Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of reduced hospitalisation on the cost of treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis in South Africa.

SETTING The cost of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment is a major barrier to treatment scale-up in South Africa. OBJECTIVE To estimate and compare the cost of treatment for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB) in South Africa in different models of care in different settings. DESIGN We estimated the costs of different models of care with varying levels of hospitalisation. These costs were used to calculate the total cost of treating all diagnosed cases of RR-TB in South Africa, and to estimate the budget impact of adopting a fully or partially decentralised model vs. a fully hospitalised model. RESULTS The fully hospitalised model was 42% more costly than the fully decentralised model (US$13,432 vs. US$7753 per patient). A much shorter hospital stay in the decentralised models of care (44-57 days), compared to 128 days of hospitalisation in the fully hospitalised model, was the key contributor to the reduced cost of treatment. The annual total cost of treating all diagnosed cases ranged from US$110 million in the fully decentralised model to US$190 million in the fully hospitalised model. CONCLUSION Following a more decentralised approach for treating RR-TB patients could potentially improve the affordability of RR-TB treatment in South Africa.
ICAM-1 Clustering on Endothelial Cells Recruits VCAM-1

In the initial stages of transendothelial migration, leukocytes use the endothelial integrin ligands ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 for strong adhesion. Upon adhesion of the leukocyte to endothelial ICAM-1, ICAM-1 is clustered and recruited to the adhered leukocyte, promoting strong adhesion. In this study, we provide evidence for the colocalization of VCAM-1 at sites of ICAM-1 clustering. Anti-ICAM-1 antibody-coated beads were used to selectively cluster and recruit ICAM-1 on primary human endothelial cells. In time, co-localization of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 around the adherent beads was observed. Biochemical pull-down assays showed that ICAM-1 clustering induced its association to VCAM-1, suggesting a physical link between these two adhesion molecules. The association was partly dependent on lipid rafts as well as on F-actin and promoted adhesion. These data show that VCAM-1 can be recruited, in an integrin-independent fashion, to clustered ICAM-1 which may serve to promote ICAM-1-mediated leukocyte adhesion.
Physical activity at daycare: issues, challenges and perspectives

This study sought to examine London, Ontario‐based childcare providers’ perspectives of the barriers and facilitators to physical activity participation among preschoolers (i.e. children aged 2.5–5 years) attending daycare. A heterogeneous sample of childcare providers (n = 54; response rate 47%) working at public daycare facilities in London, Ontario participated. Using a qualitative methodology, eight semi‐structured focus groups were conducted between February and March 2009. Focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive content analysis was used to code and categorize emerging themes. When asked to describe the barriers to engaging preschoolers in physical activity while at daycare, participants discussed inadequate equipment, insufficient space, daycare requirements and safety concerns, and weather. When asked to describe the facilitators, participants cited resources, music and the childcare providers themselves. This study’s findings provide contextual and descriptive information with potentially significant implications for childcare directors, parents and researchers to promote and support physical activity participation among preschoolers attending daycare.
A Survey Paper on an Artery Vein Classification of Retinal Images to Identify Diabetes Using Graph Based Approach

The prevalence of diabetes is expected to increase; already today it accounts for a large number in many countries. In this paper we can be able to detect diabetes by automating the vascular changes in retinal images. The extraction of retinal vessel is an important phase for automating the detection of vascular changes. The retinal vessels are of two types viz. arteries and veins. Any changes may leads to several diseases. This paper proposed a graph based approach for artery-vein classification which classifies the entire vascular tree deciding on the type of intersection point and assigning one of two labels to each vessel segment. Finally by comparing the diagnostic indicator like arteriolar-to-venular ratio: the disease like diabetes can be detected. KeywordsRetinal images, Vessel segmentation, Artery/vein classification, Graph
Compact circular microstrip patch antenna with modified ground plane for broadband performance

This paper presents the design and performance of a modified circular microstrip patch antenna (radius 14mm) with modified ground plane with overall size 34mm × 39 mm × 1.59 mm. The proposed antenna is simulated by applying CST Microwave Studio simulator. This antenna has broad impedance bandwidth of 2.70 GHz (2.42 GHz - 5.12 GHz) with flat gain (close to 2.25dBi-3dBi) in the desired frequency range. This antenna may be a useful tool for lower band of Wi-Max communication systems (2.4 GHz -2.69 GHz) as well as for lower band of UWB communication systems (3.1 GHz - 4.85 GHz).
Concept feature-based ontology construction and maintenance

Effectively implementing KM in enterprises depends on the pervasive use of ontology in developing KM systems and the facilitation of enterprises in the construction, integration, evolution, access, and evaluation of knowledge. This study develops a concept feature-based mechanism for constructing and maintaining ontology. In addition to assisting enterprise knowledge engineers in constructing and classifying knowledge more precisely to increase knowledge maintenance efficiency, the proposed mechanism assists knowledge users in accurately searching for required knowledge based on use of concept features.
Testing the IQX Hypothesis for Exponential Interdependency between QoS and QoE of Voice Codecs iLBC and G.711

