Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Imbalance of Tc and Th in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Its Significance].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the imbalance of Tc1/Tc2,Th1/Th2 and Tc/Th in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) and its relationship with the clinical stages of SLE. METHODS The full blood culture and flow cytometry with fluorescence-labelled T lymphocytes were used to detect the levels of T-lymphocyte subsets and its intracellular factors IFN-γ and IL-4 in peripheral blood from SLP patients in active, inactive stages and normal healthy persons as controls, to compare the changes of Tc1,Tc2; Th1,Th2 levels and Tc/Th ratio in SLP patients in active and inactive stages, and to analyze their relationship with SLEDAI staging. RESULTS Compared with healthy controls, the levels of CD4+/CD8+ in active SLE patients were significantly lower, but the levels of Tc1,Th1 in active SLE patients were higher than those in inactive SLE patients and normal controls. The ratio of Tc1/Tc2 and Th1/Th2 in the active SLE was higher than that in inactive SLE and normal controls(P<0.05), but the difference between inactive SLE patients and controls was not statistically significant (P>0.05). CONCLUSION The Tc/Th imbalances and change of Tc and Th cells to Tc1 and Th1 cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of SLE.
Coupling mobile phone and social media data: a new approach to understanding urban functions and diurnal patterns

ABSTRACT Understanding urban functions and their relationships with human activities has great implications for smart and sustainable urban development. In this study, we present a novel approach to uncovering urban functions by aggregating human activities inferred from mobile phone positioning and social media data. First, the homes and workplaces (of travelers) are estimated from mobile phone positioning data to annotate the activities conducted at these locations. The remaining activities (such as shopping, schooling, transportation, recreation and entertainment) are labeled using a hidden Markov model with social knowledge learned from social media check-in data over a lengthy period. By aggregating identified human activities, hourly urban functions are inferred, and the diurnal dynamics of those functions are revealed. An empirical analysis was conducted for the case of Shenzhen, China. The results indicate that the proposed approach can capture citywide dynamics of both human activities and urban functions. It also suggests that although many urban areas have been officially labeled with a single land-use type, they may provide different functions over time depending on the types and range of human activities. The study demonstrates that combining different data on human activities could yield an improved understanding of urban functions, which would benefit short-term urban decision-making and long-term urban policy making.
Security of counterfactual communication

At 1991 Avshalom Elitzur asked me a question:“Is it possible to locate a super bomb (an object which explodes when any particle, even a photon, touches it) without destroying it? ” This question led us to the interaction-free measurement (IFM) [1]. It provides (at least sometimes) a reliable information about the presence of such an object without exploding it. A tuned Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is all that is needed for this task. Placing the object in one of its arms allows a click of a detector in the dark port of the MZI, which could not happen without the object. Penrose [2] coined the term “counterfactual” for such a process since no particle moved towards or from the object. Given the detection at the dark port, any nondemolition measurement of the presence of the particle near the object must show nothing. Thus, a person who places (or does not place) the opaque object (which needs not to be a bomb) in the arm of the interferometer, transfers a bit of information to another person who has access to all the other parts of the interferometer. The counterfactual communication is a communication without presence of a particle in the transmission channel. We do need the transmission channel, but the communication can take place without particles passing through it. The mere possibility of the presence of the particle in this channel is what allows the counterfactual communication. Josza [3] suggested to replace the bomb by a computer and thus invented a counterfactual computation: we could find the result of a calculation from the mere possibility of running the computer. Noh [4] proposed a protocol for counterfactual key distribution. A modification of Noh’s proposal is to use two IFM devices, one representing bit 0 and another representing bit 1, see Fig. 1. Alice, at random, sends a single particle through one of the MZIs, while Bob, randomly, blocks one of the MZIs with an efficient particle detector. If Alice gets a click at one of the dark ports of the MZIs, she makes a public announcement that a bit of their secret key has been established. Indeed, the click of the detector in the dark port might happen only if Alice and Bob make the same choice. Every time Alice makes the announcement, it is a counterfactual communication: the particle could not have been in the transmission channel. There have been several analyses of the security of Noh’s proposal. A particularly interesting issue is the counterfactual attack [5, 6]. Eve performs the IFM detection of the presence of Bob’s detector using Bob’s mirror of the MZI, but to prevent Bob from revealing her involvement, she modifies the IFM using the Zeno effect [7]. As in the original IFM protocol, in the case of sucFIG. 1: A simple counterfactual key distribution protocol. Alice randomly sends a particle through one of the tuned MZIs, one of which corresponds to bit 0 and anther to bit 1. Bob randomly places a shutter in one of the interferometers. Only if it happens that they chose the same bit, the particle can be detected at the dark port of the interferometer and when this happens, the particle cannot be in the transmission channel.
Approximation Algorithms Spring 2020

