Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What nephrologists need to know about diagnostic test accuracy articles

Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials are well‐recognized as the best evidence for an intervention and are also becoming more available for diagnostic test evaluation. In the absence of a well‐conducted and well‐reported systematic review clinicians must rely on primary studies to determine how best to interpret and understand diagnostic test information. Diagnostic test studies are abundant in the published literature; however, there are considerable limitations to the information provided in many of these papers and careful appraisal is required before the findings can be applied to individual patients. The current paper provides a framework for determining bias, clinical applicability and erroneous findings within a paper, allowing greater efficiency in selecting studies and deciding on the value of the information reported in them.
Diversity of Thrips Species and Vectors of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Tomato Production Systems in Kenya

ABSTRACT Thrips have been recognized as primary vectors of tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) with Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) reported as the most important and efficient vector, while other species such as Thrips tabaci Lindeman also include populations that can vector the virus. A study was undertaken to establish the diversity of thrips and presence of vectors for TSWV in four major tomato production areas in Kenya. The cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) gene was used to generate sequences from thrips samples collected from tomatoes and weeds, and phylogenetic analysis done to establish the variation within potential vector populations. Ceratothripoides brunneus Bagnall was the predominant species of thrips in all areas. F. occidentalis and T. tabaci were abundant in Nakuru, Kirinyaga, and Loitokitok but not detected at Bungoma. Other vectors of tospoviruses identified in low numbers were Frankliniella schultzei (Trybom) and Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood. Variation was observed in T. tabaci, F. occidentalis, and F. schultzei. Kenyan specimens of T. tabaci from tomato belonged to the arrhenotokous group, while those of F. occidentalis clustered with the Western flower thrips G group. The detection of RNA of TSWV in both of these species of thrips supported the role they play as vectors. The study has demonstrated the high diversity of thrips species in tomato production and the occurrence of important vectors of TSWV and other tospoviruses.
Characterization of progressive changes in ZPC of the vitelline membrane of quail oocyte following oviductal transport

The inner layer of the vitelline membrane of avian oocyte is equivalent to the zona pellucida of mammalian oocytes or to the vitelline envelope of amphibian oocytes. One of the two major glycoproteins in the inner layer of quail vitelline membrane, formerly called 33‐kDa glycoprotein, is homologous to mammalian ZPC, one of the components of zona pellucida. Quail ZPC is found to have different mobilities on SDS‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis depending on whether it is obtained from the preovulatory follicle or from the laid eggs. In order to characterize the progressive changes in the molecular size of quail ZPC during the oviductal transport, the inner layer isolated from the follicle was incubated in vivo in various regions of the oviduct and subjected to Western blot analysis with anti‐quail ZPC antiserum. The quail ZPC of the inner layer incubated in infundibulum reduced its apparent molecular weight, exhibiting the same electrophoretic mobility as that of laid eggs. The similar reduction in molecular weight was observed after the in vitro incubation of the inner layer with the extracts of infundibulum. From the comparison of the N‐terminal amino acid sequences, it was found that the first 26 residues of the quail ZPC in follicular oocytes are missing from the ZPC of laid eggs. In addition, lectin blot analysis suggested the modification of oligosaccharide chains during the oviductal transport. These results represent the first description in the avian oviduct of the presence of protease, which is similar to oviductin, a trypsin‐like protease involved in the hydrolysis of a major component of the vitelline envelope of amphibian oocytes. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 55:175–181, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
CMOS Bandgap References With Self-Biased Symmetrically Matched Current–Voltage Mirror and Extension of Sub-1-V Design

A series of bandgap references (BGRs) using a self-biased symmetrically matched current-voltage mirror (SM CVM) in reducing systematic offset, thus achieving an excellent line regulation, is presented. By replacing the operational amplifier with a CVM in the feedback loop, current consumption is much reduced. An SM buffer stage that is capable of driving a resistive load with minor degradation in temperature coefficient (TC) and line regulation is also presented. The technique is extended to design a sub-1-V BGR with a TC-cancellation output buffer. All circuits are designed using a 0.35- CMOS process, and experimental results are presented, confirming the analysis.
Point Cloud Segmentation Using Sparse Temporal Local Attention

