Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overexpression of Human Apolipoprotein A-I Preserves Cognitive Function and Attenuates Neuroinflammation and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer Disease*

To date there is no effective therapy for Alzheimer disease (AD). High levels of circulating high density lipoprotein (HDL) and its main protein, apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Clinical studies show that plasma HDL cholesterol and apoA-I levels are low in patients with AD. To investigate if increasing plasma apoA-I/HDL levels ameliorates AD-like memory deficits and amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition, we generated a line of triple transgenic (Tg) mice overexpressing mutant forms of amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) and presenilin 1 (PS1) as well as human apoA-I (AI). Here we show that APP/PS1/AI triple Tg mice have a 2-fold increase of plasma HDL cholesterol levels. When tested in the Morris water maze for spatial orientation abilities, whereas APP/PS1 mice develop age-related learning and memory deficits, APP/PS1/AI mice continue to perform normally during aging. Interestingly, no significant differences were found in the total level and deposition of Aβ in the brains of APP/PS1 and APP/PS1/AI mice, but cerebral amyloid angiopathy was reduced in APP/PS1/AI mice. Also, consistent with the anti-inflammatory properties of apoA-I/HDL, glial activation was reduced in the brain of APP/PS1/AI mice. In addition, Aβ-induced production of proinflammatory chemokines/cytokines was decreased in mouse organotypic hippocampal slice cultures expressing human apoA-I. Therefore, we conclude that overexpression of human apoA-I in the circulation prevents learning and memory deficits in APP/PS1 mice, partly by attenuating neuroinflammation and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. These findings suggest that elevating plasma apoA-I/HDL levels may be an effective approach to preserve cognitive function in patients with AD.
Decision trees for entity identification: approximation algorithms and hardness results

We consider the problem of constructing decision trees for entity identification from a given relational table. The input is a table containing information about a set of entities over a fixed set of attributes and a probability distribution over the set of entities that specifies the likelihood of the occurrence of each entity. The goal is to construct a decision tree that identifies each entity unambiguously by testing the attribute values such that the average number of tests is minimized. This classical problem finds such diverse applications as efficient fault detection, species identification in biology, and efficient diagnosis in the field of medicine. Prior work mainly deals with the special case where the input table is binary and the probability distribution over the set of entities is uniform. We study the general problem involving arbitrary input tables and arbitrary probability distributions over the set of entities. We consider a natural greedy algorithm and prove an approximation guarantee of O(rK • log N), where N is the number of entities and K is the maximum number of distinct values of an attribute. The value rK is a suitably defined Ramsey number, which is at most log K. We show that it is NP-hard to approximate the problem within a factor of Ω(log N), even for binary tables (i.e. K=2). Thus, for the case of binary tables, our approximation algorithm is optimal up to constant factors (since r2=2). In addition, our analysis indicates a possible way of resolving a Ramsey-theoretic conjecture by Erdos.
ROLE OF THE THYMUS IN IMMUNE REACTIONS IN RATS

In rats thymectomized at birth and tested in adult life, ability to develop autoallergic encephalomyelitis was completely suppressed, there was a marked diminution in the degree of tuberculin sensitization appearing after a single injection of mycobacteria in oil, rejection of skin homografts was markedly delayed, and adjuvant arthritis was not appreciably affected. At the same time there was a striking decrease in the circulating level of small lymphocytes.
Inverse association between glutathione peroxidase activity and both selenium‐binding protein 1 levels and gleason score in human prostate tissue

Data from human epidemiological studies, cultured mammalian cells, and animal models have supported a potentially beneficial role of selenium (Se) in prostate cancer prevention. In addition, Se‐containing proteins including members of the glutathione peroxidase (GPx) family and Selenium‐Binding Protein 1 (SBP1) have been linked to either cancer risk or development. For example, SBP1 levels are typically reduced in tumors compared to non‐cancerous tissue, with the degree of reduction associated with increasingly poor clinical outcome.
Unloading-Reloading Sequences and the Analysis of Mechanical Test Results for Continuous Fiber Ceramic Composites

The introduction of intermittent unloading - reloading cycles during mechanical testing is an extremely powerful tool to assist in the interpretation of the mechanical response of a material to the imposed loading conditions. This technique has a potential as a probing method in material characterization which has been vastly underestimated, particularly in the case of continuous-fiber ceramic composites (CFCCs), where, in addition to helping in the description of damage development, it can yield important information on fiber-matrix interfacial phenomena as well. The present contribution highlights the results obtained from the incorporation of unloading-reloading cycles during uniaxial strength, creep and fatigue tests on selected 2D woven CFCCs at room and elevated temperatures. Some implications for the modeling of the mechanical behavior are indicated.
A Plateau Problem at Infinity for Properly Immersed Minimal Surfaces with Finite Total Curvature

