Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A proposal of parameters setting method for artificial bee colony algorithm with network structure

Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm which is inspired by the foraging behavior of honey bees is one of the swarm intelligence systems. This algorithm can provide the efficient exploration of the optimal solutions using three different types of the agents for optimization problems with multimodal function. However, the performance of the conventional ABC algorithm decreases for high-dimensional problems. In this study, we propose an improved algorithm to enhance the ability for global search using the network structure of agents. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by performing computer experiments with high-dimensional benchmark problems. We validate solution search performance to consider how to set the parameters.
Active and passive measures to reduce the noise pollution of combustion engines

In recent years comfort has become an important factor when evaluating the performance of modern automobiles. One important aspect that has negative ramifications on the perception of the quality is the generated noise, which mainly contributes to the disturbing noise level of urban regions. Therefore, an important goal in current research is the attenuation of the noise level of car engines. The paper at hand presents two main approaches, an active and a passive one, to reduce the noise radiation of combustion engines, which is the main noise source of automobiles. In the active approach thin piezoelectric wafers are attached to the structure as sensors and actuators. With an appropriate controller the structural vibrations are reduced, which result in an attenuation of the sound pressure in the environment. The passive approach utilizes a full engine encapsulation, which is also designed to reduce the sound radiation of the engine. By encapsulating the motor the oil temperature can be increased such resulting in decreased fuel consumptions.
Early Human Prostate Adenocarcinomas Harbor Androgen-Independent Cancer Cells

Although blockade of androgen receptor (AR) signaling represents the main treatment for advanced prostate cancer (PrCa), many patients progress to a lethal phenotype of “Castration-Resistant” prostate cancer (CR-PrCa). With the hypothesis that early PrCa may harbor a population of androgen-unresponsive cancer cells as precursors to CR-recurrent disease, we undertook the propagation of androgen-independent cells from PrCa-prostatectomy samples of early, localized (Stage-I) cases. A collection of 120 surgical specimens from prostatectomy cases was established, among which 54 were adenocarcinomas. Hormone-free cell culture conditions were developed allowing routine propagation of cells expressing prostate basal cell markers and stem/progenitor cell markers, and which proliferated as spheres/spheroids in suspension cultures. Colonies of androgen-independent epithelial cells grew out from 30/43 (70%) of the adenocarcinoma cases studied in detail. Fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry showed that CR-PrCa cells were positive for CD44, CD133, CK5/14, c-kit, integrin α2β1, SSEA4, E-Cadherin and Aldehyde Dehydrogenase (ALDH). All 30 CR-PrCa cell cultures were also TERT-positive, but negative for TMPRSS2-ERG. Additionally, a subset of 22 of these CR-PrCa cell cultures was examined by orthotopic xenografting in intact and castrated SCID mice, generating histologically typical locally-invasive human PrCa or undifferentiated cancers, respectively, in 6–8 weeks. Cultured PrCa cells and orthotopically-induced in vivo cancers lacked PSA expression. We report here the propagation of Cancer Initiating Cells (CIC) directly from Stage I human PrCa tissue without selection or genetic manipulation. The propagation of stem/progenitor-like CR-PrCa cells derived from early human prostate carcinomas suggests the existence of a subpopulation of cells resistant to androgen-deprivation therapy and which may drive the subsequent emergence of disseminated CR-PrCa.
Cardiac troponin testing is overused after the rule-in or rule-out of myocardial infarction.

To the Editor: No good studies have systematically evaluated appropriate clinical utilization of cardiac troponin testing in the clinical setting of the rule-in and rule-out of myocardial infarction (MI)1 (1, 2). Our collective 100-plus years of clinical and laboratory experience suggested that provider test ordering and use of cardiac troponin has been excessive after a diagnosis of MI or no MI has been determined. There is no evidence that supports continuation of cardiac troponin testing after a diagnosis is made (2–5). The goal of this study was to determine whether clinicians appropriately use cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in the assessment of patients at moderate to high risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and MI. After receiving institutional review board approval, we retrospectively reviewed electronic health/medical records in 100 consecutive patients who had serial cTnI orders in the cardiac renal unit, …
A Posteriori Information Effects on Culpability Judgments From a Cross-Cultural Perspective

A posteriori information about the moral attributes of the victim of a crime can affect an observer's judgment on the culpability of the actor of the crime so that negative moral attributes of the victim will lead to a lower judgment of culpability. The authors found this effect of a posteriori information among 118 American and 123 Chinese participants, but the underlying mechanisms were different between the two cultural groups. The Americans considered the psychological state of the actor during the crime, whereas the Chinese considered the morality of the actor during the crime. The authors discussed these results in light of the respondents' implicit theories of morality.
Giambattista Vico and the Pedagogy of 'Heroic Mind' in the Liberal Arts

