Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The human splicing factors ASF/SF2 and SC35 possess distinct, functionally significant RNA binding specificities.

ASF/SF2 and SC35 belong to a highly conserved family of nuclear proteins that are both essential for splicing of pre‐mRNA in vitro and are able to influence selection of alternative splice sites. An important question is whether these proteins display distinct RNA binding specificities and, if so, whether this influences their functional interactions with pre‐mRNA. To address these issues, we first performed selection/amplification from pools of random RNA sequences (SELEX) with portions of the two proteins comprising the RNA binding domains (RBDs). Although both molecules selected mainly purine‐rich sequences, comparison of individual sequences indicated that the motifs recognized are different. Binding assays performed with the full‐length proteins confirmed that ASF/SF2 and SC35 indeed have distinct specificities, and at the same time provided evidence that the highly charged arginine‐serine region of each protein is not a major determinant of specificity. In the case of ASF/SF2, evidence is presented that binding specificity involves cooperation between the protein's two RBDs. Finally, we demonstrate that an element containing three copies of a high‐affinity ASF/SF2 binding site constitutes a powerful splicing enhancer. In contrast, a similar element consisting of three SC35 sites was inactive. The ASF/SF2 enhancer can be activated specifically in splicing‐deficient S100 extracts by recombinant ASF/SF2 in conjunction with one or more additional protein factors. These and other results suggest a central role for ASF/SF2 in the function of purine‐rich splicing enhancers.
Scriptroute: A Public Internet Measurement Facility

We present Scriptroute, a system that allows ordinary Internet users to conduct network measurements from remote vantage points. We seek to combine the flexibility found in dedicated measurement testbeds such as NIMI with the general accessibility and popularity of Web-based public traceroute servers. To use Scriptroute, clients use DNS to discover measurement servers and then submit a measurement script for execution in a sandboxed, resource-limited environment. The servers ensure that the script does not expose the network to attack by applying source- and destination-specific filters and security checks, and by rate-limiting traffic. Scriptroute code is publicly available and has been deployed on the PlanetLab testbed of 42 sites. As proof-of-concept, we have used it both to create RPT, a tool for measuring routing trees toward a destination, and to repeat the experiment used to evaluate GNP, a recently proposed Internet distance estimation technique. We find that our system is flexible enough to implement a variety of measurement tools despite its security restrictions, that access to many remote vantage points makes the system valuable, and that scripting is an apt choice for expressing and combining measurement tasks.
A Method of Data Aggregation for Wearable Sensor Systems

Data aggregation has been considered as an effective way to decrease the data to be transferred in sensor networks. Particularly for wearable sensor systems, smaller battery has less energy, which makes energy conservation in data transmission more important. Nevertheless, wearable sensor systems usually have features like frequently dynamic changes of topologies and data over a large range, of which current aggregating methods can’t adapt to the demand. In this paper, we study the system composed of many wearable devices with sensors, such as the network of a tactical unit, and introduce an energy consumption-balanced method of data aggregation, named LDA-RT. In the proposed method, we develop a query algorithm based on the idea of ‘happened-before’ to construct a dynamic and energy-balancing routing tree. We also present a distributed data aggregating and sorting algorithm to execute top-k query and decrease the data that must be transferred among wearable devices. Combining these algorithms, LDA-RT tries to balance the energy consumptions for prolonging the lifetime of wearable sensor systems. Results of evaluation indicate that LDA-RT performs well in constructing routing trees and energy balances. It also outperforms the filter-based top-k monitoring approach in energy consumption, load balance, and the network’s lifetime, especially for highly dynamic data sources.
Adipocyte-Derived Serum Amyloid A3 and Hyaluronan Play a Role in Monocyte Recruitment and Adhesion

