Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Generalization of Smillie's Theorem on Strongly Cooperative Tridiagonal Systems

Smillie (1984) proved an interesting result on the stability of nonlinear, time-invariant, strongly cooperative, and tridiagonal dynamical systems. This result has found many applications in models from various fields including biology, ecology, and chemistry. Smith (1991) has extended Smillie's result and proved entrainment in the case where the vector field is time-varying and periodic. We use the theory of linear totally nonnegative differential systems developed by Schwarz (1970) to give a generalization of these two results. This is based on weakening the requirement for strong cooperativity to cooperativity, and adding an additional observability-type condition.
Endotoxemia by Porphyromonas gingivalis Injection Aggravates Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Disrupts Glucose/Lipid Metabolism, and Alters Gut Microbiota in Mice

Many risk factors related to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have been proposed, including the most well-known of diabetes and obesity as well as periodontitis. As periodontal pathogenic bacteria produce endotoxins, periodontal treatment can result in endotoxemia. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of intravenous, sonicated Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) injection on glucose/lipid metabolism, liver steatosis, and gut microbiota in mice. Endotoxemia was induced in C57BL/6J mice (8 weeks old) by intravenous injection of sonicated Pg; Pg was deactivated but its endotoxin remained. The mice were fed a high-fat diet and administered sonicated Pg (HFPg) or saline (HFco) injections for 12 weeks. Liver steatosis, glucose metabolism, and gene expression in the liver were evaluated. 16S rRNA gene sequencing with metagenome prediction was performed on the gut microbiota. Compared to HFco mice, HFPg mice exhibited impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance along with increased liver steatosis. Liver microarray analysis demonstrated that 1278 genes were differentially expressed between HFco and HFPg mice. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that fatty acid metabolism, hypoxia, and TNFα signaling via NFκB gene sets were enriched in HFPg mice. Although sonicated Pg did not directly reach the gut, it changed the gut microbiota and decreased bacterial diversity in HFPg mice. Metagenome prediction in the gut microbiota showed enriched citrate cycle and carbon fixation pathways in prokaryotes. Overall, intravenous injection of sonicated Pg caused impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and liver steatosis in mice fed high-fat diets. Thus, blood infusion of Pg contributes to NAFLD and alters the gut microbiota.
Spotting and Aggregating Salient Regions for Video Captioning

Towards an interpretable video captioning process, we target to locate salient regions of video objects along with the sequentially uttering words. This paper proposes a new framework to automatically spot salient regions in each video frame and simultaneously learn a discriminative spatio-temporal representation for video captioning. First, in a Spot Module, we automatically learn the saliency value of each location to separate salient regions from video content as the foreground and the rest as background by two operations of 'hard separation' and 'soft separation', respectively. Then, in an Aggregate Module, to aggregate the foreground/background descriptors into a discriminative spatio-temporal representation, we devise a trainable video VLAD process to learn the aggregation parameters. Finally, we utilize the attention mechanism to decode the spatio-temporal representations of different regions into video descriptions. Experiments on two benchmark datasets demonstrate our method outperforms most of the state-of-the-art methods in terms of Bleu@4, METEOR and CIDEr metrics for the task of video captioning. Also examples demonstrate our method can successfully utter words to sequentially salient regions of video objects.
Face-Voice Matching using Cross-modal Embeddings

Face-voice matching is a task to find correspondence between faces and voices. Many researches in cognitive science have confirmed human ability in the face-voice matching tasks. Such ability is useful for creating natural human machine interaction systems and in many other applications. In this paper, we propose a face-voice matching model that learns cross-modal embeddings between face images and voice characteristics. We constructed a novel FVCeleb dataset which consists of face images and utterances from 1,078 persons. These persons were selected from the MS-Celeb-1M face image dataset and the VoxCeleb audio dataset. In two-alternative forced-choice matching task with an audio input and two face-image candidates of the same gender, our model achieved 62.2% and 56.5% accuracy on the FVCeleb and the subset of the GRID corpus, respectively. These results are very similar to human performance reported in cognitive science studies.
Microneedles for transdermal drug delivery: a systematic review

