Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-Efficiency Plug-and-Play Source of Heralded Single Photons

Reliable generation of single photons is of key importance for fundamental physical experiments and to demonstrate quantum technologies. Waveguide-based photon pair sources have shown great promise in this regard due to their large degree of spectral tunability, high generation rates and long photon coherence times. However, for such a source to have real world applications it needs to be efficiently integrated with fiber-optic networks. We answer this challenge by presenting an alignment-free source of photon pairs in the telecommunications band that maintains heralding efficiency > 50 % even after fiber pigtailing, photon separation, and pump suppression. The source combines this outstanding performance in heralding efficiency and brightness with a compact, stable, and easy-to-use 'plug & play' package: one simply connects a laser to the input and detectors to the output and the source is ready to use. This high performance can be achieved even outside the lab without the need for alignment which makes the source extremely useful for any experiment or demonstration needing heralded single photons.
Cluster Description Formats, Problems and Algorithms

Clustering is one of the major data mining tasks. So far, the database and data mining literature lacks systematic study of cluster descriptions, which are essential to provide the user with understandable knowledge of the clusters and support further interactive exploration. In this paper, we introduce novel description formats leading to more descriptive power. We define two alternative problems of generating cluster descriptions, Minimum Description Length and Maximum Description Accuracy, providing different trade-offs between interpretability and accuracy. We also present heuristic algorithms for both problems, together with their empirical evaluation and comparison to state-of-the-art algorithms.
Economic evaluation of caspofungin versus liposomal amphotericin B for empirical antifungal therapy in patients with persistent fever and neutropenia in Sweden

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of caspofungin versus liposomal amphotericin B (L-AmB) for empirical antifungal therapy in patients with persistent fever and neutropenia in Sweden. Methods: With a decision-analytic model, the expected direct costs, life-years lost and quality adjusted life-years lost were estimated for an average patient in Sweden. Efficacy/tolerability data were obtained from analysis of a randomized, double-blind multinational trial. Life expectancy, medical resource use and unit costs data were gathered from the literature and expert opinion. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate the impact of uncertainty in data on outcomes. Results: The direct cost with caspofungin amounted to 233,851 SEK (95% uncertainty interval 225,091–242,210) and with L-AmB to 271,921 SEK (262,935–281,363), a difference of 38,070 SEK (31,745–44,811) favouring caspofungin. Treatment with caspofungin resulted in 0.25 (0.01–0.55) quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) saved in comparison to L-AmB. Given the uncertainty in the estimates there is a >95% probability that caspofungin is economically dominant over L-AmB, i.e. cost-saving and QALY-saving. Conclusion: Given the underlying assumptions and data used, caspofungin is expected to be cost-effective with at least comparable outcomes compared to L-AmB for the empirical treatment of patients with suspected fungal infections in Sweden.
Determinants of the decision to accept a kidney from a donor at increased risk for blood-borne viral infection.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The use of kidneys from donors at increased risk for viral infections (DIRVI) such as HIV could increase the number of transplants and decrease waiting times. This study aimed to identify the proportion of kidney transplant candidates that would accept a kidney from a DIRVI and the factors that influenced this decision. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Conjoint analysis was used to assess the conditions in which renal transplant candidates would accept a DIRVI kidney. Candidates completed 12 scenarios in which the waiting time for a kidney, the donor age as a surrogate for kidney quality, and the risk of contracting HIV were systematically varied. RESULTS Among 175 respondents, 42 (24.0%) rejected DIRVI kidneys under all conditions, 103 (58.9%) accepted DIRVI kidneys under some conditions, and 31 (17.7%) always accepted DIRVI kidneys. In multivariable logistic regression, patients were more likely to accept a DIRVI kidney when waiting time was longer, the donor was younger, and HIV risk was lower (P < 0.01 for each variable). Patients on dialysis (P < 0.01) and older patients (P = 0.04) more commonly accepted DIRVI kidneys, but self-rated sense of health was not associated with DIRVI kidney acceptance. CONCLUSIONS Most renal transplant candidates would accept a DIRVI kidney under some circumstances. These findings suggest that recipients can be allowed to make prospective choices regarding DIRVI kidney acceptance without hindering placement of these organs.
Incrimination of Schistosoma spindale as a causative agent of farmer's dermatitis in Assam with a note on liver pathology in mice.

