Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Croissance et maladies chroniques

De nombreuses affections altèrent la croissance. La mucoviscidose, la maladie de Crohn et l’arthrite juvénile idiopathique sont des maladies chroniques relativement fréquentes dans l’enfance et associées à une altération substantielle de la croissance. Un retard de croissance peut être le premier signe d’une pathologie, mais le profil de la croissance est également une mesure utile de la sévérité d’une maladie et de sa réponse au traitement. Outre son intérêt diagnostique, la petite taille résultante peut non seulement être inacceptable pour le patient, mais aussi nuire à son état physique s’il est atteint d’une maladie telle la mucoviscidose. Une altération de la croissance chez un enfant atteint d’une maladie chronique est associée à des perturbations de l’axe hormone de croissance (GH)–facteur insulinique de croissance (IGF) et résulte principalement d’une sous-nutrition, d’une inflammation chronique et d’une corticothérapie prolongée. Une sous-nutrition aboutit à des adaptations majeures du système endocrine visant à conserver l’énergie, détourner des substrats de la croissance et de la reproduction et fournir des sources alternatives d’énergie pour l’homéostasie critique de l’organisme. Un processus inflammatoire chronique aggrave une sous-nutrition, mais des cytokines pro-inflammatoires telles que l’interleukine-6, le facteur de nécrose tumorale α (TNF-α) et l’interleukine-1β altèrent également la croissance indépendamment de la nutrition en perturbant l’intégrité de l’axe GH–IGF et en exerçant des effets locaux directs sur la chondrogenèse dans la plaque de croissance. Ces mécanismes régulateurs de la croissance subissent des perturbations supplémentaires sous l’effet de la corticothérapie administrée dans le traitement de certaines affections chroniques en raison de ses propriétés anti-inflammatoires et immunosuppressives. Il est probable que les processus entravant la croissance ralentissent la sénescence de la plaque de croissance, ce qui permet une croissance de rattrapage lors de la récupération d’une maladie chronique et le sevrage d’une corticothérapie. Les essais cliniques de la GH recombinante humaine (rhGH) chez des patients présentant un retard de croissance ont suggéré une amélioration de la croissance linéaire ainsi que des effets bénéfiques sur la composition de l’organisme et l’évolution clinique. Ces essais ont été de relativement courte durée, et il est donc nécessaire d’évaluer les bénéfices à long terme ainsi que la tolérance de la rhGH, particulièrement en association à une corticothérapie.
AEI: A Knowledge-Based Approach to Integrated Office Systems

Abstract:Although various attempts have been made in the past to introduce office systems and office models, they have been limited in one or several ways: they have not been based on integrated views; no models were developed or the models were artificial; they have been limited in scope; they used restrictive representation schemes; they were not intelligent; they were not user-friendly. Our research attempts to address these issues with: an integrated view of the office; a model tied to the nature of office activity; integration across various office domains; and a knowledge base. Intelligence is supplied from the interface and from the planner, as well as from the domain knowledge. An important component of the domain knowledge is the functional structure which captures activity relationships with a uniform representation scheme. Users can access explanations about functions of the office and can add comments on them. The realization of these concepts in a prototype system is discussed.
Differential stimulation of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein synthesis with protein ingestion at rest and after resistance exercise

