Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-Cost and Compact Single-Photon Counter Based on a CMOS SPAD Smart Pixel

We present a single-photon counter based on a silicon single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) fabricated in a 0.35-μm CMOS technology. The detector is monolithically integrated with a front-end circuit and a digital pulse output driver. External components are kept to a minimum, and the resulting instrument is low-cost, low-power, and compact, being housed into an industry-standard 1-in aluminum optical mounting tube. It features a maximum power consumption of just 250 mW from a USB link. The embedded 50-μm-diameter SPAD has high photon detection efficiency in the visible range (55% at 420 nm), low noise (<;100 Hz at room temperature), low timing jitter (<;100-ps full-width at half-maximum), and very low afterpulsing probability (down to 1% with 60-ns hold-off time). The high performance, compactness, and low cost enable many unexplored applications in life sciences, personal health care, industrial quality check, quantum physics and others, where it is required to count single photons and to measure their arrival time.
Trichomonas vaginalis and Giardia intestinalis Produce Nitric Oxide and Display NO‐Synthase Activity

TRICHOMONAS vaginalis is a microaerophilic parasite of the human urogenital tract which is the causative agent of the sexually transmitted disease trichomoniasis. In vivo, T. vaginalis is exposed to polyamines (White et al. 1983), which are cationic molecules essential for cell proliferation and differentiation. The arginine dihydrolase pathway in T. vaginalis provides these amitochondriate parasites with an important source of energy, and some steps in this energy-yielding pathway take place in the redox-balancing organelle: the hydrogenosome (Yarlett and Bacchi 1994; Yarlett et al. 1996). Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule, a weapon used in the immune system’s response to pathogens; it is also responsible for vasodilation of blood vessels, a property which makes this volatile gas important for the control of blood pressure. The metabolic conversion of arginine to citrulline via the action of nitric oxide synthase, (NOS) with NO as a by-product, has been studied in numerous cell types, tissues, and organs. In studies of NO and parasitic protozoa, however, this topic has heretofore been dominated by a one-sided exploration. These studies focused on the effects of the release of NO from the host’s immune system, and provided evidence about its cytotoxic manifestations in the parasites. However, only a few studies have explored the possibility that these parasites themselves produce NO. NOS activity was discovered in Trypanosoma cruzi and found to be sensitive to typical NOS inhibitors, such as N-methyl-L-arginine (Paveto et al. 1995). It was also shown that Leishmania donovani produces NO and contains a NOS similar to that of the mammalian enzyme (Basu et al. 1996). Entamoeba histolytica was shown to have NOS activity and responded to typical NOS inhibitors (Hernandez-Campos et al. 2003). The polyamine metabolic pathway in T. vaginalis has been characterized, specifying the presence of arginine deiminase and the production of ammonia by the reaction converting arginine to citrulline (Yarlett et al. 2000). We have found that under aerobic conditions this reaction is also catalyzed by NOS, which produces NO rather than ammonia. Giardia intestinalis, another microaerophilic parasitic protozoan, is the causative agent of one of the world’s most common intestinal infections. G. intestinalis has been termed ‘‘amitochondriate’’ and produces energy solely by substrate-level phosphorylation. However, redox active organelles and mitosomes have recently been found in G. intestinalis (Lloyd et al. 2002; Tovar et al. 2003). The location of both Giardia and trichomonads in evolutionary phylogeny has been debated mostly due to their lack of mitochondria. We have found that NO is produced by G. intestinalis, and also by hydrogenosomes in T. vaginalis. As mitochondria have been shown to produce NO; these results add to the evidence that both T. vaginalis and G. intestinalis have evolved from organisms containing fully-functional mitochondria (Bates et al. 1996; Ghafourifar and Richter 1997). MATERIALS AND METHODS
Does knowledge based psychological ownership matter? Transformational leadership and knowledge hiding: A proposed framework

The prevalent and negative impact of knowledge hiding behaviour among employees has called the attention of both practitioners and researchers to begin investigations on its causes, and other factors that influence it on both the targets and perpetrators. Some of the possible suggested antecedents of knowledge hiding studied include trust, job characteristic, organisational culture, and workplace environment. Despite these studies, few have attempted to investigate the influence of leadership, particularly, transformational leadership on knowledge hiding. Previous studies also indicated conflicting results, and the mechanisms through which transformational leadership influences knowledge hiding are not adequately addressed. Therefore, mediator variable is suggested. Hence, this paper proposes knowledge psychological ownership as a potential mediator on the relationship between transformational leadership and knowledge hiding behaviour of an employee in the organization. We hereby argue that transformational leadership through knowledge psychological ownership will influence employees to refrain from the knowledge hiding behaviour that may negatively affect the organisation and encourage knowledge sharing to improve the performance of the organization.
Hypercoagulability Markers in Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease: Association to Ankle-brachial Index

