Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The db/db Mouse: A Useful Model for the Study of Diabetic Retinal Neurodegeneration

Background To characterize the sequential events that are taking place in retinal neurodegeneration in a murine model of spontaneous type 2 diabetes (db/db mouse). Methods C57BLKsJ-db/db mice were used as spontaneous type 2 diabetic animal model, and C57BLKsJ-db/+ mice served as the control group. To assess the chronological sequence of the abnormalities the analysis was performed at different ages (8, 16 and 24 weeks). The retinas were evaluated in terms of morphological and functional abnormalities [electroretinography (ERG)]. Histological markers of neurodegeneration (glial activation and apoptosis) were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. In addition glutamate levels and glutamate/aspartate transporter (GLAST) expression were assessed. Furthermore, to define gene expression changes associated with early diabetic retinopathy a transcriptome analyses was performed at 8 week. Furthermore, an additional interventional study to lower blood glucose levels was performed. Results Glial activation was higher in diabetic than in non diabetic mice in all the stages (p<0.01). In addition, a progressive loss of ganglion cells and a significant reduction of neuroretinal thickness were also observed in diabetic mice. All these histological hallmarks of neurodegeneration were less pronounced at week 8 than at week 16 and 24. Significant ERG abnormalities were present in diabetic mice at weeks 16 and 24 but not at week 8. Moreover, we observed a progressive accumulation of glutamate in diabetic mice associated with an early downregulation of GLAST. Morphological and ERG abnormalities were abrogated by lowering blood glucose levels. Finally, a dysregulation of several genes related to neurotransmission and oxidative stress such as UCP2 were found at week 8. Conclusions Our results suggest that db/db mouse reproduce the features of the neurodegenerative process that occurs in the human diabetic eye. Therefore, it seems an appropriate model for investigating the underlying mechanisms of diabetes-induced retinal neurodegeneration and for testing neuroprotective drugs.
Exposure to Online Alcohol Marketing and Adolescents' Drinking: A Cross-sectional Study in Four European Countries.

AIMS The Internet is the leading medium among European adolescents in contemporary times; even more time is spent on the Internet than watching television. This study investigates associations between online alcohol marketing exposure and onset of drinking and binge drinking among adolescents in four European countries. METHOD A total of 9038 students with a mean age of 14.05 (SD 0.82) participated in a school-based survey in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. Logistic regression analyses of cross-sectional cross-country survey data were undertaken. Exposure to online alcohol marketing, televised alcohol advertising and ownership of alcohol-branded items was estimated to be controlled for relevant confounders. Onset of drinking and binge drinking in the past 30 days were included in the study as outcome variables. RESULTS Adjusted for relevant confounders, higher exposure to (online) alcohol marketing exposure was found to be related to the odds of starting to drink (p < 0.001) and the odds of binge drinking in the past 30 days (p < 0.001). This effect was found to be consistent in all four countries. Active engagement with online alcohol marketing was found to interact more strongly with drinking outcomes than passive exposure to online alcohol marketing. CONCLUSIONS Youngsters in the four European countries report frequent exposure to online alcohol marketing. The association between this exposure and adolescents' drinking was robust and seems consistent across national contexts.
Worst-Case Synchronous Grammar Rules

We relate the problem of finding the best application of a Synchronous ContextFree Grammar (SCFG) rule during parsing to a Markov Random Field. This representation allows us to use the theory of expander graphs to show that the complexity of SCFG parsing of an input sentence of length N is ( N cn ), for a grammar with maximum rule length n and some constant c. This improves on the previous best result of ( N c √ n
Fast methods for inverse wave scattering problems

