Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of competitive and recreational sport participation with cardiac events in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: results from the North American multidisciplinary study of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.

AIMS It has been proposed that competitive sport increases the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTA) and death in patients with arrhythmogenic right-ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). However, it is unknown whether this only applies to competitive sport or if recreational sports activity also increases the risk of VTA/death. METHODS AND RESULTS Probands diagnosed with ARVC according to the 2010 task force criteria for ARVC (n = 108) were included in the current analysis. At the time of enrolment, study participants were questioned about exercise level prior to and after ARVC diagnosis, within three categories of sports participation: competitive (n = 41), recreational (n = 48), and inactive (n = 19). Competitive sport was associated with a significantly higher risk of VTA/death when compared with both recreational sport [HR = 1.99 (1.21-3.28), P = 0.007] and inactive patients [HR = 2.05 (1.07-3.91), P = 0.030]. No increased risk of VTA/death was associated with recreational sport when compared with patients who were inactive [HR = 1.03 (0.54-1.97), P = 0.930]. Symptoms developed at an earlier age in patients who participated in competitive sport (30 ± 12 years), when compared with patients who participated in recreational sport (38 ± 17 years) (P = 0.015) and inactive patients (41 ± 11 years) (P = 0.002). No difference in age at first symptom was seen between patients who participated in recreational sport and inactive patients (P = 0.651). CONCLUSION Competitive sport was associated with a two-fold increased risk of VTA/death, and earlier presentation of symptoms, when compared with inactive patients, and to patients who participated in recreational sport. When compared with inactive patients, recreational sport was not associated with earlier onset of symptoms or increased risk of VTA/death. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00024505.
PRELIMINARY DRAFT. DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Coordination between fiscal and monetary policy is a challenging issue for economic authorities, particularly in the European context , with a single monetary policy and twelve national fiscal policies. The aim of this paper is to determine whether the current European framework is the most appropriate framework with which to achieve a good degree of macroeconomic stabilization and a high degree of credibility, or whether a less formalized framework, inspired from the Canadian one, could be an alternative. This paper first focuses on European and Canadian macroeconomic policy frameworks, which are quite different even though their objectives are the same (low and stable inflation, and fiscal balance); we show how the EMU could benefit from the recent Canadian experience. We then conduct an empirical study on monetary and fiscal policies over the past three decades in Canada and in the three biggest European countries, to determine how fiscal and monetary policy decisions have been made. We focus mainly on the interactions between the fiscal and monetary authorities.
The terminal cooperative diversity scheme for LTE-Advanced uplink system

Cooperative diversity is a technology that is the corporate users by sharing their separate antenna and other resources, for example the time, frequency and power, through distribute transmission and signal process to create a virtual multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system. Single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) is adopted in the uplink for the 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced system. In this paper we put forward a terminal cooperative diversity scheme for SC-FDMA. The simulation results show that through this scheme the system, while keeping most of the advantages of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), could significantly improve the reliability of the wireless communication over fading channels, reduce the BER effectively and get cooperative diversity gain.
Propagation of active worms: A survey

This paper serves worm defenders’ objective to improve their immunity to future active worms by giving them a deep insight into propagation characteristics of active worms from a worm authors’ perspective. Active worms self-propagate across networks by employing scanning, pre-generated target list, or internally generated target lists as their target discovery technique. We find target acquisition and network reconnaissance actions during the network propagation phase in a worm’s life cycle basically embody its target discovery technique. We derive the significance of target discovery techniques in shaping a worm’s propagation characteristics from the life cycles of worms. A variety of target discovery techniques employed by active worms are discussed and compared. We find hitting probability (the probability of hitting a vulnerable or infected host) is the most frequently improved factor by attackers to increase a worm’s propagation speed. We anticipate future active worms would employ a combination of target discovery techniques to greatly accelerate their propagation. Various deterministic and stochastic models of active worms are presented and compared. Their accuracy of and applicability to modelling the propagation of active worms under different conditions are discussed. A discussion of opportunities, challenges and solutions from a worm defenders’ perspective is presented in this survey paper. We also propose a new defence system called Distributed Active Defence System (DADS) to effectively defend against worms. This new system follows an active surveillance-trace-control cycle, which could be the emerging solution to the active worm problem.
Repeated Stress Impairs Endocannabinoid Signaling in the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Hypothalamus

Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are ubiquitous retrograde signaling molecules in the nervous system that are recruited in response to robust neuronal activity or the activation of postsynaptic G-protein-coupled receptors. Physiologically, eCBs have been implicated as important mediators of the stress axis and they may contribute to the rapid feedback inhibition of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) by circulating corticosteroids (CORTs). Understanding the relationship between stress and eCBs, however, is complicated by observations that eCB signaling is itself sensitive to stress. The mechanisms that link stress to changes in synaptic eCB signaling and the impact of these changes on CORT-mediated negative feedback have not been resolved. Here, we show that repetitive immobilization stress, in juvenile male rats, causes a functional downregulation of CB1 receptors in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN). This loss of CB1 receptor signaling, which requires the activation of genomic glucocorticoid receptors, impairs both activity and receptor-dependent eCB signaling at GABA and glutamate synapses on parvocellular neuroendocrine cells in PVN. Our results provide a plausible mechanism for how stress can lead to alterations in CORT-mediated negative feedback and may contribute to the development of plasticity of HPA responses.
Hypothetical Outcome Plots Outperform Error Bars and Violin Plots for Inferences about Reliability of Variable Ordering

Many visual depictions of probability distributions, such as error bars, are difficult for users to accurately interpret. We present and study an alternative representation, Hypothetical Outcome Plots (HOPs), that animates a finite set of individual draws. In contrast to the statistical background required to interpret many static representations of distributions, HOPs require relatively little background knowledge to interpret. Instead, HOPs enables viewers to infer properties of the distribution using mental processes like counting and integration. We conducted an experiment comparing HOPs to error bars and violin plots. With HOPs, people made much more accurate judgments about plots of two and three quantities. Accuracy was similar with all three representations for most questions about distributions of a single quantity.
Evaluative prefixes in translation: From automatic alignment to semantic categorization

This article aims to assess to what extent translation can shed light on the semantics of French evaluative prefixation by adopting No ̈el (2003)’s ‘translations as evidence for semantics’ approach. In French, evaluative prefixes can be classified along two dimensions (cf. (Fradin and Montermini 2009)): (1) a quantity dimension along a maximum/minimum axis and the semantic values big and small, and (2) a quality dimension along a positive/negative axis and the values good (excess; higher degree) and bad (lack; lower degree). In order to provide corpus-based insights into this semantic categorization, we analyze French evaluative prefixes alongside their English translation equivalents in a parallel corpus. To do so, we focus on periphrastic translations, as they are likely to ‘spell out’ the meaning of the French prefixes. The data used were extracted from the Europarl parallel corpus (Koehn 2005; Cartoni and Meyer 2012). Using a tailormade program, we first aligned the French prefixed words with the corresponding word(s) in English target sentences, before proceeding to the evaluation of the aligned sequences and the manual analysis of the bilingual data. Results confirm that translation data can be used as evidence for semantics in morphological research and help refine existing semantic descriptions of evaluative prefixes.
Results of behavioural tests of horses are predictive of perceived safety in riders

Behavioural problems and shyness are prevalent horse-related causes of accidents in equitation. The aim of the present study was to examine whether tests developed to measure the intensity of reaction to social separation and to novelty and suddenness can predict how riders perceive their safety when handling and riding a horse. Thirteen leisure horses were subjected to the battery of three fear tests, separation test and a test ride. The horses that were more fearful toward a novel surface were perceived to be less secure when handling. The horses showing fear in the startling object test were also perceived as less secure in both handling and riding. Unexpectedly, in the separation test, the more time the horse had remained a standing position, the more insecure when saddling, mounting, walking and trotting was scored. Similarly, a relaxed body posture with the head in a low position was predictive to a low security score by riders. It may be supposed that the horses that are comfortable when isolated are self-reliant and independent in comparison to other horses, but probably also in other situations, which might make them difficult to be managed by humans. Behavioural tests could be predictive not only for equine personality traits, but also may be applied in the assessment of rider’s perceived safety. Thus, they may serve as tools to differentiate horses in terms of their suitability for leisure riders.
Parental descriptions of children's personality: A five-factor model classification.

The paper reports the Flemish contribution to the first phase of an international collaborative research project operating as the International Consortium for the Study of Developmental Antecedents of the Five-Factor-Model (ICDA-FFM). Free parental oral descriptions of their own children's personality are recorded, transcribed, segmented in units and classified with a category system comprising fourteen major categories, further subdivided in facets and clusters. Three quarters of the parental descriptors for children aged 3, 6, 9 and 12 could be classified as instances of various facets of the Five-Factor Model (FFM). Comparison of frequencies of classified descriptors across age levels shows a significant increase of descriptors indicating Conscientiousness and a decrease of references to Extraversion. Analysis at the facet level points towards an age related shift within Extraversion from activity to sociability descriptors. The relationship of categorised free child descriptions to the FFM is illustrated by their consistent pattern of correlations with factor scores derived from parental ratings of the same children on 25 scales (Mervielde, 1992) marking the FFM. Moreover, most of the free descriptors classified in categories regarded to be beyond the scope of the FFM, show significant and plausible correlations with the factor scores derived from parental ratings of the same children.
Characterization of the Intracellular Proteolytic Cleavage of Myocilin and Identification of Calpain II as a Myocilin-processing Protease*

