Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Magnetometer Disturbance Estimation via Online Nonlinear Programming

Magnetometer is a significant sensor for integrated navigation. However, it suffers from many kinds of unknown dynamic magnetic disturbances. We study the problem of online estimating such disturbances via a nonlinear optimization aided by the intermediate quaternion estimation from inertial fusion. The proposed optimization is constrained by the geographical distribution of the magnetic field forming a constrained nonlinear programming. The uniqueness of the solution has been verified mathematically, and we design an interior-point-based solver for efficient computation on embedded chips. It is claimed that the designed scheme mainly outperforms in dealing with the challenging bias estimation problem under static motion as the previous representatives can hardly achieve. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme on high accuracy, fast response, and low computational load.
Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in Amazon Region of Brazil and associated determinants: a cross-sectional study

Objectives To estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity and to identify factors associated with it in the adult population from the metropolitan region of Manaus. Design Cross-sectional population-based study. Setting Interviews conducted between May and August of 2015 in eight cities that compose the metropolitan region of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Participants 4001 adults aged ≥18 years. Primary outcome measures Multimorbidity, measured by the occurrence of ≥2 and ≥3 chronic diseases, was the primary outcome. The associated factors were investigated by calculating the prevalence ratio (PR) obtained by Poisson regression, with robust adjustment of the variance in a hierarchical model. A factor analysis was conducted to investigate multimorbidity clusters. Results Half of the interviewees were women. The presence of a chronic disease was reported by 57.2% (95% CI 56.6% to 59.7%) of the interviewees, and the mean morbidity was 1.2 (1.1–1.2); 29.0% (95% CI 27.6% to 30.5%) reported ≥2 morbidities and 15.2% (95% CI 14.1% to 16.4%) reported ≥3 chronic conditions. Back pain was reported by one-third of the interviewees. Multimorbidity was highest in women, PR=1.66 (95% CI 1.50 to 1.83); the elderly, PR=5.68 (95% CI 4.51 to 7.15) and individuals with worse health perception, PR=3.70 (95% CI 2.73 to 5.00). Associated factors also included undergoing medical consultations, hospitalisation in the last year, suffering from dengue in the last year and seeking the same healthcare service. Factor analysis revealed a pattern of multimorbidity in women. The factor loading the most strength of association in women was heart disease. In men, an association was identified in two groups, and lung disease was the disease with the highest factorial loading. Conclusion Multimorbidity was frequent in the metropolitan region of Manaus. It occurred most often in women, in the elderly and in those with worse health perception.
Membrane cholesterol and substrate stiffness co-ordinate to induce the remodelling of the cytoskeleton and the alteration in the biomechanics of vascular smooth muscle cells.

AIMS Cholesterol not only deposits in foam cells at the atherosclerotic plaque, but also plays an important role as a regulator of cell migration in atherogenesis. In addition, the progression of atherosclerosis leads to arterial wall stiffening, and thus altering the micromechanical environment of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in vivo. Our studies aim to test the hypothesis that membrane cholesterol and substrate stiffness co-ordinate to regulate VSMCs biomechanics, and thus potentially regulate VSMCs migration and atherosclerotic plaque formation. METHODS AND RESULTS Methyl-β-cyclodextrin was used to manipulate membrane cholesterol content in VSMCs isolated from the descending thoracic aorta of male Sprague-Dawley rats and cultured on Type I collagen-coated polyacrylamide gel substrates with varying stiffness. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to determine VSMCs stiffness and integrin-fibronectin (FN) adhesion. The alignment of submembranous actin filaments was visualized with AFM and confocal microscopy. The constriction force of rat aorta was measured ex vivo using a multi-wire myograph system. Our results demonstrated that cholesterol-depletion and substrate-softening induced a significant decrease in VSMCs stiffness and adhesion to FN, as well as cytoskeletal disorganization. In addition, the contractile force of rat aorta was reduced upon cholesterol-depletion. Cholesterol-enrichment resulted in an increase in stiffness, adhesion to FN, cytoskeletal organization of VSMCs compared with the cholesterol-depleted cells, and enhanced contractile force of rat aortas compared with the cholesterol-depleted vessel rings. CONCLUSION Cell membrane cholesterol and substrate stiffness synergistically affect VSMCs elastic modulus (E-modulus) by regulating the organization of the actin cytoskeleton. Except for the 3.5 kPa gel substrate, cholesterol-depletion decreased VSMCs-FN adhesion force, adhesion loading rate, cytoskeletal orientation, and E-modulus compared with the control VSMCs. Conversely, cholesterol-enrichment significantly increased cytoskeleton orientation, stiffness, and VSMCs-FN cell adhesion force compared with both control and cholesterol-depleted VSMCs on a soft substrate.
Adversarial Gain