Inverse wave scattering problems arise in many applications including computerized/diffraction tomography, seismology, diffraction/holographic grating design, object identification from radar singals, and semiconductor quality control. Efficient algorithms exist for some inverse wave scattering problems in the low-and high-frequency regime or with weak scatterers. However, inverse wave scattering problems in the resonance regime with strong scatterers still pose many challenges. This thesis proposes algorithms for inverse wave scattering problems in the resonance regime with strong scatterers. These problems are part of, for instance, grating design, object identification, and semiconductor quality control. The proposed methods are (a) a spectrally convergent Nyström method for periodic structures in 2-D; (b) a fast Jacobian approximation method accompanying a Nyström method; (c) a fast and accurate method for evaluating the potential integrals in the 3-D mixed-potential integral operator with the Rao-Wilton-Glisson basis function; and (d) optimization with parameterized reduced-order models. The Nyström method and the method to evaluate the potential integrals accelerate scattered field evaluations by solving integral equations efficiently. The Jacobian approximation method and optimization with parameterized reduced-order models efficiently couple algorithms to evaluate scattered fields due to a guess of the scatterer and optimization methods to improve the guess. The Nyström and the Jacobian approximation methods are used to identify the parameters characterizing a periodic dielectric grating in 2-D. The method to evaluate the potential integrals and optimization with parameterized reduced-order models are applied to the problem of identifying simple discrete geometries in 3-D.
A case for custom silicon in enabling low-cost information technology for developing regions

Information and communications technology has the potential for deep social impact in developing regions but today's typical ICT devices -- laptops, mobile phones, and similar devices -- are often still too expensive for many scenarios. In this paper, we argue that custom integrated circuits can enable a new tier of low-cost information access devices with a price point that will make them widely accessible. And, with control over the silicon, these systems can economically address many other challenges. To evaluate our claim, we focus on a deceptively simple problem -- low-cost information access for illiterate populations through audio recordings -- and show how custom silicon allows us to reduce cost, lower power, leverage conventional infrastructure in unconventional ways, and optimize the interface for usability. In particular, we show how a rural audio computer can be designed around just three chips, use an inexpensive capacitive touch interface, employ inductive communications for peer-to-peer data transfer, and employ content download over GSM voice and FM broadcast as two wide area options. The resulting design point -- enabled by aggressive silicon integration -- affords a device that can be built for $7.77, a third of the cost achievable using commercial off-the-shelf components.
Recovering Independent Associations in Genetics: A Comparison

In genetics, it is often of interest to discover single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are directly related to a disease, rather than just being associated with it. Few methods exist, however, for addressing this so-called "true sparsity recovery" issue. In a thorough simulation study, we show that for moderate or low correlation between predictors, lasso-based methods perform well at true sparsity recovery, despite not being specifically designed for this purpose. For large correlations, however, more specialized methods are needed. Stability selection and direct effect testing perform well in all situations, including when the correlation is large.
Selective Rescue of Selenoprotein Expression in Mice Lacking a Highly Specialized Methyl Group in Selenocysteine tRNA*

Selenocysteine (Sec) is the 21st amino acid in the genetic code. Its tRNA is variably methylated on the 2′-O-hydroxyl site of the ribosyl moiety at position 34 (Um34). Herein, we identified a role of Um34 in regulating the expression of some, but not all, selenoproteins. A strain of knock-out transgenic mice was generated, wherein the Sec tRNA gene was replaced with either wild type or mutant Sec tRNA transgenes. The mutant transgene yielded a tRNA that lacked two base modifications, N6-isopentenyladenosine at position 37 (i6A37) and Um34. Several selenoproteins, including glutathione peroxidases 1 and 3, SelR, and SelT, were not detected in mice rescued with the mutant transgene, whereas other selenoproteins, including thioredoxin reductases 1 and 3 and glutathione peroxidase 4, were expressed in normal or reduced levels. Northern blot analysis suggested that other selenoproteins (e.g. SelW) were also poorly expressed. This novel regulation of protein expression occurred at the level of translation and manifested a tissue-specific pattern. The available data suggest that the Um34 modification has greater influence than the i6A37 modification in regulating the expression of various mammalian selenoproteins and Um34 is required for synthesis of several members of this protein class. Many proteins that were poorly rescued appear to be involved in responses to stress, and their expression is also highly dependent on selenium in the diet. Furthermore, their mRNA levels are regulated by selenium and are subject to nonsense-mediated decay. Overall, this study described a novel mechanism of regulation of protein expression by tRNA modification that is in turn regulated by levels of the trace element, selenium.
MARTINGALES, ENDOMORPHISMS, AND COVARIANT SYSTEMS OF OPERATORS IN HILBERT SPACE

