Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Type I interferon is a powerful inhibitor of in vivo HIV-1 infection and preserves human CD4(+) T cells from virus-induced depletion in SCID mice transplanted with human cells.

Although several studies are available on the in vitro inhibitory activities of type I interferon (IFN) on HIV-1 replication, the role of these cytokines in the pathogenesis of AIDS is still matter of conjecture. Both beneficial and adverse effects have been envisaged and considered as a possible rationale for the development of either IFN or anti-IFN therapies in HIV-1-infected patients. In the present study, we have evaluated the efficacy of human type I IFN on HIV-1 infection and virus-induced depletion of human CD4 T cells in two models established in SCID mice. In SCID mice transplanted with human U937 cells (U937-SCID mouse model), continuous treatment with type I consensus IFN (CIFN) resulted in a total suppression of HIV-1 infection. This inhibitory effect was superior to that obtained after AZT treatments. Results from an ensemble of experiments in SCID mice transplanted with either control or genetically modified human U937 cells transduced with a Tat-inducible IFN-alpha gene (LTR-IFN-A2 U937) indicated that low levels of IFN-alpha, produced locally as a result of virus infection, were extremely effective in inhibiting acute HIV infection and virus replication. Of interest, LTR-IFN-A2 U937 cells conferred a strong anti-HIV-1 protection to coinjected bystander U937 cells. Notably, experiments with SCID mice reconstituted with human PBL (hu-PBL-SCID mouse model) showed that treatment with CIFN inhibited HIV-1 replication more effectively than AZT treatment. Remarkably, treatment with CIFN resulted in a clear-cut protection from the virus-induced depletion of human CD4 T cells, which was also associated with the generation of an antibody response toward HIV-1 antigens in 50% of the virus-injected xenografts. These results suggest that type I IFN efficiently preserves human CD4(+) cells from virus-induced damage in hu-PBL-SCID mice, not only by inducing an antiviral state in target cells but also by stimulating anti-HIV-1 human immune responses in vivo.
Epidemiology of breast cancer in a Mexican-American population.

This is a historical cohort study of breast cancer mortality in the Mexican-American community of Laredo, Texas. Included in this study were virtually all breast cancer deaths recorded in Laredo since 1875; controls matched to cases by age and birth year were drawn from the total population. Fertility history and family history of disease for cases and controls were retrieved from the genealogical data base reconstructed by our group from church and civil records for the whole city of Laredo. The findings of this study show an association between breast cancer risk and age at first birth. This study confirms familial risk to be a factor in breast cancer risk. Unlike postmenopausal breast cancer mortality in the total U.S. population, which has increased only slightly in the last 30-40 years, postmenopausal breast cancer death rates in Laredo have almost tripled since the 1940's.
Data-driven cortex parcelling: a regularization tool for the EEG/MEG inverse problem

Recent inverse approaches based on the distributed source model require the use of functionally coherent cortical regions. In this note, we present an EEG/MEG data-driven method for parceling the cortical surface into a set of connex and functionally coherent components. We therefore consider the realistic tridimensional geometry of the cortical sheet and define functional coherence criteria that rely upon the recently proposed multivariate source prelocalization (MSP). We also describe an automatic way of estimating the optimal parcelling hyperparameter, given the EEG/MEG measurements. This new approach leads to a restricted and functionally meaningful description of the inverse solution space, which might be further exploited for constraining the source reconstruction process itself.
Hitting flying objects with learning from demonstration

There are four main steps in the flying object hitting problem. Firstly, the position and velocity of the object need to be accurately predicted ahead of time. Secondly, feasible hitting poses need to be calculated. Thirdly, a fast motion planning algorithm for the robot needs to be implemented. Lastly, the inverse kinematics of the robot needs to be derived. In this paper, a six degrees-of-freedom UR5 robot is implemented to hit a freely flying ball. The dynamics of the ball is derived, and the analytical inverse kinematics model of the robot is given. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and Gaussian Mixture Regression (GMR) are used to encode human hitting demonstrations based on an autonomous dynamical systems model. Experimental results performed in the simulation environment have validated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Modified bipartite matching for multiobjective optimization

