Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A stepwise introduction of a successful antimicrobial stewardship program

Objectives To analyze and evaluate the safety and cost-effectiveness of a gradually-implemented antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) in a tertiary care center. Methods Prospective data were collected from an ASP that was gradually introduced between April 2012 and December 2013 in 6 hospital departments, over successive periods of 3 months each. A multidisciplinary team supervised antibiotic use and regulated pharmacy dispensations of a list of restricted antimicrobials (RAs). Indicators were prospectively monitored and included hospital mortality as the safety indicator; incidence of multi-drug resistance (MDR) infections as the effectiveness indicator, RA cost savings as the cost-effectiveness indicator and RA consumption indicated the process implementation. Results Between 2012 and 2014, dispensations of RAs decreased by 67% and prescriptions by 75%; no increase in mortality rate was observed. Microbiologically, there was a decreasing trend of incidence across all monitored infections, but this was only significant for Acinetobacter baumannii (p=0.007). Cost analysis showed a decrease in expenditure for RAs, with an average monthly saving of up to 326,020USD. Conclusions Stepwise implementation of ASPs is a safe and cost-effective strategy for improving antibiotic prescribing practice and to reduce multi-drug resistance.
Opacity and saturable absorption in solid-density plasmas generated by an X-ray free-electron-laser

The arrival of 4th generation light-sources has opened up new regimes in x-ray–matter interactions. A billion times spectrally brighter than the preceding x-ray sources, free-electron-lasers (FELs) can deposit large amounts of energy into a system in less than 100 fs. Since the absorption of x-rays is reasonably well understood and the pulse length is so short, the plasma conditions created are well characterized. The work presented in this thesis relates to a series of experiments where solid aluminium foils were heated with the focussed FEL radiation. The way that the opacity of the FEL heated foil would affect the observed emission spectrum is investigated. The extent to which the opacity influences the emission spectra is found to have intensity and photon energy dependencies. The transmission of the x-ray pulse used to generate a solid-density aluminium plasma is studied in both simulation work using the collisional-radiative code SCFLY and experiment. The phenomenon of saturable absorption is seen to occur, caused by the system being ionized to such an extent that none of the ions present can absorb the x-ray photons through K-shell photoionization. The use of the FEL beam in a split and delay scheme was also explored. Simulations of the time dependent changes in transmission and what may be observed were performed.
S2CD: Semi-stochastic coordinate descent

We propose a novel reduced variance method—semi-stochastic coordinate descent (S2CD)—for the problem of minimizing a strongly convex function represented as the average of a large number of smooth convex functions: f(x) = 1 n ∑ i fi(x). Our method first performs a deterministic step (computation of the gradient of f at the starting point), followed by a large number of stochastic steps. The process is repeated a few times, with the last stochastic iterate becoming the new starting point where the deterministic step is taken. The novelty of our method is in how the stochastic steps are performed. In each such step, we pick a random function fi and a random coordinate j—both using nonuniform distributions—and update a single coordinate of the decision vector only, based on the computation of the j partial derivative of fi at two different points. Each random step of the method constitutes an unbiased estimate of the gradient of f and moreover, the squared norm of the steps goes to zero in expectation, meaning that the method enjoys a reduced variance property. The complexity of the method is the sum of two terms: O(n log(1/ )) evaluations of gradients ∇fi and O(κ log(1/ )) evaluations of partial derivatives∇jfi, where κ is a novel condition number.
Accessing the ANW Dictionary

This paper describes the functional design of an interface for an online scholarly dictionary of contemporary standard Dutch, the ANW. One of the main innovations of the ANW is a twofold meaning description: definitions are accompanied by 'semagrams'. In this paper we focus on the strategies that are available for accessing information in the dictionary and the role semagrams play in the dictionary practice.
Interoperability of the BIS-Grid Workflow Engine with Globus Toolkit 4

