Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genomic Study of Cardiovascular Continuum Comorbidity

Comorbidity or a combination of several diseases in the same individual is a common and widely investigated phenomenon. However, the genetic background for non–random disease combinations is not fully understood. Modern technologies and approaches to genomic data analysis enable the investigation of the genetic profile of patients burdened with several diseases (polypathia, disease conglomerates) and its comparison with the profiles of patients with single diseases. An association study featuring three groups of patients with various combinations of cardiovascular disorders and a control group of relatively healthy individuals was conducted. Patients were selected as follows: presence of only one disease, ischemic heart disease (IHD); a combination of two diseases, IHD and arterial hypertension (AH); and a combination of several diseases, including IHD, AH, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and hypercholesterolemia (HC). Genotyping was performed using the “My Gene” genomic service (www.i–gene.ru). An analysis of 1,400 polymorphic genetic variants and their associations with the studied phenotypes are presented. A total of 14 polymorphic variants were associated with the phenotype “IHD only,” including those in the APOB, CD226, NKX2–5, TLR2, DPP6, KLRB1, VDR, SCARB1, NEDD4L, and SREBF2 genes, and intragenic variants rs12487066, rs7807268, rs10896449, and rs944289. A total of 13 genetic markers were associated with the “IHD and AH” phenotype, including variants in the BTNL2, EGFR, CNTNAP2, SCARB1, and HNF1A genes, and intragenic polymorphisms rs801114, rs10499194, rs13207033, rs2398162, rs6501455, and rs1160312. A total of 14 genetic variants were associated with a combination of several diseases of cardiovascular continuum (CVC), including those in the TAS2R38, SEZ6L, APOA2, KLF7, CETP, ITGA4, RAD54B, LDLR, and MTAP genes, along with intragenic variants rs1333048, rs1333049, and rs6501455. One common genetic marker was identified for the “IHD only” and “IHD and AH” phenotypes: rs4765623 in the SCARB1 gene; two common genetic markers, rs663048 in SEZ6L and intragenic rs6501455, were identified for the “IHD and AH” phenotype and a combination of several diseases (syntropy); there were no common genetic markers for the “syntropy” and “IHD only” phenotypes. Classificatory analysis of the relationships between the associated genes and metabolic pathways revealed that lipid–metabolizing genes are involved in the development of all three CVC variants, whereas immunity-response genes are specific to the “IHD only” phenotype. The study demonstrated that comorbidity presents additional challenges in association studies of disease predisposition, since the genetic profile of combined forms of pathology can be markedly different from those for isolated “single” forms of a disease.
Probability and Instruction Effects in Syllogistic Conditional Reasoning

Abstract — The main aim of this study was to examine whether people understand indicative conditionals on the basis of syntactic factors or on the basis of subjective conditional probability. The second aim was to investigate whether the conditional probability of q given p depends on the antecedent and consequent sizes or derives from inductive processes leading to establish a link of plausible co-occurrence between events semantically or experientially associated. These competing hypotheses have been tested through a 3 x 2 x 2 x 2 mixed design involving the manipulation of four variables: type of instructions (“Consider the following statement to be true”, “Read the following statement” and condition with no conditional statement); antecedent size (high/low); consequent size (high/low); statement probability (high/low). The first variable was between-subjects, the others were within-subjects. The inferences investigated were Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens. Ninety undergraduates of the Second University of Naples, without any prior knowledge of logic or conditional reasoning, participated in this study. follows that “if Results suggest that people understand conditionals in a syntactic way rather than in a probabilistic way, even though the perception of the conditional probability of q given p is at least partially involved in the conditionals’ comprehension. They also showed that, in presence of a conditional syllogism, inferences are not affected by the antecedent or consequent sizes. From a theoretical point of view these findings suggest that it would be inappropriate to abandon the idea that conditionals are naturally understood in a syntactic way for the idea that they are understood in a probabilistic way.
Mixture truncated unscented Kalman filtering

