Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors associated with Schistosomiasis outbreak at Omindamba primary school, Omusati region, Namibia: a case-control study, March 2016

Introduction On march 2, 2016, the principal of Omindamba primary school in Outapi district notified the Outapi hospital of a cluster of students complaining of dysuria and passing bloody urine. We conducted an investigation to identify the agent, source of infection, and to determine factors associated with the outbreak. Methods An unmatched 1:1 case-control study was conducted. A case was defined as any student of Omindamba primary school, who passed bloody urine with or without dysuria or lower abdominal pains from 2nd- 4th March 2016, during the time of the investigation. A control was a classmate of a case. We collected demographic, clinical and environmental data. Results 125 cases and 125 controls were enrolled into the study. The mean age for cases was 11.3 years and controls was 11.0 years, with standard deviation of 3.2 years in both cases and controls. The most affected age group was 11-15 years with 63 (50.4%) cases, followed by 6-10 years with 51(40.8%) cases. Schistosoma hematobium was isolated in the urine specimens examined. Swimming in the canal (adjusted OR = 3.58; 95% CI = 1.14-11.2; p-value = 0.03), and using Etaka pond as a source of water (adjusted OR = 1.95; 95% CI = 1.09-3.50, p-value = 0.02) were independent factors associated with contracting schistosomiasis. Conclusion The Schistosomiasis outbreak among the school children was caused by Schistosoma hematobium. Swimming in the canal and using Etaka pond as a source of drinking water were the predictive factors for the infection. A community-based health education on the prevention of Schistosomiasis was implemented.
Thin-barrier enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT using ALD Al2O3 as gate insulator

A high-performance enhancement-mode(E-mode) gallium nitride(Ga N)-based metal–insulator–semiconductor high electron mobility transistor(MIS-HEMT) that employs a 5-nm-thick aluminum gallium nitride(Al0:3Ga0:7N) as a barrier layer and relies on silicon nitride(SiN) passivation to control the 2DEG density is presented. Unlike the Si N passivation, aluminum oxide(Al2O3/ by atomic layer deposition(ALD) on AlGaN surface would not increase the 2DEG density in the heterointerface. ALD Al2O3 was used as gate insulator after the depletion by etching of the SiN in the gate region. The E-mode MIS-HEMT with gate length(LG/ of 1 m showed a maximum drain current density.IDS/ of 657 m A/mm, a maximum extrinsic transconductance(gm/ of 187 m S/mm and a threshold voltage(Vth/ of 1 V. Comparing with the corresponding E-mode HEMT, the device performances had been greatly improved due to the insertion of Al2O3 gate insulator. This provided an excellent way to realize E-mode AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs with both high Vthand IDS.
MS-UCF: A reliable recommendation method based on mood-sensitivity identification and user credit

In recent years, due to an increasing overload of information on the Internet, there are many scenarios where recommendation systems are applied to provide suggestions to users. While prior works have made progress on addressing this challenge, an important limitation exists: they did not explore the mood-sensitivity aspect of the problem. The user's emotions affect the objectivity of the scoring; therefore the ratings are not the true reflection of user's preferences. Accordingly, recommendation systems make inaccurate recommendations for users. In this paper, MS-UCF based on the combination of mood-sensitivity (MS) and improved user-based collaborative filtering (UCF) is presented to improve the reliability of the recommendations. MS identifies the mood sensitivity of users by text analysis of their comments. This method is then combined with UCF to predict the preference of target users. User credit is also considered to resist fake users and make sure the recommendation reliable. Experiments are conducted to evaluate this approach. Compare it with other state-of-the-art approaches using the real-world movie dataset, the results show that with proposed approach, the recommendations are much reliable over comparative ones.
Energy-Efficient Dynamic Data Encoding for Multi-level STT-MRAM

