Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sleep-Disordered Breathing Is Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Outpatients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

Background Metabolic syndrome (MS) and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) are highly prevalent in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). The present study examined whether there is an independent association between SDB and MS in a sample of outpatients with DM2. Methods MS was determined in 679 patients of the DIACORE-SDB substudy, a study of outpatients with DM2. According to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria, MS is defined by at least three of the following five criteria: waist circumference of >102 cm (men)/>88 cm (women), blood pressure of ≥130/85 mmHg, a fasting triglyceride level of >150 mg/dl, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) of <40 mg/dl (men)/<50 mg/dl (women), and a fasting glucose level of ≥110 mg/dl. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was assessed with a 2-channel ambulatory monitoring device and used to define the severity of SDB (AHI < 15.0: no/mild SDB; AHI 15.0-29.9: moderate SDB; AHI ≥ 30.0: severe SDB). Results 228 (34%) of the 679 participants (mean age 66 years, mean body mass index (BMI) 31.2 kg/m2, and mean AHI 14/hour) had SDB. MS was significantly more frequent in patients with more severe SDB (no/mild SDB vs. moderate SDB vs. severe SDB: 72% vs. 79% vs. 85%, respectively, p = 0.038). Logistic regression analysis adjusted for sex, age, obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), and the HOMA index showed a significant association between the AHI and the presence of MS (OR (95%CI) = 1.039 (1.011; 1.068); p = 0.007). Further, male sex, obesity, and the HOMA index were significantly associated with MS. Conclusion SDB is significantly and independently associated with MS in outpatients with DM2.
Semi‐automated cancer genome analysis using high‐performance computing

Next‐generation sequencing (NGS) has turned from a new and experimental technology into a standard procedure for cancer genome studies and clinical investigation. While a multitude of software packages for cancer genome data analysis have been made available, these need to be combined into efficient analytical workflows that cover multiple aspects relevant to a clinical environment and that deliver handy results within a reasonable time frame. Here, we introduce QuickNGS Cancer as a new suite of bioinformatics pipelines that is focused on cancer genomics and significantly reduces the analytical hurdles that still limit a broader applicability of NGS technology, particularly to clinically driven research. QuickNGS Cancer allows a highly efficient analysis of a broad variety of NGS data types, specifically considering cancer‐specific issues, such as biases introduced by tumor impurity and aneuploidy or the assessment of genomic variations regarding their biomedical relevance. It delivers highly reproducible analysis results ready for interpretation within only a few days after sequencing, as shown by a reanalysis of 140 tumor/normal pairs from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) in which QuickNGS Cancer detected a significant number of mutations in key cancer genes missed by a well‐established mutation calling pipeline. Finally, QuickNGS Cancer obtained several unexpected mutations in leukemias that could be confirmed by Sanger sequencing.
Luminal Esophageal Temperature Monitoring With a Deflectable Esophageal Temperature Probe and Intracardiac Echocardiography May Reduce Esophageal Injury During Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Procedures: Results of a Pilot Study

Background— Luminal esophageal temperature (LET) monitoring is one strategy to minimize esophageal injury during atrial fibrillation ablation procedures. However, esophageal ulceration and fistulas have been reported despite adequate LET monitoring. The objective of this study was to assess a novel approach to LET monitoring with a deflectable LET probe on the rate of esophageal injury in patients undergoing atrial fibrillation ablation. Methods and Results— Forty-five consecutive patients undergoing an atrial fibrillation ablation procedure followed by esophageal endoscopy were included in this prospective observational pilot study. LET monitoring was performed with a 7F deflectable ablation catheter that was positioned as close as possible to the site of left atrial ablation using the deflectable component of the catheter guided by visualization of its position on intracardiac echocardiography. Ablation in the posterior left atrial was limited to 25 W and terminated when the LET increased 2°C from baseline. Endoscopy was performed 1 to 2 days after the procedure. All patients had at least 1 LET elevation >2°C necessitating cessation of ablation. Deflection of the LET probe was needed to accurately measure LET in 5% of patients when ablating near the left pulmonary veins, whereas deflection of the LET probe was necessary in 88% of patients when ablating near the right pulmonary veins. The average maximum increase in LET was 2.5±1.5°C. No patients had esophageal thermal injury on follow-up endoscopy. Conclusions— A strategy of optimal LET probe placement using a deflectable LET probe and intracardiac echocardiography guidance, combined with cessation of radiofrequency ablation with a 2°C rise in LET, may reduce esophageal thermal injury during left atrial ablation procedures.
Face and gaze processing in normally developing children: a magnetoencephalographic study