1.2. Barbell graph. The barbell graph on 2n vertices consists of two disjoint complete subgraphs, each of size n, that are joined by a single edge. This graph is connected (every vertex has a path to any other vertex), but intuitively not well-connected, since removing the extra edge disconnects the two complete subgraphs. What is the expansion of this graph? Consider S to be the vertex set of one of the complete subgraphs. Then S has conductance 1 1 + n(n− 1) = O ( 1
Convergence of Complex Cognitive Abilities in Cetaceans and Primates

What examples of convergence in higher-level complex cognitive characteristics exist in the animal kingdom? In this paper I will provide evidence that convergent intelligence has occurred in two distantly related mammalian taxa. One of these is the order Cetacea (dolphins, whales and porpoises) and the other is our own order Primates, and in particular the suborder anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans). Despite a deep evolutionary divergence, adaptation to physically dissimilar environments, and very different neuroanatomical organization, some primates and cetaceans show striking convergence in social behavior, artificial ‘language’ comprehension, and self-recognition ability. Taken together, these findings have important implications for understanding the generality and specificity of those processes that underlie cognition in different species and the nature of the evolution of intelligence.
Quality of medical care and excess mortality in older patients with mental disorders.

BACKGROUND This study investigated whether differences in quality of medical care might explain a portion of the excess mortality associated with mental disorders in the year after myocardial infarction. METHODS This study examined a national cohort of 88 241 Medicare patients 65 years and older who were hospitalized for clinically confirmed acute myocardial infarction. Proportional hazard models compared the association between mental disorders and mortality before and after adjusting 5 established quality indicators: reperfusion, aspirin, beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and smoking cessation counseling. All models adjusted for eligibility for each procedure, demographic characteristics, cardiac risk factors and history, admission characteristics, left ventricular function, hospital characteristics, and regional factors. RESULTS After adjusting for the potential confounding factors, presence of any mental disorder was associated with a 19% increase in 1-year risk of mortality (hazard ratios [HR], 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.36). After adding the 5 quality measures to the model, the association was no longer significant (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.96-1.26). Similarly, while schizophrenia (HR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.01-1.67) and major affective disorders (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.02-1.20) were each initially associated with increased mortality, after adding the quality variables, neither schizophrenia (HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 0.86-1.60) nor major affective disorder (HR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.87-1.23) remained a significant predictor. CONCLUSIONS Deficits in quality of medical care seemed to explain a substantial portion of the excess mortality experienced by patients with mental disorders after myocardial infarction. The study suggests the potential importance of improving these patients' medical care as a step toward reducing their excess mortality.
Seasonal Heat Budget in the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean

Abstract The local seasonal variations of heat content in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean are found to be about ten times larger than the seasonal variations of the heat gain from the atmosphere through the surface, and are not confined to the upper mixed layer. This annual cycle of heat content appears to be mainly due to vertical movements of the thermocline associated with the dynamical response of the ocean to the seasonally varying winds. The heat storage variance is large in the western equatorial Atlantic where the sea surface temperature variance is small because the thermocline is deep. In the eastern equatorial Atlantic, where the thermocline is shallow, the sea surface temperature has a large variance and the heat storage a small variance.
“I Can Defend Myself”

Although video game audiences have greatly diversified over recent years, players who are not the stereotypical straight, White, male “gamer” are still frequently viewed as outsiders to online gaming and face harassment because of this status. However, many choose to play games despite this and have developed specific coping strategies they employ to avoid or respond to harassment. Using grounded theory and in-depth interviews with female gamers, this gender-based case study explores women’s strategies for coping with online game-related harassment. It shows that women are first and foremost an active audience, carefully managing their media environment to help ensure positive experiences. At the same time, their strategies come with limitations, such as hiding their contributions to gaming or provoking further harassment. Although women are capable media managers, their continued status as “outsiders” deeply affects their gaming experiences and demonstrates a need for cultural change in online environments.
ENTHALPY-BASED THERMAL EVOLUTION OF LOOPS. II. IMPROVEMENTS TO THE MODEL

This paper develops the zero-dimensional (0D) hydrodynamic coronal loop model “Enthalpy-based Thermal Evolution of Loops” (EBTEL) proposed by Klimchuk et al., which studies the plasma response to evolving coronal heating, especially impulsive heating events. The basis of EBTEL is the modeling of mass exchange between the corona and transition region (TR) and chromosphere in response to heating variations, with the key parameter being the ratio of the TR to coronal radiation. We develop new models for this parameter that now include gravitational stratification and a physically motivated approach to radiative cooling. A number of examples are presented, including nanoflares in short and long loops, and a small flare. The new features in EBTEL are important for accurate tracking of, in particular, the density. The 0D results are compared to a 1D hydro code (Hydrad) with generally good agreement. EBTEL is suitable for general use as a tool for (1) quick-look results of loop evolution in response to a given heating function, (2) extensive parameter surveys, and (3) situations where the modeling of hundreds or thousands of elemental loops is needed. A single run takes a few seconds on a contemporary laptop.
Data-driven Supervised Morpheme Extraction

