Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and clinical features of Cryptosporidium infection in hemodialysis patients

Aim: This cross-sectional study aims to assess the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in hemodialysis patients compared with healthy individuals in central Iran from August 2014 to January 2015. Background: Cryptosporidiosis is a major cause of acute and persistent diarrhea with significant morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients such as those undergoing renal dialysis. Methods: Three stool samples were collected from 330 hemodialysis patients and 150 healthy individuals on 3 consecutive days. The samples were screened for Cryptosporidium infection using formalin-ether sedimentation and modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining. Demographic variables as well as risk factors were recorded. Results: Out of 330 dialysis patients and 150 healthy individuals, 10 (3%) and 1 (0.7%) were infected with Cryptosporidium, respectively. We found statistically significant differences between infection and place of residency, hygiene status, education level, diarrhea, and abdominal pain in the two groups (p<0.05). On the other hand, there was no relationship between infection and sex, contact with domestic animals, fever, vomiting, nausea, flatulence, anorexia, duration of dialysis and underlying disorders in the two groups. Also, there was a statistically significant difference between age and infection in hemodialysis patients (p=0.003). A higher infection rate was observed in patients under 20 years of age. Conclusion: Risk factors for Cryptosporidium infection must be controlled. We strongly recommended that stool samples from such patients, especially those with severe or prolonged diarrhea, should be examined with modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining for appropriate and timely treatment.
Carrier relaxation and thermal activation of localized excitons in self-organized InAs multilayers grown on GaAs substrates.

We have investigated the temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) properties of a number of self-organized InAs/GaAs heterostructures with InAs layer thickness ranging from 0.5 to 3 ML. The temperature dependence of InAs exciton emission and linewidth was found to display a significant difference when the InAs layer thickness is smaller or larger than the critical thickness around 1.7 ML. The fast redshift of PL energy and an anomalous decrease of linewidth with increasing temperature were observed and attributed to the efficient relaxation process of carriers in multilayer samples, resulting from the spread and penetration of the carrier wave functions in coupled InAs quantum dots. The measured thermal activation energies of different samples demonstrated that the InAs wetting layer may act as a barrier for the thermionic emission of carriers in high-quality InAs multilayers, while in InAs monolayers and submonolayers the carriers are required to overcome the GaAs barrier to escape thermally from the localized states.
Toward intersection filter-based optimization for joins in MapReduce

MapReduce has become an attractive and dominant model for processing large-scale datasets. However, this model is not designed to directly support operations with multiple inputs as joins. Many studies on join algorithms including Bloom join in MapReduce have been conducted but they still have too much non-joining data generated and transmitted over the network. This research will help us eliminate the problem by providing an intersection filter based on probabilistic models to remove most disjoint elements between two datasets. Namely, three ways are proposed to build the intersection Bloom filter. To apply the filter to joins, a corresponding MapReduce job will be adjusted in a consistent way without increasing related costs. We then consider two-way joins and join cascades and analyze their costs. As a result, thanks to the high accuracy intersection filter, join processing can minimize disk I/O and communication costs. Finally, the research is proved to be more effective than existing solutions through a cost-based comparison of joins using different approaches.
Fast network oscillations induced by potassium transients in the rat hippocampus in vitro

Brief pressure ejection of solutions containing potassium, caesium or rubidium ions into stratum radiatum of the CA1 or CA3 regions of the hippocampal slice evoked a fast network oscillation. The activity evoked lasted ∼3–25 s with the predominant frequency component being in the gamma frequency range (30–80 Hz), although beta frequency (15–30 Hz) and ultrafast (> 80 Hz) components could also be seen. The gamma frequency component of the oscillation remained constant, even when large changes in power occurred, and was synchronous across the CA1 region. Measurements with potassium ion‐sensitive electrodes revealed that the network oscillation was accompanied by increases (0.5 to 2.0 mm) in the extracellular potassium concentration [K+]o. Bath application of the N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists d(–)‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonopentanoic acid (d‐AP5; 50 μM) had no significant effect but the α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isooxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)/kainate receptor antagonist 2,3,‐dioxo‐6‐nitro‐1,2,3,4‐tetrahydrobenzo[f]quinoxaline‐7‐sulphonamide disodium (NBQX; 20 μM) caused a significant reduction (86.7 ± 4.5 %) in the power in the gamma frequency range. Residual rhythmic activity, presumably arising in the interneuronal network, was blocked by the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline. The putative gap junction blocker octanol caused a decrease in the power of the gamma frequency component of 75.5 ± 5.6 %, while carbenoxolone produced a reduction of only 14 ± 42 %. These experiments demonstrate that a modest increase in exogenous [K+]o in the hippocampus in vitro is sufficient to evoke a fast network oscillation, which is an emergent property of the synaptically and electrically interconnected neuronal network.
Cold Silicon Preamorphization Implant and Presilicide Sulfur Implant for Advanced Nickel Silicide Contacts