Given an ordered list of nonzero horizontal vectors v1, . , vr, r ≥ 3, such that v1 + . + vr = 0, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of an Alexandrov-embedded genus zero minimal r-noid M with prescribed fluxes v1, . , vr at its r consecutive horizontal catenoidal ends: the surface M exists if and only if the closed polygonal curve whose edges are the vectors vi bounds an immersed disc in the plane. Moreover we prove that M is nondegenerate, in the sense that it does not admit nontrivial bounded Jacobi functions, and we study the uniqueness problem. Mathematics Subject Classification: 53A10, 53C42.
Secondary use of data in EHR systems

We show how to use aspect-oriented programming to separate security and trust issues from the logical design of mobile, distributed systems. The main challenge is how to enforce various types of security policies, in particular predictive access control policies policies based on the future behavior of a program. A novel feature of our approach is that advice is able to analyze the future use of data. We consider a number of different security policies, concerning both primary and secondary use of data, some of which can only be enforced by analysis of process continuations.
Diketo acid inhibitor mechanism and HIV-1 integrase: Implications for metal binding in the active site of phosphotransferase enzymes

The process of integrating the reverse-transcribed HIV-1 DNA into the host chromosomal DNA is catalyzed by the virally encoded enzyme integrase (IN). Integration requires two metal-dependent reactions, 3′ end processing and strand transfer. Compounds that contain a diketo acid moiety have been shown to selectively inhibit the strand transfer reaction of IN in vitro and in infected cells and are effective as inhibitors of HIV-1 replication. To characterize the molecular basis of inhibition, we used functional assays and binding assays to evaluate a series of structurally related analogs. These studies focused on investigating the role of the conserved carboxylate and metal binding. We demonstrate that an acidic moiety such as a carboxylate or isosteric heterocycle is not required for binding to the enzyme complex but is essential for inhibition and confers distinct metal-dependent properties on the inhibitor. Binding requires divalent metal and resistance is metal dependent with active site mutants displaying resistance only when the enzymes are evaluated in the context of Mg2+. The mechanism of action of these inhibitors is therefore likely a consequence of the interaction between the acid moiety and metal ion(s) in the IN active site, resulting in a functional sequestration of the critical metal cofactor(s). These studies thus have implications for modeling active site inhibitors of IN, designing and evaluating analogs with improved efficacy, and identifying inhibitors of other metal-dependent phosphotransferases.
From programming sequential machines to parallel smart mobile devices: Bringing back the imperative paradigm to today's perspective

The imperative programming paradigm (PP) has been used since the conception of the Von Neumann (VN) architecture. However, the imperative PP has been rarely discussed or put into today's perspective since the advancement of other PPs such as object-oriented, agent, concurrent, parallel, etc. Nevertheless, the understanding and selection of (fundamental) PP(s) are crucial in order to select and solve a programming problem effectively. Since the imperative PP is one of the fundamental PPs that abstracted other higher level PPs, its importance is of course unquestionable. Still, finding a dedicated paper that describes the imperative PP and its impact to today's current PPs and devices can be quite a task. This paper is a dedicated and current paper that will cover the ideas of the imperative PP and discusses its impact to the development of current and more advanced PPs, subsequently discussing the impact of programming approaches to various prior and current devices such as parallel smart mobile devices. It will also discuss the limitations of the imperative and how this hasled to the development of current PPs. The problems of transferring to various other PPs will also be discussed. Although other advanced PPs have been dominating the development world, the importance of the imperative PP is still significant since machines are still running under the fundamental VN model where the imperative is derived from.
Progression of Local Glaucomatous Damage Near Fixation as Seen with Adaptive Optics Imaging

Purpose Deep glaucomatous defects near fixation were followed over time with an adaptive optics-scanning light ophthalmoscope (AO-SLO) to better understand the progression of these defects and to explore the use of AO-SLO in detecting them. Methods Six eyes of 5 patients were imaged with an AO-SLO from 2 to 4 times for a range of 14.6 to 33.6 months. All eyes had open-angle glaucoma with deep defects in the superior visual field (VF) near fixation as defined by 10-2 VFs with 5 or more points less than −15 dB; two of the eyes had deep defects in the inferior VF as well. AO-SLO images were obtained around the temporal edge of the disc. Results In 4 of the 6 eyes, the edge of the inferior-temporal disc region of the retinal nerve fiber (RNF) defect seen on AO-SLO moved closer to fixation within 10.6 to 14.7 months. In 4 eyes, RNF bundles in the affected region appeared to lose contrast and/or disappear. Conclusions Progressive changes in RNF bundles associated with deep defects on 10-2 VFs can be seen within about 1 year with AO-SLO imaging. These changes are well below the spatial resolution of the 10-2 VF. On the other hand, subtle thinning of regions with RNF bundles is not easy to see with current AO-SLO technology, and may be better followed with OCT. Translational Relevance AO-SLO imaging may be useful in clinical trials designed to see very small changes in deep defects.
Incidence and progression of myopia and associated factors in urban school children in Delhi: The North India Myopia Study (NIM Study)

