Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of mometasone furoate/formoterol fumarate fixed-dose combination formulation on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): results from a 52-week Phase III trial in subjects with moderate-to-very severe COPD

Rationale The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of a fixed-dose combination of mometasone furoate/formoterol fumarate (MF/F) administered via a metered-dose inhaler in subjects with moderate-to-very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial had a 26-week treatment period and a 26-week safety extension. Subjects (n = 1196), at least 40 years old, were current or ex-smokers randomized to twice-daily inhaled MF/F 400/10 μg, MF/F 200/10 μg, MF 400 μg, F 10 μg, or placebo. The trial’s co-primary endpoints were mean changes from baseline, as area under the curve (AUC), in forced expiratory volume (FEV1) over 0–12 hours (AUC0–12 h FEV1) with MF/F versus MF, and in morning (AM) pre-dose (trough) FEV1 with MF/F versus F after 13 weeks of treatment. Key secondary endpoints were the effects of MF/F on respiratory health status using the Saint George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), symptom-free nights, partly stable COPD at 26 weeks, and time to first COPD exacerbation. Results The largest improvements in AUC0–12 h FEV1 were observed with MF/F 400/10 μg and MF/F 200/10 μg. Serial spirometry results demonstrated that bronchodilator effects with MF/F occurred rapidly (within 5 minutes), persisted for 12 hours after dosing, and were sustained over the 26-week treatment period. Similar findings were observed for AM pre-dose FEV1, for which effects were further investigated, excluding subjects whose AM FEV1 data were incorrectly collected after 2 days from the last dose of study treatment. Improvements in SGRQ scores surpassed the minimum clinically important difference of more than four units with both MF/F treatments. At 26 weeks, no notable between-treatment differences in the occurrence and nature of adverse events (AEs) were reported. No unexpected AEs were observed. Overall, 90 subjects reported AEs considered to be treatment-related, the most common of which were lenticular opacities, dysphonia, and oral candidiasis. Discussion In conclusion, MF/F treatments improved lung function and respiratory health status, reduced exacerbations, and were well tolerated in subjects with moderate-to-very severe COPD.
Telecom customer segmentation with K-means clustering

Development of data mining application is very important for the telecommunication enterprise, which is a typical data-intensive industry. Customer segmentation can help analyze customer composition accurately and promote the quality of service and marketing. Using K-means clustering and the commercial automatic data mining tool KXEN, the paper proposes a resolution of customer segmentation for Changzhou telecom in Jiangsu province. Results show that the resolution is effective and successful.
Traces of Meaning Itself: Encoding Distributional Word Vectors in Brain Activity

How is semantic information stored in the human mind and brain? Some philosophers and cognitive scientists argue for vectorial representations of concepts, where the meaning of a word is represented as its position in a high-dimensional neural state space. At the intersection of natural language processing and artificial intelligence, a class of very successful distributional word vector models has developed that can account for classic EEG findings of language, i.e., the ease vs. difficulty of integrating a word with its sentence context. However, models of semantics have to account not only for context-based word processing, but should also describe how word meaning is represented. Here, we investigate whether distributional vector representations of word meaning can model brain activity induced by words presented without context. Using EEG activity (event-related brain potentials) collected while participants in two experiments (English, German) read isolated words, we encode and decode word vectors taken from the family of prediction-based word2vec algorithms. We find that, first, the position of a word in vector space allows the prediction of the pattern of corresponding neural activity over time, in particular during a time window of 300 to 500 ms after word onset. Second, distributional models perform better than a human-created taxonomic baseline model (WordNet), and this holds for several distinct vector-based models. Third, multiple latent semantic dimensions of word meaning can be decoded from brain activity. Combined, these results suggest that empiricist, prediction-based vectorial representations of meaning are a viable candidate for the representational architecture of human semantic knowledge.
PyRanges: efficient comparison of genomic intervals in Python

