Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends in the Epidemiology of Pandemic and Non-pandemic Strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Isolated from Diarrheal Patients in Kolkata, India

A total of 178 strains of V. parahaemolyticus isolated from 13,607 acute diarrheal patients admitted in the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kolkata has been examined for serovar prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility and genetic traits with reference to virulence, and clonal lineages. Clinical symptoms and stool characteristics of V. parahaemolyticus infected patients were analyzed for their specific traits. The frequency of pandemic strains was 68%, as confirmed by group-specific PCR (GS-PCR). However, the prevalence of non-pandemic strains was comparatively low (32%). Serovars O3:K6 (19.7%), O1:K25 (18.5%), O1:KUT (11.2%) were more commonly found and other serovars such as O3:KUT (6.7%), O4:K8 (6.7%), and O2:K3 (4.5%) were newly detected in this region. The virulence gene tdh was most frequently detected in GS-PCR positive strains. There was no association between strain features and stool characteristics or clinical outcomes with reference to serovar, pandemic/non-pandemic or virulence profiles. Ampicillin and streptomycin resistance was constant throughout the study period and the MIC of ampicillin among selected strains ranged from 24 to >256 µg/ml. Susceptibility of these strains to ampicillin increased several fold in the presence of carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenyldrazone. The newly reported ESBL encoding gene from VPA0477 was found in all the strains, including the susceptible ones for ampicillin. However, none of the strains exhibited the β-lactamase as a phenotypic marker. In the analysis of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), the pandemic strains formed two different clades, with one containing the newly emerged pandemic strains in this region.
Thymic development beyond β-selection requires phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation by CXCR4

T cell development requires phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling with contributions from both the class IA, p110δ, and class IB, p110γ catalytic subunits. However, the receptors on immature T cells by which each of these PI3Ks are activated have not been identified, nor has the mechanism behind their functional redundancy in the thymus. Here, we show that PI3K signaling from the preTCR requires p110δ, but not p110γ. Mice deficient for the class IB regulatory subunit p101 demonstrated the requirement for p101 in T cell development, implicating G protein–coupled receptor signaling in β-selection. We found evidence of a role for CXCR4 using small molecule antagonists in an in vitro model of β-selection and demonstrated a requirement for CXCR4 during thymic development in CXCR4-deficient embryos. Finally, we demonstrate that CXCL12, the ligand for CXCR4, allows for Notch-dependent differentiation of DN3 thymocytes in the absence of supporting stromal cells. These findings establish a role for CXCR4-mediated PI3K signaling that, together with signals from Notch and the preTCR, contributes to continued T cell development beyond β-selection.
Development of a Dual-robot System for Parametric Surfaces Polishing

This paper presents the development and the implementation of a dual-robot coordination system for the parametric surfaces polishing. First, a robot kinematic model is discussed. Then, An adaptive tool path generation algorithm for parametric surfaces is proposed, the CL data consist of positions and orientations of the cutter is also calculated from the CC path. Finally, the concepts of the dual-robot configurations, postprocessing, and off-line robot path generation are presented. The results of polishing experiments show that the proposed dual-robot system is flexible and efficient for parametric surface polishing.
Why Don't They Lend? Credit Stagnation in Latin America

This study examines the recent marked slowdown in bank credit to the private sector in Latin America. Based on a study of eight countries – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Venezuela – the magnitude of the slowdown is documented, comparing it to historical behavior and to similar episodes in other regions of the world. Second, changes in bank balance sheets are examined to determine whether the credit slowdown is merely a reflection of a downturn in bank deposits or whether the asset side has changed. Third, following an econometric disequilibrium approach used in recent studies of bank credit in East Asia and Finland, the paper investigates the possible causes in three countries: Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. While both supply and demand factors appear to have played key roles, their relative importance has varied across the three countries.
Program Development as a Formal Activity

A methodology of program development by transformations is outlined. In particular, ways of representing the transformation rules are discussed, and the relationship between notions of their correctness and the semantic definition of programming languages is studied. How transformation techniques are complemented by the use of abstract data types and assertions is described. In the resulting calculus of transformations, the single rules not only represent design or optimization techniques, but they also incorporate verification principles. To illustrate this approach, the Warshall algorithm is developed by successive applications of transformations.
A comparison of two operational wave assimilation methods

