Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Specific probiotics in reducing the risk of acute infections in infancy – a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted to determine whether probiotics might be effective in reducing the risk of infections in infancy. Infants requiring formula before the age of 2 months were recruited from community well-baby clinics. Infant formula supplemented with the probiotics Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12 or placebo was administered daily until the age of 12 months. Incidence of early infections (before the age of 7 months) and incidence of recurrent (three or more) infections during the first year of life were recorded as the main outcome measures of the study. During the first 7 months of life, seven out of thirty-two (22 %) infants receiving probiotics and twenty out of forty (50 %) infants receiving placebo experienced acute otitis media (risk ratio (RR) 0·44 (95 % CI 0·21, 0·90); P = 0·014) and antibiotics were prescribed for ten out of thirty-two (31 %) infants receiving probiotics and twenty-four out of forty (60 %) infants receiving placebo (RR 0·52 (95 % CI 0·29, 0·92); P = 0·015). During the first year of life, nine out of thirty-two (28 %) infants receiving probiotics and twenty-two out of forty (55 %) infants receiving placebo encountered recurrent respiratory infections (RR 0·51 (95 % CI 0·27, 0·95); P = 0·022). These data suggest that probiotics may offer a safe means of reducing the risk of early acute otitis media and antibiotic use and the risk of recurrent respiratory infections during the first year of life. Further clinical trials are warranted.
Intestinal anion exchange in marine fish osmoregulation

SUMMARY Despite early reports, dating back three quarters of a century, of high total CO2 concentrations in the intestinal fluids of marine teleost fishes, only the past decade has provided some insight into the functional significance of this phenomenon. It is now being recognized that intestinal anion exchange is responsible for high luminal HCO3- and CO32- concentrations while at the same time contributing substantially to intestinal Cl- and thereby water absorption, which is vital for marine fish osmoregulation. In species examined to date, the majority of HCO3- secreted by the apical anion exchange process is derived from hydration of metabolic CO2 with the resulting H+ being extruded via a Na+:H+ exchange mechanism in the basolateral membrane. The basolateral H+ extrusion is critical for the apical anion exchange and relies on the Na+ gradient established by the Na+-K+-ATPase. This enzyme thereby ultimately fuels the secondary active transport of HCO3- and Cl- by the apical anion exchanger. High cellular HCO3- concentrations (>10 mmol l-1) are required for the anion exchange process and could be the result of both a high metabolic activity of the intestinal epithelium and a close association of the anion exchange protein and the enzyme carbonic anhydrase. The anion exchange activity in vivo is likely most pronounced in the anterior segment and results in net intestinal acid absorption. In contrast to other water absorbing vertebrate epithelia, the marine teleost intestine absorbs what appears to be a hypertonic fluid to displace diffusive fluid loss to the marine environment.
Design and Analysis of a Class-D Stage With Harmonic Suppression

This paper presents the design and analysis of a low-power Class-D stage in 90 nm CMOS featuring a harmonic suppression technique, which cancels the 3rd harmonic by shaping the output voltage waveform. Only digital circuits are used and the short-circuit current present in Class-D inverter-based output stages is eliminated, relaxing the buffer requirements. Using buffers with reduced drive strength for the output stage reduces the 5th harmonic at the output, as the rise and fall time of the output voltage increase. Operating at 900 MHz, the measured output power was +5.1 dBm with drain efficiency (DE) and power-added efficiency (PAE) of 73% and 59% at 1.2 V. The 3rd and 5th harmonics were suppressed by 34 dB and 4 dB, respectively, compared to an inverter-based Class-D stage.
Safety and Acceptability of the PrePex Device When Used in Routine Male Circumcision Service Delivery During Active Surveillance in Zimbabwe

