Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Once-only sigmoidoscopy in colorectal cancer screening: follow-up findings of the Italian Randomized Controlled Trial--SCORE.

BACKGROUND A single flexible sigmoidoscopy at around the age of 60 years has been proposed as an effective strategy for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. METHODS We conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening on CRC incidence and mortality. A questionnaire to assess the eligibility and interest in screening was mailed to 236,568 men and women, aged 55-64 years, who were randomly selected from six trial centers in Italy. Of the 56,532 respondents, interested and eligible subjects were randomly assigned to the intervention group (invitation for flexible sigmoidoscopy; n = 17,148) or the control group (no further contact; n = 17,144), between June 14, 1995, and May 10, 1999. Flexible sigmoidoscopy was performed on 9911 subjects. Intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses were performed to compare the CRC incidence and mortality rates in the intervention and control groups. Per-protocol analysis was adjusted for noncompliance. RESULTS A total of 34,272 subjects (17,136 in each group) were included in the follow-up analysis. The median follow-up period was 10.5 years for incidence and 11.4 years for mortality; 251 subjects were diagnosed with CRC in the intervention group and 306 in the control group. Overall incidence rates in the intervention and control groups were 144.11 and 176.43, respectively, per 100,000 person-years. CRC-related death was noted in 65 subjects in the intervention group and 83 subjects in the control group. Mortality rates in the intervention and control groups were 34.66 and 44.45, respectively, per 100,000 person-years. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the rate of CRC incidence was statistically significantly reduced in the intervention group by 18% (rate ratio [RR] = 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.69 to 0.96), and the mortality rate was non-statistically significantly reduced by 22% (RR = 0.78; 95% CI = 0.56 to 1.08) compared with the control group. In the per-protocol analysis, both CRC incidence and mortality rates were statistically significantly reduced among the screened subjects; CRC incidence was reduced by 31% (RR = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.56 to 0.86) and mortality was reduced by 38% (RR = 0.62; 95% CI = 0.40 to 0.96) compared with the control group. CONCLUSION A single flexible sigmoidoscopy screening between ages 55 and 64 years was associated with a substantial reduction of CRC incidence and mortality.
True Higher-Order Modules , Separate Compilation , and Signature Calculi ∗

In the past three decades, the ML module system has been the focal point of tremendous interest in the research community. The combination of parameterized modules and fine-grain data abstraction control have proven to be quite powerful in practice. Mainstream languages have slowly adopted features inspired by the ML module system. However, programmers have run into various limitations and complexities in implementations of the ML module system. In the presence of common extensions such as true higher-order modules, true separate compilation becomes a problem. This conflict reflects a fundamental tension in module system design. Module systems should both propagate as much type information across module boundaries as is unconstrained by the programmer and be able to separately typecheck modules.
Ewing Sarcoma: Biology-Based Therapeutic Perspectives

Ewing sarcoma, a rare malignancy of childhood and adolescence, has attracted wide research interest. Tumor-specific chromosomal translocations generate aberrant EWS-ETS transcription factors, which alter intracellular signaling networks through gene and protein expression and are considered to be the primary tumor-initiating event. Ewing sarcoma therefore offers insights into principle molecular mechanisms of cancer development and maintenance. Still, despite long-standing research, biology-based targeted treatment strategies for Ewing sarcoma are only beginning to emerge. This article provides an overview of the biological basis and putative targeted treatment options.
Tracking terrorism news threads by extracting event signatures

With the humongous amount of news stories published daily and the range of ways (RSS feeds, blogs etc) to disseminate them, even an expert at tracking new developing stories can feel the information overload. At most times, when a user is reading a news story, she would like to know “what happened before this? “ or “how things progressed after this incident? ”. In this paper, we present a novel real-time yet simple method to detect and track new events related to violence and terrorism in news streams through their life over a time line. We do this by first extracting signature of the event, at microscopic level rather than topic or macroscopic level, and then tracking and linking this event with mentions of same event signature in other incoming news articles. There by forming a thread that links all the news articles that describe this specific event, with no training data used or machine learning algorithms employed. We also present our experimental evaluations conducted with Document Understand Conference (DUC) datasets that validate our observations and methodology.
Tuning Self-Motion Perception in Virtual Reality with Visual Illusions

