Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using galvanic skin response measures to identify areas of frustration for older web 2.0 users

The World Wide Web (Web) is changing. The much vaunted Web 2.0 sees once static pages evolving into hybrid applications. Content that was once simple is now becoming increasingly complicated due to the many updating components located throughout the page. The information overload and visual complexity of such components is significant. This increased complexity can produce lower performance and higher levels of stress and frustration which negatively effect the user. In previous work we have shown how galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements, collected in tandem with eye-tracking data, can be used as a method for determining how stressed users become when interacting with content. The results of that study demonstrated that when used appropriately, the presence of Web 2.0 content can reduce GSR measurements and be of benefit to users. In this work, the previous study was repeated with twenty-three older Web users to establish if similar patterns of interaction could be established. The results reveal that while older participants made use of dynamic content, unlike previous participants, they were a non-homogenous group with a large variance in the GSR measurements. We assert that a cause of this is hesitancy and therefore developing techniques to reduce hesitancy will benefit older users when interacting with Web 2.0 content.
Genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in CD4+ T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic-relapsing autoimmune disease of incompletely understood etiology. Recent evidence strongly supports an epigenetic contribution to the pathogenesis of lupus. To understand the extent and nature of dysregulated DNA methylation in lupus T cells, we performed a genome-wide DNA methylation study in CD4+ T cells in lupus patients compared to normal healthy controls. Cytosine methylation was quantified in 27,578 CG sites located within the promoter regions of 14,495 genes. We identified 236 hypomethylated and 105 hypermethylated CG sites in lupus CD4+ T cells compared to normal controls, consistent with widespread DNA methylation changes in lupus T cells. Of interest, hypomethylated genes in lupus T cells include CD9, which is known to provide potent T-cell co-stimulation signals. Other genes with known involvement in autoimmunity such as MMP9 and PDGFRA were also hypomethylated. The BST2 gene, an interferon-inducible membrane-bound protein that helps restrict the release of retroviral particles was also hypomethylated in lupus patients. Genes involved in folate biosynthesis, which plays a role in DNA methylation, were overrepresented among hypermethylated genes. In addition, the transcription factor RUNX3 was hypermethylated in patients, suggesting an impact on T-cell maturation. Protein-protein interaction maps identified a transcription factor, HNF4a, as a regulatory hub affecting a number of differentially methylated genes. Apoptosis was also an overrepresented ontology in these interaction maps. Further, our data suggest that the methylation status of RAB22A, STX1B2, LGALS3BP, DNASE1L1 and PREX1 correlates with disease activity in lupus patients.
Switching transient analysis for normally-off GaN transistors with p-GaN gate in a phase-leg circuit

Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors are emerging as promising candidates for making high-frequency, low-loss and small-size power converters. To realize normally-off, p-GaN gate technique is widely adopted in commercially available GaN-based power devices. However, owing to the distinctions in device structure, the intrinsic capacitances with regard to gate region vary from those of Si MOSFET. Besides, with drain-bias rising, the variation of gate region's net charge could make the threshold voltage of GaN transistor unstable. Thus, the switching transient waveforms of GaN transistor could be significantly influenced by the aforementioned factors, and the commonly used analysis method for Si MOSFET would not be sufficient. In this work, the threshold voltage instability is firstly analyzed, which is related to drain-to-gate voltage stress. Due to the difficulties in directly measuring the gate-related capacitances and their dynamic behaviors, a hybrid physical-behavioral modeling method is proposed, which is capable of extracting the relationship between the gate-related capacitances and their bias from the static measurements. The proposed analysis methods are then implemented on a GaN-based phase-leg circuit. Through the comparison with the experimental results and the simulated waveforms of the most advanced analysis, the proposed analysis approach exhibits outstanding performance.
Stavudine extended release (once-daily, Bristol-Myers Squibb) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS

Introduction: Stavudine extended release (d4T XR) was a formulation which tried to solve the two main problems associated with the use of stavudine immediate release (d4T IR). These were twice daily dosing schema at a time when most formulations were long-life allowing once daily dosing; and that the use of d4T IR was associated with long-term toxicity through mitochondrial toxicity clinically expressed as peripheral neuropathy, pancreatitis and above all, lipodystrophy. The link between stavudine exposure and lipodystrophy had a great negative impact on its use in clinical practice. Areas covered: The authors cover the most relevant papers related to the efficacy and safety of d4T XR-based antiretroviral therapy. Expert opinion: The development of d4T XR has only been partially successful with regard to its objectives. Improved pharmacokinetic properties allow its once daily dosing, and although it exhibits less mitochondrial toxicity it is still hampered by its development in a significant proportion of patients. This has caused its use to be almost residual in industrialised countries. As of now, d4T XR has not been made available in developing countries, despite the extended use of the immediate-release formulation. Currently, if there is no other chance of starting combination antiretroviral therapy, d4T XR could play a role in the treatment of HIV infection.
Fat and Protein Intake and Subsequent Breast Cancer Risk in Postmenopausal Women

