Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with cardiometabolic risk factors and micronutrient deficiencies in adults of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Increasing evidence suggests that high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRF) while being also related to micronutrient deficiencies. As part of a project on the double burden of under- and overnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, we assessed the relationship between hs-CRP and both CMRF and micronutrient deficiencies in a population-based cross-sectional study carried out in the Northern district of Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. We randomly selected 330 households stratified by income tertile. In each income stratum, 110 individuals aged 25–60 years and having lived in Ouagadougou for at least 6 months were randomly selected, and underwent anthropometric measurements and blood sample collection. The prevalence of high hs-CRP was 39·4 %, with no sex difference. Vitamin A-deficient subjects (12·7 %) exhibited significant risk of elevated hs-CRP (OR 2·5; P= 0·015). Serum ferritin was positively correlated with log hs-CRP (r 0·194; P= 0·002). The risk of elevated hs-CRP was significant in subjects with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 (OR 6·9; 95 % CI 3·6, 13·3), abdominal obesity (OR 4·6; 95 % CI 2·2, 7·3) and high body fat (OR 10·2; 95 % CI 5·1, 20·3) (P< 0·001, respectively). Independent predictors of hs-CRP in linear regression models were waist circumference (β = 0·306; P= 0·018) and serum TAG (β = 0·158; P= 0·027). In this sub-Saharan population, hs-CRP was consistently associated with adiposity. Assuming that plasma hs-CRP reflects future risk of cardiovascular events, intervention which reduces CRP, or chronic and acute nutrition conditions associated with it, could be effective in preventing their occurrence particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
TIME STUDIES ON FREE AMINO ACID LEVELS OF VENOUS PLASMA DURING THE NEONATAL PERIOD

A simplified method of ion‐exchange chromatography of essential amino acids on small amounts of human plasma is described. The precision of the instrument and the reproducibility was to be compared with those achieved with automatic amino acid analyzers. The method has been applied in a survey of venous plasma free amino acid levels and urinary concentrations during the neonatal period.
Hand Gesture Recognition Using Fast Multi-scale Analysis

Hand gesture has been used as a natural and efficient way in human computer interaction. Due to independence of auxiliary input devices, vision-based hand interfaces is more favorable for users. However, the process of hand gesture recognition is very time consuming, which often brings much frustration to users. In this paper, we propose a fast feature detection and description approach which can significantly speed up hand gesture recognition. Firstly, integral image is used to approximate Gaussian derivatives to calculate image convolution in feature detection. Then multi-scale geometric descriptors at feature points are obtained to represent hand gestures. Finally gesture is recognized with its geometric configuration. Experiments show that the proposed method needs much less time consumption while obtains comparative performance with its counterpart in literatures.
Changes in the expression of Fas on T lymphocytes after allogeneic fetal thymus transplantation in systemic lupus erytematosus mice.

BACKGROUND Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder that can produce inflammation in many organ systems. The rate of spontaneous apoptosis in lymphocytes from human SLE patients has been reported to be increased both in vivo and in vitro. Studies of fetal thymus transplantation in an autoimmune syndrome indicate that cellular immunity can be reconstituted and regulatory T cell functions can be normalized. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess changes in Fas expression on T lymphocytes following fetal thymus transplant. METHODS (B/CxB6) F1 (H-2d/h) female F1 mice were assigned to groups designated transplantation, normal, and control. Mice in the transplantation and control groups received parental BALB/c lymphocytes intravenously. Thirty days after injection of the lymphocytes, each F1 mouse in the transplantation group received a fetal thymus graft under the right renal capsule. Mice in the control group did not receive thymus transplant and mice in the normal group received neither parental lymphocytes nor a fetal thymus graft. All mice received cyclosporin A at 2 mg/kg daily for the first 12 days after transplantation or starting on the corresponding day. Thirty days after thymus transplantation, F1 mice were sacrificed and expression of Fas in peripheral blood lymphocytes was analyzed by flow cytometry. RESULTS The percentage of CD4Fas+ T lymphocytes was significantly increased in the control group and the transplantation group compared with the normal group. Corresponding significant differences were observed for CD8Fas+, CD4CD25Fas', and CD45RB(low)Fas+ T lymphocytes. CONCLUSIONS In this study, we found that fetal thymus transplantation had a significant effect on the expression of Fas by T cell subtypes in SLE mice.
Face Identification with Bilinear CNNs

