Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hepatic Fat Accumulation Is Modulated by the Interaction between the rs738409 Variant in the PNPLA3 Gene and the Dietary Omega6/Omega3 PUFA Intake

Background A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), the rs738409, in the patatin like phospholipase 3 gene (PNPLA3) has been recently associated with increased hepatic steatosis and ALT levels in adults and children. Given the potential role of PNPLA3 in fatty liver development, we aimed to explore whether the influence of PNPLA3 genotype on hepatic fat in obese youth might be modulated by dietary factors such as essential omega polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) intake. Materials and Methods We studied 127 children and adolescents (56 boys, 71 girls; 58 Caucasians; 30 African Americans and 39 Hispanics; mean age 14.7±3.3; mean BMI 30.7±7.2). The dietary composition was assessed by the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDS-R version 2011). The patients underwent a MRI study to assess the liver fat content (HFF%), ALT measurement and the genotyping of the rs738409 SNP by automatic sequencing. Results As previously observed, HFF% and ALT levels varied according to the genotype in each ethnicity. ALT levels and HFF% were significantly influenced by the interaction between genotype and omega-6/omega-3 PUFA ratio (n-6/n-3), p = 0.003 and p = 0.002, respectively. HFF% and ALT levels were, in fact, related to the n-6/n-3 consumption only in subjects homozygote for the G allele of the rs738409 (r2 = 0.45, p = 0.001 and r2 = 0.40, p = 0.006, respectively). Conclusions These findings suggest that the association of a high dietary n-6/n-3 PUFA with fatty liver and liver damage in obese youths may be driven by a predisposing genotype.
Enabling multiparty 3D tele-immersive environments with ViewCast

This article was mistakenly published in two issues. Please refer to its first appearance in TOMCCAP 6, 2 published in March 2010: <a href="http://dx.doi. org/10.1145/1671962.1671963">DOI: 10.1145/1671962.1671963</a>.
An efficient Bayesian inference framework for coalescent-based nonparametric phylodynamics

MOTIVATION The field of phylodynamics focuses on the problem of reconstructing population size dynamics over time using current genetic samples taken from the population of interest. This technique has been extensively used in many areas of biology but is particularly useful for studying the spread of quickly evolving infectious diseases agents, e.g. influenza virus. Phylodynamic inference uses a coalescent model that defines a probability density for the genealogy of randomly sampled individuals from the population. When we assume that such a genealogy is known, the coalescent model, equipped with a Gaussian process prior on population size trajectory, allows for nonparametric Bayesian estimation of population size dynamics. Although this approach is quite powerful, large datasets collected during infectious disease surveillance challenge the state-of-the-art of Bayesian phylodynamics and demand inferential methods with relatively low computational cost. RESULTS To satisfy this demand, we provide a computationally efficient Bayesian inference framework based on Hamiltonian Monte Carlo for coalescent process models. Moreover, we show that by splitting the Hamiltonian function, we can further improve the efficiency of this approach. Using several simulated and real datasets, we show that our method provides accurate estimates of population size dynamics and is substantially faster than alternative methods based on elliptical slice sampler and Metropolis-adjusted Langevin algorithm. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The R code for all simulation studies and real data analysis conducted in this article are publicly available at http://www.ics. uci.edu/∼slan/lanzi/CODES.html and in the R package phylodyn available at https://github.com/mdkarcher/phylodyn. CONTACT S.Lan@warwick.ac. uk or babaks@uci.edu SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Electrostatic potential patterns in the high‐latitude ionosphere constrained by SuperDARN measurements