: Vico's concept of the Heroic Mind forms the pedagogical basis for his view of the liberal arts in university education. It is also the key to understanding his humanist critique of Cartesian epistemology. This essay studies Vico's Heroic Mind concept as revealed in his 1732 De mente heroica Oration , discusses the nature of Vico's challenge to Descartes' view of the human person and of knowledge, and points out the development of Vico's ideas on mind, education, and knowledge from his earlier works. Vico's writings not only offer a portrait of eighteenth century European intellectual and cultural thought, but also prophesy the change, disruption, and dehumanization that result from the exaggerated emphases on rationality as the end of all knowledge divorced from other physical, emotional, natural, or historical contingencies and from a neglect of the de mente heroica concept at the foundation of the humanistic world view. His understanding of the state of learning, wisdom, and culture in his own age as well as his exposure to the aversion of the Cartesian mathematical paradigm which discounted the Heroic Mind issues forth in an understanding of the forces driving modern technological society and the problems plaguing contemporary consciousness and life. He has influenced and inspired much modern thinking in sociology, politics, anthropology, language, pedagogy, literature, psychology, and even science. It is the concept of the historical and cultural evolution of the Heroic Mind which Vico passionately pursued in his monumentally creative The New Science .
Charles S. Peirce. Les ruptures épistémologiques et les nouveaux paradigmes

L'A. etudie le parcours epistemologique de C. S. Peirce qui l'amene a concevoir une philosophie de substitution a la logique substantive d'Aristote: il s'agit d'une logique des relations qui peut faire l'economie de la substance. C'est cette logique des relations qui lui permet de tenir un nouveau discours de la methode et d'elaborer une nouvelle phenomenologie a laquelle il donne le nom de phaneroscopie, discipline qui s'avere indispensable pour comprendre la semiotique peircienne
The PDZ-Ligand and Src-Homology Type 3 Domains of Epidemic Avian Influenza Virus NS1 Protein Modulate Human Src Kinase Activity during Viral Infection

The Non-structural 1 (NS1) protein of avian influenza (AI) viruses is important for pathogenicity. Here, we identify a previously unrecognized tandem PDZ-ligand (TPL) domain in the extreme carboxy terminus of NS1 proteins from a subset of globally circulating AI viruses. By using protein arrays we have identified several human PDZ-cellular ligands of this novel domain, one of which is the RIL protein, a known regulator of the cellular tyrosine kinase Src. We found that the AI NS1 proteins bind and stimulate human Src tyrosine kinase, through their carboxy terminal Src homology type 3-binding (SHB) domain. The physical interaction between NS1 and Src and the ability of AI viruses to modulate the phosphorylation status of Src during the infection, were found to be influenced by the TPL arrangement. These results indicate the potential for novel host-pathogen interactions mediated by the TPL and SHB domains of AI NS1 protein.
Effects of support diameter and compliance on common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) gait kinematics

ABSTRACT Locomotion is precarious in an arboreal habitat, where supports can vary in both diameter and level of compliance. Several previous studies have evaluated the influence of substrate diameter on the locomotor performance of arboreal quadrupeds. The influence of substrate compliance, however, has been mostly unexamined. Here, we used a multifactorial experimental design to investigate how perturbations in both diameter and compliance affect the gait kinematics of marmosets (Callithrix jacchus; N=2) moving over simulated arboreal substrates. We used 3D-calibrated video to quantify marmoset locomotion over a horizontal trackway consisting of variably sized poles (5, 2.5 and 1.25 cm in diameter), analyzing a total of 120 strides. The central portion of the trackway was either immobile or mounted on compliant foam blocks, depending on condition. We found that narrowing diameter and increasing compliance were both associated with relatively longer substrate contact durations, though adjustments to diameter were often inconsistent relative to compliance-related adjustments. Marmosets also responded to narrowing diameter by reducing speed, flattening center of mass (CoM) movements and dampening support displacement on the compliant substrate. For the subset of strides on the compliant support, we found that speed, contact duration and CoM amplitude explained >60% of the variation in substrate displacement over a stride, suggesting a direct performance advantage to these kinematic adjustments. Overall, our results show that compliant substrates can exert a significant influence on gait kinematics. Substrate compliance, and not just support diameter, should be considered a critical environmental variable when evaluating locomotor performance in arboreal quadrupeds. Highlighted Article: Marmosets show convergent and divergent kinematic responses to perturbations in support diameter and compliance, suggesting that compliance is a critical – yet understudied – environmental determinant of arboreal locomotor performance.
Treatment of Facial Angiofibroma of Tuberous Sclerosis Using Cultured Epithelial Autografts

