Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship between Short-Range and Homotopic Long-Range Resting State Functional Connectivity in Temporal Lobes in Autism Spectrum Disorder

To investigate the relationship between short-range and homotopic long-range resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children, we analyzed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) RSFC in 25 children with ASD and 22 age-matched TD children. The resting state fNIRS signals, including spontaneous fluctuations in the oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations, were recorded from the bilateral temporal lobes. We found that (1) there was no difference in the short-range RSFC between the left and right hemisphere in either ASD or TD group; (2) both the short-range and homotopic long-range RSFC were weaker in the ASD than TD group; and (3) the short-range RSFC was stronger than the homotopic long-range RSFC in the ASD group, whereas no such difference was observed in the TD group. These observations might be helpful for a better understanding of the underlying cortical mechanism in ASD.
Sample size for clustered count data based on discrete Weibull regression model

Abstract In this study we consider the problem of sample size determination for clustered count data based on clustered discrete Weibull regression model. Many papers that deal with sample size calculation for clustered count data have a strong assumption about the dispersion type of the data. Poisson, negative binomial are widely used models however their assumptions are hard to be met in real life. Here we propose to use discrete Weibull regression model which can handle both under and over dispersed type of data for clustered count data when calculating the sample size. We incorporate a random intercept to consider the correlation between the subjects in each cluster. We used the h-likelihood method and Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the required sample size for clustered count data. Extensive simulation study is also performed to examine the effect of the skewness of the data, variance of the random effect and the number of the clusters on calculating the required sample calculation.
IS ANYBODY KEEPING THE CODE IN BULGARIA? A STUDY TO EXPLORE LOCAL PARENTS' AWARENESS REGARDING THE INTERNATIONAL CODE FOR THE MARKETING OF BREAST-MILK SUBSTITUTES.

This paper reviews Bulgarian parents’ awareness concerning the existence of the WHO Code for the marketing of breast-milk substitutes and how it can help them optimize their breastfeeding journey. Frequently occurring problems and breaches of the Code in Bulgaria are discussed, and their context explained. We focus on parental attitudes and investigate whether they acknowledge the significant necessity for a Code-compliant prenatal education and postnatal care. We also explore their viewpoints on the implementation of the Code and maximizing compliance with it on a local level. The research findings are presented graphically, and we present tendencies showcased by respondents’ opinions they have expressed in the survey. OBJECTIVES: Purposes of this research are: (1) to explore parents’ awareness about the WHO Code and their encounter with local prenatal classes in this regard (2) to assess their viewpoints on implementing the Code and if they see it as a significant step towards an optimal breastfeeding experience. METHODS: The methods we applied include an online-based cross-sectional semi-quantitative questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions, aiming to explore parents’ current knowledge and viewpoints in regard to the Code and its implementation in Bulgaria. The research has been carried out via social media, and it samples parents from a local parent peer support group. Acquired data from closed-ended questions is presented, demonstrating percentages and tendencies. RESULTS: A total of 463 respondents are included CONCLUSION: It is a common practice in Bulgaria for prenatal classes not to comply with the WHO Code. Disregarding recommendations and evidence-based medicine, both some experts and companies under the scope of the Code breach its main points. Code-compliant prenatal education is practically almost non-existent with the lack of midwife-led care and classes, predominantly in the private sector, where they are almost entirely, sponsored by those companies. Nearly all parents included in this survey are more than willing and motivated to have access to Code-compliant prenatal education and postnatal care. The lack of such leaves almost no choice for Bulgarian parents actually to have access to code-compliant education and care. This inevitably influences their decision making, attitudes and behavior, potentially leading to lower breastfeeding rates and suboptimal breastfeeding satisfaction and success. Adequate measures must be reinforced to ensure implementation and proper legislation, providing monitoring and enforcement, protecting parents and their babies when they are most vulnerable.
Functional properties of muffin as affected by substituing wheat flour with carob powder

Carob (Cerationa soliqua L.) pod is the good source of dietary fiber, minerals and polyphenolic substances. The aim of this study was to prepare muffin where wheat flour was substituted with carob powder, and determine some physicochemical properties. Carob powder was prepared by milling dry carob pods to particles smaller than 600 μm. Then wheat flour in muffin dough was replaced by carob powder in 5, 10, 15 and 20% (w/w) and subsequently baked at 180 °C for 20 min. It was found that the height of the muffin fortified with carob powder decreased in comparison with that in control muffin sample. Although the height of muffins decreased with the increase in level of carob powder, the differences were not statistically significant. Weight loss was similar for all the muffin samples in this study. Moisture content of muffins with carob powder was significantly higher than that in control. Addition of carob powder had also effect on water activity of muffin. While 0.905 aw was observed in control sample, significantly higher aw values were determinated in fortified muffins (0.912 – 0.923 aw). The antioxidant characteristics were determinated using spectrophotometric assays for total phenolics (TPC), total flavonoids (TFC), radical scavenging activities (DPPH, ABTS) and hydrogen peroxide scavenging (HPS). TPC values gradually increased with the increase in level of carob powder from 348.1 to 829.1 μg gallic acid.g-1 dry matter but TFC values significantly increased in muffin with 15 and 20% (w/w) of carob powder. All the antioxidant assays showed strong and positive association with the increase in level of carob powder. Addition of carob powder resulted in the increase of browning index and FAST index as a metrics of the formation of Maillard products.
Apoptosis in Type 2 Diabetes: Can It Be Prevented? Hippo Pathway Prospects

Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous disease of complex etiology and pathogenesis. Hyperglycemia leads to many serious complications, but also directly initiates the process of β cell apoptosis. A potential strategy for the preservation of pancreatic β cells in diabetes may be to inhibit the implementation of pro-apoptotic pathways or to enhance the action of pancreatic protective factors. The Hippo signaling pathway is proposed and selected as a target to manipulate the activity of its core proteins in therapy-basic research. MST1 and LATS2, as major upstream signaling kinases of the Hippo pathway, are considered as target candidates for pharmacologically induced tissue regeneration and inhibition of apoptosis. Manipulating the activity of components of the Hippo pathway offers a wide range of possibilities, and thus is a potential tool in the treatment of diabetes and the regeneration of β cells. Therefore, it is important to fully understand the processes involved in apoptosis in diabetic states and completely characterize the role of this pathway in diabetes. Therapy consisting of slowing down or stopping the mechanisms of apoptosis may be an important direction of diabetes treatment in the future.
Dielectric Elastomer Actuators with Biphasic Ag–EGaIn Electrodes

A new electrode architecture for dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) is introduced in which a soft polyacrylate film is coated with a biphasic mixture of silver, indium, and gallium. This Ag–In–Ga coating functions as a soft electrode that is ultrathin, highly compliant, highly conductive, stretchable, and non‐smearing. Compared to carbon grease, sputter‐deposited metal coating, and particle‐filled conductive elastomers, this biphasic coating exhibits a unique combination of solid‐state integrity, extreme mechanical compliance, and low electrical resistivity. Herein, how DEAs with an Ag–In–Ga coating exhibit a 5× larger actuation speed compared to carbon‐coated dielectric films is shown. The influence of coating thickness on the mechanical stiffness and blocking force is also examined.
Theoretical study of current density for InN and GaN-based Gunn diode operating in transit-time mode

We are the first to report the frequency response and corresponding current density of a wurtzite phase Indium Nitride (InN)-based vertical configuration Gunn diode at 1 \mu m active length. Domain growths dynamics with respect to space and time, variation of domain velocity and the field outside the vicinity of the domain with respect to domain field have also been studied using the presented mathematical equations. It has been found that, InN-based Gunn diodes are capable to operate around 224 GHz with 691 kA/cm2 current density at 300 K. For comparison purpose, all these characteristics have been evaluated for Gunn diodes of different active lengths based on wurtzite phase Gallium Nitride (GaN). Simulated results are consistent with the other reports on GaN-based Gunn diode.
Three-Phase Hybrid Shunt Filters for Power Quality Improvement

Active power filters can be cost-effective for use in practical systems with the insertion of a few passive elements in shunt or series configuration. The resulting hybrid filters can be designed to provide dominant lower order harmonic elimination and reactive power support by the passive elements so that the burden on the active filter counterpart is reduced. In this paper, the rate reduction in the shunt active filter is estimated when it is connected in parallel with suitable passive tuned harmonic filters. The active filtering system is based on an appropriate control scheme. The simulation and the experimental results of the shunt active filter, along with the estimated value of reduction in rating, show that the hybrid shunt filtering system is quite effective in compensating for the harmonics and reactive power, in addition to being cost-effective.
2.5 Tb/s (64/spl times/42.7 Gb/s) transmission over 40/spl times/100 km NZDSF using RZ-DPSK format and all-Raman-amplified spans

We report 2.5 Tb/s (64 /spl times/ 42.7-Gb/s) WDM transmission over 4000 km (forty 100-km spans) of non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber. This capacity /spl times/ distance record of 10 petabit-km/s for 40-Gb/s systems is achieved in a single 53-nm extended L band using return-to-zero differential-phase-shift-keyed modulation, balanced detection, and distributed Raman amplification.
Optimisation of underground ventilation systems by means of neural networks

