Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex differences in use of coronary revascularization in elderly patients after acute myocardial infarction: a tale of two therapies.

OBJECTIVES To determine if there are sex differences in the use of coronary revascularization in elderly patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and if sex differences vary by type of revascularization therapy. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of medical record data. SETTING US acute-care nongovernment hospitals. PATIENTS A total of 66,830 Medicare patients > or =65 years old hospitalized with AMI. INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS We assessed sex differences in the use of coronary revascularization within 60 days of hospital admission among patients who had undergone cardiac catheterization. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to derive risk-standardized rates of any coronary revascularization, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) adjusted for patient and hospital characteristics. Women had lower crude overall rates of coronary revascularization compared with men (65.2% vs 68.7%, p < 0.001). Multivariable adjustment reduced the sex difference in the overall coronary revascularization rate from 3.5 to 2.1% (66.0% women vs 68.1% men, p = 0.001). Sex differences in coronary revascularization use, however, varied by type of revascularization therapy. Women had lower risk-standardized rates of CABG surgery compared with men (27.0% vs 32.9%, p < 0.001), but had higher risk-standardized rates of PCI (42.0% vs 38.2%, p < 0.001), particularly among patients > 85 years old (45.8% vs 38.9%, p = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS Among Medicare patients hospitalized with AMI, women are slightly less likely to undergo coronary revascularization after cardiac catheterization; however, sex differences in coronary revascularization vary by type of therapy.
Method of determination of transient and steady‐state conductivity in polyethylene terephthalate ultrathin films

The determination of transient and/or steady-state conductivity of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) ultrathin films by means of electrode configurations involving any load or stress imposed on the measuring area during measurement usually leads to anomalous behaviours of the charging current and thus prevents a good evaluation of the electrical properties of the samples. This can be avoided by the use of a two-electrode system with lateral contacts, to obtain reproducible results without any requirement for previous mechanical, thermal, or electrical treatments (as is often recommended in the literature), and that permits the characterization of industrial films down to 1.5-μm thick in true storage conditions after production. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An analysis of GPS sampling rates required in travel time estimation

With an emergence of vehicular ad hoc networks, it is highly likely that in the near future vehicles on the road will be used as mobile probes for collecting and distributing traffic information such as the travel time. Generally, the travel time on a road section can be estimated from the global positioning data collected by a mobile probe. The more frequent the positioning data are collected or sampled, the more accurate the travel time estimation is. However, the accuracy comes at the expense of a large storage space for keeping the data. In addition, in some systems where a mobile probe needs to send its positioning data to a server or other vehicles in real-time, using an overly high sampling rate can waste the radio channel bandwidth unnecessarily since excessive amount of data will be transmitted. In this paper, we determine the minimum collection rate of positioning data required to achieve the desired level of travel time estimation accuracy.
Human and Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cell Aging Is Associated with Functional Impairments and Intrinsic Megakaryocytic/Erythroid Bias

Aging within the human hematopoietic system associates with various deficiencies and disease states, including anemia, myeloid neoplasms and reduced adaptive immune responses. Similar phenotypes are observed in mice and have been linked to alterations arising at the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) level. Such an association is, however, less established in human hematopoiesis and prompted us here to detail characteristics of the most primitive human hematopoietic compartments throughout ontogeny. In addition, we also attempted to interrogate similarities between aging human and murine hematopoiesis. Coupled to the transition from human cord blood (CB) to young and aged bone marrow (BM), we observed a gradual increase in frequency of candidate HSCs. This was accompanied by functional impairments, including decreased lymphoid output and reduced proliferative potential. Downstream of human HSCs, we observed decreasing levels of common lymphoid progenitors (CLPs), and increasing frequencies of megakaryocyte/erythrocyte progenitors (MEPs) with age, which could be linked to changes in lineage-affiliated gene expression patterns in aged human HSCs. These findings were paralleled in mice. Therefore, our data support the notion that age-related changes also in human hematopoiesis involve the HSC pool, with a prominent skewing towards the megakaryocytic/erythroid lineages, and suggests conserved mechanisms underlying aging of the blood cell system.
ADDITIVE PROBLEMS WITH PRIME VARIABLES THE CIRCLE METHOD OF HARDY, RAMANUJAN AND LITTLEWOOD