Obesity is characterized by adipocyte hypertrophy and macrophage accumulation in adipose tissue. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) plays a role in macrophage recruitment into adipose tissue. However, other adipocyte-derived factors, e.g., hyaluronan and serum amyloid A (SAA), can facilitate monocyte adhesion and chemotaxis, respectively. The objective was to test the potential involvement of these factors in macrophage recruitment. Differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes made hypertrophic by growth in high glucose conditions were used to study SAA and hyaluronan regulation in vitro. Two mouse models of obesity were used to study their expression in vivo. Nuclear factor-κB was upregulated and peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPAR)γ was downregulated in hypertrophic 3T3-L1 cells, with increased expression of SAA3 and increased hyaluronan production. Rosiglitazone, a PPARγ agonist, reversed these changes. Hypertrophic adipocytes demonstrated overexpression of SAA3 and hyaluronan synthase 2 in vitro and in vivo in diet-induced and genetic obesity. SAA and hyaluronan existed as part of a complex matrix that increased the adhesion and retention of monocytes. This complex, purified by binding to a biotinylated hyaluronan binding protein affinity column, also showed monocyte chemotactic activity, which was dependent on the presence of SAA3 and hyaluronan but independent of MCP-1. We hypothesize that adipocyte hypertrophy leads to increased production of SAA and hyaluronan, which act in concert to recruit and retain monocytes, thereby leading to local inflammation in adipose tissue.
Cohort profile for the MASTERMIND study: using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) to investigate stratification of response to treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes

Purpose This is a retrospective cohort study using observational data from anonymised primary care records. We identify and extract all patients with type 2 diabetes and associated clinical data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) to inform models of disease progression and stratification of treatment. Participants Data were extracted from CPRD on 8 August 2016. The initial data set contained all patients (n=313 485) in the database who had received a type 2 diabetes medication. Criteria were applied to identify and exclude those with type 1 diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome or other forms of diabetes (n=40 204), and for data quality control (n=12). We identified 251 338 patients for inclusion in future analyses of diabetes progression and treatment response. Findings to date For 6-month response to treatment, measured by change in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), we have 91 765 patients with 119 785 treatment response episodes. The greatest impact on reduction of HbA1c occurs with first-line and second-line treatments, metformin and sulfonylurea. Patients moving to third-line treatments tend to have greater weights and higher body mass index. We have investigated the impact of non-adherence to commonly used glucose-lowering medications on HbA1c. For baseline-adjusted HbA1c change over 1 year, non-adherent patients had lower HbA1c reductions than adherent patients, with mean and 95% CI of −4.4 (−4.7 to −4.0) mmol/mol (−0.40 (−0.43 to −0.37) %). Future plans Findings from studies using these data will help inform future treatment plans and guidelines. Additional data are added with updates from CPRD. This will increase the numbers of patients on newer medications and add more data on those already receiving treatment. There are several ongoing studies investigating different hypotheses regarding differential response to treatment and progression of diabetes. For side effects, links to Hospital Episode Statistics data, where severe events such as hypoglycaemia will be recorded, will also be explored.
EM-HTS: real-time HMM-based Malay emotional speech synthesis

This research aims at developing a real-time HMM-based Malay emotional speech synthesis (EM-HTS) that has the ability to synthesize any form of text input in four different expression which are neutral, anger, sadness and happiness. The quality of the emotional speech synthesis was improved by using Neutral to Angry, Sad, and Happy (NASH) duration generator, which uses context-dependent duration generation method to improve the duration information to the label files of target emotions for training purpose. We conducted three forms of evaluations to determine the accuracy, intelligibility and naturalness of the speech generated by EM-HTS. All the three tests show that the adopted method (NASH) gives a better reproduction of prosody compared to conventional method using the same training speech data.
ICI reduction in OFDM systems using a new family of Nyquist-I pulses

In this paper we propose the improved parametric linear combination pulse (IPLCP); a new family of Nyquist pulses with two additional degrees of freedom to minimize the inter-carrier interference (ICI) power in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) based systems due to frequency offset. Theoretical and numerical simulations are shown to verify that the performance of the IPLCP outperforms other existing pulses.
DJ-MVP: An Automatic Music Video Producer

