Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunoblots, antimicrobial resistance, and bacteriophage typing of oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

An immunoblotting system was developed for typing of oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Clinical isolates recovered during a 40-month period at a single institution were evaluated with this typing scheme. Results were compared with susceptibility patterns and with bacteriophage typing results for 100 clinical isolates and with plasmid fingerprints for 14 isolates. Immunoblotting was found to be a useful method with good reproducibility that distinguished seven major groups of patient isolates that were clinically and epidemiologically related. Susceptibility patterns showed specific correlations with other typing results but were inferior to immunoblotting and phage typing for differentiating major groups of organisms. Plasmid profiles failed to distinguish two major groups that were readily identified by immunoblots and phage typing. There was evidence of increasing antimicrobial resistance of endemic hospital strains. Immunoblotting correlated well with phage typing, offered an alternative method for typing isolates that could not be typed by phage typing, and was superior to susceptibility testing and plasmid profiles for distinguishing different groups of oxacillin-resistant S. aureus at our institution.
An efficient methodology for the partitioning of VLSI circuits using genetic algorithm

In the recent years, with the explosive growth in the density of VLSI circuits, eﬃcient algorithms and methodologies for circuit partitioning have been established as an important area of computer aided design for VLSI. In this thesis, I explore a novel methodology for the partitioning of VLSI circuits optimizing area, cost and performance according to the user priorities. A data graph representation of a circuit is taken and an optimum crossover point is calculated with the help of graph partitioning algorithms (METIS). This crossover point is used to mutate the individuals in the genetic algorithm to ﬁnd the individual with maximum ﬁtness. The previous methods available in the literature use random crossover points which sometimes kill competent genes, signiﬁcantly increasing the time to ﬁnd an optimum solution. The method proposed in this paper intelligently selects a crossover point considering the circuit given to it and then continues according to the algorithm. This method is demonstrated to be more eﬃcient and faster than the previous approaches.
Minimum distance, a quick and simple method of determining the static ATC

In this paper, a quick, simple and precise method has been introduced for determining the static ATC, considering the real limitation of the network. It has also taken into account the limitation of the over load of all the elements, the over and lower voltage for all buses and terminals. In fact, (Minimum Distance) MD method is a kind of Continuation Power Flow (CPF) which converges to the response fast and with a few Load Flow (LF) from the distance between the operation point and desired point with approximation quadratic equation and only utilizes the LF to obtain the results. The algorithm presented here has been tested on 270 buses in Khorasan network and 449 buses in Iran network and has been compared with the CPF.
Pretreatment with magnesium sulfate attenuates white matter damage by preventing cell death of developing oligodendrocytes

Antenatal maternal administration of magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) reduces cerebral palsy in preterm infants. However, it remains controversial as to whether it also reduces occurrence of white matter damage, or periventricular leukomalacia. We assessed the effect of MgSO4 against white matter damage induced by hypoxic‐ischemic insult using a neonatal rat model and culture of premyelinating oligodendrocytes (pre‐OL).
Validity of the Fine Motor Area of the 12-Month Ages and Stages Questionnaire in Infants Following Major Surgery

ABSTRACT The Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) are parent-report screening tools to identify infants at risk of developmental difficulties. The purpose of this study was to examine validity and internal reliability of the fine motor developmental area of the ASQ, 2nd edition (ASQ2-FM) for screening 12-month-old infants following major surgery. The ASQ2-FM was completed by caregivers of 74 infants who had cardiac surgery in the first 90 days of life, 104 infants who had noncardiac surgery in the first 90 days of life, and a control group of 154 infants. The Rasch item response analysis revealed that the ASQ2-FM had poor ability to discriminate among levels of fine motor ability. Sensitivity was poor (20%) and specificity was good (98%) when compared with the scores for the fine motor subscale of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. The ASQ2-FM under-identified infants at risk for fine motor delay; internal reliability and construct validity do not support use as a screening tool of fine motor development of infants aged 12 months who have undergone major surgery.
Outcome Studies in Stroke Rehabilitation The South Australian Stroke Study

