Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Using Nonparametric Regression and Electronic Health Record Data

Background:Use of the electronic health record (EHR) is expected to increase rapidly in the near future, yet little research exists on whether analyzing internal EHR data using flexible, adaptive statistical methods could improve clinical risk prediction. Extensive implementation of EHR in the Veterans Health Administration provides an opportunity for exploration. Objectives:To compare the performance of various approaches for predicting risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular (CCV) death, using traditional risk predictors versus more comprehensive EHR data. Research Design:Retrospective cohort study. We identified all Veterans Health Administration patients without recent CCV events treated at 12 facilities from 2003 to 2007, and predicted risk using the Framingham risk score, logistic regression, generalized additive modeling, and gradient tree boosting. Measures:The outcome was CCV-related death within 5 years. We assessed each method’s predictive performance with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test, plots of estimated risk, and reclassification tables, using cross-validation to penalize overfitting. Results:Regression methods outperformed the Framingham risk score, even with the same predictors (AUC increased from 71% to 73% and calibration also improved). Even better performance was attained in models using additional EHR-derived predictor variables (AUC increased to 78% and net reclassification improvement was as large as 0.29). Nonparametric regression further improved calibration and discrimination compared with logistic regression. Conclusions:Despite the EHR lacking some risk factors and its imperfect data quality, health care systems may be able to substantially improve risk prediction for their patients by using internally developed EHR-derived models and flexible statistical methodology.
A combination of rule and supervised learning approach to recognize paraphrases

Paraphrase recognition is the basic of paraphrase researches. However, most of the existing researches mainly focus on the acquirement of paraphrases from a certain text corpus, or their methods are restricted to certain conditions. There is not a method that can decide whether two sentences are paraphrases generally. This paper presents a combination of rule and supervised learning method to recognize paraphrases. In this method, we make use of the classification of paraphrases and adopt different approaches to recognize paraphrases according to the types they belong to. And the key point is how to use a variety of strategies to get the semantic similarity of two sentences. As the system is mainly for Question Answering (QA), evaluations are conducted on a corpus of sentence pairs mainly collected from a QA system, Baidu zhidao. Results show that the precision exceeds 75% on the simple sentences whose syntax analyses are correct, which is significantly higher than most of the existing methods.
NF-k B as a Critical Link Between Inflammation and Cancer

NF-kB transcription factors have been suspected to be involved in cancer development since their discovery because of their kinship with the v-Rel oncogene product. Subsequent work led to identification of oncogenic mutations that result in NF-kB activation in lymphoid malignancies, but most of these mutations affect upstream components of NF-kB signaling pathways, rather than NF-kB family members themselves. NF-kB activation has also been observed in many solid tumors, but so far no oncogenic mutations responsible for NF-kB activation in carcinomas have been identified. In such cancers, NF-kB activation is a result of underlying inflammation or the consequence of formation of an inflammatory microenvironment during malignant progression. Most importantly, through its ability to up-regulate the expression of tumor promoting cytokines, such as IL-6 or TNF-a, and survival genes, such as Bcl-XL, NF-kB provides a critical link between inflammation and cancer.
Trust Dynamics in WSNs: An Evolutionary Game-Theoretic Approach

A sensor node (SN) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can decide whether to collaborate with others based on a trust management system (TMS) by making a trust decision. In this paper, we study the trust decision and its dynamics that play a key role to stabilize the whole network using evolutionary game theory. When SNs are making their decisions to select actionTrustorMistrust, a WSNs trust game is created to reflect their utilities. An incentive mechanism bound with one SN’s trust degree is incorporated into this trust game and effectively promotes SNs to select actionTrust. The replicator dynamics of SNs’ trust evolution, illustrating the evolutionary process of SNs selecting their actions, are given. We then propose and prove the theorems indicating that evolutionarily stable strategies can be attained under different parameter values, which supply theoretical foundations to devise a TMS for WSNs. Moreover, we can find out the conditions that will lead SNs to choose actionTrustas their final behavior. In this manner, we can assure WSNs’ security and stability by introducing a trust mechanism to satisfy these conditions. Experimental results have confirmed the proposed theorems and the effects of the incentive mechanism.
Marcadores moleculares e suas aplicações em estudos populacionais de espécies de interesse zootécnico.