In the theory of wavelets, in the study of subshifts, in the analysis of Julia sets of rational maps of a complex variable, and, more generally, in the study of dynamical systems, we are faced with the problem of building a unitary operator from a mapping r in a compact metric space X. The space X may be a torus, or the state space of subshift dynamical systems, or a Julia set. While our motivation derives from some wavelet problems, we have in mind other applications as well; and the issues involving covariant operator systems may be of independent interest.
The myotoxicity of bupivacaine, a 31P n.m.r. investigation

1 Phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance (n.m.r.) spectroscopy is a recently introduced method for the non‐invasive study of muscle biochemistry. 2 It was shown in the rat that an intramuscular injection of the drug resulted in degeneration that was reflected spectroscopically in a progressive decrease in the intracellular concentrations of phosphocreatine and adenosine triphosphate without a corresponding rise in that of inorganic phosphate. Furthermore, ATP was depleted in the presence of significant levels of phosphocreatine. As regeneration occurred spectra returned to normal and this was complete by day 10. 3 No such spectroscopic effects were demonstrated in man following the use of bupivacaine in an intravenous regional anaesthetic. 4 It is suggested that further studies in man are required before this drug can be administered intramuscularly with confidence.
Genetic medicine strategies to protect against bioterrorism.

Biologic terrorism, the use of biological agents to intentionally produce illness or intoxication in a target population, presents major challenges for protection of the civilian population. Unlike traditional public health vaccination strategies, where there is time to initiate effective protective immunity against limited numbers of known pathogens, there are large numbers of potential pathogens for use as bioterror agents, and it is impractical to prophylactically immunize the entire civilian population against many agents. The focus of this review is a strategy to use adenovirus gene transfer vectors as a platform for rapidly acting vaccines that can be stockpiled and used to immunize a susceptible population in response to a bioterror attack once the pathogen has been identified. There are a great variety of biological agents that could potentially be used for biological warfare. The optimal properties of pathogens that make them suitable for bioterrorism include high lethality or moderate lethality with persistent morbidity, simple production, stability, aerosol transmission and antibiotic resistance. In consultation with other federal agencies, infectious disease and national public health experts and law enforcement officials, the Communicable Disease Center, Atlanta, GA has generated a list of three categories (A–C) of bioterror agents based on the potential for harm if deliberately released in an act of bioterrorism (www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/agentlist-category.asp). Of these agents, the Category A agents are of most concern, including anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, tularemia and the viral hemorrhagic fevers (1). These agents can be disseminated easily or transmitted person-to-person, cause high mortality and/or have the potential for a major impact on public health, will likely cause public panic and social disruption, and require special action for public health preparedness. Category B agents are less of an immediate bioterrorism concern because they are only moderately easy to disseminate and cause moderate morbidity and low mortality. Category C agents include emerging pathogens that could potentially be engineered for mass dissemination, but are not presently likely to be used as a bioterrorist weapon.
MIKE: An Interactive Microblogging Keyword Extractor using Contextual Semantic Smoothing