Summary Complex genomic analyses often use sequences of simple set operations like intersection, overlap, and nearest on genomic intervals. These operations, coupled with some custom programming, allow a wide range of analyses to be performed. To this end, we have written PyRanges, a data structure for representing and manipulating genomic intervals and their associated data in Python. Run single-threaded on binary set operations, PyRanges is in median 2.3-9.6 times faster than the popular R GenomicRanges library and is equally memory efficient; run multi-threaded on 8 cores, our library is up to 123 times faster. PyRanges is therefore ideally suited both for individual analyses and as a foundation for future genomic libraries in Python. Availability PyRanges is available open-source under the MIT license at https://github.com/biocore-NTNU/pyranges and documentation exists at https://biocore-NTNU.github. io/pyranges/ Contact endrebak85@gmail.com Supplementary information Supplementary data are available.
Contract Signatures in E-Commerce Applications

In this paper, we propose a notion of contract signatures used in e-commerce applications. This scheme adopts digital multi-signature scheme in public-key cryptography to facilitate fair signature exchange over network. Security proof under the random oracle model of this modified signature scheme is include. This proposed solution allows two parties to produce and exchange two ambiguous signatures which are fully ambiguous for any third party (i.e. 1 out ambiguity). The combination of these two ambiguous signatures forms the contract signature. There is no “keystone” (i.e. a secret key used in the concurrent signature) of the signature. In case anyone releases the contract signature to a verifier, both signers bind to the contract signature.
Significance of Cerebral Small-Vessel Disease in Acute Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Background and Purpose— The significance of structural changes associated with cerebral small-vessel disease (SVD), including white matter lesions (WML), lacunes, and brain atrophy, to outcome from acute intracerebral hemorrhage is uncertain. We determined associations of computed tomographic radiological manifestations of cerebral SVD and outcomes, and in terms of any differential effect of early intensive blood pressure–lowering treatment, in the large-scale Intensive Blood Pressure Reduction in Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage Trial (INTERACT2). Methods— We graded WML (van Swieten scale), the presence of lacunes, and brain atrophy (2 linear measurements and visual rating) for 2069 of 2839 patients with available baseline brain computed tomography (<6 hours of intracerebral hemorrhage onset) by 3 independent neurologists blind to clinical data. Results— WML grade and 2 linear measurements of brain atrophy were associated with death or major disability at 90 days: multivariable-adjusted odds ratios for WML (grade 3 and 4 versus 0), frontal ratio, and third ventricle Sylvian fissure distance (most versus least severe atrophy quartile) were 1.42 (95% confidence interval, 1.02–1.98), 1.47 (1.08–1.99), and 1.64 (1.21–2.22), respectively (all P for trend <0.05). There was no association between lacunes and outcomes. There were no significant differences in the effects of intensive blood pressure–lowering across subgroups of cerebral SVD. Conclusions— Preexisting cerebral SVD manifestations of WML and brain atrophy predict poor outcome in acute intracerebral hemorrhage. There is no apparent hazard of early intensive lowering of blood pressure according to the INTERACT2 protocol, in patients with underlying cerebral SVD. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00716079.
The front-end of projects: a systematic literature review and structuring

Abstract This paper summarizes the results of a comprehensive systematic literature survey on the front-end of a project, commissioned by the Project Management Institute. The dedicated literature on the front-end is sparse: although the front-end has been shown to be critical to the strategic success of the project, this phase of the lifecycle is not well understood. This paper presents the literature on the concept of the front-end, and defines a temporarily ordered structure of generic processes that form the ‘front-end’ and how these fit together as a coherent whole. These start from the preliminaries to the initiative, then the project purpose (for various stakeholders), the initial analysis and scenario analysis; the analysis of alternatives and choice of project concept; assessment of the project, finishing with setting up project execution. It summarises the recent literature at each of these elements in turn, specifically as they relate to the front-end.
Vaccination in Humans Generates Broad T Cell Cytokine Responses1

