Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bayesian-based Anonymization Framework against Background Knowledge Attack in Continuous Data Publishing

In many real world situations, data are updated and released over time. In each release, the attributes are ﬁxed but the number of records may vary, and the attribute values may be modi-ﬁed. Privacy can be compromised due to the disclosure of information when one combines different release versions of the data. Preventing information disclosure becomes more difﬁcult when the adversary possesses two kinds of background knowledge: correlations among sensitive attribute values over time and compromised records. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian-based anonymization framework to protect against these kinds of background knowledge in a continuous data publishing setting. The proposed framework mimics the adversary’s reasoning method in continuous release and estimates her posterior belief using a Bayesian approach. Moreover, we analyze threat deriving from the compromised records in the current release and the following ones. Experimental results on two datasets show that our proposed framework outperforms JS -reduce, the state of the art approach for continuous data publishing, in terms of the adversary’s information gain as well as data utility and privacy loss.
ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIALLY TOXIC METALS CONCENTRATION IN KARST AREAS OF THE MEHEDINŢI PLATEAU GEOPARK (ROMANIA)

The contamination with potentially toxic metals (PTM) represents an important threat to various ecosystem components, which are subjected to accumulation processes and along food chains it can also affect the human communities inhabiting the region. Our study was focused on a test area from the Mehedinţi Plateau Geopark (Ponoarele) and also on a reference area (the Lupşa Valley, Gorj County), from which we collected samples of soil, leaf-litter and fauna (pertaining to two groups of invertebrates Oniscidea and Diplopoda). On all samples, we performed AAS and XRF analyses, in order to assess the concentration of PTM. We found 13 PTM, but a significant level for the Ponoarele area was recorded only for copper. We determined also the food-biota accumulation factor (FBAF). A main challenge for future studies is to make the distinction between natural background level and the presence of a certain element as a result of the anthropogenic impact.
“How ELSE are you supposed to dress up like a Black Guy??”: negotiating accusations of Blackface in online newspaper comments

ABSTRACT This study examines how individuals talk about race and racism, and the resonance of their discourses with existing narratives. For this purpose, this article investigates users’ comments (N = 887) on four newspaper articles from the US and France about Antoine Griezmann's Blackface in December 2017. A thematic analysis revealed (i) the vast majority of users shared similar views of racism by emphasizing individual agency over structural and historical systems of oppression. Although (ii) users actively referred to colour-blindness, their comments appeared to be based on different understandings of “race” shaped by national discourses. Finally, (iii) users vastly criticized political correctness, which revealed expressions of Whiteness as well as the intersection of class and racism. The findings underline the gap between users’ views and scholarly discourses. This study also highlights the limitations of methodological nationalism in the study of racism, and importance of examining discourses emanating from various imagined communities instead.
Tracking vehicles across multiple non-overlapping fisheye cameras in a city environment- Acronym

This thesis deals with tracking vehicles over multiple non-overlapping cameras. The goal is to design and implement a system able to detect vehicles in a city environment and track their position. The cameras have a fish-eye view and are mounted to street lamps. We present a deep neural network for vehicle detection utilizing the video information, a single camera vehicle tracking algorithm based on optical flow, a deep neural network trained to compute similarities between vehicles and a probabilistic graph representation of a city. The conducted real world experiments verified the capability of the whole system.
Phenotypic and molecular characterization of antimicrobial resistant Escherichia coli from urinary tract infections in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria

Introduction Multidrug resistance among Escherichia coli causing Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) is a major public health problem, threatening the effective treatment of UTIs. This study investigated the phenotypic and molecular characteristics of E. coli associated with UTIs in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Methods Twenty-five non-duplicate isolates of E. coli from UTIs patients at the University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria were identified using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time-of-Flight (MALDI-TOF) Mass Spectrometry. The antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were determined using Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. Phenotypic expression of Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases (ESBLs) and AmpC beta-lactamase were determined using standard laboratory methods and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect ESBLs, AmpC, Quinolones and Aminoglycosides resistance genes. Results The isolates exhibited high rates of resistance to co-trimoxazole (76%), nalidixic acid (68%), ciprofloxacin (60%), gentamicin (44%) and low resistance to cefotaxime (20%) but were fully susceptible to cefoperazone/sulbactam, amikacin, nitrofurantoin, colistin and carbapenems. Phenotypic expression of ESBLs was recorded in 6(24%) isolates while genotypic detection revealed the highest prevalence of blaTEM 22(88%), followed by blaCTX-M-15 16(64%), blaSHV 7(28%) and blaOXA-1 6(24%) while AmpC (blaCMY-2) gene was detected in 8(32%) isolates. Amongst the quinolone resistant isolates, qnr variants (qnrB, qnrD and qnrS) and aac(6')-Ib genes were detected in 7(28%) and 3(12%) isolates respectively while all gentamicin resistant isolates possessed the aacC2 gene. The co-expression of blaCTX-M-15 with quinolones and aminoglycoside genes were 20% and 40% respectively. The prevalence of multiple drug resistance was 52%. Conclusion A high proportion of the studied E. coli isolates co-expressed ESBLs, quinolones and aminoglycosides resistance genes which call for prompt antibiotic stewardship and preventive strategies to limit the spread of these genes.
Development and Evaluation of a Chronic Care Competency Scale for Primary Care Teams in Thailand

The Thai health care system currently has no tool available to measure chronic care competency in primary care settings. This research aimed to develop a conceptual structure and evaluate a Chronic Care Competency Scale for primary care teams in Thailand. The Scale was developed using a concept analysis from literature reviews. In-depth interviews of Thai primary care team members were used to form the specified domains, which were then used to generate an item pool consisting of 50 items whose content validity was tested by 9 experts (CVI = 0.95). The retained 40-item Scale was further evaluated by 35 primary care team members and yielded high internal consistency. The field test was conducted in 434 primary care team members, resulting in a high reliability of the Scale. Exploratory factor analysis was used to test its construct validity; and final version revealed three domains: basic medical care, health risk management and symptom control, and community resources management. Construct validity evaluation using hypothesis testing reported a positive correlation between years of education and the total scores. Moreover, stability evaluation using the test-retest method demonstrated a correlation between time 1 and time 2 testing. We conclude that this Scale will be useful in measuring the chronic care competency of Thai primary care teams and have demonstrated its validity and reliability in this study. However we encourage research and use of the Scale by different disciplines in primary health care teams to further confirm its adequate validity and reliability in other provinces across the country, including those with male team members. Pacific Rim Int J Nurs Res 2014 ; 18(2) 111-124
Streaming stochastic variational Bayes: An improved approach for inference with concept drifting data streams

Online learning is an essential tool for predictive analysis based on continuous, endless data streams. Adopting Bayesian inference for online settings allows hierarchical modeling while representing the uncertainty of model parameters. Existing online inference techniques are motivated by either the traditional Bayesian updating or the stochastic optimizations. However, traditional Bayesian updating suffers from overconfident posteriors, where posterior variance becomes too inadequate to adapt to new changes to the posterior with concept drifting data streams. On the other hand, stochastic optimization of variational objective demands exhausting additional analysis to optimize a hyperparameter that controls the posterior variance. In this paper, we present “Streaming Stochastic Variational Bayes” (SSVB) —a novel online approximation inference framework for data streaming to address the aforementioned shortcomings of the current state-of-the-art. SSVB adjusts its posterior variance duly without any userspecified hyperparameters to control the posterior variance while efficiently accommodating the drifting patterns to the posteriors. Moreover, SSVB can be easily adopted by practitioners for a wide range of models (i.e. simple regression models to complex hierarchical models) with little additional analysis. We demonstrate the superior performance of SSVB against Population Variational Inference (PVI), Stochastic Variational Inference (SVI) and Black-box Streaming Variational Bayes (BB-SVB) using two non-conjugate probabilistic models: multinomial logistic regression and linear mixed effect model. Furthermore, we also emphasize the significant accuracy gain with SSVB based inference against conventional online learning models for each task.
Myelin water imaging and R2* mapping in neonates: Investigating R2* dependence on myelin and fibre orientation in whole brain white matter