Motion perception in immersive virtual environments significantly differs from the real world. For example, previous work has shown that users tend to underestimate travel distances in virtual environments (VEs). As a solution to this problem, researchers proposed to scale the mapped virtual camera motion relative to the tracked real-world movement of a user until real and virtual motion are perceived as equal, i.e., real-world movements could be mapped with a larger gain to the VE in order to compensate for the underestimation. However, introducing discrepancies between real and virtual motion can become a problem, in particular, due to misalignments of both worlds and distorted space cognition. In this paper, we describe a different approach that introduces apparent self-motion illusions by manipulating optic flow fields during movements in VEs. These manipulations can affect self-motion perception in VEs, but omit a quantitative discrepancy between real and virtual motions. In particular, we consider to which regions of the virtual view these apparent self-motion illusions can be applied, i.e., the ground plane or peripheral vision. Therefore, we introduce four illusions and show in experiments that optic flow manipulation can significantly affect users' self-motion judgments. Furthermore, we show that with such manipulations of optic flow fields the underestimation of travel distances can be compensated.
Being a secondary English teacher in New Zealand: complex realities in the first 18 months

This paper focuses on the experiences of a group of beginning secondary school English teachers involved in ‘Making a Difference’, a national New Zealand study of the influence of initial teacher education and beginning teacher induction on teachers’ early development as professionals. Rich data drawn from three rounds of interviews with beginning teachers highlight the challenges faced by beginning subject‐specialist teachers in secondary school contexts. The focus is on how such teachers balance their need to be confident in their curriculum knowledge and at the same time devise strategies to engage diverse learners at all levels. Data from four case studies highlight the challenges and complex realities experienced by beginning teachers as they move from ‘surviving to thriving’ (or not) as specialist‐subject teachers, how these teachers continued to develop sound curriculum and pedagogical content knowledge in their specialism area beyond their initial training year, and the in‐school factors that contributed most to their developing self‐efficacy, identity and socialization into the profession.
In vivo assay of p53 function in homologous recombination between simian virus 40 chromosomes

To investigate a possible role of p53 in DNA exchange mechanisms, we have developed a model system which allows us to quantify homologous recombination rates in eukaryotic cells. We generated two types of simian virus 40 (SV40) whose genomes were mutated in such a way that upon double infection of monkey cells, virus particles can be released only after interchromosomal exchange of genetic material. This test system allowed us to determine recombination rates in the order of 10(-4) to 10(-6) for chromatin-associated SV40 genomes. To study the role of p53-T-antigen (T-Ag) complexes in this process, we designed viral test genomes with an additional mutation leading to a single amino acid exchange in T-Ag (D402H) and specifically blocking T-Ag-p53 interactions. Analysis of primary rhesus monkey cells endogenously expressing wild-type p53 showed a decreased recombination rate upon loss of efficient T-Ag-p53 complex formation. However, cells expressing mutant p53 (LLC-MK2 cells), the introduction of mutant T-Ag did not affect the DNA exchange rates. Our data are interpreted to indicate an inhibitory role of wild-type p53 in recombination. In agreement with this hypothesis, p53-T-Ag complex formation alleviates the inhibitory effect of wild-type p53.
Toward a Specialized Quality Management Maturity Assessment Model

SW Quality Assessment models are either too broad such as CMMI-DEV and SPICE that cover the full software development life cycle (SDLC), or too narrow such as TMMI and TPI that focus on testing. Quality Management as a main concern within the software industry is broader than the concept of testing. The V-Model sets a broader view with the concepts of Verification and Validation. Quality Assurance (QA) is another broader term that includes quality of processes. Configuration audits add more scope. In parallel there are some less visible dimensions in quality not often addressed in traditional models such as business alignment of QA efforts. This paper compares the commonly accepted models related to software quality management and proposes a model that fills an empty space in this area. The paper provides some analysis of the concepts of maturity and capability levels and provides some proposed adaptations for quality management assessment.
Synthesis and Antiviral Evaluation of Novel 4′-Hydroxymethyl Branched Apiosyl Nucleosides

Novel 4′-hydroxymethyl branched apiosyl nucleosides were synthesized in this study. The introduction of a hydroxymethyl group in the 4′-position was accomplished by a [3, 3]-sigmatropic rearrangement. Apiosyl sugar moiety was constructed by sequential ozonolysis and reductions. The natural bases (uracil, thymine, cytosine, and adenine) were efficiently coupled by a classical glycosyl condensation procedure (persilyated base and TMSOTf). The antiviral activities of the synthesized compounds were evaluated against HIV-1, HSV-1, HSV-2, and HCMV. Compound 18 displayed moderate anti-HCMV activity (EC 50 = 20.1 μg/mL) without exhibiting any cytotoxicity up to 100 μM.
A Pseudo-Hilbert Scan for Arbitrarily-Sized Cuboid Region