Like most longitudinal studies, this review has posed more questions than answers. It has, however, enabled us to make the following important statements about stroke rehabilitation outcome: 1. The determinants of outcome depend to a great extent on factors other than the nature and extent of the impairment. It seems that the patient's subjective perception of himself as either well or ill may be a major determinant of subsequent behavior in terms of functional dependence (disability). 2. What people are able to do at 6 months or more after the completion of formal rehabilitation is the real measure of its effectiveness. 3. An index of "quality of life" based on, for example, the concepts of the Frenchay index is needed to evaluate the role and function of people in community living.
Total costs and predictors of costs in individuals with early inflammatory polyarthritis: a community-based prospective study.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the health service, non-health service and total costs and predictors of costs in individuals with early inflammatory polyarthritis (IP). METHODS We conducted a prospective longitudinal study over a 6-month period. The participants were a random sample of 133 individuals who had enrolled with the community-based Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) database between 1994 and 1999. The main outcome measures were the mean (per person) 6-month health service cost, non-health-service cost and total cost associated with IP. RESULTS One hundred and fifteen of the 133 individuals who were recruited into the study completed 6 months of follow-up. The mean 6-month total cost was estimated to be 2800 pounds sterling per person, of which 14% was health service costs and the remainder non-health-service costs. Higher total costs were associated with lower health status and rheumatoid factor positivity. CONCLUSIONS Early IP has a considerable impact on both the health-care system and, more importantly, society. Non-health-service costs (i.e. costs incurred by the individual with the disease, their family and friends) account for a substantial proportion (86%) of the total costs associated with early IP.
Efficacy and safety of sitagliptin/metformin fixed‐dose combination compared with glimepiride in patients with type 2 diabetes: A multicenter randomized double‐blind study

Early initiation of combination therapy using antihyperglycemic agents is recommended for treating type 2 diabetes (T2D). The present multicenter double‐blind randomized parallel‐group study examined the efficacy and safety of a sitagliptin and metformin fixed‐dose combination (Sita/Met) compared with glimepiride in T2D patients as initial treatment.
ESTIMATION OF CROSS-CORRELATION FUNCTIONS IN AD-HOC MICROPHONE

In this paper, we address the problem of estimating the cross-correlation function between two microphone signals recorded in different nodes of an ad-hoc microphone array or wireless acoustic sensor network, where the transmission of the entire microphone signal from one node to another is undesirable due to power and/or bandwidth constraints. We show that instead of directly computing the cross-correlation function, it can be estimated as the solution to a deconvolution problem. This deconvolution problem can be separated into two subproblems, each of which depends on one microphone signal and an auxiliary signal derived from the other microphone signal. Three different strategies for solving this deconvolution problem are proposed, in which the two subproblems are solved jointly (symmetric deconvolution), separately (asymmetric deconvolution) or in a consensus framework (consensus deconvolution). Simulation results illustrate the performance difference in terms of estimation accuracy, noise robustness, and transmission requirements.
Mapping Questions to Ontology Components for Question Answering over Linked Data

This paper describes a statistical method to identify ontology components within natural language questions. The main purpose for this step is to improve question answering systems over linked data by reducing the ambiguity in the subsequent matching and query generation steps. To accomplish this task, we have trained a Conditional Random Field (CRF) classifier to label sentence tokens with the core data elements of the DBpedia ontology. The classifier was trained on a manually annotated corpus labelled with ontology elements for each token. Several features were investigated for the classifier and the results (F1=0.92) prove that this task can be successfully solved using the CRF tagger.
Optimal coordination of directional overcurrent relays using harmony search algorithm

Directional over current relays (DOR) are used to protection of interconnected networks and looped distribution systems. Several techniques and formulations have been proposed to solve the optimal coordination of DOR problem. In this paper, harmony search algorithm (HSA) is proposed for optimal coordination of DOR in a looped distribution system. Then this algorithm is developed to a new Improvised harmony search algorithm (IHSA) to solve the same problem. IHSA employs a new method that enhance fine tuning and convergence rate of HSA. The optimal setting of over current relays for a standard distribution network are obtained and comparison between the new methods and some other methods is made.
A multi-algorithm-based automatic person identification system

Multimodal biometric is an emerging area of research that aims at increasing the reliability of biometric systems through utilizing more than one biometric in decision-making process. In this work, we develop a multi-algorithm based multimodal biometric system utilizing face and ear features and rank and decision fusion approach. We use multilayer perceptron network and fisherimage approaches for individual face and ear recognition. After face and ear recognition, we integrate the results of the two face matchers using rank level fusion approach. We experiment with highest rank method, Borda count method, logistic regression method and Markov chain method of rank level fusion approach. Due to the better recognition performance we employ Markov chain approach to combine face decisions. Similarly, we get combined ear decision. These two decisions are combined for final identification decision. We try with 'AND'/'OR' rule, majority voting rule and weighted majority voting rule of decision fusion approach. From the experiment results, we observed that weighted majority voting rule works better than any other decision fusion approaches and hence, we incorporate this fusion approach for the final identification decision. The final results indicate that using multi algorithm based can certainly improve the recognition performance of multibiometric systems.
Turn-Based War Chess Model and Its Search Algorithm per Turn

