Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risks and outcomes of invasive fungal infections in pediatric allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients receiving fluconazole prophylaxis: a multicenter cohort study by the Turkish Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation Study Group

Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are a major cause of infection-related morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Data from pediatric settings are scarce. To determine the incidence, risk factors and outcomes of IFIs in a 180-day period post-transplantation, 408 pediatric patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT were retrospectively analyzed. The study included only proven and probable IFIs. The cumulative incidences of IFI were 2.7%, 5.0%, and 6.5% at 30, 100, and 180 days post-transplantation, respectively. According to the multivariate analysis, the factors associated with increased IFI risk in the 180-day period post-HSCT were previous HSCT history (hazard ratio [HR], 4.57; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.42-14.71; P = .011), use of anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) (HR, 2.94; 95% CI 1.27-6.80; P = .012), grade III-IV acute graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) (HR, 2.91; 95% CI 1.24-6.80; P = .014) and late or no lymphocyte engraftment (HR, 2.71; 95% CI 1.30-5.62; P = .007). CMV reactivation was marginally associated with an increased risk of IFI development (HR, 1.91; 95% CI 0.97-3.74; P = .063). IFI-related mortality was 1.5%, and case fatality rate was 27.0%. The close monitoring of IFIs in pediatric patients with severe acute GVHD who receive ATG during conditioning is critical to reduce morbidity and mortality after allogeneic HSCT, particularly among those with prior HSCT and no or late lymphocyte engraftment.
Dynamic Locomotion Through Online Nonlinear Motion Optimization for Quadrupedal Robots

This letter presents a realtime motion planning and control method that enables a quadrupedal robot to execute dynamic gaits including trot, pace, and dynamic lateral walk, as well as gaits with full flight phases such as jumping, pronking, and running trot. The proposed method also enables smooth transitions between these gaits. Our approach relies on an online zero-moment point based motion planner which continuously updates the reference motion trajectory as a function of the contact schedule and the state of the robot. The reference footholds for each leg are obtained by solving a separate optimization problem. The resulting optimized motion plans are tracked by a hierarchical whole-body controller. Our framework has been tested in simulation and on ANYmal, a fully torque-controllable quadrupedal robot, both in simulation and on the actual robot.
Feasibility of bipolar radiofrequency ablation in patients with parathyroid adenoma: a first evaluation

Abstract Aim: The aim of this study was to first assess the feasibility of bipolar radiofrequency ablation in patients with parathyroid adenoma. Material and methods: Bipolar RFA was performed in 9 patients with primary parathyroid adenoma in one single session. Measured parameters were PTH and calcium serum levels prior to and after bRFA. Furthermore, using an NRS pain scale (1–10), the individual, subjective maximum sensation of pain was documented. Results: The bRFA resulted in a highly significant (p = .003906) decrease of serum PTH levels (median 67 ng/l) in comparison to those prior to the intervention (median 199 ng/l). Regarding calcium levels, there was no statistical significance (p = .460938), with a decrease of median serum levels comparing pre- and post-bRFA values from 2.82 mmol/l to 2.66 mmol/l. The evaluation of the individual pain sensation during the procedure was assessed by the patients with a median of 5/10 on the NRS scale. In none of the 9 cases complications such as infections, persisting pain or nerve injury occurred. Conclusion: For the first time, it was possible to depict the successful therapy of parathyroid adenoma by means of bRFA. This work thus proves bRFA to be an effective, safe, applicable and, concerning sensation of pain, very well tolerable thermoablative technique in the treatment of parathyroid adenoma.
Competition of Motor Controllers Using a Simplified Robot Leg: PID vs Fuzzy Logic

