Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intent-to-treat analysis of a simultaneous multisite telehealth diabetes prevention program

Objective Determine the effectiveness of a 16-week modified diabetes prevention program (DPP) administered simultaneously to multiple rural communities from a single urban site, as compared with a similar face-to-face intervention. A 12-week intervention was evaluated to consider minimization of staff costs in communities where resources are limited. Research design and methods A prospective cohort study compared DPP interventions implemented in rural (via telehealth technology) and urban (face-to-face) communities using an intent-to-treat analysis. Primary outcome measures included 5% and 7% body weight loss. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine predictors of intervention success and included a variable for treatment effect. Results Between 2010 and 2015, up to 667 participants were enrolled in the study representing one urban and 15 rural communities across Montana. The 16-week urban and rural interventions were comparable; 33.5% and 34.6% of participants lost 7% body weight, respectively; 50% and 47% lost 5% (p=0.22). Participants who were male (OR=2.41; 95% CI 1.32 to 4.40), had lower baseline body mass index (OR=1.03; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.07), attended more sessions (OR=1.33; 95% CI 1.11 to 1.58), and more frequently reported (OR=3.84; 95% CI 1.05 to 14.13) and met daily fat gram (OR=4.26; 95% CI 1.7 to 10.6) and weekly activity goals (OR=2.46; 95% CI 1.06 to 5.71) were more likely to meet their 7% weight loss goal. Predictors of meeting weight loss goals were similar for participants enrolled in the 12-week intervention. Conclusions Using telehealth technology to administer a modified DPP to multiple rural communities simultaneously demonstrated weight loss results comparable to those in a face-to-face intervention. Given the limitation of resources, linking rural areas to urban centers using telemedicine may increase access to much needed services to prevent or delay progression to diabetes.
Toward a Theory of Extended Contact: The Incentives and Opportunities for Bridging Across Network Communities

This study investigates the determinants of bridging ties within networks of interconnected firms. Bridging ties are defined as nonredundant connections between firms located in different network communities. We highlight how firms can enter into these relationships because of the incentives and opportunities for action that are embedded in the existing network structure. Specifically, we propose that the dynamics of proximate network structures, which reflect firms' and their partners' direct connections, affect the formation of bridging ties by shaping the value-creation and value-distribution incentives for bridging. We also argue that the evolving global network structure affects firms' propensity to form bridging ties by shaping the structural opportunities for bridging. We test our theory using the network of partnership ties among firms in the global computer industry from 1991 to 2005. We find support for structural incentives and opportunities as influential precursors of bridging ties.
On the implementation of optimal receivers for LFM signals using fractional Fourier transform

We present a novel receiver structure for the detection and parameter estimation of linear frequency modulated signals. The proposed structure is based on the relations between the fractional Fourier transform and the ambiguity function. It has been shown that the optimal ML receiver, which is the peak detector in the ambiguity plane, can be implemented at a reduced search complexity with the proposed method. The proposed method uses two 1-dimensional search operations in two different fractional Fourier domains instead of a 2-dimensional search over the ambiguity plane. The performance of the method is illustrated with an example.
Domain-Independent Optimistic Initialization for Reinforcement Learning

In Reinforcement Learning (RL), it is common to use optimistic initialization of value functions to encourage exploration. However, such an approach generally depends on the domain, viz., the scale of the rewards must be known, and the feature representation must have a constant norm. We present a simple approach that performs optimistic initialization with less dependence on the domain.
How accurate must potentials be for successful modeling of protein folding

Protein sequences are believed to have been selected to provide the stability of, and reliable renaturation to, an encoded unique spatial fold. In recently proposed theoretical schemes, this selection is modeled as ‘‘minimal frustration,’’ or ‘‘optimal energy,’’ of the desirable target conformation over all possible sequences, such that the ‘‘design’’ of the sequence is governed by the interactions between monomers. With replica mean field theory, we examine the possibility to reconstruct the renaturation, or freezing transition, of the ‘‘designed’’ heteropolymer given the inevitable errors in the determination of interaction energies, that is, the difference between sets (matrices) of interactions governing chain design and conformations, respectively. We find that the possibility of folding to the designed conformation is controlled by the correlations of the elements of the design and renaturation interaction matrices; unlike random heteropolymers, the ground state of designed heteropolymers is sufficiently stable, such that even a substantial error in the interaction energy should still yield correct renaturation.
Quantitative analysis of neuronal response properties in primary and higher-order auditory cortical fields of awake house mice (Mus musculus)

