Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autoantibody-catalyzed Hydrolysis of Amyloid β Peptide*

We describe IgM class human autoantibodies that hydrolyze amyloid β peptide 1–40 (Aβ40). A monoclonal IgM from a patient with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia hydrolyzed Aβ40 at the Lys-28—Gly-29 bond and Lys-16—Ala-17 bonds. The catalytic activity was inhibited stoichiometrically by an electrophilic serine protease inhibitor. Treatment with the catalytic IgM blocked the aggregation and toxicity of Aβ40 in neuronal cell cultures. IgMs purified from the sera of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) hydrolyzed Aβ40 at rates superior to IgMs from age-matched humans without dementia. IgMs from non-elderly humans expressed the least catalytic activity. The reaction rate was sufficient to afford appreciable degradation at physiological Aβ and IgM concentrations found in peripheral circulation. Increased Aβ concentrations in the AD brain are thought to induce neurodegenerative effects. Peripheral administration of Aβ binding antibodies has been suggested as a potential treatment of AD. Our results suggest that catalytic IgM autoantibodies can help clear Aβ, and they open the possibility of using catalytic Abs for AD immunotherapy.
Transitions in Drug Use in a New Generation of Problem Drug Users in Amsterdam: a 6-Year Follow-Up Study

Aims: This study describes the transitions in drug use in Amsterdam among young drug users (YDUs) who are inhaling or injecting cocaine or using illicitly obtained opiates. Methods: From 2000 until 2003, 187 YDUs (≤30 years) were recruited of whom 126 were followed into 2007. Results: During the 6 months prior to inclusion, 95% used cocaine, 60% used illicit opiates, and 9% injected more than once a week. During follow-up, the incidence of new-onset heroin use was 4.8/100 person-years. The incidence of injecting was much lower for never-injectors (2.1/100 person-years) than for ever-injectors who relapsed (13.2/100 person-years). Transition to abstinence or nonfrequent drug use is common (23/100 person-years), mostly followed by a relapse (73/100 person-years). Polydrug users were less likely to discontinue their frequent drug use than monodrug users. Conclusions: Treatment services should target the crack cocaine users to prevent further marginalization and, during abstinence, to prevent relapse. Although the prevalence and incidence of injecting are relatively low, it is still an option for opiate users, especially those with a history of injecting.
Bled eConference eCollaboration : Overcoming Boundaries through Multi-Channel Interaction June 15-18 , 2008 ; Bled , Slovenia Multi-Level Analysis of Complex IS Change : A Case Study of eCustoms

Although much efforts have been devoted to understanding IS change processes that take place in a single organization, there is very little understanding about the change processes that affect IS decisions and developments across organizations. In this paper we provide a conceptual framework to analyze and explain complex multi-level IS change. To demonstrate the use of the framework we apply it to analyze changes in the domain of eCustoms, as in this domain we find rich examples of multi-level IS changes. The framework combines the work on “motors of change” by Van de Ven and Poole with Pettigrew’s notions of “vertical” and “horizontal” levels of analysis. Based on our case analysis we conclude that the conceptual framework proves to be a useful lens through which to analyze complex multi-level IS change. We propose extensions of the framework by identifying different interaction types between the changes and we outline directions for further research. In this respect, this paper can be seen as a contribution to the existing IOS research on change.
Categorizing WSN's sensory data using Self Organizing Maps