Aim To evaluate the incidence and progression of myopia and factors associated with progression of myopia in school going children in Delhi. Methods Prospective longitudinal study of 10,000 school children aged 5 to 15 years screened after an interval of 1 year to identify new myopes (Spherical Equivalent≤ -0.5D) and progression of myopia in previously diagnosed myopic children. Association between risk factors and progression was analyzed using adjusted odds ratio. Results Of the 9,616 children re-screened (97.3% coverage), annual incidence of myopia was 3.4%with mean dioptric change of -1.09 ± 0.55. There was a significant higher incidence of myopia in younger children compared to older children (P = 0.012) and among girls compared to boys (P = 0.002). Progression was observed in 49.2%children with mean dioptric change of -0.27 ± 0.42 diopters. The demographic and behavioral risk factors were analyzed for children with progression (n = 629) and adjusted odds ratio values were estimated. Hours of reading-writing/week (p<0.001), use of computers/ video games (P<0.001) and watching television (P = 0.048) were significant risk factors for progression of myopia. Outdoor activities / time spent outdoors> 2 hours in a day were protective with an inverse association with progression of myopia (P< 0.001). Conclusion Myopia is an important health issue in India and is associated with long hours of reading and screen time with use of computers and video games. An annual eye vision screening should be conducted, and outdoor activities be promoted to prevent the increase of myopia among school children.
Genetic analysis of inherited hypertension in the rat.

Blood pressure is a quantitative trait that has a strong genetic component in humans and rats. Several selectively bred strains of rats with divergent blood pressures serve as an animal model for genetic dissection of the causes of inherited hypertension. The goal is to identify the genetic loci controlling blood pressure, i.e., the so-called quantitative trait loci (QTL). The theoretical basis for such genetic dissection and recent progress in understanding genetic hypertension are reviewed. The usual paradigm is to produce segregating populations derived from a hypertensive and normotensive strain and to seek linkage of blood pressure to genetic markers using recently developed statistical techniques for QTL analysis. This has yielded candidate QTL regions on almost every rat chromosome, and also some interactions between QTL have been defined. These statistically defined QTL regions are much too large to practice positional cloning to identify the genes involved. Most investigators are, therefore, fine mapping the QTL using congenic strains to substitute small segments of chromosome from one strain into another. Although impressive progress has been made, this process is slow due to the extensive breeding that is required. At this point, no blood pressure QTL have met stringent criteria for identification, but this should be an attainable goal given the recently developed genomic resources for the rat. Similar experiments are ongoing to look for genes that influence cardiac hypertrophy, stroke, and renal failure and that are independent of the genes for hypertension.
Privacy: is there an app for that?

Users of social networking sites (SNSs) increasingly must learn to negotiate privacy online with multiple service providers. Facebook's third-party applications (apps) add an additional layer of complexity and confusion for users seeking to understand and manage their privacy. We conducted a novel exploratory survey (conducted on Facebook as a Platform app) to measure how Facebook app users interact with apps, what they understand about how apps access and exchange their profile information, and how these factors relate to their privacy concerns. In our analysis, we paid special attention to our most knowledgeable respondents: given their expertise, would they differ in behaviors or attitudes from less knowledgeable respondents? We found that misunderstandings and confusion abound about how apps function and how they manage profile data. Against our expectations, knowledge or behavior weren't consistent predictors of privacy concerns with third-party apps or on SNSs in general. Instead, whether or not the respondent experienced an adverse privacy event on a social networking site was a reliable predictor of privacy attitudes.
The Role of Sound Source Perception in Gestural Sound Description

We investigated gesture description of sound stimuli performed during a listening task. Our hypothesis is that the strategies in gestural responses depend on the level of identification of the sound source and specifically on the identification of the action causing the sound. To validate our hypothesis, we conducted two experiments. In the first experiment, we built two corpora of sounds. The first corpus contains sounds with identifiable causal actions. The second contains sounds for which no causal actions could be identified. These corpora properties were validated through a listening test. In the second experiment, participants performed arm and hand gestures synchronously while listening to sounds taken from these corpora. Afterward, we conducted interviews asking participants to verbalize their experience while watching their own video recordings. They were questioned on their perception of the listened sounds and on their gestural strategies. We showed that for the sounds where causal action can be identified, participants mainly mimic the action that has produced the sound. In the other case, when no action can be associated with the sound, participants trace contours related to sound acoustic features. We also found that the interparticipants’ gesture variability is higher for causal sounds compared to noncausal sounds. Variability demonstrates that, in the first case, participants have several ways of producing the same action, whereas in the second case, the sound features tend to make the gesture responses consistent.
SO-VAT: Self-Organizing Visual Assessment of cluster Tendency for large data sets