The role of diet in the etiology of breast cancer has been extensively evaluated. Case-control studies generally support an association, while cohort studies have produced inconsistent results. This study, carried out on the ORDET cohort, is the first prospective Italian study to address the relation between diet and breast cancer. Female volunteers were recruited from 1987 to 1992 among residents of Varese Province, Northern Italy, an area covered by a cancer registry. A semiquantitative self-administered food questionnaire was completed by participants. After a mean 5.5 yr of follow-up, 56 cases of invasive breast cancer were identified among the 3,367 postmenopausal members; 214 controls were randomly chosen from the cohort, matched to cases for age, menopausal status at recruitment, recruitment center, and recruitment period. The adjusted odds ratios for the highest tertile of intake vs. the lowest were 3.47 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.43-8.44] for total fat, 3.78 (95% CI = 0.95-15.0) for animal protein, and 0.42 (95% CI = 0.18-0.95) for total carbohydrates. These findings indicate a significant positive association between total fat and animal protein and risk of breast cancer and an inverse association with carbohydrates and constitute new evidence for a role of diet in the etiology of breast cancer.
Fast Delayed Rectifier Potassium Current: Critical for Input and Output of the Circadian System

The ability to generate intrinsic circadian rhythms in electrical activity appears to be a key property of central pacemaker neurons and one essential to the function of the circadian timing system. Previous work has demonstrated that suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) neurons express the fast delayed rectifier (FDR) potassium current and raise questions about the function of this current. Here, we report that mice lacking both Kcnc1 and Kcnc2 genes [double knock-out (dKO)] fail to express the Kv3.1 and 3.2 channels in the SCN as well as exhibit a greatly reduced FDR current. SCN neurons from these dKO mice exhibit reduced spontaneous activity during the day as well as reduced NMDA-evoked excitatory responses during the night. Interestingly, the daily rhythm in PER2 expression in the SCN was not altered in the dKO mice, although the photic induction of c-Fos was attenuated. Behaviorally, the dKO mice exhibited extremely disrupted daily rhythms in wheel-running behavior. In a light/dark cycle, some of the dKO mice were arrhythmic, whereas others expressed a diurnal rhythm with low amplitude and significant activity during the day. When placed in constant darkness, the dKO mice exhibited low-amplitude, fragmented rhythms and attenuated light responses. Together, these data are consistent with the hypothesis that the FDR current is critical for the generation of robust circadian rhythms in behavior as well as the synchronization of the circadian system to the photic environment.
Active site mutant transgene confers tolerance to human β-glucuronidase without affecting the phenotype of MPS VII mice

Mucopolysaccharidosis type VII (MPS VII; Sly syndrome) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder due to an inherited deficiency of β-glucuronidase. A naturally occurring mouse model for this disease was discovered at The Jackson Laboratory and shown to be due to homozygosity for a 1-bp deletion in exon 10 of the gus gene. The murine model MPS VII (gusmps/mps) has been very well characterized and used extensively to evaluate experimental strategies for lysosomal storage diseases, including bone marrow transplantation, enzyme replacement therapy, and gene therapy. To enhance the value of this model for enzyme and gene therapy, we produced a transgenic mouse expressing the human β-glucuronidase cDNA with an amino acid substitution at the active site nucleophile (E540A) and bred it onto the MPS VII (gusmps/mps) background. We demonstrate here that the mutant mice bearing the active site mutant human transgene retain the clinical, morphological, biochemical, and histopathological characteristics of the original MPS VII (gusmps/mps) mouse. However, they are now tolerant to immune challenge with human β-glucuronidase. This “tolerant MPS VII mouse model” should be useful for preclinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of enzyme and/or gene therapy with the human gene products likely to be administered to human patients with MPS VII.
Are Phase 2 screening trials in oncology obsolete?

Phase 2 studies in Oncology are controversial because on the one hand they are substantially underpowered for making assessments of activity and on the other hand they are used as a screen to determine whether a Phase 3 trial is warranted. In this paper, we undertake a systematic assessment of the properties of a Phase 2 study in the context of a drug development program. We will show that, when considering only the efficiency of a clinical trials program, Phase 2 screening trials can substantially increase the efficiency with which drugs that provide clinical benefit are identified. However, if there are substantial costs in identifying drug candidates to test in clinical trials as there are today, then Phase 2 screening trials as a prelude to Phase 3 trials may reduce the efficiency of the drug development process as a whole. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Exaggerated eye growth in IRBP-deficient mice in early development.

