Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vancomycin Pharmacokinetic Parameters in Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT)

Background Vancomycin is used abundantly in patients undergoing HSCT, especially during neutropenic fever. Despite its widespread use little is known about vancomycin pharmacokinetics in HSCT patients. We conducted this study to investigate vancomycin pharmacokinetic parameters in our HSCT patients and to evaluate current dosing regimen based on trough vancomycin concentrations measurement. Methods Vancomycin serum concentration at steady-state was determined prospectively in 46 adult HSCT patients who received vancomycin as empirical treatment of neutropenic fever. Individual steady-steady pharmacokinetic parameters were also determined in 20 patients who had two vancomycin levels from an administered dose, assuming one-compartment model. Acute kidney injury was also evaluated in our patients during vancomycin therapy. Results Mean (±SD) apparent volume of distribution (L/kg) and clearance (mL/min) were 0.6 (± 0.33) and 109.7 (± 57.5) respectively. With mean (±SD) total daily dose of vancomycin 31.9 (±10.5) mg/kg/day that was administered, more than 90% of measured vancomycin trough concentrations were outside the range of 15-20 mg/L and 54.3% of patients had trough concentrations below 10 mg/L. Of 46 patients, 21 patients (45.7%) developed acute kidney injury (AKI) during vancomycin therapy; among them 19 patients were receiving nephrotoxic drug(s) concomitantly. Conclusion Current vancomycin dosage regimen could not lead to recommended therapeutic serum concentrations in our patients. Large variation in vancomycin pharmacokinetic parameters observed among patients of this study along with difference of vancomycin pharmacokinetics in our study and other similar studies further explain the need for therapeutic drug monitoring and individualization of vancomycin dosing.
Helicobacter pylori Modulates the T Helper Cell 1/T Helper Cell 2 Balance through Phase-variable Interaction between Lipopolysaccharide and DC-SIGN

The human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori spontaneously switches lipopolysaccharide (LPS) Lewis (Le) antigens on and off (phase-variable expression), but the biological significance of this is unclear. Here, we report that Le+ H. pylori variants are able to bind to the C-type lectin DC-SIGN and present on gastric dendritic cells (DCs), and demonstrate that this interaction blocks T helper cell (Th)1 development. In contrast, Le− variants escape binding to DCs and induce a strong Th1 cell response. In addition, in gastric biopsies challenged ex vivo with Le+ variants that bind DC-SIGN, interleukin 6 production is decreased, indicative of increased immune suppression. Our data indicate a role for LPS phase variation and Le antigen expression by H. pylori in suppressing immune responses through DC-SIGN.
Detection of Currency Crises by a Novel Rule Extraction Method from Support Vector Machine

study attempts to obtain a set of human comprehensible fuzzy if-then rules for the detection of currency crises from Support Vector Machine (SVM). SVM is used with explanatory variables known to be associated with currency crises to detect occurrences of currency crises. Fuzzy if-then rules are then obtained from the SVM through our novel rule extraction method which is called Support Vector Space Expansion (SVSE) method in order to unveil human comprehensible patterns behind SVM black-boxed system decision. The overall results of detection of currency crises of the fuzzy if-then rules are comparable to those from the SVM, and the if-then rules obtained may be used by financial experts to try to explain patterns of related financial statuses when currency crises occur, plus the if-then rules can also be easily incorporated into a software program using any popular computer language.
MARKETING AND THE INTERNET:

