Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Duloxetine Inhibits Effects of MDMA (“Ecstasy") In Vitro and in Humans in a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Laboratory Study

This study assessed the effects of the serotonin (5-HT) and norepinephrine (NE) transporter inhibitor duloxetine on the effects of 3,4–methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) in vitro and in 16 healthy subjects. The clinical study used a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, four-session, crossover design. In vitro, duloxetine blocked the release of both 5-HT and NE by MDMA or by its metabolite 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine from transmitter-loaded human cells expressing the 5-HT or NE transporter. In humans, duloxetine inhibited the effects of MDMA including elevations in circulating NE, increases in blood pressure and heart rate, and the subjective drug effects. Duloxetine inhibited the pharmacodynamic response to MDMA despite an increase in duloxetine-associated elevations in plasma MDMA levels. The findings confirm the important role of MDMA-induced 5-HT and NE release in the psychotropic effects of MDMA. Duloxetine may be useful in the treatment of psychostimulant dependence. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00990067
Towards multimodal modeling of physicians’ diagnostic confidence and self-awareness using medical narratives

Misdiagnosis is a problem in the medical field, often related to physicians’ cognitive errors. Overconfidence is considered a major cause of such errors. Intelligent diagnostic support systems could benefit from understanding how aware physicians are of their performance when they estimate their confidence in a diagnosis (i.e. a physician’s diagnostic self-awareness). Shedding light on the cognitive processes related to such awareness could also help improve medical education. We use a multimodal dataset of medical narratives to computationally model diagnostic confidence and self-awareness based on physicians’ linguistic and eye movement behaviors. Dermatologists viewed images of cutaneous conditions, providing a description, diagnosis, and certainty level for each image case, while their speech and eye movements were recorded. We define both a generalized and a personalized approach to binning confidence levels, used in classification experiments. We also introduce truly multimodal features, which focus on combining linguistic and eye movement data into multimodal attributes. Results indicate that combinations of multiple modalities can outperform their constituent modalities in isolation for these problems.
The Roles of Pteridine Reductase 1 and Dihydrofolate Reductase-Thymidylate Synthase in Pteridine Metabolism in the Protozoan Parasite Leishmania major*

Trypanosomatid protozoans depend upon exogenous sources of pteridines (pterins or folates) for growth. A broad spectrum pteridine reductase (PTR1) was recently identified in Leishmania major, whose sequence places it in the short chain alcohol dehydrogenase protein family although its enzymatic activities resemble dihydrofolate reductases. The properties of PTR1 suggested a role in essential pteridine salvage as well as in antifolate resistance. To prove this, we have characterized further the properties and relative roles of PTR1 and dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase inLeishmania pteridine metabolism, using purified enzymes and knockout mutants. Recombinant L. major and Leishmania tarentolae, and native L. major PTR1s, were tetramers of 30-kDa subunits and showed similar catalytic properties with pterins and folates (pH dependence, substrate inhibition with H2pteridines). Unlike PTR1, dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase showed weak activity with folate and no activity with pterins. Correspondingly, studies ofptr1 − and dhfr-ts −mutants implicated only PTR1 in the ability of L.major to grow on a wide array of pterins. PTR1 exhibited 2000-fold less sensitivity to inhibition by methotrexate than dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase, suggesting several mechanisms by which PTR1 may compromise antifolate inhibition in wild-type Leishmania and lines bearing PTR1amplifications. We incorporate these results into a comprehensive model of pteridine metabolism and discuss its implications in chemotherapy of this important human pathogen.
Broadband circularly polarized antenna array for S-band wireless applications