PURPOSE Because interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) is expressed before being needed in its presumptive role in the visual cycle, we tested whether it controls eye growth during development. METHODS The eyes of congenic IRBP knockout (KO) and C57BL/6J wild-type (WT) mice ranging in age from postnatal day (P)2 to P440 were compared by histology, laser micrometry, cycloplegic photorefractions, and partial coherence interferometry. RESULTS The size and weight of IRBP KO mouse eyes were greater than those of the WT mouse, even before eye-opening. Excessive ocular enlargement started between P7 and P10, with KO retinal arc lengths becoming greater compared with WT from P10 through P30 (18%; P < 0.01). The outer nuclear layer (ONL) of KO retinas became 20% thinner between P12 to P25, and progressed to 38% thinner at P30. At P30, there were 30% fewer cones per vertical section in KO than in WT retinas. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling indicated the same number of retinal cells were born in KO and WT mice. A spike in apoptosis was observed in KO outer nuclear layer at P25. These changes in size were accompanied by a large decrease in hyperopic refractive error, which reached -4.56 ± 0.70 diopters (D) versus +9.98 ± 0.993 D (mean ± SD) in WT, by postnatal day 60 (P60). CONCLUSIONS; In addition to its role in the visual cycle, IRBP is needed for normal eye development. How IRBP mediates ocular development is unknown.
A rehabilitation gait training system for half lower limb disorder

Gait training is one of main means of rehabilitation of lower limb disfunction. Nevertheless, the promotion of clinical gait training is inhibited by the professional skill and labor consumption of physiatrist. It is with great practical value to design an automatic rehabilitation equipment which could increase the effectiveness and quality of training progress, meanwhile reduce labor costs. In this paper, we presented a new automatic rehabilitation gait training system constructed by wearable sensors and robotic manipulator for hemiplegia patients. After that, using the measurement of normal lower limb, the correction of the disorder lower limb has been estimated. For the detection of the normal lower limb motion, a movement capturing system based on a Kinect and several wearable initial measurement units (IMU) is proposed, and a fusion method is designed to handle time synchronization between multiple sensors and to alleviate cumulative errors. After analyzing the lower limb trajectories, a gait model is constructed based on the regression model with spline interpolation. Finally, corrected lower limb gait trajectories generated by the constructed gait model is simulated using 3D animation, which illustrate the stability and practicability of the proposed system.
SecureKeeper: Confidential ZooKeeper using Intel SGX

Cloud computing, while ubiquitous, still suffers from trust issues, especially for applications managing sensitive data. Third-party coordination services such as ZooKeeper and Consul are fundamental building blocks for cloud applications, but are exposed to potentially sensitive application data. Recently, hardware trust mechanisms such as Intel's Software Guard Extensions (SGX) offer trusted execution environments to shield application data from untrusted software, including the privileged Operating System (OS) and hypervisors. Such hardware support suggests new options for securing third-party coordination services. We describe SecureKeeper, an enhanced version of the ZooKeeper coordination service that uses SGX to preserve the confidentiality and basic integrity of ZooKeeper-managed data. SecureKeeper uses multiple small enclaves to ensure that (i) user-provided data in ZooKeeper is always kept encrypted while not residing inside an enclave, and (ii) essential processing steps that demand plaintext access can still be performed securely. SecureKeeper limits the required changes to the ZooKeeper code base and relies on Java's native code support for accessing enclaves. With an overhead of 11%, the performance of SecureKeeper with SGX is comparable to ZooKeeper with secure communication, while providing much stronger security guarantees with a minimal trusted code base of a few thousand lines of code.
Root foraging elicits niche complementarity-dependent yield advantage in the ancient 'three sisters' (maize/bean/squash) polyculture.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Since ancient times in the Americas, maize, bean and squash have been grown together in a polyculture known as the 'three sisters'. This polyculture and its maize/bean variant have greater yield than component monocultures on a land-equivalent basis. This study shows that below-ground niche complementarity may contribute to this yield advantage. METHODS Monocultures and polycultures of maize, bean and squash were grown in two seasons in field plots differing in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability. Root growth patterns of individual crops and entire polycultures were determined using a modified DNA-based technique to discriminate roots of different species. KEY RESULTS The maize/bean/squash and maize/bean polycultures had greater yield and biomass production on a land-equivalent basis than the monocultures. Increased biomass production was largely caused by a complementarity effect rather than a selection effect. The differences in root crown architecture and vertical root distribution among the components of the 'three sisters' suggest that these species have different, possibly complementary, nutrient foraging strategies. Maize foraged relatively shallower, common bean explored the vertical soil profile more equally, while the root placement of squash depended on P availability. The density of lateral root branching was significantly greater for all species in the polycultures than in the monocultures. CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that species differences in root foraging strategies increase total soil exploration, with consequent positive effects on the growth and yield of these ancient polycultures.
Quality of Health Management Information System for Maternal & Child Health Care in Haryana State, India

