Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Communities of microbial eukaryotes in the mammalian gut within the context of environmental eukaryotic diversity

Eukaryotic microbes (protists) residing in the vertebrate gut influence host health and disease, but their diversity and distribution in healthy hosts is poorly understood. Protists found in the gut are typically considered parasites, but many are commensal and some are beneficial. Further, the hygiene hypothesis predicts that association with our co-evolved microbial symbionts may be important to overall health. It is therefore imperative that we understand the normal diversity of our eukaryotic gut microbiota to test for such effects and avoid eliminating commensal organisms. We assembled a dataset of healthy individuals from two populations, one with traditional, agrarian lifestyles and a second with modern, westernized lifestyles, and characterized the human eukaryotic microbiota via high-throughput sequencing. To place the human gut microbiota within a broader context our dataset also includes gut samples from diverse mammals and samples from other aquatic and terrestrial environments. We curated the SILVA ribosomal database to reflect current knowledge of eukaryotic taxonomy and employ it as a phylogenetic framework to compare eukaryotic diversity across environment. We show that adults from the non-western population harbor a diverse community of protists, and diversity in the human gut is comparable to that in other mammals. However, the eukaryotic microbiota of the western population appears depauperate. The distribution of symbionts found in mammals reflects both host phylogeny and diet. Eukaryotic microbiota in the gut are less diverse and more patchily distributed than bacteria. More broadly, we show that eukaryotic communities in the gut are less diverse than in aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and few taxa are shared across habitat types, and diversity patterns of eukaryotes are correlated with those observed for bacteria. These results outline the distribution and diversity of microbial eukaryotic communities in the mammalian gut and across environments.
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Hobbits: Hadoop and Hive Based Internet Traffic Analysis

—Internet traffic measurement and analysis have long been used to characterize network usage and user behaviors, but face the problem of scalability under the explosive growth of Internet traffic and high-speed access. In this paper, we present Hobbits, a Hadoop and Hive based traffic analysis system that performs Internet Protocol (IP) and Transport Control Protocol (TCP) analysis of large-sized Internet traffic in a scalable manner. Our experimental evaluation on real datasets confirms that Hobbits outperforms previous solutions in terms of both job completion time and storage efficiency.
Inhibition of WNK3 Kinase Signaling Reduces Brain Damage and Accelerates Neurological Recovery After Stroke

Background and Purpose— WNK kinases, including WNK3, and the associated downstream Ste20/SPS1-related proline-alanine–rich protein kinase (SPAK) and oxidative stress responsive 1 (OSR1) kinases, comprise an important signaling cascade that regulates the cation-chloride cotransporters. Ischemia-induced stimulation of the bumetanide-sensitive Na+-K+-Cl− cotransporter (NKCC1) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of experimental stroke, but the mechanism of its regulation in this context is unknown. Here, we investigated the WNK3-SPAK/OSR1 pathway as a regulator of NKCC1 stimulation and their collective role in ischemic brain damage. Method— Wild-type WNK3 and WNK3 knockout mice were subjected to ischemic stroke via transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Infarct volume, brain edema, blood brain barrier damage, white matter demyelination, and neurological deficits were assessed. Total and phosphorylated forms of WNK3 and SPAK/OSR1 were assayed by immunoblotting and immunostaining. In vitro ischemia studies in cultured neurons and immature oligodendrocytes were conducted using the oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation method. Results— WNK3 knockout mice exhibited significantly decreased infarct volume and axonal demyelination, less cerebral edema, and accelerated neurobehavioral recovery compared with WNK3 wild-type mice subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion. The neuroprotective phenotypes conferred by WNK3 knockout were associated with a decrease in stimulatory hyperphosphorylations of the SPAK/OSR1 catalytic T-loop and of NKCC1 stimulatory sites Thr203/Thr207/Thr212, as well as with decreased cell surface expression of NKCC1. Genetic inhibition of WNK3 or small interfering RNA knockdown of SPAK/OSR1 increased the tolerance of cultured primary neurons and oligodendrocytes to in vitro ischemia. Conclusions— These data identify a novel role for the WNK3-SPAK/OSR1-NKCC1 signaling pathway in ischemic neuroglial injury and suggest the WNK3-SPAK/OSR1 kinase pathway as a therapeutic target for neuroprotection after ischemic stroke.
Huntington's Disease and Scalar Expectancy Theory: A Memory-Based Time Perception Deficit

