Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Potential delay in the diagnosis of vulvar cancer and associated risk factors in women treated in German gynecological practices

The goal of this study was to estimate a potential delay in the diagnosis of vulvar cancer and identify associated risk factors in women treated in gynecological practices in Germany. The current study sample included 1,652 women from 218 gynecological practices who received an initial diagnosis of vulvar cancer (ICD 10: C51) between January 2000 and December 2015 (index date). After applying several exclusion criteria, 505 non-cancer controls were matched (1:1) to 505 vulvar cancer cases based on age, health insurance status, and index date. The primary outcome was the delay in vulvar cancer diagnosis in women who had received an initial diagnosis of diseases of Bartholin's gland, inflammation of vagina and vulva, or other specified noninflammatory disorders of vulva, including atrophy, hypertrophy, and cyst. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between vulvar cancer and pre-defined diagnoses. The mean age was 60.8 years (SD = 15.6 years), and 4.8% of women had private health insurance coverage. Inflammation of vagina and vulva was diagnosed 328 days (SD = 95 days) prior to the detection of vulvar cancer. This delay was 186 days (SD = 196 days) in patients affected by diseases of Bartholin’s gland and 300 days (SD = 116 days) in those with other specified noninflammatory disorders of vulva including atrophy, hypertrophy, and cyst. The risk of vulvar cancer was positively associated with inflammation of vagina and vulva (OR = 2.28) and other specified noninflammatory disorders of vulva (OR = 5.39). The mean potential delay of vulvar cancer diagnosis ranged from 186 to 328 days.
Superposition coded modulation and iterative linear MMSE detection

We study superposition coded modulation (SCM) with iterative linear minimum-mean-square-error (LMMSE) detection. We show that SCM offers an attractive solution for highly complicated transmission environments with severe interference. We analyze the impact of signaling schemes on the performance of iterative LMMSE detection. We prove that among all possible signaling methods, SCM maximizes the output signal-to-noise/ interference ratio (SNIR) in the LMMSE estimates during iterative detection. Numerical examples are used to demonstrate that SCM outperforms other signaling methods when iterative LMMSE detection is applied to multi-user/multi-antenna/multipath channels.
Secure Utilization of Beacons and UAVs in Emergency Response Systems for Building Fire Hazard

An intelligent emergency system for hazard monitoring and building evacuation is a very important application area in Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Through the use of smart sensors, such a system can provide more vital and reliable information to first-responders and also reduce the incidents of false alarms. Several smart monitoring and warning systems do already exist, though they exhibit key weaknesses such as a limited monitoring coverage and security, which have not yet been sufficiently addressed. In this paper, we propose a monitoring and emergency response method for buildings by utilizing beacons and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) on an IoT security platform. In order to demonstrate the practicability of our method, we also implement a proof of concept prototype, which we call the UAV-EMOR (UAV-assisted Emergency Monitoring and Response) system. Our UAV-EMOR system provides the following novel features: (1) secure communications between UAVs, smart sensors, the control server and a smartphone app for security managers; (2) enhanced coordination between smart sensors and indoor/outdoor UAVs to expand real-time monitoring coverage; and (3) beacon-aided rescue and building evacuation.
Chemokine Receptor Ccr7 Restricts Fatal West Nile Virus Encephalitis