We aimed to determine whether there is a differential stimulation of the contractile myofibrillar and the cellular sarcoplasmic proteins after ingestion of protein and how this is affected by resistance exercise. Fasted (FAST) muscle protein synthesis was measured in seven healthy young men with a primed constant infusion of l‐[ring‐13C6]phenylalanine. Participants then performed an intense bout of unilateral resistance exercise followed by the consumption of 25 g of whey protein to maximally stimulate protein synthesis. In the rested (FED) leg myofibrillar (MYO) protein synthesis was elevated (P < 0.01) above FAST at 3 h (∼163%) but not at 1 and 5 h (P > 0.05). In contrast, MYO protein synthesis in the exercised (FED‐EX) leg was stimulated above FAST at 1, 3 and 5 h (∼100, 216, and 229%, respectively; P < 0.01) with the increase at 5 h being greater than FED (P < 0.01). Thus, the synthesis of muscle contractile proteins is stimulated by both feeding and resistance exercise early (1 h) but has a greater duration and amplitude after resistance exercise. Sarcoplasmic (SARC) protein synthesis was similarly elevated (P < 0.01) above FAST by ∼104% at 3 h in both FED and FED‐EX suggesting SARC protein synthesis is stimulated by feeding but that this response is not augmented by resistance exercise. In conclusion, myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein synthesis are similarly, but transiently, stimulated with protein feeding. In contrast, resistance exercise rapidly stimulates and sustains the synthesis of only the myofibrillar protein fraction after protein ingestion. These data highlight the importance of measuring the synthetic response of specific muscle protein fractions when examining the effects of exercise and nutrition.
Ras oncogene expression and progression in intraepithelial neoplasia of the uterine cervix

To examine the correlations between ras oncogene expression and the development of cervical cancer, the authors studied the reactivity of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and microinvasive lesions of the human uterine cervix by using anti‐ras p21 mouse monoclonal antibody rp35. The frequency of positive p21 staining increased with increased grades of malignancy from 17.9% in CIN 1 to 28.9% in CIN 2 and 53.9% in CIN 3, whereas in microinvasive carcinoma it was 50.0%. Furthermore, ten cases of lesions that regressed during a 1‐year follow‐up period were positive for ras p21 in 20% of cases, but 14 cases of lesions that progressed and developed into higher graded lesions during the 2‐ to 5‐year follow‐up period had a 50.0% rate of positive p21 staining. It was concluded that ras oncogene product p21 correlates with the early phase of carcinogenesis of squamous cells of the uterine cervix.
Dynamic Conformational Heterogeneities of Carcinogen-DNA Adducts and their Mutagenic Relevance

Abstract Arylamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are known as “bulky” carcinogens, have been studied extensively and upon activation in vivo, react with cellular DNA to form DNA-adducts. The available structure data accumulated thus far has revealed that conformational heterogeneity is a common theme among duplex DNA modified with these carcinogens. Several conformationally diverse structures have been elucidated and found to be in equilibrium in certain cases. The dynamics of the heterogeneity appear to be modulated by the nature of the adduct structure and the base sequences neighboring the lesion site. These can be termed as “adduct- and sequence-induced conformational heterogeneities,” respectively. Due to the small energy differences, the population levels of these conformers could readily be altered within the active sites of repair or replicate enzymes. Thus, the complex role of “enzyme-induced conformational heterogeneity” must also be taken into consideration for the establishment of a functional structure-mutation relationship. Ultimately, a major challenge in mutation structural biology is to carry out adduct- and site-specific experiments in a conformationally specific manner within biologically relevant environments. Results from such experiments should provide an accurate account of how a single chemically homogenous adduct gives rise to complex multiple mutations, the earliest step in the induction of cancer.
A Discriminative Metric Learning Algorithm for Face Recognition

: Face recognition is a multi-class classiﬁcation problem that has long attracted many researchers in the community of image analysis. We consider using the Mahalanobis distance for the task. Classically, the inverse of a covariance matrix has been chosen as the Mahalanobis matrix, a parameter of the Mahalanobis distance. Modern studies often employ machine learning algorithms called metric learning to determine the Mahalanobis matrix so that the distance is more discriminative, although they resort to eigen-decomposition requiring heavy computation. This paper presents a new metric learning algorithm that ﬁnds discriminative Mahalanobis matrices e ﬃ ciently without eigen-decomposition, and shows promising experimental results on real-world face-image datasets.
Sanitization actions ( parameters ) Privacy leak after sanitization ↓ Utility loss caused by sanitization ↑

