Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of copolymers of N-isopropylacrylamide and 2-dimethyl(aminoethyl)methacrylate in non-viral and adenoviral vectors for gene delivery to nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Copolymers of 2-dimethyl(aminoethyl) methacrylate (PDMAEM) with N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) were evaluated for their potential to enhance transgene expression of plasmid DNA (pDNA) and gene delivery by adenovirus vectors. The polymers of varying compositions and molecular weights (MW) were synthesized by free-radical polymerization. Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) were prepared with different charge (N:P) ratios of PNIPAM/ DMAEM to pDNA. Polymer-modified viral vectors based on non-replicating adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5), (ΔE1/oriP/luc) or (ΔE1/CMV/luc) transcriptor/promoter/reporter were constructed by electrostatically coupling PNIPAM/DMAEM (Type I) or PECs (oriP/luc, 6.6 kb) (Type II) to the viral capsid. The N:P value at complete condensation was lower for PECs with higher DMAEM content and MW. pDNA binding was enhanced by high MW PNIPAM/DMAEM. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed changes to the secondary structure of pDNA and adenovirus capsid proteins in the presence of PNIPAM/DMAEM. The toxicity of PNIPAM/DMAEM to CNE-1 nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) cells diminished with decreasing DMAEM content and increasing MW. The transfection efficiency of C666-1 NPC cells by PECs increased with DMAEM content and MW. The transduction efficiency of CNE-1 NPC cells by Type I Ad5 vectors improved with DMAEM content, but was independent of MW. The transduction efficiency of Type II Ad5 in C666-1 cells approximated the sum of expression levels of the PECs and Ad5 vectors individually. PDMAEM and PNIPAM/DMAEM demonstrate both transfection and transduction enhancement activity of modified vectors in nasopharyngeal cancer cells in culture.
Sparse linear predictors for speech processing

This paper presents two new classes of linear prediction schemes. The first one is based on the concept of creating a sparse residual rather than a minimum variance one, which will allow a more efficient quantization; we will show that this works well in presence of voiced speech, where the excitation can be represented by an impulse train, and creates a sparser residual in the case of unvoiced speech. The second class aims at finding sparse prediction coefficients; interesting results can be seen applying it to the joint estimation of long-term and short-term predictors. The proposed estimators are all solutions to convex optimization problems, which can be solved efficiently and reliably using, e.g., interior-point methods.
Simple rules can explain discrimination of putative recursive syntactic structures by a songbird species

According to a controversial hypothesis, a characteristic unique to human language is recursion. Contradicting this hypothesis, it has been claimed that the starling, one of the two animal species tested for this ability to date, is able to distinguish acoustic stimuli based on the presence or absence of a center-embedded recursive structure. In our experiment we show that another songbird species, the zebra finch, can also discriminate between artificial song stimuli with these structures. Zebra finches are able to generalize this discrimination to new songs constructed using novel elements belonging to the same categories, similar to starlings. However, to demonstrate that this is based on the ability to detect the putative recursive structure, it is critical to test whether the birds can also distinguish songs with the same structure consisting of elements belonging to unfamiliar categories. We performed this test and show that seven out of eight zebra finches failed it. This suggests that the acquired discrimination was based on phonetic rather than syntactic generalization. The eighth bird, however, must have used more abstract, structural cues. Nevertheless, further probe testing showed that the results of this bird, as well as those of others, could be explained by simpler rules than recursive ones. Although our study casts doubts on whether the rules used by starlings and zebra finches really provide evidence for the ability to detect recursion as present in “context-free” syntax, it also provides evidence for abstract learning of vocal structure in a songbird.
Estimation of Channel-Induced Distortion in H . 264 / AVC video from decoded pixels only

Video transmitted over an error-prone network may be received at the decoder with some degradations due to packet losses. No-reference (NR) quality monitoring algorithms are the most practical way to measure the quality of the received video, since they do not impose any change in network architecture. Conventionally, these methods assume the availability of the corrupted bitstream. In some situations this is not possible, e.g. because the bitstream is encrypted or processed by third party decoders, and only the decoded pixel values can be used. It turns out that the major limitation in this scenario is the lack of knowledge about which slices have been actually lost. In this paper we propose a NR-P (pixel) technique to estimate these bitstream parameters directly from the decoded video. We use this information as input to a no-reference quality monitoring system which produces accurate estimates of the MSE distortion. The results produced by the proposed method are well correlated (linear correlation coefficient larger than 0.9 over a wide range of packet loss rates) with the distortion computed in fullreference mode.
Cardiovascular Safety of Stimulants in Children with Attention- Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder: a Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study 1 Research Updates Cardiovascular Safety of Stimulants in Children with Attention- Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder: a Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study New Oral Anti