War chess gaming has so far received insufficient attention but is a significant component of turn-based strategy games TBS and is studied in this paper. First, a common game model is proposed through various existing war chess types. Based on the model, we propose a theory frame involving combinational optimization on the one hand and game tree search on the other hand. We also discuss a key problem, namely, that the number of the branching factors of each turn in the game tree is huge. Then, we propose two algorithms for searching in one turn to solve the problem: 1 enumeration by order; 2 enumeration by recursion. The main difference between these two is the permutation method used: the former uses the dictionary sequence method, while the latter uses the recursive permutation method. Finally, we prove that both of these algorithms are optimal, and we analyze the difference between their efficiencies. An important factor is the total time taken for the unit to expand until it achieves its reachable position. The factor, which is the total number of expansions that each unit makes in its reachable position, is set. The conclusion proposed is in terms of this factor: Enumeration by recursion is better than enumeration by order in all situations.
A Low-Cost, Wearable Opto-Inertial 6-DOF Hand Pose Tracking System for VR

In this paper, a low cost, wearable six Degree of Freedom (6-DOF) hand pose tracking system is proposed for Virtual Reality applications. It is designed for use with an integrated hand exoskeleton system for kinesthetic haptic feedback. The tracking system consists of an Infrared (IR) based optical tracker with low cost mono-camera and inertial and magnetic measurement unit. Image processing is done on LabVIEW software to extract the 3-DOF position from two IR targets and Magdwick filter has been implemented on Mbed LPC1768 board to obtain orientation data. Six DOF hand tracking outputs filtered and synchronized on LabVIEW software are then sent to the Unity Virtual environment via User Datagram Protocol (UDP) stream. Experimental results show that this low cost and compact system has a comparable performance of minimal Jitter with position and orientation Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of less than 0.2 mm and 0.15 degrees, respectively. Total Latency of the system is also less than 40 ms.
Handedness: Proficiency versus Stated Preference

An investigation of performance factors of developed hand preference was undertaken. Measurements taken from both the preferred and nonpreferred hands of 50 males and 50 females yielded scores on 61 dependent variables from 32 tests. Factor analyses of the scores produced 9 interpretable factors of hand performance. Each factor was common to male and female and to preferred—nonpreferred performance. However, preferred hand performance was superior on almost all tasks. Results indicate that questionnaires of stated hand preference cannot adequately represent the range of handedness or degree of differential manual proficiency. It was suggested that preferred hand performance is characterized by “Automatization” of the skills involved in hand performance.
Variable time delay experiments in serially cascaded ring resonator all-pass filters

Serially cascaded single-ring resonator APF's (All-Pass Filters) are implemented in high-index-contrast polymer waveguide for the realization of variable optical delay device. Thermo-optic effect of polymer materials is used to tune resonant wavelengths. When all of 8 rings are resonannt, the delay is measured to be about 160ps. The number of resonant rings can be adjusted to provide variable delay.
Expressed Emotion Displayed by the Mothers of Inhibited and Uninhibited Preschool-Aged Children

In the current study, the Five Minute Speech Sample was used to assess the association between parent attitudes and children's behavioral inhibition in mothers of 120 behaviorally inhibited (BI) and 37 behaviorally uninhibited preschool-aged children. Mothers of BI children demonstrated significantly higher levels of emotional over-involvement (EOI) and self-sacrificing/overprotective behavior (SS/OP). However, there was no significant relationship between inhibition status and maternal criticism. Multiple regression also indicated that child temperament, but not maternal anxiety, was a significant predictor of both EOI and SS/OP.
Conversion of evanescent waves into propagating waves by vibrating knife edge

Using plane wave spectrum methods, we analyze the propagation and mutual conversion of plane and evanescent waves generated by a one‐dimensional object partially obscured by a vibrating knife edge. We show that subwavelength details of the object may be detected in each part of the transmitted plane wave spectrum, upon scanning the knife edge across the object. We discuss the implications for near‐field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and compare some aspects of conventional NSOM (physical aperture), and vibrating knife edge (electronic aperture) approaches to the sampling of optical fields. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Improved OR-PCA for robust foreground detection

Efficient and accurate access to foreground objects in video is the basis and key in the field of motion vision. Its difficulty lies in the dynamic background, illumination changes and such complex situations. The foreground object detection method based on robust principal component analysis (RPCA) has made great progress. In recent years, the Online Robust PCA (OR-PCA) has effectively solved the shortcomings of complex calculation and poor real-time performance in traditional RPCA. However, there are still some defects, such as the low initial detection accuracy. In order to achieve better detection results, this paper presents an Improved OR-PCA via Batch Initialization method for robust foreground detection. The strategy of batch initialization in our work overcomes the problem of random initialization in OR-PCA, also avoids the defects of conventional batch processing. The comparison experiments prove the superiority of our method over the state-of-art methods in different cases.
TE-absorption profile in plasmonic-capped Sic nanorods under Otto configuration

