Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dietary Practice and Nutritional Status of Tuberculosis Patients in Pokhara: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Undernutrition increases the risk of progression from Tuberculosis (TB) infection to active TB disease and further leads to weight loss. Proper diet and nutrition play significant roles in treating TB patients. Active TB needs high energy requirement. The main aim of this study is to assess the dietary intake and nutritional status of TB patients in Pokhara city of Nepal. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 133 TB patients taking anti-tubercular drug. Data were collected using sequential sampling method. Data were collected from 4th October to 7th November, 2016. Results: This study revealed that about one-fifth of TB patients did not consume sufficient amount of calories as per RDA. More than one-third of patients were underweight during the time of registration and this is reduced to 21.8 percent in the present situation. Mean BMI was 20.99 kg/m2 (SD ± 5.81). Similarly, the mean BMI among Pulmonary TB (PTB) is 19.82 and 22.52 kg/m2 in Extra PTB. Working conditions and food intake frequency were significantly associated with calorie intake. This study found that the amount of calories, food frequency per day, types of TB, and nutritional status during registration were found to be associated with recent nutritional status. The statistical difference between mean BMI at registration and recent BMI and mean weight at registration and recent weight. Conclusion: Nutritional status has improved comparatively from the time of registration to the time of study. Proper nutritional counseling should be given to TB patients along with nutritional support to severely malnourished patients, and nutritional assessment of TB patients should be done periodically.
Dynamic processes of mercury over the Mediterranean region : results from the Mediterranean Atmospheric Mercury Cycle System ( MAMCS ) project

The Mediterranean Atmospheric Mercury Cycle System (MAMCS) project was performed between 1998 and 2000 and involved the collaboration of universities and research institutes from Europe, Israel and Turkey. The main goal of MAMCS was to investigate dynamic processes affecting the cycle of mercury in the Mediterranean atmosphere by combining ad hoc field measurements and modelling tasks. To study the fate of Hg in the Mediterranean Basin an updated emission inventory was compiled for Europe and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Models were developed to describe the individual atmospheric processes which influence the chemical and physical characteristics of atmospheric Hg, and these were coupled to meteorological models to examine the dispersion and deposition of Hg species in the Mediterranean Basin. One intercomparison and four two-week measurement campaigns were carried out over a three-year period. The work presented here describes the results in general terms but focuses on the areas where definite conclusions were unforthcoming and thus highlights those aspects where, in spite of advances made in the understanding of Hg cycling, further work is necessary in order to be able to predict confidently Hg and Hg compound concentration fields and deposition patterns. r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Polyol Structure and Ionic Moieties Influence the Hydrolytic Stability and Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Bio-Based 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid (FDCA) Copolyesters

A series of copolyesters based on furanic acid and sulfonated isophthalic acid with various polyols were synthetized and their susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis by cutinase 1 from Thermobifida cellulosilytica (Thc_Cut1) investigated. All copolyesters consisted of 30 mol % 5-sulfoisophthalate units (NaSIP) and 70 mol % 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), while the polyol component was varied, including 1,2-ethanediol, 1,4-butanediol, 1,8-octanediol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, or tetraethylene glycol. The composition of the copolyesters was confirmed by 1H-NMR and the number average molecular weight (Mn) was determined by GPC to range from 2630 to 8030 g/mol. A DSC analysis revealed glass-transition temperatures (Tg) from 84 to 6 °C, which were decreasing with increasing diol chain length. The crystallinity was below 1% for all polyesters. The hydrolytic stability increased with the chain length of the alkyl diol unit, while it was generally higher for the ether diol units. Thc_Cut1 was able to hydrolyze all of the copolyesters containing alkyl diols ranging from two to eight carbon chain lengths, while the highest activities were detected for the shorter chain lengths with an amount of 13.6 ± 0.7 mM FDCA released after 72 h of incubation at 50 °C. Faster hydrolysis was observed when replacing an alkyl diol by ether diols, as indicated, e.g., by a fivefold higher release of FDCA for triethylene glycol when compared to 1,8-octanediol. A positive influence of introducing ionic phthalic acid was observed while the enzyme preferentially cleaved ester bonds associated to the non-charged building blocks.
Analysis , Interpretation und Generalization of a Strictly Dissipative State Space Formulation of Second Order Systems