This paper proposes a computationally efficient nonlinear filter that approximates the posterior probability density function (PDF) as a Gaussian mixture. The novelty of this filter lies in the update step. If the likelihood has a bounded support made up of different regions, we can use a modified prior PDF, which is a mixture, that meets Bayes' rule exactly. The central idea of this paper is that a Kalman filter applied to each component of the modified prior mixture can improve the approximation to the posterior provided by the Kalman filter. In practice, bounded support is not necessary.
Routing in a MPLS network featuring preemption mechanisms

In the context of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), we propose an integration of a computationally efficient preemption mechanism into a very dynamic label switched paths (LSPs) routing scheme we described previously (Blanchy et al., http://run.montefiore.ulg.ac.be//spl sim/blanchy, 2002). This preemption scheme includes a quick heuristic able to select the most interesting LSPs to reroute from a link. The efficiency of this algorithm is obtained through a very rigid, but seemingly appropriate, policy which is concerned which LSPs are appropriate for preemption. A feedback from preemption on the routing process is proposed, in order to regulate the rate of rerouting and to tune the balance between stability and continuous reorganization in a network. This integrated traffic engineering entity is tested on the accuracy of the heuristic, the relevance of the feedback and the whole integration, the influence of the routing policy on the preemption mechanism and the reliability of the managed network.
Constraint Nondegeneracy, Strong Regularity, and Nonsingularity in Semidefinite Programming

It is known that the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions of semidefinite programming can be reformulated as a nonsmooth system via the metric projector over the cone of symmetric and positive semidefinite matrices. We show in this paper that the primal and dual constraint nondegeneracies, the strong regularity, the nonsingularity of the B-subdifferential of this nonsmooth system, and the nonsingularity of the corresponding Clarke's generalized Jacobian, at a KKT point, are all equivalent. Moreover, we prove the equivalence between each of these conditions and the nonsingularity of Clarke's generalized Jacobian of the smoothed counterpart of this nonsmooth system used in several globally convergent smoothing Newton methods. In particular, we establish the quadratic convergence of these methods under the primal and dual constraint nondegeneracies, but without the strict complementarity.
Improving Compressed Sensing With the Diamond Norm

In low-rank matrix recovery, one aims to reconstruct a low-rank matrix from a minimal number of linear measurements. Within the paradigm of compressed sensing, this is made computationally efficient by minimizing the nuclear norm as a convex surrogate for rank. In this paper, we identify an improved regularizer based on the so-called diamond norm, a concept imported from quantum information theory. We show that-for a class of matrices saturating a certain norm inequality-the descent cone of the diamond norm is contained in that of the nuclear norm. This suggests superior reconstruction properties for these matrices. We explicitly characterize this set of matrices. Moreover, we demonstrate numerically that the diamond norm indeed outperforms the nuclear norm in a number of relevant applications: These include signal analysis tasks, such as blind matrix deconvolution or the retrieval of certain unitary basis changes, as well as the quantum information problem of process tomography with random measurements. The diamond norm is defined for matrices that can be interpreted as order-4 tensors and it turns out that the above condition depends crucially on that tensorial structure. In this sense, this paper touches on an aspect of the notoriously difficult tensor completion problem.
A mathematical analysis of the 4 × 100 m relay

In this study, we examined aspects of the 4 2 100 m relay that are amenable to mathematical analysis. We looked at factors that affect the time required to complete the relay, focusing on the performance of elite male athletes. Factors over which the individual athletes, and the team coach, can exercise some control are: the starting positions of the runners on legs 2, 3 and 4, the positions at which baton exchanges occur, the free distances at the baton exchanges and the running order of the athletes. The lane draw is shown to have an important influence on the relay time, although it is outside the control of the team coach. Teams drawn in the outside lanes benefit from the inverse relation between bend radius of curvature and running speed. For teams composed of athletes with different times over 100 m, we show that the fastest relay times are achieved with the fastest athlete taking the first leg, with the slowest two runners allocated to the final two legs.
Conservative replication and transcription of Saccharomyces cerevisiae viral double-stranded RNA in vitro

