Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Positive effects of trauma among people living with human immunodeficiency virus – the role of rumination and coping strategies

Purpose: The study aimed to establish the role of rumination and coping strategies in the occurrence of the positive effects of trauma (in the form of posttraumatic growth) resulting from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Methods: The results of 64 people (out of 120 covered by the study), who indicated that HIV diagnosis was a traumatic event for them, were analysed. The study group consisted of members of the support group for people living with HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in a city in central Poland, patients participating in therapy at the Centre for Addiction Treatment who reported after obtaining seropositive status, and boarders at the Readaptation Centre. The age of the participants ranged from 20-58 years (M = 38.2, SD = 9.16). The following Polish versions of standardized tools were used: Posttraumatic Growth Inventory – PTGI, Event Related Rumination Inventory – ERRI, measuring two types of ruminations: intrusive and deliberate and short version of Coping Inventory – Mini-Cope. Results: Ruminations were not directly associated with the intensity of posttraumatic growth. The conducted path analysis indicated that such coping strategies, as the seeking of emotional support, active coping and turning to religion play a mediating role between deliberate ruminations and the prevalence of positive posttraumatic changes in general and in particular factors. Conclusions: Ruminations do not correlate directly with posttraumatic growth resulting from HIV infection, however they have impact on its level indirectly through the coping strategies.
Reduction of False Alarm Rate in SAR-MTI Based on Weighted Kurtosis

Moving target indication (MTI) is considered one of the most important applications of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in military operations and traffic monitoring. Although many studies have focused on detectors based on the statistical clutter models, a mismatch between the measured data and the applied statistical model often leads to unreliable MTI results, particularly in terms of false alarm rates. To reduce the number of false alarms, we propose an efficient MTI scheme consisting of conventional MTI techniques (the displaced phase center antenna (DPCA) and the interferogram’s magnitude and phase (IMP) methods), which operate in dual-receive antenna (DRA) mode in an SAR system. These techniques are coupled with a new discrimination stage based on a new detection metric—weighted kurtosis. Using simulated and real measured data from TerraSAR-X, the proposed MTI scheme demonstrates robust performance in the reduction of false alarm rates with only a slight increase in the computation time compared with conventional schemes.
Effect of Perceived Support on Employees Voice Behavior Through the Work Engagement: A Moderator Role of Locus of Control

This study primarily aimed to identify the direct effect of perceived support on the employees’ voice behaviour in the workplace. It examined knowledge interactive impact of locus of control on the perceived support of work engagement. Accordingly, this study was built on literature of voice behaviour and as such, it employed a survey methodology. The study focused on a government sector firm, specifically Basra Electricity Production. The data collection tool used is the questionnaire and it was distributed to 333 employees in the firm. The collected data was analysed using AMOS version 22. Based on the results, work engagement fully mediates the relationship between perceived support and employee voice behaviour, while external locus of control moderated the relationship between perceived support and work engagement. Suggestions were provided for several avenues for future studies.
Optimization of Cytogenetic and Physical mapping of Culicinae genomes

Understanding chromosome structure and genome organization of Culicine mosquitoes can potentially contribute to the development of novel approaches to vector control. However, because of highly repetitive nature of the Aedes and Culex genomes, the structure of their polytene chromosomes is damaged by ectopic contacts that make the analysis difficult. Mitotic chromosomes from imaginal discs of 4 th instar larvae of Aedes aegypti were tested as a source for the physical genome mapping for this mosquito. Chromosomes in imaginal discs are 10 times more abundant than chromosomes in nervous ganglia, and they do not accumulate chromosomal mutation as cell line chromosomes do. Prometaphase chromosomes in imaginal discs of Ae. aegypti are 4-5 times longer than metaphase chromosomes and can provide higher resolution for physical mapping. Cold temperature (+16 o C) was proven to increase the number of the chromosomes. Hypotonic solution treatment of live larvae was proven to elongate chromosomes and improve banding patterns. We differentially stained these mitotic chromosomes with Giemsa and YOYO-1 to revile the banding pattern. We applied fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) procedure developed for human chromosomes to Ae. aegypti chromosomes. A strain from Culex pipiens, Cx. quinquefasciatus and their hybrids from the natural population in Virginia was successfully colonized in the laboratory. This strain can be used as a reliable source for cytogenetic studies.
Murburn concept explains the acutely lethal effect of cyanide