Point clouds are a key modality used for perception in autonomous vehicles, providing the means for a robust geometric understanding of the surrounding environment. However despite the sensor outputs from autonomous vehicles being naturally temporal in nature, there is still limited exploration of exploiting point cloud sequences for 3D seman-tic segmentation. In this paper we propose a novel Sparse Temporal Local Attention (STELA) module which aggregates intermediate features from a local neighbourhood in previous point cloud frames to provide a rich temporal context to the decoder. Using the sparse local neighbourhood enables our approach to gather features more flexibly than those which directly match point features, and more efficiently than those which perform expensive global attention over the whole point cloud frame. We achieve a competitive mIoU of 64.3% on the SemanticKitti dataset, and demonstrate significant improvement over the single-frame baseline in our ablation studies.
An Adaptive Anycasting Solution for Crowd Sensing in Vehicular Environments

Vehicular networks can be seen as the new key enablers of the future networked society. Vehicles traveling can act as mobile sensors and collect a variety of information that can be used to enable various new services such as environment monitoring, traffic management, urban surveillance, and so on. In this paper, we present “adaptive Anycasting solution for Vehicular Environments” (AVE), which is a message delivery protocol that combines geographical and topological information to dynamically adapt its behavior to network conditions. We focus on vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity for cloud services, where the vehicles send the sensed information as individual and independent messages to a cloud service in the Internet. This scenario requires access to any available close-by roadside unit, thus making anycasting the ideal delivery mechanism. Simulations results show that the hybrid and adaptive approach of AVE is able to improve network performance. For example, regarding delivery ratio, AVE outperforms DYMO by 10% in sparse scenarios and outperforms delay-tolerant networking techniques by 10% in dense scenarios.
FLOAT, SPECULATION AND STOCK PRICE: EVIDENCE FROM THE SPLIT SHARE STRUCTURE REFORM IN CHINA

The Split Share Structure Reform in China offers a unique opportunity to test whether the supply of tradable shares (i.e., float) has a significant impact on the degree of speculation. After firms completed the reform, their float increased by 31% on average, while turnover and trading volume also increased substantially. We use information from firms’ reform plan to derive an estimate of the price premium of tradable shares over non-tradable shares before the reform and find that, after controlling for differences in liquidity and profitability, the price premium is significantly related to proxies for the level of speculative trading in tradable shares. Moreover, firms that were highly speculated before the reform had significantly smaller increase in turnover and trading volume than firms that were less speculated. Overall, our evidence confirms that there is a significant speculative component in the market price of tradable shares in China and a large increase in float dampens speculative trading.
Effects on Hedging Errors of First-to-Default Swap from Parameter Estimation Errors

In this paper, we consider effects on hedging errors of a first-to-default swap (FTDS) under a hazard model with deterministic intensities from parameter estimation errors. Here parameter means default intensities of FTDS reference companies. As our mathematical model of FTDS and a credit default swap (CDS) market, we mainly follow Bielecki et al. [1] and [2] and use copula functions to represent the correlation of default times. We give some analytical and numerical results of hedging errors from parameter estimation errors.
Region‐specific generation of functional neurons from naive embryonic stem cells in adult brain

