Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Yersinia pestis: the Natural History of Plague

The Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis is responsible for deadly plague, a zoonotic disease established in stable foci in the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia. Its persistence in the environment relies on the subtle balance between Y. pestis-contaminated soils, burrowing and nonburrowing mammals exhibiting variable degrees of plague susceptibility, and their associated fleas. Transmission from one host to another relies mainly on infected flea bites, inducing typical painful, enlarged lymph nodes referred to as buboes, followed by septicemic dissemination of the pathogen. SUMMARY The Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis is responsible for deadly plague, a zoonotic disease established in stable foci in the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia. Its persistence in the environment relies on the subtle balance between Y. pestis-contaminated soils, burrowing and nonburrowing mammals exhibiting variable degrees of plague susceptibility, and their associated fleas. Transmission from one host to another relies mainly on infected flea bites, inducing typical painful, enlarged lymph nodes referred to as buboes, followed by septicemic dissemination of the pathogen. In contrast, droplet inhalation after close contact with infected mammals induces primary pneumonic plague. Finally, the rarely reported consumption of contaminated raw meat causes pharyngeal and gastrointestinal plague. Point-of-care diagnosis, early antibiotic treatment, and confinement measures contribute to outbreak control despite residual mortality. Mandatory primary prevention relies on the active surveillance of established plague foci and ectoparasite control. Plague is acknowledged to have infected human populations for at least 5,000 years in Eurasia. Y. pestis genomes recovered from affected archaeological sites have suggested clonal evolution from a common ancestor shared with the closely related enteric pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and have indicated that ymt gene acquisition during the Bronze Age conferred Y. pestis with ectoparasite transmissibility while maintaining its enteric transmissibility. Three historic pandemics, starting in 541 AD and continuing until today, have been described. At present, the third pandemic has become largely quiescent, with hundreds of human cases being reported mainly in a few impoverished African countries, where zoonotic plague is mostly transmitted to people by rodent-associated flea bites.
Determinant Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction among Filipinos in Lazada Online Shopping during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

With the rise of online shopping during COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, it is important to understand the buying decision among Filipinos. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting customer satisfaction in online shopping. A valid response of 251 Filipinos participated in the empirical study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to validate the measurement model and to test the causal relationship in the model. The result revealed that products/services, pricing, consumer, and technological were significantly influenced the consumer buying decision which also affect customer satisfaction. Surprisingly, operational was found not significant as a predictor for buying decisions and customer satisfaction. The SEM derived from the study could be beneficial to e-commerce platforms and businesses which can contribute to a better understanding of the determinants that affect buying decision and customer satisfaction.
Regulation of Fetal Genes by Transitions among RNA-Binding Proteins during Liver Development

Transcripts of alpha-fetoprotein (Afp), H19, and insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2) genes are highly expressed in mouse fetal liver, but decrease drastically during maturation. While transcriptional regulation of these genes has been well studied, the post-transcriptional regulation of their developmental decrease is poorly understood. Here, we show that shortening of poly(A) tails and subsequent RNA decay are largely responsible for the postnatal decrease of Afp, H19, and Igf2 transcripts in mouse liver. IGF2 mRNA binding protein 1 (IMP1), which regulates stability and translation efficiency of target mRNAs, binds to these fetal liver transcripts. When IMP1 is exogenously expressed in mouse adult liver, fetal liver transcripts show higher expression and possess longer poly(A) tails, suggesting that IMP1 stabilizes them. IMP1 declines concomitantly with fetal liver transcripts as liver matures. Instead, RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that promote RNA decay, such as cold shock domain containing protein E1 (CSDE1), K-homology domain splicing regulatory protein (KSRP), and CUG-BP1 and ETR3-like factors 1 (CELF1), bind to 3′ regions of fetal liver transcripts. These data suggest that transitions among RBPs associated with fetal liver transcripts shift regulation from stabilization to decay, leading to a postnatal decrease in those fetal transcripts.
Association of BglII Polymorphism in ITGA2 and (894G/T and −786T/C) Polymorphisms in eNOS Gene With Stroke Susceptibility in Tunisian Patients α2 Gene Polymorphism in α2β1 Integrin and eNOS Gene Variants and Stroke