A new method, Self-Organizing Visual Assessment of cluster Tendency (SO-VAT), is given for visually assessing the cluster tendency in large data sets. It is based on training a SOM with the input samples, and then calculating the VAT image from a selected group of the generated neurons, selection that is done according to a certain density of activation. Tests with synthetic and real examples demonstrate that the new SO- VAT algorithm results in clearer images and shorter computing time than applying directly the VAT procedure to the whole input-data set.
Magnetic sensors for data storage: perspective and future outlook

Abstract Sensors based on various magnetic principles and mechanisms are gaining wide acceptance in the data storage industry. The focus here is to make a comparative analysis of the practice and properties of current and past magnetic recording systems. Both longitudinal magnetic recording and perpendicular magnetic recording are addressed in the context of the media and magnetic sensors used in the recording head. An outlook for future data storage, such as patterned media and heat assisted recording, is also presented.
PalmSpace: continuous around-device gestures vs. multitouch for 3D rotation tasks on mobile devices

Rotating 3D objects is a difficult task on mobile devices, because the task requires 3 degrees of freedom and (multi-)touch input only allows for an indirect mapping. We propose a novel style of mobile interaction based on mid-air gestures in proximity of the device to increase the number of DOFs and alleviate the limitations of touch interaction with mobile devices. While one hand holds the device, the other hand performs mid-air gestures in proximity of the device to control 3D objects on the mobile device's screen. A flat hand pose defines a virtual surface which we refer to as the PalmSpace for precise and intuitive 3D rotations. We constructed several hardware prototypes to test our interface and to simulate possible future mobile devices equipped with depth cameras. We conducted a user study to compare 3D rotation tasks using the most promising two designs for the hand location during interaction -- behind and beside the device -- with the virtual trackball, which is the current state-of-art technique for orientation manipulation on touch-screens. Our results show that both variants of PalmSpace have significantly lower task completion times in comparison to the virtual trackball.
Edoxaban Effects on Bleeding Following Punch Biopsy and Reversal by a 4-Factor Prothrombin Complex Concentrate

Background— The oral factor Xa inhibitor edoxaban has demonstrated safety and efficacy in stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation and in the treatment and secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism. This study investigated the reversal of edoxaban’s effects on bleeding measures and biomarkers by using a 4-factor prothrombin complex concentrate (4F-PCC). Methods and Results— This was a phase 1 study conducted at a single site. This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 2-way crossover study to determine the reversal effect of descending doses of 4F-PCC on bleeding duration and bleeding volume following edoxaban treatment. A total of 110 subjects (17 in part 1, 93 in part 2) were treated. Intravenous administration of 4F-PCC 50, 25, or 10 IU/kg following administration of edoxaban (60 mg) dose-dependently reversed edoxaban’s effects on bleeding duration and endogenous thrombin potential, with complete reversal at 50 IU/kg. Effects on prothrombin time were partially reversed at 50 IU/kg. A similar trend was seen for bleeding volume. Conclusions— The 4F-PCC dose-dependently reversed the effects of edoxaban (60 mg), with complete reversal of bleeding duration and endogenous thrombin potential and partial reversal of prothrombin time following 50 IU/kg. Edoxaban alone and in combination with 4F-PCC was safe and well tolerated in these healthy subjects. A dose of 50 IU/kg 4F-PCC may be suitable for reversing edoxaban anticoagulation. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT02047565.
Compound Semiconductors for Low-Power p-Channel Field-Effect Transistors

Research in n -channel field-effect transistors based upon III–V compound semiconductors has been very productive over the last 30 years, with successful applications in a variety of high-speed analog circuits. For digital applications, complementary circuits are desirable to minimize static power consumption. Hence, p -channel transistors are also needed. Unfortunately, hole mobilities are generally much lower than electron mobilities for III–V compounds. This article reviews the recent work to enhance hole mobilities in antimonide-based quantum wells. Epitaxial heterostructures have been grown with the channel material in 1–2% compressive strain. The strain modifies the valence band structure, resulting in hole mobilities as high as 1500 cm^2/Vs. The next steps toward an ultra-low-power complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology will include development of a compatible insulator technology and integration of n - and p -channel transistors.