The recent addition of two radars to the existing network of six Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) HF radars in the Northern Hemisphere has significantly extended the area in the high latitude where measurements of convecting ionospheric plasma are made. We show that the distribution of the electrostatic potential Φ associated with the “E × B” drift of ionospheric plasma can be reliably mapped on global scales when velocity measurments provide sufficient coverage. The global convection maps, or the equivalent electrostatic potential maps, are solved using an established technique of fitting velocity data to an expansion of Φ in terms of spherical harmonic functions. When the measurements are extensive, and especially when they span the region between the extrema in the potential distribution, the solution for the global pattern becomes insensitive to the choice of statistical model data used to constrain the fitting. That is, the statistical model data then only guide the solution in regions where no measurements are available, and the details of the model data have little effect on the gross features of the large-scale convection patterns. The resulting total potential variation across the polar cap, ΦPC, is virtually independent of the statistical model. The ability to accurately determine ΦPC and the global potential Φ on the basis of direct measurements is an important step in understanding solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling.
A Prototype Application for Long-time Behavior Modeling and Abnormal Events Detection

In this work we present a prototype application for modelling common behaviours from long-time observations of a scene. The core of the system is based on the method proposed in (Noceti and Odone, 2012), an adaptive technique for profiling patterns of activities on temporal data – coupling a string-based representation and an unsupervised learning strategy – and detecting anomalies — i.e., dynamic events diverging with respect to the usual dynamics. We propose an engineered framework where the method is adopted to perform an online analysis over very long time intervals (weeks of activity). The behaviour models are updated to accommodate new patterns and cope with the physiological scene variations. We provide a thorough experimental assessment, to show the robustness of the application in capturing the evolution of the scene dynamics.
Vitamin C Intake and Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease in a Population with a High Prevalence of Smoking

Objective: Epidemiological data on the relationship between vitamin C intake and ischemic heart disease (IHD) risk are limited in the Asian population, with a high prevalence of smoking. This study aims to investigate the association between vitamin C intake and the incidence of non-fatal IHD in Korean men. Methods: The case group consisted of 108 patients with electrocardiogram-confirmed myocardial infarction or angiographically confirmed (≥50% stenosis) coronary artery disease (CAD) who were admitted to a university teaching hospital in Seoul, Korea. The controls were 142 age-matched patients admitted to the departments of ophthalmology and orthopedic surgery at the same hospital. Vitamin C intake was assessed by a nutritionist using a semi-quantitative food frequency method, and body mass index (BMI), tobacco use and past history of cardiovascular disease were determined by examination and interview. Results: After controlling for cardiovascular risk factors, including BMI, smoking, past history of hypertension, past history of hyperlipidemia, dietary intakes of energy, total fat (or subtype of fat), cholesterol, β-carotene, and vitamin E, the odds ratio (OR) of non-fatal IHD was 0.34 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.13–0.90) in the highest tertile of vitamin C intake compared with those in the lowest tertile. In a subgroup analysis, which compared nonsmokers in the highest tertile of vitamin C intake to current smokers in the lowest tertile of vitamin C intake, the odds ratio of developing non-fatal IHD was 0.12 (95% CI 0.02–0.77). Conclusion: This study suggests that higher intake of vitamin C is associated with the decreased risk of non-fatal IHD in a population with a high prevalence of smoking.
Numerical approximation of viscoelastic flows in an elastic medium

We study the numerical approximation of a flow problem governed by a viscoelastic model coupled with a one-dimensional elastic structure equation. A variational formulation for flow equations is developed based on the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method and stability of the time discretized system is investigated. For decoupled numerical algorithms we consider both an explicit scheme of the Leap-Frog type and a fully implicit scheme.
Defining a Sea Ice Flag for Envisat Altimetry Mission

This letter presents the development of a sea ice flag algorithm for the Envisat altimetry mission to detect sea ice corrupted sea surface height data within quality control processing. The algorithm takes advantage of having both passive and active microwave sensors on the same platform with coregistered measurements. Its performances have been evaluated based on collocations between the along-track Envisat data with reference maps built from combination of daily grids of sea ice concentration from SSM/I sensors and backscatter cross section from SeaWinds scatterometer on QuikSCAT satellite.
Limitations of using urea to quantify epithelial lining fluid recovered by bronchoalveolar lavage.