Os recentes avancos da genetica molecular geraram ferramentas para estudos filogeneticos e populacionais, aumentando nossa capacidade de caracterizar a biodiversidade de diversos ecossistemas brasileiros, assim como avaliar a variabilidade genetica entre e dentro de populacoes de animais silvestres de interesse economico como por exemplo os caititus, queixadas, capivaras, emas, pacu, jacare-do papoamarelo e tartaruga-da-amazonia. Este conhecimento e de suma importância quando se deseja identifi car regioes de alta diversidade para conservacao, alem de permitir otimizar acasalamentos visando um maior controle sobre os niveis de endogamia com impacto direto no planejamento de programas de conservacao de especies ou racas adaptadas ameacadas de extincao, assim como em programas de melhoramento genetico a longo prazo. Neste trabalho sao apresentados diversas categorias de marcadores moleculares como os mitocondriais, cromossomo Y, microssatelites e SNPs e suas aplicacoes em estudos fi logeneticos e populacionais. Este documento aborda tambem a possibilidade de utilizacao de animais silvestres e racas domesticas adaptadas no desenvolvimento de sistemas de producao com menor impacto ambiental, assim como a incorporacao de rebanhos comerciais
Protection against Schistosoma mansoni achieved by immunization with sonicated parasite

Partial protection of (C57BL/6 x DBA/2)F1 mice against infection with Schistosoma mansoni has been achieved by immunization with small amounts (0.2 to 2.0 μg) of crude cercarial sonicate adsorbed on aluminium hydroxide gel adjuvant (alum). A decrease of 34–90% in the adult worm burden of the immunized mice, as compared to that of untreated mice or those injected with adjuvant alone, has been found in five experiments by liver perfusion six weeks after percutaneous challenge infection. High titers of anti‐cercarial IgE antibodies have been found in the sera of the immunized mice by two independent techniques, radioimmunoassay and degranulation of rat basophilic leukemia cells (RBL‐2H3), determined by 3H‐serotonin release. By counting the live worms in the lungs of immunized and uniummized mice on days 4‐7 after infection it was observed that the schistosomula were killed before they reached the lungs, probably at the skin. Mice immunized with the same amounts of cercarial antigen in Freund's complete adjuvant were not protected against infection with S. mansoni. These animals developed high titer of total anti‐cercaria antibodies (determined by radioimmunoassay) but had low levels of antiparasite IgE. The possible role of IgE in protective immunity is discussed.
Race-Specific Elicitors of Cladosporium fulvum Induce Changes in Cell Morphology and the Synthesis of Ethylene and Salicylic Acid in Tomato Plants Carrying the Corresponding Cf Disease Resistance Gene

Defense responses mediated by the genetically unlinked Cf-9 and Cf-2 genes were compared with those involving no Cf gene (Cf0). Compatible tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)-Cladosporium fulvum intercellular washing fluids were injected into tomato cotyledons, and the kinetics of responses was monitored under conditions of 70 and 98% relative humidity. The latter conditions suppressed the normal macroscopic responses. For the Cf-9-Avr9 interaction, stomatal opening was induced within 3 to 4 h and after 9 h mesophyll cell death commenced. A burst of ethylene production occurred between 9 and 12.5 h and remained elevated. Free salicylic acid levels increased after 12 h, peaked at 24 h, and thereafter declined. For the Cf-2-Avr2 interaction, stomata became plugged after 8 h, and salicylic acid and ethylene levels increased by 12 and 18 h, respectively, and thereafter declined. Host cell death commenced around vascular tissue by 24 h. Cell death in both incompatible interactions was frequently preceded by cell enlargement. For Cf0-injected plants, no significant responses were detected. High humidity delayed and reduced the Cf-Avr-gene-dependent cell death and ethylene synthesis, whereas induced salicylic acid levels were unaffected for Cf-2-Avr2 and reduced in magnitude only for Cf-9-Avr9.
A Housekeeping Prognostic Health Management Framework for Microfluidic Systems