Abstract Transdermal route has been explored for various agents due to its advantage of bypassing the first pass effect and sustained release of drug. Due to strong barrier properties of the skin, mainly stratum corneum (SC), the delivery of many therapeutic agents across the skin has become challenging. Few drugs with specific physicochemical properties (molecular weight <500 Da, adequate lipophilicity, and low melting point) can be effectively administered via transdermal route. However, delivery of hydrophilic drugs and macromolecular agents including peptides, DNA and small interfering RNA is challenging. Drug penetration through the SC may involve bypass or reversible disruption of SC layer by various means. Recently, the use of micron-scale needles has been proposed in increasing skin permeability and shown to dramatically increase permeation, especially for macromolecules. Microneedles (MNs) can penetrate through the SC layer of the skin into the viable epidermis, avoiding contact with nerve fibers and blood vessels that reside primarily in the dermal layer. This review summarizes the types of MNs and fabrication techniques of different types of MNs. The safety aspects of the materials used for fabrication have been discussed in detail. Biological applications and relevant phase III clinical trials are also highlighted.
Online learning with feedback graphs and switching costs

We study online learning when partial feedback information is provided following every action of the learning process, and the learner incurs switching costs for changing his actions. In this setting, the feedback information system can be represented by a graph, and previous works studied the expected regret of the learner in the case of a clique (Expert setup), or disconnected single loops (Multi-Armed Bandits (MAB)). This work provides a lower bound on the expected regret in the Partial Information (PI) setting, namely for general feedback graphs --excluding the clique. Additionally, it shows that all algorithms that are optimal without switching costs are necessarily sub-optimal in the presence of switching costs, which motivates the need to design new algorithms. We propose two new algorithms: Threshold Based EXP3 and EXP3. SC. For the two special cases of symmetric PI setting and MAB, the expected regret of both of these algorithms is order optimal in the duration of the learning process. Additionally, Threshold Based EXP3 is order optimal in the switching cost, whereas EXP3. SC is not. Finally, empirical evaluations show that Threshold Based EXP3 outperforms the previously proposed order-optimal algorithms EXP3 SET in the presence of switching costs, and Batch EXP3 in the MAB setting with switching costs.
A Deterministic Distributed Algorithm for Weighted All Pairs Shortest Paths Through Pipelining.

We present a new pipelined approach to compute all pairs shortest paths (APSP) in a directed graph with nonnegative integer edge weights (including zero weights) in the CONGEST model in the distributed setting. Our deterministic distributed algorithm computes shortest paths of distance at most $\Delta$ for all pairs of vertices in at most $2 n \sqrt{\Delta} + 2n$ rounds, and more generally, it computes h-hop shortest paths for k sources in $2\sqrt{nkh} + n + k$ rounds. The algorithm is simple, and it has some novel features and a nontrivial analysis.It uses only the directed edges in the graph for communication. This algorithm can be used as a base within asymptotically faster algorithms that match or improve on the current best deterministic bound of $\tilde{O}(n^{3/2})$ rounds for this problem when edge weights are $O(n)$ or shortest path distances are $\tilde{O}(n^{3/2})$.
Only Learn One Sample: Fine-Grained Visual Categorization with One Sample Training