Background: This study investigated the association of BglII polymorphism in α2β1 integrin gene (ITGA2) and eNOS (894G/T and –786T/C) polymorphisms with ischemic stroke (IS) in Tunisian patients. Methods: The study comprised 210 patients with IS and 208 controls. The genotypes of the BglII polymorphism in ITGA2 and eNOS (894G/T and –786T/C) polymorphisms were determined using the PCR-RFLP. The χ2 test was used and the genotype data comparison included heterozygous groups. Haplotype estimation and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed to analyze the significance of polymorphisms. Results: The genotype distribution of the BglII polymorphism was significantly different between cases and controls (p < 0.004). This polymorphism was associated with the risk of IS (OR = 3.38, p < 0.001) for the BglII(+/+) genotype. Likewise, the genotype distributions of eNOS (894G/T and –786T/C) polymorphisms were significantly different between the two groups (p < 0.005 and p < 0.01, respectively). The 894G/T polymorphism increased the risk of IS for the TT genotype (OR = 2.23, p < 0.008) and the GT genotype (OR = 1.74, p < 0.009). In addition, the –786T/C variant in the eNOS gene was a risk factor for IS for CC homozygous (OR = 2.52, p < 0.005). T-C Haplotype (OR = 3.06) from combination of the eNOS (894G/T and –786T/C) and T-C-BglII(+) haplotype (OR = 2.76) from combination of eNOS and ITGA2 polymorphisms represented high risks for IS. Conclusions: This study suggests that the BglII variant in ITGA2 is associated with IS susceptibility. Furthermore, the 894G/T and –786T/C polymorphisms in the eNOS gene may be considered as genetic risk factors for IS in the Tunisian population.
Assessment of Machine Learning to Estimate the Individual Treatment Effect of Corticosteroids in Septic Shock

Key Points Question Can machine learning–derived estimated individual corticosteroid therapy effect yield better results than treat all or treat no one strategies in adults with septic shock? Findings In this cohort study using individual patient data from 2548 patients in 4 multicenter trials, the individual estimation-based treatment strategy always yielded a positive net benefit. Compared with individual estimation-based treatment rule, strategies to treat all patients or to treat no one were associated with a worse outcome. Meaning These findings suggest that the decision to treat patients with septic shock with hydrocortisone or hydrocortisone and fludrocortisone should be based on the estimated individual treatment effect as derived from machine learning.
EPR Powder Spectra of Low-Symmetric Mn2+ Complexes in Aragonite Lattice

Electron paramagnetic resonance of Mn2+ ions in polycrystalline samples of natural aragonite containing about 100 ppm Mn impurities is studied at X- and K-band. The parameters of the rhombic spin Hamiltonian estimated from the “powder” spectrum are found to be in a good agreement with the parameters obtained with single crystals. It is shown that satisfactorily accurate values of the spin Hamiltonian parameters can be extracted without the use of a simulating method, even in the case of the rather complex “powder” spectrum recorded at X-band. Die paramagnetische Elektronenresonanz von Mn2+-Ionen in naturlichem polykristallinen Aragonit (ungefahr 100 ppm Manganverunreinigungen) wird im X- und im K-Band untersucht. Es stellt sich heraus, das die aus dem “Pulver”-Spektrum abgeschatzten Parameter des rhombischen Spin-Hamiltonoperators weitgehend mit den Parametern ubereinstimmten, welche sich aus den mit Einkristallen erhaltenen Spektren ergeben. Es wird gezeigt, das ausreichende Genauigkeit der Parameterwerte des Spin-Hamilton-Operators ohne Simulationsverfahren erreicht werden kann selbst wenn das verhaltnismasig komplizierte „Pulver”-Spektrum im X-Band registriert wird.
Copper oxide coated D-shaped optical fibers for the development of LMR refractometers