This research presents a simulation and optimization environment for developing motor controllers. There are various type of controllers which may provide better or worse performance for the intended use. Our fuzzy controller was developed and optimized in order to ensure better control performance and to protect the walking robot's electro-mechanical equipment against high peaks or jerks. This fuzzy controller was compared to a simple PID controller to show its advantage. Both controllers were optimized and competed on the same test situations. The control performance robustness against the motor and load parameters are evaluated. A simplified robot leg model was used to ensure a realistic load for the motor driving, instead of the full robot dynamic model because of its fast calculation. The developed fuzzy controller resulted better performance and robustness compared to the optimized PID.
Morphological orders of spherulitic crystal textures in Belousov-Zhabotinsky-type oscillatory reaction system

The morphological orders of spherulitic crystal patterns in a Belousov-Zhabotinsky-type oscillatory reaction system were studied. The experiments showed that the morphology of crystal patterns were highly dependent on the reaction temperature. The reaction was initially carried out at 30 °C, leading to the growth of multi-centred spherulitic patterns. The single-centred spherulitic patterns with fairly large crystal fibrils were obtained at 35°C. A number of undersized crystal assemblies with fractal geometry were also investigated at 25°C. The gross morphology of the crystal patterns was examined using optical microscopy and a scanning electron microscope which revealed the fibrous organisations. A particle-mediated self-assembly scheme was proposed for the growth of the spherulitic patterns. The insight into the nucleation mechanism, growth behaviour, and morphological orders of the growing patterns is discussed in detail. The crystal phases, ordering of textures, and composition of the crystals were characterised by thermal and X-ray diffraction techniques.
Promoting MLC STT-RAM for the Future Persistent Memory System

As the memory wall issue continues in the era of big data, researchers have been exploring emerging technologies to replace or complement the current DRAM based main memory system. Among them, Multi-Level Cell (MLC) configurations of Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STT-RAM) attracts tremendous interests and has been deployed as the onchip cache successfully. In this paper, we discuss the possibilities and challenges of employing MLC STT-RAM in the future persistent memory system. We also propose a hybrid data block to bit mapping strategy called Double-S to promote the use of soft bit in MLC. In the end, we evaluate the power consumption and IPC of MLC based main memory system and conclude that MLC can significantly reduce the overall energy dissipation. To unleash the potential of MLC as the main memory, architecture support such as MLC as memory extension is required in the future deployment.
Quiet Daytime Arctic Ionospheric D Region

Phase and amplitude measurements of VLF radio waves propagating subionospherically on long paths across the Arctic are used to determine the high latitude, daytime D region height, and sharpness of the bottom edge of the Earth's ionosphere. The principal path used is from the 23.4‐kHz transmitter, DHO, in north Germany, northward across the Arctic passing ~2° from the North Pole, and then southward to Nome, Alaska, thus avoiding most land and all thick ice. Significant observational support is obtained from the also nearly all‐sea path from JXN in Norway (~67°N, 16.4 kHz) across the North Pole to Nome. By suitably comparing measurements with modeling using the U.S. Navy code LWPC, the daytime D region (Wait) height and sharpness parameters in the Arctic are found to be H′ = 73.7 ± 0.7 km and β = 0.32 ± 0.02 km−1 in the summer of 2013, that is, at (weak) solar maximum. It is also found that, unlike at lower latitudes, very low frequency phase and amplitude recordings on (~1,000 km) paths at high subarctic latitudes show very little change with solar zenith angle in both phase and amplitude during daytime for solar zenith angles <~80°. It is concluded that, at high latitudes, the daytime lower D region is dominated by nonsolar ionizing sources in particular by energetic particle precipitation (>~300 keV for electrons) with a contribution from galactic cosmic rays, rather than by solar Lyman α which dominates at low and middle latitudes.
Monte Carlo Simulation of Siemens Primus plus Linac for 6 and 18 MV Photon Beams

