Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cardiovascular outcomes following Kawasaki disease in Moscow, Russia: A single center experience

Background: Awareness of Kawasaki disease (KD) is emerging in Russia but the diagnosis is still often missed. Methods: This is a retrospective study of 303 children with KD who received care at a single center in Moscow over the period from 2004 to 2016. Results: Overall, coronary artery aneurysms were documented in 91 (30,0%) of 303 patients and transient ectasia in 40 (13,2%). Intracoronary thrombi were found in 12 of 15 patients with giant aneurysms and in 3 patients with medium-sized aneurysms. Conclusion: The patients with KD in the Moscow region had typical features of the disease described in the literature but the proportion of patients with coronary artery aneurysms was higher than reported from other countries. We assume that this is due to delayed treatment, which has gradually improved over time. Increased awareness of KD in Russia is critical to ensure timely diagnosis and treatment.
Automatic record linkage using seeded nearest neighbour and support vector machine classification

The task of linking databases is an important step in an increasing number of data mining projects, because linked data can contain information that is not available otherwise, or that would require time-consuming and expensive collection of specific data. The aim of linking is to match and aggregate all records that refer to the same entity. One of the major challenges when linking large databases is the efficient and accurate classification of record pairs into matches and non-matches. While traditionally classification was based on manually-set thresholds or on statistical procedures, many of the more recently developed classification methods are based on supervised learning techniques. They therefore require training data, which is often not available in real world situations or has to be prepared manually, an expensive, cumbersome and time-consuming process. The author has previously presented a novel two-step approach to automatic record pair classification [6, 7]. In the first step of this approach, training examples of high quality are automatically selected from the compared record pairs, and used in the second step to train a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Initial experiments showed the feasibility of the approach, achieving results that outperformed k-means clustering. In this paper, two variations of this approach are presented. The first is based on a nearest-neighbour classifier, while the second improves a SVM classifier by iteratively adding more examples into the training sets. Experimental results show that this two-step approach can achieve better classification results than other unsupervised approaches.
On the Effectiveness of Random Testing for Android: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Monkey

Random testing of Android apps is attractive due to ease-of-use and scalability, but its effectiveness could be questioned. Prior studies have shown that Monkey – a simple approach and tool for random testing of Android apps – is surprisingly effective, "beating" much more sophisticated tools by achieving higher coverage. We study how Monkey's parameters affect code coverage (at class, method, block, and line levels) and set out to answer several research questions centered around improving the effectiveness of Monkey-based random testing in Android, and how it compares with manual exploration. First, we show that random stress testing via Monkey is extremely efficient (85 seconds on average) and effective at crashing apps, including 15 widely-used apps that have millions (or even billions) of installs. Second, we vary Monkey's event distribution to change app behavior and measured the resulting coverage. We found that, except for isolated cases, altering Monkey's default event distribution is unlikely to lead to higher coverage. Third, we manually explore 62 apps and compare the resulting coverages; we found that coverage achieved via manual exploration is just 2-3% higher than that achieved via Monkey exploration. Finally, our analysis shows that coarse-grained coverage is highly indicative of fine-grained coverage, hence coarse-grained coverage (which imposes low collection overhead) hits a performance vs accuracy sweet spot.
Suitability of oral administration of monosodium phosphate, disodium phosphate, and magnesium phosphate for the rapid correction of hypophosphatemia in cattle