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to study the neural mechanisms underlying face and gaze processing in ten normally developing boys aged between 8 and 11 years and 12 adult males. The participants performed two tasks in which they had to decide whether images presented sequentially in pairs, depicted the same person or the same motorbike. In the first task, the participants saw pictures of faces in which the eyes were either open or shut and pictures of motorbikes. In the second task, participants saw pairs of faces with gaze averted to the left or right. In children there was no evidence of the face sensitive, low amplitude short latency (30–60 ms) activity seen previously in adults. A strong, midline posterior response at approximately 100 ms was observed in children, which was earlier and somewhat stronger to faces than to motorbikes; in adults the signal at this latency was weak. A clear face sensitive response was seen in adults at 135 ms, predominantly over the right inferior occipito‐temporal regions. Although activity was observed in the children at the same latency, it was less prominent, not lateralized and was evoked similarly by faces and motorbikes. Averted gaze conditions evoked strong right‐lateralized activity at approximately 245 ms in children only. These findings indicate that even in middle childhood the neural mechanisms underlying face processing are less specialized than in adults, with greater early activation of posterior occipital cortices and less specific activation of ventral occipito‐temporal cortex.
Security Issues in the Internet of Things (IoT): A Comprehensive Study

Wireless communication networks are highly prone to security threats. The major applications of wireless communication networks are in military, business, healthcare, retail, and transportations. These systems use wired, cellular, or adhoc networks. Wireless sensor networks, actuator networks, and vehicular networks have received a great attention in society and industry. In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has received considerable research attention. The IoT is considered as future of the internet. In future, IoT will play a vital role and will change our living styles, standards, as well as business models. The usage of IoT in different applications is expected to rise rapidly in the coming years. The IoT allows billions of devices, peoples, and services to connect with others and exchange information. Due to the increased usage of IoT devices, the IoT networks are prone to various security attacks. The deployment of efficient security and privacy protocols in IoT networks is extremely needed to ensure confidentiality, authentication, access control, and integrity, among others. In this paper, an extensive comprehensive study on security and privacy issues in IoT networks is provided.
Early-Life Stress Is Associated with Gender-Based Vulnerability to Epileptogenesis in Rat Pups

During development, the risk of developing mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) increases when the developing brain is exposed to more than one insult in early life. Early life insults include abnormalities of cortical development, hypoxic-ischemic injury and prolonged febrile seizures. To study epileptogenesis, we have developed a two-hit model of MTLE characterized by two early-life insults: a freeze lesion-induced cortical malformation at post-natal day 1 (P1), and a prolonged hyperthermic seizure (HS) at P10. As early life stressors lead to sexual dimorphism in both acute response and long-term outcome, we hypothesized that our model could lead to gender-based differences in acute stress response and long-term risk of developing MTLE. Male and female pups underwent a freeze-lesion induced cortical microgyrus at P1 and were exposed to HS at P10. Animals were monitored by video-EEG from P90 to P120. Pre and post-procedure plasma corticosterone levels were used to measure stress response at P1 and P10. To confirm the role of sex steroids, androgenized female pups received daily testosterone injections to the mother pre-natally and post-natally for nine days while undergoing both insults. We demonstrated that after both insults females did not develop MTLE while all males did. This correlated with a rise in corticosterone levels at P1 following the lesion in males only. Interestingly, all androgenized females showed a similar rise in corticosterone at P1, and also developed MTLE. Moreover, we found that the cortical lesion significantly decreased the latency to generalized convulsion during hyperthermia at P10 in both genders. The cortical dysplasia volumes at adulthood were also similar between male and female individuals. Our data demonstrate sexual dimorphism in long-term vulnerability to develop epilepsy in the lesion + hyperthermia animal model of MTLE and suggest that the response to early-life stress at P1 contributes significantly to epileptogenesis in a gender-specific manner.
Robust Room Equalization Using Sparse Sound-field Reconstruction

The perceived quality of a sound played in a closed room is often degraded by the added reverberation. In order to combat these effects, the methods of room impulse response equalization may be used. Typically, properties of the human auditory system, such as temporal masking, are used for a better control of the late echoes. There, a prefilter is used to modify the played signal, which renders the echoes inaudible for a given position. When targeting a human listener who is always performing small movement, the method fails due to the spatial mismatch. In such a case, a whole volume needs to be equalized, which requires a huge amount of measurements. In this work, we propose to reduce this burden by measuring only a random subset of the required room impulse responses and reconstruct a grid employing sparse methods. By further interpolation an equalization of the whole target area is achieved.
Contribution to Transfer Entropy Estimation via the k-Nearest-Neighbors Approach

This paper deals with the estimation of transfer entropy based on the k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) method. To this end, we first investigate the estimation of Shannon entropy involving a rectangular neighboring region, as suggested in already existing literature, and develop two kinds of entropy estimators. Then, applying the widely-used error cancellation approach to these entropy estimators, we propose two novel transfer entropy estimators, implying no extra computational cost compared to existing similar k-NN algorithms. Experimental simulations allow the comparison of the new estimators with the transfer entropy estimator available in free toolboxes, corresponding to two different extensions to the transfer entropy estimation of the Kraskov–Stogbauer–Grassberger (KSG) mutual information estimator and prove the effectiveness of these new estimators.
Multirobot Forest Coverage for Weighted and Unweighted Terrain

