Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PATTERN OF ANTIMICROBIAL PRESCRIPTION AND ITS COST ANALYSIS IN RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTION

Many reports from different parts of the world show that antimicrobials are used both widely and often indiscriminately. Indiscriminate usage could increase the cost of therapy, incidence of adverse drug reaction, and increase in the rate of emergence of bacterial resistance. There is evidence to show that antimicrobials are widely used in Nepal. This study relates to the drug prescribed treatment of Respiratory Tract Infection (RTI), which is a cause of morbidity and mortality in children and adults. This problem is important considering climate, geographical and living condition of the people. Out of total 190 patients 20% were diagnosed as having Upper Respiratory tract infection (URTI), 48.43% had Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI) and 31.57% as having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma. 42.1% were male patients and 57.89% were females. Among the six different antimicrobials prescribed the most commonly used therapeutic group were penicillin’s (47.36%) followed by tetracycline (43.15%), macrolides (4.2%), quinlones (3.1%) and cephalosporins (2.1%) . 14.56% of the drug was prescribed using generic name and the remaining 85.43% of the drugs were prescribed using brand name. It was found that the Maximum and minimum price of antimicrobial regimen in two hospitals were same although slight difference in brands available was observed. The cheapest antimicrobial regimen in RTI treatment was Doxycycline, 100 mg once daily for 10 days and the most expensive was cefixime 400 mg for 7 days. The cost of the same drug varied according to the brands.
The Relation between Resting State Connectivity and Creativity in Adolescents before and after Training

An important component of creativity is divergent thinking, which involves the ability to generate novel and useful problem solutions. In this study, we tested the relation between resting-state functional connectivity of brain areas activated during a divergent thinking task (i.e., supramarginal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, medial frontal gyrus) and the effect of practice in 32 adolescents aged 15–16. Over a period of two weeks, an experimental group (n = 16) conducted an 8-session Alternative Uses Task (AUT) training and an active control group (n = 16) conducted an 8-session rule switching training. Resting-state functional connectivity was measured before (pre-test) and after (post-test) training. Across groups at pre-test, stronger connectivity between the middle temporal gyrus and bilateral postcentral gyrus was associated with better divergent thinking performance. The AUT-training, however, did not significantly change functional connectivity. Post hoc analyses showed that change in divergent thinking performance over time was predicted by connectivity between left supramarginal gyrus and right occipital cortex. These results provide evidence for a relation between divergent thinking and resting-state functional connectivity in a task-positive network, taking an important step towards understanding creative cognition and functional brain connectivity.
The Isolation of Nucleic Acids from Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Tissues–Which Methods Are Useful When?

Museums and pathology collections around the world represent an archive of genetic material to study populations and diseases. For preservation purposes, a large portion of these collections has been fixed in formalin-containing solutions, a treatment that results in cross-linking of biomolecules. Cross-linking not only complicates isolation of nucleic acid but also introduces polymerase “blocks” during PCR. A wide variety of methods exists for the recovery of DNA and RNA from archival tissues, and although a number of previous studies have qualitatively compared the relative merits of the different techniques, very few have undertaken wide scale quantitative comparisons. To help address this issue, we have undertaken a study that investigates the quality of nucleic acids recovered from a test panel of fixed specimens that have been manipulated following a number of the published protocols. These include methods of pre-treating the samples prior to extraction, extraction and nucleic acid purification methods themselves, and a post-extraction enzymatic repair technique. We find that although many of the published methods have distinct positive effects on some characteristics of the nucleic acids, the benefits often come at a cost. In addition, a number of the previously published techniques appear to have no effect at all. Our findings recommend that the extraction methodology adopted should be chosen carefully. Here we provide a quick reference table that can be used to determine appropriate protocols for particular aims.
Comparison between an AC-DC matrix converter and an interleaved DC-dc converter with power factor corrector for plug-in electric vehicles

