Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-Invasive Prenatal Chromosomal Aneuploidy Testing - Clinical Experience: 100,000 Clinical Samples

Objective As the first laboratory to offer massively parallel sequencing-based noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for fetal aneuploidies, Sequenom Laboratories has been able to collect the largest clinical population experience data to date, including >100,000 clinical samples from all 50 U.S. states and 13 other countries. The objective of this study is to give a robust clinical picture of the current laboratory performance of the MaterniT21 PLUS LDT. Study Design The study includes plasma samples collected from patients with high-risk pregnancies in our CLIA–licensed, CAP-accredited laboratory between August 2012 to June 2013. Samples were assessed for trisomies 13, 18, 21 and for the presence of chromosome Y-specific DNA. Sample data and ad hoc outcome information provided by the clinician was compiled and reviewed to determine the characteristics of this patient population, as well as estimate the assay performance in a clinical setting. Results NIPT patients most commonly undergo testing at an average of 15 weeks, 3 days gestation; and average 35.1 years of age. The average turnaround time is 4.54 business days and an overall 1.3% not reportable rate. The positivity rate for Trisomy 21 was 1.51%, followed by 0.45% and 0.21% rate for Trisomies 18 and 13, respectively. NIPT positivity rates are similar to previous large clinical studies of aneuploidy in women of maternal age ≥35 undergoing amniocentesis. In this population 3519 patients had multifetal gestations (3.5%) with 2.61% yielding a positive NIPT result. Conclusion NIPT has been commercially offered for just over 2 years and the clinical use by patients and clinicians has increased significantly. The risks associated with invasive testing have been substantially reduced by providing another assessment of aneuploidy status in high-risk patients. The accuracy and NIPT assay positivity rate are as predicted by clinical validations and the test demonstrates improvement in the current standard of care.
Visualizing Multiwavelength Astrophysical Data

With recent advances in the measurement technology for allsky astrophysical imaging, our view of the sky is no longer limited to the tiny visible spectral range over the 2D Celestial sphere. We now can access a third dimension corresponding to a broad electromagnetic spectrum with a wide range of allsky surveys; these surveys span frequency bands including long long wavelength radio, microwaves, very short X-rays, and gamma rays. These advances motivate us to study and examine multiwavelength visualization techniques to maximize our capabilities to visualize and exploit these informative image data sets. In this work, we begin with the processing of the data themselves, uniformizing the representations and units of raw data obtained from varied detector sources. Then we apply tools to map, convert, color-code, and format the multiwavelength data in forms useful for applications. We explore different visual representations for displaying the data, including such methods as textured image stacks, the horseshoe representation, and GPU-based volume visualization. A family of visual tools and analysis methods are introduced to explore the data, including interactive data mapping on the graphics processing unit (GPU), the mini-map explorer, and GPU-based interactive feature analysis.
Effects of D-cycloserine, a positive modulator of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors, and ST 587, a putative alpha-1 adrenergic agonist, individually and in combination, on the non-delayed and delayed foraging behaviour of rats assessed in the radial arm maze

The present study investigated whether alpha-1 adrenergic and glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated mechanisms interact in memory processes, by examining the effects of individual and combined systemic administration of ST 587, a putative alpha-1 agonist, and D-cycloserine (DCS), a partial agonist at the glycine-B binding site of the NMDA receptor, on the performance of rats in non-delayed and delayed (4-6h) foraging behaviour in the radial arm maze task, using the delayed non-matching to sample (DNMTS) version. The results indicated that DCS (5.0mg/kg) decreased working memory errors, i.e. the number of re-entries into the previously visited arms during the sampling phase. In addition, both ST 587 (100 jig/kg) and DCS (10 mg/kg), when administered alone 30 min before a sampling phase, improved retention of this task as reflected by the increased number of correct choices before the first error during the retention phase. The combined administration of ST 587 and DCS, however, did not lead to better retention in the DNMTS task compared with the administration of each of the drugs alone. Combinations of sub-threshold doses of ST 587 (50 or 75 jig/kg) and DCS (5.0 or 7.5 mg/kg) also did not improve retention in this task. DCS (5.0 or 7.5 mg/kg) increased activity as indicated by the increased number of arm entries in a given time during the sampling phase. These findings suggest that the systemic administration of a positive modulator of the NMDA receptor facilitates hippocampal-dependent memory functions, but that these effects are not enhanced by combined administration with an alpha-1 agonist, even though the alpha-1 agonist is effective when given alone. The results support the idea that NMDA receptors modulate both mnemonic and non-mnemonic functions in the brain.
Recurrent Cubital Tunnel Syndrome: A Critical Analysis Review