One of the main applications of mobile robots is coverage: visiting each location in known terrain. Coverage is crucial for lawn mowing, cleaning, harvesting, search-and-rescue, intrusion detection, and mine clearing. Naturally, coverage can be sped up with multiple robots. However, we show that solving several versions of multirobot coverage problems with minimal cover times is NP-hard, which provides motivation for designing polynomial-time constant-factor approximation algorithms. We then describe multirobot forest coverage (MFC), a new polynomial-time multirobot coverage algorithm based on an algorithm by Even et al. [Min-max tree covers of graphs. Oper. Res. Lett. , vol. 32, pp. 309-315, 2004] for finding a tree cover with trees of balanced weights. Our theoretical results show that the cover times of MFC in weighted and unweighted terrain are at most about a factor of 16 larger than minimal. Our simulation results show that the cover times of MFC are close to minimal in all tested scenarios and smaller than the cover times of an alternative multirobot coverage algorithm.
Mining of Remote Sensing Image Archives using Spatial Relationship Histograms

We describe a new image representation using spatial relationship histograms that extend our earlier work on modeling image content using attributed relational graphs. These histograms are constructed by classifying the regions in an image, computing the topological and distance-based spatial relationships between these regions, and counting the number of times different groups of regions are observed in the image. We also describe a selection algorithm that produces very compact representations by identifying the distinguishing region groups that are frequently found in a particular class of scenes but rarely exist in others. Experiments using Ikonos scenes illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed representation in retrieval of images containing complex types of scenes such as dense and sparse urban areas.
Hunting for the missing baryons in the warm-hot intergalactic medium

We discuss the physical properties and the baryonic content of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) at low redshifts. Cosmological simulations predict that the WHIM contains a large fraction of the baryons at $z=0$ in the form of highly-ionised gas at temperatures between $10^5$ and $10^7$ K. Using high-resolution ultraviolet spectra obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) we have studied the WHIM at low redshifts by searching for intervening O VI and thermally broadened Lyman $\alpha$ (BLA) absorption toward a number of quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our measurements imply cosmological mass densities of $\Omega_b$(O VI)$\geq0.0022 h_{75}^{-1}$ and $\Omega_{b}$(BLA)$\geq0.0035\,h_{75}^{-1}$. Our results suggest that the WHIM at low $z$ contains more baryonic mass than stars and gas in galaxies.
Traffic Management Applications for Stateful SDN Data Plane

The successful Open Flow approach to Software Defined Networking (SDN) allows network programmability through a central controller able to orchestrate a set of dumb switches. However, the simple match/action abstraction of Open Flow switches constrains the evolution of the forwarding rules to be fully managed by the controller. This can be particularly limiting for a number of applications that are affected by the delay of the slow control path, like traffic management applications. Some recent proposals are pushing toward an evolution of the Open Flow abstraction to enable the evolution of forwarding policies directly in the data plane based on state machines and local events. In this paper, we present two traffic management applications that exploit a stateful data plane and their prototype implementation based on Open State, an Open Flow evolution that we recently proposed.
Melting of a DNA helix terminus within the active site of a DNA polymerase.

Accurate synthesis of DNA by polymerase is due in part to the selective removal of misincorporated nucleotides by a 3'-5' exonuclease activity (proofreading). Proofreading by an exonuclease domain containing a single-stranded DNA binding site may involve local melting of a duplex DNA substrate. Here we use time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy to analyze the local melting of a DNA duplex terminus induced by the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I. Four oligodeoxynucleotide primer/templates were prepared, each containing the fluorescent adenine analog 2-aminopurine (A*) at the primer 3' terminus, and one of the common DNA bases opposite the A* residue. Fluorescence decays of the duplex DNAs and the single primer oligonucleotide were jointly analyzed using global analysis procedures. Four lifetime components were resolved in the duplex DNAs, representing distinct conformational states of the terminal A* residue: paired A* bases, partially stacked A* bases, and extended A* bases. The variation of the apparent fraction of paired A* bases with temperature was in accord with optical melting data, and the extent of base pairing observed in each duplex was consistent with the base-pairing preferences of A* established in other studies. These results establish that the fluorescence decay characteristics of A* can be used to examine base-pairing interactions at a DNA duplex terminus. Since the fluorescence of A* can be observed without interference from protein amino acid residues, unlike existing methods for monitoring DNA melting transitions, this method was used to examine the extent to which Klenow fragment could induce fraying at each duplex terminus. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Towards Building Wind Tunnels for Data Center Design

