Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel plasma biomarker surrogating cerebral amyloid deposition

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common and devastating dementia. Simple and practical biomarkers for AD are urgently required for accurate diagnosis and to facilitate the development of disease-modifying interventions. The subjects for the study were selected on the basis of PiB amyloid imaging by PET. Forty PiB-positive (PiB+) individuals, including cognitively healthy controls (HC), and mild cognitive impairment and AD individuals, and 22 PiB-negative (PiB−) HC participated. Employing our novel highly sensitive immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry, we measured plasma amyloid β-proteins (Aβs; Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42) and Aβ-approximate peptides (AβAPs), which were cleaved from amyloid precursor protein (APP). Among the AβAPs, APP669-711 appeared to be a good reference for deciphering pathological change of Aβ1-42. We evaluated the performance of the ratio of APP669-711 to Aβ1-42 (APP669-711/Aβ1-42) as a biomarker. APP669-711/Aβ1-42 significantly increased in the PiB+ groups. The sensitivity and specificity to discriminate PiB+ individuals from PiB− individuals were 0.925 and 0.955, respectively. Our plasma biomarker precisely surrogates cerebral amyloid deposition.
Racial/ethnic differences in influenza vaccination coverage in high-risk adults.

OBJECTIVES This study identified racial/ethnic disparities in influenza vaccination in high-risk adults. METHODS We analyzed data on influenza vaccination in 7655 adults with high-risk conditions, using data from the 1999 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We stratified data by age and used multiple logistic regression to adjust for gender, education, income, employment, and health care access. RESULTS After control for covariates, White patients with diabetes, chronic heart conditions, and cancer had a higher prevalence of influenza vaccination than did Black patients with the same conditions. Similarly, White patients with 2 or more high-risk conditions were more likely to receive the influenza vaccine than Black patients with the same conditions. CONCLUSIONS Significant racial/ethnic differences exist in influenza vaccination of high-risk individuals, and missed vaccination opportunities seem to contribute to the less-than-optimal influenza vaccination coverage in the United States.
Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND There has been considerable interest in the elevated risk of cardiovascular disease associated with serious mental illness. Although the contemporary literature has paid much attention to major depression and schizophrenia, focus on the risk of cardiovascular mortality for patients with bipolar disorder has been more limited, despite some interest in the historical literature. METHODS We reviewed the historical and contemporary literature related to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in bipolar disorder. RESULTS In studies that specifically assess cardiovascular mortality, bipolar disorder has been associated with a near doubling of risk when compared with general population estimates. This may be explained by the elevated burden of cardiovascular risk factors found in this population. These findings predate modern treatments for bipolar disorder, which may further influence cardiovascular risk. CONCLUSIONS Given the substantial risk of cardiovascular disease, rigorous assessment of cardiovascular risk is warranted for patients with bipolar disorder. Modifiable risk factors should be treated when identified. Further research is warranted to study mechanisms by which this elevated risk for cardiovascular disease are mediated and to identify systems for effective delivery of integrated medical and psychiatric care for individuals with bipolar disorder.
Multi-Criteria Comparison as a Method of Advancing Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning

This paper describes a generalizable model evaluation method that can be adapted to evaluate AI/ML models across multiple criteria including core scientific principles and more practical outcomes. Emerging from prediction competitions in Psychology and Decision Science, the method evaluates a group of candidate models of varying type and structure across multiple scientific, theoretic, and practical criteria. Ordinal ranking of criteria scores are evaluated using voting rules from the field of computational social choice and allow the comparison of divergent measures and types of models in a holistic evaluation. Additional advantages and applications are discussed.
HRUL: A Hardware Assisted Recorder for User-Level Application

Deterministic replay is a key technique for debugging simultaneous multithreaded programs on multicore processor. With this scheme, software-only implementations generally incur large runtime overhead. Hardware assisted methods can significantly reduce the overhead, but most hardware based recorders are system oriented. They capture all orders happened in monitored application, Operating System, and other applications. This produces inefficiency and inconvenience for application programmers to debug their programs. This paper proposes a hardware assisted recorder (HRUL), which is lightweight and convenient to application programmers. HRUL uses a hybrid hardware-software method to extract dependencies from monitored application in a complex execution environment, and compresses the orders with a combination of online and offline compression algorithm. What' more, It also captures implicit dependencies caused by system call and scheduling in Operating System to make replay faithful. We evaluate the scheme with 16-core runs of PARSEC, our results show that HRUL introduces runtime overhead less than 3% and can reduce log size by 81% (only with online-hardware compression).
Performance analysis of three related assignment problems

