Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measurement and Segmentation of College Students' Noncognitive Attributes: A Targeted Review

This report presents findings from a targeted document review and expert interviews conducted as part of the Student Segmentation Initiative, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationâ€™s Postsecondary Success strategy. The review addresses three questions relevant to the initiative: (1) What instruments and measures are available to assess postsecondary studentsâ€™ noncognitive attributes? (2) To what extent are these instruments used to classify or segment student populations? (3) How have institutions used these instruments and classification systems to improve student success?
Enriching self‐organizing networks use cases with opportunistic features: a coverage and capacity optimization paradigm

Self‐organizing networks (SONs) have been introduced into long‐term evolution in order to configure and optimize the network in an autonomic manner. However, in some situations the reconfiguration of the entire network is not the most cost‐efficient solution. Consequently, opportunistic networks have been introduced as operator‐governed, coordinated extensions of the infrastructure that are created dynamically where and when they are needed, exploiting the radio environment. This work proposes an enhanced SON functional architecture (FA) with opportunistic features in order to handle such situations through the manipulation of ONs. In addition, the proposed FA is utilized in a coverage and capacity optimization use case, where small cells are deployed in order to extend the capacity of a macro base station (BS). Users opportunistically exploit the resources (i.e. resource blocks) of the small cells. In addition, the small cells are configured to the optimal power level in order to maximize the users’ throughput without causing interference to the other users. Two different approaches of controlling the interference among the macro BS and the small cells are presented, namely soft constraint and hard constraint cases. Furthermore, apart from maximizing the users’ throughput, emphasis is given to the fairness among the users and on the quality‐of‐service provision through a proper resource allocation. The evaluation proved that when small cells are introduced the system's throughput is increased by 12.76% when the macro BS and the small cells cannot use the same resource blocks simultaneously (hard constraint case) and by 8.25% when the reuse is possible. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Machine Learning for Personalized Medicine : Will This Drug Give Me a Heart Attack ?

This paper presents a significant application domain in health informatics. With the advent of electronic medical records, researchers could have access to clinical records for patients participating in various research studies. Access to this data will allow researchers to pose and investigate the following types of questions. Can one develop a model to predict the efficacy of a potential drug for a given individual? Can clinical data provide insight into which individuals will have adverse reactions to a drug? This paper focuses on a case study with a real-world database. The specific task is to learn a statistical model to indicate which patients on Cox-2 inhibitors, such as Vioxxand Celebrex, are at substantial risk for heart attack.
An Action-Based Concept for the Phonetic Annotation of Sign Language Gestures

: Background: Communicative actions are specific movements or gestures which are accomplished by vocal tract articulators (lips, tongue, velum etc.) for speech, by facial articulators (eye brows, eye lids etc.) for co-verbal facial expression and by other bodily articulators (hands, arms etc.) for co-verbal gesturing. While action-based approaches already exist for spoken language processing it is the aim of this paper to adopt action theory for signed language processing (i.e. production and perception of sign language). Method: An action-based method for the phonetic annotation of sign language has been developed and a 100 sentence American Sign Language corpus has been analyzed using this method. Results: Five basic types of sign actions were identified, all indicating the importance of movement phases even if the goal of a gesture is to reach a specific target (e.g. specific hand shape, orientation, location, and/or direction). Conclusion: This study is a starting point for investigating sign language production quantitatively in terms of a unified action theory.
Enhancing the STIX Representation of MITRE ATT&CK for Group Filtering and Technique Prioritization

In this paper, we enhance the machine-readable representation of the ATT&CK Groups knowledge base provided by MITRE in STIX 2.1 format to make available and queryable additional types of contextual information. Such information includes the motivations of activity groups, the countries they have originated from, and the sectors and countries they have targeted. We demonstrate how to utilize the enhanced model to construct intelligible queries to filter activity groups of interest and retrieve relevant tactical intelligence.
Mucolipin-2 Cation Channel Increases Trafficking Efficiency of Endocytosed Viruses