We discuss a novel arrangement of second order systems in convenient state space representations fulfilling E = E > 0 and A+A < 0, which has first been presented in [1]. In this contribution, the technique is motivated, analyzed from a system theoretical point of view, and extensively illustrated at the example of a single mass oscillator. In the second part of the article, the prerequisites for symmetric positive definite mass, damping, and stiffness matrices are weakened in several ways. We firstly consider the presence of gyroscopic forces resulting in a skew-symmetric component in the damping matrix. Secondly, algebraic constraints in the form of a singular mass matrix are treated for two relevant scenarios. It is shown how under each of these conditions a state space formulation with the above properties can be derived.
Improved Incorporation of Prior Knowledge for Regularized FIR Model Identification

The regularized identification problem of finite impulse response (FIR) models is considered. There, the penalty term which is added to the loss function to incorporate prior information is determined by the selected kernel function. We analyze different possibilities to incorporate further prior knowledge to the regularization term. Therefore, properties of the optimal kernel are discussed. These depend on the true parameters of the system. We show that the usage of the optimal kernel is equivalent to a ridge regression of the gain of the system due to its rank which is one. Furthermore, this contribution analyzes the properties of the tuned-correlated (TC) kernel. It is shown that this kernel puts a non-zero penalty on impulse responses of first order systems. Thus alternative regularization filter matrices, which preserve first or second order impulse responses, are proposed. It is shown that it is possible to construct filter matrices that preserve the impulse response of arbitrary linear time invariant (LTI) systems. The benefit of the novel regularization matrices is demonstrated with extensive simulations.
MCM2 promotes symmetric inheritance of modified histones during DNA replication

How cells ensure symmetric inheritance Parental histones with modifications are recycled to newly replicated DNA strands during genome replication, but do the two sister chromatids inherit modified histones equally? Yu et al. and Petryk et al. found in mouse and yeast, respectively, that modified histones are segregated to both DNA daughter strands in a largely symmetric manner (see the Perspective by Ahmad and Henikoff). However, the mechanisms ensuring this symmetric inheritance in yeast and mouse were different. Yeasts use subunits of DNA polymerase to prevent the lagging-strand bias of parental histones, whereas in mouse cells, the replicative helicase MCM2 counters the leading-strand bias. Science, this issue p. 1386, p. 1389; see also p. 1311 A replicative helicase prevents asymmetric segregation of parental histones during DNA replication in mouse cells. During genome replication, parental histones are recycled to newly replicated DNA with their posttranslational modifications (PTMs). Whether sister chromatids inherit modified histones evenly remains unknown. We measured histone PTM partition to sister chromatids in embryonic stem cells. We found that parental histones H3-H4 segregate to both daughter DNA strands with a weak leading-strand bias, skewing partition at topologically associating domain (TAD) borders and enhancers proximal to replication initiation zones. Segregation of parental histones to the leading strand increased markedly in cells with histone-binding mutations in MCM2, part of the replicative helicase, exacerbating histone PTM sister chromatid asymmetry. This work reveals how histones are inherited to sister chromatids and identifies a mechanism by which the replication machinery ensures symmetric cell division.
An Enhanced Capacity Bound for Network Function Computation

The problem of network function computation over a directed acyclic network is investigated in this paper. In such a network, a sink node desires to compute with zero error a target function, of which the inputs are generated at multiple source nodes. The computing rate of a network code that can compute the target function over the network is the average number of times that the target function is computed with zero error for one use of the network. In this paper, we obtain an improved upper bound on the computing capacity, which is applicable to arbitrary target functions and arbitrary network topologies. By applying this bound to the problem of computing a vector-linear function over a network, we are able to not only enhance a previous result on computing a vector-linear function over a network but also simplify the proof significantly. Finally, we prove that for computing the binary maximum function over the reverse butterfly network, our improved upper bound is not achievable. This result establishes that in general our improved upper bound is non achievable, but whether it is asymptotically achievable or not remains open.
Dynamic metabolic changes in human visual cortex in regions with positive and negative blood oxygenation level-dependent response

