Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum vascular endothelial growth factor and fibronectin predict clinical response to high-dose interleukin-2 therapy.

PURPOSE High-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) induces durable therapeutic responses in a small subset of patients with metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma, but simple pretreatment predictors of response have not been identified. PATIENTS AND METHODS To identify predictive biomarkers of clinical response, sera from patients treated with high-dose IL-2 were collected for analysis using a customized, multiplex antibody-targeted protein array platform that surveyed expression of soluble factors associated with tumor immunobiology. Soluble factors associated with clinical responses were analyzed using a multivariate permutation test, and survival outcomes were determined using Kaplan-Meier and log-rank tests. RESULTS A training set from 10 patients identified 68 potentially relevant soluble factors that were then tested in an independent validation set of 49 patients. Class comparison revealed a cluster of 11 biomarkers that were associated with therapeutic outcome. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and fibronectin were identified as independent predictors of response. In particular, high levels of these proteins were correlated with lack of clinical response and decreased overall survival. CONCLUSION Serum VEGF and fibronectin are easily measured pretreatment biomarkers that could serve to exclude patients unlikely to respond to IL-2 therapy.
Title Comparative Genomics Reveals the Core Gene Toolbox for the Fungus-Insect Symbiosis Permalink

Modern genomics has shed light on many entomopathogenic fungi and expanded our knowledge widely; however, little is known about the genomic features of the insect-commensal fungi. Harpellales are obligate commensals living in the digestive tracts of disease-bearing insects (black flies, midges, and mosquitoes). In this study, we produced and annotated whole-genome sequences of nine Harpellales taxa and conducted the first comparative analyses to infer the genomic diversity within the members of the Harpellales. The genomes of the insect gut fungi feature low (26% to 37%) GC content and large genome size variations (25 to 102 Mb). Further comparisons with insect-pathogenic fungi (from both Ascomycota and Zoopagomycota), as well as with free-living relatives (as negative controls), helped to identify a gene toolbox that is essential to the fungus-insect symbiosis. The results not only narrow the genomic scope of fungus-insect interactions from several thousands to eight core players but also distinguish host invasion strategies employed by insect pathogens and commensals. The genomic content suggests that insect commensal fungi rely mostly on adhesion protein anchors that target digestive system, while entomopathogenic fungi have higher numbers of transmembrane helices, signal peptides, and pathogen-host interaction (PHI) genes across the whole genome and enrich genes as well as functional domains to inactivate the host inflammation system and suppress the host defense. Phylogenomic analyses have revealed that genome sizes of Harpellales fungi vary among lineages with an integermultiple pattern, which implies that ancient genome duplications may have occurred within the gut of insects. IMPORTANCE Insect guts harbor various microbes that are important for host digestion, immune response, and disease dispersal in certain cases. Bacteria, which are among the primary endosymbionts, have been studied extensively. However, fungi, which are also frequently encountered, are poorly known with respect to their biology within the insect guts. To understand the genomic features and related biology, we produced the whole-genome sequences of nine gut commensal fungi from disease-bearing insects (black flies, midges, and mosquitoes). The results show that insect gut fungi tend to have low GC content across their genomes. By comparing these commensals with entomopathogenic and free-living fungi that have available genome sequences, we found a universal core gene toolbox that is unique and thus potentially important for the insect-fungus symbiosis. This comparative work also uncovered different host invasion strategies employed by insect pathogens and commensals, as well as a model system to study ancient fungal genome duplication within the gut of insects.
A Fault Tolerant Carry Select Adder with Modular Self Checking Scheme

This paper presents Fault Tolerant Carry Select Adder (FT-CSA), most widely used type of adder, based on the self checking scheme with modular architecture. The error recovery capability is derived using generic input/output combination of carry select adder with predetermined fault and error set. The experimental results show that proposed FT-CSA has nearly 50% overhead compared with the typical CSA without fault-tolerant scheme but achieves the significant improvement compared with typical redundancy scheme.
miR-148a-3p exhaustion inhibits necrosis by regulating PTEN in acute pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a necro-inflammatory disorder with high mortality rate. With advances in understanding the pathogenesis of AP, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been reported to play an essential role in AP progression. However, the mechanism that allows miR-148a-3p to regulate necrosis in AP remains unclear. METHODS Caerulein treatment was used to induce AP in mice or cells. miR-148a-3p-/- mice or miR-148a-3p inhibition in wild type mice were used to investigate the effect of miR-148a-3p on AP. The expression of miR-148a-3p was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The abundances of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and hallmarks of necrosis or apoptosis were measured by qRT-PCR or western blots (WB). Cell necrosis, apoptosis, serum amylase or lipase activity and inflammatory cytokines levels were investigated by commercial assay kit. Inflammatory infiltration was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The interaction between miR-148a-3p and PTEN was probed by luciferase activity. RESULTS miR-148a-3p was highly expressed in AP and knockout of miR-148a-3p inhibited water content, cell necrosis, amylase and lipase activity while inducing PTEN expression. Moreover, miR-148a-3p deletion attenuated inflammatory infiltration and necrosis by promoting apoptosis. In addition, miR-148a-3p knockdown protected against cell necrosis, amylase, and lipase activity in AP. Intriguingly, PTEN was a target of miR-148a-3p and interference of PTEN reversed the effect of miR-148a-3p deficiency on AP in vitro. CONCLUSION miR-148a-3p inhibition repressed necrosis by regulating PTEN expression in AP, providing a novel biomarker of therapeutics for AP treatment.
A Machine Learning Framework for Gait Classification Using Inertial Sensors: Application to Elderly, Post-Stroke and Huntington’s Disease Patients

