Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increasing Peripheral Insulin Sensitivity by Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B Deletion Improves Control of Blood Pressure in Obesity

Obesity is a major risk factor for hypertension. The copresentation of hypertension and insulin resistance (IR) suggests a role for IR in blood pressure (BP) dysregulation. To test this hypothesis, peripheral IR has been genetically subtracted in a model of obesity by crossing leptin receptor mutant mice (KdbHPTP) with mice lacking protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (insulin desensitizer, HdbKPTP) to generate obese insulin-sensitive mice (KdbKPTP). BP was recorded in lean (HdbHPTP, HdbKPTP) and obese (KdbHPTP, KdbKPTP) mice via telemetry, and a frequency analysis of the recording was performed to determine BP variability. Correction of IR in obese mice normalized BP values to baseline levels (HdbHPTP: 116±2 mm Hg; KdbHPTP: 129±4 mm Hg; KdbKPTP: 114±5 mm Hg) and restored BP variability by decreasing its standard deviation and the frequency of BP values over the upper autoregulatory limit of the kidneys. However, although IR-induced increases in proteinuria (versus 53±13 &mgr;g/d, HdbHPTP) were corrected in KdbKPTP (112±39 versus 422±159 &mgr;g/d, KdbHPTP), glomerular hypertrophy was not. IR reduced plasma aldosterone levels ruling out a role for mineralocorticoids in the development of hypertension. Taken together, these data indicate that correction of IR prevents hypertension, BP variability, and microalbuminuria in obese mice. Although the mechanism remains to be fully determined, increases in aldosterone or sympathoactivation of the cardiovascular system seem to be less likely contributors.
Pathways to Inflated Responsibility Beliefs in Adolescent Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Preliminary Investigation

Background: An inflated sense of responsibility is characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). No previous studies have investigated its origins. Five potential pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs have been proposed; these are tested in this study. Method: A novel measure, the Origins Questionnaire for Adolescents (OQA), was developed to assess experiences on these five pathways. Reliability of the OQA was investigated. The experiences on the five pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs of 16 adolescents with a history of OCD were compared to 16 adolescents with no history of OCD. Parents also reported on adolescents' experiences on the five pathways. Results: Test-retest reliability was high. The internal consistency of the subscales was only partly satisfactory. The groups differed on one pathway; the clinical group reported a higher sense of responsibility for significant incidents with a negative outcome prior to onset of OCD. Conclusions: An inflated sense of responsibility, in combination with the occurrence of specific incidents, might act as a vulnerability factor for development of OCD. Future research should consider how to measure the subtle effects of experiences of responsibility over the course of development.
Quantum Modeling of Social Dynamics

In this paper, the authors apply models extracted from the Many-Body Quantum Mechanics to understand how knowledge production is correlated to the innovation potential of a work team. This study is grounded in key assumtpions. First, complexity theory applied to social science suggests that it is of paramount importance to consider elements of non-objectivity and non-determinism in the statistical description of socio-economic phenomena. Second, a typical factor of indeterminacy in the explanation of these phenomena lead to the need to apply the instruments of quantum physics to formally describe social behaviours. In order to experiment the validity of the proposed mathematic model, the research intends to: 1) model nodes and interactions; 2) simulate the network behaviour starting from specific defined models; 3) visualize the macroscopic results emerging during the analysis/simulation phases through a digital representation of the social network.
Micromechanics of Elastic Metamaterials

This chapter presents the basic principles of design, characterization, and applications of elastic metamaterials. Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in nature. Elastic metamaterials gain unusual properties from their subwavelength microstructures, through local resonances to create negative values of effective mass, effective bulk or shear modulus. Although the content is not able to include all the advances in such interdisciplinary field, it provides readers a comprehensive overview on wave characteristics of elastic metamaterials.
Sex-Specific Impact of Ischemic Preconditioning on Tissue Oxygenation and Maximal Concentric Force

