Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma Neuregulin 4 Levels Are Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Patients Newly Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Neuregulin 4 (Nrg4) has been proposed to play a role in the pathogeneses of obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. However, information about the link between Nrg4 and metabolic syndrome (MetS) is scarce, especially in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (nT2DM). This study aimed at investigating whether Nrg4 is associated with MetS in nT2DM patients. A total of 311 patients with nT2DM were recruited. Plasma Nrg4 concentration was determined by ELISA. Plasma Nrg4 concentration was lower in nT2DM patients with MetS than in nT2DM patients without MetS (P = 0.001). Nrg4 concentration showed negative correlations with most of the analyzed indicators of MetS. MetS was less prevalent among subjects in the highest quartile of plasma Nrg4 concentration than among those in the lowest quartile (P < 0.01). Age- and sex-adjusted plasma Nrg4 concentrations were positively correlated with concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A (both P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with triglyceride, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and gamma-glutamyltransferase concentrations, neutrophil count, and white blood cell (WBC) count (all P < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, Nrg4 was independently associated with hs-CRP level, WBC count, and HDL-C level (P = 0.001 or P < 0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis of MetS prediction by Nrg4 revealed an odds ratio of 0.560 (95% CI: 0.374–0.837; P < 0.01). Decreased plasma Nrg4 levels, which may be associated with augmented oxidative stress, inflammation, and dyslipidemia, might be involved in the development of MetS in nT2DM patients.
Mutations in the extracellular domains of glutamate‐gated chloride channel α3 and β subunits from ivermectin‐resistant Cooperia oncophora affect agonist sensitivity

Two full‐length glutamate‐gated chloride channel (GluCl) cDNAs, encoding GluClα3 and GluClβ subunits, were cloned from ivermectin‐susceptible (IVS) and ‐resistant (IVR) Cooperia oncophora adult worms. The IVS and IVR GluClα3 subunits differ at three amino acid positions, while the IVS and IVR GluClβ subunits differ at two amino acid positions. The aim of this study was to determine whether mutations in the IVR subunits affect agonist sensitivity. The subunits were expressed singly and in combination in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Electrophysiological whole‐cell voltage‐clamp recordings showed that mutations in the IVR GluClα3 caused a modest but significant threefold loss of sensitivity to glutamate, the natural ligand for GluCl receptors. As well, a significant decrease in sensitivity to the anthelmintics ivermectin and moxidectin was observed in the IVR GluClα3 receptor. Mutations in the IVR GluClβ subunit abolished glutamate sensitivity. Co‐expressing the IVS GluClα3 and GluClβ subunits resulted in heteromeric channels that were more sensitive to glutamate than the respective homomeric channels, demonstrating co‐assembly of the subunits. In contrast, the heteromeric IVR channels were less sensitive to glutamate than the homomeric IVR GluClα3 channels. The heteromeric IVS channels were significantly more sensitive to glutamate than the heteromeric IVR channels. Of the three amino acids distinguishing the IVS and IVR GluClα3 subunits, only one of them, L256F, accounted for the differences in response between the IVS and IVR GluClα3 homomeric channels.
A Boosted-Trees Method for Name Disambiguation Contact

This paper proposes a method for classifying true papers of a set of focal scientists and false papers of homonymous authors in bibliometric research processes. It directly addresses the issue of identifying papers that are not associated (“false”) with a given author. The proposed method has four steps: name and affiliation filtering, similarity score construction, author screening, and boosted trees classification. In this methodological paper we calculate error rates for our technique. Therefore, we needed to ascertain the correct attribution of each paper. To do this we constructed a small dataset of 4,253 papers allegedly belonging to a random sample of 100 authors. We apply the boosted trees algorithm to classify papers of authors with total false rate no higher than 30% (i.e., 3,862 papers of 91 authors). A one-run experiment achieves a testing misclassification error 0.55%, testing recall 99.84%, and testing precision 99.60%. A 50-run experiment shows that the median of testing classification error is 0.78% and mean 0.75%. Among the 90 authors in the testing set (one author only appeared in the training set), the algorithm successfully reduces the false rate to zero for 86 authors and misclassifies just one or two papers for each of the remaining four authors.
Edge states for the turbulence transition in the asymptotic suction boundary layer