In graph theory, the Hungarian algorithm can provide the maximum weighted bipartite matching for assignment problems. In this paper, a modified bipartite matching (MBM) algorithm is proposed for multiobjective optimization. This algorithm can be widely used to solve the weighted bipartite matching problem with multiobjective optimization. We illustrate the application of MBM to antenna assignments in wireless MIMO system. The simulation results show that MBM enjoys low computational complexity and maximizes the system capacity, while keeping the fairness among mobile users.
Leon Theremin (Lev Termen)

While Leon Theremin is mostly known to a wide audience for the thereminvox, his other pioneering work is not less important and should not be forgotten. As it is clear from his biography, he spent a significant period of his life working for state security, and much of that work will probably never be made available to the public. However, even what is known is enough to make one admire his talent, creativity, and determination, all of which he carried throughout his long, difficult, and extraordinary life. Quoting Nick Holonyak, the inventor of the light-emitting diode (LED): “Theremin (Lev Termen) should be known for more than just a musical instrument”.
A Genetic Association Study between Breast Cancer and Osteoporosis Using Transitive Text Mining

Breast cancer and osteoporosis are two most common diseases in postmenopausal women. Both diseases are multi-factorial and involve complex interactions of many genes. Since it is very difficult to review all published papers manually to understand interaction between genes pertaining to these two diseases, we employed text mining system which is an automated approach to search for these gene interactions. Two gene lists were first constructed. The first one contained genes that may be involved in breast cancer, and the second one included those that may be involved in osteoporosis. Potential transitive or indirect associations between two gene terms were determined using transitive closure on the direct associations extracted on the basis of co-occurrence of gene terms in the abstracts. The transitive associations were ranked using a graph-based weight scoring algorithm. With this scoring method, the top 10 gene pairs that are most likely associated with these two diseases were found to be p53/osteocalcin, VEGF/IGF-1, BRAC1/osteocalcin, p53/IL-6, IGFBP3/ESR-α, COMT/CYP1A1, p53/OPG, VEGF/OPG, and IGFBP3/RANK. This study also revealed a potential link of P53 in both diseases. Further investigations are required to characterize and confirm this association.
HSP72 protects against obesity-induced insulin resistance

Patients with type 2 diabetes have reduced gene expression of heat shock protein (HSP) 72, which correlates with reduced insulin sensitivity. Heat therapy, which activates HSP72, improves clinical parameters in these patients. Activation of several inflammatory signaling proteins such as c-jun amino terminal kinase (JNK), inhibitor of κB kinase, and tumor necrosis factor-α, can induce insulin resistance, but HSP 72 can block the induction of these molecules in vitro. Accordingly, we examined whether activation of HSP72 can protect against the development of insulin resistance. First, we show that obese, insulin resistant humans have reduced HSP72 protein expression and increased JNK phosphorylation in skeletal muscle. We next used heat shock therapy, transgenic overexpression, and pharmacologic means to overexpress HSP72 either specifically in skeletal muscle or globally in mice. Herein, we show that regardless of the means used to achieve an elevation in HSP72 protein, protection against diet- or obesity-induced hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance was observed. This protection was tightly associated with the prevention of JNK phosphorylation. These findings identify an essential role for HSP72 in blocking inflammation and preventing insulin resistance in the context of genetic obesity or high-fat feeding.
Recent advances in PD-MEMLIN for speech recognition in car conditions

