Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lifelong Sequential Modeling with Personalized Memorization for User Response Prediction

User response prediction, which models the user preference w.r. t. the presented items, plays a key role in online services. With two-decade rapid development, nowadays the cumulated user behavior sequences on mature Internet service platforms have become extremely long since the user's first registration. Each user not only has intrinsic tastes, but also keeps changing her personal interests during lifetime. Hence, it is challenging to handle such lifelong sequential modeling for each individual user. Existing methodologies for sequential modeling are only capable of dealing with relatively recent user behaviors, which leaves huge space for modeling long-term especially lifelong sequential patterns to facilitate user modeling. Moreover, one user's behavior may be accounted for various previous behaviors within her whole online activity history, i.e., long-term dependency with multi-scale sequential patterns. In order to tackle these challenges, in this paper, we propose a Hierarchical Periodic Memory Network for lifelong sequential modeling with personalized memorization of sequential patterns for each user. The model also adopts a hierarchical and periodical updating mechanism to capture multi-scale sequential patterns of user interests while supporting the evolving user behavior logs. The experimental results over three large-scale real-world datasets have demonstrated the advantages of our proposed model with significant improvement in user response prediction performance against the state-of-the-arts.
Challenges Faced in the Process of Knowledge Transfer in an Industrial Environment

Knowledge transfer in an industrial context from an existing enterprise to a new emerging branch is a slow and troublesome process. To become productive, there is a vast amount of knowledge expected to be acquired by the teammates in the emerging branch in a limited period of time; but the teammates in the emerging branch can only process so much knowledge in a limited time frame. By using a hybrid approach between face-to-face communication and proper documentation, colleagues at the new branch are able to grasp the required knowledge faster with minimum help from mentors. The knowledge transfer process between branches can therefore be optimized for the time restrictions and minimize the time it requires for the new branch to be ready for production.
Fenestration Improves Clinical Outcome of the Fontan Procedure: A Prospective, Randomized Study

Background—The Fontan procedure is the definitive operation for palliation of complex congenital heart disease with single-ventricle physiology. Fenestration of the Fontan circuit allows for shunting of deoxygenated blood to the systemic circulation. This procedure improved the clinical outcomes of patients who are at high risk for poor Fontan results. However, it is controversial whether fenestration is beneficial for standard-risk patients. Methods and Results—This prospective, randomized trial evaluated the clinical utility of fenestration in patients with standard preoperative risk profiles for Fontan surgery. Forty-nine consecutive patients were assigned to undergo either a fenestrated (25 patients) or nonfenestrated (24 patients) Fontan procedure. The fenestrated and nonfenestrated groups were comparable with respect to age (P =0.944), body surface area (P =0.250), number of preoperative risk factors for poor outcome (P =0.681), cardiopulmonary bypass time (P =0.302), number of patients who required aortic cross-clamping (P =0.240), preoperative oxygen saturation (P =0.101), and number of patients with dominant left ventricular morphology (P =0.534). Patients in the fenestrated group had 55% less total chest tube drainage (P =0.036), 41% shorter total hospitalization (P =0.018), and 67% fewer additional procedures in the postoperative period (P =0.006) than those in the nonfenestrated group. Conclusions—Baffle fenestration performed at the time of Fontan surgery improves short-term outcome in standard-risk patients by decreasing pleural drainage, hospital length of stay, and need for additional postoperative procedures.
A Tunable Antenna for DVB-H Applications

A novel wideband built-in antenna with resonance frequency variability for digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) is proposed. The tunable antenna consists of two channel matching networks and a spiral-shaped monopole type radiator. Based on the matching networks combined with the switches, wide bandwidth and good radiation gains are obtained. As a demonstration, a wideband tunable antenna is designed and measured. The proposed antenna has an approximately omnidirectional radiation pattern and its peak gain is 3 dB greater than the required antenna gain covering DVB-H band. These features are suitable for DVB-H applications.
Efficacy of cognitive behavior language therapy for aphasia following stroke: Implications for language education research

Background/Objective: Evidence from previous research has shown that the incidence of aphasia following a stroke is high in Nigeria and other countries, and there is a call for intervention programs. The objective of the current study was to investigate the efficacy of cognitive behavior language therapy (CBLT) on aphasia following a stroke. Methods: The study was designed as a group randomized trial, which involved treatment and no-treatment control procedures. The participants of the study were 86 patients who had experienced aphasia following a stroke. The Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA) and Speech-Language Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs Scale (SLUTBS) were the measures used in the study. The repeated measures analysis of variance procedure, with Partial eta squared , adjusted R2, mean, standard deviation, and upper/lower limit was followed in analyzing the data collected in the study. Results: The CBLT intervention significantly reduced aphasia following a stroke and significantly reduced speech-language and unhelpful thought and beliefs among aphasic stroke patients exposed to the treatment intervention when compared with the no-treatment control group. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, language educators, speech and language pathologists and therapists in education institutions, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers should adopt the principles of CBLT used in the current study to help them improve communication ability among aphasia stroke patients.
Post‐translational regulation could be determine functional differences between SET alpha and beta isoform – Response to Cristóbal et al

