Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sustained improvement of vascular endothelial function during anti‐TNFα treatment in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Objectives: Vascular endothelial function and common carotid artery intima–medial thickness (CCA‐IMT) are well‐established surrogate markers for early atherosclerotic disease, which accounts for 30–40% of excess mortality in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Our aim was to investigate whether long‐term treatment with anti‐tumour necrosis factor (TNF)α agents can modulate endothelial function and CCA‐IMT. Methods: Twelve patients with RA (mean age 54.8±15 years) on anti‐TNFα treatment (seven adalimumab, five infliximab) due to uncontrolled disease activity, with mean Disease Activity Score (DAS28) 5.7 (range 4.6–6.9) despite disease‐modifying anti‐rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), were studied prospectively. Patients were assessed at baseline and after 3 and 18 months for endothelial‐dependent vasodilatation, assessed by flow‐mediated vasodilatation (FMD), endothelial‐independent vasodilatation and CCA‐IMT. RA disease activity and response to therapy were assessed by the DAS28 index. Results: After 18 months of treatment, 67% of the patients were responders according to European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) response criteria. Anti‐TNFα treatment improved FMD (from 7±4.3% to 11.1±3.8%, p = 0.026) whereas CCA‐IMT did not change significantly [from 0.67 (0.4–1) to 0.68 (0.39–1.2) mm; mean change 0.01 (−0.06 to 0.08) mm]. Endothelial‐independent vasodilatation remained stable (20.4±7.3% to 22.9±6.5%, p = 0.4). Conclusions: In this small cohort of patients with RA and no clinically overt cardiovascular disease (CVD), after 18 months of treatment with anti‐TNFα agents, endothelial function improved significantly while CCA‐IMT remained stable. Longitudinal studies using more patients are needed to determine the clinical significance of these findings in relation to the risk of atherosclerosis.
Improve detection performance of speech recognizer in an automotive environment

In-car speech recognition is a challenging area of research. The area has been studied, and more of is concentrated on addressing the issues in acoustic echo cancellation (AEC). In application such as a voice controlled car audio system, voice commands by the driver are corrupted by audio out of loudspeaker. In this paper we propose and implement a robust, low complex voice controller for car audio system involving an efficient AEC and an effective detection module for a simple speech recognizer The proposed method has been implemented on OMAP 2420 TI-DSP C55x, with a performance of under 59 mega cycles for complete system and is tested in real time environment.
Müttererwerbstätigkeit in Ost- und Westdeutschland

Zusammenfassung Auf Basis der Daten des Mikrozensus aus den Jahren 1991, 1996 und 2002 gibt dieser Artikel einen Uberblick uber das Erwerbsverhalten von Frauen mit Kindern in Ost- und Westdeutschland. Neben der Frage der Ost-West-Angleichung stehen bildungsspezifische Unterschiede im Erwerbsverhalten im Vordergrund der Analyse. Schlagworte: Frauenerwerbstatigkeit, Mikrozensus, ILO-Erwerbskonzept ----- Abstract This article provides an overview on the labor force behavior of women with children in East and West Germany using data from the German Microcensus of the years 1991, 1996 and 2002. Besides the question of an East-West-convergence of behavior, we investigate educational differences in mothers’ employment behavior. Keywords: Female employment, microcensus, ILO-labor force concept
Three-dimensional Simulations of the Gravitational Collapse of Logatropic Molecular Cloud Cores

We present the results of fully three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the gravitational collapse of isolated, turbulent molecular cloud cores. Starting from initial states of hydrostatic equilibrium, we follow the collapse of both singular and nonsingular logatropic cores until the central protostar has accreted more than 90% of the total available mass. We find that, in the collapse of a singular core with access to a finite mass reservoir, the mass of the central protostar increases as Macc ∝ t4 until it has accreted ~35% of the total available mass. For nonsingular cores of fiducial masses 1, 2.5, and 5 M☉, we find that protostellar accretion proceeds slowly prior to the formation of a singular density profile. Immediately thereafter, the accretion rate in each case increases to ~10-6 M☉ yr-1, for cores with central temperature Tc = 10 K and truncation pressure Ps = 1.3 × 105kB cm-3 K. It remains at that level until half the available mass has been accreted. After this point, the accretion rate falls steadily as the remaining material is accreted onto the growing protostellar core. We suggest that this general behavior of the protostellar accretion rate may be indicative of evolution from the Class 0 to the Class I protostellar phase.
Sodium depletion increases rats' preferences for salted food.