&NA; ≫ Most patients (>90%) will have continued or recurrent symptoms after primary cubital tunnel release. Those patients with severe preoperative findings are at a higher risk of failure. ≫ Failed primary surgery may be due to diagnostic, technical, or biologic factors. ≫ Revision surgical interventions can provide relief, but there is no consensus on what is the optimal technique. ≫ The options for revision surgery include simple neurolysis, neurolysis with subcutaneous transposition, and neurolysis with submuscular transposition. Autogenous (vein) and non‐autogenous nerve wraps may be placed around the nerve to prevent cicatrix reformation.
Busrt segmentation and evaluation of acoustic cues

This paper investigates burst segmentation for the evaluation of acoustic cues used to identify unvoiced French stops. Unlike other works which utilize a ﬁxed length window, our approach consists in segmenting bursts into transient and frication noise. The transient is found by minimizing the sum of spectral variances of transient and frication noise over the burst. The spectral variance criterion has the advantage of being sensitive both to energy deviations and spectral variations. Additional correction procedures augment the robustness of the segmentation against the presence of spurious noises during the closure and the determination of the voicing onset with delay. The relevance of our segmentation method has been evaluated by comparing the characteristics of the main spectral peak (energy prominence versus frequency) in the transient segmented by our method with those of the full burst. Our experiments showed that bursts segmented by our method allow a better discrimination between the three places of articulation.
A Transformation, Augmentation, Substitution Service (TASS) to Meet the Needs and Preferences of the Individual Learner

The accessibility community is responding to the challenges of Web 2.0 by adopting a more holistic approach to the provision of inclusive e-learning. It is based on the premise that an equivalent learning outcome, rather than a universally accessible single resource, meets the needs of individual learners more appropriately. This research suggests a solution to the creation of learning resources, which is based on the principle that learning content can be generated from adaptable aggregations of learning objects and media components using proven learning patterns. A transformation, augmentation, substitution service (TASS) encompasses methods to retrieve a learning object upon request by a user, adapt it and deliver it to the learning in the form in which it is required.
Photonic metamaterials: a new class of materials for manipulating light waves

Abstract A decade of research on metamaterials (MMs) has yielded great progress in artificial electromagnetic materials in a wide frequency range from microwave to optical frequencies. This review outlines the achievements in photonic MMs that can efficiently manipulate light waves from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared in subwavelength dimensions. One of the key concepts of MMs is effective refractive index, realizing values that have not been obtained in ordinary solid materials. In addition to the high and low refractive indices, negative refractive indices have been reported in some photonic MMs. In anisotropic photonic MMs of high-contrast refractive indices, the polarization and phase of plane light waves were efficiently transformed in a well-designed manner, enabling remarkable miniaturization of linear optical devices such as polarizers, wave plates and circular dichroic devices. Another feature of photonic MMs is the possibility of unusual light propagation, paving the way for a new subfield of transfer optics. MM lenses having super-resolution and cloaking effects were introduced by exploiting novel light-propagating modes. Here, we present a new approach to describing photonic MMs definitely by resolving the electromagnetic eigenmodes. Two representative photonic MMs are addressed: the so-called fishnet MM slabs, which are known to have effective negative refractive index, and a three-dimensional MM based on a multilayer of a metal and an insulator. In these photonic MMs, we elucidate the underlying eigenmodes that induce unusual light propagations. Based on the progress of photonic MMs, the future potential and direction are discussed.
Location dependent resource allocation for mobile device-to-device communications

