Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma sex steroid hormones and breast cancer risk in Chinese women

Estrogens regulate the growth and differentiation of mammary cells and play an important role in the development of breast cancer. High circulating levels of estrogens are associated with increased risk of breast cancer in Caucasian women. Because Asian women have low estrogens in the circulation compared with their Caucasian counterparts, the effect of estrogens on breast cancer risk in populations with low circulating estrogens remains to be elucidated. We conducted a population‐based case‐control study in China to evaluate the association of sex steroid hormones with breast cancer risk in Chinese women. Our study included 300 incident cases with primary breast cancer and 300 age‐ and menopausal status‐matched healthy controls randomly selected from the general population in Shanghai. Fasting blood samples were collected from cases prior to any treatment and from their matched controls. Commercial immunoassays were used to measure plasma concentrations of estradiol, estrone, estrone sulfate, testosterone, progesterone, dehydroepiandrosteindian sulfate (DHEA‐S) and steroid hormone‐binding globulin (SHBG). Conditional logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between steroid hormones and breast cancer risk. The results showed that breast cancer risk was elevated with increasing levels of estrone and testosterone (p for trend < 0.05) but not with DHEA‐S, estradiol, estrone sulfate, progesterone or SHBG. The estimated relative risks between upper and lower tertiles were 2.07 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.97–4.41) for estrone in postmenopausal women, 2.01 (95% CI 0.96–4.21) for testosterone in premenopausal women, and 2.40 (95% CI 1.11–5.21) for testosterone in postmenopausal women, after adjusting for age at first live birth, waist‐to‐hip ratio, total calorie intake, a history of fibroadenoma, a family history of breast cancer and SHBG. These results, in general, are consistent with the findings in Caucasian women and indicate that high sex steroid hormones in the circulation, both androgen and estrogen, are associated with increased risk of breast cancer even in populations with relatively low sex hormones. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mycobacterial genotypes are associated with clinical manifestation and progression of lung disease caused by Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium massiliense.

BACKGROUND Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium massiliense, which cause lung disease, are variable in their clinical manifestation and progression. We hypothesized that mycobacterial genotypes represent their pathogenic phenotypes, which would result in particular genotypes being associated with disease progression. METHODS Variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) loci were selected to establish a genotype assay that was capable of differentiating patients with heterogeneous prognoses in the development cohort (48 isolates). The analysis was reevaluated in the validation cohort (63 isolates). RESULTS A total of 53 M. abscessus and 58 M. massiliense isolates were assembled into 3 clusters based on their VNTR genotyping. The patients in cluster A were more likely to have stable disease of the nodular bronchiectatic form; 100% of M. abscessus patients and 96% of M. massiliense patients were followed without antibiotic treatment for >24 months after diagnosis. In contrast, the patients in cluster B were more likely to have progressive disease of the nodular bronchiectatic form; 96% of M. abscessus patients and 81% of M. massiliense patients started antibiotic treatment within 24 months after diagnosis. All patients in cluster C had fibrocavitary disease and started antibiotic treatment immediately after diagnosis. The genetic distance of each clinical isolate from the reference strain was associated with the highest likelihood of disease progression and a disease phenotype of the fibrocavitary form (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Mycobacterial genotyping of M. abscessus and M. massiliense may provide valuable information for predicting disease phenotype and progression.
Stateful Reconfigurable Logic via a Single-Voltage-Gated Spin Hall-Effect Driven Magnetic Tunnel Junction in a Spintronic Memory

Stateful in-memory logic (IML) is a promising paradigm to realize the unity of data storage and processing in the same die, exhibiting great feasibility to break the bottleneck of the conventional von Neumann architecture. On the roadmap toward developing such a logic platform, a critical step is the effective and efficient realization of a complete set of logic functions within a memory. In this paper, we report a realization of stateful reconfigurable logic functions via a single three-terminal magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device within a spintronic memory by exploiting the novel voltage-gated spin Hall-effect driven magnetization switching mechanism. This proposed reconfigurable IML methodology can be implemented within either a typical memory array or a cross-point array architecture. The feasibility of the proposed approach is successfully demonstrated with hybrid MTJ/CMOS circuit simulations. We believe our work may promote the research and development of the revolutionary IML for future non-von Neumann architectures.
Low-Profile Helical Quasi-Yagi Antenna Array With Multibeams at the Endfire Direction