Because of its great genetic potential, the mouse (Mus musculus) has become a popular model species for studies on hearing and sound processing along the auditory pathways. Here, we present the first comparative study on the representation of neuronal response parameters to tones in primary and higher‐order auditory cortical fields of awake mice. We quantified 12 neuronal properties of tone processing in order to estimate similarities and differences of function between the fields, and to discuss how far auditory cortex (AC) function in the mouse is comparable to that in awake monkeys and cats. Extracellular recordings were made from 1400 small clusters of neurons from cortical layers III/IV in the primary fields AI (primary auditory field) and AAF (anterior auditory field), and the higher‐order fields AII (second auditory field) and DP (dorsoposterior field). Field specificity was shown with regard to spontaneous activity, correlation between spontaneous and evoked activity, tone response latency, sharpness of frequency tuning, temporal response patterns (occurrence of phasic responses, phasic‐tonic responses, tonic responses, and off‐responses), and degree of variation between the characteristic frequency (CF) and the best frequency (BF) (CF–BF relationship). Field similarities were noted as significant correlations between CFs and BFs, V‐shaped frequency tuning curves, similar minimum response thresholds and non‐monotonic rate‐level functions in approximately two‐thirds of the neurons. Comparative and quantitative analyses showed that the measured response characteristics were, to various degrees, susceptible to influences of anesthetics. Therefore, studies of neuronal responses in the awake AC are important in order to establish adequate relationships between neuronal data and auditory perception and acoustic response behavior.
Scaling the Memory Power Wall With DRAM-Aware Data Management

Improving the energy efficiency of database systems has emerged as an important topic of research over the past few years. While significant attention has been paid to optimizing the power consumption of tradition disk-based databases, little attention has been paid to the growing cost of DRAM power consumption in main-memory databases (MMDB). In this paper, we bridge this divide by examining power--performance tradeoffs involved in designing MMDBs. In doing so, we first show how DRAM will soon emerge as the dominating source of power consumption in emerging MMDB servers unlike traditional database servers, where CPU power consumption overshadows that of DRAM. Second, we show that using DRAM frequency scaling and power-down modes can provide substantial improvement in performance/Watt under both transactional and analytical workloads. This, again contradicts rules of thumb established for traditional servers, where the most energy-efficient configuration is often the one with highest performance. Based on our observations, we argue that the long-overlooked task of optimizing DRAM power consumption should henceforth be considered a first-class citizen in designing MMDBs. In doing so, we highlight several promising research directions and identify key design challenges that must be overcome towards achieving this goal.
O ct 2 00 7 P-and D-wave spin-orbit splittings in heavy-light mesons

This is a summary of a detailed study of heavy-light meson exc it d state energies. Our lattice measurements include both radial and orbital excitations. Particular attention is paid to the spinorbit splittings, to see which one of the states (for a given a ngular momentum L) has the lower energy. In nature the closest equivalent of this heavy-ligh t system is theBs meson, which allows us to compare our lattice calculations to experimental resu lts (where available) or give a prediction where the excited states, particularly P-wave states, shou ld lie.
Antifertility effects of herbs: Need for responsible reporting

Evaluation of herbs for antifertility effects has been in progress worldwide for several decades to identify effective and safe substances for control of population explosion. Inspite of availability of internationally accepted guidelines for the assessment of reproductive toxicity/antifertility potential of test substances, many published articles, on critical review, seem to lack reproducibility and are thus likely to mislead both the scientific community and the general public. This paper, while emphasizing the importance of generating authentic toxicity/safety information on acclaimed medicinal herbs, spells out existing pitfalls in such studies, and explores some control measures worth considering in times to come.
A New Center Location Algorithm Used in Cell Segmentation

In this paper, a new center location method based on fuzzy mathematics is presented. Algorithms of this kind could be combined with other segmentation methods such as level set, watershed, to finish the extraction of cell nucleolus. Compared with other center location methods, the new one presented has some advantages: neither noise nor cell size could affect its location result. With this method, the center of karyon can be easily found even when they have different sizes in one cell image. And the location result is always correct with regardless of serious noise. After having the center location of elliptical karyon, level set method is applied to segmentation task. Outcome of segmentation proved that this center location algorithm was effective and robust.
Revisiting the Lamotrigine-Mediated Effect on Hippocampal GABAergic Transmission