In a previous work, phoneme-dependent multi-environment models based linear normalization, PD-MEMLIN, was presented and it was proved to be effective to compensate environment mismatch. Since PD-MEMLIN transformations have to be estimated from stereo data corpora, and the computational cost is high, two approaches are proposed: coefficient progressive PD-MEMLIN, CPPD-MEMLIN, and blind PD-MEMLIN. The first one consists on a partial normalization of the feature vector, reducing the computational cost, while blind PD-MEMLIN can be applied over any non stereo data corpora, thus the estimation of the transformation is based on an iterative technique from noisy data and a target clean speech model. Some experiments with SpeechDat car database were carried out in order to study the behavior of the proposed techniques in a real acoustic environment. In the previous work, PD-MEMLIN with stereo data and normalizing 13 MFCC coefficients reached 77.67% of improvement. In this paper, CPPD-MEMLEM with only 4 coefficients obtains an average improvement of 72.40%, and blind PD-MEMLIN obtains an average improvement of 73.96%
Time-Space Tradeoffs For Undirected st-Connectivity on a Graph Automata

Undirected st-connectivity is an important problem in computing. There are algorithms for this problem that use O(n) time and ones that use O(log n) space. The main result of this paper is that, in a very natural structured model, these upper bounds are not simultaneously achievable. Any probabilistic jumping automaton for graphs (JAG) requires either space $\Omega( \log^2 n / \log log n )$ or time $n^{(1 + \Omega ( 1 / \log \log n )) }$ to solve undirected st-connectivity.
Impact of Process Variation on Self-Reference Sensing Scheme and Adaptive Current Modulation for Robust STTRAM Sensing

Spin-Transfer-Torque RAM (STTRAM) is a promising technology for high-density on-chip cache due to low standby power and high speed. However, the process variation of the Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) and access transistor poses a serious challenge to sensing. Nondestructive sensing suffers from reference resistance variation, whereas destructive sensing suffers from failures due to unoptimized selection of data and reference currents. Furthermore, the sense speed is tightly coupled with the reference/data current requirement. In this work, we study the process variation effect on a self-reference sensing scheme to eliminate bit-to-bit process variation in MTJ resistance. Read current modulation is proposed to overcome the failures due to process variation. Simulation results reveal <0.01% failures at the cost of 9ns sense time and 190uW power consumption.
Body mass index identified as an independent predictor of psychiatric readmission.

BACKGROUND Psychiatric hospital readmissions correlate with illness severity, drug selection, and compliance with treatment in the outpatient setting. The risk factors for psychiatric rehospitalization have been mainly assessed in databases lacking information regarding somatic comorbidity and anthropometric variables, such as body mass index (BMI), which are known to predict readmissions in nonpsychiatric settings. OBJECTIVE To determine independent predictors of 1-year readmission occurring among unselected adults consecutively admitted for treatment of severe mental illness to an academic, freestanding psychiatric hospital in New York City from August 2010 through January 2011. METHOD After identifying univariate correlates of readmission, we used logistic regression with backward elimination to identify independent predictors of readmissions within 1 year after the index psychiatric hospitalization. RESULTS Among 224 (23.7%) of 945 readmitted patients, psychiatric readmission was significantly associated with age (P = .0029), length of stay (P = .036), schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder (P < . 0001), dementia (P = .027), major depressive disorder (P = .0006), treatment with atypical antipsychotic drugs (P = .0054), electroconvulsive therapy (P < .0001), and BMI (P = .0079), but not with physical comorbidities and routine laboratory data.The independent predictors of readmission were higher BMI (median = 28.5 kg/ m2; odds ratio [OR] = 3.6; Cl, 1.2-10.6), a diagnosis of schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder (OR = 2.2; Cl, 1.5-3.4), clozapine treatment (OR = 2.8; CI, 1.1-6.9), no electroconvulsive therapy (OR = 0.13; Cl, 0.02-0.45), and shorter length of stay (median = 18 days; OR = 0.08; Cl, 0.01-0.42). CONCLUSIONS Body mass index was identified, for the first time, as an independent predictor of psychiatric rehospitalization. Enhanced outpatient treatment programs for overweight and obese psychiatric patients might influence readmission rates and should be explored in prospective studies.
SIGGRAPH '84 call for Omnimax Films

