Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Near-real-time tracking of gaps in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in three districts of KwaZulu-Natal Province , South Africa

The success of South Africa (SA)’s prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme is well documented, demonstrating a significant reduction in the early infant transmission rate over the past decade from >20% to <2%. [1-4] Much of this progress can be attributed to increased access to effective maternal antiretroviral therapy (ART) and improved infant prophylactic regimens, coupled with robust monitoring and evaluation systems. SA’s PMTCT guidelines shifted from recommendations in line with World Health Organization (WHO) Option A in 2013, where different ART regimens were provided to mothers based on immunological profile, to Option B, recommending that all HIV-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women be treated with triple ART, and Option B+ in 2015, which advocates lifelong triple ART irrespective of CD4+ cell count or clinical stage. [5-7] Daily infant nevirapine (NVP) prophylaxis for at least 6 weeks’ duration has been part of national guidelines since 2010, with infants identified as at high risk recommended either extended daily NVP for 12 weeks or dual prophylaxis with NVP plus zidovudine (AZT) for 6 weeks. [5-7] Table 1 describes the evolution of PMTCT guidelines from 2010 to 2015. [8] Maternal HIV viral load (VL) has been identified as a strong predictor of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) risk. [9] An infant born to a mother who is not virologically suppressed is at increased risk of infection and requires high-risk prophylaxis. [7] On account of this and the availability of more affordable VL testing,[10] SA reviewed its guidelines for treatment monitoring in 2015, recommending that all women on ART have a VL test done at confirmation of pregnancy, and that women who have been newly initiated on ART have VL testing at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months thereafter throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding. [7] The early infant diagnosis programme has also evolved over the years to enable earlier detection of perinatal This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.
Designing self-monitoring technologies for emotional self-awareness and wellbeing

In order to sustain and improve our wellbeing we must be aware of our emotions and what triggers them. In my dissertation I propose to design and develop a self-monitoring mobile application that allows people to express and better understand their affective states, in a fun and engaging way. Through this tool I intend to explore how creative expression techniques, such as photography and painting, can be used to improve emotional self-awareness and to foster engagement.
Excitatory Neuronal Responses of Ca2+ Transients in Interstitial Cells of Cajal in the Small Intestine

Abstract Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) regulate smooth muscle excitability and motility in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. ICC in the deep muscular plexus (ICC-DMP) of the small intestine are aligned closely with varicosities of enteric motor neurons and thought to transduce neural responses. ICC-DMP generate Ca2+ transients that activate Ca2+ activated Cl- channels and generate electrophysiological responses. We tested the hypothesis that excitatory neurotransmitters regulate Ca2+ transients in ICC-DMP as a means of regulating intestinal muscles. High-resolution confocal microscopy was used to image Ca2+ transients in ICC-DMP within murine small intestinal muscles with cell-specific expression of GCaMP3. Intrinsic nerves were stimulated by electrical field stimulation (EFS). ICC-DMP exhibited ongoing Ca2+ transients before stimuli were applied. EFS caused initial suppression of Ca2+ transients, followed by escape during sustained stimulation, and large increases in Ca2+ transients after cessation of stimulation. Basal Ca2+ activity and the excitatory phases of Ca2+ responses to EFS were inhibited by atropine and neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1) antagonists, but not by NK2 receptor antagonists. Exogenous ACh and substance P (SP) increased Ca2+ transients, atropine and NK1 antagonists decreased Ca2+ transients. Neurokinins appear to be released spontaneously (tonic excitation) in small intestinal muscles and are the dominant excitatory neurotransmitters. Subcellular regulation of Ca2+ release events in ICC-DMP may be a means by which excitatory neurotransmission organizes intestinal motility patterns.
Unsupervised detection of epileptic seizures from EEG signals: A channel-specific analysis of long-term recordings

As long-term EEG recordings are becoming more and more frequent in clinical practice, the volume of EEG data that require annotation by clinical experts is growing exponentially, highlighting the need for automated epileptic seizure detection systems. Supervised methodologies based on machine learning techniques have been proposed as a solution, but they require annotated EEG data from multiple patients for training, while unsupervised methodologies, which do not have such limitations, are scarce in the literature. Thus, an unsupervised seizure detection methodology is developed to offer high seizure detection performance with substantial reduction in the time and effort required to inspect large volumes of EEG signals. The ictal rhythmical activity is detected by analyzing the spectral information of each EEG channel independently in order to find intensive accumulation of signal energy over the fundamental delta, theta and alpha frequency bands. The ictal rhythmical activity that is expressed during a seizure is detected using a set of four simple seizure detection conditions. The proposed methodology is validated using the public CHB-MIT EEG database, and the results suggest that an average sensitivity of 95.1% can be obtained with a false detection rate of 10.13 FP/h, while 95% of the each patient's EEG recordings is automatically rejected as non-ictal.
Frequency Reuse of Beam Allocation for Multiuser Massive MIMO Systems

Massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) has become a promising technique to provide high-data-rate communication in fifth-generation mobile systems, thanks to its ability to form narrow and high-gain beams. Among various massive MIMO beamforming techniques, the fixed-beam scheme has attracted considerable attention due to its simplicity. In this paper, we focus on a fixed-beam based multiuser massive MIMO system, where each user is served by a beam allocated to it. To maximize the sum data rate, a greedy beam allocation algorithm is proposed under the practical condition that the number of radio frequency chains is smaller than the number of users. Simulation results show that our proposed greedy algorithm achieves nearly optimal sum data rate. As only the sum data rate is optimized, there are some “worst-case” users, who could suffer from strong inter-beam interference and thus experience low data rate. To improve the individual data rates of the worst-case users while maintaining the sum data rate, an adaptive frequency reuse scheme is proposed. Simulation results corroborate that our proposed adaptive frequency reuse strategy can greatly improve the worst-case users’ data rates and the max-min fairness among served users without sacrificing the sum data rate.
Light‐Emitting Paper

A solution‐based fabrication of flexible and light‐weight light‐emitting devices on paper substrates is reported. Two different types of paper substrates are coated with a surface‐emitting light‐emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) device: a multilayer‐coated specialty paper with an intermediate surface roughness of 0.4 μm and a low‐end and low‐cost copy paper with a large surface roughness of 5 μm. The entire device fabrication is executed using a handheld airbrush, and it is notable that all of the constituent layers are deposited from solution under ambient air. The top‐emitting paper‐LECs are highly flexible, and display a uniform light emission with a luminance of 200 cd m−2 at a current conversion efficacy of 1.4 cd A−1.
Regulation of Angiogenesis-Related Prostaglandin F2alpha-Induced Genes in the Bovine Corpus Luteum1

ABSTRACT We recently compared prostaglandin F2alpha (PG)-induced global gene expression profiles in PG-refractory, bovine corpus luteum (CL) collected on Day 4 of the estrous cycle, versus PG-responsive, Day 11 CL. Transcriptome analyses led us to study the regulation of angiogenesis-related genes by PG and their functions in luteal endothelial cells (ECs). We found that PG regulated angiogenesis-modulating factors in a luteal stage-dependent way. A robust increase in FGF2 expression (mRNA and protein) occurred in the PG-refractory Day 4 CL promoting CL survival and function. Inhibitors of FGF2 action, thrombospondin 1 and 2, their receptor (CD36), and PTX3 were upregulated by PG specifically in Day 11 CL undergoing luteolysis. VEGF mRNA decreased 4 h post-PG in both Day 4 and Day 11 CL. The resulting destabilization of blood vessels in Day 11 CL is expected to weaken the gland and reduce its hormonal output. These genes were expressed in dispersed luteal ECs and steroidogenic cells; however, thrombospondin 1 and FGF2 were more abundant in luteal ECs. Expression of such genes and their ability to modulate FGF2 actions were investigated. Similar to its in vivo effect, PG, in vitro, stimulated the expression of thrombospondins and PTX3 genes in several luteal cell models. Importantly, these factors influenced the angiogenic properties of luteal ECs. FGF2 dose-dependently enhanced cell migration and proliferation, whereas thrombospondin 1 and PTX3 inhibited FGF2 actions in luteal ECs. Collectively, the data presented here suggest that, by tilting the balance between pro- and antiangiogenic factors, PG can potentially control the ability of the CL to resist or advance toward luteolysis.
TEAM: A traffic engineering automated manager for DiffServ-based MPLS networks

In this article an automated manager called traffic engineering automated manager (TEAM) for DiffServ/MPLS networks is introduced, and its design and implementation details are discussed. TEAM is designed for complete automated management of an Internet domain. TEAM is an adaptive manager that provides the required quality of service to the users and reduces the congestion in the network. The former is achieved by reserving bandwidth resources for the requests and the latter by distributing the load efficiently. These goals are achieved by online measurements of the network state. TEAM is composed of a traffic engineering tool (TET), which adaptively manages the bandwidth and routes in the network, a measurement and performance evaluation tool (MPET), which measures important parameters in the network and inputs them to the TET, and a simulation tool (ST), which may be used by TET to consolidate its decisions. These three tools work in synergy to achieve the desired network operation objectives. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of TEAM as a network manager in different and unpredictable traffic conditions at the expense of a limited increase in the computational complexity and costs.
Linking the Pathobiology of Hypercholesterolemia with the Neutrophil Mechanotransduction

© 2012 Zhang and Shin, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Linking the Pathobiology of Hypercholesterolemia with the Neutrophil Mechanotransduction
Visualizing the Internet of Things: Naturalizing Human-Computer Interaction by Incorporating AR Features

Modern consumer electronics (CE) devices have evolved such that human interaction with machines is ever more natural and effective. The forthcoming deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) over the existing Internet infrastructure promises to expand this interaction by providing applications and services that allow the human-computer interaction to integrate an automated customization of everyday life [1]. The vision is very optimistic on the amount of smart objects (SOs) deployed around us as the building blocks of the IoT. Experts forecast that 28 billion "things" will be connected to the Internet by 2020 [2].
Evaluation of myocyte proliferation in alcoholic cardiomyopathy: telomerase enzyme activity (TERT) compared with Ki-67 expression.