A comparison is carried out between two operational wave forecasting/assimilation models for the North Sea, with the emphasis on the assimilation schemes. One model is the WAM model, in combination with an optimal interpolation method (OIP). The other model, DASWAM, consists of the third generation wave model PHIDIAS in combination with an approximate implementation of the adjoint method. In an experiment over the period February 19 - March 30, 1993, the models are driven by the same wind field (HIRLAM analysis winds), and the same observation data set is assimilated. This set consists of a) spectra from three pitch-and-roll buoys and b) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) spectra from the ERS-1 satellite. Three analysis/forecast runs are performed: one without assimilation, one with assimilation of buoy measurements only, and one with all data assimilated. For validation, observations from four buoys, altimeter data from ERS-1 and Topex-Poseidon, and scatterometer data from ERS-1 are used. A detailed analysis of the "Wadden Storm" (February 20-22) shows the very different nature of the two assimilation schemes: the wave and wind field corrections of the WAM/OIP scheme are all in the vicinity of the observations, whereas the DASWAM adjustments are more of a global nature. The impact of some individual buoy and SAR observations is visualized. A comparison of the performance of the two schemes is somewhat obscured by the very different behaviour of the two first-guess runs. A statistical analysis over the whole 39-day period gives the following results. In a comparison with buoy observations it is shown that a positive impact of wave data assimilation remains until about 12 hours in forecast in
Negativity Bias in Media Multitasking: The Effects of Negative Social Media Messages on Attention to Television News Broadcasts

Television viewers’ attention is increasingly more often divided between television and “second screens”, for example when viewing television broadcasts and following their related social media discussion on a tablet computer. The attentional costs of such multitasking may vary depending on the ebb and flow of the social media channel, such as its emotional contents. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that negative social media messages would draw more attention than similar positive messages. Specifically, news broadcasts were presented in isolation and with simultaneous positive or negative Twitter messages on a tablet to 38 participants in a controlled experiment. Recognition memory, gaze tracking, cardiac responses, and self-reports were used as attentional indices. The presence of any tweets on the tablet decreased attention to the news broadcasts. As expected, negative tweets drew longer viewing times and elicited more attention to themselves than positive tweets. Negative tweets did not, however, decrease attention to the news broadcasts. Taken together, the present results demonstrate a negativity bias exists for social media messages in media multitasking; however, this effect does not amplify the overall detrimental effects of media multitasking.
Financial Markets and Politics: The Confidence Game in Latin American Emerging Economies

This article focuses on the interactions between politics and financial markets in emerging economies. More precisely, it examines how Wall Street reacts to major Latin American political events. The case study focuses on the 2002 Brazilian presidential elections. The first section of the article provides a critical review of the available literature. The second section presents an empirical study of Wall Street analysts' perceptions of the 2002 presidential elections in Brazil, based on reports produced by leading Wall Street investment firms. The final section uses polling and financial data from previous Brazilian elections to place the events of 2002 in comparative historical perspective.
Saharan dust events at the Jungfraujoch: detection by wavelength dependence of the single scattering albedo and first climatology analysis

Abstract. Scattering and absorption coefficients have been measured continuously at several wavelengths since March 2001 at the high altitude site Jungfraujoch (3580ma.s.l.). From these data, the wavelength dependences of the Angstrom exponent and particularly of the single scattering albedo are determined. While the exponent of the single scattering albedo usually increases with wavelength, it decreases with wavelength during Saharan dust events (SDE) due to the greater size of the mineral aerosol particles and their different chemical composition. This change in the sign of the single scattering exponent turns out to be a sensitive means for detecting Saharan dust events. The occurrence of SDE detected by this new method was confirmed by visual inspection of filter colors and by studying long-range back-trajectories. An examination of SDE over a 22-month period shows that SDE are more frequent during the March-June period as well as during October and November. The trajectory analysis indicated a mean traveling time of 96.5h, with the most important source countries situated in the northern and north-western part of the Saharan desert. Most of the SDE do not lead to a detectable increase of the 48-h total suspended particulate matter (TSP) concentration at the Jungfraujoch. During Saharan dust events, the average contribution of this dust to hourly TSP at the Jungfraujoch is 16µg/m3, which corresponds to an annual mean of 0. 8µg/m3 or 24% of TSP.
Jamming Avoidance in the Electric Fish Eigenmannia: Harmonic Analysis of Sexually Dimorphic Waves