Dynamic metabolic changes were investigated by functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) during sustained stimulation of human primary visual cortex. Two established paradigms, consisting of either a full-field or a small-circle flickering checkerboard, were employed to generate wide-spread areas of positive or negative blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses, respectively. Compared to baseline, the glutamate concentration increased by 5.3% (p = 0.007) during activation and decreased by −3.8% (p = 0.017) during deactivation. These changes were positively correlated with the amplitude of the BOLD response (R = 0.60, p = 0.002) and probably reflect changes of tricarboxylic acid cycle activity. During deactivation, the glucose concentration decreased by −7.9% (p = 0.025) presumably suggesting increased consumption or reduced glucose supply. Other findings included an increased concentration of glutathione (4.2%, p = 0.023) during deactivation and a negative correlation of glutathione and BOLD signal changes (R = −0.49, p = 0.012) as well as positive correlations of aspartate (R = 0.44, p = 0.035) and N-acetylaspartylglutamate (R = 0.42, p = 0.035) baseline concentrations with the BOLD response. It remains to be shown in future work if the observed effects on glutamate and glucose levels deviate from the assumption of a direct link between glucose utilization and regulation of blood flow or support previous suggestions that the hemodynamic response is mainly driven by feedforward release of vasoactive messengers.
Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Consensus Protocols for Multiagent Systems With Directed Graphs

This paper investigates the problem of adaptive fault-tolerant tracking control for the multiagent systems (MASs) under the time-varying actuator faults and bounded unknown control input of the leader. On the basis of the local state information of neighboring agents, an adaptive fault-tolerant control protocol, which consists of the adaptive estimation of faults, is constructed to compensate for the loss of actuator effectiveness in the leader–follower consensus of MASs. Moreover, the modification term in the adaptive estimation can avoid high-frequency oscillations. It is shown that the tracking errors converge to a neighborhood around the origin in the presence of actuator faults, and the performance of the tracking problem is improved. Furthermore, the protocol is distributed in the sense that the coupling gains are independent. Finally, two examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.
“17” is odd and “seventeen” is even: Meaning and physical form in stimulus-parity synaesthesia

For individuals with stimulus-parity synaesthesia, eliciting stimuli (e.g., shapes, numbers, letters, colours) trigger a compelling feeling of oddness or evenness. Given that (a) many inducers are conceptual and (b) parity is itself a conceptual property, one questions whether stimulus-parity synaesthesia will be a categorically higher subtype, such that the conceptual properties of stimuli will be crucial in determining parity. We explore this question as it applies to Synaesthete R, one of only two stimulus-parity synaesthetes known to the contemporary literature. In Experiments 1 and 2, we examine whether parity is tied to concepts or percepts, asking, for example, whether a rectangle is even regardless of whether it is presented as an image or a word. Our results indicate that the parity of shapes (words and images), numbers (words, digits, and Roman numerals), and letters (lowercase and uppercase) differs according to the stimulus format, supporting a perceptual explanation. In Experiment 3, we examine the parity of colour stimuli, showing a systematic relationship between the measurable physical properties of hue, saturation, and lightness and synaesthetic parity. Despite the conceptual nature of inducers and concurrents, for Synaesthete R, stimulus-parity synaesthesia is a lower subtype; perceptual properties of stimuli determine parity.
A Nearest Level PWM Method for the MMC in DC Distribution Grids