Lossy mode resonance (LMR) based refractometers obtained by means of copper oxide thin-films fabricated onto side-polished (D-shaped) are presented in this work. The high refractive index of copper oxide combined with the propagation mode isolation capabilities of D-shaped fibers allows for the observation of narrow (30 nm) and high sensitive (10,336 nm per refractive index unit) LMRs, which could enable to improve the performance of LMR-based refractometers as well as provide an alternative label-free sensing platform for LMR-based sensors.
Maple syrup urine disease: Clinical outcomes, metabolic control, and genotypes in a screened population after four decades of newborn bloodspot screening in the Republic of Ireland

Since 1972, 18 patients (10 females/8 males) have been detected by newborn bloodspot screening (NBS) with neonatal‐onset maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) in Ireland. Patients were stratified into three clusters according to clinical outcome at the time of data collection, including developmental, clinical, and IQ data. A fourth cluster comprised of two early childhood deaths; a third patient died as an adult. We present neuroimaging and electroencephalography together with clinical and biochemical data. Incidence of MSUD (1972‐2018) was 1 in 147 975. Overall good clinical outcomes were achieved with 15/18 patients alive and with essentially normal functioning (with only the lowest performing cluster lying beyond a single SD on their full scale intelligence quotient). Molecular genetic analysis revealed genotypes hitherto not reported, including a possible digenic inheritance state for the BCKDHA and DBT genes in one family. Treatment has been based on early implementation of emergency treatment, diet, close monitoring, and even dialysis in the setting of acute metabolic decompensation. A plasma leucine ≥400 μmol/L (outside therapeutic range) was more frequently observed in infancy or during adolescence, possibly due to infections, hormonal changes, or noncompliance. Children require careful management during metabolic decompensations in early childhood, and this represented a key risk period in our cohort. A high level of metabolic control can be achieved through diet with early implementation of a “sick day” regime and, in some cases, dialysis as a rescue therapy. The Irish cohort, despite largely classical phenotypes, achieved good outcomes in the NBS era, underlining the importance of early diagnosis and skilled multidisciplinary team management.
Photorespiration is Essential for the Protection of the Photosynthetic Apparatus of C3 Plants Against Photoinactivation Under Sunlight

: CO2 assimilation, transpiration and modulated chlorophyll fluorescence of leaves of Chenopodium bonus-henricus (L.) were measured in the laboratory and, at a high altitude location, in the field. Direct calibration of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters against carbon assimilation in the presence of 1 or 0.5% oxygen (plus CO2) proved necessary to calculate electron transport under photorespiratory conditions in individual experiments. Even when stomata were open in the field, total electron transport was two to three times higher in sunlight than indicated by net carbon gain. It decreased when stomata were blocked by submerging leaves under water or by forcing them to close in air by cutting the petiole. Even under these conditions, electron transport behind closed stomata approached 10 nmol electrons m−2 leaf area s−1 at temperatures between 25 and 30 °C. No photoinactivation of photosystem II was indicated by fluorescence analysis after a day's exposure to full sunlight. Only when leaves were submerged in ice was appreciable photoinactivation noticeable after 4 h exposure to sunlight. Even then almost full recovery occurred overnight. Electron transport behind blocked stomata was much decreased when leaves were darkened for 70 min (in order to deactivate light-regulated enzymes of the Calvin cycle) before exposure to full sunlight. Brief exposure of leaves to HCN (to inhibit photoassimilation and photorespiration) also decreased electron transport drastically compared to electron transport in unpoisoned leaves with blocked stomata. Non-photochemical fluorescence quenching and reduction of QA, the primary electron acceptor of photosystem II was increased by HCN-poisoning. Very similar observations were made when glyceraldehyde was used instead of HCN to inhibit photosynthesis and photorespiration. In HCN-poisoned leaves, residual electron transport increased linearly with temperature and showed early light saturation revealing characteristics of the Mehler reaction. During short exposure of these leaves to photon flux densities equivalent to 25% of sunlight, no or only little photoinactivation of photosystem II was observed. However, prolonged exposure to sunlight caused inactivation even though non-photochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence was extensive. Simultaneously, oxidation of cellular ascorbate and glutathione increased. Inactivation of photosystem II was reversible in dim light and in the dark only after short times of exposure to sunlight. Glyceraldehyde was very similar to HCN in increasing the sensitivity of photosystem II in leaves to sunlight. We conclude from the observations that the electron transport permitted by the interplay of photoassimilatory and photorespiratory electron transport is essential to prevent the photoinactivation of photosynthetic electron transport. The Mehler and Asada reactions, which give rise to strong nonphotochemical fluorescence quenching, are insufficient to protect the chloroplast electron transport chain against photoinactivation.
An Overview of Indoor Localization Technologies: Toward IoT Navigation Services

