Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of Microfauna-Host Interactions for Trypanosome Transmission Dynamics in Glossina fuscipes fuscipes in Uganda

ABSTRACT Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) are vectors for African trypanosomes (Euglenozoa: kinetoplastida), protozoan parasites that cause African trypanosomiasis in humans (HAT) and nagana in livestock. In addition to trypanosomes, two symbiotic bacteria (Wigglesworthia glossinidia and Sodalis glossinidius) and two parasitic microbes, Wolbachia and a salivary gland hypertrophy virus (SGHV), have been described in tsetse. Here we determined the prevalence of and coinfection dynamics between Wolbachia, trypanosomes, and SGHV in Glossina fuscipes fuscipes in Uganda over a large geographical scale spanning the range of host genetic and spatial diversity. Using a multivariate analysis approach, we uncovered complex coinfection dynamics between the pathogens and statistically significant associations between host genetic groups and pathogen prevalence. It is important to note that these coinfection dynamics and associations with the host were not apparent by univariate analysis. These associations between host genotype and pathogen are particularly evident for Wolbachia and SGHV where host groups are inversely correlated for Wolbachia and SGHV prevalence. On the other hand, trypanosome infection prevalence is more complex and covaries with the presence of the other two pathogens, highlighting the importance of examining multiple pathogens simultaneously before making generalizations about infection and spatial patterns. It is imperative to note that these novel findings would have been missed if we had employed the standard univariate analysis used in previous studies. Our results are discussed in the context of disease epidemiology and vector control.
UML for Ontology Modelling and Interoperability

The Semantic Web vision aims to integrate and convert the vast amount of information available on the Internet into a machine-understandable network. The objective is to promote knowledge sharing and reusability. Ontologies form a global pool of reusable, shared knowledge resources. Ontology languages, like RDFS, DAML or the W3C recommended OWL, make the knowledge base machine or platform independent. However, ontology use outside the realm of ontology experts is still limited. There is a need to facilitate integration and interoperability of existing knowledge bases. Knowledge modelling and representation methodology also needs to be language independent, easy to understand and share. In this paper, we propose the use of UML conceptual models as knowledge modelling and representation language for ontology. This paper illustrates the ease of interoperability and integration between ontologies built on UML conceptual models, through case studies involving INCOTERMS and Multi Tier Contract Ontology (MTCO).
A Study of the Factors Influencing OCR Stability for Hybrid Security

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a critical task in securing hybrid (digital and paper) documents. For this, its key performance criterion is stability. An unstable OCR algorithm will fail to detect two copies of the document as similar thus creating a wrong fraud detection. Having a sufficiently stable algorithm requires a very high level of performance. To improve it, we study a simple disambiguation technique called "alphabet reduction". It is based on the principle that characters that are visually similar should be the same character. It significantly improves the stability of two state of the art OCR algorithms on almost forty three thousand images. Yet the obtained stability is still insufficient. We also study the impact of the document variations on the stability of OCR algorithms.
Web-based Annotation of Anaphoric Relations and Lexical Chains

Annotating large text corpora is a time-consuming effort. Although single-user annotation tools are available, web-based annotation applications allow for distributed annotation and file access from different locations. In this paper we present the web-based annotation application Serengeti for annotating anaphoric relations which will be extended for the annotation of lexical chains.
Environmental Influences on Tropical Cyclone Variability and Trends

Tropical cyclone activity has been increasing in concert with tropical ocean temperatures globally (Emanuel 2005; Webster et al. 2005). The correlation between tropical cyclone (TC) activity and sea surface temperature (SST) is especially evident in the North Atlantic, where the TC data is particularly good. Figure 1 compares the annual count of North Atlantic TCs with SST in the main development region (MDR) for Atlantic TCs, while figure 2 compares MDR SST to the annually accumulated storm lifetime maximum power dissipation index (PDI).
REVIEW: Norepinephrine and stimulant addiction

No pharmacotherapies are approved for stimulant use disorders, which are an important public health problem. Stimulants increase synaptic levels of the monoamines dopamine (DA), serotonin and norepinephrine (NE). Stimulant reward is attributable mostly to increased DA in the reward circuitry, although DA stimulation alone cannot explain the rewarding effects of stimulants. The noradrenergic system, which uses NE as the main chemical messenger, serves multiple brain functions including arousal, attention, mood, learning, memory and stress response. In pre‐clinical models of addiction, NE is critically involved in mediating stimulant effects including sensitization, drug discrimination and reinstatement of drug seeking. In clinical studies, adrenergic blockers have shown promise as treatments for cocaine abuse and dependence, especially in patients experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms. Disulfiram, which blocks NE synthesis, increased the number of cocaine‐negative urines in five randomized clinical trials. Lofexidine, an α2‐adrenergic agonist, reduces the craving induced by stress and drug cues in drug users. In addition, the NE transporter (NET) inhibitor atomoxetine attenuates some of d‐amphetamine's subjective and physiological effects in humans. These findings warrant further studies evaluating noradrenergic medications as treatments for stimulant addiction.
Small Randomized Trial Among Low–birth-weight Children Receiving Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccination at First Health Center Contact