Lamotrigine (LTG) is generally considered as a voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channel blocker. However, recent studies suggest that LTG can also serve as a hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channel enhancer and can increase the excitability of GABAergic interneurons (INs). Perisomatic inhibitory INs, predominantly fast-spiking basket cells (BCs), powerfully inhibit granule cells (GCs) in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Notably, BCs express abundant Nav channels and HCN channels, both of which are able to support sustained action potential generation. Using whole-cell recording in rat hippocampal slices, we investigated the net LTG effect on BC output. We showed that bath application of LTG significantly decreased the amplitude of evoked compound inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) in GCs. In contrast, simultaneous paired recordings from BCs to GCs showed that LTG had no effect on both the amplitude and the paired-pulse ratio of the unitary IPSCs, suggesting that LTG did not affect GABA release, though it suppressed cell excitability. In line with this, LTG decreased spontaneous IPSC (sIPSC) frequency, but not miniature IPSC frequency. When re-examining the LTG effect on GABAergic transmission in the cornus ammonis region 1 (CA1) area, we found that LTG markedly inhibits both the excitability of dendrite-targeting INs in the stratum oriens and the concurrent sIPSCs recorded on their targeting pyramidal cells (PCs) without significant hyperpolarization-activated current (Ih) enhancement. In summary, LTG has no effect on augmenting Ih in GABAergic INs and does not promote GABAergic inhibitory output. The antiepileptic effect of LTG is likely through Nav channel inhibition and the suppression of global neuronal network activity.
A Quantitative Analysis of Tilt in the Café Wall Illusion: A Bioplausible Model for Foveal and Peripheral Vision

The biological characteristics of human visual processing can be investigated through the study of optical illusions and their perception, giving rise to intuitions that may improve computer vision to match human performance. Geometric illusions are a specific subfamily in which orientations and angles are misperceived. This paper reports quantifiable predictions of the degree of tilt for a typical geometric illusion called Café Wall, in which the mortar between the tiles seems to tilt or bow. Our study employs a common bioplausible model of retinal processing and we further develop an analytic processing pipeline to quantify and thus predict the specific angle of tilt. We further study the effect of resolution and feature size in order to predict the different perceived tilts in different areas of the fovea and periphery, where resolution varies as the eye saccades to different parts of the image. In the experiments, several different minimal portions of the pattern, modeling monocular and binocular foveal views, are investigated across multiple scales, in order to quantify tilts with confidence intervals and explore the difference between local and global tilt.
Conflict Background Triggered Congruency Sequence Effects in Graphic Judgment Task

Congruency sequence effects refer to the reduction of congruency effects when following an incongruent trial than following a congruent trial. The conflict monitoring account, one of the most influential contributions to this effect, assumes that the sequential modulations are evoked by response conflict. The present study aimed at exploring the congruency sequence effects in the absence of response conflict. We found congruency sequence effects occurred in graphic judgment task, in which the conflict stimuli acted as irrelevant information. The findings reveal that processing task-irrelevant conflict stimulus features could also induce sequential modulations of interference. The results do not support the interpretation of conflict monitoring and favor a feature integration account that the congruency sequence effects are attributed to the repetitions of stimulus and response features.
A study on energy used to deliver H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC video content

We propose an end-to-end approach to describe the energy usage of video delivery within a content delivery framework, and use this to investigate the energy usage behavior of two popular coding schemes, namely, H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC. Our study based on the proposed model is backed up by measurements of encoding and decoding energy usage of a sample video and shows that, from an end-to-end perspective, taking into account all the elements of a content delivery network, neither of the coding formats is always dominant in terms of energy saving. We also find that the popularity of video content is a key parameter for predicting which encoding scheme saves most energy. In particular, we find that H.265 encoded content results in lower energy usage if the content is highly popular. On the other hand, for a content with predicted low popularity, more saving is achieved if H.264/AVC is used. This lead us to calculate a hybrid content delivery scheme, where the contents with low popularity are encoded and delivered in H.264/AVC format, whereas content of high popularity are encoded and delivered in the H.265/HEVC format. Also, our findings offer new insights into which elements of energy usage should be the focus of future research.
Involvement of YAP, TAZ and HSP90 in Contact Guidance and Intercellular Junction Formation in Corneal Epithelial Cells

The extracellular environment possesses a rich milieu of biophysical and biochemical signaling cues that are simultaneously integrated by cells and influence cellular phenotype. Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (WWTR1; TAZ), two important signaling molecules of the Hippo pathway, have been recently implicated as nuclear relays of cytoskeletal changes mediated by substratum rigidity and topography. These proteins intersect with other important intracellular signaling pathways (e.g. Wnt and TGFβ). In the cornea, epithelial cells adhere to the stroma through a 3-dimensional topography-rich basement membrane, with features in the nano-submicron size-scale that are capable of profoundly modulating a wide range of fundamental cell behaviors. The influences of substratum-topography, YAP/TAZ knockdown, and HSP90 inhibition on cell morphology, YAP/TAZ localization, and the expression of TGFβ2 and CTGF, were investigated. The results demonstrate (a) that knockdown of TAZ enhances contact guidance in a YAP dependent manner, (b) that CTGF is predominantly regulated by YAP and not TAZ, and (c) that TGFβ2 is regulated by both YAP and TAZ in these cells. Additionally, inhibition of HSP90 resulted in nuclear localization and subsequent transcriptional-activation of YAP, formation of cell-cell junctions and co-localization of E-cadherin and β-catenin at adherens junctions. Results presented in this study reflect the complexities underlying the molecular relationships between the cytoskeleton, growth factors, heat shock proteins, and co-activators of transcription that impact mechanotransduction. The data reveal the importance of YAP/TAZ on the cell behaviors, and gene and protein expression.
Effectiveness of adaptive supply voltage and body bias as post-silicon variability compensation techniques for full-swing and low-swing on-chip communication channels