The recent explosive growth in convolutional neural network (CNN) research has produced a variety of new architectures for deep learning. One intriguing new architecture is the bilinear CNN (B-CNN), which has shown dramatic performance gains on certain fine-grained recognition problems [13]. We apply this new CNN to the challenging new face recognition benchmark, the IARPA Janus Benchmark A (IJB-A) [11]. It features faces from a large number of identities in challenging real-world conditions. Because the face images were not identified automatically using a computerized face detection system, it does not have the bias inherent in such a database. We demonstrate the performance of the B-CNN model beginning from an AlexNet-style network pre-trained on ImageNet. We then show results for fine-tuning using a moderate-sized and public external database, FaceScrub [15]. We also present results with additional fine-tuning on the limited training data provided by the protocol. In each case, the fine-tuned bilinear model shows substantial improvements over the standard CNN.
Super-peer-based routing and clustering strategies for RDF-based peer-to-peer networks

RDF-based P2P networks have a number of advantages compared with simpler P2P networks such as Napster, Gnutella or with approaches based on distributed indices such as CAN and CHORD. RDF-based P2P networks allow complex and extendable descriptions of resources instead of fixed and limited ones, and they provide complex query facilities against these metadata instead of simple keyword-based searches.In previous papers, we have described the Edutella infrastructure and different kinds of Edutella peers implementing such an RDF-based P2P network. In this paper we will discuss these RDF-based P2P networks as a specific example of a new type of P2P networks, schema-based P2P networks, and describe the use of super-peer based topologies for these networks. Super-peer based networks can provide better scalability than broadcast based networks, and do provide perfect support for inhomogeneous schema-based networks, which support different metadata schemas and ontologies (crucial for the Semantic Web). Furthermore, as we will show in this paper, they are able to support sophisticated routing and clustering strategies based on the metadata schemas, attributes and ontologies used. Especially helpful in this context is the RDF functionality to uniquely identify schemas, attributes and ontologies. The resulting routing indices can be built using dynamic frequency counting algorithms and support local mediation and transformation rules, and we will sketch some first ideas for implementing these advanced functionalities as well.
The Donor Stars of Cataclysmic Variables

We construct a complete, semi-empirical donor sequence for CVs with orbital periods less than 6 hrs. All key physical and photometric parameters of CV secondaries (along with their spectral types) are given as a function of P_orb along this sequence. The main observational basis for our donor sequence is an empirical mass-radius relation for CV secondaries. We present an optimal estimate for this relation that ensures consistency with the observed locations of the period gap and the period minimum. We also present new determinations of these periods, finding P_{gap, upper edge} = 3.18 +/- 0.04 hr, P_{gap, lower edge} = 2.15 +/- 0.03 hr and P_{min} = 76.2 +/- 1.0 min. We then test the donor sequence by comparing observed and predicted spectral types (SpTs) as a function of orbital period. To this end, we update the SpT compilation of Beuermann et al. and show explicitly that CV donors have later SpTs than main sequence (MS) stars at all orbital periods. The semi-empirical donor sequence matches the observed SpTs very well, implying that the empirical M2-R2 relation predicts just the right amount of radius expansion. We finally apply the donor sequence to the problem of distance estimation. Based on a sample of 22 CVs with trigonometric parallaxes, we show that the donor sequence correctly traces the envelope of the observed M_{JHK}-P_{orb} distribution. Thus robust lower limits on distances can be obtained from single-epoch infrared observations.
The Role of Self-Compassion in Physical and Psychological Well-Being

