Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A retrospective study on adverse obstetric outcomes in HIV-infected pregnancy in West Bengal, India

Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not change the course of pregnancy, but seems to exert adverse obstetric outcomes like low birth weight, spontaneous abortion, or stillbirth. Antiretroviral treatment seems to reduce the chance of adverse outcomes. Frequently, HIV-infected women also seems to opt for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP). This study is to compare adverse obstetric outcomes and MTP rate for HIV-infected pregnancy with that in the general population irrespective of antiretroviral treatment (ART). Material and methods: A retrospective cohort study was carried out through analysis of secondary data from 314 integrated counselling and testing centers across the state of West Bengal from October 2016 to December 2017. A total number of 227 HIV-infected on ART pregnancies, whose obstetric outcomes happened during the study period were followed up, and rate for low birth weight, spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, and MTP were calculated, and it was compared with still birth rate of the state among all pregnancies as per data of the District Level Household Survey 4 from 2013. Results: Rates for low birth weight (28.04 per 100 pregnancy outcomes), spontaneous abortion (4.85 per 100), stillbirth (2.64 per 100), and MTP (9.25 per 100 live birth) were found to be significantly high for HIV-infected pregnancies on ART, as compared to the general population. MTP rates and low birth weight rates for general pregnancies did not fall within the 95% confidence interval of those rates for HIV-infected pregnancies. Conclusion: HIV infection was responsible for significant adverse obstetric outcome irrespective of antiretroviral treatment. HIV AIDS Rev 2020; 19, 1: 39-42 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/hivar.2020. 93189
Evaluation of reciprocal White Leghorn strain crosses for egg quality traits in deep litter system

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the egg quality traits at 28, 32, 36 and 40 weeks of age in the reciprocal crosses of White Leghorn strains reared under deep litter system. There were no significant differences observed for the shape index, yolk index, albumen index, Haugh unit score and shell thickness between the genetic groups at 28, 32, 36 and 40 weeks of age.
Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to Detect Correlations between Clinical Symptoms and Brain Metabolite Levels in Patients with Tension-type Headache

Background: Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1HMRS) is a noninvasive method to quantify pain. A 1HMRS spectrum is a group of peaks at different radiofrequencies, showing proton nuclei in various chemical environments. These MR spectra provide information about metabolite concentrations, and make MRS a useful procedure to monitor metabolic fluctuations due to disease, and to track the efficacy of treatment. Objective: This study aims to identify correlations between clinical symptoms in patients with tension-type headache (TTH) and concentrations of brain metabolites. Material and Methods: In this observational study, twenty-four patients (4 men and 20 women) with chronic TTH were included. To evaluate their clinical symptoms, the number of trigger points, headache frequency and headache intensity were recorded. The levels of anxiety and depression were recorded with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI- II). Concentrations of brain metabolites were determined in the anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus and primary somatosensory cortex of left hemisphere with 1HMRS. Results: There was a negative correlation between trigger point count and choline/creatine (Cho/Cr) ratio in the primary somatosensory cortex [r= −0.509, n= 24, p= 0.01]. There were no correlations between other clinical symptoms of TTH and concentrations of brain metabolites. Conclusion: Patients with more trigger points had a lower Cho/Cr ratio, which may indicate alterations in brain metabolic activity.
Social and Environmental Sustainability: An Empirical Analysis of Supply Chain Profitability and the Recession

With the looming possibility of another recession, firms are wondering if their supply chain will be ready. This research helps firms understand the impacts of environmental and socially responsible activities on the financial performance of firms before and after the 2008 recession at different stages of the supply chain that includes four industries: Retail, Wholesale, Manufacturing, and Transportation. We found that the financial impacts of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities on supply chain firms have changed since the financial crisis in 2008 and that only in the retail industry both positive environmental and socially responsible activities have consistent positive impacts on the companies' profitability. The impacts of positive activities are mixed for the other supply chain industries. The negative environmental activities consistently have negative financial impacts on companies across all supply chain industries. In the transportation industry, negative social activities are consistently associated with positive financial impacts.
The Location Problem for the Provisioning of Protected Slices in NFV-Based MEC Infrastructure

