Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Permanent Cardiac Pacing Versus Medical Treatment for the Prevention of Recurrent Vasovagal Syncope: A Multicenter, Randomized, Controlled Trial

Background—This clinical investigation was performed to compare the effects of permanent dual-chamber cardiac pacing with pharmacological therapy in patients with recurrent vasovagal syncope. Methods and Results—Patients from 14 centers were randomized to receive either a DDD pacemaker provided with rate-drop response function or the &bgr;-blocker atenolol at the dosage of 100 mg once a day. Inclusion criteria were age >35 years, ≥3 syncopal spells in the preceding 2 years, and positive response to tilt table testing with syncope occurring in association with relative bradycardia. The primary outcome was the first recurrence of syncope after randomization. Enrollment was started in December 1997, and the first formal interim analysis was performed on July 30, 2000. By that time, 93 patients (38 men and 55 women; mean age, 58.1±14.3 years) had been enrolled and randomized, although follow-up data were available for all patients (46 patients in the pacemaker arm, 47 patients in the pharmacological arm). The interim analysis showed a significant effect in favor of permanent cardiac pacing (recurrence of syncope in 2 patients [4.3%] after a median of 390 days) compared with medical treatment (recurrence of syncope in 12 patients [25.5%] after a median of 135 days; OR, 0.133; 95% CI, 0.028 to 0.632;P =0.004). Consequently, enrollment and follow-up were terminated. Conclusions—DDD pacing with rate-drop response function is more effective than &bgr;-blockade for the prevention of syncopal recurrences in highly symptomatic vasovagal fainters with relative bradycardia during tilt-induced syncope.
Node-by-node disassembly of a mutualistic interaction web driven by species introductions

Significance Examining the effects of species gains and losses is fundamental to understanding the assembly and disassembly of ecological communities in a changing world. However, field-based empirical studies that demonstrate the disassembly of mutualistic webs are exceedingly rare. In this study, we take advantage of an ongoing natural experiment that links the gain of invasive species (introduced large mammals and wasps), the loss of a native keystone species (a mistletoe), and the ensuing node-by-node disassembly of an interaction web in Patagonia, Argentina. Our results demonstrate that the gains and losses of species are both consequences and drivers of global change that can lead to underappreciated cascading coextinctions through the disruption of mutualisms. Interaction webs summarize the diverse interactions among species in communities. The addition or loss of particular species and the alteration of key interactions can lead to the disassembly of the entire interaction web, although the nontrophic effects of species loss on interaction webs are poorly understood. We took advantage of ongoing invasions by a suite of exotic species to examine their impact in terms of the disassembly of an interaction web in Patagonia, Argentina. We found that the reduction of one species (a host of a keystone mistletoe species) resulted in diverse indirect effects that led to the disassembly of an interaction web through the loss of the mistletoe, two key seed-dispersers (a marsupial and a bird), and a pollinator (hummingbird). Our results demonstrate that the gains and losses of species are both consequences and drivers of global change that can lead to underappreciated cascading coextinctions through the disruption of mutualisms.
Susceptibility to Neonatal Streptozotocin‐Induced Diabetes in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

We studied the difference in the susceptibility to neonatal streptozotocin (STZ) diabetes between spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). Two-day-old female SHR and WKY were injected intraperitoneally with 75.0 mg/kg of STZ or vehicle for control. Hyperglycemia developed in both strains at 4 days of age, but SHR were more hyperglycemic. Overt hyperglycemia developed in SHR with aging after a partial recovery from initial hyperglycemia at 10 days of age, whereas WKY did not develop significant hyperglycemia except shortly after STZ treatment. Percentage of insulin-positive B cells in total islet cells and pancreatic immunoreactive insulin (IRI) content were measured at 4 days, 10 days, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks of age. B cells per islet and pancreatic IRI content were significantly reduced in STZ-treated groups as compared with control in both SHR and WKY at 4 days of age, but later they increased significantly with aging in both strains. However, the reduction in pancreatic IRI content relative to control was significantly greater in SHR than in WKY from 4 days (−94.5 ± 3.5%, −84.1 ± 4.8%; p < 0.01) to 12 weeks (−97.1 ± 2.1%, −28.0 ± 2.5%; p < 0.05), and the reduction in B cells per islet was also greater in SHR at 4 weeks of age. These results indicated that the initial destruction of pancreatic B cells induced by STZ was greater, and the following regeneration was less in SHR than in WKY. The association of the susceptibility to neonatal STZ diabetes with the development of genetic hypertension in SHR remained to be elucidated.
The non-autonomous retrotransposon SVA is trans-mobilized by the human LINE-1 protein machinery

