Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vitro Susceptibility Testing of Filamentous Fungi: Comparison of Etest and Reference Microdilution Methods for Determining Itraconazole MICs

ABSTRACT The performance of the Etest for itraconazole susceptibility testing of 50 isolates of filamentous fungi was assessed in comparison with the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) proposed standard microdilution broth method. The NCCLS method employed RPMI 1640 broth medium, and MICs were read after incubation for 48 h at 35°C. Etest MICs were determined with RPMI agar containing 2% glucose and with Casitone agar and were read after incubation for 24 h (Aspergillus spp. and Rhizopus spp.) and 48 h (all species except Rhizopus spp.) at 35°C. The isolates included Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, Fusarium spp. , Pseudallescheria boydii, Rhizopus spp. , Paecilomyces variotii, and an Acremonium sp. Overall agreement between Etest and microdilution MICs was 96% with RPMI agar and 80% with Casitone agar. The agreement was 100% for all species exceptRhizopus spp. (83%) and Paecilomyces varioti(0%) with RPMI agar. When Casitone agar was used, the agreement ranged from 50% with Rhizopus spp. to 100% withFusarium spp. , P. boydii, P. varioti, and an Acremonium sp. Notably, forAspergillus spp. , the agreement between itraconazole Etest MICs read at 24 h and reference microdilution MICs read at 48 h was 100% with both RPMI and Casitone agar. Both media supported the growth of all filamentous fungi tested. Where a discrepancy was observed between Etest and the reference method, the Etest MIC was generally higher. The Etest method using RPMI agar appears to be a useful method for determining itraconazole susceptibilities ofAspergillus spp. and other filamentous fungi.
Application of the envelope difference index to spectrally sparse speech.

PURPOSE Amplitude compression is a common hearing aid processing strategy that can improve speech audibility and loudness comfort but also has the potential to alter important cues carried by the speech envelope. In previous work, a measure of envelope change, the Envelope Difference Index (EDI; Fortune, Woodruff, & Preves, 1994), was moderately related to recognition of spectrally robust consonants. This follow-up study investigated the relationship between the EDI and recognition of spectrally sparse consonants. METHOD Stimuli were vowel-consonant-vowel tokens processed to reduce spectral cues. Compression parameters were chosen to achieve a range of EDI values. Recognition was measured for 20 listeners with normal hearing. RESULTS Both overall recognition and perception of consonant features were reduced at higher EDI values. Similar effects were noted with noise-vocoded and sine-vocoded processing and regardless of whether periodicity cues were available. CONCLUSION The data provide information about the acceptable limits of envelope distortion under constrained conditions. These limits can be used to consider the impact of envelope distortions in situations where other cues are available to varying extents.
Multi-objective differential evolution algorithm based on fast sorting and a novel constraints handling technique

In this paper, an improved multi-objective differential evolution algorithm is proposed to solve constraints in multi-objective optimization. Research has shown that the information of infeasible solutions is also important and can help the algorithm improve the convergence and diversity of solutions. A novel constraint handling method is introduced to ensure that a certain number of good infeasible solutions will be kept in the procedure of evolution to guide the search of the individuals. The proposed method is compared with two other constrained multi-objective differential evolution algorithms and the results show that the proposed method is competitive.
Sagittal Abdominal Diameter and Risk of Sudden Death in Asymptomatic Middle-Aged Men: The Paris Prospective Study I

