Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting episodic memory performance using different biomarkers: results from Argentina-Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Purpose Argentina-Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (Arg-ADNI) is the first ADNI study to be performed in Latin America at a medical center with the appropriate infrastructure. Our objective was to describe baseline characteristics and to examine whether biomarkers related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) physiopathology were associated with worse memory performance. Patients and methods Fifteen controls and 28 mild cognitive impairment and 13 AD dementia subjects were included. For Arg-ADNI, all biomarker parameters and neuropsychological tests of ADNI-II were adopted. Results of positron emission tomography (PET) with fluorodeoxyglucose and 11C-Pittsburgh compound-B (PIB-PET) were available from all participants. Cerebrospinal fluid biomarker results were available from 39 subjects. Results A total of 56 participants were included and underwent baseline evaluation. The three groups were similar with respect to years of education and sex, and they differed in age (F=5.10, P=0.01). Mean scores for the baseline measurements of the neuropsychological evaluation differed significantly among the three groups at P<0.001, showing a continuum in their neuropsychological performance. No significant correlations were found between the principal measures (long-delay recall, C-Pittsburgh compound-B scan, left hippocampal volume, and APOEε4) and either age, sex, or education (P>0.1). Baseline amyloid deposition and left hippocampal volume separated the three diagnostic groups and correlated with the memory performance (P<0.001). Conclusion Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data revealed links between cognition, structural changes, and biomarkers. Follow-up of a larger and more representative cohort, particularly analyzing cerebrospinal fluid and brain biomarkers, will allow better characterization of AD in our country.
A Computational Analysis of Flow Development through a Constant Area C- Duct

This paper represents the results of an experimental work with measurement of mean velocity along with total pressure contours in 2-D form and validation of the same with numerical results based on the wall y + approach for various turbulent models like, Spalart Alamras, k-e model, k-ω model and RSM models are used to solve the closure problem. The turbulence models are investigated in the commercial CFD code of Fluent using y + as guidance in selecting the appropriate grid configuration and turbulence model. The experiment is carried out at mass averaged mean velocity of 40m/s and the geometry of the duct is chosen as rectangular cross-section of 90 curved constant area duct . In the present paper the computational results obtained from different turbulence models are compared with the experimental result along with the near-wall treatments are investigated for wall y + 30 in the fully turbulent region. It is concluded in the present study that the mesh resolving the fully turbulent region is sufficiently accurate in terms of qualitative features. Here RSM turbulence model predicts the best results while comparing with the experimental results.
Longitudinal relation between smoking and white blood cells.

Higher white blood cell counts in smokers compared with nonsmokers have been well documented, but the longitudinal relation between changes in smoking and changes in white blood cells has not been well described. Since 1984, data have been collected semiannually by the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), a four-center prospective cohort study of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in homosexual men. The study population includes 2,435 participants who were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seronegative as of September 1994 and who contributed 20,918 person-visits for this analysis. For individuals who modified their smoking behavior, changes in white blood cell counts occurred primarily during the first 6 months following changes in the amount of cigarettes smoked. Among former smokers who resumed smoking, the extent of the increase in white blood cell count depended on the number of cigarettes smoked. Specifically, increases of 241, 340, and 740 cells/microliter were observed for smokers who resumed smoking < 1, 1 to < 2, and > or = 2 packs/day, respectively. Conversely, smokers who quit smoking had a decrease of white blood cell count: -32, -629, and -1,122 cells/microliter for men who previously smoked < 1, 1 to < 2, and > or = 2 packs/day, respectively. Long-term ex-smokers, however, still had higher white blood cell counts than did never smokers. There was a high within-individual correlation of white blood cell count in persons who reported a consistent level of smoking (i.e., average correlations between two white blood cell counts 6 years apart were 0.51 for never smokers, 0.48 for ex-smokers, 0.56 for men who smoked < 1 pack/day, and 0.43 for men who smoked > or = 1 pack/day). These analyses indicate an acute effect of changes in smoking on changes in white blood cell count, a residual effect of having been a smoker, and high long-term tracking for white blood cell count.
Whose Thumb Is It Anyway? Classifying Author Personality from Weblog Text

We report initial results on the relatively novel task of automatic classification of author personality. Using a corpus of personal weblogs, or 'blogs', we investigate the accuracy that can be achieved when classifying authors on four important personality traits. We explore both binary and multiple classification, using differing sets of n-gram features. Results are promising for all four traits examined.
Evaluation of the BOD POD for Estimating Percent Body Fat in Collegiate Track and Field Female Athletes: A Comparison of Four Methods

