Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can't get more satisfaction?: game-theoretic group-recommendation of educational resources

Students' satisfaction from educational resources is a subjective perception of how well these resources meet students' expectations for learning. Recommending educational resources to groups of students, targeting at optimizing all students' satisfaction, is a complicated task due to the lack of joint group profiles. Instead of merging individual profiles or fusing individual recommendations, this paper follows a game-theoretic perspective for solving conflict of interest among students and recommending resources to groups in online collaborative learning contexts: the group members are the players, the resources comprise the set of possible actions, and maximizing each individual member's satisfaction from the selected resources is a problem of finding the Nash Equilibrium. In case the Nash Equilibrium is Pareto efficient, none of the players can get more payoff (satisfaction) without decreasing the payoff of any other player, indicating an optimal benefit for the group as a whole. The comparative evaluation of the suggested approach to other state-of-the-art methods provided statistically significant results regarding the error in predicted group satisfaction from the recommendation and the goodness of the ranked list of recommendations.
Tourism destination rating system based on social media analysis (proposal and dataset development in Indonesian language)

It is very important for tourists to get information about their adventure destination. Many websites offer the needed information. One of them is tripadvisor.com which has destination rating feature. However, the rating score is inserted manually by filling out the scoring page that available on each tourism location. This paper proposes a new approach to obtain the tourism destination rating automatically by a new semantic analysis algorithm working in Indonesian language. For this purpose, this paper also collects datasets for the tourism destination automatic rating system based on social media analysis: adjectives of aspect destination, manual review of the tourist destination, blog contents regarding 30 tourism destination in Indonesia.
The Effect of Virtual Reality on Pain and Range of Motion in Adults With Burn Injuries

Few studies have empirically investigated the effects of immersive virtual reality (VR) on postburn physical therapy pain control and range of motion (ROM). We performed a prospective, randomized controlled study of the effects of adding VR to standard therapy in adults receiving active-assisted ROM physical therapy, by assessing pain scores and maximal joint ROM immediately before and after therapy on two consecutive days. Thirty-nine inpatients, aged 21 to 57 years (mean 35 years), with a mean TBSA burn of 18% (range, 3–60%) were studied using a within-subject, crossover design. All patients received their regular pretherapy pharmacologic analgesia regimen. During physical therapy sessions on two consecutive days (VR one day and no VR the other day; order randomized), each patient participated in active-assisted ROM exercises with an occupational or physical therapist. At the conclusion of each session, patients provided 0 to 100 Graphic Rating Scale measurements of pain after each 10-minute treatment condition. On the day with VR, patients wore a head-position-tracked, medical care environment-excluding VR helmet with stereophonic sound and interacted in a virtual environment conducive to burn care. ROM measurements for each joint exercised were recorded before and after each therapy session. Because of nonsignificant carryover and order effects, the data were analyzed using simple paired t-tests. VR reduced all Graphic Rating Scale pain scores (worst pain, time spent thinking about the pain, and pain unpleasantness by 27, 37, and 31% respectively), relative to the no VR condition. Average ROM improvement was slightly greater with the VR condition; however, this difference failed to reach clinical or statistical significance (P = .243). Ninety-seven percent of patients reported zero to mild nausea after the VR session. Immersive VR effectively reduced pain and did not impair ROM during postburn physical therapy. VR is easily used in the hospital setting and offers a safe, nonpharmacologic adjunctive analgesic treatment.
Annexin A2 supports pulmonary microvascular integrity by linking vascular endothelial cadherin and protein tyrosine phosphatases

Relative or absolute hypoxia activates signaling pathways that alter gene expression and stabilize the pulmonary microvasculature. Alveolar hypoxia occurs in disorders ranging from altitude sickness to airway obstruction, apnea, and atelectasis. Here, we report that the phospholipid-binding protein, annexin A2 (ANXA2) functions to maintain vascular integrity in the face of alveolar hypoxia. We demonstrate that microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) from Anxa2−/− mice display reduced barrier function and excessive Src-related tyrosine phosphorylation of the adherens junction protein vascular endothelial cadherin (VEC). Moreover, unlike Anxa2+/+ controls, Anxa2−/− mice develop pulmonary edema and neutrophil infiltration in the lung parenchyma in response to subacute alveolar hypoxia. Mice deficient in the ANXA2-binding partner, S100A10, failed to demonstrate hypoxia-induced pulmonary edema under the same conditions. Further analyses reveal that ANXA2 forms a complex with VEC and its phosphatases, EC-specific protein tyrosine phosphatase (VE-PTP) and Src homology phosphatase 2 (SHP2), both of which are implicated in vascular integrity. In the absence of ANXA2, VEC is hyperphosphorylated at tyrosine 731 in response to vascular endothelial growth factor, which likely contributes to hypoxia-induced extravasation of fluid and leukocytes. We conclude that ANXA2 contributes to pulmonary microvascular integrity by enabling VEC-related phosphatase activity, thereby preventing vascular leak during alveolar hypoxia.
Mobilization of LINE-1 retrotransposons is restricted by Tex19.1 in mouse embryonic stem cells