SIGGRAPH '84 will produce a computer animated sample reel in th e Omnimax format, to be shown during the conference in Minneapolis. The Omnima x system projects 70mm "comic mode" frames through a fisheye lens, onto a tilte d dome planetarium. The frame (see figure 1) is the largest available for motion pictures. Its 2" x 2 3/4" size gives approximately ten times the area of 35m m film, so it is capable of maintaining high resolution even when spread ou t onto the 180 0 field of view on the dome .
Origen in Augustine: A Paradoxical Reception

Abstract I argue that, paradoxically, Augustine embraced much of Origen’s system, especially in his anti-Manichaean polemic, exactly when he was convinced that he did not know his thought. The most remarkable point in his initial adherence to Origen’s ideas regards the apokatastasis doctrine, which he later condemned as heretical and felt the need to recant in his Retractationes (Second Thoughts). I point out many other elements of contact concerning philosophical arguments and Biblical exegesis, which the early Augustine drew from Origen and have escaped scholars who have investigated the Origen-Augustine relationship. With this I shall hopefully add an important piece to the study of Origen’s influence on Western Patristics. I thus explain how Augustine used Origen’s thought in defense of Christian orthodoxy against the Manichaean “heresy,” whereas, after he was informed about Origen’s thought by Horosius and Jerome, he began to find it heretical and condemned it, especially in De civitate Dei (The City of God) and De haeresibus (On Heresies), where he shows that he was misinformed about it. A remarkable role in this transformation was played by Augustine’s ­anti-Pelagian polemic: several of his expressions of blame directed against Origen’s ideas are found in his anti-Pelagian works. Another notable factor was Augustine’s ignorance of the important semantic distinction between αἰώνιος and ἀΐδιος, which got lost in the translation of both with aeternus. Moreover, I endeavor to clarify the ways and sources through which Augustine came to know Origen’s true thought when he did adhere to it, probably without being aware that it was Origen’s.
Rosiglitazone treatment attenuates renal tissue inflammation generated by urinary tract obstruction

Aim: Peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor (PPAR)‐γ activation by rosiglitazone decreases manifestation of intrarenal inflammatory hallmarks. Inflammation significantly aggravates renal injury following urinary tract obstruction. The effect of rosiglitazone on renal inflammation following unilateral ureteral obstruction was investigated.
Climate Change, Elevational Range Shifts, and Bird Extinctions

Abstract: Limitations imposed on species ranges by the climatic, ecological, and physiological effects of elevation are important determinants of extinction risk. We modeled the effects of elevational limits on the extinction risk of landbirds, 87% of all bird species. Elevational limitation of range size explained 97% of the variation in the probability of being in a World Conservation Union category of extinction risk. Our model that combined elevational ranges, four Millennium Assessment habitat‐loss scenarios, and an intermediate estimate of surface warming of 2.8° C, projected a best guess of 400–550 landbird extinctions, and that approximately 2150 additional species would be at risk of extinction by 2100. For Western Hemisphere landbirds, intermediate extinction estimates based on climate‐induced changes in actual distributions ranged from 1.3% (1.1° C warming) to 30.0% (6.4° C warming) of these species. Worldwide, every degree of warming projected a nonlinear increase in bird extinctions of about 100–500 species. Only 21% of the species predicted to become extinct in our scenarios are currently considered threatened with extinction. Different habitat‐loss and surface‐warming scenarios predicted substantially different futures for landbird species. To improve the precision of climate‐induced extinction estimates, there is an urgent need for high‐resolution measurements of shifts in the elevational ranges of species. Given the accelerating influence of climate change on species distributions and conservation, using elevational limits in a tested, standardized, and robust manner can improve conservation assessments of terrestrial species and will help identify species that are most vulnerable to global climate change. Our climate‐induced extinction estimates are broadly similar to those of bird species at risk from other factors, but these estimates largely involve different sets of species.
Predicting improvement after surgery for palmar hyperhidrosis