This letter presents a novel helical quasi-Yagi antenna array with low profile and multibeams at the endfire direction. First, a planar normal-mode helical quasi-Yagi antenna with top-hat loading for low profile is designed to achieve endfire radiation. It is mounted on a conducting plane, consisting of a top-loaded folded helix as the driven element and three top-loaded unfolded helices as parasitic elements. A broadband can be achieved by controlling the resonance difference between the driven and parasitic elements. Second, a microstrip beamforming network based on Butler matrix is designed to feed a 1 × 4 helical quasi-Yagi array. The proposed antenna array is fabricated and tested. Measured results show that three endfire beams at ϕ = 90°, (90 ± 47)° are obtained while the antenna has a very low profile of 0. 054λ at its center frequency, showing that the antenna may be useful in many airborne applications such as unmanned aerial vehicles.
Fuzzy Correspondences and Kernel Density Estimation for Contaminated Point Set Registration

Point set registration problem is challenging to solve in the presence of outliers. In this paper, we proposed a registration method based on fuzzy correspondences and kernel density estimation. The main idea of our method is that the moving point set consists of inliers represented using a mixture of Gaussian, and outliers represented via an additional uniform distribution, then we use the fuzzy correspondences to estimate the Gaussian elements in the mixture model. There are four parts of the paper: we formulate the contaminated point set registration problem as a mixture model according to the well known Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based method firstly. Secondly, Gaussian elements are estimated by fuzzy correspondences to increase the registration accuracy efficiently. Thirdly, the optimal transformation between two contaminated point sets is expressed by representation theorem, and solved by EM algorithm iteratively. Finally, we compare our proposed method with several state-of-the-art methods, and the results show that our method gets better performances than the other methods in most tested scenarios.
Analysis of One-Bit Quantized Precoding for the Multiuser Massive MIMO Downlink

We present a mathematical analysis of linear precoders for downlink massive MIMO multiuser systems that employ one-bit digital-to-analog converters at the basestation in order to reduce complexity and mitigate power usage. The analysis is based on the Bussgang theorem, and applies generally to any linear precoding scheme. We examine, in detail, the special case of the quantized zero-forcing (ZF) precoder, and derive a simple asymptotic expression for the resulting symbol error rate at each terminal. Our analysis illustrates that the performance of the quantized ZF precoder depends primarily on the ratio of the number of antennas to the number of users, and our simulations show that it achieves performance similar to a more complicated nonlinear least-squares encoder for low-to-moderate signal to noise ratios, where massive MIMO systems are presumed to operate. We also use the Bussgang theorem to derive a new linear precoder optimized for the case of one-bit quantization, and illustrate its improved performance.
Impact of attachment styles on dream recall and dream content: a test of the attachment hypothesis of REM sleep

We tested the hypothesis ( McNamara 1996 ; Zborowski and McNamara 1998 ) that dream recall and dream content would pattern with interpersonal attachment styles. In study I, college student volunteers were assessed on measures of attachment, dream recall, dream content and other psychologic measures. Results showed that participants who were classified as ‘high’ on an ‘insecure attachment’ scale were significantly more likely to (a) report a dream, (b) dream ‘frequently’, and (c) evidence more intense images that contextualize strong emotions in their dreams as compared with participants who scored low on the insecure attachment scale. In study II, 76 community dwelling elderly volunteers completed measures of attachment, and dream recall. Participants whose attachment style was classified as ‘preoccupied’ were significantly more likely to report a dream and to report dreams with higher mean number of words per dream as compared with participants classified as ‘securely’ attached or as ‘avoidant’ or as ‘dismissing. ’ Dream recall was lowest for the avoidant subjects and highest for the preoccupied subjects. These data support the view that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and/or dreaming function, in part, to promote attachment.
Line Probe Assay for Detection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Mutations Conferring Resistance to Nucleoside Inhibitors of Reverse Transcriptase: Comparison with Sequence Analysis