In the D-Grid project BIS-Grid we developed the BIS-Grid Workflow Engine in order to utilize a common WS-BPEL workflow engine for scientific workflow execution in WSRF-based Grid infrastructures. The BIS-Grid Workflow Engine itself is built on the Grid middleware UNICORE 6 to benefit from its security mechanisms and to automatically gain interoperability with UNICORE 6-based Grid infrastructures. As beside UNICORE 6 the Grid middleware Globus Toolkit 4 is prevalent in the D-Grid infrastructure, we decided to examine the interoperability of the BIS-Grid Workflow Engine with Globus Toolkit 4. The interoperability with Globus Toolkit 4 concerns basically the support of its Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI) by UNICORE 6. In this paper we describe to what extend GSI is already supported by UNICORE 6 and what is missing. We furthermore give some details about our implementation for the BIS-Grid Workflow Engine to allow Globus Toolkit 4 service invocations within a WS-BPEL workflow execution.
A symmetric patch-based correspondence model for occlusion handling

Occlusion is one of the challenging problems in stereo. In this paper, we solve the problem in a segment-based style. Both images are segmented, and we propose a novel patch-based stereo algorithm that cuts the segments of one image using the segments of the other, and handles occlusion areas in a proper way. A symmetric graph-cuts optimization framework is used to find correspondence and occlusions simultaneously. The experimental results show superior performance of the proposed algorithm, especially on occlusions, untextured areas and discontinuities
Dynamic gesture recognition for next generation home multimedia

This article discusses an alternative use of the gesture recognition algorithm designed originally for touch interfaces. It is shown that the algorithm is employed in a touch-less environment and provides considerable results in terms of gesture recognition accuracy. The environment makes use of the Kinect motion sensor to obtain gesture data which are processed by the Incremental Recognition algorithm. The conducted experiments have shown an overall recognition rate of over 91%.
Cogset: A Unified Engine for Reliable Storage and Parallel Processing

MapReduce has become a popular paradigm for parallel data processing, both for ad-hoc schema-less processing using a simple functional interface, and as a building block for higher-level abstractions. Much subsequent work has layered additional functionality on top of MapReduce or similar infrastructures, building powerful software stacks for distributed applications. In this paper, we present Cogset, the result of re-thinking the original MapReduce architecture that sits at the bottom of the stack. We observe that the traditional loose coupling between the distributed file system and the MapReduce processing engine leads to poor data locality for many applications. Accordingly, Cogset offers both reliable storage and parallel data processing, fusing the two components into a single system that ensures good data locality. We also take a new approach to data shuffling, relying on highly efficient static routing, and devise new mechanisms for fault tolerance, load balancing and ensuring consistency. We evaluate Cogset using a suite of benchmark applications, comparing it to Hadoop with very favorable results. For example, on a 12-node cluster, an inverted index that takes 80 minutes to build using Hadoop can be constructed using Cogset in less than 35 minutes.
Association Study between Coronary Artery Disease and rs1333049 and rs10757274 Polymorphisms at 9p21 Locus in South-West Iran