With the ever-increasing availability of large unstructured data and the need to extract useful information, text segmentation is one of the predominant research topics in data mining. Some of the key applications of text segmentation are natural language processing, topic modeling, machine translation etc., Various forms of text segmentation exist, and popular segmentation techniques are focused on character sequences, words, phrases, and sentences. However, text Segmentation to extract morphemes, which are smallest meaningful unit of a language has proven to improve effectiveness of downstream data mining tasks. Most of the previous research in morpheme extraction is unsupervised with the best accuracy of ~20%. We model morpheme extraction as a classification task with data-driven statistical features, resulting in an accuracy of ~65%.
Prefire Heterogeneity, Fire Severity, and Early Postfire Plant Reestablishment in Subalpine Forests

The 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park providedan opportunity to study effects of a large infrequent disturbance on a natural community. This study addressed two questions: (1) How does prefire heterogeneity of the landscape affect postfire patterns of fire severity? and (2) How do postfire patterns of burn severity influence plant reestablishment? At three sites, 100 sampling points were distributed regularly in a 1-km x 1-km grid and sampled annually from 1989 to 1992. Information was recorded on fire severity (damage to trees, depth of ash and soil charring, and percent mineral soil exposed); pre-fire forest structure (forest successional stage; tree density; tree species; tree size; and evidence of pre-fire disturbance by mountain pine beetle [Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk.] or mistletoe [Arceuthobium americanum Nutt. ex Engelm.]); post-fire percent cover of graminoids, forbs, and low shrubs; number of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm.) seedlings; and general topographic characteristics (slope and aspect). Fire severity was influenced by successional stage, with older stands more likely to be in the more severe burn class, and by tree diameter, with tree damage diminishing with tree size. Prefire bark beetle and mistletoe damage also influenced fire severity; severe prefire damage increased the likelihood of crown fire, but intermediate prefire damage reduced the likelihood of crown fire. Fire severity was not influenced by slope, aspect, or tree density. Postfire percent vegetative cover and density of lodgepole pine seedlings varied with burn severity. In lightly burned areas, percent cover returned to unburned levels by 1991. In severely burned areas, total percent cover was about half that of unburned areas by 1992, and shrub cover remained reduced. Recruitment of lodgepole pine seedlings was greatest during the second postfire year and in severe-surface burns rather than in crown fires. Continued monitoring of vegetation dynamics in Yellowstone’s burned forests will contribute to our understanding of successional processes following a disturbance that was exceptional in its size and severity.
Src Mutation Induces Acquired Lapatinib Resistance in ERBB2-Amplified Human Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma Models

ERBB2-directed therapy is now a routine component of therapy for ERBB2-amplified metastatic gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas. However, there is little knowledge of the mechanisms by which these tumors develop acquired resistance to ERBB2 inhibition. To investigate this question we sought to characterize cell line models of ERBB2-amplified gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma with acquired resistance to ERBB2 inhibition. We generated lapatinib-resistant (LR) subclones from an initially lapatinib-sensitive ERBB2-amplified esophageal adenocarcinoma cell line, OE19. We subsequently performed genomic characterization and functional analyses of resistant subclones with acquired lapatinib resistance. We identified a novel, acquired Src E527K mutation in a subset of LR OE19 subclones. Cells with this mutant allele harbour increased Src phosphorylation. Genetic and pharmacologic inhibition of Src resensitized these subclones to lapatinib. Biochemically, Src mutations could activate both the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and mitogen activated protein kinase pathways in the lapatinib-treated LR OE19 cells. Ectopic expression of Src E527K mutation also was sufficient to induce lapatinib resistance in drug-naïve cells. These results indicate that pathologic activation of Src is a potential mechanism of acquired resistance to ERBB2 inhibition in ERBB2-amplified gastroesophageal cancer. Although Src mutation has not been described in primary tumor samples, we propose that the Src hyperactivation should be investigated in the settings of acquired resistance to ERBB2 inhibition in esophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma.
A High-Speed FPGA Implementation of an RSD-Based ECC Processor

