Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes and Costs of Surgical Treatments of Necrotizing Enterocolitis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite previous studies demonstrating no difference in mortality or morbidity, the various surgical approaches for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in infants have not been evaluated economically. Our goal was to compare total in-hospital cost and mortality by using propensity score–matched infants treated with peritoneal drainage alone, peritoneal drainage followed by laparotomy, or laparotomy alone for surgical NEC. METHODS: Utilizing the California OSHPD Linked Birth File Dataset, 1375 infants with surgical NEC between 1999 and 2007 were retrospectively propensity score matched according to intervention type. Total in-hospital costs were converted from longitudinal patient charges. A multivariate mixed effects model compared adjusted costs and mortality between groups. RESULTS: Successful propensity score matching was performed with 699 infants (peritoneal drainage, n = 101; peritoneal drainage followed by laparotomy, n = 172; and laparotomy, n = 426). Average adjusted cost for peritoneal drainage followed by laparotomy was $398 173 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 287 784–550 907), which was more than for peritoneal drainage ($276 076 [95% CI: 196 238–388 394]; P = .004) and similar to laparotomy ($341 911 [95% CI: 251 304–465 186]; P = .08). Adjusted mortality was highest after peritoneal drainage (56% [95% CI: 34–75]) versus peritoneal drainage followed by laparotomy (35% [95% CI: 19–56]; P = .01) and laparotomy (29% [95% CI: 19–56]; P < .001). Mortality for peritoneal drainage was similar to laparotomy. CONCLUSIONS: Propensity score–matched analysis of surgical NEC treatment found that peritoneal drainage followed by laparotomy was associated with decreased mortality compared with peritoneal drainage alone but at significantly increased costs.
Web-based configuration tool for benchmarking of simulated intervention autonomous underwater vehicles

Benchmarking is nowadays an issue on robotic research platforms, due to the fact that it is not easy to reproduce previous experiments and knowing in detail in which real conditions other algorithms have been performed. Having a Web-based tool to configure and execute benchmarks opens the door to new opportunities as the design of virtual tele-laboratories that permit the implementation of new algorithms using specific and detailed constraints. This is fundamental for designing benchmarks that allow the experiments to be made in a more scientific manner, taking into account that these experiments should be able to be reproduced again by other people under the same circumstances. In the context of underwater interventions with semi-autonomous robots, the situation gets even more interesting. Experiments performed by other researchers normally do not include the whole set of real conditions such as visibility or even water currents data that would allow the best scientific procedure. Underwater interventions and specially those performed on real sea scenarios are expensive, difficult to perform and reproduce. The contribution of this work is an online configuration tool for benchmarking using UWSim simulator which can provide an enormous help for this particular scenario, as will be shown in this paper.
Decentralized Particle Filter With Arbitrary State Decomposition

In this paper, a new particle filter (PF) which we refer to as the decentralized PF (DPF) is proposed. By first decomposing the state into two parts, the DPF splits the filtering problem into two nested subproblems and then handles the two nested subproblems using PFs. The DPF has the advantage over the regular PF that the DPF can increase the level of parallelism of the PF. In particular, part of the resampling in the DPF bears a parallel structure and can thus be implemented in parallel. The parallel structure of the DPF is created by decomposing the state space, differing from the parallel structure of the distributed PFs which is created by dividing the sample space. This difference results in a couple of unique features of the DPF in contrast with the existing distributed PFs. Simulation results of two examples indicate that the DPF has a potential to achieve in a shorter execution time the same level of performance as the regular PF.
Modification of blood antioxidant status and lipid profile in response to high-intensity endurance exercise after low doses of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids supplementation in healthy volunteers

We investigated whether endurance exercise might modify the blood antioxidant status and lipid profile after ω-3 fatty acid supplementation. Two groups of healthy, fit males performed 1 h of exercise with a constant work load corresponding to 60% of their individual VO2max and various pedaling rates (45 min–60 rev/min followed by a maximal rate), before and after receiving, over 6 weeks, ω-3 fatty acids in a daily dose of 1.3 g or placebo. The resting concentration of triglycerides decreased after ω-3 fatty acid consumption. In response to endurance exercise, the superoxide dismutase activity markedly decreased in sedentary control subjects. This effect was partially protected by ω-3 fatty acid consumption. Supplementation tended to increase atalase activity in response to exercise, and this activity was significantly higher after 1 h of recovery. We conclude that the beneficial effect of ω-3 fatty acid supplementation during endurance exercise may be due to the activation of the superoxide dismutase and catalase pathways.
Hyperproduction, purification, and mechanism of action of the cytotoxic enterotoxin produced by Aeromonas hydrophila