In recent years, the quantification of T cell responses to pathogens or immunogens has become a common tool in the evaluation of disease pathogenesis or vaccine immunogenicity. Such measurements are usually limited to enumerating IFN-γ-producing cells after ex vivo stimulation with Ag, but little is known about the phenotype or complete functional repertoire of the Ag-specific cells. We used 12-color flow cytometry to characterize Ag-specific T cells elicited by vaccines or natural infection to determine lineage and differentiation status as well as the capacity to produce four cytokines (IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, and IL-4) and a chemokine (MIP1β). As expected, responding cells had a typical memory phenotype; however, the cytokine profiles associated with the responses were highly complex. The pattern of cytokine coexpression in response to specific Ags was a skewed subset of the complete repertoire (revealed by polyclonal stimulation). We found significant differences in the patterns of cytokines elicited by vaccination (where IFN-γ was by far a subdominant response) vs natural infection; in addition, there was fairly significant intersubject variation. Our findings illustrate the limitation of the evaluation of immune responses using single functional measurements (such as IFN-γ); in fact, it is likely that sensitive evaluation of Ag-specific T cells will require the coordinate measurement of several cytokines. The presence and variability of these complex response profiles introduce the possibility that selective functional expression patterns may provide correlates for vaccine efficacy or disease progression.
High frequency of apolipoprotein E ϵ2 Allele in hemorrhage due to cerebral amyloid angiopathy

From the somewhat conflicting published data on apolipoprotein E (apoE) genotype in hemorrhage due to cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), it is unclear whether apoE genotype influences the risk of CAA‐related hemorrhage independently of its association with concomitant Alzheimer's disease (AD). We determined the apoE genotypes of 36 patients presenting with cerebral hemorrhage associated with histologically confirmed CAA. The frequency of apoE ϵ2 was 0.25 and the frequency of apoE ϵ4 was 0.18. Patients with CAA‐related hemorrhage and concomitant AD pathology (CERAD criteria, n = 17) had a high apoE ϵ4 frequency, close to that in AD cases without hemorrhage. Patients in whom CAA‐related hemorrhage occurred in the absence of significant AD pathology (n = 13) had an apoE ϵ4 frequency somewhat lower than non‐AD controls without hemorrhage. However, in CAA‐related hemorrhage, the apoE ϵ2 frequency was high regardless of whether significant AD pathology was present. We conclude that whereas possession of apoE ϵ2 may be a risk factor for cerebral hemorrhage due to CAA, apoE ϵ4 is a risk factor for concomitant AD but not an independent risk factor for CAA‐related hemorrhage.
p85 binds to G-actin in a Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent manner, thus regulating the initiation of cytokinesis in tetrahymena.

Tetrahymena p85 is localized to the presumptive division plane before the formation of contractile ring microfilaments. p85 binds to calmodulin in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner and both proteins colocalize to the division furrow. Inhibition of the binding of p85 and Ca(2+)/calmodulin prevents both the localization of p85 and calmodulin to the division plane and the formation of the contractile ring, suggesting that the interaction of p85 and Ca(2+)/calmodulin is important in the formation of the contractile ring. We investigated the mechanisms of the formation of contractile ring, and the relationship among p85, CaM, and actin using co-sedimentation assay: p85 binds to G-actin in a Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent manner, but does not bind to F-actin. Therefore, we propose that a Ca(2+)/calmodulin signal and its target protein p85 are cooperatively involved in the recruitment of G-actin to the division plane and the formation of the contractile ring.
Détection et reconstruction de facettes 3D par approche hiérarchique par régions à partir de couples d'images satellite en milieu urbain

Nesrine Chehata 1,2, Franck Jung 1, Marc Pierrot-Deseilligny 1, Georges Stamon 2 1 Institut Geographique National 2-4 Av. Pasteur 94165 St. Mande cedex, France Email : prenom.nom@ign.fr 2 Laboratoire SIP/CRIP5 , Systemes Intelligents de Perception UFR mathematiques et informatique, Universite Paris 5. 45 Rue des Saints Peres 75006 Paris ,France. Tel : int+ 33 1 44 55 35 60 E-mail :prenom.nom@math-info.univ-paris5.fr
XBF: Scaling up Bloom-filter-based Source Routing