The optimisation of the auxiliary ventilation network of underground mines entails the right choice of fans and duct characteristics. Once the decision-making team has selected the appropriate set of ventilation hardware, the duct line is installed across a main drivage and ends up to the most productive working areas. However, when there are many possible duct line routes from the auxiliary fan to the duct line open end, as is the case in the room and pillar mining method, the choice of a cost effective duct line route, in terms of the total length and bending of the ducts involved, is important for the minimisation of the operating cost of ventilation. In this paper, the problem of finding a cost effective duct line route, among a definite number of possibilities, is tackled with a modified discrete Hopfield network. It is shown that the network provides the optimum result for a trivial case. The implementation of the network on a realistic case is shown to be superior to results from the A* algorithm. However, the feasibility of the proposed solution is highly dependent on mining issues and on the right choice of number and distribution of control points that realise all possible routes from the fan to the headings.
Title : Nationwide surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from 1 bloodstream infections in Japan 2 3 Short title : Surveillance of MRSA isolated from BSI in Japan 4 5

24 Objectives: Some single-center studies have reported that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus 25 aureus (MRSA) carrying the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type IV has 26 been increasing in bloodstream infections (BSIs) in Japan. Therefore, we conducted nationwide 27 surveillance for MRSA BSI in Japan to verify that there is a change all over Japan. 28 Methods: We recruited 51 Japanese hospitals from the Japanese Association for Infectious 29 Diseases. MRSA strains, which were detected in two or more sets of blood, were collected 30 between January and September 2019. They were analyzed by antimicrobial susceptibility 31 testing at Nagasaki University Hospital. Whole-genome sequencing was also performed to 32 determine SCCmec typing and multilocus typing and detect drug-resistance and virulence genes. 33 Results: 270 MRSA strains were collected from 44 hospitals. The major clones were ST8 with 34 SCCmec type IV (ST8-IV) (30.7%), ST1-IV (29.6%), ST2725-IV (9.5%), ST764-II (8.1%), and 35 ST5-II (7.8%). However, there were regional differences among the most major clones. The 36 most common clones in western, eastern, and northern Japan were ST1-IV, ST8-IV, and ST5-II, 37 respectively. ST8-IV, ST1-IV, and ST2725-IV exhibited lower drug resistance against 38 clindamycin and minocycline than ST764-II and ST5-II, but erm(A) was detected in 93.8% and 39 100% of ST1-IV and ST2725-IV, respectively. Based on drug-resistance and virulence genes, 40 characteristics were different between ST8-IV and clonal complex 1-IV comprising ST1-IV and 41 ST2725. In addition, the two major types were expected to be ST8-IV. 42 Conclusions: This study revealed that SCCmec type IV clones replaced SCCmec type II in 43 MRSA BSI. 44 All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted November 9, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11. 05.21265983 doi: medRxiv preprint
Effects of Coffee Consumption on Insulin Resistance and Sensitivity: A Meta-Analysis

Coffee is widely consumed worldwide and impacts glucose metabolism. After a previous meta-analysis that evaluated the effects of coffee consumption on insulin resistance and sensitivity, additional randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effects of coffee consumption on insulin resistance or sensitivity. We selected RCTs that evaluated the effects of coffee consumption for seven days or more on insulin sensitivity or resistance using surrogate indices (homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and Matsuda index). The fixed-effects or random-effects model was used according to heterogeneity. Four studies with 268 participants were analyzed in this meta-analysis. Coffee consumption significantly decreased HOMA-IR compared to control (mean difference (MD) = −0.13; 95% CI = −0.24–−0.03; p-value = 0.01). However, the significance was not maintained in the sensitivity analysis (MD = −0.04; 95% CI = −0.18–0.10; p-value = 0.55) after excluding data from the healthy, young, normal-weight group. Matsuda index was not significantly different between coffee and control groups (standardized mean difference (SMD) = −0.33; 95% CI = −0.70–0.03; p-value = 0.08). In conclusion, long-term coffee consumption has a nonsignificant effect on insulin resistance and sensitivity. More studies evaluating the effects of coffee consumption in the healthy, young, and normal-weight individuals are needed.
Position control of ultrasonic motors using neural network

The ultrasonic motor is a newly developed motor and it has excellent performance and many useful features, therefore, the ultrasonic motor is expected for many practical applications. However, the drive principle of the ultrasonic motor is different from that of other electromagnetic type motors, and the mathematical model of the motor has not been developed yet. Furthermore, the speed characteristics of the motor hold heavy nonlinearity and they vary with drive conditions. Therefore, the precise position control of an ultrasonic motor is generally difficult. In this paper, we propose a new position control scheme for an ultrasonic motor using a neural network. The proposed controller can approximate the nonlinear input-output mappings of the motor using the neural network, and can compensate the characteristic variations by online learning based on the general backpropagation algorithm. The trained network finally makes an inverse model of the plant. The usefulness and validity of the proposed control scheme is examined in experiments.
Underwater Sensing Platform Network (USPN): A novel smart environmental sensor network

