Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Malignancy in Lung Transplantation: Biomarkers, Gender Differences, and Consideration of a Systems Biology Approach

We present here new molecular tools such as gene expression microarrays as promising biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis in lung cancer as well as for an early diagnosis of malignancy after lung transplantation. Data regarding gender differences in survival, recently collected in a single-institution study, may allow better targeting of immunosuppression goals to maintain effectiveness while minimizing cancer development and progression. Combining these differing types of data using an integrative approach that is the central theme of systems biology may allow us to provide powerful and more individualized risks of cancer after lung transplantation.
Structuring Terminology : between Lexicons and Domain Knowledge Representation

This article presents a revisited view on the project DB-MAT and its approach to model multilingual terminology using a single knowledge base. 1 German-Bulgarian terminology in DB-MAT The project DB-MAT (1992-1995) aimed at the design and implementation of a translators' workbench providing linguistic and domain explanations to human translators, within the paradigm of the knowledge-based Machine Aided Translation (MAT) [1]. Most generally, the innovative idea is to integrate in the MAT workbench a domain model (a knowledge base of conceptual graphs) and to generate on the fly explanations, when the translator highlights unknown terms in the source text to be translated. The project had to deal with German and Bulgarian languages, which opened the question how to link the corresponding entries of the bilingual lexicon to the Knowledge Base (KB) entities. Figure 1 presents an early model of the pointers between the lexicon and the KB items. In principle, keeping phrasal lexicons is an acceptable strategy to support multilingual terminology (in the 80ies, several projects and prototypes of the so-called "knowledgebased term banks" seemed to approach the issue in a similar way). However, especially in DB-MAT, it became clear that the picture shown at Figure 1 has two potential "defects". First, it contains repeating information in the lexicons (see for instance all Bulgarian noun phrases including the word court). Second, the Bulgarian noun phrases are to be declined during the surface verbalisation according to complicated grammar rules (since the articles in Bulgarian are augmented at the end of the noun or the preceding adjective); so it turned out that the generation grammar for Bulgarian would work more easily with non-phrasal lexicons (since declination rules are to be supported anyway). In this way, to avoid repeating information in the (phrasal) lexicons and to provide more uniform treatment and even some elegance in the process of multilingual 1 between Hamburg University (NATS) and the Linguistic Modelling Department, Central Laboratory for Parallel Processing. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, funded by Volkswagen Foundation (Germany)
Prestimulus Subsequent Memory Effects for Auditory and Visual Events

It has been assumed that the effective encoding of information into memory primarily depends on neural activity elicited when an event is initially encountered. Recently, it has been shown that memory formation also relies on neural activity just before an event. The precise role of such activity in memory is currently unknown. Here, we address whether prestimulus activity affects the encoding of auditory and visual events, is set up on a trial-by-trial basis, and varies as a function of the type of recognition judgment an item later receives. Electrical brain activity was recorded from the scalps of 24 healthy young adults while they made semantic judgments on randomly intermixed series of visual and auditory words. Each word was preceded by a cue signaling the modality of the upcoming word. Auditory words were preceded by auditory cues and visual words by visual cues. A recognition memory test with remember/know judgments followed after a delay of about 45 min. As observed previously, a negative-going, frontally distributed modulation just before visual word onset predicted later recollection of the word. Crucially, the same effect was found for auditory words and observed on stay as well as switch trials. These findings emphasize the flexibility and general role of prestimulus activity in memory formation, and support a functional interpretation of the activity in terms of semantic preparation. At least with an unpredictable trial sequence, the activity is set up anew on each trial.
Erasure correction for nested receivers

We consider packet erasure or error correction coding for a nested receiver structure, where each receiver receives a subset of the packets received by the next receiver. This type of structure arises, for instance, with temporal demands, where each receiver corresponds to a deadline by which certain information must be decoded. By making a connection with our previous work on non-multicast network error correction, we find the capacity region for any given number of erasures or errors whose locations are a priori unknown, along with a capacity-achieving intra-session coding scheme.
Severe Pulmonary Hypertension Associated with COPD: Hemodynamic Improvement with Specific Therapy

