Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel telemonitoring device for improving diabetes control: protocol and results from a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND Telemedicine is one approach to managing patients with chronic illness. Several telephone-based monitoring studies of diabetes patients have shown improved glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), blood pressure (BP), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an investigational in-home telemetry device for improving glucose and BP control over 6 months for patients with type 2 diabetes. The device was used to transmit weekly blood glucose, weight, and BP readings to a diabetes care manager. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We conducted a two-arm, parallel-comparison, single-blind, randomized controlled trial among Kaiser Permanente Northern California members 18-75 years old with type 2 diabetes mellitus and entry HbA1c levels between 7.5% and 10.0%. Participants were randomly assigned to either the telemonitoring arm or the usual care arm. RESULTS We observed very small, nonsignificant changes in fructosamine (telemonitoring, -54.9 μmol; usual care, -59.4 μmol) and systolic BP (telemonitoring, -6.3 mm Hg; usual care, -3.2 mm Hg) from baseline to 6 weeks in both groups. At 6 months, we observed no significant intergroup differences in change from baseline for HbA1c, fructosamine, or self-efficacy. However, LDL cholesterol in the telemonitoring arm decreased more than in the usual care arm (-17.1 mg/dL versus -5.4 mg/dL; P=0.045). CONCLUSIONS Although HbA1c improved significantly over 6 months in both groups, the difference in improvement between the groups was not significant. This lack of significance may be due to the relatively healthy status of the volunteers in our study and to the high level of care provided by the care managers in the Santa Rosa, CA clinic. Further study in subgroups of less healthy diabetes patients is recommended.
Comparison of Immune Responses in Pigs Infected with Chinese Highly Pathogenic PRRS Virus Strain HV and North American Strain NADC-20

Introduction: Chinese HP-PRRSV characterized by high morbidity and mortality of all ages of pigs emerged since 2006 in China. The immune response of HP-PRRSV was never compared with conventional low pathogenic PRRSV strain. Objective: In this study, we compared the immune responses elicited by a Chinese HP-PRRSV strain HV and a North American RRSV strain NADC20 infections. Result: Pigs infected with NADC-20 showed significantly higher Ab titers than HV-PRRSV infected pigs at 9 DPI. Infection with HV-PRRSV induced a significantly higher levels of TNF-α and IL-10 in both sera and lung tissues and higher IFN-α and IFN-γ in the serum. Flow cytometry analysis showed that HV-PRRSV infected pigs generated significantly higher frequencies of NK cells in the peripheral blood and Th/memory, CTLs, and T-reg cells in the lung as compared with NADC-20 infected pigs. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that different immunity profiles were elicited by HV-PRRSV and NADC-20, and these differences may contribute to the distinct pathogenesis of HV-PRRSV and NADC-20.
An IcmF Family Protein, ImpLM, Is an Integral Inner Membrane Protein Interacting with ImpKL, and Its Walker A Motif Is Required for Type VI Secretion System-Mediated Hcp Secretion in Agrobacterium tumefaciens

ABSTRACT An intracellular multiplication F (IcmF) family protein is a conserved component of a newly identified type VI secretion system (T6SS) encoded in many animal and plant-associated Proteobacteria. We have previously identified ImpLM, an IcmF family protein that is required for the secretion of the T6SS substrate hemolysin-coregulated protein (Hcp) from the plant-pathogenic bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens. In this study, we characterized the topology of ImpLM and the importance of its nucleotide-binding Walker A motif involved in Hcp secretion from A. tumefaciens. A combination of β-lactamase-green fluorescent protein fusion and biochemical fractionation analyses revealed that ImpLM is an integral polytopic inner membrane protein comprising three transmembrane domains bordered by an N-terminal domain facing the cytoplasm and a C-terminal domain exposed to the periplasm. impLM mutants with substitutions or deletions in the Walker A motif failed to complement the impLM deletion mutant for Hcp secretion, which provided evidence that ImpLM may bind and/or hydrolyze nucleoside triphosphates to mediate T6SS machine assembly and/or substrate secretion. Protein-protein interaction and protein stability analyses indicated that there is a physical interaction between ImpLM and another essential T6SS component, ImpKL. Topology and biochemical fractionation analyses suggested that ImpKL is an integral bitopic inner membrane protein with an N-terminal domain facing the cytoplasm and a C-terminal OmpA-like domain exposed to the periplasm. Further comprehensive yeast two-hybrid assays dissecting ImpLM-ImpKL interaction domains suggested that ImpLM interacts with ImpKL via the N-terminal cytoplasmic domains of the proteins. In conclusion, ImpLM interacts with ImpKL, and its Walker A motif is required for its function in mediation of Hcp secretion from A. tumefaciens.
Membranes and phospholipids of liver mitochondria from chronic alcoholic rats are resistant to membrane disordering by alcohol.