Abstract We demonstrate the existence of an exact invariant solution to the Navier–Stokes equations for the asymptotic suction boundary layer. The identified periodic orbit with a very long period of several thousand advective time units is found as a local dynamical attractor embedded in the stability boundary between laminar and turbulent dynamics. Its dynamics captures both the interplay of downstream-oriented vortex pairs and streaks observed in numerous shear flows as well as the energetic bursting that is characteristic for boundary layers. By embedding the flow into a family of flows that interpolates between plane Couette flow and the boundary layer, we demonstrate that the periodic orbit emerges in a saddle–node infinite-period (SNIPER) bifurcation of two symmetry-related travelling-wave solutions of plane Couette flow. Physically, the long period is due to a slow streak instability, which leads to a violent breakup of a streak associated with the bursting and the reformation of the streak at a different spanwise location. We show that the orbit is structurally stable when varying both the Reynolds number and the domain size.
VALIDATION OF SMOS L 2 AND L 3 SOIL MOISTURE PRODUCTS OVER THE DUERO BASIN AT DIFFERENT SPATIAL SCALES

An increasing number of permanent soil moisture measurement networks are nowadays providing the means for validating new remotely sensed soil moisture estimates such as those provided by the ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. Two types of in situ measurement networks can be found: small-scale (100-10000 km2), which provide multiple ground measurements within a single satellite footprint, and large-scale (>10000 km2), which contain a single point observation per satellite footprint. This work presents the results of a comprehensive spatial and temporal validation of a long-term (January, 2010 to June, 2014) dataset of SMOS-derived soil moisture estimates using two in situ networks within the Duero basin (Spain). The first one is the Soil Moisture Measurement Stations Network of the University of Salamanca (REMEDHUS), which has been extensively applied for validation of soil moisture remote sensing observations, including SMOS. REMEDHUS can be considered within the small-scale network group (1300 km2). The other network started from an existing meteorological network from the Castilla y León region, where soil moisture probes were incorporated in 2012. This network can be considered within the large-scale group (65000 km2). Results from comparison to in situ show that the new reprocessed L2 product (v5.51) improves the accuracy of former soil moisture retrievals, making them suitable for developing new L3 products. Validation based on comparisons between dense/sparse networks showed that temporal patterns on soil moisture are well reproduced, whereas spatial patterns are difficult to depict given the different spatial representativeness of ground and satellite observations. * Corresponding author
Temperature Dependence of PMD in Optical Fibres and Cables: Part II

Following experiments on temperature dependence of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of in tight-buffered standard single mode fibres (ITU-T G.652), see Ibid., pp. 441-444, we did the same for nonzero-dispersion shifted fibres (NZ-DSF, ITU-T G.655), and found they exhibit much better PMD stability when subjected to mechanical forces generated by buffers and coatings. The difference can be explained by "spinning" during drawing of NZ-DSF fibres, leaving residual circular strain, which rotates radiation polarization plane, preventing accumulation of DGD in a fibre under axial and lateral pressure. Mechanical twist, e.g. due to stranding of fibres to make multi-fibre optical unit has the same effect. We also review other factors influencing PMD performance and stability of fibres encased in tight and semi-tight buffers, predominantly used in indoor, industrial and military cables
Convolutional micro-networks for MR-guided low dose PET post-processing

We propose a novel micro-network (μ-net) architecture which is a convolutional neural network (CNN) designed to be robust to minimal training data. Applying the μ-net to MR-guided low count PET scans produces impressive qualitative and quantitative cross-validation results despite training on just two noise realisations of the same patient.
Identifying Innovative Interventions to Promote Healthy Eating Using Consumption-Oriented Food Supply Chain Analysis

The mapping and analysis of supply chains is a technique increasingly used to address problems in the food system. Yet such supply chain management has not yet been applied as a means of encouraging healthier diets. Moreover, most policies recommended to promote healthy eating focus on the consumer end of the chain. This article proposes a consumption-oriented food supply chain analysis to identify the changes needed in the food supply chain to create a healthier food environment, measured in terms of food availability, prices, and marketing. Along with established forms of supply chain analysis, the method is informed by a historical overview of how food supply chains have changed over time. The method posits that the actors and actions in the chain are affected by organizational, financial, technological, and policy incentives and disincentives, which can in turn be levered for change. It presents a preliminary example of the supply of Coca-Cola beverages into school vending machines and identifies further potential applications. These include fruit and vegetable supply chains, local food chains, supply chains for health-promoting versions of food products, and identifying financial incentives in supply chains for healthier eating.
Constructive Preferences For Rejected Options: When You Can’T Get What You Want