ABSTRACT West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-transmitted flavivirus that can cause debilitating encephalitis. To delineate the mechanisms behind this pathology, we studied Ccr7-deficient mice, which afforded us the capacity to study infection in mice with disrupted peripheral cellular trafficking events. The loss of Ccr7 resulted in an immediate pan-leukocytosis that remained elevated throughout the infection. This leukocytosis resulted in a significant enhancement of leukocyte accumulation within the central nervous system (CNS). Despite an excess of virus-specific T cells in the CNS, Ccr7-deficient mice had significantly higher CNS viral loads and mortality rates than wild-type animals. Mechanistically, the elevated trafficking of infected myeloid cells into the brain in Ccr7-deficient mice resulted in increased levels of WNV in the CNS, thereby effectively contributing to neuroinflammation and lowering viral clearance. Combined, our experiments suggest that during WNV infection, Ccr7 is a gatekeeper for nonspecific viral transference to the brain. IMPORTANCE In this study, we show that Ccr7 is required for the sufficient migration of dendritic cells and T cells into the draining lymph node immediately following infection and for the restriction of leukocyte migration into the brain. Further, the severe loss of dendritic cells in the draining lymph node had no impact on viral replication in this organ, suggesting that WNV may migrate from the skin into the lymph node through another mechanism. Most importantly, we found that the loss of Ccr7 results in a significant leukocytosis, leading to hypercellularity within the CNS, where monocytes/macrophages contribute to CNS viremia, neuroinflammation, and increased mortality. Together, our data point to Ccr7 as a critical host defense restriction factor limiting neuroinflammation during acute viral infection.
Impact of sarcopenia on the outcomes of elective total arch replacement in the elderly†

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to identify the cut-off value of sarcopenia based on the psoas muscle area index and evaluate early and late outcomes following elective total arch replacement in the elderly. METHODS Sarcopenia was assessed by the psoas muscle area index [defined as the psoas muscle area at the L3 level on computed tomography (cm 2 )/body surface area (m 2 )]. The cut-off value for sarcopenia was defined as > 2 standard deviations below the mean psoas muscle area index value obtained from 464 normal control patients. Between October 1999 and July 2015, 266 patients who were ≥ 65 years and had undergone psoas muscle area index measurement underwent elective total arch replacement. These patients were classified into the sarcopenia (Group S, n = 81) and non-sarcopenia (Group N, n = 185) groups. RESULTS The mean age was 76.2 ± 5.6 years in Group S and 75.7 ± 5.7 years in Group N ( P = 0.553). Hospital mortality was 3.7% (3/81) in Group S and 2.2% (4/185) in Group N ( P = 0.483). Mean follow-up was 48.3 ± 38.7 months. Five-year survival was significantly worse in Group S (S: 63.2 ± 6.6% vs N: 88.7 ± 2.6%, P < 0.001). A multivariable Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that sarcopenia significantly predicted poor survival (hazard ratio 2.59; 95% confidence interval 1.27-5.29; P = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS Sarcopenia did not predict hospital death following total arch replacement, but it was negatively associated with overall survival. Sarcopenia can be an additional risk factor to estimate the outcomes of thoracic aortic surgery.
Measuring the Cost of Equity of Emerging Market Firms: The Case of Malaysia

Valuation in an emerging market like Malaysia poses to be a great challenge because there is no clear single 'best practice' for the valuation of assets and securities in emerging markets. Adopting some of the emerging market models reviewed in Pereiro (2001), together with the two-factor CAPM models proposed in this study, we make a comparison between standard risk measures and downside risk measures to estimate the cost of equity of Malaysian firms over the period of 2000â€“2007. Overall, the results are consistent with the literature which supports downside risk measures over standard risk measures. Also, our model, which considers both local and global risk factors, has higher explanatory power than models that consider only one kind of risk factor. Most importantly, the results show that unsystematic risks, or firm-specific risks, may have increased in recent years.
Cigarette smoke-induced EGFR activation promotes epithelial mesenchymal migration of human retinal pigment epithelial cells through regulation of the FAK-mediated Syk/Src pathway