Using the spin probe 5-doxylstearic acid, we studied the structural perturbations of rat liver mitochondrial membranes produced by exposure to ethanol in vitro and by chronic ethanol feeding. The addition of ethanol in vitro to mitochondria from control animals appears to "fluidize" the membranes, as evidenced by a pronounced decrease in the order parameter. By contrast, in membranes from rats fed ethanol chronically, there was no effect on the order parameter. This resistance of the mitochondrial membranes from chronically intoxicated animals to the fluidizing effect of ethanol probably results from a change in the composition of the phospholipids, because the same differential response to ethanol was observed upon using vesicles of mitochondrial phospholipids extracted from control and chronically treated rats. In the presence of 0.025--0.1 M ethanol, a range that prevails in the blood of chronic alcoholics, the order parameter of mitochondrial membranes from rats fed ethanol was comparable to that of control membranes without ethanol in vitro. Analysis of extracted mitochondrial phospholipids showed that the cardiolipin from ethanol-fed animals had fatty acyl residues that are more saturated than those of controls. These findings point to the underlying molecular mechanism of our previous observation that mitochondria from chronic alcoholic rats are more resistant to uncoupling by ethanol at physiological temperature [Rottenberg, H. , Robertson, D. E. & Rubin, E. (1980) Lab. Invest. 42, 318--326]. We suggest that an adaptive change in the phospholipid composition leads to structural alterations, which result in increased resistance to disruption of mitochondrial membranes by ethanol. These changes in lipid composition and structure may explain many, if not all, of the mitochondrial abnormalities that have been previously reported to result from chronic ethanol intoxication.
A Slow or Modulatory Role of Astrocytes in Neurovascular Coupling

Astrocytes are thought to play an important role in NVC, a process that allows the brain to locally control blood flow in response to changes in activity. However, there is an ongoing debate as to when, and under what conditions astrocyte activity is required. In the following review we set forth the hypotheses that astrocytes: (i) act to modulate but not initiate functional hyperemia and (ii) help set the basal tone state of the brain microvasculature by the tonic release of vaso‐active messengers. Through these actions astrocytes could help match metabolic demand with supply over a spectrum of activity timescales.
Complete sequence of a cDNA clone of the hemagglutinin gene of influenza A/Chicken/Scotland/59 (H5N1) virus: comparison with contemporary North American and European strains.

We report here the complete nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence of the hemagglutinin gene of the avian influenza virus, A/Chicken/Scotland/59 (H5N1) cloned into plasmid pATX (1). The deduced amino acid sequence has been compared to the sequences of related HA genes from avian influenza viruses causing recent outbreaks in the commercial poultry industry Sequencing was done by the Sanger dideoxy method nucleotide amino acid
The Danish National Prescription Registry

Introduction: Individual-level data on all prescription drugs sold in Danish community pharmacies has since 1994 been recorded in the Register of Medicinal Products Statistics of the Danish Medicines Agency. Content: The register subset, termed the Danish National Prescription Registry (DNPR), contains information on dispensed prescriptions, including variables at the level of the drug user, the prescriber, and the pharmacy. Validity and coverage: Reimbursement-driven record keeping, with automated bar-code-based data entry provides data of high quality, including detailed information on the dispensed drug. Conclusion: The possibility of linkage with many other nationwide individual-level data sources renders the DNPR a very powerful pharmacoepidemiological tool.
Computer-Aided Model for Skin Diagnosis Using Deep Learning

Melanoma is the deadliest kind of skin cancer. However, it’s hard to identify melanoma during its early to mid stages by visual examination. So, there is a call for an automated model which assists in early diagnosis of skin cancer. This paper introduces an enhanced automated computer-aided model for skin diagnosis using deep learning. The model integrates an enhanced segmentation phase for locating the infected lesion of the skin and a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) is designed as a feature extractor. A classifier model has been designed based on multiclass linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) trained with CNN features extracted from the digital skin images dataset. The experimental results show an outstanding performance in the terms of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy compared with others in literature. Index Termscomputer-aided model, convolutional neural network feature, deep learning, digital skin image, and support vector machine
Involvement of INK4A gene products in the pathogenesis and development of human osteosarcoma

The INK4A tumor suppressor gene plays a crucial role in the regulation of the G1 cell cycle phase. It encodes two transcripts, p16 and p14 alternate reading frame (ARF), involved in retinoblastoma protein (pRb)‐ and p53‐ cell growth control pathways, respectively.
THEORY : From Mean Values to Fluctuations 1 From Semiclassical to Stochastic Gravity

