Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a PCR Assay for Rapid Detection of Enterococci

ABSTRACT Enterococci are becoming major nosocomial pathogens, and increasing resistance to vancomycin has been well documented. Conventional identification methods, which are based on culturing, require 2 to 3 days to provide results. PCR has provided a means for the culture-independent detection of enterococci in a variety of clinical specimens and is capable of yielding results in just a few hours. However, all PCR-based assays developed so far are species specific only for clinically important enterococci. We have developed a PCR-based assay which allows the detection of enterococci at the genus level by targeting the tuf gene, which encodes elongation factor EF-Tu. Initially, we compared the nucleotide sequences of thetuf gene from several bacterial species (available in public databases) and designed degenerate PCR primers derived from conserved regions. These primers were used to amplify a target region of 803 bp from four enterococcal species (Enterococcus avium, E. faecalis, E. faecium, andE. gallinarum). Subsequently, the complete nucleotide sequences of these amplicons were determined. The analysis of a multiple alignment of these sequences revealed regions conserved among enterococci but distinct from those of other bacteria. PCR primers complementary to these regions allowed amplification of genomic DNAs from 14 of 15 species of enterococci tested (E. solitariusDNA could not be amplified). There was no amplification with a majority of 79 nonenterococcal bacterial species, except for 2Abiotrophia species and several Listeriaspecies. Furthermore, this assay efficiently amplified all 159 clinical isolates of enterococci tested (61 E. faecium, 77 E. faecalis, 9 E. gallinarum, and 12 E. casseliflavus isolates). Interestingly, the preliminary sequence comparison of the amplicons for four enterococcal species demonstrated that there were some sequence variations which may be used to generate species-specific internal probes. In conclusion, this rapid PCR-based assay is capable of detecting all clinically important enterococci and has potential for use in clinical microbiology laboratories.
How Strong Are Weak Patents

We study the welfare economics of probabilistic patents that are licensed without a full determination of validity. We examine the social value of instead determining patent validity before licensing to downstream technology users, in terms of deadweight loss (ex post) and innovation incentives (ex ante). We relate the value of such pre-licensing review to the patent's strength, i.e., the probability it would hold up in court, and to the per-unit royalty at which it would be licensed. We then apply these results using a game-theoretic model of licensing to downstream oligopolists, in which we show that determining patent validity prior to licensing is socially beneficial. (JEL D82, K11, L24, O34 )
Follow the Leader with Dropout Perturbations

We consider online prediction with expert advice. Over the course of many trials, the goal of the learning algorithm is to achieve small additional loss (i.e. regret) compared to the loss of the best from a set of K experts. The two most popular algorithms are Hedge/Weighted Majority and Follow the Perturbed Leader (FPL). The latter algorithm first perturbs the loss of each expert by independent additive noise drawn from a fixed distribution, and then predicts with the expert of minimum perturbed loss (“the leader”) where ties are broken uniformly at random. To achieve the optimal worst-case regret as a function of the lossL of the best expert in hindsight, the two types of algorithms need to tune their learning rate or noise magnitude, respectively, as a function ofL . Instead of perturbing the losses of the experts with additive noise, we randomly set them to 0 or 1 before selecting the leader. We show that our perturbations are an instance of dropout — because experts may be interpreted as features — although for non-binary losses the dropout probability needs to be made dependent on the losses to get good regret bounds. We show that this simple, tuning-free version of the FPL algorithm achieves two feats: optimal worst-case O( p L lnK + lnK) regret as a function ofL , and optimalO(lnK) regret when the loss vectors are drawn i.i. d. from a fixed distribution and there is a gap between the expected loss of the best expert and all others. A number of recent algorithms from the Hedge family (AdaHedge and FlipFlop) also achieve this, but they employ sophisticated tuning regimes. The dropout perturbation of the losses of the experts result in different noise distributions for each expert (because they depend on the expert’s total loss) and curiously enough no additional tuning is needed: the choice of dropout probability only affects the constants.
k-Sparse Autoencoders

Recently, it has been observed that when representations are learnt in a way that encourages sparsity, improved performance is obtained on classification tasks. These methods involve combinations of activation functions, sampling steps and different kinds of penalties. To investigate the effectiveness of sparsity by itself, we propose the k-sparse autoencoder, which is an autoencoder with linear activation function, where in hidden layers only the k highest activities are kept. When applied to the MNIST and NORB datasets, we find that this method achieves better classification results than denoising autoencoders, networks trained with dropout, and RBMs. k-sparse autoencoders are simple to train and the encoding stage is very fast, making them well-suited to large problem sizes, where conventional sparse coding algorithms cannot be applied.
Analysis of human behaviour in front of a target scene