Background Hypophosphatemia is commonly associated with disease and decreased productivity in dairy cows particularly in early lactation. Oral supplementation with phosphate salts is recognized as suitable for the rapid correction of hypophosphatemia. Little information is available about the differences in efficacy between salts used for oral phosphorus supplementation. Objectives Comparison of efficacy of oral administration of NaH2PO4, Na2HPO4, and MgHPO4 in treating hypophosphatemia in cattle. Animals 12 healthy dairy cows in the fourth week of lactation in their second to fifth lactation. Methods Randomized clinical study. Phosphorus deficient, hypophosphatemic cows underwent a sham treatment and were afterwards assigned to 1 of 3 treatments—NaH2PO4, Na2HPO4, or MgHPO4 (each provided the equivalent of 60 g of phosphorus). Blood samples were obtained immediately before and repeatedly after treatment. Results Treatment with NaH2PO4 and Na2HPO4 resulted in rapid and sustained increases of plasma phosphate concentrations ([Pi]). Significant effects were apparent within 1 hour (NaH2PO4: P = .0044; Na2HPO4: P = .0077). Peak increments of plasma [Pi] of 5.33 mg/dL [5.26–5.36] and 4.30 mg/dL [3.59–4.68] (median and interquartile range) were reached after 7 and 6 hours in animals treated with NaPH2PO4 and Na2HPO4, respectively, whereas treatment with MgHPO4 led to peak increments 14 hours after treatment (3.19 mg/dL [2.11–4.04]). Conclusions and Clinical Importance NaH2PO4 and Na2HPO4 are suitable to rapidly correct hypophosphatemia in cattle. Because of the protracted and weaker effect, MgHPO4 cannot be recommended for this purpose. Despite important differences in solubility of NaH2PO4 and Na2HPO4 only small plasma [Pi] differences were observed after treatment.
All Theses and Dissertations 2013-03-20 Effects of Syntactic Complexity on Speech Motor Performance Kelsey Lewis

Effects of Syntactic Complexity on Speech Motor Performance Kelsey L Boyce Department of Communication Disorders Master of Science This study evaluated the possible influence of linguistic demands on speech motor control by measuring articulatory movement stability during conditions of increasing grammatical complexity. There were 60 participants in three age groups: 20-30 years, 40-50 years, and 60-70 years, with equal numbers of men and women in each group. These speakers produced 10 repetitions of five different sentence or phrase conditions. These five conditions included two baseline measurements and three sentences of varying complexity. Each complexity condition had an MLU count of 23, word length of 17, syllable length of 25, and contained the phrase open boxes of pompoms. Complexity was measured by node-count and grammatical structure. Lower lip movements during production of the target phrase were used to compute the spatiotemporal index (STI), a measure of lip movement stability over 10 repetitions. It was predicted that STI would be lower (indicating greater stability) in the baseline and low complexity conditions. Comparison of complexity conditions against the baseline-counting condition demonstrated significant differences in the upper lip’s STI, displacement, and velocity, as well as in vocal intensity. Speech motor differences between the grammatical complexity levels were minimal and could be attributed to several factors, such as speaking rate or semantic differences. An unexpected finding of this study was the influence of age on speech production. Participants from the 60 year-old group had significantly longer utterance duration, while those from the 20 year-old group had the highest lower lip and jaw STI values. These findings suggest that speech motor control matures even beyond young adulthood and that linguistic complexity does not appear to have a consistent effect on speech movement variables.
Prevalence ofAeromonas spp.and its Virulence Genes in Samples of Carabeef and Mutton

A survey was conducted to ascertain the distribution and virulence of Aeromonas spp. (species) in carabeef and mutton samples in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, India. Conventional method using Aeromonas isolation medium and Ampicillin Dextrin agar, PCR targeting 16S rRNA were used to identify Aeromonas spp. in meat samples. Conventional cultural method revealed 28% and 40% positives in mutton and carabeef, respectively whereas PCR assay detected 32% (mutton) and 44% (carabeef) positives suggesting that PCR has a better sensitivity than the cultural method. PCR positives were examined for the presence of toxin genes. Both aerolysin (37.5% in mutton and carabeef) and thermostablecytotonic enterotoxin (36.36% in mutton and 27.27% in carabeef) were detected, indicating the potential pathogenicity of Aeromonas spp. in meat products.
Prevalence of Gastro-Intestinal Parasites in stray dogs (Canis familiaris) from Grenada, West Indies