Huntington’s disease (HD) damages the basal ganglia dopaminergic circuits which are fundamental neural correlates of the timekeeping mechanism. In this work we investigated whether HD may impair temporal processing and if any component of the Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET) might be responsible of the timing defect. To achieve this result we explored time perception in early symptomatic HD patients and controls for seconds and milliseconds. Data showed an impaired time processing in HD patients that overestimated shorter time intervals and underestimated the longer ones for both seconds and milliseconds. This defect, called migration effect, may suggest a specific deficit in the memory component of SET.
Analysis and Design of a High-Order Discrete-Time Passive IIR Low-Pass Filter

In this paper, we propose a discrete-time IIR low-pass filter that achieves a high-order of filtering through a charge-sharing rotation. Its sampling rate is then multiplied through pipelining. The first stage of the filter can operate in either a voltage-sampling or charge-sampling mode. It uses switches, capacitors and a simple gm-cell, rather than opamps, thus being compatible with digital nanoscale technology. In the voltage-sampling mode, the gm-cell is bypassed so the filter is fully passive. A 7th-order filter prototype operating at 800 MS/s sampling rate is implemented in TSMC 65 nm CMOS. Bandwidth of this filter is programmable between 400 kHz to 30 MHz with 100 dB maximum stop-band rejection. Its IIP3 is +21 dBm and the averaged spot noise is 4.57 nV/√Hz. It consumes 2 mW at 1.2 V and occupies 0.42 mm2.
LASER TREATMENTS WITH VERTEPORFIN THERAPY AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACT ON RETINAL PRACTICES

Background: In the 1990s, the only available treatment for neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (ARMD) was laser photocoagulation, but a minority of patients could be treated. Photodynamic therapy with verteporfin potentially allows many more patients to be treated. The authors' aim was to assess the impact of this increase on retinal practices. Methods: The number of patients who received laser photocoagulation in 1998 was determined. Based on that number and a retrospective review of 1000 consecutive records of new patients with ARMD referred to the Associated Retinal Consultants practices during 1998, estimates were made of how many patients would have been eligible for verteporfin therapy. Results: Of the 1000 patients, 171 had predominantly classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization secondary to ARMD and would have been eligible for verteporfin therapy, compared with 99 treated with laser photocoagulation according to Macular Photocoagulation Study guidelines. If this patient population is representative of the general population, approximately 84,000 patients would be eligible for verteporfin therapy in the United States per year, compared with 42,000 for laser photocoagulation. This would lead to 286,000 verteporfin treatments per year if retreatments are required. Conclusions: This increase in treatments for neovascular ARMD will have a considerable impact on retinal practices. Although the resources that will need to be expended are high, the potential benefit of verteporfin therapy in reducing vision loss will outweigh the costs.
Takeovers, Governance and the Cross-Section of Returns

This paper considers the impact of the takeover channel on firm valuation. We usethe idea that takeover activity responds to investor expectations of future rate of return and hence to state variable(s) related to the time variation in risk premia. Thus firms with higher exposure to takeovers, due to higher expectations of receiving a takeover premium, have a higher exposure to the state variable that dictates time variation in risk premia. Consequently, the difference in the returns between firms that differ in their takeover vulnerabilities can be used to used to proxy these state variables. To do so, we create a takeover-spread portfolio that buys firms with low cash-adjusted-leverage(cheaper targets) and shorts firms with high cash-adjusted-leverage and show that sucha portfolio generates annualized abnormal returns of up to 11.20% between 1980 and2003. Also, abnormal returns associated with governance-spread portfolios (Gompers,Ishii and Metrick, 2003 and Cremers and Nair, 2004) decrease significantly once the assetpricing model includes this cash-adjusted-leverage factor. Finally, we propose a new takeover factor to proxy for the risk due to changes in these risk-premia related state variables, which is shown to be important in explaining cross-sectional differences in equity returns. The paper shows why investors require a higher rate of return on firms exposed to takeovers and yet value them higher than firms protected from takeovers.
Thresholds for Dynamic Changes in a Rotary Switch