ABSTRACT Receptor-mediated endocytosis is a cellular process commonly hijacked by viruses to enter cells. The stages of entry are well described for certain viruses, but the host factors that mediate each step are less well characterized. We previously identified endosomal cation channel mucolipin-2 (MCOLN2) as a host factor that promotes viral infection. Here, we assign a role for MCOLN2 in modulating viral entry. We show that MCOLN2 specifically promotes viral vesicular trafficking and subsequent escape from endosomal compartments. This mechanism requires channel activity, occurs independently of antiviral signaling, and broadly applies to enveloped RNA viruses that require transport to late endosomes for infection, including influenza A virus, yellow fever virus, and Zika virus. We further identify a rare allelic variant of human MCOLN2 that has a loss-of-function phenotype with respect to viral enhancement. These findings establish a mechanistic link between an endosomal cation channel and late stages of viral entry. IMPORTANCE Viruses must co-opt cellular processes to complete their life cycle. To enter cells, viruses frequently take advantage of cellular receptor-mediated endocytosis pathways. A growing number of host proteins are implicated in these viral uptake pathways. Here, we describe a new role for the gated cation channel MCOLN2 in viral entry. This endosomal protein modulates viral entry by enhancing the efficiency of viral trafficking through the endosomal system. Thus, MCOLN2-mediated enhancement of infection may represent a key vulnerability in the viral life cycle that could be targeted for therapeutic intervention. IMPORTANCE Viruses must co-opt cellular processes to complete their life cycle. To enter cells, viruses frequently take advantage of cellular receptor-mediated endocytosis pathways. A growing number of host proteins are implicated in these viral uptake pathways. Here, we describe a new role for the gated cation channel MCOLN2 in viral entry. This endosomal protein modulates viral entry by enhancing the efficiency of viral trafficking through the endosomal system. Thus, MCOLN2-mediated enhancement of infection may represent a key vulnerability in the viral life cycle that could be targeted for therapeutic intervention.
Review: Towards antibacterial strategies: studies on the mechanisms of interaction between antibacterial peptides and model membranes

Lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) play a dual role as inflammation-inducing and as membrane-forming molecules. The former role attracts significantly more attention from scientists, possibly because it is more closely related to sepsis and septic shock. This review aims to focus the reader's attention to the other role, the function of LPS as the major constituent of the outer layer of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, in particular those of enterobacterial strains. In this function, LPS is a necessary component of the cell envelope and guarantees survival of the bacterial organism. At the same time, it represents the first target for attacking molecules which may either be synthesized by the host's innate or adaptive immune system or administered to the human body. The interaction of these molecules with the outer membrane may not only directly cause the death of the bacterial organism, but may also lead to the release of LPS into the circulation. Here, we review membrane model systems and their application for the study of molecular mechanisms of interaction of peptides such as those of the human complement system, the bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI), cationic antibacterial peptide 18 kDa (CAP18) as an example of cathelicidins, defensins, and polymyxin B (PMB). Emphasis is on electrical measurements with a reconstitution system of the lipid matrix of the outer membrane which was established in the authors' laboratory as a planar asymmetric bilayer with one leaflet being composed solely of LPS and the other of the natural phospholipid mixture. The main conclusion, which can be drawn from these investigations, is that LPS and in general its negative charges are the dominant determinants for specific peptide—membrane interactions. However, the detailed mechanisms of interaction, which finally lead to bacterial killing, may involve further steps and differ for different antibacterial peptides.
Atropine Eye Drops: An Unusual Homicidal Poisoning

In March 2009, the body of a 51‐year‐old man was found in the boot of his car. The body had been frozen before being dismembered at the abdomen. The autopsy failed to determine the cause of death. Systematic toxicological analyses of the victim's peripheral blood and urine showed the presence of atropine, a powerful anticholinergic. Atropine was therefore specifically detected and quantified throughout the victim's biologic samples by HPLC‐MS² in the biologic fluids and UHPLC‐MS² in the hair. The atropine concentrations were 887 ng/mL in the cardiac blood, 489 ng/mL in the peripheral blood, 6693 ng/mL in the gastric contents (1.1 μg), 6753 ng/mL in the urine, and 2290 pg/mg in the hair. The blood concentrations measured in the decedent were consistent with an overdose of atropine, which was determined as the cause of death. The manner of death was a homicide with criminal intent.
Antiobesity effect of baicalin involves the modulations of proadipogenic and antiadipogenic regulators of the adipogenesis pathway

In this study, the antiobesity effects of baicalin, 5,6‐dihydroxyflavone‐7‐glucuronic acid, were characterized using an in vitro system of adipogenesis, i.e. fat cell formation. Baicalin‐treatment of 3T3‐L1 preadipocytes was shown to inhibit triglyceride accumulation and lipid droplet formation during induced adipogenesis. Microarray analyses showed that baicalin modulated the expression of genes located in pathways such as adipogenesis, cholesterol biosynthesis, focal adhesion and others. In the adipogenesis pathway, treatment with baicalin significantly down‐regulated terminal differentiation markers of adipocytes including fatty acid binding protein 4. The effects of baicalin on the core part of the adipogenesis pathway, however, were paradoxical; the expression levels of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP)β and C/EBPδ were up‐regulated, while the expression levels of the peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor (PPAR)γ and C/EBPα were down‐regulated. The antiadipogenic mechanisms of baicalin can be explained by its effects on the upstream part of adipogenesis pathway; baicalin not only up‐regulates the antiadipogenic regulators, C/EBPγ, C/EBP homologous protein and Kruppel‐like factor (KLF)2, but also down‐regulates the proadipogenic regulator, KLF15. The overall effects of baicalin on these upstream regulators of adipogenesis were antiadipogenic, resulting in the down‐regulation of downstream genes and the inhibition of cellular fat accumulation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Representation Equals Presentation?: Photographs of Objects Receive Less Attention and Are Less Well Remembered Than Real Objects