A gene encoding the cytotoxic enterotoxin (Act) from Aeromonas hydrophila was hyperexpressed with the pET, pTRX, and pGEX vector systems. Maximum toxin yield was obtained with the pTRX vector. Approximately 40 to 60% of Act was in a soluble form with the pTRX and pET vector systems. The toxin protein was purified to homogeneity by a combination of ammonium sulfate precipitation and fast protein liquid chromatography-based column chromatographies, including hydrophobic, anion-exchange, sizing, and hydroxylapatite chromatographies. Purified mature toxin migrated as a 52-kDa polypeptide on a sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)polyacrylamide gel that reacted with Act-specific antibodies in immunoblots. The minimal amount of toxin needed to cause fluid secretion in rat ileal loops was 200 ng, and the 50% lethal dose for mice was 27.5 ng when injected intravenously. Binding of the toxin to erythrocytes was temperature dependent, with no binding occurring at 4 degrees C. However, at 37 degrees C the toxin bound to erythrocytes within 1 to 2 min. It was determined that the mechanism of action of the toxin involved the formation of pores in erythrocyte membranes, and the diameter of the pores was estimated to be 1.14 to 2.8 nm, as determined by the use of saccharides of different sizes and by electron microscopy. Calcium chloride prevented lysis of erythrocytes by the toxin; however, it did not affect the binding and pore-forming capabilities of the toxin. A dose-dependent reduction in hemoglobin release from erythrocytes was observed when Act was preincubated with cholesterol, but not with myristylated cholesterol. With 14C-labeled cholesterol and gel filtration, the binding of cholesterol to Act was demonstrated. None of the other phospholipids and glycolipids tested reduced the hemolytic activity of Act. The toxin also appeared to undergo aggregation when preincubated with cholesterol, as determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electorphoresis. As a result of this aggregation, Act's capacity to form pores in the erythrocyte membrane was inhibited.
Ultra thin AlN piezoelectric nano-actuators

This paper reports the first implementation of ultra thin (100 nm) Aluminum Nitride (AlN) piezoelectric layers for the fabrication of vertically deflecting nano-actuators. An average piezoelectric coefficient (d31∼ − 1.9 pC/N) that is comparable to its microscale counterpart has been demonstrated in nanoscale thin AlN films. Vertical deflections as large as 40 nm have been obtained in 18 µm long and 350 nm thick cantilever beams under bimorph actuation with 2 V. Furthermore, in-plane stress and stress gradients have been simultaneously controlled. Leakage current lower than 2 nA/cm2 at 1 V has been recorded and an average relative dielectric constant of approximately 9.2 (as in thicker films) has been measured. These material characteristics and preliminary actuation results make the AlN nano-films ideal candidates for the realization of nanoelectromechanical switches for low power logic applications.
Classical versus relational approaches to understanding controls on a contract with independent GPs in South Africa.

Contracts have played a central role in public sector reforms in developed countries over the last decade, and research increasingly highlights their varied nature. In low and middle income countries the use of contracts is encouraged but little attention has been paid to features of the setting that may influence their operation. A qualitative case study was used to examine different dimensions of a contract with private GPs in South Africa. Features of the contract are compared with the notions of classical and relational contracts. Formal aspects of the contract such as design, monitoring and resort to sanctions were found to offer little control over its outcome. The relational rather than classical model of contracting offered a more meaningful framework of analysis, with social and institutional factors found to play an important role. In particular, the individual nature of GP practices highlighted the role played by individual motivation where a contract exercised little formal control. Due to the similarity of factors likely to be present, results are argued to be relevant in many other LMIC settings, and policy-makers considering contracts for clinical services are advised to consider the possibility of experiencing a similar outcome.
Graph Mining for Complex Data Analytics

Complex data analytics that involve data mining often comprise not only a single algorithm but also further data processing steps, for example, to restrict the search space or to filter the result. We demonstrate graph mining with Gradoop, the first scalable system supporting declarative analytical programs composed from multiple graph operations. We use a business intelligence example including frequent subgraph mining to highlight the analytical capabilities enabled by such programs. The results can be visualized and, to show its ease of use, the program can be modified on visitors request. Gradoop is built on top of state-of-the-art big data technology and out-of-the-box horizontally scalable. Its source code is publicly available and designed for easy extensibility. We offer to the graph mining community, to apply Gradoop in large scale use cases and to contribute further algorithms.
Performance Analysis for Data Compression Based Signal Classification Methods

In this paper, we present an information theoretic analysis of the blind signal classification algorithm. We show that the algorithm is equivalent to a Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) estimator based on estimated parametric probability models. We prove a lower bound on the error exponents of the parametric model estimation. It is shown that the estimated model parameters converge in probability to the true model parameters except some small bias terms.
Creating Location-Based Services by Utilising a Web of Places