Background:Male circumcision devices have the potential to accelerate voluntary medical male circumcision roll-out, with PrePex being one promising device. Here, we present findings on safety and acceptability from active surveillance of the implementation of PrePex among 1000 males circumcised in Zimbabwe. Methods:The first 1000 men consecutively circumcised using PrePex during routine service delivery were actively followed up. Outcome measures included PrePex uptake, attendance for postcircumcision visits, and adverse events (AEs). A survey was conducted among 500 consecutive active surveillance clients to assess acceptability and satisfaction with PrePex. Results:A total of 2156 men aged 18 years or older were circumcised across the 6 PrePex active surveillance sites. Of these, 1000 (46.4%) were circumcised using PrePex. Among them, 4 (0.4%) self-removals that required surgery (severe AEs) were observed. Six (0.6%) removals by providers (moderate AEs) did not require surgery. A further 280 (28%) AEs were mild or moderate pain during device removal. There were also 12 (1.2%) moderate AEs unrelated to pain. All AEs resolved without sequelae. There was high adherence to follow-up appointments, with 97.7% of clients attending the scheduled day 7 visit. Acceptability of PrePex was high among survey participants, 93% indicated willingness to recommend the device to peers. Of note, 95.8% of respondents reported experiencing pain when the device was being removed. Additionally, 85.2% reported experiencing odor while wearing the device or during removal. Conclusions:Active surveillance of the first 1000 men circumcised using PrePex suggests that the device is both safe and acceptable when used in routine service delivery.
Considerations to Spoken Language Recognition for Text-to-Speech Applications

There have been a great deal of discussions throughout the past few years over whether or not Text-to-Speech (TTS) machines can synthesize natural synthetic speech from texts. Aiming to address this need, in this paper we have considered some significant viewpoints of Spoken Language Processing (SLP) on the phonetic transcription of each word for the preprocessing of text-to-speech synthesis. On the other hand, lack of researches on automatic language detection for text transcription in different languages by considering the phonology of that language, motivated us to make a text language identifier system for commonly-used contexts. It therefore encouraged us to conduct a novel research into semi-English texts that people from different nations often use in their conversational transcripts such as email or chat via the Internet or cell phone text messaging services. In this research, we have investigated the language of text sequences by employing phonotactics rules, chiefly on Finglish (a portmanteau term combining Farsi and English) which is an alternative writing format for the Farsi Language, which has its own orthographic system, by means of English letters. As this is the first paper regarding Finglish texts, it can be tremendously exciting to enhance the text-to-speech synthesis systems created by advanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms to specifying the language of each sentence in the first place. Finally, we have also proposed highly recommended writing rules for Finglish for it to be easily understood, translated to English and converted to natural speech.
Tight Complexity Bounds for Reasoning in the Description Logic BEL

Recently, Bayesian extensions of Description Logics, and in particular the logic BEL, were introduced as a means of representing certain knowledge that depends on an uncertain context. In this paper we introduce a novel structure, called proof structure, that encodes the contextual information required to deduce subsumption relations from a BEL knowledge base. Using this structure, we show that probabilistic reasoning in BEL can be reduced in polynomial time to standard Bayesian network inferences, thus obtaining tight complexity bounds for reasoning in BEL.
Fast quality measurement of a H263+ video stream for teleoperating a HRP-2 humanoid robot

This paper describes an experimental software platform for measuring image quality on a H263+ video stream. The goal is evaluate the lost of quality induced by the compression scheme. This architecture has been used while teleoperating a humanoid robot. Among the three quality measurements presented, a new distance is proposed to tackle the reference problem. Index Terms— H263+, image quality measurement, teleop- eration
Structure in the first quadrant of the Galaxy: an analysis of TMGS star counts using the SKY model