ABSTRACT We compared the line probe assay (LiPA) to sequence analysis for the detection of mutations conferring resistance to nucleoside inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT). Plasma samples from 40 patients who had received zidovudine, dideoxyinosine, and dideoxycytosine, alone or in combination, and who were enrolled in the ALTIS 2 clinical trial (lamivudine [3TC] plus stavudine) were tested at enrollment and at week 24. RT PCR products from plasma were used for LiPA, and DNA was used for sequence analysis. LiPA gave uninterpretable results for 8.5% of the analyzed codons corresponding to 63 samples, mainly for codons 41, 69, and 70. Several minor discrepancies between the two methods occurred, mainly due to the ability of LiPA to detect mixed populations while sequence analyses detect a single homogeneous population. LiPA is suitable for detecting mixed populations and easy to implement in clinical laboratories and might be useful for epidemiological surveys of primary HIV-1 resistance.
Design of compact rectifying circuit with harmonic rejection filter for RF energy harvesting at 900 MHz

A compact rectifying circuit with harmonic rejection filter is designed and fabricated on a low cost FR-4 substrate for operation in the GSM/CDMA 900 band. The dimension for the complete rectifier is 80×45×1.6 mm3, which can be considered to be quite compact at 900 MHz. The rectifying circuit consists of the matching network, a diode, and a DC pass filter for rejection of higher order harmonics. The DC pass filter is based on three fan shaped radial stubs in order to block higher order harmonics, and the overall analysis shows an improvement of 19% in efficiency as compared to the circuit without filter. The measured results show the maximum output voltage of 3.4 Volt at 3000 Ω load. The design of rectifying circuit is simple and easy which can be easily integrated for the application of microwave power transmission circuit.
Discrimination of walking patterns using wavelet-based fractal analysis

In this paper, we attempted to classify the acceleration signals for walking along a corridor and on stairs by using the wavelet-based fractal analysis method. In addition, the wavelet-based fractal analysis method was used to evaluate the gait of elderly subjects and patients with Parkinson's disease. The triaxial acceleration signals were measured close to the center of gravity of the body while the subject walked along a corridor and up and down stairs continuously. Signal measurements were recorded from 10 healthy young subjects and 11 elderly subjects. For comparison, two patients with Parkinson's disease participated in the level walking. The acceleration signal in each direction was decomposed to seven detailed signals at different wavelet scales by using the discrete wavelet transform. The variances of detailed signals at scales 7 to 1 were calculated. The fractal dimension of the acceleration signal was then estimated from the slope of the variance progression. The fractal dimensions were significantly different among the three types of walking for individual subjects (p < 0.01) and showed a high reproducibility. Our results suggest that the fractal dimensions are effective for classifying the walking types. Moreover, the fractal dimensions were significantly higher for the elderly subjects than for the young subjects (p < 0.01). For the patients with Parkinson's disease, the fractal dimensions tended to be higher than those of healthy subjects. These results suggest that the acceleration signals change into a more complex pattern with aging and with Parkinson's disease, and the fractal dimension can be used to evaluate the gait of elderly subjects and patients with Parkinson's disease.
The Fibronectin Domains of the Neural Adhesion Molecule TAX-1 Are Necessary and Sufficient for Homophilic Binding*

