Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genomic Scan for Exercise Blood Pressure in the Health, Risk Factors, Exercise Training and Genetics (HERITAGE) Family Study

Abstract—A genome-wide linkage scan was performed for genes affecting submaximal exercise systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in the sedentary state and their responses to a standardized endurance training program. A total of 344 polymorphic markers were used, and 344 pairs of siblings from 99 white nuclear families and 102 sibling pairs from 105 black family units were available for the study. All subjects were healthy but sedentary at baseline. SBP and DBP were measured during exercise tests at 2 different intensities: 50 W (SBP50 and DBP50) and 80% of maximal oxygen consumption (SBP80 and DBP80). Baseline blood pressure phenotypes were adjusted for age, gender, and body mass index, and the training responses (after training minus baseline [&Dgr;]) were adjusted for age, gender, baseline body mass index, and baseline blood pressure. Two analytical strategies were used: a multipoint variance-components linkage analysis using all the family data and a single-point linkage analysis using pairs of siblings. In whites, promising linkages (lod score >1.75) were detected for baseline SBP80 on 10q23-q24 and for &Dgr;SBP50 on 8q21. In addition, several chromosomal regions with suggestive evidence of linkage (lod score 1.0 to 1.75) were observed for SBP50 (22q11.2-q13), DBP50 (6q23-q27), SBP80 (2p24, 2q21, 14q11.1-q12, and 16q21), DBP80 (6q13-q21), &Dgr;SBP50 (7p12-p13), and &Dgr;DBP50 (5q31-q32). In blacks, DBP50, DBP80, and &Dgr;DBP80 showed promising quantitative trait loci on 18p11.2, 11q13-q21, and 10q21-q23, respectively. Suggestive linkages were evident for DBP50 on 2p22-p25, 11p15.5, and 18q21.1; for SBP80 on 6q21-q21, 6q31-q36, 12q12-q13, 15q12-q13, and 17q11-q12; and for DBP80 on 8q24, 10q21-q24, and 12p13. All the detected chromosomal regions include several potential candidate genes and therefore warrant further studies in the Health, Risk Factors, Exercise Training and Genetics (HERITAGE) cohort and other studies.
Array of Unbiased Antennaless THz Emitters Composed of Buried Nanoscale Asymmetric MSM Gratings With Dissimilar Schottky Barriers

We propose an array of unbiased antennaless continuous wave (CW) THz photomixers made of subwavelength buried metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) gratings with dissimilar Schottky barriers. These dissimilar metals in each unit cell are in intimate contact, and yet the maximum electric field appearing in the semiconducting material, unlike that in the planar structures, is far below its breakdown threshold. This relaxes the breakdown constraint that is normally confronted in the design of similar THz emitters with planar gratings. Besides, as compared with a similar array with subwavelength but planar MSM gratings, use of the buried MSM has increased the volume in which the carriers’ photogeneration occurs, enhancing the resultant CW THz radiation by an order of magnitude. This is also five orders of magnitude greater than the THz power that can be radiated by a similar array of the same size with diffraction-limited planar electrodes. Moreover, calculating the frequency dependence of the THz output power, the newly proposed plasmons-assisted emitters are shown to be tunable in a wide range of 0.1–3 THz. We have also numerically demonstrated that 4.5% of the 1.58 mW optical pump can efficiently be converted to the THz power at the radiation frequency of 0.5 THz.
A review of non-isolated bidirectional dc-dc converters for energy storage systems

There is a growing interest in bidirectional dc-dc converters for interface battery with energy source and load. This paper provides a comprehensive review of non-isolated bidirectional dc-dc converter topologies. The classification and description of each type presented is based on the features and applications. This review paper is intended as a convenient reference to future non-isolated converter users. The most promising converters in terms of their simplicity, flexibility, and high efficiency are singled out.
Bulbar and speech motor assessment in ALS: Challenges and future directions