Localization system is a process of monitoring any area or object using any known information gathered from different sources such as wired or wireless networks. Internet of Things (IoT) technology plays a more significant role, which directly affects our lives. Navigation IoT based system is becoming a very appealing research topic nowadays since it is used in various context-aware and localization-aware applications that cover many fields such as tracking, healthcare, or security. Moreover, this field has taken so much attention lately since there is continuous progress in sensing technologies and computing capabilities. This paper provides a brief review of the indoor localization technologies used for IoT-based navigation systems. This review gives fundamental guidelines for designing an intelligent indoor localization system.
Multi-Modal Siamese Network for Diagnostically Similar Lesion Retrieval in Prostate MRI

Multi–parametric prostate MRI (mpMRI) is a powerful tool to diagnose prostate cancer, though difficult to interpret even for experienced radiologists. A common radiological procedure is to compare a magnetic resonance image with similarly diagnosed cases. To assist the radiological image interpretation process, computerized Content–Based Image Retrieval systems (CBIRs) can therefore be employed to improve the reporting workflow and increase its accuracy. In this article, we propose a new, supervised siamese deep learning architecture able to handle multi–modal and multi–view MR images with similar PIRADS score. An experimental comparison with well–established deep learning–based CBIRs (namely standard siamese networks and autoencoders) showed significantly improved performance with respect to both diagnostic (ROC–AUC), and information retrieval metrics (Precision–Recall, Discounted Cumulative Gain and Mean Average Precision). Finally, the new proposed multi–view siamese network is general in design, facilitating a broad use in diagnostic medical imaging retrieval.
Automotive Radar Interference Reduction Based on Sparse Bayesian Learning

Automotive radar plays an important role in advanced driver assistant systems to support level-2 automated driving functions. However, the mutual interference between automotive radars increases due to the rising density of radars on the road. Therefore, the radar signal will be distorted to some extent and the performance of radars will degrade if no countermeasures are taken. In this paper, an interference mitigation approach using compressive sensing (CS) and Bayesian learning is introduced. By utilizing the sparsity of the beat signal in the frequency domain, the range-Doppler (RD) spectrum can be reconstructed with the help of undistorted samples in the beat signal. The sparse Bayesian learning method (SBL) is used to estimate the posterior of the signal's sparse representation and to infer the maximally sparse representation by using the Expectation- Maximization (EM) algorithm. It is shown that the SBL-based method has its advantages in signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and target peak detection in comparison to conventional CS or classical signal reconstruction algorithms like linear predictive coding (LPC).
A Novel Approach for Improved Noise Reduction Performance in Feed-Forward Active Noise Control Systems With (Loudspeaker) Saturation Non-Linearity in the Secondary Path