The relative placement of records in a database has a significant impact on the overall system performance. In this paper we study three related assignment problems. They are (1) the assignment of records to devices so as to minimize the expected completion time and to maximize the expected utilization of the devices, (2) the assignment of records to pages or blocks in secondary memory so as to minimize the number of blocks to be accessed, and (3) the analysis of the performance of a hashing scheme under the assumption that the record-to-bucket probability varies from one bucket to another. The solutions to these problems are obtained by studying an occupancy problem. In each case, an optimal solution is obtained.
Netrins and Wnts Function Redundantly to Regulate Antero-Posterior and Dorso-Ventral Guidance in C. elegans

Guided migrations of cells and developing axons along the dorso-ventral (D/V) and antero-posterior (A/P) body axes govern tissue patterning and neuronal connections. In C. elegans, as in vertebrates, D/V and A/P graded distributions of UNC-6/Netrin and Wnts, respectively, provide instructive polarity information to guide cells and axons migrating along these axes. By means of a comprehensive genetic analysis, we found that simultaneous loss of Wnt and Netrin signaling components reveals previously unknown and unexpected redundant roles for Wnt and Netrin signaling pathways in both D/V and A/P guidance of migrating cells and axons in C. elegans, as well as in processes essential for organ function and viability. Thus, in addition to providing polarity information for migration along the axis of their gradation, Wnts and Netrin are each able to guide migrations orthogonal to the axis of their gradation. Netrin signaling not only functions redundantly with some Wnts, but also counterbalances the effects of others to guide A/P migrations, while the involvement of Wnt signaling in D/V guidance identifies Wnt signaling as one of the long sought mechanisms that functions in parallel to Netrin signaling to promote D/V guidance of cells and axons. These findings provide new avenues for deciphering how A/P and D/V guidance signals are integrated within the cell to establish polarity in multiple biological processes, and implicate broader roles for Netrin and Wnt signaling - roles that are currently masked due to prevalent redundancy.
What commodities and countries impact inequality in the global food system?

The global distribution of food production is unequal relative to the distribution of human populations. International trade can increase or decrease inequality in food availability, but little is known about how specific countries and commodities contribute to this redistribution. We present a method based on the Gini coefficient for evaluating the contributions of country and commodity specific trade to inequality in the global food system. We applied the method to global food production and trade data for the years 1986–2011 to identify the specific countries and commodities that contribute to increasing and decreasing inequality in global food availability relative to food production. Overall, international trade reduced inequality in food availability by 25%–33% relative to the distribution of food production, depending on the year. Across all years, about 58% of the total trade links acted to reduce inequality with ∼4% of the links providing 95% of the reduction in inequality. Exports from United States of America, Malaysia, Argentina, and Canada are particularly important in decreasing inequality. Specific commodities that reduce inequality when traded include cereals and vegetables. Some trade connections contribute to increasing inequality, but this effect is mostly concentrated within a small number of commodities including fruits, stimulants, and nuts. In terms of specific countries, exports from Slovenia, Oman, Singapore, and Germany act to increase overall inequality. Collectively, our analysis and results represent an opportunity for building an enhanced understanding of global-scale patterns in food availability.
Modeling of a virtual synchronous machine-based grid-interface converter for renewable energy systems integration

The common, and with some exceptions, the only method to interconnect high power renewable energy sources and energy storage systems to the power system has been using power electronics converters that operate as current sources to the grid, for the purpose of achieving maximum primary-source power tracking. When grid is not available, such sources are not allowed to continue operating and are shut-down after anti-islanded algorithms recognize the loss of the grid. Although existing standards and requirements still limit grid-interface converters to regulate voltage in the grid, this functionality will most probably be the dominant mode of their operation in the future grid; hence the growing trend in industry and academia to concentrate research towards control of the grid-interface converters that resemble behavior of the classic synchronous generators. This paper addresses modeling of the virtual synchronous machine-based grid-interface converters for renewable energy systems integration. Being completely equivalent to the synchronous generator model, an average model of the grid-interface converter features an inherent frequency-locked loop, in which the virtual rotor angle is obtained by integrating dc-link voltage.
The Phosphoarginine Energy-Buffering System of Trypanosoma brucei Involves Multiple Arginine Kinase Isoforms with Different Subcellular Locations

