Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Progress in gene therapy for primary immunodeficiencies using lentiviral vectors

Purpose of reviewThis review gives an overview over the most recent progress in the field of lentiviral gene therapy for primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs). The history and state-of-the-art of lentiviral vector development are summarized and the recent advancements for a number of selected diseases are reviewed in detail. Past retroviral vector trials for these diseases, the most recent improvements of lentiviral vector platforms and their application in preclinical development as well as ongoing clinical trials are discussed. Recent findingsMain focus is on the preclinical studies and clinical trials for the treatment of Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome, chronic granulomatous disease, adenosine deaminase deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID) and X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency with lentiviral gene therapy. SummaryGene therapy for PIDs is an effective treatment, providing potential long-term clinical benefit for affected patients. Substantial progress has been made to make lentiviral gene therapy platforms available for a number of rare genetic diseases. Although many ongoing gene therapy trials are based on ex-vivo approaches with autologous hematopoietic stem cells, other approaches such as in-vivo gene therapy or gene-repair platforms might provide further advancement for certain PIDs.
The Effect of Gambling on Health: Evidence from Canada

The relationship between gambling and health has important economic and public policy implications. We develop causal evidence about the relationship between recreational gambling and health using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) cycles 2.1, 3.1 and 4.1. Recreational gamblers are gamblers who are classifi ed as "non-problem" gamblers according to the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI). Gambling is treated as an endogenous regressor in the health equations. The results of instrumental variable and bivariate probit models of participation in gambling and health outcomes indicate that recreational gambling has either no or a negative impact on the probability of having certain chronic conditions. These results diff er from studies that find a positive association between problem gambling and adverse health outcomes. Exogeneity tests suggest that gambling is endogenous; hence, empirical methods that address endogeneity are necessary to develop causal evidence of a relationship between gambling and health.
Trends in prevalence of current smoking, Massachusetts and states without tobacco control programmes, 1990 to 1999

Objective: To assess the effect of a comprehensive tobacco control programme initiated in Massachusetts in 1993, and to compare the 1990 to 1999 trend in smoking prevalence to that in 41 states without tobacco control programmes, controlling for demographic shifts over time. Design: Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for the years 1990 to 1999 were used to examine changes and trends in prevalence of smoking using multivariate logistic regression models. Main outcome measures: Trend in prevalence of current smoking for the years 1990 to 1999. Results: In 1990, the prevalence of current smoking in Massachusetts was 23.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) 21.0% to 26.1%), and 24.2% in the rest of the USA (95% CI 23.7% to 24.7%). By 1999, the prevalence had declined in Massachusetts to 19.4%, and to 23.3% in 41 other US states. Controlling for sex, age, race, and education, there was a greater decline in current smoking between 1990 and 1999 among Massachusetts men than among Massachusetts women, and the decline was greater in Massachusetts than in the rest of the USA for men and for both sexes combined. Conclusions: These results suggest that the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program is having a beneficial impact, but suggest a need for additional targeted efforts to achieve similar declines among Massachusetts women.
Quadratic-chi similarity metric learning for histogram feature

Histogram features, such as SIFT, HOG, LBP et al, are widely used in modern computer vision algorithms. According to [18], chi-square distance is an effective measure for comparing histogram features. In this paper, we propose a new method, named the Quadric-chi similarity metric learning (QCSML) for histogram features. The main contribution of this paper is that we propose a new metric learning method based on chi-square distance, in contrast with traditional Mahalanobis distance metric learning methods. The use of quadric-chi similarity in our method leads to an effective learning algorithm. Our method is tested on SIFT features for face identification, and compared with the state-of-art metric learning method (LDML) on the benchmark dataset, the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW). Experimental results show that our method can achieve clear performance gains over LDML.
Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-1 as a Potential Biomarker for Early Anti-Thrombotic Therapy after Ischemic Stroke

Inflammation following ischemic brain injury is correlated with adverse outcome. Preclinical studies indicate that treatment with acetylsalicylic acid + extended-release dipyridamole (ASA + ER-DP) has anti-inflammatory and thereby neuroprotective effects by inhibition of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) expression. We hypothesized that early treatment with ASA + ER-DP will reduce levels of MCP-1 also in patients with ischemic stroke. The EARLY trial randomized patients with ischemic stroke or TIA to either ASA + ER-DP treatment or ASA monotherapy within 24 h following the event. After 7 days, all patients were treated for up to 90 days with ASA + ER-DP. MCP-1 was determined from blood samples taken from 425 patients on admission and day 8. The change in MCP-1 from admission to day 8 did not differ between patients treated with ASA + ER-DP and ASA monotherapy (p > 0.05). Comparisons within MCP-1 baseline quartiles indicated that patients in the highest quartile (>217–973 pg/mL) showed improved outcome at 90 days if treated with ASA + ER-DP in comparison to treatment with ASA alone (p = 0.004). Our data does not provide any evidence that treatment with ASA + ER-DP lowers MCP-1 in acute stroke patients. However, MCP-1 may be a useful biomarker for deciding on early stroke therapy, as patients with high MCP-1 at baseline appear to benefit from early treatment with ASA + ER-DP.
ABORDAGEM DA QUALIDADE VOCAL EM UM FALANTE COM DEFICIÊNCIA AUDITIVA: ASPECTOS ACÚSTICOS RELEVANTES DO SINAL DE FALA The voice quality of a hearing impaired speaker: relevant acoustics aspects in the speech signal