A music video (MV) is a videotaped performance of a recorded popular song, usually accompanied by dancing and visual images. In this paper, we outline the design of a generative music video system, which automatically generates an audio-video mashup for a given target audio track. The system performs segmentation for the given target song based on beat detection. Next, according to audio similarity analysis and color heuristic selection methods, we obtain generated video segments. Then, these video segments are truncated to match the length of audio segments and are concatenated as the final music video. An evaluation of our system has shown that users are receptive to this novel presentation of music videos and are interested in future developments.
Masitinib (AB1010), a Potent and Selective Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Targeting KIT

Background The stem cell factor receptor, KIT, is a target for the treatment of cancer, mastocytosis, and inflammatory diseases. Here, we characterise the in vitro and in vivo profiles of masitinib (AB1010), a novel phenylaminothiazole-type tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets KIT. Methodology/Principal Findings In vitro, masitinib had greater activity and selectivity against KIT than imatinib, inhibiting recombinant human wild-type KIT with an half inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 200±40 nM and blocking stem cell factor-induced proliferation and KIT tyrosine phosphorylation with an IC50 of 150±80 nM in Ba/F3 cells expressing human or mouse wild-type KIT. Masitinib also potently inhibited recombinant PDGFR and the intracellular kinase Lyn, and to a lesser extent, fibroblast growth factor receptor 3. In contrast, masitinib demonstrated weak inhibition of ABL and c-Fms and was inactive against a variety of other tyrosine and serine/threonine kinases. This highly selective nature of masitinib suggests that it will exhibit a better safety profile than other tyrosine kinase inhibitors; indeed, masitinib-induced cardiotoxicity or genotoxicity has not been observed in animal studies. Molecular modelling and kinetic analysis suggest a different mode of binding than imatinib, and masitinib more strongly inhibited degranulation, cytokine production, and bone marrow mast cell migration than imatinib. Furthermore, masitinib potently inhibited human and murine KIT with activating mutations in the juxtamembrane domain. In vivo, masitinib blocked tumour growth in mice with subcutaneous grafts of Ba/F3 cells expressing a juxtamembrane KIT mutant. Conclusions Masitinib is a potent and selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting KIT that is active, orally bioavailable in vivo, and has low toxicity.
Long-term Associations of an Early Corrected Ventricular Septal Defect and Stress Systems of Child and Mother at Primary School Age

Introduction Ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common congenital heart defect, with larger VSDs typically being corrected with an open-heart surgery during infancy. Long-term consequences of a VSD-corrective surgery on stress systems of child and mother are still unknown. The aim of the present study is to investigate the associations of an early corrected VSD and diurnal cortisol release of child and mother. Methods 26 children (12 boys) between 6 and 9 years old, who underwent surgery for an isolated VSD within the first 3 years of life, and their mothers participated in the study. Their diurnal cortisol profiles were compared to a sex-, age-, and socioeconomic status-matched healthy control group. Within the VSD group, associations between cortisol and characteristics of surgery and hospitalization were investigated. Child and mother psychopathological symptoms were considered as a possible interfering mechanism of altered cortisol profiles. Results Diurnal cortisol profiles of children with an early corrected VSD did not differ from those of controls. However, mothers of affected children exhibited higher cortisol levels in the morning (p < 0.001, ηp2=0.36) and a steeper diurnal cortisol slope (p = 0.016, ηp2=0.17) than mothers of healthy children. Conclusion Results indicate a favorable development of children with an early corrected VSD, in terms of comparable diurnal cortisol profiles with healthy controls, according to a comparable mother-rated psychopathology. Mothers of affected children reveal altered diurnal cortisol levels, without differences in self-rated psychopathology. This divergence should be clarified in future research.
Antiretroviral therapy, CD4, viral load, and disease stage in HIV patients in Saudi Arabia: a 2001-2013 cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION The incidence of HIV/AIDS is increasing worldwide and in the Middle East. In this study, we analyzed the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART), the patterns of CD4 and viral load (VL), and stage of presentation. METHODOLOGY Laboratory variables, ART use, and CD4 count were obtained and analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS A total of 997 cases from eight HIV/AIDS care providers were included. Of the total cases, 274 (28.3%) had a CD4 count of < 200 cells/mm(3), and 413 (42.3%) had a viral load of > 5 log10. Of the total cases, 50% were on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), and the majority of cases were asymptomatic (70%). Of those patients on ART, 247 (39.5%) took tenofovir/emtricitabine combined with either efavirenz (147; 14.7%) or lopinavir/ritonavir (100; 10%), and 158 (15.8%) were on lamivudine and zidovudine with either efavirenz (32; 3.2%) or lopinavir/ritonavir (126; 12.6%). Other combinations were used in 70 (7%) patients. The mean (± standard deviation) of baseline CD4 and viral load were 401 cells/mm(3) (322 cells/mm(3)) and 4.6 log10₁₀ (1.3 log10), respectively. At diagnosis, 72% of patients were asymptomatic; 50% had AIDS and 20% had CD4 count < 350. CONCLUSIONS ART use was in line with international guidelines, but the number of patients receiving ART was lower than expected. Large proportions of cases presented late with AIDS at diagnosis or had CD4 < 350. Further data is needed to evaluate the medical care of patients with HIV/AIDS in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Tibial Tuberosity Osteotomy