The quantitation of substances in the epithelial lining fluid (ELF) of the lower respiratory tract, as obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), is not precise because of the variable dilution of the ELF by the instilled lavage fluid. It has been reported that the absolute concentration of proteins in ELF can be determined by using the ratio of urea concentration in BAL fluid to that in serum as a method to calculate the volume of ELF recovered by BAL. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the error caused by diffusion of urea into the instilled lavage fluid can be minimized by instilling only 100 ml (5 X 20 ml) of saline rather than 300 ml (6 X 50 ml). We tested the validity of this method by collecting and individually analyzing aliquots from 2 different BAL protocols--a 100-ml (5 X 20 ml) BAL and a 300-ml (6 X 50 ml) BAL--performed in 6 healthy, nonsmoking subjects. Total protein, albumin, and urea were measured in each aliquot and in pooled fluid from each BAL procedure, and urea was measured in serum. In the 300-ml BAL, total protein and albumin concentrations tended to decrease progressively from the second to the sixth aliquots. In contrast, the urea concentration increased progressively from the first to the sixth aliquots. The concentration of albumin in ELF, calculated from the concentration of urea and albumin in each BAL aliquot, tended to decrease in each successive aliquot, becoming significant by the fourth aliquot. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Treatment With Paliperidone in Children With Behavior Disorders Previously Treated With Risperidone: An Open-Label Trial

ObjectivesPaliperidone is the main active metabolite of risperidone, with certain pharmacokinetic and tolerability characteristics that suggest it may be used in special groups, such as children. Our purpose is to document the clinical experience with the use of paliperidone in children with severe behavior problems that were partially refractory to treatment with risperidone and psychological treatment. Materials and MethodsThis is a prospective 16-week open-label study of paliperidone in 18 patients (mean age, 13.4 years) with severe and excessive irritability in the context of generalized developmental disorders or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Patients who had exhibited an inadequate response to treatment with risperidone (1.5–2 mg/d) over a treatment period of 6 months were treated with paliperidone at 3 mg/d. Symptom severity at the beginning of the study and in response to paliperidone were rated with the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale and Overt Aggression Scale. ResultsA significant difference was documented between the mean score before treatment and the score after the drug intervention with paliperidone. There was a noticeable clinical improvement in 50% of the cases, as reflected in the CGI. Severity of aggressive behavior, as assessed by the Overt Aggression Scale, decreased significantly after paliperidone treatment: mean (SD), 2.7 (0.92) before treatment versus 1.5 (0.60) after treatment. This compound was safe and well tolerated. ConclusionHalf of the patients clearly responded to paliperidone extended release. Tolerance to this treatment was distinctly better than to risperidone. These preliminary results lay the foundation for further research into the use of paliperidone to treat pediatric disruptive behavior disorders within the context of randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials.
Auricular Point Acupressure to Manage Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

This prospective, randomized clinical trial (RCT) pilot study was designed to (1) assess the feasibility and tolerability of an easily administered, auricular point acupressure (APA) intervention and (2) provide an initial assessment of effect size as compared to a sham treatment. Thirty-seven subjects were randomized to receive either the real or sham APA treatment. All participants were treated once a week for 4 weeks. Self-report measures were obtained at baseline, weekly during treatment, at end-of-intervention (EOI), and at a 1-month follow-up. A dropout rate of 26% in the real APA group and 50% in the sham group was observed. The reduction in worst pain from baseline to EOI was 41% for the real and 5% for the sham group with a Cohen's effect size of 1.22 (P < 0.00). Disability scores on the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) decreased in the real group by 29% and were unchanged in the sham group (+3%) (P < 0.00). Given the high dropout rate, results must be interpreted with caution; nevertheless, our results suggest that APA may provide an inexpensive and effective complementary approach for the management of back pain in older adults, and further study is warranted.
Demand forecasting method in logistics management based on support vector machine

This paper surveyed a novel demand forecasting method in logistics management based on Support vector machine. Firstly, a sliding time window is built and data in the sliding time window are employed to construct the model. Then we set up the demand forecasting model based on support vector regression. Results showed that this model proves to be effective and applicable for the demand forecasting in logistics management.
Efficacité des campagnes humanitaires choc : contribution des réactions affectives au processus de persuasion publicitaire