All double-stranded RNA viruses have capsid-associated RNA polymerase activities. In the reoviruses, the transcriptase synthesizes the viral plus strand in a conservative mode and the replicase synthesizes the viral minus strand, again conservatively. In bacteriophage phi 6 and in some fungal viruses, the transcriptase activity is semiconservative, acting by displacement synthesis. In this work we demonstrate Saccharomyces cerevisiae viral RNA replication in vitro for the first time and, using more sensitive techniques than those previously used, show that both the transcriptase and the replicase appear to act conservatively, like those of reovirus. There is therefore clearly no universal life cycle for the double-stranded RNA viruses.
Effect of Coriolus versicolor Mycelia Extract on Exercise Performance and Physical Fatigue in Mice

In this study, Coriolus versicolor mycelia (CVM) was evaluated the ergogenic and anti-fatigue activities. Male ICR mice were divided into four groups (n = 8/group) to receive vehicle or CVM by oral gavage for 4 weeks at 0, 615, 1230 or 3075 mg/kg/day, which were respectively designated the vehicle, CVM-1X, CVM-2X and CVM-5X groups. Forelimb grip strength, endurance swimming time, and levels of physical fatigue-associated parameters serum lactate, ammonia, glucose and creatine kinase (CK) after physical challenge were performed to evaluate exercise performance and anti-fatigue activity. Results revealed that the forelimb grip strength of mice in group CVM-1X, CVM-2X and CVM-5X were significantly increased by 1.20-, 1.18- and 1.23-fold, respectively, compared to the vehicle group. After the 15 minute swimming exercise, the levels of serum lactate of CVM-1X, CVM-2X and CVM-5X groups were significantly lower than the vehicle control group by 29%, 23% and 31%, respectively. The levels of ammonia in CVM-1X, CVM-2X and CVM-5X groups were significantly lowered by 22%, 25% and 41%, respectively, compared to the vehicle control group. In addition, the levels of serum CK in CVM-2X and CVM-5X groups were significantly lowered by 13% and 11%, respectively, compared to the vehicle control group. Accordingly, the supplementation with CVM has beneficial effects on performance improvement and anti-fatigue activity, and thus has great potential as a source for natural health products.
Nonlinear Policy Gradient Algorithms for Noise-Action MDPs

We develop a general theory of efficient policy gradient algorithms for Noise-Action MDPs (NMDPs), a class of MDPs that generalize Linearly Solvable MDPs (LMDPs). For finite horizon problems, these lead to simple update equations based on multiple rollouts of the system. We show that our policy gradient algorithms are faster than the PI algorithm, a state of the art policy optimization algorithm. We provide an alternate interpretation of the PIalgorithm that further justifies this: The PI algorithm is actually performing gradient descent with respect to a risk seeking objective, rather than the desired expected cost objective. For infinite horizon problems, we develop algorithms that only require estimation of a state value function, rather than a state-action Q function or advantage function. We develop policy gradient algorithms for all MDP formulations (finite horizon, infinite horizon, first exit) for arbitrary policy parameterizations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the policy gradient algorithms on simple 2-D nonlinear dynamical systems and large linear dynamical systems.
Starting the Journey Together: A Teacher Educator and Her "Students" Navigate Their First Semester in the Secondary English Classroom

My grade book program STILL does not work ( I can’t even log in! ), despite two notes and six, no seven, emails to our tech guy— not a single reply to any of them. Despite this, I am supposed to be “keeping accurate records” and maintaining averages for every student . I have to do a “new teacher” portfolio, even though I did one the first year I taught. Neither my dept head, “mentor,” nor “buddy” have stopped by my room. Thank God I have not needed any of them. I am truly at a loss . I don’t know if I can go a whole year and retain any sense of sanity. —Lisa
Selective and scalable encryption of enhancement layers for dyadic scalable H.264/AVC by scrambling of scan patterns