This paper reviews the research to-date on how the Internet is impacting marketing. It focuses mainly on academic research published in US journals, but includes selected material from other sources. It covers internet adoption and usage; online purchasing behavior; internet advertising; internet economics and pricing; channels and intermediaries and online marketing strategy. The final section gives overall conclusions and briefly lists some opportunities for future research. Contrary to earlier hype, the Internet does not change the fundamental principles of marketing. Nor has its impact to-date – e.g. on consumer behavior, advertising, pricing, channels, intermediaries, strategy and globalization – been anything like as dramatic as predicted. Nevertheless, it has already had some effect on all of these areas. For instance, it is emerging as a flexible, fast-growing advertising medium and as a significant direct channel in many markets (PCs, books, music, travel, and even cars). It has led to some reduction in average prices and in price dispersion. It is bringing into the mainstream previously exotic business models such as auctions, electronic markets, and brand communities. Most of its successes have come from established businesses with ‘bricks and clicks’ strategies which use the Internet to supplement existing activities but rarely to generate much direct revenue We expect its impact to increase steadily over the next ten years, as the technology improves, its availability and usage continue to grow, and businesses learn better how to use it within their wider marketing strategy. Earlier expectations about the Internet were so overblown that the reality was bound to disappoint. But by any normal standards, it is a fast-growing young medium with wide-ranging effects across the whole marketing spectrum.
Transforms and quantization design targeting the H.264/AVC intra prediction constraints

This paper presents an architecture for a dedicated transforms and quantization loop targeting the Intra Prediction of the H.264/AVC video coding standard. The transforms and quantization loop is a bottleneck for the Intra Prediction, since the prediction process cannot start before the transforms and quantization loop finishes the reconstruction of the reference blocks. This work presents a low latency and high throughput architecture of the transforms and quantization loop, intending to reduce the impact of this loop in the Intra Prediction performance. The architecture was described in VHDL and synthesized to Altera Stratix II FPGA and to the TSMC 0. 18μm CMOS technology. The architecture reaches an operation frequency of 129.3 MHz when mapped to standardcells, and takes 4 cycles to process an I4MB block, 24 cycles to process an I16MB block, and 22 cycles to process a chroma block. Those are the best results when compared with all related works considering the Intra Prediction constraints.
Equivalence Between Policy Gradients and Soft Q-Learning

Two of the leading approaches for model-free reinforcement learning are policy gradient methods and $Q$-learning methods. $Q$-learning methods can be effective and sample-efficient when they work, however, it is not well-understood why they work, since empirically, the $Q$-values they estimate are very inaccurate. A partial explanation may be that $Q$-learning methods are secretly implementing policy gradient updates: we show that there is a precise equivalence between $Q$-learning and policy gradient methods in the setting of entropy-regularized reinforcement learning, that "soft" (entropy-regularized) $Q$-learning is exactly equivalent to a policy gradient method. We also point out a connection between $Q$-learning methods and natural policy gradient methods. Experimentally, we explore the entropy-regularized versions of $Q$-learning and policy gradients, and we find them to perform as well as (or slightly better than) the standard variants on the Atari benchmark. We also show that the equivalence holds in practical settings by constructing a $Q$-learning method that closely matches the learning dynamics of A3C without using a target network or $\epsilon$-greedy exploration schedule.
The Predictors of Graduation: Social Skills, Mental Health, Academic Characteristics

Not completing the undergraduate course in the time expected in the curricula can put the universities and students at a disadvantage, with a delay to enter the labor market. The aim was to identify predictors of graduation, considering social skills, mental health, initial academic performance and socio-demographic and academic characteristics. In total, 287 students participated, of both genders and fromthe humanities, exact and biological areas, who answered the instruments: Social Skills, Behaviors and Context Assessment Questionnaire for University Students, Short version of the Social Phobia Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Predictors were: female, humanities area and average or above-average initial academic performance. The social skills and mental health differentiated the groups in the univariate analyses. This data suggests a need for attention to academic performance in the initial stages of the course, and preventive measures for male students of the exact and biological areas.
Mitochondria mediate septin cage assembly to promote autophagy of Shigella