Wireless Sensor Networks suffer greatly from their limited battery power whose utilization is increased manifolds as a node has to transmit or receive fairly large amount of data. Several algorithms, some for scheduling battery power e.g. Dynamic Voltage Scheduling, Static Voltage Scheduling, Dynamic Power Management etc and other with emphasis on designing efficient routing protocols have been designed in past. Some algorithms, however, address this very issue at software level by writing memory and CPU friendly programs. This paper proposes Self Organizing Maps (SOM) based unsupervised Artificial Neural Network learning technique to enhance average battery life. Proposed system allows all active nodes to transmit their sensory data to the base station node (BSN) which has a 2×3 SOM running on it. Sensor nodes start sending data to the BSN; it keeps on making categories and puts relevant data in appropriate categories/ classes. SOM is trained after it has received a number of such transmissions from active nodes. Class definitions are then broadcast to all active nodes by BSN and from then onwards they transmit only the class definitions (that are fairly lesser in size) to BSN and hence significant battery power is conserved. We have showed an overall 48.5% battery power saving using the above technique.
On the Hardness of Approximating Some NP-optimization Problems Related to Minimum Linear Ordering Problem

We study hardness of approximating several minimaximal and maximinimal NP-optimization problems related to the minimum linear ordering problem (MINLOP). MINLOP is to find a minimum weight acyclic tournament in a given arc-weighted complete digraph. MINLOP is APX-hard but its unweighted version is polynomial time solvable. We prove that, MIN-MAX-SUBDAG problem, which is a generalization of MINLOP, and requires to find a minimum cardinality maximal acyclic subdigraph of a given digraph, is, however APX-hard. Using results of Hastad concerning hardness of approximating independence number of a graph we then prove similar results concerning MAX-MIN-VC (respectively, MAX-MIN-FVS) which requires to find a maximum cardinality minimal vertex cover in a given graph (respectively, a maximum cardinality minimal feedback vertex set in a given digraph). We also prove APX-hardness of these and several related problems on various degree bounded graphs and digraphs.
The Stream System: a Data Collection and Communication Abstraction for Sensor Networks

Sensor network software is still in its youth. Due to sensor hardware limitations and the highly specific nature of application domains, existing software is generally poorly structured. We identify data collection, intra-sensor and inter-sensor communication as recurring activities in sensor network applications and propose a software module that abstracts these activities: the stream system. Applications running on the sensors rely on the stream system to disregard the actual implementation details of collecting transducer readings and passing such data to other local or remote computational entities.
Malignant mesothelioma due to non-occupational asbestos exposure from the Italian national surveillance system (ReNaM): epidemiology and public health issues

Introduction Italy produced and imported a large amount of raw asbestos, up to the ban in 1992, with a peak in the period between 1976 and 1980 at about 160 000 tons/year. The National Register of Mesotheliomas (ReNaM, “Registro Nazionale dei Mesoteliomi” in Italian), a surveillance system of mesothelioma incidence, has been active since 2002, operating through a regional structure. Methods The Operating Regional Center (COR) actively researches cases and defines asbestos exposure on the basis of national guidelines. Diagnostic, demographic and exposure characteristics of non-occupationally exposed cases are analysed and described with respect to occupationally exposed cases. Results Standardised incidence rates for pleural mesothelioma in 2008 were 3.84 (per 100 000) for men and 1.45 for women, respectively. Among the 15 845 mesothelioma cases registered between 1993 and 2008, exposure to asbestos fibres was investigated for 12 065 individuals (76.1%), identifying 530 (4.4%) with familial exposure (they lived with an occupationally exposed cohabitant), 514 (4.3%) with environmental exposure to asbestos (they lived near sources of asbestos pollution and were never occupationally exposed) and 188 (1.6%) exposed through hobby-related or other leisure activities. Clusters of cases due to environmental exposure are mainly related to the presence of asbestos-cement industry plants (Casale Monferrato, Broni, Bari), to shipbuilding and repair activities (Monfalcone, Trieste, La Spezia, Genova) and soil contamination (Biancavilla in Sicily). Conclusions Asbestos pollution outside the workplace contributes significantly to the burden of asbestos-related diseases, suggesting the need to prevent exposures and to discuss how to deal with compensation rights for malignant mesothelioma cases induced by non-occupational exposure to asbestos.
Transport à fiabilité partielle d'images compresséessur les réseaux à commutation de paquets