Spin-Torque-Transfer Magnetic RAM (STTMRAM) is a promising candidate for next generation on-chip last level cache memory. Such technology offers non-volatility, excellent scalability, and CMOS process compatibility. Even though multi-level version of such memories offer more capacity than their single-level counterpart, it suffers from high write energy as well as performance overhead. These unwanted characteristics are due to Two-step Transition (TT) and Hard-Transition (HT). In this paper, we propose a dynamic resistance-to-logic state encoding to minimize energy in MLC STT-MRAM based caches. The proposed encoding/decoding scheme are presented algorithmically and at architectural level. Results on PARSEC benchmarks showed an average reduction of 55% in energy as compared to a recently proposed low power encoding approach.
Design of a miniature 6-axis force/torque sensor for robotic applications

A 6-axis force/torque (F/T) information is important to improve the performance of robotic applications. This paper presents a novel design of 6-axis F/T sensor that provides much simple configuration and easy fabrication/assembly processes. To use the space of the sensor efficiently, a new capacitance sensing cell is designed to detect a normal and a shear forces at the same time. The configuration of the sensor is developed, consisting of only three parts: a sensing printed circuit board, a deformable part, and a base part.
Susceptibility of A. fumigatus‐specific T‐cell assays to pre‐analytic blood storage and PBMC cryopreservation greatly depends on readout platform and analytes

Mould‐specific T cells detectable by flow cytometry or ELISPOT were proposed as a novel biomarker in invasive aspergillosis. To define protocols facilitating sample shipment and longitudinal analysis, this study evaluated the susceptibility of different functional assays for A. fumigatus‐specific T‐cell quantification and characterisation to pre‐analytic delays. PBMCs from 6 healthy donors were analysed after immediate isolation, after 6 hours whole blood storage or after cryopreservation using 3 different common media. Functional responses to A. fumigatus lysate stimulation were comparatively assessed by flow cytometry, ELISPOT and 14‐plex cytokine assay. After 6 hours pre‐analytic storage, all functional assays showed reduced detection rates, higher coefficients of variation (CV) and widely varying individual recovery indices of specific T‐cell response. While cryopreservation resulted in sufficient yields and largely unaltered cellular composition, outcomes of functional readouts significantly differed from freshly processed samples. For CD154‐based flow cytometry, only cryopreservation in RPMI supplemented with autologous serum resulted in satisfactory detection rates and CVs. For ELISPOT and cytokine secretion assays, none of the cryopreservation protocols provided sufficient concordance with immediately processed samples. Even using the same readout platform, individual analytes widely varied in their susceptibility to cryopreservation, highlighting that distinct optimisation is required depending on the downstream assay.
Identification of Inhibitors in Lignocellulosic Slurries and Determination of Their Effect on Hydrocarbon-Producing Microorganisms

The aim of this work was to identify inhibitors in pretreated lignocellulosic slurries, evaluate high-throughput screening strategies, and investigate the impact of inhibitors on potential hydrocarbon-producing microorganisms. Compounds present in slurries that could inhibit microbial growth were identified through a detailed analysis of saccharified slurries by applying a combination of approaches of high-performance liquid chromatography, GC-MS, LC-DAD-MS, and ICP-MS. Several high-throughput assays were then evaluated to generate toxicity profiles. Our results demonstrated that Bioscreen C was useful for analyzing bacterial toxicity but not for yeast. AlamarBlue reduction assay can be a useful high-throughput assay for both bacterial and yeast strains as long as medium components do not interfere with fluorescence measurements. In addition, this work identified two major inhibitors (furfural and ammonium acetate) for three potential hydrocarbon-producing bacterial species that include Escherichia coli, Cupriavidus necator, and Rhodococcus opacus PD630, which are also the primary inhibitors for ethanologens. This study was strived to establish a pipeline to quantify inhibitory compounds in biomass slurries and high-throughput approaches to investigate the effect of inhibitors on microbial biocatalysts, which can be applied for various biomass slurries or hydrolyzates generated through different pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis processes or different microbial candidates.
Content-based image enhancement in the compressed domain based on multi-scale a-rooting algorithm