Bentzur, KM, Kravitz, L, and Lockner, DW. Evaluation of the BOD POD for estimating percent body fat in collegiate track and field female athletes: a comparison of four methods. J Strength Cond Res 22(6): 1985-1991, 2008-This investigation examined the accuracy of the BOD POD on a group of Division I collegiate track and field female athletes (N = 30). Hydrostatic weighing (HW) was used as the gold standard method. Body density (Db) values obtained from the BOD POD (DbBP) were compared with those determined by HW (DbHW). Both Db values were converted to percent body fat (%BF) using the Siri equation for comparison. Percent body fat values obtained from the BOD POD (BFBP) were also compared with those obtained from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA, BFDXA) and skinfold (SF, BFSF). The validity of the BOD POD was assessed using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the relationship between the methods was examined through Pearson correlation. Average DbBP was 0.00890 g·cm−3 lower (p < 0.05) than DbHW, resulting in a significant overestimation of %BF (p < 0.05) by the BOD POD. Values for BFDXA and BFBP also differed significantly (p < 0.05). On the other hand, BFSF and BFBP were not significantly different. The correlation between percent body fat values obtained from HW (BFHW) and BFBP was good (r = 0.88, SEE = 2.30) as well as between BFSF and BFBP (r = 0.85, SEE = 2.05). Conversely, the correlation between BFDXA and BFBP was poor (r = 0.25, SEE = 5.73). The strong correlation between BFBP and BFHW presented here suggests that the BOD POD has the potential to be used as a body composition analysis tool for female athletes. The advantages of the BOD POD over HW encourage further investigation of this instrument. However, the fact that the BOD POD and SF results did not differ significantly might suggest that the SF could be used in its place until a better rate of accuracy for this instrument is established.
A new sliding mode-based learning control for uncertain discrete-time systems

A new sliding mode-based learning control scheme is developed for a class of uncertain discrete-time systems. In particular, a recursive-learning controller is designed to enforce the sliding variable vector to reach and retain in the sliding mode, and the system states are then guaranteed to asymptotically converge to zero. A recently introduced “Lipschitz-like condition” for sliding mode control systems, which describes the continuity property of uncertain systems, is further extended to the discrete-time case setting in this paper. The distinguishing features of this approach include: (i) the information about the uncertainties is not required for designing the controller, (ii) the closed-loop system exhibits a strong robustness with respect to uncertainties, and (iii) the control scheme enjoys the chattering-free characteristic. Simulation results are also given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new control technique.
Low Complexity Antenna Diversity For IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz PHY

This thesis investigates the obtainable performance improvements associated with different fading mitigation techniques using spatial antenna diversity applied to the IEEE 802.15. 4 2.4 GHz PHY. The standard possesses modulation properties that inherently provide some multipath resistance. Further resistance is believed obtainable due to the bad and unpredictable fading environments found in typical areas of application. Potential performance increases were theoretically analyzed for different fading channel statistics when two antennas were available for reception. This analysis provided upper bounds for achievable performance improvements that were promising. Physical testing of selected fading mitigation techniques was performed with hardware from Texas Instruments and means developed by the student. Generally, the PHY has proven itself multipath resistant in the various fading environments tested. PER has been showed to mostly consist of undetected packets. As such, fading mitigation techniques using two receiver chains provide the greatest reduction in PER in a general case, since more packets are detected. PER is observed reduced by a test-dependant factor between 2 and 100 for such techniques. Techniques based on one RF-front end generally provides little performance improvement in dynamic environments, if any. Large spatial differences in received power were observed across distances on the order of a wavelength. A simple technique that switches receiver antenna when detecting an erroneously demodulated packet can exploit this property when RX and TX remain static and hence provide great reductions in PER. This fading mitigation technique is the least complex and power consuming among the ones analyzed and tested.
A Study on the Internal Relationship among Smith Predictor, Dahlin Controller & PID

It is now common knowledge that the PID (proportional-integral-derivative) is not suitable for controlling long time delay processes and the conventional Smith predictor is sensitive to model mismatch and has poor disturbance rejection capability. By illustrating the design procedure of the Hinfin Smith predictor and H2 Smith predictor first proposed by Zhang [9], who designed an analytical Smith predictor in terms of Hinfin or H2 theory, the internal relationship among the Smith predictor, Dahlin controller and practical PID is established. The range of the filtering time constant lambda is derived theoretically and a set of analytical tuning formulae is proposed. This paper also takes a different viewpoint on the applicability and robustness of PID and the Smith predictor. An illustrative simulation example gives a persuasive view to the conclusions drawn in this paper.
Using RT-UML for modelling web services

RT-UML is a UML Profile for modeling Real Time Systems, which can be used in particular to describe Web Services Orchestration with time constraints. For that purpose, we can use a classical UML diagram, namely, the sequence diagram. Our goal in this paper is the design of Web Services with time restriction by using RT-UML. We introduce a translation of the main elements of RT-UML into Web Services Business Process Execution Language.
Summarizing relevant information for question-answering using hybrid relevance analysis and surface feature salience

