Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Binding of m In-Labeled LDL to Platelets of Normolipemic Volunteers and Patients With Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia

Low density lipoproteins (LDLs) were isolated by ultracentrifugation and radiolabeled with '"In. The in vitro binding of these radiolabels onto platelets of normolipemic volunteers (n = 15) and patients (n=36) with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) was investigated. Binding was saturable and indicated high-affinity binding sites capable of binding 1,757±289 ng protein of '"In-LDL per 10' platelets (dissociation constant [ATd], 6±3 fig protein/mL) in healthy volunteers and significantly (p<0.001) lower amounts in the FH patients (mean, 633±341 ng protein/10 platelets; Kd, 10±5 fig protein/mL). The capacity of native LDL to displace bound '"In-LDL by half amounted to 10±4 fig protein/mL in volunteers and 22±8 fig protein/mL in FH patients (p<0.001). Treatment with gemflbrozil alone or in combination with cholestyramine in 10 patients resulted in increased "'In-LDL binding by platelets (470±307 [mean±SD] ng protein/10 platelets before therapy, 948±650 ng protein/10 platelets after 2 months of therapy [p<0.01], and l,272±701 ng protein/10 platelets after 6 months of therapy [p<0.01]). Significant correlations between In-LDL binding capacity and apolipoprotein B (r=-0.83, p<0.001) and LDL cholesterol (r=— 0.80, p<0.000) concentrations were found. Patients with clinically manifested atherosclerosis (p<0.01) and those with diabetes mellitus (p<0.05) had significantly lower platelet LDL binding sites. The findings demonstrate "'In-lipoprotein-specific binding sites on human platelets. Platelets of patients with heterozygous FH express lower numbers of binding sites, which could be upregulated during lipid-lowering intervention. It is concluded that high-affinity LDL binding may involve in vivo processes related to platelet activation in hyperlipemic disorders. (Arteriosclerosis and Thrombosis 1993;13:536-547)
Learning User Representations in Online Social Networks using Temporal Dynamics of Information Diffusion

This article presents a novel approach for learning low-dimensional distributed representations of users in online social networks. Existing methods rely on the network structure formed by the social relationships among users to extract these representations. However, the network information can be obsolete, incomplete or dynamically changing. In addition, in some cases, it can be prohibitively expensive to get the network information. Therefore, we propose an alternative approach based on observations from topics being talked on in social networks. We utilise the time information of users adopting topics in order to embed them in a real-valued vector space. Through extensive experiments, we investigate the properties of the representations learned and their efficacy in preserving information about link structure among users. We also evaluate the representations in two different prediction tasks, namely, predicting most likely future adopters of a topic and predicting the geo-location of users. Experiments to validate the proposed methods are performed on a large-scale social network extracted from Twitter, consisting of about 7.7 million users and their activity on around 3.6 million topics over a month-long period.
Proportional delay differentiation provision by bandwidth adaptation of class‐based queue scheduling

Supporting quality of service (QoS) over the Internet is a very important issue and many mechanisms have already been devised or are under way towards achieving this goal. One of the most important approaches is the so‐called Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture, which provides a scalable mechanism for QoS support in a TCP/IP network. The main concept underlying DiffServ is the aggregation of traffic flows at an ingress (or egress) point of a network and the marking of the IP packets of each traffic flow according to several classification criteria. Diffserv is classified under two taxonomies: the absolute and the relative. In absolute DiffServ architecture, an admission control scheme is utilized to provide QoS as absolute bounds of specific QoS parameters. The relative DiffServ model offers also QoS guarantees per class but in reference to the guarantees given to the other classes defined. In this paper, relative proportional delay differentiation is achieved based on class‐based queueing (CBQ) scheduler. Specifically, the service rates allocated to the classes of a CBQ scheduler are frequently adjusted in order to obtain relative delay spacing among them. The model presented can also be exploited in order to meet absolute delay constraints in conjunction with relative delay differentiation provision. Simulation experiments verify that our model can attain relative as well as absolute delay differentiation provided that the preconditions posed are satisfied. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gambling in the Visual Periphery: A Conjoint-Measurement Analysis of Human Ability to Judge Visual Uncertainty