Cette recherche s’interesse au mode d’action des campagnes humanitaires « choc », qui sollicitent le registre emotionnel en mettant en exergue la souffrance engendree par un fleau humanitaire. L’interet de faire appel aux emotions negatives en communication sociale a ete vivement debattu sans que n’emergent de resultats consensuels. De plus, le clivage traditionnel entre les approches cognitives et affectives, ainsi que les specificites du secteur humanitaire, soulignent la necessite de mieux comprendre l’effet de telles campagnes. Un modele theorique du processus de persuasion est propose et mis a l’epreuve. Les resultats d’une etude quantitative - conduite aupres de 1200 sujets - pronent un renouvellement paradigmatique en communication sociale, ou les approches cognitives de la persuasion dominent. Les reponses affectives generees par une campagne humanitaire contribuent davantage a son efficacite persuasive que les antecedents cognitifs de la decision d’aider autrui. Par ailleurs, un cheminement persuasif affectif independant du traitement cognitif et actif du message est identifie. Le role adaptatif des emotions negatives est egalement mis en lumiere dans le cadre des problematiques prosociales.
STAT1-Induced HLA Class I Upregulation Enhances Immunogenicity and Clinical Response to Anti-EGFR mAb Cetuximab Therapy in HNC Patients

Srivastava and colleagues identify that increase in STAT-1–mediated HLA class I upregulation after cetuximab therapy in patients with head and neck cancer correlates with clinical outcome based on results from a prospective clinical trial investigating neoadjuvant treatment with cetuximab; they suggest that the increase may be a biomarker of response to cetuximab treatment. The goal of this study was to characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying cetuximab-mediated upregulation of HLA class I antigen-processing machinery components in head and neck cancer (HNC) cells and to determine the clinical significance of these changes in cetuximab-treated HNC patients. Flow cytometry, signaling studies, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays were performed using HNC cells treated with cetuximab alone or with Fcγ receptor (FcγR)-bearing lymphocytes to establish the mechanism of EGFR-dependent regulation of HLA APM expression. A prospective phase II clinical trial of neoadjuvant cetuximab was used to correlate HLA class I expression with clinical response in HNC patients. EGFR blockade triggered STAT1 activation and HLA upregulation, in a src homology-containing protein (SHP)-2–dependent fashion, more prominently in HLA-B/C than in HLA-A alleles. EGFR signaling blockade also enhanced IFNγ receptor 1 (IFNAR) expression, augmenting induction of HLA class I and TAP1/2 expression by IFNγ, which was abrogated in STAT1−/− cells. Cetuximab enhanced HNC cell recognition by EGFR853–861-specific CTLs, and notably enhanced surface presentation of a non-EGFR peptide (MAGE-3271–279). HLA class I upregulation was significantly associated with clinical response in cetuximab-treated HNC patients. EGFR induces HLA downregulation through SHP-2/STAT1 suppression. Reversal of HLA class I downregulation was more prominent in clinical responders to cetuximab therapy, supporting an important role for adaptive immunity in cetuximab antitumor activity. Abrogating EGFR-induced immune escape mechanisms and restoring STAT1 signaling to reverse HLA downregulation using cetuximab should be combined with strategies to enhance adaptive cellular immunity. Cancer Immunol Res; 3(8); 936–45. ©2015 AACR.
Learning weighted Hamming distance for binary descriptors

Local image descriptors are one of the key components in many computer vision applications. Recently, binary descriptors have received increasing interest of the community for its efficiency and low memory cost. The similarity of binary descriptors is measured by Hamming distance which has equal emphasis on all elements of binary descriptors. This paper improves the performance of binary descriptors by learning a weighted Hamming distance for binary descriptors with larger weights assigned to more discriminative elements. What is more, the weighted Hamming distance can be computed as fast as the Hamming distance on the basis of a pre-computed look-up-table. Therefore, the proposed method improves the matching performance of binary descriptors without sacrificing matching speed. Experimental results on two popular binary descriptors (BRIEF [1] and FREAK [2]) validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
A classification of additive symmetric 2-cocycles