Background: There is no recommendation for treating pulmonary hypertension (PH) when associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Objective: To evaluate the effect of PH-specific therapy in patients with COPD. Methods: All successive patients with severe PH [mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) ≥35 mm Hg] and COPD, who received specific PH medication and who underwent right heart catheterization at baseline and after 3-12 months of treatment, were analyzed from a prospective database. Results: Twenty-six patients were included with a median follow-up of 14 months. Mean forced expiratory volume in 1 s was 57 ± 20% of predicted, and mean forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity was 47 ± 12%. Dyspnea was New York Health Association classification stage (NYHA) II in 15%, NYHA III in 81% and NYHA IV in 4%. First-line treatments were endothelin receptor antagonists in 11 patients, phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors in 11 patients, calcium blocker in 1 patient, combination therapy in 3 patients including 2 with a prostanoid. After 6 ± 3 months, pulmonary vascular resistance decreased from 8.5 ± 3 to 6.6 ± 2 Wood units (p < 0.001), with significant improvement of cardiac index from 2.44 ± 0.43 to 2.68 ± 0.63 liters × min × m-2 (p = 0.015) and mPAP from 48 ± 9 to 42 ± 10 mm Hg (p = 0.008). There was no significant difference in dyspnea, 6-min walking distance, echocardiographic parameters or N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels. There was no significant difference in arterial oxygen saturation after 3-12 months of treatment. Conclusions: Specific PH medications may improve hemodynamic parameters in COPD patients with severe PH. Appropriate prospective randomized studies are needed to evaluate the potential long-term clinical benefit of treatment.
Quality of Life: How Do Adolescents with Facial Differences Compare with Other Adolescents?

Objective Compare the quality of life (QOL) of youth living with visible facial differences (FDs) with youth living with a visible nonfacial difference (i.e., mobility limitations), an invisible difference (i.e., attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder), or no known difference. Design An observational study of perceived QOL among adolescents with FDs (n = 56), adolescents with no diagnosed chronic condition (NCC, n = 116), adolescents with mobility limitations (ML, n = 52), and adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 68). Participants Adolescents ages 11–18 years with FDs recruited through Children's Hospital, Seattle, Washington, participated in this study. Comparison groups were from a previous study of QOL among youth with and without chronic conditions. Main Outcome Measures The main outcome measure was the Youth Quality of Life Instrument—Research Version, a generic instrument that assesses both perceptual and contextual aspects of QOL in four domains: Sense of Self, Relationships, Environment/Culture, and General Quality of Life. Results A MANCOVA adjusting for age, gender, and depressive symptomatology revealed that adolescents with FDs, on average, reported significantly lower overall QOL than did the NCC group. Their domain scores were similar to those of the other chronic conditions groups on all but the relationship domain. Reviewing the constituent items of the relationship domain revealed that adolescents in the ML and FDs groups reported higher scores than either the NCC group or the ADHD group on the relationship variables concerning family. Conclusions Adolescents with facial differences confront significant challenges to their own self-identity while experiencing higher QOL from relationships, possibly from their need to negotiate and maintain close family support.
Wavelet-Based Multiresolution Features for Detecting Duplications in Images

Duplication of image regions is a common method for manipulating original images using typical software like Adobe Photoshop. In this study, we propose a wavelet based feature representation scheme for detecting duplicated regions in images. This technique works by first applying multi-resolution wavelet decomposition to small fixed-sized image blocks. Normalized wavelet coefficients are then stacked into a vector in an order from lower to higher frequencies. This kind of representation appears robust to block matching. Duplicated regions are then detected by lexicographically sorting all of the image blocks and applying threshold to the desired frequency of the offsets of the blockcoordinates. A semi-automatic technique that detects accurate number of duplicated regions is also proposed. Initial experiments with a set of natural images having duplicated regions show impressive results compared to linear PCA based representation.
High power 1060-nm super large vertical cavity semiconductor lasers