We present an open, decentralized, participatory system which realizes location-based services by gently extending the existing World Wide Web. Utilizing a geospatial search engine for such a Web of Places, users are able to consume location-based services generated by arbitrary parties using their mobile phones. Special care has been taken in order to foster the creation of places and services and their mobile usage by users. We further discuss that by using ranking algorithms based on place and service definitions, finding services relevant to the current location by searching only by geographic position might be feasible even in case of large numbers of relevant places.
A design of resource fault handling mechanism using dynamic resource reallocation for the resource and job management system

Due to the development of NGS technologies and the reduction of analysis cost, it is possible to perform population-scale human genome analysis. Also, large amount of genome data have been exploded recently. It is required for introduction parallel processing using High Performance Computing systems to analyse and handle these large data through genome analysis pipeline. In this paper, we propose the resource fault handling mechanism based on dynamic resource reconfiguration and delayed scheduling for data-intensive pipeline job processing such as genome analysis executed on the large cluster systems interconnected by high speed and low latency network. In order to prevent the abnormal job completion caused by lack of the specific resources, we offer the resource fault detection and handling methods. If the cause of fault is lack of resources, it can be solved by the resource re-allocation and process freezing/resuming based delayed job execution or process migration on the available node.
The duality of memory and communication in the implementation of a multiprocessor operating system

Mach is a multiprocessor operating system being implemented at Carnegie-Mellon University. An important component of the Mach design is the use of memory objects which can be managed either by the kernel or by user programs through a message interface. This feature allows applications such as transaction management systems to participate in decisions regarding secondary storage management and page replacement. This paper explores the goals, design and implementation of Mach and its external memory management facility. The relationship between memory and communication in Mach is examined as it relates to overall performance, applicability of Mach to new multiprocessor architectures, and the structure of application programs.
Efficient Parallel Implementation of the Ramalingam Decremental Algorithm for Updating the Shortest Paths Subgraph

We propose an efficient parallel implementation of the Ramalingam algorithm for dynamic updating the shortest paths subgraph of a directed weighted graph with a sink after deletion of an edge. To this end, a model of associative (content addressable) parallel systems with vertical processing (the STAR-machine) is used. On the STAR-machine, the Ramalingam decremental algorithm for dynamic updating the shortest paths subgraph is represented as the main procedure DeleteArc that uses a group of auxiliary procedures. We provide the DeleteArc procedure along with the auxiliary procedures, prove correctness of these procedures and evaluate the time complexity. We also consider an example of implementing the DeleteArc procedure on the STAR-machine.
Simulation of underwater communications with a colored noise approximation and mobility

We study the software simulation of physical properties of underwater communications, namely, underwater acoustic waves and (de)modulation of underwater acoustic digital data signals. We take into account the mobility of nodes, present in underwater sensor networks. We also consider the integration with protocol layers above the physical layer, i.e., the link and network layers. In this context, mobility is relevant because there are underwater vehicles and environmental conditions causing displacements of sensors. Attenuation is sensitive to transmitter-receiver separation distance. Because of mobility, this separation distances is variable. Our simulation approach is based on the work of Borrowski (2010). The physical layer is modeled as MATLAB functions. As a function of distance and frequency, the model takes into account attenuation, noise and their effects on a phase-shift keying signal. We use OMNeT++ to model link and network layer protocols. The MATLAB functions and OMNet++ models are linked together. While MATLAB does particularly well with signal processing, OMNeT++ addresses better the protocols placed in the link layer and above.
SaFe-NeC: A scalable and flexible system for network data characterization

Nowadays, large volumes of data and measurements are being continuously generated by computer and telecommunication networks, but such volumes make it difficult to extract meaningful knowledge from them. This paper presents SaFe-NeC, an innovative methodology for analyzing network traffic by exploiting data mining techniques, i.e. clustering and classification algorithms, focusing on self-learning capabilities of state-of-the-art scalable approaches. Self-learning algorithms, coupled with self-assessment indicators and domain-driven semantics enriching data mining results, are able to build a model of the data with minimal user intervention and highlight possibly meaningful interpretations to domain experts. Furthermore, a self-evolving model evaluation phase is included to continuously track the quality degradation of the model itself, whose rebuilding is triggered as soon as quality indicators fall below a threshold of tolerance. The proposed methodology can exploit the computational advantages of distributed computing frameworks, as the current implementation runs on Apache Spark. Preliminary experimental results on a real traffic dataset show the full potential of the proposed methodology to characterize network traffic data.
Pragmatic subtyping in polymorphic languages