Machine learning methods have been widely used for gait assessment through the estimation of spatio-temporal parameters. As a further step, the objective of this work is to propose and validate a general probabilistic modeling approach for the classification of different pathological gaits. Specifically, the presented methodology was tested on gait data recorded on two pathological populations (Huntington’s disease and post-stroke subjects) and healthy elderly controls using data from inertial measurement units placed at shank and waist. By extracting features from group-specific Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) and signal information in time and frequency domain, a Support Vector Machines classifier (SVM) was designed and validated. The 90.5% of subjects was assigned to the right group after leave-one-subject–out cross validation and majority voting. The long-term goal we point to is the gait assessment in everyday life to early detect gait alterations.
Zolpidem is independently associated with increased risk of inpatient falls.

BACKGROUND Inpatient falls are associated with significant morbidity and increased healthcare costs. Zolpidem has been reported to decrease balance and is associated with falls. Yet, it is a commonly used hypnotic agent in the inpatient setting. Zolpidem use in hospitalized patients may be a significant and potentially modifiable risk factor for falling. OBJECTIVE To determine whether inpatients administered zolpidem are at greater risk of falling. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Adult non-intensive care unit (non-ICU) inpatients at a tertiary care center. METHODS Adult inpatients who were prescribed zolpidem were identified. Electronic medical records were reviewed to capture demographics and other risk factors for falls. The fall rate was compared in those administered zolpidem versus those only prescribed zolpidem. Multivariate analyses were performed to determine whether zolpidem was independently associated with falls. RESULTS The fall rate among patients who were prescribed and received zolpidem (n = 4962) was significantly greater than among patients who were prescribed but did not receive zolpidem (n = 11,358) (3.04% vs 0.71%; P < 0.001). Zolpidem use continued to remain significantly associated with increased fall risk after accounting for age, gender, insomnia, delirium status, dose of zolpidem, Charlson comorbidity index, Hendrich's fall risk score, length of hospital stay, presence of visual impairment, gait abnormalities, and dementia/cognitive impairment (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 4.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.34-5.76; P < 0.001). Additionally, patients taking zolpidem who experienced a fall did not differ from other hospitalized adult patients who fell in terms of age, opioids, antidepressants, sedative-antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepine, or antihistamine use. CONCLUSION Zolpidem use was a strong, independent, and potentially modifiable risk factor for inpatient falls.
Stream : 10 Organizational Change Profile :

There is a significant gap in the literature testing the empirical relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty and organization performance. McCabe (1990) explored this relationship but was unable to prove the direct link. This paper suggests that McCabe’s (1990) use of the Duncan (1972) perceived environmental uncertainty survey scale and the definition of performance as organization effectiveness has contributed to this shortcoming in McCabe’s (1990) findings. New survey scales are developed for perceived environmental uncertainty and organization performance. A direct relationship is proven between these constructs using multiple regression analysis.
Obesity and Breast Cancer: Adipose Tissue, Adipocytokines, Chronic Inflammation, and Hypoxia

Introduction Obesity, an increasing pandemic in the world, is defined as an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat to the extent that it impairs human health. According to the 2014 report of World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight (39%) and over 600 million adults are obese (13%) worldwide (1). In the United States alone, this rate has been reported to be 69% and 35%, respectively (2). Obesity leads to increased health problems, thereby reducing life expectancy (3). According to a recent study, association of
Deriving Schrodinger Equation From A Soft-Decision Iterative Decoding Algorithm

The belief propagation algorithm has been recognized in the information theory community as a soft-decision iterative decoding algorithm. It is the most powerful algorithm found so far for attacking hard optimization problems in channel decoding. Quantum mechanics is the foundation of modern physics with the time-independent Schrodinger equation being one of the most important equations. This paper shows that the equation can be derived from a generalized belief propagation algorithm. Such a connection on a mathematical basis might shed new insights into the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum computing.
Rapid Information Discovery System ( RAID )

