-cause death with E/A >1.5 was 1.73 (95% CI, 0.99 to 3.03;P =0.05); the relative risk of cardiac death was 2.8 (95% CI, 1.19 to 6.75;P <0.05). E/A <0.6 was not independently associated with increased all-cause or cardiac mortality (P =0.19 and 0.31, respectively) after adjusting for covariates. Conclusions—In a population-based sample of middle-aged and elderly adults, mitral E/A >1.5 at baseline Doppler echocardiography is associated with 2-fold increased all-cause and 3-fold increased cardiac mortality independent of covariates; mitral E/A <0.6 was also associated with 2-fold increased all-cause and cardiac mortality but not independent of covariates.
Persistent Sterile Peritoneal Inflammation After Catheter Removal for Refractory Bacterial Peritonitis Predicts Full-Blown Encapsulating Peritoneal Sclerosis

♦ Background: Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is the most serious complication of peritoneal dialysis, having high morbidity and mortality. To improve outcomes, early diagnosis is needed to direct treatment during the early inflammatory phase. However, in the early inflammatory phase, clinical features are nonspecific, and no reliable diagnostic criteria have been established. Because bacterial peritonitis and termination of dialysis are two important risk factors triggering the progression of EPS, patients with refractory bacterial peritonitis necessitating dialysis catheter removal are at particularly high risk of developing EPS. Many of these patients might indeed experience non-resolving sterile peritonitis (probably the inflammatory phase of EPS) before progression to full-blown disease (that is, the presence of intestinal obstruction). We undertook a retrospective study to compare, in this particular situation, the clinical characteristics of patients with or without sterile peritoneal inflammation, assessing their clinical outcomes in terms of short-term mortality and the chance of developing full-blown EPS. ♦ Methods: Our retrospective review included 62 patients whose dialysis catheter was removed because of refractory peritonitis between January 2005 and December 2010. ♦ Results: Of the 62 patients identified, 39 (63%) had persistent sterile peritoneal inflammation (“high-risk” group, n = 39), and 23 (37%) had resolution of inflammation without significant intra-abdominal collection after catheter withdrawal (“control” group, n = 23). Compared with the control group, the high-risk group had a significantly longer PD duration (71.6 ± 43.3 months vs 42.3 ± 29.9 months, p = 0.003), a higher dialysate-to-plasma ratio (D/P) of creatinine (0.768 ± 0.141 vs 0.616 ± 0.091, p = 0.004), and a higher computed tomography score for EPS (7.69 ± 2.98 vs 1.00 ± 1.00, p < 0.001). During the 6-month study period, the high-risk group had a higher chance of developing full-blown EPS (31% vs 0%, p = 0.002) and a higher 6-month all-cause mortality (36% vs 4.3%, p = 0.004). ♦ Conclusions: Persistent sterile peritoneal inflammation was common after dialysis catheter removal for refractory bacterial peritonitis, and the patients with such inflammation were at high risk of progression to full-blown EPS.
New perspectives on strong z ≃ 0.5 Mg II absorbers: Are halo mass and equivalent width anticorrelated?

We measure the mean halo mass of z ≃ 0.5 Mg II absorbers using the cross-correlation (over comoving scales 0.05-13 h -1 Mpc) between 1806 Mg n quasar absorption systems and ∼250 000 luminous red galaxies (LRGs), both selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 3. The Mg II systems have λ2796 rest-frame equivalent widths W λ2796 r ? 0.3 A. From the ratio of the Mg II-LRG cross-correlation to the LRG-LRG auto-correlation, we find that the bias ratio between Mg II absorbers and LRGs is b Mg II /b LRG = 0.65 ± 0.08, which implies that the absorber host galaxies have a mean halo mass ∼20-40 times smaller than that of the LRGs; the Mg II absorbers have haloes of mean mass = 11.94 ± 0.31 (stat) +0.24 -0.25 (sys). We demonstrate that this statistical technique, which does not require any spectroscopic follow-up, does not suffer from contaminants such as stars or foreground and background galaxies. Finally, we find that the absorber halo mass is anticorrelated with the equivalent width. If Mg II absorbers were virialized in galaxy haloes, a positive M h -W λ2796 r correlation would have been observed since W λ2796 r is a direct measure of the velocity spread of the Mg II subcomponents. Thus, our results demonstrate that the individual clouds of a Mg II system are not virialized in the gaseous haloes of the host galaxies. We review past results in the literature on the statistics of Mg II absorbers and find that they too require a M h -W λ2796 r anticorrelation. When combined with measurements of the equivalent width distribution (d 2 N/d z /dW r ), the M h -W λ2796 r anticorrelation naturally explains why absorbers with W λ2796 r ? 2 A are not seen at large impact parameters. We interpret the M h -W λ2796 r anticorrelation within the starburst scenario where strong Mg II absorbers are produced by supernovae-driven winds.
Parallelizing Exploration-Exploitation Tradeoffs with Gaussian Process Bandit Optimization

Can one parallelize complex exploration-exploitation tradeoffs? As an example, consider the problem of optimal high-throughput experimental design, where we wish to sequentially design batches of experiments in order to simultaneously learn a surrogate function mapping stimulus to response and identify the maximum of the function. We formalize the task as a multiarmed bandit problem, where the unknown payoff function is sampled from a Gaussian process (GP), and instead of a single arm, in each round we pull a batch of several arms in parallel. We develop GP-BUCB, a principled algorithm for choosing batches, based on the GP-UCB algorithm for sequential GP optimization. We prove a surprising result; as compared to the sequential approach, the cumulative regret of the parallel algorithm only increases by a constant factor independent of the batch size B. Our results provide rigorous theoretical support for exploiting parallelism in Bayesian global optimization. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on two real-world applications.