Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Renin‐Angiotensin System Inhibitors on Long‐Term Clinical Outcomes of Patients With Coronary Artery Spasm

Background Coronary artery spasm (CAS) is a well‐known endothelial dysfunction, and a major cause of vasospastic angina (VSA). The renin–angiotensin system (RAS) is known to be closely associated with endothelial function. However, there are only a few studies that investigated the impact of RAS inhibitor on long‐term clinical outcomes in VSA patients. Methods and Results A total of 3349 patients with no significant coronary artery disease, diagnosed with CAS by acetylcholine provocation test were enrolled for this study. Significant CAS was defined as having ≥70% narrowing of the artery after incremental injections of 20, 50, and 100 μg of acetylcholine into the left coronary artery. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to whether the prescription included RAS inhibitor or not (RAS inhibitor group: n=666, non‐RAS inhibitor group; n=2683). To adjust for any potential confounders that could cause bias, propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed using a logistic regression model. After PSM analysis, 2 matched groups (524 pairs, n=1048 patients, C‐statistic=0.845) were generated and their baseline characteristics were balanced. During the 5‐year clinical follow‐up, the RAS inhibitor group showed a lower incidence of recurrent angina (8.7% versus 14.1%, P=0.027), total death (0.0% versus 1.3%, P=0.045), and total major adverse cardiovascular events (1.0% versus 4.1%, P=0.026) than the non‐RAS inhibitor group. Conclusions Chronic RAS inhibitor therapy was associated with lower incidence of cardiovascular events in VSA patients in the 5‐year clinical follow‐up.
Searching the Web with mobile images for location recognition

We describe an approach to recognizing location from mobile devices using image-based Web search. We demonstrate the usefulness of common image search metrics applied on images captured with a camera-equipped mobile device to find matching images on the World Wide Web or other general-purpose databases. Searching the entire Web can be computationally overwhelming, so we devise a hybrid image-and-keyword searching technique. First, image-search is performed over images and links to their source Web pages in a database that indexes only a small fraction of the Web. Then, relevant keywords on these Web pages are automatically identified and submitted to an existing text-based search engine (e.g. Google) that indexes a much larger portion of the Web. Finally, the resulting image set is filtered to retain images close to the original query. It is thus possible to efficiently search hundreds of millions of images that are not only textually related but also visually relevant. We demonstrate our approach on an application allowing users to browse Web pages matching the image of a nearby location.
Detrimental Role for Human High Temperature Requirement Serine Protease A1 (HTRA1) in the Pathogenesis of Intervertebral Disc (IVD) Degeneration*

Background: HTRA1 has been associated with intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration although its role is unknown. Results: HTRA1 up-regulated matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) production by IVD cells via the generation of fibronectin fragments. Conclusion: HTRA1 plays a detrimental role in the pathogenesis of IVD degeneration. Significance: HTRA1 may represent a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of spinal disc degeneration. Human HTRA1 is a highly conserved secreted serine protease that degrades numerous extracellular matrix proteins. We have previously identified HTRA1 as being up-regulated in osteoarthritic patients and as having the potential to regulate matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression in synovial fibroblasts through the generation of fibronectin fragments. In the present report, we have extended these studies and investigated the role of HTRA1 in the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. HTRA1 mRNA expression was significantly elevated in degenerated disc tissue and was associated with increased protein levels. However, these increases did not correlate with the appearance of rs11200638 single nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter region of the HTRA1 gene, as has previously been suggested. Recombinant HTRA1 induced MMP production in IVD cell cultures through a mechanism critically dependent on MEK but independent of IL-1β signaling. The use of a catalytically inactive mutant confirmed these effects to be primarily due to HTRA1 serine protease activity. HTRA1-induced fibronectin proteolysis resulted in the generation of various sized fragments, which when added to IVD cells in culture, caused a significant increase in MMP expression. Furthermore, one of these fragments was identified as being the amino-terminal fibrin- and heparin-binding domain and was also found to be increased within HTRA1-treated IVD cell cultures as well as in disc tissue from patients with IVD degeneration. Our results therefore support a scenario in which HTRA1 promotes IVD degeneration through the proteolytic cleavage of fibronectin and subsequent activation of resident disc cells.
Interaction of poliovirus with its cell surface binding site.

