Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of selected antibiotics on the response of black fly (Simulium vittatum) larvae to insecticidal proteins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis

A controlled current toxicity test (CCTT) was developed to evaluate the response of black fly (Simulium vittatum) larvae to insecticidal proteins following exposure to various antibiotics. The bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti), produces proteins that are toxic to Nemotoceran Diptera, such as black flies and mosquitoes, when ingested. These insecticidal crystalline proteins (ICPs) are highly efficacious in controlling black flies; however, speculation has arisen regarding the potential for antibiotic contamination of waterways to mitigate the toxicity of these proteins. A series of experiments was conducted with the CCTT in which black fly larvae were exposed to enrofloxacin, tylosin, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim followed by exposure to Bti ICPs. These antibiotics were selected based on their use in agricultural and documented anthropogenic contamination of rivers. Anthropogenic concentrations of a mixture of these four antibiotics did not affect the response of the larvae to Bti ICPs. Subsequent experiments were conducted with antibiotic concentrations 10,000 to 80,000 times higher than those found in contaminated rivers. Exposure of black fly larvae to high levels of enrofloxacin (0.5 mg/L) had no effect upon the susceptibility to Bti ICPs; however, exposure to high levels of tylosin (8 mg/L) resulted in a significant increase in the susceptibility of the larvae to Bti ICPs at 72 h of exposure, but not at 48 h. Exposure of black fly larvae to high concentrations of a mixture of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim resulted in a significant increase in the efficacy of the larvicide after 48 and 72 h of exposure. These results suggest that impairment of the efficacy of Bti ICPs to black fly larvae is not due to antibiotic contamination of the larval environment. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010; 29:1849–1853. © 2010 SETAC
Deep visual embedding for image classification

This paper proposes a new visual embedding method for image classification. It goes further in the analogy with textual data and allows us to read visual sentences in a certain order as in the case of text. The proposed method considers the spatial relations between visual words. It uses a very popular text analysis method called ‘word2vec’. In this method, we learn visual dictionaries based on filters of convolution layers of the convolutional neural network (CNN), which is used to capture the visual context of images. We employee visual embedding to convert words to real vectors. We evaluate many designs of dictionary building methods. To assess the performance of the proposed method, we used CIFAR10 and MNIST datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed visual embedding method outperforms the performance of several image classification methods. Experiments also show that our method can improve image classification regardless the structure of the CNN.
Unusual human activity detection using Markov Logic Networks

In this paper we explore detection of unusual activities using Markov Logic Network (MLN) based approach. Any human activity which is in variance from a defined usual set attracts human attention and is considered unusual. Such activities include anomaly detection in crowds, some repetition or omission of subactivities in a given sequence of activities in Ambient Assisted Living environments or an outlier in case of surveillance. In this paper, we target the unusual activities occurring in workplaces. Typical usual activities considered are: entering a room, walking, sitting down and working. We define activities with unlabeled actions as well as outliers as unusual activities. The outliers include activities with repeated actions and activities with certain actions omitted. We use Markov Logic Network because it allows us to create common sense rules defining the relationship between different actions and activities. We validate our results on a noisy data set.
Validated computation of certain hypergeometric functions

We present an efficient algorithm for the validated high-precision computation of real continued fractions, accurate to the last digit. The algorithm proceeds in two stages. In the first stage, computations are done in double precision. A forward error analysis and some heuristics are used to obtain an a priori error estimate. This estimate is used in the second stage to compute the fraction to the requested accuracy in high precision (adaptively incrementing the precision for reasons of efficiency). A running error analysis and techniques from interval arithmetic are used to validate the result. As an application, we use this algorithm to compute Gauss and confluent hypergeometric functions when one of the numerator parameters is a positive integer.
Fourier Transform Infrared Imaging analysis of dental pulp inflammatory diseases.

