Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age of Childhood Onset in Type 1 Diabetes and Functional Brain Connectivity in Midlife

Objectives The development of Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) within the first 7 years of life has been linked to poorer cognitive performance. Adults with T1DM have altered functional brain connectivity, but no studies have examined whether earlier age of T1DM onset is associated with functional connectivity later in life. Accordingly, we tested the relationship between age of onset and resting state functional connectivity in a cohort of middle-aged adults with childhood-onset T1DM. Methods Participants were from a subsample of the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications cohort and included 66 adults (mean age = 47.54 years, 32 men). Resting state blood oxygen level–dependent activity was used to calculate mean connectivity for eight functional brain networks. A multivariate analysis of variance examined associations between age of onset and network connectivity. Diffusion tensor and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images were analyzed to identify microstructural alterations and white-matter hyperintensity volumes. Results Later childhood onset of T1DM was associated with lower connectivity (F(8,57) = 2.40, p = . 026). A significant interaction was present for current age such that an inverse association with age of onset for functional connectivity was present in older individuals (F(8,55) = 2.88, p = . 035). Lower connectivity was associated with older age, increased white-matter hyperintensity volume, and lower microstructural integrity. Conclusions Diagnosis of T1DM later in childhood may be associated with lower brain functional connectivity, particularly in those surviving into older ages. These alterations may be an early marker for subsequent cognitive decrements. Future studies are warranted to understand the pathways underlying these associations.
Design Considerations for a Sub-mW Wireless Medical Body-Area Network Receiver Front End

Wireless medical body-area networks are used to connect sensor nodes that monitor vital parameters. The radio consumes a large portion of the sensor energy budget, and hence its power dissipation should be minimized. The low-noise amplifier (LNA) is an important component of the receiver, and must guarantee low-noise amplification and impedance matching. In this work, an ultra-low-voltage ultra-low-power LNA is proposed that, thanks to the proposed transformer-based gate boosting technique, has a reduced current consumption of only 160 μA and can operate with a supply as low as 0.18 V. The LNA was designed using 40 nm Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology and features a voltage gain of 14 dB, 5.2 dB NF and −8.6 dBm IIP3. This performance is comparable to a prior work by the same authors, but with the minimum supply voltage reduced by a factor of 4x.
Bone Impaction Grafting and a Cemented Cup after Acetabular Fracture at 3-18 Years

The outcome of total hip arthroplasty after acetabular fracture is compromised. We studied if the bone impaction grafting technique could provide long-term prosthesis survival in deformed and irregular acetabula. We studied 20 hips in 20 patients (mean age, 53.3 years; range, 35-75 years) that were reconstructed with acetabular bone impaction grafting and a cemented total hip prosthesis after acetabular fracture. No patient was lost to followup. At review the mean followup was 9.5 years (range, 3-18 years) and the average Harris hip score was 93 (range, 62-100). During followup there were two cup revisions: one after 14.5 years for septic loosening, and one after 15.3 years for aseptic loosening. The Kaplan-Meier survival rate of the cup with end-point revision for any reason was 100% at 10 years and 80% (95% CI; range, 62-98%) after 15 years. With end-point cup revision for aseptic loosening the survival rate was 100% at 10 years. Acetabular bone impaction grafting with a cemented cup is a biologically attractive technique with good long-term survival used to reconstruct bone stock loss after posttraumatic arthritis. The complication and reoperation rate was low in this relatively young group of patients. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic study, Level IV (Case series-no, or historical control group). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Evaluation of Central Corneal Thickness Measurement With RTVue Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography in Normal Subjects