Cell adhesion molecules belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily promote cell aggregation and neurite outgrowth. These proteins are multidomain molecules comprising a number of distinct modules, notably Ig domains of the C2 class and fibronectin type III repeats. A subgroup of these neural adhesion molecules are linked to the membrane with a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor and show a more restricted pattern of expression in the embryo. Among them, the human homologue of the transient axonal glycoprotein, named TAX-1, shares a great degree of similarity at the protein level with rodent TAG-1. In the present study we set out to determine which domains of TAX-1 are involved in promoting the homophilic, adhesive properties of the molecule. We established stable Schneider-2 cell lines expressing the intact molecule, the fibronectin, or the immunoglobulin domains. The fibronectin domains were necessary and sufficient to mediate homophilic binding and induce cell aggregation, a response also observed with cells expressing the intact TAX-1 molecule. Aggregation was inhibited by the secreted form of the TAG-1 protein. On the other hand, the immunoglobulin domains by themselves were not able to induce cell aggregation. In addition, TAX-1 was localized in areas of cell contact among aggregating cells, justifying its role as an adhesion molecule.
Numeric Alterations in Chromosomes 7 and 8 Detected by Fluorescent in situ Hybridization Correlate with High-Grade Localized Prostate Cancer

Objective: To compare the ability of flow cytometry (FCM) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), using a small set of 4 enumeration chromosome probes to detect aneuploidy in prostate tumors, and to correlate it with histological grade and pathological stage. Methods: Among 28 suitable cases, 21 could be analyzed by FISH and FCM techniques. DNA centromeric probes were used in FISH analysis to enumerate chromosomes 7, 8, 10 and 12. Results: (a) Of the 21 cases studied by FISH, 5 were diploid, 14 aneuploid and 2 were tetraploid. When studied by FCM, these tumors were: 14 diploid, 6 aneuploid, and 1 tetraploid. FISH proved to have a higher ability for detecting DNA aneuploidy than FCM while been equally specific, since all tumors aneuploid by FCM were also found to be aneuploid by FISH. (b) Of the 14 aneuploid tumors, 12 were of high histological grade, while only 2 of the 7 nonaneuploid were of high grade. A statistically significant association was observed between high histological grade and FISH aneuploidy (p = 0.033). (c) All the aneuploid tumors showed chromosome 7 and/or 8 aneusomy. Trisomy 7 and monosomy 8 were the most frequent alterations present in 56 and 42% of the aneuploid tumors, respectively. Conclusion: FISH analysis of chromosome 7 and 8 alterations proved to be more sensitive than FCM in the detection of aneuploid prostate tumors. This aneuploidy was significantly associated with a poor pathological prognosis.
Idarubicin-anti-CD3: a new immunoconjugate that induces alloantigen-specific tolerance in mice.

BACKGROUND In testing new anti-CD3 agents for transplantation tolerance induction, an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody was used as a carrier for the cytotoxic drug idarubicin (IDA). METHODS Anti-CD3 (KT3) was covalently coupled with IDA, producing the IDA-KT3 immunoconjugate, which was tested for specificity by fluorometry and for inhibition of proliferation of CD3+ E3 cells ([3H]thymidine uptake). KT3 and IDA-KT3 were used to treat CBA recipients of BALB/c vascularized cardiac allografts. Mice with hearts surviving >100 days were challenged with donor and third-party (C57BL/6) skin. RESULTS Conjugation to IDA did not reduce binding of KT3 to E3 cells, although the toxicity of IDA was reduced by conjugation. In BALB/c to CBA cardiac allografts (rejected in 12-17 days), both KT3 and IDA-KT3 (0.25-0.5 mg/20 g mouse i.p. at the time of transplantation) induced tolerance. Hearts survived >100 days and skin graft challenge showed indefinite survival of donor grafts but not third-party grafts. KT3 was less toxic, as measured by tumor necrosis factor-a release and blood glucose levels, than equivalent dosages of 145-2C11. At lower dosages (0.1 mg/20 g mouse), KT3-treated animals rejected BALB/c allografts in 15 to 19 days, but IDA-KT3 induced long survival (>100 days) and donor-specific tolerance in 5 of 6 mice. CONCLUSIONS Coupling IDA to anti-CD3 reduced the in vivo toxicity of IDA and improved the immunosuppressive performance of KT3, reducing the side effects seen with other anti-CD3 agents. IDA-KT3 is a new, effective, nontoxic tolerogen in this donor-recipient combination.
Novel Comprehensive Control Framework for Incorporating VSCs to Smart Power Grids Using Bidirectional Synchronous-VSC