The 3-dimensional (3-D) Hilbert scan is a one-to-one mapping between 3-D data and 1-D data along the 3-D Hilbert curve. It has been applied widely in moving-image processing, such as image compression, pattern recognition, clustering an image, etc. Now, although there have been some 3-D Hilbert scanning algorithms, they usually have strict limitation on the scanned region. This make Hilbert scan very difficult to be applied in practice. So an effective scanning algorithm for arbitrarily-sized cuboid region is significative to improve the correlative digital image processing technology. In this paper, we proposed a novel Pseudo-Hilbert scanning algorithm based on the look-up tables method for arbitrarilysized cuboid region. Although the proposed algorithm is designed for 3-D space scanning, it can be also applied in an arbitrary-sized rectangle. The algorithm don't only remove the strict constrains but also reserve the good property of the Hilbert curve that scanning curve preserves point neighborhoods as much as possible. The good performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by the simulation results.
Illinois Cognitive Computation Group UI-CCG TAC 2013 Entity Linking and Slot Filler Validation Systems

In this paper, we describe the University of Illinois (UI CCG) submission to the 2013 TAC KBP English Entity Linking (EL) and Slot Filler Validation (SFV) tasks. We developed two separate systems. Our Entity Linking system integrates an improved version of the Illinois Wikifier with additional functionality to identify and cluster entity mentions that do not correspond to entries in the reference knowledge base. Our Slot Filler Validation system follows an entailment formulation that evaluates each candidate answer based on the evidence present in the source document it refers to.
A quantitative meta-analysis of fMRI studies in bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVES Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been widely used to identify state and trait markers of brain abnormalities associated with bipolar disorder (BD). However, the primary literature is composed of small-to-medium-sized studies, using diverse activation paradigms on variously characterized patient groups, which can be difficult to synthesize into a coherent account. This review aimed to synthesize current evidence from fMRI studies in midlife adults with BD and to investigate whether there is support for the theoretical models of the disorder. METHODS We used voxel-based quantitative meta-analytic methods to combine primary data on anatomical coordinates of activation from 65 fMRI studies comparing normal volunteers (n = 1,074) and patients with BD (n = 1,040). RESULTS Compared to normal volunteers, patients with BD underactivated the inferior frontal cortex (IFG) and putamen and overactivated limbic areas, including medial temporal structures (parahippocampal gyrus, hippocampus, and amygdala) and basal ganglia. Dividing studies into those using emotional and cognitive paradigms demonstrated that the IFG abnormalities were manifest during both cognitive and emotional processing, while increased limbic activation was mainly related to emotional processing. In further separate comparisons between healthy volunteers and patient subgroups in each clinical state, the IFG was underactive in manic but not in euthymic and depressed states. Limbic structures were not overactive in association with mood states, with the exception of increased amygdala activation in euthymic states when including region-of-interest studies. CONCLUSIONS In summary, our results showed abnormal frontal-limbic activation in BD. There was attenuated activation of the IFG or ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which was consistent across emotional and cognitive tasks and particularly related to the state of mania, and enhanced limbic activation, which was elicited by emotional and not cognitive tasks, and not clearly related to mood states.
Ethics, Public Policy, and Global Warming

There are many uncertainties concerning climate change, but a rough international consensus has emerged that a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide from its pre-industrial baseline is likely to lead to a 2.5 degree centigrade increase in the earth's mean surface temperature by the middle of the next century. Such a warming would have diverse impacts on human activities and would likely be catastrophic for many plants and nonhuman animals. The author's contention is that the problems engendered by the possibility of climate change are not purely scientific but also concern how we ought to live and how humans should relate to each other and to the rest of nature; and these are problems of ethics and politics.
Poster Abstract: Involving a Sensor Network System in Core Datacenter Management Functions

Summary form only given. In the recent decade, datacenters have emerged to play an increasingly important role in cloud-based computing systems. It is shown that wireless sensor networks (sensornets) can provide fine-grained measurement and flexible coverage for the datacenter platform, and help achieve better control and energy efficiency. In these applications, sensor nodes are only passive information receivers, and the use has so far been limited to auxiliary functions as an intelligent replacement of the traditional wired and embedded sensors. We argue that the combined computational and networking capability of a sensor network enables it to interact with server clusters in a much more sophisticated way and perform essential functions in the datacenter system. We design a technology to incorporating the sensornet as a core part of the datacenter system and improve datacenter management and operations. The sensornet can be easily deployed in a cluster, with sensor nodes attached in an ad hoc manner to the compute servers, and provide key system functions including reprogramming, supplementary authentication, and network signaling. The datacenter administrator can manage a large number of servers through the multihop sensor network, verify the participating servers to be legitimate entities within the datacenter, and improve performance through a low-bandwidth but intelligent wireless network. Our initial results have shown that the system eliminates some of the security problems present in current LAN network based datacenter management system; and that the sensornet provides good physical authentication function without introducing long delays in cluster-wide operations.
Detecting Representations of Recent and Remote Autobiographical Memories in vmPFC and Hippocampus