MYOC, a gene involved in different types of glaucoma, encodes myocilin, a secreted glycoprotein of unknown function, consisting of an N-terminal leucine-zipper-like domain, a central linker region, and a C-terminal olfactomedin-like domain. Recently, we have shown that myocilin undergoes an intracellular endoproteolytic processing. We show herein that the proteolytic cleavage in the linker region splits the two terminal domains. The C-terminal domain is secreted to the culture medium, whereas the N-terminal domain mainly remains intracellularly retained. In transiently transfected 293T cells, the cleavage was prevented by calpain inhibitors, such as calpeptin, calpain inhibitor IV, and calpastatin. Since calpains are calcium-activated proteases, we analyzed how changes in either intra- or extracellular calcium affected the cleavage of myocilin. Intracellular ionomycin-induced calcium uptake enhanced myocilin cleavage, whereas chelation of extracellular calcium by EGTA inhibited the proteolytic processing. Calpains I and II cleaved myocilin in vitro. However, in cells in culture, only RNA interference knockdown of calpain II reduced myocilin processing. Subcellular fractionation and digestion of the obtained fractions with proteinase K showed that full-length myocilin resides in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum together with a subpopulation of calpain II. These data revealed that calpain II is responsible for the intracellular processing of myocilin in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum. We propose that this cleavage might regulate extracellular interactions of myocilin, contributing to the control of intraocular pressure.
Urinary Incontinence , Cognitive Impairment , and Neuromuscular Dysfunction in Older Community-Dwelling Women

Urinary incontinence is a common problem in older women, with an estimated 15 to 55 percent of women over the age of 60 having incontinence at least once a week [1]. Among older women, incontinence is associated with social isolation, stigmatization, depression, decreased physical activity, falls and fractures, and nursing home admissions [2]. Cognitive impairment is also widely prevalent in the elderly, occurring in at least 10 percent of persons over the age of 65, and in 50 percent of those over the age of 85, with women having a slightly higher risk compared to men. [3]
Synergistic Inhibition of Lung Tumorigenesis by a Combination of Green Tea Polyphenols and Atorvastatin

Purpose: The present study investigated the possible synergistic inhibitory effect of a novel combination of polyphenon E (PPE, a standardized green tea polyphenol preparation) and atorvastatin (trade name Lipitor) in a mouse tumorigenesis model and in human lung cancer H1299 and H460 cell lines. Experimental Design: Female A/J mice were given two weekly i.p. injections of 4-(methylnitrosaminao)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (150 mg/kg total dose); 1 week later, mice were treated with PPE (0.25% or 0.5% in drinking fluid), atorvastatin (200 or 400 ppm in diet), or PPE (0.25%) plus atorvastatin (200 ppm) for 16 weeks. The interaction of these two agents was also studied in human lung cancer H1299 and H460 cells. Results: The individual agents, PPE or atorvastatin, were not effective in inhibiting lung tumorigenesis. The low-dose combination of PPE and atorvastatin, however, significantly reduced both the tumor multiplicity and tumor burden (by 56% and 55%, respectively, P < 0.05). Isobologram analysis of the interaction of the two agents indicated that the combination synergistically decreased tumor multiplicity (P = 0.0006) and tumor burden (P = 0.0009). The inhibition was associated with enhanced apoptosis and suppressed myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1) level in adenoma as determined by immunohistochemistry and Western blots. Treatment with combinations of PPE and atorvastatin also synergistically decreased the number of viable H1299 and H460 cells as determined by isobologram analysis. This synergistic effect was associated with increased apoptosis as determined by the terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase–mediated nick-end labeling assay. The combination of PPE and atorvastatin was more efficient in reducing the antiapoptotic protein Mcl-1 level and increasing the cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase level than the single-agent treatment. Conclusions: The present work showed that PPE and atorvastatin synergistically inhibited 4-(methylnitrosaminao)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone–induced lung tumorigenesis in mice and the growth of lung cancer H1299 and H460 cells, possibly through enhanced apoptosis. The results provide leads for future research on the application of this combination for the prevention and treatment of lung cancer.
FPGA Implementation of MPLS

This paper presents a hardware architecture of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). MPLS is a protocol used primarily to prioritize internet traffic and improve bandwidth utilization. MPLS solutions are meant to be used with Layer 2 or Layer 3 protocols. This paper presents hardware architecture to implement MPLS on FPGA.
Symmetrical Doherty Power Amplifier With Extended Efficiency Range