We present a subtyping extension to the Hindley/Milner type system that is based on name inequivalence. This approach allows the subtype relation to be defined by incremental construction of polymorphic records and datatypes, in a way that subsumes the basic type systems of both languages like ML and Java. As the main contribution of the paper, we describe a partial type inference algorithm for the extended system which favours succinctness over generality, in the sense that it never infers types with subtype constraints. The algorithm is based on an efficient approximating constraint solver, and is able to type a wide range of programs that utilize subtyping and polymorphism in a non-trivial way. Since constrained types are not inferred, the algorithm cannot be complete; however, we provide a completeness result w.r. t. the Hindley/Milner type system as a form of characterizing lower bound.
Language model adaptation for highly-inflected Slovenian language in comparison to English language 0 LUMDP 6 HSHV \ 0 DXþHF DQG = GUDYNR

The language model in this article is meant as an information source of a speech recogniser. The environment to which the recogniser will be put is topic-specific. The idea is to try to adapt the model of general language to the target domain of discourse. We concentrate on feature extraction process devoted to highly-inflected languages. Results of experiments on English and Slovenian corpora are reported.
Low power methodology for an ASIC design flow based on high-level synthesis

Power management in system-on-chip (SoC) design has become very important in modern nanometric technologies. It is desirable to consider power optimization at the system-level for maximum power savings due to its higher level of abstraction. Clock gating and power gating are two well-known techniques for dynamic and leakage power reduction respectively. They can even be integrated to get maximum power reduction by using the same signal to control both. This work presents a methodology using both these techniques to save power of an inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) design when the register transfer level (RTL) is generated automatically by high-level synthesis (HLS). Power gating is implemented by capturing the power intent using common power format (CPF). This work mainly highlights the prospects of integrating CPF with automatically generated RTL using HLS flow. Saving in dynamic power by a factor of around 10× is obtained through clock gating while more than 50% saving in static power is obtained through power gating. Power gating also results in some area overhead.
Development and disease: Quantification of inhibitory and excitatory synaptic structures in primary auditory cortex during adolescence and in schizophrenia

Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrate auditory processing impairments that localize to primary auditory cortex, and likely contribute to disruptions of higher level processes and resultant disability. To inform the development of new treatments and preventative measures, we sought to understand which synapse populations contribute to primary auditory cortex pathology. We used quantitative fluorescence microscopy to assess intracortical excitatory, thalamocortical, and inhibitory boutons in primary auditory cortex deep layer 3 of individuals with schizophrenia. We found that intracortical excitatory and thalamocortical boutons are unaltered in schizophrenia despite reduced density of dendritic spines, their primary postsynaptic targets. However, levels of the 65 kiloDalton isoform of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65) protein are reduced within inhibitory boutons in primary auditory cortex of subjects with schizophrenia. Further, reductions in within-bouton GAD65 protein are correlated with previously measured reductions in spine density. As the onset of schizophrenia typically occurs during late adolescence and young adulthood, adolescence represents a potential window of opportunity for preventing the pathophysiology underlying symptom onset. However, adolescent trajectories of auditory cortex synaptic components and associated auditory cortex functional changes that could be targeted for prevention have not been characterized. In mouse auditory cortex, we found that spine and excitatory bouton numbers decrease between early adolescence and young adulthood followed by reduction of within-bouton GAD65 protein levels between late adolescence and young adulthood. As a behavioral readout of auditory cortex function, we measured gap-mediated prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex (gap-PPI) in mice between early adolescence and young adulthood. Gap-PPI responses increase during adolescence, suggesting that adolescent development of auditory cortex synapses contributes to auditory cortex functional maturation. Our findings suggest that spine and within-bouton GAD65 protein deficits are related pathological features of primary auditory cortex in schizophrenia, and that within-bouton GAD65 protein declines subsequent to the onset of auditory cortex spine pruning between early adolescence and young adulthood. From these observations, we propose a model where excessive spine pruning in auditory cortex leads to an excessive reduction in within-bouton GAD65 protein. Testing this model will promote development of strategies to prevent auditory cortex pathophysiology and downstream perceptual and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
Superpotentials from stringy instantons without orientifolds

In this paper we show that it is possible to derive non-perturbative superpotential terms from a stringy instanton without introducing orientifold planes. The instanton is realized by a Euclidean D brane wrapping a non-trivial cycle upon which we also wrap a single space-filling D brane. The standard problem of unwanted neutral fermionic zero modes is evaded by the appearance of couplings to charged bosonic zero modes in the instanton moduli action. Since the Euclidean D brane wraps a cycle which is not associated to any low energy gauge dynamics, it can not be interpreted as an ordinary gauge instanton, but rather as a stringy one. By considering such a brane configuration at an orbifold singularity, we can explicitly evaluate the instanton moduli space integral and find a holomorphic superpotential term with the structure of a baryonic mass term.