Peripheral arterial disease is diagnosed by measuring the ankle-brachial index. Values lower than 0.90 define the disease being usually related to its severity. Patients with peripheral arterial disease may show a hypercoagulability state. The aim of this study was to assess hemostatic variables and to correlate them with the presence of peripheral arterial disease and its severity as assessed by ankle-brachial index values. Plasma levels of D dimer, plasminogen, prothrombin fragment 1+2, plasminogen activator inhibitor and thrombomodulin were measured in 36 patients with peripheral arterial disease (group 1) and 30 without disease (group 2). Significant differences for D dimer, plasminogen, prothrombin fragment 1+2 and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 between the 2 groups were found (P<0.05). Significant and inverse correlations were also observed (Pearson correlation, P<0.05) between ankle-brachial index values and levels of both plasminogen and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1. Although there was no significant correlation between ankle-brachial index and levels of D dimer, higher D dimer values were observed in patients with lower ankle-brachial index values. The results confirm a trend to hypercoagulability and hypofibrinolysis in patients with peripheral arterial disease. Increased levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 seem to be associated with the severity of the disease, considering the inverse correlation between this inhibitor and ankle-brachial index.
Energy Saving Through Traffic Profiling in Self-Optimizing Optical Networks

An increasing fraction of the electrical energy produced in western countries is being consumed by Internet infrastructure; reducing its energy footprint is therefore of utmost importance for the scalability of the Internet. We address optical transport backbones and propose a novel method to reduce the energy consumed by dynamically adjusting the number of active optical carriers to support the short-term load of the network with a small and controllable margin. This is achieved in a nondisruptive manner that does not interact with routing strategies and does not rely on any specific control plane, but exploits automated traffic profiling and prediction of the well-known circadian traffic cycle. The proposed approach works with both fixed and flexible grid optical networks. We describe a method to automatically learn these patterns and multiple techniques to predict incoming traffic. Furthermore, we present an algorithm that tunes the parameters of the proposed system in order to achieve a target a posteriori probability of causing traffic losses. The behavior of the system is studied, using simulations, under a variety of conditions. Results show that the proposed prediction algorithms can significantly reduce the number of active optical carriers, even in nonoptimal scenarios, while guaranteeing low traffic losses.
Parenting Stress Impacts Obesity-Specific Health-Related Quality of Life in a Pediatric Obesity Treatment-Seeking Sample

Objective: To document parenting stress in caregivers of treatment-seeking youth with obesity and examine whether parenting stress is a predictor of pediatric health indicators, including body mass index and weight or obesity-specific health-related quality of life. Method: Youth (5–18 years) and their caregivers presenting to a pediatric medical weight management program initial visit completed several self-report questionnaires assessing demographics, parenting stress, and weight or obesity-specific health-related quality of life. Youth's height and weight were measured by trained clinic nurses and abstracted from the patient medical records. Study staff measured caregiver's height and weight. Results: Participants included 120 caregivers and their youth (Mage = 11.0, 65.8% female, and 50% African-American). At treatment initiation, caregivers were primarily obese (Mbody mass index = 35.8). One fifth of caregivers of school-aged children (18%) had clinically increased levels of parenting stress, and 25% reported increased spousal discord specific to parenting. Parenting stress did not significantly predict youth body mass index. Parenting stress significantly predicted obesity-specific parent-proxy health-related quality of life for school-aged children but not self-reported obesity-specific health-related quality of life. Conclusion: Given that caregivers are critical components of pediatric weight management interventions, those with clinically increased levels of parenting stress would likely benefit from brief problem-solving interventions and anticipatory guidance to address common obstacles when fostering healthier lifestyles for their youth.
Brivaracetam as adjunctive treatment for uncontrolled partial epilepsy in adults: A phase III randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial

Brivaracetam (BRV) is a novel high‐affinity synaptic vesicle protein 2A ligand currently being investigated for the treatment of epilepsy. The purpose of this phase III study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety/tolerability of adjunctive BRV in adults with uncontrolled partial‐onset (focal) seizures.
Prediction Equations Overestimate the Energy Requirements More for Obesity-Susceptible Individuals