In contrast to humans, sodium-replete rats prefer dilute saline to water and do not prefer salted food to plain food. Sodium depletion is known to enhance the intake of and preference for salt provided in water. Here, we examined whether the context of the delivery vehicle for salt could influence salt intake and preference. This was done by studying the effects of sodium depletion on rats' preferences for salted food and salt water. In Experiment 1, rats were depleted of sodium by combined use of a sodium-deficient diet and administration of the natriuretic drug, furosemide (5 mg sc). They were then given a choice between either salted sodium-deficient diet (1% NaCl) and unsalted sodium-deficient diet or salt water (0.3 M NaCl) and water. The rats consumed more salted than unsalted sodium-deficient diet and more 0.3 M NaCl than water. However, the amount of salt ingested in food was substantially less than the amount in water. In Experiments 2 and 3 we examined preferences for various concentrations of salt (0.06%-8.0% NaCl) in food during sodium depletion. The duration of the salted food preference was inversely related to the quantity of salt consumed and the concentration of salt in the food. Data from Experiments 4 and 5 indicated that it was unlikely the changes in salted food preference were the result of taste aversions produced by furosemide administration. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate that, as the case for fluids, a preference for salted food can be produced by sodium depletion. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
December 2005 Public versus Private Risk Sharing

In this paper we ask whether public intervention can improve the allocation of risk in an economy in which private financial markets do not provide full insurance. The answer depends crucially on the fundamental friction that limits private risk sharing in the first place. If risk sharing is limited because some insurance markets are missing for model-exogenous reasons (as in Ayiagari, 1994) publicly provided risk sharing (via a progressive tax system, say) always improves on the allocation of risk. If instead insurance markets exist but their use is limited by the absence of complete enforcement (as in Kehoe and Levine, 1993) then the provision of public insurance via a progressive income tax system can crowd out the provision of private insurance to such an extent that total consumption insurance is reduced. The idea is that with progressive taxation the government increases the value of being excluded from insurance markets and hence weakens the enforcement mechanism of private contracts. In order to quantify these effects we fully characterize equilibria in an economy with limited enforcement and a continuum of agents so that our baseline income and consumption distribution can match the respective distributions in US data. We find that for plausible parameter the crowding-out effect of public insurance on private insurance can be substantial. keywords: Incomplete Markets, Insurance, Limited Enforcement jel codes: D52, E62, H31 We would like to thank Andrew Atkeson, V.V. Chari, Hal Cole, Joanne Feeney, Ken Judd, Patrick Kehoe, Tim Kehoe, Narayana Kocherlakota, Edward Prescott, Tom Sargent and seminar participants at numerous institutions for helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are our own. A previous version of this paper has circulated with the title ”Risk Sharing: Private Insurance Markets or Redistributive Taxation?
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A VIRTUAL REALITY THERAPY SYSTEM FOR THE TREATMENT OF ACROPHOBIA AND THERAPEUTIC

