Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple Organ System Failure in Critically Ill Cirrhotic Patients

Objectives: The prognosis for critically ill cirrhotic patients depends on the extent of hepatic and extrahepatic organ dysfunction/failure. We hypothesize that a graded multiple organ dysfunction score, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), would provide more descriptive and discriminative power for predicting the hospital mortality for critically ill cirrhotic patients than the classical organ system failure (OSF) score, which defines organ failure as an all-or-none phenomenon. Methods: 160 patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis were admitted to the medical intensive care unit (ICU) from January 2002 to June 2003. Information considered necessary for calculating the Child-Pugh, OSF and SOFA scores on ICU admission was collected prospectively. Results: Hepatitis B infection was the most common cause of liver cirrhosis. A significantly progressive increase in mortality rate was associated with OSF and SOFA scores (p < 0.001). Close correlation between OSF and SOFA scores (p < 0.001) suggested that both systems evaluated the same event. In patients with similar organ dysfunction, the number of failed organ system(s) was significantly higher among non-survivors. However, no correlation existed between the SOFA scores and mortality rate in patients with the same OSF number. Meanwhile, both OSF and SOFA scores displayed excellent discriminative power (areas under receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) were 0.906 and 0.892, respectively), while Child-Pugh scores clearly performed more poorly (AUROC 0.712). Both OSF and SOFA demonstrate a good fit using the Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. Conclusions: Both OSF and SOFA scores are excellent tools for predicting prognosis for cirrhotic patients admitted to ICU. Both of them are superior to Child-Pugh score. Hospital mortality for critically ill cirrhotic patients occurs owing to severe failure of a relatively few organs, rather than because of an accumulation of mild dysfunction in many organ systems. Graded organ dysfunction scales provide no further benefit for predicting hospital mortality for critically ill cirrhotic patients.
A multi-building WiFi-based indoor positioning system

This paper presents the design and realization of multi-building indoor localization system. Designed system bases on WiFi access points infrastructure and consists of server which performs computations of users' locations. Several test has been performed to present results of localization using static and dynamic k-Nearest Neighbors algorithm, particle filter and Support Vector Machine classifier.
Analysis of Attenuation of HTS Strip Line Using Time-Dependent-Ginzburg-Landau Equation

Since the photon energy of the electromagnetic waves in the millimeter wave and the THz regions is not small enough compared with the superconducting energy gap of the HTS at 77 K, we analyzed the propagation properties of the HTS strip lines in the millimeter wave and the THz regions using the two dimensional time-dependent-Ginzburg-Landau equation. Since the crystal structure of the HTS was anisotropic, the attenuation of the HTS strip line made of c-axis oriented thin film was about 1000 dB/mum at 50 K. On the other hand, the attenuation of the HTS strip line made of a-axis oriented thin film was only 10 dB/m at 50 K.
Analysis and Design of a Millimeter-Wave Cavity-Backed Circularly Polarized Radiator Based on Fundamental Theory of Multi-Port Oscillators

This paper presents the design and implementation of a millimeter-wave fundamental frequency circularly polarized radiator, which employs a multi-port cavity as the core of a high-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> resonator, a power combiner, and an antenna. A general theory of multi-port oscillators—and in particular, the widely used circularly symmetric oscillator topologies—is presented, which quantitatively investigates and predicts all possible oscillation states, their associated modes of operation, and the oscillation stability. The outcomes of this theory are utilized to design a power-optimized eight-port rotationally symmetric radiator, excited at the oscillation state with a 45 phase difference between the adjacent ports, which, in turn, enables a high-efficiency circularly polarized radiation. Fabricated in 0.13-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> BiCMOS process, this cavity-backed circularly polarized radiator operates at the frequency of 114 GHz and achieves 14.2-dBm equivalent-isotropic-radiated power (EIRP), 5.2% dc-to-EIRP conversion efficiency, 8.2 dBm radiated power, 1.3% dc-to-radiation efficiency, and −99.3 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1-MHz offset, without using silicon lens.
Piegas: A Systems for Sentiment Analysis of Tweets in Portuguese