How autobiographical memories are represented in the human brain and whether this changes with time are questions central to memory neuroscience. Two regions in particular have been consistently implicated, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the hippocampus, although their precise contributions are still contested. The key question in this debate, when reduced to its simplest form, concerns where information about specific autobiographical memories is located. Here, we availed ourselves of the opportunity afforded by multivoxel pattern analysis to provide an alternative to conventional neuropsychological and fMRI approaches, by detecting representations of individual autobiographical memories in patterns of fMRI activity. We examined whether information about specific recent (two weeks old) and remote (10 years old) autobiographical memories was represented in vmPFC and hippocampus, and other medial temporal and neocortical regions. vmPFC contained information about recent and remote autobiographical memories, although remote memories were more readily detected there, indicating that consolidation or a change of some kind had occurred. Information about both types of memory was also present in the hippocampus, suggesting it plays a role in the retrieval of vivid autobiographical memories regardless of remoteness. Interestingly, we also found that while recent and remote memories were both represented within anterior and posterior hippocampus, the latter nevertheless contained more information about remote memories. Thus, like vmPFC, the hippocampus too respected the distinction between recent and remote memories. Overall, these findings clarify and extend our view of vmPFC and hippocampus while also informing systems-level consolidation and providing clear targets for future studies.
Projection Pursuit Through Relative Entropy Minimization

Projection Pursuit methodology permits to solve the difficult problem of finding an estimate of a density defined on a set of very large dimension. In his seminal article, “Projection Pursuit”, Huber (1985) evidenced the interest of the Projection Pursuit method thanks to the factorization of a density into a Gaussian component and some residual density in a context of Kullback–Leibler divergence maximisation. In the present article, we introduce a new algorithm, and in particular, a test for the factorisation of a density estimated from an iid sample.
Wideband radio frequency measurements: From instrumentation to sampling theory

Whether listening to broadcast radio or testing developed wireless devices, for civilian or military applications, based on terrestrial or spatial links, a radio frequency (RF) receiver with good measurement capabilities that preserves the received signal information is required. Today's RF measurement receivers with wideband capabilities are split into two groups based on the measurement strategy they adopt. Both groups produce a time domain waveform with both amplitude and phase information that is constructed either from a transformation of its frequency contents or directly from its time-domain samples.
Spectral analysis of 1D nearest-neighbor random walks and applications to subdiffusive trap and barrier models

We consider a sequence $X^{(n)}$, $n \geq 1 $, of continuous-time nearest-neighbor random walks on the one dimensional lattice $\mathbb{Z}$. We reduce the spectral analysis of the Markov generator of $X^{(n)}$ with Dirichlet conditions outside $(0,n)$ to the analogous problem for a suitable generalized second order differential operator $-D_{m_n} D_x$, with Dirichlet conditions outside a giveninterval. If the measures $dm_n$ weakly converge to some measure $dm_\infty$, we prove a limit theorem for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of $-D_{m_n}D_x$ to the corresponding spectral quantities of $-D_{m_\infty} D_x$. As second result, we prove the Dirichlet-Neumann bracketing for the operators $-D_m D_x$ and, as a consequence, we establish lower and upper bounds for the asymptotic annealed eigenvalue counting functions in the case that $m$ is a self-similar stochastic process. Finally, we apply the above results to investigate the spectral structure of some classes of subdiffusive random trap and barrier models coming from one-dimensional physics.
Otolaryngologic manifestations of the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

BACKGROUND The 22q11.2 chromosome deletion syndrome occurs at a frequency of 1 in 4000 live births. Fluorescent in situ hybridization is a reliable means of testing for this genetic abnormality. OBJECTIVE To describe the otolaryngologic manifestations of the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome to improve recognition and management of these disorders. PATIENTS AND DESIGN A retrospective medical record review of 102 patients with chromosome 22q 11.2 deletions confirmed by fluorescent in situ hybridization. SETTING A multidisciplinary 22q11.2 deletion clinic at an academic children's hospital. OUTCOME MEASURE All otolaryngologic problems were recorded, including facial dysmorphic features, velopharyngeal insufficiency, speech and airway abnormalities, feeding difficulties, gastroesophageal reflux, hearing loss, otitis media, sinus problems, and vascular anomalies. Additionally, available objective test results were recorded, including those from audiograms, imaging studies, endoscopies, speech evaluations, and vascular studies. RESULTS Dysmorphic facial features were found in most patients. Velopharyngeal incompetence was noted in 76 patients, while overt submucosal clefts were found in 11 patients. Most patients had speech and language delays. In addition, 53 patients had chronic or recurrent otitis media, and 28 had recurrent sinorhinitis. Furthermore, feeding problems were found in 48 patients, while vascular anomalies of the head and neck were found in 16 patients. CONCLUSION Otolaryngologic abnormalities are relatively common and important to recognize with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.