Tibial tuberosity osteotomy (TTO) is a well-described treatment option for a broad range of patellofemoral joint disorders, including patellofemoral instability, patellar and trochlear focal chondral lesions, and patellofemoral arthritis. The purpose of this article is to review the evolution of the TTO procedure, from the original Hauser procedure to the current anteromedialization procedure, as well as discuss the pertinent anatomy and radiographs that accompany this procedure. The article highlights the surgical techniques for some of the more commonly performed TTO procedures and discusses the outcomes of the various TTO techniques. Complications, as well as clinical pearls to avoid these complications, are also included.
The Birds, the Bees and the STDs: A Content Analysis of Teenage Sexual Health Internet Message Boards

Recent research indicates that teenagers rely on electronic media for information about sexual health. In the present study the author examined the online information-seeking behaviors of male and female teenagers on two Internet message boards. Content analyses were conducted on user questions about pregnancy, birth control and sexually transmitted infections. Results indicated that (1) teens are very concerned about pregnancy but are less concerned about STIs, and (2) teens are not comfortable with negotiating condom use or STI testing with sexual partners. The outcomes from this study support the previous findings that teens do discuss sexual health on the Internet and shows that they specifically turn to the Internet with questions and anxieties regarding pregnancy and birth control options. These results indicate that sexual education should place more emphasis on training teenagers how to talk to their potential sexual partners about the importance of birth control options and STI testing before engaging in sexual activities.
Quark condensate in two-flavor QCD

We compute the condensate in QCD with two flavors of dynamical fermions using numerical simulation. The simulations use overlap fermions, and the condensate is extracted by fitting the distribution of low-lying eigenvalues of the Dirac operator in sectors of fixed topological charge to the predictions of Random Matrix Theory.
De Vega Annuloplasty for Functional Tricupsid Regurgitation: Concept of Tricuspid Valve Orifice Index to Optimize Tricuspid Valve Annular Reduction

We evaluated long-term results of De Vega annuloplasty measured by cylindrical sizers for functional tricuspid regurgitation (FTR) and analyzed the impact of measured annular size on the late recurrence of tricuspid valve regurgitation. Between 2001 and 2011, 177 patients (57.9±10.5 yr) underwent De Vega annuloplasty for FTR. Three cylindrical sizers (actual diameters of 29.5, 31.5, and 33.5 mm) were used to reproducibly reduce the tricuspid annulus. Long-term outcomes were evaluated and risk factor analyses for the recurrence of FTR ≥3+ were performed. Measured annular diameter indexed by patient's body surface area was included in the analyses as a possible risk factor. Operative mortality occurred in 8 patients (4.5%). Ten-year overall and cardiac death-free survivals were 80.5% and 90.8%, respectively. Five and 10-yr freedom rates from recurrent FTR were 96.5% and 93.1%, respectively. Cox proportional hazard model revealed that higher indexed annular size was the only risk factor for the recurrence of FTR (P=0.006). A minimal P value approach demonstrated that indexed annular diameter of 22.5 mm/m2 was a cut-off value predicting the recurrence of FTR. De Vega annuloplasty for FTR results in low rates of recurrent FTR in the long-term. Tricuspid annulus should be reduced appropriately considering patients' body size to prevent recurrent FTR.
Adapting user's browsing behavior and web evolution features for effective search in medical portals

