Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxidative stress in juvenile essential hypertension

Objective Oxidative stress, an antioxidant/pro-oxidant imbalance, in patients with juvenile essential hypertension was measured via several biochemical parameters. As the blood pressure is associated with the body mass index (BMI), results were compared with those on BMI-matched controls. Design and setting A prospective observational study at a university teaching hospital. Patients Children and adolescents with essential hypertension (mean ± standard deviation: age 14.4 ± 3.1 years, BMI 25.0 ± 6.9 kg/m2, n = 52) before any treatment, and controls with a similar BMI distribution (age 14.3 ± 4.3 years, BMI 24.4 ± 6.6 kg/m2, n = 48). Methods Measurements were made of the plasma levels of (1) nitrites + nitrates, an indirect measure of available nitric oxide; (2) lipid peroxidation end-products, as malondialdehydes and free thiols; and (3) the redox status of the red blood cell glutathione, as a new oxidative stress parameter. Results There were decreased plasma levels of nitrates and increased levels of lipid peroxidation end-products in the hypertensive patients, resulting in a consistent increase in the plasma lipid peroxidation/nitric oxide ratio as compared with the controls with the same BMI (P < 0.01). This ratio additionally correlated directly with both the systolic and diastolic blood pressures for the overall patient population (P < 0.001). A significant glutathione depletion in the red blood cells resulted in an elevated ratio of oxidized/reduced forms with a reduced in vitro antioxidant protective capacity in the hypertensive patients versus the BMI-matched controls (P < 0.001). Conclusions The presence of systemic oxidative stress was proven in hypertensive children and adolescents, irrespective of their BMI.
A forensic acquisition based upon a cluster analysis of non-volatile memory in IaaS

Cloud computing technologies have significantly changed the way in which organizations implement their information technology infrastructure. It is a new paradigm that turned the long-held promises of computing services into reality. It allows organizations to focus on their business with minimal effort placed upon building, managing and maintaining their IT requirements. However, security and incident management requirements are still extremely challenging. Unfortunately, the underlining architecture of cloud computing poses a range of technical and organizational issues for digital investigators. Due to the dynamic nature of cloud computing, current forensic tools and procedures have ranges of limitations. Such limitations lead to devastating consequences including heavy monetary fines or even forcing the organization out of the business. However, an increasing emphasis has been placed on investigating the issues pertained to data acquisition - as it is the first and most difficult problem to be solved when conducting cloud based digital investigation. This study identifies the challenges in cloud forensics related to data acquisition and proposes a novel technique based upon a cluster analysis of non-volatile memory. The approach achieves forensically reliable images at the same level of integrity as the traditional computer forensic acquisition procedures with the additional capability to restore the virtual hard disk as a forensic image at any given time.
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Implication for Pathogenesis of Chronic Alveolar Macrophage Polarization: Smoking-Dependent Reprogramming of

When exposed to a speciﬁc microenvironment, macrophages acquire either M1- or M2-polarized phenotypes associated with inﬂammation and tissue remodeling, respectively. Alveolar macrophages (AM) directly interact with environmental stimuli such as cigarette smoke, the major risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disease characterized by lung inﬂammation and remodeling. Transcriptional proﬁling of AM obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage of 24 healthy nonsmokers, 34 healthy smokers, and 12 COPD smokers was performed to test the hypothesis whether smoking alters AM polarization, resulting in a disease-relevant activation phenotype. The analysis revealed that AM of healthy smokers exhibited a unique polarization pattern characterized by substantial suppression of M1-related inﬂammatory/immune genes and induction of genes associated with various M2-polarization programs relevant to tissue remodeling and immunoregulation. Such reciprocal changes progressed with the development of COPD, with M1-related gene expression being most dramatically down-regulated ( p < 0.0001 vs healthy nonsmokers, p < 0.002 vs healthy smokers). Results were conﬁrmed with TaqMan real-time PCR and ﬂow cytometry. Among progressively down-regulated M1-related genes were those encoding type I chemokines CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, and CCL5. Progressive activation of M2-related program was characterized by induction of tissue remodeling and immunoregulatory genes such as matrix metalloproteinase ( MMP ) 2 , MMP7 , and adenosine A3 receptor ( ADORA3 ). Principal component analysis revealed that differential expression of polarization-related genes has substantial contribution to global AM phenotypes associated with smoking and COPD. In M1-deactivated,
Sepsis biomarkers and pathogen detection methods: State of the art

