Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Excluding hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection by serology in young infants of HCV‐infected mothers

Aim: To identify the age at which HCV infection can be accurately excluded by serology in young children born to HCV‐infected mothers and to determine an appropriate schedule of antibody testing, most informative to clinical practice. Methods: Children born to HCV‐infected mothers were followed in centres of the European Paediatric HCV Network. Turnbull survival analysis techniques were used to estimate the age at which HCV‐uninfected children will lose maternally acquired HCV antibodies. Factors associated with age at antibody loss were assessed in logistic regression. Results: In 1104 children followed from birth and later confirmed to be HCV uninfected, an estimated 57% will have lost passively acquired HCV antibodies before 6 mo of age and an estimated 95% by 12 mo. Maternal HCV viraemia antenatally was associated with later, and maternal HIV–HCV co‐infection with earlier loss of antibody. Actual antibody testing of uninfected children at 12 mo identified 82% of those tested to be anti‐HCV negative.
Risk Factors of Human Brucellosis in the Northeast of Iran

0.1; 95% CI: 0.01-0.5), consuming unpasteurized butter (OR: 0.4; 95% CI: 0.2-0.8), and timely animal vaccination (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1-0.5) had a protective effect on brucellosis. Conclusion : The risk factors identified in this study are lifestyle-and occupation-related modifiable factors. So, the disease incidence is expected to decrease in this region with modification of these risk factors, such as animal vaccination, personal protection at work, and public health education. J Med Microbiol Infec Dis, 2016, 4 (1-2): 20-24.
Features of Evolutionary Complex Networks in Complex Adaptive Systems

Adaptive behaviours of nodes can cause the evolution of networks. To investigate the characteristics of evolutionary complex networks that result from the interactions between agents in complex adaptive systems, we construct a complex network model of heat-bug interactions by drawing on statistical physics methods based on the heat-bug experiment. The networks of interactions between heat bugs show the following: that the degree distribution evolves from the Gamma distribution to the Gaussian distribution, that the average local density is high, and the average path length is short, and that the dynamics of clusters in the networks changes from creation to combination and then to separation, and the members of the clusters change continuously, but the number of clusters remains stable. Based on the micro perspective, these results provide a good alternative to explain emerging complex phenomena by elucidating the characteristics of evolutionary complex networks.
Mussel‐Inspired Block Copolymer Lithography for Low Surface Energy Materials of Teflon, Graphene, and Gold

Mussel-inspired interfacial engineering is synergistically integrated with block copolymer (BCP) lithography for the surface nanopatterning of low surface energy substrate materials, including, Teflon, graphene, and gold. The image shows the Teflon nanowires and their excellent superhydrophobicity.
Power System Dynamic State Estimation Using a Layered Local-Global Method

Fast state estimation and system identification are essential to the reliability of the increasingly complex power system. Current estimation, on slower, steady-state, time scales does not model dynamics; however, with the deployment of phasor measurement units, faster estimation is now possible. We introduce a robust state estimator that learns the dynamic state of the power system on fast time scales. This estimator uses a modified Extended Kalman Filter based on an implicit trapezoidal discretization for increased stability when estimating the states of the differential algebraic system that describes the power system. Further, it combines a local and a global estimator into a hybrid architecture that effectively handles unknown changes in the system dynamics, such as faults. The overall goal of this work is to develop new state estimation techniques that will support a future fast and flexible estimation layered architecture that integrates state estimation, change point detection, and classification of disturbances.
Ultrasonic inspection of complex composites

Complex composites are widely used in aerospace, automobile industry and other fields. Because parts of complex surface to be detected are usually parts with variable thickness. After analyzing the disadvantages of current testing method, an improved real-time sensitivity adjusting method based on stable amplitude is presented. Part curvatures (convex and concave) have a significant effect on both the ultrasonic response and the scanning resolution requirements. In order to ensure more ultrasonic signals transmitted through composites, transducer should always automatically follow the changing shape of curved surface. A twin-robot testing system is introduced to accomplish testing complex surface automatically. Moreover, the experimental results of testing different complex composites supported the opinion above.
Conserved function of anopheles gambiae midgut‐specific promoters in the fruitfly.

Control of malaria by a methodology that would permit the effective blockage of the Anopheles gambiae midgut wall penetration by Plasmodium parasites requires a detailed understanding of both the physiology of the mosquito's digestion, and of the interactions between the parasite and its host. We have transformed Drosophila melanogaster with several constructs that allow the study of the promoter region of two of the major late trypsin genes of A. gambiae. Using several deletions, we have identified, for both genes, small genomic segments that are sufficient to confer tissue specificity to the promoter in a species that is far away in evolution from the mosquito. This will allow further studies that will enable both the understanding of the blood meal digestion, and may potentially be useful for the design of anti‐plasmodial constructs at a later stage.
Effect of exercise on lipolytic sensitivity in endurance-trained athletes.