Abstract. Switches are everyday objects that interface humans to many func-tionalities and influence our perception of the machinery that they are attached to. This study is aimed at a better understanding of the perceptual attributes of switches. Specifically, the perceptual thresholds for dynamic changes in a ro-tary switch were evaluated in two experiments using an adaptive procedure. Exp. I measured human’s ability to detect the presence of a random noise su-perimposed on a sinusoidal torque vs. angular position profile. The detection thresholds were found to be in the range 1−3% of the peak torque. This high sensitivity was interpreted as being consistent with the existing literature in that humans are more sensitive to stimulation at high frequencies than that at low frequencies. Having established the importance of switch dynamics in its per-ception, Exp. II measured detection thresholds for sinusoidal torque variations with spatial frequencies ranging from 2.8° to 180°. Average thresholds varied from 0.37 to 26.17% of the average torque (30 N⋅mm) over the aforementioned spatial frequency range. These experiments provide quantitative results on our ability to detect dynamic events in a rotary switch. They shed new insight on the design and specification of rotary switches.
3-D Integrated Track-and-Hold Circuit Using InAs Nanowire MOSFETs and Capacitors

This letter presents a vertical integration scheme where track-and-hold circuits, consisting of a MOSFET in series with a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor, are successfully fabricated along vertical InAs nanowires. The nanowire MOSFET is used as a switch with varying switch resistance, Rsw, as the gate-source voltage, VGS, is varied. The track-andhold circuit operation is verified by a sine wave that is properly evaluated by the circuit. In addition, calculations show that the three-dimensional integration reduces the track-and-hold area a factor of 2, as compared with planar MIM capacitor only. With further nanowire pitch reduction, about ten times area saving is projected.
Numerical simulations of string networks in the Abelian-Higgs model

We present the results of a field theory simulation of networks of strings in the Abelian-Higgs model. From a random initial configuration the resulting vortex tangle approaches a self-similar regime in which the length density of lines of zeros of reduces as t-2. The network loses energy directly into scalar and gauge radiations supporting a recent claim that particle production, not gravitational radiation, is the dominant energy loss mechanism for cosmic strings. This means that cosmic strings in grand unified theories are severely constrained by high energy cosmic ray fluxes: Either they are ruled out, or an implausibly small fraction of their energy ends up in quarks and leptons.
Overweight and obesity are associated with improved survival, functional outcome, and stroke recurrence after acute stroke or transient ischaemic attack: observations from the TEMPiS trial.

AIMS The aim of the study was to evaluate the association of the body mass index (BMI) with mortality and with non-fatal functional outcome in patients with acute stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). Obesity is an established risk factors in primary cardiovascular disease prevention including stroke. The impact of overweight in patients with stroke or TIA on secondary fatal and non-fatal functional outcomes is less well established. METHODS AND RESULTS Data from 4428 patients with acute stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) from the Telemedical Project for Integrative Stroke Care (TEMPiS) were studied in this post hoc analysis. The body mass index was available in 1521 patients. Patients were categorized as underweight (BMI <18.5), normal (BMI 18.5 to <25) overweight (BMI 25 to <30), obesity (BMI 30 to <35), advanced obesity (BMI ≥35 all kg/m(2)), and no body weight assessed. Outcome measures after 30 months were all-cause mortality and non-fatal outcomes: recurrent stroke, need for institutional care, and functional impairment (Barthel index <60, modified Rankin score >3). Mortality risk was lower in overweight patients [hazard ratio (HR): 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.56-0.86) and lowest in obese (HR: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.35-0.71) and very obese patients (HR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.20-0.66] compared with normal BMI. Functional, non-fatal outcomes, and recurrent stroke followed the same inverse pattern: underweight patients had the worst outcomes but obese patients had better outcomes than patients with normal BMI (all P < 0.01). After adjustment for multiple confounding factors, obese patients had a lower risk of the combined endpoints of death or institutional care (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.38-0.92), death or high dependency (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.39-0.91) and death or recurrent stroke (OR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.37-0.86). Mortality was significantly lower in obese patients (all BMI >30 kg/m(2)) than patients with normal weight (HR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.50-0.98). Underweight patients had consistently the highest risks for all endpoints. CONCLUSION Overweight and obese patients with stroke or TIA have better survival and better combined outcomes of survival and non-fatal functional status than patients with the BMI <25 kg/m(2).
Loss of the proprioception and touch sensation channel PIEZO2 in siblings with a progressive form of contractures