Recent work in motor control demonstrates that humans take their own motor uncertainty into account, adjusting the timing and goals of movement so as to maximize expected gain. Visual sensitivity varies dramatically with retinal location and target, and models of optimal visual search typically assume that the visual system takes retinal inhomogeneity into account in planning eye movements. Such models can then use the entire retina rather than just the fovea to speed search. Using a simple decision task, we evaluated human ability to compensate for retinal inhomogeneity. We first measured observers' sensitivity for targets, varying contrast and eccentricity. Observers then repeatedly chose between targets differing in eccentricity and contrast, selecting the one they would prefer to attempt: e.g., a low contrast target at 2° versus a high contrast target at 10°. Observers knew they would later attempt some of their chosen targets and receive rewards for correct classifications. We evaluated performance in three ways. Equivalence: Do observers' judgments agree with their actual performance? Do they correctly trade off eccentricity and contrast and select the more discriminable target in each pair? Transitivity: Are observers' choices self-consistent? Dominance: Do observers understand that increased contrast improves performance? Decreased eccentricity? All observers exhibited patterned failures of equivalence, and seven out of eight observers failed transitivity. There were significant but small failures of dominance. All these failures together reduced their winnings by 10%–18%.
Nicotinic Autoreceptors Mediating Enhancement of Acetylcholine Release Become Operative in Conditions of “Impaired” Cholinergic Presynaptic Function

Abstract: The existence in the mammalian CNS of release‐inhibiting muscarinic autoreceptors is well established. In contrast, few reports have focused on nicotinic autoreceptors mediating enhancement of acetylcholine (ACh) release. Moreover, it is unclear under what conditions the function of one type of autoreceptor prevails over that of the other. Rat cerebrocortex slices, prelabeled with [3H]choline, were stimulated electrically at 3 or 0.1 Hz. The release of [3H]ACh evoked at both frequencies was inhibited by oxotremorine, a muscarinic receptor agonist, and stimulated by atropine, a muscarinic antagonist. Nicotine, ineffective at 3 Hz, enhanced [3H]ACh release at 0.1 Hz; mecamylamine, a nicotinic antagonist, had no effect at 3 Hz but inhibited [3H]ACh release at 0.1 Hz. The cholinesterase inhibitor neostigmine decreased [3H]ACh release at 3 Hz but not at 0.1 Hz; in the presence of atropine, neostigmine potentiated [3H]ACh release, an effect blocked by mecamylamine. In synaptosomes depolarized with 15 mM KCI, ACh inhibited [3H]ACh release; this inhibition was reversed to an enhancement when the external [Ca2+] was lowered. The same occurred when, at 1.2 mM Ca2+, external [K+] was decreased. Oxotremorine still inhibited [3H]ACh release at 0.1 mM Ca2+. When muscarinic receptors were inactivated with atropine, the K+ (15 mM)‐evoked release of [3H]ACh (at 0.1 mM Ca2+) was potently enhanced by ACh acting at nicotinic receptors (EC50⋍ 0.6 µM). In conclusion, synaptic ACh concentration does not seem to determine whether muscarinic or nicotinic autoreceptors are activated. Although muscarinic autoreceptors prevail under normal conditions, nicotinic autoreceptors appear to become responsive to endogenous ACh and to exogenous nicotinic agents under conditions mimicking impairment of ACh release. Our data may explain in part the reported efficacy of cholinesterase inhibitors (and nicotinic agonists) in Alzheimer's disease.
Six-Sigma in Lean Construction Systems: Opportunities and Challenges