Cyanide (CN) toxicity is traditionally understood to result from its binding of hemeFe centers, thereby disrupting mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase function and oxygen utilization by other globin proteins. Recently, a diffusible reactive oxygen species (DROS) mediated reaction mechanism called murburn concept was proposed to explain mitochondrial ATP-synthesis and heat generation. Per this purview, it was theorized that CN ion-radical equilibrium dissipates the catalytically vital DROS into futile cycles, producing water. In the current study, a comparative quantitative assessment of the above two explanations is made for: (i) lethal dosage or concentrations of CN, (ii) thermodynamics and kinetics of the binding/reaction, and (iii) correlation of CN with the binding data and reaction chemistry of H2S/CO. The quantitative findings suggest that the hemeFe binding-based toxicity explanation is untenable. CN also inhibited the experimental in vitro DROS-mediated coupling of inorganic phosphate with ADP. Further, pH-dependent inhibition profiles of heme enzyme catalyzed oxidation of a phenolic (wherein an -OH group reacts with DROS to form water, quite akin to the murburn model of ATP synthesis) indicated that- (i) multiple competitive reactions in milieu controlled outcomes and (ii) low concentrations of CN cannot disrupt activity via a coordination (binding) of cyanide at the distal hemeFe. Therefore, the μM-level IC50 and the acutely lethal effect of CN on cellular respiration could be explained by the deleterious interaction of CN ion-radical equilibrium with DROS in matrix, disrupting mitochondrial ATP synthesis. This work supports the murburn explanation for cellular respiration.
Acoustic Target Strength of the Endangered Chinese Sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) by Ex Situ Measurements and Theoretical Calculations

The Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis, is a large anadromous and highly endangered protected species. The assessment of its breeding population in the Yangtze River is critically important for effective management and population preservation. Currently, hydroacoustic methods have been widely used to study the adult sturgeons in the river, whereas the acoustic target strength (TS) characteristics of the species have not been studied. In this study, the TS of Chinese sturgeon was carefully evaluated both by ex situ measurements and theoretical calculations. Six Chinese sturgeons (Body Length (BL): 74.0−92.6 cm) were measured by a 199 kHz split echosounder in a 10-m deep net cage. The computed tomography of a Chinese sturgeon (BL: 110.0 cm) was conducted and the Kirchhoff ray mode (KRM) method was used to estimate the theoretical TS. As a result, the mean ex situ TS range of the six specimens was from −26.9 to −31.4 dB, which was very close to the KRM estimation (~1 dB difference). Then, the KRM method was used to predict the TS of Chinese sturgeon as a function of BL in six frequencies commonly used in freshwater environments and to estimate the TS of a representative adult Chinese sturgeon (250 cm) as a function of frequency and tilt angle. This study can provide a good basis for future hydroacoustic studies on the critically endangered Chinese sturgeon.
Binaural Sound Source Localisation in Complex Conditions