Purpose : to describe acoustics parameters of voice quality of a child with mild hearing impairment that uses hearing aids and relate these parameters to auditory and physiological data. Methods: speech sample analysis and otorhynolaringological exam of a seven years old child with mild hearing impairment. The speech samples were the vowel [a] and seven sentences which were evaluated by auditory analysis for vocal quality by ten speech therapists judges. These same speech samples were analyzed acoustically: inspection (wave shape and spectrograms), extractions of measures of fundamental frequency, first three formants frequency and amplitude and automatic measures (noise/harmonic ratio - NHR, vocal turbulence index - VTI, degree of voiceless - DUV, variations of f0 –vf0, soft phonation index -SPI). The results of acoustics analysis were compared to those obtained from the recording analysis of a child of the same age and gender, with normal hearing, that was characterized as reference. Results: the hearing impairment subject presented inadequate speech breathing pattern, imprecise articulation, high pitch, strong loudness, vocal attack and breathy, rough and tense vocal quality. The f0 measures were higher and the second formant frequencies were lower. The data of few harmonics and alteration of certain measures (DUV, VTI, SPI) revealed important aspects of vocal dynamics, according to vocal nodules. Conclusion: the results indicate auditory and acoustic characteristics that complement each other in the comprehension of vocal quality settings that occur in hearing impaired speech.
Health and Disease in a British Columbian Indian Community *

Introduction Our investigation of the health prob­ lems of British Columbian Indians was prompted by the fact that the mortality and morbidity rates for Canadian Indians are considerably higher than for nonIndians and that very little data were available on the physical and mental dis­ orders of Indians. Initial efforts to provide health care for the Indian population of Canada began with the appointment of a full time Superintendent of Health in 1905. In 1955, a Directorate of Indian and Northern Health Services was formed within the Department of National Health and Welfare to provide medical services for Indians and Eskimos. From 1955 to the present the Directorate has employed its own medical personnel and also contracted with local doctors to provide services for Indians in specific areas. Contract doctors were paid indi­ gent rates for Indian patients until July 1968 when a uniform rate for all patients was established. Indians did not become eligible for the same physical and special services as other provincial residents until British Columbia joined the federal medicare health plan. The current federal-provincial arrangement has not eliminated the need for special services to Indians because of the multiplicity and seriousness of their health problems. Ob­ viously the quality and availability of medical resources for Indian people vary directly with the type of program avail­ able to them, the characteristics of medi­ cal personnel and their attitudes towards Indians, and the geographic relationship
Comparison of Broadband and Hyperspectral Sensors for Lantana Mapping

Remote sensing provides a useful tool for mapping invasive species across large areas. This study compared the effectiveness of imagery derived from three multi-spectral (Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), SPOT 5, and Quickbird) and hyperspectral (Hyperion) imaging platforms for detection of the invasive species Lantana camara L. in eastern Australia. Landsat TM multispectral (MS) image provided an overall accuracy of 85.1% and a kappa coefficient of 0.78 while SPOT 5 gave an overall accuracy of 84.9% and a kappa value of 0.77. Quickbird showed an overall accuracy of 84% and a kappa coefficient of 0.76. The Hyperion image gave an overall accuracy of 80% with a kappa value of 0.69. The highest producer (83%) and user accuracy (84%) for lantana was shown by Hyperion. The findings indicate that remote sensing technology can contribute to enhanced planning and decision making by scientists and resource managers involved in lantana research and management.
A 330 MHz 4-way superscalar microprocessor

This is a second-generation, highly-integrated superscalar processor implementing the Sparc V9 64b architecture. Performance is improved by increasing clock frequency and by improvements in the memory system. Clock rates up to 330 MHz are achieved. Microarchitecture improvements include a pre-fetch instruction, multiple outstanding block loads and stores, and support for a wide range of cache sizes and system frequencies. These result in improved computation, multimedia, and networking performance. This design is implemented on a 5-metal-layer, 0.35 /spl mu/m process.
Motion fields to predict play evolution in dynamic sport scenes