The interaction of poliovirus with its cellular binding sites was characterized by using a receptor-excess silicon oil partition assay. Poliovirus type 1 Mahoney [PV1(M)] binding to HeLa cells fits a theoretical simple bimolecular noncooperative binding curve with an equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) of 4.3 x 10(7) cells.ml-1 at 4 degrees, or 2.1 x 10(-10) M, assuming 3000 virus binding sites/cell. The association rate of complex formation was measured to be 3.6 x 10(-9) ml.cell-1.min-1 (7.2 x 10(8) M-1.min-1) and the dissociation rate calculated to be 1.5 x 10(-1) min-1, giving the complex a half-life of 4.5 min. The equilibrium dissociation constant, association rate, and dissociation rate were also measured for the binding of the attenuated poliovirus type 3 Sabin strain [PV3(S)] to HeLa cells. PV3(S) bound HeLa cells with a Kd of 3.3 x 10(7) cells.ml-1 (1.6 x 10(-10) M), an association rate of 4.1 x 10(-9) ml.cell-1.min-1 (8.2 x 10(8) M-1.min-1), and a dissociation rate calculated to be 1.4 x 10(-1) min-1, giving the complex a half-life of 5.1 min. Thus the virulent and avirulent strains of poliovirus bind HeLa cells with nearly identical binding constants and rate constants. Equilibrium binding constants for PV1(M) to various other cell types varied from a high affinity of 4.1 x 10(6) cells.ml-1 for JA-1 cells to a low affinity of 7 x 10(7) cells.ml-1 for NGP cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Korektor – A System for Contextual Spell-Checking and Diacritics Completion

We present Korektor - a flexible and powerful purely statistical text correction tool for Czech that goes beyond a traditional spell checker. We use a combination of several language models and an error model to offer the best ordering of correction proposals and also to find errors that cannot be detected by simple spell checkers, namely spelling errors that happen to be homographs of existing word forms. Our system works also without any adaptation as a diacritics generator with the best reported results for Czech text. The design of Korektor contains no language-specific parts other than trained statistical models, which makes it highly suitable to be trained for other languages with available resources. The evaluation demonstrates that the system is a state-of-the-art tool for Czech, both as a spell checker and as a diacritics generator. We also show that these functions combine into a potential aid in the error annotation of a learner corpus of Czech.
University of Alberta Using Snp Data to Predict Radiation Toxicity for Prostate Cancer Patients Examining Committee

Radiotherapy is often used to treat prostate cancer. While using high dose of radiation does kill cancer cells, it can cause toxicity in healthy tissues for some patients. It would be best to apply this treatment only to patients who are likely to be immune from such toxicity. This requires a classifier that can predict, before treatment, which patients are likely to exhibit severe toxicity. Here, we explore ways to use certain genetic features, called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), for this task. This thesis uses several machine learning methods for learning such classifiers for predicting toxicity. This problem is challenging as there are a large number of features (164, 273 SNPs) but only 82 samples. We explore an ensemble classification method for this problem, called Mixture Using Variance (MUV), which first learns several different base probabilistic classifiers, then for each query combines the responses of the different base classifiers based on their respective variances. The original MUV learns the individual classifiers using bootstrap sampling of the training data; we modify this by considering different subsets of the features for each classifier. We derive a new combination rule for base classifiers in the proposed setting and obtain some new theoretical results. Based on characteristics of our task, we propose an approach that involves first clustering the features before selecting only a subset of features from each cluster for each base classifier. Unfortunately, we were unable to predict radiation toxicity in prostate cancer patients using just the SNP values. However, our further experimental results reveal strong relation between correctness of a classifier in its prediction and the variance of the response to the corresponding classification query, which show that the main idea is promising.
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

Background: Previous studies demonstrate that tolterodine extended release (ER) significantly improves urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) episodes. Instruments that measure patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide additional information that is valuable for assessing whether clinical improvements are meaningful to the patient. This study determined the correlation of changes in bladder diary variables and other PROs in subjects with overactive bladder (OAB). Methods: Subjects with OAB, urinary frequency, and UUI were treated with 4 mg once-daily tolterodine ER or placebo for 12 weeks. Subjects completed 7-day bladder diaries, the Patient Perception of Bladder Condition (PPBC), and the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ) at baseline and week 12. Only subjects who reported at least some minor bladder-related problems at baseline (PPBC score ≥ 3) were included in this analysis. Results: Reductions in UUI episodes per week were significantly greater in the tolterodine ER group (n = 500) compared with the placebo group (n = 487) at week 12 (-71% vs -33%, P < 0.0001). A significantly greater percentage of subjects in the tolterodine ER group reported improvement on the PPBC versus placebo (58% vs 45%, P < 0.0001), and 7 of 10 KHQ domains were significantly improved versus placebo (all P < 0.05). Significant correlations were found for median percentage changes in UUI episodes with changes in PPBC scores (r = 0.35,P < 0.0001) and the 7 improved KHQ domains (r = 0.16–0.32, P ≤ 0.0011). Changes in PPBC scores and all KHQ domains were significantly correlated (r = 0.13–0.38, P ≤ 0.009) in the tolterodine ER group. Correlations among endpoints in the placebo group were similar to those observed in the tolterodine ER group. Conclusion: Improvement in UUI episodes after 12 weeks of treatment with tolterodine ER or placebo was correlated with improvements in patients' perception of their bladder-related problems and healthrelated quality of life. Correlations were moderate in magnitude but statistically significant, suggesting that PROs are important and relevant measures for evaluating OAB treatment. Published: 18 February 2009 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2009, 7:13 doi:10.1186/1477-7525-7-13 Received: 4 August 2008 Accepted: 18 February 2009 This article is available from: http://www.hqlo. com/content/7/1/13 © 2009 Van Kerrebroeck et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
A boundary element approach to barrier option pricing in Black–Scholes framework

