Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Usefulness and Utility of NACO Regime in the Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Pilot Study

Introduction: Treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has been made easy for field workers due to syndromic approach. The etiological agent responsible for different STI syndromes needs to be validated from time to time so as to guide the therapeutic regimen. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the etiological agent for STI syndromes and correlate the syndromic diagnosis with etiological diagnosis. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted over 9 months in all patients attending the STI and Gynaecology Outpatient Department. Syndromic diagnosis was done by STI-trained medical officer of respective clinic. Sample was collected for etiological diagnosis and subjected to relevant investigations. Data were analyzed by applying statistical methods. Results: Among 308 patients (male:female = 1:3.5), no syndromic diagnosis could be made in 11 cases (all females and had premalignant changes on Pap smear). In 68 patients (22.08%), no etiological diagnosis could be arrived at (mostly genital ulcer disease [GUD]-herpetic [H] and vaginal discharge). In cervical discharge syndrome, six patients (16.7%) showed gonococcus. In GUD-H syndrome, 37 patients (27.027%) were tested positive. In GUD-nonherpetic syndrome, three patients (33.33%) were syphilis, granuloma inguinale, and chancroid (1 each). In urethral discharge syndrome, etiology could not be found in 33 cases (45.45%). In vaginal discharge syndrome (n = 217), etiologies were overlapping as follows: trichomonas vaginalis (76.04%), bacterial vaginosis (40%), gonococcus (24%), and undiagnosed (6.5%). Conclusion: The present tool for validation of GUD-H can validate only 27% of cases. Overlap of etiologies is mostly common in vaginal discharge syndrome, wherein malignancies and premalignant conditions are overtreated with kits. Validation can be done only in two-third of cases with the available resources. However, syndromic approach provides the opportunity of treating STI without delay.
Injecting Pedagogical Constraints into Sequential Learning Pattern Mining

Data mining techniques have been applied to educational research in various ways. Given a large sample of learning logs, it is common for sequential mining to return a large number of patterns, only a portion of which are educationally meaningful. In this paper, we proposed a constraint-based pattern filtering method to help researchers discover meaningful, interpretable, and relevant patterns by injecting research contexts and domain knowledge into the pattern filtering process. We discussed six different types of constraints researchers can use to further extract meaningful or relevant patterns for pedagogical decision-making and illustrated the viability and usefulness of such constraint-based pattern filtering mechanisms with nStudy logs.
The Secreted Aspartyl Proteinases Sap1 and Sap2 Cause Tissue Damage in an In Vitro Model of Vaginal Candidiasis Based on Reconstituted Human Vaginal Epithelium

ABSTRACT Secreted aspartyl proteinases (Saps) contribute to the ability of Candida albicans to cause mucosal and disseminated infections. A model of vaginal candidiasis based on reconstituted human vaginal epithelium (RHVE) was used to study the expression and role of these C. albicans proteinases during infection and tissue damage of vaginal epithelium. Colonization of the RHVE by C. albicans SC5314 did not cause any visible epithelial damage 6 h after inoculation, although expression of SAP2, SAP9, and SAP10 was detected by reverse transcriptase PCR. However, significant epithelial damage was observed after 12 h, concomitant with the additional expression of SAP1, SAP4, and SAP5. Additional transcripts of SAP6 and SAP7 were detected at a later stage of the artificial infection (24 h). Similar SAP expression profiles were observed in three samples isolated from human patients with vaginal candidiasis. In experimental infection, secretion of antigens Sap1 to Sap6 by C. albicans was confirmed at the ultrastructural level by using polyclonal antisera raised against Sap1 to Sap6. Addition of the aspartyl proteinase inhibitors pepstatin A and the human immunodeficiency virus proteinase inhibitors ritonavir and amprenavir strongly reduced the tissue damage of the vaginal epithelia by C. albicans cells. Furthermore, SAP null mutants lacking either SAP1 or SAP2 had a drastically reduced potential to cause tissue damage even though SAP3, SAP4, and SAP7 were up-regulated in these mutants. In contrast the vaginopathic potential of mutants lacking SAP3 or SAP4 to SAP6 was not reduced compared to wild-type cells. These data provide further evidence for a crucial role of Sap1 and Sap2 in C. albicans vaginal infections.
A CMOS-compatible chip-to-chip 3D integration platform