We analyse the stellar content of almost 300 deg2 of the sky close to the Galactic plane by directly comparing the predictions of the SKY model (Cohen and Wainscoat et al.) with star counts taken from the Two Micron Galactic plane Survey (TMGS: Garzon et al.). Through these comparisons we can examine discrepancies between counts and model and thereby elicit an understanding of Galactic structure. Over the vast majority of areas in which we have compared the TMGS data with the SKY predictions we find very good accord; so good that we are able to remove the disc source counts to highlight structure in the plane. The exponential disc is usually dominant, but by relying on the predicted disc counts of SKY we have been able to probe the molecular ring, spiral arms, and parts of the bulge. The latter is clearly triaxial. We recognize a number of off-plane dust clouds not readily included in models. However, we find that, whilst the simple exponential extinction function works well in the outer Galaxy, closer than about 4 kpc to the Galactic Centre the extinction drops dramatically. We also examine the shape of the luminosity function of the bulge and argue that the cores of all spiral arms we have observed contain a significant population of supergiants that provides an excess of bright source counts over those of a simple model of the arms. Analysis of one relatively isolated cut through an arm near longitude 65 degrees categorically precludes any possibility of a sech2z stellar density function for the disc.
Electrophysiological signature of working and long‐term memory interaction in the human hippocampus

Recent findings indicate that the hippocampus is not only crucial for long‐term memory (LTM) encoding, but plays a role for working memory (WM) as well. In particular, it has been shown that the hippocampus is important for WM maintenance of multiple items or associations between item features. Previous studies using intracranial electroencephalography recordings from the hippocampus of patients with epilepsy revealed slow positive potentials during maintenance of a single item and during LTM encoding, but slow negative potentials during maintenance of multiple items. These findings predict that WM maintenance of multiple items interferes with LTM encoding, because these two processes are associated with slow potentials of opposing polarities in the hippocampus. Here, we tested this idea in a dual‐task paradigm involving a LTM encoding task nested into a WM Sternberg task with either a low (one item) or a high (three items) memory load. In the high WM load condition, LTM encoding was significantly impoverished, and slow hippocampal potentials were more negative than in the low WM load condition. Time‐frequency analysis revealed that a reduction of slow hippocampal activity in the delta frequency range supported LTM formation in the low load condition, but not during high WM load. Together, these findings indicate that multi‐item WM and LTM encoding interfere within the hippocampus.
Rejection of False Matches for Binocular Correspondence in Macaque Visual Cortical Area V4

A plane lying in depth is vividly perceived by viewing a random-dot stereogram (RDS) with a slight binocular disparity. Perception of a plane-in-depth is lost by reversing the contrast of dots seen by one of the eyes to generate an anticorrelated RDS. From a computational perspective, the visual system cannot find a globally consistent solution for matching the left and right eye images of an anticorrelated RDS. The neural representation of a global match should therefore be insensitive to binocular disparity in an anticorrelated RDS. Most neurons in the striate cortex (V1) respond to binocular disparity in anticorrelated RDSs, suggesting that further cortical processing in extrastriate areas is necessary to fully account for the matching computation. We examined neural responses to dynamic RDSs, both normal (correlated) and anticorrelated, in area V4 of the monkey visual cortex. More than half of the V4 cells were sensitive to the horizontal disparity embedded in a correlated RDS. Most of them greatly attenuated their selectivity for disparity when the RDS was anticorrelated. This attenuation was apparent from the response onset, and the degree of attenuation did not correlate with neuronal response latencies. Unlike the disparity tuning of V1 neurons to anticorrelated RDSs, that of V4 neurons was not an inversion of tuning to normal RDSs. Our results suggest that responses to false matches between contrast-reversed dots in the left and right eye images elicited in V1 are substantially reduced by the stage of V4.
Hardware-in-the-loop experimental setup development for a guided projectile in a wind tunnel

This article presents an experimental setup for parameter identification and control algorithm design for a guided projectile placed inside a wind tunnel. A detailed description of the hardware contained in the projectile such as the actuators, sensors and the embedded computer is given. The associated software environment, namely a custom realtime Linux distribution, the associated application framework and interface to MATLAB/Simulink, is also analyzed. Finally, results concerning the identification of the projectile pitch axis dynamics using the proposed setup are presented.
Political strategy and ideological adaptation in regionalist parties in Western Europe: a comparative study of the Northern League, Plaid Cymru, the South Tyrolese People's Party and the Scottish National Party