Virtual Reality (VR) is a new technology that enables humans to communicate with a computer. It allows the user to see, hear, feel and interact in a three-dimensional virtual world created graphically. Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT), based on this sophisticated technology, has been recently used in the treatment of subjects diagnosed with acrophobia. Acrophobia is a disorder that is characterized by marked anxiety upon exposure to heights, avoidance of heights, and a resulting impairment in functioning. Conventional virtual reality systems for the treatment of acrophobia have limitations, such as overly expensive devices or somewhat unrealistic graphic scenes. The goal of this study is to develop an inexpensive and more realistic virtual environment in which to perform an exposure therapy for acrophobia. It runs on a personal computer, and a virtual scene of a bunge-jump tower in the middle of a large city. The virtual scenario includes an open lift surrounded by props beside a tower, which allows the patient to feel a sense of heights. The effectiveness of the VR environment was evaluated through the clinical treatment of a subject who was suffering from the fear of heights. Based on pre- and post- questionnaires and subjective comments from the subject, This virtual reality environment proved to be an effective and realistic tool for the treatment of acrophobia.
Preservation of microorganisms by freeze-drying. I. Cell supernatant, Naylor-Smith solution, and salts of various acids as stabilizers for Serratia marcescens.

Inasmuch as all living things usually require a high content of water either internally or externally, or both, it is remarkable that microorganisms, especially spore forms, can sometimes withstand an extreme desiccating environment. Any success achieved by chemical or physical means in modifying viability, that is in hastening or preventing death of the desiccated cell, has implications in many different fields. The various techniques exploited during the last 45 years in the preservation of bacteria by drying have been reviewed in an interesting and very useful manner by Fry (1954). Although he commends Naylor and Smith (1946) on the logical development of their stabilizing medium for the freezedrying of Serratia marcescens, he points out that its general applicability would have to be tested with more sensitive organisms. The present study of preservation by drying is also limited to S. marcescens but a considerable variety of new substances has been tried besides the Naylor-Smith components. Some of our results should find application in the preservation of other organisms freeze-dried under similar conditions. Experiments with sensitive strains of yeast and bacteria will be reported in a later paper.
Not Just a Black Box: Learning Important Features Through Propagating Activation Differences

Note: This paper describes an older version of DeepLIFT. See this https URL for the newer version. Original abstract follows: The purported "black box" nature of neural networks is a barrier to adoption in applications where interpretability is essential. Here we present DeepLIFT (Learning Important FeaTures), an efficient and effective method for computing importance scores in a neural network. DeepLIFT compares the activation of each neuron to its 'reference activation' and assigns contribution scores according to the difference. We apply DeepLIFT to models trained on natural images and genomic data, and show significant advantages over gradient-based methods.
Mechanism Design on Discrete Structures

We study strategyproof (SP) mechanisms for the location of a facility on a discrete graph. We give a full characterization of SP mechanisms on lines and on sufficiently large cycles. Interestingly, the characterization deviates from the one given by Schummer and Vohra [21] for the continuous case. In particular, it is shown that an SP mechanism on a cycle is close to dictatorial, but all agents can affect the outcome, in contrast to the continuous case. Our characterization is also used to derive a lower bound on the approximation ratio with respect to the social cost that can be achieved by an SP mechanism on certain graphs. Finally, we show how the representation of such graphs as subsets of the binary cube reveals common properties of SP mechanisms and enables one to extend the lower bound to related domains.
Production of beta-carotene in Zymomonas mobilis and Agrobacterium tumefaciens by introduction of the biosynthesis genes from Erwinia uredovora

The Erwinia uredovora crtB, crtE, crtI, and crtY genes required for beta-carotene biosynthesis were introduced by conjugal transfer into an ethanol-producing bacterium, Zymomonas mobilis, and a phytopathogenic bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, in which no carotenoid is synthesized. The transconjugants of Z. mobilis and A. tumefaciens carrying these genes appeared as yellow colonies and produced 220 and 350 micrograms of beta-carotene per g of dry weight, respectively, in the stationary phase in liquid culture.
Uptake of Leishmania major Amastigotes Results in Activation and Interleukin 12 Release from Murine Skin–derived Dendritic Cells: Implications for the Initiation of Anti-Leishmania Immunity

Epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) are immature dendritic cells (DC) located in close proximity to the site of inoculation of infectious Leishmania major metacyclic promastigotes by sand flies. Using LC-like DC expanded from C57BL/6 fetal skin, we characterized interactions involving several developmental stages of Leishmania and DC. We confirmed that L. major amastigotes, but not promastigotes, efficiently entered LC-like DC. Parasite internalization was associated with activation manifested by upregulation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and II surface antigens, increased expression of costimulatory molecules (CD40, CD54, CD80, and CD86), and interleukin (IL)-12 p40 release within 18 h. L. major–induced IL-12 p70 release by DC required interferon γ and prolonged (72 h) incubation. In contrast, infection of inflammatory macrophages (Mφ) with amastigotes or promastigotes did not lead to significant changes in surface antigen expression or cytokine production. These results suggest that skin Mφ and DC are infected sequentially in cutaneous leishmaniasis and that they play distinct roles in the inflammatory and immune response initiated by L. major. Mφ capture organisms near the site of inoculation early in the course of infection after establishment of cellular immunity, and kill amastigotes but probably do not actively participate in T cell priming. In contrast, skin DC are induced to express increased amounts of MHC antigens and costimulatory molecules and to release cytokines (including IL-12 p70) by exposure to L. major amastigotes that ultimately accumulate in lesional tissue, and thus very likely initiate protective T helper cell type 1 immunity.
Complete Genome Sequence of a Coxsackievirus A16 Strain, Isolated from a Fatal Case in Shenzhen, Southern China, in 2014

ABSTRACT We determined the complete genome sequence of a coxsackievirus A16 strain (CVA16/SZ29/CHN/2014) from a fatal case in Shenzhen, southern China, in 2014. The strain was assigned to subgenotype B1b based on phylogenetic analysis of the VP1 gene.
Differential Expression Profile of Chicken Embryo Fibroblast DF-1 Cells Infected with Cell-Adapted Infectious Bursal Disease Virus

RNA-Seq was used to unveil the transcriptional profile of DF-1 cells at the early stage of caIBDV infection. Total RNAs were extracted from virus-infected cells at 0, 6 and 12 hpi. RNA-Seq datasets of respective samples mapped to 56.5–57.6% of isoforms in the reference genome Galgal4.73. At 6 hpi, 23 isoforms underwent an elevated expression, while 128 isoforms were up-regulated and 5 were down-regulated at 12 hpi in the virus-infected group. Besides, 10 isoforms were exclusively expressed in the virus-infected cells. Though no significant change was detected in cytokine and interferon expression levels at the first 12 hours of infection, modulations of the upstream regulators were observed. In addition to the reported regulatory factors including EIF2AK2, MX, OAS*A, GBP7 and IFIT, IBDV infection also triggered a IFIT5-IRF1/3-RSAD5 pathway in the DF-1 cells which potentially restricted the viral replication cycle in the early infection stage. Over-expression of LIPA and CH25H, together with the suppression of STARD4, LSS and AACS genes implied a modulation of membrane fluidity and lipid raft arrangement in the infected cells. Alternative splicing of the EFR3 homolog A gene was also through to be involved in the lipid membrane regulation, and these cumulative responses projected an inhibition of viral endocytosis. Recognition of viral RNA genomes and intermediates was presumably enhanced by the elevated levels of IFIH1, DHX58 and TRIM25 genes which possess properties on detecting viral dsRNA. On the other hand, the caIBDV arrested the host's apoptotic process by inducing the expression of apoptosis inhibitors including NFKBIA/Z, TNFAIP2/3 and ITA at the first 12 hours of infection. In conclusion, the differential expression landscape demonstrated with RNA-Seq provides a comprehensive picture on the molecular interactions between host cells and virus at the early stage of infection.
Design of soft error resilient linear digital filters using checksum-based probabilistic error correction