Given the growing importance of quantitative relationships between user-perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) and network Quality of Service (QoS), this paper investigates the IQX hypothesis for two voice codecs, iLBC and G.711. This hypothesis expresses QoE as an exponential function of QoS degradation. The experiments are carried out in a controlled environment using the softphone SJPhone, the network emulator NIST Net, and a tool calculating the PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality) from sent and received audio files. The IQX hypothesis is confirmed exactly for disturbances perceived on applications level, packet loss and packet reordering, which clearly correlate to the main sensitivities of the used softphone to packet-level disturbances such as loss, jitter and reordering. So, besides of providing a unified relationship between QoE and QoS, the IQX also proved to be capable of identifying the QoS parameters of relevance for QoE degradations. The study also points out interesting tracks for future work in terms of QoS degradations and related QoE evaluations.
Residential Segregation and Links to Minority Poverty: The Case of Latinos in the United States

This paper examines the relationship between residential segregation and rising Latino poverty and income inequality between 1970 and 1980. The research (1) ascertains the effects of increasing and sustained higher levels of Latino/Anglo segregation on poverty rates and income inequality, (2) assesses the effects of increasing and high levels of Latino/Anglo segregation on concentration in inner-city poverty areas, and (3) empirically tests the effects of changing levels of segregation, economic restructuring, and characteristics of the Latino population on increased Latino poverty and income inequality. Changes in Latino poverty rates and income inequality are examined for the 58 metropolitan areas with populations of 25,000 or more Latinos in 1980. Multivariate analysis reveals that residence in the more segregated metropolitan areas was a significant predictor of Latino poverty but was not significant in predicting Latino/Anglo income inequality. Changes in local labor market conditions had little effect on Latino poverty and income inequality, but changing Latino labor force characteristics—particularly increasing educational attainment, declining male labor force participation, and rising female labor force participation—were associated with decreases in poverty and reductions in income inequality. Residence in the Northeast was the most significant predictor of Latino poverty and income inequality. Furthermore, growth of the Latino population, increasing Latino suburbanization, and changes in the ethnic composition to include a growing proportion of non-Mexicans were also significant predictors of poverty status and income differentials
Guiding Visually Impaired People by Transmitting Navigational Instructions to Wearable Vibrating Belt Systems

In the present paper we describe four vibrating systems which give blindfolded people navigational instructions by stimulating their skin receptors. The prototypes were developed in different ways and with different encodings for navigating commands. To compare the performance of the systems they were tested in a trail with obstacles by a blindfolded person and a second person transmitting the navigating commands to the systems. The vibrating belt systems were proven to be easy to use and simple kept encodings seemed to be superior to more complex systems.
The Concept of International Opportunity in International Entrepreneurship: A Review and a Research Agenda

Recent research in the field of international entrepreneurship (IE) has emphasized the concept of international opportunity. The entrepreneurial behaviors focused on international opportunities have been found to be critical in IE. International opportunities, however, are often depicted in rather abstract and unspecified ways and the research suffers from narrow theoretical discussion in relation to the concept of opportunity. To address these issues, we draw from entrepreneurship research and present alternative conceptualizations of opportunities as a basis for more in-depth study of international opportunities in IE. To further articulate a future research agenda, we review the state of knowledge on opportunities in the IE field by content-analyzing articles published between 1989 and 2010. All the analyzed articles incorporate the concept of opportunity into their studies. We find that, although the IE research has investigated many relevant elements, it is rather limited in the articulation of the conceptual features of international opportunities and opportunity-focused behaviors. Building on these observations, we propose a definition of international opportunity and research questions and strategies to advance IE research on international opportunities.
Role of Double-Strand Break End-Tethering during Gene Conversion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Correct repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is critical for maintaining genome stability. Whereas gene conversion (GC)-mediated repair is mostly error-free, repair by break-induced replication (BIR) is associated with non-reciprocal translocations and loss of heterozygosity. We have previously shown that a Recombination Execution Checkpoint (REC) mediates this competition by preventing the BIR pathway from acting on DSBs that can be repaired by GC. Here, we asked if the REC can also determine whether the ends that are engaged in a GC-compatible configuration belong to the same break, since repair involving ends from different breaks will produce potentially deleterious translocations. We report that the kinetics of repair are markedly delayed when the two DSB ends that participate in GC belong to different DSBs (termed Trans) compared to the case when both DSB ends come from the same break (Cis). However, repair in Trans still occurs by GC rather than BIR, and the overall efficiency of repair is comparable. Hence, the REC is not sensitive to the “origin” of the DSB ends. When the homologous ends for GC are in Trans, the delay in repair appears to reflect their tethering to sequences on the other side of the DSB that themselves recombine with other genomic locations with which they share sequence homology. These data support previous observations that the two ends of a DSB are usually tethered to each other and that this tethering facilitates both ends encountering the same donor sequence. We also found that the presence of homeologous/repetitive sequences in the vicinity of a DSB can distract the DSB end from finding its bona fide homologous donor, and that inhibition of GC by such homeologous sequences is markedly increased upon deleting Sgs1 but not Msh6.
Pulse width allocation with clock skew scheduling for optimizing pulsed latch-based sequential circuits

