Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between autoimmune conditions and hepatobiliary cancer risk among elderly US adults

Growing evidence suggests that people with autoimmune conditions may be at increased risk of hepatobiliary tumors. In the present study, we evaluated associations between autoimmune conditions and hepatobiliary cancers among adults aged ≥66 in the United States. We used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)‐Medicare data (1992–2013) to conduct a population‐based, case–control study. Cases (n = 32,443) had primary hepatobiliary cancer. Controls (n = 200,000) were randomly selected, cancer‐free adults frequency‐matched to cases by sex, age and year of selection. Using multivariable logistic regression, we calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations with 39 autoimmune conditions identified via Medicare claims. We also conducted separate analyses for diagnoses obtained via inpatient versus outpatient claims. Sixteen conditions were associated with at least one hepatobiliary cancer. The strongest risk estimates were for primary biliary cholangitis with hepatocellular carcinoma (OR: 31.33 [95% CI: 23.63–41.56]) and primary sclerosing cholangitis with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (7.53 [5.73–10.57]), extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (5.59 [4.03–7.75]), gallbladder cancer (2.06 [1.27–3.33]) and ampulla of Vater cancer (6.29 [4.29–9.22]). Associations with hepatobiliary‐related conditions as a group were observed across nearly all cancer sites (ORs ranging from 4.53 [95% CI: 3.30–6.21] for extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma to 7.18 [5.94–8.67] for hepatocellular carcinoma). Restricting to autoimmune conditions diagnosed via inpatient claims, 6 conditions remained associated with at least one hepatobiliary cancer, and several risk estimates increased. In the outpatient restricted analysis, 12 conditions remained associated. Multiple autoimmune conditions are associated with hepatobiliary cancer risk in the US Medicare population, supporting a shared immuno‐inflammatory etiology to these cancers.
The relationship between sex hormones, the vaginal microbiome and immunity in HIV-1 susceptibility in women

ABSTRACT The role of sex hormones in regulating immune responses in the female genital tract has been recognized for decades. More recently, it has become increasingly clear that sex hormones regulate susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections through direct and indirect mechanisms involving inflammation and immune responses. The reproductive cycle can influence simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) infections in primates and HIV-1 infection in ex vivo cervical tissues from women. Exogenous hormones, such as those found in hormonal contraceptives, have come under intense scrutiny because of the increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections seen in women using medroxyprogesterone acetate, a synthetic progestin-based contraceptive. Recent meta-analyses concluded that medroxyprogesterone acetate enhanced HIV-1 susceptibility in women by 40%. In contrast, estradiol-containing hormonal contraceptives were not associated with increased susceptibility and some studies reported a protective effect of estrogen on HIV/SIV infection, although the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Recent studies describe a key role for the vaginal microbiota in determining susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV-1. While Lactobacillus spp. -dominated vaginal microbiota is associated with decreased susceptibility, complex microbiota, such as those seen in bacterial vaginosis, correlates with increased susceptibility to HIV-1. Interestingly, sex hormones are inherently linked to microbiota regulation in the vaginal tract. Estrogen has been postulated to play a key role in establishing a Lactobacillus-dominated microenvironment, whereas medroxyprogesterone acetate is linked to hypo-estrogenic effects. The aim of this Review is to contribute to a better understanding of the sex-hormone–microbiome–immunity axis, which can provide key information on the determinants of HIV-1 susceptibility in the female genital tract and, consequently, inform HIV-1 prevention strategies. Summary: A better understanding of the sex-hormone–microbiome–immunity axis can provide key information about the determinants of HIV-1 susceptibility in the female genital tract and consequently inform HIV-1 prevention strategies.
FNLP‐ONT: A feasible ontology for improving NLP tasks in Persian

Natural language processing is a composition of several error‐prone and challenging tasks, including part of speech tagging, word sense disambiguation, named entity recognition, and compound verb detection. Studying intrasentence relations and roles is essential to improve the mentioned subtasks. Semi‐automatic schemes such as ontologies can be applied to clarify word's dependencies. This paper presents an ontology that is targeting to improve POS tagging, WSD, NER, and compound verb detection in Persian with extra properties that may ameliorate machine translation. The ontology is tested in combinations with several state‐of‐art algorithms on Dadegan corpus. The results show that coping semantic analysis with machine learning methods enhance relation detection and consequently precision of the mentioned subtasks, which is not widely addressed in Persian. Furthermore, the experimental results declare that the accuracy rate increases between 4.5 and 23% for different tasks.
Reactive Synthesis: Branching Logics and Parameterized Systems