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are multipotent progenitors with unlimited developmental potential, and in vitro differentiated ES cell‐derived neuronal progenitors can develop into functional neurons when transplanted in the central nervous system. As the capacity of naive primary ES cells to integrate in the adult brain and the role of host neural tissue therein are yet largely unknown, we grafted low densities of undifferentiated mouse ES (mES) cells in adult mouse brain regions associated with neurodegenerative disorders; and we demonstrate that ES cell‐derived neurons undergo gradual integration in recipient tissue and acquire morphological and electrophysiological properties indistinguishable from those of host neurons. Only some brain areas permitted survival of mES‐derived neural progenitors and formed instructive environments for neuronal differentiation and functional integration of naive mES cells. Hence, region‐specific presence of microenvironmental cues and their pivotal involvement in controlling ES cell integration in adult brain stress the importance of recipient tissue characteristics in formulating cell replacement strategies for neurodegenerative disorders.
Randomized trial of high-dose chemotherapy and hematopoietic progenitor-cell support in operable breast cancer with extensive lymph node involvement: final analysis with 7 years of follow-up.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to present an update of overall (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) and to evaluate the correlation between outcome and pathological findings at surgery in a randomized trial of high-dose chemotherapy following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery in high-risk breast cancer patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS Ninety-seven women <60 years of age with breast cancer and extensive axillary lymph node involvement received three courses of FE120C (5-fluorouracil 500 mg/m2, epirubicin 120 mg/m2, cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m2) followed by surgery. Eighty-one patients were randomized to receive either a fourth FE120C course alone or a fourth FE120C course followed by high-dose chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide 6 g/m2, thiotepa 480 mg/m2, carboplatin 1600 mg/m2). We performed a univariate analysis on possible prognostic factors and analyzed the sites of relapse. RESULTS After a median follow-up of 6.9 years, 47 (48%) patients were alive, of whom 36 (38%) were without disease. Sixty patients relapsed after treatment. One patient died of myelodysplastic syndrome, without a relapse. In intention-to-treat analysis, the 5-year DFS rates were 47.5% in the conventional treatment arm and 49% in the high-dose arm, and the 5-year OS rates were 62.5% and 61%, respectively. In the univariate analysis, the clinical T-stage before chemotherapy and the number of tumor-positive axillary lymph nodes after induction chemotherapy (P = 0.027) were significant prognostic factors for OS. The same factors (both P = 0.06) plus the estrogen receptor (P = 0.08) were borderline significant factors for DFS. CONCLUSIONS After a median follow-up of 6.9 years there was no difference in OS or DFS rates between the two treatment groups. The number of tumor-positive axillary lymph nodes after induction chemotherapy and the clinical T-stage before chemotherapy were significant factors for OS.
Analytical Formulas for Tradeoff Among Channel Loss, Length, and Frequency of  $RC$ - and  $LC$ -Dominant Single-Ended Interconnects for Fast Equalized Link Tradeoff Estimation

This paper presents simple and intuitive closed-form formulas for tradeoff among channel loss, length, and frequency of single-ended interconnects to aid fast equalized link tradeoff estimation. Based on a transfer function model for single-ended interconnects, we derived two closed-form tradeoff formulas for RC- and LC-dominant interconnects. The formulas' accuracies and computation time improvements are verified by comparison with the SPICE simulation and the measurement results. According to our formulas, the loss is roughly a linear function of the product of the length and the square root of the frequency in RC-dominant interconnects. In LC-dominant interconnects, the channel loss due to skin effect is roughly proportional to the product of the length and the square root of the frequency, while the channel loss due to dielectric loss is approximately proportional to the product of the length and the frequency. From the channel loss of our formulas, an equalized eye size can be easily estimated. Therefore, designers can use our tradeoff formulas easily and quickly to estimate link-level tradeoff among the equalized eye size, the data rate, and the channel length in designing an equalized link through RC- and LC-dominant single-ended interconnects.
Cyclic Vomiting and Recurrent Abdominal Pains as Migraine or Epileptic Equivalents*