In these lectures we give an overview of the circle method introduced by Hardy and Ramanujan at the beginning of the twentieth century, and developed by Hardy, Littlewood and Vinogradov, among others. We also try and explain the main difficulties in proving Goldbach’s conjecture and we give a sketch of the proof of Vinogradov’s three-prime Theorem. 1. ADDITIVE PROBLEMS In the last few centuries many additive problems have come to the attention of mathematicians: famous examples are Waring’s problem and Goldbach’s conjecture. In general, an additive problem can be expressed in the following form: we are given s ≥ 2 subsets of the set of natural numbers N, not necessarily distinct, which we call A1, . , As. We would like to determine the number of solutions of the equation n = a1 +a2 + · · ·+as (1.1) for a given n ∈ N, with the constraint that a j ∈ A j for j = 1, . , s, or, failing that, we would like to prove that the same equation has at least one solution for “sufficiently large” n. In fact, we can not expect, in general, that for very small n there will be a solution of equation (1.1). Furthermore, depending on the nature of the sets A j, there may be some arithmetical constraints on those n that may be “represented” in the form (1.1). In Waring’s problem we take an integer k ≥ 2, and all sets A j are equal to the set of the k-th powers of the natural numbers: the goal is to prove that there exists an integer s(k) such that every natural number has a representation as a sum of at most s k-th powers. This has been proved by Hilbert by means of a very intricate combinatorial argument. Another interesting problem is the determination of the minimal value of s such that equation (1.1) has at least one solution for sufficiently large n ∈ N, that is, allowing a finite set of exceptions. We recall Lagrange’s four square theorem (every non negative integer can be written as the sum of four squares of non negative integers), and also that if we take k = 2 and s = 2, then the “arithmetical” set of exceptions contains the congruence class 3 mod 4. In Goldbach’s problem we set A1 = A2 = P, the set of all prime numbers, and, of course, we are interested only in even values of n in (1.1). In both Waring and Goldbach’s problems we may say, somewhat vaguely, that the difficulties arise from the fact that the sets A have a simple multiplicative structure, but we are adding their elements. 1.1. The circle method. The method that we are going to describe, that has been widely used to tackle and solve many additive problems, has its origin in a 1918 paper of Hardy & Ramanujan [23] on partitions. It has been developed by Hardy & Littlewood [21], [22] in the 1920’s, and, because of their success, it is now referred to as the Hardy-Littlewood, or simply circle, method. Date: March 28, 2012. 1
Stages of Change in Mood and Behavior During a Winter in Antarctica

Seasonal variation in mood and behavior was examined in 87 American men and women who spent the 1991 austral winter at three different research stations in Antarctica. The South Pole station (90° S) crew reported a significant decline in tension/anxiety, depression, anger, confusion, and fatigue from March to August, followed by a significant increase in tension/anxiety and fatigue and a significant decline in vigor from August to October. The McMurdo station (78°51’S) crew also reported a significant decline in tension/anxiety from March to July and a significant increase in tension/anxiety from July to August. In contrast, the Palmer station (64°46’S) crew experienced no significant changes in any mood subscale from May to October. The nonlinear pattern of change in mood suggests that adaptation to prolonged isolation and confinement in an extreme environment occurs in two or three stages.
Non-approximability results for optimization problems on bounded degree instances