1. The present report shows an intra specific, sexually dimorphic variation in harmonic content and waveform, as well as intensity, of the Electric Organ Discharges (EODs) in the green knife fish, Eigenmannia (Figs 2, 11). There is a close correlation between harmonic content of the EODs and waveform (as defined by the ratio of intervals between zero-crossings in the two half-waves of one EOD cycle; Fig. 3). The aim of the following experiments was to determine whether the fish are sensitive to differences in stimulus waveform or harmonic content. 2. Stimulation with electric fields of various waveforms but equal peak-to-peak amplitudes at frequencies close to the fish9s frequency elicited the Jamming Avoidance Response (JAR) which is an EOD frequency change increasing the frequency difference (Watanabe & Takeda, 1963). The strength of JARs to distorted square wave and sawtooth stimuli was 25% smaller than that elicited by sine wave stimuli (Fig. 6). Undistorted square waves elicited stronger responses than sine waves, while undistorted sawtooth waves were the least effective (Table 1). The differences in response strength were proportional to differences in the intensity of the fundamental frequency or first harmonic, f 1 , of the stimulus waveforms. 3. Subharmonic stimuli of nine artificial or synthesized natural waveforms at frequencies near one-half or one-third of the EOD resting frequency elicited responses only when a strong higher harmonic, or overtone, of the stimulus was close to the EOD fundamental frequency (Fig. 7). Stimuli of different waveforms, but identical spectral amplitudes, elicited similar responses not significantly different from each other, at stimulus frequencies near one-half (Table 3) and near the EOD resting frequency (Fig. 10). 4. Eigenmannia9s JARs to synthesized male EODs at frequencies close to the fish9s frequency were weaker than those to female EODs of equal peak-to-peak amplitude. The weaker response was proportional to the weaker intensity of the first harmonic of the male EOD (Fig. 12). A stimulus frequency near one-half of the EOD baseline frequency evoked opposite results, as the second harmonic, f 2 , of the male EOD was relatively four times stronger than that of the female EOD (Table 4).
A Five Years Study of Tuberculous Meningitis in Iran.

BACKGROUND Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is a severe form of extra pulmonary tuberculosis with high mortality and morbidity rate in all age group patients specific in adults and children. The incidence and prevalence are not exactly known in Iran. In this study, we tried to evaluate the role of rapid diagnosis and to find out the highest risk group patients. METHODS Totally, 1783-suspected patients with tuberculous meningitis whose CSF specimens were admitted at Noor Pathobiology Laboratory, Tehran, Iran were enrolled in this study from January 2009 until December 2013. All specimens were checked for MTB by direct examination, culture and PCR tests, and for the adenosine deaminase (ADA). RESULTS Confirmed positive cases were aged from 13 to 82 yr old with mean age 46.63 yr (SD±18.84). The number of diagnosed positive MTB was different by the 3 applied protocol, 64 by PCR, 28 by culture and 33 by direct examination. Considering the result of PCR protocol the TBM was approved in 64 patients with rate of 3.59%. Two patients had other infection as well, one 56 years old with VZV and the other patient who was HIV positive was 27 years old. Increased ADA titer higher than cutoff was relevant with other results of positive samples except in two cases. CONCLUSION Analysis of the results proved adults are more at risk for tuberculous meningitis than children in Iran are. It is also confirmed PCR method provide the most efficient, rapid and reliable results for these patients who are at the critical situations.
Detection-Directed Sparse Estimation using Bayesian Hypothesis Test and Belief Propagation

In this paper, we propose a sparse recovery algorithm called detection-directed (DD) sparse estimation using Bayesian hypothesis test (BHT) and belief propagation (BP). In this framework, we consider the use of sparse-binary sensing matrices which has the tree-like property and the sampled-message approach for the implementation of BP. The key idea behind the proposed algorithm is that the recovery takes DD-estimation structure consisting of two parts: support detection and signal value estimation. BP and BHT perform the support detection, and an MMSE estimator finds the signal values using the detected support set. The proposed algorithm provides noise-robustness against measurement noise beyond the conventional MAP approach, as well as a solution to remove quantization effect by the sampled-message based BP independently of memory size for the message sampling. We explain how the proposed algorithm can have the aforementioned characteristics via exemplary discussion. In addition, our experiments validate such superiority of the proposed algorithm, compared to recent algorithms under noisy setup. Interestingly the experimental results show that performance of the proposed algorithm approaches that of the oracle estimator as SNR becomes higher.
Scatter matters: Regularities and implications for the scatter of healthcare information on the Web

Despite the development of huge healthcare Web sites and powerful search engines, many searchers end their searches prematurely with incomplete information. Recent studies suggest that users often retrieve incomplete information because of the complex scatter of relevant facts about a topic across Web pages. However, little is understood about regularities underlying such information scatter. To probe regularities within the scatter of facts across Web pages, this article presents the results of two analyses: (a) a cluster analysis of Web pages that reveals the existence of three page clusters that vary in information density and (b) a content analysis that suggests the role each of the above-mentioned page clusters play in providing comprehensive information. These results provide implications for the design of Web sites, search tools, and training to help users find comprehensive information about a topic and for a hypothesis describing the underlying mechanisms causing the scatter. We conclude by briefly discussing how the analysis of information scatter, at the granularity of facts, complements existing theories of information-seeking behavior.
Online social networks as a catalyst for software and IT innovation