Background—Abdominal (visceral) and overall obesity are both related to coronary heart disease mortality risk; however, the relative contribution of these 2 components of fat deposit in the etiology of sudden death is unknown. Methods and Results—We used the data from 7079 asymptomatic men of the Paris Prospective Study I who were free of ischemic heart disease and who were 43 to 52 years of age at first clinical examination between 1967 and 1972. Body mass index (BMI) and sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) were measured at baseline and used as markers of overall and abdominal obesity. During a follow-up of 23 years, there were 118 sudden deaths and 192 fatal myocardial infarctions. After adjustment for baseline level of cardiovascular risk factors, trunk subcutaneous fat, and thoracic diameter, the ratio of the fifth over the first quintile of SAD was 2.6 (95% CI 1.0 to 6.7) and 2. 6 (95% CI 1.3 to 5.1) for sudden death and fatal myocardial infarction, respectively, and the risk of sudden death increased proportionally with SAD level. The corresponding ratios for BMI were 2.0 (95% CI 1.1 to 3.8) and 1.0 (95% CI 0.6 to 1.7), respectively. Compared with men with low SAD (first tertile) and normal BMI (<25 kg/m2), men with elevated SAD (third tertile) were at increased risk of sudden death but not of fatal myocardial infarction, whether they were of normal weight (multivariate adjusted relative risk 3. 0 [95% CI 1.3 to 6. 9]) or overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2; 1.9 [95% CI 1.0 to 3.9]). Conclusions—In asymptomatic French middle-aged men, larger SAD was associated with a particularly increased risk of sudden death, independent of BMI level and known cardiovascular risk factors.
A comprehensive approach to refractory cardiac arrest: saving more lives one way or another

Source of Support Nil. Disclosures None declared. Cite as: Ortega-Deballon I, De La Plaza-Horche E. A comprehensive approach to refractory cardiac arrest: saving more lives one way or another. Heart, Lung and Vessels. 2014; 6(3): 149-151
‘Our Journey Through Time’: an oral history project carried out by young people with learning disabilities

Accessible summary • This paper is about an oral history project to find out about long-stay hospitals in their local area carried out by a group of young people with learning disabilities. • It describes how they went about the project and made a film, and what they learnt through doing it. Summary We are five young people with learning disabilities who found out about the history of hospitals for people with learning disabilities in our area, and made a film about the project. The project taught us what life had been like for some people with learning disabilities only 30 years ago. It was very different to our lives; we have more choice, more freedom and more opportunities. As part of the project, we learnt how to ask questions, to listen, to record information and to produce a film.
Observer motion estimation and control from optical flow

The information conveyed by optical flow is analytically linked to observer motion by decomposing the optical flow field into its vector field components. It is shown that the observer may recover his ego-motion by interpreting the decomposed optical flow field, and he may further utilize his mobility to actively control the shape of the optical flow field, which directly reflects the surface shape of the object. The information of surface geometry discontinuity can be derived more directly from optical flow field by segmenting the whole field. A new method for the segmentation is proposed here, which combines both the magnitude and phase parts of the optical flow. The integration of these two different kinds of information proves to be effective in making various surface geometry boundaries explicit.
Mandarin Topic-oriented Conversations

This paper describes the collection and processing of a pilot speech corpus annotated in dialogue acts. The Mandarin Topic-oriented Conversational Corpus (MTCC) consists of annotated transcripts and sound files of conversations between two familiar persons. Particular features of spoken Mandarin, such as discourse particles and paralinguistic sounds, are taken into account in the orthographical transcription. In addition, the dialogue structure is annotated using an annotation scheme developed for topic-specific conversations. Using the annotated materials, we present the results of a preliminary analysis of dialogue structure and dialogue acts. Related transcription tools and web query applications are also introduced in this paper.
Diagnostic value of immunoperoxidase staining and immunofluorescence in the study of kidney biopsy specimens.