Purpose: To determine (1) repeatability of central corneal thickness (CCT) measurements by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (RTVue; Optovue, Inc, Fremont, CA) and (2) agreement between CCT measurements by RTVue and those by ultrasonic pachymetry, Orbscan, and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (ASOCT). Methods: In a prospective observational study, 2 cohorts of normal subjects were recruited. In the first cohort (51 subjects), 5 measurements of CCT were obtained by RTVue during the same visit to determine the repeatability. In the second cohort (65 subjects), CCT measurements were obtained by RTVue, ultrasonic pachymetry, Orbscan, and ASOCT during the same visit to determine the agreement among these instruments. Repeatability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), within-subject standard deviation, coefficient of repeatability, and within-subject coefficient of variation. Agreement was assessed by ICC and Bland and Altman plots. Results: Repeatability of CCT measurements by RTVue as assessed by ICC, within-subject standard deviation, coefficient of repeatability, and within-subject coefficient of variation was 0.99 (0.99-0.99), 2.2 (1.9-2.5), 4.2 μm (3.6-4.8), and 0.4% (0.3-0.5), respectively. The average CCT by RTVue (529 μm) was comparable to that by ultrasonic pachymetry (539 μm; P = 0.15), Orbscan (536 μm; P = 0.54), and ASOCT (526 μm; P = 0.77). The 95% limits of agreement on Bland and Altman plots ranged from 20 μm (between RTVue and ASOCT) to 33 μm (between RTVue and Orbscan). Conclusions: CCT measurements by RTVue have an excellent repeatability. Although CCT measurements by RTVue are comparable to that by ultrasonic pachymetry, Orbscan, and ASOCT, the difference between instruments can be significant depending on the clinical situation considered.
Effectiveness of Community Treatment Orders? Two Studies With Unusual Outcomes and an Atypical Population.

TO THE EDITOR: The two articles by Segal and colleagues on the effects of community treatment orders (CTOs) and based on linked administrative data from the Australian state of Victoria raise more questions than provide answers (1,2). In both, patients placed on a CTO are compared with a similar number of people in a voluntary control group, and the investigators adjusted for potential confounders with multivariate analysis using propensity scores. Highly selected and unusual outcomes are reported in a patient population that is atypical of anywhere else. One example is the use of CTOs in cases of dementia. Clinicians and decision makers should therefore be wary of changing practice on the basis of these findings.
Evaluation of maxillary sinus membrane response following elevation with the crestal osteotome technique in human cadavers.

Implant placement in the posterior maxilla often requires elevation of the sinus floor, which can be achieved through either the modified Caldwell-Luc or the crestal osteotome technique. The objectives of this study were to evaluate (a) the resistance to perforation of maxillary sinus membranes obtained from formaldehyde-fixed cadavers in vitro, (b) the frequency and extent of membrane perforations occurring after sinus floor elevation in cadavers using the crestal approach, and (c) the amount of membrane elevation (doming) that can be achieved using the crestal approach. Pretreatment of maxillary sinus membrane tissues with commonly used tissue softeners did not have a statistically significant effect on resistance to perforation. Maxillary sinus membranes were elevated 4 to 8 mm in formaldehyde-fixed cadavers using the osteotome technique; implants were placed. Of the 25 sites that received implants, only 6 showed perforations, as assessed by double-blind investigation after dissection of the lateral wall of the nose, allowing direct examination of the sinus cavity. Perforations were categorized as Class I (< or = 2 mm with exposure of the implant into the sinus cavity and loss of doming); Class II perforations (> or = 2 mm) were associated with proximity of the osteotomy site to the medial wall of the sinus or the presence of septae. These results indicated that the crestal osteotome approach compared favorably to the modified Caldwell-Luc technique as it relates to the frequency of maxillary sinus membrane perforations and the degree of achievable membrane elevation.
Accuracy of the Tracy–Widom limits for the extreme eigenvalues in white Wishart matrices

