Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Chernoff Test: Optimal Decision Systems Over Networks

We study “active” decision making over sensor networks where the sensors’ sequential probing actions are actively chosen by continuously learning from past observations. We consider two network settings: with and without central coordination. In the first case, the network nodes interact with each other through a central entity, which plays the role of a fusion center. In the second case, the network nodes interact in a fully distributed fashion. In both of these scenarios, we propose sequential and adaptive hypothesis tests extending the classic Chernoff test. We compare the performance of the proposed tests to the optimal sequential test. In the presence of a fusion center, our test achieves the same asymptotic optimality of the Chernoff test, minimizing the risk, expressed by the expected cost required to reach a decision plus the expected cost of making a wrong decision, when the observation cost per unit time tends to zero. The test is also asymptotically optimal in the higher moments of the time required to reach a decision. Additionally, the test is parsimonious in terms of communications, and the expected number of channel uses per network node tends to a small constant. In the distributed setup, our test achieves the same asymptotic optimality of Chernoff’s test, up to a multiplicative constant in terms of both risk and the higher moments of the decision time. Additionally, the test is parsimonious in terms of communications in comparison to state-of-the-art schemes proposed in the literature. The analysis of these tests is also extended to account for message quantization and communication over channels with random erasures.
Enzyme replacement therapy and white matter hyperintensity progression in Fabry disease

Objective To explore the association between enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), clinical characteristics, and the rate of progression of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in patients with Fabry disease (FD). Methods Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of FD, aged 18 years or older, participating in an existing FD observational study (NCT00196742), with at least 2 serial MRI brain scans at least 2 years apart for the period between December 2006 and August 2016 were included in this cohort study. Total WMH volume was estimated for each image using a semiautomated procedure. We performed linear regression to calculate the primary outcome measure of WMH change rate for each participant. Associations between ERT, clinical characteristics, and the primary outcome were explored using multiple linear regression. Results Eight hundred sixty-three MRI time points were analyzed for the 149 included participants. Age (p < 0.0005; increasing age associated with faster WMH progression), total cholesterol (p = 0.03; increasing total cholesterol associated with slower WMH progression), and a history of peripheral pain (p = 0.02; peripheral pain associated with faster WMH progression) were independently associated with WMH change rate in the primary analysis. We did not find an association between “ERT at any point between baseline and final MRI” and WMH change rate (p = 0.22). Conclusion In a large cohort of patients with FD, we did not find an association between ERT and WMH progression, while higher total cholesterol was associated with slower WMH progression. Further research is needed into the pathogenesis and treatment of cerebrovascular disease in this rare condition.
The Effect of Nutritional Education on Knowledge and Practice at the Household Level in Zahedan

Background: The present study was carried out to enable, motivate, persuade, and assist the households to use their nutritional knowledge for the promotion of their nutritional status. Methods: In this descriptive- analytical study, 188 households were randomly selected from four regions, which were selected as the population lab in Zahedan city in south-east of Iran. In the studied households, mothers were selected as the target group since they were the main caregivers in families. In the educational intervention, nutrition experts educated the participants individually. Pre- and post-tests were administered before and after the intervention. The educational program included three sessions with regard to every region of population lab. The questionnaire investigated the participants' knowledge (15 items) and practice (10 items). The total scores of knowledge and practice were calculated and participants were classified to be in weak, medium, and good status in this regard. P < 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The mean scores of knowledge were 6.5 ± 2.7 and 8.6 ± 3.0 for before and after the intervention, respectively (P = 0.0001). A significant difference was observed between the two groups regarding the association of mothers' knowledge with their age and family size of households (P < 0.01). The results showed that the knowledge of participants was weak (55% vs. 21.5%), medium (43% vs. 51%), and good (12% vs. 27.5%) before and after the intervention, respectively. Conclusion: According to the findings, implementation of supplementary, participatory, and advisory programs are suggested for the improvement of household's nutritional practice.
Classification for Single-Trial N170 During Responding to Facial Picture With Emotion