Studies performed in vitro suggest that an acute bout of exercise increases the lipolytic response to beta-adrenergic stimulation. We evaluated the effect of exercise on lipolytic sensitivity in vivo in five endurance-trained athletes. The rate of appearance (Ra) of glycerol in plasma, an index of whole body lipolysis, was determined during 60 min of epinephrine infusion (0.015 microgram.kg-1.min-1) on two occasions: 1) at basal resting conditions and 2) 90 min after completing 1 h of high-intensity (70% O2 uptake) cycle ergometer exercise. Total glycerol Ra during epinephrine infusion in the basal state (352 +/- 35 mumol.kg-1. 60 min-1) was not significantly different from the value obtained after high-intensity exercise (439 +/- 58 mumol.kg-1. 60 min-1). However, the increase in glycerol Ra above baseline during epinephrine infusion was lower after (30 +/- 16 mumol.kg-1. 60 min-1) than before (148 +/- 28 mumol.kg-1. 60 min-1) exercise because of the high postexercise baseline value (P < 0.05). Mean plasma free fatty acid (FFA) concentration was lower during exercise than during epinephrine infusion despite a greater rate of lipolysis during exercise. The slope of change in plasma FFA with respect to glycerol RA was lower during exercise (0.0171 +/- 0.006) than during epinephrine infusion (0.0835 +/- 0.018) (P < 0.05). We conclude that a single bout of intense exercise does not increase in vivo lipolytic sensitivity to beta-adrenergic stimulation in endurance-trained athletes. In addition, plasma FFA concentration represents the balance between plasma FFA inflow and tissue uptake and cannot be used as an index of lipolytic activity during certain physiological conditions, such as exercise.
Purification and properties of a proteinase inhibitor from chicken seminal plasma.

A low molecular weight, acid stable proteinase inhibitor similar to those found in mammalian species was identified in chicken seminal plasma. The inhibitor was purified to a specific activity of 250 units/mg by means of affinity chromatography on insolubilized trypsin, gel filtration and cation exchange. Ion exchange resulted in partial resolution of 2 active forms which probably represent native and modified versions of the same inhibitor. The amino acid composition of the chicken inhibitor was similar to those reported for mammalian seminal plasma proteinase inhibitors. A molecular weight of 6,100 was obtained by gel filtration under denaturing conditions and by calculation from the amino acid composition. The inhibitor was capable of inhibiting trypsin, acrosin and plasmin, but not chymotrypsin. Formation of the inactive proteinase-inhibitor complex was completed within minutes. A value of 7.5 X 109M was found for the dissociation constant of the trypsin-inhibitor complex. The acrosin-inhibitor complex was more resistant to competitive displacement of the inhibitor by benzoyl-arginine ethyl ester than was the trypsmn-inhibitor complex. caused little competitive displacement of inhibitor from the trypsin-inhibitor complex and appeared to be superior to benzoyl-arginine ethyl ester as a substrate for routine inhibitor assays. The physiological function of the proteinase inhibitor in chicken seminal plasma may be related to the inactivation of acrosin released from dead or damaged spermatozoa.
A Functional Comparison of the Archaeon Tricorn Protease and Selected Serine Proteases from Trypanosoma brucei brucei

Trypanosomes are protozoan parasites causing African trypanosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease in Africa affecting humans and animals. Current control methods have focused on the use of drugs which have adverse effects and develop resistance and with no available conventional vaccine. Proteolysis is a key process in trypanosome survival in the mammalian host hence identification of other parasitic factors would lead to the development of new chemotherapeutic agents. This study investigated archaeon tricorn protease functional analogs in Trypanosoma brucei brucei through bioinformatics approaches. The protein sequences were retrieved from NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/protein/) and position specific iterated basic local sequence alignment (PSI-BLAST) was performed using default parameters to determine patterns of conservation which aid in the recognition of distant similarities. The 3D models of the putative proteins were constructed using T. acidophilum tricorn protease. The constructed models were analyzed based on percentage identity, e-value and bit-score. Structural alignment was done using MATRAS (http://strcomp.protein.osaka-u.ac.jp/matras/) and PyMOL Molecular Graphics System, Version 1.8 Schrödinger, LLC (https://www.pymol.org/) was used for viewing and structural analysis. The bioinformatics analysis revealed similarities in the catalytic core elements as well as the beta sheets serving as substrate entry and exit route to and from the catalytic chamber. Therefore, based on these similarities, this study reports the identification tricorn protease functional analogs in Trypanosoma brucei brucei.
THE USE OF COINTEGRATION AND ERROR CORRECTION MODELLING TO INVESTIGATE THE INFLUENCE OF DIABETES AND