In this paper we present an application of computer vision techniques to obtain specific information about the behaviour of the people passing in front of a target scene. This is done by analyzing videos captured by cameras monitoring an area under surveillance. The target scene can be a large plasma screen, a projected image, an advertising poster or a shop window. An example of the type of information that can be extracted is the number of people passing in the area (possibly even making a stop), those who are interested in the target scene (i.e. looking in its direction), and the specific locations of interest inside the target scene. The person detection counts the number of persons subsequently followed by the person tracking which determines who is stopping and who is moving. The head pose estimation denotes whether they are looking or not at the target scene. Finally the projection of the visual field extracts the location of interest in the target scene. All these tasks are improved by taking in account the environmental information.
SPDY accelerator for improving Web access speed

It was decided that the next-generation protocol SPDY proposed by Google would be used as a basis of the technical specification of the HTTP/2.0 protocol, which has been studied in the IETF standardization process. SPDY is a protocol to realize high-speed Web access by using the SPDY session that has been established between the client and the Web server for transmitting and receiving page resources. Since a modern Web page usually consists of multiple page resources that are stored in multiple domains (multi-domain configuration), the client has to establish multiple SPDY sessions with multiple Web servers. In this case, SPDY is not able to realize high-speed Web access since it takes several seconds to establish multiple SPDY sessions in a mobile environment with high latency. In this paper, we propose a SPDY accelerator that can considerably accelerate Web access speed by combining the SPDY protocol and cache system even in a multi-domain configuration. We confirmed that the proposed system can reduce the page-loading time by one-third compared to the existing SPDY.
Propofol for adult procedural sedation in a UK emergency department: safety profile in 1008 cases.

BACKGROUND Concerns exist regarding the safe use of propofol by Emergency Physicians for procedural sedation. The World SIVA International Sedation Task Force has recently created an adverse event tool, in an effort to standardize reporting. We present a safety analysis of our use of propofol using this tool. METHOD Propofol was given according to a previously published guideline. We analysed our dedicated departmental sedation database between December 2006 and March 2012 and cross-examined the original sedation chart for each case recorded. We stratified the identified adverse events according to consensus agreement. RESULTS Of the 1008 consecutive cases, we identified 11 sentinel (5 cases of hypoxia, 6 of hypotension), 34 moderate, 25 minor, and 3 minimal risk adverse events. There were no adverse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Our large series of propofol sedations performed by emergency physicians supports the safety of this practice. The sentinel adverse event rate of 1% that we identify prompts review: we will in future emphasize adherence to the reduced 0.5 mg kg(-1) propofol dose in the elderly, and reconsider our use of metaraminol. We believe that our application of the World SIVA adverse event tool sets a benchmark for further studies.
Growth of Sobolev Norms of Solutions of Linear Schrödinger Equations on Some Compact Manifolds

We give a new proof of a theorem of Bourgain [4], asserting that solutions of linear Schrödinger equations on the torus, with smooth time dependent potential, have Sobolev norms growing at most like t when t→ +∞, for any > 0. Our proof extends to Schrödinger equations on other examples of compact riemannian manifolds.
A probabilistic framework for task-oriented grasp stability assessment

We present a probabilistic framework for grasp modeling and stability assessment. The framework facilitates assessment of grasp success in a goal-oriented way, taking into account both geometric constraints for task affordances and stability requirements specific for a task. We integrate high-level task information introduced by a teacher in a supervised setting with low-level stability requirements acquired through a robot's self-exploration. The conditional relations between tasks and multiple sensory streams (vision, proprioception and tactile) are modeled using Bayesian networks. The generative modeling approach both allows prediction of grasp success, and provides insights into dependencies between variables and features relevant for object grasping.
The Power of Word Clusters for Text Classification

The recently introduced Information Bottleneck method [21] provides an information theoretic framework, for extracting features of one variable, that are relevant for the values of another variable. Several previous works already suggested applying this method for document clustering, gene expression data analysis, spectral analysis and more. In this work we present a novel implementation of this method for supervised text classification. Specifically, we apply the information bottleneck method to find word-clusters that preserve the information about document categories and use these clusters as features for classification. Previous work [1] used a similar clustering procedure to show that word-clusters can significantly reduce the feature space dimensionality, with only a minor change in classification accuracy. In this work we reproduce these results and go further to show that when the training sample is small word clusters can yield significant improvement in classification accuracy (up to 18%) over the performance using the words directly.
CIRCULARLY POLARIZED ARRAYS OF CAVITY BACKED SLOT ANTENNAS FOR X-BAND SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