This paper describes the motivations, solution concepts, and architecture of a framework for a Rapid Information Discovery System (RAID), to support semantic enterprise search and knowledge discovery from large volumes of multi-source text data. First, the overall solution concept is summarized. An ontology-driven approach to natural language processing (NLP) is described. Then the RAID architecture for semantic indexing and semantic search is summarized. The RAID human machine interface and knowledge extraction methods are outlined. Dynamic learning and user feedback-driven adaptation mechanisms are then summarized. Finally, conclusions and opportunities for further R&D are summarized. The concepts described in this paper provide a new approach and solution architecture for iterative and adaptive discovery of information content associated with imprecisely specified descriptions of end user information needs.
The Study on Estimating the Scale of Local Government Debt in China

Whether at home or abroad, local debts play an important role in easing the contradiction between supply and demand of funds, and promoting local economic development and other aspects. The measure of the appropriate local debts scale is the basis to control local debts risks, and it is an important issue in the study of local debts. Based on the analysis on the influence factors of local debts scale, we build a panel data model of moderate local debts scale, calculate 30 provinces and cities where local debts are issued by the moderate scale, and provide basic methods for the issuance scale of local debts. Index Terms - local debts, appropriate scale, panel data model Local government bonds(hereinafter called local debts) is mainly refer to a financing form of raising funds, which makes the local government uses credit tool in order to meet the needs of the development of the local economic and social public welfare under the shortage of regular revenues, in accordance with the relevant legal provisions. At present, 37 countries allow to issue local debts of 53 major countries in the world. China's local debts is a very tortuous course. The future of local debts will be according to the following pattern transformation, namely "central government on behalf→self-issuing→issuing autonomously". (1) Only moderately issuing local debts can governments control and reduce the local debts risks and the local financial crisis from the source, so that the local debts really plays a role to promote local economic development and social stability. Determining the appropriate scale of government bonds has become an important problem to research. To measure the debt scale is the foundation of moderately issuing. Research on government debt scale of foreign scholars: government debt issuance should control the scale(2-5). Influence factors of the government debt issuance scale(2-5) mainly include GDP, fiscal revenue, income distribution, deposit, urbanization rate, population flow, interest rate etc. Quantitative research methods of China's local debts issuance scale are: (1) KMV model. Scholars such as Wang Gang(6) put forward the concept of the default risk of municipal bonds on the basis of American municipal bonds, and build the credit risk model for municipal bonds by using KMV model. He calculates the debt scale of different default probability by taking Beijing and Shanghai as examples. (2) Theoretical inference. Scholars such as Wang Yu(7) conclude that: in the rational expectations equilibrium model, when the control of the government can not improve the cash flow in the future, investors will refuse to buy the bonds. Therefore, a small risk of insolvency will lead to a great risk of immobilization. (3) Regression model. Scholars such as Cheng Zhenhuang (8) taking
A global kinetic spatial data structure for a marine simulation

This paper proposes a new Free-Lagrange method based on the kinetic Voronoi diagram for fluid simulation. The objective here is to combine the advantages of an adoptive mesh structure with the advantages of kinetic mesh maintenance, and demonstrate their value for dynamic simulation. Despite the theoretical advantages of the Free-Lagrange method, its use has been handicapped with the reconstruction of topology after each time step that considerably reduces the efficiency of the method. In addition, the use of fixed time steps causes problems such as overshoots and undetected collisions. In order to demonstrate the ability of the proposed model to solve these problems, the method is applied to a dam-breaking problem and global tides. With the results obtained from these numerical experiments, the validity of the global kinetic data structure is approved. In particular, the method is found to be more efficient than existing methods. In addition, qualitative comparison of physical results with analytical solutions demonstrates the similarity of the results and confirms the physical validity of the proposed method. Further investigations with real-world data and the complete equation of motion are suggested to compare it with other numerical methods.
Effect of critical medium components and culture conditions on antitubercular pigment production from novel Streptomyces sp D25 isolated from Thar desert, Rajasthan

Article history: Received on: 06/04/2015 Revised on: 22/04/2015 Accepted on: 17/05/2015 Available online: 27/06/2015 Effect of culture conditions and critical medium components on antitubercular pigment production from novel Streptomyces sp D25 isolated from Thar desert, Rajasthan was investigated. Antitubercular pigment from Streptomyces sp. D25 was produced by Agar Surface Fermentation (ASF) using yeast extract malt extract agar (YEME) as a basal medium. Effect of incubation period, temperature, carbon source, nitrogen source, minerals and sodium chloride concentration was studied by adopting one-variable-at-a-time method. Crude pigment produced under different conditions was extracted solid-liquid extraction method using ethyl acetate. Responses measured include the growth rate, quantity of crude extract and activity against S. aureus MTCC96 and M. tuberculosis H37Rv at 100 μg concentrations. Growth and pigment production was correlated with the bioactivity. Of the various conditions tested, maximum growth, pigmentation and bioactivity was observed on 6 day of incubation. Of the various medium components tested, 1% glucose, fructose and malt extract, pH 7 and 9, temperature 30C and 40C, 0.1% KNo3 and 0 – 5% NaCl was found to influence the growth, bioactive pigment production and antimicrobial bioactivity. Further statistical based optimization is in progress to prove the effect of interaction of the above variables on antitubercular pigment production from Streptomyces sp D25.
Sensory characteristics of monkey thalamic and motor cortex neurones.