In the present study, fecal samples from 445 stray dogs, collected during July 2008 to December 2012 were examined for gastrointestinal parasites. Fecal samples were collected throughout the six parishes of the country, under the national rabies control program. Fecal samples were examined for gastrointestinal (GI) parasites by flotation technique. Out of 445 dogs 394 (88.5%) (95% Confidence interval (CI) 84.54% to 91.46%) dogs were found infected with one or more species of gastrointestinal parasites. The results revealed the presence of at least one parasite egg of 73% Ancylostoma spp. , 15.7% Trichuris vulpis, 3.8% Toxocara canis, 1.4% Coccidia spp. and 1.1% Strongyloides spp. The prevalence of the GI parasites according to stray dog age groups was statistically significant (p 0.05, χ2). Analyzing the prevalence of GI parasites in various age groups the results showed that dogs under 12 weeks of age had a higher prevalence than juveniles (12–24 weeks) and adults (over 24 weeks). The presence of zoonotic parasites in stray dogs in Grenada, poses possible risks of contamination of the environment which may have public health implications.
Transgenic autoinhibition of p21-activated kinase exacerbates synaptic impairments and fronto-dependent behavioral deficits in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease

Defects in p21-activated kinase (PAK) lead to dendritic spine abnormalities and are sufficient to cause cognition impairment. The decrease in PAK in the brain of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients is suspected to underlie synaptic and dendritic disturbances associated with its clinical expression, particularly with symptoms related to frontal cortex dysfunction. To investigate the role of PAK combined with Aβ and tau pathologies (3xTg-AD mice) in the frontal cortex, we generated a transgenic model of AD with a deficit in PAK activity (3xTg-AD-dnPAK mice). PAK inactivation had no effect on Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels, but increased the phosphorylation ratio of tau in detergent-insoluble protein fractions in the frontal cortex of 18-month-old heterozygous 3xTg-AD mice. Morphometric analyses of layer II/III pyramidal neurons in the frontal cortex showed that 3xTg-AD-dnPAK neurons exhibited significant dendritic attrition, lower spine density and longer spines compared to NonTg and 3xTg-AD mice. Finally, behavioral assessments revealed that 3xTg-AD-dnPAK mice exhibited pronounced anxious traits and disturbances in social behaviors, reminiscent of fronto-dependent symptoms observed in AD. Our results substantiate a critical role for PAK in the genesis of neuronal abnormalities in the frontal cortex underlying the emergence of psychiatric-like symptoms in AD.
Global Conservation Significance of Ecuador's Yasuní National Park

Background The threats facing Ecuador's Yasuní National Park are emblematic of those confronting the greater western Amazon, one of the world's last high-biodiversity wilderness areas. Notably, the country's second largest untapped oil reserves—called “ITT”—lie beneath an intact, remote section of the park. The conservation significance of Yasuní may weigh heavily in upcoming state-level and international decisions, including whether to develop the oil or invest in alternatives. Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted the first comprehensive synthesis of biodiversity data for Yasuní. Mapping amphibian, bird, mammal, and plant distributions, we found eastern Ecuador and northern Peru to be the only regions in South America where species richness centers for all four taxonomic groups overlap. This quadruple richness center has only one viable strict protected area (IUCN levels I–IV): Yasuní. The park covers just 14% of the quadruple richness center's area, whereas active or proposed oil concessions cover 79%. Using field inventory data, we compared Yasuní's local (alpha) and landscape (gamma) diversity to other sites, in the western Amazon and globally. These analyses further suggest that Yasuní is among the most biodiverse places on Earth, with apparent world richness records for amphibians, reptiles, bats, and trees. Yasuní also protects a considerable number of threatened species and regional endemics. Conclusions/Significance Yasuní has outstanding global conservation significance due to its extraordinary biodiversity and potential to sustain this biodiversity in the long term because of its 1) large size and wilderness character, 2) intact large-vertebrate assemblage, 3) IUCN level-II protection status in a region lacking other strict protected areas, and 4) likelihood of maintaining wet, rainforest conditions while anticipated climate change-induced drought intensifies in the eastern Amazon. However, further oil development in Yasuní jeopardizes its conservation values. These findings form the scientific basis for policy recommendations, including stopping any new oil activities and road construction in Yasuní and creating areas off-limits to large-scale development in adjacent northern Peru.
Influence of the Length of Storage on Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) Egg Viability