A total of 105 low–birth-weight children presenting for first vaccination were randomized to receive bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immediately or later (current practice). The mortality rate ratio for BCG was 0.17 (95% CI = 0.02–1.35) within 3 days of enrollment, 0.28 (0.06–1.37) in the first month, and 0.27 (0.07–0.98) after 2 months of age. The mortality rate ratio was 0.41 (0.14–1.18) (P = 0.098) in infancy. Administration of BCG vaccine at first contact may contribute to lower mortality.
BILATERAL MULTIPLE VARIATIONS IN THE FORMATION OF THE BRACHIAL PLEXUS AND ITS TERMINAL NERVES: A CASE REPORT

Address for Correspondence: Dr. Gabriel J Mchonde, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroanatomy, School of Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Iwate, Japan. Nishitokuda 2-1-1, Yahaba-cho, Shiwa-gun, 028-3694, Contact no.+81 80 6293 4529. E-Mail: gmchonde@yahoo.co.uk or mchonde@iwate-med.ac. jp Access this Article online Quick Response code Web site: 1* PhD Student, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroanatomy, School of Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Japan. 2 Professor of Anatomy, Department of Anatomy and Histology, School of Medicine, International Medical and Technology University. 3 Lecturer, Department of Anatomy and Histology, School of Medicine, International Medical and Technology University. Background: Variations in formation of brachial plexus roots, trunks, divisions and cords are not uncommon and maybe of important in regional anaesthesia involving the upper limb. However, in the present case we are reporting a rare bilateral multiple variations observed during routine dissection on a 77-years-old embalmed male cadaver on left and right brachial plexus. Understanding the anatomical variations involving brachial plexus is important and might benefit the physicians, surgeons, anaesthesiologists and neuroanatomists during their routine procedures involving the cervical, axillary and the upper limb regions.
Adalimumab for treating childhood plaque psoriasis: a clinical trial evaluation

ABSTRACT Introduction: Most systemic therapies have not been systematically investigated in moderate to severe childhood plaque psoriasis. Evidence on the efficacy and safety of systemic treatments is limited and therapeutic guidelines are lacking. Recently adalimumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody that binds tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- alpha, was investigated in childhood psoriasis. Adalimumab is licensed for many inflammatory conditions including chronic plaque psoriasis in adults. Areas covered: A randomized phase III study published provided favourable efficacy and safety data of adalimumab in childhood psoriasis. The active comparator was methotrexate. After 16 weeks of treatment, a PASI 75 score was achieved in 58% of patients within the adalimumab 0.8 mg/kg group compared with 32% of patients within the methotrexate group. Safety data gave no evidence of drug-related serious adverse events and no organ toxicity. This is the first randomised controlled study of either adalimumab or methotrexate in children and adolescents with psoriasis. Expert opinion: The aforementioned trial was the first to provide clinical data on adalimumab’s efficacy and safety in the short term when treating children and adolescents with psoriasis. Through the use of an active comparator, this study has opened the way for the future assessment of systemic therapies in children and adolescent with this condition.
A traveling wave amplifier based on composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission lines periodically loaded with resonant tunneling diode pairs

This paper proposes a traveling wave amplifier based on composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission lines (TLs) periodically loaded with resonant tunneling diode (RTD) pairs. This TL can be regarded as a “lossy” TL with a negative loss because of the negative differential resistance of the RTD. This means that the TL can amplify signals while the signal travels along the line. One of the most important points to be investigated to realize this amplifier is the stability of the circuit. We discuss stability of the TLs periodically loaded with RTDs, and show that they can be stabilized by using CRLH TL configuration. It is demonstrated that this amplifier can have a gain for wide frequency range.
Transfer learning of a deep convolutional neural network for localizing handwritten slab identification numbers

Most machine learning methods assume that previous and future data have same distribution in same feature space. This paper presents a real-world problem that violates the common assumption, and we propose a practical methodology to handle the problem. In the steel making industry, automated marking systems are widely used to inscribe slab identification numbers (SINs). In the previous work, a deep learning based algorithm was developed to automatically extract regions of printed SINs. However, as the marking system is outdated, few SINs are marked by hand in uncommon situations, and the existing algorithm does not work for the handwritten SINs. This paper proposes a practical method that uses very small training data (10 images) to localize handwritten SINs. The knowledge of mid-level layers or entire layers in the pre-trained deep convolutional neural network is transferred to overcome the shortage of training data in the target domain. Experiments were conducted with actual industrial data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Real-time drums transcription with characteristic bandpass filtering