In this paper, an exportable application-specific instruction-set elliptic curve cryptography processor based on redundant signed digit representation is proposed. The processor employs extensive pipelining techniques for Karatsuba-Ofman method to achieve high throughput multiplication. Furthermore, an efficient modular adder without comparison and a high-throughput modular divider, which results in a short datapath for maximized frequency, are implemented. The processor supports the recommended NIST curve P256 and is based on an extended NIST reduction scheme. The proposed processor performs single-point multiplication employing points in affine coordinates in 2.26 ms and runs at a maximum frequency of 160 MHz in Xilinx Virtex 5 (XC5VLX110T) field-programmable gate array.
A Statistical Comparative Planetology Approach to the Hunt for Habitable Exoplanets and Life Beyond the Solar System

The search for habitable exoplanets and life beyond the solar system is one of the most compelling scientific opportunities of our time. Nevertheless, the high cost of building facilities that can address this topic and the keen public interest in the results of such research requires rigorous development of experiments that can deliver a definitive advancement in our understanding. Most work to date in this area has focused on a “systems science” approach of obtaining and interpreting comprehensive data for individual planets to make statements about their habitability and the possibility that they harbor life. This strategy is challenging because of the diversity of exoplanets, both observed and expected, and the limited information that can be obtained with astronomical instruments. Here, we propose a complementary approach that is based on performing surveys of key planetary characteristics and using statistical marginalization to answer broader questions than can be addressed with a small sample of objects. The fundamental principle of this comparative planetology approach is maximizing what can be learned from each type of measurement by applying it widely rather than requiring that multiple kinds of observations be brought to bear on a single object. As a proof of concept, we outline a survey of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheric water and carbon dioxide abundances that would test the habitable zone hypothesis and lead to a deeper understanding of the frequency of habitable planets. We also discuss ideas for additional surveys that could be developed to test other foundational hypotheses in this area.
Bovine Lactoferrin and Lactoferricin, a Peptide Derived from Bovine Lactoferrin, Inhibit Tumor Metastasis in Mice

We investigated the effect of a bovine milk protein, lactoferrin (LF–B), and a pepsin–generated peptide of LF–B, lactoferricin (Lfcin–B), on inhibition of tumor metastasis produced by highly metastatic murine tumor cells, B16–BL6 melanoma and L5178Y–ML25 lymphoma cells, using experimental and spontaneous metastasis models in syngeneic mice. The subcutaneous (s.c.) administration of bovine apo–lactoferrin (apo–LF–B, 1 mg/mouse) and Lfcin–B (0.5 mg/monse) 1 day after tumor inoculation significantly inhibited liver and lung metastasis of L5178Y–ML25 cells. However, human apo–lactoferrin (apo–LF–H) and bovine holo–lactoferrin (holo–LF–B) at the dose of 1 mg/mouse failed to inhibit tumor metastasis of L5178Y–ML25 cells. Similarly, the s.c. administration of apo–LF–B as well as Lfcin–B, but not apo–LF–H and holo–LF–B, 1 day after tumor inoculation resulted in significant inhibition of lung metastasis of B16–BL6 cells in an experimental metastasis model. Furthermore, in in vivo analysis for tumor–induced angiogenesis, both apo–LF–B and Lfcin–B inhibited the number of tumor–induced blood vessels and suppressed tumor growth on day 8 after tumor inoculation. However, in a long–term analysis of tumor growth for up to 21 days after tumor inoculation, single administration of apo–LF–B significantly suppressed the growth of B16–BL6 cells throughout the examination period, whereas Lfcin–B showed inhibitory activity only during the early period (8 days). In spontaneous metastasis of B16–BL6 melanoma cells, multiple administration of both apo–LF–B and Lfcin–B into tumor–bearing mice significantly inhibited lung metastasis produced by B16–BL6 cells, though only apo–LF–B exhibited an inhibitory effect on tumor growth at the time of primary tumor amputation (on day 21) after tumor inoculation. These results suggest that apo–LF–B and Lfcin–B inhibit tumor metastasis through different mechanisms, and that the inhibitory activity of LF–B on tumor metastasis may he related to iron (Fe3+)–saturation.
Thermal resistance of electrical insulation for bolted and clamped discrete power devices

In power electronic systems, TO-220 packaged electronic devices are bolted or clamped to a metal heat sink for cooling. When mounting high voltage TO-220 devices to touch-safe heat sinks, electrical insulation must be used between the device and the heat sink. This paper experimentally explores the thermal resistance between bolted and clamped TO-220 packages and the heat sink due to the electrical insulator. Aluminum oxide insulators are experimentally compared to commercially available polyimide thermal interface materials (TIMs). Various TIMs are explored to reduce the thermal contact resistance at the alumina/metal interface including screen printed phase change material. Results show that thermal contact resistance (TCR) at the alumina interface is significant under both clamped and bolted TO-220 diodes but can be reduced up to 70% with graphite sheets, thermal grease or phase change material.