Abstract Aedes aegypti (L.) is one of the most important arboviral vectors worldwide. Vector control is targeted at immature and adult stages; however, eggs are resistant to desiccation and may repopulate treated areas long after treatment ceases. We investigated the effect of age on Ae. aegypti egg hatching rates using newly colonized populations (F2) from an arid region. We found a strongly negative association where older eggs had lower hatch rates. The capacity of eggs to survive for long periods of time has implications on mosquito control. In addition, the accumulation of eggs in containers should be accounted for in abundance modeling efforts where populations may grow rapidly early in the season.
Pastoralism in Northern Peru during Pre-Hispanic Times: Insights from the Mochica Period (100–800 AD) Based on Stable Isotopic Analysis of Domestic Camelids

Llama (Lama glama) and alpaca (Vicugna pacos) are the only large domesticated animals indigenous to the Americas. Pastoralism occupies a fundamental economic, social and religious role in Andean life. Today, camelid livestock are confined to the ecozone of the puna (above 3,500 masl), while their presence on the Pacific coast during pre-Hispanic times is attested by archaeological skeletal remains. This study aims to document herding practices on the northern Peruvian coast during the Early Intermediate Period (200 BC-600 AD) by gaining insights into diet, location of breeding and mobility of archaeological camelids from the funerary and ritual contexts of two Mochica sites, Uhle Platform in Huacas de Moche and El Brujo. The three first early years and the long-term life histories of the animals were documented by the combined bulk analysis of bone collagen (δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol) and bone structural carbonate (δ13Cbone and δ18Obone) and the serial analysis of structural carbonate of molar tooth enamel (δ13Cenamel and δ18Oenamel). Mochica camelids were bred in the low and/or middle valleys, unlike their modern counterparts, who are restricted to highland puna C3 pastures. Archaeological camelids had diverse and complex life histories, usually with substantial maize foddering. An ontogenetic switch in diet and possible residential mobility during the course of life were identified for some specimens. Although the inference of geographic origin from δ18Obone and δ18Oenamel values was limited because of the lack of understanding of the influence of environmental and biological factors, tooth enamel analysis has great potential for exploring camelid herding practices and Andean pastoralism. Our study suggested that Mochica herders adapted their practices to the difficult lowland environment and that herding practices were varied and not restricted to breeding at higher altitudes. The role of maize in different aspects of the economic life of the Mochicas is also underlined.
Kinematics of swimming of the manta ray: three-dimensional analysis of open-water maneuverability

ABSTRACT For aquatic animals, turning maneuvers represent a locomotor activity that may not be confined to a single coordinate plane, making analysis difficult, particularly in the field. To measure turning performance in a three-dimensional space for the manta ray (Mobula birostris), a large open-water swimmer, scaled stereo video recordings were collected. Movements of the cephalic lobes, eye and tail base were tracked to obtain three-dimensional coordinates. A mathematical analysis was performed on the coordinate data to calculate the turning rate and curvature (1/turning radius) as a function of time by numerically estimating the derivative of manta trajectories through three-dimensional space. Principal component analysis was used to project the three-dimensional trajectory onto the two-dimensional turn. Smoothing splines were applied to these turns. These are flexible models that minimize a cost function with a parameter controlling the balance between data fidelity and regularity of the derivative. Data for 30 sequences of rays performing slow, steady turns showed the highest 20% of values for the turning rate and smallest 20% of turn radii were 42.65±16.66 deg s−1 and 2.05±1.26 m, respectively. Such turning maneuvers fall within the range of performance exhibited by swimmers with rigid bodies. Highlighted Article: Underwater stereovideography detailing the three-dimensional maneuvering performance of the manta ray in its natural environment shows that its turning maneuvers fall within the range of those exhibited by swimmers with rigid bodies.
Determining Rejuvenator Content for Recycling Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement by SHRP Binder Specifications