Phosphagen energy-buffering systems play an essential role in regulating the cellular energy homeostasis in periods of high-energy demand or energy supply fluctuations. Here we describe the phosphoarginine/arginine kinase system of the kinetoplastid parasite Trypanosoma brucei, consisting of three highly similar arginine kinase isoforms (TbAK1-3). Immunofluorescence microscopy using myc-tagged protein versions revealed that each isoform is located in a specific subcellular compartment: TbAK1 is exclusively found in the flagellum, TbAK2 in the glycosome, and TbAK3 in the cytosol of T. brucei. The flagellar location of TbAK1 is dependent on a 22 amino acid long N-terminal sequence, which is sufficient for targeting a GFP-fusion protein to the trypanosome flagellum. The glycosomal location of TbAK2 is in agreement with the presence of a conserved peroxisomal targeting signal, the C-terminal tripeptide ‘SNL’. TbAK3 lacks any apparent targeting sequences and is accordingly located in the cytosol of the parasite. Northern blot analysis indicated that each TbAK isoform is differentially expressed in bloodstream and procyclic forms of T. brucei, while the total cellular arginine kinase activity was 3-fold higher in bloodstream form trypanosomes. These results suggest a substantial change in the temporal and spatial energy requirements during parasite differentiation. Increased arginine kinase activity improved growth of procyclic form T. brucei during oxidative challenges with hydrogen peroxide. Elimination of the total cellular arginine kinase activity by RNA interference significantly decreased growth (>90%) of procyclic form T. brucei under standard culture conditions and was lethal for this life cycle stage in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The putative physiological roles of the different TbAK isoforms in T. brucei are further discussed.
Strategies of Renewal

Total Quality Management (TQM) and the Learning Organization (LO) are two management practices for dealing with the problem of organization renewal. From a more detailed study and with a transformational, dynamic and interactive perspective, the two are not only mutually non-exclusive but even that they are found to be mutually complementary in the renewal process. This article focus on the process of TQM&LO transition on the premise that certain complementarities exist between the two systems that facilitate the implementation of organization renewal, and also on the identification of key factors facilitating the transition. The review of the literature, the comparative analysis of the two systems, and the presentation of a case study (Electrical and Fuel Handling Division - VISTEON) in which two of the authors have participated; enriched by applying the perspective of ‘learning history’, constitute the nucleus of this article.
Elements of yogic practice: Perceptions of students in healthcare programs

Background: The practice of yoga has a long history as an integrated lifestyle science. Those who have practiced yoga in its full form (including all eight traditional aspects) find that it touches almost every aspect of their inter- and intra-personal lives. Despite this rich history, the West has adopted limited aspects of yoga practice. When understood narrowly as a physical fitness practice, healthful benefits of yoga may be lost, possibly promoting body-consciousness and injury instead. Aim: To understand whether students in healthcare programs view yoga from a physical fitness versus holistic perspective, we explored perceptions of what constitute yoga's essential practices. Methods: We assessed endorsement of the eight limbs of yoga via the acceptability of yoga survey. The sample (n = 498) was recruited from programs in 10 healthcare professions at a Northwestern university. Participants were categorized as nonyogis, contemplators, yogis, and superyogis. Results: Across all groups, findings confirmed a narrow definition of yoga as portrayed in popular media and gym-based yoga classes. Breathing and posture practices were the most commonly endorsed practices, even among the sample's most seasoned yoga practitioners. Ethical practices and daily commitments of introspection, disciplined practice, or living with purity were least commonly associated with yoga despite their foundational nature in yoga philosophy. Concentration and meditation practices were only moderately endorsed as essential practices. Super-yogis endorsed a wider variety of limbs than nonyogis, contemplators, and yogis. Conclusions: We offer a rationale for these findings along with recommendations that may help augment the definition of yoga and hence maximize its benefits.
Pubertal Maturation in Female Development

Contents: The Issue of Biological-Psychosocial Interaction. The General Approach and the Basic Model. Data. Psychological Adaptation and Self-Concept. Interpersonal Relations. Social and Emotional Adjustment. The Short-Term Consequences. Developing Girls in a Developing Environment. Mediators of the Influence of Pubertal Timing. The Long-Term Consequences. Some Final Reflections.
Immunological cross-reactivity between Streptococcus mutans and human heart tissue examined by cross-immunization experiments

Hyperimmunization of rabbits with Streptococcus mutans or other related cariogenic streptococci sometimes induces serum antibodies that react with human heart muscle. To determine whether antigen I/II (AgI/II), a major surface protein antigen present in most human isolates of these organisms, was responsible for inducing cross-reactive antibodies, we tested it for antigenic similarity to heart components, exploiting the ability of immune systems to mount anamnestic responses to antigens previously encountered. Mice immunized with a strain of Streptococcus pyogenes type M6, known to be heart cross-reactive, or with intact S. mutans cells developed antibodies that could be detected on a human heart sarcolemmal preparation. However, mice immunized with AgI/II and boosted with sarcolemma were unable to develop significant antisarcolemmal antibodies attributable to prior sensitization by AgI/II. Similarly, AgI/II was unable to recall antisarcolemmal responses in mice previously immunized with sarcolemma. Nevertheless, strong immunoglobulin G antibody responses to AgI/II were detected at the single-cell level in spleens and as circulating antibodies in all mice immunized with AgI/II or AgI/II-bearing S. mutans. We conclude that the ability of S. mutans to induce heart-reactive antibodies is not due to antigenic similarity between AgI/II and components of human heart but may be caused by other cross-reactive antigens in the bacterial cells or by nonspecific stimulation of the immune system.
Impact of centralising acute stroke services in English metropolitan areas on mortality and length of hospital stay: difference-in-differences analysis