hence reducing the effect on final choice. We make the unacceptable option more salient or ‘explicit’ by having participants mark truly unacceptable levels and corresponding options in an initial phase. Participants subsequently choose from a set still listing the screened out option(s), with the unacceptable level(s) in red and marked with a red asterisk. Participants chose from a three-option set containing an explicit unacceptable decoy and an asymmetric dominance relationship for one of two product categories. To examine whether relative choice share decreased when comparing this explicit unacceptable case to the implicit one, we compared these results to those from our first study. The results show that correction is moderate when making the option’s unacceptability salient in the set. Thus, the distorting effect of the unacceptable on choice seems surprisingly robust. Our third study examines whether consumers retain knowledge of other attributes associated with alternatives containing an unacceptable attribute and whether what consumers report is in accordance with what they actually do with regard to the treatment of these other levels. In an agent task involving selecting a camera for a friend, unacceptable attribute levels (and hence unacceptable options) are defined by the friend’s preferences. Participants overwhelmingly report (98%) that other attribute levels for truly unacceptable options are not examined further. In contrast to this reported lack of attention, an unannounced recall task shows that participants do retain memory for other attributes of truly unacceptable options. For the option with an unacceptable number of rapid fire shots (camera size), 89.5% (42.1%) of participants retained accurate gist information about at least one aspect other than the unacceptable level. Thus, although participants report that they pay no attention to values other than the unacceptable attribute level for unacceptable options, they retain information about other attribute values in an unexpected recall test. Our results emphasize the importance of truly unacceptable options in the decision process. The influence of an unacceptable option can linger even after it has been ‘rejected’ by helping to define the context and thus influencing which option to choose. In addition, the important role of context in decision making is once again confirmed, as context matters even if it is (partially) defined by an option that is truly unacceptable.
Learning Self-Control

This article examines how a decision maker who is only partially aware of his temptations learns about them over time. In facing temptations, individuals use their experience to forecast future self-control problems and choose the appropriate level of commitment. I demonstrate that rational learning can be perpetually partial and need not result in full sophistication. The main result of this article characterizes necessary and sufficient conditions for learning to converge to full sophistication. I apply this result to a consumption-savings environment in which a decision maker is tempted by present bias and establish a learning-theoretic justification for assuming sophistication in this setting. "An individual who finds himself continuously repudiating his past plans may learn to distrust his future behavior, and may do something about it. " -- Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.
A Remark on Convergence in Distribution of $U$-Statistics

It is proved that, for h measurable and symmetric in its arguments and Xi i.i. d. , if the sequence {n−m2 ∑ i1,. ,im≤n ij 6=ik if j 6=k h(Xi1 ,.,Xim )}n=1, is stochastically bounded, then Eh2<∞ and Eh(X1,x2,.,xm)=0 a.s.
Intrusion Detection in the Cloud

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) have been used widely to detect malicious behaviors in network communication and hosts. IDS management is an important capability for distributed IDS solutions, which makes it possible to integrate and handle different types of sensors or collect and synthesize alerts generated from multiple hosts located in the distributed environment. Facing new application scenarios in Cloud Computing, the IDS approaches yield several problems since the operator of the IDS should be the user, not the administrator of the Cloud infrastructure. Extensibility, efficient management, and compatibility to virtualization-based context need to be introduced into many existing IDS implementations.Additionally, the Cloud providers need to enable possibilities to deploy and configure IDS for the user. Within this paper, we summarize several requirements for deploying IDS in the Cloud and propose an extensible IDS architecture for being easily used in a distributed cloud infrastructure.
Stereo Reconstruction Using an Image Noise Model

Conventional stereo correspondence algorithms which search for a ‘best’ match are defeated by the many sources of noise possible in a pair of stereo images. We propose a new reconstruction paradigm, Concurrent Stereo Matching (CSM), that starts with a noise model and marks regions which could not be considered matches - given the noise model. The work presented here uses spatially varying noise values obtained empirically from segmented images. These noise levels determine admissable matches and define candidate surfaces, which are then processed using local constraints only to a final set of reconstructed surfaces. For a complex scene with many small surfaces, CSM ranks highly amongst existing benchmarked algorithms. The current CSM implementation does not handle large sloping surfaces well but work is underway to rectify this.
Association of MHC-I genotypes with disease progression in HIV/SIV infections

Virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are major effectors in acquired immune responses against viral infection. Virus-specific CTLs recognize specific viral peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex class-I (MHC-I) on the surface of virus-infected target cells via their T cell receptor (TCR) and eliminate target cells by both direct and indirect mechanisms. In human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infections, host immune responses fail to contain the virus and allow persistent viral replication, leading to AIDS progression. CTL responses exert strong suppressive pressure on HIV/SIV replication and cumulative studies have indicated association of HLA/MHC-I genotypes with rapid or slow AIDS progression.
Research and applications: Imaging informatics for consumer health: towards a radiology patient portal

