Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy and Safety of Direct Acting Antivirals in Kidney Transplant Recipients with Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

The prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is significantly higher in patients with end-stage renal disease compared to the general population and poses important clinical challenges in patients who undergo kidney transplantation. Historically, interferon-based treatment options have been limited by low rates of efficacy and significant side effects, including risk of precipitating rejection. Limited data exist on the use of all-oral, interferon-free direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapies in kidney transplant recipients. In this study, we performed a retrospective chart review with prospective clinical follow-up of post-kidney transplant patients treated with DAA therapies at three major hospitals in Boston, MA. A total of 24 kidney recipients with HCV infection received all-oral DAA therapy post-transplant. Patients were predominantly male (79%) with a median age of 60 years (range 34–70 years), median creatinine of 1.2 mg/dL (0.66–1.76), and 42% had advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. The majority had HCV genotype 1a infection (58%). All patients received full-dose sofosbuvir; it was paired with simeprevir (9 patients without and 3 patients with ribavirin), ledipasvir (7 patients without and 1 patient with ribavirin) or ribavirin alone (4 patients). The overall sustained virologic response (SVR12) was 91% (21 out of 23 patients). One patient achieved SVR4 but demised prior to SVR12 check point due to treatment unrelated cause. Two treatment failures were successfully retreated with alternative DAA regimens and achieved SVR. Both initials failures occurred in patients with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis, with genotype 1a infection, and prior HCV treatment failure. Adverse events were reported in 11 patients (46%) and were managed clinically without discontinuation of therapy. Calcineurin inhibitor trough levels did not significantly change during therapy. In this multi-center series of patients, all-oral DAA therapy appears to be safe and effective in post-kidney transplant patients with chronic HCV infection.
Spectrum-based design of sinusoidal RBF neural networks

This paper introduces and describes the spectrum-based design of radial basis function (RBF) neural networks. The RBF networks used in this paper work with damped sinusoidal nonlinear activation functions. The concept of the associated data spectrum is introduced, and it is shown how to apply this spectrum to find the number of hidden neurons and their internal parameters for a neural network solution of the related data processing problem. A time series prediction application is presented. The relation of the proposed method to the support vector machine method and the application of the method to select appropriate basis functions for a problem with given data are discussed.
Perceived Esteem Support Predicts Competition Appraisals and Performance Satisfaction Among Varsity Athletes: A Test of Organizational Stressors as Moderators

Organizational stressors may be important factors influencing athletes' sport experiences. In this study, we examined organizational stressors as “background variables” (Gump & Matthews, 1999) that may impact athletes' perceptions of support and appraisals of competitive stressors. Perceptions of available esteem support, organizational stressors, competitive appraisals, and performance satisfaction were prospectively examined among varsity team sport athletes (N = 84). Esteem support was positively related to athletes' perceptions of satisfaction with performance, and the indirect effect through secondary appraisal was significant. Two types of organizational stressors moderated the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal: More frequent coaching stressors weakened the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal, whereas more frequent team and culture stressors strengthened the association between esteem support and appraisal. These results support previous research (cf. Freeman & Rees, 2009), indicating that perceived available esteem support was positively associated with athletes' assessments that they had the necessary resources to cope with competitive stressors, which positively predicted performance satisfaction after a competition. Furthermore, these findings suggest that higher levels of coaching stressors were associated with poorer perceptions of having the necessary resources to cope with competition stressors, whereas conversely, higher team and culture stressors were not necessarily detrimental to athletes' perceptions of their resources to cope with competitive demands. These results suggest that different types of organizational stressors may have differential impacts on athletes' sport experiences.
Optimal Mutation Rates and Selection Pressure in Genetic Algorithms

It has been argued that optimal per-locus mutation rates in GAs are proportional to selection pressure and the reciprocal of genotype length. In this paper we suggest that the notion of error threshold, borrowed from molecular evolution, sheds new light on this argument. We show empirically the existence of error thresholds in GAs running on a simple abstract landscape; and then investigate a real-world industrial problem, demonstrating comparable phenomena in a practical application. We study the correspondence between error thresholds and optimal mutation rates on these two problems, and explore the effect of different selection pressures. Results suggest that error thresholds and optimal mutation rates are indeed correlated. Moreover, as the selection pressure increases, both error thresholds and optimal mutation rates increase. These findings may have practical consequences, as heuristics for measuring error thresholds in real-world applications will provide useful guidelines for setting optimal mutation rates.
Advances in Quantum and Braided Geometry