There has been a growing interest in the reproduction of human spatial hearing behaviours, arising from the development of spatial audio signal processing techniques. To accurately localise single or multiple sound sources using humanoid apparatus, it is essential to be able to exploit the spatial-related features of the human subject filtering effect, which requires an understanding of both the feature characteristics and the mapping relationship to the source locations. In this thesis, we analyse and evaluate the localisation feature characteristics of binaural signal, and explore a method for constructing a localisation mapping model. As a result of the reflecting and diffracting of human-like apparatus, sound waves are filtered before being captured by the eardrum, and the filtering effects result in various behaviours in the frequency domain. This thesis first summarises the characteristics of those behaviours and evaluates their importance to localisation. We analyse and evaluate the correlation between source location and three main interaural cues, which are interaural level differences, interaural time difference and interaural phase difference. Then, we explore the process to exploit those features using, and develop a novel feature vector by combining the most valuable spectra. Following this, by employing mutual information as the evaluation metric for frequencies selection, we propose a new feature location mapping model that embeds the feature evaluation process. The new mapping uses a multiple-tree structured model based on the random forest that shows high tolerance to noise. Through computational simulations and practical experiments, the model presents an improvement in both accuracy and robustness according to the comparison of the angular error and localisation correct rate. Finally, by combining our localisation method with the recent proposed direct path transfer function estimation method based on a convolutive transfer function model, we design a binaural localisation system for an unknown environment. The remainder of this thesis demonstrates the possibility of using the active localisation cues in a binaural system. Based on observations of human active head rotation behaviour, we investigate the effect of dynamic features in binaural localisation. The analysis shows that head rotation enriches the variation of localisation features, which resolve the problem of cone-of-confusion and simplifies vertical-wise
Consensus of Heterogeneous Second-Order Nonlinear Uncertain Multiagent Systems Under Switching Networks

The consensus problem of heterogeneous second-order nonlinear uncertain multiagent systems under switching networks is addressed by a distributed control approach. The network communication of all systems is subject to arbitrarily bounded and nonuniform time-varying delays. Based on the internal model principle, a nonlinear distributed dynamic controller is developed to solve the problem. By means of Lyapunov analysis, consensus of heterogeneous second-order nonlinear multiagent systems is achieved in the presence of system uncertainties, disturbances, and uniformly connected topologies as well as arbitrarily bounded and nonuniform time-varying communication delays.
Relationship Between Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Obstruction and Infection in Pediatric Patients with Hydrocephalus

61 Erciyes Med J 2021; 43(1): 61–6 • DOI: 10.14744/etd.2020. 25493 ORIGINAL ARTICLE – OPEN ACCESS This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Ali Şahin , Abdulfettah Tümtürk , Murat Çiftçi , Nimetullah Alper Durmuş , Ahmet Küçük , Halil Ulutabanca , İbrahim Suat Öktem Relationship Between Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Obstruction and Infection in Pediatric Patients with Hydrocephalus Objective: The most common ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) complications in pediatric patients include shunt infections and obstructions. This study evaluated the relationship between shunt infection and obstruction in pediatric patients undergoing VPS placement for hydrocephalus at our clinic. Materials and Methods: Altogether, 210 patients ≤16 years old who were diagnosed with hydrocephalus and who received VPS placement by the same surgeon between January 2012 and June 2017 were followed up for at least one year and were evaluated retrospectively. Patients’ clinical and laboratory findings were evaluated, and computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were performed. Pearson’s chi-squared and Fisher–Freeman–Halton tests were used for statistical data analysis. Results: Among the 210 patients, shunt complications developed in 86; of these 86 patients, shunt infections, shunt obstructions, and other complications developed in 41, 53 (non-infection-related: 31 and infection-related: 22), and 14 patients, respectively. The infection rate in patients in whom VPS placement was performed from the frontal region was lower than those patients in whom it was performed from the occipitoparietal region. The obstruction rate was significantly higher in patients with shunt infection than in those without. Obstruction occurred in one-third of the patients with Staphylococcus epidermidis infection among patients with shunt infection. Conclusion: The obstruction rate in patients with shunt infection was three times higher than those without. Considering that shunt infection may accompany obstruction, making the decisions regarding the treatment method for patients with shunt obstruction is appropriate, after determining whether a shunt infection exists.
Online Delayed Reference Generation for a Humanoid Imitating Human Walking Motion

