Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay for Rapid Detection of Common Strains of Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT We developed a highly sensitive and specific LAMP assay for Escherichia coli. It does not require DNA extraction and can detect as few as 10 copies. It detected all 36 of 36 E. coli isolates and all 22 urine samples (out of 89 samples tested) that had E. coli. This assay is rapid, low in cost, and simple to perform.
High-Speed Low-Power Viterbi Decoder Design for TCM Decoders

High-speed, low-power design of Viterbi decoders for trellis coded modulation (TCM) systems is presented in this paper. It is well known that the Viterbi decoder (VD) is the dominant module determining the overall power consumption of TCM decoders. We propose a pre-computation architecture incorporated with T-algorithm for VD, which can effectively reduce the power consumption without degrading the decoding speed much. A general solution to derive the optimal pre-computation steps is also given in the paper. Implementation result of a VD for a rate-3/4 convolutional code used in a TCM system shows that compared with the full trellis VD, the precomputation architecture reduces the power consumption by as much as 70% without performance loss, while the degradation in clock speed is negligible.
Responses to Leishmania donovani in Mice Deficient in Interleukin-12 (IL-12), IL-12/IL-23, or IL-18

ABSTRACT Interleukin-12 (IL-12) orchestrates acquired resistance in intracellular Leishmania donovani infection in the liver, inducing gamma interferon and, in turn, macrophage activation and parasite killing. Nevertheless, testing in IL-18−/− mice compared to wild-type mice and in IL-12p40−/− compared to IL-12p35−/− mice also suggested both early-acting (IL-18) and late-acting (IL-23) antileishmanial effects independent of IL-12.
Estimation of effective population sizes from data on genetic markers

The effective population size (Ne) is an important parameter in ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. It is, however, notoriously difficult to estimate, mainly because of the highly stochastic nature of the processes of inbreeding and genetic drift for which Ne is usually defined and measured, and because of the many factors (such as time and spatial scales, systematic forces) confounding such processes. Many methods have been developed in the past three decades to estimate the current, past and ancient effective population sizes using different information extracted from some genetic markers in a sample of individuals. This paper reviews the methodologies proposed for estimating Ne from genetic data using information on heterozygosity excess, linkage disequilibrium, temporal changes in allele frequency, and pattern and amount of genetic variation within and between populations. For each methodology, I describe mainly the logic and genetic model on which it is based, the data required and information used, the interpretation of the estimate obtained, some results from applications to simulated or empirical datasets and future developments that are needed.
Vibration analysis of composite and sandwich plates reinforced with parabolic fibers using an alternative hierarchical finite element method

This paper presents a numerical method for determining natural frequencies and vibration modes of sandwich thick plates reinforced with parabolic fibers. The approach is based on the p-version finite element method with hierarchical trigonometric functions and Reddy’s high order shear deformation theory. The equations of motion of free vibration of thick composite laminated and sandwich plates are obtained based on Hamilton’s principle. A very fast convergence is obtained by increasing the number of hierarchical shape functions. The accuracy of the present method is established by a comparisons made between the present results and published results. The effects of boundary conditions, thickness ratio, material properties, and orientation angle on natural frequencies and normalized cross-sections of mode shape for sandwich plates reinforced with parabolic fibers are studied and investigated.
Language learning

This paper suggests that some design features and evaluation criteria for multimedia computer-assisted language learning (CALL) might be developed on the basis of hypotheses about ideal conditions for second language acquisition (SLA). The author outlines a relevant theory of SLA-the 'interactionist' perspective-and enumerates the hypotheses it implies for ideal conditions such as input saliency, opportunities for interaction
1119-7455 EFFECT OF FERTILIZER MIXTURE AND TIME OF APPLICATION ON CROP ESTABLISHMENT AND ROOT YIELD OF SWEET POTATO IN AN ULTISOL OF SOUTH EASTERN NIGERIA