This paper presents a new control strategy for voltage-source converters (VSCs) in the frequency-angle domain which enables dc-link voltage regulation via frequency and load angle adjustment. A major advantage of the proposed controller is emulating the behavior of synchronous machines (SMs) with proper regulation of dc-link voltage which eases integration of VSCs interfacing distributed and renewable generation units into ac systems in the presence of conventional SMs. A cascaded frequency, angle and virtual torque control topology is developed to emulate the mechanical behavior of an SM which offers synchronization power to eliminate the need for a phase-locked-loop after initial converter synchronization, and damping power dynamics to damp power oscillations; and presents frequency dynamics similar to SMs, thus it introduces some inertia to the grid. The controller presents high stability margin and fast dc-link voltage regulation, whereas it can provide frequency support in the ac-side during contingencies. Frequency and voltage amplitude are adjusted by two separate loops. Two different variants are proposed for dc-link voltage control; namely direct dc-link voltage control and indirect dc-link voltage control via a dc-link voltage controller. Small-signal dynamics, analysis, and design process are presented. Both simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the controller effectiveness.
Proteomic analysis of circulating monocytes in Chinese premenopausal females with extremely discordant bone mineral density

Osteoporosis (OP) is a major public health problem, mainly characterized by low bone mineral density (BMD). Circulating monocytes (CMCs) may serve as progenitors of osteoclasts and produce a wide variety of factors important to bone metabolism. However, the specific action mechanism of CMCs in the pathogenesis of OP is far from clear. We performed a comparative protein expression profiling study of CMCs in Chinese premenopausal females with extremely discordant BMD, identified a total of 38 differentially expressed proteins, and confirmed with Western blotting five proteins: ras suppressor protein1 (RSU1), gelsolin (GSN), manganese‐containing superoxide dismutase (SOD2), glutathione peroxidase 1(GPX1), and prolyl 4‐hydroxylase β subunit (P4HB). These proteins might affect CMCs' trans‐endothelium, differentiation, and/or downstream osteoclast functions, thus contribute to differential osteoclastogenesis and finally lead to BMD variation. The findings promote our understanding of the role of CMCs in BMD determination, and provide an insight into the pathogenesis of human OP.
Abdominal computed tomography scans in the selection of patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma for comprehensive treatment with cytoreductive surgery and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy

Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare and fatal disease. Until recently, the treatment options were very limited and ineffective. The new comprehensive approach of cytoreductive surgery with perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy offers improved survival rates at a cost of considerable morbidity and mortality as in other peritoneal surface malignancies. The outcome after these treatments is predominantly dependent on adequate cytoreduction. The aim of the current study was to identify computed tomography (CT) scan images that are useful in patient selection for this comprehensive approach.
Strategies for recruiting representative samples of Asian Americans for a population-based case–control study

Background Data are limited on effective methods for recruiting persons, especially from ethnically diverse populations, into population-based studies. The goal of this study was to evaluate the variation among and representativeness of controls identified using multiple methods for a population-based case–control study of breast cancer among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Methods We used a unique combination of targeted recruitment strategies, including address-based sampling, community-based methods, and internet-based and media-based approaches for recruiting controls, frequency matched on age and ethnicity to a population-based sample of cases. To characterise the participating controls, we compared the distribution of sociodemographic characteristics and cancer risk factors between recruitment sources using χ2 tests. To ensure that the controls we recruited were representative of the underlying at-risk population, we compared characteristics of the controls, by ethnicity and in aggregate, to data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), and adjusted the relative mix of recruitment strategies throughout the study as needed to achieve representativeness. Results As expected, controls (n=483) recruited by any single method were not representative. However, when aggregated across methods, controls were largely representative of the underlying source population, as characterised by CHIS, with regard to the characteristics under study, including nativity, education, marital status and body mass index. Conclusions A multimode approach using targeted recruitment strategies is an effective and feasible alternative to using a single recruitment method in identifying a representative, diverse control sample for population-based studies.