The aim of the thesis is contribute to the growing comparative literature on regionalist parties in Western Europe, focusing on strategy and ideology. The research questions correspond to the three ideological dimensions/domains which are taken into consideration (centre-periphery, leftright and European integration), as well as to the links amongst such dimensions/domains: why are some regionalist parties more moderate (i.e. autonomists) while other are more radical (i.e. secessionists)? ; why do some regionalist parties position themselves to the left, while others position themselves to the right? ; why are some regionalist parties pro-integration, while others are against? ; are there relationships between regionalist parties‟ positions across the diverse ideological dimensions? The analytical framework brings together sociological theories of political alignments with theories of party competition and theories of party change. The empirical section is made up of a comparison of four case studies (LN, PC, SVP and SNP), which are analysed in depth, plus a final chapter that includes the most important regionalist parties in Western Europe. Data are gathered through interviews with prominent party members, party documents (primarily manifestos), election studies and secondary sources. In brief, in the conclusions it is argued that: regions that have been independent states in the past and regions with concentrated ethno-linguistic minorities tend to produce more radical parties on the centre-periphery dimension. Competition between regionalist parties acting in the same region also increases radicalism; 'working class' regions tend to produce leftist regionalist parties, while 'bourgeois' regions tend to produce rightist regionalist parties; positioning on European integration depends mainly on the compatibility of the selfgovernment project with the process of European integration and on parties‟ satisfaction with the policy output of the state vis a vis that of the EU; only weak relationships can be discerned between centre-periphery and left-right positioning, and between centre-periphery and European integration. A stronger relationship is apparent between left-right and European integration positioning.
Phosphorylation of Phytochrome B Inhibits Light-Induced Signaling via Accelerated Dark Reversion in Arabidopsis[W][OA]

This work shows that the photoreceptor phytochrome B is phosphorylated in vivo and demonstrates that this posttranslational modification inhibits red light–induced photomorphogenesis under nonsaturating light conditions by accelerating light-independent inactivation and dark reversion of the biologically active phyB conformer. The photoreceptor phytochrome B (phyB) interconverts between the biologically active Pfr (λmax = 730 nm) and inactive Pr (λmax = 660 nm) forms in a red/far-red–dependent fashion and regulates, as molecular switch, many aspects of light-dependent development in Arabidopsis thaliana. phyB signaling is launched by the biologically active Pfr conformer and mediated by specific protein–protein interactions between phyB Pfr and its downstream regulatory partners, whereas conversion of Pfr to Pr terminates signaling. Here, we provide evidence that phyB is phosphorylated in planta at Ser-86 located in the N-terminal domain of the photoreceptor. Analysis of phyB-9 transgenic plants expressing phospho-mimic and nonphosphorylatable phyB–yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) fusions demonstrated that phosphorylation of Ser-86 negatively regulates all physiological responses tested. The Ser86Asp and Ser86Ala substitutions do not affect stability, photoconversion, and spectral properties of the photoreceptor, but light-independent relaxation of the phyBSer86Asp Pfr into Pr, also termed dark reversion, is strongly enhanced both in vivo and in vitro. Faster dark reversion attenuates red light–induced nuclear import and interaction of phyBSer86Asp-YFP Pfr with the negative regulator PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR3 compared with phyB–green fluorescent protein. These data suggest that accelerated inactivation of the photoreceptor phyB via phosphorylation of Ser-86 represents a new paradigm for modulating phytochrome-controlled signaling.
Connexin31 cannot functionally replace connexin43 during cardiac morphogenesis in mice