Bien que les donnees qui transitent sur l'Internet et les contraintes inherentes a leur transmission soient de natures variees, ces transmissions reposent presque toujours sur TCP ou UDP. L'adoption d'une approche de bout en bout impose d'agir sur le service de transport pour s'adapter aux besoins des donnees en fonction de la qualite de service offerte par le reseau. Les donnees multimedias en general sont tolerantes aux pertes, elles peuvent alors faire l'objet d'une compression et d'un transport avec pertes tout en conservant une bonne qualite de l'information reconstruite si les informations perdues sont parfaitement controlees. Cela suppose que les applications multimedias puissent compter sur un service de transport adapte a leurs besoins, associant les principes de fiabilite partielle et le controle d'erreur deterministe. Dans cette these, nous definissons un service de transport a fiabilite partielle de ce type, utilise pour la transmission d'images fixes compressees sur les reseaux de type « best-effort ». Les travaux portent sur la conciliation du transport a fiabilite partielle avec les donnees compressees ainsi que la recherche d'un gain de temps de service et d'une degradation acceptable. Un protocole de transport appele 2CP-ARQ est propose a cet effet. Sa compatibilite avec le transport d'images codees selon le standard JPEG2000 est d'abord etudiee. Les resultats de cette etude nous conduisent a elaborer un schema de compression et d'organisation des donnees plus approprie a l'utilisation d'un systeme de transport a fiabilite partielle base sur 2CP-ARQ. Les resultats montrent que le reseau peut beneficier de l'utilisation de ce service de transport, qui se traduit par une moindre sollicitation des ressources du reseau, tout en satisfaisant les contraintes de l'application en termes de qualite des images reconstruites.
Beyond Matching Targets : An Approach to Outcome Evaluation in Pediatric Hearing Aid Fitting

Pediatric hearing aid fitting is a process that includes several stages: the calculation of prescriptive targets based on accurate hearing assessment information; the selection of the physical and electroacoustic elements of a hearing aid; verification that the specified acoustical prescriptive targets have been achieved; and outcome evaluation of device effectiveness in daily life. Of these stages, outcome evaluation does not currently have a systematic approach described in many pediatric hearing aid fitting protocols. Most protocols do, however, mention the importance of monitoring outcome even when specific strategies for doing so are not provided (i.e., College of Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists of Ontario [CASLPO] 2002; American Academy of Audiology [AAA] 2003; Modernising Children's Hearing Aid Services [MCHAS] 2005; British Columbia Early Hearing Program [BCEHP] 2006; Bagatto, Scollie, Hyde and Seewald 2010). This is likely due to the lack of evidence to support the systematic use of an outcome evaluation guideline for pediatric patients who wear hearing aids. Evaluating the outcome of the hearing aid fitting helps to answer the important question: “How do I know if the hearing aids are helping the child? ” This question, either from the caregiver or professional, could be addressed by a well-validated, clinically feasible monitoring protocol to track auditory development and performance. Known clinical tools with good normative properties, validity, feasibility, and utility would support the development of an evidence-based outcome evaluation guideline for pediatric audiology programs. Additionally, indicators to track clinical process outcomes, such as the appropriateness of the hearing aid fitting, are needed so that the functional outcomes can be appropriately interpreted. The hearing aid fitting process is comprised of assessment, hearing aid selection and fitting, verification and outcome evaluation stages. For the youngest children receiving audiological services, refinements to the first three stages of the hearing aid fitting process have been completed over the past several years. Therefore, recent attention has been placed on developing and evaluating a clinical guideline that focuses on the evaluation of auditory performance in infants and children who wear hearing aids. Outcome evaluation, the fourth and final stage, completes the hearing aid fitting process by providing valuable information about the impact of the child’s hearing aid fitting, potentially leading to a re-evaluation of the previous stages. This chapter presents a newly-developed guideline for outcome evaluation for use with infants and children who wear hearing aids. The development and contents of the University of Western Ontario Pediatric Audiological Monitoring Protocol version 1.0 (UWO PedAMP v1.0) will be described and data for children with normal hearing and aided hearing loss will be provided to support its clinical use.
Joint data detection and channel estimation for OFDM systems in the presence of very high mobility