Micro-electro-mechanical systems and microfluidics are becoming popular solutions for sensing, diagnostics, and control applications. Reliability and validation of function is of increasing importance in the majority of these applications. On-line testing strategies for these devices have the potential to provide real-time condition monitoring information. It is shown that this information can be used to diagnose and prognose the health of the device. This information can also be used to provide an early failure warning system by predicting the remaining useful life. Diagnostic and prognostic outcomes can also be leveraged to improve the reliability, dependability, and availability of these devices. This paper has delivered a methodology for a “lightweight” prognostics solution for a microfluidic device based on real-time diagnostics. An oscillation-based test methodology is used to extract diagnostic information that is processed using a linear discriminant analysis-based classifier. This enables the identification of current health-based on pre-defined health levels. As the deteriorating device is periodically classified, the rate at which the device degrades is used to predict the devices remaining useful life.
A chicken beta-actin gene can complement a disruption of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ACT1 gene

Recently it was demonstrated that beta-actin can be produced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using the expression plasmid pY beta actin (R. Karlsson, Gene 68:249-258, 1988), and several site-specific mutants are now being produced in a protein engineering study. To establish a system with which recombinant actin mutants can be tested in vivo and thus enable a correlation to be made with functional effects observed in vitro, a yeast strain lacking endogenous yeast actin and expressing exclusively beta-actin was constructed. This strain is viable but has an altered morphology and a slow-growth phenotype and is temperature sensitive to the point of lethality at 37 degrees C.
Space-time narrowband interference suppression with receive diversity for DS-UWB systems

As the consumer demand for higher capacity, faster service, and more secure wireless connections increases, new enhanced technologies have to find their place in the overcrowded and scarce radio frequency (RF) spectrum. Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology can offer a promising solution to the RF spectrum drought by allowing new services to coexist with current narrowband systems. On the other hand, this coexistence brings the narrowband interference (NBI) problem for UWB systems due to their very low power spectral densities. To meet increasing requirements for low cost, low power, flexible, and reliable wireless multimedia networks, an adaptive NBI suppressing method employing space-time adaptive processing (STAP) with receive diversity is discussed and experimentally investigated for direct-sequence (DS) UWB systems. Analytical results show that, in wireless home environments, the investigated scheme is capable of significantly improving the performance in combating NBI, compared with the conventional temporal approach. The effect of receive diversity is also examined via the Monte-Carlo simulations
Clinical evaluation of 1,3-butadiene neurotoxicity in humans

1,3-Butadiene is one of the most commonly produced chemicals in the United States. It is also a known human and animal carcinogen. Information about 1,3-butadiene induced neurotoxicity is scarce. In this study, we evaluated the outcome of 1,3-butadiene accidental contact on neurological function in humans known to be environmentally exposed to the chemical. Known clinical neurological criterions were applied for the identification and evaluation of 1,3-butadiene neurotoxicity. Statistical analysis was conducted on the collected neurological parameters from a random cohort of 310 patients who had been environmentally exposed to 1,3-butadiene and compared with a cohort of 50 matched individuals with similar backgrounds but who were not exposed to 1,3-butadiene (control). Results indicate that 1,3-butadiene has met the criteria and features of a neurotoxin. Exposure to 1,3-butadiene provokes neurological risks that were reversible in most patients. About 6% (18 patients) of the exposed patients demonstrated irreversible neurotoxicity that may need to be longitudinally scrutinized. Toxicology and Industrial Health 2007; 23: 141—146.
User-guided Cross-domain Sentiment Classification