Evidence-based blood culture testing is of utmost importance for ICU patients with suspected sepsis or organ infection. Knowledge of the etiologic agent (bacteria or fungi) and their susceptibility against antimicrobials enables the clinician to initiate an appro- priate antimicrobial therapy and guides diagnostic pro- cedures. This has been shown to reduce mortality, ICU- -stay and antibiotic overuse. Whereas microbiological laboratory practice has been highly standardized, short- falls in the preanalytic procedures in the ICU (indication, timing, volume, numbers, collection of blood cultures) have a significant effect on the diagnostic yield. Due to system-related drawbacks of molecular diag- nostics, i.e. PCR-based pathogen detection, which are ar- guable sensitivities, the failing of the 'fast time-to-result argument', no solution to establish a comprising antibio- gram, still ongoing discussions on the coverage of the tar- get panel, high overall costs, and the lacking of resilient data on clinical utility, non-culture-based NATs do cur- rently not represent an alternative to blood culture testing. Inflammatory markers are recognized to play an increasingly important role in the diagnosis and moni- toring of sepsis. This is partly due to low specificity of clinical symptoms and conventional inflammatory signs for the diagnosis of sepsis but also to a lack of correlation with the severity of the inflammatory re- sponse. Elevated serum PCT levels indicate systemic inflammation reliably. PCT is the only sepsis marker that is helpful in the differentiation between infectious and non-infectious causes of organ dysfunction and shock and might support antibiotic therapy.
Genetic Marker Discovery in Complex Traits: A Field Example on Fat Content and Composition in Pigs

Among the large number of attributes that define pork quality, fat content and composition have attracted the attention of breeders in the recent years due to their interaction with human health and technological and sensorial properties of meat. In livestock species, fat accumulates in different depots following a temporal pattern that is also recognized in humans. Intramuscular fat deposition rate and fatty acid composition change with life. Despite indication that it might be possible to select for intramuscular fat without affecting other fat depots, to date only one depot-specific genetic marker (PCK1 c.2456C>A) has been reported. In contrast, identification of polymorphisms related to fat composition has been more successful. For instance, our group has described a variant in the stearoyl-coA desaturase (SCD) gene that improves the desaturation index of fat without affecting overall fatness or growth. Identification of mutations in candidate genes can be a tedious and costly process. Genome-wide association studies can help in narrowing down the number of candidate genes by highlighting those which contribute most to the genetic variation of the trait. Results from our group and others indicate that fat content and composition are highly polygenic and that very few genes explain more than 5% of the variance of the trait. Moreover, as the complexity of the genome emerges, the role of non-coding genes and regulatory elements cannot be disregarded. Prediction of breeding values from genomic data is discussed in comparison with conventional best linear predictors of breeding values. An example based on real data is given, and the implications in phenotype prediction are discussed in detail. The benefits and limitations of using large SNP sets versus a few very informative markers as predictors of genetic merit of breeding candidates are evaluated using field data as an example.
On the Achievability of Cramér–Rao Bound in Noisy Compressed Sensing

Recently, it has been proved in Babadi [B. Babadi, N. Kalouptsidis, and V. Tarokh, “Asymptotic achievability of the Cramér-Rao bound for noisy compressive sampling,” IEEE Trans. Signal Process. , vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 1233-1236, 2009] that in noisy compressed sensing, a joint typical estimator can asymptotically achieve the Cramér-Rao lower bound of the problem. To prove this result, Babadi used a lemma, which is provided in Akçakaya and Tarokh [M. Akçakaya and V. Trarokh, “Shannon theoretic limits on noisy compressive sampling,” IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 492-504, 2010] that comprises the main building block of the proof. This lemma is based on the assumption of Gaussianity of the measurement matrix and its randomness in the domain of noise. In this correspondence, we generalize the results obtained in Babadi by dropping the Gaussianity assumption on the measurement matrix. In fact, by considering the measurement matrix as a deterministic matrix in our analysis, we find a theorem similar to the main theorem of Babadi for a family of randomly generated (but deterministic in the noise domain) measurement matrices that satisfy a generalized condition known as “the concentration of measures inequality. ” By this, we finally show that under our generalized assumptions, the Cramér-Rao bound of the estimation is achievable by using the typical estimator introduced in Babadi et al.
When Is General Wariness Favored in Avoiding Multiple Predator Types?