We report the first demonstration of a nickel silicide (NiSi) contact formation technique using cold silicon (Si) preamorphization implant (PAI) combined with presilicide sulfur (S) implant. The cold Si PAI suppresses the agglomeration of NiSi film at elevated temperatures. Presilicide S implant and its segregation at the interface of NiSi and n-type Si (n-Si) after silicidation significantly lowers the effective Schottky barrier height (ΦnB) for electrons at the NiSi/n-Si contact. The S atoms in Si could be modeled as donor-like traps near the NiSi/n-Si interface, and a simulation study was performed to explain the reduction of ΦnB caused by S.
An ON-OFF orientation selective address event representation image transceiver chip

This paper describes the electronic implementation of a four-layer cellular neural network architecture implementing two components of a functional model of neurons in the visual cortex: linear orientation selective filtering and half wave rectification. Separate ON and OFF layers represent the positive and negative outputs of two-phase quadrature Gabor-type filters, whose orientation and spatial-frequency tunings are electronically adjustable. To enable the construction of a multichip network to extract different orientations in parallel, the chip includes an address event representation (AER) transceiver that accepts and produces two-dimensional images that are rate encoded as spike trains. It also includes routing circuitry that facilitates point-to-point signal fan in and fan out. We present measured results from a 32/spl times/64 pixel prototype, which was fabricated in the TSMC0.25-/spl mu/m process on a 3.84 by 2.54 mm die. Quiescent power dissipation is 3 mW and is determined primarily by the spike activity on the AER bus. Settling times are on the order of a few milliseconds. In comparison with a two-layer network implementing the same filters, this network results in a more symmetric circuit design with lower quiescent power dissipation, albeit at the expense of twice as many transistors.
On Estimating Air Pollution from Photos Using Convolutional Neural Network

Air pollution has raised people's intensive concerns especially in developing countries such as China and India. Different from using expensive or unreliable methods like sensor-based or social network based one, photo based air pollution estimation is a promising direction, while little work has been done up to now. Focusing on this immediate problem, this paper devises an effective convolutional neural network to estimate air's quality based on photos. Our method is comprised of two ingredients: first a negative log-log ordinal classifier is devised in the last layer of the network, which can improve the ordinal discriminative ability of the model. Second, as a variant of the Rectified Linear Units (ReLU), a modified activation function is developed for photo based air pollution estimation. This function has been shown it can alleviate the vanishing gradient issue effectively. We collect a set of outdoor photos and associate the pollution levels from official agency as the ground truth. Empirical experiments are conducted on this real-world dataset which shows the capability of our method.
Linking EBD Student Achievement to Attachment: Exploring the Role of Relationship in Encouraging School Success

Less than one half of students educationally labeled Emotionally or Behaviorally Disordered (EBD) graduate. Previous research findings suggest some reasons for this lack of success including: lack of educator training, mental health issues of students, the effect of poverty and how the nature of early childhood attachment impacts learning. Specific attention has been given to early childhood attachment patterns form the neurological pathways upon which a student may base future interactions. This qualitative study focused on the nature of the student-educator relationship and how that relationship can impact the learning of EBD students. There were ten participants interviewed for this study: four educators, one grandparent of a former EBD student and five former EBD students. The findings of this study suggest a need for increased teacher training to broaden understanding of mental health issues, the barriers EBD students face outside of an educational system, and the importance of the educator-student relationship as an essential component needed for EBD students to succeed. Additionally, the findings included the need for increased funding for education to decrease class size and a need for increased mental health supports in schools.
Temporal aggregation, causality distortions and a sign rule

Temporally aggregated data is a bane for Granger causality tests. The same set of variables may lead to contradictory causality inferences at different levels of temporal aggregation. Obtaining temporally disaggregated data series is impractical in many situations. Since cointegration is invariant to temporal aggregation and implies Granger causality this paper proposes a sign rule to establish the direction of causality. Temporal aggregation leads to a distortion of the sign of the adjustment coefficients of an error correction model. The sign rule works better with highly temporally aggregated data. The practitioners, therefore, may revert to using annual data for Granger causality testing instead of looking for quarterly, monthly or weekly data. The method is illustrated through three applications.
Multiple Mutations in Heterogeneous Miltefosine-Resistant Leishmania major Population as Determined by Whole Genome Sequencing