Abstract Bulbar motor deterioration due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) leads to the eventual impairment of speech and swallowing functions. Despite these devastating consequences, no standardized diagnostic procedure for assessing bulbar dysfunction in ALS exists and adequate objective markers of bulbar deterioration have not been identified. In this paper, we consider objective measures of speech motor function, which show promise for forming the basis of a comprehensive, quantitative bulbar motor assessment in ALS. These measures are based on the assessment of four speech subsystems: respiratory, phonatory, articulatory, and resonatory. The goal of this research is to design a non-invasive, comprehensive bulbar motor assessment instrument intended for early detection, monitoring of disease progression, and clinical trial application. Preliminary data from an ongoing study of bulbar motor decline are presented, which demonstrate the potential clinical efficacy of the speech subsystem approach.
The Rodney L . White Center for Financial Research A Multiplicative Model of Optimal CEO Incentives in Market Equilibrium

Existing compensation models typically assume that e¤ort has additive e¤ects on CEO utility. This paper considers multiplicative speci cations for the principal-agent problem, and further embeds the problem into a talent assignment model. The result is a uni ed framework endogenizing both incentives and total pay levels in competitive market equilibrium. The predictions generated by multiplicative speci cations match a number of stylized facts inconsistent with an additive model. First, the negative relationship between the CEOs e¤ective equity stake and rm size can be quantitatively explained by an optimal contracting model and thus need not reect rent extraction. Second, our multiplicative setting predicts that the dollar change in wealth for a percentage change in rm value, scaled by annual pay, is independent of rm size and thus a desirable empirical measure. This independence is con rmed in the data. Third, incentive compensation is e¤ective at solving large agency problems, such as strategy choice, but smaller issues such as perk consumption are best addressed through direct monitoring. Keywords: Executive compensation, multiplicative preferences, pay-performance sensitivity, incentives, perks, optimal contracting, calibration JEL Classification: D2, D3, G34, J3 aedmans@wharton.upenn. edu, xgabaix@stern.nyu. edu, alandier@stern.nyu. edu. This paper was previously circulated under the title A Calibratable Model of Optimal CEO Incentives in Market Equilibrium.  For helpful comments, we thank two anonymous referees, the editor (Michael Weisbach), Franklin Allen, Yakov Amihud, Indraneel Chakraborty, John Core, Ingolf Dittmann, Carola Frydman, Bob Gibbons, Xavier Giroud, Itay Goldstein, Zhiguo He, Ben Hermalin, Dirk Jenter, Holger Mueller, Derek Neal, Luis Palacios, Michael Roberts, Yuliy Sannikov, Merih Sevilir, Andrei Shleifer, Jeremy Stein, Youngsuk Yook and seminar participants at the University of Delaware, MIT, NYU, the Econometric Society Winter Meetings, the NBER, and the Washington University Conference on Corporate Finance. AE gratefully acknowledges the Goldman Sachs Research Fellowship from the Rodney White Center for Financial Research, and XG thanks the NSF for nancial support.
Peripheral T-cell Lymphomas of Follicular T-Helper Cell Derivation With Hodgkin/Reed-Sternberg Cells of B-cell Lineage: Both EBV-positive and EBV-negative Variants Exist

Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) are functionally and morphologically complex. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive B cells have been reported in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) and other PTCLs and may mimic Hodgkin/Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells, but EBV-negative HRS-like B cells have not been described. We wished to assess the nature of the PTCL associated with HRS-like cells and to determine whether EBV-negative HRS-like cells may be seen. We identified 57 PTCL cases reported as containing HRS-like cells. These included 32 AITL, 19 PTCL, not otherwise specified (NOS), 3 PTCL-NOS, follicular variant, 1 PTCL-NOS, T-zone variant, and 2 adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma cases. All patients were adults with a median age of 63 and presented with lymphadenopathy. The male:female ratio was 31:26 (1.2:1). Clonal TRG rearrangement was detected in 46/53 cases. Six of 38 cases had a concomitant clonal immunoglobulin gene rearrangement. In 52/57 cases the HRS cells were positive for EBV. Five cases, 3 classified as AITL and 2 as PTCL-NOS, follicular variant, contained HRS-like cells negative for EBV. All PTCLs with EBV-negative HRS cells had a T follicular helper cell immunophenotype. The neoplastic T cells expressed CD3, CD4, and PD-1 and formed rosettes around the HRS-like cells. The HRS-like cells were positive for CD20 (variable intensity), PAX5, CD30, and CD15 (4/5). We conclude that both EBV-positive and EBV-negative HRS-like B cells may occur in the background of PTCL; caution is needed to avoid misdiagnosis as classical Hodgkin lymphoma. The close interaction between the HRS-like cells and the rosetting PD-1-positive T cells suggests a possible pathogenetic role in this phenomenon and provides new insights into the abnormal B-cell proliferations that occur in the context of TFH malignancies.
Crustal layering in northeastern Tibet: a case study based on joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave dispersion