ABSTRACT The relation of self-compassion to physical and psychological well-being was investigated among 182 college students. The self-compassion scale was delineated into three composites, following the proposition by Neff that self-compassion consists of three main components: self-judgment versus self-kindness (SJ–SK), a sense of isolation versus common humanity (I–CH), and over-identification versus mindfulness (OI–M). Findings support the association between self-compassion and psychological and physical well-being, but the composites demonstrate different influences. SJ–SK and I–CH were predictive of both depressive symptomatology and physical well-being, and SJ–SK and OI–M were predictive of managing life stressors. The results of this study support and expand prior research on self-compassion.
Upregulation of miR-137 protects anesthesia-induced hippocampal neurodegeneration.

PURPOSE Ketamine is commonly used in pediatric anesthesia but may cause neurodegeneration in young brains. The aim of the study is to use an animal model to characterize the role of microRNA 137 (miR-137) in ketamine-induced neurodegeneration in neonatal hippocampus. METHODS Young Sprague-Dawley Rats (1 month old) was systemically administrated with ketamine (75 mg/kg) for 3 days. TUNEL assay was used to assess the ketamine-induced neurodegeneration of hippocampal CA1 neurons, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to assess the expression of miR-137 and Morris water maze test (MWM) to assess the damaged memory function. Alternatively, lentivirus over-expressing miR-137 was injected into hippocampus before ketamine administration, and the subsequent effects of miR-137 upregulation on ketamine-induced hippocampal neurodegeneration and memory dysfunction were investigated. Furthermore, the direct downstream target of miR-137, CDC42, was down-regulated by siRNA injection into hippocampus. The effects of CDC42 inhibition on hippocampal apoptosis and memory function were also investigated. RESULTS Excessive ketamine treatment resulted in severe apoptosis in hippocampal CA1 neurons, downregulation of miR-137 in hippocampus and significant long-term memory dysfunction. Conversely, pre-treatment of overexpressing miR-137 protected hippocampal neurodegeneration and memory loss. The molecular target of miR-137, CDC42 was down-regulated by ketamine in hippocampus. Knocking down hippocampal CDC42 exerted an apoptotic effect on hippocampal neurons and memory loss, similar to the effect of ketamine treatment. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrated that miR-137 played an important role in regulating ketamine induced hippocampal neurodegeneration, possibly through CDC42.
The Effects of Ultraviolet Light and Riboflavin on Inactivation of Viruses and the Quality of Platelet Concentrates at Laboratory Scale

Background: This study investigated the effects of Riboflavin (RB) combined with different doses of UV on Platelet Concentrate (PC) which was infected by three models of virus. Platelet quality after treatment was also assessed. Methods: Three models of virus used in this study were Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), and Polio virus, which were added to PC. After photochemical treatment with RB and UV light, residual viral infectivity was titrated using 50% Tissue Culture Infective Dose (TCID50)/ml. This treatment was done with concentration of 50 μM of RB and different doses of UV light (0.24, 0.48, 0.97, 1.29 J/cm2). Platelet quality was assessed by measuring pH, Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH), MTT assay and cell count after treatments and during 4 days of storage against control groups. Results: Concentration of 50 μM RB with combination of 1.29 J/cm2 dose of UV resulted in the highest titer reduction of VSV (4 log 10) and HSV (4.26 log10) and lowest titer reduction of Polio virus (2.6 log10). No significant difference was observed between different doses in comparison with control groups. In all treatment groups, the storage stability of platelets in PC was in the acceptable range in comparison with control group. Conclusion: This study indicated that RB/UV treatment was a promising pathogen reduction technique in PC and had limited effects on platelet quality. However, further optimization of this method is necessary to deal with blood-borne viruses like non-enveloped viruses.
Mediterranean diet, traditional risk factors, and the rate of cardiovascular complications after myocardial infarction: final report of the Lyon Diet Heart Study.