OBJECTIVES Fourier Transform Infrared microspectroscopy let characterize the macromolecular composition and distribution of tissues and cells, by studying the interaction between infrared radiation and matter. Therefore, we hypothesize to exploit this analytical tool in the analysis of inflamed pulps, to detect the different biochemical features related to various degrees of inflammation. MATERIALS AND METHODS IR maps of 13 irreversible and 12 hyperplastic pulpitis, together with 10 normal pulps, were acquired, compared with histological findings and submitted to multivariate (HCA, PCA, SIMCA) and statistical (one-way ANOVA) analysis. The fit of convoluted bands let calculate meaningful band area ratios (means ± s.d., P < 0.05). RESULTS The infrared imaging analysis pin-pointed higher amounts of water and lower quantities of type I collagen in all inflamed pulps. Specific vibrational markers were defined for irreversible pulpitis (Lipids/Total Biomass, PhII/Total Biomass, CH2 /CH3 , and Ty/AII) and hyperplastic ones (OH/Total Biomass, Collagen/Total Biomass, and CH3 Collagen/Total Biomass). CONCLUSION The study confirmed that FTIR microspectroscopy let discriminate tissues' biological features. The infrared imaging analysis evidenced, in inflamed pulps, alterations in tissues' structure and composition. Changes in lipid metabolism, increasing amounts of tyrosine, and the occurrence of phosphorylative processes were highlighted in irreversible pulpitis, while high amounts of water and low quantities of type I collagen were detected in hyperplastic samples.
Forces affecting the substrate in resonant tapping force microscopy

We propose a simple model to describe the interaction of a forced cantilever oscillation with a specimen in a tapping-mode scanning force microscope experiment in order to make a rough estimation of the forces affecting the surface with each touch down of the tip. Assuming weak damping of the cantilever (quality factor of the cantilever between 100 and 1000) and of the surface, we can estimate the forces to be in the range of those in the contact mode. These forces can vary by orders of magnitude, e.g. 10-6 to 10-11 N. To reduce the interaction force we suggest scanning on the low-frequency side of the resonance frequency of the non-contact cantilever oscillation. Increasing the difference of phase between the non-contact oscillation of the cantilever in air and the oscillation during contact introduces strong variations of the force. The improvement in resolution which can be achieved for soft samples by using the tapping-mode system results from the elimination of shear forces and the possibility of minimizing the force on the surface by varying the set-point of the scanning amplitude. Forces on the substrate will be enhanced by a large substrate stiffness.
Non-robustness of gradient control for 3-D undirected formations with distance mismatch

Gradient control laws can be used for effectively achieving undirected formation shape, by assuming that interagent distances between a certain set of joint agent pairs can be accurately specified and measured. This paper examines the formation behavior in a 3-D space context in the case that the neighboring agent pairs have slightly differing views or estimates about the desired interagent distances they are tasked to maintain. It is shown, by using a tetrahedron formation example, that the final formation shape will be slightly distorted as compared to the desired one. Further, in general each agent's motion will be a combination of rotation and translation. Specifically, a helical movement can be observed in the presence of distance mismatch.
Utopia: A Nine Decade Femtoampere Sensitivity Current Digitizer and its Application in Ionizing Radiation Monitoring

Radiation measurements and monitoring are very important for particle physics accelerators, hadron therapy institutes, and nuclear facilities. An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) able to digitize current generated from ionization chambers was designed and characterized in order to be used as the front-end of the new radiation monitoring system at CERN. The design of the Utopia 2 ASIC was motivated by the need to measure input currents as low as 2 fA and over a wide dynamic range of 9 decades. This paper presents the challenges, the design procedure, the architecture, and the measurement results of the front-end that was fabricated in AMS 0.35-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> technology. The main limitation was related to the leakage currents that are injected into the input of the ASIC from various sources and are added to the signal of the detector. By active leakage current compensation, the ASIC can measure current down to 1 fA, and by introducing a multiple range architecture, the ASIC can digitize current up to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$5~\mu \text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.
Music-induced cortical plasticity and lateral inhibition in the human auditory cortex as foundations for tonal tinnitus treatment

Over the past 15 years, we have studied plasticity in the human auditory cortex by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG). Two main topics nurtured our curiosity: the effects of musical training on plasticity in the auditory system, and the effects of lateral inhibition. One of our plasticity studies found that listening to notched music for 3 h inhibited the neuronal activity in the auditory cortex that corresponded to the center-frequency of the notch, suggesting suppression of neural activity by lateral inhibition. Subsequent research on this topic found that suppression was notably dependent upon the notch width employed, that the lower notch-edge induced stronger attenuation of neural activity than the higher notch-edge, and that auditory focused attention strengthened the inhibitory networks. Crucially, the overall effects of lateral inhibition on human auditory cortical activity were stronger than the habituation effects. Based on these results we developed a novel treatment strategy for tonal tinnitus—tailor-made notched music training (TMNMT). By notching the music energy spectrum around the individual tinnitus frequency, we intended to attract lateral inhibition to auditory neurons involved in tinnitus perception. So far, the training strategy has been evaluated in two studies. The results of the initial long-term controlled study (12 months) supported the validity of the treatment concept: subjective tinnitus loudness and annoyance were significantly reduced after TMNMT but not when notching spared the tinnitus frequencies. Correspondingly, tinnitus-related auditory evoked fields (AEFs) were significantly reduced after training. The subsequent short-term (5 days) training study indicated that training was more effective in the case of tinnitus frequencies ≤ 8 kHz compared to tinnitus frequencies >8 kHz, and that training should be employed over a long-term in order to induce more persistent effects. Further development and evaluation of TMNMT therapy are planned. A goal is to transfer this novel, completely non-invasive and low-cost treatment approach for tonal tinnitus into routine clinical practice.
Magic Room: A Smart Space for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorder

The Magic Room is a smart space for use by children with neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) and their caregivers designed in cooperation with NDD specialists and currently deployed at two therapeutic centers in Italy. It supports multimodal embodied interaction by providing controllable stimuli to the vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile sensory systems through ambient sound and visual projections, soap bubbles, aromas, lights, toys and other physical objects. Results of an exploratory study involving 8 caregivers and 19 children with severe NDD impairments who used the Magic Room for four months are encouraging and might pave the way for new research and inspire novel interventions in this area.
Drug Use and Gender

Looking at the world through a "gender lens" began in most areas of social science during the second wave of the women's movement, or the late 1960s through the 1970s. During this time feminist researchers began questioning science's conclusions by pointing to male-oriented biases in research questions, hypotheses, and designs. Unfortunately, the "gender lens" did not appear in substance use research until the early 1980s. Prior to the 1970s, most studies of alcohol and other drug use were conducted among males. Early studies that included women suffered from the "add women and stir approach. " Females were added to samples, but no gender-related concepts were used. The result was that women's and men's drug use were viewed through a male lens. Fortunately, the 1980s witnessed the first series of studies that placed women and gender at center stage. For instance, Rosenbaum's (1980) book on women heroin users was one of the first major U.S. publications to challenge conceptual frameworks on drug use, abuse, and treatment by gender socialization (e.g., gender roles). The gender lens asks us to study substance use more carefully and to recognize the impact of social and cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity on individual and group drug use. Fortunately, gender oriented research has blossomed since the early 1980s. However, more is still known about male's drug use and abuse than female's. Following is a review of differences in rates of drug use. abuse, and drug-related problems and also gender-oriented explanations for them.
Predictors of sexual health in women after a breast cancer diagnosis.

PURPOSE To identify variables that might be predictive of sexual health (interest, dysfunction, and satisfaction) in a large sample of breast cancer survivors, with a validation conducted in a second, independent sample. PATIENTS AND METHODS On the basis of a conceptual framework of sexual health in breast cancer survivors, we performed multivariable regression analyses to estimate sexual interest, dysfunction, and satisfaction in both samples. Additional analyses were performed using stepwise regression and recursive partitioning to explore in each sample the relative contributions of the independent variables toward predicting the outcome measures. RESULTS The models for sexual interest accounted for at least 33% of the variance, and the significant predictors common to the two samples were having a new partner since the diagnosis of breast cancer, mental health score, and body image score. For sexual dysfunction, the models in the two samples explained at least 33% of the variance, and the common significant predictors were vaginal dryness, past chemotherapy use, and having a new partner since diagnosis. The sexual satisfaction models explained at least 27% of the variance, with the common significant predictors being the quality of the partnered relationship and sexual problems in the partner. CONCLUSION Among the predictors of sexual health, several are mutable (vaginal dryness, emotional well-being, body image, the quality of the partnered relationship, and sexual problems in the partner), and these should be considered for future interventions to address the sexual health and well-being of breast cancer survivors.
Adverse events of raltegravir and dolutegravir

