Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blind compressive sensing for cognitive radio networks using spectrum segmentation and l2-minimization recovery

Compressive Sensing (CS) is a signal reduction and reconstruction paradigm. It can be applicable in the fields which processes the sparse signals. One of them is Cognitive Radio (CR) system that senses the frequency domain sparse spectrum. By CS, Fusion Center (FC) of CR network can detect the status of the different sub-channels by a small number of measurements. This is done using a suitable sensing matrix with the aid of an appropriate recovery algorithm. In this paper, a proposed spectrum segmentation technique together with l2-minimization, as a CS recovery algorithm, are used to estimate the statues of the different sub-channels. This is achieved without a prior knowledge about the number of the licensed users, which is known as blind CS. The results show that the proposed technique able to determine the status of the sub-channels with high accuracies at different Signal to Noise Ratios (SNR) and different number of CR users for different sparsity levels.
Association between serum cystatin C and bone mineral density in Korean adults

Background Serum cystatin C has been known as a novel marker of preclinical renal dysfunction, and higher cystatin C levels are associated with increased risks of hip and nonvertebral fractures. However, there are few reports on the association between serum cystatin C and bone mineral density (BMD), especially in the Asian population. We evaluated the association between cystatin C levels and BMD of the spine and hip in Korean adults. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed in 865 Korean adults (325 men and 540 women) who participated in a comprehensive medical examination program and underwent bone densitometry. Renal function was assessed by the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), which was calculated using an equation based on creatinine (eGFRcre) and cystatin C (eGFRcys). Results The serum cystatin C level was negatively correlated with different types of BMD, including the lowest lumbar, total lumbar, femoral neck, and total femur BMD, in women, but not in men. Higher cystatin C levels were associated with a higher prevalence of osteoporosis in women (odds ratio [OR], 3.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.69–8.03; P=0.001), but not in men (OR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.30–2.38; P=0.761). However, this association was attenuated in the multivariable model adjusted for age, body mass index, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, and creatinine (OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.38–2.71) in women. In addition, the eGFRcys showed a stronger positive correlation with BMD than the eGFRcre. Conclusion Our findings suggest that serum cystatin C levels might help identify women with osteoporosis who are susceptible to fractures.
Merging control of a hybrid energy storage system using battery/supercapacitor for electric vehicle application

Hybrid energy storage systems (H-ESSs), as hybridizations of batteries and supercapacitors (SCs), need to be handled by appropriate energy management systems (EMSs). Smoothness of battery current to reduce their degradation are normally the aim of the EMSs. The evolutions of SC voltage however also need to be addressed. Various approaches for handling SC voltage while managing battery current can be found in the literature. Most of the time, their limitations are achieved directly or indirectly in the EMS. This paper aims to develop a merging control scheme to include the SC control outside the EMS. This control scheme based on the inversion principle of the Energetic Macroscopic Representation is proposed for a battery/SC subsystem. Two control schemes are thus systematically deduced and then merged. The battery current reference is generated regarding their aging behavior. Meanwhile, the SC voltage reference is deduced concerning the required SCs stored energy as a function of the vehicle velocity. The proposed approach is validated by simulation in Matlab/Simulink®.
Long-term effects of exercise in postmenopausal women: 16-year results of the Erlangen Fitness and Osteoporosis Prevention Study (EFOPS)

Objective: Multimorbidity related to menopause and/or increased age will put healthcare systems in western nations under ever-greater strain. Effective strategies to prevent diseases are thus of high priority and should be started earlier in life. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the long-term effect of exercise on different important health parameters in initially early postmenopausal women over a 16-year period. Methods: In 1998, 137 early postmenopausal women with osteopenia living in Erlangen-Nürnberg were included in the study. Eighty-six women joined the exercise group (EG) and conducted two supervised group and two home training sessions per week, whereas the control group (CG: n = 51) maintained their physical activity level. Primary outcome parameters were clinical overall fractures incidence; secondary study endpoint was Framingham study-based 10-year risk of coronary death/myocardial infarction and low back pain. Results: In 2014, 59 women of the EG and 46 women of the CG were included in the 16-year follow-up analysis. Framingham study-based 10-year risk of myocardial infarction/coronary death increased significantly (P < 0.001) in both groups; however, changes were significantly more favorable in the EG (5.00% ± 2.94% vs CG: 6.90% ± 3.98%; P = 0.02). The ratio for clinical “overall” fractures was 0.47 (95% CI: 0.24-0.92; P = 0.03), and thus significantly lower in the EG. Although we focused on a high-intensity exercise strategy, low back pain was favorably affected in the EG. Conclusions: Multipurpose exercise programs demonstrated beneficial effects on various relevant risk factors and diseases of menopause or/and increased age, and should thus be preferentially applied for primary or secondary prevention in postmenopausal women.
The origin and fate of morphological intermediates between wild and cultivated soybeans in their natural habitats in Japan