Background Miltefosine (MF) is the first oral compound used in the chemotherapy against leishmaniasis. Since the mechanism of action of this drug and the targets of MF in Leishmania are unclear, we generated in a step-by-step manner Leishmania major promastigote mutants highly resistant to MF. Two of the mutants were submitted to a short-read whole genome sequencing for identifying potential genes associated with MF resistance. Methods/Principal Findings Analysis of the genome assemblies revealed several independent point mutations in a P-type ATPase involved in phospholipid translocation. Mutations in two other proteins—pyridoxal kinase and α-adaptin like protein—were also observed in independent mutants. The role of these proteins in the MF resistance was evaluated by gene transfection and gene disruption and both the P-type ATPase and pyridoxal kinase were implicated in MF susceptibility. The study also highlighted that resistance can be highly heterogeneous at the population level with individual clones derived from this population differing both in terms of genotypes but also susceptibility phenotypes. Conclusions/Significance Whole genome sequencing was used to pinpoint known and new resistance markers associated with MF resistance in the protozoan parasite Leishmania. The study also demonstrated the polyclonal nature of a resistant population with individual cells with varying susceptibilities and genotypes.
Global and Local Epidemiology of Community-Acquired Pneumonia: The Experience of the CAPNETZ Network

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Young children and the elderly are disproportionately affected by CAP. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs), including CAP, were ranked third in a list of the 30 leading causes of death worldwide in 1990. Mortality rates are low (< 2%) in CAP patients treated as outpatients, but are higher (5 to 20%) among patients hospitalized for CAP, and are highest (up to 50%) in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Several risk factors are known to be associated with increases in mortality, the most important of which are age > 65 years, male gender, and comorbidities such as chronic heart failure, advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, neurological diseases, and liver cirrhosis. Patients living in nursing homes may have a special risk for multiresistant bacterial infection. The incidence of CAP varies worldwide by country, age, and gender. Further, data about epidemiology, etiology, morbidity, mortality, and economical burden of diseases differ between countries. In this review, we present recent data regarding the incidence, etiology, and rate of antibiotic resistance among CAP patients from the German Network for Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAPNETZ) registry and review data from several European countries.
Daily environmental conditions determine the competition–facilitation balance for plant water status

Plants compete with their neighbours for a finite set of limiting resources, and this decreases individual plant performance, growth and survival. However, neighbouring plants also affect each other in positive ways. Positive facilitative effects can occur when neighbouring plants ameliorate harsh abiotic conditions (temperature, wind and high irradiation). Thus, when environmental conditions are severe, the importance of facilitation may increase. The co‐occurrence and masking effects of competition and facilitation among neighbouring plants have made it difficult to tease them apart in the past. We planted bur oak acorns (Quercus macrocarpa) into an experimental diversity gradient in a central MN grassland that provided a gradient in plant biomass. We predicted that greater biomass of neighbours would increase both competition and facilitation as measured by impacts on the minimum leaf water potential reached on any given day. Under moderate conditions, competition should predominate, but under hot/dry conditions, facilitation should become more important. We measured temperature, humidity and soil moisture in these plots for two growing seasons, as well as oak seedling leaf water potential across a range of daily conditions. On cool/humid days, plant interactions were dominated by competition for soil water: leaf water potentials of juvenile oaks were lower in plots with greater herbaceous biomass (and higher diversity). Conversely, on hot/dry days, facilitation of the microclimate determined the net effect of plants on their neighbours: leaf water potentials of juvenile oaks were higher in plots with higher herbaceous diversity and biomass. Synthesis. In terms of plant water status, plant interactions among neighbours can flip from net negative (competition) to net positive (facilitation) depending on daily abiotic conditions. The relative importance of both positive and negative interactions for plant water status may affect the overall performance of plants over time.
MiR-153 targets the nuclear factor-1 family and protects against teratogenic effects of ethanol exposure in fetal neural stem cells

ABSTRACT Ethanol exposure during pregnancy is an established cause of birth defects, including neurodevelopmental defects. Most adult neurons are produced during the second trimester-equivalent period. The fetal neural stem cells (NSCs) that generate these neurons are an important but poorly understood target for teratogenesis. A cohort of miRNAs, including miR-153, may serve as mediators of teratogenesis. We previously showed that ethanol decreased, while nicotine increased miR-153 expression in NSCs. To understand the role of miR-153 in the etiology of teratology, we first screened fetal cortical NSCs cultured ex vivo, by microarray and quantitative RT-PCR analyses, to identify cell-signaling mRNAs and gene networks as important miR-153 targets. Moreover, miR-153 over-expression prevented neuronal differentiation without altering neuroepithelial cell survival or proliferation. Analysis of 3′UTRs and in utero over-expression of pre-miR-153 in fetal mouse brain identified Nfia (nuclear factor-1A) and its paralog, Nfib, as direct targets of miR-153. In utero ethanol exposure resulted in a predicted expansion of Nfia and Nfib expression in the fetal telencephalon. In turn, miR-153 over-expression prevented, and partly reversed, the effects of ethanol exposure on miR-153 target transcripts. Varenicline, a partial nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist that, like nicotine, induces miR-153 expression, also prevented and reversed the effects of ethanol exposure. These data collectively provide evidence for a role for miR-153 in preventing premature NSC differentiation. Moreover, they provide the first evidence in a preclinical model that direct or pharmacological manipulation of miRNAs have the potential to prevent or even reverse effects of a teratogen like ethanol on fetal development.
Clinical Robustness of Accelerated and Optimized Abdominal Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