We treat the way to achieve great computational savings and accuracy in the evaluation of barrier options through boundary element method (BEM). The proposed method applies to quite general pricing models. The only requirement is the knowledge of the characteristic function for the underlying asset distribution, usually available under general asset models. This paper serves as an introductory work to illustrate the implementation of BEM using numerical Fourier inverse transform of the characteristic function and to numerically show its stability and efficiency under simple frameworks such as the Black–Scholes model.
Arenavirus Variations Due to Host-Specific Adaptation

Arenavirus particles are enveloped and contain two single-strand RNA genomic segments with ambisense coding. Genetic plasticity of the arenaviruses comes from transcription errors, segment reassortment, and permissive genomic packaging, and results in their remarkable ability, as a group, to infect a wide variety of hosts. In this review, we discuss some in vitro studies of virus genetic and phenotypic variation after exposure to selective pressures such as high viral dose, mutagens and antivirals. Additionally, we discuss the variation in vivo of selected isolates of Old World arenaviruses, particularly after infection of different animal species. We also discuss the recent emergence of new arenaviruses in the context of our observations of sequence variations that appear to be host-specific.
Mismatched Multi-Letter Successive Decoding for the Multiple-Access Channel

This paper studies channel coding for the discrete memoryless multiple-access channel with a given (possibly suboptimal) decoding rule. A multi-letter successive decoding rule depending on an arbitrary non-negative decoding metric is considered, and achievable rate regions and error exponents are derived both for the standard MAC (independent codebooks), and for the cognitive MAC (one user knows both messages) with superposition coding. In the cognitive case, the rate region and error exponent are shown to be tight with respect to the ensemble average. The rate regions are compared with those of the commonly considered decoder that chooses the message pair maximizing the decoding metric, and numerical examples are given for which successive decoding yields a strictly higher sum rate for a given pair of input distributions.
Reconstruction in the labeled stochastic block model

The labeled stochastic block model is a random graph model representing networks with community structure and interactions of multiple types. In its simplest form, it consists of two communities of approximately equal size, and the edges are drawn and labeled at random with probability depending on whether their two endpoints belong to the same community or not. It has been conjectured in [1] that this model exhibits a phase transition: reconstruction (i.e. identification of a partition positively correlated with the “true partition” into the underlying communities) would be feasible if and only if a model parameter exceeds a threshold. We prove one half of this conjecture, i.e., reconstruction is impossible when below the threshold. In the converse direction, we introduce a suitably weighted graph. We show that when above the threshold by a specific constant, reconstruction is achieved by (1) minimum bisection, and (2) a spectral method combined with removal of nodes of high degree.
Factors Affecting Uptake of NaF-18 by the Normal Skeleton

Background The primary aim of this study was to examine if factors such as renal function, height, weight and age could affect the uptake of sodium fluoride-18 (NaF-18) by the normal bone. This is the first study to examine the possible factors that can influence NaF-18 uptake in the normal bone. Methods A retrospective study was done on NaF-18 PET/CT bone scans from January 2010 to May 2012 at our institution. All NaF-18 PET/CT studies used the same clinical protocol. Our excluding criteria were patients with abnormal renal function and patients with past history of cancer and metabolic bone diseases. Spearman’s correlation was used to analyze the data. Results From our study (n = 11 patients), no correlation was found between SUVmax and serum creatinine and between SUVmax and age. However, significant correlations were found between SUVmax and height (cm) and between SUVmax and weight (kg) for thoracic 5, 7, 12 and lumbar 2 vertebral levels. Conclusion Based on our findings, SUVmax values in NaF-18 PET/CT bone scans can vary depending on the patient’s height, weight and bone region. This information can be helpful in diagnosing and monitoring bone pathologies and can help explain the clinical findings.
Mechanisms of Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (NsPEF)-Induced Cell Death in Cells and Tumors

regulate three core cellular processes: cell fate, cell survival and genome maintenance. With an evolving understanding of molecular mechanisms of cancer, treatment strategies using mutation-specific small molecule drugs or monoclonal antibodies have been developed to specifically target some cancers in the perspective of defined cancer hallmarks. One example is the treatment of B-RAF oncoprotein in melanoma, which provides sufficiency of growth signals [4]. However, tumors treated with B-RAF inhibitors nearly always develop resistance after about six to nine months of treatment, and the tumors return or begin growing again. Thus, new treatment modalities to treat cancer are needed. When these new modalities are introduced it should be of interest to determine which of the hallmarks of cancer are targeted. Furthermore, increasing evidence indicates that it is important to know mechanisms of cell death.
A benchmark methodology for end-to-end delay of reactive mobile networks