Pulsed latches, latches driven by a brief clock pulse, offer the convenience of flip-flop-like timing verification and optimization, while retaining superior design parameters of latches over flip-flops. But, pulsed latch-based design using a single pulse width has a limitation in reducing clock period. The limitation still exists even if clock skew scheduling is employed, since the amount of skew that can be assigned is practically limited due to process variations. The problem of allocating pulse width (out of discrete number of predefined widths) and scheduling clock skew (within prescribed upper bound) is formulated, for the first time, for optimizing pulsed latch-based sequential circuits. An allocation algorithm called PWCS_Optimize is proposed to solve the problem. Experiments with 65-nm technology demonstrate that small number of variety of pulse widths (up to 5) combined with clock skews (up to 10% of clock period) yield minimum clock period for many benchmark circuits. The design flow including PWCS_Optimize, placement and routing, and synthesis of local and global clock trees is presented and assessed with example circuits.
An Investigation on Effective Mobility in Nanowire FETs under Quasi-Ballistic Conditions

In this work we investigate the electron mobility in nanowire FETs operating under quasi-ballistic conditions. Starting from a general expression of the current-voltage char- acteristics worked out in a previous paper, we extract the drain current at vanishingly-low drain voltages and find the functional dependence of the effective mobility on the device length, the mean-free path and the barrier height. The resulting expression is nonlocal for short gate lengths, but may be useful for the interpretation of experimental measurements. The main result of this work is that the combined effect of acoustic-phonon and surface-roughness scattering leads to a nearly uniform mean-free path, at least for nanowire FETs with a diameter around 5 nm. Thus, mobility degradation at large gate voltages is predominantly due to carrier degeneracy, rather than an enhanced scattering rate.
Influence of laser parameters and staining on femtosecond laser-based intracellular nanosurgery

Femtosecond (fs) laser-based intracellular nanosurgery has become an important tool in cell biology, albeit the mechanisms in the so-called low-density plasma regime are largely unknown. Previous calculations of free-electron densities for intracellular surgery used water as a model substance for biological media and neglected the presence of dye and biomolecules. In addition, it is still unclear on which time scales free-electron and free-radical induced chemical effects take place in a cellular environment. Here, we present our experimental study on the influence of laser parameters and staining on the intracellular ablation threshold in the low-density plasma regime. We found that the ablation effect of fs laser pulse trains resulted from the accumulation of single-shot multiphoton-induced photochemical effects finished within a few nanoseconds. At the threshold, the number of applied pulses was inversely proportional to a higher order of the irradiance, depending on the laser repetition rate and wavelength. Furthermore, fluorescence staining of subcellular structures before surgery significantly decreased the ablation threshold. Based on our findings, we propose that dye molecules are the major source for providing seed electrons for the ionization cascade. Consequently, future calculations of free-electron densities for intracellular nanosurgery have to take them into account, especially in the calculations of multiphoton ionization rates.
Augmented embodied performance - extended artistic room, enacted teacher, and humanisation of technology

We explore the phenomenology of embodiment based on research through design and reflection on the design of artefacts for augmenting embodied performance. We present three designs for highly trained musicians; the designs rely on the musicians’ mastery acquired from years of practice. Through the knowledge of the living body their instruments —saxophone, cello, and flute — are extensions of themselves; thus, we can explore technology with rich nuances and precision in corporeal schemas. With the help of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment we present three hypotheses for augmented embodied performance: the extended artistic room, the interactively enacted teacher, and the humanisation of technology.
Active Queue Management: A Survey

Since its formal introduction to IP networks in 1993 as a viable complementary approach for congestion control, there has been a steady stream of research output with respect to Active Queue Management (AQM). This survey attempts to travel the trajectory of AQM research from 1993 with the first algorithm, Random Early Detection (RED), to current work in 2011. In this survey we discuss the general attributes of AQM schemes, and the design approaches taken such as heuristic, control-theoretic and deterministic optimization. Of interest is the role of AQM in QoS provisioning particularly in the DiffServ context, as well as the role of AQM in the wireless domain. For each section, example algorithms from the research literature are presented.
The gene for a 4.5S RNA homolog from Mycoplasma pneumoniae: genetic selection, sequence, and transcription analysis