In two experiments, the notion was tested that real objects receive more attention and are better remembered than respective photographs of objects. Both objects and photographs were presented behind glass in display showcases in a museum and, hence, were largely equivalent in terms of providing visual information. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that participants pay more attention to real objects than to respective photographs. In addition, Experiment 2 indicated that participants retrieve more memory details about an object if they have seen it as a real object in comparison with a respective photograph. This study provides the first evidence that observers take the different ontological status of photographs and real objects into account, processing the former less elaborately than the latter. More specifically, the present findings are compatible with an early-stage model, which assumes that attribution of authenticity is done heuristically at an early stage, thereby influencing the amount and depth of subsequent stages of information processing, including inspection time and cognitive elaboration.
Suggesting ( More ) Friends Using the Implicit Social Graph ∗

Although users of online communication tools rarely categorize their contacts into groups such as ”family”, ”co-workers”, or ”jogging buddies”, they nonetheless implicitly cluster contacts, by virtue of their interactions with them, forming implicit groups. In this paper, we describe the implicit social graph which is formed by users’ interactions with contacts and groups of contacts, and which is distinct from explicit social graphs in which users explicitly add other individuals as their ”friends”. We introduce an interaction-based metric for estimating a user’s affinity to his contacts and groups. We then describe a novel friend suggestion algorithm that uses a user’s implicit social graph to generate a friend group, given a small seed set of contacts which the user has already labeled as friends. We show experimental results that demonstrate the importance of both implicit group relationships and interaction-based affinity ranking in suggesting friends. Finally, we discuss two applications of the Friend Suggest algorithm that have been released as Gmail features.
Mutation at the catalytic site (M519V) in glycogen storage disease type II (Pompe disease)

Glycogen storage disease type I1 (GSDII) is an autosomal recessive disorder resulting from inherited deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme, acid a-glucosidase (acid maltase). The clinical spectrum ranges from a generalized infantile onset disorder characterized by cardiomegaly and hypotonia (Pompe disease) to a slowly progressive adult onset disease limited to skeletal muscle (Hers et al., 1989; Hirschhorn, 1994). The gene has been localized to human chromosome 17q23, and both the structural gene as well as the cDNA have been isolated and characterized (Martiniuk et al. , 1986, 1990a, 1991; Hoefsloot et al., 1988, 1990). We have identified a new missense mutation (M519V) in a patient (GM3329) with infantileonset GSDII of slightly later onset and longer survival than that of classic infantile Pompe disease.
Gray matter and white matter perfusion imaging in patients with severe carotid artery lesions.

PURPOSE To determine, with dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, changes in gray matter and white matter perfusion in patients with internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Regional cerebral blood volume (CBV), mean transit time, arrival time (time for contrast material to arrive in the brain), and peak time (time to highest contrast material concentration in the brain) were determined in 44 patients and 33 control subjects. Patients were divided into three groups: patients with a unilateral ICA occlusion, patients with a unilateral ICA occlusion and a contralateral severe stenosis (> 70%), and patients with bilateral ICA occlusions. RESULTS Compared with control subjects, patients with unilateral ICA occlusions had hemodynamic changes in the ipsilateral hemisphere: Mean transit time, arrival time, and peak time were increased in white and gray matter (P < .001), and regional CBV was significantly increased in white matter only (P < .01). Hemodynamic changes were more pronounced in patients with bilateral ICA occlusions: Compared with control subjects, mean transit time, arrival time, peak time, and regional CBV were increased in both white and gray matter in both hemispheres (P < .001). CONCLUSION Dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced MR imaging can enable measurement of relative hemodynamic changes in patients with ICA occlusions, with the advantage that gray and white matter perfusion can be distinguished.
Prognostic Relevance of Clinical Symptoms in Patients with Spinal Metastases

Medical and surgical advances allow surgical treatment of many patients with spinal metastases. Although emerging surgical techniques facilitate stabilization of the collapsed spine, surgical candidates should be carefully selected. However, the lack of confirmed criteria to determine survival of these patients makes selection for surgery difficult. Clinical symptoms have been considered possible factors associated with prognosis, but their relevance has not been confirmed because of inadequate power for proper statistical analysis. We retrospectively reviewed 165 patients who had surgery for spinal metastases from various cancers. Clinical symptoms including pain, paresis, and walking status were recorded. Multivariate analysis indicated that the histologic type of the primary tumor was the strongest prognostic factor, followed by preoperative paresis and pain. Myeloma, thyroid cancer, renal cell cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer had better prognoses than other kinds of cancer. Patients without paresis before surgery had a better prognosis than patients with paresis, and patients with no pain before surgery had a better prognosis than those with pain. Preoperative walking status was not an independent prognostic factor. 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.
Heuristic Modeling of Carcinogenesis for the Population with Dichotomous Susceptibility to Cancer: A Pancreatic Cancer Example