High power single-mode ridge waveguide 1060-nm semiconductor lasers are reported. The lasers consist of compressively strained double InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells and a GaAs/AlGaAs separate confinement vertical structure. A super large vertical optical cavity is employed to have a low internal loss, large optical spot size and low vertical optical divergence angle. The material composition and thickness of waveguide layers and claddings layer are optimized systematically. The active layer is detuned from center of the waveguide and thickness of cladding layers is optimized to guaranty single mode lasing of the large optical cavity. The large vertical cavity laser structure with thickness of 4 μm allows the lasers have a low internal loss of less than 0.6 /cm, a large optical spot size about 1μm and a vertical divergence angle about 20 degree. For lateral optical confinement, a double trench ridge waveguide is employed to maintain single-lateral-mode operation. Based on the optimization, 1.5 W continue wave optical power is achieved for broad area lasers with 1mm longitude cavity length. Narrow stripe ridge waveguide lasers of 1mm cavity length with single mode current and optical power of 700 mA and 340 mW is obtained. Suggestions for further improvements in terms of single mode power and applications of the high power semiconductors are discussed.
Volumetric analysis and three-dimensional glucose metabolic mapping of the striatum and thalamus in patients with autism spectrum disorders.

OBJECTIVE In patients with autism, behavioral deficits as well as neuroimaging studies of the anterior cingulate cortex suggest ventral rather than dorsal striatal and thalamic abnormalities in structure and function. The authors used imaging studies to map volumetric and metabolic differences within the entire dorsoventral extent of the striatum and thalamus. METHOD Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) were used to measure volumes and metabolic activity in the thalamus, caudate, and putamen in 17 patients with autism or Asperger's disorder and 17 age- and sex-matched comparison subjects. Subjects performed a serial verbal learning test during the [(18)F]-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake period. The regions of interest were outlined on contiguous axial MRI slices. After PET/MRI coregistration, region-of-interest coordinates were applied to the PET scan for each individual. Between-group differences in metabolism were assessed by three-dimensional statistical probability mapping. RESULTS The patients with autism spectrum disorders had greater volumes of the right caudate nucleus than comparison subjects as well as a reversal of the expected left-greater-than-right hemispheric asymmetry. Patients also had lower relative glucose metabolic rates bilaterally in the ventral caudate, putamen, and thalamus. Patients with autism had lower metabolic activity in the ventral thalamus than those with Asperger's disorder, but they did not differ from comparison subjects in metabolic activity in the caudate nucleus. CONCLUSIONS These results are consistent with a deficit in the anterior cingulate-ventral striatum-anterior thalamic pathway in patients with autism spectrum disorders. The results also suggest an important role for the caudate in helping support working-memory demands.
Matching Pursuit Kernel Fisher Discriminant Analysis

We derive a novel sparse version of Kernel Fisher Discriminant Analysis (KFDA) using an approach based on Matching Pursuit (MP). We call this algorithm Matching Pursuit Kernel Fisher Discriminant Analysis (MPKFDA). We provide generalisation error bounds analogous to those constructed for the Robust Minimax algorithm together with a sample compression bounding technique. We present experimental results on real world datasets, which show that MPKFDA is competitive with the KFDA and the SVM on UCI datasets, and additional experiments that show that the MPKFDA on average outperforms KFDA and SVM in extremely high dimensional settings.
The absolute magnitude of field metal-poor horizontal branch stars

Hipparcos satellite parallaxes for 22 metal-poor field horizontal branch stars with V0<9 are used to derive their absolute magnitude. The weighted mean value is MV=+0.69±0.10 for an average metallicity of [Fe/H]=−1.41; a somewhat brighter average magnitude of MV=+0.60±0.12 for an average metallicity of [Fe/H]=−1.51 is obtained by eliminating HD 17072, which might be on the first ascent of the giant branch rather than on the horizontal branch. The present values agree with the determinations based on proper motions and application of the Baade–Wesselink method to field RR Lyraes; they are 0.1–0.2 mag fainter than those based on calibration of cluster distances obtained by using local subdwarfs and on alternative distance calibrators for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The possibility that there is a real difference between the luminosity of the horizontal branch for clusters and the field is briefly commented on.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Insulin Sensitivity in Overweight or Obese Subjects May Be Linked Through Intrahepatic Lipid Content

