Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gaze in Visual Search Is Guided More Efficiently by Positive Cues than by Negative Cues

Visual search can be accelerated when properties of the target are known. Such knowledge allows the searcher to direct attention to items sharing these properties. Recent work indicates that information about properties of non-targets (i.e., negative cues) can also guide search. In the present study, we examine whether negative cues lead to different search behavior compared to positive cues. We asked observers to search for a target defined by a certain shape singleton (broken line among solid lines). Each line was embedded in a colored disk. In “positive cue” blocks, participants were informed about possible colors of the target item. In “negative cue” blocks, the participants were informed about colors that could not contain the target. Search displays were designed such that with both the positive and negative cues, the same number of items could potentially contain the broken line (“relevant items”). Thus, both cues were equally informative. We measured response times and eye movements. Participants exhibited longer response times when provided with negative cues compared to positive cues. Although negative cues did guide the eyes to relevant items, there were marked differences in eye movements. Negative cues resulted in smaller proportions of fixations on relevant items, longer duration of fixations and in higher rates of fixations per item as compared to positive cues. The effectiveness of both cue types, as measured by fixations on relevant items, increased over the course of each search. In sum, a negative color cue can guide attention to relevant items, but it is less efficient than a positive cue of the same informational value.
Long-term follow-up of a phase III study comparing radiotherapy with or without weekly oxaliplatin for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Previous results from our trial showed that adding oxaliplatin to radiotherapy (RT) increased survival in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) at 2 years. Here, we present the data of long-term efficacy and late toxic effects. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between January 2001 and January 2003, 115 Patients with nonkeratinizing/undifferentiated locoregionally advanced NPC were randomly to receive either RT alone (n = 56) or plus concurrent oxaliplatin 70 mg/m(2) weekly for six cycles (n = 59). RESULTS After a median follow-up of 114 months (range 18-139 months), the 5-year overall survival (OS) and metastasis-free survival (MFS) rates in the concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) group were significantly higher than those observed in the RT-alone group (OS, 73.2% versus 60.2%, P = 0.028; MFS, 74.7% versus 63.0%, P = 0.027). However, CCRT did not improve locoregional failure-free survival significantly. Subgroup analyses showed that the superiorities of CCRT mainly existed in the T3-4N0-1 stage subgroup (OS: HR = 0.394, P = 0.034). The grade 3/4 late toxic effects were similar in the two groups. CONCLUSION(S) The long-term follow-up data confirms the role of CCRT as a treatment of locoregionally advanced NPC. Oxaliplatin can be considered as an alternative optional therapeutic regimen for these patients due to its high efficiency and low toxic effect.
Safety and efficacy of tenofovir/emtricitabine plus nevirapine in HIV-infected patients

All 178 HIV-infected individuals who had initiated tenofovir-emtricitabine-nevirapine (TDF/FTC/NVP) at our institution and were adherent to their medication were retrospectively examined. Only 22% were antiretroviral naive. After a median follow-up of 16 months, only five (2.8%) individuals (all with prior exposure to other antiretroviral regimens) experienced virological failure. In all instances, viral rebound occurred after 12 weeks of therapy. These results do not support an increased risk of early virological failure using TDF/FTC/NVP.
David & Goliath Oblivious Affine Function Evaluation - Asymptotically Optimal Building Blocks for Universally Composable Two-Party Computation from a Single Untrusted Stateful Tamper-Proof Hardware Token

Cryptographic assumptions regarding tamper-proof hardware tokens have gained increasing attention. Even if the tamper-proof hardware is issued by one of the parties, and hence not necessarily trusted by the other, many tasks become possible: Tamper proof hardware is sufficient for universally composable protocols, for information-theoretically secure protocols, and even can be used to create software that can only be used once (one-time programs). However, all known protocols employing tamper-proof hardware are either indirect, i.e. additional computational assumptions must be used to obtain general two party computations, or a large number of devices must be used. Unfortunately, issuing multiple independent tamper-proof devices requires much stronger isolation assumptions. This work is the extended version of a recent result of the same authors, where for the first time a protocol was presented that realizes universally composable two party computations (and even one-time programs) with information-theoretic security using only a single tamper-proof device issued by one of the mutually distrusting parties. Now, we present the first protocols for multiple one-time memories (OTMs), and reusable and bidirectional commitment and oblivious transfer (OT) primitives in this setting. All these constructions have only linear communication complexity and are thus asymptotically optimal. Moreover, the computation complexity of our protocols for k-bit OTMs/commitments/OT is dominated by O(1) finite field multiplications with field size 2. This is considerably more efficient than any other known construction based on untrusted tamper-proof hardware alone. The central part of our contribution is a construction for oblivious affine function evaluation (OAFE), which can be seen as a generalization of the well known oblivious transfer primitive: Parametrized by a finite field Fq and a dimension k, the OAFE primitive allows a designated sender party to choose an arbitrary affine function f : Fq → Fq , such that hidden from the sender party a designated receiver party may learn f(x) for exactly one function argument x ∈ Fq of its choice. All our abovementioned results build on this primitive and it may also be of particular interest for the construction of garbled arithmetic circuits.
The Determinants and Impacts of Aesthetics in Users’ First Interaction with Websites