The distributions of the largest and the smallest eigenvalues of a $p$-variate sample covariance matrix $S$ are of great importance in statistics. Focusing on the null case where $nS$ follows the standard Wishart distribution $W_p(I,n)$, we study the accuracy of their scaling limits under the setting: $n/p\rightarrow \gamma\in(0,\infty)$ as $n\rightarrow \infty$. The limits here are the orthogonal Tracy--Widom law and its reflection about the origin. With carefully chosen rescaling constants, the approximation to the rescaled largest eigenvalue distribution by the limit attains accuracy of order ${\mathrm {O}({\min(n,p)^{-2/3}})}$. If $\gamma>1$, the same order of accuracy is obtained for the smallest eigenvalue after incorporating an additional log transform. Numerical results show that the relative error of approximation at conventional significance levels is reduced by over 50% in rectangular and over 75% in `thin' data matrix settings, even with $\min(n,p)$ as small as 2.
Semiparametric Two-Component Mixture Models When One Component Is Defined Through Linear Constraints

We propose a structure of a semiparametric two-component mixture model when one component is parametric and the other is defined through linear constraints on either its distribution function or its quantile measure. Estimation of a two-component mixture model with an unknown component is very difficult when no particular assumption is made on the structure of the unknown component. A symmetry assumption was used in the literature to simplify the estimation. Such method has the advantage of producing consistent and asymptotically normal estimators, and identifiability of the semiparametric mixture model becomes tractable. Still, existing methods, which estimate a semiparametric mixture model have their limits when the parametric component has unknown parameters or the proportion of the parametric part is either very high or very low. We propose in this paper a method to incorporate a prior linear information about the unknown component in order to better estimate the model when existing estimation methods fail. This linear information is either translated by linear constraints, such as moment-type constraints or L-moments constraints (linear constraints over the quantile). The new method is based on $\varphi -$ divergences and has a non classical form since the minimization is carried over both arguments of the divergence. The resulting estimators are proved to be consistent and asymptotically normal under standard assumptions. We show that using the Pearson’s $\chi ^{2}$ divergence our algorithm has a linear complexity when the constraints are moment-type. Simulations on univariate and multivariate mixtures demonstrate the viability and the interest of our novel approach.
Chronic metabolic acidosis increases NaDC-1 mRNA and protein abundance in rat kidney.

BACKGROUND Chronic metabolic acidosis increases, while alkali feeding inhibits, proximal tubule citrate absorption. The activity of the apical membrane Na+/citrate cotransporter is increased in metabolic acidosis, but is not altered by alkali feeding. METHODS Renal cortical mRNA and brush border membrane protein abundances of sodium/dicarboxylate-1 (NaDC-1), the apical membrane Na+/citrate transporter, were measured. RESULTS By immunohistochemistry, NaDC-1 was localized to the apical membrane of the proximal tubule. Chronic metabolic acidosis caused an increase in NaDC-1 protein abundance that was maximal in the S2 segment and that increased with time. Metabolic acidosis also increased NaDC-1 mRNA abundance, but this was first seen at three hours and correlated with the severity of the metabolic acidosis. Alkali feeding had no effect on NaDC-1 protein or mRNA abundance. CONCLUSIONS Chronic metabolic acidosis increases renal cortical NaDC-1 mRNA abundance and apical membrane NaDC-1 protein abundance, while alkali feeding is without effect on NaDC-1.
Chloroplast targeting of chloroplast division FtsZ2 proteins in Arabidopsis.

Plant nuclear genomes encode chloroplast division proteins homologous to the eubacterial cell division protein FtsZ. In higher plants, FtsZ genes constitute a small gene family that consists of two subgroups, FtsZ1 and FtsZ2. It was previously hypothesized that members of one family (FtsZ1) targeted chloroplasts, while members of the other family (FtsZ2) localized in the cytoplasm. We determined the full-length cDNA sequences of two FtsZ2 genes from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtFtsZ2-1 and AtFtsZ2-2) and found that the genes encode polypeptides of 478 and 473 amino acids, respectively, and both contain N-terminal extensions beyond what have previously been predicted. The N-terminal regions of both AtFtsZ2-1 and AtFtsZ2-2 were expressed as green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions under the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter in bombarded tobacco cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed both fusions exclusively localized to chloroplasts, demonstrating that the N-terminal regions function as chloroplast-targeting signals in vivo. Thus, FtsZ2 proteins function within chloroplasts.
Reduced current collapse in multi-fingered AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs with dual field plate