Adversarial examples can be defined as inputs to a model which induce a mistake - where the model output is different than that of an oracle, perhaps in surprising or malicious ways. Original models of adversarial attacks are primarily studied in the context of classification and computer vision tasks. While several attacks have been proposed in natural language processing (NLP) settings, they often vary in defining the parameters of an attack and what a successful attack would look like. The goal of this work is to propose a unifying model of adversarial examples suitable for NLP tasks in both generative and classification settings. We define the notion of adversarial gain: based in control theory, it is a measure of the change in the output of a system relative to the perturbation of the input (caused by the so-called adversary) presented to the learner. This definition, as we show, can be used under different feature spaces and distance conditions to determine attack or defense effectiveness across different intuitive manifolds. This notion of adversarial gain not only provides a useful way for evaluating adversaries and defenses, but can act as a building block for future work in robustness under adversaries due to its rooted nature in stability and manifold theory.
Role of Rifaximin in Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis Prevention

Abstract Cirrhosis affects millions of people around the world and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a common complication of liver disease with cirrhosis and accounts for up to 30% of infections in patients with cirrhosis. Patients with a history of SBP and those deemed to be at high risk often are prescribed antibiotics to reduce the incidence of SBP. Fluoroquinolones and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim are commonly used antibiotics for long-term prevention for these specified populations; however, these antibiotics are associated with several adverse effects and interactions that may be harmful to patients. In addition, resistance development may decrease the efficacy of SBP treatment and prophylaxis. Given these limitations, rifaximin, a nonabsorbable, broad-spectrum antibiotic that is used for hepatic encephalopathy, may serve as a prophylactic alternative to conventional therapy. This review discusses guideline-recommended therapy and the evidence for using rifaximin for SBP prophylaxis.
Phorbol esters induce PLVAP expression via VEGF and additional secreted molecules in MEK1‐dependent and p38, JNK and PI3K/Akt‐independent manner

Endothelial diaphragms are subcellular structures critical for mammalian survival with poorly understood biogenesis. Plasmalemma vesicle associated protein (PLVAP) is the only known diaphragm component and is necessary for diaphragm formation. Very little is known about PLVAP regulation. Phorbol esters (PMA) are known to induce de novo PLVAP expression and diaphragm formation. We show that this induction relies on the de novo production of soluble factors that will act in an autocrine manner to induce PLVAP transcription and protein expression. We identified vascular endothelial growth factor‐A (VEGF‐A) signalling through VEGFR2 as a necessary but not sufficient downstream event as VEGF‐A inhibition with antibodies and siRNA or pharmacological inhibition of VEGFR2 only partially inhibit PLVAP upregulation. In terms of downstream pathways, inhibition of MEK1/Erk1/2 MAP kinase blocked PLVAP upregulation, whereas inhibition of p38 and JNK MAP kinases or PI3K and Akt had no effect on PMA‐induced PLVAP expression. In conclusion, we show that VEGF‐A along with other secreted proteins act synergistically to up‐regulate PLVAP in MEK1/Erk1/2 dependent manner, bringing us one step further into understanding the genesis of the essential structures that are endothelial diaphragms.
Lightweight Modeling of User Context Combining Physical and Virtual Sensor Data