Much research for question-answering aims to answer factoid, definitional and biographical questions. In most cases, the answers are given as a name, date, quantity, and so on. In this paper, we try to merge techniques of multidocument summarization and question-answering to generate a brief, well-organized fluent summary to provide more relevant information for the purpose of answering real-world complicated questions. The problem is addressed as a query-biased sentence retrieval task. We propose a hybrid relevance analysis to evaluate the relevance of a sentence to the query. The summary is created by including sentences with the topmost significances which are measured in terms of sentence relevance and surface feature salience. In addition, a modified Maximal Marginal Relevance is proposed for anti-redundancy. The proposed approach was evaluated with the DUC 2005 corpus and found to perform well with competitive results. Key-Words: Query-focused summarization; Hybrid relevance analysis; Sentence feature salience; Latent semantic analysis; Modified Maximal marginal relevance;
Health Behavior Change Theories in Physical Activity Pins on Pinterest: A Content Analysis

Background: Too few adults in developed countries get sufficient daily physical activity, which contributes to the burden of chronic disease. Social media sites may be effective methods of promoting health behavior change, especially when elements of health behavior theory (HBT) are incorporated. However, no research to date has specifically assessed the integration of HBT in physical activity-related pins on Pinterest. Purpose: A content analysis was conducted to assess the level of HBT in physical activity-related pins on Pinterest. Methods: A coding rubric was used to code a total of 461 physical activity-related pins for the presence of HBT (Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Theory, and Health Belief Model) constructs. A total theory score was computed to provide a global assessment of theory integration. Pin characteristics were also analyzed using descriptive statistics. Adjusted linear regression analysis identified characteristics of pins related to inclusion of HBT in pins. Results: The average total HBT score was 2.35 out of a possible 9. Compared to private individuals, pins produced by organizations integrated significantly more HBT constructs (mean 2.23 vs. 2.01; p=.005). Other factors such as targeting the whole body, and exercise not requiring equipment also had high integration of HBT. The HBT construct ‘outcome expectations’ appeared most often in pins. Discussion: Pinterest pins can be used for health promotion among its users with the integration of HBT in the pins. Select pin characteristics are predictive of theory integration. The average total HBT score of 2.35 in all of the pins studied suggests that physical activity pins are lacking adequate levels of HBT. Conclusion: Pinterest is an inexpensive, user-friendly platform where health educators can easily generate theory-based pins that may influence physical activityrelated behaviors. Pinterest pins could also be used to disseminate information regarding physical activity to all its users with very low costs. Correspondence to: Samuel Patha, Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University, USA, Tel: 808-492-4499; E-mail: ajaypatha@gmail.com
Local Cellular Immune Responses and Pathogenesis of Buruli Ulcer Lesions in the Experimental Mycobacterium Ulcerans Pig Infection Model

Background Buruli ulcer is a neglected tropical disease of the skin that is caused by infection with Mycobacterium ulcerans. We recently established an experimental pig (Sus scrofa) infection model for Buruli ulcer to investigate host-pathogen interactions, the efficacy of candidate vaccines and of new treatment options. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we have used the model to study pathogenesis and early host-pathogen interactions in the affected porcine skin upon infection with mycolactone-producing and non-producing M. ulcerans strains. Histopathological analyses of nodular lesions in the porcine skin revealed that six weeks after infection with wild-type M. ulcerans bacteria extracellular acid fast bacilli were surrounded by distinct layers of neutrophils, macrophages and lymphocytes. Upon ulceration, the necrotic tissue containing the major bacterial burden was sloughing off, leading to the loss of most of the mycobacteria. Compared to wild-type M. ulcerans bacteria, toxin-deficient mutants caused an increased granulomatous cellular infiltration without massive tissue necrosis, and only smaller clusters of acid fast bacilli. Conclusions/Significance In summary, the present study shows that the pathogenesis and early immune response to M. ulcerans infection in the pig is very well reflecting BU disease in humans, making the pig infection model an excellent tool for the profiling of new therapeutic and prophylactic interventions.
Expression of murine Lm-1 locus. Lm-1 determinants on lymphocytes and macrophages, and effects of Lm-1 incompatibility on bone marrow grafts