Prior peripheral hypoxia induced via remote ischemic preconditioning (IPC) can improve physical performance in male athletes through improved O2 delivery and utilization. Since females may have an innate protective mechanism against ischemia-reperfusion injury, and since muscle metabolism during contraction differs between sexes, it is relevant to examine the impact of sex in response to IPC to determine whether it is also ergogenic in females. In a randomized, crossover, single-blind study, we investigated muscle performance, hemodynamic and O2 uptake in strength-trained males (n = 9) and females (n = 8) performing five sets of 5 maximum voluntary knee extensions on an isokinetic dynamometer, preceded by either IPC (3 × 5-min ischemia/5-min reperfusion cycles at 200 mmHg) or SHAM (20 mmHg). Changes in deoxy-hemoglobin (Δ[HHb], expressed in percentage of arterial occlusion and considered an index of O2 extraction), and total hemoglobin (Δ[THb]) concentrations of the vastus lateralis muscle were continuously monitored by near-infrared spectroscopy. The metabolic efficiency of the contractions was calculated as the average force/Δ[HHb]avg ratio. Cohen's effect sizes (ES) ± 90% confidence limits were used to estimate IPC-induced changes and sex differences. IPC increased total muscular force in males only (13.0%, ES 0.64, 0.37;0.90), and this change was greater than in females (10.4% difference, ES 0.40, 0.10;0.70). Percent force decrement was only attenuated in females (−19.8%, ES −0.38, −0.77;0.01), which was clearly different than males (sex difference: ES 0.45, −0.16;1.07). IPC also induced different changes between sexes for average muscle O2 uptake in set 2 (males: 6.4% vs. females: −16.7%, ES 0.21, −0.18;0.60), set 3 (males: 7.0% vs. females: −44.4%, ES 0.56, −0.17;1.29), set 4 (males: 9.1% vs. females: −40.2%, ES 0.51, −0.10;1.13), and set 5 (males: 10.2% vs. females: −40.4%, ES 0.52, −0.04;1.09). However, metabolic efficiency was not meaningfully different between conditions and sexes. IPC increased muscle blood volume (↑[THb]) at rest and during recovery between sets, to the same extent in both sexes. Despite a similar IPC-induced initial increase in O2 delivery in both sexes, males displayed greater peripheral O2 extraction and greater strength enhancement. This ergogenic effect appears to be mediated in part via an up regulated oxidative function in males. We conclude that strength-trained males might benefit more from IPC than their female counterparts during repeated, maximal efforts.
Cellular Detection of G‐Quadruplexes by Optical Imaging Methods

G‐quadruplexes (G4s) are higher‐order nucleic acid structures that fold from guanine (G)–rich DNA and RNA strands. This field of research gains traction as a major chemical biology area since it aims at uncovering many key cellular mechanisms in which quadruplexes are involved. The wealth of knowledge acquired over the past three decades strongly supports pivotal roles of G4 in the regulation of gene expression at both transcriptional (DNA quadruplexes) and translational levels (RNA quadruplexes). Recent biochemical discoveries uncovered myriad of additional G4 actions: from chromosomal stability to the firing of replication origins, from telomere homeostasis to functional dysregulations underlying genetic diseases (including cancers and neurodegeneration). Here, we listed a repertoire of protocols that we have developed over the past years to visualize quadruplexes in cells. These achievements were made possible thanks to the discovery of a novel family of versatile quadruplex‐selective fluorophores, the twice‐as‐smart quadruplex ligands named TASQ (for template‐assembled synthetic G‐quartet). The versatility of this probe allows for multiple imaging techniques in both fixed and live cells, including the use of the multiphoton microscopy, confocal microscopy, and real‐time fluorescent image collection. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ileo-Ileal Intussusception Due to Inverted Meckel’s Diverticulum