A retrospective method was used to estimate the incidence of recurring motion-sickness, cyclic vomiting and abdominal pain considered as different manifestations of a so-called periodic syndrome in 100 migraine sufferers, 100 epileptics and 100 control subjects in the pediatric age group. Such recurrent symptoms are significantly more frequent in those suffering from migraine than in the other two groups. Examination of subgroups of patients affected by particular forms of migraine (classical and common) and of epilepsy (generalized seizures, simple partial seizures, complex partial seizures) contributed little new to our understanding of the nature of periodic syndrome. It is concluded that the above symptoms of periodic syndrome should generally be considered as manifestations of a migrainous rather than of an epileptic disorder.
Functional Synergy between Antimicrobial Peptoids and Peptides against Gram-Negative Bacteria

ABSTRACT Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are integral components of innate immunity and are typically found in combinations in which they can synergize for broader-spectrum or more potent activity. Previously, we reported peptoid mimics of AMPs with potent and selective antimicrobial activity. Using checkerboard assays, we demonstrate that peptoids and AMPs can interact synergistically, with fractional inhibitory concentration indices as low as 0.16. These results strongly suggest that antimicrobial peptoids and peptides are functionally and mechanistically analogous.
Extended word similarity based clustering on unsupervised PoS induction to improve English-Indonesian statistical machine translation

In this paper, we present the unsupervised Part-of-Speech (PoS) induction algorithm to improve translations quality on statistical machine translation. The proposed algorithm is an extension of the algorithm Word-Similarity-Based (WSB) clustering. In the clustering, the similarity between words is measured by its grammatical relation with other words. The grammatical relation is represented as the n-gram relation. We extend the WSB clustering by take into account for the previous words in measuring the grammatical relation. The clustering results are then used in the English-Indonesia statistical machine translation. The experiments were conducted using MOSES as the machine translation decoder, and were evaluated by its BLEU score. Using 14.000 English-Indonesian sentence pairs, the clustering improved the BLEU score of 2.07%.
Tilting double-prism scanner driven by cam-based mechanism.

A pair of orthogonal tilting prisms has been explored in our previous work to perform the orientation and position tracking function with tracking accuracy better than submicroradian order. Crucial to the function implementation, however, is the real-time nonlinear control of the tilting angles of double prisms for tracking a given target trajectory. In previous papers [Proc. SPIE5892, 1-5 (2005). PSISDG0277-786X; Appl. Opt.45, 8063 (2006). PSISDG0277-786X; Proc. SPIE6709, 41 (2007). PSISDG0277-786X; Appl. Opt.51, 356 (2011). 10.1364/AO.51. 000356APOPAI1559-128X; Appl. Opt.53, 3712 (2014). 10.1364/AO.53. 003712APOPAI1559-128X], a new driving method by a cam-based mechanism, which can transfer the control problem to the design of corresponding cam configuration, is investigated. The design process of a cam-based mechanism is explained from the mapping relation between the tilting angles of a prism and the configuration curve of a corresponding cam. Based on the designed cam-based mechanism, a tracking error less than 0.375% is depicted between the tracking trajectory and the original one. Moreover, the dynamic characteristic of the tracking mechanism is discussed in detail as well as the impacts of different tilting speeds on the tracking trajectory. The proposed tracking mechanism of a tilting double-prism scanner can create a new avenue for passively tracking a given target.
Attachment organization in Arabic-speaking refugees with post traumatic stress disorder

ABSTRACT As a part of an ongoing clinical study of refugees with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the primary objective of the current study was to examine and describe the distribution of adult attachment patterns as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) in Arabic-speaking refugees. A total of 43 adult male and female refugees with Iraqi and Palestinian backgrounds completed the AAI. Sixty-seven percent of the sample was classified as Unresolved with respect to loss or trauma and a substantial proportion of insecure attachment representations (14% Secure-Autonomous, 39% Dismissing, 42% Preoccupied, 5% Cannot Classify) was found, in addition to high intake levels of post traumatic stress symptoms and comorbidity. Findings are compared with AAI studies of other PTSD or trauma samples, and the paper elaborates upon the methodological challenges in administering the AAI in a context of simultaneous translation.
The Staphylococcus aureus group II biotin protein ligase BirA is an effective regulator of biotin operon transcription and requires the DNA binding domain for full enzymatic activity