People have many creative ideas, but only a few of these ideas are realized and lead to innovation. Good ideas often fail because they are not shared between innovators and stakeholders, hence are unlikely to be realized. Consequently, many opportunities are missed to excite customers and to gain a competitive advantage. This paper proposes an innovation process that uses online social networks to lower the hurdle to sharing ideas. The process leverages diffusion effects of social networks while supporting the generation, evaluation, consolidation, and implementation of innovative ideas with lightweight activities. The process is illustrated and discussed using an application example. Although we are focusing on innovation regarding software-intensive systems, we foresee that the discussed process has the potential to be applied to other domains as well.
Ground substrate affects activity budgets and hair loss in outdoor captive groups of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

How the captive environment influences the behavior of animals is relevant to the well‐being of captive animals. Captivity diverges from the natural environment in many ways, and one goal of enrichment practices is to encourage species‐typical behavior in these unnatural environments. This study investigated the influence of grass vs. gravel substrate on activity budgets and degree of hair loss in seven groups of captive rhesus macaques housed in outdoor enclosures at the California National Primate Research Center. Groups having grass substrate spent a greater proportion of their time foraging and a smaller proportion of time grooming compared with groups having gravel substrate. Increased time spent grooming in gravel enclosures may have contributed to significantly greater hair loss in those enclosures. A causal relationship between ground substrate on foraging and grooming, and therefore hair loss, is strengthened by similar changes in activity budgets and hair loss in a single group that was moved from gravel to grass substrate halfway through the study. These results add to growing evidence that substrate type in captivity is important to consider because it affects animal well‐being. In particular, these results reveal that grass substrate is more effective than gravel in stimulating foraging and reducing allo‐grooming to levels that are comparable to wild populations, and enable animals to maintain healthier coats. Am. J. Primatol. 70:1160–1168, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Detection of Frequent Change in Focus of Human Attention from Videos

We present a procedure to detect the attention behavior of persons with frequent change in focus of attention (FCFA) from a static video camera. This behavior can be easily perceived by people as temporal changes of human head pose. Here, we propose to use features extracted by analyzing a similarity matrix of head pose from the use of a correlation measure of the head image sequence. An important feature of this behavior is its cyclic pattern where the head pose will repeat its position from time to time. A frequency analysis is proposed to find the dynamic characteristics of persons with frequent change of attention or focused attention. A nonparametric classifier is used to classify these two kinds of behaviors (FCFA and focused attention). The classification and validation results are also reported in this paper.
Intermittent Computation without Hardware Support or Programmer Intervention

As computation scales downward in area, the limitations imposed by the batteries required to power that computation become more pronounced. Thus, many future devices will forgo batteries and harvest energy from their environment. Harvested energy, with its frequent power cycles, is at odds with current models of long-running computation. To enable the correct execution of long-running applications on harvested energy--without requiring special-purpose hardware or programmer intervention--we propose Ratchet. Ratchet is a compiler that adds lightweight checkpoints to unmodified programs that allow existing programs to execute across power cycles correctly. Ratchet leverages the idea of idempotency, decomposing programs into a continuous stream of re-executable sections connected by lightweight checkpoints, stored in non-volatile memory. We implement Ratchet on top of LLVM, targeted at embedded systems with high-performance non-volatile main memory. Using eight embedded systems benchmarks, we show that Ratchet correctly stretches program execution across frequent, random power cycles. Experimental results show that Ratchet enables a range of existing programs to run on intermittent power, with total run-time overhead averaging below 60%--comparable to approaches that require hardware support or programmer intervention.
Spatial Reference in Linguistic Human-Robot Interaction: Iterative, Empirically Supported Development of a Model of Projective Relations

The aim of our research is to enable spontaneous and efficient spatial reference to objects in human-robot interaction situations. This paper presents the iterative, empirically based design of a robotic system that uses a computational model for identifying objects on the basis of a range of spatial reference systems. The efficiency of the system is evaluated by two successive empirical studies involving uninformed users. The linguistic analysis points to the striking variability in speakers' spontaneous strategies and preferences, and it motivates a number of modifications of the computational model.
Is Knowledge Power? Competition and Information in Agricultural Markets

This paper investigates an important channel through which access to market information could increase the prices that producers receive from middlemen. I develop a model of trade between a farmer and a middleman, allowing for different types of middlemen, and provide an empirical test of the theory from a framed field experiment carried out in India. The model predicts a non-monotonic relationship between the benefit of information and the cost of switching to a new middleman. I find that middlemen differ in their attitudes towards fairness and the benefit of information to the farmer varies with the cost of switching.