Privacy-preserving data publishing has been a heated research topic in the last decade. Numerous ingenious attacks on users’ privacy and defensive measures have been proposed for the sharing of various data, varying from relational data, social network data, spatiotemporal data, to images and videos. Speech data publishing, however, is still untouched in the literature. To fill this gap, we study the privacy risk in speech data publishing and explore the possibilities of performing data sanitization to achieve privacy protection while preserving data utility simultaneously. We formulate this optimization problem in a general fashion and present thorough quantifications of privacy and utility. We analyze the sophisticated impacts of possible sanitization methods on privacy and utility, and also design a novel method – key term perturbation for speech content sanitization. A heuristic algorithm is proposed to personalize the sanitization for speakers to restrict their privacy leak (p-leak limit) while minimizing the utility loss. The simulations of linkage attacks and sanitization on real datasets validate the necessity and feasibility of this work.
Two Traditions of Bronze Age Burial in the Stonehenge Landscape

A study of the size of round barrows in relation to their position in the Stonehenge landscape allows us to define two types of mound, here termed ‘Conspicuous’ and ‘Inconspicuous’. Conspicuous barrows are large and prominently located, whilst inconspicuous barrows are smaller and less strikingly placed. Inconspicuous barrows were associated mainly with funerary urns and were constructed throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Conspicuous barrows contain a wider range of grave goods and were mainly built in the later part of the Early Bronze Age. The Conspicuous barrows were impressive features of the prehistoric landscape and may have been built there because of the long-established significance of some of the local monuments, including Stonehenge itself. They contain exotic grave goods and could have been the burial places of a wider population. By contrast, the Inconspicuous barrows appear to be associated with settlement areas. They contain a range of ceramic grave goods which extend throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and may have been built by the people who were living in the area. The latter tradition is the longer lived and retained its importance into the Middle Bronze Age when more conspicuous mounds were no longer built.
Dynamic Composition of Service Specific Overlay Networks

Content delivery through service overlay networks has gained popularity due to the overlays’ abilities to provide effective and reliable services. Inefficiencies of one-to-one matching of user requirements to a single service have given rise to service composition. Customized media delivery can be achieved through dynamic compositions of Service Specific Overlay Networks (SSONs). However, the presence of SSONs in dynamic environments raises the possibility of unexpected failures and quality degradations. Thus constructing, managing, and repairing corrupted service paths are challenging dilemmas. This thesis investigates the problem of autonomous SSON construction and management and identifies the drawbacks of current approaches. A novel multi-layered, autonomous, self-adaptive framework for constructing SSONs is presented. The framework includes a Hybrid Service Overlay Network layer (H-SON). The H-SON is a dynamic hybrid overlay dedicated to service composition for multimedia delivery in dynamic networks. Node placement in the overlay depends on the node’s stability, types and quality of provided services. Changes in stability and QoS of service nodes are reflected by dynamic re-organizations of the overlay. The H-SON permits fast and efficient searches for component services that meet client functional and quality expectations. Self-managed overlay nodes coordinate their behaviors to formulate a service composition path that meets the client’s requirements. Two approaches are presented in this work. The first illustrates how SSONs are established through dynamically adaptable MS-designed plans. The imprecise nature of nonfunctional service characteristics, such as QoS, is modeled using a fuzzy logic system. Moreover, semantic similarity evaluations enable us to include, in compositions, those services whose operations match, semantically, the requirements of the composition plan. Plan-based composition solutions restrict service discovery to defined abstract models. Our second composition approach introduces a semantic similarity and nearness SSON composition method. The objective is to free service nodes from the adherence to restrictive composition plans. The presented work illustrates a service composition solution that semantically advances service composition paths towards meeting users’ needs with each service hop while simultaneously guaranteeing user-acceptable QoS levels. Simulation results showcase the effectiveness of the presented work. Gathered results validate the success of our service composition methods while meeting user requirements.
Deep Multi-task Gaussian Processes for Survival Analysis with Competing Risks