A simple multi-scale image enhancement algorithm for compressing image dynamics and enhancing image details in the discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain is presented. First, an image is separated into illumination and reflectance components. Next, the illumination component is manipulated adaptively for image dynamics by using a content measure. The content measure using the energy distribution of the DCT coefficients is defined directly in each DCT block of an image. Then, the reflectance component is altered by a multi-scale a-rooting method for enhancing image details based on human visual perception. The main advantage of the proposed algorithm enhances the details in the dark and the bright areas with low computations without boosting noise information and affecting the compressibility of the original image since it performs on the images in the compressed domain. In order to evaluate the proposed scheme, several base-line approaches are described and compared using enhancement quality measures. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 07.05. Pj; 07.05. Rm; 42.30. Tz; 42.30. Va
High dietary phosphorus intake is associated with all-cause mortality: results from NHANES III.

BACKGROUND Elevated serum phosphorus is associated with all-cause mortality, but little is known about risk associated with dietary phosphorus intake. OBJECTIVE We investigated the association between phosphorus intake and mortality in a prospective cohort of healthy US adults (NHANES III; 1998-1994). DESIGN Study participants were 9686 nonpregnant adults aged 20-80 y without diabetes, cancer, or kidney or cardiovascular disease. Exposure to dietary phosphorus, which was assessed by using a 24-h dietary recall, was expressed as the absolute intake and phosphorus density (phosphorus intake divided by energy intake). All-cause and cardiovascular mortality was assessed through 31 December 2006. RESULTS Median phosphorus intake was 1166 mg/d (IQR: 823-1610 mg/d); median phosphorus density was 0.58 mg/kcal (0.48-0.70 mg/kcal). Individuals who consumed more phosphorus-dense diets were older, were less often African American, and led healthier lifestyles (smoking, physical activity, and Healthy Eating Index). In analyses adjusted for demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, kidney function, and energy intake, higher phosphorus intake was associated with higher all-cause mortality in individuals who consumed >1400 mg/d [adjusted HR (95% CI): 2.23 (1.09, 4.5) per 1-unit increase in ln(phosphorus intake); P = 0.03]. At <1400 mg/d, there was no association. A similar association was seen between higher phosphorus density and all-cause mortality at a phosphorus density amount >0.35 mg/kcal [adjusted HR (95% CI): 2.27 (1.19, 4.33) per 0.1-mg/kcal increase in phosphorus density; P = 0.01]. At <0.35 mg/kcal (approximately the fifth percentile), lower phosphorus density was associated with increased mortality risk. Phosphorus density was associated with cardiovascular mortality [adjusted HR (95% CI): 3.39 (1.43, 8.02) per 0.1 mg/kcal at >0.35 mg/kcal; P = 0.01], whereas no association was shown in analyses with phosphorus intake. Results were similar by subgroups of diet quality and in analyses adjusted for sodium and saturated fat intakes. CONCLUSIONS High phosphorus intake is associated with increased mortality in a healthy US population. Because of current patterns in phosphorus consumption in US adults, these findings may have important public health implications.
A Developmental Study on Assessing the Cybersecurity Competency of Organizational Information System Users