Circularly-polarized arrays of cavity backed slot (CBS) antennas are proposed for X-band satellite-earth communications. Two configurations of such circularly polarized arrays are investigated: cross-shaped and square-shaped arrays. Both configurations can produce right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) as well as left- hand circular polarization (LHCP) by proper setting of excitation phase for each element in the array. The finite-difference time- domain (FDTD) method is used to analyze the characteristics of the proposed arrays including the input impedance, S-parameters, radiation pattern, gain and axial ratio. The results show that the proposed array configurations seem very promising and useful for geostationary satellite applications.
Fusion of electromyographic signals with proprioceptive sensor data in myoelectric pattern recognition for control of active transfemoral leg prostheses

This paper presents a myoelectric knee joint angle estimation algorithm for control of active transfemoral prostheses, based on feature extraction and pattern classification. The feature extraction stage uses a combination of time domain and frequency domain methods (entropy of myoelectric signals and cepstral coefficients, respectively). Additionally, the methods are fused with data from proprioceptive sensors (gyroscopes), from which angular rate information is extracted using a Kalman filter. The algorithm uses a Levenberg-Marquardt neural network for estimating the intended knee joint angle. The proposed method is demonstrated in a normal volunteer, and the results are compared with pattern classification methods based solely on electromyographic data. The use of surface electromyographic signals and additional information related to proprioception improves the knee joint angle estimation precision and reduces estimation artifacts.
On the Trend Recognition and Forecasting Ability of Professional Traders

Empirical research documents that temporary trends in stock price movements exist, so that riding a trend can be a profitable investment strategy. In this paper, we provide a thorough test of the trend recognition and forecasting ability of financial professionals who work in the trading room of a large bank, as well as those of novices (students). In an experimental study using a within-subject design, we analyze two ways of trend prediction that have analogues in the real world: probability estimates and confidence intervals (quantile estimates). We find that, depending on the type of task, either underconfidence (in probability estimates) or overconfidence (in confidence intervals) can be observed in the same trend prediction setting based on the same information. Furthermore, we find that the degree of overconfidence in both tasks is significantly positively correlated for all experimental subjects. These findings not only contribute to the literature on judgmental forecasting, but also have important implications for financial modeling. This paper demonstrates that a theorist has to be careful when deriving assumptions about the behavior of agents in financial markets from psychological findings.
Software-defined networking: management requirements and challenges

SDN is an emerging paradigm currently evidenced as a new driving force in the general area of computer networks. Many investigations have been carried out in the last few years about the benefits and drawbacks in adopting SDN. However, there are few discussions on how to manage networks based on this new paradigm. This article contributes to this discussion by identifying some of the main management requirements of SDN. Moreover, we describe current proposals and highlight major challenges that need to be addressed to allow wide adoption of the paradigm and related technology.
Examining the Impact of a Multi-Sport Camp for Girls Ages 8–11 With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased significantly over the past decade; however, rarely does research focus solely on girls with ASD. Girls with ASD are more likely to have less proficient motor skills than both their peers with typical development, and boys with and without ASD. This further discourages participation in sport, recreation, and leisure activities and deprives the opportunity to develop social skills among peers; both of which are primary goals of therapeutic recreation. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a multi-sport camp intervention aimed at improving motor skills, physical activity levels, physical self-perceptions, and adaptive behaviour of 13 girls with ASD between the ages of 8 to 11. Results indicated that the camp was effective at improving motor skills (p<0.0001), physical self-perceptions (p=0.044) and social skills (p=0.005); however, further research with larger samples and a longer duration of intervention is necessary.
Mobility Impact on Energy Conservation of Ad Hoc Routing Protocols

—Providing routing mechanism is a fundamental issue in ad hoc networks. In recent years, many routing protocols have been proposed and a variety of performance studies have been done. However, it has been shown that the performance of an ad hoc routing protocol is highly dependent on the mobility model used. Most of previous work used only Random Waypoint mobility model, which is unrealistic in many situations. Moreover, mobile nodes are often power constrained so that energy conservation is also an important issue on evaluating protocols. No simulation studies have been done for energy conservation based on different mobility models. Most of them focused on metrics such as packet delivery ratio, delay, and route optimality. In this paper, an energy-based performance comparison of well-known routing protocols AODV, DSR, TORA, and DSDV is presented. These protocols are simulated and compared under three different mobility models: Random Waypoint, RPGM, and Manhattan Grid and various scenarios. We show significant energy conservation performance difference among mobility models in this paper.
Sound Test-Suites for Cyber-Physical Systems

Conformance testing is a formal and structured approach to verifying system correctness. We propose a conformance testing algorithm for cyber-physical systems, based on the notion of hybrid conformance by Abbas and Fainekos. We show how the dynamics of system specification and the sampling rate play an essential role in making sound verdicts. We specify and prove error bounds that lead to sound test-suites for a given specification and a given sampling rate.
Identification of Quaternary Shape Memory Alloys with Near‐Zero Thermal Hysteresis and Unprecedented Functional Stability