In this article, we propose a delayed reference generation method for a humanoid to stably imitate human walking. An admissible condition for a robust imitation is first defined from the state of the robot and the target support polygon. In addition, a motion buffer is proposed and implemented to apply a time delay to the human motion according to the abovementioned condition for use as a reference to the robot. A data acquisition device and the HUBO2+ humanoid platform were used in teleoperation experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. We confirmed that the robot could stably imitate human footsteps under either static or dynamic walking when applying the proposed method.
Immune-checkpoint inhibitor anti-PD1 aggravates colitis-associated colorectal cancer without enhancing intestinal inflammation

Introduction: Immunity of colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC) differs fundamentally from that of the sporadic form. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether this difference could potentiate the efficacy of immune-checkpoint inhibitor anti-PD1 against CAC. Methods: CAC tumorigenesis was induced by azoxymethane (AOM) followed by three cycles of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) in mice. Two weeks after the end of DSS, mice were treated with anti-PD1 antibody (n=9) or with isotype antibody (n=9). The severity of clinical and histological colitis, tumor counts, and infiltration of CD8+ T-lymphocytes and neutrophils were compared. Results: The anti-PD1 antibody did not aggravate the colitis as exemplified by the absence of differences in weight loss (p=0.424) and in the standardized pathological scores (p=1.000) compared to those of the control. On macroscopic examination, the median number of tumors was 24.0 [21.5/31.0] in treated mice and 17.0 [4.0/23.5] in controls (p=0.037). The percentage of tumor tissue within the entire colonic epithelium was significantly higher in treated mice (33.1% [27.2/39.0]) than in controls (15.3% [8.1/25.0]) (p=0.003). The intra-tumoral CD8+ T-lymphocyte density was similar between the two groups (p=0.546). In contrast, CD8+ T-lymphocyte density was significantly higher in non-tumor colonic epithelium in treated mice than in controls (p=0.019). Regarding innate immunity, neutrophil density was similar within the tumors (p=0.864) and augmented in non-tumor colonic epithelium in treated mice compared with controls (p=0.012). Conclusion: Unexpectedly, checkpoint inhibitor anti-PD1 treatment of CAC stimulates tumor proliferation without flaring-up the colitis. *Correspondence to: Eric Ogier-Denis, Laboratory of intestinal inflammation, center of research on inflammation, UMR1149, INSERM, University of Paris, 16 rue Henri Huchard, 75018, France, Tel: +33157277307, Fax: +3315727746, E-mail: eric.ogier-denis@inserm.fr
Impact of body composition on physical fitness components in the Mexican Navy: Is overweight an issue?

Abstract Overweight and inadequate physical fitness are critical variables that impact directly on the health, wellbeing of service members and military readiness, characteristics required to overcome dangerous situations during sea rescues and in the first line of combat in the Mexican Navy. Here we determined the impact of body composition (BC) on physical fitness components (PFC) [cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscle strength-resistance (MSR)] of 110 marines, rescue swimmers, and divers of the Mexican Navy classified as overweight. We found significant differences in medians of BC and PFC among groups (p < 0.001). The WHO and military BMI showed 59 (54%) and 16 (15%) individuals as overweight, respectively. All groups showed CRF adequate for their age, but only 26 (51%) and 14 (24%) classified as normal and overweight (WHO), respectively, had adequate CFR (METs ˃12) (p = 0.003) for physical demands of military tasks. BMI in overweight at expenses of high BFP, without cardiovascular risk represents an operational task advantage that will lead to reach the balance between physical fitness, health, and military readiness.
Effect of Comparative Feedback on Consumers’ Energy-Saving Behavior: A College Dormitory Example