For modular multilevel converters (MMCs) applied to medium-voltage dc distribution grids, using the traditional nearest level modulation (NLM) as in HVdc systems can lead to severe current distortion due to significantly reduced module numbers. This paper proposes a hybrid modulation method combining NLM and pulse width modulation (PWM) where only one module per arm operates under PWM mode. The proposed nearest level PWM (NL-PWM) method not only significantly reduces the current distortion, but also avoids the complicated voltage balancing control in each module. The harmonic characteristics of NL-PWM are derived using double Fourier transform, which provides a theoretical basis for selecting the module number and switching frequency for medium-voltage applications in accordance with grid harmonic requirements. Finally, the harmonic characteristics and feasibility of the proposed modulation method are validated by simulation and experimental studies on an MMC with six modules per arm. The simulated and experimental results reveal that NL-PWM has better voltage and current harmonic characteristics over NLM and CPS-PWM, thereby suiting the application of MMC with few models.
Minimal residual disease status predicts outcome of acute myeloid leukaemia patients undergoing T‐cell replete haploidentical transplantation. An analysis from the Acute Leukaemia Working Party (ALWP) of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT)

Assessment of minimal residual disease (MRD) is being routinely used to assess response in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). While it is well established that pre‐transplant positive MRD studies predict for relapse in patients transplanted either from matched sibling donors or matched unrelated donors, it is currently unknown whether MRD has comparable prognostic value in haploidentical stem cell transplantation (haplo‐SCT). To this end we performed a retrospective analysis using the Acute Leukaemia Working Party/European Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation multicentre registry. All adult AML patients with known MRD status at transplant who underwent a first T‐cell replete haplo‐SCT while in remission between 2006 and 2016 were included. Two hundred and sixty‐five MRD‐negative and 128 MRD‐positive patients were assessed. In multivariate analysis, MRD‐negative patients experienced lower relapse incidence and better leukaemia‐free survival (LFS) compared to MRD‐positive patients. Subset analysis for MRD‐positive patients revealed that patients with donors positive for cytomegalovirus experienced decreased relapse rates as well as increased survival. A 6‐month landmark analysis suggests that the clinical benefit of pre‐transplant MRD negativity in terms of relapse, overall survival and LFS is realized at this time point. Pre‐transplant MRD status is potentially a pivotal prognosticator of outcome in AML patients undergoing T‐cell replete haplo‐SCT.
Validating GO4KIDDS as a brief measure of adaptive skills in special education settings for children with severe intellectual disability

BACKGROUND Adaptive skills measures tend to be lengthy. The GO4KIDDS (Great Outcomes for Kids Impacted by Severe Developmental Disabilities; (Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 58, 2015 and 594)) Brief Adaptive Behaviour Scale was developed to provide a brief assessment of adaptive skills. Our study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of G04KIDDS Brief Adaptive Scale in a large sample of children in special education. METHODS Teachers reported on 361 students with severe to profound intellectual disability. The scale's factor structure was examined through principal components analysis (PCA), while its convergent validity was examined in relation to the Vineland (VABS-II; Vineland-II adaptive behavior scales, Circle Pines, MN, AGS and 2005). RESULTS The PCA indicated a single component measuring overall adaptive skills, which had excellent internal consistency (alpha = 0.93), and convergent validity (Pearson's r = 0.81). CONCLUSIONS Teacher-reported scores on GO4KIDDS Brief Behaviour Scale can provide a reliable and valid composite of adaptive skills in children with severe to profound intellectual disability. The scale will be useful to researchers and teachers who need a brief descriptive assessment of adaptive functioning.
Plant iron acquisition strategy exploited by an insect herbivore