Real--time transcription of drum signals is an emerging area of research. Several applications for music education and commercial use can utilize such algorithms and allow for an easy-to-use way to interpret drum signals in real--time. The paper at hand proposes a system that performs real--time drums transcription. The proposed system consists of two subsystems, the real--time separation and the training module. The real--time separation module is based on the use of characteristic filters, combining simple bandpass filtering and amplification, a fact that diminishes computational cost and potentially renders it suitable for implementation on hardware. The training module employs Differential Evolution to create generations of characteristic filter combinations that optimally separate a set of given drum sources. Initial experimental results indicate that the proposed system is relatively accurate rendering it convenient for real-time hardware implementations targeted to a wide range of applications.
Static Output Feedback Sliding Mode Control Design via an Artificial Stabilizing Delay

It is well known that for linear, uncertain systems, a static output feedback sliding mode controller can only be determined if a particular triple associated with the reduced order dynamics in the sliding mode is stabilizable. This paper shows that the static output feedback sliding mode control design problem can be solved for a broader class of systems if a known delay term is deliberately introduced into the switching function. Effectively the reduced order sliding mode dynamics are stabilized by the introduction of this artificial delay.
Membrane Cholesterol Modulates β-Amyloid-dependent Tau Cleavage by Inducing Changes in the Membrane Content and Localization of N-Methyl-d-aspartic Acid Receptors*

We have previously shown that β-amyloid (Aβ) treatment resulted in an age-dependent calpain activation leading to Tau cleavage into a neurotoxic 17-kDa fragment in a cellular model of Alzheimer disease. This detrimental cellular response was mediated by a developmentally regulated increase in membrane cholesterol levels. In this study, we assessed the molecular mechanisms by which cholesterol modulated Aβ-induced Tau cleavage in cultured hippocampal neurons. Our results indicated that these mechanisms did not involve the regulation of the binding of Aβ aggregates to the plasma membrane. On the other hand, experiments using N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor inhibitors suggested that these receptors played an essential role in cholesterol-mediated Aβ-dependent calpain activity and 17-kDa Tau production. Biochemical and immunocytochemical analyses demonstrated that decreasing membrane cholesterol levels in mature neurons resulted in a significant reduction of the NR1 subunit at the membrane as well as an increase in the number of large NR1, NR2A, and NR2B subunit clusters. Moreover, the majority of these larger N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor subunit immunoreactive spots was not juxtaposed to presynaptic sites in cholesterol-reduced neurons. These data suggested that changes at the synaptic level underlie the mechanism by which membrane cholesterol modulates developmental changes in the susceptibility of hippocampal neurons to Aβ-induced toxicity.
The Relationship between Cortical Blood Flow and Sub-Cortical White-Matter Health across the Adult Age Span

Degeneration of cerebral white matter is commonly observed in aging, and the associated degradation in neural connectivity contributes to cognitive decline in older adults. Vascular dysfunction has been implicated as a potential mechanism for general age-related neural tissue deterioration; however, no prior study has examined the direct relationship between cortical vascular health and subcortical white-matter integrity. In this work, we aimed to determine whether blood supply to the brain is associated with microstructural integrity of connective tissue, and whether such associations are regionally specific and mainly accounted for by aging. We examined the association between cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the cortical mantle, measured using arterial spin labeling (ASL), and subcortical white-matter integrity, measured using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), in a group of healthy adults spanning early to late adulthood. We found cortical CBF to be significantly associated with white-matter integrity throughout the brain. In addition, these associations were only partially tied to aging, as they remained even when statistically controlling for age, and when restricting the analyses to a young subset of the sample. Furthermore, vascular risk was not a prominent determinant of these effects. These findings suggest that the overall blood supply to the brain is an important indicator of white-matter health in the normal range of variations amongst adults, and that the decline in CBF with advancing age may potentially exacerbate deterioration of the connective anatomy of the brain.
Neural Entrainment to Auditory Imagery of Rhythms