par>We prove some non-approximability results for restrictions of basic combinatorial optimization problems to instances of bounded “degree&r dquo;or bounded “width. ” Specifically: We prove that the Max 3SAT problem on instances where each variable occurs in at most <italic>B</italic> clauses, is hard to approximate to within a factor $7/8 + <italic>O</italic>(1/\sqrt{<italic>B</italic>})$, unless $<italic>RP</italic> = <italic>NP</italic>$. H\aa stad [18] proved that the problem is approximable to within a factor $7/8 + 1/64<italic>B</italic>$ in polynomial time, and that is hard to approximate to within a factor $7/8 +1/(\log <italic>B</italic>)^{&OHgr;(1)}$. Our result uses a new randomized reduction from general instances of Max 3SAT to bounded-occurrences instances. The randomized reduction applies to other Max SNP problems as well. We observe that the Set Cover problem on instances where each set has size at most <italic>B</italic> is hard to approximate to within a factor $\ln <italic>B</italic> - <italic>O</italic>(\ln\ln <italic>B</italic>)$ unless $<italic>P</italic>=<italic>NP</italic>$. The result follows from an appropriate setting of parameters in Feige's reduction [11]. This is essentially tight in light of the existence of $(1+\ln <italic>B</italic>)$-approximate algorithms [20, 23, 9] We present a new PCP construction, based on applying parallel repetition to the ``inner verifier,'' and we provide a tight analysis for it. Using the new construction, and some modifications to known reductions from PCP to Hitting Set, we prove that Hitting Set with sets of size <italic>B</italic> is hard to approximate to within a factor $<italic>B</italic>^{1/19}$. The problem can be approximated to within a factor <italic>B</italic> [19], and it is the Vertex Cover problem for <italic>B</italic>=2. The relationship between hardness of approximation and set size seems to have not been explored before. We observe that the Independent Set problem on graphs having degree at most <italic>B</italic> is hard to approximate to within a factor $<italic>B</italic>/2^{O(sqrt{\log <italic>B</italic>})}$, unless <italic>P</italic> = <italic>NP</italic>. This follows from a comination of results by Clementi and Trevisan [28] and Reingold, Vadhan and Wigderson [27]. It had been observed that the problem is hard to approximate to within a factor $<italic>B</italic>^{&OHgr; (1)}$ unless <italic>P</italic>=<italic>NP</italic> [1]. An algorithm achieving factor $<italic>O</italic> (<italic>B</italic>)$ is also known [21, 2, 30, 16}.
Temporal competitive learning induced in neural networks by spike timing-dependent plasticity

In this paper, we introduce a novel computational model of spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) that can induce competitive learning in neural networks, and hence can work as an efficient coding mechanism for temporal correlated neural activities. Most computational STDP models use either additive or multiplicative learning rules. Usually additive rules induce competition in many-to-one networks, yet they not only suffer from instability and slow converging speed, but also cannot be extended properly to many-to-many networks. Multiplicative rules on the other hand can reach stable results in a shorter time, but they do not cause competition in any kind of networks. So these models cannot readily explain complex phenomena in neural processing. Here we attack this problem by introducing a modified multiplicative STDP model with a mechanism called ‘global depression’, which induces competitive learning in many-to-many networks while preserves the virtues of original multiplicative models. Moreover, this model tends to group presynaptic neurons according to their firing patterns. Specifically, an ensemble of presynaptic neurons with correlated activities may collectively form strong connections with one postsynaptic neuron, while a different ensemble may connect with another postsynaptic neuron. Overall this model performs pattern grouping according to the input neural activities. We prove this point theoretically and experimentally in this paper.
Immunogenicity and Safety of a 13-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Healthy Infants in Japan