Reactive synthesis is an automatic way to translate a human intention expressed in some logic into a system of some kind. This thesis has two parts, devoted to logic and to systems. In Part I, we develop two new approaches to CTL* synthesis. The first approach consists of two extensions of the SMT-based bounded synthesis: one follows bottom-up CTL* model checking, another one follows the automata framework. The second approach reduces CTL* synthesis to LTL synthesis. The reduction turns any LTL synthesiser into a CTL* synthesiser. The two approaches were implemented and are available online. In Part II, we study parameterized synthesis for two system architectures. The first architecture is guarded systems and is inspired by cache coherence protocols. In guarded systems, processes transitions are enabled or disabled depending on the existence of other processes in certain local states. The existing cutoff results for guarded protocols are restricted to closed systems, and are of limited use for liveness properties. We close these gaps and prove tight cutoffs for open systems with liveness properties, and also cutoffs for detecting deadlocks. The second architecture is token-ring systems, where the single token circulates processes arranged in a ring. The experiments with the existing parameterized synthesis method showed that it does not scale to large specifications. First, we optimize the method by refining the cutoff reduction, using modularity and abstraction. The evaluation show several orders of magnitude speed-ups. Second, we perform parameterized synthesis case study on the industrial arbiter protocol AMBA. We describe new tricks ---a new cutoff extension and decompositional synthesis--- that, together with the previously described optimizations, allowed us to synthesize AMBA in a parameterized setting, for the first time.
Which neurofeedback session is better for motor skill acquisition; before or after training?

This study aimed to compare the effect of two neurofeedback protocols with two different mechanisms on learning a motor task. Forty-two volunteers aged 18–22 years old were placed in three groups of pre-training, post-training, and control. In the pre-training group, Mu (8–12 Hz) amplitude was suppressed at C4 before the motor skill training, while the participants in the post-training group were instructed to increase theta (4–8 Hz) amplitude at Pz and immediately after motor skill training. After the training session, the subjects participated in retention tests at approximately 90 min, 24 h, and 1 week after training. The results showed that the pre-training group performed better in the first retention test (p = 0.002). Nevertheless, this superiority was not maintained in subsequent retention tests, where no difference was observed between the groups. Mu amplitude suppression before training led to more beneficial effect on learning of a new motor skill, even though it was not so effective over time. However, it appears that the inhibition of Mu amplitude in the motor cortex and subsequent higher excitability can effect motor skill acquisition.
The Evolution of Central Retinal and Choroidal Thickness in Acute Anterior Uveitic Patients with Spondyloarthropathy

Purpose To describe and correlate the degree of anterior segment inflammation with central retinal and choroidal thickness throughout the treatment period (in the course of follow-up) in the eyes affected with acute anterior uveitis in the patients with seronegative spondyloarthropathy (subgroup: ankylosing spondylitis). Methods Thirty eyes of 30 consecutive Caucasian patients with HLA-B27-associated acute anterior uveitis were included in this study. The flare, AC cell number, and central retinal/choroidal thickness were determined at each visit by optical coherence tomography and laser flare photometry. Treatment consisted of topical corticosteroids. Statistical analysis was performed by MathWorks Matlab software. Results In the follow-up period, central retinal thickness was increased in the first 9-10 days and then decreased until stabilization (after 5-6 weeks). The flare and AC cell number decreased rapidly at the beginning of the treatment, in the first 10 days, and thereafter, slower decrease could be observed until complete resolution of inflammation. Statistically significant, positive correlation was found between initial laser flare value and maximal central retinal thickness (r=0.881, p < 0.001). Positive correlation between flare and retinal thickening was observable throughout the treatment period. Central choroidal thickness was decreased also significantly during the follow-up (p < 0.001). Conclusions The retina and choroid may play a biomarker function in the anterior segment inflammation of the eye in the patients with seronegative spondyloarthropathy.
Impact of Inventory Management on Firm’s Efficiency – A Quantitative Research Study on Departmental Stores Operating in Karachi

This study investigated the effect of various inventory management factors on firm’s efficiency. These factors included Capacity Utilization, Inventory Accuracy, Lean Inventory, and Stock Availability. Data was collected by the use of liker scale questionnaire from 250 individuals from different departmental stores in Karachi. Data was analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results showed Inventory Accuracy, Lean Inventory, and Stock Availability has positive and significant impact on efficiency. However, Capacity Utilization doesn’t seem to affect efficiency. Hence, main indicator of inventory control comes out to be inventory accuracy which allows having an effective control of the outputs of the different goods.
A systematic review and meta‐analysis of lifestyle interventions in women of reproductive age with overweight or obesity: the effects on symptoms of depression and anxiety