Background: Stimulants have been shown to increase blood pressure and heart rate in children and adolescents with ADHD. Whether these changes result in clinically significant increases in cardiovascular (CV) events is unknown. A 2012 review article of observational studies found data to suggest an increased CV risk with use of stimulants in both children and adults; however, the reviewed studies had several limitations making it difficult to interpret the results. A relationship between time and dose of stimulants to the risk of adverse CV events is yet to be determined. Objective: To examine whether stimulant use compared with non-use was associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a general population of children and adolescents and in a subset population of youth diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and to examine a possible dose-response relationship in regard to such risk. Study Design: Data for this longitudinal, prospective cohort study was collected from seven Danish national registries. The cohort observed included all children born in Denmark between 1990 and 1999. A total of 714,258 patients were followed. Lifetime data on CV risk factors, psychiatric and somatic diagnoses, prescription drugs, social factors, and demographics was obtained. Parental data regarding medical and socioeconomic background variables was also gathered. Subjects were excluded if they had a diagnosis of ADHD prior to age five. Stimulant treatment included purchase of a prescription for amphetamine, dexamphetamine or methylphenidate. Doses were compared using defined daily doses (DDD) of methylphenidate broken into three categories: (1) 0 to 15 mg/day, 15 to 30 mg/day, and > 30 mg/day. The primary outcome was defined as the child having a hospitalization, emergency department visit, or a clinic contact including a diagnosis code for CVD. Data on use and dose of stimulant medication was measured at three points: At the date of the CV event, and at three and 12 months prior to the event date. Results: Subjects were observed for an average of 9.5 years. Of all 714,258 subjects studied, 5732 had a CV event resulting in a diagnosis of CVD. Stimulant use was found to increase risk of any CV event compared to non-use in the general cohort, adjusted HR of 1.83 (95% CI 1.10-3.04). Of the 8300 subjects with an ADHD diagnosis, 111 had a CV event. In this subset of study subjects, stimulant use was also associated with an increased risk for any CV event compared with non-use, adjusted HR of 2.34 …
PRRS serology: A critical component of the diagnostic workup

Diagnostic notes are not peer reviewed ince the development of the indirect-fluorescent antibody (IFA) test in 1992, serologic profiling has been extremely valuable in improving the understanding of PRRS virus (PRRSV) patterns of transmission within infected farms. The IFA test detects IgG antibodies and indicates infection, not protection. IFA titers are initially detected 7–10 days post-infection and persist for up to 3–4 months. Recently, an ELISA test has been developed. It too measures IgG; however, ELISA antibodies are not detectable until 9–10 days post infection and persist for longer periods (at least 5–6 months). Both tests appear to be very useful when initially profiling an infected herd.
Neural Network Based Short Term Forecasting Engine to Optimize Energy and Big Data Storage Resources of Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy efficient wireless networks is the primary research goal for evolving billion device applications like IoT, smart grids and CPS. Monitoring of multiple physical events using sensors and data collection at central gateways is the general architecture followed by most commercial, residential and test bed implementations. Most of the events monitored at regular intervals are largely redundant/minor variations leading to large wastage of data storage resources in Big data servers and communication energy at relay and sensor nodes. In this paper a novel architecture of Neural Network (NN) based day ahead steady state forecasting engine is implemented at the gateway using historical database. Gateway generates an optimal transmit schedules based on NN outputs thereby reducing the redundant sensor data when there is minor variations in the respective predicted sensor estimates. It is observed that NN based load forecasting for power monitoring system predicts load with less than 3% Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). Gateway forward transmit schedules to all power sensing nodes day ahead to reduce sensor and relay nodes communication energy. Mat lab based simulation for evaluating the benefits of proposed model for extending the wireless network life time is developed and confirmed with an emulation scenario of our testbed. Network life time is improved by 43% from the observed results using proposed model.
A complete charge based compact model for silicon nanowire FETs including doping and advanced physical effects

A charge-based silicon nanowire FET (SNWT) compact model has been developed. For the first time, inversion charge of SNWT with arbitrary doping concentration is described by an accurate equation including the effects of doping and volume inversion. Analytic drain current, transconductance, output conductance, terminal charges and capacitance are all physically derived and compared with numerical simulation. It shows that the core model is valid for all operation regions and a wide range of physical configuration including channel doping concentrations and geometrical dimensions. Moreover, advanced physical effects have been included in the model self-consistently.
Biphasic Thermal Inactivation Kinetics in Salmonella enteritidis PT4