In active noise control systems, the performance of the most celebrated filtered-x-least mean square (FxLMS) adaptive algorithm is degraded in the presence of non-linearity in the secondary path. In this article, we propose a novel approach to improve the performance of FxLMS algorithm in the presence of saturation type non-linearity in the secondary path. In the proposed method, the weights of the controller are adapted by minimizing a cost function consisting of two terms. The first term is the squared instantaneous residual error while the second term is the weighted square of the difference between input and output of (estimated) saturation non-linearity. Consequently, in case the saturation has occurred, the resultant adaptive algorithm minimizes the residual error while keeping the controller output close to its saturation limit. This avoids unnecessary fluctuation of the (controller) weights due to large variation (or windup) of the controller output after the saturation has occurred. Numerical simulations are provided to verify the superiority of the reported approach as compared to existing methods under different conditions.
Selective Laser Sintering of Blade-Coated Thermoelectric Materials with Tunable Thickness

Thermoelectric generators have attracted extensive attention as energy harvesters. However, their traditional cost inefficient fabrication methods and usual form factor (limited to rigid small areas) hinder their usability. In this paper, the additive manufacturing of inorganic thermoelectric materials by combining blade coating and selective laser sintering (SLS) is proposed. This process enables single layer films with tunable thickness, from 50 to 500 micrometers, by adjusting the blade height and powder load of thermoelectric slurries. The use of SLS not only induces promising micro/nanostructures for enhanced thermoelectric performance, but it will also enable large area and low cost patterning of different geometries.
Non-contact feed weight estimation by RFID technology in cow-feed alley

The cow’s individual feed intake and, consequently, feed efficiency are traits with a high economic value for the livestock farmer. Feeding behavior and feed intake have traditionally been determined by labour-intensive procedures such as human visual inspection and determination of feed refusals. However, the difficulty in manually collecting data at the time of feeding limits the extent of this type of monitoring. In order to overcome such limitations, optical techniques have been proposed in the last years as a fast-non-contact approach for feed weight/volume estimation. The present paper discusses the potential application of RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification) technology for indirect estimation of the quantity of feed-ration present in the cow-feed alley. Experimental tests were carried out taking advantage of different amounts of feed ration for lactating cows (51.8% DM) composed by corn silage, alfalfa silage, hay, molasses, and concentrate. Preliminary results highlighted an interesting correlation (R2=0.90) between the minimum power demand for reading the RFID tags positioned on the feed-alley and the quantity of feed-ration to analyze. As the quantities of feed-ration increased, the power demand increased, providing an indirect indication of the variation in quantity. Moreover, the evaluation of the height of the distributed feed-ration showed a high positive correlation (R2 = 0.96) with the minimum power requirement for reading the RFID tags positioned on the feed-alley. The use of RFIDs on the feed-alley represents an interesting solution to define both the quantity of ration to distribute and the evaluation of the residual feed-ration in the feed-alley.
Towards Time-Sensitive Behavioral Contract Monitors for IEC 61499 Function Blocks

The IEC standard 61499 defines a generic model for distributed industry control systems. It offers high flexibility through an event-driven model of execution. The downside of such models is that they can be difficult to analyze and debug. The central modeling element of IEC 61499 is the function block (FB), a composable representation of behaviour activated through event ports, with optional data ports. We adopt the concept of contracts for FBs to allow the specification of assumptions and guarantees over data/event traces of their input and output ports. This work proposes an initial concept for integrating time-sensitive behavioural contracts with IEC 61499 FBs. We propose specification patterns and a tool that supports the automatic generation and integrating of contract monitors into IEC 61499 FB models. These monitors observe an FB's input and output values/events and check that assumptions and guarantees hold. We evaluate our proposed concept on a simple pick and place control system that is modeled in 4diac1, an open source IEC 61499 framework.
11. Microvascular Complications and Foot Care: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2021.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) "Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes" includes the ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee, a multidisciplinary expert committee (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-SPPC), are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations, please refer to the Standards of Care Introduction (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-SINT). Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes. org/SOC.