Abstract Though aesthetics is generally acknowledged as an important aspect of website design, extant information systems (IS) research on web user experience has rarely studied what affects website aesthetics and how aesthetics influences users’ perceptions of the website and the organization behind the website. In this paper, we synthesize prior literature from different academic domains and propose users’ perceived quality of five design elements (i.e., unity, complexity, intensity, novelty, and interactivity) as determinants of website aesthetics. We further theorize the effects of aesthetics on users’ attitudes toward the website and their perception of the corporate image. Two studies were conducted to test the research model. In Study 1, we adopted a card sorting method and the results provide substantial support to the determinants of website aesthetics. In Study 2, we conducted a survey using ten company portal websites that were unknown to survey respondents. Our analysis further confirms the effects of users’ perceived quality of the five design elements on the perception of website aesthetics. The findings of Study 2 also show that users’ perception of aesthetics has significant impacts on perceived utility and their attitudes toward the website, which further affects the corporate image exhibited via the website. In addition, we find that in users’ first interaction with a website, perceived aesthetics has a larger impact on their attitudes toward the website than perceived utility.
Phylogenetic Overdispersion in Floridian Oak Communities

Closely related species that occur together in communities and experience similar environmental conditions are likely to share phenotypic traits because of the process of environmental filtering. At the same time, species that are too similar are unlikely to co‐occur because of competitive exclusion. In an effort to explain the coexistence of 17 oak species within forest communities in North Central Florida, we examined correlations between the phylogenetic relatedness of oak species, their degree of co‐occurrence within communities and niche overlap across environmental gradients, and their similarity in ecophysiological and life‐history traits. We show that the oaks are phylogenetically overdispersed because co‐occurring species are more distantly related than expected by chance, and oaks within the same clade show less niche overlap than expected. Hence, communities are more likely to include members of both the red oak and the \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape $$\mathrm{white}\,+\mathrm{live}\,$$ \end{document} oak clades than only members of one clade. This pattern of phylogenetic overdispersion arises because traits important for habitat specialization show evolutionary convergence. We hypothesize further that certain conserved traits permit coexistence of distantly related congeners. These results provide an explanation for how oak diversity is maintained at the community level in North Central Florida.
Trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity: clinical and prognostic implications of troponin I evaluation.

PURPOSE Treatment of breast cancer with trastuzumab is complicated by cardiotoxicity in up to 34% of the patients. In most patients, trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity (TIC) is reversible: left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) improves after trastuzumab withdrawal and with, or sometimes without, initiation of heart failure (HF) therapy. The reversibility of TIC, however, is not foreseeable, and identification of patients at risk and of those who will not recover from cardiac dysfunction is crucial. The usefulness of troponin I (TNI) in the identification of patients at risk for TIC and in the prediction of LVEF recovery has never been investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS In total, 251 women were enrolled. TNI was measured before and after each trastuzumab cycle. LVEF was evaluated at baseline, every 3 months during trastuzumab therapy, and every 6 months afterward. In case of TIC, trastuzumab was discontinued, and HF treatment with enalapril and carvedilol was initiated. TIC was defined as LVEF decrease of > 10 units and below 50%. Recovery from TIC was defined as LVEF increase above 50%. RESULTS TIC occurred in 42 patients (17%) and was more frequent in patients with TNI elevation (TNI+; 62% v 5%; P < .001). Twenty-five patients (60%) recovered from TIC. LVEF recovery occurred less frequently in TNI+ patients (35% v 100%; P < .001). At multivariate analysis, TNI+ was the only independent predictor of TIC (hazard ratio [HR], 22.9; 95% CI, 11.6 to 45.5; P < .001) and of lack of LVEF recovery (HR, 2.88; 95% CI,1.78 to 4.65; P < .001). CONCLUSION TNI+ identifies trastuzumab-treated patients who are at risk for cardiotoxicity and are unlikely to recover from cardiac dysfunction despite HF therapy.
Enhancement of metastatic activity of colon cancer as influenced by expression of cell surface antigens.