Mobilization of retrotransposons to new genomic locations is a significant driver of mammalian genome evolution, but these mutagenic events can also cause genetic disorders. In humans, retrotransposon mobilization is mediated primarily by proteins encoded by LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposons, which mobilize in pluripotent cells early in development. Here we show that TEX19.1, which is induced by developmentally programmed DNA hypomethylation, can directly interact with the L1-encoded protein L1-ORF1p, stimulate its polyubiquitylation and degradation, and restrict L1 mobilization. We also show that TEX19.1 likely acts, at least in part, through promoting the activity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase UBR2 towards L1-ORF1p. Moreover, loss of Tex19.1 increases L1-ORF1p levels and L1 mobilization in pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cells, implying that Tex19.1 prevents de novo retrotransposition in the pluripotent phase of the germline cycle. These data show that post-translational regulation of L1 retrotransposons plays a key role in maintaining trans-generational genome stability in mammals. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.26152. 001
Psychosocial and Environmental Correlates of Sedentary Behaviors in Spanish Children

Purpose. To evaluate children's psychosocial and environmental factors associated with sedentary behavior (SB). Method. The study involved a total of 420 children (mean 9.2 years; 52.9% girls) from the community of Madrid, Spain. SB and physical activity (PA) were objectively measured using accelerometers. TV viewing and potential correlates were assessed by questionnaire. Mixed-model regression analysis, adjusted for clustering within school locations, evaluated the relation of each independent variable with SBs. Results. Girls showed higher levels of SB than boys, whereas boys reported more TV viewing (p < .001 in all cases). Regression analysis showed that MVPA levels were negatively related to objective SB measurement in both boys and girls (p < .001). Parent and friend support to PA were negatively associated with SB on weekdays in boys and girls, respectively (p < .05). In the boys' group, parental professional level was a positive predictor of SB on weekend days (p = .011). Boys with more positive neighborhood perceptions spent less time watching TV (p < .001), whereas mother's leisure-time PA level was a negative correlate of TV viewing in girls' group (p < .01). Conclusion. Different psychosocial and environmental correlates of SB were identified. Present findings are promising targets for interventions to improve children's health.
Non-invasive imaging based on speckle pattern estimation and deconvolution

Non-invasive imaging through scattering media is still a challenging task, especially when the imaging target is complex. This paper presents a novel imaging method through scattering media based on speckle pattern estimation and deconvolution. Different from previous frameworks based on PSF-adjusting or PSF-capturing that need to invasively put a point source at the imaging area, we utilize the non-invasive imaging system based on speckle scanning and memory effect. Phase retrieval results of simple targets behind the scattering media are used as the input of the proposed speckle pattern estimation model, in which speckle modeling and constrained least square optimization are applied to estimate the distribution of speckle pattern. The estimated speckle pattern is exploited in deconvoluting the integrated intensity matrices (IIMs) of the scattered images to recover the complex targets. Experimental results show that the proposed method can recover the imaging targets behind the scattering media much more accurate and stable than the existing phase retrieval methods.
The subjective nature of Linnaean categories and its impact in evolutionary biology and biodiversity studies

Absolute (Linnaean) ranks are essential to rank-based nomenclature (RN), which has been used by the vast majority of systematists for the last 150 years. They are widely recognized as being subjective among taxonomists, but not necessarily in other fields. For this reason, phylogenetic nomenclature (PN) and other alternative nomenclatural systems have been developed. However, reluctance to accept alternative nomenclatural systems and continued use of higher taxa of a given Linnaean category in comparative analyses presumably reflect a lack of appreciation of the deleterious effects of the subjective nature of Linnaean categories in other biological fields, such as conservation and evolutionary biology. To make that point clearer, evolutionary models under which such categories would be natural are presented and are shown to be highly unrealistic and to lack empirical support. Under all realistic evolutionary models, ranking of taxa into Linnaean categories is highly subjective. Solutions that could make taxonomic ranks objective are surveyed. A review of the literature illustrates two problems created by the use of Linnaean categories in comparative or evolutionary studies, namely suboptimal taxonomic sampling schemes in studies of character evolution, and unreliable biodiversity assessment drawn on the basis of counting higher taxa (taxon surrogacy).
The Mirage of Action-Dependent Baselines in Reinforcement Learning