INTRODUCTION This study aimed to determine diagnostic value of immunoperoxidase in comparison with immunofluorescence in the diagnostic assessment of kidney biopsy specimens. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty-eight kidney biopsy specimens were used to compare a direct immunofluorescence technique with immunoperoxidase techniques on paraffin sections. The sensitivity and specificity were calculated. The kappa statistic for agreement between the two tests was categorized as poor (zero to 0.2), moderate (0.21 to 0.45), good (0.46 to 0.75), and almost perfect concordance (0.76 to 1.0). RESULTS Compared with immunofluorescence, the immunoperoxidase technique presented a sensitivity of 88.55% and a specificity of 69.22%. Its sensitivity in the staining for IgG, IgM, and IgA was 93.75%, 95.45%, and 76.47%, respectively. The specificity of this test in the staining for IgG, IgM, and IgA was 54.54%, 57.14%, and 96.00%, respectively. The overall kappa value was 0.60 and it was 0.60 for assessing staining intensity. There was a moderate agreement between immunoperoxidase and immunofluorescence in the positive or negative staining for IgG and IgM, as well as a good agreement in the positive or negative staining for IgA. For the staining intensity, the two tests had a good concordance for IgG and IgA and a moderate concordance for IgM. CONCLUSIONS Although immunoperoxidase method has a lower overall diagnostic performance as compared to immunofluorescence, given the good concordance between the two techniques, it can be an alternative method for immunofluorescence study of kidney biopsy specimens, particularly where immunofluorescence fails or is not available.
Enforcing Content Security by Default within Web Browsers

Web browsers were initially designed to retrieve resources on the world wide web in a static manner such that adding security checks in select locations throughout the codebase sufficiently provided the necessary security guarantees of the web. Even though systematic security checks were always performed, those security checks were sprinkled throughout the codebase. Over time, various specifications for dynamically loading content have proven that such a scattered security model is error-prone. Instead of opting into security checks wherever resource loads are initiated throughout the codebase, we present an approach where security checks are performed by default. By equipping every resource load with a loading context (which includes information about who initiated the load, the load type, etc.), our approach enforces an opt-out security mechanism performing security checks by default by consulting a centralized security manager. In addition, the added load context allows to provide the same security guarantees for resource loads which encounter a server-side redirect.
Optimal C2 two-dimensional interpolatory ternary subdivision schemes with two-ring stencils

For any interpolatory ternary subdivision scheme with two-ring stencils for a regular triangular or quadrilateral mesh, we show that the critical Holder smoothness exponent of its basis function cannot exceed log 3 11(≈ 2.18266), where the critical Holder smoothness exponent of a function f: R 2 R is defined to be v ∞ (f):= sup{v: f ∈ Lipv}. On the other hand, for both regular triangular and quadrilateral meshes, we present several examples of interpolatory ternary subdivision schemes with two-ring stencils such that the critical Holder smoothness exponents of their basis functions do achieve the optimal smoothness upper bound log 3 11. Consequently, we obtain optimal smoothest C 2 interpolatory ternary subdivision schemes with two-ring stencils for the regular triangular and quadrilateral meshes. Our computation and analysis of optimal multidimensional subdivision schemes are based on the projection method and the l p -norm joint spectral radius.
Why Do Axons Differ in Caliber?

CNS axons differ in diameter (d) by nearly 100-fold (∼0.1–10 μm); therefore, they differ in cross-sectional area (d2) and volume by nearly 10,000-fold. If, as found for optic nerve, mitochondrial volume fraction is constant with axon diameter, energy capacity would rise with axon volume, also as d2. We asked, given constraints on space and energy, what functional requirements set an axon's diameter? Surveying 16 fiber groups spanning nearly the full range of diameters in five species (guinea pig, rat, monkey, locust, octopus), we found the following: (1) thin axons are most numerous; (2) mean firing frequencies, estimated for nine of the identified axon classes, are low for thin fibers and high for thick ones, ranging from ∼1 to >100 Hz; (3) a tract's distribution of fiber diameters, whether narrow or broad, and whether symmetric or skewed, reflects heterogeneity of information rates conveyed by its individual fibers; and (4) mitochondrial volume/axon length rises ≥d2. To explain the pressure toward thin diameters, we note an established law of diminishing returns: an axon, to double its information rate, must more than double its firing rate. Since diameter is apparently linear with firing rate, doubling information rate would more than quadruple an axon's volume and energy use. Thicker axons may be needed to encode features that cannot be efficiently decoded if their information is spread over several low-rate channels. Thus, information rate may be the main variable that sets axon caliber, with axons constrained to deliver information at the lowest acceptable rate.
Crime and the design of residential property – exploring the perceptions of planning professionals, burglars and other users