OBJECTIVE Low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) predisposes one to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in part independently of body weight. Given the close relationship between intrahepatic lipid content (IHL) and insulin sensitivity, we hypothesized that the direct relationship between fitness and insulin sensitivity may be explained by IHL. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We included 138 overweight to obese, otherwise healthy subjects (aged 43.6 ± 8.9 years, BMI 33.8 ± 4 kg/m2). Body composition was estimated by bioimpedance analyses. Abdominal fat distribution, intramyocellular, and IHL were assessed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy and tomography. Incremental exercise testing was performed to estimate an individual's CRF. Insulin sensitivity was determined during an oral glucose tolerance test. RESULTS For all subjects, CRF was related to insulin sensitivity (r = 0.32, P < 0.05), IHL (r = −0.27, P < 0.05), and visceral (r = −0.25, P < 0.05) and total fat mass (r = −0.32, P < 0.05), but not to intramyocellular lipids (r = −0.08, NS). Insulin sensitivity correlated significantly with all fat depots. In multivariate regression analyses, independent predictors of insulin sensitivity were IHL, visceral fat, and fitness (r2 = −0.43, P < 0.01, r2 = −0.34, and r2 = 0.29, P < 0.05, respectively). However, the positive correlation between fitness and insulin sensitivity was abolished after adjustment for IHL (r = 0.16, NS), whereas it remained significant when adjusted for visceral or total body fat. Further, when subjects were grouped into high versus low IHL, insulin sensitivity was higher in those subjects with low IHL, irrespective of fitness levels. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that the positive effect of increased CRF on insulin sensitivity in overweight to obese subjects may be mediated indirectly through IHL reduction.
Cryptanalysis of Simple Matrix Scheme for Encryption

Recently, Tao et al. presented a new simple and efficient multivariate pubic key encryption scheme based on matrix multiplication, which is called Simple Matrix Scheme or ABC. Using linearization method, we propose a polynomial time algorithm, which directly solves an equivalent private key from the public key of ABC. Furthermore, our attack can also be applied to the variants of ABC since these variants have the same algebraic structure as the ABC scheme. Therefore, the ABC cryptosystem and its variants are insecure.
Is BOK required for apoptosis induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress?

The B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2)-related ovarian killer (BOK) shares sequence homology with the proapoptotic BCL-2 family members BAX and BAK. However, Bok −/− cells are not protected from classic apoptotic triggers and evidence for a proapoptotic role of BOK is derived mostly from overexpression studies (1). BOK localizes preferentially to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane, where it interacts with IP3-receptors (2, 3). Using cells from their newly generated Bok −/− mouse strain, Carpio et al. propose that BOK is a critical inducer of BAX/BAK-dependent apoptosis in response to ER stress (4). This proposal is in contrast to our earlier report, in which we showed that loss of BOK did not confer resistance toward ER stress in several cell types (2). Underlying reasons for this discrepancy may lie in the initial Sv129:C57BL/6 mixed genetic background of the strain used by Carpio et al. (4) [which may influence the phenotype despite backcrossing (5)] and their targeting strategy of the Bok locus. By targeting exons 2 (containing the START codon) and 3, alternative splicing of exon 1–4 is enabled and is indeed readily detectable based on the RT-PCR analysis in figure 1C of Carpio et al. (4). A resulting ∼1-kb transcript (exon1/4/5), which is not occurring naturally, contains several predicted ORFs and may influence the phenotype of these mice. In contrast, our Bok −/− strain was generated in a pure C57BL/6 genetic background, with no detectable transcript because of targeting of the exon 1 splice donor site along with exon 2 (1).
Mobility-Aware Caching and Computation Offloading in 5G Ultra-Dense Cellular Networks