This paper reports on a frontier study undertaken to examine the influence of mortality rates due to diabetes (DBT) and medical services expenditure (EXP) on economic growth (RGDPP) in Malaysia. The results of the Johansen test for cointegration allowed the acceptance of r = 2 as our estimate of the number of cointegrating equations among the three of variables. The negative sign of the residual in the estimated Error Correction Modelling (ECM) indicated the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship among RGDPP, EXP and DBT, while the coefficient for error term implied that the system corrected its previous period disequilibrium due to positive or negative shocks in one period at an adjustment speed of 9.23 percent annually. These findings have substantive implications on the efforts to promote and achieve satisfactory health and wellness in Malaysia, and highlight a critical need for an effective long-term national strategy to resolve diabetes related economic issues. The results provide a useful foundation for a much needed national debate to review health-care spending in relation to choosing the best methods in reducing and alleviating diabetes and other chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Additional priority areas that merit further study are highlighted to help in measuring and addressing the economic, human, and social costs of preventable chronic diseases and to identify opportunities to ameliorate these important aspects within the economy.
Parsimony with and without Scientific Justification

Brower's (2000, Cladistics 16, 143–154) pursuit of a nonevolutionary cladistics, like those of others (e.g., Scotland, 2000, Syst. Biol. 49, 480–500), fails for lack of a scientific justification. His operational explication of parsimony does not necessarily rule out the use of other criteria on which to base the identification of a hierarchical branching pattern, nor does he give a compelling reason for why just that one kind of pattern is sought. In the absence of evolutionary theory, such as the descent of species, and the modification of character states, one from another, there is no scientific reason to seek congruence among character hierarchies whose origins, functions, and fates are not necessarily the same. Brower's operational parsimony is no substitute for phylogenetic parsimony, where requirements for ad hoc hypotheses of homoplasy are justifiably minimized, assuming only “descent, with modification. ” In addition to maximizing explanatory power, that most parsimonious cladogram is the least disconfirmed, most highly corroborated, hypothesis.
Electrical TCAD Simulations of a Germanium pMOSFET Technology

A commercial technology computer-aided design device simulator was extended to allow electrical simulations of sub-100-nm germanium pMOSFETs. Parameters for generation/recombination mechanisms (Shockley-Read-Hall, trap-assisted tunneling, and band-to-band tunneling) and mobility models (impurity scattering and mobility reduction at high lateral and transversal field) are provided. The simulations were found to correspond well with the experimental I- V data on our Ge transistors at gate lengths down to 70 nm and various bias conditions. The effect of changes in halo dose and extension energies is discussed, illustrating that the set of models presented in this paper can prove useful to optimize and predict the performance of new Ge-based devices.
Map representations and coding-based priors for segmentation

The Bayesian segmentation model developed is motivated by consideration of the information needed for higher-level visual processing. A segmentation is regarded as a collection of parameters defining an image-valued stochastic process by separating topological (adjacency) and metric (shape) properties of the subdivision and intensity properties of each region. The prior selection is structured accordingly. The novel part of the representation, the subdivision topology, is assigned a prior by universal coding arguments, using the minimum description-length philosophy that the best segmentation allows the most efficient representation of visual data. <<ETX>>
The Dark Side of User Participation - The Effect of Calls to Action on Trust and Information Revelation

Many content websites seek to encourage user participation, which has been shown to increase user satisfaction and propensity to contribute. Yet this study shows that such encouragement can cause users to expose themselves to potentially harmful consequences, by enhancing their trust in the website and leading them to be more willing to reveal personal information. We perform a series of empirical experiments, utilizing a website called VideoBook, a YouTube-like video browsing platform that provides the opportunity to study users’ behaviors and perceptions in a realistic environment and under lab conditions. We find that users who are exposed to prompts that require them to engage with the website (rate videos) subsequently report higher trust in the site and reveal more personal information, compared with users who are not exposed to such prompts. Exposure to prompts does not affect users’ general attitudes regarding privacy. We test alternative scenarios to attempt to identify the sources of the phenomena, and we link our results to previous work on website-initiated participation and self-perception theory. We discuss both theoretical and policy implications.
Local electronic properties of two-dimensional Penrose tilings: A renormalization-group approach.