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells is inevitable change of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Smoking is a major risk factor for the development of EMT in several diseases, including lung cancer. Cigarette smoke-induced stress promotes the production of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in RPE cells. However, the underlying signaling pathways induced by aberrant EGF receptor (EGFR) expression in cigarette smoke-exposed RPE cells remain largely unknown. In the present study, the morphological transformation and production of EMT-associated cytokines were investigated to analyze the effect of smoking on the retina. Furthermore, EGF-treated or cigarette smoke-exposed RPE cells, as well as the downstream targets of EGFR, were investigated to identify the key molecules involved in EMT of cigarette smoke-stimulated RPE cells via immunoblotting. Exposure of RPE cells to cigarette smoke extract (CSE) induced secretion of VEGF and TGF-β1, and increased the expression of EMT markers. CSE-mediated focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activation resulted in the phosphorylation and activation of spleen associated tyrosine kinase (Syk)/Src proto-oncogene, non-receptor tyrosine kinase (Src), leading to migration and invasion of RPE cells. Knockdown of FAK or pharmacological inhibition of Syk/Src abrogated CSE-mediated VEGF and TGF-β1 production and blocked the phosphorylation of Smad2/3 in CSE-stimulated RPE cells. Erlotinib (an EGFR inhibitor) suppressed EGF and CSE-mediated switch from an epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype. Baicalein, an inhibitor of 12/15-lipooxygenase, also efficiently suppressed CSE-induced EMT processes by inhibiting EGFR-associated downstream signaling transduction. The results identified a novel signaling pathway mediated by EGFR in CSE-activated RPE cells, and suggest baicalein as a potential new therapeutic drug for CSE-associated retinopathy.
A classical mistake and what it tells us. How to do better with an action principle for Hydro and Thermodynamics

Rayleigh's stability analysis of cylindrical Couette flow, of 1889 and 1916, is in contradiction with observation. The analysis is repeated in many textbooks and reviews up to 2017, and its failure to agree with observation was duly noted. More successful approaches have been found, but little was done to discover the weak point of Rayleigh's argument, what is the reason that it fails. This paper identifies the mistake as one that is endemic in the literature. Since the physics of the problem remains poorly understood, a discussion of this paradox should prove useful. Briefly, the argument depends on the Navier-Stokes equation and on the assumption that a certain expression called "energy density" or "kinetic potential" can be interpreted and used as such. It is shown here that %no energy density is compatible with the Navier-Stokes equation, in the context of Couette flow or in general, and that the use of any expression as a kinetic potential is in conflict with the Navier-Stokes equation, in all but a very limited context. An alternative analysis of basic Couette flow, based on an action principle for compressible fluids, provides a Hamiltonian density as well as a kinetic potential. The two are not the same, even in the simplest cases. The action principle provides a kinetic potential; a new criterion for stability recognizes the profound effect of the surface adhesion and the tensile strength of water. It is in full agreement with observation. Several new experiments are suggested.
Belief Movement , Uncertainty Reduction , & Rational Updating ∗

When a Bayesian learns new information and changes her beliefs, she must on average become concomitantly more certain about the state of the world. Consequently, it is rare for a Bayesian to frequently shift beliefs substantially while remaining relatively uncertain, or, conversely, become very confident with relatively little belief movement. We formalize this intuition by developing specific measures of movement and uncertainty reduction given a Bayesian’s changing beliefs over time, showing that these measures are equal in expectation, and creating consequent statistical tests for Bayesianess. We then show connections between these two core concepts and four common psychological biases, suggesting that the test might be particularly good at detecting these biases. We provide support for this conclusion by simulating the performance of our test and other martingale tests. Finally, we apply our test to datasets of individual, algorithmic, and market beliefs. ∗We thank Tristan Gagnon-Bartsch and Kevin He for valuable research assistance, and Roland Benabou, Doug Bernheim, Aaron Bodoh-Creed, Stefano DellaVigna, Emir Kamenica, Michael Katz, David Laibson, Eben Lazarus, David Levine, Ulrike Malmendier, Muriel Niederle, Devin Pope, Josh Schwartzstein, Carl Shapiro, Avner Shlain, Charles Sprenger, Joel Sobel, Alex Steiny, Philipp Strack, Tomasz Strzalecki, Neil Shephard, Itai Sher, Dan Svirsky, and Eric Zitzewitz, as well as seminar audiences at UC-Berkeley, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Chicago Booth, BEAM, Stanford, Brown, Yale SOM, USC, University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, and UCSD, for helpful comments. †Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. ned@haas.berkeley. edu ‡Department of Economics and Business School, Harvard University. matthewrabin@fas.harvard. edu
Design of an intra-module DC-DC converter for PV application: Design considerations and prototype

