Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pneumococcal Vaccine: Dose, Revaccination, and Coadministration with Influenza Vaccine

Summary Current pneumococcal vaccine contains 14 specific capsular polysaccharide antigens, each in 50-γg amount. Reduction of dosage to 25 or 12.5 γg per type gave reduced antibody responses in human subjects for most of the serotypes and these were less than current requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Specific antibody following vaccination declines slowly and there was no worthwhile increase in antibody on revaccination 1 to 1.5 years following prior vaccination. Reduction in the dosage of antigen to one-half or one-fourth the 50 γg per antigen amount eliminated the enhanced local and systemic reactions noted previously when the full vaccine amount was given but the time interval between vaccination and revaccination was not long enough to test for the ability of the reduced dose to restimulate antibody production. Pneumococcal and influenza virus vaccines given at the same time into opposite arms showed no important reduction in antibody response to either vaccine and there was no increase in local or systemic reactions compared with that found when the vaccines were given alone.
Residual Factor Analysis for Text-Independent Speaker Verification

Joint Factor Analysis (JFA) has become the state-of-the-art technique in the problem of speaker verification (1, 2). At the same time, the training of eigenvoice matrix seems to be a heavy burden to us, because it requires lots of multi-channel data, which largely determines the performance of the system. In this paper, we first try to exploit an upper bound performance of the JFA system in a non-normal way, and then proposed a new technique which we referred as Residual Factor Analysis (RFA), in which we replace the eigenvoice matrix in JFA system with the residual vector, to remove the heavy burden of training eigenvoice matrix. We tested the proposed technique on the core condition of NIST 2006 speaker recognition evaluation (SRE 06) and obtained equivalent results to JFA system (equal error rate of about 3.99%)(1), while our method requires no extra multi-channel data except some for training eigenchannel matrix.
A Fully-Decentralized Consensus-Based ADMM Approach for DC-OPF With Demand Response

This paper discusses a consensus-based alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMMs) approach for solving the dynamic dc optimal power flow (DC-OPF) problem with demand response in a distributed manner. In smart grid, emerging techniques together with distributed nature of data and information, significantly increase the complexity of power systems operation and stimulate the needs for distributed optimization. In this paper, the distributed DC-OPF approach solves local OPF problems of individual subsystems in parallel, which are coordinated via global consensus variables (i.e., phase angles on boundary buses of adjacent subsystems). Three distributed DC-OPF algorithms are discussed with different convergence performance and/or communication requirement. All three distributed algorithms can effectively handle prevailing constraints for the transmission network, generating units, and demand response in individual subsystems, while the global convergence can be guaranteed. In particular, based on the traditional distributed ADMM approach, a fully decentralized algorithm without the central controller is proposed in Algorithm 2 with a new communication strategy, in which only limited information on boundary buses are exchanged among adjacent subsystems. In addition, the accelerated ADMM is discussed in Algorithm 3 for improving the convergence performance. In recognizing distributed OPF approaches in literature, one major research focus on this paper is to quantify the impact of key parameters and subsystem partitioning strategies on the convergence performance and the data traffic via numerical case studies. A general guidance for subsystem partitioning is proposed and verified via large-scale power systems.
Quinolone-resistant Shigella flexneri Isolated in a Patient Who Travelled to India

We report a recent case in which ciprofloxacin-resistant Shigella flexneri was isolated from a 23-yr-old female patient with a history of travel to India. Prior to her admission to our internal medicine department, she experienced symptoms of high fever and generalized weakness from continuous watery diarrhea that developed midway during the trip. S. flexneri was isolated from the stool culture. Despite initial treatment with ciprofloxacin, the stool cultures continued to show S. flexneri growth. In the susceptibility test for antibiotics of the quinolone family, the isolate showed resistance to ciprofloxacin (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC], 8 µg/mL), norfloxacin (MIC, 32 µg/mL), ofloxacin (MIC, 8 µg/mL), nalidixic acid (MIC, 256 µg/mL), and intermediate resistance to levofloxacin (MIC, 4 µg/mL). In molecular studies for quinolone resistance related genes, plasmid borne-quinolone resistance genes such as qnrA, qnrB, qnrS, aac(6')-Ib-cr, qepA, and oqxAB were not detected. Two mutations were observed in gyrA (248C→T, 259G→A) and 1 mutation in parC (239G→T). The molecular characteristics of the isolated S. flexneri showed that the isolate was more similar to the strains isolated from the dysentery outbreak in India than those isolated from Korea.
Precision lifting method to reduce the mismatches between spatial- and transform-domain motion-compensated coders