Whether an event-related potential (ERP), N170, related to facial recognition was modulated by emotion has always been a controversial issue. Some researchers considered the N170 to be independent of emotion, whereas a recent study has shown the opposite view. In the current study, electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings while responding to facial pictures with emotion were utilized to investigate whether the N170 was modulated by emotion. We found that there was a significant difference between ERP trials with positive and negative emotions of around 170 ms at the occipitotemporal electrodes (i.e., N170). Then, we further proposed the application of the single-trial N170 as a feature for the classification of facial emotion, which could avoid the fact that ERPs were obtained by averaging most of the time while ignoring the trial-to-trial variation. In order to find an optimal classifier for emotional classification with single-trial N170 as a feature, three types of classifiers, namely, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), L1-regularized logistic regression (L1LR), and support vector machine with radial basis function (RBF-SVM), were comparatively investigated. The results showed that the single-trial N170 could be used as a classification feature to successfully distinguish positive emotion from negative emotion. L1-regularized logistic regression classifiers showed a good generalization, whereas LDA showed a relatively poor generalization. Moreover, when compared with L1LR, the RBF-SVM required more time to optimize the parameters during the classification, which became an obstacle while applying it to the online operating system of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The findings suggested that face-related N170 could be affected by facial expression and that the single-trial N170 could be a biomarker used to monitor the emotional states of subjects for the BCI domain.
The CDK9–cyclin T1 complex mediates saturated fatty acid–induced vascular calcification by inducing expression of the transcription factor CHOP

Vascular calcification (or mineralization) is a common complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is closely associated with increased mortality and morbidity rates. We recently reported that activation of the activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) pathway through the saturated fatty acid (SFA)-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response plays a causative role in CKD-associated vascular calcification. Here, using mouse models of CKD, we 1) studied the contribution of the proapoptotic transcription factor CCAAT enhancer–binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) to CKD-dependent medial calcification, and 2) we identified an additional regulator of ER stress–mediated CHOP expression. Transgenic mice having smooth muscle cell (SMC)–specific CHOP expression developed severe vascular apoptosis and medial calcification under CKD. Screening of a protein kinase inhibitor library identified 16 compounds, including seven cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors, that significantly suppressed CHOP induction during ER stress. Moreover, selective CDK9 inhibitors and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated CDK9 reduction blocked SFA-mediated induction of CHOP expression, whereas inhibitors of other CDK isoforms did not. Cyclin T1 knockout inhibited SFA-mediated induction of CHOP and mineralization, whereas deletion of cyclin T2 and cyclin K promoted CHOP expression levels and mineralization. Of note, the CDK9–cyclin T1 complex directly phosphorylated and activated ATF4. These results demonstrate that the CDK9–cyclin T1 and CDK9–cyclin T2/K complexes have opposing roles in CHOP expression and CKD-induced vascular calcification. They further reveal that the CDK9–cyclin T1 complex mediates vascular calcification through CHOP induction and phosphorylation-mediated ATF4 activation.
Social acceptance and perceived ecosystem services of urban agriculture in Southern Europe: The case of Bologna, Italy

Urban agriculture has become a common form of urban land use in European cities linked to multiple environmental, social and economic benefits, as well as to diversified forms (from self-production allotments to high-tech companies). Social acceptance will determine the development of urban agriculture and specific knowledge on citizens’ perception is required in order to set the basis for policy-making and planning. The ecosystem services provided by urban agriculture can be determinant in this process. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the social acceptance and the perceived ecosystem services of urban agriculture in the city of Bologna (Italy), as an example of a Southern European city. In particular, we evaluated the preferences for urban land uses, for different typologies of urban agriculture and for the resulting products, the perceived provision of ecosystem services and the willingness to engage in new initiatives. A survey that investigated these topics (including open questions, closed questions and Likert-scale evaluation) was performed on the citizens of Bologna (n = 380) between October and November 2016. Results showed that urban agriculture is widely accepted by the inhabitants of Bologna, particularly regarding vegetable production. Although intensive farming systems were the least preferred forms to be implemented in Bologna, citizens highly accepted a large variety of urban agriculture goods, with preference for those obtained from plants as compared to animal products. The willingness-to-pay for urban food products was mostly the same as for conventional ones, although the participants recognised the social values, proximity and quality of the former. Socio-cultural ecosystem services were perceived as more valuable than environmental ones. Policy-making recommendations can be extracted from the results to facilitate the development of urban agriculture plans and policies.
Modularity of regular and treelike graphs