A design of 2×2 broadband circularly polarized (CP) antenna array is proposed to resonate within S-band at 2.4 GHz for wireless applications. To realize broadband operation, multiple slots of variable length are embedded in antenna array patch geometry. The individual array patch is excited by microstrip feed lines, which are derived from power divider circuits. The whole feeding structure is designed with sequential phase (SP) of 00, 90, 180 and 2700. The proposed multi-slot array structure gives the advantage of being wide impedance and axial ratio bandwidth with high gain. The -10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth and 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth are 86% (1.68 GHz-4.22 GHz) and 29% (2.99 GHz-4.02GHz), respectively. Good radiation characteristics with gain more than 10 dBi in the operating region are obtained.
Synthesizing Sounds from Physically Based Motion

This video demonstrated our technique forapproximating the sounds that are generated by the motions of solid objects. As the motions of the objects are computed, theirsurfaces are analyzed to determine how the motion will induce acoustic pressure waves in the surrounding medium. Our technique computes the propagation of those wavesto the listener and then uses the resultsto generate sounds corresponding to the behavior of the simulated objects. Furtherdetails are provided in our paper in the SIGGRAPH 2001 proceedings. Copyright held by creator.
Current clinical criteria for Lynch syndrome are not sensitive enough to identify MSH6 mutation carriers

Background Reported prevalence, penetrance and expression of deleterious mutations in the mismatch repair (MMR) genes, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2, may reflect differences in the clinical criteria used to select families for DNA testing. The authors have previously reported that clinical criteria are not sensitive enough to identify MMR mutation carriers among incident colorectal cancer cases. Objective To describe the sensitivity of the criteria when applied to families with a demonstrated MMR mutation. Methods Families with an aggregation of colorectal cancers were examined for deleterious MMR mutations according to the Mallorca guidelines. All families with a detected MMR mutation as of November 2009 were reclassified according to the Amsterdam and Bethesda criteria. Results Sixty-nine different DNA variants were identified in a total of 129 families. The original Amsterdam clinical criteria were met by 38%, 12%, 78% and 25% of families with mutations in MSH2, MSH6, MLH1 and PMS2, respectively. Corresponding numbers for the revised Amsterdam criteria were 62%, 48%, 87% and 38%. Similarly, each of the four clinical Bethesda criteria had low sensitivity for identifying MSH6 or PMS2 mutations. Conclusion Amsterdam criteria and each of the Bethesda criteria were inadequate for identifying MSH6 mutation-carrying kindreds. MSH6 mutations may be more common than currently assumed, and the penetrance/expression of MSH6 mutations, as derived from families meeting current clinical criteria, may be misleading. To increase detection rate of MMR mutation carriers, all cancers in the Lynch syndrome tumour spectrum should be subjected to immunohistochemical analysis and/or analysis for microsatellite instability.
Replicon: a software to accurately predict DNA replication timing in metazoan cells

Eukaryotic DNA replication follows a strict temporal program where genomic loci are replicated at precise times during the S phase of the cell cycle. Yet, the mechanism in control of the timing program in metazoan cells is poorly understood. In a recent publication, the authors proposed an intuitive stochastic model of DNA replication and showed that it predicts replication timing with an accuracy approaching the level of experimental biological repeats. Here, we discuss an extended software implementation of the mechanistic model: Replicon. This package allows interested researchers to predict the global replication timing program in human cells from chromatin data.
PREDICTING STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN DISTANCE LEARNING USING MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES

The ability to predict a student's performance could be useful in a great number of different ways associated with university-level distance learning. Students' key demographic characteristics and their marks on a few written assignments can constitute the training set for a supervised machine learning algorithm. The learning algorithm could then be able to predict the performance of new students, thus becoming a useful tool for identifying predicted poor performers. The scope of this work is to compare some of the state of the art learning algorithms. Two experiments have been conducted with six algorithms, which were trained using data sets provided by the Hellenic Open University. Among other significant conclusions, it was found that the Naïve Bayes algorithm is the most appropriate to be used for the construction of a software support tool, has more than satisfactory accuracy, its overall sensitivity is extremely satisfactory, and is the easiest algorithm to implement.
Intragenic duplication—A novel causative mechanism for SATB2‐associated syndrome