Modern mobile communication networks handle user traffic in terms of data streams rather than single packets. Resources are allocated per stream as a reaction on its history. In particular, the network's delay figure depends on the entire traffic pattern injected by the user. This work aims to find a comprehensive measure for the delay behavior of reactive networks. A novel measurement methodology is introduced which enables the fast assessment of the delay performance for a multitude of traffic patterns. The results are condensed to a handful of typical classes by simultaneously minimizing the loss of information. Those classes enable an intuitive representation of the network's latency behavior. Further, they indicate which patterns are preferable for fair benchmarking. We demonstrate the practicability of the approach by benchmarking operational networks, namely, LTE (non-reactive) and HSPA (reactive). The analysis shows that the proposed method works well for both technologies, outperforming standard methods which a priori assume non-reactiveness of the network under test.
Limsi’s Statistical Translation Systems for WMT‘08

This paper describes our statistical machine translation systems based on the Moses toolkit for the WMT08 shared task. We address the Europarl and News conditions for the following language pairs: English with French, German and Spanish. For Europarl, n-best rescoring is performed using an enhanced n-gram or a neuronal language model; for the News condition, language models incorporate extra training data. We also report unconvincing results of experiments with factored models.
Grouping Based Adaptive Resource Allocation for Multi-User MIMO-OFDMA with Precoding

Multi-user MIMO-OFDM(A) is a key technique to meet the various QoS requirements for next generation wireless communication systems. However, feedback overhead is of major concern in closed-loop adaptive signaling for high rate data transmissions. In this paper, we propose a new resource allocation algorithm for MIMO precoding. In the proposed scheme, a group of frequency resource blocks share a common precoding matrix, which can greatly reduce the amount of feedback information. In order to keep the performance gain of MIMO precoding and remove the effect of feedback reduction, an adaptive grouping approach is based on the criterion of maximizing the total throughput. Analysis and simulation results show that throughput performance of the proposed scheme is tightly close to that of the non-grouping based optimal solution.
Regulable neural progenitor-specific Tsc1 loss yields giant cells with organellar dysfunction in a model of tuberous sclerosis complex

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a multiorgan genetic disease in which brain involvement causes epilepsy, intellectual disability, and autism. The hallmark pathological finding in TSC is the cerebral cortical tuber and its unique constituent, giant cells. However, an animal model that replicates giant cells has not yet been described. Here, we report that mosaic induction of Tsc1 loss in neural progenitor cells in Tsc1cc Nestin-rtTA+ TetOp-cre+ embryos by doxycycline leads to multiple neurological symptoms, including severe epilepsy and premature death. Strikingly, Tsc1-null neural progenitor cells develop into highly enlarged giant cells with enlarged vacuoles. We found that the vacuolated giant cells had multiple signs of organelle dysfunction, including markedly increased mitochondria, aberrant lysosomes, and elevated cellular stress. We found similar vacuolated giant cells in human tuber specimens. Postnatal rapamycin treatment completely reversed these phenotypes and rescued the mutants from epilepsy and premature death, despite prenatal onset of Tsc1 loss and mTOR complex 1 activation in the developing brain. This TSC brain model provides insights into the pathogenesis and organelle dysfunction of giant cells, as well as epilepsy control in patients with TSC.
Accessing heterogeneous data through homogenization and integration mediators

The AURORA mediator system employs a novel 2-tier, plug-and-play mediation model that is designed to facilitate access to a large number of heterogeneous data sources. The paper describes AURORA's mediation model and a suite of techniques used by a specific AURORA mediator, AURORA-RH. This suite includes a mediation methodology provided via an interactive mediator author's toolkit (MAT), a mediation enabling algebra, a query rewriting algorithm, and transformation rules that facilitate query optimization.
Rate-compatible punctured low-density parity-check codes with bit-interleaved coded modulation

We design bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) schemes based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. On time-varying channels, it is necessary to adapt the code rate according to channel conditions. Rate-compatible punctured-code (RCPC) is such an efficient and flexible scheme that it uses a single code which can be punctured in rate compatible fashion across a range of code rate. Therefore, when the capacity rule is used to determine the rate of component LDPC codes, we construct rate-compatible component LDPC codes by carefully selecting degree distributions, followed by optimal parity puncturing. Simulation results show that our system performs within 1 dB above the capacity at bit error rate 10/sup -6/ across a range of rates.