Designing optimal treatment plans for patients with comorbidities requires accurate cause-speciﬁc mortality prognosis. Motivated by the recent availability of linked electronic health records, we develop a nonparametric Bayesian model for survival analysis with competing risks, which can be used for jointly assessing a patient’s risk of multiple (competing) adverse outcomes. The model views a patient’s survival times with respect to the competing risks as the outputs of a deep multi-task Gaussian process (DMGP), the inputs to which are the patients’ covariates. Unlike parametric survival analysis methods based on Cox and Weibull models, our model uses DMGPs to capture complex non-linear interactions between the patients’ covariates and cause-speciﬁc survival times, thereby learning ﬂexible patient-speciﬁc and cause-speciﬁc survival curves, all in a data-driven fashion without explicit parametric assumptions on the hazard rates. We propose a variational inference algorithm that is capable of learning the model parameters from time-to-event data while handling right censoring. Experiments on synthetic and real data show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art survival models.
Write Avoidance Cache Coherence Protocol for Non-volatile Memory as Last-Level Cache in Chip-Multiprocessor

SUMMARY Non-Volatile Memories (NVMs) are considered as promising memory technologies for Last-Level Cache (LLC) due to their low leakage and high density. However, NVMs have some drawbacks such as high dynamic energy in modifying NVM cells, long latency for write operation, and limited write endurance. A number of approaches have been proposed to overcome these drawbacks. But very little attention is paid to consider the cache coherency issue. In this letter, we suggest a new cache coherence protocol to reduce the write operations of the LLC. In our protocol, the block data of the LLC is updated only if the cache block is written-back from a private cache, which leads to avoiding useless write operations in the LLC. The simulation results show that our protocol provides 27.1% energy savings and 26.3% lifetime improvements in STT-RAM at maximum. key words: cache coherence, non volatile memory, STT-RAM, chip multi-processor
Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms of DNA Damage Response Genes Are Associated with Overall Survival in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer

Purpose: The goals of this study were to determine if single-nucleotide polymorphisms in DNA damage repair genes and cell cycle regulating genes affect clinical response to combined gemcitabine radiation therapy and the overall survival (OS) of patients with pancreatic cancer. Experimental Design: We evaluated six single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the ATM, ATM and Rad3-related (ATR), CHEK1, and CHEK2 genes in 119 patients with potentially resectable pancreatic cancer who were enrolled in clinical trials at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center from February 1999 to January 2006, with follow-up until February 2007. Patients received neoadjuvant concurrent gemcitabine and radiation therapy with or without gemcitabine-cisplatin induction therapy. Genotypes were determined and tested for associations with OS by Kaplan-Meier estimation, the log-rank test, and Cox regression analysis. P values of ≤0.05 were considered significant. Results: The ATM G60A and CHEK1 G35A genotypes were significant (P < 0.05), and the ATR C340T genotype borderline significantly (P = 0.079) associated with OS. The hazard ratio of CHEK1 35AA was 2.01 (95% confidence interval, 1.20-3.37; P = 0.007) compared with CHEK1 35GG/GA with adjustments for race, sex, diabetes status, CA19-9 level, and success of tumor resection. A significant combined genotype effect was observed between ATM 60GA/GG, ATR 340CT/CC, and CHEK1 35AA with median OS times of 31.0, 16.2, and 10.5 months for patients carrying ≤1, 2, and 3 deleterious alleles, respectively (P = 0.004). Conclusions: These observations suggest that polymorphic variations of DNA damage response genes affect clinical response to gemcitabine radiation therapy and OS of patients with resectable pancreatic cancer.
RELACIÓN DE FACTORES PSICOLÓGICOS CON LOS SÍNTOMAS DE DISPEPSIA EN ESTUDIANTES UNIVERSITARIOS ESPAÑOLES

Objetivo: determinar la relacion de varios factores psicologicos con los sintomas de dispepsia en estudiantes universitarios espanoles. Metodologia: se le aplico a una muestra de 136 estudiantes los siguientes instrumentos: PAGI-SYM, Cuestionario PANAS de afecto positivo y negativo, cuestionario cualitativo de sucesos vitales y el Cuestionario de optimismo disposicional (DIOP). Resultados: el afecto negativo se relaciono con la medida total de sintomas de dispepsia y con cada uno de los sintomas dispepticos tomados de forma independiente. El segundo factor psicologico en importancia fue el numero de sucesos vitales estresantes, el cual se relaciono de forma significativa con la medida total de sintomas y con la regurgitacion. La intensidad del estres se relaciono con el dolor abdominal inferior. Conclusion: el afecto negativo y el estres psicosocial se relacionan con los sintomas de dispepsia en estudiantes universitarios. Son necesarios nuevos estudios para clarificar esta relacion.
Temporal Coverage Analysis for Dynamic Verification