Policy gradient methods are a widely used class of model-free reinforcement learning algorithms where a state-dependent baseline is used to reduce gradient estimator variance. Several recent papers extend the baseline to depend on both the state and action and suggest that this significantly reduces variance and improves sample efficiency without introducing bias into the gradient estimates. To better understand this development, we decompose the variance of the policy gradient estimator and numerically show that learned state-action-dependent baselines do not in fact reduce variance over a state-dependent baseline in commonly tested benchmark domains. We confirm this unexpected result by reviewing the open-source code accompanying these prior papers, and show that subtle implementation decisions cause deviations from the methods presented in the papers and explain the source of the previously observed empirical gains. Furthermore, the variance decomposition highlights areas for improvement, which we demonstrate by illustrating a simple change to the typical value function parameterization that can significantly improve performance.
Sarcopenic obesity: hidden muscle wasting and its impact for survival and complications of cancer therapy.

Body composition, defined as the proportions and distribution of lean and fat tissues in the human body, is an emergent theme in clinical oncology. Severe muscle depletion (sarcopenia) is most easily overlooked in obese patients; the advent of secondary analysis of oncologic images provides a precise and specific assessment of sarcopenia. Here, we review the definitions, prevalence and clinical implications of sarcopenic obesity (SO) in medical and surgical oncology. Reported prevalence of SO varies due to the heterogeneity in the definitions and the variability in the cut points used to define low muscle mass and high fat mass. Prevalence of SO in advanced solid tumor patient populations average 9% (range 2.3%-14.6%) overall, and one in four (24.7%, range 5.9%-39.2%) patients with body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2 are sarcopenic. SO is independently associated with higher mortality and higher rate of complications in systemic and surgical cancer treatment, across multiple cancer sites and treatment plans. These associations remain unexplained, however, it has been hypothesized that patients with sarcopenia are generally unfit and unable to tolerate stress. Another proposed mechanism relates to increased exposure to antineoplastic therapy, i.e. a large fat mass would be expected to inflate drug dose in BSA-based treatments, causing an increased rate of dose-limiting toxicity. Pharmacokinetic data are needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis. Old age, deconditioning, cancer progression, acute or chronic nonmalignant disease and drug side-effects are suggested causes of muscle loss, and it is unknown the degree to which this can be reversed. Sarcopenia can be readily detected before start of cancer treatment, however, clinical management protocols for SO patients require development. Studies of cancer treatment dose-modulation are in progress.
AORTIC STIFFNESS AND THE RISK OF INCIDENT MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND DEMENTIA

Background and Purpose— Aortic stiffening increases the transfers of high pressure and flow pulsatility to small cerebral vessels potentially causing the accumulation of vascular brain injury. Our aim was to investigate the prospective association of aortic stiffness with the risks of incident mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Methods— We studied 1101 dementia-free Framingham Offspring study participants (mean age, 69±6 years; 54% women). Aortic stiffness was measured as carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity using applanation tonometry and modeled as a linear variable and the top 2 quintiles (>11.4 m/s). Outcomes were the 10-year risk of incident mild cognitive impairment and dementia, including clinically characterized Alzheimer disease. We observed 106, 77, and 59 events of mild cognitive impairment, all-cause dementia, and clinical Alzheimer disease, respectively. Results— After adjustment for age and sex, higher continuous aortic stiffness predicted an increased risk of mild cognitive impairment (hazard ratio, 1.40 [95% confidence interval, 1.13–1.73]), all-cause dementia (hazard ratio, 1.45 [95% confidence interval, 1.13–1.87]), and Alzheimer disease (hazard ratio, 1.41 [95% confidence interval, 1.06–1.87]). In risk factor–adjusted statistical models, aortic stiffness remained a significant predictor of mild cognitive impairment but not incident dementia. In nondiabetic patients, the top 2 quintiles of aortic stiffness were associated with a higher risk of incident all-cause dementia across all statistical models. Conclusions— Aortic stiffness was an independent predictor of incident mild cognitive impairment in the whole sample and with incident dementia in nondiabetic patients. Our findings suggest aortic stiffness as a potentially modifiable risk factor for clinical cognitive impairment and dementia.
Effect of Almond Supplementation on Glycemia and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Asian Indians in North India with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A 24–Week Study