Objective: The aim of the present study is to simulate 6 MV and 18 MV photon beam energies of a Siemens Primus Plus medical linear accelerator (Linac) and to verify the simulation by comparing the results with the measured data. Methods: The main components of the head of Siemens Primus Plus linac were simulated using MCNPX Monte Carlo (MC) code. To verify the results, experimental data of percentage depth dose (PDD) and beam dose profile for 5 × 5 cm2, 10 × 10 cm2 and 20 × 20 cm2 field sizes were measured and compared with simulation results. Moreover, gamma function was used to compare the measurement and simulation data. Results: The results show a good agreement, within 1%, was observed between the data calculated by the simulations and those obtained by measurement for 6 MV photon beam, while it was within 2% for 18 MV photon beam, except in the build-up region for both beams. Gamma index values were less than unity in most data points for all the mentioned energies and fields. To calculate the dose in the phantom, cells were selected in different modes, one of the modes due to the lack of dose gradient and overlapping, produced better results than others produce. Conclusion: There was good settlement between measured and MC simulation values in this research. The simulation programs can be used for photon modes of Siemens Primus Plus linac in conditions in which it is not possible to perform experimental measurements.
Genetic Diversity of Neotropical Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) with an Emphasis on South American Species

Background Cryptic morphological variation in the Chiropteran genus Myotis limits the understanding of species boundaries and species richness within the genus. Several authors have suggested that it is likely there are unrecognized species-level lineages of Myotis in the Neotropics. This study provides an assessment of the diversity in New World Myotis by analyzing cytochrome-b gene variation from an expansive sample ranging throughout North, Central, and South America. We provide baseline genetic data for researchers investigating phylogeographic and phylogenetic patterns of Myotis in these regions, with an emphasis on South America. Methodology and Principal Findings Cytochrome-b sequences were generated and phylogenetically analyzed from 215 specimens, providing DNA sequence data for the most species of New World Myotis to date. Based on genetic data in our sample, and on comparisons with available DNA sequence data from GenBank, we estimate the number of species-level genetic lineages in South America alone to be at least 18, rather than the 15 species currently recognized. Conclusions Our findings provide evidence that the perception of lower species richness in South American Myotis is largely due to a combination of cryptic morphological variation and insufficient sampling coverage in genetic-based systematic studies. A more accurate assessment of the level of diversity and species richness in New World Myotis is not only helpful for delimiting species boundaries, but also for understanding evolutionary processes within this globally distributed bat genus.
Fuzzy-Affine-Model-Based Memory Filter Design of Nonlinear Systems With Time-Varying Delay

This paper studies the piecewise-affine memory <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {H}_{\infty }$</tex-math></inline-formula> filtering problem for nonlinear systems with time-varying delay in a delay-dependent framework. The nonlinear plant is characterized by a continuous-time Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy-affine model with parametric uncertainties. The purpose is to develop a new approach for filter synthesis procedure with less conservatism. Specifically, by constructing a novel Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, together with a Wirtinger-based integral inequality, reciprocally convex inequality and S-procedure, an improved criterion is first attained for analyzing the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {H}_{\infty }$</tex-math></inline-formula> performance of the filtering error system, and then via some linearization techniques, the piecewise-affine memory filter synthesis is carried out. It is shown that the existence of desired filter gains can be explicitly determined by the solution of a convex optimization problem. Finally, simulation studies are presented to reveal the effectiveness and less conservatism of the developed approaches. It is anticipated that the proposed scheme can be further extended to the analysis and synthesis of continuous-time fuzzy-affine dynamic systems with integrated communication delays in the networked circumstance.
Gene Enrichment Analysis Reveals Major Regulators of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Gene Expression in Two Models of Antibiotic Tolerance