Adaptive responses to predation are generally studied assuming only one predator type exists, but most prey species are depredated by multiple types. When multiple types occur, the optimal antipredator response level may be determined solely by the probability of attack by the relevant predator: “specific responsiveness. ” Conversely, an increase in the probability of attack by one predator type might increase responsiveness to an alternative predator type: “general wariness. ” We formulate a mathematical model in which a prey animal perceives a cue providing information on the probability of two predator types being present. It can perform one of two evasive behaviors that vary in their suitability as a response to the “wrong” predator type. We show that general wariness is optimal when incorrect behavioral decisions have differential fitness costs. Counterintuitively, difficulty in discriminating between predator types does not favor general wariness. We predict that where responses to predator types are mutually exclusive (e.g., referential alarm-calling), specific responsiveness will occur; we suggest that prey generalize their defensive responses based on cue similarity due to an assumption of response utility; and we predict, with relevance to conservation, that habituation to human disturbance should generalize only to predators that elicit the same antipredator response as humans.
Kingdom-Wide Analysis of Fungal Small Secreted Proteins (SSPs) Reveals their Potential Role in Host Association

Fungal secretome consists of various functional groups of proteins, many of which participate in nutrient acquisition, self-protection, or manipulation of the environment and neighboring organisms. The least characterized component of the secretome is small secreted proteins (SSPs). Some SSPs have been reported to function as effectors, but most remain to be characterized. The composition of major secretome components, such as carbohydrate-active enzymes, proteases, lipases, and oxidoreductases, appear to reflect the lifestyle and ecological niche of individual species. We hypothesize that many SSPs participate in manipulating plants as effectors. Obligate biotrophs likely encode more and diverse effector-like SSPs to suppress host defense compared to necrotrophs, which generally use cell wall degrading enzymes and phytotoxins to kill hosts. Because different secretome prediction workflows have been used in different studies, available secretome data are difficult to integrate for comprehensive comparative studies to test this hypothesis. In this study, SSPs encoded by 136 fungal species were identified from data archived in Fungal Secretome Database (FSD) via a refined secretome workflow. Subsequently, compositions of SSPs and other secretome components were compared in light of taxa and lifestyles. Those species that are intimately associated with host cells, such as biotrophs and symbionts, usually have higher proportion of species-specific SSPs (SSSPs) than hemibiotrophs and necrotrophs, but the latter groups displayed higher proportions of secreted enzymes. Results from our study established a foundation for functional studies on SSPs and will also help understand genomic changes potentially underpinning different fungal lifestyles.
18 Topics Badly Explained by Many Finance Professors

This paper addresses 18 finance topics that are badly explained by many Finance Professors. The topics are: 1. Where does the WACC equation come from? 2. The WACC is not a cost. 3. The WACC equation when the value of debt is not equal to its nominal value. 4. The term equity premium is used to designate four different concepts. 5. Textbooks differ a lot on their recommendations regarding the equity premium 6. Which Equity Premium do professors, analysts and practitioners use? 7. Calculated (historical) betas change dramatically from one day to the next. 8. Why do many professors still use calculated (historical) betas in class? 9. EVA does not measure Shareholder value creation. 10. The relationship between the WACC and the value of the tax shields (VTS). 11. Beta and CAPM do not explain anything about expected or required returns. 12. Difference between the expected and the required rates of return. 13. It has been very easy to beat the S&P500 in 2000-2018. 14. Apply the logic principle “Never buy a hair growth lotion from a man with no hair” to your investment advisors… and to your professors. 15. Rational investing in equities. 16. Volatility is a bad measure of risk. 17. About the unhelpfulness of the Sharpe ratio. 18. Common errors in portfolio management and wrong advices.
Compact Circuits for Efficient Mobius Transform