Clustering algorithms for large networks typically use modularity values to test which partitions of the vertex set better represent structure in the data. The modularity of a graph is the maximum modularity of a partition. We consider the modularity of two kinds of graphs. For $r$-regular graphs with a given number of vertices, we investigate the minimum possible modularity, the typical modularity, and the maximum possible modularity. In particular, we see that for random cubic graphs the modularity is usually in the interval $(0.666, 0.804)$, and for random $r$-regular graphs with large $r$ it usually is of order $1/\sqrt{r}$. These results help to establish baselines for statistical tests on regular graphs. The modularity of cycles and low degree trees is known to be close to 1: we extend these results to `treelike' graphs, where the product of treewidth and maximum degree is much less than the number of edges. This yields for example the (deterministic) lower bound $0.666$ mentioned above on the modularity of random cubic graphs.
Bilateral Adrenocortical Adenomas along with Virilization and Cushing's Syndrome

We herein present the case of a 27-year-old woman with clinical and biochemical features of virilism. Imaging studies revealed the presence of a bilateral adrenal tumor. Although the secretion of androgens was remarkable, the autonomous production of cortisol was also evident because of a loss of circadian rhythm and the absence of cortisol suppression by dexamethasone. The surgical excision of both adrenal tumors was performed, and the histological examination showed no malignancy. We also report the successful pregnancy and delivery of the patient who showed evolving adrenocortical insufficiency along with virilization and Cushing’s syndrome and who continued to receive glucocorticoid replacement therapy during pregnancy.
Interleaved DFT-Spread Layered/Enhanced ACO-OFDM for Intensity-Modulated Direct-Detection Systems

Layered/enhanced asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (L/e-ACO-OFDM, shortened as L/e-ACO) has recently attracted increasing interests for the intensity-modulated directed-detected (IM/DD) optical wireless communication (OWC). This form of optical OFDM can achieve a high spectrum efficiency without a DC bias; however, similar to the conventional OFDM, L/e-ACO can results in a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). In this paper, interleaved discrete-Fourier-transform-spread L/e-ACO (IDFTS-L/e-ACO) is proposed for the IM/DD OWC. Specifically, two kinds of IDFTS-L/e-ACO techniques are proposed. For readability, one is denoted as HS-IDFTS that implements Hermitian symmetry (HS) to generate real-valued signals, and the other is denoted as RI-IDFTS that employs the real and imaginary separation (RIS) to transform complex signals to real-valued ones. The theoretical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation show that both the IDFTS-L/e-ACO techniques have a smaller PAPR than the conventional L/e-ACO, and RI-IDFTS has even further smaller PAPR. In addition, bit-error-rate (BER) comparison indicates both HS-IDFTS and RI-IDFTS have better BER performance compared to the conventional L/e-ACO, and RI-IDFTS is least sensitive to LED nonlinearity and has the best BER performance.
Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases as Potential Regulators of STAT3 Signaling

The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) protein is a major transcription factor involved in many cellular processes, such as cell growth and proliferation, differentiation, migration, and cell death or cell apoptosis. It is activated in response to a variety of extracellular stimuli including cytokines and growth factors. The aberrant activation of STAT3 contributes to several human diseases, particularly cancer. Consequently, STAT3-mediated signaling continues to be extensively studied in order to identify potential targets for the development of new and more effective clinical therapeutics. STAT3 activation can be regulated, either positively or negatively, by different posttranslational mechanisms including serine or tyrosine phosphorylation/dephosphorylation, acetylation, or demethylation. One of the major mechanisms that negatively regulates STAT3 activation is dephosphorylation of the tyrosine residue essential for its activation by protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs). There are seven PTPs that have been shown to dephosphorylate STAT3 and, thereby, regulate STAT3 signaling: PTP receptor-type D (PTPRD), PTP receptor-type T (PTPRT), PTP receptor-type K (PTPRK), Src homology region 2 (SH-2) domain-containing phosphatase 1(SHP1), SH-2 domain-containing phosphatase 2 (SHP2), MEG2/PTP non-receptor type 9 (PTPN9), and T-cell PTP (TC-PTP)/PTP non-receptor type 2 (PTPN2). These regulators have great potential as targets for the development of more effective therapies against human disease, including cancer.
Improving efficiency of pediatric emergency asthma treatment by using metered dose inhaler