Cercarial dermatitis of paddy field workers in Assam is very common. However, it is not known which species of animal schistosomes, is its causative agent in Assam. Studies in two dermatitis affected villages of Dibrugarh district revealed that cercariae of Schistosoma spindale were involved in its aetiology. Indoplanorbis exustus was the only snail species found infected with apharyngeate brevifurcate schistosome cercarie. Experimental infection of the laboratory animals with the dermatitis causing schistosome cercariae revealed that duckling and chicken were refractory to infection. However, Swiss albino mice were successfully infected. The number of adult flukes per infected mice ranged from 6-321 (mean intensity = 68.1; S.D. = +/- 112.96). Histopathological study of infected mice liver revealed that there was mild inflammation of infected portal triads towards the presence of male flukes in the intra hepatic portal vessels. Kuppffer cells showed hyperplasia and contained large amounts of black pigment. No eggs or egg granulomas were detected in the liver parenchyma. There was no evidence of thrombophlebitis, septal fibrosis or pipe stem fibrosis.
A technical reading in statistical and neural machines translation (SMT & NMT)

Automatic translation of natural languages has been an active body of research in the last decades, especially when it comes to statistical translation which uses machine learning algorithms for translation tasks. Machine translation being a key application in the field of natural language processing, it leads to develop many approaches namely, statistical machine translation and recently neural machine translation. In this paper, we present a survey of the state of the art, where we describe the context of the current research studies by reviewing both the statistical machine translation and neural machine translation, and an overview of the main strengths and limitations of the two approaches.
Direct-Access Online Care for the Management of Atopic Dermatitis: A Randomized Clinical Trial Examining Patient Quality of Life.

BACKGROUND Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic disease requiring regular follow-up. To increase access to dermatological care, online management of AD is being studied. However, a critical knowledge gap exists in determining AD patients' quality of life in direct-to-patient online models. In this study, we examined quality of life in AD patients managed through a direct-access online model. MATERIALS AND METHODS We randomized 156 patients to receiving care through a direct-access online platform or in person. Patients were seen for six visits over 12 months. At each visit, the patients completed Dermatology Life Quality Index/Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI/CDLQI), and Short Form (SF-12). RESULTS Between baseline and 12 months, the mean (standard deviation, SD) within-group difference in DLQI score in the online group was 4.1 (±2.3); for the in-person group, the within-group difference was 4.8 (±2.7). The mean (SD) within-group difference in CDLQI score in the online group was 4.7 (±2.8); for the in-person group, the within-group difference was 4.9 (±3.1). The mean (SD) within-group difference in physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS) SF-12 scores in the online group was 6.5 (±3.8) and 8.6 (±4.3); for the in-person group, it was 6.8 (±3.2) and 9.1(±3.8), respectively. The difference in the change in DLQI, CDLQI, SF-12 PCS, and SF-12 MCS scores between the two groups was 0.72 (95% confidence interval [90% CI], -0.97 to 2.41), 0.23 (90% CI, -2.21 to 2.67), 0.34 (90% CI, -1.16 to 1.84), and 0.51 (90% CI, -1.11 to 2.13), respectively. All differences were contained within their equivalence margins. CONCLUSION Adult and pediatric AD patients receiving direct-access online care had equivalent quality of life outcomes as those see in person. The direct-access online model has the potential to increase access to care for patients with chronic skin diseases.
A Systematic Bayesian Treatment of the IBM Alignment Models

The dominant yet ageing IBM and HMM word alignment models underpin most popular Statistical Machine Translation implementations in use today. Though beset by the limitations of implausible independence assumptions, intractable optimisation problems, and an excess of tunable parameters, these models provide a scalable and reliable starting point for inducing translation systems. In this paper we build upon this venerable base by recasting these models in the non-parametric Bayesian framework. By replacing the categorical distributions at their core with hierarchical Pitman-Yor processes, and through the use of collapsed Gibbs sampling, we provide a more flexible formulation and sidestep the original heuristic optimisation techniques. The resulting models are highly extendible, naturally permitting the introduction of phrasal dependencies. We present extensive experimental results showing improvements in both AER and BLEU when benchmarked against Giza++, including significant improvements over IBM model 4.
SOFL: a formal engineering methodology for industrial applications

Summary form only given, as follows. A major challenge for formal methods is to effectively address the needs of industry and achieve wide acceptance. This challenge remains unmet, as formal methods are difficult to use and their application consumes prohibitive amounts of resource. Much research on the integration of available formal methods (e.g. Z, VDM, B-method) and either structured methodology or object-oriented methodology has been conducted to make formal methods more practical, but with limited success. No attempt has yet been made to integrate the three approaches of formal methods, structured methodology and object-oriented methodology to take advantage of the desirable features of the three approaches. As one approach to the solution of these problems, we propose a language called SOFL (Structured Object-oriented Formal Language) for system development. It supports the concept that a system can be constructed using the structured methodology in the early stages of its development, and by using object-oriented methodology at later, more detailed levels. During the complete system development process, formal methods are applied in a manner that best uses their capabilities.
Melatonin reduces oxidative catastrophe in neurons and glia