Device-to-device (D2D) communication as an underlay to future cellular networks has been recently considered as an efficient cell offloading and capacity increasing solution. In this paper, we propose to use the D2D underlay as a carrier for automotive safety applications with very strict quality of service and reliability requirements. We propose a location dependent resource allocation scheme (LDRAS) for mobile D2D communications that fulfills the requirements of such services, while reducing the signaling overhead and guaranteeing a certain maximum interference level within the primary network and the D2D underlay, respectively. The former is ensured by applying persistent resource allocation to the vehicular D2D network. The latter is achieved with a spatial reuse scheme with fixed resource reservation, exploiting the localized nature of vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Initial simulation results, comparing the proposed LDRAS to a state-of-the-art radio resource management algorithm, are provided as a proof-of-concept and illustrate the benefits of our solution.
Opinion Exchange Dynamics

The exchange of opinions between individuals is a fundamental social interaction that plays a role in nearly any social, political and economic process. While it is unlikely that a simple mathematical model can accurately describe the exchange of opinions between two people, one could hope to gain some insights on emergent phenomena that affect large groups of people.
Conception of Research on Bionic Underwater Vehicle with Undulating Propulsion

Fish-like swimming has been attracting scientists and engineers attention since many years resulting in attempts of mathematical description of fish movement and its implementation in many interesting prototypes of underwater vehicles. In this paper, conception of research on simulation, implementation and control of bionic underwater vehicle BUV with undulating propulsion is presented. In the next sections, introduction and mathematical model of bionic underwater vehicle motion are included. Then, the last implementation of the robotic fish called CyberFish, which movement is based on the presented mathematic description is presented and shortly described. In the last sections, conception of research on control system of BUV and conclusions are presented.
Nephron Number, Renal Function, and Arterial Pressure in Aged GDNF Heterozygous Mice

Abstract—The loss of one allele for glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) results in ≈30% fewer but normal sized glomeruli in young mice. Low nephron number, inherited or acquired, has been linked to increased risk of development of hypertension and renal failure. This study examines whether GDNF heterozygous mice, with an inherent reduction in nephron number, demonstrate a deterioration in renal structure and function and rise in arterial pressure in later life. Fourteen-month-old male GDNF heterozygous (n=7) and wild-type (n=6) mice were anesthetized and prepared for measurement of mean arterial pressure, glomerular filtration rate (GFR), and renal blood flow. After measurement of renal function, kidneys were fixed for stereological determination of total glomerular number and mean glomerular volume. Mean arterial pressure was, on average, 18 mm Hg higher in GDNF heterozygous (98±4 mm Hg) than wild-type mice (80±2 mm Hg;P <0.01). However, GFR (0.656±0.054 versus 0.688±0.076 mL/min per g kidney wt) and renal blood flow (5.29±0.42 versus 4.70±0.34 mL/min per g kidney wt) were not different between groups. Fourteen-month-old GDNF heterozygous mice had ≈30% fewer glomeruli than wild-type mice (9206±934 versus 13440±1275;P <0.01) and significantly larger glomeruli (4.51±0.39 versus 3.72±0.63×10−4mm3;P <0.01). Thus, aged GDNF heterozygous mice maintained a normal GFR and renal blood flow despite reduced nephron numbers. The elevated arterial pressure, glomerular hypertrophy, and hyperfiltration demonstrated in the GDNF heterozygous mice at this age may indicate a compensatory mechanism whereby GFR is maintained in the presence of a reduced nephron endowment.
Attitudinal and behavioral differences between cigarette users who do and do not identify as “smokers”