Data center design is a tedious and expensive process. Recently, this process has become even more challenging as users of cloud services expect to have guaranteed levels of availability, durability and performance. A new challenge for the service providers is to find the most cost-effective data center design and configuration that will accommodate the users' expectations, on ever-changing workloads, and constantly evolving hardware and software components. In this paper, we argue that data center design should become a systematic process. First, it should be done using an integrated approach that takes into account both the hardware and the software interdependencies, and their impact on users' expectations. Second, it should be performed in a "wind tunnel", which uses large-scale simulation to systematically explore the impact of a data center configuration on both the users' and the service providers' requirements. We believe that this is the first step towards systematic data center design -- an exciting area for future research.
Improving list revisitation with ListMaps

Selecting items from lists is a common task in many applications. Alphabetically-sorted listboxes are the most common interface widget used to accomplish this selection, but although general they can be slow and frustrating to use, particularly when the lists are long. In addition, when the user regularly revisits a small set of items, listboxes provide little support for increased performance through experience. To address these shortcomings, we developed a new list selection device called a ListMap, which organizes list items into a space-filling array of buttons. Items never move in a ListMap, which allows people to make use of spatial memory to find common items more quickly. We carried out a study to compare selection of font names from a set of 220 fonts using both ListMaps and standard listboxes. We found that although listboxes are faster for unknown items, revisitation leads to significant performance gains for the ListMap.
An Analysis of Heat Transfer Effects on Surge Characteristics in Turbo Heat Pumps

This paper presents a new analysis of the effects of ambient temperature variations on the surge characteristics of turbo heat pumps. To this end, an analytical model capable of predicting unsteady behavior of surge in turbo heat pumps has been developed. In compression systems, surge is mostly caused by the compressor work exceeding the mechanical inertia of the system. In refrigeration systems, heat transfer in the condenser and evaporator can influence surge characteristics. The predictions demonstrate that the new model can accurately predict the limit cycle of behavior of turbo heat pumps after the surge onset. Also, predictions show that surge can be stabilized or removed by sufficient increase in the cooling water inlet temperature ,0 cw T .
Feeding behavior of Myzus persicae on asparagus species susceptible and resistant to Asparagus virus 1

Asparagus virus 1 (AV‐1) infects Asparagus officinalis L. (Asparagaceae) in the field worldwide. However, various wild relatives of A. officinalis are resistant to AV‐1. Here we study the behavior of the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), on 19 AV‐1‐resistant wild relatives of A. officinalis. We focus on behavior that is associated with regular cell penetration, relevant for inoculation of AV‐1, and sieve element penetration to check for vector resistance and its potential influence on AV‐1 transmission. Parameters, relevant for the transmission of non‐persistent viruses and host plant acceptance, were obtained by the electrical penetration graph technique. Furthermore, phylloclade architecture of A. officinalis and its wild relatives was examined to study its influence on aphid behavior. Behavior of M. persicae displays many cell penetrations and long ingestion periods on A. officinalis, compared to the generally shorter cell penetrations (reduced potential for virus transmission) and reduced or no ingestion (phloem‐located aphid resistance) on wild relatives. Because effects on aphid behavior are not consistent throughout the group of the tested wild relatives of A. officinalis, with some wild relatives being susceptible to M. persicae, a common genetic background for AV‐1 and aphid resistance appears to be unlikely. However, the reduced potential of virus transmission as well as aphid resistance shown by some wild relatives may be useful for future breeding programs.
Jenaer Schriften zur Wirtschaftswissenschaft The Network of Innovators in Jena : An Application of Social Network Analysis

We apply social network analysis methods to describe the evolution of the innovator network of Jena, Germany in the period from 1995 to 2001. We find this evolution to be directed towards an increasing focus on core competencies of the local innovation system. Further we analyze the network resulting from R&D cooperations and explain by means of network regression techniques that the job mobility of scientists and the technological overlap between the actors, rather than past cooperations, can best predict the resulting structure. We also observe an increasing importance of the university while the former “Kombinate” begin to lose their prominent role.
The Mystery of the Mirror Neuron System

Objective: To highlight the link of mirror neurons with body movements Method: A literature search was conducted in PubMed and various other data bases to collect some studies about the association of mirror neurons with body movement. Result: Studies do exist that support the notion that there are some sets of neurons in the human and animal brain that are activated when humans or animals perform certain actions. The same neurons are activated when they observe another person or animal performing some movement like walking and hand related movement. Conclusion: The area of the human and animal brain that is activated when we perform an action and when we see someone else performing the same action, is believed to have a special kind of neurons known as “mirror neurons”. The evidence proving the existing of these new neurons is still not sufficient, as these neurons were discovered just couple of decades ago. We believe future studies will be useful to provide more information about the subject.