In this paper, a CMOS-compatible chip-to-chip 3D integration platform will be presented. The developed technology allows reconstituting a wafer from diced and thinned chips. Then, chip-to-chip bonding and TSV fabrication steps are accomplished in wafer-level. A parylene deposition technique developed throughout this research provides a very flat wafer surface after chip embedding, thus, photoresist spin-coating and patterning can easily be performed in wafer-level. For a full-wafer exposure by a mask aligner, 5μm mask-to-chip alignment accuracy is achieved in average. In the preliminary tests, two dummy chips are successfully bonded, and TSVs with parylene sidewall passivation and electroplated Cu metallization are fabricated. The daisy-chain resistance measurements demonstrate average TSV resistance of 0. 5Ω. The proposed technique introduces a simple and low-cost solution not only for 3D integration technology but also for applications involving CMOS post-processing in general, especially when the full-wafer CMOS is not affordable or not possible to post-process due to compatibility issues.
Analysis of Trunk Movement in Orthotic Gait of Paraplegics

In an orthotic gait of paraplegics, a leg restriction and motor paralysis result in a significant loading. In this study, we address to quantify a relationship between the loading, leg restriction and motor paralysis, and analyze lumbar joint trajectories in the orthotic gait of paraplegic subjects and the ordinary and orthotic gaits of a normal subject using an inverted pendulum model. For the leg restriction, the trajectories are located anterior to an equilibrium point of the inverted pendulum, and the loading is higher due to the influence of gravity moment. Comparing the orthotic gait kinematics of paraplegic with that of normal in the horizontal plane, the lumbar joint trajectory in the paraplegic subjects was rectilinear shape, while that in the normal subject was curved in the direction to the equilibrium point. The loading is lower in the curved trajectory than in the straight trajectory because of the trade-off between gravity and inertia. These results suggest that the leg restriction and motor paralysis lead to the increase of the distance between the trunk movement and the equilibrium point of an inverted pendulum, which causes significant loading in the orthotic gate of paraplegics
The role of alcohol and drugs in triggering criminal violence: a case-crossover study*.

AIMS To investigate the triggering effects of alcohol, illegal substances and major classes of prescribed psychotropic drugs on criminal violence. DESIGN A case-crossover design, using each subject as its own control. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A consecutive sample of 133 violent offenders was recruited from a forensic psychiatric evaluation unit and a national prison evaluation unit in Sweden during 2002-03. Measurements Offenders were assessed with structured interviews. Risk estimates were based on hazard periods of 24 hours. We used standard Mantel-Haenszel methods for statistical analyses. FINDINGS A 13.2-fold increase of risk of violence [95% confidence interval (CI): 8.2-21.2] was found within 24 hours of alcohol consumption. This increase in violence risk was similar among individuals combining alcohol with benzodiazepines [Relative risk (RR) = 13.2, 95% CI: 4.9-35.3]. Use of benzodiazepines alone in regular doses (RR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2-0.5) or antidepressants [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or tricyclics] (RR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.3-0.8) was associated with a lowered risk for violence. CONCLUSIONS This study confirmed that alcohol is a strong trigger of criminal violence. Benzodiazepines in combination with alcohol caused no further increase of violence risk. Benzodiazepines in regular doses and antidepressants may inhibit violence, but further studies are needed to verify causality. The case-crossover method can contribute to research on the proximal causes of criminal violence.
Facial Action Unit Recognition Using Recurrent Neural Networks