A method of reconstructing perceived or imagined music by analyzing brain activity has not yet been established. As a first step toward developing such a method, we aimed to reconstruct the imagery of rhythm, which is one element of music. It has been reported that a periodic electroencephalogram (EEG) response is elicited while a human imagines a binary or ternary meter on a musical beat. However, it is not clear whether or not brain activity synchronizes with fully imagined beat and meter without auditory stimuli. To investigate neural entrainment to imagined rhythm during auditory imagery of beat and meter, we recorded EEG while nine participants (eight males and one female) imagined three types of rhythm without auditory stimuli but with visual timing, and then we analyzed the amplitude spectra of the EEG. We also recorded EEG while the participants only gazed at the visual timing as a control condition to confirm the visual effect. Furthermore, we derived features of the EEG using canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and conducted an experiment to individually classify the three types of imagined rhythm from the EEG. The results showed that classification accuracies exceeded the chance level in all participants. These results suggest that auditory imagery of meter elicits a periodic EEG response that changes at the imagined beat and meter frequency even in the fully imagined conditions. This study represents the first step toward the realization of a method for reconstructing the imagined music from brain activity.
Game play analytics to measure the effect of marketing on mobile Free-To-Play games

Dummy - Online is the most popular mobile Free-To-Play (F2P) card game in Thailand. Part of the reason is that the marketing team has created many successful marketing campaigns for the game since its inception in 2012. Though there had been many marketing campaigns, the publisher has not been able to effectively analyze the impact of marketing campaigns to the userbase and their gameplay behaviors. To deal with that, a joint study was created in which aims to utilize data analytics of gameplay metrics to address the issue. A case study was implemented by using a data analytic approach to explore the effectiveness of the marketing campaign for Dummy - Online by comparing the gameplay metrics between the pre-campaign, campaign period, and post-campaign period. K-mean clustering was used to create user-type segmentation and compared with the pre-defined user-types. Based on the results, a number of recommendations were provided for the publisher to help improve the effectiveness of future marketing campaigns.
Oro-facial-digital syndrome type II with otolaryngological manifestations

We present a case of oro-facial-digital syndrome type II (Mohr's syndrome) which is characterized by malformations of the oral cavity, face and digits. The facial and oral features include tongue nodules, cleft or high-arched palate, missing teeth, broad nose; cleft lip. The digital features include clinodactyly, polydactyly, syndactyly, brachydactyly and duplication of the hallux.
Adaptive medical feature extraction for resource constrained distributed embedded systems

Tiny embedded systems have not been an ideal outfit for high performance computing due to their constrained resources. Limitations in processing power, battery life, communication bandwidth and memory constrain the applicability of existing complex medical/biological analysis algorithms to such platforms. Electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis resembles such algorithm. In this paper, we address the issue of partitioning an ECG analysis algorithm while the wireless communication power consumption is minimized. Considering the orientation of the ECG leads, we devise a technique to perform preprocessing and pattern recognition locally on small embedded systems attached to the leads. The features detected in pattern recognition phase are considered for classification. Ideally, if the features detected for each heart beat reside in a single processing node, the transmission will be unnecessary. Otherwise, to perform classification, the features must be gathered on a local node and thus, the communication is inevitable. We perform such feature grouping by modeling the problem with a hypergraph and applying partitioning schemes. This yields a significant power saving in wireless communication. Furthermore, we utilize dynamic reconfiguration by software module migration. This technique with respect to partitioning enhances the overall power saving in such systems. Moreover, it adaptively alters the system configuration in various environments and on different patients. We evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed techniques on MIT/BIH benchmarks
Field evaluation of carbon dioxide as a fish deterrent at a water management structure along the Illinois River

Construction of a water management structure (WMS) in the levee surrounding The Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve (Havana, Illinois, USA) created a new hydrological connection and potential aquatic invasive species pathway between the Illinois River and a large conservation wetland complex. Site managers need a control tool that deters the upstream passage of non-native fishes into the wetland lakes, but does not interfere with normal gate operation and water discharge. This short field study evaluated carbon dioxide (CO2) injected into water as a non-obstructive method to reduce fish abundance near the WMS culverts. We quantified relative fish abundance using underwater sonar with and without injection of CO2 into culverts during three discharge events: no flow (0 m3/s), restricted flow (0.9 m3/s), and unrestricted flow (3.2 m3/s). Overall, CO2 reached or exceeded our target concentration of 100 mg/L during no flow and restricted flow, and fish abundance was 70–95% lower at culvert entrances relative to untreated control days. The target CO2 level was not reached during unrestricted flow and fish abundance was not reduced during CO2 injection. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations were inconsequential and unaffected by CO2 treatments throughout testing. Results from this initial field study provide several considerations for CO2 as a fish deterrent in natural environments.
A Functional Model of Thyristor Based on MATLAB for High Power Circuit Simulation

A novel functional subcircuit model based on MATLAB/Simulink for high power circuit simulation is proposed in this paper. The model can overcome the limitation of PSPICE model in high power system and remedy the deficiency in transient analysis of the Simulink model in toolbox. It described the static and dynamic process of thyristor correctly in the simulation of a high power thyristor controlled reactor (TCR) system. A good practicality of the proposed model has been observed.