Many studies have performed transcoding of compressed video streams in the discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain to reduce computation complexity. Most video compression standards recommend motion compensation in the spatial domain. On the other hand, compressed data that is motion-compensated in the spatial domain is motion-compensated in the transform domain for the transform-domain transcoding. However, this combination of encoding in the spatial domain and decoding in the transform domain degrades image quality due to mismatches of the inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) and motion compensation (MC). There have been few investigations into this mismatch problem. We investigate the mismatch problem and propose a precision lifting (PL) method to reduce the effects of the mismatch problem. Experimental results show that our proposed method effectively reduces the mismatch problem.
A test-bed for the evaluation of business process prediction techniques

Business process prediction technologies are being increasingly used by organisations to provide timely feedback to their customers and improve their overall productivity. In order to provide valuable information to both customers and system managers, the timings of business processes need to be forecast with high accuracy and efficiency. In particular, organisations require to predict the process and event flows, recognize their patterns, and forecast the total time it would take for a workflow to complete, in order to meet the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) signed with the customers. In this paper, we focus on the prediction models that could be used for forecasting time to completion of business processes by analysing historical event logs. First, we propose a service oriented architecture that provides a test-bed for carrying out predictions on business processes. Second, we propose a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based prediction technique that produces a model based on event logs, and compare it against existing prediction models. Finally, we describe an implementation of the system, where we simulate the execution of a business process and obtain predictions using both the proposed and existing prediction techniques.
Analysis of single‐locus tests to detect gene/disease associations

A goal of association analysis is to determine whether variation in a particular candidate region or gene is associated with liability to complex disease. To evaluate such candidates, ubiquitous Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) are useful. It is critical, however, to select a set of SNPs that are in substantial linkage disequilibrium (LD) with all other polymorphisms in the region. Whether there is an ideal statistical framework to test such a set of ‘tag SNPs’ for association is unknown. Compared to tests for association based on frequencies of haplotypes, recent evidence suggests tests for association based on linear combinations of the tag SNPs (Hotelling T2 test) are more powerful. Following this logical progression, we wondered if single‐locus tests would prove generally more powerful than the regression‐based tests? We answer this question by investigating four inferential procedures: the maximum of a series of test statistics corrected for multiple testing by the Bonferroni procedure, TB, or by permutation of case‐control status, TP; a procedure that tests the maximum of a smoothed curve fitted to the series of of test statistics, TS; and the Hotelling T2 procedure, which we call TR. These procedures are evaluated by simulating data like that from human populations, including realistic levels of LD and realistic effects of alleles conferring liability to disease. We find that power depends on the correlation structure of SNPs within a gene, the density of tag SNPs, and the placement of the liability allele. The clearest pattern emerges between power and the number of SNPs selected. When a large fraction of the SNPs within a gene are tested, and multiple SNPs are highly correlated with the liability allele, TS has better power. Using a SNP selection scheme that optimizes power but also requires a substantial number of SNPs to be genotyped (roughly 10–20 SNPs per gene), power of TP is generally superior to that for the other procedures, including TR. Finally, when a SNP selection procedure that targets a minimal number of SNPs per gene is applied, the average performances of TP and TR are indistinguishable. Genet. Epidemiol. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Differential effects of low glucose concentrations on seizures and epileptiform activity in vivo and in vitro

In vivo, severe hypoglycemia is frequently associated with seizures. The hippocampus is a structure prone to develop seizures and seizure‐induced damage. Patients with repeated hypoglycemic episodes have frequent memory problems, suggesting impaired hippocampal function. Here we studied the effects of moderate hypoglycemia on primarily generalized flurothyl‐induced seizures in vivo and, using EEG recordings, we determined involvement of the hippocampus in hypoglycemic seizures. Moderate systemic hypoglycemia had proconvulsant effects on flurothyl‐induced clonic (forebrain) seizures. During hypoglycemic seizures, seizure discharges were recorded in the hippocampus. Thus, we continued the studies in combined entorhinal cortex–hippocampus slices in vitro. However, in vitro, decreases in extracellular glucose from baseline 10 mm to 2 or 1 mm did not induce any epileptiform discharges. In fact, low glucose (2 and 1 mm) attenuated preexisting low‐Mg2+‐induced epileptiform activity in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampal CA1 region. Osmolarity compensation in low‐glucose solution using mannitol impaired slice recovery. Additionally, using paired‐pulse stimuli we determined that there was no impairment of GABAA inhibition in the dentate gyrus during glucopenia. The data strongly indicate that, although forebrain susceptibility to seizures is increased during moderate in vivo hypoglycemia and the hippocampus is involved during hypoglycemic seizures, glucose depletion in vitro contributes to an arrest of epileptiform activity in the system of the entorhinal cortex–hippocampus network and there is no impairment of net GABAA inhibition during glucopenia.
Advanced compiling techniques to reduce RAM usage of static operating systems