SINE-VNTR-Alu (SVA) elements are non-autonomous, hominid-specific non-LTR retrotransposons and distinguished by their organization as composite mobile elements. They represent the evolutionarily youngest, currently active family of human non-LTR retrotransposons, and sporadically generate disease-causing insertions. Since preexisting, genomic SVA sequences are characterized by structural hallmarks of Long Interspersed Elements 1 (LINE-1, L1)-mediated retrotransposition, it has been hypothesized for several years that SVA elements are mobilized by the L1 protein machinery in trans. To test this hypothesis, we developed an SVA retrotransposition reporter assay in cell culture using three different human-specific SVA reporter elements. We demonstrate that SVA elements are mobilized in HeLa cells only in the presence of both L1-encoded proteins, ORF1p and ORF2p. SVA trans-mobilization rates exceeded pseudogene formation frequencies by 12- to 300-fold in HeLa-HA cells, indicating that SVA elements represent a preferred substrate for L1 proteins. Acquisition of an AluSp element increased the trans-mobilization frequency of the SVA reporter element by ~25-fold. Deletion of (CCCTCT)n repeats and Alu-like region of a canonical SVA reporter element caused significant attenuation of the SVA trans-mobilization rate. SVA de novo insertions were predominantly full-length, occurred preferentially in G+C-rich regions, and displayed all features of L1-mediated retrotransposition which are also observed in preexisting genomic SVA insertions.
MATERIALISM AND QUALIA: THE EXPLANATORY GAP

J n “Naming and Necessity”1 and “Identity and Necessity,”2 Kripke presents a version of the Cartesian argument against mate­ rialism. His argument involves two central claims: first, that all identity state­ ments using rigid designators on both sides of the identity sign are, if true at all, true in all possible worlds where the terms refer; second, that psycho-physical identity statements are conceivably false, and therefore, by the first claim, actually false. My purpose in this paper is to transform Kripke’s argument from a metaphysical one into an epistemological one. My general point is this. Kripke relies upon a particular intuition regarding conscious experience to support his second claim. I find this intuition important, not least because of its stubborn resistance to philosophical dissolution. But I don’t believe this intuition supports the meta­ physical thesis Kripke defends—namely, that pyscho-physical identity statements must be false. Rather, I think it supports a closely related epistemological thesis— namely, that psycho-physical identity statements leave a significant explanatory gap, and, as a corollary, that we don’t have any way of determining exactly which psycho-physical identity statements are true.3 One cannot conclude from my version of the argument that materialism is false, which makes my version a weaker attack than Kripke’s. Nevertheless, it does, if correct, constitute a problem for materialism, and one that I think better captures the uneasiness many philos­ ophers feel regarding that doctrine. I will present this epistemological argument by starting with Kripke’s own argument and extracting the underlying intuition. For brevity’s sake, I am going to assume knowledge of Kripke’s general position concerning necessity and the theory of reference, and concentrate only on the argument against materialism. To begin with, let us assume that we are dealing with a physicalist type-identity theory. That is, our materialist is committed to statements like: (1) Pain is the firing of C-fibers. On Kripke’s general theory, if (1) is true at all it is necessarily true. The same of course, is the case with the following statement: (2) Heat is the motion of molecules. That is, if (2) is true at all it is necessarily true. So far so good.
3D Pose Tracking With Multitemplate Warping and SIFT Correspondences