Septins, cytoskeletal proteins with well‐characterised roles in cytokinesis, form cage‐like structures around cytosolic Shigella flexneri and promote their targeting to autophagosomes. However, the processes underlying septin cage assembly, and whether they influence S. flexneri proliferation, remain to be established. Using single‐cell analysis, we show that the septin cages inhibit S. flexneri proliferation. To study mechanisms of septin cage assembly, we used proteomics and found mitochondrial proteins associate with septins in S. flexneri‐infected cells. Strikingly, mitochondria associated with S. flexneri promote septin assembly into cages that entrap bacteria for autophagy. We demonstrate that the cytosolic GTPase dynamin‐related protein 1 (Drp1) interacts with septins to enhance mitochondrial fission. To avoid autophagy, actin‐polymerising Shigella fragment mitochondria to escape from septin caging. Our results demonstrate a role for mitochondria in anti‐Shigella autophagy and uncover a fundamental link between septin assembly and mitochondria.
Group dynamics in an E-mail forum

Les As. examinent en quoi les interactions entre les participants d'une messagerie electronique feminine ressemblent a des interactions face-a-face dans un petit groupe. Ils analysent des donnees de questionnaire et des elements de participation et souligne que l'on retrouve le sentiment d'appartenance a un groupe a travers les echanges, l'existence d'une continuite a travers un groupe de participants reguliers et la mise en place de certains traits du discours oral
On Computational Cut-o Rate for Space-Time Coding

We consider the computational cut-o rate for the complex Rayleigh at fading spatio-temporal channel under a peak power constraint, where the propagation matrix is unknown at both transmitter and receiver. Determination of the cut-o rate requires maximization of an average error exponent over all possible probability distributions on the signal matrices. This error exponent is monotone decreasing in a measure of dissimilarity between pairs of signal matrices. For low SNR the dissimilarity function reduces to a trace norm of the di erence between the outerproduct of each signal matrix. Under the practical constraint of nite dimensional signal constellations, di erent characterizations of the optimal constellation are obtained. For arbitrary nite dimension, the optimal constellation must admit an equalizer distribution, i.e., a positive set of signal probabilities which equalizes the conditional decoding error probabilities. The cut-o rate optimization reduces to maximization of a quadratic form over the feasible set formed from such constellations. When the number of signal matrices in the constellation is less than the ratio of the number of time samples to the number of transmit antennas, the optimal cut-o rate attaining constellation is a set of equiprobable mutually-orthogonal unitary matrices. When the SNR is below a speci ed threshold the matrices in the constellation are rank one and the cut-o rate is achieved by applying all transmit power to a single antenna and using orthogonal signaling. Finally, we derive recursive necessary and suÆcient conditions for a constellation to lie in the feasible set. This motivates a greedy procedure for constructing a sequence of feasible constellations with monotone increasing cut-o rate objective function.
“I Love You, Not Your Friends”

Research on the merging of social networks among married couples tends to focus on the benefits of increased social capital, with the acknowledgment of potential stressors being limited primarily to in-law relationships. The purpose of the present study was to examine both positive (i.e., shared friend support) and negative (i.e., disapproval and interference of partner’s friends) aspects of friend ties on divorce across 16 years. Using a sample of 355 Black and White couples from the Early Years of Marriage project, we examined these associations with a Cox proportional hazard regression, controlling for a number of demographic and relational factors. Our findings indicate that (1) the negative aspects of couples’ friend ties are more powerful predictors of divorce than positive aspects; (2) at least early in marriage, husbands’ negative perceptions of wives’ friends are more predictive of divorce than are wives’ negative perceptions of husbands’ friends; (3) friendship disapproval may be less critical in the marital lives of Black husbands and wives than of White husbands and wives; and (4) the association between disapproval of wives’ friends at Year 1 and divorce may be partially explained by wives’ friends interfering in the marriage. Our findings are interpreted in light of possible mechanisms to explain the link between partner disapproval of friends and divorce, such as diminished interdependence, less network approval, and increased spousal conflict and jealousy.
Metrics of constant scalar curvatures conformal to a Riemannian product with a round sphere

We consider the conformal class of the Riemannian product $g_0 + g$, where $g_0$ is the constant curvature metric on $S^m$ and $g$ is a metric of constant scalar curvature on some closed manifold. We show that the number of metrics of constant scalar curvature in the conformal class grows at least linearly with respect to the square root of the scalar curvature of $g$. This is obtained by studying radial solutions of the equation $\Delta u -\lambda u + \lambda u^p =0$ on $S^m$, and the number of solutions in terms of $\lambda$.
SEARCHING GROUND STATES OF ISING SPIN GLASSES WITH PARTICLE SWARMS ê