Sentiment analysis has been studied for decades, and it is widely used in many real applications such as media monitoring. In sentiment analysis, when addressing the problem of limited labeled data from the target domain, transfer learning, or domain adaptation, has been successfully applied, which borrows information from a relevant source domain with abundant labeled data to improve the prediction performance in the target domain. The key to transfer learning is how to model the relatedness among different domains. For sentiment analysis, a common practice is to assume similar sentiment polarity for the common keywords shared by different domains. However, existing methods largely overlooked the human factor, i.e., the users who expressed such sentiment. In this paper, we address this problem by explicitly modeling the human factor related to sentiment classification. In particular, we assume that the content generated by the same user across different domains is biased in the same way in terms of the sentiment polarity. In other words, optimistic/pessimistic users demonstrate consistent sentiment patterns, no matter what the context is. To this end, we propose a new graph-based approach named U-Cross, which models the relatedness of different domains via both the shared users and keywords. It is non-parametric and semi-supervised in nature. Furthermore, we also study the problem of shared user selection to prevent ‘negative transfer’. In the experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of U-Cross by comparing it with existing state-of-the-art techniques on three real data sets.
Immunogenicity screening in protein drug development

Most therapeutic proteins in clinical trials or on the market are, to a variable extent, immunogenic. Formation of antidrug antibodies poses a risk that should be assessed during drug development, as it possibly compromises drug safety and alters pharmacokinetics. The generation of these antibodies is critically dependent on the presence of T helper cell epitopes, which have classically been identified by in vitro methods using blood cells from human donors. As a novel development, in silico methods that identify T cell epitopes have been coming on line. These methods are relatively inexpensive and allow the mapping of epitopes from virtually all human leukocyte antigen molecules derived from a wide genetic background. In vitro assays remain important, but guided by in silico data they can focus on selected peptides and human leukocyte antigen haplotypes, thereby significantly reducing time and cost.
A presença da literatura brasileira no exterior e a importância do agenciamento: uma análise guiada por conceitos da sociologia de Pierre Bourdieu

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar como a literatura brasileira tem sido recebida no exterior, com um enfoque especial no mundo de lingua inglesa. Partindo do pressuposto de que a presenca de nossa literatura em outros paises nao e muito expressiva, em primeiro lugar serao tecidas breves consideracoes sobre os principais motivos dessa configuracao. Em seguida serao observadas situacoes em que individuos ou instituicoes, movidos muitas vezes por razoes politicas, trabalharam na divulgacao da literatura brasileira e de literaturas latino-americanas em outros paises. Tambem serao averiguados casos em que individuos partem principalmente de uma motivacao pessoal para divulgar literatura aqui produzida. Casos em que agencias e organismos governamentais trabalham para essa divulgacao serao analisados na sequencia. O estudo parte dos Estudos da Traducao, baseando-se mais especificamente numa vertente que, na area, vem sendo chamada de Sociologia da Traducao, e que adota conceitos da sociologia de Pierre Bourdieu. Os conceitos em questao sao quatro: capital , campo , habitus e illusio. Na parte final do trabalho serao apresentadas diferentes recepcoes da obra de Clarice Lispector no exterior, cada uma baseada em projetos de individuos ou grupos que seguiram suas conviccoes pessoais e agendas profissionais. A principal ideia a ser comunicada e a de que a divulgacao de uma literatura como a brasileira em paises que tem um sistema literario hegemonico (como e o caso dos paises do Primeiro Mundo) e um processo muito mais complexo e intrincado do que se poderia pensar a principio, e que sao fundamentais os esforcos de “agentes” ou “embaixadores” nesses processos.
Circulating endothelial progenitor cells, vascular function, and cardiovascular risk.