A field study was carried out at National Root Crops research Institute Umudike in 2004 /2005 cropping seasons to determine the effect of the rate of nutrient mixture and time of application on crop establishment and root yield of sweet potato. The study involved the application of six rates of a mixture of poultry manure and inorganic fertilizer and four application periods on Sweet potato variety, Tis 87/0087. The results showed that application of 50% each of poultry manure and inorganic fertilizer (nutrient mixture) gave the best establishment of the crop (86.5 and 88.55% in both years) while time of application varied. In 2004, application at six weeks after planting gave higher root yield than two weeks after planting obtained in 2005 cropping season. Since there was no significant difference in root yield obtained between two and six weeks after planting for the two years and other parameters such as top yield root number were consistently higher at two weeks after planting , it is recommended that 50% each of such mixture be applied at two weeks for optimum establishment and root yield. Sweet potat.
Intrapartum Antibiotics and Childhood Atopic Dermatitis

Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) in children significantly impacts families because of medical costs, “lost” hours, and secondary characteristics such as asthma and ancillary infections. We investigate whether children delivered vaginally to women receiving intrapartum antibiotics have a greater risk of AD when younger than the age of 2 years than their counterparts. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of women who delivered child(ren) vaginally between 1996 and 2008. Women were identified as those who received intrapartum antibiotics and those who did not. Pediatric records were used to determine the incidence of AD. Results: We collected data for 492 mother–child pairs. Intrapartum antibiotics were administered during 128 births; 28.9% of those children were diagnosed with AD by age 2 years (relative risk [RR], 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75–1.41). Factors with the greatest risk of diagnosis of AD by 2 years of age were intrapartum antibiotic exposure for >24 hours (RR, 1.99; 95% CI, 1.13–3.49), first born (RR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.33–2.38), and higher maternal education (RR, 1.43; 95% CI, 0.99–2.06). No statistical differences in the prevalence of AD related to parental eczema, maternal group B Streptococcus status, or gestational age existed. Conclusions: Exposure to antibiotics for <24 hours during a vaginal delivery does not increase the risk of AD. Studies are needed to understand whether exposure for >24 hours during the intrapartum period increases the risk of AD.
Grasping Virtual Objects: a Feasibility Study for an Enactive Interface Application in Stroke

ABSTRACT Recent studies show that 30% to 66% of patients who suffered a stroke are unable torecover the upper limb functionality and that most patients present motor disability fiveyears after the acute event. Despite a general motor recov ery the incapability to reach andgrasp objects in the usual environment remains one of the most common disabilities afterstroke. At the present time treatments for such impairments have been based onmovement repetition of targeted tasks as part of train ing activities. Clinicians, however, arestill looking for the possibility to provide a rehabilitation procedure that could match thenatural and intuitive mode of interaction with objects that humans generally have inreaching and grasping in the daily co ntexts. In the last years the evolution of technologiesappears to meet this request, notably with the growing of enactive interfaces. Suchinterfaces support the perception -action interactions with an environment allowing users tolearn how to perform a u seful action in a particular context. The expertise gained throughthe interaction with this multimodal interfaces results, in fact, in the acquisition of intuitivemovements that is essentially based on subjective experience and on the perceptualconseque nces of their motor acts.The main aim of this work is to investigate the technical and clinical feasibility of using anenactive interface in the rehabilitation of reaching and grasping movements of upper -limbhemiparesis that occurred after stroke. In t his study ischemic stroke patients will berequested to perform technology -enhanced grasping task at our rehabilitation center, inaddition to usual physical therapy.Key words: Motor skill – Rehabilitation – Enactive interfaces -Stroke – Reaching andgrasping functionsPaper received: 15/07/2006; received in revised form: 16/09/2006; accepted: 17/09/2006. Corresponding Author:Francesca Morganti, PhDApplied Technology for Neuro -Psychology LabIstituto Auxologico ItalianoVia G. Pelizza da Volpe do, 4120129 Milano, Italyfrancesca.morganti@auxologico.it
Additivity of Retinal and Pursuit Velocity in the Perceptions of Depth and Rigidity from Object-Produced Motion Parallax