Endoscopic transthoracic sympathectomy (ETS) is a surgical procedure used to improve Quality of Life (QoL) in patients with treatment resistant palmar hyperhidrosis (PHH). The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that low preoperative scores on The Everyday Life Questionnaire (EDLQ) would predict QoL improvement after surgery.
A comparison study of thermal aging effect on mold compound and its impact on leadframe packages stress

This report discloses an advanced approach to improve the prediction of electronic IC packages' reliability performance by studying packaging materials' thermo-mechanical properties at different high temperature storage conditions. Package level reliability has been well studied. However, during material screening stage, it is difficult to estimate the impact of IC packaging materials on package reliability performance based on typical material properties such as CTE, Tg and Storage Modulus determined at time zero stage. In this study, 3 types of Epoxy mold compounds (EMCs) were characterized with their thermo-mechanical properties by means of TGA, TMA and DMA at different 175°C high temperature storage (HTS) durations, i.e. 0hr, 1000hrs and 2000hrs respectively. Furthermore, simulation assessments for package stress are conducted for EMC evaluation at package level. The thermo-mechanical properties of EMC materials obtained are used as inputs for static linear simulation. Package stresses are retrieved from the simulation for relative comparison. The simulation results clearly show that the material degradation due to HTS has significant impact on the package stress level especially at high temperature range, which is critical for packages with stringent reliability requirement in automotive industry.
Model Systems of Human Intestinal Flora, to Set Acceptable Daily Intakes of Antimicrobial Residues

The veterinary use of antimicrobial drugs in food producing animals may result in residues in food that might modify the consumer gut flora. This review compares three model systems that maintain a complex flora of human origin: (i) human flora-associated (HFA) continuous flow cultures in chemostats, (ii) HFA mice, and (iii) human volunteers. The 'No Microbial Effect Level' (NoMEL) of an antibiotic on human flora, measured in one of these models, is used to set the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for human consumers. Human volunteer trials are most relevant to set microbiological ADIs, and may be considered as the 'gold standard'. However, human trials are very expensive and unethical. HFA chemostats are controlled systems, but tetracycline ADI calculated from a chemostat study is far above of that resulting from a human study. HFA mice studies are less expensive and better controlled than human trials. The tetracycline ADI derived from HFA mice studies is closer to the ADI obtained from studies with human volunteers.
1 Active Learning of Points-To Specifications

Large libraries pose signicant challenges to static points-to analysis. A popular solution is to have a human analyst provide points-to specications that summarize relevant behaviors of library code, which can substantially improve precision and scalability, and furthermore handle missing code such as native code. We propose Atlas, a tool that automatically infers points-to specications. Atlas synthesizes test cases that exercise the library code, and then generates points-to specications based on observations from these executions. Atlas automatically infers 97% of specications for the Java Collections API, and discovers 20% more points-to edges than existing, handwrien specications.
THE ROLE OF PREDATION IN DISEASE CONTROL: A COMPARISON OF SELECTIVE AND NONSELECTIVE REMOVAL ON PRION DISEASE DYNAMICS IN DEER

Effective measures for controlling chronic wasting disease (CWD), a contagious prion disease of cervids, remain elusive. We review theoretic relationships between predation and host-parasite dynamics and describe a mathematical model to evaluate the potential influence of random removal through harvest or culling and selective predation by wolves (Canis lupus) upon CWD dynamics in deer (Odocoileus spp.) populations. Imposing nonselective mortality representing a 15% annual harvest or cull 51 yr after CWD introduction lowered both deer population size and steady state CWD. Selective (4×) mortality at the same 15% predation rate caused a more modest reduction in deer population size accompanied by a relatively rapid decline in CWD prevalence and elimination of the disease from a closed population. The impacts of selective predation on epidemic dynamics were sensitive to assumptions on parameter estimates; however, within expected ranges, the results of selective predation were consistent and robust. We suggest that as CWD distribution and wolf range overlap in the future, wolf predation may suppress disease emergence or limit prevalence.