Abstract Meckel’s diverticulum is the most common congenital anomaly of the gastro-intestinal tract. It is generally asymptomatic. Occasionally, it may cause some complications such as bleeding, obstruction, diverticulitis and intussusception. We present a case of a 21-year-old female with intussusception due to inverted Meckel’s diverticulum. Diagnosis and therapy of inverted Meckel’s diverticulum is a subject of debate because of its rarity and the limited number of reports in the literature.
Examining the Role of Statistical and Linguistic Knowledge Sources in a General-Knowledge Question-Answering System

We describe and evaluate an implemented system for general-knowledge question answering. The system combines techniques for standard ad-hoc information retrieval (IR), query-dependent text summarization, and shallow syntactic and semantic sentence analysis. In a series of experiments we examine the role of each statistical and linguistic knowledge source in the question-answering system. In contrast to previous results, we find first that statistical knowledge of word co-occurrences as computed by IR vector space methods can be used to quickly and accurately locate the relevant documents for each question. The use of query-dependent text summarization techniques, however, provides only small increases in performance and severely limits recall levels when inaccurate. Nevertheless, it is the text summarization component that allows subsequent linguistic filters to focus on relevant passages. We find that even very weak linguistic knowledge can offer substantial improvements over purely IRbased techniques for question answering, especially when smoothly integrated with statistical preferences computed by the IR subsystems.
Capacity of deterministic Z-chain relay-interference network

The wireless multiple-unicast problem is considered over a layered network, where the rates of transmission are limited by the relaying and interference effect. The deterministic model introduced in [3] is used to capture the broadcasting and multiple access effects. The capacity region of the Z-chain relay-interference network is fully characterized. In order to solve the problem, we introduce a new achievability scheme based on “interference neutralization” and a new analysis technique to bound the number of non-interfering (pure) signals.
Identifying Webbrowsers in Encrypted Communications

Webbrowser fingerprinting is a powerful tool to identify an Internet end-user. Previous research has shown that the information extracted from webbrowsers can uniquely identify an end-user. To collect webbrowser specific information, intentional JavaScript codes are embedded in web pages. In this paper, we show that fingerprinting characteristics of a webbrowser can also be collected by solely checking the network traffic data generated when browsing a website. We collect network traffic data generated by browsing the homepage of the most popular websites. Based on this data, we show that the browser fingerprinting characteristics can be inferred with high accuracy. Among these characteristics, type of webbrowser can be identified with over 70\% accuracy rate. Usage status of popular plug-ins like JavaScript and flash can also be accurately identified.
A Wide-Input-Range Efficiency-Enhanced Synchronous Integrated LED Driver With Adaptive Resonant Timing Control

A wide-input-range DC-DC-based dimmable LED driver is presented in this paper. The proposed LED driver can be automatically configured to operate in the soft-switching mode under the high-voltage condition in order to minimize the converter's dominant switching power loss. Adaptive resonant timing control is developed to enable proper dead-time generation for on-chip high-voltage power FETs in both hard- and soft-switching modes under different input and output voltages for the power loss minimization. In the proposed LED driver, two low-power body-diode-based zero-voltage detectors and an adaptive resonant timing emulator are also proposed for providing accurate and high-speed zero-voltage switching (ZVS) detection of both power FETs, and achieving optimal quasi-ZVS condition, respectively. Implemented in a 0.5 μm HV CMOS process, the proposed buck-based LED driver can support an input voltage range from 5 V to 115 V and up to 25 series-connected highbrightness LEDs with the maximum output power of 25 W. The LED driver can operate up to 1.6 MHz in the soft-switching mode and 2.2 MHz in the hard-switching mode for providing the peak power efficiencies of 94.4% and 93.6%, respectively. Compared with the state-of-the-art counterparts, this work is the only integrated DC-DC-based dimmable LED driver to demonstrate auto-configurable hard- and soft-switching capability achieving high power efficiency and current accuracy over the widest input voltage range and the largest number of series-connected output LEDs.
A Comparison of Weak-Lensing Measurements from Ground- and Space-Based Facilities