Comparative feedback is a focus on existing research, while studies on the psychological mechanisms of its effect on consumers’ energy-saving behavior remain lacking. This article considers that the social comparison orientation of feedback has a significant impact on consumers’ energy-saving behavior and intention through a mediated moderation mechanism. A field experiment of 2 (comparison orientation: upward comparison, downward comparison) × 2 (self-construal: independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal) between-subjects design with taking college student dormitories as the sample shows that consumers can experience higher psychological reactance when they receive energy consumption information through upward comparison than when they do so through downward comparison. The partly negative mediating role of psychological reactance is moderated by self-construal. In the context of independent self-construal, comparative feedback stimulates individual's psychological reactance to the intention to reduce energy-saving, while in the context of interdependent self-construal, it does not. This article has reference value for developing accurate feedback strategies for different types of energy consumers.
Rapid diagnostic PCR method for identification of the genera Sarcocornia and Salicornia

espanolRESUMEN Las plantas que pertenecen a diferentes generos, a veces, pueden presentar fuertes similitudes morfologicas y pueden no ser identificadas fenotipicamente por no especialistas. El objetivo de este trabajo fue desarrollar una PCR diagnostico para la identificacion de plantas de los generos Sarcocornia y Salicornia y probar este nuevo procedimiento para identificar 82 muestras de Sarcocornia neii distribuidas en la costa y valles de la region de Atacama. Se diseno seis parejas de cebadores a partir de secuencias ETS de los generos Sarcocornia y Salicornia, y se evaluo la identificacion de cada genero. Los cebadores contienen un desajuste en el nucleotido 3’ que corresponde al sitio del SNP. Se seleccionaron cuatro pares de cebadores (SALI2F-2R, SALI3F-4R, SARCO1F-1R y SARCO3F-3R) para desarrollar una PCR de diagnostico eficiente y simple para la identificacion de los generos Sarcocornia y Salicornia. El resultado muestra que con este metodo se puede identificar los generos Sarcocornia y Salicornia. Adicionalmente, este metodo puede ser util como propuesta para la trazabilidad genetica de productos conservados (esparragos de mar). Este trabajo proporciona una aplicacion eficiente, utilizando solo ADN, PCR y electroforesis. EnglishABSTRACT Plants that belong to different genera sometimes may present close morphological similarity and cannot be distinguished phe notypically by non-specialists. The aim of this study was to develop a simple diagnostic PCR for the identification of plants of Sarcocornia and Salicornia and to test this new procedure to identify 82 samples of Sarcocornia neii from coastal and valleys of the Atacama region of Chile. Six primer pairs were designed from ETS sequences of the genera Sarcocornia and Salicornia and evaluated for the identification of both genera. Primers with a mismatch in the 3’ nucleotide indicate the site of the SNP. Four primer pairs (SALI2F-2R, SALI3F-4R, SARCO1F-1R and SARCO3F-3R) were selected to develop an efficient and simple diagnostic PCR for the identification of Sarcocornia and Salicornia. The results show that with this method is possible to identify Sarcocornia and Salicornia. This method may be useful as an approach for genetic traceability of conserved products (sea asparagus). This work provides an applicable and efficient method using only DNA, PCR and electrophoresis.
Efficient Precision-Adjustable Architecture for Softmax Function in Deep Learning

The softmax function has been widely used in deep neural networks (DNNs), and studies on efficient hardware accelerators for DNN have also attracted tremendous attention. However, it is very challenging to design efficient hardware architectures for softmax because of the expensive exponentiation and division calculations in it. In this brief, the softmax function is firstly simplified by exploring algorithmic strength reductions. Afterwards, a hardware-friendly and precision-adjustable calculation method for softmax is proposed, which can meet different precision requirements in various deep learning (DL) tasks. Based on the above innovations, an efficient architecture for softmax is presented. By tuning the parameter <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the system accuracy and complexity can be adjusted dynamically to achieve a good tradeoff between them. The proposed design is coded using hardware description language (HDL) and evaluated on two platforms, Xilinx Zynq-7000 ZC706 development board and TSMC 28-nm CMOS technology, respectively. Hardware implementation results show that our architecture significantly outperforms other works in speed and area, and that by adjusting <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the accuracy can be further increased with little hardware overhead.