The progress of fine-grained visual categorization (FGVC) benefits from the application of deep neural networks, especially convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which heavily rely on large amounts of labeled data for training. However, it is hard to obtain the accurate labels of similar fine-grained subcategories because labeling needs professional knowledge, which is labor-consuming and time-consuming. Therefore, it is appealing and significant to recognize these similar fine-grained subcategories with a few labeled samples or even only one for training, which is a highly challenging task. In this paper, we propose OLOS (Only Learn One Sample), a new data augmentation approach for fine-grained visual categorization with only one sample training, and its main novelties are: (1) A 4-stage data augmentation approach is proposed to increase both the volume and variety of the one training image, which provides more visual information with multiple views and scales. It consists of a 2-stage data generation and a 2-stage data selection. (2) The 2-stage data generation approach is proposed to produce image patches relevant to the object and its parts for the one training image, as well as produce new images conditioned on the textual descriptions of the training image. (3) The 2-stage data selection approach is proposed to conduct screening on the generated images in order that useful information is remained and noisy information is eliminated. Experimental results and analyses on fine-grained visual categorization benchmark demonstrate that our proposed OLOS approach can be applied on top of existing methods, and improves their categorization performance.
Integrating Trap-Neuter-Return Campaigns Into a Social Framework: Developing Long-Term Positive Behavior Change Toward Unowned Cats in Urban Areas

Cat management is often discussed in terms of population reduction, with trap-neuter-return (TNR) campaigns commonly organized to manage unowned urban cat populations. However, long-term effectiveness is only possible if positive neutering practices are continued by local residents. Here we discuss how implementing TNR within a wider framework of social engagement has the potential to tackle cat overpopulation and instill long-term positive behavior change toward them. We demonstrate how community engagement pre-TNR can help establish a baseline of the attitudes, knowledge and behavior concerning cats. Using a case study, we explore whether this information can be linked with positive intended behavior based on intentions to arrange for neutering of unowned cats. Structural equation modeling indicated that negative attitudes toward cats and reduced knowledge around neutering reduced the likelihood of positive intended behavior. This result was underpinned by the indirect effects of perceptions of unowned cats and reduced understanding of their needs. Utilizing these results alongside an understanding of the values and motivation of the community allows for tailored and targeted education and intervention. In turn, this addresses the underlying knowledge gaps and perceptions regarding cat welfare. This framework can help address the challenge of cat management because it: (1) takes an integrative approach to identifying the motivations of communities to take responsibility for unowned cats; (2) changes the structure of the social environment, encouraging positive neutering practices for unowned cats. In turn this improves the impact and longevity of TNR campaigns whilst promoting positive welfare change for unowned and owned cats; and (3) appreciates that opinions are likely to vary hugely between areas, therefore providing an adaptable community level approach.
Effect of Cricoid Pressure Compared With a Sham Procedure in the Rapid Sequence Induction of Anesthesia: The IRIS Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance The use of cricoid pressure (Sellick maneuver) during rapid sequence induction (RSI) of anesthesia remains controversial in the absence of a large randomized trial. Objective To test the hypothesis that the incidence of pulmonary aspiration is not increased when cricoid pressure is not performed. Design, Setting, and Participants Randomized, double-blind, noninferiority trial conducted in 10 academic centers. Patients undergoing anesthesia with RSI were enrolled from February 2014 until February 2017 and followed up for 28 days or until hospital discharge (last follow-up, February 8, 2017). Interventions Patients were assigned to a cricoid pressure (Sellick group) or a sham procedure group. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary end point was the incidence of pulmonary aspiration (at the glottis level during laryngoscopy or by tracheal aspiration after intubation). It was hypothesized that the sham procedure would not be inferior to the cricoid pressure. The secondary end points were related to pulmonary aspiration, difficult tracheal intubation, and traumatic complications owing to the tracheal intubation or cricoid pressure. Results Of 3472 patients randomized, mean (SD) age was 51 (19) years and 1777 (51%) were men. The primary end point, pulmonary aspiration, occurred in 10 patients (0.6%) in the Sellick group and in 9 patients (0.5%) in the sham group. The upper limit of the 1-sided 95% CI of relative risk was 2.00, exceeding 1.50, failing to demonstrate noninferiority (P = .14). The risk difference was −0.06% (2-sided 95% CI, −0.57 to 0.42) in the intent-to-treat population and −0.06% (2-sided 95% CI, −0.56 to 0.43) in the per protocol population. Secondary end points were not significantly different among the 2 groups (pneumonia, length of stay, and mortality), although the comparison of the Cormack and Lehane grade (Grades 3 and 4, 10% vs 5%; P <.001) and the longer intubation time (Intubation time >30 seconds, 47% vs 40%; P <.001) suggest an increased difficulty of tracheal intubation in the Sellick group. Conclusions and Relevance This large randomized clinical trial performed in patients undergoing anesthesia with RSI failed to demonstrate the noninferiority of the sham procedure in preventing pulmonary aspiration. Further studies are required in pregnant women and outside the operating room. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02080754
Cost Calculation for a Flash Glucose Monitoring System for Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Using Intensive Insulin – a UK Perspective