The support of stringent requirements such as ultra-low latency and ultra-reliability of the forthcoming 5G services poses several challenges to telecommunications infrastructure providers. Network Function Virtualization, multi-access edge computing (MEC), and network slicing capabilities can help the support of such requirements. However, a trade-off between the cost of resource deployment and the support of service requirements needs to be taken into account in the design of NFV-based 5G networks. In this paper, we investigate the MEC location problem, which aims at selecting locations to place MECs hosting protected slices. We propose a MEC location problem enhanced with 1: 1 and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1:N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> protection schemes for the provisioning of protected slices. In the 1: 1 scheme, protection is assured by reserving a backup slice for each tenant, whereas in the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1:N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> scheme, a backup slice is shared among <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> tenants. The problem is modeled as a multi-criteria optimization problem and solved by the employment of a multi-objective evolutionary non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. A comparison between the 1: 1 and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1:N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> protection schemes is carried out in the context of 5G network slicing. Results show that the protection scheme 1: 1 can reduce the response time, at a higher deployment cost when compared to the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1:N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> scheme.
Quality traits of saffron produced in Italy: geographical area effect and good practices

samples analysed are of the first quality category, regardless of the year of production. Moisture content and colouring strength are the fac-tors that influence the quality of the spice most. Principal component analysis showed that quality is not influenced by the geographical area where the spice was produced. Finally, some best agricultural practices to obtain a high quality saffron spice are reported.
Stabilizing Generative Adversarial Networks: A Survey

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are a type of generative model which have received much attention due to their ability to model complex real-world data. Despite their recent successes, the process of training GANs remains challenging, suffering from instability problems such as non-convergence, vanishing or exploding gradients, and mode collapse. In recent years, a diverse set of approaches have been proposed which focus on stabilizing the GAN training procedure. The purpose of this survey is to provide a comprehensive overview of the GAN training stabilization methods which can be found in the literature. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, offer a comparative summary, and conclude with a discussion of open problems.
Determination of Glutathione and Cysteine in Human Breast Milk by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Chemiluminescence Detection for Evaluating the Oxidative Stress and Exposure to Heavy Metals of Lactating Women

Abstract Exposure to heavy metals may affect a vast array of biochemical and nutritional processes in the human body. The toxic manifestations of these metals are caused primarily due to the imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant homeostasis which is termed as oxidative stress. A high-performance liquid chromatography–chemiluminescence (HPLC-CL) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of two antioxidants, glutathione and cysteine, in human breast milk. The HPLC system included a C18 analytical column with a mobile phase composed of 1.0% methanol. The aminothiols were eluted from the C18 column, mixed with formaldehyde and potassium permanganate solutions, and subsequently monitored by a chemiluminescence detector. The new method was validated by monitoring glutathione and cysteine in human breast milk of volunteers from the Gusu and Industrial Districts of Suzhou, China. Four heavy metals in atmospheric particulate matter collected from the two districts were also determined by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results demonstrated that the concentrations of cysteine and glutathione were significantly (p < 0.05) lower in human breast milk from the subjects living in the Gusu region of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China compared to an industrial district. These results were inversely correlated with the concentration levels of the toxic metals in collected atmospheric particulate matter. The decrease in the glutathione and cysteine concentrations in human breast milk appeared to be due to oxidative stress in the breast-feeding mothers.
Generalized Coherence-Based Signal Enhancement

This contribution presents a novel approach for coherence-based signal enhancement. An estimator for the coherent-to-diffuse ratio (CDR) is devised, which exploits the concept of generalized magnitude coherence and thus, unlike common state-of-the-art schemes, can simultaneously take advantage of more than two microphones. Moreover, the speech enhancement by CDR-based spectral weighting is not performed as a post-filtering step, but by enhancing the most appropriate microphone signal. This signal is implicitly determined as part of the CDR estimation such that the presented technique does not depend on an estimation of the direction-of-arrival (DOA) or similar side-information about the desired source.The application of the new approach to binaural hearings aids shows that it achieves a consistently better speech enhancement performance than comparable state-of-the-art approaches.
Method of Screening for Resistance to Leafminer, Aproaerema modicella (Deventer) Under Greenhouse Conditions

Nine groundnut genotypes ICG 5040, ICGV 86031, ICG 2271, NCAc 17090, Robut 33-1, ICG (FDRS) 10, ICG 2741, ICGS 44 and ICG 221 were artificially screened against groundnut leafminer (GLM) in glasshouse and screenhouse. Among the genotypes, ICG 5040 was found to be more attractive for egg laying probably as a result of its hairiness. Susceptible genotype ICG 221 had higher number of larvae and pupae/plant. ICG 5040 genotype was found to have some autibiosis factor affecting the larval survival and pupal mass of GLM. Prospect of screening promising genotypes of groundnut against the leafminer with the new method on a routine basis irrespective of season is discussed.
Quorum Sensing in Biofilms: Gossip in Slime City