Predictive equations to estimate resting metabolic rate (RMR) are often used in dietary counseling and by online apps to set energy intake goals for weight loss. It is critical to know whether such equations are appropriate for those susceptible to obesity. We measured RMR by indirect calorimetry after an overnight fast in 26 obesity susceptible (OSI) and 30 obesity resistant (ORI) individuals, identified using a simple 6-item screening tool. Predicted RMR was calculated using the FAO/WHO/UNU (Food and Agricultural Organisation/World Health Organisation/United Nations University), Oxford and Miflin-St Jeor equations. Absolute measured RMR did not differ significantly between OSI versus ORI (6339 vs. 5893 kJ·d−1, p = 0.313). All three prediction equations over-estimated RMR for both OSI and ORI when measured RMR was ≤5000 kJ·d−1. For measured RMR ≤7000 kJ·d−1 there was statistically significant evidence that the equations overestimate RMR to a greater extent for those classified as obesity susceptible with biases ranging between around 10% to nearly 30% depending on the equation. The use of prediction equations may overestimate RMR and energy requirements particularly in those who self-identify as being susceptible to obesity, which has implications for effective weight management.
An Optimal PMU Placement Method Against Measurement Loss and Branch Outage

This paper presents a new method for an optimal measurement placement of phasor measurement units (PMUs) for power system state estimation. The proposed method considers two types of contingency conditions (i.e., single measurement loss and single-branch outage) in order to obtain a reliable measurement system. First, the minimum condition number of the normalized measurement matrix is used as the criteria in conjunction with the sequential elimination approach to obtain a completely determined condition. Next, a sequential addition approach is used to search for necessary candidates for single measurement loss and single-branch outage conditions. These redundant measurements are optimized by binary integer programming. Finally, in order to minimize the number of PMU placement sites, a heuristic technique to rearrange measurement positions is also proposed. Numerical results on the IEEE test systems are demonstrated
Acute or Chronic Life-Threatening Diseases Associated With Epstein-Barr Virus Infection

Abstract: Infectious mononucleosis (IM) is one of the representative, usually benign, acute diseases associated with primary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. IM is generally self-limiting and is characterized mostly by transient fever, lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly. However, very rarely primary EBV infection results in severe or fatal conditions such as hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis together with fulminant hepatitis designated as severe or fatal IM or EBV-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis alone. In addition, chronic EBV-associated diseases include Burkitt's lymphoma, undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder (LPD)/lymphoma, natural killer-cell LPD including leukemia or lymphoma, gastric carcinoma, pyothorax-associated lymphoma and senile B-cell LPD as well as chronic active EBV infection and LPD/lymphoma in patients with immunodeficiency. The number of chronic life-threatening diseases linked to the EBV infection is increasingly reported and many of these diseases have a poor prognosis. This review will focus on the historical, pathogenetic, diagnostic, therapeutic and prophylactic issues of EBV-associated life-threatening diseases.
Kalman filtering with unknown inputs via optimal state estimation of singular systems

A new method for designing a Kalman filter for linear discrete-time systems with unkown inputs is presented. The algorithm recently developed for stochastic singular systems is applied to obtain a linear estimation of the state and unkown inputs. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and stability of the filter are derived and proved. An illustrative example is included.
Preemption of Streptococcus mutans 10449S colonization by its mutant 805

Oral infection of rats with Streptococcus mutans mutant 805 was used to prevent the establishment of its highly virulent wild-type progenitor NCTC 10449S. The dose of wild-type cells required to colonize 100% of the specific pathogen-free Osborne-Mendel rats (21 to 43 days old) consuming caries test diet 2000 was greater than 4 x 10(5) but less than 4 x 10(6) cells. Therefore, the latter dose was used to challenge rats which had already been colonized by an oral dose of about 6 x 10(8) cells of mutant 805. This prior infection by 805 either completely protected rats from subsequent colonization by wild-type cells or greatly delayed and diminished their emergence. Rats in which wild-type cells became established showed much lower percentages of wild-type cells in their total recoverable floras than did rats that were not first infected by the mutant. Large doses of mutant 805, however, did not displace wild-type cells from rats once it became established. There was no evidence of reversion of the mutant, which is defective in intracellular polysaccharide synthesis and hence is less virulent than wild-type cells. The data indicate that the S. mutans cell which first colonizes rats gains the strongest ecological position and is difficult to displace. Also, they suggest the possible prophylactic utility of infection by this mutant of S. mutans.
[Doing voluntary extra work? Organizational citizenship behavior in the hospital--a comparison between physicians and nurses].