In an effort to make an inventory of the tRNA genes of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a DNA fragment was found to contain a sequence that can be folded into a hairpin structure very similar to that of the 4.5S RNA of Escherichia coli. Recombinant plasmids carrying this region were able to complement E. coli strains that were deficient in 4.5S RNA. S1 mapping showed that the mature transcript is only 79 nucleotides long.
A high-density 300-Gbit/s parallel optical interconnect module with efficient optical sub-assembly techniques

A high-density 300-Gbit/s (25-Gbit/s × 12-ch) parallel optical-interconnect module (OIM) was fabricated by using an efficient, newly developed optical sub-assembly (OSA) techniques. The OIM module provides high heat dissipation and high optical-coupling efficiency. Furthermore, the fabricated OIM successfully demonstrated 25-Gbit/s error-free multimode transmission.
Effect of downregulated histone deacetylase 2 expression on cell proliferation and cell cycle in cervical cancer.

PURPOSE To investigate the effects and molecular mechanism of downregulated histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) expression on cell proliferation and cell cycle in cervical cancer Hela cells. METHODS HDAC2 small interfering (si)RNA and control siRNA were transfected into cervical cancer Hela cells. A cell proliferation assay using a cell counting kit-8 was applied to analyze the change in cell proliferation before and after transfection. Flow cytometry was used to detect the change in cell cycle distribution before and after transfection. Finally, Western blot was used to detect changes in the expression of cell proliferation and cell cycle-related proteins. RESULTS HDAC2 siRNA significantly downregulated the expression of HDAC2 proteins in cervical cancer cells, markedly inhibiting their proliferation. In addition, the percentage of Hela cells in the G0/G1 phase in the HDAC2 siRNA group was 63.3±2.0%, significantly higher than those in the untreated group (29.3±1.7%) or the control siRNA group (29.4±1.7%) (F=354.181, p=0.000). Furthermore, Western blot analyses demonstrated that downregulated HDAC2 expression inhibited the expression of cyclin D1, cyclin E, and cdk2 proteins but elevated the expression of p21 protein. CONCLUSION The proliferation inhibition and cell cycle arrest mediated by downregulated HDAC2 expression may be tightly associated with the decrease of cyclin D1, cyclin E, and cdk2 proteins expression and the increase in p21 protein expression.
Joint Scheduling, Power Control and Routing in Symmetric, One-dimensional, Multi-hop Wireless Networks

We are interested in finding a jointly optimal scheduling, routing and power control that achieves max-min fair rate allocation in a multi-hop wireless network. This is a highly complex non-convex optimization problem and it has been previously solved only for small networks. We restrict ourselves to symmetric networks with ring and line topologies, and we numerically solve the problem for a large number of nodes. We model point-to- point links as single user Gaussian channels where nodes cannot send and receive at the same time. This type of channel approximates the performance of CDMA networks and performs better than the equivalent 802.11 network. We show that for smaller transmission powers it is optimal to relay over other nodes whereas for high powers it is optimal to send data directly to a destination. We also show when this transition occurs. We analyze the optimal schedule and find that if a node is active, it should send at the maximum power. When a transmission power is small, the optimal schedule is that every second node is sending, and as the power grows, the distance between active nodes grows. Furthermore, in large networks the distance between nodes sending at the same time is never larger than 4.5 times the size of links used (number of nodes spanned by one transmission link), and it converges to that value for large transmission powers.
Viral Specific Cd8+ T Lymphocyte Immunity Provides Protection Against Heterotypic Stains Of Avian Influenza Viruses And Avian Coronaviruses

Adaptive immune responses mediated by CD8 + T lymphocytes are associated with viral clearance of infected cells and protection against clinical illness and mortality with subsequent infections. Avian and mammalian cellular immunity share many similarities. While, most commercial vaccines target generation of neutralizing antibodies against viruses, such as the avian influenza viruses and avian coronaviruses, the inability of these antibodies to cross-react with heterotypic viruses limit the efficacy of such vaccines in providing broad-spectrum protection. Kinetic studies have revealed that maximum viral specific, effector CD8 + T cell responses are detected within days post inoculation of vaccine or infectious virus. Thereafter, the effector responses decline to nearly undetectable levels until memory responses, easily detectable between 3 weeks and 8 weeks post inoculation, are established. Studies with acute viral infections have demonstrated that CD8 + T cell mediated immune responses, generally specific for conserved viral epitopes, protect against serologically distinct viruses. Effector and memory T cells can be distinguished from nai ve cells on the basis of increased expression of cell surface markers, such as CD44 and CD45, that regulate the migration, activation and function of T cells. Identification of conserved epitopes that induce specific CD8 + T cells responses and phenotypic markers that define effector and memory CD8 + T cells are fundamental for the development of universal vaccines against rapidly evolving viral pathogens.