AIMS Although the human heart was classically considered a terminal organ, recent studies have reported a myocyte proliferation response versus some aggressions. Excessive ethanol consumption induces development of cardiomyopathy (CMP) through myocyte apoptosis. We evaluated myocyte proliferation response in the heart of chronic alcoholic donors with telomerase activity (telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT)) compared with Ki-67 nuclear expression. METHODS Heart samples were prospectively obtained from organ donors on life support. We included donors with (1) high lifetime alcohol consumption (n = 15), (2) longstanding hypertension (n = 14), (3) other causes of CMP (valve, coronary or idiopathic) (n = 8) and (4) previously healthy donors (n = 6). Groups 2 and 3 were subdivided according to the presence of CMP. Evaluation comprised parameters of ethanol consumption, left ventricular function by chest X-ray and 2D echocardiography, and histology and immunohistochemical studies. Myocyte proliferation was evaluated using an assay for Ki-67 expression and measuring telomerase gene activity by real-time PCR. RESULTS Forty-three donors were included in the study, 35 having CMP. Nuclear Ki-67 activity was low in healthy controls and significantly increased in the other groups, mainly in those with CMP. Alcoholics with CMP had a non-significantly lower proliferation response than the other CMP groups. No proliferation activity was detected with TERT in any case. CONCLUSION Heart Ki-67 proliferation activity increases in organ donors with CMP, independently of its origin. Alcoholics presented non-significant lower myocyte proliferation capacity compared with the other groups of CMP. TERT activity was not a useful marker of proliferation in this model. Ki-67 is a better procedure to evaluate proliferation than TERT expression in alcohol-induced heart damage.
Ranking Subreddits by Classiﬁer Indistinguishability in the Reddit Corpus

—Reddit, a popular online forum, provides a wealth of content for behavioral science researchers to analyze. These data are spread across various subreddits, subforums dedicated to speciﬁc topics. Social support subreddits are common, and users’ behaviors there differ from reddit at large; most signiﬁcantly, users often use ’throwaway’ single-use accounts to disclose especially sensitive information. This work focuses speciﬁcally on identifying depression-relevant posts and, consequently, sub-reddits, by relying only on posting content. We employ posts to r/depression as labeled examples of depression-relevant posts and train a classiﬁer to discriminate posts like them from posts randomly selected from the rest of the Reddit corpus, achieving 90% accuracy at this task. We argue that this high accuracy implies that the classiﬁer is descriptive of ”depression-like” posts, and use its ability (or lack thereof) to distinguish posts from other subreddits as discriminating the ”distance” between r/depression and those subreddits. To test this approach, we performed a pairwise comparison of classiﬁer performance between r/depression and 229 candidate subreddits. Subreddits which were very closely related thematically to r/depression, such as r/SuicideWatch, r/offmychest, and r/anxiety, were the most difﬁcult to distinguish. A comparison this ranking of similar subreddits to r/depression to existing methods (some of which require extra data, such as user posting co-occurrence across multiple subreddits) yields similar results. Aside from the beneﬁt of relying only on posting content, our method yields per-word importance values (heavily weighing words such as ”I”, ”me”, and ”myself”), which recapitulate previous research on the linguistic phenomena that accompany mental health self-disclosure.
Safe and Secure Support for Public Safety Networks

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Safe and Secure Support for Public Safety Networks Ludovic Apvrille, Letitia W. Li
Symmetrical Quasi-Reflectionless BSFs

A type of symmetrical bandstop filters (BSFs) with quasi-reflectionless behavior is reported. The engineered BSF configuration is made up of a bandstop section with resistively terminated bandpass sections that are connected at its input/output accesses. These bandpass sections, which exhibit a nearly complementary transfer function with regard to the one of the bandstop section, dissipate the nontransmitted input-signal energy in their loads. The theoretical foundations of the first-order quasi-reflectionless BSF and synthesis examples are detailed. Its extrapolation to higher order and multiband BSFs is also shown. Furthermore, as experimental validation, a 2.35-GHz second-order microstrip prototype is developed and measured.
Spinal cord plasticity in acquisition and maintenance of motor skills