Yangfan Deng,1,2 Weisen Shen,3 Tao Xu2,4 and Michael H. Ritzwoller3 1State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China 2State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China 3Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. E-mail: Weisen.Shen@colorado.edu 4CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor after chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia at higher age or after relapse.

To reduce critical neutropenia after chemotherapy (CT) for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) we administered recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) to patients over the age of 65 years with newly diagnosed AML and to patients with early or second relapse. CT was 9-day 6-thioguanine, ara-C, and daunorubicin (TAD9) in newly diagnosed AML and sequential high-dose ara-C and mitoxantrone (S-HAM) for relapse. In patients whose bone marrow was free from blasts a continuous intravenous infusion of GM-CSF 250 micrograms/m2/d started on day 4 after CT. Thirty-six patients entered the study and 30 of them did receive GM-CSF. For comparison, a historical control group of 56 patients was used. Complete remission rate was 50% (18 of 36) versus 32% in controls (P = .09), and early death rate was 14% versus 39% (P = .009). Treatment with GM-CSF was not associated with major adverse events. Two patients showed a marked leukemic regrowth that was completely reversible in one patient and appeared to be GM-CSF independent in the other patient. Remission duration does not seem to be reduced after GM-CSF. Under GM-CSF the blood neutrophils recovered 6 and 9 days earlier in the TAD9 (P = .009) and S-HAM (P = .043) groups associated with a rapid clearance of infections in most patients. We conclude that GM-CSF was of therapeutic benefit to our patients and this provides a basis for larger controlled trials.
Whole‐Body Imaging of Infection Using Fluorescence

Optical imaging is emerging as a powerful tool to study physiological, neurological, oncological, cell biological, molecular, developmental, immunological, and infectious processes. This unit describes the use of fluorescent reporters for biological organisms, components, or events. We describe the application of fluorescence imaging to examination of infectious processes, in particular subcutaneous and pulmonary bacterial infections, but the same approaches are applicable to nearly any infectious route. The strategies described use mycobacterial infections as an example, but nearly identical systems can be used for Pseudomonas, Legionella, Salmonella, Escherichia, Borrelia, and Staphylococus, suggesting that the approaches are generally applicable to nearly any infectious agent. Two strategies for fluorescence imaging are described: the first method uses reporter enzyme fluorescence (REF), and the second uses fluorescent proteins for fluorescence imaging. Methods are described in detail to facilitate successful application of these emerging technologies to nearly any experimental system. Curr. Protoc. Microbiol. 21:2C.3. 1‐2C.3. 21. © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Dealing with Driver Failures in the Storage Stack

This work augments MINIX 3's failure-resilience mechanisms with novel disk-driver recovery strategies and guaranteed file-system data integrity. We propose a flexible filter-driver framework that operates transparently to both the file system and the disk driver and enforces different protection strategies. The filter uses checksumming and mirroring in order to achieve end-to-end integrity and provide hard guarantees for detection of silent data corruption and recovery of lost data. In addition, the filter uses semantic information about the driver's working in order to verify correct operation and proactively replace the driver if an anomaly is detected. We evaluated our design through a series of experiments on a prototype implementation: application-level benchmarks show modest performance overhead of 0-28% and software-implemented fault-injection (SWIFI) testing demonstrates the filter's ability to detect and transparently recover from both data-integrity problems and driver-protocol violations.
QoS-aware Deployment of Network of Virtual Appliances Across Multiple Clouds