Template warping is a popular technique in vision-based 3D motion tracking and 3D pose estimation due to its flexibility of being applicable to monocular video sequences. However, the method suffers from two major limitations that hamper its successful use in practice. First, it requires the camera to be calibrated prior to applying the method. Second, it may fail to provide good results if the inter-frame displacements are too large. To overcome the first problem, we propose to estimate the unknown focal length of the camera from several initial frames by an iterative optimization process. To alleviate the second problem, we propose a tracking method based on combining complementary information provided by dense optical flow and tracked scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) features. While optical flow is good for small displacements and provides accurate local information, tracked SIFT features are better at handling larger displacements or global transformations. To combine these two pieces of complementary information, we introduce a forgetting factor to bootstrap the 3D pose estimates provided by SIFT features, and refine the final results using optical flow. Experiments are performed on three public databases, i.e., the Biwi Head Pose dataset, the BU dataset, and the McGill Faces datasets. The results illustrate that the proposed solution provides more accurate results than baseline methods that rely solely on either template warping or SIFT features. In addition, the approach can be applied in a larger variety of scenarios, due to circumventing the need for camera calibration, thus providing a more flexible solution to the problem than existing methods.
Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance

Born from extensive international research, Global Tribe documents a little understood global dance culture that has mushroomed all over the world since its beginnings in diverse psychedelic music scenes flourishing in Goa, India, in the 1970s and 1980s. From small parties to major international events such as Portugal’s Boom Festival, the paramount expression of this movement has been the festival. Via first-hand accounts of the scenes, festivals and music of psychedelic trance (psytrance) in Australia, Israel, Italy, the UK, the US, Germany, Turkey and other places, the author explores this transnational movement with attention to its diverse aesthetic roots, national translations and internal controversies. As a thoroughly engaging multi-sited ethnography and an intimate examination of the digital, chemical, cyber and media assemblage of psytrance, Global Tribe studies the integrated role of technology and spirituality in the formation of this visionary arts movement. The book demonstrates how the event-culture of psytrance accommodates rites of risk and consciousness, a complex circumstance demanding revision of existing approaches to ritual, music and culture.
Stacked Gaussian Process Learning

Triggered by a market relevant application that involves making joint predictions of pedestrian and public transit flows in urban areas, we address the question of how to utilize hidden common cause relations among variables of interest in order to improve performance in the two related regression tasks. Specifically, we propose stacked Gaussian process learning, a meta-learning scheme in which a base Gaussian process is enhanced by adding the posterior covariance functions of other related tasks to its covariance function in a stage-wise optimization. The idea is that the stacked posterior covariances encode the hidden common causes among variables of interest that are shared across the related regression tasks. Stacked Gaussian process learning is efficient, capable of capturing shared common causes, and can be implemented with any kind of standard Gaussian process regression model such as sparse approximations and relational variants. Our experimental results on real-world data from the market relevant application show that stacked Gaussian processes learning can significantly improve prediction performance of a standard Gaussian process.
Expression of MicroRNAs in the NCI-60 Cancer Cell-Lines

The NCI-60 panel of 60 human cancer cell-lines of nine different tissues of origin has been extensively characterized in biological, molecular and pharmacological studies. Analyses of data from such studies have provided valuable information for understanding cellular processes and developing strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Here, Affymetrix® GeneChip™ miRNA version 1 oligonucleotide microarrays were used to quantify 847 microRNAs to generate an expression dataset of 495 (58.4%) microRNAs that were identified as expressed in at least one cell-line of the NCI-60 panel. Accuracy of the microRNA measurements was partly confirmed by reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction assays. Similar to that seen among the four existing NCI-60 microRNA datasets, the concordance of the new expression dataset with the other four was modest, with mean Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.37–0.54. In spite of this, comparable results with different datasets were noted in clustering of the cell-lines by their microRNA expression, differential expression of microRNAs by the lines’ tissue of origin, and correlation of specific microRNAs with the doubling-time of cells or their radiation sensitivity. Mutation status of the cell-lines for the TP53, PTEN and BRAF but not CDKN2A or KRAS cancer-related genes was found to be associated with changes in expression of specific microRNAs. The microRNA dataset generated here should be valuable to those working in the field of microRNAs as well as in integromic studies of the NCI-60 panel.
Skin thickness measurement by pulsed ultrasound; its reproducibility, validation and variability