BACKGROUND The Lyon Diet Heart Study is a randomized secondary prevention trial aimed at testing whether a Mediterranean-type diet may reduce the rate of recurrence after a first myocardial infarction. An intermediate analysis showed a striking protective effect after 27 months of follow-up. This report presents results of an extended follow-up (with a mean of 46 months per patient) and deals with the relationships of dietary patterns and traditional risk factors with recurrence. METHODS AND RESULTS Three composite outcomes (COs) combining either cardiac death and nonfatal myocardial infarction (CO 1), or the preceding plus major secondary end points (unstable angina, stroke, heart failure, pulmonary or peripheral embolism) (CO 2), or the preceding plus minor events requiring hospital admission (CO 3) were studied. In the Mediterranean diet group, CO 1 was reduced (14 events versus 44 in the prudent Western-type diet group, P=0.0001), as were CO 2 (27 events versus 90, P=0.0001) and CO 3 (95 events versus 180, P=0. 0002). Adjusted risk ratios ranged from 0.28 to 0.53. Among the traditional risk factors, total cholesterol (1 mmol/L being associated with an increased risk of 18% to 28%), systolic blood pressure (1 mm Hg being associated with an increased risk of 1% to 2%), leukocyte count (adjusted risk ratios ranging from 1.64 to 2.86 with count >9x10(9)/L), female sex (adjusted risk ratios, 0.27 to 0. 46), and aspirin use (adjusted risk ratios, 0.59 to 0.82) were each significantly and independently associated with recurrence. CONCLUSIONS The protective effect of the Mediterranean dietary pattern was maintained up to 4 years after the first infarction, confirming previous intermediate analyses. Major traditional risk factors, such as high blood cholesterol and blood pressure, were shown to be independent and joint predictors of recurrence, indicating that the Mediterranean dietary pattern did not alter, at least qualitatively, the usual relationships between major risk factors and recurrence. Thus, a comprehensive strategy to decrease cardiovascular morbidity and mortality should include primarily a cardioprotective diet. It should be associated with other (pharmacological? ) means aimed at reducing modifiable risk factors. Further trials combining the 2 approaches are warranted.
Do Hospitals With Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) Provide Higher Quality Care?

This study investigates how hospital electronic medical record (EMR) use influences quality performance. Data include nonfederal acute care hospitals in the United States. Sources of the data include the American Hospital Association, Hospital Quality Alliance, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services case-mix index sets. The authors use a retrospective cross-sectional format with linear regression to assess the relationship between hospital EMR use and quality performance. Quality performance is measured using 10 process indicators related to 3 clinical conditions: acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia. The authors also use a propensity score adjustment to control for possible selection bias. After this adjustment, the authors identify a positive significant relationship between EMR use and 4 of the 10 quality indicators. They conclude that there is limited evidence of the relationship between hospital EMR use and quality.
The Optimal Hard Threshold for Singular Values is  $4/\sqrt {3}$

We consider recovery of low-rank matrices from noisy data by hard thresholding of singular values, in which empirical singular values below a threshold λ are set to 0. We study the asymptotic mean squared error (AMSE) in a framework, where the matrix size is large compared with the rank of the matrix to be recovered, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the low-rank piece stays constant. The AMSE-optimal choice of hard threshold, in the case of n-by-n matrix in white noise of level σ, is simply (4/√3)√nσ ≈ 2.309√nσ when σ is known, or simply 2.858 · ymed when σ is unknown, where ymed is the median empirical singular value. For nonsquare, m by n matrices with m ≠ n the thresholding coefficients 4/√3 and 2.858 are replaced with different provided constants that depend on m/n. Asymptotically, this thresholding rule adapts to unknown rank and unknown noise level in an optimal manner: it is always better than hard thresholding at any other value, and is always better than ideal truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD), which truncates at the true rank of the low-rank matrix we are trying to recover. Hard thresholding at the recommended value to recover an n-by-n matrix of rank r guarantees an AMSE at most 3 nrσ2. In comparison, the guarantees provided by TSVD, optimally tuned singular value soft thresholding and the best guarantee achievable by any shrinkage of the data singular values are 5 nrσ2, 6 nrσ2, and 2 nrσ2, respectively. The recommended value for hard threshold also offers, among hard thresholds, the best possible AMSE guarantees for recovering matrices with bounded nuclear norm. Empirical evidence suggests that performance improvement over TSVD and other popular shrinkage rules can be substantial, for different noise distributions, even in relatively small n.
Prevention of Brown Adipose Tissue Activation in 18F-FDG PET/CT of Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy

18F-FDG uptake in brown adipose tissue (BAT) can complicate interpretation and quantification of PET images, especially in regions of possible lymph node metastases such as the axilla and the mediastinum. The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the effect of patient preparation using a single oral dose of diazepam and controlled indoor temperature to prevent 18F-FDG uptake in BAT in breast cancer patients referred for monitoring of therapy response with 18F-FDG PET. Methods: During the fall and winter months, 53 patients referred for 18F-FDG PET/CT of breast cancer were included. A cohort of 25 patients was imaged without an intervention, and a second cohort of 28 patients was prepared according to a new protocol that included 10 mg of diazepam and adequate indoor temperature. The generated images were visually assessed for the presence of 18F-FDG at the location of fat-density tissue on CT images using a 4-point scale. Results: In the cohort without intervention, relevant 18F-FDG uptake in BAT was identified in 4 patients (16%); in the cohort prepared according to the proposed protocol, in only 1 patient (4%). The mean score of BAT 18F-FDG uptake evaluated with the 4-point system was 0.04 in the group treated according to the new protocol and 0.16 in the group treated according to the previous protocol. Conclusion: In the clinically relevant group of breast cancer patients, 18F-FDG uptake in BAT can be reduced by a single oral administration of diazepam combined with controlled room temperature in resting rooms.
Calmodulin antagonists sensitize cells to pseudomonas toxin

L cells and mouse 3T3 cells, which are very sensitive to Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A (PEA), were protected with weak bases and low concentrations of monensin. BHK cells and a number of other cell lines which are much less sensitive to PEA were much less protected under these conditions. Trifluoperazine, dansylcadaverine, and several other calmodulin antagonists strongly sensitized BHK cells to the toxin whereas they did not affect the sensitivity of the mouse 3T3 and L cells. The sensitization of the BHK cells was counteracted by treatment with weak bases or low concentrations of monensin. Calmodulin antagonists also sensitized cells to toxin which had become inaccessible to antitoxin, indicating that the effect of the calmodulin antagonists is exerted on a process taking place after the toxin is endocytosed.
Gaussian Process Regression Networks

We introduce a new regression framework, Gaussian process regression networks (GPRN), which combines the structural properties of Bayesian neural networks with the nonparametric exibility of Gaussian processes. GPRN accommodates input (predictor) dependent signal and noise correlations between multiple output (response) variables, input dependent length-scales and amplitudes, and heavy-tailed predictive distributions. We derive both elliptical slice sampling and variational Bayes inference procedures for GPRN. We apply GPRN as a multiple output regression and multivariate volatility model, demonstrating substantially improved performance over eight popular multiple output (multi-task) Gaussian process models and three multivariate volatility models on real datasets, including a 1000 dimensional gene expression dataset.
Border Disease Virus among Chamois, Spain

Approximately 3,000 Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica) died in northeastern Spain during 2005–2007. Border disease virus infection was identified by reverse transcription–PCR and sequencing analysis. These results implicate this virus as the primary cause of death, similar to findings in the previous epizootic in 2001.
A Stable Numerical Method for Inverting Shape from Moments

We derive a stable technique, based upon matrix pencils, for the reconstruction of (or approximation by) polygonal shapes from moments. We point out that this problem can be considered the dual of 2-D numerical quadrature over polygonal domains. An analysis of the sensitivity of the problem is presented along with some numerical examples illustrating the relevant points. Finally, an application to the problem of gravimetry is explored where the shape of a gravitationally anomalous region is to be recovered from measurements of its exterior gravitational field.