Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mortality in the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy Era: Changing Causes of Death and Disease in the HIV Outpatient Study

Background: AIDS-related death and disease rates have declined in the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era and remain low; however, current causes of death in HAART-treated patients remain ill defined. Objective: To describe mortality trends and causes of death among HIV-infected patients in the HAART era. Design: Prospective, multicenter, observational cohort study of participants in the HIV Outpatient Study who were treated from January 1996 through December 2004. Measurements: Rates of death, opportunistic disease, and other non-AIDS-defining illnesses (NADIs) determined to be primary or secondary causes of death. Results: Among 6945 HIV-infected patients followed for a median of 39.2 months, death rates fell from 7.0 deaths/100 person-years of observation in 1996 to 1.3 deaths/100 person-years in 2004 (P = 0.008 for trend). Deaths that included AIDS-related causes decreased from 3.79/100 person-years in 1996 to 0.32/100 person-years in 2004 (P = 0.008). Proportional increases in deaths involving liver disease, bacteremia/sepsis, gastrointestinal disease, non-AIDS malignancies, and renal disease also occurred (P = <0.001, 0.017, 0.006, <0.001, and 0.037, respectively.) Hepatic disease was the only reported cause of death for which absolute rates increased over time, albeit not significantly, from 0.09/100 person-years in 1996 to 0.16/100 person-years in 2004 (P = 0.10). The percentage of deaths due exclusively to NADI rose from 13.1% in 1996 to 42.5% in 2004 (P < 0.001 for trend), the most frequent of which were cardiovascular, hepatic, and pulmonary disease, and non-AIDS malignancies in 2004. Mean CD4 cell counts closest to death (n = 486 deaths) increased from 59 cells/&mgr;L in 1996 to 287 cells/&mgr;L in 2004 (P < 0.001 for trend). Patients dying of NADI causes were more HAART experienced and initiated HAART at higher CD4 cell counts than those who died with AIDS (34.5% vs 16.8%, respectively, received HAART for 4 of more years, P < 0.0001; 22.4% vs 7.8%, respectively, initiated HAART with CD4 cell counts of more than 350 cells/&mgr;L, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Although overall death rates remained low through 2004, the proportion of deaths attributable to non-AIDS diseases increased and prominently included hepatic, cardiovascular, and pulmonary diseases, as well as non-AIDS malignancies. Longer time spent receiving HAART and higher CD4 cell counts at HAART initiation were associated with death from non-AIDS causes. CD4 cell count at time of death increased over time.
A multi-agent genetic algorithm for local community detection by extending the tightest nodes

Finding local community structure is an appealing problem that has attracted increasing attentions. Currently, it is unrealistic to get the complete information from graphs that are too large or evolve quickly. Moreover, in many real situations, we are only interested in the local community structure of networks, but not the whole network, because the local community structures can provide us much micro analysis, which is complementary to the macroscopic analysis. Most existing methods for local community detection which are based on the source nodes are sensitive to the position of source nodes. Thus, in this paper, a new multi-agent genetic algorithm (MAGA) is proposed to find local community (LC) based on the tightest nodes rather than the given source node, which is termed as MAGA-LC. MAGA-LC first finds a set of tightest nodes, and then extends the tightest nodes to get a local community. In the experiments on synthetic and real networks, MAGA-LC can get a high F-Measure score and is quite effective and flexible in identifying local communities, and is robust to the positions of source nodes.
Stability and feedback stabilization for a class of mixed potential systems

This paper studies the problems of stability analysis and feedback stabilization design for a class of control affine systems where the drift dynamics is generated by a metriplectic structure. Those systems are composed of a conserved part and a dissipative part and appear, for example, in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. They can be viewed as an extension of generalized (or dissipative) Hamiltonian systems, where two potentials, interpreted as generalized energy and entropy, are generating the dynamics. The proposed approach consists in constructing, by homotopy centered at an equilibrium of the system, a potential for the metriplectic system that can be used as a Lyapunov function candidate for the system, and in using the obtained potential to construct damping state feedback controllers. Stability of the closed-loop system is then considered.
Internalin of Listeria monocytogenes with an intact leucine-rich repeat region is sufficient to promote internalization