Passive three-phase rectifier circuits are very popular for ac-dc power conversion. However, they do not have the capability to reverse the power flow, which is demanded by some recent potential smart-grid applications, such as vehicle-togrid (V2G) power transfer. This paper compares two structures of reversible battery chargers, i.e., an interleaved dc-dc converter fed by a three-phase power factor corrector rectifier and a three-phase ac-dc matrix converter, which may be suitable for plug-in electric vehicles. The comparison aims to estimate the power losses, the power capability and the size of the converters under common requirements.
Sequential activity in human motor areas during a delayed cued finger movement task studied by time‐resolved fMRI

ACTIVITY in the human primary motor cortex, the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area during a delayed cued finger movement task was measured by time-resolved functional magnetic resonance imaging. Activity during movement preparation can be resolved from activity during movement execution in a single trial. All three areas were active during both movement preparation and movement execution. Activity in the primary motor cortex was considerably weaker during movement preparation than during movement execution; in the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area, activity was of similar intensity during both periods. These observations are consistent with results from single neuronal recording studies in primates.
Methods derived from nonlinear dynamics for analysing heart rate variability

Methods from nonlinear dynamics (NLD) have shown new insights into heart rate (HR) variability changes under various physiological and pathological conditions, providing additional prognostic information and complementing traditional time- and frequency-domain analyses. In this review, some of the most prominent indices of nonlinear and fractal dynamics are summarized and their algorithmic implementations and applications in clinical trials are discussed. Several of those indices have been proven to be of diagnostic relevance or have contributed to risk stratification. In particular, techniques based on mono- and multifractal analyses and symbolic dynamics have been successfully applied to clinical studies. Further advances in HR variability analysis are expected through multidimensional and multivariate assessments. Today, the question is no longer about whether or not methods from NLD should be applied; however, it is relevant to ask which of the methods should be selected and under which basic and standardized conditions should they be applied.
Direct Disparity Space: Robust and Real-time Visual Odometry

We present a direct visual odometry formulation using a warping function in disparity space. In disparity space measurement noise is well-modeled by a Gaussian distribution, in contrast to the heteroscedastic noise in 3D space. In addition, the Jacobian of the warp separates the rotation and translation terms, enabling motion to be estimated from all image points even those located at infinity. Furthermore, we show that direct camera tracking can obtain accurate and robust performance using only a fraction of the image pixels through a simple and efficient pixel selection strategy. Our approach allows faster than real-time computation on a single CPU core with unoptimized code. As our approach does not rely on feature extraction, the selected pixels over successive frames are often unique. Hence, triangulating the selected pixels to the world frame produces an accurate and dense 3D reconstruction with minimal computational cost making it appealing to robotics and embedded applications. We evaluate the performance of our approach against state-of-the-art methods on a range of urban and indoor datasets. We show that our algorithm produces competitive performance, requires no specialized tuning, and continues to produce competitive results even when run with low resolution images where other techniques fail to operate.
Calcium Channel Blockers and Risk of Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of 17 Observational Studies

Purpose Studies on the association between the use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs) and breast cancer risk have reported inconsistent results. We quantitatively assessed this association by conducting a meta-analysis based on the evidence from observational studies. Methods We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library for relevant studies published up to and including December 31, 2013. We calculated pooled risk ratios (RRs) for cancer risk. Results A total of 17 studies (9 cohort studies, 8 case-control studies) were selected for further study. These studies included 149,607 female subjects, of which 53,812 were CCBs users, who were followed for 2–16 years. The risks of breast cancer among patients receiving CCBs were significantly different for the pooled RRs (95% confidence interval) of cohort studies 1.08 (0.95, 1.20) and case-control studies 0.98 (0.86, 1.09). Differences were also noted for cancer risk, for CCBs use of <5 years 0.96 (0.78, 1.15), and for >5 years 1.01 (0.74, 1.28), as well as for ever used 1.08 (0.95, 1.20), and for current use 1.13 (0.83, 1.42). The RR for studies longer than 10 years was 1.71 (1.01, 2.42), and for studies evaluating nifedipine was 1.10 (0.87, 1.33) and diltiazem was 0.75 (0.40, 1.10). Conclusions The long-term use of CCBs appears to have a significant relationship with breast cancer. Well-designed clinical trials are needed to optimize the doses and types of these drugs needed to minimize their carcinogenic potential.
Modulation of Alpha and Beta Oscillations during an n-back Task with Varying Temporal Memory Load