Previous studies have shown that genetic aberrations involving the special AT‐rich sequence‐binding protein 2 (SATB2) gene result in a variable phenotype of syndromic intellectual disability. Although only a small number of patients have been described, there is already considerable variation in regard to the underlying molecular mechanism spanning from structural variation to point mutations. We here describe a male patient with intellectual disability, speech and language impairment, cleft palate, malformed teeth, and oligodontia. Array CGH analysis identified a small intragenic duplication in the SATB2 gene that included three coding exons. The result was confirmed by multiplex ligation‐dependent probe amplification and low coverage whole genome mate pair sequencing. WGS breakpoint analysis directly confirmed the duplication as intragenic. This is the first reported patient with an intragenic duplication in SATB2 in combination with a phenotype that is highly similar to previously described patients with small deletions or point mutations of the same gene. Our findings expand the spectra of SATB2 mutations and confirm the presence of a distinct SATB2‐phenotype with severe ID and speech impairment, cleft palate and/or high arched palate, and abnormalities of the teeth. For patients that present with this clinical picture, a high‐resolution exon targeted array CGH and/or WGS, in addition to sequencing of SATB2, should be considered. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Platform for Multilingual News Summarization

We have developed a multilingual version of Columbia Newsblaster as a testbed for multilingual multi-document summarization. The system collects, clusters, and summarizes news documents from sources all over the world daily. It crawls news sites in many different countries, written in different languages, extracts the news text from the HTML pages, uses a variety of methods to translate the documents for clustering and summarization, and produces an English summary for each cluster. The system is robust, running daily over real-world data. The multilingual version of Columbia Newsblaster provides a platform for testing different strategies for multilingual document clustering, and approaches for multilingual multi-document summarization. A Platform for Multilingual News Summarization
A dual‐induced self‐expandable stent based on biodegradable shape memory polyurethane nanocomposites (PCLAU/Fe3O4) triggered around body temperature

Concerning the occurrence of in-stent restenosis and stent thrombosis of stent implantation with balloon angioplasty, a dual-induced self-expandable stent based on biodegradable shape memory polyurethane nanocomposites (PCLAU/Fe3O4) was developed. The stent could maintain its temporary shape at body temperature for a certain period of time while it was able to recover to its permanent shape at the temperature a little above body temperature (around 40 °C) in both a water bath and an alternating magnetic field. The trigger temperature and remote local heating ensured enough operation time and harmless activation without heating the body tissue. The nanocomposites had high fixing ratios above 99% and recovery ratios above 82% at both 37 and 40 °C. Cytotoxicity and in vitro degradation showed the nanocomposites had good biocompatibility and biodegradability. The PCLAU/Fe3O4 nanocomposites with dual-responsive shape memory effects, desirable mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability show great potential for vascular stents. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45686.
Extracting Systematic Social Science Meaning from Text 1

We develop two methods of automated content analysis that give approximately unbiased estimates of quantities of theoretical interest to social scientists. With a small sample of documents hand coded into investigator-chosen categories, our methods can give accurate estimates of the proportion of text documents in each category in a larger population. Existing methods successful at maximizing the percent of documents correctly classified allow for the possibility of substantial estimation bias in the category proportions of interest. Our first approach corrects this bias for any existing classifier, with no additional assumptions. Our second method estimates the proportions without the intermediate step of individual document classification, and thereby greatly reduces the required assumptions. For both methods, we also correct statistically, apparently for the first time, for the far less-than-perfect levels of inter-coder reliability that typically characterize human attempts to classify documents, an approach that will normally outperform even population hand coding when that is feasible. These methods allow us to measure the classical conception of public opinion as those views that are actively and publicly expressed, rather than the attitudes or nonattitudes of the populace as a whole. To do this, we track the daily opinions of millions of people about President Bush and the candidates for the 2008 presidential nominations using a massive data set of online blogs we develop and make available with this article. We also offer easy-to-use software that implements our methods, which we also demonstrate work with many other sources of unstructured text.
H2S SENSING PROPERTIES OF METAL OXIDE (SNO2-CUO-TIO2) THIN FILMS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