Social media, such as tweets on Twitter and Short Message Service (SMS) messages on cellular networks, are short-length textual documents (short texts or microblog posts) exchanged among users on the Web and/or their mobile devices. Automatic keyword extraction from short texts can be applied in online applications such as tag recommendation and contextual advertising. In this paper we present MIKE, a robust interactive system for keyword extraction from single microblog posts, which uses contextual semantic smoothing; a novel technique that considers term usage patterns in similar texts to improve term relevance information. We incorporate Phi coefficient in our technique, which is based on corpus-based term-to-term relatedness information and successfully handles the shortlength challenge of short texts. Our experiments, conducted on multi-lingual SMS messages and English Twitter tweets, show that MIKE significantly improves keyword extraction performance beyond that achieved by Term Frequency, Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF). MIKE also integrates a rule-based vocabulary standardizer for multi-lingual short texts which independently improves keyword extraction performance by 14%.
Special Section on Corpus-Based Speech Technologies Construction and Evaluation of a Large In-Car Speech Corpus

In this paper, we discuss the construction of a large in-car spoken dialogue corpus and the result of its analysis. We have developed a system specially built into a Data Collection Vehicle (DCV) which supports the synchronous recording of multichannel audio data from 16 microphones that can be placed in flexible positions, multichannel video data from 3 cameras, and vehicle related data. Multimedia data has been collected for three sessions of spoken dialogue with different modes of navigation, during approximately a 60 minute drive by each of 800 subjects. We have characterized the collected dialogues across the three sessions. Some characteristics such as sentence complexity and SNR are found to differ significantly among the sessions. Linear regression analysis results also clarify the relative importance of various corpus characteristics. key words: speech corpus, in-car speech recognition, perplexity, SNR
Randomized, open-label, phase III study comparing irinotecan with paclitaxel in patients with advanced gastric cancer without severe peritoneal metastasis after failure of prior combination chemotherapy using fluoropyrimidine plus platinum: WJOG 4007 trial.

PURPOSE This phase III study compared treatment with weekly paclitaxel and biweekly irinotecan in patients with advanced gastric cancer refractory to treatment with fluoropyrimidine plus platinum. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were randomly assigned to receive either paclitaxel (80 mg/m(2) on days 1, 8, and 15, every 4 weeks) or irinotecan (150 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 15, every 4 weeks). Primary end point was overall survival (OS), and secondary end points were progression-free survival (PFS), response rate, adverse events, and proportion of patients who received third-line chemotherapy. RESULTS Of 223 patients, 219 were eligible for analysis. Median OS was 9.5 months in 108 patients allocated to the paclitaxel group and 8.4 months in 111 patients allocated to the irinotecan group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.13; 95% CI, 0.86 to 1.49; P = .38). Median PFS was 3.6 months in the paclitaxel group and 2.3 months in the irinotecan group (HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 0.88 to 1.49; P = .33). Response rate was 20.9% in the paclitaxel group and 13.6% in the irinotecan group (P = .24). Common grade 3 to 4 adverse events were neutropenia (paclitaxel group, 28.7%; irinotecan group, 39.1%), anemia (21.3%; 30.0%), and anorexia (7.4%; 17.3%). Treatment-related deaths occurred in two patients (1.8%) in the irinotecan group. Third-line chemotherapy was administered in 97 patients (89.8%) after paclitaxel treatment and in 80 patients (72.1%) after irinotecan treatment (P = .001). CONCLUSION No statistically significant difference was observed between paclitaxel and irinotecan for OS. Both are reasonable second-line treatment options for advanced gastric cancer.
In Search of Shotgun Parsers in Android Applications

In any software system, unprincipled handling of input data presents significant security risks. This is particularly true in the case of mobile platforms, where the prevalence of applications developed by amateur developers in combination with devices that hold a wealth of users' personal information can lead to significant security and privacy concerns. Of particular concern is the so-called shotgun parser pattern, in which input recognition is intermixed with input processing throughout the code base. In this work, we take the first steps toward building a tool for identification of shotgun parsers in Android applications. By extending the FlowDroid framework for static taint analysis, we are able to quantify the spread of untrusted data through 55 applications selected from 15 categories on the Google Play store. Our analysis reveals that on average, most untrusted input propagates a relatively short distance within the application code. However, we also find several specific instances of very long data propagations. In addition to providing a first look at the "state of parsing" in a variety of Android applications, our work in this paper lays the groundwork for more precise shotgun parser signature recognition.
On the finite-SNR Diversity-Multiplexing Tradeoff in large Rayleigh product channels