Organizational information system users (OISUs) that are open to cyber threats vectors are contributing to major financial and information losses for individuals, businesses, and governments. Moreover, technical cybersecurity controls may be rendered useless due to a lack of cybersecurity competency of OISUs. The main goal of this research study was to propose and validate, using subject matter experts (SMEs), a reliable hands-on assessment prototype tool for measuring the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that comprise the cybersecurity competency of an OISU. Primarily using the Delphi methodology, this study implemented four phases of data collection using cybersecurity SMEs for proposing and validating OISU: (a) KSAs, (b) KSA measures, (c) KSA measure weights, and (d) cybersecurity competency threshold. A fifth phase of data collection occurred measuring the cybersecurity competency of 54 participants. Phase 1 proposed and validated three OISU cybersecurity abilities, 23 OISU cybersecurity knowledge units (KU), and 22 OISU cybersecurity skill areas (SA). Phase 2 proposed and validated 90 KSA measures for 47 knowledge topics (KT) and 43 skill tasks (ST). Phase 3 proposed and validated the weights for four knowledge categories (KC) and four skill categories (SC). Phase 4 proposed and validated an OISU cybersecurity competency threshold (index score) of 80%. Phase 5 of this study measured the cybersecurity competency of 54 OISUs using the MyCyberKSAs TM prototype cybersecurity competency assessment tool. Phase 5 conducted data analysis by computing levels of dispersion and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), which indicated that annual cybersecurity training and job function are significant, providing evidences for significant differences in OISU cybersecurity competency.
A Triple Band Notched Reconfigurable Micro strip Fed UWB Applications Antenna

--In this paper a compact ultra wide band (UWB) triple band notched reconfigurable micro strip antenna is proposed. The bands 2.6GHZ-3.11GHZ (WIMAX) and 5.0GHZ-5.6GHZ (WIFI) and 7.4-8.6(C BAND) are notched from the antenna operating frequency. The triple band notched antenna is designed by itching two slots having different shapes on the radiating patch. One slot is of T shaped and the other slot is of rectangular shaped. Design specifications for notching the desired bands are provided. The results are simulated using HFSS and compared with the experimental results which suggest that the antenna can be used very efficiently in the UWB range without much interference.
ImmortalGraph: A System for Storage and Analysis of Temporal Graphs

Temporal graphs that capture graph changes over time are attracting increasing interest from research communities, for functions such as understanding temporal characteristics of social interactions on a time-evolving social graph. ImmortalGraph is a storage and execution engine designed and optimized specifically for temporal graphs. Locality is at the center of ImmortalGraph’s design: temporal graphs are carefully laid out in both persistent storage and memory, taking into account data locality in both time and graph-structure dimensions. ImmortalGraph introduces the notion of locality-aware batch scheduling in computation, so that common “bulk” operations on temporal graphs are scheduled to maximize the benefit of in-memory data locality. The design of ImmortalGraph explores an interesting interplay among locality, parallelism, and incremental computation in supporting common mining tasks on temporal graphs. The result is a high-performance temporal-graph system that is up to 5 times more efficient than existing database solutions for graph queries. The locality optimizations in ImmortalGraph offer up to an order of magnitude speedup for temporal iterative graph mining compared to a straightforward application of existing graph engines on a series of snapshots.
The impact of vision impairment questionnaire: an assessment of its domain structure using confirmatory factor analysis and rasch analysis.

PURPOSE To assess and validate the subscale structure of the 28-item Impact of Visual Impairment (IVI) Scale by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch analysis for use as an outcome measure. METHODS Three hundred nineteen participants completed the IVI questionnaire, and the responses then were subjected to Rasch analysis by RUMM2020 software. With the person estimates for each item, CFA was used to assess two hypothesized structures: three-and four-factor models. The subscales of the model with the best fit were then further validated by Rasch analysis. RESULTS CFA supported a three-factor model that included items from the emotional well-being, reading and accessing information, and mobility and independence subscales. Almost all the selected goodness-of-fit statistics for the three-factor model were better than the recommended values. The factor loadings of the items on their respective domains were all statistically significant (P < 0.001) and ranged between 0.54 and 0.81. The three subscales individually fitted the Rasch model according to the item-trait interaction test (mobility and independence chi(2) [df] = 45.9 [44], P = 0.39; emotional well-being = 28.4 [32], P = 0.65; and reading and accessing information = 43.5 [36], P = 0.18). The item-fit residuals values of the three subscales were <2.5 and showed mean and standard deviations approximating 0 and 1, respectively. The internal consistency reliability of the subscales (alpha) was substantial, ranging between 0.89 and 0.91. CONCLUSIONS An examination of the IVI dimension confirmed a three-subscale structure that displays interval measurement characteristics likely to provide a valid and reliable assessment of restriction of participation. The findings provide an opportunity for a more detailed measurement of the effects of different types of low-vision rehabilitation programs.
Clinical experience of the importance of daily portal imaging for head and neck IMRT treatments