Lm-1 is an Igh-linked locus that codes for cell surface alloantigens (Lm-1 determinants) recognized by T lymphocytes. Using Lm-1 congenic strains and cold-target inhibition of anti-Lm-1-specific lysis by cytotoxic T lymphocytes, we were able to demonstrate differential expression of two distinct Lm-1 antigenic determinants. One determinant is expressed on the surface of T cell blasts, the other on a number of pre-B cell lines. Both determinants are present on B cell blasts. Macrophages also bear Lm-1 determinants, and possibly express a determinant not found on lymphocytes. Fibroblasts, (unstimulated) thymocytes, and immature T cells lack detectable Lm-1 determinants. These data indicate that expression of the Lm-1 locus is dependent on cell lineage and the stage of cell differentiation or activation. We propose that Lm-1 is a lymphocyte-macrophage differentiation locus containing a number of structurally and functionally related genes. Evidence was presented that Lm-1 may also serve as a histocompatibility locus of major importance for bone marrow transplantation. Specifically, when Lm-1-incompatible bone marrow cells and spleen cells (from normal or anti-Lm-1 immune mice) were transplanted into X- irradiated recipients, the maturation and/or function of bone marrow- derived donor B cells was delayed or inhibited.
Reinforcing English Countability Prediction with One Countability per Discourse Property

Countability of English nouns is important in various natural language processing tasks. It especially plays an important role in machine translation since it determines the range of possible determiners. This paper proposes a method for reinforcing countability prediction by introducing a novel concept called one countability per discourse. It claims that when a noun appears more than once in a discourse, they will all share the same countability in the discourse. The basic idea of the proposed method is that mispredictions can be correctly overridden using efficiently the one countability per discourse property. Experiments show that the proposed method successfully reinforces countability prediction and outperforms other methods used for comparison.
Survey on three single rule reasoning methods

One reason of the wide popularity of Fuzzy Logic Systems in various application areas, such as control engineering, expert systems, pattern recognition, operation research, decision support systems etc. is inherited from the benefits of the rule based knowledge representation. In the most common Zadeh-Mamdani-Larsen Fuzzy Logic Reasoning method, where the original concept of Zadeh about linguistic terms [16] is applied for reasoning by Compositional Rule of Inference (CRI), as it is was proposed by Mamdani [11] and Larsen [10], the knowledge is represented by fuzzy rules.
Strategic Islands in Economic Games: Isolating Economies From Better Outcomes

Many of the issues we face as a society are made more problematic by the rapidly changing context in which important decisions are made. For example buying a petrol powered car is most advantageous when there are many petrol pumps providing cheap petrol whereas buying an electric car is most advantageous when there are many electrical recharge points or high capacity batteries available. Such collective decision-making is often studied using economic game theory where the focus is on how individuals might reach an agreement regarding the supply and demand for the different energy types. But even if the two parties find a mutually agreeable strategy, as technology and costs change over time, for example through cheaper and more efficient batteries and a more accurate pricing of the total cost of oil consumption, so too do the incentives for the choices buyers and sellers make, the result of which can be the stranding of an industry or even a whole economy on an island of inefficient outcomes. In this article we consider the issue of how changes in the underlying incentives can move us from an optimal economy to a sub-optimal economy while at the same time making it impossible to collectively navigate our way to a better strategy without forcing us to pass through a socially undesirable “tipping point”. We show that different perturbations to underlying incentives results in the creation or destruction of “strategic islands” isolated by disruptive transitions between strategies. The significant result in this work is the illustration that an economy that remains strategically stationary can over time become stranded in a suboptimal outcome from which there is no easy way to put the economy on a path to better outcomes without going through an economic tipping point.
Impact of Short-Term HAART Initiated during the Chronic Stage or Shortly Post-Exposure on SIV Infection of Male Genital Organs

Background The male genital tract is suspected to constitute a viral sanctuary as persistent HIV shedding is found in the semen of a subset of HIV-infected men receiving effective antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The origin of this persistent shedding is currently unknown. Phylogenetic studies indicated that HIV in semen from untreated men arises from local sources and/or passive diffusion from the blood. We previously demonstrated in human and macaque low levels and localized infection of several semen-producing organs by HIV/SIV. Using a macaque model, this study investigates the impact of short term HAART (2–4 weeks) initiated either during the asymptomatic chronic stage or 4 h post-intravenous inoculation of SIVmac251 on the infection of male genital organs. Methodology/Principal Findings Short term HAART during the chronic stage decreased blood viral load. No major impact of HAART was observed on SIV DNA levels in male genital organs using a sensitive nested PCR assay. Using in situ hybridization, SIV RNA+ cells were detected in all male genital tract organs from untreated and treated animals with undetectable blood viral load following HAART. Infected CD68+ myeloid cells and CD3+ T lymphocytes were detected pre- and post-HAART. In contrast, short term HAART initiated 4 h post-SIV exposure led to a drastic decrease of the male genital tissues infection, although it failed to prevent systemic infection. In both cases, HAART tended to decrease the number of CD3+ T cells in the male organs. Conclusions Our results indicate that the established infection of male genital organs is not greatly impacted by short term HAART, whereas the same treatment during pre-acute phase of the infection efficiently impairs viral dissemination to the male genital tract. Further investigations are now needed to determine whether infection of male genital organs is responsible for long term persistent HIV shedding in semen despite HAART.