This paper presents a new selective and scalable encryption (SSE) method for intra dyadic scalable coding framework based on wavelet/subband (DWTSB) for H.264/AVC. It has been achieved through the scrambling of quantized transform coefficients (QTCs) in all the subbands of DWTSB. To make the encryption scalable, it takes advantage of the prior knowledge of the frequencies which are dominant in different high frequency (HF) subbands, as traditional zigzag scan is not that efficient for them. Thus, by scrambling the scan order of QTCs in the intra scalable coding framework of H.264/AVC, we were able to get encryption and compression for enhancement layers (ELs) simultaneously. Watermarking has been integrated in the proposed architecture to avoid the requirement of separate keys for each spatial layer. The algorithm is better suited for multimedia streaming as the bitrate of the encrypted bitstream is lower than the original bitrate. Besides offering SSE, the proposed algorithm, when applied to different benchmark video sequences, outperformed the standard zigzag scan in terms of bitrate.
Alterations of retinal microcirculation in response to scatter photocoagulation.

PURPOSE To perform acridine orange digital fluorography on rats after scatter photocoagulation to investigate alterations of retinal microcirculation at the capillary level, the authors used leukocyte dynamics as a parameter. METHODS Twenty-five pigmented rats (Long-Evans) were studied. Argon laser photocoagulation, extending 6 disc diameters from the optic disc, was delivered to one half of the retina, and the other half was untreated. The total number of burns was 200 +/- 10. Leukocyte hemodynamics in retinal microcirculation were evaluated 4, 7, 14, and 28 days after photocoagulation by acridine orange digital fluorography. The fundus image was obtained by using an argon laser in a scanning laser ophthalmoscope and was recorded on magnetic tapes at a video rate. The images were analyzed by a personal computer-based image analysis system. RESULTS Leukocyte velocities in the retinal capillaries were significantly decreased immediately after photocoagulation. In the laser-treated area, mean capillary leukocyte velocities were 0.73, 0.92, 1, and 1.3 mm/second on days 4, 7, 14, and 28, respectively (velocity in normal control animals 1.4 mm/second). In addition, leukocyte hemodynamics were compromised in the untreated retina: Mean capillary leukocyte velocities were 0.88, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 mm/second on days 4, 7, 14, and 28, respectively. Twenty-eight days after photocoagulation, the velocities recovered to normal values in the treated and the untreated areas of the retina. CONCLUSIONS Retinal capillary hemodynamics were impaired after scatter photocoagulation, and the hemodynamics in the untreated retina were also affected. Photocoagulation to the retina may influence capillary hemodynamics by diffusible chemical substances and by direct tissue injury.
An Information Entropy-Based Animal Migration Optimization Algorithm for Data Clustering

Data clustering is useful in a wide range of application areas. The Animal Migration Optimization (AMO) algorithm is one of the recently introduced swarm-based algorithms, which has demonstrated good performances for solving numeric optimization problems. In this paper, we presented a modified AMO algorithm with an entropy-based heuristic strategy for data clustering. The main contribution is that we calculate the information entropy of each attribute for a given data set and propose an adaptive strategy that can automatically balance convergence speed and global search efforts according to its entropy in both migration and updating steps. A series of well-known benchmark clustering problems are employed to evaluate the performance of our approach. We compare experimental results with k-means, Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), AMO, and the state-of-the-art algorithms for clustering and show that the proposed AMO algorithm generally performs better than the compared algorithms on the considered clustering problems.
Dendritic Cells Support Sequential Reprogramming of Chemoattractant Receptor Profiles During Naive to Effector T Cell Differentiation 1

T cells undergo chemokine receptor switches during activation and differentiation in secondary lymphoid tissues. Here we present evidence that dendritic cells can induce changes in T cell expression of chemokine receptors in two continuous steps. In the first switch over a 4–5 day period, dendritic cells up-regulate T cell expression of CXCR3 and CXCR5. Additional stimulation leads to the second switch: down-regulation of lymphoid tissue homing related CCR7 and CXCR5, and up-regulation of Th1/2 effector tissue-targeting chemoattractant receptors such as CCR4, CCR5, CXCR6, and CRTH2. We show that IL-4 and IL-12 can determine the fate of the secondary chemokine receptor switch. IL-4 enhances the generation of CCR4+ and CRTH2+ T cells, and suppresses the generation of CXCR3+ T cells and CCR7− T cells, while IL-12 suppresses the level of CCR4 in responding T cells. Furthermore, IL-4 has positive effects on generation of CXCR5+ and CCR7+ T cells during the second switch. Our study suggests that the sequential switches in chemokine receptor expression occur during naive T cell interaction with dendritic cells. The first switch of T cell chemokine receptor expression is consistent with the fact that activated T cells migrate within lymphoid tissues for interaction with B and dendritic cells, while the second switch predicts the trafficking behavior of effector T cells away from lymphoid tissues to effector tissue sites.
Single versus Double Arterial Anastomoses in Combined Second‐ and Third‐Toe Transplantation