The reproducibility of the pulsed ultrasound technique for the determination of skin thickness was investigated, using two independent observers. No systematic difference was found and a high correlation was obtained. Studies were also undertaken to validate the pulsed ultrasound technique as a measure of true skin thickness. Skin thickness determined in vitro was found to be greater than when in vivo determinations were made by either the pulsed ultrasound or a xeroradiographic technique, probably due to the release of in vivo tension within the dermis after excision. Skin thickness was found to increase linearly with age up to the age of 20 years and to decrease linearly with age subsequently. Differences in skin thickness between the sexes and in different sites of the body were demonstrated.
An interactive framework for visualizing foreign currency exchange options

Analyzing options is a complex, multi-variate process. Option behavior depends on a variety of market conditions which vary over the time course of the option. The goal of this project is to provide an interactive visual environment which allows the analyst to explore these complex interactions, and to select and construct specific views for communicating information to non-analysts (e.g., marketing managers and customers). In this paper we describe an environment for exploring 2- and 3-dimensional representations of options data, dynamically varying parameters, examining how multi-variate relationships develop over time, and exploring the likelihood of the development of different outcomes over the life of the option. We also demonstrate how this tool has been used by analysts to communicate to non-analysts how particular options no longer deliver the behavior they were originally intended to provide.
Enhancing Credibility of Chemical Safety Studies: Emerging Consensus on Key Assessment Criteria

Objectives We examined the extent to which consensus exists on the criteria that should be used for assessing the credibility of a scientific work, regardless of its funding source, and explored how these criteria might be implemented. Data sources Three publications, all presented at a session of the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, have proposed a range of criteria for evaluating the credibility of scientific studies. At least two other similar sets of criteria have recently been proposed elsewhere. Data extraction/synthesis In this article we review these criteria, highlight the commonalities among them, and integrate them into a list of 10 criteria. We also discuss issues inherent in any attempt to implement the criteria systematically. Conclusions Recommendations by many scientists and policy experts converge on a finite list of criteria for assessing the credibility of a scientific study without regard to funding source. These criteria should be formalized through a consensus process or a governmental initiative that includes discussion and pilot application of a system for reproducibly implementing them. Formal establishment of such a system should enable the debate regarding chemical studies to move beyond funding issues and focus on scientific merit.
Cooperation in Carrier Sense Based Wireless Ad Hoc Networks - Part I: Reactive Schemes

Cooperative techniques have been shown to significantly improve the performance of wireless systems. Despite being a mature technology in single communication link scenarios, their implementation in wider, and practical, networks poses several challenges which have not been fully identified and understood so far. In this two-part paper, the implementation of cooperative communications in non-centralized ad hoc networks with sensing-based channel access is extensively discussed. Both analysis and simulation are employed to provide a clear understanding of the mutual influence between the link layer contention mechanism and collaborative protocols. Part I of this work focuses on reactive cooperation, in which relaying is triggered by packet delivery failure events, while Part II addresses proactive approaches, preemptively initiated by the source based on channel state information. Results show that sensing-based channel access significantly hampers the effectiveness of cooperation by biasing the spatial distribution of available relays, and by inducing a level of spatial and temporal correlation of the interference that diminishes the diversity improvement on which cooperative gains are founded. Moreover, the efficiency reduction entailed by several practical protocol issues related to carrier sense multiple access which are typically neglected in the literature is thoroughly investigated.
Severe amyloid deposition in mammary glands of familial amyloid polyneuropathy patients