The World Wide Web, inform of medical and health related Web search services has been widely acknowledged as an important tool for accessing and distributing medical information. The efficiency of its use is hampered however to some extent, by the data overload and the poor organization and presentation of medical portals and sites in general. In this paper we propose an intelligent meta-search algorithm exclusively for health-related Web search, capable of self-adapting over the continuous changes that occur on medical sites, using a Web evolution adaptation mechanism. The algorithm also supports personalization features based on the user browsing behavior. The paper provides the implementation details of the proposed meta-search algorithm along with its initial assessment. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in terms of relevancy on the re-ranked third-party results
Towards robust automatic evaluation of pathologic telephone speech

For many aspects of speech therapy an objective evaluation of the intelligibility of a patient's speech is needed. We investigate the evaluation of the intelligibility of speech by means of automatic speech recognition. Previous studies have shown that measures like word accuracy are consistent with human experts' ratings. To ease the patient's burden, it is highly desirable to conduct the assessment via phone. However, the telephone channel influences the quality of the speech signal which negatively affects the results. To reduce inaccuracies, we propose a combination of two speech recognizers. Experiments on two sets of pathological speech show that the combination results in consistent improvements in the correlation between the automatic evaluation and the ratings by human experts. Furthermore, the approach leads to reductions of 10% and 25% of the maximum error of the intelligibility measure.
A 1.2-V 450-μW  $G_{m}$ - $C$  Bluetooth Channel Filter Using a Novel Gain-Boosted Tunable Transconductor

A third-order Gm-C Chebyshev low-pass filter based on a novel gain-boosted tunable transconductor is presented. The transconductor employs local negative feedback for linearization controlling the drain voltage of the input transistors biased in the triode region. The gain boosted feedback amplifier is based on quasi-floating gate MOS transistors and its adjustable biasing current allows tuning the cutoff frequency of the filter. The filter is intended to be used in the baseband section of a zero-IF bluetooth low energy receiver and it has been fabricated in a standard 0.13-μm CMOS technology with a nominal cutoff frequency of 500 kHz. The power consumption of the overall filter is 450 μW with a supply voltage of 1.2 V. The measurement results show a third-order intermodulation distortion of -46.4 dB for two input tones located at the passband of the filter. The filter occupies a silicon area of 0.08 mm2.
Case-Based Reasoning for Build Order in Real-Time Strategy Games

We present a case-based reasoning technique for selecting build orders in a real-time strategy game. The case retrieval process generalizes features of the game state and selects cases using domain-specific recall methods, which perform exact matching on a subset of the case features. We demonstrate the performance of the technique by implementing it as a component of the integrated agent framework of McCoy and Mateas. Our results demonstrate that the technique outperforms nearest-neighbor retrieval when imperfect information is enforced in a real-time strategy game.
Semi-automatic stereo extraction from video footage

We present a semi-automatic system that converts conventional video shots to stereoscopic video pairs. The system requires just a few user-scribbles in a sparse set of frames. The system combines a diffusion scheme, which takes into account the local saliency and the local motion at each video location, coupled with a classification scheme that assigns depth to image patches. The system tolerates both scene motion and camera motion. In typical shots, containing hundreds of frames, even in the face of significant motion, it is enough to mark scribbles on the first and last frames of the shot. Once marked, plausible stereo results are obtained in a matter of seconds, leading to a scalable video conversion system. Finally, we validate our results with ground truth stereo video.