Recent trends show that Internet traffic is increasingly dominated by content, which is accompanied by the exponential growth of traffic. To cope with this phenomena, network caching is introduced to utilize the storage capacity of diverse network devices. In this paper, we first summarize four basic caching placement strategies, i.e., local caching, Device-to-Device (D2D) caching, Small cell Base Station (SBS) caching and Macrocell Base Station (MBS) caching. However, studies show that so far, much of the research has ignored the impact of user mobility. Therefore, taking the effect of the user mobility into consideration, we proposes a joint mobility-aware caching and SBS density placement scheme (MS caching). In addition, differences and relationships between caching and computation offloading are discussed. We present a design of a hybrid computation offloading and support it with experimental results, which demonstrate improved performance in terms of energy cost. Finally, we discuss the design of an incentive mechanism by considering network dynamics, differentiated user’s quality of experience (QoE) and the heterogeneity of mobile terminals in terms of caching and computing capabilities.
Kinetic studies of dimeric Ncd: evidence that Ncd is not processive.

Ncd is a kinesin-related motor protein which drives movement to the minus-end of microtubules. The kinetics of Ncd were investigated using the dimeric construct MC1 (Leu(209)-Lys(700)) expressed in Escherichia coli strain BL21(DE) as a nonfusion protein [Chandra, R. , Salmon, E. D. , Erickson, H. P., Lockhart, A. , and Endow, S. A. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 9005-9013]. Acid chemical quench flow methods were used to measure directly the rate of ATP hydrolysis, and stopped-flow kinetic methods were used to determine the kinetics of mantATP binding, mantADP release, dissociation of MC1 from the microtubule, and binding of MC1 to the microtubule. The results define a minimal kinetic mechanism, M.N + ATP M.N. ATP M.N.ADP.P N. ADP.P N.ADP + P M.N.ADP M.N + ADP, where N, M, and P represent Ncd, microtubules, and inorganic phosphate respectively, with k(+1) = 2.3 microM(-1) s(-1), k(+2) =23 s(-1), k(+3) =13 s(-1), k(+5)= 0.7 microM(-)(1) s(-)(1), and k(+6) = 3.7 s(-)(1). Phosphate release (k(+4)) was not measured directly although it is assumed to be fast relative to ADP release because Ncd is purified with ADP tightly bound at the active site. ATP hydrolysis occurs at 23 s(-)(1) prior to Ncd dissociation at 13 s(-)(1). The pathway for ATP-promoted detachment (steps 1-3) of Ncd from the microtubule is comparable to kinesin's. However, there are two major differences between the mechanisms of Ncd and kinesin. In contrast to kinesin, mantADP release for Ncd at 3.7 s(-)(1) is the slowest step in the pathway and is believed to limit steady-state turnover. Additionally, the burst amplitude observed in the pre-steady-state acid quench experiments is stoichiometric, indicating that Ncd, in contrast to kinesin, is not processive for ATP hydrolysis.
Urinary Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Childhood Obesity: NHANES (2001–2006)

Background: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known carcinogens and suspected endocrine disruptors. Prenatal exposure to PAHs has been associated with obesity in early childhood. Objective: We examined the association of urinary PAH metabolites with adiposity outcomes [body mass index (BMI) z-score, waist circumference (WC), and rate of obesity] in children and adolescents. Methods: We performed whole-sample analyses of 3,189 individuals 6–19 years of age who participated in the 2001–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We performed multivariate linear and logistic regression to analyze the association of BMI z-score, WC, and obesity with concentrations of single urinary PAH compounds and the sum of PAHs. Furthermore, the analyses were stratified by developmental stage [i.e., children (6–11 years) and adolescents (12–19 years)]. Results: BMI z-score, WC, and obesity were positively associated with the molecular mass sum of the PAHs and the total sum of naphthalene metabolites. Most associations increased monotonically with increasing quartiles of exposure among children 6–11 years of age, whereas dose–response trends were less consistent for adolescents (12–19 years of age). Neither total PAHs nor total naphthalene metabolites were associated with overweight in either age group, and there was little evidence of associations between the outcomes and individual PAHs. Conclusions: Total urinary PAH metabolites and naphthalene metabolites were associated with higher BMI, WC, and obesity in children 6–11 years of age, with positive but less consistent associations among adolescents. Citation: Scinicariello F, Buser MC. 2014. Urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and childhood obesity: NHANES (2001–2006). Environ Health Perspect 122:299–303; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1307234