The development of antibiotic tolerance is believed to be a major factor in the lengthy duration of current tuberculosis therapies. In the current study, we have modeled antibiotic tolerance in vitro by exposing Mycobacterium tuberculosis to two distinct stress conditions: progressive hypoxia and nutrient starvation [phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)]. We then studied the bacterial transcriptional response using RNA-seq and employed a bioinformatics approach to identify important transcriptional regulators, which was facilitated by a novel Regulon Enrichment Test (RET). A total of 17 transcription factor (TF) regulons were enriched in the hypoxia gene set and 16 regulons were enriched in the nutrient starvation, with 12 regulons enriched in both conditions. Using the same approach to analyze previously published gene expression datasets, we found that three M. tuberculosis regulons (Rv0023, SigH, and Crp) were commonly induced in both stress conditions and were also among the regulons enriched in our data. These regulators are worthy of further study to determine their potential role in the development and maintenance of antibiotic tolerance in M. tuberculosis following stress exposure.
All Talk and No Action: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study of Motor Cortex Activation during Action Word Production

A number of researchers have proposed that the premotor and motor areas are critical for the representation of words that refer to actions, but not objects. Recent evidence against this hypothesis indicates that the left premotor cortex is more sensitive to grammatical differences than to conceptual differences between words. However, it may still be the case that other anterior motor regions are engaged in processing a word's sensorimotor features. In the present study, we used singleand paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation to test the hypothesis that left primary motor cortex is activated during the retrieval of words (nouns and verbs) associated with specific actions. We found that activation in the motor cortex increased for action words compared with non-action words, but was not sensitive to the grammatical category of the word being produced. These results complement previous findings and support the notion that producing a word activates some brain regions relevant to the sensorimotor properties associated with that word regardless of its grammatical category.
The network behind spatio‐temporal patterns: building low‐complexity retinal models in CNN based on morphology, pharmacology and physiology

In this paper, a vertebrate retina model is described based on a cellular neural network (CNN) architecture. Though largely built on the experience of previous studies, the CNN computational framework is considerably simplified: first‐order RC cells are used with space‐invariant nearest‐neighbour interactions only. All non‐linear synaptic connections are monotonic continuous functions of the pre‐synaptic voltage. Time delays in the interactions are continuous represented by additional first‐order cells. The modelling approach is neuromorphic in its spirit relying on both morphological and pharmacological information. However, the primary motivation lies in fitting the spatio‐temporal output of the model to the data recorded from biological cells (tiger salamander). In order to meet a low‐complexity (VLSI) implementation framework some structural simplifications have been made. Large‐neighbourhood interaction (neurons with large processes), furthermore inter‐layer signal propagation are modelled through diffusion and wave phenomena. This work presents novel CNN models for the outer and some partial models for the inner (light adapted) retina. It describes an approach that focuses on efficient parameter tuning and also makes it possible to discuss adaptation, sensitivity and robustness issues on retinal ‘image processing’ from an engineering point of view. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Where and Why are They Looking? Jointly Inferring Human Attention and Intentions in Complex Tasks

This paper addresses a new problem - jointly inferring human attention, intentions, and tasks from videos. Given an RGB-D video where a human performs a task, we answer three questions simultaneously: 1) where the human is looking - attention prediction; 2) why the human is looking there - intention prediction; and 3) what task the human is performing - task recognition. We propose a hierarchical model of human-attention-object (HAO) which represents tasks, intentions, and attention under a unified framework. A task is represented as sequential intentions which transition to each other. An intention is composed of the human pose, attention, and objects. A beam search algorithm is adopted for inference on the HAO graph to output the attention, intention, and task results. We built a new video dataset of tasks, intentions, and attention. It contains 14 task classes, 70 intention categories, 28 object classes, 809 videos, and approximately 330,000 frames. Experiments show that our approach outperforms existing approaches.
Relationship between vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism and susceptibility to chronic kidney disease and periodontal disease in community‐dwelling elderly