The Möbius transform is a linear circuit used to compute the evaluations of a Boolean function over all points on its input domain. The operation is very useful in finding the solution of a system of polynomial equations over GF(2) for obvious reasons. However the operation, although linear, needs exponential number of logic operations (around n · 2n−1 bit xors) for an n-variable Boolean function. As such, the only known hardware circuit to efficiently compute the Möbius Transform requires silicon area that is exponential in n. For Boolean functions whose algebraic degree is bound by some parameter d, recursive definitions of the Möbius Transform exist that requires only O(nd+1) space in software. However converting the mathematical definition of this space-efficient algorithm into a hardware architecture is a non-trivial task, primarily because the recursion calls notionally lead to a depth-first search in a transition graph that requires context switches at each recursion call for which straightforward mapping to hardware is difficult. In this paper we look to overcome these very challenges in an engineering sense. We propose a space efficient sequential hardware circuit for the Möbius Transform that requires only polynomial circuit area (i.e. O(nd+1)) provided the algebraic degree of the Boolean function is limited to d. We show how this circuit can be used as a component to efficiently solve polynomial equations of degree at most d by using fast exhaustive search. We propose three different circuit architectures for this, each of which uses the Möbius Transform circuit as a core component. We show that asymptotically, all the solutions of a system of m polynomials in n unknowns and algebraic degree d over GF(2) can be found using a circuit of silicon area proportional to m · nd+1 and circuit depth proportional to 2 · log2(n − d). In the second part of the paper we introduce a fourth hardware solver that additionally aims to achieve energy efficiency. The main idea is to reduce the solution space to a small enough value by parallel application of Möbius Transform circuits over the first few equations of the system. This is done so that one can check individually whether the vectors of this reduced solution space satisfy each of the remaining equations of the system using lower power consumption. The new circuit has area also bound by m · nd+1 and has circuit depth proportional to d · log2 n. We also show that further optimizations with respect to energy consumption may be obtained by using depth-bound Möbius circuits that exponentially decrease run time at the cost of additional logic area and depth.
Deﬁnition Learning

Deep learning has enabled unprecedented improvements across the field of NLP in recent years. It has improved results in speech synthesis, speech-to-text systems, and machine translation. This is all possible because of the idea of continuous-valued distributed representations of words, also called word embeddings or vectors. Associating each word with some vectors of a thousand scalars has certainly led to some cool tricks. We can consider distance in this thousand-dimensional space as a approximation of “word similarity”. We’ve seen some interesting linear properties emerge, like the canonical vec(“king”) vec(“man”) + vec(“woman”) = vec(“queen”). Less obvious compositional capabilities have also been observed, for instance vec(“Russia”) + vec(“river”) = vec(“Volga”).
ERRATUM: “ElEvoHI: A NOVEL CME PREDICTION TOOL FOR HELIOSPHERIC IMAGING COMBINING AN ELLIPTICAL FRONT WITH DRAG-BASED MODEL FITTING” (ApJ, 824, 2, 131)

T. Amerstorfer, C. Möstl, A. Isavnin, J. A. Davies, M. Kubicka, U. V. Amerstorfer, and R. A. Harrison 1 Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-8042 Graz, Austria 2 IGAM-Kanzelhöhe Observatory, Institute of Physics, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria 3 Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland 4 RAL Space, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, OX11 0QX, UK Received 2016 July 21; published 2016 November 9
A Detailed Investigation of First and Second Order Supersymmetries for Off-Shell N = 2 and N = 4 Supermultiplets

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Non Inverting Buck Boost PFC Based AC and DC Ripple Free LED Driver using Luminaries Without Electrolytic Capacitor