Temporal information can be retained and manipulated in working memory (WM). Neural oscillatory changes in WM were examined by varying temporal WM load. Electroencephalography was obtained from 18 subjects performing a temporal version of the visual n-back WM task (n = 1 or 2). Electroencephalography revealed that posterior alpha power decreased and temporal region-distributed beta power increased as WM load increased. This result is consistent with previous findings that posterior alpha band reflects inhibition of task-irrelevant information. Furthermore, findings from this study suggest that temporal region-distributed beta band activity is engaged in the active maintenance of temporal duration in WM.
For Peer Review

1 Imperial College London, Section of Paediatrics, London, United Kingdom; 2 Discipline of 5 Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney; 6 7 Running title: Improving the safety of OIT 8 9 Correspondence: 10 Dr. Paul Turner 11 Section of Paediatrics (Allergy & Infectious Diseases) 12 Imperial College London 13 Norfolk Place 14 London W2 1PG 15 UNITED KINGDOM 16 17 Phone: +44 (0)20 3312 7754 18 Fax: +44 (0)20 3312 7571 19 E-mail: p.turner@imperial.ac. uk 20 21 Word Count: 4463 words 22 Number of tables: 1 23 Number of figures: 2 24 Page 1 of 52
Alteration in Expression and Methylation of IGF2/H19 in Placenta and Umbilical Cord Blood Are Associated with Macrosomia Exposed to Intrauterine Hyperglycemia

Objective Macrosomia is one of the most common complications in gestational diabetes mellitus. Insulin-like growth factor 2 and H19 are two of the imprinted candidate genes that are involved in fetal growth and development. Change in methylation at differentially methylated region of the insulin-like growth factor 2 and H19 has been proved to be an early event related to the programming of metabolic profile, including macrosomia and small for gestational age in offspring. Here we hypothesize that alteration in methylation at differentially methylated region of the insulin-like growth factor 2 and H19 is associated with macrosomia induced by intrauterine hyperglycemia. Results The expression of insulin-like growth factor 2 is significant higher in gestational diabetes mellitus group (GDM group) compared to normal glucose tolerance group (NGT group) both in umbilical cord blood and placenta, while the expression of H19 is significant lower in GDM group in umbilical cord blood. The expression of insulin-like growth factor 2 is significant higher in normal glucose tolerance with macrosomia group (NGT-M) compared to normal glucose tolerance with normal birthweight group (NGT-NBW group) both in placenta and umbilical cord blood. A model with interaction term of gene expression of IGF2 and H19 found that IGF2 and the joint action of IGF2 and H19 in placenta showed significantly relationship with GDM/NGT and GDM-NBW/NGT-NBW. A borderline significant association was seen among IGF2 and H19 in cord blood and GDM-M/NGT-M. The methylation level at different CpG sites of insulin-like growth factor 2 and H19 in umbilical cord blood was also significantly different among groups. Based on the multivariable linear regression analysis, the methylation of the insulin-like growth factor 2 / H19 is closely related to birth weight and intrauterine hyperglycemia. Conclusions We confirmed the existence of alteration in DNA methylation in umbilical cord blood exposed to intrauterine hyperglycemia and reported a functional role in regulating gene associated with insulin-like growth factor 2/H19. Both of these might be the underlying pathogenesis of macrosomia. We also provided the evidence of strong associations between methylation of insulin-like growth factor 2/H19 and macrosomia induced by intrauterine hyperglycemia.
A role of the basal ganglia in movement: the effect of precues on discrete bi-directional movements in Parkinson's disease.