Objective Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a multi-factorial and heterogenic disease with atherosclerosis plaques formation in internal wall of coronary artery. Plaque formation results to limitation of the blood reaching to myocardium leading to appearance of some problems, such as ischemia, sudden thrombosis veins and myocardial infarction (MI). Several environmental and genetic factors are involved in prevalence and incident of CAD as follows: hypertension, high low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), age, diabetes mellitus, family history of early-onset heart disease and smoking. According to genome wide association studies (GWAS), five polymorphisms in the 9p21 locus seem to be associated with the CAD. We aimed to evaluate the remarkable association of two polymorphisms at 9p21 locus, rs1333049 and rs10757274, with CAD. Materials and Methods This experimental study was conducted in Golestan, Aria Hospitals and Genetics Lab of Shahid Chamran University in the city of Ahvaz, Iran, in 2010- 2011. The collected blood samples belonging to 170 CAD patients (case group) and 100 healthy individuals (control group) were analyzed by tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The results were analyzed using software package used for statistical analysis (SPSS; SPSS Inc., USA) version 16. A value of p<0.05 and an odd ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were considered significant. Results The frequencies of CC, CG and GG genotypes for rs1333049 polymorphism in patients were 18.2, 65.3 and 16.5%, while in controls, the related values were 25, 67 and 8%, respectively. GG genotypes of rs1333049 polymorphism in CAD patients were more than control cases (OR: 0.354, 95%CI: 0.138-0.912, p=0.032). The frequencies of AA, AG and GG genotypes for rs10757274 in CAD patients were 8.2, 58.3 and 33.5%, while in controls, the related values were 35, 63 and 2%, respectively. GG Genotype in rs10757274 polymorphism in CAD patients was found more than control cases (OR: 0.014, 95% CI: 0.003 -0.065, p=0.0001). Conclusion The rs1333049 polymorphism at 9p21 locus shows a weak association with CAD, whereas rs10757274 polymorphism reveals a significant association with CAD. These variants may help the identification of patients with increased risk for coronary artery disease.
Efficiency of Organelle Capture by Microtubules as a Function of Centrosome Nucleation Capacity: General Theory and the Special Case of Polyspermia

Transport of organelles along microtubules is essential for the cell metabolism and morphogenesis. The presented analysis derives the probability that an organelle of a given size comes in contact with the microtubule aster. The question is asked how this measure of functionality of the microtubule aster is controlled by the centrosome. A quantitative model is developed to address this question. It is shown that for the given set of cellular parameters, such as size and total tubulin content, a centrosome nucleation capacity exists that maximizes the probability of the organelle capture. The developed general model is then applied to the capture of the female pronucleus by microtubules assembled on the sperm centrosome, following physiologically polyspermic fertilization. This application highlights an unintuitive reflection of nonlinearity of the nucleated polymerization of the cellular pool of tubulin. The prediction that the sperm centrosome should lower its nucleation capacity in the face of the competition from the other sperm is a stark illustration of the new optimality principle. Overall, the model calls attention to the capabilities of the centrosomal pathway of regulation of the transport-related functionality of the microtubule cytoskeleton. It establishes a quantitative and conceptual framework that can guide experiment design and interpretation.
Supplemental feeding of a gut microbial metabolite of linoleic acid, 10-hydroxy-cis-12-octadecenoic acid, alleviates spontaneous atopic dermatitis and modulates intestinal microbiota in NC/nga mice

Abstract The present study investigated the antiallergic and anti-inflammatory effects of 10-hydroxy-cis-12-octadecenoic acid (HYA), a novel gut microbial metabolite of linoleic acid, in NC/Nga mice, a model of atopic dermatitis (AD). Feeding HYA decreased the plasma immunoglobulin E level and skin infiltration of mast cells with a concomitant decrease in dermatitis score. HYA feeding decreased TNF-α and increased claudin-1, a tight junction protein, levels in the mouse skin. Cytokine expression levels in the skin and intestinal Peyer’s patches cells suggested that HYA improved the Th1/Th2 balance in mice. Immunoglobulin A concentration in the feces of the HYA-fed mice was approximately four times higher than that in the control mice. Finally, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of the PCR-amplified 16 S rRNA gene of fecal microbes indicated the modification of microbiota by HYA. Taken together, the alterations in the intestinal microbiota might be, at least in part, associated with the antiallergic effect of HYA. Graphical Abstract
Viewpoint Unconstrained Face Recognition Based on Affine Local Descriptors and Probabilistic Similarity

Face recognition under controlled settings, such as limited viewpoint and illumination change, can achieve good performance nowadays. However, real world application for face recognition is still challenging. In this paper, we propose using the combination of Affine Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Probabilistic Similarity for face recognition under a large viewpoint change. Affine SIFT is an extension of SIFT algorithm to detect affine invariant local descriptors. Affine SIFT generates a series of different viewpoints using affine transformation. In this way, it allows for a viewpoint difference between the gallery face and probe face. However, the human face is not planar as it contains significant 3D depth. Affine SIFT does not work well for significant change in pose. To complement this, we combined it with probabilistic similarity, which gets the log likelihood between the probe and gallery face based on sum of squared difference (SSD) distribution in an offline learning process. Our experiment results show that our framework achieves impressive better recognition accuracy than other algorithms compared on the FERET database.
TECRA Listeria Visual Immunoassay (TLVIA) for detection of Listeria in foods: collaborative study.