The model for the optical response of composite metal-dielectric nanorods located on the surface of dielectric, based on a self-consistent analytical approach is proposed. The absorption of evanescent TE-polarized waves under Otto configuration is studied theoretically in the frame of the effective susceptibility concept. A possibility of an effective control of absorption of TE waves by tuning the height of the plasmonic cap is investigated. Configurational resonances are considered as a probable physical explanation of an origin of the absorption peaks caused by the TE-surface wave excitation.
A Multi-Scale Structural Degradation Metric for Perceptual Evaluation of 3D Mesh Simplification

SUMMARY Visual degradation is usually introduced during 3D mesh simpliﬁcation. The main issue in mesh simpliﬁcation is to maximize the simpliﬁcation ratio while minimizing the visual degradation. Therefore, effective and objective evaluation of the visual degradation is essential in order to select the simpliﬁcation ratio. Some objective geometric and subjective perceptual metrics have been proposed. However, few objective metrics have taken human visual characteristics into consideration. To evaluate the visual degradation introduced by mesh simpliﬁcation for a 3D triangular object, we integrate the structural degradation with mesh saliency and pro-pose a new objective and multi-scale evaluation metric named Global Perceptual Structural Degradation (GPSD). The proper selection of the simpli-ﬁcation ratio under a given distance-to-viewpoint is also discussed in this paper. The accuracy and validity of the proposed metric have been demonstrated through subjective experiments. The experimental results conﬁrm that the GPSD metric shows better 3D model-based multi-scale perceptual evaluation capability.
Efficient regression algorithms for classification of social media data

As data is growing rapidly day by day due to wide usage of social media, this social data will help business analyst as well as researchers to get the feedback about any service or product. Analysis of social media data can be used for many purposes like friend recommendation, product or service recommendation etc. There is need of such algorithms which will classify data accurately and will provide analysis results accurately. Also these algorithms need to scale rapidly with data sets. In this paper, Different phases of social media data mining are identified. We have studied algorithms whose training time remains same though the data size increases. We have implemented decision tree algorithm and compared it with other machine learning algorithms like NaiveBayes, Adaboost etc. It is found that decision tree algorithms gives accurate results as compared to other algorithms. In addition to that, out of different decision tree algorithms random decision tree (RDT) algorithm performs best than other decision tree algorithms like C4.5 or ID3.
Use of Three Writing Tasks at an Adolescent Treatment Center

Adolescent residents placed in a state youth facility for crimes, misdemeanors, and anti-social behavior were presented with three writing modes during their language arts instruction. The modes required that they write a composition based on viewing a slide arrangement (Visual Composition), on imagery generated while the teacher provided sensual impressions (Imagery Composition), and on embellishing and rearranging a list of sentence fragments (Report Writing). The mean of a composition holistically scored prior to the writing treatment was significantly lower than the means of Report, Imagery, and Visual Composition writing for 14 subjects present for all writing tasks. While no significant differences emerged among the writing modes the percent gain over baseline was highest for Visual Composition (50%), a technique in which no printed language cues were available to the writer. Perhaps for problem adolescents with low literacy skills, direct emphasis on traditional and non-traditional, nonverbal approaches to composition may increase writing proficiency.
CIGARETTE SMOKE DECREASES INDUCIBLE NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE IN LUNG EPITHELIAL CELLS

Cigarette smoking has been associated with decreased exhaled nitric oxide (NO). To investigate the mechanism of this decrease, the effects of a cigarette smoke extract were evaluated a murine lung epithelial cell line (LA-4), a human lung epithelial cell line (A549), and primary cultures of human lung epithelial cells induced to produce NO by cytokines. NO production was evaluated by measuring nitrite, a stable end product of NO, in cell culture supernatant fluids. Cigarette smoke extract caused a reduction in the cytokine-induced nitrite concentrations in the culture supernatant fluids from all 3 cell types (P<.01, all comparisons). To further investigate these observations, immunohistochemistry demonstrated a decrease in cytokine-induced inducible NO synthase (iNOS) protein expression and iNOS mRNA after cigarette smoke extract exposure in LA-4 cells. However, iNOS mRNA half-life was not altered by the smoke extract, suggesting that the smoke extract decreased NO by decreasing iNOS mRNA transcription. These findings demonstrate that cigarette smoke extract decreases iNOS expression and NO production from lung epithelial cells.