At present, carcinogenic models imply that all individuals in a population are susceptible to cancer. These models either ignore a fall of the cancer incidence rate at old ages, or use some poorly identifiable parameters for its accounting. In this work, a new heuristic model is proposed. The model assumes that, in a population, only a small fraction (pool) of individuals is susceptible to cancer and decomposes the problem of the carcinogenic modeling on two sequentially solvable problems: (i) determination of the age-specific hazard rate in individuals susceptible to cancer (individual hazard rate) from the observed hazard rate in the population (population hazard rate); and (ii) modelling of the individual hazard rate by a chosen “up” of the theoretical hazard function describing cancer occurrence in individuals in time (age). The model considers carcinogenesis as a failure of individuals susceptible to cancer to resist cancer occurrence in aging and uses, as the theoretical hazard function, the three-parameter Weibull hazard function, often utilized in a failure analysis. The parameters of this function, providing the best fit of the modeled and observed individual hazard rates (determined from the population hazard rates), are the outcomes of the modeling. The model was applied to the pancreatic cancer data. It was shown that, in the populations stratified by gender, race and the geographic area of living, the modeled and observed population hazard rates of pancreatic cancer occurrence have similar turnovers at old ages. The sizes of the pools of individuals susceptible to this cancer: (i) depend on gender, race and the geographic area of living; (ii) proportionally influence the corresponding population hazard rates; and (iii) do not influence the individual hazard rates. The model should be further tested using data on other types of cancer and for the populations stratified by different categorical variables.
The modified tower vertical filler technique for the treatment of post‐acne scarring

Acne scarring remains a difficult problem for patients and physicians. Often it is treated as a two‐dimensional disease with lasers and similar devices, whereas it is really a three‐dimensional problem. Fillers have been used for many years but recently fillers with more lifting potential have been made available and serve the purpose of the selective elevation of atrophic scars, adding the third dimension to treatment.
NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND IN VITRO EXPERIMENTAL TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS IN IRRADIATED TISSUE

In aplicaţiile laser în medicina este foarte important să se aibă un control asupra temperaturii din tesutul iradiat. Temperaturile înalte duc la afectarea termica a tesutului inconjurator. Astfel, pentru a se studia efectul termic în tesut au fost iradiate în vitro amigdale de porc folosind un sistem laser cu CO2 chirurgical, iar zona afectată termică a fost analizată cu ajutorul Tomografiei Optice Coerente (OCT). Pastrand aceeasi parametri ai laserului cu CO2 (putere, timp de expunere şi diametru fascicul), s-au realizat simulări numerice 3D în Comsol folosind Metoda Elementelor Finite. Modelarea matematică a transferului de caldura în tesutul iradiat cu laser se face folosind ecuaţia Pennes de transfer a ăaldurii. Simulările numerice au fost comparate cu imaginile experimentale de OCT pentru optimizarea parametrilor laser. Cunoaşterea distribuţiei de temperature în tesutul iradiat cu radiaţie laser poate fi utilizată în stabilirea protocoalelor terapeutice pentru un tratament cu laser mai eficient.
Design of a Highly Efficient (97.7%) and Very Compact (2.2 kW/dm $^3$) Isolated AC–DC Telecom Power Supply Module Based on the Multicell ISOP Converter Approach

The rising electricity demand of data centers has initiated a development trend toward highly efficient power supplies. Therefore, a multicell converter approach for a telecom rectifier module breaking through the efficiency and power density barriers of traditional single-cell converter systems is presented in this paper. The potential of the multicell approach for high efficiency is derived from fundamental scaling laws of different system performance aspects in dependence of the number of converter cells and the benefits of the interleaving technique. Based on the available degrees of freedom in the design of such a converter system, a comprehensive multiobjective optimization of the entire system with respect to efficiency and power density is performed with detailed component loss and volume models. In order to verify the analytical models and the design procedure, a hardware demonstrator of a 3.3 kW multicell <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{230}\,V_\text{AC}/\text{48}\, V_\text{DC}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> telecom power supply with <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N_{\text{cells}}=6$</tex-math> </inline-formula> isolated converter cells in an input-series output-parallel arrangement is presented with measurement results indicating a maximum efficiency of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\eta =$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 97.7% and a power density of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\rho =$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 2.2 kW/dm<sup>3</sup> (= 36 W/in<sup>3</sup>). Furthermore, different paths for future performance improvements of the multicell arrangement are outlined.