Mining posts in social networks has great potential for new applications. However, the huge amount of data produced every day in these networks makes it impractical for people to manually undertake the task. The Piegas system determines automatically the sentiments, or polarity, of tweets written in Portuguese about a topic of interest. Two main requirements directed the design and development of the system: (i) good usability and (ii) good precision in determining the sentiments expressed about the topic of interest. With the first requirement in mind, the system, developed using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript, has a clean interface to enter the keywords that describe the topic of interest and to present the results in several levels of detail. To meet the second requirement, the system uses a Naïve Bayes classifier to identify the sentiments of tweets, as the literature shows that this algorithm combines a good classificatory performance and low response time. The usability of the system was assessed using well-known ergonomic criteria, with satisfactory results. The systems also presented good results in experiments conducted to measure its precision in identifying the predominant polarity of tweets related to five different topics of interest.
Dengue in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: 2014 to 2016

The first autochthonous dengue case in Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Southern Brazil, occurred in 2007. In 2008 and 2009, only imported cases were reported in RS, but from 2010 to 2013, reports of autochthonous infections increased significantly. This study analyzes and discusses laboratory, demographic, and clinical data regarding dengue cases in RS, from 2014 to 2016. This study analyzed 13,420 serum samples from notified patients with suspicion of dengue fever in RS from 2014 to 2016. Seasonality of positive cases, viral serotypes, and clinical and epidemiological aspects were analyzed. There was no difference in gender (P = .4); dengue fever occurred mainly in adults, with similar distribution among age groups. The number of dengue virus (DENV) cases increased from 89 cases in 2014 to 2518 in 2016. Dengue virus 1 was the most prevalent circulating serotype during this period (97.5% of cases). Dengue virus infections show peaks in March and April (late summer and early autumn), after periods of high temperatures and rainfall. In 2014, dengue cases were concentrated in the northwestern and eastern regions of RS, and in 2015 and 2016, the northern region also confirmed a high number of cases. With increase in DENV circulation in RS, a rise in the number of autochthonous infections was also observed, mainly in highly urbanized areas. This study revealed that circulation of DENV in RS increased significantly in 2015 and 2016, with a rise in the number of autochthonous infections and cocirculation with Chikungunya and Zika viruses, recently introduced into RS.
Post-genomic approaches to understanding the mechanisms of environmentally induced phenotypic plasticity

SUMMARY Post-genomic techniques offer new and detailed insights into the mechanisms underpinning all biological processes, including phenotypic plasticity and environmentally relevant phenotypes. Although they require access to genomic resources it is now possible to create these for species of comparative or environmental interest even within a modest research project. Here we describe an open transcript screen for genes responding to environmental cold that might account for the acquired cold-specific phenotype in all its complex manifestations. Construction of a cDNA microarray led to a survey of transcript expression levels in seven tissues of carp, as a function of time, and three different extents of cooling. The resulting data delineated a common stress response found in all tissues that comprises genes involved in cellular homeostasis, including energy charge, ATP turnover, protein turnover and stress protein production. These genes respond to kinds of perturbation other than cold and probably form part of a more general stress response common to other species. We also defined tissue-specific response patterns of transcript regulation whose main characteristics were investigated by a profiling technique based on categorisation of gene function. These genes underpin the highly tissue-specific pattern of physiological adaptations observed in the cold-acclimated fish. As a result we have identified a large number of candidate gene targets with which to investigate adaptive responses to environmental challenge.
Inflammatory mechanisms in ischemic stroke: role of inflammatory cells

Inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke and other forms of ischemic brain injury. Experimentally and clinically, the brain responds to ischemic injury with an acute and prolonged inflammatory process, characterized by rapid activation of resident cells (mainly microglia), production of proinflammatory mediators, and infiltration of various types of inflammatory cells (including neutrophils, different subtypes of T cells, monocyte/macrophages, and other cells) into the ischemic brain tissue. These cellular events collaboratively contribute to ischemic brain injury. Despite intense investigation, there are still numerous controversies concerning the time course of the recruitment of inflammatory cells in the brain and their pathogenic roles in ischemic brain injury. In this review, we provide an overview of the time‐dependent recruitment of different inflammatory cells following focal cerebral I/R. We discuss how these cells contribute to ischemic brain injury and highlight certain recent findings and currently unanswered questions about inflammatory cells in the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke.
T-cell hybridoma-produced lymphokine that activates macrophages to suppress intracellular growth of Histoplasma capsulatum

Supernatants from concanavalin A-stimulated T-cell hybridomas activated macrophages to suppress the intracellular growth of Histoplasma capsulatum and to kill tumor cells. The supernatants had high interferon activity and were pH 2 sensitive and heat resistant. Gamma interferon is suggested to be among the active substances in the supernatants. Neither alpha interferon nor beta interferon activated macrophages for the Histoplasma growth inhibitory activity.
Reports A Flexible Approach to Parametric Inference in Nonlinear Time Series Models

