Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative Study of the Use of Doxycycline and Oxytetracycline to Treat Anaplasmosis in Fattening Lambs

Simple Summary Ovine anaplasmosis has been causing relevant economic losses during the last years due to icteric lamb carcasses condemnation. They are apparently healthy lambs in good body condition that, after being slaughtered, show an icteric coloration of their carcasses. Anaplasmosis produces strong haemolysis that leads to an increase in bilirubin that stains the carcasses. The present work analyzes the therapeutic effect of oxytetracycline and doxycycline in Anaplasma ovis infected fattening lambs. Abstract Lamb icteric carcasses condemnation due to Anaplasma ovis is causing relevant economic losses. A comparative study was developed on the effects of different antibiotics to treat ovine anaplasmosis in fattening lambs. A total of 100 A. ovis naturally infected lambs were selected and randomly divided into four groups of 25 lambs: Group ID, treated with injectable doxycycline; Group OD, oral doxycycline; Group O, injectable oxytetracycline; and Group C, untreated animals for the control group. Clinical, haematological, and molecular analyses were performed before the treatment and 12 and 45 days after the beginning of the treatments, and carcass condemnation was followed after slaughter. The A. ovis bacterial load was high before the treatments in the four groups and decreased significantly 45 days after treatment in the ID and O Groups (p < 0.001). The parameters that were related to haemolysis showed similar results. At the abattoir, 15 out of the 47 examined carcasses were condemned; 7 of C Group, 6 of OD Group, 2 of O Group, and 0 of ID Group. It can be concluded that injectable doxycycline and oxytetracycline significantly reduce A. ovis bacterial load in blood and carcass condemnation at the abattoir. Further studies are needed in order to confirm these encouraging findings.
On the Power-Splitting Relaying Protocol for SWIPT with Multiple UAVs in Downlink NOMA-IoT Networks

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are two promising technologies for wireless 5G networks and beyond. The UAVs can be used as flying base stations to form line-of-sight communication links to the Internet of things devices (IDs) and to enhance the performance of usual terrestrial cellular networks. Moreover, the UAVs can also be deployed as flying relay nodes for forwarding data from a base station (BS) to the IDs. On the other hand, non-orthogonal resource sharing for many concurrent users is exploited in NOMA, thus improving spectrum efficiency (SE) and supporting massive connections. The NOMA combined with energy harvesting (EH) in an amplify-and-forward (AF) with cooperative UAV systems is researched. Specifically, the UAVs act as rotary-wing relays to forward data from the BSs to two IDs. This paper focuses on the analysis of outage probabilities (OPs), system throughput, and energy efficiency (EE) for two IDs. Besides, we also do the asymptotic analysis of OPs at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Furthermore, this paper also inspects the impacts of the UAV-based relaying on the OP, system throughput, and EE of the proposed NOMA scheme. The derived asymptotic expansions show that the suggested model can enhance user fairness and the analytical results match the simulation results.
A Unified, SNR-Aware SC-LDPC Code Design With Applications to Magnetic Recording

Spatially coupled (SC)-low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are known to have outstanding error-correction performance and low decoding latency, which make them an excellent choice for high-density magnetic recording (MR) technologies. Whereas previous works on LDPC and SC-LDPC codes mostly take either an asymptotic or a finite-length design approach, we propose a unified framework for jointly optimizing the codes’ thresholds and cycle counts to address both regimes. We focus on circulant-based (CB) SC-LDPC code family as a representative, high-performance exemplar of structured SC-LDPC codes. The framework is based on efficient traversal and pruning of the code search space, building on the fact that the performance of a CB SC-LDPC code depends on some characteristics of the code’s partitioning matrix, which by itself is much smaller than the code’s full parity-check matrix. We then propose an algorithm that traverses all non-equivalent partitioning matrices and outputs a list of codes, each offering an attractive point on the trade-off between asymptotic and finite-length performance. Our simulations show that our framework results in SC-LDPC codes that outperform the state-of-the-art constructions, over both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and partial response (PR) channel models, and that it offers the flexibility to choose low-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), high-SNR, or in- between SNR region considering system requirements, e.g., that of the MR device.
Development of a lateral flow dipstick test for the detection of 4 strains of Salmonella spp. in animal products and animal production environmental samples based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification

Objective This study aimed to develop loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) combined with lateral flow dipstick (LFD) and compare it with LAMP-AGE, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and standard Salmonella culture as reference methods for detecting Salmonella contamination in animal products and animal production environmental samples. Methods The SalInvA01 primer, derived from the InvA gene and designed as a new probe for LFD detection, was used in developing this study. Adjusting for optimal conditions by temperature, time, and reagent concentration includes evaluating the specificity and limit of detection. The sampling of 120 animal product samples and 350 animal production environmental samples was determined by LAMP-LFD, comparing LAMP-AGE, PCR, and the culture method. Results Salmonella was amplified using optimal conditions for the LAMP reaction and a DNA probe for LFD at 63°C for 60 minutes. The specificity test revealed no cross-reactivity with other microorganisms. The limit of detection of LAMP-LFD in pure culture was 3×102 CFU/mL (6 CFU/reaction) and 9.01 pg/μL in genomic DNA. The limit of detection of the LAMP-LFD using artificially inoculated in minced chicken samples with 5 hours of pre-enrichment was 3.4×104 CFU/mL (680 CFU/reaction). For 120 animal product samples, Salmonella was detected by the culture method, LAMP-LFD, LAMP-AGE, and PCR in 10/120 (8.3%). In three hundred fifty animal production environmental samples, Salmonella was detected in 91/350 (26%) by the culture method, equivalent to the detection rates of LAMP-LFD and LAMP-AGE, while PCR achieved 86/350 (24.6%). When comparing sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy, LAMP-LFD showed the best results at 100%, 95.7%, 86.3%, and 96.6%, respectively. For Kappa index of LAMP-LFD, indicated nearly perfect agreement with culture method. Conclusion The LAMP-LFD Salmonella detection, which used InvA gene, was highly specific, sensitive, and convenient for identifying Salmonella. Furthermore, this method could be used for Salmonella monitoring and primary screening in animal products and animal production environmental samples.
Some Further Results on Tests for Model Specification in the Presence of Alternative Hypotheses

Davidson and MacKinnon (1981) proposed a simple procedure for testing the specification of a non-linear regression model against the evidence provided by a non-nested alternative. We extend their results in several directions. First, we relax a number of assumptions of the previous paper: We admit the possibility that the nonlinear regression functions may depend on lagged dependent variables, and we do not require that the error terms be normally distributed. Second, we show how the earlier procedure may straightforwardly be generalized to the case where the two non-nested models involve different transformations of the dependent variable. Finally, we propose a simple procedure for testing non-nested linear regression models which have endogenous variables on the right-hand side, and have therefore been estimated by two-stage least squares.
Role of Transarterial Chemoembolization in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. According to the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the first-line recommendation for intermediate-stage HCC. In real-world clinical practice, TACE also plays an important role in early- and advanced-stage HCC. This review article by the experts from Chinese Liver Cancer Clinical Study Alliance (CHANCE) summarizes the available clinical evidence pertaining to the current application of TACE in patients with early-, intermediate-, and advanced-stage HCC. In addition, combination of TACE with other treatment modalities, especially immunotherapy, is reviewed.
Collapse of the Fe-vacancy order and successive phase transitions in superconducting KxFe2-ySe2 (0.7 \leg x \leg 0.8, 0.2 \leg y \leg 0.3)

The Fe-based superconducting KxFe2-ySe2 (0.6 {\leg} x {\leg} 1, 0.2{\leg} y {\leg} 0.4) compounds, unlike the well-known RFe2As2 (R = Ba, Sr, Ca) superconductors, contain complex structural features and notable physical properties, such as the Fe-vacancy ordering, multi-superconducting transitions and the phase separation[1]. Recent experimental studies also suggested the presence of remarkable interplay among the Fe-vacancy order and the antiferromagnetic structure[2]. Here we demonstrate that the well-characterized superconducting KxFe2-ySe2 (0.6 {\leg} x {\leg} 0.8, 0.2 {\leg} x {\leg} 0.3) samples contain complex microstructure features and undergo successive phase transitions at low temperatures. In-situ TEM observations on a number of the KxFe2-ySe2 superconductors demonstrated the presence of a remarkable collapse of the Fe-vacancy order above the superconducting transition, as a result, the superconducting phase actually adopts a tetragonal structure without the Fe-vacancy ordering. Moreover, our analysis at the low temperatures suggests that the superconductors likely adopt a Fe-deficient structure with composition of K0.75Fe2-ySe2. These results are important not only for the further optimization of superconducting phase in present system but also for understanding the mechanism of the Fe-based superconductivity.
Strategies for Generating Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived-Organoid Culture for Disease Modeling, Drug Screening, and Regenerative Therapy

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have become a powerful tool to generate the various kinds of cell types comprising the human body. Recently, organoid technology has emerged as a platform to generate a physiologically relevant tissue-like structure from PSCs. Compared to an actual human organ, this structure more closely represents a three-dimensional microenvironment than the conventional monolayer culture system for transplantation, disease modeling, and drug development. Despite its advantages, however, the organoid culture system still has various problems related to culture methods, which have become a challenge for attempts to obtain similar physiological properties to their original tissue counterparts. Here, we discuss the current development of organoid culture methods, including the problems that may arise from the currently available culture systems, as well as a possible approach for overcoming their current limitations and improving their optimum utilization for translational application purposes.
Accurate depth from defocus estimation with video-rate implementation