This paper describes suppression of current collapse by field-plate (FP) in AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs. Current collapse reduction was confirmed for a multi-gate fingered MOS-HEMT with a total gate width of 10 mm. Moreover, we have fabricated a 5-A class MOS-HEMT with both gate-FP and source-FP (dual-FP), showing more complete suppression in current collapse as compared to that with only gate-FP.
Taint: an examination of the lived experiences of stigma and its lingering effects for eight sex industry experts

Abstract As part of a larger study examining the effects of the design of the off-street sex industry on sex worker’s health and safety practices, eight sex work experts who had experience as sex workers and as advocates and service providers were interviewed to garner their community engagement expertise in shaping the research. During narrative interviews, these experts discussed how stigma influenced their personal lives and their social justice work among sex workers. Their insights into stigma are unique to the literature because our experts simultaneously confronted direct instances of stigma that were a part of their personal and professional lives, sometimes concealing their sex work histories during the course of their professional support and advocacy work. As a result of this concealment, and because of how sex workers are sometimes mistreated, experts experienced stigma vicariously (indirectly) when their own sex work histories were not apparent. As a result of these experiences, participants became proficient at managing discrediting information about themselves when in the presence of those they mistrusted. They supported sex workers through stigmatising ordeals by using knowledge gained from these intersecting direct and vicarious experiences stigma, continuously building capacity within themselves and among other sex workers to resist stigma.
Dynamic Programming and Suboptimal Control: From ADP to MPC

We survey some recent research directions within the field of approximate dynamic programming (ADP), with a particular emphasis on rollout algorithms and model predictive control (MPC). We argue that while motivated by different concerns, these two methodologies are closely connected, and the mathematical essence of their desirable properties (cost improvement and stability, respectively) is couched on the central dynamic programming idea of policy iteration. In particular, among other things, we show that the most common MPC schemes can be viewed as rollout algorithms and are related to policy iteration methods. Furthermore, we embed rollout and MPC within a new unifying suboptimal control framework, based on a concept of restricted or constrained structure policies, which contains these schemes as special cases.
Modified Clp Protease Complex in the ClpP3 Null Mutant and Consequences for Chloroplast Development and Function in Arabidopsis1[C][W][OA]

Chloroplast proteases are important for embryogenesis, plant growth, and development but show differential contributions. The plastid ClpPRT protease consists of two heptameric rings of ClpP1/ClpR1/ClpR2/ClpR3/ClpR4 (the R-ring) and ClpP3/ClpP4/ClpP5/ClpP6 (the P-ring) and peripherally associated ClpT1/ClpT2 subunits. Here, we address the contributions of ClpP3 and ClpP4 to ClpPRT core organization and function in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). ClpP4 is strictly required for embryogenesis, similar to ClpP5. In contrast, loss of ClpP3 (clpp3-1) leads to arrest at the hypocotyl stage; this developmental arrest can be removed by supplementation with sucrose or glucose. Heterotrophically grown clpp3-1 can be transferred to soil and generate viable seed, which is surprising, since we previously showed that CLPR2 and CLPR4 null alleles are always sterile and die on soil. Based on native gels and mass spectrometry-based quantification, we show that despite the loss of ClpP3, modified ClpPR core(s) could be formed, albeit at strongly reduced levels. A large portion of ClpPR subunits accumulated in heptameric rings, with overaccumulation of ClpP1/ClpP5/ClpP6 and ClpR3. Remarkably, the association of ClpT1 to the modified Clp core was unchanged. Large-scale quantitative proteomics assays of clpp3-1 showed a 50% loss of photosynthetic capacity and the up-regulation of plastoglobules and all chloroplast stromal chaperone systems. Specific chloroplast proteases were significantly up-regulated, whereas the major thylakoid protease (FtsH1/FtsH2/FtsH5/FtsH8) was clearly unchanged, indicating a controlled protease network response. clpp3-1 showed a systematic decrease of chloroplast-encoded proteins that are part of the photosynthetic apparatus but not of chloroplast-encoded proteins with other functions. Candidate substrates and an explanation for the differential phenotypes between the CLPP3, CLPP4, and CLPP5 null mutants are discussed.
Association between cadmium exposure and diabetes mellitus risk: a prisma-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis

Cadmium (Cd) is a pollutant with multiple adverse health effects: cancer, renal dysfunction, osteoporosis and fracture, and cardiovascular disease. Several population-based studies found an association between Cd and diabetes mellitus (DM), but this association is inconsistent with other research. We conducted meta-analysis to examine relationship between urinary/blood Cd exposure and DM risk. Pertinent studies were identified by searching PubMed and Embase databases, and combined odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were applied to evaluate said association. Meta-analysis showed that high U-Cd exposure is not correlated with DM risk (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 0.83–1.71), and high B-Cd exposure is also not associated with increased risk of DM (OR = 1.16; 95% CI = 0.84-1.62) in the general population. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis proved similar results, with little evidence of publication bias. This meta-analysis suggests that high U-Cd/B-Cd exposure may not be risk factor for DM in general populations. However, large prospective studies are needed to confirm this finding.
The Meaning of Attack-Resistant Programs

In this paper, we introduce a formal notion of partial compliance, called attack-resistance, of a computer program w.r. t a nonexploitability specification. In our setting, a program may contain exploitable vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows, but appropriate defense mechanisms built into the program or the operating system render such vulnerabilities hard to exploit by resource bounded attackers, usually relying on the strength of the randomness of a probabilistic transformation of the environment or the program. We are motivated by the reality that most large-scale programs have vulnerabilities despite our best efforts to get rid of them. Security researchers have responded to this state of affairs by coming up with ingenious defense mechanisms such as address space layout randomization (ASLR) or instruction set randomization (ISR) that provide some protection against exploitation. By formalizing this notion of attack-resistance we pave the way towards addressing the questions: “How do we formally analyze these defense mechanisms? Is there a mathematical way of distinguishing effective defense mechanisms from ineffective ones? Can we quantify and show that these defense mechanisms provide formal security guarantees, albeit partial, even in the presence of exploitable vulnerabilities? ”. To illustrate our approach we discuss informally why an enhancement to PointGuard [30] complies with the attack-resistance definition.
Prior structure for online learning

Online learning and adaptation capabilities are important for robot systems which operate in the real world and have to react to changes in the environment and the task requirements. Such learning schemes, however often suffer from problems of complexity, rendering them intractable for online learning in complex domains. To address these problems, the approach presented here introduces prior structure which drastically reduces the size of the state and action spaces. Deriving control from a set of predictable control laws, the system is modeled more abstractly as a discrete event dynamic system which represents all possible system behavior. Use of this framework also permits the automatic incorporation of knowledge in the form of constraints, providing a basis for the explicit representation of safety conditions and "maturational" effects which can be used to further enhance learning performance. To illustrate this structure and to show its applicability, the acquisition of a rotation gait on a four-legged walking platform is demonstrated.
Data politics

The commentary raises political questions about the ways in which data has been constituted as an object vested with certain powers, influence, and rationalities. We place the emergence and transformation of professional practices such as ‘data science’, ‘data journalism’, ‘data brokerage’, ‘data mining’, ‘data storage’, and ‘data analysis’ as part of the reconfiguration of a series of fields of power and knowledge in the public and private accumulation of data. Data politics asks questions about the ways in which data has become such an object of power and explores how to critically intervene in its deployment as an object of knowledge. It is concerned with the conditions of possibility of data that involve things (infrastructures of servers, devices, and cables), language (code, programming, and algorithms), and people (scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, information technologists, designers) that together create new worlds. We define ‘data politics’ as both the articulation of political questions about these worlds and the ways in which they provoke subjects to govern themselves and others by making rights claims. We contend that without understanding these conditions of possibility – of worlds, subjects and rights – it would be difficult to intervene in or shape data politics if by that it is meant the transformation of data subjects into data citizens.