A collaborative study involving 26 laboratories and 5 food types was performed to compare the TECRA Listeria Visual Immunoassay (TLVIA) with standard culture methods. Three foods (lettuce, ice cream, and fish fillets), under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and 2 foods (cooked chicken and cooked ground turkey), under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were used to determine the effectiveness of the TLVIA. Of the 900 samples tested, 300 were inoculated with low levels (1-5 cells/25 g) of Listeria spp. and 300 were inoculated with high levels of Listeria spp. (10-50 cells/25 g). Method agreement between the conventional culture methods and TLVIA (visual) was 94.7%. Method agreement between the conventional culture methods and TLVIA (reader) was 93.6%. The colorimetric polyclonal enzyme immunoassay (TLVIA) for detection of Listeria in foods has been adopted first action by AOAC INTERNATIONAL.
A Computer Aided Software for Nonlinear Digital Control

The aim of this paper is to provide a basic software tool involved in the design and the computation of nonlinear digital control schemes. The complete software SimNLSys will include different modules associated with each control scheme, aimed with respective objectives such as stabilization, damping, output matching or optimality, to quote a few. The software module presented here also encompasses the goal of computing solutions to nonlinear ODE's describing input-affine dynamics. The underlying methodologies propose challenging nonlinear sampled-data control strategies described in terms of Lie series expansions and computable through formal series calculus. The goal is to reach a friendly graphical user interface, to promote the practical efficiency of such strategies. For this, SymNLSys is built using the symbolic Matlab toolbox and the resulting mathematical control law expressions can be implemented directly on experimental plants. The paper describes the used differential geometric methods and discusses the implementation and limitations of the symbolic and numerical algorithms. Also some results obtained via this software are provided.
Application of Micro Slurry-Jet Erosion (MSE) for the Evaluation of Surface Properties of PVD TiN / TiCN Two-Layer Coatings

In this study, the potential of a Micro Slurry-jet Erosion (MSE) test to swiftly evaluate the intrinsic surface strength properties of thin multi-layer coatings is demonstrated. A slurry containing 1.2 μm alumina particles was impacted at high velocity perpendicular to PVD TiN/TiCN (TiCN on top of TiN) and TiN coatings deposited on high-speed steel by a hollow cathode discharge (HCD) or an cathodic arc (CA) method. In addition, nano-indentation and XRD, GDOES analyses were done for the original surfaces. By measuring the variation of erosion depth against test time, the MSE test made it possible to evaluate the individual erosion properties of TiCN and TiN layers independent of the substrate. Although the hardness of TiCN layers, coated by HCD or CA, was measured with nano-indentation and found to be approximately 20% higher than for TiN, the erosion rates of TiCN layers were found to be between 32% and 38% of the erosion rate of TiN. For the HCD coating, the erosion proceeded uniformly and produced a mostly smooth surface. On the other hand, for the CA coating, a pitted surface was observed. The existence of the hollows blemishes which caused by macroparticles i. e. droplets in the coating may affect the difference in the erosion rates between HCD and CA coatings. Consequently, the MSE test may be useful to evaluate the difference of the morphology of coatings as well as the surface strength which are related with the fabrication process.
Effects of prolonged head-down bed rest on working memory