We demonstrate our recent general results on the Casimir construction and moduli space of all bicovariant calculi by means of some detailed examples, including finite-difference and 2-jet cacluli on $\R^n$ and full details of the Casimir construction of the 4D calculus of $SU_q(2)$. We likewise demonstrate our previous general constructions with T. Brzezinski of quantum group gauge theory with examples of such nonuniversal differential calculi on spacetime. We outline a notion of quantum homotopy of a quantum space. We indicate a possible application to classical integrable systems.
“Um boogie-woogie de pandeiro e violão.” A metodologia por projetos no contexto do ensino médio técnico integrado brasileiro

This article is based on an ethnographic work that aims to show how project based learning can be applied to vocational education at the Federal Institutes of Brazil. For that, I used mainly my field diaries, the evaluations and self-assessments made by the students, their testimonies and some audio recording of the process. As a result, we were able to conclude that, since it is adapted to the local context, Project Based Learning can help students, by placing them in the center of the process, while developing several skills and abilities demanded by the 21 st Century, such as: collaboration, autonomy, critical thinking and systemic thinking.
Dynamic fingerprints : improving the usability of peer-to-peer authentication

Peer-to-peer technology and wireless networking offer great potential for working together away from the desk – but they also introduce unique security challenges. A key aspect of that security is ensuring the identity of a peer user in the network (i.e., authentication) when standard server-based mechanisms are not available. Authentication is meant to foil the eavesdropping intruder who masquerades as a valid user (the socalled man in the middle attack). Peer-to-peer authentication methods rely on an out-of-band method for comparing some shared identity information. In public-key-infrastructure systems, this is a compressed version of the peer’s certificate (called a certificate digest or a digital fingerprint). However, these digital fingerprints are still too large to easily compare and the resulting poor usability means this step is often skipped, defeating the authentication. We describe a system and method for reducing the size of a digital fingerprint using an algorithm that incorporates a dynamic random nonce generated at run-time. This approach is shown mathematically to retain the security of previous authentication methods. In addition we present a user interface method for representing the smaller fingerprint in a variety of easily comparable and verifiable forms. The resulting authentication procedure requires less time, is easier to use, and runs on desktop, laptop and handheld devices. While this method is of critical importance to mobile workgroups who have limited or no access to a fixed security and network infrastructure, it is equally effective for any system using certificate-based peer-to-peer authentication.
First-Order Inference and the Interpretation of Questions and Answers

Building on work by Groenendijk and Stokhof, we develop a theory of question and answer interpretation for first-order formalisms. The proposed framework is less fine-grained than its higher-order ancestor, but instead offers attractive implementational properties as it deals with the combinatorial explosion problem underlying Groenendijk and Stokhof’s original theory. To incorporate the treatment of questions and answers in a larger setting, we use an extension of Discourse Representation Theory to cover typical contextual phenomena such as anaphora and presupposition. The actual interpretation of the dialogue representation is done via a translation to first-order logic. A prototype implementation, using state-of-the-art theorem proving and model building facilities, supports the idea that this first-order approximation of the interpretation of questions and answers is indeed a useful one.
Particulate organic acids and overall water‐soluble aerosol composition measurements from the 2006 Gulf of Mexico Atmospheric Composition and Climate Study (GoMACCS)

The Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter participated in the Gulf of Mexico Atmospheric Composition and Climate Study (GoMACCS) mission during August–September 2006. A particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) coupled to ion chromatography was used to characterize the water-soluble ion composition of aerosol and cloud droplet residual particles (976 5-min PM_(1.0) samples in total). Sulfate and ammonium dominated the water-soluble mass (NH_4+ + SO_4^(2−) = 84 ± 14%), while organic acids contributed 3.4 ± 3.7%. The average NH_4^+:SO_4^(2−) molar ratio was 1.77 ± 0.85. Particulate concentrations of organic acids increased with decreasing carbon number from C_9 to C_2. Organic acids were most abundant above cloud, presumably as a result of aqueous phase chemistry in cloud droplets, followed by subsequent droplet evaporation above cloud tops; the main product of this chemistry was oxalic acid. The evolution of organic acids with increasing altitude in cloud provides evidence for the multistep nature of oxalic acid production; predictions from a cloud parcel model are consistent with the observed oxalate:glyoxylate ratio as a function of altitude in GoMACCS cumuli. Suppressed organic acid formation was observed in clouds with relatively acidic droplets, as determined by high particulate nitrate concentrations (presumably high HNO_3 levels too) and lower liquid water content, as compared to other cloud fields probed. In the Houston Ship Channel region, an area with significant volatile organic compound emissions, oxalate, acetate, formate, benzoate, and pyruvate, in decreasing order, were the most abundant organic acids. Photo-oxidation of m-xylene in laboratory chamber experiments leads to a particulate organic acid product distribution consistent with the Ship Channel area observations.
Background substraction in grayscale images algorythm

An improvement of J.C. S. Jacques, C.R. Jung, S.R. Musse background subtraction and shadow detection in grayscale video sequences method [1] is proposed. Described improvements reduce amount of false positive results of background subtraction (especially in light and monotonous areas) and its sizes, improve background model quality, provide better outcome results.
Regulation of cell reproduction.