Group II biotin protein ligases (BPLs) are characterized by the presence of an N‐terminal DNA binding domain that functions in transcriptional regulation of the genes of biotin biosynthesis and transport. The Staphylococcus aureus Group II BPL which is called BirA has been reported to bind an imperfect inverted repeat located upstream of the biotin synthesis operon. DNA binding by other Group II BPLs requires dimerization of the protein which is triggered by synthesis of biotinoyl‐AMP (biotinoyl‐adenylate), the intermediate in the ligation of biotin to its cognate target proteins. However, the S. aureus BirA was reported to dimerize and bind DNA in the absence of biotin or biotinoyl‐AMP (Soares da Costa et al. (2014) Mol Microbiol 91: 110–120). These in vitro results argued that the protein would be unable to respond to the levels of biotin or acceptor proteins and thus would lack the regulatory properties of the other characterized BirA proteins. We tested the regulatory function of the protein using an in vivo model system and examined its DNA binding properties in vitro using electrophoretic mobility shift and fluorescence anisotropy analyses. We report that the S. aureus BirA is an effective regulator of biotin operon transcription and that the prior data can be attributed to artifacts of mobility shift analyses. We also report that deletion of the DNA binding domain of the S. aureus BirA results in loss of virtually all of its ligation activity.
Differentiation Between Normal and Cancerous Cells at the Single Cell Level Using 3-D Electrode Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

A novel microdevice for electrical impedance spectroscopy is presented to differentiate between normal and cancerous cells at the single cell level with a high sensitivity. The device utilizes a microfluidic tunnel structure, whose height is smaller than the cell diameters, to squeeze the target cells. Thus, the tight contact between the cells and electrodes allows the device to measure the intrinsic electrical properties of the cells with a higher sensitivity than through noncontact methods. Three-dimensional interdigitated electrodes (3-D IDE) are also employed to confine most of the electric field into the cell membrane, which contains the meaningful electrical properties. Consequently, the variance of the measured values could be reduced because the position of target cells is almost the same in every cell assay. The device well distinguishes normal human breast cells (MCF-10A) from early-stage human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) by means of electrical impedances at 500 kHz; the average differences of the real part and phase angle between the target cells are 44.4 and 1.41 , respectively. The proposed device also shows a high repeatability for the deionized (DI) water test conducted before and after each cell assay; the variances of the real part and phase angle of electrical impedance at 500 kHz are as small as 9.07 and 0.27 , respectively.
Non-perturbative analytical diagonalization of Hamiltonians with application to ZZ-coupling suppression and enhancement

Deriving effective Hamiltonian models plays an essential role in quantum theory, with particular emphasis in recent years on control and engineering problems. In this work, we present two symbolic methods for computing effective Hamiltonian models: the Non-perturbative Analytical Diagonalization (NPAD) and the Recursive Schrieffer-Wolff Transformation (RSWT). NPAD makes use of the Jacobi iteration and works without the assumptions of perturbation theory while retaining convergence, allowing to treat a very wide range of models. In the perturbation regime, it reduces to RSWT, which takes advantage of an in-built recursive structure where remarkably the number of terms increases only linearly with perturbation order, exponentially decreasing the number of terms compared to the ubiquitous Schrieffer-Wolff method. Both methods consist of elementary algebra and can be easily automated to obtain closed-form expressions. To demonstrate the application of the methods, we study the ZZ interaction of superconducting qubits systems in two different parameter regimes. In the near-resonant regime, the method produces an analytical expression for the effective ZZ interaction strength, with an improvement of at least one order of magnitude compared to neglecting the comparably further detuned state. In the dispersive regime, we calculate perturbative corrections up to the 8th order and accurately identify a regime where ZZ interaction is suppressed in a simple model with only resonator-mediated coupling.