Obesity is a rising problem, especially among women of reproductive age. Overweight and obesity reduce both physical and mental health. Lifestyle interventions could have beneficial effects on both, but an overview of the effects on mental health, especially in women of reproductive age, is currently lacking. Therefore, the aim of this review was to assess the effect of lifestyle interventions on symptoms of depression and anxiety in women of reproductive age with overweight or obesity. The databases MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO were searched from inception to June 2018 for published randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We included lifestyle intervention RCTs in women of reproductive age with overweight or obesity that assessed effects on symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. The difference between baseline and post‐intervention scores on symptoms of depression and anxiety for the intervention and control group was analysed. Meta‐analysis was performed with a random effects model. The search resulted in 5,316 citations, and after screening five RCTs were included, in which 571 women were randomized. The effect of lifestyle interventions on depression scores was investigated among 224 women from five RCTs. The pooled estimate for the mean difference was −1.35 (95% CI, −2.36 to −0.35, p = 0.008). The effect of lifestyle interventions on anxiety levels was studied among 148 women from four RCTs, resulting in a pooled estimate of −1.74 (−2.62 to −0.87, p < 0.001). Based on five RCTs, meta‐analyses showed that lifestyle interventions in women of reproductive age with overweight or obesity consistently reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Closed-Form Word Error Rate Analysis for Successive Interference Cancellation Decoders

We consider the detection of an integer vector <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\hat { {{x}}}}\in \mathbb {Z}^{n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> from the linear observation <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${{y}}= {A} {\hat { {{x}}}} + {v}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${A}\in \mathbb {R}^{m\times n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is a random matrix with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) standard Gaussian <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {N}(0,1)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> entries, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${v}\in \mathbb {R}^{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is a noise vector with i.i. d. <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {N}(0,\sigma ^{2})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> entries with given <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sigma $ </tex-math></inline-formula>. In digital communications, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\hat { {{x}}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is typically uniformly distributed over an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-dimensional box <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {B}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. For this detection problem, successive interference cancellation decoders are popular due to their low complexity, and a detailed analysis of their word error rates (WERs) is highly useful. In this paper, we derive closed-form WER expressions for two cases: (1) <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\hat { {{x}}}}\in \mathbb {Z}^{n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is fixed and (2) <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\hat { {{x}}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is uniformly distributed over <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {B}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. We also investigate some of their properties in detail and show that they agree closely with simulated word error probabilities.
Cognitive Action Laws: The Case of Visual Features

This paper proposes a theory for understanding perceptual learning processes within the general framework of laws of nature. Artificial neural networks are regarded as systems whose connections are Lagrangian variables, namely, functions depending on time. They are used to minimize the cognitive action, an appropriate functional index that measures the agent interactions with the environment. The cognitive action contains a potential and a kinetic term that nicely resemble the classic formulation of regularization in machine learning. A special choice of the functional index, which leads to the fourth-order differential equations—Cognitive Action Laws (CAL)—exhibits a structure that mirrors classic formulation of machine learning. In particular, unlike the action of mechanics, the stationarity condition corresponds with the global minimum. Moreover, it is proven that typical asymptotic learning conditions on the weights can coexist with the initialization provided that the system dynamics is driven under a policy referred to as information overloading control. Finally, the theory is experimented for the problem of feature extraction in computer vision.
Unsupervised Ensembles for Outlier Detection

Ensemble techniques have been applied to the unsupervised outlier detection problem in some scenarios. Challenges are the generation of diverse ensemble members and the combination of individual results into an ensemble. For the latter challenge, some methods tried to design smaller ensembles out of a wealth of possible ensemble members, to improve the diversity and accuracy of the ensemble (relating to the ensemble selection problem in classification). In this paper, We propose a boosting strategy to solve the ensemble selection problem, called BoostSelect. We evaluate BoostSelect over a large benchmark of datasets for outlier detection, showing improvements over baseline approaches.
Hemostasis and Bone Regeneration Using Chitosan/Gelatin-BCP Bi-layer Composite Material.

The aim of the study was to determine the hemostatic activity of a composite bi-layered topical hemostat composed of electrospun gelatin loaded with bi-phasic calcium phosphate and chitosan layer and its effect on bone formation. Morphology of the composite hemostat and its individual components were observed using scanning electron microscopy. In vitro biocompatibility of the topical hemostat tested using preosteoblasts cells (MC3t3-E1) showed no adverse toxicity. Confocal microscopy of seeded cells showed good cell adhesion while MTT assay indicated 15% increased cell proliferation at the end of 1 week culture period. The material's efficiency as a hemostatic agent was tested by testing blood adsorption capacity and in vivo bone bleeding models. Blood absorption indicates that test sample measuring 14.14 mm becomes fully saturated within 5 minutes of blood contact. Bone bleeding was induced on the frontal plates of rat skulls and samples were applied as either removable topical hemostat or actual degradable hemostat. The effect of the bi-layered hemostat on bone formation was determined through analysis of micro CT and observation of histological sections of extracted bone tissue samples. Results indicate that the bi-layer hemostat was able to halt bleeding within 3 minutes of application on the bleeding site and significantly enhanced bone regeneration. Using the bi-layer material as a degradable hemostat also drastically improved bone regeneration of the 3 mm defect.
Absence of hexose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase results in reduced overall glucose consumption but does not prevent 11β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase‐1‐dependent glucocorticoid activation