An electrical power cable includes plastic-insulated conductors and a single wire, which is enveloped by a lengthwise incoming insulating tape and is twisted together with the conductors, all of which are surrounded by a common sheath. The conductors and the single wire are twisted together with alternating stroke directions (SZ), and the tape is loosely placed around the single wire in the form of a strand with opposing edges of the tape having alternating directions of rotation along the length of the strand.
California drought worst in the past millennium

Climate Change! [Figure][1] The impact of drought on Lake Mead—pointer to California's future? PHOTOS: © JOHN LOCHER/AP/CORBIS; © THOMAS MARENT/VISUALS UNLIMITED/CORBIS Since 2012, California has been suffering a severe drought. Griffin and Anchukaitis use tree-ring records of past
A Formalization of Fingerprinting Techniques

Fingerprinting techniques aim to identify objects such as devices, data, users, or even attacks, based on distinctive characteristics. In the context of computer network security, these techniques have been proposed and successfully applied in different application scenarios and with different goals in mind, e.g., to detect attacks or even to perform attacks. However, the related works in this field do not follow a consistent definition and notation of fingerprinting. Hence, central concepts such as uniqueness are mistakenly confused. In this paper, we tackle this issue by proposing a novel formalization approach of fingerprinting techniques. Our formal model is based on clear mathematical definitions and centered around the concept of a fingerprinting feature as a distinctive characteristic. We apply our formal model in two different application scenarios of remarkable research interest to illustrate its validity, flexibility and universality.
Adaptive Dose Selection Using Efficacy-Toxicity Trade-Offs: Illustrations and Practical Considerations

The purpose of this paper is to describe and illustrate an outcome-adaptive Bayesian procedure, proposed by Thall and Cook (2004), for assigning doses of an experimental treatment to successive cohorts of patients. The method uses elicited (efficacy, toxicity) probability pairs to construct a family of trade-off contours that are used to quantify the desirability of each dose. This provides a basis for determining a best dose for each cohort. The method combines the goals of conventional Phase I and Phase II trials, and thus may be called a “Phase I-II” design. We first give a general review of the probability model and dose-finding algorithm. We next describe an application to a trial of a biologic agent for treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia, including a computer simulation study to assess the design's average behavior. To illustrate how the method may work in practice, we present a cohort-by-cohort example of a particular trial. We close with a discussion of some practical issues that may arise during implementation.
Performance analysis of spectrum sharing-based multi-hop decode-and-forward relay networks under interference constraints

The closed-form expressions for outage probability, bit error rate, and ergodic capacity of spectrum sharing-based multi-hop decode-and-forward (DF) relay networks in non-identical Rayleigh fading channels are derived. Utilizing these precise and tractable analytical formulas, we can study the impact of key network parameters on the performance of cognitive multi-hop relay networks under interference constraints. The analytical expressions are verified by Monte-Carlo simulations.
Future trends in the prevalence of severe activity limitations among older adults in Europe: a cross-national population study using EU-SILC

Objective To project the proportion of population 65+ years with severe long-term activity limitations from 2017 to 2047. Design Large population study. Setting Population living in private households of the European Union (EU) and neighbouring countries. Participants Participants from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions aged 55 years and older and living in one of 26 EU and neighbouring countries, who answered the health section of the questionnaire. Outcome measures Prevalence of severe long-term activity limitations of particular subpopulations (ie, 55+, 65+, 75+ and 85+ years) by sex and country. Results We find a huge variation in the prevalence of self-reported severe long-term limitations across Europe for both sexes. However, in 2017, about 20% of the female population aged 65 years and above and about 16% of their male counterparts are expected to report severe long-term activity limitations after accounting for differences in reporting. Accounting for cultural differences in reporting, we expect that European countries will have about 21% (decile 1: 19.5%; decile 9: 22.9%) of female and about 16.8% (decile 1: 15.4%; decile 9: 18.1%) of male 65+ years population with severe long-term activity limitations by 2047. Conclusions Overall, despite the expected increase of life expectancy in European countries, our results suggest almost constant shares of older adults with severe long-term activity limitations within the next 30 years.
Molecular and Cellular Pathobiology CollagenProlyl HydroxylasesAreEssential for BreastCancer Metastasis