The effect of a precue on improving movement initiation (i.e., reaction time; RT) is well understood, whereas its influence on movement execution (i.e., movement time; MT) has rarely been examined. The current study investigated the influence of a directional precue (i.e., left vs. right) on the RT and MT of simple and discrete bi-directional movements in a large sample of Parkinson's disease patients and healthy control participants. Both patients and controls were tested twice, with testing sessions separated by 2 hours. Patients were tested first following an overnight levodopa withdrawal and again after they had taken their medication. Both patients and controls demonstrated a significant RT improvement when information was provided in advance. MT in both healthy participants and medicated patients was, however, slower with the provision of advance information, while unmedicated patients showed no significant MT effects. These results suggest that while the basal ganglia may not be involved in motor program selection, they may dynamically modulate movement execution.
Use of an inertia-less Virtual Synchronous Machine within future power networks with high penetrations of converters

Conventional converter models for wind turbines and Voltage Source HVDC links, as submitted to System Operators, typically use dq-axis controllers with current injection (DQCI). Recent work carried out by the authors has proven that for DQCI converter-interfaced sources there are overall penetration limits, i.e. the `tipping points' beyond which the system will become unstable. Initial investigations of this “tipping point”, based on a reduced model of the transmission system of Great Britain using phasor simulation within DIgSILENT PowerFactory, are reviewed briefly in this paper. The `tipping points' relating to maximum penetration of DQCI converter-interfaced sources are subsequently investigated in this paper using a higher fidelity three-phase dynamic power system model in Matlab Simulink. Additionally, a new converter controller, termed here as Virtual Synchronous Machine Zero Inertia (VSM0H), is described and implemented in the model. It is shown that, in principle, it is possible to significantly increase the penetration of converter based generation (up to 100% of installed capacity) without reaching a stability constraint.
A multifaceted approach to spatial analysis of ecosystem services : a case study in the New Forest National Park

This study investigated multiple facets of Ecosystem Services (ES), utilising the New Forest National Park as the study site. The scope of the thesis begins with assessment of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), before exploring a range of ES in the SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) in the National Park and finishing with an investigation into the implications of climate change on ES provision. CES are often highlighted as being important, though are often under-represented in ES assessments. The practical difficulties and varied methods available have been suggested to contribute to the lack of uptake of CES assessment. Stated methods of assessment (participatory GIS and stated surveys) and a behavioural method (GPS tracking) were used to ascertain differences in results. Stated response methodologies are suggested to be utilised for aesthetic assessment and behavioural monitoring methodologies for recreational assessment. Measured aesthetic and recreation values were utilised in a wider assessment of ES in the SSSI area within the National Park. Thus, the role of Protected Areas in conserving ES and biodiversity (which underpins many ES) were investigated. Multiple methods of mapping ecosystem services were adopted, including the use of the spatially explicit modelling tool InVEST, and GIS techniques. The SSSI was found to have a higher provisioning level of ES than the non-SSSI within the National Park. With this discovery for the National Park, a final analysis of the provisioning of ES with the impact of climate change was investigated within the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) within the National Park, to ascertain whether a decline could be seen. Low, medium and high climate change scenarios were used to model land change and by extension, ES provisioning change. A spatial multi-criteria analysis showed that the National Park will change extensively in species composition and thus show a decrease in ES provision in the future across all climate change scenarios investigated. Therefore, it is important that management strategies consider the uncertain impact of climate change in any decision making processes.
Current Recommended Dosing of Vancomycin for Children With Invasive Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infections Is Inadequate