Stochastic semiclassical gravity of the 90’s is a theory naturally evolved from semiclassical gravity of the 70’s and 80’s. It improves on the semiclassical Einstein equation with source given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum matter fields in curved spacetimes by incorporating an additional source due to their fluctuations. In stochastic semiclassical gravity the main object of interest is the noise kernel, the vacuum expectation value of the (operator-valued) stress-energy bi-tensor, and the centerpiece is the (stochastic) EinsteinLangevin equation. We describe this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. The axiomatic approach is useful to see the structure of the theory from the framework of semiclassical gravity, showing the link from the mean value of the energy momentum tensor to their correlation functions. The functional approach uses the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and the Schwinger-Keldysh close-time-path effective action methods which are convenient for computations. It also brings out the open systems concepts and the statistical and stochastic contents of the theory such as dissipation, fluctuations, noise and decoherence. We then describe the applications of stochastic gravity to the backreaction problems in cosmology and black hole physics. In the first problem we study the backreaction of conformally coupled quantum fields in a weakly inhomogeneous cosmology. In the second problem we study the backreaction of a thermal field in the gravitational background of a quasi-static black hole (enclosed in a box) and its fluctuations. These examples serve to illustrate closely the ideas and techniques presented in the first part. This article is intended as a first introduction providing readers with some basic ideas and working knowledge. Thus we place more emphasis here on pedagogy than completeness. [Further discussions of ideas, issues and on-going research topics can be found in [1, 2, 3] respectively. ] ∗Electronic address: hub@physics.umd. edu †Electronic address: verdague@ffn.ub. es, enric@physics.umd. edu
Secure Authentication Protocols Resistant to Guessing Attacks

Users are normally authenticated via their passwords in computer systems. Since people tend to choose passwords that can be easily remembered, the systems are under the threat of guessing attacks. Many authentication and key distribution protocols have been proposed to protect user passwords from guessing attacks. However, these protocols either are limited to some specific environments or incur high computation and communication costs. In the paper, we first specify five common forms of guessing attacks, which are used to determine whether a protocol is vulnerable to those attacks. Based on these common forms, some guidelines are provided for developing secure protocols that can be used in both symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems to defend against guessing attacks. Finally, we enhance the well-known authentication system Kerberos and propose two authentication and key distribution protocols, which are both resistant to guessing attacks.
Employee Engagement and Visionary Leadership : Impact on Customer and Employee Satisfaction

In this study, there is examined the impact of employee engagement and visionary leadership (vision guiding, emotional commitment) on customer and employee satisfaction. The data was collected through questionnaire from sample of 22 restaurants (managers and employees response) and through customer response. The results showed the significant relationship of employee engagement, vision guiding and emotional commitment on customer and employee satisfaction. The results also supported the emotional commitment with employee satisfaction relationship significantly. Finally, the article identifies the strengths, weaknesses and directions for future research.
ITF-2 is disrupted via allelic loss of chromosome 18q21, and ITF-2B expression is lost at the adenoma-carcinoma transition.

BACKGROUND & AIMS The ubiquitously expressed basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor ITF-2B has an important role in differentiation processes, and its transcription is regulated by beta-catenin. The ITF-2 gene is located in the chromosomal region 18q21; allelic loss of this locus occurs in 70% of colorectal cancers. We analyzed the expression, regulation, and function of ITF-2B in colorectal carcinogenesis. METHODS The loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) status of 18q21 and expression of ITF-2B were studied in colorectal carcinomas using polymerase chain reaction-based methods and immunohistochemistry. The biologic effects of ITF-2B were studied in colorectal cancer cells. Reporter gene assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation were utilized to analyze effects of ITF-2B on gene transcription. RESULTS ITF-2B is strongly expressed in colon adenomas but frequently down-regulated in carcinomas because of LOH at 18q21. ITF-2B induces cell cycle arrest and regulates the expression of p21(Cip1) via newly identified E-boxes in the CDKN1A gene, independently of p53. Loss of ITF-2B expression correlates with loss of p21(Cip1) expression in primary colon carcinomas. CONCLUSIONS Accumulation of mutations and allelic losses are driving forces of colorectal carcinogenesis. ITF-2B, which is up-regulated during early colorectal carcinogenesis because of loss of adenomatous polyposis coli, is a target for LOH on chromosome 18q, along with deleted in colorectal carcinoma and Smad4. This finding, along with the fact that ITF-2B is a regulator of the key cell cycle inhibitor p21(Cip1), indicates that ITF-2B is a tumor suppressor that has an important function at the adenoma to carcinoma transition.
Structure‐function relationships in Src family and related protein tyrosine kinases