A symmetrical Doherty power amplifier (PA) with an extended efficiency range is proposed. This paper proves the existence of a class of symmetrical Doherty PAs having efficiency peaks for back-off levels larger than 6 dB. A design technique is developed that maintains the full voltage and current swings of both the main and auxiliary transistors. The concept is experimentally verified in a 1.95-GHz 25-W circuit demonstrator fabricated using identical GaN HEMT devices. An average power-added efficiency of 50% and adjacent power leakage ratio of -49 dBc is obtained with 9-dB peak-to-average power-ratio 20-MHz long-term evolution test signals.
The process of displacing the single-stranded DNA-binding protein from single-stranded DNA by RecO and RecR proteins

The regions of single-stranded (ss) DNA that result from DNA damage are immediately coated by the ssDNA-binding protein (SSB). RecF pathway proteins facilitate the displacement of SSB from ssDNA, allowing the RecA protein to form protein filaments on the ssDNA region, which facilitates the process of recombinational DNA repair. In this study, we examined the mechanism of SSB displacement from ssDNA using purified Thermus thermophilus RecF pathway proteins. To date, RecO and RecR are thought to act as the RecOR complex. However, our results indicate that RecO and RecR have distinct functions. We found that RecR binds both RecF and RecO, and that RecO binds RecR, SSB and ssDNA. The electron microscopic studies indicated that SSB is displaced from ssDNA by RecO. In addition, pull-down assays indicated that the displaced SSB still remains indirectly attached to ssDNA through its interaction with RecO in the RecO-ssDNA complex. In the presence of both SSB and RecO, the ssDNA-dependent ATPase activity of RecA was inhibited, but was restored by the addition of RecR. Interestingly, the interaction of RecR with RecO affected the ssDNA-binding properties of RecO. These results suggest a model of SSB displacement from the ssDNA by RecF pathway proteins.
Delay-aware Predictive Network Selection in data offloading

We tackle the network selection problem in operator-initiated mobile data offloading by considering both the predictive and non-predictive cases. For the non-predictive case, we use the Lyapunov optimization technique to design the Delay-aware Network Selection Algorithm (DNSA), which yields an operation cost within O (1/V) bound of the minimum value, for any V > 0. For the predictive case, we propose a novel approach to incorporate prediction into Lyapunov optimization. The proposed Delay-aware Predictive Network Selection Algorithm (DPNSA) efficiently exploits the potential benefit of predicting traffic load and users' mobilities, and avoids the state space explosion issue due to information prediction. Numerical results show that DPNSA with prediction window size 5 offers roughly 30% delay saving over DNSA.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Review from Sensation to Percept: the Neural Signature of Auditory Event-related Potentials

An external auditory stimulus induces an auditory sensation which may lead to a conscious auditory perception. Although the sensory aspect is well known, it is still a question how an auditory stimulus results in an individual's conscious percept. To unravel the uncertainties concerning the neural correlates of a conscious auditory percept, event-related potentials may serve as a useful tool. In the current review we mainly wanted to shed light on the perceptual aspects of auditory processing and therefore we mainly focused on the auditory late-latency responses. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that perception is an active process in which the brain searches for the information it expects to be present, suggesting that auditory perception requires the presence of both bottom-up, i.e. sensory and top-down, i.e. prediction-driven processing. Therefore, the auditory evoked potentials will be interpreted in the context of the Bayesian brain model, in which the brain predicts which information it expects and when this will happen. The internal representation of the auditory environment will be verified by sensation samples of the environment (P50, N100). When this incoming information violates the expectation, it will induce the emission of a prediction error signal (Mismatch Negativity), activating higher-order neural networks and inducing the update of prior internal representations of the environment (P300).
Motives for sharing illness experiences on Twitter: conversations of parents with children diagnosed with cancer

ABSTRACT A patient- and family-centred approach in paediatric health care is important because parents are involved in making key decisions about their child’s health care and advocating for the best interest of the child. Parents and family members are increasingly turning to the internet to find and actively share information about their child’s health care. Twitter is one of many online platforms used by parents of children diagnosed with cancer to share information related to their child’s cancer experience. Existing research suggests that there is a need to better understand the motives for using Twitter for sharing content about a child’s cancer experience. Furthermore, there is a lack of theoretical frameworks for characterizing those motives. In this paper, we identify key themes of tweets posted by parents of children diagnosed with cancer and align those themes with motives inspired by the well-studied Everyday Life Information Seeking framework. We propose a new motive in addition to those associated with the framework and suggest that information can be shared for endogenous reasons as well as to meet the needs of others. This paper contributes an increased understanding of motives for sharing information about a child’s cancer journey and extends a theoretical framework for building further knowledge in this area.