We assess the relative merits of weak-lensing surveys, using overlapping imaging data from the ground-based Subaru telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Our tests complement similar studies undertaken with simulated data. From observations of 230,000 matched objects in the 2 deg2 COSMOS field, we identify the limit at which faint galaxy shapes can be reliably measured from the ground using well-established shape-measurement techniques. Our ground-based shear catalog achieves subpercent calibration bias compared to high-resolution space-based data for galaxies brighter than i' ≃ 24.5 and with half-light radii larger than 1.8''. This selection corresponds to a surface density of 15 galaxies arcmin−2 compared to ~71 arcmin−2 from space. On the other hand, the survey speed of current ground-based facilities is much faster than that of HST, although this gain is mitigated by the increased depth of space-based imaging desirable for tomographic (3D) analyses. As an independent experiment, we also reconstruct the projected mass distribution in the COSMOS field using both data sets, and compare the derived cluster catalogs with those from X-ray observations. The ground-based catalog achieves a reasonable degree of completeness, with minimal contamination and no detected bias, for massive clusters at redshifts 0.2 < z < 0.5. The space-based data provide improved precision and a greater sensitivity to clusters of lower mass or at higher redshift.
Convergence Rate of Distributed ADMM Over Networks

We propose a new distributed algorithm based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to minimize sum of locally known convex functions using communication over a network. This optimization problem emerges in many applications in distributed machine learning and statistical estimation. Our algorithm allows for a general choice of the communication weight matrix, which is used to combine the iterates at different nodes. We show that when functions are convex, both the objective function values and the feasibility violation converge with rate <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(1/T)$</tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of iterations. We then show that when functions are strongly convex and have Lipschitz continuous gradients, the sequence generated by our algorithm converges linearly to the optimal solution. In particular, an <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\epsilon$</tex-math></inline-formula>-optimal solution can be computed with <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O\left(\sqrt{\kappa _f} \log (1/\epsilon) \right)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> iterations, where <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\kappa _f$</tex-math> </inline-formula> is the condition number of the problem. Our analysis highlights the effect of network and communication weights on the convergence rate through degrees of the nodes, the smallest nonzero eigenvalue, and operator norm of the communication matrix.
Verifying liveness by multiple experts in face biometrics

Resisting spoofing attempts via photographs and video playbacks is a vital issue for the success of face biometrics. Yet, the ldquolivenessrdquo topic has only been partially studied in the past. In this paper we are suggesting a holistic liveness detection paradigm that collaborates with standard techniques in 2D face biometrics. The experiments show that many attacks are avertible via a combination of anti-spoofing measures. We have investigated the topic using real-time techniques and applied them to real-life spoofing scenarios in an indoor, yet uncontrolled environment.
Nonlinear tire lateral force versus slip angle curve identification

Vehicle steering dynamics depends on the tire lateral characteristics. In particular, the relationship between the tire lateral force and the slip angle is a crucial element in the analysis and design of vehicle lateral dynamics and controls. This relationship is generally obtained through laboratory tests, but the laboratory test procedures have two major limitations: (I) the simulated road surface may not represent certain real road conditions; (II) the test environment may not sufficiently mimic the tire characteristics under realistic operating conditions, such as large tire-vehicle interactions under emergency conditions or the changes of suspension and/or steering geometry. It is advantageous to develop an identification approach for tire lateral characteristics using a minimum set of on-board vehicle sensors when the tires are operated in a real configuration and environment. An ideal identification procedure should be insensitive to noise and predict the vehicle lateral behavior accurately. A pointwise updating approach with a Kalman filter using a nonlinear vehicle model is designed to address this problem. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated using tires with and without snow chains.
Three Epidemics of Invasive Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella Bloodstream Infection in Blantyre, Malawi, 1998–2014