The multitude of data generated by sensors available on users' mobile devices, combined with advances in machine learning techniques, support context-aware services in recognizing the current situation of a user (i.e., physical context) and optimizing the system's personalization features. However, context-awareness performances mainly depend on the accuracy of the context inference process, which is strictly tied to the availability of large-scale and labeled datasets. In this work, we present a framework developed to collect datasets containing heterogeneous sensing data derived from personal mobile devices. The framework has been used by 3 voluntary users for two weeks, generating a dataset with more than 36K samples and 1331 features. We also propose a lightweight approach to model the user context able to efficiently perform the entire reasoning process on the user mobile device. To this aim, we used six dimensionality reduction techniques in order to optimize the context classification. Experimental results on the generated dataset show that we achieve a 10x speed up and a feature reduction of more than 90% while keeping the accuracy loss less than 3%.
Joint factorial structure of psychopathology and personality

Abstract Background Normative and pathological personality traits have rarely been integrated into a joint large-scale structural analysis with psychiatric disorders, although a recent study suggested they entail a common individual differences continuum. Methods We explored the joint factor structure of 11 psychiatric disorders, five personality-disorder trait domains (DSM-5 Section III), and five normative personality trait domains (the ‘Big Five’) in a population-based sample of 2796 Norwegian twins, aged 19‒46. Results Three factors could be interpreted: (i) a general risk factor for all psychopathology, (ii) a risk factor specific to internalizing disorders and traits, and (iii) a risk factor specific to externalizing disorders and traits. Heritability estimates for the three risk factor scores were 48% (95% CI 41‒54%), 35% (CI 28‒42%), and 37% (CI 31‒44%), respectively. All 11 disorders had uniform loadings on the general factor (congruence coefficient of 0.991 with uniformity). Ignoring sign and excluding the openness trait, this uniformity of factor loadings held for all the personality trait domains and all disorders (congruence 0.983). Conclusions Based on our findings, future research should investigate joint etiologic and transdiagnostic models for normative and pathological personality and other psychopathology.
Comparing ESM Timings for Emotional Estimation Model with Fine Temporal Granularity

Towards wellbeing-awareness in computing, researches for estimating users' emotions using smartphone sensor data have been actively conducted as smartphones are getting more and more ubiquitous. Most studies have constructed emotion estimation models based on machine learning with contextual data from the smartphones and user's self-reporting ground truth label often collected via Experience Sampling Method (ESM). However, snice our emotion changes frequently in our daily lives, trying to collect the ground truth of such volatile emotions leads a storm of ESMs which could be burden to the users. In order to find better ESM methods, we propose and compare 3 ESMs, namely Randomized ESM that executes in randomly timings, Trigger ESM that executes when the user's behavior changes, and Unlocking ESM that sets up ESM on the unlocking screen. We constructed various emotional estimation models with four types of time granularity (1 day, 1/3 day, 3 hours, 1 hour) in four weeks experience with eight persons. As for the response rate, Unlocking ESM was the highest. In addition, it was clear that Unlocking ESM had the highest estimation accuracy in most cases.
Hypertrophic pachymeningitis associated with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis: a case series of 15 patients

Objective: We aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and treatment course of hypertrophic pachymeningitis (HPM) in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). Methods: We retrospectively analysed 15 patients (11 men and four women). HPM was diagnosed based on thickening and enhancing of the brain and/or spinal dura mater on gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T1 sequence. Results: The median age at HPM onset was 60 years. Headache and cranial nerve impairment were observed in 14 and 10 patients, respectively. Otitis media and/or mastoiditis were found as complications of AAV in 11 patients. Fourteen patients were classified as having granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Single-positive myeloperoxidase-ANCA, single-positive proteinase 3-ANCA, and double-positive ANCA were identified in seven patients, five patients, and one patient, respectively. With MRI, thickening of the dura mater in the cranial fossa and tentorium cerebelli was found in 10 and eight patients, respectively. For remission induction, all patients were treated with corticosteroids, and immunosuppressants were added in 10 patients. Dura mater thickening partially improved in all patients, and cranial neuropathy completely remitted in eight patients. In a median follow-up of 43 months, four patients had HPM relapse and underwent reinduction therapy. All six patients treated with cyclophosphamide at initial therapy did not relapse. Conclusions: HPM was mostly associated with patients with GPA with otitis media and/or mastoiditis having either type of ANCA serology. Treatment with corticosteroids with or without immunosuppressants was effective. However, HPM relapse occasionally occurred, especially when cyclophosphamide was not used in initial treatment.
A Mobile Scanner for Probing Liquid Samples in Everyday Settings