Objectives The aim of this study was to assess the robustness of an accelerated and optimized diffusion-weighted sequence in clinical routine abdominal imaging using the simultaneous multislice (SMS) technique for scan time reduction and 3-dimensional (3D) diagonal diffusion mode to optimize image quality. Materials and Methods One hundred fifty consecutive patients received clinically indicated magnetic resonance imaging for abdominal imaging including an optimized SMS diffusion-weighted sequence (DWIOPT: diffusion mode 3D diagonal; SMS factor 2; scan time 1:44 minutes). A subgroup of 41 patients additionally received a standard diffusion-weighted sequence as reference (DWISTD: diffusion mode 4-scan trace; scan time 2:35 minutes). Qualitative and quantitative image parameters of DWISTD and DWIOPT were assessed and compared interindividually within the subgroup using dedicated statistics. Results In all patients, image quality ratings in DWIOPT were rated very high (overall image quality, 4.6 [4–5]; contour sharpness of right/left hepatic lobe, 4.6 [4–5]/4.4 [4–5]; and lesion conspicuity, 4.5 [4.5–5]). Interindividually, DWIOPT proved superior to DWISTD in comparison of overall image quality (4.6 [4.6–4.7] vs 4.2 [4.1–4.2]; P = 0.025) and contour sharpness of the right/left hepatic lobe (4.6 [4.5–4.7]/4.3 [4.0–4.3] vs 4.3 [4.1–43]/4.0[3.0–4.0]; each P = 0.045); lesion conspicuity was comparable in DWIOPT and DWISTD (4.0 [4.8–5] vs 4.4 [4–5]; P = 0.461), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values showed no statistically significant difference (ADCOPT vs ADCSTD: right hepatic lobe, P = 0.084; kidney, P = 0.445). Interreader agreement was substantial with a kappa value of 0.78 (P < 0.001). Conclusions Diffusion-weighted imaging of the abdomen can be considerably accelerated and optimized integrating the SMS technique and a 3D diagonal diffusion mode. In a large patient cohort, this approach proved of superior image quality while maintaining similar ADC values compared with standard DWI. This technique seems applicable for daily clinical routine.
Capital Accumulation and Growth: A New Look at the Empirical Evidence

We present evidence that an increase in investment as a share of GDP predicts a higher growth rate of output per worker, not only temporarily, but also in the steady state. These results are found using pooled annual data for a large panel of countries, using pooled data for non- overlapping five-year periods, or allowing for heterogeneity across countries in regression coefficient. They are robust to model specifications and estimation methods. The evidence that investment has a long-run effect on growth rates is consistent with the main implication of certain endogenous growth models, such as the AK model.
Mechanisms Underlying Blockade of Allograft Acceptance by TLR Ligands1

Immune activation via TLRs is known to prevent transplantation tolerance in multiple animal models. To investigate the mechanisms underlying this barrier to tolerance induction, we used complementary murine models of skin and cardiac transplantation in which prolonged allograft acceptance is either spontaneous or pharmacologically induced with anti-CD154 mAb and rapamycin. In each model, we found that prolonged allograft survival requires the presence of natural CD4+Foxp3+ T regulatory cells (Tregs), and that the TLR9 ligand CpG prevents graft acceptance both by interfering with natural Treg function and by promoting the differentiation of Th1 effector T cells in vivo. We further demonstrate that although Th17 cells differentiate from naive alloreactive T cells, these cells do not arise from natural Tregs in either CpG-treated or untreated graft recipients. Finally, we show that CpG impairs natural Treg suppressor capability and prevents Treg-dependent allograft acceptance in an IL-6-independent fashion. Our data therefore suggest that TLR signals do not prevent prolonged graft acceptance by directing natural Tregs into the Th17 lineage or by using other IL-6-dependent mechanisms. Instead, graft destruction results from the ability of CpG to drive Th1 differentiation and interfere with immunoregulation established by alloreactive natural CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs.
COVERAGE CONTROL FOR MOBILE SENSING NETWORKS: VARIATIONS ON A THEME

This paper presents control and coordination algorithms for networks of autonomous vehicles. We focus on groups of vehicles performing distributed sensing tasks where each vehicle plays the role of a mobile tunable sensor. We design distributed gradient descent algorithms for a class of utility functions which encodes optimal coverage and sensing policies. These utility functions are studied in geographical optimization, vector quantization, and sensor allocation contexts. The algorithms exploit the computational geometry of spatial structures such as Voronoi diagrams.