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the possible correlation between vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphism and susceptibility to chronic kidney disease (CKD) and periodontal disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS This study analysed 345 participants, who were all 79 years of age. Kidney function levels were determined based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR; non-reduced function: ≥60 and reduced function: <60 ml min-1 1.73 m-2 ). VDR TaqI genotyping was also studied. We calculated the periodontal inflamed surface area (PISA). After classifying participants into quartile groups according to eGFR or PISA values, the subjects were then split into two groups (highest quartile versus the other three groups combined). Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the odds ratios between the eGFR and VDR TaqI genotype with the different PISA groups. The eGFR was set as the dependent variable while the VDR TaqI genotype, HbA1C, gender, smoking habits and body mass index were defined as independent variables. RESULTS A significant association was observed between the VDR TaqI genotype and eGFR in the PISA high group (odds ratio = 3.97, p = .027). CONCLUSION Study results suggest that VDR TaqI genotype might be associated with CKD during inflammatory conditions caused by periodontal disease.
Structure of the Pacinian Corpuscle: Insights Provided by Improved Mechanical Modeling

An improved model of the Pacinian corpuscle includes corrections for lamellar curvature. Results suggest that outer-zone lamellae produce a focusing effect whereby stimuli are channeled radially inwards. The requirements for this effect (large outer-surface area and thin, closely spaced lamellae) provide a rationale for the complexity of the outer-zone structure.
Domino Temporal Data Prefetcher

Big-data server applications frequently encounter data misses, and hence, lose significant performance potential. One way to reduce the number of data misses or their effect is data prefetching. As data accesses have high temporal correlations, temporal prefetching techniques are promising for them. While state-of-the-art temporal prefetching techniques are effective at reducing the number of data misses, we observe that there is a significant gap between what they offer and the opportunity. This work aims to improve the effectiveness of temporal prefetching techniques. We identify the lookup mechanism of existing temporal prefetchers responsible for the large gap between what they offer and the opportunity. Existing lookup mechanisms either not choose the right stream in the history, or unnecessarily delay the stream selection, and hence, miss the opportunity at the beginning of every stream. In this work, we introduce Domino prefetching to address the limitations of existing temporal prefetchers. Domino prefetcher is a temporal data prefetching technique that logically looks up the history with both one and two last miss addresses to find a match for prefetching. We propose a practical design for Domino prefetcher that employs an Enhanced Index Table that is indexed by just a single miss address. We show that Domino prefetcher captures more than 90% of the temporal opportunity. Through detailed evaluation targeting a quad-core processor and a set of server workloads, we show that Domino prefetcher improves system performance by 16% over the baseline with no data prefetcher and 6% over the state-of- the-art temporal data prefetcher.
Treatment for occult hepatocellular carcinoma: does it offer survival advantages over symptom-driven treatment?

Abstract Objective: In order to claim a benefit of screen-based diagnosis for asymptomatic individuals, treatment of occult disease needs to offer survival advantages compared to the treatment of symptomatic disease, yet information on this issue is scarce with regard to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) screening. Methods: A total of 3353 treatment-naïve, consecutive, newly diagnosed HCC patients [age: 57.9 ± 10.3, male: 2,689 (80.2%), hepatitis B virus: 2555 (76.2%)], diagnosed between 2010 and 2013 were analyzed. Data on the mode of detection was prospectively collected at the time of HCC diagnosis and was used to group patients into occult or symptomatic cases. Results: Overall, 643 (19.2%) patients were symptomatic cases. The proportion of patients undergoing resection, radiofrequency ablation or transplantation were lower in symptomatic cases than occult cases (20.8 vs. 56.2%, p < .001). Survival was better in occult cases than symptomatic cases (71.2 vs. 30.4% at three-years, p < .001), with a multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio of 1.40 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.24–1.58). When stratified by tumor stage, a survival benefit was not observed for patients diagnosed at modified International Union Against Cancer (mUICC) stage I, but presenting symptoms were diverse and nonspecific. In a statistical model adjusting for potential lead-time bias, the association between overall survival and the mode of detection was markedly attenuated and was no longer significant when the treatment modality was included in the model (hazard ratio, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.82–1.07). Conclusion: Treatment of occult disease offered a survival benefit to patients over symptomatic cases. These data support screening practices for asymptomatic individuals to diagnose occult HCC.