Many structural break and regime-switching models have been used with macroeconomic and financial data. In this paper, we develop an extremely flexible parametric model that accommodates virtually any of these specifications—and does so in a simple way that allows for straightforward Bayesian inference. The basic idea underlying our model is that it adds two concepts to a standard state space framework. These ideas are ordering and distance. By ordering the data in different ways, we can accommodate a wide range of nonlinear time series models. By allowing the state equation variances to depend on the distance between observations, the parameters can evolve in a wide variety of ways, allowing for models that exhibit abrupt change as well as those that permit a gradual evolution of parameters. We show how our model will (approximately) nest almost every popular model in the regime-switching and structural break literatures. Bayesian econometric methods for inference in this model are developed. Because we stay within a state space framework, these methods are relatively straightforward and draw on the existing literature. We use artificial data to show the advantages of our approach and then provide two empirical illustrations involving the modeling of real GDP growth.
A Qualitative Inquiry into the Investment Decision Behaviour of the Malaysian Stock Market Investors

Purpose - The main purpose of this study was to examine the investment decision behaviour of retail investors in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach - The study adopted semi-structured interviews to solicit an understanding of six retail investors on investment decision behaviour in Malaysia. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data and verbatim texts were applied in discussing the emergent themes. Findings - The findings indicate that retail investors in Malaysia are patriotic in nature and their investment decisions are based on feeling of comfort or convention rather than quantitative analysis. They rely so much on their findings rather than third party’s views for making investment decisions. They were influenced by the psychological biases as they herd on the information. Challenges are solved through experience and they believe that proper understanding of the financial and economic settings of the country can enhance better investment decision making. Research limitations/implications - A more detailed investigation on the investors’ behaviour with more samples may expand our understanding of this issue. Future studies need to examine the investment decision behaviour with more samples. Practical implications - Firstly, it will prepare hit and run investors to be more ready to remain in the market and improve their skills on how to make sound investment decisions. Secondly, it helps the investors to know that knowledge of traditional finance theory is not sufficient to excel in stock market and hence, they need to know more about behavioural finance. Thirdly, investors are exposed to various reasons why investment decisions deviate from expected and different means of solving the challenges faced in making investment decision within the Malaysian context. Fourthly, investors are reminded that understanding the financial settings before investing is essential. Finally, policy makers in stock market are able to understand the retail investors’ behaviour. Originality/value - This study examines the experience and prospect to remain as stock market investors, their priorities in selecting the right company for investment purposes, the kind of information seeking from third parties, the challenges faced by them and other important considerations in investment decisions. These have never been examined together in this way in investigation of retail investors’ investment behaviour.
Diversity, Composition, and Geographical Distribution of Microbial Communities in California Salt Marsh Sediments

ABSTRACT The Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicators Research Consortium seeks to develop bioindicators of toxicant-induced stress and bioavailability for wetland biota. Within this framework, the effects of environmental and pollutant variables on microbial communities were studied at different spatial scales over a 2-year period. Six salt marshes along the California coastline were characterized using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis. Additionally, 27 metals, six currently used pesticides, total polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlordanes, nonachlors, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane, and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene were analyzed. Sampling was performed over large (between salt marshes), medium (stations within a marsh), and small (different channel depths) spatial scales. Regression and ordination analysis suggested that the spatial variation in microbial communities exceeded the variation attributable to pollutants. PLFA analysis and TRFLP canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) explained 74 and 43% of the variation, respectively, and both methods attributed 34% of the variation to tidal cycles, marsh, year, and latitude. After accounting for spatial variation using partial CCA, we found that metals had a greater effect on microbial community composition than organic pollutants had. Organic carbon and nitrogen contents were positively correlated with PLFA biomass, whereas total metal concentrations were positively correlated with biomass and diversity. Higher concentrations of heavy metals were negatively correlated with branched PLFAs and positively correlated with methyl- and cyclo-substituted PLFAs. The strong relationships observed between pollutant concentrations and some of the microbial indicators indicated the potential for using microbial community analyses in assessments of the ecosystem health of salt marshes.
Nasal T/NK cell lymphomas commonly express perforin and Fas ligand: important mediators of tissue damage