Abstract Aims: Estimate the costs associated with flash glucose monitoring as a replacement for routine self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using intensive insulin, from a UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. Methods: The base-case cost calculation used the frequency of SMBG and healthcare resource use observed in the REPLACE trial. Scenario analyses considered SMBG at the flash monitoring frequencies observed in the REPLACE trial (8.3 tests per day) and a real-world analysis (16 tests per day). Results: Compared with 3 SMBG tests per day, flash monitoring would cost an additional £585 per patient per year, offset by a £776 reduction in healthcare resource use, based on reductions in emergency room visits (41%), ambulance call-outs (66%) and hospital admissions (77%) observed in the REPLACE trial. Per patient, the estimated total annual cost for flash monitoring was £191 (13.4%) lower than for SMBG. In the scenarios based on acquisition cost alone, flash monitoring was cost-neutral versus 8.3 SMBG tests per day (5% decrease) and cost-saving at higher testing frequencies. Conclusion: From a UK NHS perspective, for patients with T2DM using intensive insulin, flash monitoring is potentially cost-saving compared with routine SMBG irrespective of testing frequency.
Social Contact, Social Distancing, and Attitudes Toward LGT Individuals: A Cross-Cultural Study of College Students in the United States, Italy, and Spain

ABSTRACT More than any other time in modern history, today people are significantly more likely to know (or be) lesbian, gay, and transgender (LGT) people; however, prejudices directed toward these groups remain. In the current study, we explore how social contact and social distancing/desired social contact are related to LGT prejudices using Worthen’s (2012) Attitudes Toward LGT People Scales and data from four heterosexual college student samples in Oklahoma, Texas, Italy, and Spain (N = 1,217). In doing so, we provide the first-ever study to explore Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis as it relates to transgender prejudices in Italy and Spain and the first study to examine desired social contact/social distancing and transgender prejudice in the U.S., Italy, and Spain. Our findings demonstrate that measures of desired social contact are strongly related to cross-cultural LGT attitudes, while simple measures of contact (i.e., knowing an LGT person) are significantly less robust.
Improved survival of head and neck cancer patients in Greenland

ABSTRACT Previously, head and neck cancer (HNC) patients in Greenland have had significant diagnostic delay and poor survival rates. From 2005-2009 several initiatives have been made to ensure faster diagnosis and better survival. The aim of this study was to compare the prognosis before and after these initiatives were introduced. All Greenlandic patients diagnosed with HNC between 2005 and 2012 were included. Data were retrieved from medical records and national databases and compared with the period 1994-2003. A total of 98 patients were identified. Diagnostic delay was significantly lower compared to the period 1994–2004 (p=0.048). The 3-year overall survival was 56% for all HNC and 47% for nasopharyngeal carcinomas. We found that patients with HNC between 1994 and 2003 had a higher risk of death from all reasons compared with the period 2005–2012 (HR 2.17; CI 1.46–3.23) after adjustments for stage and diagnostic delay. Patients with head HNC in Greenland from 2005-2012 were diagnosed earlier and had a better overall survival compared to the period 1994–2003. The change in survival is more likely to be due to improvement in treatment rather than the initiated interventions. Although survival has improved in Greenland, demographic problems and lack of specialists remain a challenge.
Perceptions regarding the scope of practice of family doctors amongst patients in primary care settings in Nairobi