The first paper, entitled “Crime and the design of residential property: exploring the theoretical background” (Property Management, Vol. 19 No. 2), has argued that “perceptions” and the “image” of housing designs remain a largely untested avenue of investigation in the design‐effects‐crime debate. Presents and discusses exploratory research into the perception of crime/deviancy, fear of crime and “defensible space”, in relation to a range of characteristic UK housing designs. This investigation concerns the perceptions of planning professionals, convicted burglars and other users and provides both qualitative and quantitative analysis of results from a series of interviews which presented slide representations of terraced, semi‐detached and detached housing designs in addition to low‐rise/walk‐up flats and high‐rise flats. Where possible, two contrasting versions of the same design were presented to probe the influence of “image” in the perception of crime and “defensible space”. The results from this exploratory investigation underpin Newman’s theory of “defensible space” in that a “hierarchy of place” appears to exist with regard to housing designs. However, the “image” of each design is perceived to be a significant contributing factor in relation to the criminogenic capacity of each design presented. Wilson and Kelling’s “Broken Windows” theory is also supported by these research findings.
Age group comparability of raw accelerometer output from wrist- and hip-worn monitors.

PURPOSE The study aims were to compare raw triaxial accelerometer output from ActiGraph GT3X+ (AG) and GENEActiv (GA) placed on the hip and the wrist and to develop regression equations for estimating energy expenditure. METHODS Thirty children (7-11 yr) and 30 adults (18-65 yr) completed eight activities (ranging from lying to running) while wearing one AG and one GA on the hip and the wrist. Oxygen consumption (V˙O2) was measured with indirect calorimetry. Analysis involved the use of ANOVA to examine the effect of activity, brand, and placement on the acceleration values, intraclass correlation coefficient to evaluate the agreement between the two brands and placements, and linear regression to establish intensity thresholds. RESULTS A significant difference in acceleration values between the hip and the wrist placement was found (P < 0.001). The output from the wrist placement was, in general, higher compared with that from the hip. There was no main effect of monitor brand in adults (P < 0.12) and children (P < 0.73), and the intraclass correlation coefficient showed a strong agreement (0.96-0.99). However, a three-way interaction and systematic error between the brands was found in children. Acceleration from both brands and placements showed a strong correlation with V˙O2. The intensity classification accuracy of the developed thresholds for both brands and placements was, in general, higher for adults compared with that for children and was greater for sedentary/light (93%-97%), and vigorous activities (68%-92%) than that for moderate activities (33%-59%). CONCLUSIONS Accelerometer outputs from AG and GA seem comparable when attached to the same body location in adults, whereas inconsistent differences are apparent between the two brands and placements in children, hence limiting the comparability between brands in this age group.
APACHE-II score correlation with mortality and length of stay in an intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVE To correlate the APACHE-II score system with mortality and length of stay in ICU. STUDY DESIGN Cohort study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from May 2005 to May 2006. METHODOLOGY All adult patients who were admitted in the ICU were included. APACHE-II score was calculated at the second and seventh days of admission in the ICU. Patients who were discharged alive from the ICU or died after first APACHE-II Score (at 2nd day) were noted as the primary outcome measurement. Second APACHE-II score (at 7th day) was used to predict the length of stay in the ICU. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was determined with significance at p < 0.05. RESULTS In the lowest score category 3-10, 27 out of 30 patients (90%) were discharged and only 3 (10%) died. Out of those 39 patients whose APACHE-II score was found in high category 31-40, 33 (84.6%) deaths were observed. This revealed that there might be more chances of death in case of high APACHE-II score (p=0.001). Insignificant but an inverse correlation (r = -0.084, p < 0.183) was observed between APACHE-II score and length of ICU stay. CONCLUSION The APACHE-II scoring system was found useful for classifying patients according to their disease severity. There was an inverse relationship between the high score and the length of stay as well higher chances of mortality.
Common Class Information based Efficient Training Data Selection for Photo Categorization