The purpose of this study was to evaluate patient setup in head and neck IMRT using daily portal imaging. At our institution, orthogonal digital portal images are taken daily to check patient positioning prior to head and neck IMRT treatment. Isocenter misalignments are corrected using a couch shift (3 mm action level). Therapists also compare the DRRs and portal images looking at points more distant from the isocenter, particularly in the supraclavicular region, and re‐position the patient's shoulders in the mask if considered necessary. The daily isocenter shifts (C2 region) and frequency of patient repositioning were investigated by review of record‐and‐verify records for 15 patients. The magnitude of the shoulder repositioning was evaluated for 10 of these patients by comparing portal images and plan DRRs for a point 8 cm inferior of isocenter (T2‐T4). For all patients, pretreatment isocenter discrepancies 3 mm or smaller were recorded for a median of 92.5% of fractions (range: 71.4 – 100%). Patients were repositioned in the immobilization mask before treatment for a median of 14% of fractions (3–34%). Thirty percent of these were for shoulder shifts of 1 cm or larger. Twenty percent of patients needed shoulder shifts of 1 cm or more for more than 7/35 fractions, meaning that without setup based on daily imaging, parts of the CTV would have received less than 95% of the prescribed dose. In conclusion, with our current immobilization, isocenter positioning accuracy is excellent, while correct shoulder position is more variable, particularly for a small subset of patients. Frequent imaging of head and neck IMRT patients is essential to accurate delivery of therapy, with shoulder position an important factor. PACS number: 87.53. Oq
Live demonstration: A VCO-based point-of-care ESR spectrometer

We propose the demonstration of a portable electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer using an integrated voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) as both RF excitation source and ESR detector. As an extension to the work presented by our group in [1], in which we extracted the spectroscopic information from an ESR-induced change in the oscillation frequency, in the presented setup, we sense the ESR signal as a change of the VCO amplitude by utilizing the built-in AM-demodulation capabilities of an LC tank VCO [2]. This amplitude-sensitive approach not only greatly further reduces system complexity but also opens up the path towards more advanced ESR detection methods in addition to the conventional continuous-wave method used in [1].
Homo sapiens-Specific Binding Site Variants within Brain Exclusive Enhancers Are Subject to Accelerated Divergence across Human Population

Abstract Empirical assessments of human accelerated noncoding DNA frgaments have delineated presence of many cis-regulatory elements. Enhancers make up an important category of such accelerated cis-regulatory elements that efficiently control the spatiotemporal expression of many developmental genes. Establishing plausible reasons for accelerated enhancer sequence divergence in Homo sapiens has been termed significant in various previously published studies. This acceleration by including closely related primates and archaic human data has the potential to open up evolutionary avenues for deducing present-day brain structure. This study relied on empirically confirmed brain exclusive enhancers to avoid any misjudgments about their regulatory status and categorized among them a subset of enhancers with an exceptionally accelerated rate of lineage specific divergence in humans. In this assorted set, 13 distinct transcription factor binding sites were located that possessed unique existence in humans. Three of 13 such sites belonging to transcription factors SOX2, RUNX1/3, and FOS/JUND possessed single nucleotide variants that made them unique to H. sapiens upon comparisons with Neandertal and Denisovan orthologous sequences. These variants modifying the binding sites in modern human lineage were further substantiated as single nucleotide polymorphisms via exploiting 1000 Genomes Project Phase3 data. Long range haplotype based tests laid out evidence of positive selection to be governing in African population on two of the modern human motif modifying alleles with strongest results for SOX2 binding site. In sum, our study acknowledges acceleration in noncoding regulatory landscape of the genome and highlights functional parts within it to have undergone accelerated divergence in present-day human population.