In clinical microbiology, the biofilm mode of bacterial growth has attracted particular attention because many persistent and chronic infections, including periodontitis, otitis media, biliary tract infection, and endocarditis, and the colonization of medical implants are now believed to be intrinsically linked to the formation of bacterial biofilms. Recent work has shown that blockade of N-acyl-L-homoserine lactone (AHL)-mediated gene expression represents an effective approach to interfere with surface colonization and to attenuate the virulence of opportunistic bacterial pathogens. The first example of a surface-associated behavior that is controlled by means of quorum sensing (QS) was the process of bacterial surface translocation. There are several described forms of bacterial surface translocation including swarming, twitching, darting, and sliding. The swarming phenomenon involves cell differentiation, extensive flagellation, and contact between neighboring bacteria. An involvement of a QS system in the regulation of biofilm formation was originally reported for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In this study the authors reported that a lasI mutant of P. aeruginosa only forms flat and undifferentiated biofilms when compared with the wild type, which formed characteristic microcolonies separated by water channels. In conclusion, the data suggest that both QS systems of P. aeruginosa participate in the regulation of biofilm development.
Utilization-Adjusted TFP Across Countries: Measurement and Implications for International Comovement

This paper develops estimates of TFP growth adjusted for movements in unobserved factor utilization for a panel of 29 countries and up to 37 years. When factor utilization changes are unobserved, the commonly used Solow residual mismeasures actual changes in TFP. We use a general equilibrium dynamic multi-country multi-sector model featuring variable factor utilization to derive a production function estimating equation that corrects for unobserved factor usage. We compare the properties of utilization-adjusted TFP series to the standard Solow residual, and discuss the implications for international business cycle comovement generated by technology shocks. Unlike the Solow residual, utilization-adjusted TFP is virtually uncorrelated across countries, and as a result its direct contribution to GDP comovement is negligible. A general equilibrium model calibrated to the observed levels of international trade cannot generate much comovement through propagation of these TFP shocks.
Assessing Long‐Term Postseismic Transients From GPS Time Series in Southern California

In order to gain insight into long‐term plate boundary motion and to shed light on geodetic‐based fault slip rates and the seismic hazards they inform, we apply a forward modeling strategy to identify and reduce the short‐ and long‐term effects of viscoelastic postseismic deformation on modern GPS observations following large magnitude earthquakes in Southern California. We assess ongoing postseismic deformation in the southwestern United States by analyzing all magnitude ≥Mw6.0 earthquakes that have occurred there and in Baja California and Sonora, Mexico, since year 1800, finding that ongoing postseismic displacements from 12 events are potentially contributing to the modern day deformation field in Southern California. With a forward modeling step, we calculate postseismic displacements associated with these 12 events using a reference model consisting of a layered, laterally homogeneous, viscoelastic Earth structure; these displacements are then subtracted from processed horizontal GPS coordinate time series data to produce a postseismic‐reduced data set. In order to quantify the success of this forward modeling in reducing the postseismic signal, we estimate parameters representing logarithmic decay associated with the 2010 Mw7.2 El Mayor‐Cucapah earthquake using two different time series analysis methods. Variance reduction indicates we were able to reduce postseismic deformation in this test case by up to 60%. Anomaly maps produced using our assessment of deformation around the El Mayor‐Cucapah event highlight hot spots in which secondary processes may be occurring or where a more complex viscosity structure may be necessary.
Increasing Immigrant Inclusion: Family History, Empathy, and Immigration in the United States

Immigration is a highly polarized issue in the United States, and negative attitudes toward immigrants are common. Yet, almost all Americans are descended from people who originated outside the United States. Can this common history overcome the intense polarization that migration policy elicits? In this paper, we draw from recent studies showing that perspective taking decreases prejudice toward out-groups to investigate whether priming Americans on their own immigration history induces more support for immigrants and immigration. We test this hypothesis with three separate survey experiments conducted over the past two years. Our findings show that priming family history - a light touch intervention - generates small but consistent inclusionary effects on attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy. These effects are immediate, and occur even among partisan subgroups and Americans who approve of President Trump. Furthermore, we provide evidence that increased empathy for immigrants constitutes the mechanism driving these effects. Our consistent results contribute to growing experimental literature on prejudice reduction and migration by suggesting an important role for empathy in shifting attitudes toward immigration.
Time Variation in Lifecycle Consumption and Income

