AN EFFICIENT ALGORITHM FORMINING HIGH UTILITY ASSOCIATION RULES FROM LATTICE

In business, most of companies focus on growing their profits. Besides considering profit from each product, they also focus on the relationship among products in order to support effective decision making, gain more profits and attract their customers, e.g. shelf arrangement, product displays, or product marketing, etc. Some high utility association rules have been proposed, however, they consume much memory and require long time processing. This paper proposes LHAR (Lattice-based for mining High utility Association Rules) algorithm to mine high utility association rules based on a lattice of high utility itemsets. The LHAR algorithm aims to generates high utility association rules during the process of building lattice of high utility itemsets, and thus it needs less memory and runtim

Injectable dual-gelling cell-laden composite hydrogels for bone tissue engineering

The present work investigated the osteogenic potential of injectable, dual thermally and chemically gelable composite hydrogels for mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) delivery in vitro and in vivo. Composite hydrogels comprising copolymer macromers of N-isopropylacrylamide were fabricated through the incorporation of gelatin microparticles (GMPs) as enzymatically digestible porogens and sites for cellular attachment. High and low polymer content hydrogels with and without GMP loading were shown to successfully encapsulate viable MSCs and maintain their survival over 28 days in vitro. GMP incorporation was also shown to modulate alkaline phosphatase production, but enhanced hydrogel mineralization along with higher polymer content even in the absence of cells. Moreover, the regenerative capacity of 2 mm thick hydrogels with GMPs only, MSCs only, or GMPs and MSCs was evaluated in vivo in an 8 mm rat critical size cranial defect for 4 and 12 weeks. GMP incorporation led to enhanced bony bridging and mineralization within the defect at each timepoint, and direct bone-implant contact as determined by microcomputed tomography and histological scoring, respectively. Encapsulation of both GMPs and MSCs enabled hydrogel degradation leading to significant tissue infiltration and osteoid formation. The results suggest that these injectable, dual-gelling cell-laden composite hydrogels can facilitate bone ingrowth and integration, warranting further investigation for bone tissue engineering

Efficient algorithms for mining clickstream patterns using pseudo-IDLists

Sequential pattern mining is an important task in data mining. Its subproblem, clickstream pattern mining, is starting to attract more research due to the growth of the Internet and the need to analyze online customer behaviors. To date, only few works are dedicately proposed for the problem of mining clickstream patterns. Although one approach is to use the general algorithms for sequential pattern mining, those algorithms’ performance may suffer and the resources needed are more than would be necessary with a dedicated method for mining clickstreams. In this paper, we present pseudo-IDList, a novel data structure that is more suitable for clickstream pattern mining. Based on this structure, a vertical format algorithm named CUP (Clickstream pattern mining Using Pseudo-IDList) is proposed. Furthermore, we propose a pruning heuristic named DUB (Dynamic intersection Upper Bound) to improve our proposed algorithm. Four real-life clickstream databases are used for the experiments and the results show that our proposed methods are effective and efficient regarding runtimes and memory consumption. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED)National Foundation for Science & Technology Development (NAFOSTED) [02/2019/TN

Low-Level ionizing radiation induces selective killing of HIV-1-infected cells with reversal of cytokine induction using mtor inhibitors

HIV-1 infects 39.5 million people worldwide, and cART is effective in preventing viral spread by reducing HIV-1 plasma viral loads to undetectable levels. However, viral reservoirs persist by mechanisms, including the inhibition of autophagy by HIV-1 proteins (i.e., Nef and Tat). HIV-1 reservoirs can be targeted by the “shock and kill” strategy, which utilizes latency-reversing agents (LRAs) to activate latent proviruses and immunotarget the virus-producing cells. Yet, limitations include reduced LRA permeability across anatomical barriers and immune hyper-activation. Ionizing radiation (IR) induces effective viral activation across anatomical barriers. Like other LRAs, IR may cause inflammation and modulate the secretion of extracellular vesicles (EVs). We and others have shown that cells may secrete cytokines and viral proteins in EVs and, therefore, LRAs may contribute to inflammatory EVs. In the present study, we mitigated the effects of IR-induced inflammatory EVs (i.e., TNF-α), through the use of mTOR inhibitors (mTORi; Rapamycin and INK128). Further, mTORi were found to enhance the selective killing of HIV-1-infected myeloid and T-cell reservoirs at the exclusion of uninfected cells, potentially via inhibition of viral transcription/translation and induction of autophagy. Collectively, the proposed regimen using cART, IR, and mTORi presents a novel approach allowing for the targeting of viral reservoirs, prevention of immune hyper-activation, and selectively killing latently infected HIV-1 cells

Hepatitis E virus seroprevalence in indigenous residents of the Hà Giang northern province of Vietnam

