Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of COVID-19 vaccine adverse event using language model and unsupervised machine learning

Background After the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has made efforts to recover from the chaotic situation. Vaccination is a way to help control infectious diseases, and many people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 by this point. However, an extremely small number of those who received the vaccine have experienced diverse side effects. Methods and findings In this study, we examined people who experienced adverse events with the COVID-19 vaccine by gender, age, vaccine manufacturer, and dose of vaccinations by using the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System datasets. Then we used a language model to vectorize symptom words and reduced their dimensionality. We also clustered symptoms by using unsupervised machine learning and analyzed the characteristics of each symptom cluster. Lastly, to discover any association rules among adverse events, we used a data mining approach. The frequency of adverse events was higher for women than men, for Moderna than for Pfizer or Janssen, and for the first dose than for the second dose. However, we found that characteristics of vaccine adverse events, including gender, vaccine manufacturer, age, and underlying diseases were different for each symptom cluster, and that fatal cases were significantly related to a particular cluster (associated with hypoxia). Also, as a result of the association analysis, the {chills ↔ pyrexia} and {vaccination site pruritus ↔ vaccination site erythema} rules had the highest support value of 0.087 and 0.046, respectively. Conclusions We aim to contribute accurate information on the adverse events of the COVID-19 vaccine to relieve public anxiety due to unconfirmed statements about vaccines.
Conditional ablation of heparan sulfate expression in stromal fibroblasts promotes tumor growth in vivo

Heparan sulfate (HS) is a glycocalyx component present in the extracellular matrix and cell-surface HS proteoglycans (HSPGs). Although HSPGs are known to play functional roles in multiple aspects of tumor development and progression, the effect of HS expression in the tumor stroma on tumor growth in vivo remains unclear. We conditionally deleted Ext1, which encodes a glycosyltransferase essential for the biosynthesis of HS chains, using S100a4-Cre (S100a4-Cre; Ext1f/f) to investigate the role of HS in cancer-associated fibroblasts, which is the main component of the tumor microenvironment. Subcutaneous transplantation experiments with murine MC38 colon cancer and Pan02 pancreatic cancer cells demonstrated substantially larger subcutaneous tumors in S100a4-Cre; Ext1f/f mice. Additionally, the number of myofibroblasts observed in MC38 and Pan02 subcutaneous tumors of S100a4-Cre; Ext1f/f mice decreased. Furthermore, the number of intratumoral macrophages decreased in MC38 subcutaneous tumors in S100a4-Cre; Ext1f/f mice. Finally, the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) markedly increased in Pan02 subcutaneous tumors in S100a4-Cre; Ext1f/f mice, suggesting that it may contribute to rapid growth. Therefore, our study demonstrates that the tumor microenvironment with HS-reduced fibroblasts provides a favorable environment for tumor growth by affecting the function and properties of cancer-associated fibroblasts, macrophages, and cancer cells.
Adherence to the test, treat and track strategy for malaria control among prescribers, Mfantseman Municipality, Central Region, Ghana

Background The test, treat, and track (T3) strategy is directed at ensuring diagnosis and prompt treatment of uncomplicated malaria cases. Adherence to T3 strategy reduces wrong treatment and prevents delays in treating the actual cause of fever that may otherwise lead to complications or death. Data on adherence to all three aspects of the T3 strategy is sparse with previous studies focusing on the testing and treatment aspects. We determined adherence to the T3 strategy and associated factors in the Mfantseman Municipality of Ghana. Methods We conducted a health facility based cross-sectional survey in Saltpond Municipal Hospital and Mercy Women’s Catholic Hospitals in Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region, Ghana in 2020. We retrieved electronic records of febrile outpatients and extracted the testing, treatment and tracking variables. Prescribers were interviewed on factors associated with adherence using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data analyses was done using descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multiple logistic regression. Results Of 414 febrile outpatient records analyzed, 47 (11.3%) were under five years old. About 180 (43.5%) were tested with 138 (76.7%) testing positive. All positive cases received antimalarials and 127 (92.0%) were reviewed after treatment. Of 414 febrile patients, 127 (30.7%) were treated according to the T3 strategy. Higher odds of adherence to T3 were observed for patients aged 5–25 years compared to older patients (AOR: 2.5, 95% CI: 1.27–4.87, p = 0.008). Adherence was low among physician assistants compared to medical officers (AOR 0.004, 95% CI 0.004–0.02, p<0.001). Prescribers trained on T3 had higher adherence (AOR: 99.33 95% CI: 19.53–505.13, p<0.000). Conclusion Adherence to T3 strategy is low in Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region of Ghana. Health facilities should perform RDTs for febrile patients at the OPD with priority on low cadre prescribers during the planning and implementation of interventions to improve T3 adherence at the facility level.
The role of macrophages in non-small cell lung cancer and advancements in 3D co-cultures