This paper is concerned with the challenging and timely problem of joint channel estimation and data detection for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in the presence of frequency selective and very rapidly time varying channels. The detection and estimation algorithm is based on the space alternating generalized expectation maximization (SAGE) technique which is particularly well-suited to multicarrier signal formats. In order to reduce the computational complexity of the algorithm, we apply the cosine orthogonal basis functions to describe the time-varying channel. It is shown that, depending on the normalized Doppler frequency, only a small number of expansion coefficients is sufficient to approximate the channel perfectly and there is no need to know the correlation function of the input signal. The proposed SAGE joint detection algorithm updates the data sequences in serial and the channel parameters are updated in parallel, leading to a receiver structure that also incorporates a partial interference cancelation of the interchannel interference. Computer simulations show that the cosine transformation represents the time-varying channel very effectively and the proposed algorithm has excellent symbol error rate and channel estimation performance even with a very small number of channel expansion coefficients employed in the algorithm, resulting in reduction of the computational complexity substantially.
Globally optimal Kalman filtering with correlated noises, random one-step sensor delay and multiple packet dropouts

In this paper, we investigate the globally optimal Kalman filtering problem for uncertain stochastic systems with one-step autocorrelated process noises, cross-correlated noises, random one-step sensor delay and multiple packet dropouts. The multiplicative noises are used to characterize the random disturbances existing in systems. Random one-step sensor delay and multiple packet dropouts are characterized by employing two Bernoulli distributed random variables with known conditional probabilities. By separating the random variables from the non-random terms in the transmission and measurement matrices of the addressed dynamical systems, the process noises and measurement noises in the augmented systems depend on the state and the stochastic uncertain perturbations. The process noises are one-step autocorrelated and cross-correlated with the measurement noises. For this complicated systems, a globally optimal Kalman filtering algorithm is developed in the minimum mean square error (MMSE) sense. Finally, we provide a simulation example to illustrate the performance of the proposed filtering approach.
Influence of age, gender and delay on overtaking dynamics

Overtaking is one of the most dangerous manoeuvres on two-lane rural highways. The most influential factors are related to drivers, so ITS and assistance systems are not yet common. This research is based on experimental data of overtaking manoeuvres collected using an instrumented passenger car, equipped with four cameras, laser rangefinders and a global positioning service (GPS) tracker. This vehicle was driven along four different road segments in the surroundings of Valencia (Spain) at a speed slightly slower than the operating speed of each segment. Overtaking time and speeds were measured. Unlike previous work, the influence of human factor was also considered. Age and gender of overtaking driver, as well as time spent following were used to characterise this influence. More than 200 manoeuvres were recorded and the influence of driver characteristics and delay on gap acceptance, manoeuvre duration and speed differences have been analysed. Results show differences in behaviour between age and gender groups, since young male overtaking drivers have shown a more aggressive behaviour. Overtaking times were around 1 s lower than other drivers, whereas average speed difference was 4 km/h higher. Collected data and their analysis have provided a basis to review design criteria and to develop future assistance systems.
Platinum-based inhibitors of amyloid-β as therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's disease