Hexose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (H6PD) is thought to be the major source of NADPH within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), determining 11β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (11β‐HSD1) reaction direction to convert inert 11‐oxo‐ to potent 11β‐hydroxyglucocorticoids. Here, we tested the hypothesis whether H6pd knock‐out (KO) in primary murine bone marrow‐derived macrophages results in a switch from 11β‐HSD1 oxoreduction to dehydrogenation, thereby inactivating glucocorticoids (GC) and affecting macrophage phenotypic activation as well as causing a more aggressive M1 macrophage phenotype. H6pdKO did not lead to major disturbances of macrophage activation state, although a slightly more pronounced M1 phenotype was observed with enhanced proinflammatory cytokine release, an effect explained by the decreased 11β‐HSD1‐dependent GC activation. Unexpectedly, ablation of H6pd did not switch 11β‐HSD1 reaction direction. A moderately decreased 11β‐HSD1 oxoreduction activity by 40–50% was observed in H6pdKO M1 macrophages but dehydrogenation activity was undetectable, providing strong evidence for the existence of an alternative source of NADPH in the ER. H6pdKO M1 activated macrophages showed decreased phagocytic activity, most likely a result of the reduced 11β‐HSD1‐dependent GC activation. Other general macrophage functions reported to be influenced by GC, such as nitrite production and cholesterol efflux, were altered negligibly or not at all. Importantly, assessment of energy metabolism using an extracellular flux analyzer and lactate measurements revealed reduced overall glucose consumption in H6pdKO M1 activated macrophages, an effect that was GC independent. The GC‐independent influence of H6PD on energy metabolism and the characterization of the alternative source of NADPH in the ER warrant further investigations.
Single-Shot Multi-person 3D Pose Estimation from Monocular RGB

We propose a new single-shot method for multi-person 3D pose estimation in general scenes from a monocular RGB camera. Our approach uses novel occlusion-robust pose-maps (ORPM) which enable full body pose inference even under strong partial occlusions by other people and objects in the scene. ORPM outputs a fixed number of maps which encode the 3D joint locations of all people in the scene. Body part associations [8] allow us to infer 3D pose for an arbitrary number of people without explicit bounding box prediction. To train our approach we introduce MuCo-3DHP, the first large scale training data set showing real images of sophisticated multi-person interactions and occlusions. We synthesize a large corpus of multi-person images by compositing images of individual people (with ground truth from mutli-view performance capture). We evaluate our method on our new challenging 3D annotated multi-person test set MuPoTs-3D where we achieve state-of-the-art performance. To further stimulate research in multi-person 3D pose estimation, we will make our new datasets, and associated code publicly available for research purposes.
Expression of mucin-1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma and normal oral mucosa: An immunohistochemical study

Background: Mucins are high-molecular-weight glycoproteins with a high O-linked carbohydrate content, which are synthesized by many secretory epithelial cells as membrane-bound and/or secreted products. Mucin-1 (MUC1) is a transmembrane mucin that protects and lubricates the mucous membranes of the human body and involves itself in various cellular functions such as growth, differentiation and signaling. An aberrant expression of MUC1 has been demonstrated in various human cancers. Many studies on MUC1 expression have been conducted on a variety of neoplastic lesions other than head-and-neck region. In this study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the MUC1 immunoexpression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and normal oral mucosa (NOM). Aims: This study aims to compare and correlate the immunoexpression of MUC1 in NOM and OSCC using immunohistochemical technique. Settings and Design: Thirty patients of OSCC formed the study group and thirty patients were included in the control group (NOM). Formalin-fixed paraffin wax blocks were prepared from the tissue samples obtained. Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for MUC1 was performed, and the overall percentage of positive cells along with distribution and localization of immunoexpression was studied. Statistical Analysis: Pearson's Chi-square test was used. P <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: In OSCC study group, MUC1-positive immunoreaction was observed in 21 (70%) cases out of 30. All the samples in control group were negative for MUC1 immunoexpression. The immunohistochemical expression of MUC1 in OSCC group was statistically significant when compared with normal control group, as P < 0.05 (Pearson's Chi-square). Conclusions: MUC1 is a reliable biomarker for the diagnosis of OSCC, but further studies are required to prove its role in prognosis.