R2* relaxation provides a semiquantitative method of detecting myelin, iron and white matter fibre orientation angles. Compared with standard histogram‐based analyses, angle‐resolved analysis of R2* has previously been shown to substantially improve the detection of subtle differences in the brain between healthy siblings of subjects with multiple sclerosis and unrelated healthy controls. Neonates, who are born with very little myelin and iron, and an underdeveloped connectome, provide researchers with an opportunity to investigate whether R2* is intimately linked with fibre‐angle or myelin content as it is in adults, which may in future studies be explored as a potential white matter developmental biomarker. Five healthy adult volunteers (mean age [±SD] = 31.2 [±8.3] years; three males) were recruited from Vancouver, Canada. Eight term neonates (mean age = 38.6 ± 1.2 weeks; five males) were recruited from the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University neonatal ward. All subjects were scanned on identical 3 T Philips Achieva scanners equipped with an eight‐channel SENSE head coil and underwent a multiecho gradient echo scan, a 32‐direction DTI scan and a myelin water imaging scan. For both neonates and adults, bin‐averaged R2* variation across the brain's white matter was found to be best explained by fibre orientation. For adults, this represented a difference in R2* values of 3.5 Hz from parallel to perpendicular fibres with respect to the main magnetic field. In neonates, the fibre orientation dependency displayed a cosine wave shape, with a small R2* range of 0.4 Hz. This minor relationship in neonates provides further evidence for the key role myelin probably plays in creating this fibre orientation dependence later in life, but suggests limited clinical application in newborn populations. Future studies should investigate fibre‐orientation dependency in infants in the first 5 years, when substantial myelin development occurs.
Perineuronal nets protect long-term memory by limiting activity-dependent inhibition from parvalbumin interneurons

Significance This study reveals the roles of PV interneurons surrounding perineuronal nets (PNNs) in both the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in contextual fear memory. We show that increasing PNN expression in these 2 brain structures enhances the recall and reconsolidation of both recent and remote fear memory, corresponding to the enhancement of GABA-related theta oscillations. Conversely, removal of PNNs impairs consolidation and reconsolidation of both recent and remote fear memory via increased feedback inhibition and impairment of theta oscillations. Together, our results suggest that PNNs in the hippocampus and ACC affect behavioral plasticity during the consolidation and reconsolidation of contextual fear memory by regulating feedback inhibition of PV interneurons. Perineuronal nets (PNNs), a complex of extracellular matrix molecules that mostly surround GABAergic neurons in various brain regions, play a critical role in synaptic plasticity. The function and cellular mechanisms of PNNs in memory consolidation and reconsolidation processes are still not well understood. We hypothesized that PNNs protect long-term memory by limiting feedback inhibition from parvalbumin (PV) interneurons to projection neurons. Using behavioral, electrophysiological, and optogenetic approaches, we investigated the role of PNNs in fear memory consolidation and reconsolidation and GABAergic long-term potentiation (LTP). We made the discovery that the formation of PNNs was promoted by memory events in the hippocampus (HP), and we also demonstrated that PNN formation in both the HP and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is essential for memory consolidation and reconsolidation of recent and remote memories. Removal of PNNs resulted in evident LTP impairments, which were rescued by acute application of picrotoxin, a GABAA receptor blocker, indicating that enhanced inhibition was the cause of the LTP impairments induced by PNN removal. Moreover, removal of PNNs switched GABAA receptor-mediated long-term depression to LTP through a presynaptic mechanism. Furthermore, the reduced activity of PV interneurons surrounded by PNNs regulated theta oscillations during fear memory consolidation. Finally, optogenetically suppressing PV interneurons rescued the memory impairment caused by removal of PNNs. Altogether, these results unveil the function of PV interneurons surrounding PNNs in protecting recent and remote contextual memory through the regulation of PV neuron GABA release.
First Synthesis of (−)-Altenuene-D3 Suitable as Internal Standard for Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry

Metabolites from Alternaria fungi exhibit a variety of biological properties such as phytotoxic, cytotoxic, or antimicrobial activity. Optimization of a literature procedure culminated in an efficient total synthesis of (−)-altenuene as well as a stable isotope-labeled derivative suitable for implementation in a LC-MS/MS method for mycotoxin analysis.
Changes in the antioxidant intensities of seven different soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) cultivars during drought.

Drought stress-induced antioxidative defense responses were studied in seven soybean (Glycine max (L) Merr. ) cultivars PUSA 9712, LSB 1, JS 335, ADB 22, NRC 37, DSB 20, and MAUS 61, respectively. Drought stress was imposed by withholding irrigation till the leaf water potentials reached -1.0, -1.5, and -2.0 MPa. Lipid peroxidation and superoxide, H2 O2 , • OH, DPPH radical scavenging assays were performed. Antioxidants during drought stress were studied by quantifying the ascorbic acid, glutathione, α-tocopherol, phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and glutathione reductase. Antioxidant levels were significantly high in soybean foliages exposed to drought with the increased concentrations of radicals and enhanced lipid peroxidation rates. Isoenzyme analysis of SOD has shown the upregulation of Cu/Zn and MnSODs. Our results demonstrate that cultivars PUSA 9712 and LSB1 have shown to possess a high rate of antioxidants and a very efficient antioxidative defense system when compared with other cultivars. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr. ) is an economically important cash crop, cultivated globally for its rich protein, oil, nutraceutical, and antioxidant constituents. It is also cultivated for its rich enriched food, animal feed as well as several other commercial products. In India, most of the soybean cultivation is being done under rainfed conditions. Hence, identification of superior soybean cultivars rich in antioxidants is very important. The work presented here is the output of the investigation carried out on cramming the changes in antioxidative defense mechanisms of seven popular soybean cultivars that are regularly cultivated in India. A study was performed by quantifying the radicals, H2 O2 concentrations, lipid peroxidation, determination of enzymatic, and nonenzymatic antioxidants in all selected soybean cultivars exposed to control and increased the duration of drought stress, for the identification of superior cultivars with a rich avenue of enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants.
The Young Adolescent Project: A longitudinal study of the effects of maltreatment on adolescent development

Abstract The Young Adolescent Project (YAP) is an ongoing longitudinal study investigating the effects of abuse and neglect on adolescent development. It is a multidisciplinary study guided by a developmental, ecological perspective, and designed to consider the physical, social, and psychological effects of childhood maltreatment through the transition from childhood to adolescence. Four waves of data collection have been completed, ranging from early (Mean age = 10.95) to late adolescence (Mean age = 18.24). Members of the maltreated group (n = 303) were selected from new cases that had been opened by the Department of Child and Family Services, whereas the comparison group (n = 151) were not involved with child welfare but lived in the same neighborhoods as the maltreated group. The study assessed a wide variety of domains including physical development (e.g., height, weight, body mass, pubertal development); physiological reactivity (e.g., cortisol); cognitive abilities; mental health (e.g., symptoms of depression, anxiety, trauma, and aggression); risk behavior (e.g., sexual activity, delinquency, or substance use); social development (e.g., self-esteem, competence, and social support); family environment; and exposure to community violence. Overall, our findings demonstrated the pervasive and persistent adverse effects of child maltreatment both within and across domains, but they also identified maltreated youth with positive functioning. Our hope is that this work will help move us toward identifying targets for intervention to cultivate resilience and positive adaptation after early maltreatment experiences.
Central Post-Stroke Pain in Stroke Patients: Incidence and the Effect on Quality of Life