The presence of hypoxia and fibrosis within the primary tumor are two major risk factors for metastasis of human breast cancer. In this study, we demonstrate that hypoxia-inducible factor 1 activates the transcription of genes encoding collagen prolyl hydroxylases that are critical for collagen deposition by breast cancer cells. We show that expression of collagen prolyl hydroxylases promotes cancer cell alignment along collagen fibers, resulting in enhanced invasion and metastasis to lymph nodes and lungs. Finally, we establish the prognostic significance of collagen prolyl hydroxylase mRNA expression in human breast cancer biopsies and show that ethyl 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate, a prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor, decreases tumor fibrosis and metastasis in a mouse model of breast cancer. Cancer Res; 73(11); 3285–96.
On the Local Nature of Sybil Defense in Online Social Networks

This paper explores the fundamental limits of using only the structure of social networks to defend against sybil attacks. We derive the number of attack edges needed to foil sybil defenses based on each of the known statistical properties of social graphs: our results suggest that it may be impossible to use this properties to identify with high probability both sybil and honest nodes. We then explore a more modest goal for social defenses: to use local graph properties, such as community structure, to provide an honest node with a way to white-list a set of trustworthy nodes. While recent literature claims that any community detection algorithm may prove equally useful, we find that the choice of community detection protocol can dramatically affect whether sybil nodes are successfully kept from being white-listed. We demonstrate both analytically and experimentally that Local Page Rank can very effectively exploit a community’s local properties to keep sybil nodes at bay.
Research on power coordinated control strategy of wind turbine-based DC microgrid under various modes

Power balance of a DC microgrid is an important guarantee for the safety and stability of power network. To have an integrative consideration of DC microgrid and capacity of converters, the operation of DC microgrid is divided into four modes, which contains the full rated converter induction generator, storage batteries and AC/DC loads. The four modes include grid-connected operation, current-limited operation, short-time failure operation and island operation. According to the four modes, a power coordination control strategy based on multivariable is proposed. The working operation of each converter can be automatically coordinated by the proposed control strategy, according to the DC voltage variation, the state of charge of battery and the current of grid connected converter. Then, the active power of DC microgrid can be balanced under any working condition to maintain the voltage stability of DC bus. Finally, MATLAB/Simulink simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed control strategy.
I'm There! The influence of virtual reality and mixed reality environments combined with two different navigation methods on presence

For various VR/MR/AR applications, such as virtual usability studies, it is very important that the participants have the feeling that they are really in the environment. This feeling of “being” in a mediated environment is described as presence. Two important factors that influence presence are the level of immersion and the navigation method. We developed two navigation methods to simulate natural walking using a Wii Balance Board and a Kinect Sensor. In this preliminary study we examined the effects of these navigation methods and the level of immersion on the participants' perceived presence in a 2×2 factorial between-subjects study with 32 participants in two different VEs (Powerwall and Mixed-Reality-See-Through-Glasses). The results indicate that reported presence is higher for the Kinect navigation and Powerwall for some facets of presence.
Changes in Peak Airflow Measurement During Maximal Cough After Vocal Fold Augmentation in Patients With Glottic Insufficiency