In the gastrulating mouse embryo, the gap junction protein connexin43 is expressed exclusively in cells derived from the inner cell mass, whereas connexin31 is expressed in cells of the trophoblast lineage. Since connexin43 and connexin31 do not form heterotypic gap junction channels in exogenous expression systems, such as HeLa cells and Xenopus oocytes, previous studies have suggested that the incompatibility of these two connexins could contribute to the separation of connexin43-expressing and connexin31-expressing compartments between embryo and extraembryonic tissues at gastrulation, respectively. Thus, we have generated connexin43 knock-in connexin31 mice, in which the coding region of the connexin43 gene was replaced by that of connexin31. Interbreeding of heterozygous connexin43 knock-in connexin31 mice resulted in homozygous connexin43 knock-in connexin31 mice, but none of them survived to adulthood. As these mice were born at the expected Mendelian frequency, we conclude that the reported incompatibility of connexin43 and connexin31 to form heterotypic gap junction channels does not interfere with normal embryonic development. Neonatal homozygous connexin43 knock-in connexin31 hearts showed malformation in the subpulmonary outlet of the right ventricle, similar to general connexin43-deficient mice. Electrocardiograms of neonatal hearts in homozygous connexin43 knock-in connexin31 mice revealed significantly low voltage of the QRS complex. This is in contrast to previous results from our laboratory which showed that replacement of connexin43 by connexin40 resulted in morphologically and functionally normal hearts. We conclude that connexin31 cannot functionally replace connexin43 during cardiac morphogenesis.
Confirmatory factor structure of anxiety and depression: evidence of item variance across childhood

The distinctiveness of anxiety and depressive symptoms in children has previously been questioned based on their high degree of comorbidity, shared risk factors, and treatment response. Developing children may show an unstable presentation of anxiety and depressive symptoms that would complicate interpretation of studies of comorbidity. The present study examined the measurement stability of anxiety and depressive symptoms across time and sex using a large epidemiologic sample of children. A nationally representative cohort of 1329 children (624 girls and 705 boys) aged four to seven in 1994 were drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Using eight years of prospective data we examined whether a one or two factor structure of anxiety (five items) and depressive (four items) symptoms would be invariant across time and sex. Despite item variability within each factor across time, confirmatory factor analysis revealed distinct factors for anxiety and depression that were stable across time and sex. Results provide support that covariation between anxiety and depression is not likely the result of measurement overlap. However, items indicating factors of anxiety and depression in the NLSY may not be sufficient to permit developmentally‐sensitive measurement of these factors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Delay Optimal Scheduling for Cognitive Radios with Cooperative Beamforming: A Structured Matrix-Geometric Method

There have been increasing interests in integrating cooperative diversity into Cognitive Radios (CRs). However, conventional cooperative diversity protocols require at least two randomly available idle timeslots or temporal spectrum holes for one transmission, thus leading to limited throughput and/or large latency. In this paper, we propose a novel cross-layer approach for efficient scheduling in CR systems with bursty secondary traffics. Specifically, cooperative beamforming is exploited for Secondary Users (SUs) to access busy timeslots or spatial spectrum holes without causing interference to primary users. We first propose a basic cooperative beaMforming and Automatic repeat request aided oppoRtunistic speCtrum scHeduling (MARCH) scheme to balance available spectrum resources, namely temporal and spatial spectrum holes, between the source and the relays. To analyze the proposed scheme, we develop a tandem queuing framework, which captures bursty traffic arrival, dynamic availability of spectrum holes, and time-varying channel fading. The stable throughput region and the average delay are characterized using a structured matrix-analytical method. We then obtain delay optimal scheduling schemes for various scenarios by jointly optimizing the scheduling parameters. Finally, we propose a modified scheme, MARCH-IR, which combines MARCH with Incremental Relay selection to further improve the system performance. Simulation results reveal that the proposed schemes provide significant Quality of Service (QoS) gains over conventional scheduling schemes that access only temporal spectrum holes.