Two psychophysical experiments were conducted to investigate the mechanism that generates stable depth structure from retinal motion combined with extraretinal signals from pursuit eye movements. Stimuli consisted of random dots that moved horizontally in one direction (ie stimuli had common motion on the retina), but at different speeds between adjacent rows. The stimuli were presented with different speeds of pursuit eye movements whose direction was opposite to that of the common retinal motion. Experiment 1 showed that the rows moving faster on the retina appeared closer when viewed without eye movements; however, they appeared farther when pursuit speed exceeded the speed of common retinal motion. The ‘transition’ speed of the pursuit eye movement was slightly, but consistently, larger than the speed of common retinal motion. Experiment 2 showed that parallax thresholds for perceiving relative motion between adjacent rows were minimum at the transition speed found in experiment 1. These results suggest that the visual system calculates head-centric velocity, by adding retinal velocity and pursuit velocity, to obtain a stable depth structure.
Punctuated transcription of multi-genre broadcasts using acoustic and lexical approaches

In this paper we investigate the punctuated transcription of multi-genre broadcast media. We examine four systems, three of which are based on lexical features, the fourth of which uses acoustic features by integrating punctuation into the speech recognition acoustic models. We also explore the combination of these component systems using voting and log-linear interpolation. We performed experiments on the English language MGB Challenge data, which comprises about 1,600h of BBC television recordings. Our results indicate that a lexical system, based on a neural machine translation approach is significantly better than other systems achieving an F-Measure of 62.6% on reference text, with a relative degradation of 19% on ASR output. Our analysis of the results in terms of specific punctuation indicated that using longer context improves the prediction of question marks and acoustic information improves prediction of exclamation marks. Finally, we show that even though the systems are complementary, their straightforward combination does not yield better F-measures than a single system using neural machine translation.
Changes in auditory perceptions and cortex resulting from hearing recovery after extended congenital unilateral hearing loss

Monaural hearing induces auditory system reorganization. Imbalanced input also degrades time-intensity cues for sound localization and signal segregation for listening in noise. While there have been studies of bilateral auditory deprivation and later hearing restoration (e.g., cochlear implants), less is known about unilateral auditory deprivation and subsequent hearing improvement. We investigated effects of long-term congenital unilateral hearing loss on localization, speech understanding, and cortical organization following hearing recovery. Hearing in the congenitally affected ear of a 41 year old female improved significantly after stapedotomy and reconstruction. Pre-operative hearing threshold levels showed unilateral, mixed, moderately-severe to profound hearing loss. The contralateral ear had hearing threshold levels within normal limits. Testing was completed prior to, and 3 and 9 months after surgery. Measurements were of sound localization with intensity-roved stimuli and speech recognition in various noise conditions. We also evoked magnetic resonance signals with monaural stimulation to the unaffected ear. Activation magnitudes were determined in core, belt, and parabelt auditory cortex regions via an interrupted single event design. Hearing improvement following 40 years of congenital unilateral hearing loss resulted in substantially improved sound localization and speech recognition in noise. Auditory cortex also reorganized. Contralateral auditory cortex responses were increased after hearing recovery and the extent of activated cortex was bilateral, including a greater portion of the posterior superior temporal plane. Thus, prolonged predominant monaural stimulation did not prevent auditory system changes consequent to restored binaural hearing. Results support future research of unilateral auditory deprivation effects and plasticity, with consideration for length of deprivation, age at hearing correction and degree and type of hearing loss.
Climate variation and regional gradients in population dynamics of two hole-nesting passerines