We document systematic and significant time variation in US lifecycle non-durable consumption profiles. Consumption profiles have consistently become flatter: differences in consumption across generations have decreased. Pooling data across different periods to identify lifecycle profiles masks relevant time variations and may artificially generate hump-shaped consumption age profiles. The main driver behind lifecycle consumption variations are lifecycle income changes, which display similar flattening. Employing a lifecycle model we show changes in income are sufficient to match the movements in consumption. The contributions of credit, housing and interest rates changes are quantitatively small.
Synthesis of Chitosan-Silica Nanocomposite for Removal of Methyl Orange from Water: Composite Characterization and Adsorption Performance

Commercial chitosan (CH) was compositing with nanosilica prepared by the sol-gel method and was applied as an adsorbent for removal of Methyl-Orange (MO) dye from wastewater. Chitosan-Silica (CHS) was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and BET. The adsorption capacity of MO on CHS reached maximum 7.0mg. g−1 on pH range 2.5 to 5, at equilibrium time 20 min. The effects of parameters, such as contact time, the adsorbent dosage of adsorbent, initial dye concentration on the removal of MO dye were examined. In general, the short time of MO dye removal, high adsorption capacity high, and dispensability in water, easy to remove by filtration suggests that CHS possesses high potential application for removal of MO from water, and can be considered as an eco-friendly adsorbent in water treatment processes.
Single-Channel Speech Separation Integrating Pitch Information Based on a Multi Task Learning Framework

Pitch is a critical cue for speech separation in humans’ auditory perception. Although the technology of tracking pitch in single-talker speech succeeds in many applications, it’s still a challenging problem to extract pitch information from speech mixtures in machine perception. In this paper, we aimed to combine speech separation and pitch tracking together to let them benefit from each other. A multi-task learning framework was proposed, in which a unified objective that considered both speech separation and pitch tracking was used, based on the utterance-level permutation invariant training (uPIT) as well as deep clustering (DPCL). In such framework, two tasks were optimized simultaneously and could benefit from each other through the sharing layers in the networks. Experimental results indicated the proposed multi-task framework outperformed the corresponding single-task framework, in terms of both speech separation and pitch tracking. The improvement was more significant for challenging same-gender mixtures.
Dinâmica de parâmetros limnológicos e uso e cobertura da terra nas bacias hidrográficas das represas Dr. João Penido e São Pedro, Juiz de Fora (MG)

Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo correlacionar os parâmetros limnológicos dos principais tributários das represas Dr. João Penido e São Pedro no município de Juiz de Fora com o uso da terra nas bacias hidrográficas destes mananciais. As amostras foram coletadas mensalmente no período de 2012 até 2013, escolhendo-se seções na nascente, foz e captação, contemplando quatro pontos na bacia da Represa de São Pedro e seis pontos na bacia da Represa Dr. João Penido. Através de uma Sonda Multiparamétrica, foram verificados em campo, os parâmetros: OD, pH, temperatura, condutividade, STD e salinidade. Em cada ponto amostral, foram coletados três litros de água para análise dos parâmetros: DBO5,20, OD, cloreto, turbidez, sólidos totais, pH, fósforo total, nitrogênio total, nitrato, nitrito, amônia e uma amostra de 100ml para análise de coliformes termotolerantes e/ou E-coli. Tais parâmetros foram analisados no LADINAA, Ecologia e outros laboratórios, seguindo as metodologias do Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Waste water (APHA, 2012). As cartas de uso e cobertura da terra foram elaboradas utilizando as Ortofotos Digitais da Prefeitura de Juiz de Fora e adotando a classificada supervisionada MAXVER no software ArcGIS 10.2. Estes dados foram tratados utilizando correlação monótona, relacionando as porcentagens de cada classe de uso da terra até cada seção de monitoramento com os parâmetros citados. Foi utilizado o coeficiente de correlação “r” de Spearman com os seguintes resultados: a classe Mata Atlântica aumentou o OD e diminuiu Nitrato, Fósforo e ST; o Eucalipto reduziu o OD e aumentou o Nitrato; a Pastagem Degradada (possivelmente abandonada) reduziu Nitrato e Fósforo; a Pastagem aumentou Coliformes, Fósforo e ST e; finalmente, a Classe Urbanização aumentou Coliformes, Turbidez e Condutividade. Vale ressaltar o fato de as classes de uso da terra não serem independentes: o aumento da porcentagem de “Eucalipto” provoca espacialmente uma diminuição das demais classes. Estes resultados, ainda que parciais, apontam para a necessidade de estudos que orientem o poder público sobre os usos menos impactantes em bacias de mananciais.