Amelyoid-β peptide (Aβ) is a major causative agent responsible for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ contains a high affinity metal binding site that modulates peptide aggregation and toxicity. Therefore, identifying molecules targeting this site represents a valid therapeutic strategy. To test this hypothesis, a range of L-PtCl2 (L = 1,10-phenanthroline derivatives) complexes were examined and shown to bind to Aβ, inhibit neurotoxicity and rescue Aβ-induced synaptotoxicity in mouse hippocampal slices. Coordination of the complexes to Aβ altered the chemical properties of the peptide inhibiting amyloid formation and the generation of reactive oxygen species. In comparison, the classic anticancer drug cisplatin did not affect any of the biochemical and cellular effects of Aβ. This implies that the planar aromatic 1,10-phenanthroline ligands L confer some specificity for Aβ onto the platinum complexes. The potent effect of the L-PtCl2 complexes identifies this class of compounds as therapeutic agents for AD.
AGE AND ACUTE‐SEVERITY ILLNESS PORTEND DAILY ACTIVITY DYSFUNCTION 6 MONTHS AFTER HOSPITAL DISCHARGE

assessment of participants without dementia for the first three follow-ups (n = 573). The resulting composite score was validated against the CDR score by calculating the correlation between the composite score and CDR of the samples of the first (total n 5 1,099, with dementia n 5 235) and second (total n 5 683, with dementia n 5 190) followups and by calculating the correlation of the changes in both scores between the first and second follow-up. Participants without demenita were assigned a CDR score of 0. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the composite score and CDR was 0.88 at the first follow-up, 0.83 at the second follow-up, and 0.62 for in scores between the first and second follow-ups. All correlation coefficients were significant at Po.001. The composite score interquartile range (IQR) was ( 0.66–0.32) for participants with a CDR of 0, ( 2.58 to 0.90) for a CDR of 1, ( 5.50 to 2.56) for a CDR of 2, and ( 9.61 to 5.23) for a CDR of 3. The results indicate high correlations between the Composite Cognitive and ADL Functioning Score and the CDR score at one point in time. Changes over time in the composite score also correlated highly with change in CDR. These observations support the validity of the composite score that was developed. The fact that the IQRs of the composite scores per CDR score overlapped little shows that the composite score could accurately separate CDR categories. This supports the clinical relevance and provides information for the clinical interpretation of the Composite Cognitive and ADL Functioning Score. Based on the validation by CDR scores in this study population, the Composite Cognitive and ADL Functioning Score is easy to use and interpret and clinically relevant, and because it reduces the need for clinical judgment of each individual required in comparable composite measures, it is highly useful for large population-based studies.
60GHz-Band Photonic-Integrated Array-Antenna and Module for Radio-over-Fiber-Based Beam Forming

This paper presents a novel 60 GHz-band photonicintegrated array-antenna and module for radio-over-fiber (RoF)-based beam forming. An integrated photonic array-antennas (IPA), where eight photodiodes and 4 × 2 arrayed patch-antenna are integrated in a single board, is actually fabricated, and 3.5-Gbit/s QPSK digital signal transmission with beam forming of the IPA is experimentally demonstrated. In addition, a novel 60-GHz compact antenna module is proposed and fabricated for increasing the number of antenna elements and flexibility creating various beam patterns. The feasibility of beam forming operation for the proposed antenna module is confirmed by a 60-GHz RoF transmission experiment. The capability of detecting the mobile terminal direction, which is one of the indispensable functions for actual environment, is also studied. The obtained results in this paper will be useful for designing future radio access networks based on RoF transmission technology. key words: radio-over-fiber, array-antenna, beam forming, photonic integration, 60-GHz band
Research on the Improved FCM Cluster Method in the Hotspots Analysis on Web

With the explosion of electronic information on web, the detection and tracing are difficult, there is the increasing requirement to identify the hotspots. The Fuzzy C Means (FCM) fuzzy cluster method can provide clear borderlines among different clusters, but the cluster validity analysis of FCM is devoid. Aim to solve the aforementioned problem, an improved FCM cluster method is proposed. Before the cluster process, a "variety difference-segregation degree" (VDSD) function is adopted to pretreat the vectors which obtained by the TF-IDF method. Taken the data structure of sample space and membership of fuzzy cluster into account, the function can calculate the optimize number of cluster exactly. The simulation results indicate that the improved FCM cluster method is with availability and provide a novel means for the hotspots analysis on web.