Listeria monocytogenes can use two different surface proteins, internalin (InlA) and InlB, to invade mammalian cells. The exact role of these invasiveness factors in vivo remains to be determined. In cultured cells, InlA is necessary to promote Listeria entry into human epithelial cells, such as Caco-2 cells, whereas InlB is necessary to promote Listeria internalization in several other cell types, including hepatocytes, fibroblasts, and epithelioid cells, such as Vero, HeLa, CHO, or Hep-2 cells. We have recently reported that the InlA receptor on Caco-2 cells is the cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin and demonstrated that nonpermissive fibroblasts become permissive for internalin-mediated entry when transfected with the gene coding for LCAM, the chicken homolog of the human E-cadherin gene. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that the internalin protein alone is sufficient to promote internalization into cells expressing its receptor. Indeed, internalin confers invasiveness to both Enterococcus faecalis and internalin-coated latex beads. As shown by transmission electron microscopy, these beads were phagocytosed via a "zipper" mechanism similar to that observed during the internalin-E-cadherin-mediated entry of Listeria. Moreover, a functional analysis of internalin demonstrates that its amino-terminal region, encompassing the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) region and the inter-repeat (IR) region, is necessary and sufficient to promote bacterial entry into cells expressing its receptor. Several lines of evidence suggest that the LRR region would interact directly with E-cadherin, whereas the IR region would be required for a proper folding of the LRR region.
Evaluation of enzyme-linked immunoassay systems for detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody from filter paper disks impregnated with whole blood

Five commercial enzyme-linked immunoassay systems for the detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody from filter paper disks impregnated with whole blood were evaluated for technical and operational performance. All five systems performed adequately in the technical challenges posed, with specificities in excess of 99% for 1,020 specimens. In a serial dilution sensitivity challenge, all of the kits were able to detect specific antibody within one dilution of a Western blot (immunoblot) standard, except for a Du Pont Co. kit, which detected antibody within two dilutions of the standard. The Du Pont assay showed the least variation in control values between test runs and between lots. All of the systems produced acceptable results, but their operational parameters differed significantly.
Visceral organ weights, digestion and carcass characteristics of beef bulls differing in residual feed intake offered a high concentrate diet.

This study examined the relationship of residual feed intake (RFI) with digestion, body composition, carcass traits and visceral organ weights in beef bulls offered a high concentrate diet. Individual dry matter (DM) intake (DMI) and growth were measured in a total of 67 Simmental bulls (mean initial BW 431 kg (s.d.=63.7)) over 3 years. Bulls were offered concentrates (860 g/kg rolled barley, 60 g/kg soya bean meal, 60 g/kg molasses and 20 g/kg minerals per vitamins) ad libitum plus 0.8 kg grass silage DM daily for 105 days pre-slaughter. Ultrasonic muscle and fat depth, body condition score (BCS), muscularity score, skeletal measurements, blood metabolites, rumen fermentation and total tract digestibility (indigestible marker) were determined. After slaughter, carcasses and perinephric and retroperitoneal fat were weighed, carcasses were graded for conformation and fat score and weight of non-carcass organs, liver, heart, kidneys, lungs, gall bladder, spleen, reticulo-rumen full and empty and intestines full, were determined. The residuals of the regression of DMI on average daily gain (ADG), mid-test metabolic BW (BW0.75) and the fixed effect of year, using all animals, were used to compute individual RFI coefficients. Animals were ranked on RFI and assigned to high (inefficient), medium or low groupings. Overall mean ADG and daily DMI were 1.6 kg (s.d.=0.36) and 9.4 kg (s.d.=1.16), respectively. High RFI bulls consumed 7 and 14% more DM than medium and low RFI bulls, respectively (P<0.001). No differences between high and low RFI bulls were detected (P>0.05) for ADG, BW, BCS, skeletal measurements, muscularity scores, ultrasonic measurements, carcass weight, perinephric and retroperitoneal fat weight, kill-out proportion and carcass conformation and fat score. However, regression analysis indicated that a 1 kg DM/day increase in RFI was associated with a decrease in kill-out proportion of 20 g/kg (P<0.05) and a decrease in carcass conformation of 0.74 units (P<0.05). Weight of non-carcass organs did not differ (P>0.05) between RFI groups except for the empty weight of reticulo-rumen, which was 8% lighter (P=0.05) in low RFI compared with high RFI bulls. Regression analysis indicated that a 1 kg DM/day increase in RFI was associated with a 1 kg increase in reticulo-rumen empty weight (P<0.05). Of the visceral organs measured, the reticulo-rumen may be a biologically significant contributory factor to variation in RFI in beef bulls finished on a high concentrate diet.
Development of a Scale to Assess Avoidance Behavior Due to a Fear of Falling: The Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire

Background A history of falls or imbalance may lead to a fear of falling, which may lead to self-imposed avoidance of activity; this avoidance may stimulate a vicious cycle of deconditioning and subsequent falls. Objective The purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire that would quantify avoidance behavior due to a fear of falling. Design This study consisted of 2 parts: questionnaire development and psychometric testing. Questionnaire development involved an expert panel and 39 residents of an assisted living facility. Sixty-three community-dwelling individuals with various health conditions participated in psychometric testing. Method Questionnaire development included the evaluation of face and content validity and factor analysis of the initial questionnaire. The final result of questionnaire development was the Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire (FFABQ). In order to determine its psychometric properties, reliability and construct validity were assessed through administration of the FFABQ to participants twice, 1 week apart, and comparison of the FFABQ with other questionnaires related to fear of falling, functional measures of balance and mobility, and daily activity levels using an activity monitor. Results The FFABQ had good overall test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient=.812) and was found to differentiate between participants who were considered “fallers” (ie, at least one fall in the previous year) and those who were considered “nonfallers. ” The FFABQ predicted time spent sitting or lying and endurance. Limitations A relatively small number of people with a fear of falling were willing to participate. Conclusion Results from this study offer evidence for the reliability and validity of the FFABQ and support the notion that the FFABQ measures avoidance behavior rather than balance confidence, self-efficacy, or fear.
Altered topological patterns of brain networks in remitted late-onset depression: a resting-state fMRI study.

OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate the topological organization of whole-brain networks in patients with remitted late-onset depression (rLOD) and to examine the relationship between topological aberrations and performances on neuropsychological tests. METHOD A total of 33 patients with DSM-IV-diagnosed rLOD and 31 healthy control subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. The whole-brain functional networks were constructed by thresholding Pearson correlation matrices of 90 brain regions, and their topological properties (ie, small-worldness, network efficiency, and nodal efficiency) were analyzed using graph theory-based approaches. Nonparametric permutation tests were further used for group comparisons of topological metrics. The patients were recruited from January to December 2007. RESULTS Both the rLOD and control groups showed small-world architecture in the functional brain networks, suggesting a balance between functional segregation and integration. Importantly, the rLOD patients exhibited abnormal global topology in their functional brain networks (ie, increased shortest path length and decreased network efficiency) compared with the healthy controls, implying a less optimal topological organization in rLOD. Moreover, the rLOD patients showed decreased nodal efficiencies, predominantly in the frontal-striatal-occipital regions that are closely associated with the neuropathological changes in LOD. Intriguingly, we showed that the topological aberrations correlated with the neuropsychological performances in the rLOD patients. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that the topological organization of functional brain networks is disrupted in rLOD and that this disruption may contribute to disturbance in cognitive function in rLOD patients.
Review of exercise intervention studies in cancer patients.

PURPOSE To present an overview of exercise interventions in cancer patients during and after treatment and evaluate dose-training response considering type, frequency, volume, and intensity of training along with expected physiological outcomes. METHODS The review is divided into studies that incorporated cardiovascular training, combination of cardiovascular, resistance, and flexibility training, and resistance training alone during and after cancer management. Criteria for inclusion were based on studies sourced from electronic and nonelectronic databases and that incorporated preintervention and postintervention assessment with statistical analysis of data. RESULTS Twenty-six published studies were summarized. The majority of the studies demonstrate physiological and psychological benefits. However, most of these studies suffer limitations because they are not randomized controlled trials and/or use small sample sizes. Predominantly, studies have been conducted with breast cancer patients using cardiovascular training rather than resistance exercise as the exercise modality. Recent evidence supports use of resistance exercise or "anabolic exercise" during cancer management as an exercise mode to counteract side effects of the disease and treatment. CONCLUSION Evidence underlines the preliminary positive physiological and psychological benefits from exercise when undertaken during or after traditional cancer treatment. As such, other cancer groups, in addition to those with breast cancer, should also be included in clinical trials to address more specifically dose-response training for this population. Contemporary resistance training designs that provide strong anabolic effects for muscle and bone may have an impact on counteracting some of the side effects of cancer management assisting patients to improve physical function and quality of life.
Hepatitis delta virus: protein composition of delta antigen and its hepatitis B virus-derived envelope

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV)-associated particles were purified from the serum of an experimentally infected chimpanzee by size chromatography and by density centrifugation. Hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg) was detected after mild detergent treatment at a column elution volume corresponding to 36-nm particles and banded at a density of 1.25 g/ml. The serum had an estimated titer of 10(9) to 10(10) HDV-associated particles and had only a 10-fold excess of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) not associated with HDAg. Therefore, HDV appears to be much more efficiently packed and secreted than is its helper virus, hepatitis B virus (HBV), which is usually accompanied by a 1,000-fold excess of HBsAg. The protein compositions of the HDAg-containing particles were analyzed by immunoblotting with HDAg-, HBsAg-, and hepatitis B core antigen-specific antisera and monoclonal antibodies to HBV surface gene products. The HBsAg envelope of HDAg contained approximately 95% P24/GP27s, 5% GP33/36s, and 1% P39/GP42s proteins. This protein composition was more similar to that of the 22-nm particles of HBsAg than to that of complete HBV. The significant amount of GP33/36s suggests that the HBsAg component of the HDV-associated particle carries the albumin receptor. Two proteins of 27 and 29 kilodaltons which specifically bound antibody to HDAg but not HBV-specific antibodies were detected in the interior of the 36-nm particle. Since these proteins were structural components of HDAg and were most likely coded for by HDV, they were designated P27d and P29d.
The Consequences of India’s Male Surplus for Women’s Partnering and Sexual Experiences