Background: A 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) containing 6 additional serotypes not included in the 7-valent PCV has been developed to broaden protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is responsible for over 500,000 deaths annually worldwide in children <5 years of age. This study in Japanese infants evaluated the immunogenicity and safety of PCV13 given subcutaneously, the standard route for infant vaccination in Japan. Methods: This phase 3, single-arm, open-label study was conducted at 25 sites. Subjects received PCV13 as a 3-dose infant series and a toddler dose. Parents/legal guardians recorded local reactions and systemic events after each vaccination. The proportion of subjects with serotype-specific antipneumococcal polysaccharide immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibody concentrations ≥0.35 µg/mL was calculated before and 1 month after the infant series and toddler dose. Results: A total of 193 subjects enrolled. The proportion of subjects achieving pneumococcal IgG antibody concentrations ≥0.35 µg/mL was ≥97.2% for all 13 pneumococcal serotypes 1 month after the infant series and 98.9–100% after the toddler dose. IgG geometric mean concentrations were 2.57–14.69 µg/mL after the infant series and 2.06–16.33 µg/mL after the toddler dose. IgG geometric mean concentrations increased from pre- to posttoddler dose by ≥2.8-fold, demonstrating a booster effect. Local reactions and fever were generally mild or moderate in severity. Conclusions: PCV13 was immunogenic for all serotypes and had a favorable safety profile when administered subcutaneously to Japanese infants. PCV13 should offer broader serotype protection than 7-valent PCV in preventing pneumococcal disease in Japanese children.
Bayesian hierarchical mixture modeling to assign copy number from a targeted CNV array

Accurate assignment of copy number at known copy number variant (CNV) loci is important for both increasing understanding of the structural evolution of genomes as well as for carrying out association studies of copy number with disease. As with calling SNP genotypes, the task can be framed as a clustering problem but for a number of reasons assigning copy number is much more challenging. CNV assays have lower signal‐to‐noise ratios than SNP assays, often display heavy tailed and asymmetric intensity distributions, contain outlying observations and may exhibit systematic technical differences among different cohorts. In addition, the number of copy‐number classes at a CNV in the population may be unknown a priori. Due to these complications, automatic and robust assignment of copy number from array data remains a challenging problem. We have developed a copy number assignment algorithm, CNVCALL, for a targeted CNV array, such as that used by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium's recent CNV association study. We use a Bayesian hierarchical mixture model that robustly identifies both the number of different copy number classes at a specific locus as well as relative copy number for each individual in the sample. This approach is fully automated which is a critical requirement when analyzing large numbers of CNVs. We illustrate the methods performance using real data from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium's CNV association study and using simulated data. Genet. Epidemiol. 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. 35: 536‐548, 2011
A Long-Run Risks Explanation of Predictability Puzzles in Bond and Currency Markets

We show that bond risk-premia rise with uncertainty about expected inflation and fall with uncertainty about expected growth; the magnitude of return predictability using these two uncertainty measures is similar to that by multiple yields. Motivated by this evidence, we develop and estimate a long-run risks model with time-varying volatilities of expected growth and inflation. The model simultaneously accounts for bond return predictability and violations of uncovered interest parity in currency markets. We find that preference for early resolution of uncertainty, time-varying volatilities, and non-neutral effects of inflation on growth are important to account for these aspects of asset markets.
Perspectives and results on the stability and stabilizability of hybrid systems

This paper introduces the concept of a hybrid system and some of the challenges associated with the stability of such systems, including the issues of guaranteeing stability of switched stable systems and finding conditions for the existence of switched controllers for stabilizing switched unstable systems. In this endeavour, this paper surveys the major results in the (Lyapunov) stability of finite-dimensional hybrid systems and then discusses the stronger, more specialized results of switched linear (stable and unstable) systems. A section detailing how some of the results can be formulated as linear matrix inequalities is given. Stability analyses on the regulation of the angle of attack of an aircraft and on the PI control of a vehicle with an automatic transmission are given. Other examples are included to illustrate various results in this paper.
Sensor Fusion for Video Surveillance