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Traditional therapeutic approaches such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy have provided only a marginal improvement in the treatment of lung carcinomas. Inhibitors targeting specific genetic aberrations present in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common subtype (85%), have improved the prognostic outlook, but due to the complexity of the LC mutational spectrum, only a fraction of patients benefit from these targeted molecular therapies. More recently, the realization that the immune infiltrate surrounding solid tumors can foster tumor-promoting inflammation has led to the development and implementation of anticancer immunotherapies in the clinic. In NSCLC, one of the most abundant leukocyte infiltrates is macrophages. These highly plastic phagocytes, which are part of the cellular repertoire of the innate immunity, can have a pivotal role in early NSCLC establishment, malignant progression, and tumor invasion. Emerging macrophage-targeting therapies have been focused on the re-differentiation of the macrophages toward an antitumorigenic phenotype, depletion of tumor-promoting macrophage subtypes, or combination therapies combining traditional cytotoxic treatments with immunotherapeutic agents. The most extensively used models employed for the exploration of NSCLC biology and therapy have been 2D cell lines and murine models. However, studying cancer immunology requires appropriately complex models. 3D platforms, including organoid models, are quickly advancing powerful tools to study immune cell-epithelial cell interactions within the tumor microenvironment. Co-cultures of immune cells along with NSCLC organoids allow for an in vitro observation of the tumor microenvironment dynamics closely resembling in vivo settings. Ultimately, the implementation of 3D organoid technology into tumor microenvironment-modeling platforms might facilitate the exploration of macrophage-targeted therapies in NSCLC immunotherapeutic research, thus establishing a new frontier in NSCLC treatment.
Expression of Concern: Prognostic value of circulating plasma cells in patients with multiple myeloma: A meta-analysis

After this article was published, similarities were noted between this article [1] and submissions by other research groups which call into question the validity and provenance of the reported results. In response to queries about these concerns, the first author provided the underlying data in S1 File. During editorial follow-up, it was noted that the statement in the Results section in article [1] that 46 potential studies were reviewed via the full-text is an error and should state that 47 potential studies were reviewed via the full-text. The authors commented on aspects of how data were collected and analyzed for this study, but overall their responses did not fully resolve the concerns. The PLOS ONE Editors issue this Expression of Concern to notify readers of the unresolved concerns discussed above, and to provide the data received from the authors.
PREFERENTIAL TRAPPING ON ENERGY LANDSCAPES IN REGIONS CONTAINING DEEP-LYING MINIMA : THE REASON FOR THE SUCCESS OF SIMULATED ANNEALING ?

Evidence has been accumulating that many complex systems are characterized by energy landscapes that contain many pockets with exponentially growing densities of states. Such pockets possess characteristic trapping temperatures, , such that random (Monte Carlo) walkers on such surfaces will be caught in the pockets, if . It will be shown that the walkers are trapped preferentially in basins containing the deep-lying minima. This observation might serve as an explanation of simulated annealing's success to deliver good suboptima in spite of the use of optimization times far less than those times for which convergence of the algorithm has been proven. Furthermore, preferential trapping might also be involved in certain physical processes, e.g. the glass transition.
2237 + 0305 - a new and unusual gravitational lens

A new gravitational lens system has been discovered which consists of a quasar at z = 1.695 nearly centered on a 15-mag spiral galaxy, 2237 + 0305, at z = 0.0394. At 2 arcsec resolution, only a single optical image of the quasar is visible; its centroid is located within approximately 0.3 arcsec of the center of the galaxy. Snapshot observations at the VLA yielded no detectable radio radiation, placing an upper limit of about 0.5 mJy on the combined flux density of the galaxy and quasar at a wavelength of 6 cm. A simple gravitational lens model that accounts for these observations is discussed. 17 references.
Us vehicles sales. Evidence of persistence after COVID-19

In this paper, the sales of vehicles in the US are examined to understand if the shock caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic has had permanent or transitory effects on its subsequent evolution. Using monthly data from January 1976 until April 2021 and fractional integration methods, our results indicate that the series reverts and the shocks tend to disappear in the long run, even when they appear to be long lived. The results also indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has not increased the degree of persistence of the series but, unexpectedly, has slightly reduced its dependence. Thus, shocks are transitory, long lived but, as time goes by, the recovery seems to be faster, which is possibly a sign of the strength of the industry.
Adaptive Closed-Loop Separation Control on a High-Lift Configuration Using Extremum Seeking