Any error detecting or correcting code must meet specific code distance criteria to be able to detect and correct specified numbers of errors. Prior work in the area of error detection and correction in linear digital systems using real number checksum codes has shown that at least two checksums are necessary for error correction in linear digital filters and that a fair amount of computation on the two checksums must be performed before "perfect" error compensation can be achieved. In this paper, it is shown that a single checksum can be used to perform probabilistic error correction in linear digital filters with the objective of improving filter SNR in the presence of repetitive injected errors. This approach is designed to partially correct the errors. Comparison against a system with no error correction shows up to 7 dB SNR improvement using the proposed method
Stimulus signal estimation from auditory-neural transduction inverse processing

Auditory models reverse processing techniques would have very useful applications in speech perception and auditory models evaluation. This paper examines how we can be benefit an Inner Hair Cell (IHC) model as a compression and envelope detection section, in the cochlear model inverse processing. Our proposed inversion method, combines the reverse of the Meddis’s auditory neural transduction model with Lyon's cochlear model to estimate the input signal to the inner ear from its auditory nerve firings, with the acceptable quality. Since this method uses neural firings or cleft contents as an input and re-generates the original acoustic stimulus, it is useful with any system generating auditory neural firings. For example, using this method, we are able to estimate the stimulus signal of the Nucleus Cochlear Implant systems to investigate the transferred speech quality without using the real patients.
CAD Tools for Creating Space-filling 3D Escher Tiles

We discuss the design and implementation of CAD tools for creating decorative solids that tile 3-space in a regular, isohedral manner. Starting with the simplest case of extruded 2D tilings, we describe geometric algorithms used for maintaining boundary representations of 3D tiles, including a Java implementation of an interactive constrained Delaunay triangulation library and a mesh-cutting algorithm used in layering extruded tiles to create more intricate designs. Finally, we demonstrate a CAD tool for creating 3D tilings that are derived from cubic lattices. The design process for these 3D tiles is more constrained, and hence more difficult, than in the 2D case, and it raises additional user interface issues.
Activity theory and individual and social transformation.

Introduction The internationalization of activity theory in the 1980s and 1990s has taken place in the midst of sweeping changes in the political and economic systems of our planet. During a few months, the Berlin Wall came down and Nelson Mandela was freed from prison. Those were only two among the visible symbols of the transformations that continue to amaze the most sophisticated observers. Many of the current changes share two fundamental features. First, they are manifestations of activities from below, not just outcomes of traditional maneuvering among the elite of political decision makers. Second, they are unexpected or at least very sudden and rapidly escalating. These two features pose a serious challenge to behavioral and social sciences. The behavioral and social sciences have cherished a division of labor that separates the study of socioeconomic structures from the study of individual behavior and human agency. In this traditional framework, the socioeconomic structures look stable, all-powerful, and self-sufficient. The individual may be seen as an acting subject who learns and develops, but somehow the actions of the individual do not seem to have any impact on the surrounding structures. This traditional dualistic framework does not help us to understand today's deep social-transformations. More than ever before, there is a need for an approach that can dialectically link the individual and the social structure. From its very beginnings, the cultural-historical theory of activity has been elaborated with this task in mind.
Activity in human medial temporal lobe associated with encoding process in spatial working memory revealed by magnetoencephalography

Animal studies have suggested that working memory may be affected after lesions in the medial temporal lobe, although this assumption has not been corroborated by neuropsychological studies in humans. However, very recently, several functional neuroimaging studies in humans have successfully observed activation of the medial temporal lobe during working memory tasks. The main aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of the medial temporal lobe to the encoding process in spatial working memory. To address this issue we registered the neuromagnetic brain patterns of eight adult volunteers while they performed a spatial working memory task and more perceptual task using identical stimuli. After a initial phase (between 200 and 400 ms) without differences in activation, the medial temporal lobe showed a sustained activity, more evident in the right hemisphere, lasting up to 800 ms during the encoding stage of the spatial working memory task, while the activation in the perceptual task terminated earlier (∼400 ms after stimulus onset). The finding of a continued activation of the medial temporal lobe strongly suggests the contribution of this brain region to encoding operations in working memory.