Clinical pictures of familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) vary considerably, perhaps because of the many gene mutations of transthyretin (TTR), but even in patients having the most common mutation of TTR (the substitution of methionine for valine at position 30 (ATTRVal30Met)), the age of onset ranges from the late 20s to the early 60s. Although genetic anticipation has been considered to play a role in producing this wide range of ages of onset, the precise pathogenesis is incompletely understood. It has been experimentally shown that murine systemic AA and AApoAII amyloidoses can be transmitted by ingestion of amyloid fibrils themselves or amyloid-like pathological agents. In this study, we examined biopsied mammary glands obtained from three female ATTRVal30Met FAP patients who were of gestation age. Amyloid deposition was commonly seen in the glands and, in the two patients with apparent FAP symptoms, heavy deposits of amyloid surrounded many lactiferous alveoli and ducts, where some deposits of amyloid actually faced the central lumens. These findings raise the possibility that milk from FAP mothers contains ATTR-derived amyloid fibrils and/or fragments, which might be causally related to the development of genetic anticipation in this disease.
Diabetes mellitus and risk of Alzheimer disease and decline in cognitive function.

BACKGROUND Few prospective studies have assessed diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for incident Alzheimer disease (AD) and decline in cognitive function. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of diabetes mellitus with risk of AD and change in different cognitive systems. DESIGN Longitudinal cohort study. PARTICIPANTS For up to 9 years, 824 older (those >55 years) Catholic nuns, priests, and brothers underwent detailed annual clinical evaluations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Clinically diagnosed AD and change in global and specific measures of cognitive function. RESULTS Diabetes mellitus was present in 127 (15.4%) of the participants. During a mean of 5.5 years of observation, 151 persons developed AD. In a proportional hazards model adjusted for age, sex, and educational level, those with diabetes mellitus had a 65% increase in the risk of developing AD compared with those without diabetes mellitus (hazard ratio, 1.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-2.47). In random effects models, diabetes mellitus was associated with lower levels of global cognition, episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, and visuospatial ability at baseline. Diabetes mellitus was associated with a 44% greater rate of decline in perceptual speed (P =.02), but not in other cognitive systems. CONCLUSIONS Diabetes mellitus may be associated with an increased risk of developing AD and may affect cognitive systems differentially.
Feeding Preterm Infants after Hospital Discharge: Growth and Development at 18 Months of Age

We have shown that preterm infants fed a preterm formula grow better than those fed a standard term infant formula after hospital discharge. The purpose of this follow-up study was to determine whether improved early growth was associated with later growth and development. Preterm infants (≤1750 g birth weight, ≤34 wk gestation) were randomized to be fed either a preterm infant formula (discharge to 6 mo corrected age), or a term formula (discharge to 6 mo), or the preterm (discharge to term) and the term formula (term to 6 mo). Anthropometry was performed at 12 wk and 6, 12, and 18 mo. Mental and psychomotor development were assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II at 18 mo. Differences in growth observed at 12 wk were maintained at 18 mo. At 18 mo, boys fed the preterm formula were 1.0 kg heavier, 2 cm longer, and had a 1.0 cm greater occipitofrontal circumference than boys fed the term formula. Boys fed the preterm formula were also 600 g heavier and 2 cm longer than girls fed the preterm formula. However, no differences were noted in MDI or PDI between boys fed the preterm formula and boys fed the term formula or between the boys fed preterm formula and girls fed the preterm formula. Overall, boys had significantly lower MDI than girls (mean difference, 6.0;p < 0.01), primarily reflecting lower scores in boys fed the term formula. Thus, early diet has long-term effects on growth but not development at 18 mo of age. Sex remains an important confounding variable when assessing growth and developmental outcome in these high-risk infants.