melatonin; reactive oxygen species; reactive nitrogen species; free radicals; oxidative stress; neurons; glia; neurodegenerative diseases Abstract Melatonin, the chief secretory product of the pineal gland, is an uncommonly effective direct free radical scavenger and indirect antioxidant. It detoxifies both reactive oxygen (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS), both groups of which are abundantly produced in the brain. Endogenously-generated melatonin is discharged from pinealocytes into the rich capillary plexus in the gland and may also be released directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In the few species where it has been investigated, CSF levels of melatonin greatly exceed its concentrations in the blood. From both the CSF and the blood melatonin readily enters the brain to protect neurons and glia from molecular damage induced by ROS/RNS. Melatonin's efficacy in reducing molecular damage resulting from toxic oxygen and nitrogen derivatives in both the brain and spinal cord supports the notion that this non-toxic molecule may have utility in forestalling and/or delaying the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases that have a massive free radical component. The disease models of interest and in which melatonin has been most thoroughly tested include Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease and to a lesser extent Huntington disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The experim ental findings summarized herein clearly document that melatonin readily prevents oxidative damage to both neurons and glia. In doing so, it greatly reduces apoptosis of critical cells within the central nervous system.
A Web-Based Bimatrix Game Optimization Model of Polynomial Complexity

The objective of this paper is the description, justification, and web-based implementation of polynomial time algorithms for equilibrium search of Quadratic Bimatrix Games (QBG). An algorithm is proposed combining exact and heuristic parts. The exact part has the Irelevant Fraud (IF) component for cases when an equilibrium exists with no pure strategies. The Direct Search (DS) component finds a solution if an equilibrium exists in pure strategies. The heuristic Quadratic Strategy Elimination (QSE) part applies IF and DS to reduced matrices obtained by sequential elimination of strategies that lead to non-positive IF solutions. Finally, penalties needed to prevent unauthorized deals are calculated based on Nash axioms of two-person bargaining theory. In the numeric experiments QSE provided correct solution in all examples. The novel results include necessary and sufficient conditions when the QBG problem is solved by IF algorithm, the development of software and the experimental testing of large scale QBG problems up to n = 800. The web-site http://pilis.if. ktu.lt/ ̃jmockus includes this and accompanying optimization models.
Formation and Function of Synapses with Respect to Schwann Cells at the End of Motor Nerve Terminal Branches on Mature Amphibian (Bufo marinus) Muscle

A study has been made of the formation and regression of synapses with respect to Schwann cells at the ends of motor nerve terminal branches in mature toad (Bufo marinus) muscle. Synapse formation and regression, as inferred from the appearance and loss ofN-(3-triethylammoniumpropyl)-4-(4-(dibutylamino)styryl) pyridinium dibromide (FM1–43)-stained vesicle clusters, occurred at the ends of terminal branches over a 16 hr period. Multiple microelectrodes placed in an array about FM1–43 blobs at the ends of terminal branches detected the electrical signs of neurotransmitter being released onto receptors. Injection of a calcium indicator (Oregon Green 488 BAPTA-1) into the motor nerve with subsequent imaging of the calcium transients, in response to stimulation, often showed a reduced calcium influx in the ends of terminal branches. Injection of a fluorescent dye into motor nerves revealed the full extent of their terminal branches and growing processes. Injection of the terminal Schwann cells (TSCs) often revealed pseudopodial TSC processes up to 10-μm-long. Imaging of these TSC processes over minutes or hours showed that they were highly labile and capable of extending several micrometers in a few minutes. Injection of motor nerve terminals with a different dye to that injected into their TSCs revealed that terminal processes sometimes followed the TSC processes over a few hours. It is suggested that the ends of motor nerve terminals in vivoare in a constant state of remodeling through the formation and regression of processes, that TSC processes guide the remodeling, and that it can occur over a relatively short period of time.
Elimination of classically-activated macrophages in tumor-conditioned medium by alternatively-activated macrophages