In this paper, a multisensor data fusion system for object tracking is presented. It is able to track in real-time multiple targets in outdoor environments. The system can take advantage of the redundant information coming from different sensors monitoring the same scene. The measurements (positions of the targets) obtained from the available sources are fused together to obtain a more accurate estimate. Data fusion is performed considering sensor reliability at every time instant. A confidence measure has been employed to weight sensor data in the fusion process. Compared to single camera systems, the adopted approach has produced more accurate and continuous trajectories, reducing calibration and segmentation errors.
Breast cancer in Bedouin-Arab patients in southern Israel: epidemiologic and biologic features in comparison with Jewish patients.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cancer type, and the leading cause of death from cancer among women in Israel. The Bedouin-Arab (BA) population in southern Israel is characterized by a high rate of consanguinity, common hereditary disorders, and transition from a semi-nomadic, traditional society to a more sedentary and urbanized society. In this hospital-based study, the demographic and the clinicopathological characteristics of BC in BA were compared with Jewish patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS 85 BA patients treated at the Soroka Medical Center, Beer Sheba, during the years 2004-2012, were studied and compared with 180 consecutive Jewish patients treated during the year 2007. Clinicopathological features compared included age, menopausal state, number of births, a history of BC in first-degree relatives, tumor size (T), extent of lymph- node involvement (N), distant metastases (M), stage, grade, estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR), and Her2 status. Types of treatment, relapse rate and site, as well as outcome were also studied. Cox's regression models were applied for studying disease-free, and overall survival. RESULTS Compared with Jewish patients, BA patients were younger (average age 49±12 yrs vs 59±13, p<0.001), had a lower rate of BC in first-degree relatives (p<0.001), and a larger number of births (6±4.2 vs 2.5±1.9, p<0.001). BA patients had larger tumors (p=0.02), more extensive lymph-node involvement (p=0.002), and more advanced stage (p=0.003). Grade, ER, PR, and Her2 status were similar in the two ethnic groups. Relapse type was most commonly systemic in BA patients (p=0.05), and loco-regional in Jewish patients (p=0.02). Median survival was 63, and 35 months for Jewish and BA patients, respectively (log-rank test, p=0.02). In Cox multivariate analysis, stage and PR status (HR-0.14, p<0.0001; HR-3.11, p=0.046), but not ethnicity, influenced overall survival. CONCLUSIONS BC presents a decade earlier, and with more advanced disease in BA compared with Jewish patients. Biologic parameters including grade, ER, PR, and Her2 status were similar in both groups. Although prognosis was worse in BA than in Jewish patients, it was affected only by stage and PR status, but not by ethnicity.
Discontinuous spinning gait of a quadruped walking robot with waist-joint

In this paper, a new gait is presented for a quadruped walking robot with waist-joint. Although various types of walking robot have already been developed, their structure and gaits are still quite distinct from the natural walking motion of an animal, and the key point is that animals have waist-joint and use their waist-joint to walk, but, on the other hand a conventional 4-legged walking robot even has single rigid body which has no waist joint. Especially in turning, most animals bend oneself on one side, which makes turn faster and more stable. Spinning gait is very important as same as straight forward/backward gait. All animals need a spinning gait to avoid obstacle or to change walking direction. Therefore, this paper proposes a discontinuous gait for a quadruped walking robot with waist-joint which divides body into the front and rear parts of the body. Firstly, we describe a kinematic relation of waist-joint, the hip, and the centre of gravity of body, and then find the optimal values of parameters to spin most stable with simulation. We implemented a waist-jointed walking robot and showed that proposed spinning gait using waist-joint is more stable than that of a conventional walking robot.
Dendritic spines linearize the summation of excitatory potentials

In mammalian cortex, most excitatory inputs occur on dendritic spines, avoiding dendritic shafts. Although spines biochemically isolate inputs, nonspiny neurons can also implement biochemical compartmentalization; so, it is possible that spines have an additional function. We have recently shown that the spine neck can filter membrane potentials going into and out of the spine. To investigate the potential function of this electrical filtering, we used two-photon uncaging of glutamate and compared the integration of electrical signals in spines vs. dendritic shafts from basal dendrites of mouse layer 5 pyramidal neurons. Uncaging potentials onto spines summed linearly, whereas potentials on dendritic shafts reduced each other's effect. Linear integration of spines was maintained regardless of the amplitude of the response, distance between spines (as close as <2 μm), distance of the spines to the soma, dendritic diameter, or spine neck length. Our findings indicate that spines serve as electrical isolators to prevent input interaction, and thus generate a linear arithmetic of excitatory inputs. Linear integration could be an essential feature of cortical and other spine-laden circuits.