Dominant mutations in PIEZO2, which codes for the principal mechanotransduction channel for proprioception and touch sensation, have been found to cause different forms of distal arthrogryposis. Some observations suggest that these dominant mutations induce a gain‐of‐function effect on the channel. Here, we report a consanguineous family with three siblings who showed short stature, scoliosis, gross motor impairment, and a progressive form of contractures involving the distal joints that is distinct from that found in patients with dominant mutations in PIEZO2. These siblings also displayed deficits in proprioception and touch sensation. Whole‐exome sequencing performed in the three affected siblings revealed the presence of a rare homozygous variant (c.2708C>G; p.S903*) in PIEZO2. This variant is predicted to disrupt PIEZO2 function by abolishing the pore domain. Sanger sequencing confirmed that all three siblings are homozygous whereas their parents and an unaffected sibling are heterozygous for this variant. Recessive mutations in PIEZO2 thus appear to cause a progressive phenotype that overlaps with, while being mostly distinct from that associated with dominant mutations in the same gene.
Xampling: Signal Acquisition and Processing in Union of Subspaces

We introduce Xampling, a unified framework for signal acquisition and processing of signals in a union of subspaces. The main functions of this framework are two: Analog compression that narrows down the input bandwidth prior to sampling with commercial devices followed by a nonlinear algorithm that detects the input subspace prior to conventional signal processing. A representative union model of spectrally sparse signals serves as a test-case to study these Xampling functions. We adopt three metrics for the choice of analog compression: robustness to model mismatch, required hardware accuracy, and software complexities. We conduct a comprehensive comparison between two sub-Nyquist acquisition strategies for spectrally sparse signals, the random demodulator and the modulated wideband converter (MWC), in terms of these metrics and draw operative conclusions regarding the choice of analog compression. We then address lowrate signal processing and develop an algorithm for that purpose that enables convenient signal processing at sub-Nyquist rates from samples obtained by the MWC. We conclude by showing that a variety of other sampling approaches for different union classes fit nicely into our framework.
Trends in hospitalisations associated with paediatric burns

Background In the United States, burns are the third leading cause of unintentional injury death in children aged 1–14 years, accounting for more than 600 deaths per year in children aged 0–19 years. Objective To describe trends in paediatric burn hospitalisations in the United States and provide national benchmarks for state and regional comparisons. Methods Analysis of existing data (1993–2006) from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample—the largest, longitudinal, all-payer inpatient care database in the United States. Children aged 0–19 years were included. Main outcome measures: estimated national annual rates of burn-related hospitalisations, stratified by age, gender, and in-hospital mortality. Results From 1993 to 2006, the estimated annual incidence rate of paediatric hospitalisations associated with burns declined 40% from 27.3 (1993–94) to 16.1 per 100 000 (p<0.001). The rates declined for all age groups and for both boys and girls. Boys were consistently more likely to be hospitalised than girls (20.3 vs 11.7 hospitalisations per 100 000 during 2004–06, p<0.001). For children less than 5 years of age, burn hospitalisations decreased 46% from 65.2 per 100 000 in 1993–94 to 35.1 per 100 000 in 2004–06 (p<0.001). Fatal hospitalisation rates also declined from 0.3 deaths per 100 000 in 1993–94 to 0.1 in 2004–06 (p<0.001). Conclusion Paediatric hospitalisation rates for burns have decreased over the past 14 years. The study also provides national estimates of paediatric burn hospitalisations that can be used as benchmarks to further injury prevention effectiveness through targeting of effective strategies.
Generalized Analytic Functions in an Extensional Stokes Flow with a Deformable Drop