The spread of transgenes into the genome of wild soybean is a concern when transgenic and wild soybeans are planted sympatrically. The objectives of this study were to investigate the origin and fate of morphological intermediates between wild and cultivated soybeans in their natural habitats in Japan. Twenty nuclear microsatellite and two chloroplast dCAPS markers were used to evaluate genetic variation of 468 wild, 17 intermediate, and 12 cultivated soybean samples collected from six sites between 2003 and 2006. Allelic differentiation of microsatellite markers between wild and cultivated soybeans was sufficient to detect their hybrids. Based on levels of observed heterozygosity, intermediate soybean plants were from two generations: either F1 or an early segregating generation. Genetic admixture analysis and parentage assignment analysis revealed that the parents of all intermediate soybean plants could be assigned to a particular wild soybean plant and late‐maturing cultivar. The chloroplast DNA haplotypes revealed that all intermediate soybean plants originated from gene flow from cultivated to wild soybeans at all sites. Based on monitoring at both the phenotypic and molecular levels, hybrids quickly disappeared from natural habitats, and secondary gene flow from these plants to wild soybean was not detected. Thus, while gene flow from transgenic soybean into wild soybean can occur, gene introgression appears to be rare in natural habitats in Japan. This is the first report on the detection of gene flow from cultivated to wild soybean at the molecular level.
The mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat directs expression in epithelial and lymphoid cells of different tissues in transgenic mice

A series of transgenic mice was developed that contained the simian virus 40 early region genes under the transcriptional control of the mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat, including the promoter and glucocorticoid response elements. These mice all expressed the transgene in the epithelial cells of a number of different organs, such as lungs, kidneys, and prostate, salivary, and mammary glands, and in Leydig and lymphoid cells. Transcription of the chimeric gene was inducible by glucocorticoids, either after transfection into tissue culture cells or in cells cultured from animals carrying the transgene. Many, but not all, tissues which expressed the simian virus 40 sequences, as determined immunologically and by RNA analysis, developed into tumors, although they showed premalignant features. Since the mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat is expressed in a number of different cell types when inherited through the germ line, the lactating mammary gland-specific transcription of endogenous proviruses must require other factors or sequences to achieve this specificity.
Lack of health insurance in living kidney donors

Casagrande LH, Collins S, Warren AT, Ommen ES. Lack of health insurance in living kidney donors. Clin Transplant 2011 DOI: 10.1111/j.1399‐0012.2011. 01558.x. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Two Birds One Stone: On both Cold-Start and Long-Tail Recommendation

The number of "hits" has been widely regarded as the lifeblood of many web systems, e.g., e-commerce systems, advertising systems and multimedia consumption systems. However, users would not hit an item if they cannot see it, or they are not interested in the item. Recommender system plays a critical role of discovering interested items from near-infinite inventory and exhibiting them to potential users. Yet, two issues are crippling the recommender systems. One is "how to handle new users", and the other is "how to surprise users". The former is well-known as cold-start recommendation, and the latter can be investigated as long-tail recommendation. This paper, for the first time, proposes a novel approach which can simultaneously handle both cold-start and long-tail recommendation in a unified objective. For the cold-start problem, we learn from side information, e.g., user attributes, user social relationships, etc. Then, we transfer the learned knowledge to new users. For the long-tail recommendation, we decompose the overall interested items into two parts: a low-rank part for short-head items and a sparse part for long-tail items. The two parts are independently revealed in the training stage, and transfered into the final recommendation for new users. Furthermore, we effectively formulate the two problems into a unified objective and present an iterative optimization algorithm. Experiments of recommendation on various real-world datasets, such as images, blogs, videos and musics, verify the superiority of our approach compared with the state-of-the-art work.
Effects of 12-week brisk walking training on exercise blood pressure in elderly patients with essential hypertension: a pilot study