In recent years, a rapidly growing number of small embedded systems have been used in very high volumes. One example is the automotive industry, where the number of Electronic Control Units (ECU) in a single car is approaching 100 for high end automobiles and several dozens are used in mid-range cars. Small system-on-chip microcontrollers are often used with static operating systems. As on-chip RAM is rather expensive and only few KBs of RAM are available on such devices, reducing the RAM usage is an important objective in order to save costs — especially in high-volume production. This thesis presents several new approaches to reduce the RAM usage of such systems by applying advanced compilation and optimization techniques. Common optimizations are examined regarding their impact on RAM usage. By selecting classical optimization algorithms regarding their impact on RAM usage, the RAM required for a series of test cases is reduced by almost 20%. Upper bounds for stack sizes of application tasks will be statically calculated using high-level analysis available in the compiler. Comparisons with a commercial tool working on machine-code-level show clear advantages regarding maintainability as well as reliability. Most important, the register sets stored by the operating system when a task is preempted are optimized by abstaining from saving unnecessary registers. Inter-task register-allocation further reduces the RAM required to save those task contexts. The new algorithms have been added to a production quality compiler and a full commercial OSEK implementation was modified to make use of the new optimizations. Tests on real hardware as well as comparisons with commercial tools not only show that the system works and improves usability and maintainability, but also that significant reductions of RAM requirements, and therefore cost savings, are possible. In a series of benchmarks, RAM usage is reduced on average by 30%–60%.
The New Imperialism of Globalized Monopoly-Finance Capital: An Introduction

It is now a universal belief on the left that the world has entered a new imperialist phase. … The challenge for Marxian theories of the imperialist world system in our times is to capture the full depth and breadth of the classical accounts, while also addressing the historical specificity of the current global economy. It will be argued in this introduction (in line with the present issue as a whole) that what is widely referred to as neoliberal globalization in the twenty-first century is in fact a historical product of the shift to global monopoly-finance capital or what Samir Amin calls the imperialism of "generalized-monopoly capitalism. "Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.
A Framework for Automating Physical Database Design

We propose a two-pha.se algorithm for physical database design. In phase one the algorithm, for each logical query, loses rules to determine characteristics of a physical design (such as indexes) that would be beneficial to the query, and selects a physical design that yields a low cost estimate for that query. In phase two we use a notion of compromase between physical database designs. St,arting from the physical designs selected in phase one, the algorit,hm looks for a compromise physical design that. minimizes the queries’ aggregate frequencyweighted cost. This method is envisioned as a cornerstone in the efficient implementation of a Turing-complete, very-high-level progra.mming language for dat,abase applica.tions, but it is also suitable for more conventional relational and -1NF database management. systems.
Automatic Intracranial Segmentation: Is the Clinician Still Needed?

Introduction: Stereotactic hypofractionated radiotherapy is an effective treatment for brain metastases in oligometastatic patients. Its planning is however time-consuming because of the number of organs at risk to be manually segmented. This study evaluates 2 automated segmentation commercial software. Methods: Patients were scanned in the treatment position. The computed tomography scan was registered on a magnetic resonance imaging and volumes were manually segmented by a clinician. Then 2 automated segmentations were performed (with iPlan and Smart Segmentation). RT STRUCT files were compared with Aquilab’s Artistruct segment comparison module. We selected common segmented volume ratio as the main judging criterion. Secondary criteria were Dice-Sørensen coefficients, overlap ratio, and additional segmented volume. Results: Twenty consecutive patients were included. Agreement between manual and automated contouring was poor. Common segmented volumes ranged from 7.71% to 82.54%, Dice-Sørensen coefficient ranged from 0.0745 to 0.8398, overlap ratio ranged from 0.0414 to 0.7275, and additional segmented volume ranged from 9.80% to 92.25%. Each software outperformed the other on some organs while performing worse on others. Conclusion: No software seemed clearly better than the other. Common segmented volumes were much too low for routine use in stereotactic hypofractionated brain radiotherapy. Manual editing is still needed.
Transmission and Adaptation of Chronic Wasting Disease to Hamsters and Transgenic Mice: Evidence for Strains

ABSTRACT In vitro screening using the cell-free prion protein conversion system indicated that certain rodents may be susceptible to chronic wasting disease (CWD). Therefore, CWD isolates from mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elk were inoculated intracerebrally into various rodent species to assess the rodents' susceptibility and to develop new rodent models of CWD. The species inoculated were Syrian golden, Djungarian, Chinese, Siberian, and Armenian hamsters, transgenic mice expressing the Syrian golden hamster prion protein, and RML Swiss and C57BL10 wild-type mice. The transgenic mice and the Syrian golden, Chinese, Siberian, and Armenian hamsters had limited susceptibility to certain of the CWD inocula, as evidenced by incomplete attack rates and long incubation periods. For serial passages of CWD isolates in Syrian golden hamsters, incubation periods rapidly stabilized, with isolates having either short (85 to 89 days) or long (408 to 544 days) mean incubation periods and distinct neuropathological patterns. In contrast, wild-type mouse strains and Djungarian hamsters were not susceptible to CWD. These results show that CWD can be transmitted and adapted to some species of rodents and suggest that the cervid-derived CWD inocula may have contained or diverged into at least two distinct transmissible spongiform encephalopathy strains.
Effect of Added Weight on Metabolic and Cardiovascular Responses to Graded Treadmill Exercise in Men