Rejuvenator content needed for recycling reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is now mostly determined by considering the penetration or viscosity criterion of the blend of aged asphalt with added rejuvenator. In the study, a comprehensive approach stressing the performance-related properties of the blend, is attempted for determining the rejuvenator content according to strategic highway research program (SHRP) binder specifications. To this end, a series of dynamic shear rheometer and bending beam rheometer tests were carried out on the blends in three states and different temperatures of different aged asphalts with various rejuvenator contents. It is clearly indicated that the performance-related properties of the blends at three different temperatures specified by SHRP binder specifications were effectively changed with rejuvenator content, and the relationships between the properties and rejuvenator content were quite linear. Rejuvenator content needed for recycling RAP is thus able to be reasonably determined when all the requirements specified by SHRP binder system at the three temperatures are satisfied.
A Wavelet Based Local Descriptor for Human Action Recognition

In interest point based human action recognition, local descriptors are used to represent information in the neighbourhood around each extracted space-time interest point. The performance of the action recognition systems highly depends on the invariance and distinctiveness of the local spatiotemporal descriptor adopted. In this paper, we propose a new descriptor based on the Wavelet Transform taking advantage of its capability in compacting and discriminating data. We evaluate this descriptor on the extensively studied KTH action dataset, using the Bag-of Features framework. Results show the Wavelet Transform based descriptor achieves the recognition rate of 93.89%, which is better than most of the state-of-the-art methods.
Three-body abrasive wear resistance of iron matrix composites reinforced with ceramic particles

Pure aluminum oxide (Al2O3), ZrO2 toughened Al2O3 (ZTA; 25–30% ZrO2), and ZTA (55–60% ZrO2) ceramic particles reinforced Cr25 matrix composites are successfully fabricated by the infiltration casting process. The volume fraction of ceramic particles in the composites is 47–55%. The interface structure between ceramic particles and the matrix was analyzed by digital probing microscopy and was found to be continuous mechanical bonding. The wear behavior of the composites was studied by a three-body abrasive wear tester. ZTA (55–60% ZrO2) reinforced Cr25 composite has excellent wear resistance which is approximately six times higher than that of the high chromium cast iron matrix. It is discovered that the wear mechanism of composites is micro-cutting and fatigue stripping. A correlation exists between the wear resistance of composites and the strength of ceramic particles.
Tear and tensile strength development of PGW and CTMP pulps mixed with PLA or viscose fibres

Abstract The objective was to evaluate the effects on paper properties when replacing a minor share of wood fibre by synthetic fibre. The aim was to increase tear strength and stretch while minimizing the loss of tensile strength in paper consisting of mechanical pulp. Tested synthetic fibres included PLA and viscose fibres mixed with mechanical or chemi-mechanical pulp. Even at relatively low proportions, the synthetic fibres contributed to a significant increase of tear strength in the wood fibre based papers. With the highest tested proportion (20%) the increase of tear index in PGW based stock was 243% with PLA and 177% with viscose fibre. However, a simultaneous decrease in tensile strength and tensile stiffness was observed. The stretch at break remained unchanged. Thickness reduction of the synthetic fibres resulted in an increase of tear strength. The effect is due to the high fibre length of synthetic fibres, producing mechanically well entangled networks, coupled with the high enough strength of the synthetic fibres.
Strong grain-size effect on deformation twinning of an Al0.1CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy

ABSTRACT An Al0.1CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy (HEA) with a face-centered cubic structure in the as-cast and the recrystallized states is investigated. The mean grain size of the as-cast HEA is 14 times larger than that of the recrystallized HEA. The tension tests reveal that deformation twinning is the main mechanism dominating the plastic deformation of two HEAs. With a decrease in the grain size, twin spacing increases, and twin thickness decreases, which results in a low twinning activity. The twinning activity of the recrystallized HEA is strongly inhibited by grain refinement, which degrades the promotion of twinning on the strain-hardening ability and the tensile ductility. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT IMPACT STATEMENT Grain refinement on strain hardening and twinning in a high-entropy alloy (HEA) is investigated, which is associated with the nanotwin substructure. Grain refinement decreases the twin thickness, and increases the twin spacing.