Dynamic verification is widely used to ensure the logical correctness of system design. Verification progress is usually gauged by coverage metrics. Most coverage metrics measure the sub-structures of design under verification that are exercised. More importantly, the probability of a bug being detected is approximated by probabilistic coverage analysis. However, existing analysis methods do not consider the temporal nature of digital systems, i.e., it only applies to combinational circuit but not sequential circuit. In this brief, we propose a probabilistic analysis framework which takes into account the temporal behavior of system design. We propose an effective analysis algorithm which can estimate the probability of a bug being detected for sequential circuit. Experimental results on 17489 random instances show that our method is both efficient and accurate. The analysis has time complexity quadratic to the number of coverage bins and linear to the number of simulation cycles. The analysis result has an average relative error of about 7.38%. In practice, our analysis result can be used to measure the completeness of verification.
Our Brains are Wired for Morality: Evolution, Development, and Neuroscience

Psychological and neuroscience research both tell us that morality, our mental ability to tell right from wrong in our behaviors and the behaviors of others, is a product of evolution. Morality has been passed on through the course of evolution because it helps us to live in large social groups by enhancing our ability to get along and interact with others. “Building blocks” of morality, such as sensing fairness, experiencing empathy, and judging others’ harmful and helpful actions, can be observed in infancy, before a child’s social environment would be able to have a strong influence. Specific parts of the human brain are involved in moral reasoning – both the kind that happens very quickly and the kind that is thought out. Damage to certain parts of the brain can dramatically alter moral judgment and behavior. Although human morality has been passed down through evolution, it is also dependent on the culture in which we grow up. What humans consider to be moral behavior varies from culture to culture and also varies across time. reviewed by:
Cost‐effectiveness of strategies for testing current hepatitis C virus infection

Six strategies for identifying hepatitis C virus (HCV) viremia, involving testing for HCV antibody (HCVAb) followed by a nucleic acid test (NAT) for HCV RNA when the antibody test is positive, are compared. Decision analysis was used to determine mean relative cost per person tested and outcomes of HCV viremia detection. Parameters included proportions of test population with HCVAb and viremia plus specificity, sensitivity, and cost of individual tests. For testing a population with an HCVAb seroprevalence of 3.25%, all strategies when adopting quantitative NAT vary little in cost (range, $29.50‐$30.70) and are highly viremia specific (≥0.9997). Four of the strategies using venipuncture blood for HCVAb testing (whether laboratory conducted or employing a rapid, point‐of‐care assay) and for NAT (whether done by reflex or using separately drawn blood) achieve the highest viremia sensitivities (range, 0.9950‐0.9954). Point‐of‐care HCVAb testing in fingerstick blood followed by NAT in venipuncture blood yields relatively lower viremia sensitivity (0.9301). The strategy that requires returning for NAT is even less viremia sensitive (<0.9000) because of follow‐up loss. Strategies adopting qualitative rather than quantitative NAT are slightly cheaper (range, $28.90‐$29.99), similarly viremia specific (≥0.9997), but less viremia sensitive (≤0.9456). Viremia sensitivity and specificity remain the same regardless of the proportion of HCVAb‐seropositive persons in the cohort being tested. Conclusions: Strategies involving HCVAb testing in venipuncture blood, whether laboratory conducted or using a point‐of‐care assay, when followed by quantitative NAT done reflexively or in separately drawn blood, are comparably economical and suitably viremia sensitive. Less cost‐effective is point‐of‐care HCVAb testing in fingerstick blood followed by NAT in venipuncture blood. Least cost‐effective is the strategy requiring the tested person to return for NAT. (Hepatology 2015;62:1396–1404)