An approach of generalized analytic functions of a complex variable to the axially symmetric problem of a deformable drop in an extensional viscous incompressible flow under the zero Reynolds number assumption is presented. The velocity field and pressure in and out of the drop are represented in terms of four generalized analytic functions. When the drop and ambient flow have equal viscosities, integral representations for the velocity, vorticity, and pressure balancing the velocity and stress boundary conditions are obtained based on the generalized Cauchy integral formula. In this case, steady shapes of the drop for different capillary numbers are found by minimizing the norm of the normal velocity over the interface and are shown to have rounded endpoints. The obtained steady shapes satisfy the kinematic condition with high accuracy and are very close to spheroidal shapes. The second part of this work constructs an analytical solution to the problem with the deformable spheroidal drop that balances th.
Relevant scales in zooplankton ecology: Distribution, feeding, and reproduction of the copepod Acartia hudsonica in response to thin layers of the diatom Skeletonema costatum

We investigated the interaction of the copepod Acartia hudsonica in relation to thin layers of the diatom Skeletonema costatum. Thin layers have recently received much attention, since they are common and persistent features in the water column, often overlooked by traditional sampling methods. Their frequent abundance in coastal oceans and the high biomass associated with them has led to the assumption that they are important grazing sites of calanoid copepods. We employed 2‐m tall tower tanks that allowed us to simulate thin layers. Three variables representative of three time scales were considered: the distribution of copepods in the tanks (time scale of minutes), fecal pellet production as a proxy for ingestion rate (time scale of hours), and egg production rate (time scale of >12 h). A. hudsonica responded significantly but very little to the thin layers in terms of their distribution. Given a choice, there was a slightly higher tendency to swim through a patch of diatoms than to swim around it. Fecal pellet production was slightly lower in the thin‐layer treatments than in the homogeneous controls. Egg production was not influenced by differential distribution of diatoms in the tanks, which indicated that the copepods dealt equally well with patchy food as when the same numbers of cells were available in a homogeneous distribution. Time series experiments showed that ingested carbon is integrated over time scales of >12 h. Therefore, small scale fluctuations of food in space and time do not necessarily translate into small‐scale fluctuations in reproductive output.
A tight upper bound on the probabilistic embedding of series-parallel graphs

In [6] it is shown that every graph can be probabilistically embedded into a distribution over its spanning trees with expected distortion O(log2 n log log n), narrowing the gap left by [1], where a lower bound of Ω(log n) is established. This lower bound holds even for the class of series-parallel graphs as proved in [8]. In this paper we close this gap for series-parallel graphs, namely we prove that every n-vertex series-parallel graph can be probabilistically embedded into a distribution over its spanning trees with expected stretch O(log n) for every two vertices. We gain our upper bound by presenting a polynomial time probabilistic algorithm that constructs spanning trees with low expected stretch. This probabilistic algorithm can be derandomized to yield a deterministic polynomial time algorithm for constructing a spanning tree of a given series-parallel graph G, whose communication cost is at most O(log n) times larger than that of G.
Radiation properties of planar antenna arrays based on certain categories of aperiodic tilings

Two-dimensional aperiodic tilings are collections of polygons, devoid of any translational symmetries, capable of covering a plane without gaps and overlaps. Although aperiodic, these structures can exhibit order and symmetry in an extended sense. In this paper, we study the radiation properties of planar antenna arrays based on certain categories of two-dimensional aperiodic tilings that illustrate diverse aspects of aperiodic order. Background material on aperiodic tilings and their known electromagnetic properties is reviewed. Results are illustrated to highlight the effects of aperiodic order in the antenna array radiation properties. Potential applications are also envisaged