ABSTRACT Background: Essential hypertension (EP) is characterized by blood pressure (BP) elevations, which often lead to target organ damage and cardiovascular illness. The following study investigates whether aerobic exercise programs with different intensities could reduce the magnitude of BP rise. Methods: Patients with essential hypertension were recruited from the Baoshan Community Health Service Center. A total of 46 patients were finally selected and randomly assigned into two groups: control group (CON) included patients who did not participate in exercise intervention training; treatment group (TRG) included patients who participated in 12-week brisk walking training (60-min of brisk walking, three times a week for a total of 12 weeks). 3-minute step tests of low and high intensity were conducted pre- and post-intervention. To compare the effects of exercise intervention, 23 subjects with normal blood pressure (NBP) who did not participate in 12-week brisk walking training, were recruited. Results: After 12 weeks of brisk walking, SBP of TRG during resting, low and high-intensity exercise was significantly reduced by 8.3mmHg, 15.6mmHg, and 22.6mmHg, respectively; while HR of TRG’s during resting, low and high intensity was significantly reduced by 3.6beats/minute, 8.7beats/minute and 11.3beats/minute, respectively. Meanwhile, after 12 weeks of brisk walking, TRG’s steps per day, o2max, moderate physical activity time and physical activity energy expenditure significantly increased by 6000 steps, 2.4 ml/kg/m, 40 minutes and 113 kcal, respectively. At the same time, TRG’s body fat rate and sedentary time significantly reduced by 2% and 60 minutes per day. Conclusion: Brisk walking can reduce the magnitude of BP rise during exercise of different intensities and may be reduced the risk of acute cardiovascular incidents in elderly patients with essential hypertension. Abbreviations: EP: Essential hypertension; BP: blood pressure; CON: control group; TRG: treatment group; NBP: normal blood pressure; PA: physical activity
Helicobacter marmotae sp. nov. Isolated from Livers of Woodchucks and Intestines of Cats

ABSTRACT Woodchucks (Marmota monax) have a high incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with chronic infection with woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) and serve as a model of hepatitis B virus-associated HCC in humans. Helicobacter hepaticus, an enterohepatic helicobacter in mice, is known to cause hepatocellular adenomas and carcinomas in susceptible mouse strains. In long-term chemical bioassays conducted with B6C3F1 mice, H. hepaticus has been regarded as a confounding factor because of its tumor-promoting activity. In order to determine if woodchucks harbor a Helicobacter sp. that might play a role in potentiating hepatic inflammation or neoplasia, a study was undertaken to determine whether woodchucks' livers were infected with a Helicobacter sp. Frozen liver samples from 20 (17 WHV-infected and 3 noninfected) woodchucks, 10 with WHV-associated hepatic tumors and 10 without tumors, were cultured by microaerobic techniques and analyzed by using genus- and species-specific helicobacter PCR primers. A 1,200-bp Helicobacter sp. -specific sequence was amplified from 14 liver samples. Southern hybridization confirmed the specific identity of the PCR products. Nine of the 10 livers with tumors had positive Helicobacter sp. identified by PCR, whereas 5 of the 10 livers without tumors were positive. By use of 16S rRNA species-specific primers for H. marmotae, two additional liver samples from the nontumor group had positive PCR amplicons confirmed by Southern hybridization. A urease-, catalase-, and oxidase-positive bacterium was isolated from one liver sample from a liver tumor-positive woodchuck. By 16S rRNA analysis and biochemical and phenotypic characteristics, the organism was classified as a novel Helicobacter sp. Subsequently, four additional bacterial strains isolated from feces of cats and characterized by biochemical, phenotypic, and 16S rRNA analysis were determined to be identical to the woodchuck isolate. We propose the name Helicobacter marmotae sp. nov. for these organisms. Further studies are required to ascertain if this novel Helicobacter sp. plays a tumor promotion role in hepadnavirus-associated tumors in woodchucks or causes enterohepatic disease in cats.
Three human homologs of a murine gene encoding an inhibitor of stem cell proliferation.

The G0S19 genes are members of the "small inducible" family of genes, which have similar exon-intron organizations and encode secreted proteins with similar dispositions of cysteine and proline residues. G0S19-1 mRNA is increased shortly after the addition of lectin or cycloheximide to cultured human blood mononuclear cells. The cDNA sequence is homologous to that of a murine gene encoding an inhibitory cytokine (MIP1 alpha/SCI), which decreases hemopoietic stem cell proliferation. The homology extends to the 3' noncoding region, which contains two conserved elements: (i) GGGACTCTTC, a potential transcription factor NF chi B-binding site, and (ii) TTTTGTAATTTATTTT, which is found in some related genes (e.g., that encoding the immediate early protein ornithine decarboxylase). A similar but complementary sequence is present in human immunodeficiency virus. Two of the three human genes that hybridize to G0S19-1 cDNA were sequenced. G0S19-1 has 5' AP1-like recognition elements as found in some other phorbol ester-responsive genes (e.g., c-fos). G0S19-2 has a 5' Alu sequence, but is likely to be expressed because of the conservation of sections of the gene believed to be important for function. The 5' flanks of both genes contain the nucleotide motifs CK-2 and SRE, indicating cytokine-like genes with the potential to respond to growth factors. G0S19-1 is the main G0S19 gene expressed in adult T lymphocytes and may encode a homeostatic negative regulator of the size of cell populations (or subpopulations) which are derived ultimately from marrow stem cells. As such, it is a potential antioncogene.
Effects of Video Footage Versus Photographs on Perception of Dog Behavioral Traits