Adaptive body bias (ABB) and adaptive supply voltage (ASV) have been showed to be effective methods for post-silicon tuning of circuit properties to reduce variability. While their properties have been compared on generic combinational circuits or microprocessor circuit sub-blocks, the advent of multi-core systems is bringing a new application domain forefront. Global interconnects are evolving to complex communication channels with drivers and receivers, in an attempt to mitigate the effects of reverse scaling and reduce power. The characterization of the performance spread of these links and the exploration of effective and power-aware compensation techniques for them is becoming a key design issue. This work compares the variability compensation efficiency of ABB vs ASV when put at work in two representative link architectures of today's ICs: a traditional full-swing interconnect and a low-swing signaling scheme for low-power communication. We provide guidelines for the post-silicon variability compensation of these communication channels.
Clinical applications of dendritic cells–cytokine-induced killer cells mediated immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer: an up-to-date meta-analysis

Purpose This study aimed to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of dendritic cells–cytokine-induced killer (DC–CIK) cells immunotherapy in treating pancreatic cancer (PC) patients. Methods Data were collected from published articles of clinical trials. Databases including Web of Science, EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, and CNKI were searched. The main outcome measures in this research included the overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), patients’ quality of life (QoL), immune function, and adverse events. Comparative analysis was conducted between DC–CIK immunotherapy and chemotherapy (combined therapy) and chemotherapy alone. Results This analysis covered 14 trials with 1,088 PC patients involved. The combined therapy showed advantages over chemotherapy alone in ORR (odds ratio [OR] =1.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.20–2.38, P=0.003), DCR (OR =2.33, 95% CI =1.63–3.33, P<0.00001), OS (1-year OS, OR =3.61, 95% CI =2.41–5.40, P<0.00001; 3-year OS, OR =2.65, 95% CI =1.56–4.50, P=0.0003) and patients’ QoL (P<0.01) with statistical significance. After immunotherapy, lymphocyte subsets’ percentages of CD3+ (P<0.00001), CD4+ (P=0.01), CD3+CD56+ (P<0.00001), and cytokine levels of IFN-γ (P<0.00001) were significantly increased, and the percentages of CD4+CD25+CD127low (P<0.00001) and levels of IL-4 (P<0.0001) were significantly decreased, whereas analysis on CD8+ (P=0.59) and CD4+/CD8+ ratio (P=0.64) did not show a significant difference. Conclusion The combination of DC–CIK immunotherapy and chemotherapy is effective for PC treatment, indicated by prolonging the PC patients’ survival time, which benefit from reconstructed immune function of patients.
Interplay of Intrinsic and Synaptic Conductances in the Generation of High-Frequency Oscillations in Interneuronal Networks with Irregular Spiking

High-frequency oscillations (above 30 Hz) have been observed in sensory and higher-order brain areas, and are believed to constitute a general hallmark of functional neuronal activation. Fast inhibition in interneuronal networks has been suggested as a general mechanism for the generation of high-frequency oscillations. Certain classes of interneurons exhibit subthreshold oscillations, but the effect of this intrinsic neuronal property on the population rhythm is not completely understood. We study the influence of intrinsic damped subthreshold oscillations in the emergence of collective high-frequency oscillations, and elucidate the dynamical mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon. We simulate neuronal networks composed of either Integrate-and-Fire (IF) or Generalized Integrate-and-Fire (GIF) neurons. The IF model displays purely passive subthreshold dynamics, while the GIF model exhibits subthreshold damped oscillations. Individual neurons receive inhibitory synaptic currents mediated by spiking activity in their neighbors as well as noisy synaptic bombardment, and fire irregularly at a lower rate than population frequency. We identify three factors that affect the influence of single-neuron properties on synchronization mediated by inhibition: i) the firing rate response to the noisy background input, ii) the membrane potential distribution, and iii) the shape of Inhibitory Post-Synaptic Potentials (IPSPs). For hyperpolarizing inhibition, the GIF IPSP profile (factor iii)) exhibits post-inhibitory rebound, which induces a coherent spike-mediated depolarization across cells that greatly facilitates synchronous oscillations. This effect dominates the network dynamics, hence GIF networks display stronger oscillations than IF networks. However, the restorative current in the GIF neuron lowers firing rates and narrows the membrane potential distribution (factors i) and ii), respectively), which tend to decrease synchrony. If inhibition is shunting instead of hyperpolarizing, post-inhibitory rebound is not elicited and factors i) and ii) dominate, yielding lower synchrony in GIF networks than in IF networks.