Objective: To compare the frequency and risk factors of toxicity-related treatment discontinuations between raltegravir and dolutegravir. Design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: All antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naïve and ART-experienced HIV-infected individuals from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study who initiated raltegravir or dolutegravir between 2006 and 2015 were investigated concerning treatment modification within the first year. Results: Of 4041 patients initiating ART containing raltegravir (n = 2091) or dolutegravir (n = 1950), 568 patients discontinued ART during the first year, corresponding to a rate of 15.5 [95% confidence interval (CI) 14.5–16.9] discontinuations per 100 patient-years. Only 10 patients on raltegravir (0.5%) and two patients on dolutegravir (0.1%) demonstrated virologic failure. The main reason for ART discontinuation was convenience expressed as patient's wish, physician's decision, or treatment simplification (n = 302). Toxicity occurred in 4.3% of patients treated with raltegravir and 3.6% with dolutegravir, respectively. In multivariable analysis, the only independent risk factor for discontinuing ART because of toxicity was female sex (hazard ratio 1.98, 95% CI 1.45–2.71, P < 0.001). Neuropsychiatric complaints were the most commonly reported toxic adverse events and more frequent in the dolutegravir (n = 33, 1.7%) compared with the raltegravir group (n = 13, 0.6%). Risk of discontinuation for neurotoxicity was lower for raltegravir than for dolutegravir in multivariable analysis (hazard ratio 0.46, 95% CI 0.22–0.96, P = 0.037). Conclusion: In this, large cohort raltegravir and dolutegravir-containing regimen demonstrated a high virologic efficacy. Drug toxicity was infrequent and discontinuation because of neuropsychiatric events within the first year of treatment was only marginal higher with dolutegravir compared with raltegravir. However, monitoring of neurotoxic side-effects of dolutegravir is important.
Private matchings and allocations

We consider a private variant of the classical allocation problem: given k goods and n agents with individual, private valuation functions over bundles of goods, how can we partition the goods amongst the agents to maximize social welfare? An important special case is when each agent desires at most one good, and specifies her (private) value for each good: in this case, the problem is exactly the maximum-weight matching problem in a bipartite graph. Private matching and allocation problems have not been considered in the differential privacy literature, and for good reason: they are plainly impossible to solve under differential privacy. Informally, the allocation must match agents to their preferred goods in order to maximize social welfare, but this preference is exactly what agents wish to hide! Therefore, we consider the problem under the relaxed constraint of joint differential privacy: for any agent i, no coalition of agents excluding i should be able to learn about the valuation function of agent i. In this setting, the full allocation is no longer published---instead, each agent is told what good to get. We first show that with a small number of identical copies of each good, it is possible to efficiently and accurately solve the maximum weight matching problem while guaranteeing joint differential privacy. We then consider the more general allocation problem, when bidder valuations satisfy the gross substitutes condition. Finally, we prove that the allocation problem cannot be solved to non-trivial accuracy under joint differential privacy without requiring multiple copies of each type of good.
Sodium and potassium urinary excretion and their ratio in the elderly: results from the Nutrition UP 65 study

Background We aimed to describe urinary sodium and potassium excretion and their ratio in a representative sample of Portuguese elderly population, according to sociodemographic characteristics and weight status. Methods A cluster sampling approach was used, representing older Portuguese adults (≥65 years) according to age, sex, education level, and regional area within the Nutrition UP 65 study. This cross-sectional evaluation was conducted in 2015 and 2016. From a sample size of 1,500 participants, 1,318 were eligible for the present analysis, 57.3% were women, and 23.5% were aged ≥80 years. Sodium and potassium consumption was evaluated through one 24 h urinary excretion. Inadequate sodium intake was defined as ≥2,000 mg/day, inadequate potassium intake was considered as <3,510 mg/day, and inadequate sodium-to-potassium ratio was defined as >1, according to the World Health Organization cutoffs. Results The proportion of the participants with an inadequate intake was 80.0% in women and 91.5% in men (sodium), 96.2% of women and 79.4% of men (potassium), and 98.4% of women and 99.1% of men (sodium-to-potassium ratio). Higher sodium adequacy was observed among the older elderly, unmarried, with lower household income, and underweight/normal weight. Higher potassium adequacy was observed in the younger elderly, married, and with higher income. Conclusion The majority of the Portuguese elderly population was classified as having inadequate sodium, potassium, and sodium-to-potassium ratio urinary excretion. Therefore, strategies for reducing sodium and increasing potassium intake are priorities in the Portuguese elderly population.
Computational Color Constancy with Spatial Correlations

The color of a scene recorded by a trichromatic sensor varies with the spectral distribution of the illuminant. For recognition and many other applications, we seek to process these measurements to obtain a color representation that is unaffected by illumination changes. Achieving such color constancy is an ill-posed problem because both the spectral distribution of the illuminant and the scene reflectance are unknown. For the most part, methods have approached this problem by leveraging the statistics of individual pixel measurements, independent from their spatial contexts. In this work, we show that the strong spatial correlations that exist between measurements at neighboring image points encode useful information about the illuminant and should not be ignored. We develop a method to encode these correlations in a statistical model and exploit them for color constancy. The method is computationally efficient, allows for the incorporation of prior information about natural illuminants, and performs well when evaluated on a large database of