Background Primary care (PC) is the foundation of the Kenyan health care system, providing comprehensive care, health promotion and managing all illnesses across the lifecycle. In the private sector in Nairobi, PC is principally offered by the general practitioners, also known as family doctors (FDs). The majority have no postgraduate training. Little is known about how patients perceive their capability. Aim To assess patients’ perceptions of the scope of practice of FDs working in private sector PC clinics in Nairobi and their awareness of the new category of family physicians (FPs) and the discipline of family medicine. Setting Private sector PC clinics in Nairobi. Methods A descriptive survey using a structured, self-administered questionnaire. Simple random sampling was used to recruit 162 patient participants. Results Of the participants, 30% knew the difference between FPs and FDs. There was a high to moderate confidence that FDs could treat common illnesses; provide lifestyle advice; family planning (66%) and childhood immunisations (64%). In adolescents and adults, low confidence was expressed in their ability to manage tuberculosis (58%), human immunodeficiency virus (55%) and cancer (33%). In the elderly, there was low confidence in their ability to manage depression (55%), anxiety (57%), urinary incontinence (57%) and diabetes (59%). There was low confidence in their ability to provide antenatal care (55%) and Pap smears (42%). Conclusion Patients did not perceive that FDs could offer fully comprehensive PC services. These perceptions may be addressed by defining the expected package of care, designing a system that encourages the utilisation of PC and employing FPs.
Downregulation of miR-638 promotes progression of breast cancer and is associated with prognosis of breast cancer patients

Background Breast cancer is the most common tumor among women. miR-638 has been demonstrated to play an important role in various cancers. Purpose In this study, we aimed to investigate the function and prognostic value of miR-638 in breast cancer. Methods Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to evaluate the expression of miR-638 in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. The correlation of miR-638 with clinicopathological features was analyzed using the chi-squared test. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox regression assay were performed to investigate the prognostic value of miR-638 in breast cancer patients. The effects of miR-638 on the biological behavior of breast cancer cells were evaluated using functional assays. Results The expression of miR-638 was downregulated in breast cancer tissues and cell lines (all P<0.05). Decreased expression of miR-638 was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.015) and TNM stage (P=0.021). Patients with low miR-638 expression had shorter overall survival compared with those with high levels (Log-rank P=0.025). The miR-638 could be considered as an independent prognostic factor for the patients (HR =0.321, 95% CI =0.117–0.882, P=0.027). Downregulation of miR-638 was capable of promoting cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells. Conclusion All the results indicate that miR-638 is a tumor suppressor in breast cancer and is involved in the progression of breast cancer. Thus, it may serve as a prognostic biomarker for breast cancer.
Increased dynamin expression precedes proteinuria in glomerular disease

Dynamin plays an essential role in maintaining the structure and function of the glomerular filtration barrier. Specifically, dynamin regulates the actin cytoskeleton and the turnover of nephrin in podocytes, and knocking down dynamin expression causes proteinuria. Moreover, promoting dynamin oligomerization with Bis‐T‐23 restores podocyte function and reduces proteinuria in several animal models of chronic kidney disease. Thus, dynamin is a promising therapeutic target for treating chronic kidney disease. Here, we investigated the pathophysiological role of dynamin under proteinuric circumstances in a rat model and in humans. We found that glomerular Dnm2 and Dnm1 mRNA levels are increased prior to the onset of proteinuria in a rat model of spontaneous proteinuria. Also, in zebrafish embryos, we confirm that knocking down dynamin translation results in proteinuria. Finally, we show that the glomerular expression of dynamin and cathepsin L protein is increased in several human proteinuric kidney diseases. We propose that the increased expression of glomerular dynamin reflects an exhausted attempt to maintain and/or restore integrity of the glomerular filtration barrier. These results confirm that dynamin plays an important role in maintaining the glomerular filtration barrier, and they support the notion that dynamin is a promising therapeutic target in proteinuric kidney disease. © 2018 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.