The Diversity-Multiplexing Tradeoff (DMT) is studied for the large Rayleigh product channel at non-asymptotic SNRs. The first result is that, as matrix dimensions growing to infinity, the channel capacity converges to a Gaussian random variable. Based on this, we derive a compact expression for the finite-SNR DMT. From the analytical and numerical results, we gain useful insight into the fundamental tradeoff of the considered channel model in the realistic SNR regime.
Postoperative B-type Natriuretic Peptide for Prediction of Major Cardiac Events in Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery: Systematic Review and Individual Patient Meta-analysis

Background:It is unclear whether postoperative B-type natriuretic peptides (i.e., BNP and N-terminal proBNP) can predict cardiovascular complications in noncardiac surgery. Methods:The authors undertook a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis to determine whether postoperative BNPs predict postoperative cardiovascular complications at 30 and 180 days or more. Results:The authors identified 18 eligible studies (n = 2,051). For the primary outcome of 30-day mortality or nonfatal myocardial infarction, BNP of 245 pg/ml had an area under the curve of 0.71 (95% CI, 0.64–0.78), and N-terminal proBNP of 718 pg/ml had an area under the curve of 0.80 (95% CI, 0.77–0.84). These thresholds independently predicted 30-day mortality or nonfatal myocardial infarction (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 4.5; 95% CI, 2.74–7.4; P < 0.001), mortality (AOR, 4.2; 95% CI, 2.29–7.69; P < 0.001), cardiac mortality (AOR, 9.4; 95% CI, 0.32–254.34; P < 0.001), and cardiac failure (AOR, 18.5; 95% CI, 4.55–75.29; P < 0.001). For greater than or equal to 180-day outcomes, natriuretic peptides independently predicted mortality or nonfatal myocardial infarction (AOR, 3.3; 95% CI, 2.58–4.3; P < 0.001), mortality (AOR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.67–86; P < 0.001), cardiac mortality (AOR, 2.1; 95% CI, 0.05–1,385.17; P < 0.001), and cardiac failure (AOR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.0–9.34; P = 0.022). Patients with BNP values of 0–250, greater than 250–400, and greater than 400 pg/ml suffered the primary outcome at a rate of 6.6, 15.7, and 29.5%, respectively. Patients with N-terminal proBNP values of 0–300, greater than 300–900, and greater than 900 pg/ml suffered the primary outcome at a rate of 1.8, 8.7, and 27%, respectively. Conclusions:Increased postoperative BNPs are independently associated with adverse cardiac events after noncardiac surgery.
Neither playing the game nor keeping it real: media logics and Big Brother

Sam Pepper, one of the contestants in Big Brother 11, at one point accused fellow housemates Josie and John James of feigning romantic feelings for each other in order to cash in on lucrative deals with celebrity magazines such as OK! and Hello! The provocation caused much apparent offence, and led to a prolonged and predominantly rancorous debate about authenticity and inauthenticity, soon extending to revelations that other housemates (Rachel, Corinne) aimed to appear in soft pornography titles like Nuts and Zoo, and as such, ‘couldn’t be trusted’. The clear subtext was that any economic motivation was considered a breach of the rules of the Big Brother game – not the explicit parameters of the competition, but the spirit in which it should be played. Being a worthy winner is a matter of who you are rather than what you do, which raises the question of how we came to know Josie and co, as well as how we come to know celebrity selves generally. If BB has taught us anything about the formation of mediated selves, it is that an authentic mediated self cannot exist – and yet authenticity still matters. This piece reflects on this tension and its implications for our increasingly reflexive media culture.