Abstract Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) statistics have reached menacing proportions in India. Appropriate dietary intervention, as part of healthy lifestyle, is imperative to curb further spread of this disease. Objectives: This pre–post intervention study was conducted in New Delhi, India, to investigate the effects of daily consumption of almonds for 24 weeks in T2D subjects, specifically on measures of glycemia and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Methods and Study Design: In this study, the 24-week intervention period was preceded by a control diet and exercise run-in period of 3 weeks. Raw almonds (20% of energy intake) were provided to the patients for consumption along with diet and physical activity counseling. Patients were assessed for anthropometry, blood pressure, measures of glycemia (fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin), lipids [total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, lipoprotein(a)], surrogate marker of atherosclerosis (Pulse wave velocity), and marker of inflammation (high sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP]) at baseline and after the intervention period. Results: Statistically significant improvement in mean values for various parameters post intervention was as follows: waist circumference (P < 0.03), waist-to-height ratio (P < 0.005), TC (P < 0.002), serum triglycerides (P < 0.004), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.01), glycosylated hemoglobin (P < 0.04), and hs-CRP (P < 0.01). A trend toward improvement in pulse wave velocity (P < 0.06) was also observed. Conclusion: The study findings illustrate that incorporation of almonds in a well-balanced healthy diet leads to multiple beneficial effects on glycemic and CVDs risk factors in Asian Indian patients with T2D.
Online discriminant projective non-negative matrix factorization

Projective non-negative matrix factorization (PNMF) learns a subspace spanned by several non-negative bases by minimizing the distance between samples and their reconstructions in the subspace. Due to its effective representation ability, PNMF has attracted a lot of attention in the computer vision community. However, PNMF suffers from the following limitations: 1) it requires entire dataset to reside in computer's memory, and as a consequence it cannot handle large-scale or streaming data, and 2) it completely ignores discriminative information of available labeled data, and thus has poor performance in classification tasks. Here, we propose an online discriminant PNMF (ODPNMF) method to overcome these deficiencies. Specifically, ODPNMF receives one or a few samples per step and updates the basis via a multiplicative update rule (MUR), which guarantees the non-negativity constraint over basis. To best utilize discriminative information, ODPNMF maintains and adaptively updates both within-class and between-class scatter matrices, during each round of updating the basis. Experimental results on three popular face image datasets verify the effectiveness of ODPNMF compared to representative algorithms.
Emotion regulation and internalizing symptoms in a longitudinal study of sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents.

BACKGROUND Sexual minority adolescents appear to be at increased risk for internalizing disorders relative to their heterosexual peers, but there is a paucity of research explaining this elevated risk. Emotion regulation deficits are increasingly understood as important predictors of internalizing psychopathology among general samples of adolescents. The present study sought to examine whether deficits in emotion regulation could account for disparities in internalizing symptoms between sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents. METHODS The present study utilized longitudinal data from a racially/ethnically diverse (68% non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic/Latino) community sample of 1,071 middle school students (ages 11-14). RESULTS Adolescents who endorsed same-sex attraction evidenced higher rates of internalizing symptoms at both time points. Structural equation modeling indicated that sexual minority adolescents exhibited greater deficits in emotion regulation (rumination and poor emotional awareness) than their heterosexual peers. Emotion regulation deficits in turn mediated the relationship between sexual minority status and symptoms of depression and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate the importance of considering normative psychological processes in the development of internalizing symptomatology among sexual minority adolescents, and suggest emotion regulation deficits as specific targets of prevention and intervention efforts with this population. Future studies are needed to determine whether stigma-related stressors are responsible for emotion regulation deficits among sexual minority youth.
DUPCAR: Reconstructing Contiguous Ancestral Regions with Duplications

Accurately reconstructing the large-scale gene order in an ancestral genome is a critical step to better understand genome evolution. In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm, called DUPCAR, for reconstructing ancestral genomic orders with duplications. The method starts from the order of genes in modern genomes and predicts predecessor and successor relationships in the ancestor. Then a greedy algorithm is used to reconstruct the ancestral orders by connecting genes into contiguous regions based on predicted adjacencies. Computer simulation was used to validate the algorithm. We also applied the method to reconstruct the ancestral chromosome X of placental mammals and the ancestral genomes of the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia.
Histopathological evaluation of in vitro Ichthyophthirius multifiliis culture in Red koi (Aka Matsuba) tissue

In order to develop any effective means of prevention or therapy against Ichthyophthirius multifilis infection, in this project, the in vitro culture of Ichthyophthirius multifilis trophont containing tissue cysts has been developed. This enables researchers to produce antigens and vaccine and to supply pure organisms without any contamination. Healthy Red koi (Aka Matsuba) tail fin and skin were inoculated into tissue culture media, Leibovitz L-15. The trophonts were exposed to tissue culture within 1 hr after removal from the heavily infected Red koi mucus. Twenty-four hours after introduction of trophonts into tissue (skin) culture, most trophonts observed were adjacent to the basement membrane of the epithelial layer of skin. Additionally, higher numbers of mucous cells in the tail fin epithelium were noted 12 h after trophont introduction into culture. The histological sections of the skin of Red koi (Aka Matsuba) revealed large trophonts of the I. multifiliis after 10 days that were prominently lodged in the epidermal layers. In this research, the ability to culture I. multifiliis opens new opportunities to develop vaccines, test drugs, and clone parasites for genome sequencing.