One of the tenants of lean construction states that achieving reliable workflow is possible when sources of variability are controlled. Under a lean paradigm, the effects of variability are buffered through excess inventory, flexible capacity, and/or work-ready backlogs. The common element between these three approaches to tackle production process variability is that they are all attempts to combat the effects of variability and not to reduce or eliminate variability altogether. Reducing or eliminating the variability that plague production processes requires the removal of the root causes of variability –a difficult but not impossible task. Six Sigma is a statistical-based methodology that provides a structured framework to organize and implement strategic process improvement initiatives to attain reductions in process variability. In this paper, the origin of Six Sigma is reviewed with a brief discussion of its methods and metrics. The application of the Six Sigma rolled throughput yield and sigma quality level metrics to the Last Planner System is demonstrated. Using the Lean Project Delivery System as a foundation, the paper suggests Six Sigma applications and research opportunities in Lean Construction.
Mitmachen erwünscht - aktivierende Lehre mit Peer Instruction und Just-in-Time Teaching

In der Hochschullehre gibt es aktuell verschiedene Herausforderungen: Wie geht man mit den heterogenen fachlichen Voraussetzungen der Studierenden um, wie konnen Studierende besser aktiviert werden und wie kann das Feedback zwischen Dozierenden und Studierenden verbessert werden? Um diesen Anforderungen Rechnung zu tragen, wurde in einer Analysis-Veranstaltung eine Kombination der Methoden Peer Instruction und Just-in-Time Teaching eingesetzt und evaluiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Methoden zu einer starkeren Aktivierung der Studierenden beitragen und verschiedene Moglichkeiten fur formatives Feedback bieten. Eine hohe Akzeptanz der Methoden kann ebenfalls festgestellt werden. 10.11. 2014 | Kathrin Wolf, Antje Nissler, Edda Eich-Soellner & Rainer Fischer (Munchen)
Gene trees and species trees are not the same

Loren H. Rieseberg Dept of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. e-mail: lriesebe@indiana.edu Most species of plants and animals differ in their KARYOTYPES1,2 (see Glossary). This observation, combined with evidence that chromosomal rearrangements might reduce the fertility of heterozygous hybrids (Box 1), has led some researchers to argue for a causative role for chromosomal change in SPECIATION1,3. For example, White concludes1 that chromosomal rearrangements have ‘played the primary role in the majority of speciation events’. The opposing and more widely held view is that the accumulation of chromosomal differences between populations is largely incidental to speciation4–6. The most widely cited reasons for doubting an important role for karyotypic change in speciation include: (1) the observation that many chromosomal rearrangements have little effect on fertility5,7,8; (2) theoretical difficulties associated with fixing chromosomal rearrangements that are strongly UNDERDOMINANT (i.e. reduce the fitness of heterozygotes)9,10; (3) the supposed ineffectiveness of chromosomal differences as barriers to gene flow4,11,12; and (4) the widespread belief that premating and/or ecological barriers arise earlier than chromosomal rearrangements in the speciation process and thus are more likely to cause speciation6,13,14. Here, I discuss prominent models of chromosomal speciation and population genetic issues associated with the establishment and spread of chromosomal rearrangements, and consider the validity of these models, particularly with respect to the effects of chromosomal rearrangements on the fitness of plant and animal hybrids and on interspecific gene flow. I argue that chromosomal rearrangements reduce gene flow more often through their effects on recombination rates than through their effects on fitness. I conclude by discussing the implications of this non-traditional view of chromosomal rearrangements with respect to: (1) traditional chromosomal speciation models; (2) SYMPATRIC or PARAPATRIC models of speciation; and (3) the survival of NEOSPECIES that have come back into contact with their progenitor(s).
Space-Time Video Montage