We thank Ion Crist obal and colleagues for their letter regarding our article “SET alpha and SET beta mRNA isoforms in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia” (Brander et al, 2019). The authors provide two interesting examples of SET protein post-translational regulation that may affect the ability of the SET alpha and SET beta protein isoforms to reduce the important phosphatase activity of PP2A. First, Crist obal et al highlight their own work demonstrating that blocked degradation of SET protein by SETBP1 in acute myeloid leukaemia cells led to stronger PP2A inhibition (Crist obal et al, 2010). Secondly, they reference work demonstrating that phosphorylation of SET beta Ser9 in Alzheimer’s disease retains cytoplasmic SET-beta resulting in enhanced PP2A inhibition (Yu et al, 2013). We earlier demonstrated that the relative levels of SET alpha and SET beta protein isoforms correlate significantly with the outcomes of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) (Christensen et al, 2011). Patients with CLL cell high SET alpha:SET beta protein ratios have much shorter overall survival and shorter times to first treatment. Also, those with high SET alpha:SET beta protein ratios are more likely to have other features of poor prognosis, such as unmutated immunoglobulin heavy chain genes and high CLL cell CD38 expression (Christensen et al, 2011). In our current paper (Brander et al, 2019), we demonstrate that, in addition to elevated CLL cell SET alpha:SET beta protein ratio levels correlating with clinical aggressiveness of the CLL, SETA:SETB mRNA isoform ratios also correlate significantly with clinical aggressiveness of the leukemia (Brander et al, 2019). Thus, there appears to be not only post-translational, but also transcriptional regulation of SET isoform expression that can modulate levels of SET isoform expression and eventual inhibition of PP2A activity, and influence CLL patient outcomes. Future investigations will need to confirm that post-translational regulation of SET protein isoforms occurs in CLL (and other cancer types) in addition to that noted in the letter by Dr. Crist obal and colleagues in myeloid leukemias and Alzheimer’s disease.
Taming convergence in the determinant approach for x-ray excitation spectra

A determinant formalism in combination with \emph{ab initio} calculations proposed recently has paved a new way for simulating and interpreting x-ray excitation spectra. The new method systematically takes into account many-electron effects in the Mahan-Nozieres-De Dominicis (MND) theory, including core-level excitonic effects, the Fermi-edge singularity, shakeup excitations, and wavefunction overlap effects such as the orthogonality catastrophe, all within a universal framework using many-electron configurations. A heuristic search algorithm was introduced to search for the configurations that are important for defining spectral lineshapes, instead of enumerating them in a brute-force way. The algorithm has proven to be efficient for calculating \ce{O} $K$ edges of transition metal oxides, which converge at the second excitation order (denoted as $f^{(n)}$ with $n = 2$), i.e., the final-state configurations with two \emph{e-h} pairs (with one hole being the core hole). However, it remains unknown how the determinant calculations converge for general cases and at which excitation order $n$ one should stop the determinant calculation. Even with the heuristic algorithm, the number of many-electron configurations still grows exponentially with the excitation order $n$. In this work, we prove two theorems that can indicate the order of magnitude of the contribution of the $f^{(n)}$ configurations, so that one can estimate their contribution very quickly without actually calculating their amplitudes. The two theorems are based on the singular-value decomposition (SVD) analysis, a method that is widely used to quantify entanglement between two quantum many-body systems. We examine the $K$ edges of several metallic systems with the determinant formalism up to $f^{(5)}$ to illustrate the usefulness of the theorems.
Molecular Carcinogenesis

Funding information NIH Clinical Center, Grant/Award Numbers: G12RR003062‐22, 1P20MD002285, 1R15CA169899‐01A1 Abstract Prostate cancer (PCa) patients’ mortality is mainly attributed to complications caused by metastasis of the tumor cells to organs critical for survival, such as bone. We hypothesized that PCa cell‐bone interactions would promote paracrine signaling. A panel of PCa cell lines were cocultured with hydroxyapatite ([HA]; inorganic component of bone) of different densities. Conditioned media (CM) was collected and analyzed for calcium levels and effect on paracrine signaling, cell migration, and viability in vitro and in vivo. Our results showed that calcium levels were elevated in CM from cancer cell‐bone cocultures, compared to media or cancer cells alone, and this could be antagonized by ethylene glycol‐bis(2‐aminoethyl ether)N,N,N′,N′‐tetraacetic acid (EGTA), a calcium chelator, or knockdown of Snail protein. We also observed increased signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation and paracrine cell proliferation and migration in LNCaP cells incubated with CM from various cell lines; this phosphorylation and cell migration could be antagonized by Snail knockdown or various inhibitors including EGTA, STAT3 inhibitor (WP1066) or cathepsin L inhibitor (Z‐FY‐CHO). In vivo, higher HA bone density increased tumorigenicity and migration of tumor cells to HA implant. Our study shows that cancer‐bone microenvironment interactions lead to calcium‐STAT3 signaling, which may present an area for therapeutic targeting of metastatic PCa.
BK Polyomavirus Activates the DNA Damage Response To Prolong S Phase

BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) is an emerging pathogen that reactivates in immunosuppressed organ transplant patients. We wanted to understand why BKPyV-induced activation of the DNA damage response (DDR) enhances viral titers and prevents host DNA damage. Here, we show that the virus activates the DNA damage response in order to keep the infected cells in S phase to replicate the viral DNA. The source of DNA damage was due to actively replicating cells with uncondensed chromosomes entering directly into mitosis when the DDR was inhibited in BKPyV-infected cells. This study clarifies the previously enigmatic role of the DDR during BKPyV infection by demonstrating that the virus activates the DDR to maintain the cells in S phase in order to promote viral replication and that disruption of this cell cycle arrest can lead to catastrophic DNA damage for the host. ABSTRACT BK polyomavirus (PyV) is a major source of kidney failure in transplant recipients. The standard treatment for patients with lytic BKPyV infection is to reduce immunosuppressive therapy, which increases the risk of graft rejection. PyVs are DNA viruses that rely upon host replication proteins for viral genome replication. A hallmark of PyV infection is activation of the DNA damage response (DDR) to prevent severe host and viral DNA damage that impairs viral production by an unknown mechanism. Therefore, we sought to better understand why BKPyV activates the DDR through the ATR and ATM pathways and how this prevents DNA damage and leads to increased viral production. When ATR was inhibited in BKPyV-infected primary kidney cells, severe DNA damage occurred due to premature Cdk1 activation, which resulted in mitosis of cells that were actively replicating host DNA in S phase. Conversely, ATM was required for efficient entry into S phase and to prevent normal mitotic entry after G2 phase. The synergistic activation of these DDR kinases promoted and maintained BKPyV-mediated S phase to enhance viral production. In contrast to BKPyV infection, DDR inhibition did not disrupt cell cycle control in uninfected cells. This suggests that DDR inhibitors may be used to specifically target BKPyV-infected cells. IMPORTANCE BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) is an emerging pathogen that reactivates in immunosuppressed organ transplant patients. We wanted to understand why BKPyV-induced activation of the DNA damage response (DDR) enhances viral titers and prevents host DNA damage. Here, we show that the virus activates the DNA damage response in order to keep the infected cells in S phase to replicate the viral DNA. The source of DNA damage was due to actively replicating cells with uncondensed chromosomes entering directly into mitosis when the DDR was inhibited in BKPyV-infected cells. This study clarifies the previously enigmatic role of the DDR during BKPyV infection by demonstrating that the virus activates the DDR to maintain the cells in S phase in order to promote viral replication and that disruption of this cell cycle arrest can lead to catastrophic DNA damage for the host.
Multilingual Relation Extraction using Compositional Universal Schema

Universal schema builds a knowledge base (KB) of entities and relations by jointly embedding all relation types from input KBs as well as textual patterns expressing relations from raw text. In most previous applications of universal schema, each textual pattern is represented as a single embedding, preventing generalization to unseen patterns. Recent work employs a neural network to capture patterns' compositional semantics, providing generalization to all possible input text. In response, this paper introduces significant further improvements to the coverage and flexibility of universal schema relation extraction: predictions for entities unseen in training and multilingual transfer learning to domains with no annotation. We evaluate our model through extensive experiments on the English and Spanish TAC KBP benchmark, outperforming the top system from TAC 2013 slot-filling using no handwritten patterns or additional annotation. We also consider a multilingual setting in which English training data entities overlap with the seed KB, but Spanish text does not. Despite having no annotation for Spanish data, we train an accurate predictor, with additional improvements obtained by tying word embeddings across languages. Furthermore, we find that multilingual training improves English relation extraction accuracy. Our approach is thus suited to broad-coverage automated knowledge base construction in a variety of languages and domains.
Clinical and methodological challenges for assessing freezing of gait: Future perspectives