As part of the move to ubiquitous computing, sensor networks are an active topic for academic and commercial research. A variety of sensor network products and applications are appearing in the market. Environmental monitoring is a major application field for sensor networks, and the end users of such applications are generally average disciplinary scientists, i.e. environment researchers or ecologists. However, most current commercial sensor network products need extensive secondary development for adapting to different circumstances. This process, including replacing, adding, configuring and calibrating sensing elements, and configuring the network, is a difficult task for untrained end users. This paper introduces an ongoing project - Underwater Sensing Platform Network (USPN) - being developed at the University of Queensland which focuses on improvement of sensor network usability by providing a truly smart, plug-and-play sensing platform. Our approach is to investigate a novel architecture of a sensing node supporting different sensors and communication channels based on plug and play functionality to simplify the building and configuring process and to reduce the complexity, time and cost for deploying an environmental sensor network. The paper will describe both the system specification for the USPN plug-and-play marine sensor system, plus an initial system design.
Multivariate analysis on performance in statistics, self-efficacy and attitudes of senior high school students

Over the past few years, teaching and learning of statistics have been influenced by the emergence of the reform movement in education such as the K-12 basic education curriculum. Those of statistics concepts have changed both elementary and secondary level. Considering the educational reform in the Philippines, the study was conducted to determine whether there are significant differences of the determinants such as gender, type of school, parent’s educational level, family monthly income, family size and Senior High School track preference to students’ self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes towards Statistics, and performance in Statistics. The causal-comparative research design was used for comparing two or more groups to find the differences or determine whether the independent variable influences the dependent variable. The data were gathered from 570 senior high school students of both public and private schools in Mindanao, Region XI. The study adopted the questionnaires on self-efficacy beliefs and attitude towards Statistics while it utilized a researcher-made questionnaire for performance in Statistics. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to determine whether multiple levels of independent variables on their own or in combination with one another influence the dependent variables. The findings revealed that among the demographic factors, only type of school has a significant difference to the self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes towards Statistics, and performance of senior high students in Statistics. Implications from the findings of this study might suggest that improving of K-12 school facilities by the school public administrators and collaborative effort of teachers to enhance the students’ self-efficacy, attitudes towards statistics and teaching statistics reveals optimistic results. Also, school administrators may provide opportunities for Statistics teachers to hone their pedagogical skills in promoting and building students’ self-confidence and interest in the subject.
Recent Developments in Plasmonic Sensors of Phenol and Its Derivatives

Many scientists are increasingly interested in on-site detection methods of phenol and its derivatives because these substances have been universally used as a significant raw material in the industrial manufacturing of various chemicals of antimicrobials, anti-inflammatory drugs, antioxidants, and so on. The contamination of phenolic compounds in the natural environment is a toxic response that induces harsh impacts on plants, animals, and human health. This mini-review updates recent developments and trends of novel plasmonic resonance nanomaterials, which are assisted by various optical sensors, including colorimetric, fluorescence, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), and plasmon-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. These advanced and powerful analytical tools exhibit potential application for ultrahigh sensitivity, selectivity, and rapid detection of phenol and its derivatives. In this report, we mainly emphasize the recent progress and novel trends in the optical sensors of phenolic compounds. The applications of Raman technologies based on pure noble metals, hybrid nanomaterials, and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are presented, in which the remaining establishments and challenges are discussed and summarized to inspire the future improvement of scientific optical sensors into easy-to-operate effective platforms for the rapid and trace detection of phenol and its derivatives.
A Modified Sector Based Space Vector PWM Technique for Five‐Phase Drives

Space vector PWM (SVPWM) is a popular and well‐known technique for standard three‐phase drives, which has been extended recently to multi‐phase voltage source inverters (VSIs). Several SVPWM techniques, which utilize the principle of vector space decomposition (VSD), have been developed for various operating modes. The VSD approach inherently relies on considerations in two‐dimensional (2‐D) subspaces, while SVPWM for a multi‐phase VSI is in essence a multi‐dimensional problem. Hence, an alternative approach to SVPWM, which is based on the direct multi‐dimensional space consideration in the space vector selection process rather than on space vector selection in 2‐D subspaces obtained by vector space decomposition, has been recently introduced. Good performance has been identified, but the method is complex and difficult for the real‐time implementation. This article therefore combines multi‐dimensional SVPWM approach with off‐line calculations to achieve required output voltage generation under non‐sinusoidal and/or unbalanced voltage requirements, which represent the most challenging operating conditions from the point of view of the vector selection for PWM. As a consequence, the implementation becomes rather simple in standard DSPs. The performance of the algorithm is verified by simulation and experimentation. © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.