Our work investigates the use of a Near InfraRed Spectroscopy scanner for the identification of liquids. While previous work has shown promising results for the identification of solid objects, identifying liquids poses additional challenges. These challenges include light scattering and low reflectance caused by the transparency of liquids, which interfere with the infrared measurement. We develop a prototype solution consisting of a 3D printed clamp that attaches to a tube, such that it blocks ambient light from interfering. Our preliminary results indicate that our prototype works, and we demonstrate this by measuring sugar levels in a liquid solution.
Effects of Fruit and Vegetable Feeding Messages on Mothers and Fathers: Interactions Between Emotional State and Health Message Framing.

Background There is a pressing need to craft optimal public health messages promoting healthy feeding behaviors among parents. How these messages influence such feeding decisions are affected by multiple interactive factors including emotional states, message framing, and gender, but these factors have not been studied in the domain of parents' feeding of their children. Purpose To evaluate the role of message framing, emotional state, and parent gender on feeding choices that parents make for their children. Methods In 2016-2017, 190 parents (126 mothers) of 4- to 7-year-old children were randomly assigned to an anger or fear emotion induction and read either a gain- or loss-framed message about the importance of children's fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption prior to choosing foods for their child from a virtual reality buffet. Results Mothers in an angry state who received a gain-framed message chose relatively more FV for their child in the virtual buffet, F(3, 180) = 4.77, p = . 027. However, fathers in this group did not feed more FV, but rather reported greater intention to improve future FV feeding, F(3, 180) = 4.91, p = . 028. Conclusions Providing gain-framed messages to parents, particularly mothers, in an anger state may be most effective for motivating healthy dietary choices for children. Clinical Trial information clinicaltrials.gov NCT02622035.
Transfection of Peripheral Blood Monocytes with SOX2 Enhances Multipotency, Proliferation, and Redifferentiation into Neohepatocytes and Insulin-Producing Cells

Following a several-day incubation in medium containing IL-3 and M-CSF to generate a more plastic intermediate “reprogrammed multipotent cells of monocytic origin (RMCMO),” peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) can be efficiently converted to hepatocyte-like cells (neohepatocytes) and insulin-producing cells. However, continuous efforts are devoted to enhancing the proliferative capacity of these multipotent cells while maintaining or further increasing their redifferentiation potential. In the present work, PBMCs were transfected with one pluripotency gene (SOX2) and the resulting RMCMO compared to standard RMCMO with respect to cell viability, proliferative activity, and redifferentiation potential. Ectopic SOX2 expression increased the number of viable RMCMO, activated cell cycle genes, and enhanced proliferation as shown by quantitative RT-PCR and Ki67 immunofluorescent staining, respectively. Redifferentiation of RMCMO derived from SOX2-transfected PBMCs to neohepatocytes was more complete in comparison to control cells as revealed by higher urea and glucose secretion, increased activity of cytochrome P450 isoforms, and a phase II enzyme, while the same was true for insulin-producing cells as assessed by the expression of INS, PDX1, and GLUT2 and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Our results indicate that SOX2 transfection increases both multipotency and proliferation of RMCMO, eventually allowing production of neohepatocytes and insulin-producing cells of higher quality and quantity for transplantation purposes.
FAM92A Underlies Nonsyndromic Postaxial Polydactyly in Humans and an Abnormal Limb and Digit Skeletal Phenotype in Mice