Two molecular mechanisms of T/natural killer (NK) cell‐mediated cytotoxicity, one perforin based and the other Fas based, have been demonstrated, and both systems induce cytotoxicity in the target cells. The Fas‐based mechanism involves the transducing molecule Fas and its ligand (FasL). In addition, perforin and/or FasL are also expressed in the cytotoxic T/NK cells. This study was thus designed to investigate the Fas and perforin pathways of the cytotoxic T/NK lymphoma cells in the nasal cavity.
Analysis and design of class E amplifier with shunt capacitance composed of nonlinear and linear capacitances

The Class E amplifier requires exact shunt capacitance to achieve optimum operation. Most Class E amplifiers are usually constructed by adding an external capacitor to the output capacitance of the power transistor in order to obtain the total required shunt capacitance. The output capacitance of the power transistor is nonlinear and the external capacitance is linear. Therefore, neither design equations for linear shunt capacitance nor the design equations for nonlinear shunt capacitance can be used in most designs, especially when the two are comparable. This paper presents an analysis and a design procedure for the Class E amplifier with a shunt capacitance composed of both a transistor nonlinear output capacitance and a linear external capacitance for the duty cycle D=0.5. Because the design equations do not have analytical forms, this paper provides a table and figures, which show results of numerical analysis. The Class E amplifier can be designed using these table and figures. A design example is given to illustrate the design procedure. Simulation results of the example circuit with PSpice and experimental results are presented to verify the theoretical results.
Scalable FPGA graph model to detect routing faults

The SRAM cells that form the configuration memory of an SRAM-based FPGA make such FPGAs particularly vulnerable to soft errors. A soft error occurs when ionizing radiation corrupts the data stored in a circuit. The error persists until new data is written. Soft errors have long been recognized as a potential problem as radiation can come from a variety of sources. This paper presents an FPGA fault model focusing on routing aspects. A graph model of SRAM nodes behavior in case of fault, starting from netlist description of well known FPGA models, is presented. It is also performed a classification of possible logical effects of a soft error in the configuration bit controlling, providing statistics on the possible numbers of faults. Finally it is reported the definition of fault metrics computed on a set of complex benchmarks proving the effectiveness of our approach.
Three phase LCL filter and transformer with integrated magnetics for grid connected converters

Many grid connected power electronics systems need a dc/ac or ac/dc conversion stage. The LCL filter topology is commonly used to filter the harmonic content of the grid side current. Moreover, the use of a transformer provides galvanic isolation, and an extra freedom degree to adjust the output voltage level.The magnetic components often represent a significant part of the overall cost and size of the power converter, so an optimized design of the magnetic components is desirable. Magnetic integration techniques allow integrating several magnetic components in the same core, so they allow reducing the overall size and even increasing the energy efficiency in some cases. This work proposes a solution to integrate a three phase LCL filter and a transformer in a single core. The filter and the transformer can be designed by means of simple analytical equations. In addition, the windings of the proposed solution are split in sub-windings in order to allow designing the integrated components independently.
HIV‐1 integrase trafficking in S. cerevisiae: a useful model to dissect the microtubule network involvement of viral protein nuclear import

Intracellular transport of karyophilic cargos comprises translocation to the nuclear envelope and subsequent nuclear import. Small cargos such as isolated proteins can reach the nuclear envelope by diffusion but movement of larger structures depends on active translocation, typically using microtubules. Centripetal transport ends at the perinuclear microtubule organizing centre called the spindle pole body (SPB) in yeast. Previously, we found by two hybrids that the karyophilic lentiviral‐encoded integrase (IN) interacts with two yeast microtubule‐associated proteins, Dyn2p (dynein light chain protein) and Stu2p, a centrosomal protein (de Soultrait et al., 2002 ). Thus, to investigate the hinge between cytoplasmic retrograde transport and nuclear import, we decided to analyse HIV‐1 IN trafficking in yeast as the model, since each of these biological mechanisms is evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotic cells. Here, we found an accumulation of IN at the SPB in yeast via Stu2p colocalization. Disruption of the microtubule network by nocodazole or IN expression in a dynein 2‐deficient yeast strain prevented IN accumulation in the nuclear periphery and additionally inhibited IN transport into the nucleus. By mutagenesis, we showed that trafficking of IN towards the SPB requires the C‐terminus of the molecule. Taking our findings together, we proposed a model in which IN nuclear import seems to depend on an essential intermediate step in the SPB. We found that Dyn2p and Stu2p play an important role in driving IN toward MTOC and could optimize nuclear entry of the retroviral enzyme. Our results suggest a new hypothesis in keeping with the current HIV‐1 intracellular trafficking model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.