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of central post-stroke pain in stroke patients and the effect of central post-stroke pain on quality of life. Material and Methods: One hundred stroke patients (47 women, 53 men), admiting to the inpatient rehabilitation clinic or stroke outpatient followup clinic were included in this cross-sectional study. Patients with aphasia, intermediate and advanced levels of cognitive disorder, subarachnoid hemorrhage, arteriovenous malformation, tumor, traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis causing hemiplegia, having neuropathic pain and complex regional pain syndrome in the history were excluded. central pain was evaluated with Leeds assessent of neuropathic symptoms and signs pain scale (LANSS), quality of life was assessed with the Nottingham Health Profile. Results: The mean age of the patients were 60.27±11.59 years, stroke duration was 14.65 months (range 2-124). Hemiplegia was on the right side in 35 cases, left side in 65 cases. 77 patients had ischemic, 23 patients had hemorrhagic etiology. Twelve patients had central post-stroke thalamic pain. Central pain was related with a significant difference in the pain parameter of Nottingham Health Profile (NHP)(p=0.001). Conclusion: The central post-stroke pain is a complication that should not be ignored because it is not rare and has negative impact on the quality of life of patients with stroke.
Using the Onitor® Track for weight loss: A mixed methods study among overweight and obese women

Non-communicable disease rates associated with being overweight or obese are rising. Technologies warrant consideration as weight loss interventions. Cloudtag’s® Onitor® Track, a dual-position wearable plus smartphone application, monitors energy expenditure and provides tailored exercise programmes. This research aimed to undertake an experimental study of 20 overweight and obese women using the technology; explore its feasibility and acceptability through interviews; and investigate its behaviour change techniques. The primary outcome was decreased body weight (kg) at 4 weeks. Secondary outcomes were body mass index (kg/m2) and waist circumference (cm) changes. 15 overweight and obese women took part. Results indicated weight loss (median 2.7 kg, p < 0.05) and waist circumference decrease (median 4 cm, p < 0.05), but attrition was high (60%). Users reported dietary changes but few activity adjustments. They valued feedback. 27 behaviour change techniques were identified. The Onitor® Track shows potential for weight loss in overweight and obese women, but further work is needed.
Plant immune signaling: Advancing on two frontiers.

Plants have evolved multiple defense strategies to cope with pathogens, among which plant immune signaling that relies on cell-surface localized and intracellular receptors takes fundamental roles. Exciting breakthroughs were made recently on the signaling mechanisms of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and intracellular nucleotide-binding site (NBS) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain receptors (NLRs). This review summarizes current view of PRRs activation, emphasizing the most recent discoveries about PRRs' dynamic regulation and signaling mechanisms directly leading to downstream molecular events including mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation and calcium (Ca2+ ) burst. Plants also have evolved intracellular NLRs to perceive the presence of specific pathogen effectors and trigger more robust immune responses. We also discuss current understanding of the mechanisms of NLR activation, which has been greatly advanced by recent breakthroughs including structures of the first full-length plant NLR complex, findings of NLR sensor-helper pairs and novel biochemical activity of Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Special Issue on Toxicologic Neuropathology of the Peripheral Nervous System: A Special Compendium of Past, Present, and Future Developments in a Neglected Field

Neuropathology of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is an underappreciated area in toxicologic pathology. Toxicity to nerves and ganglia can result from toxic insults following exposure to environmental, occupational, and industrial chemicals; drugs and biologics; cosmetics and food additives; and even physical agents such as noise. The following introduction provides an overview of this special issue of Toxicologic Pathology on toxicologic neuropathology of the PNS and highlights the range of key topics in this field that are reviewed in this compilation.