ABSTRACT Objective: The current research aimed to understand differences in smoking-related identity among college students and to illustrate the distinct characteristics of nonidentified smokers (NIS). Participants: Students from 2 colleges in Massachusetts (N = 538; April 2016). Methods: Respondents reported by online survey whether or not they had smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days and if they self-identified as smokers. Nonsmokers (NIS) and identified smokers (IS) were then compared on their smoking attitudes and behavior. Results: NIS made up 12.5% of the sample and 64% of all tobacco users. NIS perceived themselves as less addicted and were more confident in their ability to quit smoking. They also were less likely to smoke alone, buy their own cigarettes, or have friends who smoked. Conclusions: College health officials can best motivate NIS to quit smoking by focusing on peer norms and the potential of long-term addiction.
An Empirical Study of Multi-Label Classifiers for Music Tag Annotation

In this paper we study the problem of automatic music tag annotation. Treating tag annotation as a computational classification process, we attempt to explore the relationship between acoustic features and music tags. Toward this end, we conduct a series of empirical experiments to evaluate a set of multi-label classifiers and demonstrate which ones are more suitable for music tag annotation. Furthermore, we discuss various factors in the classification process, such as feature sets, frame sizes, etc. Experiments on two publicly available datasets show that the Calibrated Label Ranking (CLR) algorithm outperforms the other classifiers for a selection of evaluation measures.
Unique Role of the Chemokine Domain of Fractalkine in Cell Capture

The chemokine fractalkine (FK) has two structural features that make it unique in the chemokine family: a CX 3C motif and an extended carboxyl terminus that anchors it to the cell surface. This mucin-like stalk or an equivalent spacer is required for FK to mediate the adhesion of cells expressing its receptor, CX 3CR1. To determine whether the ability of FK to act as a cell adhesion molecule is due to the unique presentation of a chemokine domain on a stalk or to properties of the chemokine domain itself, we created a series of chimeras in which other soluble chemokines (RANTES (regulated on activation normal T cell expressed), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, macrophage inflammatory protein 1β, secondary lymphoid tissue chemokine, and interleukin 8) were fused to the mucin stalk. When tested in a static-cell adhesion assay, many of these chemokine chimeras demonstrated activity equivalent to that of FK. In flow assays, however, none of the chimeras captured cells as efficiently as FK. Interestingly, FK captured cells expressing either CX 3CR1 or the viral receptor US28. Cells bound to FK without rolling or detaching, whereas the interleukin 8 and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 chimeras induced primarily cell rolling and detaching, respectively. In binding studies, FK has a significantly slower off-rate from its receptors than any of the other chemokine chimeras had for their cognate receptors. We conclude that presentation of a chemokine atop a mucin-like stalk is not, in and of itself, sufficient to capture cells. The unique ability of FK to mediate adhesion under flow may be a function of its slow receptor off-rate.
Co-located and distributed multicarrier space-time shift keying for wideband channels

Multicarrier (MC) transmissions are proposed for the space time shift keying (STSK) concept. Specifically, OFDM, MC CDMA and OFDMA/SC-FDMA-aided STSK are proposed for transmissions over dispersive wireless channels. Additionally, a successive relaying (SR) aided cooperative MC STSK scheme is conceived for gleaning cooperative space time diversity and for mitigating the half-duplex throughput loss of conventional relaying. Furthermore, a multiple-symbol differential sphere decoding (MSDSD) aided multicarrier STSK arrangement is proposed to dispense with channel estimation (CE). We design a novel modality of realizing STSK amalgamated with OFDM for facilitating high-rate data-transmissions through a number of low-rate parallel subchannels, thus overcoming the dispersion induced by broadband channels. A MC-CDMA aided STSK system is also proposed for mitigating the channel-induced dispersion, while providing additional frequency-domain (FD) diversity and supporting multiuser transmissions. As a further advance, we design OFDMA and SC FDMA-aided STSK systems, which are capable of communicating in dispersive multiuser scenarios, whilst maintaining a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) in the SC-FDMA-aided STSK uplink. Additionally, complexity reduction techniques are proposed for OFDMA/SC-FDMA-aided STSK. We also conceive the concept of SR aided cooperative multicarrier STSK for frequency-selective channels for mitigating the typical 50% throughput loss of conventional half-duplex relaying in the context of MC-CDMA and for reducing the SR-induced interferences. We additionally propose a differentially encoded cooperative MC-CDMA STSK scheme for facilitating communications over hostile dispersive channels without requiring CE. Finally, the noncoherent multicarrier STSK arrangement is further developed by using MSDSD. The conventional differential detection suffers from a typical 3-dB performance loss, which is further aggravated in the presence of high Doppler frequencies. Hence, for the sake of mitigating this performance loss in the face of high Doppler scenarios, while maintaining a modest decoding complexity, both a hard-decision-based as well as an iterative soft-decision multiple-symbol differential sphere decoding aided multicarrier STSK arrangement is developed.
Discovery and Analysis of Usage Data Based on Hadoop for Personalized Information Access