Freezing of gait, defined as sudden and usually brief episodes of inability to produce effective stepping, often results in falls and is both disabling and common in parkinsonism. In this narrative review, sprung from the 2nd International Workshop on freezing of gait in Leuven, we summarize the latest insights into clinical and methodological challenges for assessing freezing of gait. We also highlight the role of emerging wearable technology to improve the management of this debilitating symptom. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Effects of valproate sodium on extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 phosphorylation following hippocampal neuronal epileptiform discharge in rats

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of valproate sodium (VPAS) on the phosphorylation extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) following hippocampal neuronal epileptiform discharge in rat neurons. The study used neurons from female and male neonate Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (at least 24 h old), which were rapidly decapitated. Following the successful development of the epileptiform discharge cell model, the neurons were divided into two groups, the VPAS group and the control group. In the concentration-response experiment, the neurons were incubated with three different concentrations of VPAS (50, 75 and 100 mg/l) 30 min prior to the epileptiform discharge. The expression of phosphorylated ERK1/2 (p-ERK1/2) was examined using an immunofluorescence technique. In the time-response experiment, the neurons were incubated with VPAS (50 mg/l) and monitored at different time-points (30 min prior to the epileptiform discharge and 0 min, 30 min, 2 h and 6 h subsequent to epileptiform discharge), and western blotting was employed to measure the changes in p-ERK1/2 protein expression. No significant differences in the expression of p-ERK1/2 among the neurons treated with different concentrations of VPAS were identified in the concentration-response experiment. However, in the time-response experiment, the expression of p-ERK1/2 30 min prior to the epileptiform discharge was significantly lower compared with that at the other time-points. Furthermore, 50 mg/l VPAS was capable of decreasing the action potential frequency of the neuronal epileptiform discharge. ERK1/2 was excessively and persistently activated following the epileptiform discharge of the neurons. In addition, a low concentration of VPAS was effective at inhibiting the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 at an earlier period of neuronal epileptiform discharge.
Molecular genetic study of acute intermittent porphyria in Russia: HMBS gene mutation spectrum and problem of penetrance

Acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) is the most common and severe form of porphyrias. This is a dominant inherited disorder with low penetrance, caused by mutations in gene coding hydroxymethylbilane synthase (HMBS). We present the results of our long‐term genetic study of AIP patients and their relatives (N = 153 and 302, respectively). We detected 88 HMBS gene mutations, 24 of which never described before. To identify additional factors conditioning AIP manifestation, we carried out whole exome sequencing on the group of AIP patients (N = 6). Mutation spectra of different patients virtually did not overlap. In 5 out of 6 patients, we found defects in genes regulating nervous system (UNC13A, ALG8, FBXO38, AGRN, DOK7, SCN4A). As usually acute AIP attacks have various neurological symptoms, we proposed a hypothesis of possible contribution of mutations in such genes in AIP manifestation.
Multiobjective Genetic Programming: A Nonlinear System Identification Application

Genetic programming (GP) is applied to a multobjective optimisation problem and the advantages of its hierarchical tree encoding scheme are compared with an earlier use of a subset representation approach which used string-encoded genetic algorithms. The GP approach is applied to the identification of non-linear system polynomial models and provides a trade-off between the complexity and the performance of the models. Multiobjective Genetic Programming is not only presented as a tool for optimising multiple objectives of the problem under investigation, but also provides a means of controlling the size of tree structures used in the search process.
Efficient ER Fusion Requires a Dimerization and a C-Terminal Tail Mediated Membrane Anchoring of RHD31

Efficient ER membrane fusion requires dimerization of RHD3 in different ER membranes and an interaction between membrane lipids and the C-terminal amphipathic helix of RHD3. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a network of tubules and sheets stretching throughout the eukaryotic cells. The formation of the ER requires homotypic membrane fusion, which is mediated by a family of Dynamin-like Atlastin GTPase proteins. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) member ROOT HAIR DEFECTIVE3 (RHD3) has been demonstrated to mediate ER membrane fusion, but how exactly RHD3 is involved in the process is still unknown. Here we conducted systemic structure-function analyses of roles of different RHD3 domains in mediating ER fusion. We showed that efficient ER membrane fusion mediated by RHD3 requires a proper dimerization of RHD3 through the GTPase domain (GD) and the first and second three helix bundles (3HBs) in the middle domain. RHD3 has a 3HB-enriched middle domain longer than that of Atlastins, and we revealed that the third and fourth 3HBs are required for the stability of RHD3. The transmembrane segments of RHD3 are essential for targeting and retention of RHD3 in the ER and can also facilitate an oligomerization of RHD3. Furthermore, we showed that an amphipathic helix in the C-terminal cytosolic tail of RHD3 has a membrane anchoring ability that is required for efficient ER membrane fusion mediated by RHD3. This work contributes to a better understanding of a coordinated action of RHD3 in the fusion of ER membranes.