AIM OF THE STUDY The study compares physicians and the nursing staff of a hospital in terms of their extra-role behavior. Matters of interest include the extent of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) shown on the one hand and on the other hand which conditions stimulate the OCB of both physicians and nurses, respectively. METHOD The comparison was conducted by applying a questionnaire on n = 70 physicians and n = 112 nurses in a nursing department of a municipal hospital. RESULTS The results can be summarized as follows: (1) The extra-role behavior in terms of sportsmanship, individual initiative, and conscientiousness show equally high values with respect to physicians as well as nurses. In contrast, nurses rate their own helping behavior towards colleagues higher than the physicians do. Therefore, the extent of OCB does not seem to be job-specific in the narrower sense. (2) Differences between physicians and nurses exist indeed with respect to the conditions for the occurrence of OCB: Although the extent of OCB shown by physicians and nurses is independent from age, department tenure, and organizational tenure, job experience does play a role for the degree of conscientiousness (physicians) and individual initiative (nurses). Furthermore, gender affects the sub dimension sportsmanship (nurses). (3) While job characteristics (job control and stress) play a certain role for the degree of nurses' OCB, the physicians' extra-role behavior is independent from job control and strain. Vice versa, the analyzed person-related characteristics job insecurity and strain play a role for the extra-role behavior of physicians, while the behavior of nurses remains unaffected hereof. In other words: Nurses show the same OCB at high and low levels of strain and job insecurity, while physicians lower their OCB when strain and job insecurity rise. (4) For both physicians and nurses, job satisfaction is the most important predictor for extra-role behavior. CONCLUSION When trying to enhance the extent of OCB within a hospital, it is -- according to our results -- primarily essential to increase the job satisfaction of physicians as well as nurses. Within the nursing department, it is additionally recommended to enhance the employees' scope of action, if possible. However, for the enhancement of OCB it must be kept in mind -- according to our results -- that with rising OCB the stress (e. g. time pressure and interruptions) rise at the same time. The latter might result in higher strain for employees. In the group of physicians, on the other hand, a person-related approach seems promising: it is essential to reduce the physicians' subjectively felt strains as well as the job insecurity.
Stage migration in dogs with lymphoma.

BACKGROUND Various diagnostic tests have been used to assign a clinical stage to dogs with lymphoma. As more sensitive staging methods are introduced, dogs are reclassified as having a higher disease stage, thereby affecting comparisons of dogs across differently staged clinical trials, and possibly, prognosis. HYPOTHESIS The addition of more sensitive staging tests causes stage migration in dogs with lymphoma. ANIMALS Fifty-nine client-owned dogs with previously untreated cytologically or histologically confirmed lymphoma METHODS For every dog, the World Health Organization stage classification (I-V) was based on 5 groupings of various diagnostic tests: A (physical examination [PE] and quantitative blood count [QBC]), B (PE, QBC, thoracic and abdominal radiographs), C (PE, complete blood count with blood-smear evaluation [CBC], thoracic and abdominal radiographs), D (PE, CBC, thoracic radiographs, abdominal ultrasound), and E (PE, CBC, thoracic radiographs, abdominal ultrasound, and bone-marrow cytology). Dogs were treated with doxorubicin-based protocols. RESULTS There was migration between all of the staging methods except D to E. However, the stage was not a predictor of remission rate, remission duration, or survival, regardless of staging method used. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE These data emphasized the need for standardized methods to determine the clinical stage in dogs with lymphoma.
Evolutionary conservation of prion‐forming abilities of the yeast Sup35 protein

Saccharomyces cerevisiae prion [PSI ] is a self‐propagating isoform of the eukaryotic release factor eRF3 (Sup35p). Sup35p consists of the evolutionary conserved release factor domain (Sup35C) and two evolutionary variable regions – Sup35N, which serves as a prion‐forming domain in S. cerevisiae, and Sup35M. Here, we demonstrate that the prion form of Sup35p is not observed among industrial and natural strains of yeast. Moreover, the prion ([PSI + ]) state of the endogenous S. cerevisiae Sup35p cannot be transmitted to the next generations via heterologous Sup35p or Sup35NM, originating from the distantly related yeast species Pichia methanolica. This suggests the existence of a ‘species barrier’ in yeast prion conversion. However, the chimeric Sup35p, containing the Sup35NM region of Pichia, can be turned into a prion in S. cerevisiae by overproduction of the identical Pichia Sup35NM. Therefore, the prion‐forming potential of Sup35NM is conserved in evolution. In the heterologous system, overproduction of Pichia Sup35p or Sup35NM induced formation of the prion form of S. cerevisiae Sup35p, albeit less efficiently than overproduction of the endogenous Sup35p. This implies that prion induction by protein overproduction does not require strict correspondence of the ‘inducer’ and ‘inducee’ sequences, and can overcome the ‘species barrier’.