In this present study we have developed the H2S gas sensors of metal oxide thin films such as SN3-(70SnO2-15CuO-15TiO2), SN4-(80SnO2-10CuO-10TiO2) and SN5-(90SnO2-5CuO-5TiO2) prepared by screen-printing technique. Variation of sensitivity with concentration of H2S (ppm) gas at room temperature (303 K) shows that SN4-(80SnO2-10CuO-10TiO2) sensor has the maximum sensitivity and found to be fast rise in sensitivity from 20 to 100 ppm concentration of H2S gas but after that it is independent of concentration of H2S gas. The sensing mechanism described as p-n junction like structure is formed due to this result in decrease of electrical resistance, with increase in H2S gas concentration. Hence the samples resistance of the thin films decreases in presence of H2S gas.
E-Commerce Web Sites Trust Factors: An Empirical Approach

E-commerce web sites are attractive targets for web attackers. The wide media coverage about many successful attacks against many web sites makes e-customers more reluctant toward conducting online transactions via the web. The critical point in this situation is how to help e-customers decide whether a certain e-commerce web site is trusted or not and persuade them to proceed with their online transactions. Therefore, the major question that can be addressed is: what are the trust factors of e-commerce web sites in the eyes of e-customers? In this domain, the answer is not successfully addressed. Thus, this is considered as an important gap which should be filled. In response, this paper presents a novel approach which illustrates an empirical study that successfully identified the key factors for trusted e-commerce web sites.
Prostate Cancer, Prostate Cancer Death, and Death from Other Causes, Among Men with Metabolic Aberrations

Background: Few previous studies of metabolic aberrations and prostate cancer risk have taken into account the fact that men with metabolic aberrations have an increased risk of death from causes other than prostate cancer. The aim of this study was to calculate, in a real-life scenario, the risk of prostate cancer diagnosis, prostate cancer death, and death from other causes. Methods: In the Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer Project, prospective data on body mass index, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides were collected from 285,040 men. Risks of prostate cancer diagnosis, prostate cancer death, and death from other causes were calculated by use of competing risk analysis for men with normal (bottom 84%) and high (top 16%) levels of each factor, and a composite score. Results: During a mean follow-up period of 12 years, 5,893 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 1,013 died of prostate cancer, and 26,328 died of other causes. After 1996, when prostate-specific antigen testing was introduced, men up to age 80 years with normal metabolic levels had 13% risk of prostate cancer, 2% risk of prostate cancer death, and 30% risk of death from other causes, whereas men with metabolic aberrations had corresponding risks of 11%, 2%, and 44%. Conclusions: In contrast to recent studies using conventional survival analysis, in a real-world scenario taking risk of competing events into account, men with metabolic aberrations had lower risk of prostate cancer diagnosis, similar risk of prostate cancer death, and substantially higher risk of death from other causes compared with men who had normal metabolic levels.
Hypertriglyceridemia: Causes and Relation to Coronary Heart Disease

The relationships between plasma triglycerides and coronary heart disease (CHD) has been a subject of continuing interest and debate. Many epidemiologic studies have shown a positive correlation between plasma triglyceride concentrations and rates of CHD. This observation has led some authorities to claim that elevated triglyceride concentrations are a "risk factor" for CHD. Other investigators disagree because when epidemiologic data are subjected to multivariant analysis, which considers plasma total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the correlation between plasma triglyceride levels and coronary events often disappears. These latter investigators thus postulate that high triglyceride levels are not a true risk factor but instead are merely associated with other well-established lipid risk factors. Although this view may be analytically correct, it fails to take into account the possibility that abnormalities in triglyceride metabolism underlie other lipoprotein defects that are statistically more highly correlated with CHD. For this reason, the linkage between triglyceride metabolism and the metabolism of each of the lipoprotein species is worthy of consideration. This consideration may provide insights into the connection between plasma triglycerides and CHD. Furthermore, high triglyceride levels have recently been implicated in epidemiologic studies as a risk factor for CHD that is independent of other lipid parameters. If this phenomenon can be confirmed, triglycerides may have an influence on coronary risk that is not mediated through the direct actions of plasma triglycerides on the metabolism of other lipoproteins.
Novel refractive index biosensing of microcontact printed molecules on lithium niobate