With each complete turn of the cell through its life cycle, all of the structural elements and functional capacities of the nucleus and cytoplasm undergo a doubling. All of these events, such as mitochondrion and ribosome production, formation of new membranes, doubling in the capacities for glycolysis and lipid metabolism, chromosome reproduction, etc., must be pre cisely interrelated and coordinated through a variety of reg ulatory mechanisms that assure balanced cell growth and cell function. These integration mechanisms are the central element of growth, and the lack of specific information about their physiologic or molecular bases puts a serious limit on our understanding of cell reproduction. New mitochondria, for example, are produced by fission of the old (28, 29), but how mitochondrial growth and fission are continuously adjusted to the pace of all the other component parts of cell growth is unknown. In a general sense the regulation of the growth and production of a subcellular part must be tied into its func tional contribution to the cell; for example, mitochondrial in crease must somehow be linked to function through some such condition as the concentration of ATP, ADP, diphosphopyridine nucleotide (reduced) or triphosphopyridine nucleotide (reduced) etc. Such specific information on the relation be tween function and growth is still not available for any cellular organelle or part. Relatively little attention is given at present to problems of cytoplasmic growth and reproduction because the pace of cell progress through the life cycle appears to be governed principally by the nuclear events of chromosome replication and segregation; all other growth activities are ultimately geared directly or remotely to the accomplishment of the chromosomal processes. The explanations of how the cell cycle is driven forward, of the regulation of cell cycle progress, or of how reproduction of cells is controlled within an organism all hinge primarily on successful analysis of the regulation of chromosome replication and segregation. The subdivision of the cell life cycle into G1( S, G2, and D (or M) reflects this attitude, since these subsections are defined by what the chromosomes are doing or aren't doing rather than
Body Mass Index among Adult Twins: The Importance of Sex Pairing

TITLE: Body Mass Index among Adult Twins: The Importance of Sex Pairing By Dolapo Raji OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to test the hypothesis that twin pairs (female-female, male-male, or male-female) differ with respect to BMI during adulthood adjusted for birth order, birth weight (BW) differences, race, and zygosity. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study analyzed using generalized estimating equation modeling to examine the association between sex pairing and BMI in a large cohort of twin sample (n = 22810, aged 18–97 years) from the Washington State Twin Registry. RESULTS: Considering male-male twin pairs as the reference category, female-female twin pairs were more likely to have higher BMI (odds ratio: 1.64; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.44– 1.86). Moreover, MF twin pairs had higher odds of high BMI compared with MM twin pairs PUBLIC HEALTH THESIS This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Public Health Program at Central Michigan University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Public Health Theses by an authorized administrator of the Master of Public Health Program at Central Michigan University. For more information, please contact publichealth@cmich.edu. (1.31; 95% CI: 1.09–1.57) after adjusting for age, race, birth order, BW differences, and zygosity. CONCLUSION: Our study was unique in comparing BMI among adult twins in terms of pair sex. The hormonal imbalance among OS twins relative to same-sex twins, from our hypothesis, with respect to high BMI during adulthood was refuted. Recommended Citation Raji D, Jahanfar S. Body Mass Index among Adult Twins: The Importance of Sex Pairing. Clin Res Obstetrics Gynecol 2018;1(2). Clin Res Obstetr Gynecol 2018;1(2):1-8. https://asclepiusopen.com/clinical-research-in-obstetrics-and-gynecology/volume-1-issue2/1.php
Novel Therapeutic Inhibitors of the c-Met Signaling Pathway in Cancer

A wide variety of human malignancies exhibit sustained c-Met stimulation, overexpression, or mutation, including carcinomas of the breast, liver, lung, ovary, kidney, and thyroid. Notably, activating mutations in c-Met have been positively identified in patients with a particular hereditary form of papillary renal cancer, directly implicating c-Met in human tumorigenesis. Aberrant signaling of the c-Met signaling pathway due to dysregulation of the c-Met receptor or overexpression of its ligand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), has been associated with an aggressive phenotype. Extensive evidence that c-Met signaling is involved in the progression and spread of several cancers and an enhanced understanding of its role in disease have generated considerable interest in c-Met and HGF as major targets in cancer drug development. This has led to the development of a variety of c-Met pathway antagonists with potential clinical applications. The three main approaches of pathway-selective anticancer drug development have included antagonism of ligand/receptor interaction, inhibition of the tyrosine kinase catalytic activity, and blockade of the receptor/effector interaction. Several c-Met antagonists are now under clinical investigation. Preliminary clinical results of several of these agents, including both monoclonal antibodies and small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors, have been encouraging. Several multitargeted therapies have also been under investigation in the clinic and have demonstrated promise, particularly with regard to tyrosine kinase inhibition.
Concurrent programming for dummies ( and smart people too )