There is increasing evidence to suggest that cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases of the Src family have a pivotal role in the regulation of a number of cellular processes. Members of this family have been implicated in cellular responses to a variety of extracellular signals, such as those arising from growth factors and cell‐cell interactions, as well as in differentiative and developmental processes in both vertebrates and invertebrates. A better understanding of the regulation and of the structure‐function relationships of these enzymes might aid in the development of specific ways to interfere with their action, as well as serving as a paradigm for regulation of other protein tyrosine kinases that have SH2 and SH3 domains. In this review we will first discuss the regulation of Src family protein tyrosine kinases, with particular emphasis on their SH2 and SH3 domains. We will then briefly review other non‐receptor protein tyrosine kinases that have SH2 and SH3 domains.
Question Answering Using Bi-Directional rNN

A sentence is a set of words, each of which can be represented in multiple dimensions using the GloVe model. Hence we can represent questions and context paragraphs as vectors of parametrized dimensions. We can then use different neural network techniques, such as Bidirectional-LSTM or GRU to train a model to give correct answers to given questions. However, until the SQuAD dataset became public, rNN models did not have sufficient amount of data to train their parameters. With SQuAD, the models can be trained so that, given a question and its corresponding context paragraph, they return the predicted indices of where the answer would lie. This paper will explore past research papers to discuss the optimal architecture of neural network learning for the QA model, and discuss possible implementation approaches. Next, it will elaborate on the model implemented in this paper, and talk about possible improvements in the future. Team name on Codalab: das stnemom
Performance analysis of large-scale MU-MIMO with AF relaying in the presence of interference

This paper analyzes the performance of a large-scale multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) system with amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying in the presence of co-channel interference. Each user terminal (UT) has a single antenna while the relay is equipped with very large antenna arrays. To evaluate the impact of large number of relay antennas on the performance of the considered system, we derive a lower bound on the achievable rate. We also perform a large system analysis in the regimes of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), large number of relay antennas and large number of UTs. Numerical results are presented to verify the theoretical analysis.
Sources of biased inference in alcohol and drug services research: an instrumental variable approach.

OBJECTIVE This study examined the potential for biased inference due to endogeneity when using standard approaches for modeling the utilization of alcohol and drug treatment. METHOD Results from standard regression analysis were compared with those that controlled for endogeneity using instrumental variables estimation. Comparable models predicted the likelihood of receiving alcohol treatment based on the widely used Aday and Andersen medical care-seeking model. Data were from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions and included a representative sample of adults in households and group quarters throughout the contiguous United States. RESULTS Findings suggested that standard approaches for modeling treatment utilization are prone to bias because of uncontrolled reverse causation and omitted variables. Compared with instrumental variables estimation, standard regression analyses produced downwardly biased estimates of the impact of alcohol problem severity on the likelihood of receiving care. CONCLUSIONS Standard approaches for modeling service utilization are prone to underestimating the true effects of problem severity on service use. Biased inference could lead to inaccurate policy recommendations, for example, by suggesting that people with milder forms of substance use disorder are more likely to receive care than is actually the case.
Notchless encodes a novel WD40‐repeat‐containing protein that modulates Notch signaling activity

Signaling by Notch family receptors is involved in many cell‐fate decisions during development. Several modifiers of Notch activity have been identified, suggesting that regulation of Notch signaling is complex. In a genetic screen for modifiers of Notch activity, we identified a gene encoding a novel WD40‐repeat protein. The gene is called Notchless, because loss‐of‐function mutant alleles dominantly suppress the wing notching caused by certain Notch alleles. Reducing Notchless activity increases Notch activity. Overexpression of Notchless in Xenopus or Drosophila appears to have a dominant‐negative effect in that it also increases Notch activity. Biochemical studies show that Notchless binds to the cytoplasmic domain of Notch, suggesting that it serves as a direct regulator of Notch signaling activity.
Functional analysis of human RPS14 null alleles.

Previously we described a large collection of cloned human DNAs that encode chemically defined missense mutations within the ribosomal protein S14 sequence. We determined that biologically inactive (i.e. null) alleles resulted primarily from point mutations targeted to two internal segments of the S14-coding sequence and designated these functionally critical regions as domains B and D. Further, we inferred that structural determinants within domains B and D are required for proper incorporation of the S14 protein into nascent 40 S ribosomal particles and/or for the normal function of mature cytoplasmic ribosomes. In this study we have used immunofluorescence to monitor the intracellular trafficking of epitopically labeled human S14 protein isoforms transiently expressed by cultured Chinese hamster cells. Data obtained distinguish null alleles of RPS14 which encode proteins that are not incorporated into pre-ribosomal subunit particles from null alleles whose products are compatible with normal ribosome assembly processes but result in functionally inactive cytoplasmic 40 S ribosomal subunits. Mutations assigned to the first allele class involve amino acid replacements located within S14 domains B and D; whereas mutations assigned to the second class are distributed throughout the S14 protein-coding sequence.