Conventional video summarization methods focus predominantly on summarizing videos along the time axis, such as building a movie trailer: The resulting video trailer tends to retain much empty space in the background of the video frames while discarding much informative video content due to size limit. In this paper we propose a novel spacetime video summarization method which we call space-time video montage. The method simultaneously analyzes both the spatial and temporal injbrmation distribution in a video sequence, and extracts the visually informative space-time portions of the input videos. The informative video porlions are represented in volumetric layers. The layers are then packrd together in a smull ouzput video volume such that the total amount of visual information in the video volume is maximized. To achieve the packing process, we develop a new algorithm based upon the first-fit and Graph cut optimization techniques. Since our method is uble to cut off spatially und temporally less informative portions, it is uble to generate much more compact yet highly informative output videos. The effecliveness of our method is validated by extensive experiments over a wide variety of videos.
Quotients of the Multiplihedron as Categorified Associahedra

We describe a new sequence of polytopes which characterize A_infinity maps from a topological monoid to an A_infinity space. Therefore each of these polytopes is a quotient of the corresponding multiplihedron. Later term(s) in our sequence of polytopes are demonstrated not to be combinatorially equivalent to the associahedron, as was previously assumed. They are given the new collective name composihedra. We point out how these polytopes are used to parameterize compositions in the formulation of the theories of enriched bicategories and pseudomonoids in a monoidal bicategory. We present a simple algorithm for determining the extremal points in Euclidean space whose convex hull is the nth polytope in the sequence of composihedra, that is, the nth composihedron.
Agent-based modeling of the demand-side flexibility

The paper presents an agent-based approach to model the flexibility of the demand-side. It uses Q-learning algorithm to model a behavior of a demand-side agent, so to investigate the elasticity of the demand to the change in price. Often, market simulation models assume that the demand elasticity is known, however due the lack of data this elasticity is not easy to determine. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the flexibility of the total system demand, and the shift in the consumption with the price, i.e. increase in the demand when the price is low, and a decrease in the demand when the price is high. The here presented model of a demand-side agent is incorporated into the market simulator with double-sided auctions, and is tested on the Slovenian market. However, this approach can be used to estimate flexibility in any system for which the forecasted demand data and generation offers are know.
Early life determinants of physical activity and sedentary time: current knowledge and future research

Previous findings of the association between low birth weight and subsequent health outcomes have led to the “developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis”. Furthermore, modifiable and partly modifiable early life factors may also influence behaviors such as physical activity and sedentary behavior. The aim of the present review was to summarize the existing knowledge on early life determinants (birth weight, rapid infant weight gain, motor development and infant temperament) of childhood physical activity and sedentary time, and suggest opportunities for future research based on the Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Inconsistent results have been observed when relating birth weight to later physical activity, likely explained by differences in methodology when assessing physical activity between studies. There is limited data on whether rapid weight gain in early life predicts later physical activity and few studies have examined the association between birth weight and infant weight gain with subsequent sedentary time. Motor development may be a predictor for childhood physical activity, however methodological limitations preclude firm conclusions. The association between motor development and sedentary time has rarely been examined. Conflicting results have been reported for the association between infant temperament and subsequent physical activity and sedentary time in toddlers. Finally, it is unknown whether physical activity modifies the association between birth weight, postnatal weight gain, and later health outcomes in youth. Additional research in well-characterized birth cohorts can be used to generate new knowledge on possible early life determinants of children’s and youth’s physical activity and sedentary time which may inform evidence-based public health interventions.
Effects of Mood Induction and Bias-Inducing Contextual Cues on Decision Making in Gamblers and Healthy Individuals

This study investigated the effect of mood and bias-eliciting contextual cues on decision making in problem gamblers and healthy individuals. The experimental design involved two between-subjects variables: mood induction (none induction, positive induction, negative induction) and gambling attitude (problem gamblers, healthy individuals), and one withinsubjects variable: bias-inducing contextual cues (gambler’s fallacy, illusion of control, wishful thinking, endowment effect). In four decision tasks, participants were asked to select one option among four (very prudent, prudent, hazardous, very hazardous) after having been induced with negative or positive mood (or without mood induction for control group). They filled the South Oaks Gambling Screen at the end of the experiment. Results showed that mood did not influence healthy participants; however, problem gamblers were more risk-seeking after negative mood induction.
Error Mining for Parsing Results and Unknown Word Identification in Chinese Word Segmentation