Treatment of facial angiofibroma of tuberous sclerosis is problematic, because the skin lesions involve entire dermis. Five patients aged from 14 to 33 (mean: 23.6) years old with angiofibroma of tuberous sclerosis were treated with cultured epithelial autografts between 1995 and 2004. The entire area of the facial lesions was excised using a razor to remove large nodules, and then the remaining lesions were further abraded to a rather deep layer of the dermis to smooth the skin and remove small nodules. Then a cultured autologous epithelium was grafted onto the wound. In all patients, epithelization was complete within 10 (mean: 9) days after the surgery. All patients were followed up for more than 6 months and showed neither depigmentation due to scar formation nor hypertrophic scars. In some patients, some pebbly regrowth had occurred at 5 years postoperatively, but the appearance was quite acceptable.
Recording from a Single Motor Unit During Strong Effort

During strong voluntary effort it is rarely possible to identify the action potentials from single motor units. In large muscles the most selective recordings are obtained with bipolar wire electrodes. To elucidate this experimental finding we have calculated the extracellular field around a single muscle fiber from an intracellular muscle action potential. This model showed that the selectivity of a bipolar electrode is high provided: i) the diameter of the recording surfaces is less than half the diameter of the muscle fibers; ii) the center distance between the recording surfaces is of the same order or smaller than the diameter of the muscle fibers, and when iii) the center-line between the recording surfaces is oriented perpendicular to the direction of the muscle fibers.
An Integrated Approach to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Control in a Rural, Regional-Referral Healthcare Setting

Objective. To curtail the prevalence and cross-transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a rural healthcare setting. Design. Before-after, quasi-experimental quality improvement study. Setting. A regional-referral hospital, 5 affiliated nursing homes, and an outpatient MRSA clinic. Interventions. Residents of the 5 nursing homes were screened for MRSA at baseline and 1 year later. Active surveillance cultures were performed on subsequently admitted nursing home residents, “high-risk” patients admitted to the hospital, and household contacts of clinic patients. The decolonization regimen consisted of systemic therapy with minocycline and rifampin and topical therapy with nasal mupirocin ointment and 5% tea tree oil body wash. Three separate samples for cultures to document clearance of MRSA colonization were obtained at 1-week intervals 1 month after the completion of decolonization therapy. Samples for follow-up cultures were obtained at month 6 and month 12 after the completion of decolonization therapy. Results. After intervention and follow-up for 12 months or more, the prevalence of MRSA carriage at the nursing homes decreased by 67% (P<.001), and 120 (82%) of 147 nursing home residents and 111 (89%) of 125 clinic patients remained culture-negative for MRSA. Twenty-three (24%) of 95 new clinic patients had at least 1 MRSA-positive contact. Mupirocin resistance did not develop. In the hospital, the incidence rate of nosocomial MRSA infection decreased from 0.64 infections per 1,000 patient-days before the interventions to 0.40 infections per 1,000 patient-days 1 year after the interventions and to 0.32 infections per 1,000 patient-days 2 years after the intervention (P<.01). Conclusions. Use of active surveillance cultures and decolonization therapy was effective in decreasing the prevalence of asymptomatic carriage, the incidence of nosocomial infection, and the overall prevalence of MRSA in our rural healthcare setting.
The value of crossdating to retain high‐frequency variability, climate signals, and extreme events in environmental proxies

High‐resolution biogenic and geologic proxies in which one increment or layer is formed per year are crucial to describing natural ranges of environmental variability in Earth's physical and biological systems. However, dating controls are necessary to ensure temporal precision and accuracy; simple counts cannot ensure that all layers are placed correctly in time. Originally developed for tree‐ring data, crossdating is the only such procedure that ensures all increments have been assigned the correct calendar year of formation. Here, we use growth‐increment data from two tree species, two marine bivalve species, and a marine fish species to illustrate sensitivity of environmental signals to modest dating error rates. When falsely added or missed increments are induced at one and five percent rates, errors propagate back through time and eliminate high‐frequency variability, climate signals, and evidence of extreme events while incorrectly dating and distorting major disturbances or other low‐frequency processes. Our consecutive Monte Carlo experiments show that inaccuracies begin to accumulate in as little as two decades and can remove all but decadal‐scale processes after as little as two centuries. Real‐world scenarios may have even greater consequence in the absence of crossdating. Given this sensitivity to signal loss, the fundamental tenets of crossdating must be applied to fully resolve environmental signals, a point we underscore as the frontiers of growth‐increment analysis continue to expand into tropical, freshwater, and marine environments.
Early appendicectomy in appendicular mass--a Liaquat University Hospital experience.