Data from the third wave of India’s 2005-2006 National Family and Health Survey are used to examine the influence of the community-level sex ratio on several dimensions of women’s partnering behavior and sexual experiences. Multilevel logistic regression models that control for individual demographic attributes and community-level characteristics reveal that the local male-to-female sex ratio is positively and significantly associated with the likelihood that women marry prior to age 16 and have experienced forced sex. These associations are modest in magnitude. However, no significant associations are observed between the sex ratio and whether women have had two or more lifetime sexual partners or women’s risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. Birth cohort, education, religion, caste, region, urban residence, and several community-level measures of women’s status also emerge as significant predictors of Indian women’s partnering and sexual experiences. The implications of our results for India’s growing surplus of adult men are discussed.
Performance Analysis of Decode-and-Forward Incremental Relaying Cooperative-Diversity Networks over Rayleigh Fading Channels

Cooperative-diversity networks have recently been proposed as a way to form virtual antenna arrays without using collocated multiple antennas. Cooperative-diversity networks use the neighbor nodes to assist the source by sending the source information to the destination for achieving spatial diversity. Regular cooperative-diversity networks make an inefficient use of the channel resources because relays forward the source signal to the destination every time regardless of the channel conditions. Incremental relaying cooperative diversity has been proposed to save the channel resources by restricting the relaying process to the bad channel conditions only (1). Incremental relaying cooperative relaying networks exploit limited feedback from the destination terminal, e.g., a single bit indicating the success or failure of the direct transmission. If the destination provides a negative acknowledgment via feedback; in this case only, the relay retransmits in an attempt to exploit spatial diversity by combining the signals that the destination receives from the source and the relay. In this paper, we study the end-to-end per- formance of incremental relaying cooperative-diversity networks using decode-and-forward relays over independent non-identical Rayleigh fading channels. Closed-form expressions for the bit error rate and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) outage probability are determined. Results show that the incremental relaying cooperative diversity can achieve the maximum possible diversity, compared with the regular cooperative-diversity networks, with higher throughput. Index Terms—Cooperative diversity, Decode-and-forward, Rayleigh fading, Error performance, Outage probability, Incre- mental Relaying.
Cooling challenges for silicon integrated circuits

Microprocessor design with varying styles and complexities exhibit power density gradients across the die. 300+ W/cm/sup 2/ local densities a.k. a 'hot spots' are seen and it is a continuing challenge to cool these hot spots in designing thermal solutions. Hot spots will exacerbate the cooling margin in system and packaging thermal solutions. Depending on the market segment (mobile, desktop, server) and feature densities in the system (HDD, Memory etc.), the industry faces the challenge of staying in cost effective air cooling regime. In the Enterprise space, the feature rich thin rack and blade servers are thermally pushing the limits or air cooling. Additionally, the 24/7 (24 hours, 7 days a week) use environment of servers demand highly reliable and often redundant cooling solutions and any new cooling strategy needs to meet or exceed the well established and industry accepted reliability expectations, common of air cooling solutions. The package solutions need to quickly spread the 'hot spot' heat to the next level and the system thermal solutions need to cost effective and highly reliable.
Uteroplacental insufficiency programs regional vascular dysfunction and alters arterial stiffness in female offspring

Intrauterine growth restriction caused by uteroplacental insufficiency increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Vascular mechanisms in female offspring are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of uteroplacental insufficiency on blood pressure, vascular reactivity and arterial stiffness in four vascular beds in female offspring born growth restricted. Uteroplacental insufficiency was induced on day 18 of gestation in Wistar Kyoto rats by bilateral uterine vessel ligation (Restricted) or sham surgery (Controls). Wire and pressure myography were used to test endothelial and smooth muscle function, and passive mechanical wall properties, respectively, in uterine, mesenteric, renal and femoral arteries of 18‐month‐old female offspring. Collagen and elastin fibres were quantified using circular crossed‐polarized light microscopy and quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction. Restricted female offspring were born 10–15% smaller. Restricted females were normotensive, had plasma triglycerides 2‐fold elevated and had uterine endothelial dysfunction, attributed to a 23% reduction in the maximal relaxation produced by endothelium‐derived hyperpolarizing factor. Uterine artery stiffness was increased, with an augmented proportion of thick and decreased proportion of thin collagen fibres. Vascular reactivity and mechanical wall properties were preserved in mesenteric, renal and femoral arteries in growth restricted females. Female offspring born growth restricted have selective uterine artery endothelial dysfunction and increased wall stiffness. The preserved vascular function in other arteries may explain the lack of hypertension in these females. The uterine artery specific dysfunction has potential implications for impaired pregnancy adaptations and a compromised intrauterine environment of the next generation.