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of added weight on metabolic and cardiovascular responses during incremental treadmill exercise, and to determine if two types of added weight affect the oxygen uptake (V O2), the linear relationship between V O2 and treadmill workrate, designated metabolic efficiency (ME), and the linear relationship between heart rate (fC) and V O2, known as the chronotropic index (CI). Ten male participants performed treadmill walking tests under three conditions: control (CON), holding barbells weighing 6.8, 9.1, and 11.3 kg (BAR) in an isometric bicep curl position, and weighted vests (6.8, 11.3, 15.9 kg) (VEST). Absolute V O2max was significantly lower for BAR 11.3, while relative V O2max, which takes into account the added weight, was significantly lower for all weighted conditions except BAR 9.1 when compared to control. CI slope for all weighted conditions compared to control was not significantly different. ME slope and intercept was significantly different between all conditions (P<0.0001 and P=0.006, respectively). Post-hoc analysis revealed significant increases in ME slope between BAR 9.1 and BAR 11.3 versus control (8.7 and 15.0 mL/min/watt) and a decrease in intercept between BAR 11.3 and control (327 mL/min). This study has shown that added weight, particularly BAR conditions, has a significant adverse effect on ME during incremental exercise.
New geodesic distance transforms for grayscale images

In this paper, two new geodesic distance transforms for gray-scale images are presented. The first transform, the Distance Transform on Curved Space (DTOCS), performs the calculation with integer numbers. The second transform, the Weighted Distance Transform on Curved Space (WDTOCS), gives a weighted distance map with real numbers for an arbitrary gray-value image. Both transforms give a distance map in which the distance value of a single point corresponds to the length of the shortest discrete 8-path to the nearest background point. Both differ from the previously presented gray-level distance transforms by not weighting the distance values directly by the gray-values, but by gray-value differences.
Ontology-based Web agents

This paper describes SHOE, a set of Simple HTML Ontology Extensions which allow World-Wide Web authors to annotate their pages with semantic knowledge such as “I am a graduate student” or “This person is my graduate advisor”. These annotations are expressed in terms of ontological knowledge which can be generated by using or extending standard ontologies available on the Web. This makes it possible to ask Web agent queries such as “Find me all graduate students in Maryland who are working on a project funded by DoD initiative 123-4567”, instead of simplistic keyword searches enabled by current search engines. We have also developed a web-crawling agent, Expos´ e, which interns SHOE knowledge from web documents, making these kinds queries a reality.
A phenotypically and functionally distinct human TH2 cell subpopulation is associated with allergic disorders

A unique T helper cell signature in allergic patients isolates the pathogenic cells and provides a target for disease intervention. Defining damaging cells Although T helper type 2 (TH2) cells provide necessary protection from certain types of pathogens, they are also implicated in allergy pathogenesis. Until now, methods to distinguish pathogenic cells that are reactive to allergens from the rest of the TH2 population were very limited. Wambre et al. characterized a population of memory TH2 cells, termed TH2A, that were only found in allergic individuals. They were able to do so without the use of antigen-specific tetramers. These cells decreased in patients that benefited from allergen immunotherapy, indicating that targeting TH2A cells could disrupt allergic responses. Allergen-specific type 2 helper T (TH2) cells play a central role in initiating and orchestrating the allergic and asthmatic inflammatory response pathways. One major factor limiting the use of such atopic disease–causing T cells as both therapeutic targets and clinically useful biomarkers is the lack of an accepted methodology to identify and differentiate these cells from overall nonpathogenic TH2 cell types. We have described a subset of human memory TH2 cells confined to atopic individuals that includes all allergen-specific TH2 cells. These cells are terminally differentiated CD4+ T cells (CD27− and CD45RB−) characterized by coexpression of CRTH2, CD49d, and CD161 and exhibit numerous functional attributes distinct from conventional TH2 cells. Hence, we have denoted these cells with this stable allergic disease–related phenotype as the TH2A cell subset. Transcriptome analysis further revealed a distinct pathway in the initiation of pathogenic responses to allergen, and elimination of these cells is indicative of clinical responses induced by immunotherapy. Together, these findings identify a human TH2 cell signature in allergic diseases that could be used for response-monitoring and designing appropriate immunomodulatory strategies.