We present experimental results on adaptive closed-loop separation control on a 2-D generic high-lift configuration. Because model-based closed-loop flow control suffers from the lack of sufficient simple physical models for this configuration, a non-model-based control strategy, namely, the gradient-based extremum-seeking scheme, is used here. The controller exploits spanwise distributed pressure measurements and adjusts pulsed jets near the leading edge of the single-slotted flap. The jets are used for flow excitation to suppress separation over the flap at high angles of attack, high deflection angles, or to reattach an already separated flow. Starting from a single-input/single-output design, the extremum-seeking scheme is extended to both a single-input/single-output slope-seeking approach and a multi-input/multi -output approach. Multi-input/multi -output control accounts for spanwise-distributed, small-scale separation phenomena and shows the best performance. Additionally, this case even improves lift gain compared to preliminary open-loop studies. A lift increase is not only observed for angles of attack for which the unactuated flow obviously separates, but as well for smaller angles, which were assumed before to lead to an unseparated flow. Hence, closed-loop results demonstrate the capability of slope-seeking control to adjust the control signal automatically in an energy-efficient sense such that separation is minimized even in the presence of disturbances.
Health outcomes and healthcare resource utilization among Veterans with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer treated with second-line chemotherapy versus immunotherapy

Background Until recently, multi-agent chemotherapy (CT) was the standard of care for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Clinical trials have confirmed benefits in overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival with immunotherapy (IO) compared to CT. This study compares real-world treatment patterns and outcomes between CT and IO administrations in second-line (2L) settings for patients with stage IV NSCLC. Materials and methods This retrospective study included patients in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC during 2012–2017 and receiving IO or CT in the 2L. Patient demographics and clinical characteristics, healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), and adverse events (AEs) were compared between treatment groups. Logistic regression was used to examine differences in baseline characteristics between groups, and inverse probability weighting multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was used to analyze OS. Results Among 4,609 Veterans who received first-line (1L) therapy for stage IV NSCLC, 96% received 1L CT alone. A total of 1,630 (35%) were administered 2L systemic therapy, with 695 (43%) receiving IO and 935 (57%) receiving CT. Median age was 67 years (IO group) and 65 years (CT group); most patients were male (97%) and white (76–77%). Patients administered 2L IO had a higher Charlson Comorbidity Index than those administered CT (p = 0.0002). 2L IO was associated with significantly longer OS compared with CT (hazard ratio 0.84, 95% CI 0.75–0.94). IO was more frequently prescribed during the study period (p < 0.0001). No difference in rate of hospitalizations was observed between the two groups. Conclusions Overall, the proportion of advanced NSCLC patients receiving 2L systemic therapy is low. Among patients treated with 1L CT and without IO contraindications, 2L IO should be considered, as this supports potential benefit of IO for advanced NSCLC. The increasing availability and indications for IO will likely increase the administration of 2L therapy to NSCLC patients.
The soft X-ray absorption lines of the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15

The absorption lines in the soft X-ray spectrum of MCG‐6-30-15 are studied using the Reflection Grating Spectrometer data from the 2001 XMM-Newton320 ks observation. A line search of the full time-averaged spectrum reveals 51 absorption lines and one emission line. The equivalent widths of the lines are measured and the majority of the lines identified. We find lines produced by a broad range of charge states for sever al elements, including almost all the charge states of oxygen and iron, suggesting a broad range of ionization parameters is present in the warm absorber. The equivalent widths of the lines are broadly consistent with the best fitting warm absorber models from Turner et al. ( 2003). The equivalent widths of the absorption lines allow confidence limits on the column density of the species to be determined. For O VII a column density of 10 18.36 ‐10 18.86 cm 2 is found. This column density of O VII, when combined with the inferred Fe I absorption, is sufficient to explain the drop in flux at 0.7 keV as being due to absorption from the warm absorbe r. Fitting O I K-edge absorption to the spectrum reveals a column of 10 17.51 10 17.67 cm 2 of O I, suggesting an Fe:O ratio of �1:2, consistent with the neutral iron being in the form of iro n oxide dust. Variability is seen in a few absorption lines, but the majority of the abso rption features, including the prominent absorption edges, stay constant throughout the observation despite variability in the continuum flux.
Skew Products of Shifts with a Compact Lie Group

We consider aperiodic shifts of finite type σ with an equilibrium state m and associated skew‐products σf where f: X→G is Hölder and G is a compact Lie group. We show that generically σf is weak‐mixing and give constructive methods for achieving weak‐mixing by perturbing an arbitrary f at a finite number of small neighbourhoods. When σf is not ergodic we describe the (closed) ergodic decomposition precisely. The key result shows that certain measurable eigenfunctions are essentially Hölder continuous. This leads to conditions for weak‐mixing or ergodicity in terms of a functional equation which involves Hölder rather than measurable functions.
Subgroups of GL 1(R) for Local Rings R