Cloud computing paradigm allows on-demand access to computing and storages services over the Internet. To solve the complexity of application deployment in Cloud infrastructure, virtual appliances, pre-configured, ready-to-run applications are emerging as a breakthrough technology. However, an automated approach for deploying network of appliances is required to guarantee minimum deployment cost, low latency, and high reliability. In this paper, we propose and compare two different deployment approaches: Forward-checking-based backtracking (FCBB) and genetic-based. They take into account Quality of Service (QoS) criteria such as reliability, data communication cost, and latency between multiple Clouds to choose the most appropriate combination of virtual machines and appliances. We evaluate our approach using a real case study and different request types. Experimental results show both algorithms reach near optimal solution. Further, we investigate effects of factors such as latency requirements, and data communication between appliances on the performance of the algorithms and placement of appliances across multiple Clouds.
Treo: Combining Entity-Search, Spreading Activation and Semantic Relatedness for Querying Linked Data

This paper describes Treo, a natural language query mechanism for Linked Data which focuses on the provision of a precise and scalable semantic matching approach between natural language queries and distributed heterogeneous Linked Datasets. Treo’s semantic matching approach combines three key elements: entity search, a Wikipedia-based semantic relatedness measure and spreading activation search. While entity search allows Treo to cope with queries over high volume and distributed data, the combination of entity search and spreading activation search using a Wikipedia-based semantic relatedness measure provides a flexible approach for handling the semantic match between natural language queries and Linked Data. Experimental results using the DBPedia QALD training query set showed that this combination represents a promising line of investigation, achieving a mean reciprocal rank of 0.489, precision of 0.395 and recall of 0.451.
Carbohydrate Structure Database: tools for statistical analysis of bacterial, plant and fungal glycomes

Carbohydrates are biological blocks participating in diverse and crucial processes both at cellular and organism levels. They protect individual cells, establish intracellular interactions, take part in the immune reaction and participate in many other processes. Glycosylation is considered as one of the most important modifications of proteins and other biologically active molecules. Still, the data on the enzymatic machinery involved in the carbohydrate synthesis and processing are scattered, and the advance on its study is hindered by the vast bulk of accumulated genetic information not supported by any experimental evidences for functions of proteins that are encoded by these genes. In this article, we present novel instruments for statistical analysis of glycomes in taxa. These tools may be helpful for investigating carbohydrate-related enzymatic activities in various groups of organisms and for comparison of their carbohydrate content. The instruments are developed on the Carbohydrate Structure Database (CSDB) platform and are available freely on the CSDB web-site at http://csdb.glycoscience. ru. Database URL: http://csdb.glycoscience. ru
Adaptive Step-size Policy Gradients with Average Reward Metric

In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive step-size approach for policy gradient reinforcement learning. A new metric is defined for policy gradients that measures the effect of changes on average reward with respect to the policy parameters. Since the metric directly measures the effects on the average reward, the resulting policy gradient learning employs an adaptive step-size strategy that can effectively avoid falling into a stagnant phase from the complex structure of the average reward function with respect to the policy parameters. Two algorithms are derived with the metric as variants of ordinary and natural policy gradients. Their properties are compared with previously proposed policy gradients through numerical experiments with simple, but non-trivial, 3-state Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). We also show performance improvements over previous methods in on-line learning with more challenging 20-state MDPs.
A Space-Mapping Method for Object Location Estimation Adaptive to Camera Setup Changes for Vision-Based Automation Applications