Latitudinal gradients in population dynamics can arise through regional variation in the deterministic components of the population dynamics and the stochastic factors. Here, we demonstrate an increase with latitude in the contribution of a large-scale climate pattern, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), to the fluctuations in size of populations of two European hole-nesting passerine species. However, this influence of climate induced different latitudinal gradients in the population dynamics of the two species. In the great tit the proportion of the variability in the population fluctuations explained by the NAO increased with latitude, showing a larger impact of climate on the population fluctuations of this species at higher latitudes. In contrast, no latitudinal gradient was found in the relative contribution of climate to the variability of the pied flycatcher populations because the total environmental stochasticity increased with latitude. This shows that the population ecological consequences of an expected climate change will depend on how climate affects the environmental stochasticity in the population process. In both species, the effects will be larger in those parts of Europe where large changes in climate are expected.
Local application of tranexamic acid affects tendon healing negatively in the late period.

OBJECTIVES This study aims to evaluate the potential adverse effects of tranexamic acid (TA) on tendon healing. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twelve male Wistar-Albino rats (weighing 300 g to 350 g) were used in the study. Rats were divided into two groups. Right legs of the rats were determined as the TA group and left legs as the serum physiologic (SP) group. Bilateral Achilles tenotomy was performed and surgically repaired. For the right side, 1 mL of TA and for the left side, 1 mL of SP were applied. Half of the rats were sacrificed at the third week and the other half at the sixth week and tendon samples were collected from the extremities. Histological analyses were performed according to the tendon scoring system (Bonar classification). RESULTS Tenocyte cell morphology was better in the third week in TA group than in SP group. In terms of colloidal organization, SP groups gave superior results in all weeks. An analysis of total tendon healing scores revealed that the results of the third week TA groups were superior to the results of the sixth week TA groups. Tenocyte morphology and total tendon healing scores of rats in the sixth week TA group were statistically significantly lower compared to the third week TA group (tenocyte morphology p=0.009, total score p=0.041). CONCLUSION In this study, we detected that locally administered TA has an adverse effect on tendon healing in late period. However, further immunohistochemical and biomechanical studies are needed to support these results.
Small Scale Deployment of Seat Occupancy Detectors

In this paper, we present the results of a small-scale field deployment of our capacitance-based seat occupancy detector [1]. We deployed our sensors to 36 seats in our university library and measured the performance of our system over a period of 8 weeks. As part of this deployment, we had to tackle numerous real-world deployment issues such as hardware failure, variations in signal quality, and interference caused by multiple objects in near proximity. We present our overall system design, along with the modifications we made to tackle various real-world problems. Finally, we present the results of our deployment which showed that our system achieves a reasonably high level of accuracy at 91.2%.
Thermally Induced Disorder–Order Phase Transition of Gd2Hf2O7:Eu3+ Nanoparticles and Its Implication on Photo- and Radioluminescence

Crystal structure has a strong influence on the luminescence properties of lanthanide-doped materials. In this work, we have investigated the thermally induced structural transition in Gd2Hf2O7 (GHO) using Eu3+ ions as the spectroscopic probe. It was found that complete phase transition from the disordered fluorite phase (DFP) to the ordered pyrochlore phase (OPP) can be achieved in GHO with the increase of annealing temperature from 650 → 1100 → 1300 °C. OPP is the more stable structural form for the GHOE nanoparticles (NPs) annealed at a higher temperature based on the energy calculation by density functional theory (DFT). The asymmetry ratio of the GHOE-650 NPs was the highest, whereas the quantum yield, luminescence intensity, and lifetime values of the GHOE-1300 NPs were the highest. Emission intensity of Eu3+ ions increases significantly with the phase transition from the DFP to OPP phase and is attributed to the higher radiative transition rate (281 s–1) of the 5D0 level of the Eu3+ ion in the environment with relatively lower symmetry (C2v) because of the increase of crystal size. As the structure changes from DFP to OPP, radioluminescence showed tunable color change from red to orange. The Eu3+ local structure obtained from DFT calculation confirmed the absence of inversion symmetry in the DFP structure, which is consistent with the experimental emission spectra and Stark components. We also elucidated the host to dopant optical energy transfer through density of states calculations. Overall, our current studies present important observations for the GHOE NPs: (i) thermally induced order–disorder phase transition, (ii) change of point group symmetry around Eu3+ ions in the two phases, (iii) high thermal stability, and (iv) tunability of radioluminescent color. This work provides fundamental understanding of the relationship between the crystal structure and photophysical properties of lanthanide-doped materials and helps design a strategy for advanced optoelectronic materials.
Disrupted Cl− homeostasis contributes to reductions in the inhibitory efficacy of diazepam during hyperexcited states