This work demonstrates, for the first time, the use of lithium niobate as a biosensor that detects local refractive index changes triggered by the presence of biomolecules on its surface. The sensitivity of the sensor was found to be 242±16 nm/RIU. As a case study, we immobilized proteins (IgG antibodies) using micro-contact printing to demonstrate sensing capabilities of the device. The validated proof of concept lays a foundation for developing lithium niobate based novel optical biosensors.
A hierarchical grid feature representation framework for automatic image annotation

We propose a hierarchical-grid (HG) feature analysis framework for representing images in automatic image annotation (AIA). We explore the properties of codebooks constructed with different-sized grids in image sub-blocks, and co-occurrence relationship between VQ codewords constructed from different grid systems. The proposed HG approach is evaluated on the TRECVID 2005 data set using classifiers obtained with maximal figure-of-merit discriminative training. With multi-level and cross-level grid systems incorporating bigram information within and between higher and lower grid levels, we show that the AIA performance can be significantly improved. For 20 selected concepts from the 39-concept LSCOM-Lite annotation set, we achieve a best F1 in almost all the concepts. The overall performance improvement with the combined multi-level and cross-level grid systems over the best single-size grid system in micro F1 is about 12.1%.
Arbitrarily Shaped 2.5D Circuits using Stretchable Interconnects Embedded in Thermoplastic Polymers  

A method to fabricate thermoplastically deformable electronic circuits is presented, with the intent of achieving low‐cost 2.5D free‐form rigid smart objects. This by utilizing existing flexible circuit technology based stretchable circuits, in combination with thermoplastic materials. After fabricating the circuit in a flat state, a thermoforming step shapes the device by heating it beyond its glass transition temperature, and pushing it against a mold. Preliminary tests show the feasibility to fabricate simple circuits using off‐the‐shelf circuit components; showing a minimal decrease in conductivity of the polyimide supported copper‐based interconnects.
The hyperbolic class of quadratic time-frequency representations. II. Subclasses, intersection with the affine and power classes, regularity, and unitarity

For pt.I see ibid., vol.41, p.3425-444 (1993). Part I introduced the hyperbolic class (HC) of quadratic/bilinear time-frequency representations (QTFRs). The present paper defines and studies four subclasses of the HC: (1) The focalized-kernel subclass of the HC is related to a time-frequency concentration property of QTFRs. It is analogous to the localized-kernel subclass of the affine QTFR class. (2) The affine subclass of the HC (affine HC) consists of all HC QTFRs that satisfy the conventional time-shift covariance property. It forms the intersection of the HC with the affine QTFR class. (3) The power subclasses of the HC consist of all HC QTFRs that satisfy a "power time-shift" covariance property. They form the intersection of the HC with the recently introduced power classes. (4) The power-warp subclass of the HC consists of all HC QTFRs that satisfy a covariance to power-law frequency warpings. It is the HC counterpart of the shift-scale covariant subclass of Cohen's class. All of these subclasses are characterized by 1D kernel functions. The affine HC is contained in both the localized kernel hyperbolic subclass and the localized-kernel affine subclass and that any affine HC QTFR can be derived from the Bertrand unitary Po-distribution by a convolution. We furthermore consider the properties of regularity and unitarity in the HC. The calculus of inverse kernels is developed, and important implications of regularity and unitarity are summarized. The results comprise a general method for least-squares signal synthesis and new relations for the Altes-Marinovich Q-distribution.