1. Extracellular single‐cell recordings were made from the cerebellar thalamus, the ventro‐posterior lateralis par caudalis (VPLc) and motor cortex of three conscious monkeys. Recordings were made from the thalamus as well as the cortex in two monkeys. In all, recordings were made from the thalamus in four hemispheres and from the motor cortex in four hemispheres. The animals were trained to permit a detailed examination when relaxed. Unexpected perturbations were applied to the wrist. Seventy‐seven wrist‐related neurones were recorded in the cerebellar thalamus, forty‐two neurones from the VPLc and eighty‐four neurones in motor cortex. 2. Cerebellar nuclear stimulation was used to physiologically identify thalamic neurones receiving input from the cerebellum. The location of all neurones was verified histologically. 3. The majority of cerebellar thalamic neurones had deep sensory receptive fields related to a single muscle, a group of synergists or a single joint. There was a distinct topographical organization. These fields were similar to sensory fields in motor cortical neurones, but had higher thresholds. 4. VPLc neurones had discrete deep or cutaneous sensory fields, or a combination of these fields, which suggests convergence. VPLc neurones had fields with lower thresholds than cerebellar thalamic neurones. The somatotopically located forelimb area in the VPLc was posterior to and continuous with the forelimb area in the cerebellar thalamus. 5. VPLc neurones responded with a shorter latency to wrist perturbations than did cerebellar thalamic neurones. VPLc neurones with deep sensory fields changed firing significantly earlier than those with cutaneous fields. The VPLc is likely to be the major source of sensory input to the motor cortex, and based on the results of this study we suggest that the VPLc is the thalamic nucleus best placed to transmit short‐latency afferent input from the forelimb. 6. The timing of the neuronal discharge of cerebellar thalamic and VPLc cells, which resulted from perturbations of the wrist, was best linked to the duration of movement rather than its amplitude. The cells began firing as soon as the velocity changed sign and continued firing until the sign of the velocity changed again. In subsequent corrective movements neuronal discharge in the VPLc appeared to also encode movement acceleration.
Examination of the Relationships between Urban Form and Urban Public Services Expenditure in China

This econometric study contributes to the ongoing debate about the costs and benefits of urban form by employing interdisciplinary means—urban planning, econometrics and public administration—to explore the relationship between urban form and urban public services expenditure. In China, particularly, rapid urbanization is accompanied by an increase of urban public services expenditure and a difference in efficiency, which undermines the promotion of urban public service development. The Chinese government has paid great attention to urban sustainable development and promoting urban public services performance; however, until recently there has been a lack of empirical studies exploring the relationship between urban public services expenditure and urban form. Thus, the present research aims to analyze this issue by using relevant indicators based on an econometric model. The results provide a promising basis for improving urban public services expenditure efficiency. Based on the urban area interpreted by remote sensing data and geographic information system, two urban form metrics, the compactness ratio and the elongation ratio, are selected and quantified to describe urban compactness and urban sprawl accurately. Panel data analyses are performed using a cross-sectional dataset of the 30 cities for the years 2007, 2010 and 2013 to assess the likelihood of association between indicators of urban form and urban public services expenditure, while controlling for other determinants, such as educational level, income per capita, degree of industrialization, and unemployment rate. The results indicate that urban elongation is positively correlated to per capita urban public services expenditure and urban compactness is insignificantly correlated to it. Thus, it is recommended that policymakers consider the relationship between urban form and public services expenditure as part of urban planning and on-going strategies to promote public service efficiency.
Input-To-State Stability, Integral Input-To-State Stability, and Unbounded Level Sets

Abstract We provide partial Lyapunov characterizations for a recently proposed generalization of input-to-state and integral input-to-state stability (ISS and iISS, respectively). This generalization relies on the notion of stability with respect to two measures originally introduced by Movchan [1960]. We show that the two classical Lyapunov characterizations of ISS-type properties, i.e., decrease conditions in an implication or dissipative form, correspond to ISS and iISS, respectively. We also demonstrate via an example that, for the generalization considered here, ISS does not necessarily imply iISS.