OBJECTIVE With the increased routine use of advanced imaging in clinical diagnosis and treatment, it has become imperative to provide patients with a means to view and understand their imaging studies. We illustrate the feasibility of a patient portal that automatically structures and integrates radiology reports with corresponding imaging studies according to several information orientations tailored for the layperson. METHODS The imaging patient portal is composed of an image processing module for the creation of a timeline that illustrates the progression of disease, a natural language processing module to extract salient concepts from radiology reports (73% accuracy, F1 score of 0.67), and an interactive user interface navigable by an imaging findings list. The portal was developed as a Java-based web application and is demonstrated for patients with brain cancer. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The system was exhibited at an international radiology conference to solicit feedback from a diverse group of healthcare professionals. There was wide support for educating patients about their imaging studies, and an appreciation for the informatics tools used to simplify images and reports for consumer interpretation. Primary concerns included the possibility of patients misunderstanding their results, as well as worries regarding accidental improper disclosure of medical information. CONCLUSIONS Radiologic imaging composes a significant amount of the evidence used to make diagnostic and treatment decisions, yet there are few tools for explaining this information to patients. The proposed radiology patient portal provides a framework for organizing radiologic results into several information orientations to support patient education.
Observation of an excess in the ALEPH search for the Standard Model Higgs boson

The ALEPH search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the year 2000 revealed an excess of signal-like events, consistent with a signal hypothesis mh=115 GeV/c2. Here we present the first results after the analysis of all of the data collected during the year 2000, at collision energies up to 209 GeV, and which were published in November 2000.
Late consequences of the Fontan operation.

A 15-year-old boy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome presents with new-onset abdominal swelling and pretibial edema. The patient has been previously without symptoms from the cardiovascular perspective but is not very active and does not participate in sports. He is growing poorly, with height and weight <5th percentile for age, and has no signs of puberty (Tanner stage 1). Blood laboratories reveal low serum protein (albumin, 2.2 g/dL; total protein, 4.5 g/dL); liver enzymes are slightly elevated (aspartate aminotransferase, 60; alanine transaminase, 72); platelet count is diminished at 105 000/dL. Stool sample is tested for α1-antitrypsin, which is markedly elevated (382 mg/dL), indicating protein-losing enteropathy (PLE). Abdominal ultrasound demonstrates ascites and an enlarged, heterogeneously echogenic liver. Echocardiography demonstrates unobstructed systemic and pulmonary venous pathways, good right ventricular function, mild tricuspid regurgitation, and unobstructed aortic arch. Cardiac catheterization shows pulmonary artery pressure of 12 mm Hg and right ventricle end diastolic pressure of 6 mm Hg. Gastrointestinal endoscopy with biopsy is recommended, which reveals small-bowel lymphangiectasia and inflammation localized to the terminal ileum. Patients born with a univentricular heart manifest one of the most challenging-to-manage forms of congenital heart disease. Over the past 30 years, a successful staged surgical strategy has emerged. The task of systemic perfusion is assigned to the one effective ventricle that nature has provided, whereas pulmonary blood flow is achieved through passive channeling of systemic venous return directly to the pulmonary arteries, absent an interposed ventricle.1 Today, this is typically achieved in a 2-stage process. Superior vena caval flow is directed into the branch pulmonary arteries (bidirectional Glenn operation) at 4 to 6 months of age, and inferior vena caval flow is diverted directly to the pulmonary arteries (Fontan operation), either via a tunnel through the atrium or an extracardiac conduit, at 2 to 3 years …
The economic approach to ‘theory of mind’

Theory of mind (ToM) is a great evolutionary achievement. It is a special intelligence that can assess not only one's own desires and beliefs, but also those of others. Whether it is uniquely human or not is controversial, but it is clear that humans are, at least, significantly better at ToM than any other animal. Economists and game theorists have developed sophisticated and powerful models of ToM and we provide a detailed summary of this here. This economic ToM entails a hierarchy of beliefs. I know my preferences, and I have beliefs (a probabilistic distribution) about your preferences, beliefs about your beliefs about my preferences, and so on. We then contrast this economic ToM with the theoretical approaches of neuroscience and with empirical data in general. Although this economic view provides a benchmark and makes useful suggestions about empirical tendencies, it does not always generate a close fit with the data. This provides an opportunity for a synergistic interdisciplinary production of a falsifiable theory of bounded rationality. In particular, a ToM that is founded on evolutionary biology might well be sufficiently structured to have predictive power, while remaining quite general. We sketch two papers that represent preliminary steps in this direction.
Functional Architecture of AMSES: An Automatic Management System for E-service Systems

A general development and automatic management platform for e-service systems is essential for e-service systems to always deliver satisfying, up-to-date, and trustworthy services cost-effectively to its customers, no matter where they are, when they want them, and how they access them. Following an applicationdriven approach, this paper derives the functional architecture of a general development and automatic management system, named AMSES.