BACKGROUND Cell surface antigens are contributory factors toward metastatic activity. There have been no detailed studies on changes in cell surface antigens of colon cancer cell lines. To control life-threatening metastasis, it is necessary to evaluate what types of changes in cell surface antigens exert an influence on metastatic activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS In vivo selection was performed using the human colon cancer-derived cell line KM12SM to obtain variants of metastatic activity. A murine spleen injection-liver metastasis procedure reflecting the latter half of the metastatic process was adopted and repeated four times. Flow cytometric analyses were carried out to detect expression of antigens: Lewis a (Lea), Lewis x (Lex), sialyl Lewis a (sLea), sialyl Lewis x (sLex), E-cadherin, CD44v6, integrin alpha2 (CD49b), integrin alpha3 (CD49c), integrin alpha4 (CD49d), integrin alpha5 (CD49e), and integrin beta1 (CD29). RESULTS In vivo selection produced variants with higher metastatic activity. In the original line KM12SM, sLea, E-cadherin, CD49b, CD49c, or CD29 were positive in more than 40% of the cells. After selection, the percentage of cells positive for Lea, sLea, and all examined integrins significantly increased. Lex, sLex, and CD44v6 increased slightly, while E-cadherin decreased slightly. CONCLUSIONS In vivo selection and flow cytometric analysis revealed that Lea, sLea, CD49b, CD49c, and CD29 appear to be involved in the increase of metastatic activity. The changes of integrin expression in this study suggest that integrins collaborate in the promotion of adhesion to an extracellular matrix.
Specific targeting of TGF-β family ligands demonstrates distinct roles in the regulation of muscle mass in health and disease

Significance Myostatin, via activation of the Smad2/3 pathway, has long been recognized as the body’s major negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. In this study, however, we demonstrate that other TGF-β proteins, particularly activin A and activin B, act in concert with myostatin to repress muscle growth. Preventing activin and myostatin signaling in the tibialis anterior muscles of mice resulted in massive hypertrophy (>150%), which was dependent upon both the complete inhibition of the Smad2/3 pathway and activation of the parallel bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)/Smad1/5 axis. Using this approach in models of muscular dystrophy and cancer cachexia increased muscle mass or prevented muscle wasting, respectively, highlighting the potential therapeutic advantages of complete inhibition of Smad2/3 ligand activity in skeletal muscle. The transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) network of ligands and intracellular signaling proteins is a subject of intense interest within the field of skeletal muscle biology. To define the relative contribution of endogenous TGF-β proteins to the negative regulation of muscle mass via their activation of the Smad2/3 signaling axis, we used local injection of adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs) encoding ligand-specific antagonists into the tibialis anterior (TA) muscles of C57BL/6 mice. Eight weeks after AAV injection, inhibition of activin A and activin B signaling produced moderate (∼20%), but significant, increases in TA mass, indicating that endogenous activins repress muscle growth. Inhibiting myostatin induced a more profound increase in muscle mass (∼45%), demonstrating a more prominent role for this ligand as a negative regulator of adult muscle mass. Remarkably, codelivery of activin and myostatin inhibitors induced a synergistic response, resulting in muscle mass increasing by as much as 150%. Transcription and protein analysis indicated that this substantial hypertrophy was associated with both the complete inhibition of the Smad2/3 pathway and activation of the parallel bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)/Smad1/5 axis (recently identified as a positive regulator of muscle mass). Analyses indicated that hypertrophy was primarily driven by an increase in protein synthesis, but a reduction in ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation pathways was also observed. In models of muscular dystrophy and cancer cachexia, combined inhibition of activins and myostatin increased mass or prevented muscle wasting, respectively, highlighting the potential therapeutic advantages of specifically targeting multiple Smad2/3-activating ligands in skeletal muscle.
Synthetic Gene Circuits

The past decade has witnessed tremendous advances in the design and implementation of synthetic gene circuits that program living cells to perform specific user-defined tasks. Synthetic circuits have been implemented in bacteria, yeast, and mammalian cells, using a variety of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms. These devices, which lie at the intersection of biology and engineering, have provided insights into the function of naturally occurring gene regulatory networks. Furthermore, they hold the potential for transformative future applications in medicine, bioremediation, manufacturing, and more. In this review, some examples are presented of commonly used synthetic circuits, including oscillators, switches, memory devices, and circuits that perform digital and analog computation. The building blocks of synthetic gene circuits, as well as the challenges and considerations of circuit design, are also discussed. Finally, an overview is provided of the potential practical applications of this dynamic field of research. Keywords: analog circuit; digital circuit; logic gate; orthogonality; oscillator; synthetic transcription factor (sTF); toggle switch; transfer function; tunability
A Draft Sequence of the Rice Genome (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica)