This paper presents a method for searching ground states of Ising spin glasses.The Ising model is one of the most commonly used because of its simplicity and itsaccuracy in representing real problems. We tackle the problem of finding groundstates with particle swarm optimization (PSO), a population-based stochastic optimi-zation technique inspired by social behavior of bird flocking. The paper is organizedas follows: the first section briefly presents Ising spin glasses. Section 2 describes thebasic principles of the particle swarm optimization meta-heuristic. Section 3 presentsexperimental results, followed by some conclusion and future work in Section 4.
Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Septal Pacing Is Superior to Right Ventricular Apical Pacing

Background The effects of right ventricular apical pacing (RVAP) and right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) septal pacing on atrial and ventricular electrophysiology have not been thoroughly compared. Methods and Results To identify a more favorable pacing strategy with fewer adverse effects, 80 patients who had complete atrioventricular block with normal cardiac function and who were treated with either RVAP (n=42) or RVOT septal pacing (n=38) were recruited after an average of 2 years of follow‐up. The data from electrocardiography and echocardiography performed before pacemaker implantation and at the end of follow‐up were collected. The patients in the RVOT septal pacing and RVAP groups showed similar demographic and clinical characteristics before pacing treatments. After a mean follow‐up of 2 years, the final maximum P‐wave duration; P‐wave dispersion; Q‐, R‐, and S‐wave complex duration; left atrial volume index; left ventricular end‐systolic diameter; ratio of transmitral early diastolic filling velocity to mitral annular early diastolic velocity; and interventricular mechanical delay in the RVOT septal pacing group were significantly less than those in the RVAP group (P<0.05). The final left ventricular ejection fraction of the RVOT septal pacing group was significantly higher than that of the RVAP group (P<0.05). Conclusions Compared with RVAP, RVOT septal pacing has fewer adverse effects regarding atrial electrical activity and structure in patients with normal cardiac function.
Molecular detection of Helicobacter pylori antibiotic resistance in stool vs biopsy samples

AIM To compare (1) demographics in urea breath test (UBT) vs endoscopy patients; and (2) the molecular detection of antibiotic resistance in stool vs biopsy samples. METHODS Six hundred and sixteen adult patients undergoing endoscopy or a UBT were prospectively recruited to the study. The GenoType HelicoDR assay was used to detect Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and antibiotic resistance using biopsy and/or stool samples from CLO-positive endoscopy patients and stool samples from UBT-positive patients. RESULTS Infection rates were significantly higher in patients referred for a UBT than endoscopy (overall rates: 33% vs 19%; treatment-naïve patients: 33% vs 14.7%, respectively). H. pylori-infected UBT patients were younger than H. pylori-infected endoscopy patients (41.4 vs 48.4 years, respectively, P < 0.005), with a higher percentage of H. pylori-infected males in the endoscopy-compared to the UBT-cohort (52.6% vs 33.3%, P = 0.03). The GenoType HelicoDR assay was more accurate at detecting H. pylori infection using biopsy samples than stool samples [98.2% (n = 54/55) vs 80.3% (n =53/66), P < 0.005]. Subset analysis using stool and biopsy samples from CLO-positive endoscopy patients revealed a higher detection rate of resistance-associated mutations using stool samples compared to biopsies. The concordance rates between stool and biopsy samples for the detection of H. pylori DNA, clarithromycin and fluoroquinolone resistance were just 85%, 53% and 35%, respectively. CONCLUSION Differences between endoscopy and UBT patients provide a rationale for non-invasive detection of H. pylori antibiotic resistance. However, the GenoType HelicoDR assay is an unsuitable approach.
Dynamics of quality of life improvement after floppy Nissen fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease

Introduction Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has a negative impact on global quality of life (QOL) of patients. In patients affected by GERD, laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication is one of the most commonly performed laparoscopic procedures worldwide. Aim To prospectively analyze the dynamics of QOL as well as severity of pain in patients with GERD, before and after laparoscopic floppy Nissen fundoplication. Material and methods The study involved 104 consecutive patients operated on for GERD in whom laparoscopic floppy Nissen fundoplication was performed. QOL was assessed before surgery and 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after. The following instruments were used: FACIT-G, FACIT-TS-G, GIQLI, GERD symptom scale. Results It was found that symptom relief and quality of life improvement presented different dynamics in the postoperative course. Observations revealed relief of symptoms 1 month after surgery and improvement in QOL related to the gastrointestinal tract and pain 3 months after surgery. Global QOL increased significantly as late as 12 months after surgery. Conclusions Gastroesophageal reflux disease is a chronic disease of long duration, leading to impairment of quality of life. Patients, apart from typical symptoms of GERD, suffer from pain of significant severity. QOL improves significantly after surgery. Surgical treatment results in relief of GERD symptoms, which leads to gradual improvement of QOL.
MECP2 Duplication Syndrome: Evidence of Enhanced Oxidative Stress. A Comparison with Rett Syndrome

Rett syndrome (RTT) and MECP2 duplication syndrome (MDS) are neurodevelopmental disorders caused by alterations in the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) gene expression. A relationship between MECP2 loss-of-function mutations and oxidative stress has been previously documented in RTT patients and murine models. To date, no data on oxidative stress have been reported for the MECP2 gain-of-function mutations in patients with MDS. In the present work, the pro-oxidant status and oxidative fatty acid damage in MDS was investigated (subjects n = 6) and compared to RTT (subjects n = 24) and healthy condition (subjects n = 12). Patients with MECP2 gain-of-function mutations showed increased oxidative stress marker levels (plasma non-protein bound iron, intraerythrocyte non-protein bound iron, F2-isoprostanes, and F4-neuroprostanes), as compared to healthy controls (P ≤ 0.05). Such increases were similar to those observed in RTT patients except for higher plasma F2-isoprostanes levels (P < 0.0196). Moreover, plasma levels of F2-isoprostanes were significantly correlated (P = 0.0098) with the size of the amplified region. The present work shows unique data in patients affected by MDS. For the first time MECP2 gain-of-function mutations are indicated to be linked to an oxidative damage and related clinical symptoms overlapping with those of MECP2 loss-of-function mutations. A finely tuned balance of MECP2 expression appears to be critical to oxidative stress homeostasis, thus shedding light on the relevance of the redox balance in the central nervous system integrity.
Measuring e-learning systems success: Implementing D & M is success model

Electronic learning (e-learning) has been widely used as a complement subject to traditional learning methods. Implementing e-learning is becoming one of many solutions in effecting the study process offered by higher educational institutions, such as Universitas Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Jakarta = UPNVJ and Sekolah Tinggi Teknologi Telematika Telkom (ST3 Telkom) Purwokerto, Central Java. The objective of this research is to measure the e-learning system success implemented by UPNVJ and ST3 Telkom Purwokerto and then compare the similarities and differences between of two. The modified DeLone & McLean Information Systems Success Model and part of Technology Acceptance Model are adopted in this study. The respondents are students who have been experience in using e-learning and are selected randomly from the Faculty of Computer Science of UPNVJ and from ST3 Telkom Purwokerto. The total respondents are 387, which consist of 215 students from UPNVJ and 172 from ST3 Telkom Purwokerto. For the results at UPNVJ, there are two hypotheses that were proven insignificant and at ST3 Telkom there are three hypotheses that were proven insignificant. Findings at UPNVJ show that the e-learning benefit can be explained by its independent variables by 53.8%%, and at ST3 Telkom by 60.6%. These percentages show that the predictors explained 53.8% for UPNVJ's e-learning benefit and 60.6% e-learning benefit for ST3 Telkom Purwokerto. These findings could be considered as novelties, because they are different from the original model.