We present a classification of the so-called “additive symmetric 2-cocycles” of arbitrary degree and dimension over Fp, along with a partial result and some conjectures for m-cocycles over Fp, m> 2. This expands greatly on a result originally due to Lazard and more recently investigated by Ando, Hopkins and Strickland, and together with their work this culminates in a complete classification of 2-cocycles over an arbitrary commutative ring. The ring classifying these polynomials finds application in algebraic topology, to be fully explored in a sequel.
Altered FGF Signaling Pathways Impair Cell Proliferation and Elevation of Palate Shelves

In palatogenesis, palatal shelves are patterned along the mediolateral axis as well as the anteroposterior axis before the onset of palatal fusion. Fgf10 specifically expressed in lateral mesenchyme of palate maintains Shh transcription in lateral epithelium, while Fgf7 activated in medial mesenchyme by Dlx5, suppressed the expansion of Shh expression to medial epithelium. How FGF signaling pathways regulate the cell behaviors of developing palate remains elusive. In our study, we found that when Fgf8 is ectopically expressed in the embryonic palatal mesenchyme, the elevation of palatal shelves is impaired and the posterior palatal shelves are enlarged, especially in the medial side. The palatal deformity results from the drastic increase of cell proliferation in posterior mesenchyme and decrease of cell proliferation in epithelium. The expression of mesenchymal Fgf10 and epithelial Shh in the lateral palate, as well as the Dlx5 and Fgf7 transcription in the medial mesenchyme are all interrupted, indicating that the epithelial-mesenchymal interactions during palatogenesis are disrupted by the ectopic activation of mesenchymal Fgf8. Besides the altered Fgf7, Fgf10, Dlx5 and Shh expression pattern, the reduced Osr2 expression domain in the lateral mesenchyme also suggests an impaired mediolateral patterning of posterior palate. Moreover, the ectopic Fgf8 expression up-regulates pJak1 throughout the palatal mesenchyme and pErk in the medial mesenchyme, but down-regulates pJak2 in the epithelium, suggesting that during normal palatogenesis, the medial mesenchymal cell proliferation is stimulated by FGF/Erk pathway, while the epithelial cell proliferation is maintained through FGF/Jak2 pathway.
A new channel structure and power control strategy for D2D discovery in LTE cellular network

Device-to-device (D2D) discovery in long-term evolution (LTE) cellular network is a major issue in recent 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standardization meeting to support commercial/social services and public safety in disaster environment. For the D2D discovery signal transmission, physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)-like channel structure is being generally considered. In such a channel structure, the discovery signal may be multiplexed with cellular physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal in frequency division multiplexing (FDM) manner. In contrast to cellular PUCCH signal, however, typical open-loop power control is still not considered for D2D discovery signal in order to guarantee the sufficient discovery range, thus inter-carrier interference (ICI) from the discovery signal may severely interfere with the reception of cellular PUCCH signal at evolved node B (eNB). Thus in this paper, we analyze the effect of the ICI in D2D discovery scenario, and evaluate two traditional solutions: the use of guard-band and the application of open-loop power control for discovery signal. Considering disadvantages of the two traditional solutions, we propose a new discovery channel structure and power control strategy for discovery signal transmission in which adaptive open-loop power control based on PUCCH scheduling information is applied. By extensive computer simulation, we verify that the proposed method guarantees relatively high signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio (SINR) of both PUCCH signal and discovery signal.
How would you look as you age ?

Facial appearances change with increase in age. While generic growth patterns that are characteristic of different age groups can be identified, facial growth is also observed to be influenced by individual-specific attributes such as one's gender, ethnicity, life-style etc. In this paper, we propose a facial growth model that comprises of transformation models for facial shape and texture. We collected empirical data pertaining to facial growth from a database of age-separated face images of adults and used the same in developing the aforementioned transformation models. The proposed model finds applications in predicting one's appearance across ages and in performing face verification across ages.