Background. The Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme (MLW) has routinely collected specimens for blood culture from febrile patients, and cerebrospinal fluid from patients with suspected meningitis, presenting to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), Blantyre, Malawi, since 1998. Methods. We present bloodstream infection (BSI) and meningitis surveillance data from 1998 to 2014. Automated blood culture, manual speciation, serotyping, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were performed at MLW. Population data for minimum-incidence estimates in urban Blantyre were drawn from published estimates. Results. Between 1998 and 2014, 167 028 blood cultures were taken from adult and pediatric medical patients presenting to QECH; Salmonella Typhi was isolated on 2054 occasions (1.2%) and nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) serovars were isolated 10 139 times (6.1%), of which 8017 (79.1%) were Salmonella Typhimurium and 1608 (15.8%) were Salmonella Enteritidis. There were 392 cases of NTS meningitis and 9 cases of Salmonella Typhi meningitis. There have been 3 epidemics of Salmonella BSI in Blantyre; Salmonella Enteritidis from 1999 to 2002, Salmonella Typhimurium from 2002 to 2008, and Salmonella Typhi, which began in 2011 and was ongoing in 2014. Multidrug resistance has emerged in all 3 serovars and is seen in the overwhelming majority of isolates, while resistance to third-generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones is currently uncommon but has been identified. Conclusions. Invasive Salmonella disease in Malawi is dynamic and not clearly attributable to a single risk factor, although all 3 epidemics were associated with multidrug resistance. To inform nonvaccine and vaccine interventions, reservoirs of disease and modes of transmission require further investigation.
Assessments of Wind-Energy Potential in Selected Sites from Three Geopolitical Zones in Nigeria: Implications for Renewable/Sustainable Rural Electrification

Electricity generation in rural communities is an acute problem militating against socioeconomic well-being of the populace in these communities in developing countries, including Nigeria. In this paper, assessments of wind-energy potential in selected sites from three major geopolitical zones of Nigeria were investigated. For this, daily wind-speed data from Katsina in northern, Warri in southwestern and Calabar in southeastern Nigeria were analysed using the Gumbel and the Weibull probability distributions for assessing wind-energy potential as a renewable/sustainable solution for the country's rural-electrification problems. Results showed that the wind-speed models identified Katsina with higher wind-speed class than both Warri and Calabar that were otherwise identified as low wind-speed sites. However, econometrics of electricity power simulation at different hub heights of low wind-speed turbine systems showed that the cost of electric-power generation in the three study sites was converging to affordable cost per kWh of electric energy from the wind resource at each site. These power simulations identified cost/kWh of electricity generation at Kaduna as €0.0507, at Warri as €0.0774, and at Calabar as €0.0819. These bare positive implications on renewable/sustainable rural electrification in the study sites even as requisite options for promoting utilization of this viable wind-resource energy in the remote communities in the environs of the study sites were suggested.
A Survey of Cooperative Backup Mechanisms

Storage capacity, like computing power, follows its Moore's law and grows dramatically. Consequently, the need for data backup services increases. The domain of data backup was recently hit by the peer-to-peer wave: several projects propose to use a cooperative approach to the backup problem. In this paper we survey these projects, the various problems they face and the techniques they propose to tackle them.
img(Anaktisi): A Web Content Based Image Retrieval System

img(Anaktisi) is a C#/. NET content base image retrieval application suitable for the web. It provides ef¿cient retrieval services for various image databases using as a query a sample image, an image sketched by the user and keywords. The image retrieval engine is powered by innovative compact and effective descriptors. Also, an Auto Relevance Feedback (ARF) technique is provided to the user. This technique readjusts the initial retrieval results based on user preferences improving the retrieval score signi¿cantly. img(Anaktisi) can be found at http://www.anaktisi. net
Exploring Distributional Similarity Based Models for Query Spelling Correction

A query speller is crucial to search engine in improving web search relevance. This paper describes novel methods for use of distributional similarity estimated from query logs in learning improved query spelling correction models. The key to our methods is the property of distributional similarity between two terms: it is high between a frequently occurring misspelling and its correction, and low between two irrelevant terms only with similar spellings. We present two models that are able to take advantage of this property. Experimental results demonstrate that the distributional similarity based models can significantly outperform their baseline systems in the web query spelling correction task.