The science of measuring depth from images at video rate using „defocus‟ has been investigated. The method required two differently focussed images acquired from a single view point using a single camera. The relative blur between the images was used to determine the in-focus axial points of each pixel and hence depth. The depth estimation algorithm researched by Watanabe and Nayar was employed to recover the depth estimates, but the broadband filters, referred as the Rational filters were designed using a new procedure: the Two Step Polynomial Approach. The filters designed by the new model were largely insensitive to object texture and were shown to model the blur more precisely than the previous method. Experiments with real planar images demonstrated a maximum RMS depth error of 1.18% for the proposed filters, compared to 1.54% for the previous design. The researched software program required five 2D convolutions to be processed in parallel and these convolutions were effectively implemented on a FPGA using a two channel, five stage pipelined architecture, however the precision of the filter coefficients and the variables had to be limited within the processor. The number of multipliers required for each convolution was reduced from 49 to 10 (79.5% reduction) using a Triangular design procedure. Experimental results suggested that the pipelined processor provided depth estimates comparable in accuracy to the full precision Matlab‟s output, and generated depth maps of size 400 x 400 pixels in 13.06msec, that is faster than the video rate. The defocused images (near and far-focused) were optically registered for magnification using Telecentric optics. A frequency domain approach based on phase correlation was employed to measure the radial shifts due to magnification and also to optimally position the external aperture. The telecentric optics ensured pixel to pixel registration between the defocused images was correct and provided more accurate depth estimates.
Illness Experience and Quality of Life in Sjögren Syndrome Patients

Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) is a disease with autoimmune features that affects mainly women and compromises the health-related quality of Life (HRQoL); it is important to evaluate illness experience for a better understanding of the life situation of the patient. The aim of the study was to summarize the individual life experiences and determine the impact of HRQoL and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and their correlation with health self-assessment in women with SS. The life experiences evaluation employed a concept mapping design to structure qualitative content obtained from semi-structured interviews. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to analyze the patient’s experiences. EQ-5D-5L and OHIP-14Sp were used. The correlation between appreciation of the general health status and OHIP-14 was evaluated. The experience classification by patients were analyzed and a dendrogram was obtained, identifying 10 clusters of disease experiences of SS, being limitations, pain and difficulties, coping and attitudes towards treatment the most common. Pain/discomfort in EQ-5D-5L and physical pain and psychological discomfort in OHIP-14 were the most affected dimensions in the patients. The results support the theoretical perspective that the experience of illness is relevant to describing the main difficulties of patients with SS and how it affects their quality of life.
On the Relationship between BL Lacertae Objects and Fanaroff-Riley I Radio Galaxies

The idea that Fanaroff-Riley Class~I Radio Galaxies contain core jets with Lorentz factors of the order of a few and are the parent population for BL~Lac Objects is examined, with particular reference to the data on two FRI Radio Galaxies, NGC~315 and NGC~6251. Conservation laws for an entraining relativistic jet are derived and are used to determine a relationship between Mach number and velocity for initially relativistic jets. One immediate consequence of this relationship is that, if an initially relativistic jet is decelerated to a transonic Mach number between, say 0.5 and 1.5, then its velocity at this point is between 0.3 and 0.7 times the speed of light. Analysis of the milliarcsecond and arcsecond data on NGC~315 and NGC~6251 shows that the Lorentz factors of the core jets in these galaxies can be as high as 2-4 provided that the jet pressures are not much more than an order of magnitude higher than the minimum pressures. Such Lorentz factors are more plausible if the jets are inclined at $\sim 30$ degrees to the line of sight, although larger angles would also be possible. For core Lorentz factors in the range 2-4, the jets are mildly relativistic on the large scale and their velocities are consistent with the jet brightness asymmetries being caused by Doppler beaming. The Lorentz factors required for significant beaming of core jets may be reconciled with subluminal motions of knots in the core if these are reverse shocks advected by the jet. Moderate jet Lorentz factors are possible if the shocks are normal and higher Lorentz factors are possible if the shocks are oblique. This paper provides support for the idea that the transition from two-sided to one-sided jets across the FRI/II break is due to the transition from
Lateral Cephalometric Analytical Uses for Temporomandibular Joint Disorders: The Importance of Cervical Posture and Hyoid Position

The temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) is a syndrome that affects the masticatory muscles and temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Its pathophysiology is not yet fully known. Cephalometric analysis is used for routine evaluation regarding orthodontic treatment and other purposes. The aim of this study was to assess if using cephalometric analysis and TMJ conservative therapy to evaluate the hyoid bone position and the cervical posture reduced symptoms in adults with TMDs compared to no intervention. The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature (PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase) for clinical studies of TMDs with conservative treatment and lateral cephalometric analysis of the hyoid and cervical posture. To assess the risk of bias for non-randomized clinical trials ROBINS-I tool was used. Out of 137 studies found, 6 remained to be included. Most of them found a link between TMD and lateral cephalometric analysis, but there was a high risk of bias. This review found a possible link between TMDs, the neck and cervical posture. There is a benefit reported regarding the use of the lateral cephalometry as a treatment, but more extensive prospective randomized clinical trials are necessary to be able to draw definitive conclusions.
Regulated Fractional Variance Ratio Unit Root Tests

This article addresses unit root testing on regulated series through the variance ratio (VR) statistic of Nielsen (2009). The asymptotic distribution of the regulated VR statistic is developed with and without OLS detrending. Results of Cavaliere and Xu (2011) are extended by also developing the asymptotic distribution of regulated series with a linear trend. Asymptotic local power is analyzed for various choices of the fractional integration parameter d. It is shown that power performance depends crucially on the length of the regulating interval. When the interval is sufficiently wide the results in Nielsen (2009) are recovered.
Resistivity modeling for arbitrarily shaped two dimensional structures. Part I. Theoretical formulation

A numerical technique was developed to solve the three-dimensional potential distribution about a point source of current located in or on the surface of a half-space containing arbitrary two-dimensional conductivity distribution. Finite difference equations are obtained for Poisson's equations, making point as well as area discretization, of the subsurface. Potential distribution at all points in the set defining the half-space are simultaneously obtained for multiple point sources of current injection. The solution is obtained with direct, explicit, matrix inversion techniques. An empirical mixed boundary condition is used at the ''infinitely distant'' edges of the lower half-space. Accurate solutions using area discretization method were obtained with significantly less attendant computational costs than with the relaxation, finite-element or network solution techniques, for models of comparable dimensions.
A Search for Baroclinic Structures

The calculation reported in this paper is a standard one for those who study pattern formation in nonlinear systems. Pattern formation is prevalent when instability breaks symmetries present in a basic state. In the canonical example, stationary fluid heated from below gives way to patterns through Rayleigh-Bénard instability. For a wide class of problems, one may derive amplitude equations that govern the weakly nonlinear development of an instability. Amplitude equations describe the slow modulation in space and time of disturbances excited near the threshold of an instability. The form of the amplitude equations is determined generically by symmetries of the governing equations and the structure of the linear instability ([5], [3]). When a large, dissipative, system undergoes a Hopf bifurcation, with a trivial steady state losing stability to a growing, unsteady wave pattern, an amplitude equation that generically arises is the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGL)
Multiscale Generative Model of Human Faces

In this paper, we propose a framework for modelling human faces over scales. As a person walks towards the camera, more details of the face will be revealed and thus more random variables and parameters have to be introduced. Accordingly, a series of existing generative models are organized as five regimes, which form nested probabilistic families. The generative model in higher regime is augmented by (1) adding more latent variables, features extractors, and (2) enlarging the dictionary of description, e.g. PCA bases, local parts or sketch patches. The minimum description length (MDL) is used as a criterion for the model selection and transition. As observed in our experiment, the optimal model switches among the different regimes when the scale changes. A sequence of tasks, such as face detection, recognition, sketching and super-resolution etc. can be accomplished based on the models in the different regimes.
Synaptic devices based on semiconductor nanocrystals

To meet a growing demand for information processing, brain-inspired neuromorphic devices have been intensively studied in recent years. As an important type of neuromorphic device, synaptic devices have attracted strong attention. Among all the kinds of materials explored for the fabrication of synaptic devices, semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have become one of the preferred choices due to their excellent electronic and optical properties. In this review, we first introduce the research background of synaptic devices based on semiconductor NCs and briefly present the basic properties of semiconductor NCs. Recent developments in the field of synaptic devices based on semiconductor NCs are then discussed according to the materials employed in the active layers of the devices. Finally, we discuss existing problems and challenges of synaptic devices based on semiconductor NCs.
Physical Touch from a Robot Caregiver: Examining Factors that Shape Patient Experience

Robot-initiated touch is a promising mode of expression that would allow robot caregivers to perform physical tasks (instrumental touch) and provide comfort (affective touch) in healthcare settings. To understand the factors that shape how people respond to touch from a robotic caregiver, we conducted a crowdsourced study (N=163) examining how robot-initiated touch (present or absent), the robot’s intent (instrumental or affective), robot appearance (Nao or Stretch), and robot tone (empathetic or serious) impact the perceived quality of care. Results show that participants prefer instrumental to affective touch, view the robot as having greater social attributes (higher warmth, higher competence, and lower discomfort) after robot-initiated touch, are more comfortable interacting with the human-like Nao than the more machine-like Stretch, and favor consistent robot tone and appearance. From these results, we derived three design guidelines for caregiving robots in healthcare settings.