Vietnam is an endemic territory of the South-East Asia in terms of the prevalence of hepatitis E virus. However, the data on the prevalence of HEV infection among the indigenous population of Vietnam are limited, whereas the data on various minor ethnic groups are not available. Рopulation of the Northern province Hà Giang is characterized by ethnic diversity and consists of about 22 ethnic groups that have preserved their ethnic identity determining the features of their lifestyle and farming. The goal of the current study was to conduct a cross-sectional examination to assess prevalence of serological markers of HEV infection in the indigenous population of the Northern province of Vietnam, Hà Giang. Materials and methods. A total of 1127 healthy indigenous residents aged 18 to 83 years (average age 42.8±1.5) who lived in three regions (Yên Minh, Bắc Mê and Đông Văn) of Hà Giang province in 2019 were enrolled in the study. The presence of HEV-specific IgG antibodies (anti-HEV IgG) was determined by the ELISA using kits “DS-IFA-ANTI-HEV-G” (LLC NPO “Diagnostic Systems”, Russia). Results. The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG antibodies in the indigenous population in the Hà Giang province was 74.4% (838/1127; 95% CI 71.7–76.8), with the peak occurrence of anti-HEV IgG (87.6%) found in Đông Văn region, which was significantly higher compared to those in the Bắc Mê (χ2 = 16.37, p = 0.000052) and Yên Minh (χ2 = 214.64, p < 0.00001) regions. The Yên Minh Region was characterized by the lowest percentage of subjects involved in the epidemic process (χ2 = 77.55, p < 0.00001). No significant gender-related differences were detected in antiHEV IgG level both in general and in individual regions. The peak frequency of anti-HEV IgG (85.9%) was found in the H’mong ethnic group, which was significantly higher than in the Tay ethnic groups (χ2 = 77.32, p < 0.00001) and in the remaining minor ethnic groups (χ2 = 63.44, p < 0.00001). Conclusion. The results of this study indicate a high seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus in the minor ethnic groups, which preserve the national lifestyle in the Hà Giang province of the Northern Vietnam. As the Hà Giang province is located in remote mountain areas, a number of which are still difficult to access, its low economic status, poor sanitary and hygienic living conditions, lack of high-quality water supply, multinational population following different lifestyles, the contact of population with natural potential sources of HEV infection, including various wild and domestic animals, contribute to the successful spread of the hepatitis E virus in the region and the involvement of all populational age groups in the epidemic process. Taking into account the rapid development of the tourism industry in the Hà Giang Province particularly in the Đông Văn Region, where the Đông Văn Karst Plateau Geopark being recognized by UNESCO as national treasure is located, the results of this study emphasize a need to plan and perform the events aimed for preventing and monitoring HEV infection in endemic regions in Vietnam in order to reduce a risk of spread of hepatitis E virus not only inside, but also outside the country

Pneumonia: Drug-Related Problems and Hospital Readmissions

Pneumonia is one of the most common infectious diseases and the fourth leading cause of death globally. According to US statistics in 2019, pneumonia is the most common cause of sepsis and septic shock. In the US, inpatient pneumonia hospitalizations account for the top 10 highest medical costs, totaling $9.5 billion for 960,000 hospital stays. The emergence of antibiotic resistance in the treatment of infectious diseases, including the treatment of pneumonia, is a globally alarming problem. Antibiotic resistance increases the risk of death and re-hospitalization, prolongs hospital stays, and increases treatment costs, and is one of the greatest threats in modern medicine. Drug-related problems (DRPs) in pneumonia - such as suboptimal antibiotic indications, prolonged treatment duration, and drug interactions - increase the rate of antibiotic resistance and adverse effects, thereby leading to an increased burden in treatment. In a context in which novel and effective antibiotics are scarce, mitigating DRPs in order to reduce antibiotic resistance is currently a prime concern. A variety of interventions proven useful in reducing DRPs are antibiotic stewardship programs, the use of biomarkers, computerized physician order entries and clinical decision support systems, and community-acquired pneumonia scores

First-principles quantum transport modeling of thermoelectricity in single-molecule nanojunctions with graphene nanoribbon electrodes

We overview nonequilibrium Green function combined with density functional theory (NEGF-DFT) modeling of independent electron and phonon transport in nanojunctions with applications focused on a new class of thermoelectric devices where a single molecule is attached to two metallic zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) via highly transparent contacts. Such contacts make possible injection of evanescent wavefunctions from ZGNRs, so that their overlap within the molecular region generates a peak in the electronic transmission. Additionally, the spatial symmetry properties of the transverse propagating states in the ZGNR electrodes suppress hole-like contributions to the thermopower. Thus optimized thermopower, together with diminished phonon conductance through a ZGNR/molecule/ZGNR inhomogeneous structure, yields the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT~0.5 at room temperature and 0.5<ZT<2.5 below liquid nitrogen temperature. The reliance on evanescent mode transport and symmetry of propagating states in the electrodes makes the electronic-transport-determined power factor in this class of devices largely insensitive to the type of sufficiently short conjugated organic molecule, which we demonstrate by showing that both 18-annulene and C10 molecule sandwiched by the two ZGNR electrodes yield similar thermopower. Thus, one can search for molecules that will further reduce the phonon thermal conductance (in the denominator of ZT) while keeping the electronic power factor (in the nominator of ZT) optimized. We also show how often employed Brenner empirical interatomic potential for hydrocarbon systems fails to describe phonon transport in our single-molecule nanojunctions when contrasted with first-principles results obtained via NEGF-DFT methodology.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures; mini-review article prepared for the special issue of the Journal of Computational Electronics on "Simulation of Thermal, Thermoelectric, and Electrothermal Phenomena in Nanostructures", edited by I. Knezevic and Z. Aksamij

All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients with initial LIGO

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% confidence upper limits on the rate of long-duration gravitational wave transients for different types of gravitational wave signals. For signals from black hole accretion disk instabilities, we set upper limits on the source rate density between 3.4×10-5 and 9.4×10-4 Mpc-3 yr-1 at 90% confidence. These are the first results from an all-sky search for unmodeled long-duration transient gravitational waves. © 2016 American Physical Society