Abstract Objective: Evidence suggests using metered dose inhaler (MDI) to treat acute asthma in the Emergency Department reduces length of stay, though methods of implementation are lacking. We modified a treatment pathway to recommend use of MDI for mild-moderate asthma in a pediatric ED. Methods: A baseline review assessed discharged patients >2 years with an asthma diagnosis and non-emergent Emergency Severity Index triage assessment (3/4). Our multi-disciplinary team developed an intervention to increase MDI use instead of continuous albuterol (CA) using the following: (1) Redesign the asthma pathway and order set recommending MDI for ESI 3/4 patients. (2) Adding a conditional order for Respiratory Therapists to reassess and repeat MDI until patient reached mild assessment. The primary outcome was the percentage discharged within 3 hours, with a goal of a 10% increase compared to pre-intervention. Balancing measures included admission and revisit rates. Results: 7635 patients met eligibility before pathway change; 12,673 were seen in the subsequent 18 months. For target patients, the percentage discharged in <3 hours increased from 39% to 49%; reduction in median length of stay was 33 minutes. We identified special cause variation for reduction in CA use from 43% to 25%; Revisit rate and length of stay for higher-acuity patients did not change; overall asthma admissions decreased by 8%. Changes were sustained for 18 months. Conclusion: A change to an ED asthma pathway recommending MDI for mild-moderate asthma led to a rapid and sustained decrease in continuous albuterol use, length of stay, and admission rate.
Do Mound Height and Pitching Distance Affect Youth Baseball Pitching Biomechanics?

Background: Pitching injuries continue to be a serious problem, with adolescents now representing the group with the most injuries. Some have proposed that lowering or eliminating the pitching mound in youth baseball may reduce joint stress and subsequent injuries. Another potential risk factor is advancing from youth to adult pitching distance without an intermediate distance. Hypotheses: It was hypothesized that for a group of young pitchers, pitching kinetics and kinematics would change with mound height. It was also hypothesized that pitching kinetics and kinematics would change with pitching distance. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Twenty-one young (12.6 ± 0.5 years) baseball pitchers pitched 5 full-effort fastballs each from 5 different conditions, in random order: 14.02-, 16.46-, and 18.44-m distances from a 25 cm–high mound, 16.46-m distance from a 15 cm–high mound, and 16.46-m distance from flat ground. Pitching biomechanical values were collected with a 12-camera automated motion capture system. Ball velocity and 31 other parameters were computed for each pitch. Data were compared between the 3 mound heights at 16.46 m by use of repeated-measures analysis of variance and paired post hoc t tests (P < .05). Similarly, data were compared between the 3 distances from the 25-cm mound via repeated-measures analysis of variance and paired post hoc t tests (P < .05). Results: No differences were found in ball velocity, shoulder kinetics, or elbow kinetics associated with mound height. Ten kinematic parameters differed with mound height, including 8 parameters at lead foot contact. Maximum shoulder horizontal adduction torque and maximum shoulder anterior force increased with pitching distance. Only 3 kinematic parameters showed significant differences with pitching distance. Conclusion: The hypothesis that shoulder and elbow kinetics would change with mound height was not supported by the data. Several kinematic differences were found, but the majority were at lead foot contact before the rapid, dynamic phases of pitching. Change in pitching distance was associated with slight increase in shoulder kinetics as well as a few kinematic differences. Clinical Relevance: Lowering or eliminating pitching mounds in youth baseball would not significantly decrease joint stress and injury risk to young pitchers. However, when available, transition from 14.02-m to 16.46-m to 18.44-m pitching distance may reduce stress on the young throwing shoulder.
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Molecular Characterization, Evolution, and Epidemiology

Staphylococcus aureus, a major human pathogen, has a collection of virulence factors and the ability to acquire resistance to most antibiotics. This ability is further augmented by constant emergence of new clones, making S. aureus a “superbug. ” Clinical use of methicillin has led to the appearance of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). SUMMARY Staphylococcus aureus, a major human pathogen, has a collection of virulence factors and the ability to acquire resistance to most antibiotics. This ability is further augmented by constant emergence of new clones, making S. aureus a “superbug. ” Clinical use of methicillin has led to the appearance of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). The past few decades have witnessed the existence of new MRSA clones. Unlike traditional MRSA residing in hospitals, the new clones can invade community settings and infect people without predisposing risk factors. This evolution continues with the buildup of the MRSA reservoir in companion and food animals. This review focuses on imparting a better understanding of MRSA evolution and its molecular characterization and epidemiology. We first describe the origin of MRSA, with emphasis on the diverse nature of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec). mecA and its new homologues (mecB, mecC, and mecD), SCCmec types (13 SCCmec types have been discovered to date), and their classification criteria are discussed. The review then describes various typing methods applied to study the molecular epidemiology and evolutionary nature of MRSA. Starting with the historical methods and continuing to the advanced whole-genome approaches, typing of collections of MRSA has shed light on the origin, spread, and evolutionary pathways of MRSA clones.