BACKGROUND Despite increasing importance being laid on use of routine data for decision making in India, it has frequently been reported to be riddled with problems. Evidence suggests lack of quality in the health management information system (HMIS), however there is no robust analysis to assess the extent of its inaccuracy. We aim to bridge this gap in evidence by assessing the extent of completeness and quality of HMIS in Haryana state of India. METHODS Data on utilization of key maternal and child health (MCH) services were collected using a cross-sectional household survey from 4807 women in 209 Sub-Centre (SC) areas across all 21 districts of Haryana state. Information for same services was also recorded from HMIS records maintained by auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) at SCs to check under- or over-recording (Level 1 discordance). Data on utilisation of MCH services from SC ANM records, for a subset of the total women covered in the household survey, were also collected and compared with monthly reports submitted by ANMs to assess over-reporting while report preparation (Level 2 discordance) to paint the complete picture for quality and completeness of routine HMIS. RESULTS Completeness of ANM records for various MCH services ranged from 73% for DPT1 vaccination dates to 94.6% for dates of delivery. Average completeness level for information recorded in HMIS was 88.5%. Extent of Level 1 discordance for iron-folic acid (IFA) supplementation, 3 or more ante-natal care (ANC) visits and 2 Tetanus toxoid (TT) injections was 41%, 16% and 2% respectively. In 48.2% cases, respondents from community as well as HMIS records reported at least one post-natal care (PNC) home visit by ANM. Extent of Level 2 discordance ranged from 1.6% to 6%. These figures were highest for number of women who completed IFA supplementation, contraceptive intra-uterine device insertion and provision of 2nd TT injection during ANC. CONCLUSIONS HMIS records for MCH services at sub-centre level in Haryana state were satisfactory in terms of completeness. However, there were significant differences in terms of reported and evaluated coverage of MCH services. Quality of HMIS needs to be improved in order to make it relevant for public health program planning and research.
Comparative safety for cardiovascular outcomes of DPP-4 inhibitors versus glimepiride in patients with type 2 diabetes

Abstract Concerns about the cardiovascular safety of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors persist. This study sought to determine whether there is a differential risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) between DPP-4 inhibitors and glimepiride. We conducted this retrospective cohort study by using the Korean National Health Insurance Service database from December 1, 2008, to December 31, 2013. The study subjects were new users of DPP-4 inhibitors or glimepiride for type 2 diabetes. Outcome was defined as hospitalization for CVDs, including angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, transient cerebral ischemic attack, heart failure, or cerebrovascular disease or any procedure involving coronary artery bypass grafting or percutaneous coronary intervention. We used a Cox proportional hazard model to estimate the adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs), to assess the risk of CVDs associated with the use of DPP-4 inhibitors compared with glimepiride. The cohort consisted of 1,045,975 patients, with 6504 in the DPP-4 inhibitors group and 13,447 in the glimepiride group. No significant increased risk of total CVDs was found (aHR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.75–1.01) in the DPP-4 inhibitors versus glimepiride group. A decreased risk of hospitalization for CVDs was found among patients with a history of visit for CVDs (aHR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.56–0.97) or with >2.5 years’ duration of type 2 diabetes (aHR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66–0.91) in the DPP-4 inhibitors versus glimepiride group. DPP-4 inhibitors did not increase cardiovascular risk compared with glimepiride regardless of CVD history and diabetes duration.
Event-triggered dynamic output feedback control for switched linear systems

Switched linear systems and their control have been an active research field in the past two decades; however, no systematic results have been reported in the literature on how such systems behave when event-triggered control is introduced. While the potential advantage of introducing event-triggered mechanism is obvious, namely to reduce unnecessary sensing, communication and computation as shown by fast growing literature, the challenge resulted from the mixture of event times for control and switching times for the systems' inherent dynamics cannot be easily handled by the existing tools. In this paper, for switched linear systems under dynamic, output feedback, event-triggered control, we propose a set of co-design methodologies that consider jointly the design of controller parameters, construction of switching logics and the condition for event triggering. The key step is to consider multiple Lyapunov functions incorporating possible triggered events and thus compute a priori tight lower bounds for the average dwell time for stabilizing the closed-loop systems. One additional benefit of using the proposed co-design method is to exclude straightforwardly the nasty Zeno behavior that may cause event to be triggered infinitely often within finite time. The fact that only the plant's measurable output signal is utilized by the control opens new ground for applying event-triggered control in real applications.