Objective To investigate whether centralisation of acute stroke services in two metropolitan areas of England was associated with changes in mortality and length of hospital stay. Design Analysis of difference-in-differences between regions with patient level data from the hospital episode statistics database linked to mortality data supplied by the Office for National Statistics. Setting Acute stroke services in Greater Manchester and London, England. Participants 258 915 patients with stroke living in urban areas and admitted to hospital in January 2008 to March 2012. Interventions “Hub and spoke” model for acute stroke care. In London hyperacute care was provided to all patients with stroke. In Greater Manchester hyperacute care was provided to patients presenting within four hours of developing symptoms of stroke. Main outcome measures Mortality from any cause and at any place at 3, 30, and 90 days after hospital admission; length of hospital stay. Results In London there was a significant decline in risk adjusted mortality at 3, 30, and 90 days after admission. At 90 days the absolute reduction was −1.1% (95% confidence interval −2.1 to −0.1; relative reduction 5%), indicating 168 fewer deaths (95% confidence interval 19 to 316) during the 21 month period after reconfiguration in London. In both areas there was a significant decline in risk adjusted length of hospital stay: −2.0 days in Greater Manchester (95% confidence interval −2.8 to −1.2; 9%) and −1.4 days in London (−2.3 to −0.5; 7%). Reductions in mortality and length of hospital stay were largely seen among patients with ischaemic stroke. Conclusions A centralised model of acute stroke care, in which hyperacute care is provided to all patients with stroke across an entire metropolitan area, can reduce mortality and length of hospital stay.
Jupiter – friend or foe? I: The asteroids

Abstract The asteroids are a major source of potential impactors on the Earth today. It has long been assumed that the giant planet Jupiter acts as a shield, significantly lowering the impact rate on the Earth from both cometary and asteroidal bodies. Such shielding, it is claimed, enabled the development and evolution of life in a collisional environment, which is not overly hostile. The reduced frequency of impacts, and of related mass extinctions, would have allowed life the time to thrive, where it would otherwise have been suppressed. However, in the past, little work has been carried out to examine the validity of this idea. In the first of several papers, we examine the degree to which the impact risk resulting from a population representative of the asteroids is enhanced or reduced by the presence of a giant planet, in an attempt to understand fully the impact regime under which life on Earth developed. Our results show that the situation is far less clear cut that has previously been assumed, that is, the presence of a giant planet can act to enhance the impact rate of asteroids on the Earth significantly.
Near-Infrared Transillumination Back Scattering Sounding—New Method to Assess Brain Microcirculation in Patients with Chronic Carotid Artery Stenosis

Purpose The purpose of the study was to assess the responses of pial artery pulsation (cc-TQ) and subarachnoid width (sas-TQ) to acetazolamide challenge in patients with chronic carotid artery stenosis and relate these responses to changes in peak systolic velocity (PSV), cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV), mean transit time (MTT) and time to peak response (TTP). Methods Fifteen patients with carotid artery stenosis ≥90% on the ipsilateral side and <50% on the contralateral side were enrolled into the study. PSV was assessed using colour-coded duplex sonography, CBF, CBV, MTT and TTP with perfusion computed tomography, cc-TQ and sas-TQ with near-infrared transillumination/backscattering sounding (NIR-T/BSS). Results Based on the ipsilateral/contralateral cc-TQ ratio after acetazolamide challenge two groups of patients were distinguished: the first group with a ratio ≥1 and the second with a ratio <1. In the second group increases in CBF and CBV after the acetazolamide test were significantly higher in both hemispheres (ipsilateral: +33.0%±8.1% vs. +15.3%±4.4% and +26.3%±6.6% vs. +14.3%±5.1%; contralateral: +26.8%±7.0% vs. +17.6%±5.6% and +20.0%±7.3% vs. +10.0%±3.7%, respectively), cc-TQ was significantly higher only on the ipsilateral side (+37.3%±9.3% vs. +26.6%±8.6%) and the decrease in sas-TQ was less pronounced on the ipsilateral side (−0.7%±1.5% vs. −10.2%±1.5%), in comparison with the first group. The changes in sas-TQ following the acetazolamide test were consistent with the changes in TTP. Conclusions The ipsilateral/contralateral cc-TQ ratio following acetazolamide challenge may be used to distinguish patient groups characterized by different haemodynamic parameters. Further research on a larger group of patients is warranted.