Videos of multi-player team sports provide a challenging domain for dynamic scene analysis. Player actions and interactions are complex as they are driven by many factors, such as the short-term goals of the individual player, the overall team strategy, the rules of the sport, and the current context of the game. We show that constrained multi-agent events can be analyzed and even predicted from video. Such analysis requires estimating the global movements of all players in the scene at any time, and is needed for modeling and predicting how the multi-agent play evolves over time on the field. To this end, we propose a novel approach to detect the locations of where the play evolution will proceed, e.g. where interesting events will occur, by tracking player positions and movements over time. We start by extracting the ground level sparse movement of players in each time-step, and then generate a dense motion field. Using this field we detect locations where the motion converges, implying positions towards which the play is evolving. We evaluate our approach by analyzing videos of a variety of complex soccer plays.
Evaluación y detección temprana de los problemas asociados al consumo de cannabis en adolescentes

Introduccion: El cannabis es la droga ilegal mas consumida en Occidente y los adolescentes espanoles son los mas consumidores de Europa. Su consumo puede tener multiples consecuencias negativas, particularmente para esta poblacion, por lo que su deteccion temprana y el analisis de los factores que motivan a los adolescentes a abandonar esta conducta de consumo es de gran interes para la practica clinica. De igual forma, es necesario desarrollar intervenciones psicologicas efectivas para los jovenes que experimentan problemas asociados al cannabis, para poder ofrecer una atencion de calidad. Los objetivos de la Tesis Doctoral son: 1) realizar una revision de los principales hallazgos en torno a los riesgos del consumo de cannabis para la salud mental y otros aspectos psicosociales; 2) adaptar, validar y evaluar las propiedades psicometricas de un instrumento de deteccion temprana de los problemas relacionados con el consumo de cannabis especifico para poblacion adolescente, el Cannabis Problems Questionnaire ? Adolescentes ? Short Form (CPQ-A-S), y comparar su utilidad clinica con el Cannabis Abuse Screening Test (CAST); 3) analizar los factores determinantes de la motivacion para dejar de consumir cannabis en los adolescentes asi como las barreras que estos perciben para acudir a los recursos clinicos que proporcionan ayuda profesional y 4) evaluar la factibilidad de llevar a cabo dos intervenciones basadas en la evidencia, la Aproximacion de Reforzamiento Comunitario para Adolescentes (A-CRA) y el Manejo de Contingencias (MC), para el tratamiento de los problemas relacionados con el consumo de cannabis en adolescentes en el Sistema Publico de Salud. Conclusiones: las publicaciones revisadas indican que el cannabis es un factor de riesgo para la aparicion de alteraciones de tipo psicotico en sujetos vulnerables con consumos abusivos, asi como para diversos problemas psicosociales y familiares. El Sindrome de Abstinencia de esta sustancia ha sido definido por varios autores y su conceptualizacion y evaluacion sera de gran interes para el tratamiento clinico del abuso. Los cuestionarios CPQ-A-S y CAST resultan fiables y validos, por lo que son herramientas utiles para la deteccion temprana de los problemas por consumo de cannabis. La motivacion de los jovenes para dejar de consumir por si mismos es muy escasa, y se han detectado barreras significativas tanto para el autocambio como para la solicitud de ayuda profesional, que deben ser superadas. La implantacion del A-CRA y el MC resulto factible en un contexto publico y ofrecio resultados prometedores en retencion, abstinencia y mejoras en sintomatologia clinica, aunque es necesario continuar explorando su eficacia asi como el rol del componente de incentivos.
On-Chip Integrated, Silicon–Graphene Plasmonic Schottky Photodetector with High Responsivity and Avalanche Photogain

We report an on-chip integrated metal graphene–silicon plasmonic Schottky photodetector with 85 mA/W responsivity at 1.55 μm and 7% internal quantum efficiency. This is one order of magnitude higher than metal–silicon Schottky photodetectors operated in the same conditions. At a reverse bias of 3 V, we achieve avalanche multiplication, with 0.37A/W responsivity and avalanche photogain ∼2. This paves the way to graphene integrated silicon photonics.
Driver monitoring with a single high-speed camera and IR illumination