Concurrent programming is notoriously difficult. Current abstractions are intricate to use and make it difficult to design computer systems that are reliable and scalable. They require programmers to commit to a particular locking discipline at an early stage. We argue in favour of a declarative style of concurrency control in which programmers directly indicate the safety properties that they require, rather than how to enforce them. Our alternative stands to be easier to use while also delivering higher performance. It avoids the problems of priority inversion and deadlock. It can be readily introduced into mainstream languages such as Java and C++. Furthermore, it can be implemented efficiently and can make it easier to exploit the hardware parallelism available in today’s commodity SMP and SMT systems.
HyDB: Access Optimization for Data-Intensive Service

With the explosive growth of big data, data-intensive analysis services need a large data storage and high efficient parallel query processing techniques in cloud using lower-end machines, because most organizations adopt inexpensive low-end clusters. A key challenge is to optimize query processing in such a cloud environment. In this paper, we present a new hybrid data access architecture, called HyDB, for providing data-intensive analysis services, which is featured with a distributed data storage, parallel data access, and query optimization methods. First, we propose a new data partitioning method based on both workloads and co-located resources. The data partitioning method achieves higher consolidation and outperforms the existing approaches. Second, we provide a new parallel access method which includes parallel query processing, optimal query plan generation, and optimal path selection by using a plan tree pruning technique. We have implemented HyDB. Finally, we conduct extensive experimental studies and confirm the efficiency of our HyDB.
The Restoration of Style Chinese Characters Based on Deep Learning

For the image inpainting using incomplete Chinese characters proposed a new method for Chinese characters repair, the first use of U-Net type network structure combining the training method of generating against network design a style Chinese characters converter, and then repair the missing content by Chinese characters style converter. The experimental results show that the structure of the Chinese characters for the repair of the clear, less noise, edge connection also smooth, look real. This paper provides a new idea for image inpainting, it can be converted from other images to the same style of image for image recovery.
3-DOF MEMS Gyroscope modeling and design

In this paper, issues related to the modeling and designs on a 3-DOF (degree-of-freedom) MEMS Gyroscope are studied. The MEMS Gyroscope employs a combination of two proof-masses and flexures to form 1-DOF resonator in the drive direction and 2-DOF oscillator in the sense direction. The 3-DOF MEMS Gyroscope has very stable responses within flat region for both gain and phase corresponding to variations in spring coefficient or quality factor. Through simulation and analyses, the gyroscope is optimized. The high operational frequency device (5.053 kHz) and bandwidth over 1 kHz is designed. In the full scale range ±5007s, the high scale factor about 0.527 mv/ (°/s) is achieved.
Adenoma detection in patients undergoing a comprehensive colonoscopy screening

Measures shown to improve the adenoma detection during colonoscopy (excellent bowel preparation, cecal intubation, cap fitted colonoscope to examine behind folds, patient position change to optimize colon distention, trained endoscopy team focusing on detection of subtle flat lesions, and incorporation of optimum endoscopic examination with adequate withdrawal time) are applicable to clinical practice and, if incorporated are projected to facilitate comprehensive colonoscopy screening program for colon cancer prevention. To determine adenoma and serrated polyp detection rate under conditions designed to optimize quality parameters for comprehensive screening colonoscopy. Retrospective analysis of data obtained from a comprehensive colon cancer screening program designed to optimize quality parameters. Academic medical center. Three hundred and forty‐three patients between the ages of 50 years and 75 years who underwent first screening colonoscopy between 2009 and 2011 among 535 consecutive patients undergoing colonoscopy. Comprehensive colonoscopy screening program was utilized to screen all patients. Cecal intubation was successful in 98.8% of patients. The Boston Bowel Preparation Scale for quality of colonoscopy was 8.97 (95% confidence interval [CI]; 8.94, 9.00). The rate of adenoma detection was 60% and serrated lesion (defined as serrated adenomas or hyperplastic polyps proximal to the splenic flexure) detection was 23%. The rate of precancerous lesion detection (adenomas and serrated lesions) was 66%. The mean number of adenomas per screening procedure was 1.4 (1.2, 1.6) and the mean number of precancerous lesions (adenomas or serrated lesions) per screening procedure was 1.6 (1.4, 1.8). Retrospective study and single endoscopist experience. A comprehensive colonoscopy screening program results in high‐quality screening with high detection of adenomas, advanced adenomas, serrated adenomas, and multiple adenomas.