An insect herbivore thrives on plant-derived iron complexes that its host uses for micronutrient uptake. Pest subverts host plant's foraging Plants need iron as a micronutrient, and they extract it from the rhizosphere by secreting chelating agents. Insect pests, such as the western corn rootworm, which annually cause millions of dollars' worth of lost yield, need iron, too. Hu et al. show that the rootworm exploits the plant's own iron-foraging system to detect its host and to seize iron for itself (see the Perspective by Kliebenstein). Plants produce benzoxazinoid compounds not only as a defense against many insects but also as iron chelators. Rootworm larvae are not harmed by benzoxazinoids; instead, they take advantage of their presence as a signal that food is near and of their properties as an iron chelator. Science, this issue p. 694; see also p. 642 Insect herbivores depend on their host plants to acquire macro- and micronutrients. Here we asked how a specialist herbivore and damaging maize pest, the western corn rootworm, finds and accesses plant-derived micronutrients. We show that the root-feeding larvae use complexes between iron and benzoxazinoid secondary metabolites to identify maize as a host, to forage within the maize root system, and to increase their growth. Maize plants use these same benzoxazinoids for protection against generalist herbivores and, as shown here, for iron uptake. We identify an iron transporter that allows the corn rootworm to benefit from complexes between iron and benzoxazinoids. Thus, foraging for an essential plant-derived complex between a micronutrient and a secondary metabolite shapes the interaction between maize and a specialist herbivore.
Associations of Intensive Care Unit Capacity Strain with Disposition and Outcomes of Patients with Sepsis Presenting to the Emergency Department

Rationale: Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity strain refers to the potential limits placed on an ICU's ability to provide high‐quality care for all patients who may need it at a given time. Few studies have investigated how fluctuations in ICU capacity strain might influence care outside the ICU. Objectives: To determine whether ICU capacity strain is associated with initial level of inpatient care and outcomes for emergency department (ED) patients hospitalized for sepsis. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with sepsis admitted from the ED to a medical ward or ICU at three hospitals within the University of Pennsylvania Health System between 2012 and 2015. Patients were excluded if they required life support therapies, defined as invasive or noninvasive ventilatory support or vasopressors, at the time of admission. The exposures were four measures of ICU capacity strain at the time of the ED disposition decision: ICU occupancy, ICU turnover, ICU census acuity, and ward occupancy. The primary outcome was the decision to admit to a ward or to an ICU. Secondary analyses assessed the association of ICU capacity strain with in‐hospital outcomes, including mortality. Results: Among 77,142 hospital admissions from the ED, 3,067 patients met the study's eligibility criteria. The ICU capacity strain metrics varied between and within study hospitals over time. In unadjusted analyses, ICU occupancy, ICU turnover, ICU census acuity, and ward occupancy were all negatively associated with ICU admission. In the fully adjusted model including patient‐level covariates, only ICU occupancy remained associated with ICU admission (odds ratio, 0.87; 95% confidence interval, 0.79‐0.96; P = 0.005), such that a 10% increase in ICU occupancy (e.g., one additional patient in a 10‐bed ICU) was associated with a 13% decrease in the odds of ICU admission. Among the subset of patients admitted initially from the ED to a medical ward, ICU occupancy at the time of admission was associated with increased odds of hospital mortality (odds ratio, 1.61; 95% confidence interval, 1.21‐2.14; P = 0.001). Conclusions: The odds that patients in the ED with sepsis who do not require life support therapies will be admitted to the ICU are reduced when those ICUs experience high occupancy but not high levels of other previously explored measures of capacity strain. Patients with sepsis admitted to the wards during times of high ICU occupancy had increased odds of hospital mortality.
Deep Learning for Energy Markets

Deep Learning is applied to energy markets to predict extreme loads observed in energy grids. Forecasting energy loads and prices is challenging due to sharp peaks and troughs that arise due to supply and demand fluctuations from intraday system constraints. We propose deep spatio-temporal models and extreme value theory (EVT) to capture theses effects and in particular the tail behavior of load spikes. Deep LSTM architectures with ReLU and $\tanh$ activation functions can model trends and temporal dependencies while EVT captures highly volatile load spikes above a pre-specified threshold. To illustrate our methodology, we use hourly price and demand data from 4719 nodes of the PJM interconnection, and we construct a deep predictor. We show that DL-EVT outperforms traditional Fourier time series methods, both in-and out-of-sample, by capturing the observed nonlinearities in prices. Finally, we conclude with directions for future research.