A well known drawback of IP-multicast is that it requires per-group state to be stored in the routers. Bloom-filter based source-routed multicast remedies this problem by moving the state from the routers to the packets. However, a fixed sized Bloom-filter can only store a limited number of items before the false positive ratio grows too high implying scalability issues. Several proposals have tried to address these scalability issues in Bloom-filter forwarding. These proposals, however, unnecessarily increase the forwarding complexity. In this paper, we present Extensible-Bloom-filter (XBF), a new framing and forwarding solution which effectively circumvents the aforementioned drawbacks. XBF partitions a network into sub-networks that reflect the network topology and traffic patterns, and uses a separate fixed-length Bloom-filter in each of these. We formulate this partition assignment problem into a balanced edge partitioning problem, and evaluate it with simulations on realistic topologies. Our results show that XBF scales to very large networks with minimal overhead and completely eliminates the false-positives that have plagued the traditional Bloom-filter-based forwarding protocols. It furthermore integrates with SDN environments, making it highly suitable for deployments in off-the-shelf SDN-based networks.
Characterization of the IL-15 niche in primary and secondary lymphoid organs in vivo

Significance IL-15 is a cytokine critical for development and maintenance of T lymphoid cells. However, the identity and distribution of IL-15–expressing cells in lymphoid organs are not well understood. The present study reveals, by using IL-15–CFP knock-in mice that IL-15 was expressed in subsets of thymic epithelial cells, bone marrow stromal cells, lymph node stromal cells, and blood endothelial cells, a unique perspective of IL-15 niche in immune microenvironment. Taken together with our previous observation on IL-7–producing cells, this study suggests that some stromal cells express IL-7 and IL-15 differentially. Thus, the immune microenvironment appears to be consisted of functionally distinct subsets of stromal cells, expressing different cytokines. IL-15 is a cytokine critical for development, maintenance, and response of T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, NK T cells, and dendritic cells. However, the identity and distribution of IL-15–expressing cells in lymphoid organs are not well understood. To address these questions, we established and analyzed IL-15–CFP knock-in mice. We found that IL-15 was highly expressed in thymic medulla, and medullary thymic epithelial cells with high MHC class II expression were the major source of IL-15. In bone marrow, IL-15 was detected primarily in VCAM-1+PDGFRβ+CD31−Sca-1− stromal cells, which corresponded to previously described CXCL12-abundant reticular cells. In lymph nodes, IL-15–expressing cells were mainly distributed in the T-cell zone and medulla. IL-15 was expressed in some fibroblastic reticular cells and gp38−CD31− double-negative stromal cells in the T-cell zone. Blood endothelial cells, including all high endothelial venules, also expressed high IL-15 levels in lymph nodes, whereas lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) lacked IL-15 expression. In spleen, IL-15 was expressed in VCAM-1+ stromal cells, where its expression increased as mice aged. Finally, IL-15 expression in blood and LECs of peripheral lymphoid organs significantly increased in LPS-induced inflammation. Overall, we have identified and characterized several IL-15–expressing cells in primary and secondary lymphoid organs, providing a unique perspective of IL-15 niche in immune microenvironment. This study also suggests that some stromal cells express IL-7 and IL-15 differentially and suggests a way to functionally classify different stromal cell subsets.
Hydrogen Production by the Unicellular, Diazotrophic Cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. Strain ATCC 51142 under Conditions of Continuous Light