Background: Vancomycin area-under-the-concentration-time-curve (AUC) for 24 hours divided by the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) (AUC24/MIC) >400 optimally treats invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in adults. It is unknown whether recommended vancomycin dosing regimens for children achieve this value. Methods: AUC24/MIC was calculated in children using vancomycin doses of 40 and 60 mg/kg/d. AUC24 was calculated as daily dose/vancomycin clearance. Vancomycin clearance in children was estimated by 2 approaches: (1) previously literature-reported vancomycin clearance, and (2) calculated vancomycin clearance using previously derived predictor models and a hypothetical population of healthy children. Representative MIC of hospital MRSA isolates was used (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 μg/mL). Results: The MIC50/90 for pediatric MRSA isolates in the previous year was 1.0 μg/mL. With a dose of 40 mg/kg/d, both approaches consistently predicted AUC24/MIC <400 when MIC was 1.0 μg/mL. At 60 mg/kg/d, AUC24/MIC >400 was more readily achieved when MIC was 1.0 μg/mL, however, an MIC of 2.0 μg/mL resulted in AUC24/MIC <400 for both dosing regimens. Conclusions: A vancomycin dose of 40 mg/kg/d in children is unlikely to achieve the recommended pharmacodynamic target of AUC24/MIC >400 for invasive MRSA infections even when MIC is 1.0 μg/mL. A starting dose of 60 mg/kg/d should be used in settings where isolates with MIC of 1.0 are common. Alternatives to vancomycin should strongly be considered for patients with MIC ≥2.0 μg/mL.
Real-world Object Recognition with Off-the-shelf Deep Conv Nets: How Many Objects can iCub Learn?

The ability to visually recognize objects is a fundamental skill for robotics systems. Indeed, a large variety of tasks involving manipulation, navigation or interaction with other agents, deeply depends on the accurate understanding of the visual scene. Yet, at the time being, robots are lacking good visual perceptual systems, which often become the main bottleneck preventing the use of autonomous agents for real-world applications. Lately in computer vision, systems that learn suitable visual representations and based on multi-layer deep convolutional networks are showing remarkable performance in tasks such as large-scale visual recognition and image retrieval. To this regard, it is natural to ask whether such remarkable performance would generalize also to the robotic setting. In this paper we investigate such possibility, while taking further steps in developing a computational vision system to be embedded on a robotic platform, the iCub humanoid robot. In particular, we release a new dataset ({\sc iCubWorld28}) that we use as a benchmark to address the question: {\it how many objects can iCub recognize? } Our study is developed in a learning framework which reflects the typical visual experience of a humanoid robot like the iCub. Experiments shed interesting insights on the strength and weaknesses of current computer vision approaches applied in real robotic settings.
Chemokine Expression Patterns Differ within Anatomically Distinct Regions of the Genital Tract during Chlamydia trachomatis Infection

ABSTRACT Untreated infections with Chlamydiatrachomatis commonly result in ascending infection to fallopian tubes and subsequent immune-mediated tubal pathology in females. The proposed immune-mediated injury may be associated with the increased recruitment of CD4 cells to the upper genital tract (GT) (oviducts) in comparison to the lower GT (cervix) during infection, as shown in animal models. To understand the mechanisms responsible for this biased recruitment of CD4 cells within the GT, we characterized chemokine expression patterns in the upper and lower GTs in mice during infection with the murine pneumonitis biovar of Chlamydiatrachomatis. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays of supernatants from GT homogenates revealed that the levels of the Th1-associated chemokines CXCL9 (monokine induced by gamma interferon), CXCL10 (interferon-inducible protein 10), and CCL5 (RANTES) were significantly higher in the upper GT than in the lower GT after infection, while the CCL3 (macrophage inflammatory protein 1α) level was not increased. In contrast, the level of chemokine CCL11 (eotaxin) was significantly elevated in the lower GT later in the course of infection. Increased levels of mRNA confirmed the selective differences in chemokine expression within the upper and lower GTs. The increased levels of Th1-inducible chemokines in the upper GT were not due to differences in the magnitude of infection or progesterone pretreatment. These data demonstrate that the upper and lower regions of the GT respond differently to Chlamydia infection.