ABSTRACT The thermal inactivation kinetics of Salmonella enteritidis PT4 between 49 and 60°C were investigated. Using procedures designed to eliminate methodological artifacts, we found that the death kinetics deviated from the accepted model of first-order inactivation. When we used high-density stationary-phase populations and sensitive enumeration, the survivor curves at 60°C were reproducibly biphasic. The decimal reduction time at 60°C (D60°C) of the tail subpopulation was more than four times that of the majority population. This difference decreased with decreasing temperature; i.e., the survivor curves became more linear, but the proportion of tail cells remained a constant proportion of the initial population, about 1 in 104 to 105. Z plots (log D versus temperature) for the two populations showed that the D values coincided at 51°C, indicating that the survivor curves should be linear at this temperature, and this was confirmed experimentally. Investigations into the nature of the tails ruled out genotypic differences between the populations and protection due to leakage from early heat casualties. Heating of cells at 59°C in the presence of 5 or 100 μg of chloramphenicol per ml resulted in reductions in the levels of tailing. These reductions were greatest at the higher chloramphenicol concentration. Our results indicate that de novo protein synthesis of heat shock proteins is responsible for the observed tailing. Chemostat-cultured cells heated at 60°C also produced biphasic survivor curves in all but one instance. Cells with higher growth rates were more heat sensitive, but tailing was comparable with batch cultures. Starved cells (no dilution input) displayed linear inactivation kinetics, suggesting that during starvation a rapid heat shock response cannot be initiated.
Using Genetic Algorithms to Deal with Dynamic Environments : A Comparative Study of Several Approaches Based on Promoting Diversity

One of the approaches used in Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) for problems in which the environment changes from time to time is to use techniques that preserve the diversity in population. We have tested and compared several algorithms that try to keep the population as diverse as possible. One of those approaches applies a new biologically inspired genetic operator called transformation, previously used with success in static optimization problems. We tested two EAs using transformation and two other classical approaches: random immigrants and hypermutation. The comparative study was made using the dynamic 0/1 Knapsack optimization problem. Depending on the characteristics of the dynamic changes, the best results were obtained with transformation or with hypermutation.
Computationally efficient implementation of a Hamming code decoder using graphics processing unit

This paper presents a computationally efficient implementation of a Hamming code decoder on a graphics processing unit (GPU) to support real-time software-defined radio, which is a software alternative for realizing wireless communication. The Hamming code algorithm is challenging to parallelize effectively on a GPU because it works on sparsely located data items with several conditional statements, leading to non-coalesced, long latency, global memory access, and huge thread divergence. To address these issues, we propose an optimized implementation of the Hamming code on the GPU to exploit the higher parallelism inherent in the algorithm. Experimental results using a compute unified device architecture (CUDA)-enabled NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560, including 335 cores, revealed that the proposed approach achieved a 99x speedup versus the equivalent CPU-based implementation.
Clearance of Asymptomatic P. falciparum Infections Interacts with the Number of Clones to Predict the Risk of Subsequent Malaria in Kenyan Children

Background Protective immunity to malaria is acquired after repeated infections in endemic areas. Asymptomatic multiclonal P. falciparum infections are common and may predict host protection. Here, we have investigated the effect of clearing asymptomatic infections on the risk of clinical malaria. Methods Malaria episodes were continuously monitored in 405 children (1–6 years) in an area of moderate transmission, coastal Kenya. Blood samples collected on four occasions were assessed by genotyping the polymorphic P. falciparum merozoite surface protein 2 using fluorescent PCR and capillary electrophoresis. Following the second survey, asymptomatic infections were cleared with a full course of dihydroartemisinin. Results Children who were parasite negative by PCR had a lower risk of subsequent malaria regardless of whether treatment had been given. Children with ≥2 clones had a reduced risk of febrile malaria compared with 1 clone after clearance of asymptomatic infections, but not if asymptomatic infections were not cleared. Multiclonal infection was associated with an increased risk of re-infection after drug treatment. However, among the children who were re-infected, multiclonal infections were associated with a shift from clinical malaria to asymptomatic parasitaemia. Conclusion The number of clones was associated with exposure as well as blood stage immunity. These effects were distinguished by clearing asymptomatic infection with anti-malarials. Exposure to multiple P. falciparum infections is associated with protective immunity, but there appears to be an additional effect in untreated multiclonal infections that offsets this protective effect.
Tracing the Trajectory of Skill Learning With a Very Large Sample of Online Game Players