The effective efficiency of a photovoltaic system is strongly affected by varying factors such as partial shading. The centralized power conversion has limitations to mitigate that problem. As a possible solution the benefits of the distributed power conversion are explored and as an integral part of distributed power conversion an intra-module DC-DC converter is presented here to implement at substring level in photovoltaic application. In this work, the design requirements of the intra-module converter are identified and the converter is designed accordingly. The effectiveness of the designed converter is also discussed in this paper. Finally, a fully-working prototype of this converter is built and tested.
Analysis and design of electronic ballast for stabilization of HID lamps with low frequency square waveform

This paper presents the design guidelines of electronic ballast for HID lamps. High efficient electronic ballast with high power factor and low THD (total harmonic distortion) is presented. The use of input current shaper converters (ICSC) working in Discontinuous-Conduction Mode (DCM) to stabilize the discharge arc in High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps is proposed. The analysis of how the ICSC stabilizes the lamp current through the analysis of the output capacitor Co and model lamp is presented. The results indicated the feasibility to stabilize the lamp and obtaining high efficiency, high power factor and low THD in a single stage is presented.
Overcoming Organisational Resistance to Using Wiki Technology for Knowledge Management

Although Wikis emerged in the public domain more than a decade ago, a number of business organisations are now discovering the advantages of using Wiki technology to manage knowledge. However, there are many who are not convinced about the merits of this relatively new Wiki technology and are not yet prepared to risk its adoption because it exhibits many ideas that have yet to be tested and many issues that have yet to be resolved. This paper studies the merits of using a Wiki for knowledge management. While some cases of corporate adoption of Wiki technology have been reported, cases of organisations deciding to disallow the instillation and use of Wikis are rarely reported. The paper focuses on the case of an organisation that has declined to adopt Wiki Technology by identifying some of the key organisational issues that have contributed to its resistance. These key issues include the challenge to centralised control of Information Systems, as well as social elements, such as a lack of recognition of authorship, vandalism and slander. The very nature of a Wiki makes it difficult to apply traditional Intellectual Property rights, such as copyright, and this may give rise to legal controversies and conflicts of interpretations. This paper concludes with recommendations on how to overcome the obstacles that can deter organisations from using Wiki technology to act as a knowledge conduit for the organisation.
Authorship Attribution using Unsupervised Clustering Algorithms on English C50 News Articles

: The aim of the authorship attribution is identifying the author of an unknown/anonymous document. Many earlier researches used authorship attribution as a multi class single labelled text classifier problem. However, in several applications it is not easy or even possible to find such labeled data and it is necessary to build unsupervised attribution models that are able to estimate similarities/differences in personal style of authors. The present paper experimets authorship attribution as a clustering task using various unsupervised clustering algorithms like K-means, Mini Batch K-means and Ward Hierarchialclusterings and our authorship clustering algorithm achieves 97% of clustering accuracy in clustering C50 English news groups artcles.
Global step planning of dynamic biped locomotion considering obstacles

This paper concerns on footstep planning of a biped robot in an environment having some obstacles. A biped robot has an advantage to work in human surroundings. This is accomplished by its capability to walk over the obstacles. Though its foot placement should be discussed to step over obstacles, it is difficult because dynamic biped locomotion is a complex interaction system between CoG trajectory and stepping point. This complex system is solved by the term control method applying LIPM. It is able to adjust the walking stride and speed independently with this method. The collision detection can be achieved easily through modeling the obstacles to an off-limits on the horizontal plane. A stamp area is set in order to avoid the extreme stride alteration. Through these methods, the robot can prepare for the obstacle beforehand and select a series of footsteps that provides stable locomotion. A simulation result is shown to approve the validity of the proposed methods.
Computing actuator bandwidth limits for model reference adaptive control