The K+‐Cl− cotransporter type 2 is the major Cl− extrusion mechanism in most adult neurons. This process in turn leads to Cl− influx upon activation of γ‐aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptors and the canonical hyperpolarising inhibitory postsynaptic potential. Several neurological disorders are treated with drugs that target and enhance GABAA receptor signaling, including the commonly used benzodiazepine diazepam and the anesthetic propofol. Some of these disorders are also associated with deficits in GABAA signaling and become less sensitive to therapeutic drugs that target GABAA receptors. To date, it is unknown if alterations in the neuronal Cl− gradient affect the efficacies of diazepam and propofol. We therefore used the in vitro model of glutamate‐induced hyperexcitability to test if alterations in the Cl− gradient affect the efficacy of GABAA modulators. We exclusively utilised the gramicidin perforated‐patch‐clamp configuration to preserve the endogenous Cl− gradient in rat neurons. Brief exposure to glutamate reduced the inhibitory efficacy of diazepam within 5 min, which was caused by the collapse of the Cl− gradient, and not due to reductions in GABAA receptor number. Unlike diazepam, propofol retained its efficacy by shunting the membrane conductance despite the glutamate‐induced appearance of depolarising GABAA‐mediated currents. Similarly, pharmacological inhibition of K+‐Cl− cotransporter type 2 by furosemide disrupted Cl− homeostasis and reduced the efficacy of diazepam but not propofol. Collectively our results suggest that pathological hyperexcitable conditions could cause the rapid accumulation of intracellular Cl− and the appearance of depolarising GABAA‐mediated currents that would decrease the efficacy of diazepam.
On the likelihood-based approach to modulation classification

In this paper, likelihood-based algorithms are explored for linear digital modulation classification. Hybrid likelihood ratio test (HLRT)- and quasi HLRT (QHLRT)- based algorithms are examined, with signal amplitude, phase, and noise power as unknown parameters. The algorithm complexity is first investigated, and findings show that the HLRT suffers from very high complexity, whereas the QHLRT provides a reasonable solution. An upper bound on the performance of QHLRT-based algorithms, which employ unbiased and normally distributed non-data aided estimates of the unknown parameters, is proposed. This is referred to as the QHLRT-Upper Bound (QHLRT-UB). Classification of binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signals is presented as a case study. The Cramer-Rao Lower Bounds (CRBs) of non-data aided joint estimates of signal amplitude and phase, and noise power are derived for BPSK and QPSK signals, and further employed to obtain the QHLRT-UB. An upper bound on classification performance of any likelihood-based algorithms is also introduced. Method-of-moments (MoM) estimates of the unknown parameters are investigated and used to develop the QHLRT-based algorithm. Classification performance of this algorithm is compared with the upper bounds, as well as with the quasi Log-Likelihood Ratio (qLLR) and fourth-order cumulant based algorithms.
Delay stabilizes stochastic systems near a non-oscillatory instability

The work discovers a stochastic bifurcation in delayed systems in the presence of both delay and additive noise. To understand this phenomenon we present a stochastic center manifold method to compute a non-delayed stochastic order parameter equation for a scalar delayed system driven by additive uncorrelated noise. The derived order parameter equation includes additive and multiplicative white and coloured noise. An illustrative neural system with delayed self-excitation reveals stationary states that are postponed by combined additive noise and delay. A final brief analytical treatment of the derived order parameter equation reveals analytically the shift of the stationary states which depends on the delay and the noise strength.