OBJECTIVES Appendicular mass is a well-known complication of acute appendicitis. It is conventionally treated conservatively followed by interval appendectomy. This study aimed to determine the feasibility and safety of an early appendectomy in these cases. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive and comparative. PLACE AND DURATION Department of Surgery Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro/Hyderabad from March 2003 to December 2007. METHODS One hundred and seventy six (176) patients with appendicular mass were included in this study. Patients were conveniently divided into two groups, A and B with equal distribution of cases (88 Patients each), regardless of age and sex. Immediate appendicectomy was performed in group A patients after preliminary investigations, where as patients in group B were initially treated conservatively followed by interval appendicectomy. RESULTS A total 114 (64.8%) males and 62 (35.2%) females with a mean age of 25.09 years (Range 8-44 years) are included in the study population. Post-operative wound sepsis occurred in 17 (19.31%) patients in group A. Treatment failure, patient compliance, re-admission and overall expenses are main limitations in group B population. CONCLUSION Early appendicectomy is a safe and superior option in patients with appendicular mass compared to conventional treatment.
A comparison of postnatal depression and related factors between Chinese new mothers and fathers.

AIMS This study aims to examine the differences in the prevalence of depression and related factors between new mothers and fathers during the postnatal period. BACKGROUND Although the transition to motherhood and postnatal depression has been extensively studied, few studies compared maternal and paternal psychological health during the postnatal period. DESIGN A cross-sectional design was used. METHODS A total of 376 pairs of new parents participated in this study. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale and the Social Support Rating Scale were used to measure depression, perceived stress and social support, respectively. We performed paired t-test and multiple regression to analyse the data. RESULTS No significant difference in the prevalence of postnatal depression was found between the new mothers and fathers (14.9 vs. 12.5%). Fathers experienced similar stress levels as mothers did, while they received lower level of social support than mothers. Perceived stress, social support and partner's Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score were significantly associated with depression for both mothers and fathers. Less sleeping time of infant and a tense relationship between mothers and mother-in-law were related to mothers' depression. The preference for a male baby was associated with fathers' depression. CONCLUSION Both new mothers and fathers experienced postnatal depression in China. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Clinical nurses should pay attention to psychological health among new parents during postnatal period. Perinatal services, such as antenatal and postnatal education and counselling, should also be provided for fathers.
Laplacian interpolation on triangulated tissue surface models

3D triangulated meshes are used ubiquitously in biomedicine to model tissue surfaces, owing to their geometric flexibility and non-parametric nature. One often needs to interpolate scalar functions over such meshes, either because the interpolant itself provides the solution to a problem, a visualization of the interpolant on top of the mesh is desired, or, quite commonly, both. A common example is the production of electroanatomical maps of the left atrium in the study, diagnosis, and treatment of atrial fibrillation. One appealing method that has been used is Laplacian interpolation because of its unique property of maximizing smoothness. However, the only documented method to date to adopt Laplacian interpolation to 3D triangulated meshes uses matrix formulations that may impose undesirable constraints. In this paper, we present a simple, novel numerical method for Laplacian interpolation on 3D triangulated surfaces. It converges quickly, requires relatively few computations compared to a matrix solution, and can be easily implemented. The method was successfully used in clinical studies of atrial fibrillation, and can be adopted to many problem domains involving 3D meshes.
erm(B)-Carrying Elements in Tetracycline-Resistant Pneumococci and Correspondence between Tn1545 and Tn6003

ABSTRACT This study investigated the genetic organization of erm(B)-carrying transposons of Streptococcus pneumoniae and their distribution in tetracycline-resistant clinical isolates. By comparatively analyzing reference pneumococci carrying erm(B)/tet(M) transposon Tn1545, Tn6003, Tn6002, or Tn3872, we demonstrated a substantial correspondence between Tn1545 and Tn6003, which have the same resistance gene combination [tet(M) (tetracycline), erm(B) (erythromycin), and aphA-3 (kanamycin)]; share the macrolide-aminoglycoside-streptothricin element, containing a second erm(B); and only differ by a ca. 1.2-kb insertion (containing a putative IS1239 insertion sequence) detected in Tn1545 from S. pneumoniae reference strain BM4200. These results enabled elucidation of the structure of Tn1545, the first erm(B)-carrying transposon described in S. pneumoniae. A collection of 83 erythromycin- and tetracycline-resistant clinical pneumococci, representative of recent Italian isolates carrying erm(B) as the sole erythromycin resistance gene, was used to investigate the distribution of the different transposons. All 83 organisms were positive for tet(M) and bore an erm(B)/tet(M) transposon that could be characterized by using a specific set of primer pairs; Tn3872 was detected in 18 isolates, Tn6002 in 59 isolates, and Tn6003 in 6 (the sole kanamycin-resistant) isolates. The genetic organization of transposon Tn1545, with its specific insertion, was not detected in any of the isolates tested. The erm(B)-carrying elements of tetracycline-resistant pneumococci substantially corresponded to those [bearing a silent tet(M) gene] recently detected in tetracycline-susceptible pneumococci. Overall, in erm(B)-positive pneumococci, Tn6003 was the least common erm(B)-carrying Tn916-related element and Tn6002 the most common.