Abstract Let R be a local ring, with maximal ideal m , and residue class division ring R/ m = D. Denote by R* = G L 1(R), the group of units of R. Here we investigate some algebraic structure of subnormal and maximal subgroups of R*. For instance, when D is of finite dimension over its center, it is shown that finitely generated subnormal subgroups of R* are central. It is also proved that maximal subgroups of R* are not finitely generated. Furthermore, assume that P is a nonabelian maximal subgroup of R* such that P contains a noncentral soluble normal subgroup of finite index, it is shown that D is a crossed product division algebra.
Stationary distributions for fluid flow models with or without Brownian noise

We consider a process with reflection at the origin and paths which are piecewise linear or Brownian, with the drift and variance constants being determined by the state of an underlying finite Markov process; the purely linear case corresponds to fluid flow models of current interest in telecommunications engineering. It is shown that the stationary distribution is phase-type, and various algorithms for computing the phase representation are given, some iterative with each step involving a matrix inversion and some based upon spectral expansion of the phase generator. Mathematically, the point of view is Markov additive processes, and some key tools are time-reversal and auxiliary Markov processes obtained by observing the underlying Markov process when the additive component is at a maximum
On the performance of different bimetallic combinations in surface plasmon resonance based fiber optic sensors

In the present work, we have investigated the capability of different bimetallic combinations to be used in a fiber optic sensor based on the technique of surface plasmon resonance. The metals considered for the present analysis are silver, gold, copper, and aluminum. The performance of the sensor with different bimetallic combinations is evaluated and compared numerically. The performance is analyzed in terms of three parameters: sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and operating range. On the basis of the comparison and some logical criteria, the best possible bimetallic combination along with requisite thickness distribution is predicted. The bimetallic combination is capable of simultaneously providing the larger values of sensitivity, SNR, and operating range, which is not possible with any single metallic layer.
Second-Order Duality in Multiobjective Programming Involving (F, α, ρ, d)-V-Type I Functions

In this paper, a new class of second-order (F, α, ρ, d)-V-type I functions is introduced that generalizes the notion of (F, α, ρ, θ)-V-convex functions introduced by Zalmai (Computers Math. Appl. 2002; 43:1489–1520) and (F, α, ρ, p, d)-type I functions defined by Hachimi and Aghezzaf (Numer. Funct. Anal. Optim. 2004; 25:725–736). Based on these functions, weak, strong, and strict converse duality theorems are derived for Wolfe and Mond–Weir type multiobjective dual programs in order to relate the efficient and weak efficient solutions of primal and dual problems.
Signal and noise analysis of flat-panel sandwich detectors for single-shot dual-energy x-ray imaging

We have developed a novel sandwich-style single-shot (single-kV) detector by stacking two indirect-conversion flat-panel detectors for preclinical mouse imaging. In the sandwich detector structure, extra noise due to the direct x-ray absorption in photodiode arrays is inevitable. We develop a simple cascaded linear-systems model to describe signal and noise propagation in the flat-panel sandwich detector considering direct x-ray interactions. The noise-power spectrum (NPS) and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) obtained from the front and rear detectors are analyzed by using the cascaded-systems model. The NPS induced by the absorption of direct x-ray photons that are unattenuated within the photodiode layers is white in the spatial-frequency domain like the additive readout noise characteristic; hence that is harmful to the DQE at higher spatial frequencies at which the number of secondary quanta lessens. The model developed in this study will be useful for determining the optimal imaging techniques with sandwich detectors and their optimal design.
Dimension-wise Sequential Update for Learning a Multidimensional Environment in Humans

Abstract When confronted with multidimensional environment problems, humans may need to jointly update multiple state–action–outcome associations across various dimensions. Computational modeling of human behavior and neural activities suggests that such updates are implemented based upon Bayesian update principle. However, it is unclear whether humans perform these updates individually or sequentially. If the update occurs sequentially, the order in which the associations are updated matters and can influence the updated results. To address this question, we tested a few computational models with different update orders using both human behavior and EEG data. Our results indicated that a model undertaking dimension-wise sequential updates was the best fit to human behavior. In this model, ordering the dimensions was decided using entropy, which indexed the uncertainty of associations. Simultaneously collected EEG data revealed evoked potentials that were correlated to the proposed timing of this model. These findings provide new insights into the temporal processes underlying Bayesian update in multidimensional environments.
Deep CCD photometry in globular clusters. I: The main sequence of M4

A partir d'images CCD obtenues avec le telescope CT104 m on a construit les diagrammes magnitude-couleur et couleur-couleur d'un champ de 4'×3' de l'amas globulaire M4. Les etoiles du champ dans la direction de l'amas donnent E(B-V)=0,37±0,06 tandis que la meilleure estimation de la metallicite est [Fe/H]=−0,93±0,31. On a calcule (m-M)ν=12,50. Selon la metallicite de M4, on obtient un âge qui est soit 13(±1) soit 15(±1) milliards d'annees