In this paper, a low-ripple-current LED driver that does not need an electrolytic capacitor (EC) for power factor correction (PFC) is proposed. “To reduce ripple in the output current, PFC LED drivers often need large ECs. Because of the relatively limited life of ECs, there has been a rise in the desire for LED drivers that do not need ECs. Rather of using ECs, which have a limited lifespan, the suggested LED driver makes use of a non-inverting buck-boost (NIBB) power factor correction (PFC) converter and a bi-directional converter (BDC) for ripple current cancellation. In order to maintain UPF functioning, the PFC converter is constructed using a discontinuous conduction mode (DCM). The BDC is responsible for smoothing down the dc current going to the LED load by soaking up the second harmonic ac ripple current from the PFC converter. The control complexity is reduced since the BDC output voltage (vcbc) is always greater than the PFC output voltage (VLED), regardless of the ac source voltage. The MATLAB/Simulink simulation and the 7 W prototype have verified the accuracy of the theoretical analysis and predictions of the system”. According to the findings, the lifespan of the LED driver is extended because to the PFC integrated BDC’s lower ripple current with the film capacitor compared to its EC equivalent.
PENGEMBANGAN MODEL RAMALAN PRODUKSI PADI DENGAN PENDEKATAN BAGGING MARS

Padi merupakan makanan utama bagi orang Indonesia, yang menyediakan pendapatan secara musiman dan tenaga kerja untuk masyarakat pedesaan. Penyimpangan iklim seperti El-Nino dan La-Nina dapat menyebabkan gangguan produksi dan menggagalkan panen dalam luasan ratusan ribu hektar. Hal ini disebabkan curah hujan yang tidak menentu yang mengakibatkan penurunan luas panen produksi padi nasional secara signifikan. Pendataan dan ramalan produksi padi secara nasional setiap tahunnya dilakukan oleh Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) dan Departemen Pertanian (Deptan). Namun model ramalan BPS belum memasukkan faktor iklim, sementara iklim sangat mempengaruhi produksi padi di Indonesia. Pada penelitian ini digunakan bagging MARS untuk menduga anomali luas panen padi (AnLP) terhadap indeks curah hujan terboboti (WRI) dengan studi kasus di kabupaten Ngawi. Dari analisis yang telah dilakukan memberikan gambaran bahwa antara AnLP dan WRI nampak tidak jelas pola linearitasnya bahkan tidak mempunyai po1a tertentu. Tahap pembentukan model dimulai dengan melakukan trial and error terhadap maksimum basis fungsi (BF), maksimum interaksi (MI) dan minimal jumlah pengamatan diantara knot (MO) hingga diperoleh nilai optimal dengan nilai MSE minimum untuk mendapatkan model MARS. Langkah selanjutnya adalah melakukan bagging pada variabel penelitian yang signifikan dengan 50, 100, 150, 200 dan 250 replikasi bootstrap. Model bagging MARS diperoleh dari rata-rata setiap parameter pada setiap pengambilan sampel sampai B . Selanjutnya ramalan produksi padi per periode merupakan hasil perkalian antara ramalan luas panen dengan produktifitas per periode. Sedangkan ramalan produksi pa~i selama· satu tahun merupakan penjumlahan ramalan produksi padi selama tiga periode. Dari hasil analisis, model bagging MARS terbaik pada periode 1 yaitu dengan 150 kali replikasi bootstrap. Sedangkan untuk periode 2, dengan 100 kali replikasi bootstrap dapat menurunkan MSE sebesar 356055,88. Dan untuk periode 3, model bagging MARS terbaik dengan 200 kali replikasi bootstrap. Hasil ramalan luas panen padi dari model bagging MARS mempunyai tingkat kesalahan sebesar 2,91 %, sedangkan untuk hasil ramalan produksi padi mempunyai tingkat kesalahan sebesar 10,75 %.
Analytical survey on the design of Linear Dispersion space-time codes

Multiple antenna systems that operate at high rates require simple yet effective space-time transmission schemes to handle the large traffic volume in real time. In the last investigations, LD (Linear Dispersion) codes were proposed that can handle any configuration of transmit and receive antennas. This scheme transmits substreams of data in linear combinations over space and time and the codes are designed to optimize the mutual information between the transmitted and received signals with low complexity decoding. In this paper we try to design LD codes from two approaches. We first focus on the capacity of a multiple antenna system in the presence of LD codes and extract some conditions that LD codes must have to reach the capacity. Then we show that these conditions can be obtained from orthogonal designs exactly.