Importance Compromised cough effectiveness is correlated with dysphagia and aspiration. Glottic insufficiency likely yields decreased cough strength and effectiveness. Although vocal fold augmentation favorably affects voice and likely improves cough strength, few data exist to support this hypothesis. Objective To assess whether vocal fold augmentation improves peak airflow measurements during maximal-effort cough following augmentation. Design, Setting, and Participants This case series study was conducted in a tertiary, academic laryngology clinic. Participants included 14 consecutive individuals with glottic insufficiency due to vocal fold paralysis, which was diagnosed via videostrobolaryngoscopy as a component of routine clinical examination. All participants who chose to proceed with augmentation were considered for the study whether office-based or operative augmentation was planned. Postaugmentation data were collected only at the first follow-up visit, which was targeted for 14 days after augmentation but varied on the basis of participant availability. Data were collected from June 5, 2014, to October 1, 2015. Data analysis took place between October 2, 2015, and March 3, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures Peak airflow during maximal volitional cough was quantified before and after vocal fold augmentation. Participants performed maximal coughs, and peak expiratory flow during the maximal cough was captured according to American Thoracic Society guidelines. Results Among the 14 participants (7 men and 7 women), the mean (SD) age was 62 (18) years. Three types of injectable material were used for vocal fold augmentation: carboxymethylcellulose in 5 patients, hyaluronic acid in 5, and calcium hydroxylapatite in 4. Following augmentation, cough strength increased in 11 participants and decreased cough strength was observed in 3. Peak airflow measurements during maximal cough varied from a decrease of 40 L/min to an increase of 150 L/min following augmentation. When preaugmentation and postaugmentation peak airflow measurements were compared, the median improvement was 50 L/min (95% CI, 10-75 L/min; P = .01). Immediate peak airflow measurements during cough collected within 30 minutes of augmentation varied when compared with measurements collected at follow-up (103-380 vs 160-390 L/min). Conclusions and Relevance Peak airflow during maximal cough may improve with vocal fold augmentation. Additional assessment and measurements are needed to further delineate which patients will benefit most regarding their cough from vocal fold augmentation.
Regional transarterial hypothermic infusion in combination with endovascular thrombectomy in acute ischaemic stroke with cerebral main arterial occlusion: protocol to investigate safety of the clinical trial

Introduction Acute cerebral ischaemia with main cerebral artery occlusion requires treatment with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator administration and/or endovascular thrombectomy. However, some patients fail to recover even after recanalisation because of ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. We hypothesised that regional transarterial hypothermic infusion would be effective for patients with I/R injury. The aim of this study is to validate the safety of this procedure. Methods and analysis This is a clinical exploratory study to evaluate safety of regional transarterial hypothermic infusion in combination with endovascular thrombectomy. Patients with acute ischaemic stroke and a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score of 5–29 who require endovascular thrombectomy are eligible for the study. When no improvement in NIHSS score after the recanalisation is achieved by thrombectomy, cold saline (15°C) will be administered through a microcatheter located in the ipsilateral internal carotid artery. The primary endpoints of this study are mortality and morbidity. The secondary endpoint is deleterious effects on clinical data such as symptoms, radiographic findings and physiological data. The primary and secondary endpoints will be accumulated as case series because this study will be conducted on a small sample of seven patients. Ethics and dissemination All protocols and the informed consent form comply with the Ethics Guideline for Clinical Research (Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). Ethics review committees at the Hokkaido University Hospital approved the study protocols. The results of the study will be disseminated at several research conferences and also contributed to peer-reviewed journals. The study will be implemented and reported in line with the SPIRIT statement. Trial registration number UMIN Clinical Trails Registry (UMIN000018255); pre-results
Manifold HLDA and its application to robust speech recognition

A manifold heteroscedastic linear discriminant analysis (MHLDA) which removes environmental information explicitly from the useful information for discrimination is proposed. Usually, a feature parameter used in pattern recognition involves categorical information and also environmental information. A well-known HLDA tries to extract useful information (UI) to represent categorical information from the feature parameter. However, environmental information is still remained in the UI parameters extracted by HLDA, and it causes slight degradation in performance. This is because HLDA does not handle the environmental information explicitly. The proposed MHLDA also tries to extract UI like HLDA, but it handles environmental information explicitly. This handling makes MHLDA-based UI parameter less inﬂuenced of environment. However, as compensation, in MHLDA, the categorical information is little bit destroyed. In this paper, we try to combine HLDA-based UI and MHLDA-based UI for pattern recognition, and draw beneﬁt of both parameters. Experimental results show the effectiveness of this combining method.