ABSTRACT We report on the hydrogen production properties of the unicellular, diazotrophic cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. strain ATCC 51142. This organism has a versatile metabolism and can grow in the presence or absence of combined nitrogen and can grow photosynthetically or mixotrophically and heterotrophically in the presence of glycerol. The strain produces a bidirectional hydrogenase (encoded by the hox genes), an uptake hydrogenase (hupLS), and nitrogenase (nifHDK). We demonstrated hydrogen production by both the hydrogenase and the nitrogenase under appropriate metabolic conditions. The highest rates of hydrogen production were produced under nitrogen-fixing conditions when cells were grown and incubated under continuous light conditions, in either the presence or absence of glycerol. Under such nitrogen-fixing conditions, we have achieved rates of 300 μmol H2/mg chloramphenicol (Chl)/hr during the first 24 h of incubation. The levels of H2 measured were dependent upon the incubation conditions, such as sparging with argon, which generated anaerobic conditions. We demonstrated that the same conditions led to high levels of H2 production and N2 fixation, indicating that low-oxygen conditions favor nitrogenase activity for both processes. The levels of hydrogen produced by the hydrogenase are much lower, typically 5 to 10 μmol H2/mg Chl/hr. Hydrogenase activity was dependent upon electron transport through photosystem II (PS II), whereas nitrogenase activity was more dependent on PS I, as well as on respiration. Although cells do not double under the incubation conditions when sparged with argon to provide a low-oxygen environment, the cells are metabolically active, and hydrogen production can be inhibited by the addition of chloramphenicol to inhibit protein synthesis.
A distributed control method for power module voltage balancing of modular multilevel converters

This paper focuses on the distributed control method of the power module (PM) capacitor voltage balancing in modular multilevel converters (MMCs). The large number of PMs imposes great computational challenge on the capacitor voltage balancing in MMC based high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system. In this paper, a distributed voltage balancing method is proposed to reduce the computational load of control strategy of MMCs with hundreds of PMs per arm. With this method, all PMs in one arm of MMC are grouped first. The PMs in each group is balanced independently by voltage sorting and arm current polarity. The sorting all the PM voltages in this arm is avoided. Meanwhile, a close-loop control strategy is also introduced to balance the average PM voltage of each group dynamically. Simulation results on a ±350 kV/ 1000 MW MMC based HVDC system show the effectiveness of the proposed distributed control method.
Dietary Phenylalanine Requirement of the Juvenile Pacific White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (Boone) Reared in Low-Salinity Water

ABSTRACT Six diets with different concentrations of L-phenylalanine (10.71, 12.71, 14.71, 16.71, 18.71, and 20.71 g kg–1 dry diet) were offered to the Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (Boone) reared in low-salinity water (0.50–1.20 g L–1) to determine the phenylalanine requirement. After an 8-wk feeding trial, the results indicated that weight gain was highest in shrimps treated with 16.71 g kg–1 dietary phenylalanine (diet P4) and that lower or higher dietary phenylanine supplementary reduced weight gain (P < 0.05). Moreover, the highest final body weight, body protein deposition (BPD), and relative muscle weight, and the lowest hemolymph urea nitrogen concentration, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase activities were also found in group P4 (P < 0.05). Hemolymph metabolite profile showed that deficiencies or excess amounts of dietary phenylalanine mainly affected amino acids and energy metabolism. Polynomial regression calculated using weight gain rate, feed conversion ratio, and BPD indicated that the optimal dietary phenylalanine requirement for L. vannamei reared in low-salinity water was 15.81 g kg–1 of dry diet, corresponding to 38.56 g kg–1 of dietary protein.
A Semantic-Middleware-Supported Receding Horizon Optimal Power Flow in Energy Grids

Energy management in electric grids with multiple energy sources, generators, storage devices, and interacting loads along with their complex behaviors requires grid wide control. Communication infrastructure that aggregates information from heterogeneous devices in the electric grid making the applications completely independent of physical connectivity is essential for building in the context of control applications. This investigation presents a semantic middleware that is used to implement a receding-horizon-based optimal power flow (OPF) in smart grids. The presence of renewable energy sources, storage systems, and loads dispersed all along the grid necessitates the use of grid wide control and a communication infrastructure to support it. To this extent, the proposed middleware will serve as the basis for representing various components of the power grid. It is enriched with intelligence by semantic annotation and ontologies that provide situation awareness and context discovery. The middleware deployment is demonstrated by implementing the receding horizon OPF in a network in Steinkjer, Norway. Our results demonstrate the advantages of both the middleware and the algorithm. Furthermore, the results prove the added flexibility obtained in the grid due to the addition of renewable energy and storage systems. The significant advantage of the proposed approach is that the real-time monitoring infrastructure is used for improving the flexibility, reliability, and efficiency of the grid.