ABSTRACT Although model reference adaptive control theory has been used in numerous applications to achieve system performance without excessive reliance on dynamical system models, the presence of actuator dynamics can seriously limit the stability and the achievable performance of adaptive controllers. In this paper, a linear matrix inequalities-based hedging approach is developed and evaluated for model reference adaptive control of uncertain dynamical systems in the presence of actuator dynamics. The hedging method modifies the ideal reference model dynamics in order to allow correct adaptation that is not affected by the presence of actuator dynamics. Specifically, we first generalise the hedging approach to cover a variety of cases in which actuator output and the control effectiveness matrix of the uncertain dynamical system are known and unknown. We then show the stability of the closed-loop dynamical system using Lyapunov-based stability analysis tools and propose a linear matrix inequality-based framework for the computation of the minimum allowable actuator bandwidth limits such that the closed-loop dynamical system remains stable. Finally, an illustrative numerical example is provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.
Secondary structure of cell‐penetrating peptides during interaction with fungal cells

Cell‐penetrating peptides (CPPs) are peptides that cross cell membranes, either alone or while carrying molecular cargo. Although their interactions with mammalian cells have been widely studied, much less is known about their interactions with fungal cells, particularly at the biophysical level. We analyzed the interactions of seven CPPs (penetratin, Pep‐1, MPG, pVEC, TP‐10, MAP, and cecropin B) with the fungal pathogen Candida albicans using experiments and molecular simulations. Circular dichroism (CD) of the peptides revealed a structural transition from a random coil or weak helix to an α‐helix occurs for all peptides when the solvent is changed from aqueous to hydrophobic. However, CD performed in the presence of C. albicans cells showed that proximity to the cell membrane is not necessarily sufficient to induce this structural transition, as penetratin, Pep‐1, and MPG did not display a structural shift in the presence of cells. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to further probe the molecular‐level interaction with the cell membrane, and these simulations suggested that pVEC, TP‐10, MAP, and cecropin B strongly penetrate into the hydrophobic domain of the membrane lipid bilayer, inducing a transition to an α‐helical conformation. In contrast, penetratin, Pep‐1 and MPG remained in the hydrophilic region without a shift in conformation. The experimental data and MC simulations combine to explain how peptide structure affects their interaction with cells and their mechanism of translocation into cells (direct translocation vs. endocytosis). Our work also highlights the utility of combining biophysical experiments, biological experiments, and molecular modeling to understand biological phenomena.
An evaluation of the 25 by 25 goal for premature cardiovascular disease mortality in Taiwan: an age-period-cohort analysis, population attributable fraction and national population-based study

Objectives The aim of the 25 by 25 goal is to reduce mortality from premature non-communicable diseases by 25% before 2025. Studies have evaluated the 25 by 25 goal in many countries, but not in Taiwan. The aim of this study was to estimate the 25 by 25 goal for premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases in Taiwan. Methods We applied the age-period-cohort model to project the incidence of premature death from cardiovascular disease from 2015 to 2024 and used the population attributable fraction to estimate the contributions of targeted risk factors. The probability of death was used to estimate the percent change. Results The percent change in business-as-usual trend during 2010-2024 was only a 6% (range 1.7-10.7%) lower risk of premature mortality from cardiovascular disease among men. The greatest reduction in the risk of mortality occurred with a 30% reduction in the prevalence of smoking; however, there was only a 14.5% (10.6-18.3%) decrease in percent change and in the corresponding number of men (3706: range 3543-3868) who were prevented from dying. More than a 25% reduction in the percent change of premature cardiovascular disease mortality among women was achieved without control of any risk factor. To reach a 25% reduction in men before 2025, there needs to be a 70% reduction in the prevalence of smoking to reduce mortality by 26.2% (22.9-29.3%). Conclusions Cigarette smoking is the primary target in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Through the stringent control of smoking, the goal of a 25% reduction in premature mortality from cardiovascular disease may be achieved before 2025 in Taiwan.