The genome of the japonica subspecies of rice, an important cereal and model monocot, was sequenced and assembled by whole-genome shotgun sequencing. The assembled sequence covers 93% of the 420-megabase genome. Gene predictions on the assembled sequence suggest that the genome contains 32,000 to 50,000 genes. Homologs of 98% of the known maize, wheat, and barley proteins are found in rice. Synteny and gene homology between rice and the other cereal genomes are extensive, whereas synteny with Arabidopsis is limited. Assignment of candidate rice orthologs to Arabidopsis genes is possible in many cases. The rice genome sequence provides a foundation for the improvement of cereals, our most important crops.
Nurses’ Wisdom in Action in the Emergency Department

Nurses seek to understand better what practicing with wisdom means and how to apply wisdom to practice; however, the experience of wisdom in nursing has not been well defined or researched. This study was designed to understand how emergency department (ED) nurses construct the meaning of wisdom within the culture of clinical nursing practice. Using Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory methodology, we developed a preliminary theory capturing the experience of wisdom in practice. The core theoretical model focuses on two juxtaposed processes, technical and affective, and is grounded in expertise. Significant findings were the recognition of affective categories, such as emotional intelligence, required to practice using wisdom. Results reinforce and extend the current wisdom literature and provide a new perspective on wisdom in practice in a nursing context.
Cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent or treat coronary heart disease.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. One in five Americans develop CHD by their sixtieth birthday (60); of these, 11% will die suddenly and another 44% will suffer nonfatal myocardial infarctions (36). Extrapolating from previous estimates of the national cost of CHD (14), we estimate that the annual economic burden of CHD in the US, including both direct and indirect costs, is well in excess of $100 billion. It is not surprising that such an important disease should be the target for a rapidly growing share of our national resources. Use of technologies such as coronary artery bypass surgery, beta-blocking drugs, and percutaneous trans­ luminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) has been growing rapidly. Other emerg­ ing technologies, such as intracoronary thrombolysis, calcium-channel­ blocking drugs, and heart transplantation, offer new hope to patients with CHD
IEEE 802.11ac: Effect of channel bonding on spectrum utilization in dense environments

IEEE 802.11ac is a recent amendment that enhances the throughput of WLANs. It uses spatial diversity, new modulation and coding schemes (MCS), and channel bonding to increase the data rate. The channel bonding allows 802.11ac stations, also called Very High Throughput (VHT) stations, to operate on channels wider than the legacy 20 MHz channel in the 5 GHz band. Particularly, a VHT station may support up to 160 MHz transmissions. Increasing the channel width enhances the data rate but reduces the number of non-overlapping channels. For example, the 5 GHz spectrum in Europe offers either 19 nonoverlapping 20 MHz channels or only two 160 MHz channels. In dense WLAN deployment environments, the use of channel bonding increases the number of networks and stations sharing the same medium, and may increase the collisions rate. In this paper we show that the spectrum utilization increases when it is divided into multiple narrow channels instead of fewer wide channels. This increase is very significant when the frame aggregation is disabled. We show that 8 × 20 MHz channels may offer 252 Mbps compared to only 51 Mbps in a 160 MHz channel.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) SciBORQ : scientific data management with bounds on runtime and quality

Data warehouses underlying virtual observatories stress the capabilities of database management systems in many ways. They are filled, on a daily basis, with large amounts of factual information derived from intensive data scrubbing and computational feature extraction pipelines. The predominant data processing techniques focus on parallel loads and map-reduce feature extraction algorithms. Querying these huge databases require a sizable computing cluster, while ideally the initial investigation should run interactively, using as few resources as possible. In this paper, we explore a different route, one based on the observation that at any given time only a fraction of the data is of primary value for a specific task. This fraction becomes the focus of scientific reflection through an iterative process of ad-hoc query refinement. Steering through data to facilitate scientific discovery demands guarantees for the query execution time. In addition, strict bounds on errors are required to satisfy the demands of scientific use, such that query results can be used to test hypotheses reliably. We propose SciBORQ, a framework for scientific data exploration that gives precise control over runtime and quality of query answering. We present novel techniques to derive multiple interesting data samples, called impressions . An impressionis selected such that the statistical error of a query answer remains low, while the result can be computed within strict time bounds. Impressions differ from previous sampling approaches in their bias towards the focal point of the scientific data exploration, their multi-layer design, and theiradaptivenessto shifting query workloads. The ultimate goal is a complete system for scientific data exploration and discovery, capable of producing quality answers with strict error bounds in pre-defined time frames.