A real-space renormalization-group (RSRG) scheme is developed to study the local electronic properties of the two-dimensional Penrose tilings. The RSRG transformations are derived in terms of the inflation rule of the Penrose tilings. Two basic transformations T(alpha) and T(beta) are introduced, of which T(alpha) transforms a rhombus (R) Penrose tiling to a kite-dart (KD) Penrose tiling, while T(beta) transforms a KD Penrose tiling to a R Penrose tiling. Suitable combinations of them give rise to two transformations T1 and T2, of which T1 or T2 transforms a R or KD Penrose tiling to the same kind of quasiperiodic tiling that is scaled by a factor of tau(2), in which tau = (square-root 5 + 1)/2 is the golden mean. By infinite iterations of T1 or T2, we obtain the local Green's functions and the local densities of states (LDOS) at the key sites of the R or KD Penrose tilings. The LDOS at the key sites of the R Penrose tilings are numerically calculated and are consistent with the results obtained by others.
Document Similarity Misjudgment by LSA: Misses vs. False Positives

Modeling text document similarity is an important yet challenging task. Even the most advanced computational linguistic models often misjudge document similarity relative to humans. Regarding the pattern of misjudgment between models and humans, Lee and colleagues (2005) suggested that the models’ primary failure is occasional underestimation of strong similarity between documents. According to this suggestion, there should be more extreme misses (i.e., models failing to pick up on strong document similarity) than extreme false positives (i.e., models falsely detecting document similarity that does not exist). We tested this claim by comparing document similarity ratings generated by humans and latent semantic analysis (LSA). Notably, we implemented LSA with 441 unique parameter settings, determined optimal parameters that yielded high correlations with human ratings, and finally identified misses and false positives under the optimal parameter settings. The results showed that, as Lee et al. predicted, large errors were predominantly misses rather than false positives. Potential causes of the misses and false positives are discussed.
Intelligent Pen: A Least Cost Search Approach to Stroke Extraction in Historical Documents

Intelligent Pen: A Least Cost Search Approach to Stroke Extraction in Historical Documents Kevin L. Bauer Department of Computer Science, BYU Master of Science Extracting strokes from handwriting in historical documents provides high-level features for the challenging problem of handwriting recognition. Such handwriting often contains noise, faint or incomplete strokes, strokes with gaps, overlapping ascenders and descenders and competing lines when embedded in a table or form, making it unsuitable for local line following algorithms or associated binarization schemes. We introduce Intelligent Pen for piece-wise optimal stroke extraction. Extracted strokes are stitched together to provide a complete trace of the handwriting. Intelligent Pen formulates stroke extraction as a set of piece-wise optimal paths, extracted and assembled in cost order. As such, Intelligent Pen is robust to noise, gaps, faint handwriting and even competing lines and strokes. Intelligent Pen traces compare closely with the shape as well as the order in which the handwriting was written. A quantitative comparison with an ICDAR handwritten stroke data set shows Intelligent Pen traces to be within 0.78 pixels (mean difference) of the manually created strokes.
Heterodyne Interferometer for Measurement of Electron Density in High-Pressure Plasmas

Conventional material processes using plasmas generated in low pressure gaseous media are recently being transposed to high-pressure plasma processes, because of the potential of high-pressure plasmas to reduce costs for vacuum systems in industrial applications. In many kinds of high-pressure plasma sources, small-scale atmospheric-pressure plasmas (APPs) having a property of thermal non-equilibrium, have been especially attracting much interest of researchers over the last 20 years (Becker, 2005). In such a high pressure gaseous medium, generating the small-scale plasmas in mm or μm order is effective to keep its ignition voltage low and discharge behavior stable, following a famous rule on discharge ignition called a “Paschen’s law” (Paschen, 1889; von Engel, 1994). Using these small-scale high-pressure plasmas, localized maskless processes, for example etching (Ichiki et al., 2004) and deposition (Babayan et al., 1998), have been reported. Also, nanomaterial synthesis was realized by the APP utilizing their property of short residence time of source particles inside the plasma (Nozaki et al., 2007). In addition to the inorganic solid material processes, process objects of the APPs are spreading toward liquids (Bruggeman & Leys, 2009) and biocells (Kong et al., 2009) which cannot present in low-pressure conditions.
Frequency and Clinical Features of Patients who Attempted Suicide by Hara‐Kiri in Japan

Hara‐kiri is a unique Japanese custom, primarily stemming from the manners and customs that a samurai held. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical features of individuals who attempted suicide by hara‐kiri. We enrolled 647 patients who had attempted suicide. Clinical features were compared between those who had employed hara‐kiri and those who had used other methods. 25 of the 647 subjects had attempted suicide by hara‐kiri. The ratio of men to women and the proportion of patients with mood disorders were significantly higher in the hara‐kiri group than in the other methods group. The average length of stay in either the hospital or in the intensive care unit was also longer in the hara‐kiri group than in the other methods group. Hara‐kiri is an original Japanese method of attempting suicide, and suicide attempts by hara‐kiri may be aimed at maintaining a reputation or taking responsibility.