&NA; Combined second and third toe transplantation is one good option for reconstruction of multiple digit amputation. However, the use of one or two arteries for pedicle anastomoses, which may influence the vascular complication and success rate, has never been addressed in the literature. This study includes a retrospective review of 57 combined second and third toe transplantation in 54 patients performed from February of 1983 through December of 1996. Group I, composed of 41 transplantations, underwent one arterial anastomosis, and group II, composed of 16 transplantations, underwent double arterial anastomoses during surgery if there were two recipient arteries available or whenever the second and third toes showed inadequate blood perfusion after one arterial anastomosis. In group I, 10 transplantations (24.4 percent) required re‐exploration with a success rate of 92.7 percent (38 out of 41 transplantations). In group II, only one transplantation (6.2 percent) required re‐exploration with successful flap salvage. The success rate was 100 percent for group II. Because the re‐exploration and success rates between groups I and II were not statistically significant according to two‐tailed Fisher's exact test, the combined second and third toe transplantation is a reliable procedure using either single or double arterial anastomoses. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 102: 2408, 1998.)
Natural language processing versus content-based image analysis for medical document retrieval

One of the most significant recent advances in health information systems has been the shift from paper to electronic documents. While research on automatic text and image processing has taken separate paths, there is a growing need for joint efforts, particularly for electronic health records and biomedical literature databases. This work aims at comparing text-based versus image-based access to multimodal medical documents using state-of-the-art methods of processing text and image components. A collection of 180 medical documents containing an image accompanied by a short text describing it was divided into training and test sets. Content-based image analysis and natural language processing techniques are applied individually and combined for multimodal document analysis. The evaluation consists of an indexing task and a retrieval task based on the "gold standard" codes manually assigned to corpus documents. The performance of text-based and image-based access, as well as combined document features, is compared. Image analysis proves more adequate for both the indexing and retrieval of the images. In the indexing task, multimodal analysis outperforms both independent image and text analysis. This experiment shows that text describing images can be usefully analyzed in the framework of a hybrid text/image retrieval system.
1-nm-thick EOT high mobility Ge n- and p-MOSFETs with ultrathin GeOx/Ge MOS interfaces fabricated by plasma post oxidation

An ultrathin EOT Al<inf>2</inf>O<inf>3</inf>/GeO<inf>x</inf>/Ge gate stack with a superior GeO<inf>x</inf>/Ge MOS interface has been fabricated with a plasma post oxidation method. The properties of the ultra thin GeO<inf>x</inf>/Ge MOS interfaces are examined systemically, and it is revealed that there is a universal relationship between the D<inf>it</inf> at GeO<inf>x</inf>/Ge interface and the GeO<inf>x</inf> thickness, and a 0.5-nm-thick GeO<inf>x</inf> (0.35 nm EOT) is sufficient to suppress the D<inf>it</inf>. The Ge n- and p-MOSFETs using the Al<inf>2</inf>O<inf>3</inf>/GeO<inf>x</inf>/Ge gate stacks are fabricated on (100), (110) and (111) Ge. High mobility Ge n-MOSFETs with sub-nm EOT have been realized for the first time with record high mobilities of 937 and 691 cm<sup>2</sup>/Vs at EOT of 1.14 and 0.98 nm. It is found that the sufficient suppression of D<inf>it</inf> allows us to obtain high peak mobilities even in sub-nm EOT range, while further improvements in surface roughness and suppression of the density of remaining Coulomb scattering centers such as fixed charges and slow traps are still needed to further enhance the performances of Ge n- and p-MOSFETs.