In this paper, we proposed a novel method to efficiently select discriminative training samples for local photo classification or management. We introduced a concept widely shared by most of images: underlying common classes, and based on them we catch more colorful and more characteristic/discriminative training samples. We conduct multi-clustering with feature selection and adaptive sampling to the images of each single common class, and then adapt acquired information/knowledge to target local photos. We have evaluated proposed method on 21,424 photos taken in daily life of a nursery school for two classification problems. Experimental results show that our method is superior to the case without consideration of common classes or simply selecting samples randomly.
Novel PCB fabrication process roughness free for high frequency applications.

In this work, a new process for Print Circuit Board (PCB) fabrication is introduced. It is so far one of the lowest losses PCB fabrication process, for high frequency operation. Instead of a rigged surface for adhesion of the metal, a plasma process is used on homogeneous and polished surface of Teflon as substrate. For demonstrating the capability of this proposal, a microstrip is built and resulted with attenuation of a 2 Np/m at 20 GHz, loses were obtained from measurements from S-parameters.
Optimal Channel Assignment in Multi-Hop Cellular Networks

Wireless networks have made great gains in usability and popularity. However, inherent limitations on cell capacity and coverage still exist. There are also dead-spots and hotspots problems in these networks. Ad hoc multi-hop relaying enhances cell capacity and coverage, alleviates the dead-spots problem, and helps to ease congestion in hotspots. However, multi-hopping also increases packet delay. Effective channel assignment is key to reducing delay. Existing channel assignment schemes are heuristics and may not guarantee optimal solutions in terms of minimum delay. In this paper, we provide an optimal channel assignment (OCA) scheme for ad hoc TDD W-CDMA multi-hop cellular networks (MCN) to minimize packet delay. OCA can also be used as an un-biased tool for the comparison among different network topologies, network densities, and protocols. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a minimum delay optimal channel assignment is proposed in a multi-hop cellular environment.
Income Inequality and Income Segregation1

This article investigates how the growth in income inequality from 1970 to 2000 affected patterns of income segregation along three dimensions: the spatial segregation of poverty and affluence, race-specific patterns of income segregation, and the geographic scale of income segregation. The evidence reveals a robust relationship between income inequality and income segregation, an effect that is larger for black families than for white families. In addition, income inequality affects income segregation primarily through its effect on the large-scale spatial segregation of affluence rather than by affecting the spatial segregation of poverty or by altering small-scale patterns of income segregation.
Does Perceptual Learning Suffer from Retrograde Interference?

In motor learning, training a task B can disrupt improvements of performance of a previously learned task A, indicating that learning needs consolidation. An influential study suggested that this is the case also for visual perceptual learning [1]. Using the same paradigm, we failed to reproduce these results. Further experiments with bisection stimuli also showed no retrograde disruption from task B on task A. Hence, for the tasks tested here, perceptual learning does not suffer from retrograde interference.
Margdarshak: A Mobile Data Analytics based Commute Time Estimator cum Route Recommender

Waiting at traffic signals and getting stuck in traffic congestion eats a lot of time for a commuter in most of the metro cities of the world. Although there exists a large pool of navigation applications, but all of them turn out to be ineffective for dynamically finding out the best route under uncertainty. In this work, we present Margdarshak, a navigation system which utilizes the impact of congestion and wait time at traffic signals for estimating the travel time over a route. We collected a month-long traffic data from different routes at five various cities in India for analyzing the problem in detail. The evaluations performed over the system show that Margdarshak gives a mean estimation error of ±1.5$ minutes, and performs significantly better under uncertainty, compared to other state of the art navigation systems like Google Maps, Here Maps and Waze.