A new space-mapping method for object location estimation, which is adaptive to camera setup changes, for use in various automation applications is proposed. The location of an object appearing in an image is estimated by mapping image coordinates of object points to corresponding real-world coordinates using a mapping table, which is constructed in two stages, with the first stage for establishing a basic table using bilinear interpolation in the camera manufacturing environment and the second for adapting the table to changes of camera heights and orientations in the application field. Analytic equations for table adaptation are derived by skillful utilization of both image formation and camera geometry properties. Good experimental results are shown to prove the feasibility of the proposed method.
The ubc2 gene of Ustilago maydis encodes a putative novel adaptor protein required for filamentous growth, pheromone response and virulence

The Basidiomycete fungus Ustilago maydis causes corn smut disease and alternates between a budding haploid saprophyte and a filamentous dikaryotic pathogen. Previous work demonstrated that haploid adenylate cyclase (uac1) mutants display a constitutively filamentous phenotype. Suppressor mutants of a uac1 disruption strain, named ubc for Ustilagobypass of cyclase, no longer require cAMP for the budding morphology. The ubc2 gene was isolated by complementation and is required for filamentous growth. The deduced amino acid sequence encoded by ubc2 shows localized homology to Sterile Alpha Motif (SAM), Ras Association (RA) and Src homology 3 (SH3) protein–protein interaction domains. A K78E missense mutation within the SAM domain, revealed a genetic interaction between ubc2 and ubc4, a pheromone‐responsive MAP kinase kinase kinase. This indicates involvement of ubc2 in the pheromone‐responsive MAP kinase cascade and ubc2 is required for pheromone‐responsive morphogenesis. The ubc2 gene is a critical virulence factor. Thus, ubc2 encodes a putative novel adaptor protein that may act directly upstream of the pheromone‐responsive MAP kinase cascade in U. maydis.
Feature-space speaker adaptation for probabilistic linear discriminant analysis acoustic models

Probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA) acoustic models extend Gaussian mixture models by factorizing the acoustic variability using state-dependent and observationdependent variables. This enables the use of higher dimensional acoustic features, and the capture of intra-frame feature correlations. In this paper, we investigate the estimation of speaker adaptive feature-space (constrained) maximum likelihood linear regression transforms from PLDA-based acoustic models. This feature-space speaker transformation estimation approach is potentially very useful due to the ability of PLDA acoustic models to use different types of acoustic features, for example applying these transforms to deep neural network (DNN) acoustic models for cross adaptation. We evaluated the approach on the Switchboard corpus, and observe significant word error reduction by using both the mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and DNN bottleneck features.
HIV Risk Behaviors Among a Sample of Heterosexually Identified Men who Occasionally Have Sex with Another Male and/or a Transwoman

Discordance between sexual identity and sexual behavior is not new; however, little is known about the HIV risk behaviors of heterosexually identified men who have occasional sex with a male and/or a male-to-female transgender woman. Open-ended qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 heterosexually identified men who reported at least one sexual encounter with a male and/or a transwoman in the previous 12 months. Sixty-one percent were African American/Black, the mean age was 38.9 years (SD = 8.4), 58.1% reported current substance use, and 58.1% were HIV infected. Among those who had a sexual encounter with a transwoman, the majority (81.3%) were the insertive partner during anal sex. In comparison, among those who had a sexual encounter with a male partner, almost one-half (42.9%) were the receptive partner during anal sex. HIV-infected participants were more likely to use a condom with a biological female partner than with a male or transwoman partner. HIV-uninfected participants reported limited condom use with any partner type, highlighting their potential role in the diffusion of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Participants' HIV status, partner type, substance use, and cultural factors influenced sexual decision-making and HIV risk behaviors.
Does it Pay to Care? Prosocial Engagement and Employment Opportunities

We investigate whether, why and when prosocial engagement has a causal effect on individual employment opportunities. To this end, a field experiment is conducted in which volunteering activities are randomly assigned to fictitious job applications sent to genuine vacancies. We find that volunteers get one third more interview invitations than non-volunteers. The volunteering premium is higher for females but invariant with respect to the number of engagements and the private versus public or nonprofit orientation of the job posting firm. As a result, our findings are consistent with the idea that prosocial workers sort themselves into non-commercial sectors.