The driver's diminished attention or fatigue are a major cause of fatal road accidents. Therefore techniques that can assess the fatigue and attention levels of the driver must be developed. These systems may see future introduction in vehicles only if they are non-intrusive and completely transparent to the driver. To address these challenges we propose a measurement system that uses a single high-speed camera and IR illumination to measure the eyelid opening and the orientation of the driver's head and gaze. These measurements are vital for any system that attempts to assess the driver's fatigue and attention levels. Currently, we require the driver to wear a small headband with markers and to perform a short calibration for gaze estimation. We are working actively towards removing these limitations. The results that we have obtained so far are encouraging and in accordance with our expectations. The system is accurate (gaze accuracy varies from 1/spl deg/ when the head rotation angles are smaller than 15/spl deg/ to 3/spl deg/ for head angles from roughly 15/spl deg/ to roughly 45/spl deg/), and very robust, and performs reliably even with most of the people wearing glasses. To our knowledge, we here present the only system that can reliably measure eyelid opening, and head and gaze orientations with a single camera at high speed (120Hz).
Escalated Expression of Autophagy Related Gene Atg 5 in Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Autophagy is a crucial catabolic process by which cells remove long-lived proteins and damaged organelles for recycling. Viral infections may also induce autophagic response. Members of autophagy related genes (Atgs) play active role in regulation of autophagic machinery. Atg5 gene is a prominent candidate responsible for initiation of autophagic process through the formation of autophagosome. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been shown to induce autophagy in experimental conditions. Since the expression status of Atg5 has not been elucidated in HBV infected cells from patients, we studied the same in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of HBV infected subjects. Forty two HBV infected subjects were appraised for their status of infection by biochemical, serological and real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. PBMC derived total RNA were subjected to reverse transcription PCR for amplification of Atg5 mRNA. HBV pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) was also assessed as a marker of intracellular viral replication. PBMCs from 24 healthy voluntary blood donors were used as control cells. In contrast to controls, expression of Atg5 was significantly (p=0.0001) up regulated in infected PBMCs obtained from patients. Considering the role of Atg5 expression in viral replication, the present study is indicative of HBV mediated modulation of host’s autophagy machinery to establish a chronic infection.
Vagomimetic Effects of Fingolimod: Physiology and Clinical Implications

Fingolimod is a sphingosine 1‐phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator approved to treat relapsing‐remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). Initiation of treatment with fingolimod has been found to produce transient bradycardia and/or slowing of atrioventricular impulse conduction in a small proportion of patients. This effect is thought to be due to the interaction of fingolimod with S1P receptors on the surface membrane of atrial myocytes causing a vagomimetic effect, similar to the action of acetylcholine on muscarinic receptors. As a precaution, patients are under electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring for 6 h after receiving their first dose. Fingolimod is contraindicated in patients with overt or concealed cardiac diseases. However, the Fingolimod Initiation and caRdiac Safety Trial (FIRST), which was designed specifically to investigate the cardiac profile of fingolimod, did not show an increased risk of clinically relevant cardiac events with fingolimod. This review examines the electrophysiology and pathophysiology of cardiac impulse formation in the context of fingolimod. It concludes that these vagomimetic effects should be considered benign and should not prevent the effective use of fingolimod in the treatment of patients with MS.
Superstrings and topological strings at large N

We embed the large N Chern–Simons/topological string duality in ordinary superstrings. This corresponds to a large N duality between generalized gauge systems with N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions and superstrings propagating on noncompact Calabi–Yau manifolds with certain fluxes turned on. We also show that in a particular limit of the N=1 gauge theory system, certain superpotential terms in the N=1 system (including deformations if spacetime is noncommutative) are captured to all orders in 1/N by the amplitudes of noncritical bosonic strings propagating on a circle with self-dual radius. We also consider D-brane/anti-D-brane system wrapped over vanishing cycles of compact Calabi–Yau manifolds and argue that at large N they induce a shift in the background to a topologically distinct Calabi–Yau, which we identify as the ground state system of the brane/anti-brane system.
Soft Power, Rhetorical Action and Hard Cash - An analysis of the EFTA-EU negotiations on the extended EEA-agreement

I believe that it is uncomplicated to present a plausible rational account of the final result of the negotiations. There are also reasons to believe that normative considerations played a role in Norway´s decision to unilaterally increase its contribution to the Central and Eastern European countries. The purpose of this paper however is to show that in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the outcome one should take into account the concepts of soft power and rhetorical action. What I will demonstrate is that Norwegian actors´ identity and the country´s reliance on soft power can in material terms be a disadvantage in international negotiations. Furthermore, I will show that EU actors possibly can be said to have strategically used normative arguments towards a country that because of its identity and its reliance on soft power cannot easily ignore arguments of this character.
Large-Scale Urban Modeling by Combining Ground Level Panoramic and Aerial Imagery

We describe an interactive system that models regions of an urban environment, such as a group of tall buildings. Traditional image-based modeling methods often cannot model such large areas due to error accumulation and limited camera field of view. Our approach widens the camera field of view by constructing a 360 degree panorama from ground-level images and uses a high resolution orthorectified aerial image to provide the building footprints. Users draw the building outlines in the aerial image and select a point as the approximate ground camera location. The method automatically extracts roof corners in the ground images and registers the panorama to the aerial image according to geometric constraints. The height of each building is calculated from an estimated camera pose. The resulting textured model of the buildings is constructed of planar surfaces.