Polydactyly is a common congenital anomaly of the hand and foot. Postaxial polydactyly (PAP) is characterized by one or more posterior or postaxial digits. In a Pakistani family with autosomal recessive nonsyndromic postaxial polydactyly type A (PAPA), we performed genomewide genotyping, linkage analysis, and exome and Sanger sequencing. Exome sequencing revealed a homozygous nonsense variant (c.478C>T, p.[Arg160*]) in the FAM92A gene within the mapped region on 8q21.13‐q24.12 that segregated with the PAPA phenotype. We found that FAM92A is expressed in the developing mouse limb and E11.5 limb bud including the progress zone and the apical ectodermal ridge, where it strongly localizes at the cilia level, suggesting an important role in limb patterning. The identified variant leads to a loss of the FAM92A/Chibby1 complex that is crucial for ciliogenesis and impairs the recruitment and the colocalization of FAM92A with Chibby1 at the base of the cilia. In addition, we show that Fam92a‐/‐ homozygous mice also exhibit an abnormal digit morphology, including metatarsal osteomas and polysyndactyly, in addition to distinct abnormalities on the deltoid tuberosity of their humeri. In conclusion, we present a new nonsyndromic PAPA ciliopathy due to a loss‐of‐function variant in FAM92A. © 2018 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Meal Photo SNS with Mutual Healthiness Evaluation for Improving Users' Eating Habits

We propose a Meal Photo SNS (called HealthyStadium) for improving users' eating habits by mutually assessing each others' health. This application's method is to evaluates pictures of meals leads to the realization of sustainable journaling. In addition, we implement competitive awareness that motivates the users to improve their eating habits by allowing users to share their healthiness ranking amongst the users. Through our study, we confirmed that our system enables users to motivate for improving eating habits. Also we found the number of records is increased by our system.
Conducting Research with Stigmatized Populations: Practices, Challenges, and Lessons Learned

Conducting research with communities who are at risk of being stigmatized can be a challenging endeavor. It is often difficult to reach and recruit individuals for research purposes regarding a stigmatized condition or situation. Yet, researchers in our field have recognized the importance of work in this area and have individually developed a range of strategies to reach, recruit, and work with these populations. This workshop will invite researchers and practitioners to present, discuss, and compare strategies and experiences when working with stigmatized communities in the context of the ever-evolving nature of technology. The outcomes of the workshop will include an outline for an article that will summarize the strategies and practices discussed as well as identify the approaches that have led to the best outcomes across different populations.
Genetic polymorphisms of MBL2 and tuberculosis susceptibility: a meta-analysis of 22 case-control studies

Introduction The association of mannose-binding lectin gene (MBL2) polymorphisms with tuberculosis susceptibility was inconclusive. In this study, a meta-analysis of 22 case-control studies was carried out to assess the effect of MBL2 polymorphisms on tuberculosis risk. Material and methods A search was performed in Embase, PubMed and Web of Science up to Sep 30, 2015. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were used to assess the association. Statistical analyses were performed using STATA 12.0 software. Results rs1800451 was associated with a decreased tuberculosis risk in the allele model (C vs. A: OR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.86–1.00, p = 0.050). In analyses stratified by ethnicity, rs7096206 (C/G: OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.10–1.57, p = 0.003; GG vs. GC + CC: OR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.56–0.85, p < 0.001) and A/O (O/A: OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.10–1.64, p = 0.004) were associated with tuberculosis risk in Asians, A/O (AA vs. AO + OO: OR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.51–0.99, p = 0.041) and rs1800451 (AC vs. AA + CC: OR = 2.70, 95% CI: 1.27–5.74, p = 0.010) were associated with tuberculosis risk in Americans, and rs1800451 (C/A: OR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.86–0.99, p = 0.035) was associated with tuberculosis risk in Africans. Additionally, rs1800450 (B/A: OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.25–0.72, p = 0.001) was associated with tuberculosis risk in Europeans. Conclusions The MBL2 rs1800451 polymorphism is associated with decreased TB risk in the general population, and A/O, rs7096206, rs1800450 and rs1800451 are likely to be associated with the risk for some specific ethnic groups.