Background The weightlessness caused by prolonged bed rest results in changes in cerebral circulation and thus, brain functions, which is of interest. Methods We investigated the effects of 45-day, −6° head-down bed rest, which stimulated microgravity, on working memory in 16 healthy male participants. The 2-back task was used to test the working memory variations on the 2nd day before bed rest (R−2); on the 11th (R11), 20th (R20), 32nd (R32), and 40th (R40) days of bed rest; and on the eighth day after bed rest (R+8). The cognitive response and the physiological reactivity (such as galvanic skin response, heart rate, and heart rate variability) under the 2-back task were recorded simultaneously. Results The results showed that compared with R−2, on the R+8, the participants’ galvanic skin response increased significantly, and the high frequency of heart rate variability (HF), low frequency of heart rate variability (LF), and reaction time in the 2-back task decreased significantly. There were positive correlations between the participants’ reaction time of working memory and the LF/HF under head-down bed rest (at R11, R20, and R32). Conclusion The results suggested that the prolonged head-down bed rest may have a detrimental effect on individual physiology and working memory. Physiology indices, such as galvanic skin response and heart rate variability, were sensitive to the prolonged bed rest.
Effect of iron supplementation on psychomotor development of non-anaemic, exclusively or predominantly breastfed infants: a randomised, controlled trial

Introduction Uncertainty exists regarding the effects of iron supplementation during infancy on neurodevelopmental outcomes in the absence of anaemia. The aim of the study is to establish whether psychomotor and mental development is influenced by early iron supplementation in healthy, non-anaemic, exclusively or predominantly breastfed infants. Methods and analysis Healthy term infants will be recruited. If exclusively or predominantly breast fed (>50% of daily feedings) and not anaemic at 4 months, they will be randomised to receive either iron pyrophosphate (approximately 1 mg/kg) or placebo daily until 9 months of age. The primary outcome measure is neurodevelopment assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) at 12 months, and repeated at 24 and 36 months of age. Haematological parameters of iron metabolism also will be measured. Ethics and dissemination The Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of Warsaw approved the study protocol before recruitment started. Study results will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals in the fields of paediatrics and nutrition, and presented at relevant conferences. Trial registration number NCT02242188.
QUICK : Queries Using Inferred Concepts from Keywords Technical Report CS-2009-18

We present QUICK, an entity-based text search engine that blends keyword search with structured query processing over rich knowledge bases (KB) with massive schemas. We introduce a new formalism for structured queries based on keywords that combines the flexibility of keyword search and the expressiveness of structures queries. We propose a solution to the resulting disambiguation problem caused by introducing keywords as primitives in a structured query language. We show how expressions in our proposed language can be rewritten using the vocabulary of a given KB. The rewritten query describes an arbitrary topic of interest for which corresponding documents are retrieved. We also introduce a method for indexing that allows efficient search over large KB schemas in order to find sets of relevant entities. We then cross-reference the entities with their occurrences in a corpus and rank the resulting document set to produce the top-k relevant documents. An extensive experimental study demonstrates the viability of our approach.
Harmonic Analysis and Controller Design of 15 kV SiC IGBT-Based Medium-Voltage Grid-Connected Three-Phase Three-Level NPC Converter

Cascaded converters are generally used for medium-voltage (MV) grid-connected applications due to the limitation in the voltage rating of available silicon (Si) power devices. These converters find application in active power filters, STATCOM or as the active front end converters for solid state transformers at the distribution voltage levels. The high voltage wide bandgap semiconductor devices have enabled the grid connected operation of noncascaded converters. This results in high power density, less number of switching devices, and high efficiency for three-phase MV grid interface. This also results in control simplicity without the need for complex dc bus balancing algorithms otherwise needed for cascaded converters. However, such noncascaded, grid-connected converters introduce challenges in maintaining power quality at low currents. This paper investigates the harmonic performance and current distortion of the grid-connected, three-level neutral point clamped converter using 15 kV silicon carbide Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBTs). A suitable control scheme for stable harmonic compensation is proposed. The challenges and control performance are explained through frequency domain analysis, simulations, and experimental validation on a developed prototype of the three-phase converter up to 4.16 kV, three-phase MV grid-connected operation.