Improving the functional stability of shape memory alloys (SMAs), which undergo a reversible martensitic transformation, is critical for their applications and remains a central research theme driving advances in shape memory technology. By using a thin‐film composition‐spread technique and high‐throughput characterization methods, the lattice parameters of quaternary Ti–Ni–Cu–Pd SMAs and the thermal hysteresis are tailored. Novel alloys with near‐zero thermal hysteresis, as predicted by the geometric non‐linear theory of martensite, are identified. The thin‐film results are successfully transferred to bulk materials and near‐zero thermal hysteresis is observed for the phase transformation in bulk alloys using the temperature‐dependent alternating current potential drop method. A universal behavior of hysteresis versus the middle eigenvalue of the transformation stretch matrix is observed for different alloy systems. Furthermore, significantly improved functional stability, investigated by thermal cycling using differential scanning calorimetry, is found for the quaternary bulk alloy Ti50.2Ni34. 4Cu12.3Pd3. 1.
The feedback control of UPF3 is crucial for RNA surveillance in plants

Nonsense-mediated-decay (NMD) is a eukaryotic RNA surveillance mechanism that controls the levels of both aberrant and normal transcripts. The regulation of this process is not well understood. The Arabidopsis NMD factor UPF3 is regulated by a negative feedback-loop that targets its own transcript for NMD. We investigated the functional significance of this control for the overall regulation of NMD in Arabidopsis. For this, we tested the ability of NMD-sensitive and -insensitive forms of UPF3, expressed under the control of UPF3 promoter, to complement NMD functionality in NMD-mutant plants and investigated their impact in wild-type (WT) plants. The sensitivity of UPF3 transcript to NMD was essential for efficient complementation of NMD in upf3 mutants. Upregulated UPF3 expression in WT plants resulted in over-degradation of certain transcripts and inhibited degradation of other transcripts. Our results demonstrate that, in contrast to mammalian cells, a delicate balance of UPF3 transcript levels by its feedback loop and by restriction of its transcription, are crucial for proper NMD regulation in Arabidopsis. Interestingly, the levels of many small-nucleolar-RNAs (snoRNAs) were decreased in upf1 and upf3 mutants and increased upon enhanced UPF3 expression. This suggests that proper snoRNA homeostasis in Arabidopsis depends on the integrity of the NMD pathway.
The Relationship Between Family Communication Patterns and the Self-Efficacy of Student-Athletes

The coach–athlete relationship and coach communication have received significant attention, as they relate to athlete performance variables; however, the coach alone does not shape an athlete’s experiences. Research has indicated the importance of the parent/guardian’s role in athlete development and suggests parent/guardian communication may also have implications for athlete performance outcomes. Of such performance variables, self-efficacy has been demonstrated to have a consistent positive and moderate relationship with sport performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of parent/guardian communication on student-athlete self-efficacy. Student-athlete participants (n = 290) provided self-reports of self-efficacy, family communication patterns, and the frequency-of-use and effectiveness of the efficacy-enhancing techniques employed by parent(s)/guardian(s). Results revealed a significant negative relationship between conformity-oriented communication and student-athlete self-efficacy. Regarding efficacy-enhancing techniques, the most frequently used and effective were reported as encouraging positive talk, parent/guardian acting confident themselves, and helping the student-athlete imagine optimal sport performance. Practical implications for parent(s)/guardian(s) are provided that can help inform parenting education efforts to better clarify the role of the parent/guardian in optimal student-athlete development and performance. The study’s limitation and directions for future research are discussed.
Analisis Pengaruh Kepuasan Kerja Dukungan Organisasi dan Gaya Kepemimpinan terhadap Motivasi Kerja

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan variabel kepuasan kerja, dukungan organisasi, dan gaya kepemimpinan yang mempengaruhi motivasi kerja dari PT Gunung Gajah Abadi. Variabel bebas dalam penelitian ini adalah kepuasan kerja, dukungan organisasi dan gaya kepemimpinan, variabel dependen adalah motivasi kerja. Jenis penelitian dalam penelitian ini meliputi penelitian kausal, yang merupakan hasil penelitian dan menggambarkan hubungan (sebab akibat). Populasi karyawan PT. Gunung Gajah Abadi. Metode sampling yang digunakan adalah simple random sampling dengan jumlah responden adalah 80 karyawan. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan metode observasi dengan menyebarkan kuesioner. Jenis dan sumber data menggunakan data primer. Data dianalisis menggunakan Least Square (PLS) pendekatan parsial. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kepuasan variabel kerja memiliki efek pada motivasi kerja berpengaruh positif dan signifikan, dukungan organisasi memiliki efek pada motivasi kerja berpengaruh positif dan signifikan, gaya kepemimpinan berpengaruh pada motivasi kerja positif dan signifikan.