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular risk factors contribute to atherogenesis by inducing endothelial-cell injury and dysfunction. We hypothesized that endothelial progenitor cells derived from bone marrow have a role in ongoing endothelial repair and that impaired mobilization or depletion of these cells contributes to endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular disease progression. METHODS We measured the number of colony-forming units of endothelial progenitor cells in peripheral-blood samples from 45 men (mean [+/-SE] age, 50+/-2 years). The subjects had various degrees of cardiovascular risk but no history of cardiovascular disease. Endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent function was assessed by high-resolution ultrasonography of the brachial artery. RESULTS We observed a strong correlation between the number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells and the subjects' combined Framingham risk factor score (r=-0.47, P=0.001). Measurement of flow-mediated brachial-artery reactivity also revealed a significant relation between endothelial function and the number of progenitor cells (r=0.59, P<0.001). Indeed, the levels of circulating endothelial progenitor cells were a better predictor of vascular reactivity than was the presence or absence of conventional risk factors. In addition, endothelial progenitor cells from subjects at high risk for cardiovascular events had higher rates of in vitro senescence than cells from subjects at low risk. CONCLUSIONS In healthy men, levels of endothelial progenitor cells may be a surrogate biologic marker for vascular function and cumulative cardiovascular risk. These findings suggest that endothelial injury in the absence of sufficient circulating progenitor cells may affect the progression of cardiovascular disease.
Improvement Potential and Equalization Example for Multidrop DRAM Memory Buses

For PC DRAM memory buses, the number of slots per channel have been decreased as signal frequencies increase. This limits the data capacity per channel. In this paper, we show that the slot reduction is not due to fundamental limits of the channel structure but due to signaling schemes. An equalization scheme is presented which enables higher bit-rates with minimum modification of bus structure and memory circuits. The circuitry added to the host side of the bus has reasonable complexity and features very low latency. Measurements of memory-to-host transmissions over a four-drop-bus at 2.6 Gb/s using a 0.13 mum CMOS test-circuit is presented.
Relative Importance of Trapping and Extraction in the Simulation of Space Charge Distribution in Polymeric Insulators under DC Potentials

Under high DC voltages polymeric insulators tend to accumulate space charge, leading to a deviation from the designed electric field for the system. Consequently local fields may reach high enough values to cause ageing and eventual failure. A particularly dangerous instance is the appearance of heterocharge at one or both electrodes. The origin for such charge is not very clear, it may be due to the field separation of charged entities intrinsic to the insulation or alternatively to the injection and transit of charges. Here we present a simple simulation model for the latter situation in which we identify the conditions required for the formation of heterocharges. The model led to interesting results showing a high dependence of the space charge distribution on the extraction rate and on the trapping rate.
Predicting the short-term outcome of first episodes and recurrences of clinical depression: a prospective study of life events, difficulties, and social support networks.

BACKGROUND The study employed interview-based, investigator-rated measures of symptoms and psychosocial adversity in a panel survey to predict clinical course of depression. METHOD 130 men and women attending psychiatric hospitals for episodes of depressive disorders were interviewed with the Present State Examination and Life Events and Difficulties Schedule. After a mean 4-month interval, 119 were successfully reassessed to test the hypothesis that recovery from clinical depression is related to rates of life event stress and difficulties (termed psychosocial adversity) in the 6 to 12 months preceding initial evaluation. RESULTS The severity (p < .01) and the duration (p < .01) of the episode of depression up until the initial evaluation emerged as the only significant background predictors of episode severity at later follow-up. High levels of adversity were significantly (p < .05) related to a poor clinical course, due to failure to recover from first-onset and from second episodes. Recovery from all but first episodes was predicted by higher levels of social support rated at initial attendance. There was no evidence for the buffering of the harmful effects of adversity by larger, more connected social support networks. CONCLUSION Both life event stress and support network characteristics are associated with the short-term outcome of depressive episodes. The findings for social support in particular confirm growing evidence of the importance of distinguishing between early and later relapsing episodes in causal investigations of depression. They reveal a progressive vulnerability to deficits in social circumstances with advancing course of disorder.