ABSTRACT Cellular interactions are critical during development, tissue fitness and epithelial tumor development. The expression levels of specific genes confer to tumoral cells a survival advantage versus the normal neighboring cells. As a consequence, cells surrounding tumors are eliminated and engulfed by macrophages. We propose a novel scenario in which circulating cells facing a tumor can reproduce these cellular interactions. In vitro cultured macrophages from murine bone marrow were used to investigate this hypothesis. M1 macrophages in tumoral medium upregulated markers of a suboptimal condition, such as Sparc and TyrRS, and undergo apoptosis. However, M2 macrophages display higher Myc expression levels and proliferate at the expense of M1. Resulting M1 apoptotic debris is engulfed by M2 in a Sparc- and TyrRS-dependent manner. These findings suggest that tumor-dependent macrophage elimination could deplete immune response against tumors. This possibility could be relevant for macrophage based anti-tumoral strategies. Summary: Cell-autonomous death and engulfment could play an important role in regulating tumor progression and should be taken into account when considering the behavior of pro- and anti-tumoral cells in the complex tumor environment. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.
Long time semiclassical Egorov theorem for ℏ-pseudodifferential systems

In the Heisenberg picture, we study the semiclassical time evolution of a bounded quantum observable $Q^w(x,\hbar D_x)$ associated to a $(m\times m)$ matrix-valued symbol $Q$ generated by a semiclassical matrix-valued Hamiltonian $H\sim H_0+\hbar H_1$. Under a non-crossing assumption on the eigenvalues of the principal symbol $H_0$ that ensures the existence of almost invariant subspaces of $L^{2}(\mathbb R^n)\otimes \mathbb C^m$, and for a class of observables that are semiclassically block-diagonal with respect to the projections onto these almost invariants subspaces, we establish a long time matrix-valued version for the semiclassical Egorov theorem valid in a large time interval of Ehrenfest type $T(\hbar)\simeq log(\hbar^{-1})$.
Cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma with Anonymous Random Matching

The paper considers the repeated prisoner's dilemma in a large-population random-matching setting where players are unable to recognize their opponents. Despite the informational restrictions cooperation is still a sequential equilibrium supported by "contagious" punishments. The equilibrium does not require excessive patience, and contrary to previous thought, need not be extraordinarily fragile. It is robust to the introduction of small amounts of noise and remains nearly efficient. Extensions are discussed to models with heterogeneous rates of time preference and without public randomizations.
Reducing Drifts in the Inertial Measurements of Wrist and Elbow Positions

In this paper, we present an inertial-sensor-based monitoring system for measuring the movement of human upper limbs. Two wearable inertial sensors are placed near the wrist and elbow joints, respectively. The measurement drift in segment orientation is dramatically reduced after a Kalman filter is applied to estimate inclinations using accelerations and turning rates from gyroscopes. Using premeasured lengths of the upper and lower arms, we compute the position of the wrist and elbow joints via a proposed kinematic model. Experimental results demonstrate that this new motion capture system, in comparison to an optical motion tracker, possesses an RMS position error of less than 0.009 m, with a drift of less than 0.005 ms-1 in five daily activities. In addition, the RMS angle error is less than 3°. This indicates that the proposed approach has performed well in terms of accuracy and reliability.
Design methodology of ultra low-power MPEG4 codec core exploiting voltage scaling techniques

This paper describes a fully automated low-power design methodology in which three different voltage-scaling techniques are combined together. Supply voltage is scaled globally, selectively, and adaptively while keeping the performance. This methodology enabled us to design an MPEG4 codec core with 58% less power than the original in three week turn-around-time.
The Dark Triad and Interpersonal Perception: Similarities and Differences in the Social Consequences of Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy

The subclinical Dark Triad traits narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) are related to antagonistic behaviors in interpersonal situations. The current study addresses whether these three traits entail different social consequences by investigating self-ratings, ratings of others, and ratings by others for the Dark Triad. In a naturalistic setting, 93 informal, minimally acquainted student dyads worked briefly on a cooperative task and subsequently provided self- and other- ratings on the Big Five and intelligence, self-ratings on the Dark Triad, and ratings on properties of the interaction. Overall, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy manifested differently: profile analyses indicated that Machiavellians diverged from narcissists and psychopaths in self-ratings, ratings of others, and ratings by others, while narcissists and psychopaths converged to a moderate degree. Findings are discussed regarding the distinction of the Dark Triad traits.
Towards an energy efficient SoC computing cluster

High performance computing (HPC) systems are omnipresent in processing huge amounts of data. However, power consumption of these systems is becoming far from negligible, forcing software developers and hardware providers to deviate from usual performance plans, and to address power consumption and costs. As a result, small-scale applications are becoming infeasible to run on those systems, making room for the power-efficient HW newcomers, such as SoC (System on Chip), to take that role. The idea of composing a large number of small SoCs in a computing cluster can result in a powerful, green, and a simple platform capable of delivering enough performance for the small applications while maintaining low energy consumption and costs. In this paper we present a system composed of four LAN-interconnected dual-core ARM based SoC devices, powered by a single power supply. We investigate applicability of such a system by monitoring its performance and energy efficiency and stability while using common HPC paradigms: message passing and thread programming.