Throughout normal life, activity‐dependent plasticity occurs in the spinal cord as well as in brain. Like other central nervous system (CNS) plasticity, spinal cord plasticity can occur at numerous neuronal and synaptic sites and through a variety of mechanisms. Spinal cord plasticity is prominent early in life and contributes to mastery of standard behaviours like locomotion and rapid withdrawal from pain. Later in life, spinal cord plasticity has a role in acquisition and maintenance of new motor skills, and in compensation for peripheral and central changes accompanying ageing, disease and trauma. Mastery of the simplest behaviours is accompanied by complex spinal and supraspinal plasticity. This complexity is necessary, in order to preserve the complete behavioural repertoire, and is also inevitable, due to the ubiquity of activity‐dependent CNS plasticity. Explorations of spinal cord plasticity are necessary for understanding motor skills. Furthermore, the spinal cord's comparative simplicity and accessibility makes it a logical starting point for studying skill acquisition. Induction and guidance of activity‐dependent spinal cord plasticity will probably play an important role in realization of effective new rehabilitation methods for spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and other motor disorders.
Conventional Fuel Generated from Polypropylene (PP) Waste Plastic like Kerosene/Jet/ Aviation Grade with Activated Carbon

The thermal degradation and fractional distillation process applied with polypropylene (PP) of waste plastic using stainless steel reactor without using any kind of catalyst. The polymer has been selected for the experiment 100% by weight and 1% activated carbon was used. The experimental temperature was used for thermal degradation liquefaction process at 100-400 oC and fractional distillation for third fraction fuel or aviation/kerosene/jet category fuel collection temperature was 180-210 oC and overall experiment run time was 6- 6.30 hours. The obtained products density is 0.75 g/ml and production yield percentage are third fraction liquid fuel or aviation/kerosene/jet category fuel yield is 30.40%, other fraction fuel percentage was 62.60% light gas 3% and black carbon residue 4%. Various techniques (Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometer, FT-IR and DSC) were used for produced third fraction fuel or aviation/kerosene/jet category fractional fuel analysis purpose. GC/MS result is showing that hydrocarbon compound ranges in this fuel are C8-C19 and light gas are present hydrocarbon range C1-C4. Third fractional fuel or kerosene / jet / aviation category fuel analysis results is showing different carbon range and produced third fractional fuel present short chain to long chain hydrocarbon like alkane and alkene group. Produce fuel can be use for internal combustion engine or electricity generation or feed stock refinery process.
Access to Street Markets and Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables by Adolescents Living in São Paulo, Brazil

Food environment and income act as determinants of diet, and consequently, of the consumption of fruits and vegetables. The objective of this study is to investigate the association between fruit and vegetable consumption, income, and street market density in adolescents living in São Paulo, Brazil. Data from 521 adolescents (12 to 19 years) participating in the 2015 Health Survey of São Paulo were used. Buffers (500, 1000, and 1500 m) were drawn around the households and the street markets were counted in each zone. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between fruit and vegetable consumption, income, and street market density. The main results showed that the presence of a street market in the zone closest to the households (500 m) was associated with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables (OR: 1.73; CI 95% 1.01–3.00). Higher family income was associated with a higher consumption of fruits and vegetables for models of 500 m buffer (OR: 2.56; CI 95% 1.47–4.45), 1000 m (OR: 2.30; CI 95% 1.33–3.96), and 1500 m (OR: 2.32; CI 95% 1.35–4.00). These results support the implementation of public policies that jointly consider income and the availability of street markets or healthy food environments.
Achromobacter Infection Is Rare in Japanese Patients with Pulmonary B-cell Lymphoma

Objective Achromobacter xylosoxidans (A. xylosoxidans) has been recently reported to have an association with the development of pulmonary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma in patients from European countries. However, the prevalence rates for A. xylosoxidans may vary significantly from country to country. To assess this association, the prevalence of A. xylosoxidans was analyzed in Japanese patients with pulmonary B-cell lymphoma. Methods DNA samples were obtained from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of pulmonary MALT lymphomas (n=52), diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs, n=18), and benign pulmonary lesions (n=19). All samples were histopathologically reviewed by experienced hematopathologists, and the clonality of all MALT lymphoma cases was confirmed by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based IGH rearrangement clonality assay. They were also tested for the API2-MALT1 fusion transcript. The presence of bacterial DNA was assessed with a nested PCR, and DNA sequencing was performed to confirm the PCR specificity. Results A. xylosoxidans DNA was detected in 1/52 cases of pulmonary MALT lymphoma, 2/18 cases of DLBCL, and 0/19 cases of benign pulmonary lesions. The prevalence of A. xylosoxidans in pulmonary lymphoma was not significantly higher than in benign lesions. Conclusion The present study shows that A. xylosoxidans infection may not be associated with pulmonary B-cell lymphoma in a Japanese case series. Large-scale international studies are needed to clarify the role of A. xylosoxidans in pulmonary lymphoma.