The discovery and analysis of valuable information hidden in the usage data become more and more important with the exponential growth of Web users, for offering personalized information access. Since the traditional methods are unable to effectively solve the tasks of mining semi-structured and/or unstructured data in the single platform, in this paper, we propose three methods for respectively mining user browsing preference, visiting frequency and participating characteristics, based on the Hadoop cluster by MapReduce. Moreover, we apply our methods to the Web server logs and Developer mailing lists, and analyze the visualization of mining results in order to gain a deeper understanding of user access patterns and interactive behaviors. The experimental results show that our methods can provide further insights into some useful information from usage data for decision making with a good speedup and scalability.
Female promiscuity promotes the evolution of faster sperm in cichlid fishes

Sperm competition, the contest among ejaculates from rival males to fertilize ova of a female, is a common and powerful evolutionary force influencing ejaculate traits. During competitive interactions between ejaculates, longer and faster spermatozoa are expected to have an edge; however, to date, there has been mixed support for this key prediction from sperm competition theory. Here, we use the spectacular radiation of cichlid fishes from Lake Tanganyika to examine sperm characteristics in 29 closely related species. We provide phylogenetically robust evidence that species experiencing greater levels of sperm competition have faster-swimming sperm. We also show that sperm competition selects for increases in the number, size, and longevity of spermatozoa in the ejaculate of a male, and, contrary to expectations from theory, we find no evidence of trade-offs among sperm traits in an interspecific analysis. Also, sperm swimming speed is positively correlated with sperm length among, but not within, species. These different responses to sperm competition at intra- and interspecific levels provide a simple, powerful explanation for equivocal results from previous studies. Using phylogenetic analyses, we also reconstructed the probable evolutionary route of trait evolution in this taxon, and show that, in response to increases in the magnitude of sperm competition, the evolution of sperm traits in this clade began with the evolution of faster (thus, more competitive) sperm.
Dormancy Phenotype Displayed by Extracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis within Artificial Granulomas in Mice

Mycobacterium tuberculosis residing within pulmonary granulomas and cavities represents an important reservoir of persistent organisms during human latent tuberculosis infection. We present a novel in vivo model of tuberculosis involving the encapsulation of bacilli in semidiffusible hollow fibers that are implanted subcutaneously into mice. Granulomatous lesions develop around these hollow fibers, and in this microenvironment, the organisms demonstrate an altered physiologic state characterized by stationary-state colony-forming unit counts and decreased metabolic activity. Moreover, these organisms show an antimicrobial susceptibility pattern similar to persistent bacilli in current models of tuberculosis chemotherapy in that they are more susceptible to the sterilizing drug, rifampin, than to the bactericidal drug isoniazid. We used this model of extracellular persistence within host granulomas to study both gene expression patterns and mutant survival patterns. Our results demonstrate induction of dosR (Rv3133c) and 20 other members of the DosR regulon believed to mediate the transition into dormancy, and that rel Mtb is required for Mycobacterium tuberculosis survival during extracellular persistence within host granulomas. Interestingly, the dormancy phenotype of extracellular M. tuberculosis within host granulomas appears to be immune mediated and interferon-γ dependent.