Error mining was originally proposed for finding forms that cause incomplete parses of sentences. I generalized it as a technique that identifies patterns representing the differences between two sub-corpora and attempted to apply the method to solve other language processing problems that share similar structures with the parsing one. To build a platform for error mining, I will focus on extending the iterative method of De Kok et al (2009), though maximum entropy based feature extraction methods will also be considered. I will conduct error mining on real corpora for both analyzing parsing results and identifying unknown words in Chinese word segmentation. Finally I will evaluate the performance of the miner and report the results.
A game-theoretic approach to energy-efficient power control in cognitive wireless networks

The uplink of a multiuser cognitive radio network, wherein secondary users communicating with a secondary access point coexist with primary users communicating with a primary access point, is considered in this paper. It is assumed that primary and secondary users' signals coexist in the same frequency band, and that the transmit powers of the secondary users are constrained so that the interference from the whole secondary network to each primary user does not exceed a prescribed threshold. Given this constraint, a non-cooperative power control game for maximum energy-efficiency with a fairness constraint on the maximum received powers for the secondary users has been considered. The considered game is shown to admit a unique Nash equilibrium, also in the case in which energy-efficiency is maximized with respect to both transmit power and choice of the linear uplink receiver. Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical results on the existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium, and show that secondary users have a beneficial impact on the whole network throughput, at the price of a moderate degradation in the performance of the primary users.
Seroreversion in subjects receiving antiretroviral therapy during acute/early HIV infection.

BACKGROUND We assessed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody seroreversion among individuals initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) during acute/early HIV infection and determined whether seroreversion was associated with loss of cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses. METHODS Subjects in a cohort with acute/early HIV infection (<12 months into infection) who initiated ART within 28 days after study entry and maintained HIV type 1 ribonucleic acid levels of < or =500 copies/mL for >24 weeks were selected. Two clinically available second-generation enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) and a confirmatory Western blot were used to screen subjects for antibody reversion. Those with negative screening test results underwent additional antibody testing, including a third-generation EIA, and were assessed for cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses. RESULTS Of 87 subjects identified, 12 (14%) had negative antibody test results at the start of ART; all 12 had seroconversion, although 1 had seroconversion only on a third-generation EIA. Of the 87 subjects, 6 (7%) had seroreversion on at least 1 EIA antibody assay while receiving ART during a median follow-up of 90 weeks. The only clinical predictor of seroreversion was a low baseline "detuned" (less sensitive) antibody. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses to HIV Gag peptides were detected in 4 of 5 subjects with seroreversion who could be tested. All 5 who had seroreversion who stopped ART experienced virologic rebound and antibody evolution. CONCLUSIONS HIV antibody seroconversion on second-generation EIA antibody tests may fail to occur when ART is initiated early. Seroreversion was not uncommon among subjects treated early, although cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses to HIV antigens remained detectable in most subjects. Antibody seroreversion did not indicate viral eradication. A third-generation EIA was the most sensitive test for HIV antibodies.
Malignancies in HIV/AIDS: from epidemiology to therapeutic challenges

The incidence of AIDS-defining cancers (ADCs) – Kaposi sarcoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and cervical cancer – although on the decline since shortly after the introduction of HAART, has continued to be greater even in treated HIV-infected persons than in the general population. Although the survival of newly infected people living with HIV/AIDS now rivals that of the general population, morbidity and mortality associated with non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs) such as lung, liver, anal, and melanoma are significant and also continue to rise. Increasing age (i.e. longevity) is the greatest risk factor for NADCs, but longevity alone is not sufficient to fully explain these trends in cancer epidemiology. In this review, we briefly review the epidemiology and etiology of cancers seen in HIV/AIDS, and in this context, discuss preclinical research and broad treatment considerations. Investigation of these considerations provides insight into why malignancies continue to be a major problem in the current era of HIV/AIDS care.