Photographs are frequently used to promote adoption of dogs on rescue shelter websites. While physical traits are well illustrated via photographs, conveying a dog's behavioral traits is more problematic. Traits such as sociability, obedience, and friendliness are likely to be better displayed via video footage. This study explored the effects of video versus photographs on the perception of dog behavioral traits. Four dogs from a Gloucestershire Rescue Shelter (2 desirable breeds, 2 from a stigmatized breed) were individually photographed, and a 30-s video of each was recorded. Two questionnaires were produced containing either a video or photograph of each dog. Each questionnaire presented all 4 dogs but via different media. Participants rated their agreement with 12 statements relating to their perceptions of the dog seen. Dogs viewed via video were considered to be more trainable, intelligent, friendly, and gentle and less dominant, aggressive, and unsociable. This finding was observed in desired and stigmatized breeds. Perceived behavioral traits can impact the likelihood of adoption. These findings suggest that greater use of video footage by rehoming shelters could help promote dog adoptions.
Optimierung der Quelle-Ziel-Matrixschaetzung hinsichtlich Redundanzstoerung sich veraendernder Verkehrszustaende

Eine Verbesserung der Genauigkeit der Herkunfts- und Zielmatrizen kann zu einem grossen Qualitaetsgewinn bei der Wirkungsabschaetzung der zu planenden Verkehrsmassnahmen und des resultierenden Verkehrsablaufs fuehren. Es ist dennoch zu zeit- und budgetaufwaendig, aus Befragungen eine Matrix zu erstellen. Im Vergleich dazu sind vorhandene und relativ leicht erfasste Verkehrszaehlungen sehr attraktiv und kommen vor allem seit Ende der 1970er Jahre in der Matrixschaetzung zur Anwendung. Zahlreiche entsprechende Modelle wurden entwickelt und hauptsaechlich unter Verwendung von Streckenbelastungen als Eingangsgroessen beziehungsweise Kalibrierungswerte angewendet. Im Hinblick auf die zunehmende Verfuegbarkeit der Abbiegestrominformationen ergibt sich die Frage nach der entsprechenden Wirkung auf die Matrixschaetzung. In Anbetracht der Tatsache, dass durch die steigende Fahrzeuganzahl und die unterschiedlichen Taetigkeiten die Verkehrszustaende variieren, ist die essentielle Frage, wie sich eine Erhoehung der Genauigkeit der Anteilsmatrix auswirkt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden unterschiedliche Matrixschaetzverfahren untersucht, um ihre Eigenschaften und Einschraenkungen ihrer Anwendungen dahingehend zu erfassen. Darauf aufbauend wurden Methoden zur Verbesserung entwickelt und einige Pruefungen und Bewertungen der neuen Ansaetze durchgefuehrt.
Distinct outcomes of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in hamsters are related to myocardial parasitism, cytokine/chemokine gene expression, and protein expression profile.

BACKGROUND Trypanosoma cruzi-infected outbred hamsters reproduce the range of different outcomes of Chagas disease noted in humans. We tested whether myocarditis, its mediators, and myocardial protein expression are related to the severity of the acute phase of T. cruzi infection in the hamster model. METHODS Myocardium left ventricles (LVs) obtained from Syrian hamsters infected with T. cruzi were collected 21 days after infection. Myocarditis and the T. cruzi nest/antigen area were analyzed by histological and morphometric analysis. Cytokine and chemokine messenger RNA (mRNA) expression was analyzed using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Differentially expressed proteins were identified by 2-dimensional electrophoresis, followed by mass spectrometry. RESULTS While in the acute phase of infection, 50% of animals displayed weight loss and signs of acute-phase infection (hereafter referred to as "acute-phase signs" [APS]) (e.g., lethargy, vomiting, and diarrhea). Both the T. cruzi nest/antigen area and the expression of interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-10, and CCL3 mRNA were significantly increased in the LVs of animals with APS, compared with the LVs of animals without APS. Animals with APS, those without APS, and uninfected animals demonstrated distinct myocardial expression of contractile, stress response, and metabolism proteins. CONCLUSIONS The distinct outcomes of acute T. cruzi infection in Syrian hamsters are related to cardiac parasitism, cytokine expression, and changes in the expression of structural/contractile and stress response proteins that may be associated with alterations in the cardiomyocyte cytoskeleton.
Dynamic Lateral Stability for an Energy Efficient Gait

This paper presents an energy efficient dynamically stable gait for a Nao humanoid robot. In previous work we identified a dynamically stable and energy efficient gait in the sagittal or walking direction of a Nao robot. This gait proved to be more energy efficient than the standard gait, provided by the manufacturer. Dynamic stability in the lateral direction was not addressed. Lateral stability was handled by full stiffness of the joint in lateral direction. In this paper we report on adding dynamic lateral stability. We do not yet incorporate feedback of sensors. This implies that the gait is only suited for flat horizontal surfaces that some lateral joint stiffness is needed in the implementation on the Nao.