In the present study, we analyzed data from a very large sample (N = 854,064) of players of an online game involving rapid perception, decision making, and motor responding. Use of game data allowed us to connect, for the first time, rich details of training history with measures of performance from participants engaged for a sustained amount of time in effortful practice. We showed that lawful relations exist between practice amount and subsequent performance, and between practice spacing and subsequent performance. Our methodology allowed an in situ confirmation of results long established in the experimental literature on skill acquisition. Additionally, we showed that greater initial variation in performance is linked to higher subsequent performance, a result we link to the exploration/exploitation trade-off from the computational framework of reinforcement learning. We discuss the benefits and opportunities of behavioral data sets with very large sample sizes and suggest that this approach could be particularly fecund for studies of skill acquisition.
Police culture: individual and organizational differences in police officer perspectives

Purpose Much of the commentary about police culture treats it as a monolithic and problematic feature of the police occupation that inhibits change and progress. The purpose of this paper is to draw on surveys completed by over 13,000 sworn police to describe officers’ occupational outlooks and explore the extent to which they vary across individuals and police agencies. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws upon employee survey data from 89 US police and sheriff departments collected in 2014-2015 to examine police culture through officers’ views of the community, police work, and police administration and to explore the extent to which these beliefs and opinions are affected by personal characteristics and organizational affiliation. Findings Results indicate that officers’ perspectives are more positive than might be expected and do not vary greatly by officer personal characteristics. They differ more substantially across police agencies. This suggests that police culture is to a significant extent an organizational phenomenon, not simply an occupational one. Originality/value Examining the views and perspectives of over 13,000 sworn police employed in 89 different police organizations provides a more representative and generalizable picture of police culture than previous studies that typically analyzed officers in only one police department.
Existence and Uniqueness of Monetary Steady-State Equilibrium in a Three-Sector OLG Economy

An economic bubble is ”trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values”. In this paper, we provide conditions for the existence and uniqueness of monetary steady-state equilibrium (a steady state equilibrium with asset bubbles) in a three-sector overlapping generations(OLG) model. By employing the modern portfolio theory, we introduce asset bubbles into the growth model and set a three-sector OLG economy. Key factors that affect the existence and uniqueness of the steady state equilibrium with bubbles in this system are the exogenous risks, exogenous returns and uncorrelationship between the asset bubbles and investment goods. In addition, we show the effectiveness and feasibility of the developed methods in the system with explicit functions.
Gamma-rays from the vicinity of accreting neutron stars inside compact high-mass X-ray binaries

The dense wind of a massive star can be captured partially by a neutron star (NS) inside a compact binary system. Depending on the parameters of the NS and the wind, the matter can penetrate the inner NS magnetosphere. At some distance from the NS, a turbulent and magnetized transition region is formed due to the balance between the magnetic pressure and the pressure inserted by accreting matter. This region provides good conditions for acceleration of particles to relativistic energies. The matter at the transition region can farther accrete onto the NS surface (the accretor phase) or be expelled from the NS vicinity (the propeller phase). We consider the consequences of the acceleration of electrons at the transition region, concentrating on the situation in which at least part of the matter falls onto the NS surface. This matter creates a hot spot on the NS surface which emits thermal radiation. Relativistic electrons lose energy to the synchrotron process and the inverse Compton (IC) scattering of this thermal radiation. We calculate the synchrotron spectra (from X-rays to soft γ-rays) and IC spectra (above a few tens of MeV) expected in this scenario. We argue that a population of massive binaries discovered by the INTEGRAL observatory, which contain neutron stars hidden inside dense stellar winds of massive stars, is detectable by the Fermi LAT telescope in the GeV energy range. As an example, we predict the expected γ-ray flux from the source IGR J19140+0951.
Multipair Massive MIMO Relaying Systems With One-Bit ADCs and DACs

This paper considers a multipair amplify-and-forward massive multipair multiple-input multiple-output relaying system with one-bit analog-to-digital converters and one-bit digital-to-analog converters at the relay. The channel state information is estimated via pilot training, and then utilized by the relay to perform simple maximum-ratio combining/maximum-ratio transmission processing. Leveraging on the Bussgang decomposition, an exact achievable rate is derived for the system with correlated quantization noise. Based on this, a closed-form asymptotic approximation for the achievable rate is presented, thereby enabling efficient evaluation of the impact of key parameters on the system performance. Furthermore, power scaling laws are characterized to study the potential energy efficiency associated with deploying massive one-bit antenna arrays at the relay. In addition, a power allocation strategy is designed to compensate for the rate degradation caused by the coarse quantization. Our results suggest that the quality of the channel estimates depends on the specific orthogonal pilot sequences that are used, contrary to unquantized systems where any set of orthogonal pilot sequences gives the same result. Moreover, the sum rate gap between the double-quantized relay system and an ideal nonquantized system is a moderate factor of ${\text{4}}/\pi ^2$ in the low power regime.