Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural Computations in a Dynamical System with Multiple Time Scales

Neural systems display rich short-term dynamics at various levels, e.g., spike-frequency adaptation (SFA) at the single-neuron level, and short-term facilitation (STF) and depression (STD) at the synapse level. These dynamical features typically cover a broad range of time scales and exhibit large diversity in different brain regions. It remains unclear what is the computational benefit for the brain to have such variability in short-term dynamics. In this study, we propose that the brain can exploit such dynamical features to implement multiple seemingly contradictory computations in a single neural circuit. To demonstrate this idea, we use continuous attractor neural network (CANN) as a working model and include STF, SFA and STD with increasing time constants in its dynamics. Three computational tasks are considered, which are persistent activity, adaptation, and anticipative tracking. These tasks require conflicting neural mechanisms, and hence cannot be implemented by a single dynamical feature or any combination with similar time constants. However, with properly coordinated STF, SFA and STD, we show that the network is able to implement the three computational tasks concurrently. We hope this study will shed light on the understanding of how the brain orchestrates its rich dynamics at various levels to realize diverse cognitive functions.
Phage Library Screening for the Rapid Identification and In Vivo Testing of Candidate Genes for a DNA Vaccine against Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides Small Colony Biotype

ABSTRACT A new strategy for rapidly selecting and testing genetic vaccines has been developed, in which a whole genome library is cloned into a bacteriophage λ ZAP Express vector which contains both prokaryotic (Plac) and eukaryotic (PCMV) promoters upstream of the insertion site. The phage library is plated on Escherichia coli cells, immunoblotted, and probed with hyperimmune and/or convalescent-phase antiserum to rapidly identify vaccine candidates. These are then plaque purified and grown as liquid lysates, and whole bacteriophage particles are then used directly to immunize the host, following which PCMV-driven expression of the candidate vaccine gene occurs. In the example given here, a semirandom genome library of the bovine pathogen Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides small colony (SC) biotype was cloned into λ ZAP Express, and two strongly immunodominant clones, λ-A8 and λ-B1, were identified and subsequently tested for vaccine potential against M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype-induced mycoplasmemia. Sequencing and immunoblotting indicated that clone λ-A8 expressed an isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG)-inducible M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype protein with a 28-kDa apparent molecular mass, identified as a previously uncharacterized putative lipoprotein (MSC_0397). Clone λ-B1 contained several full-length genes from the M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype pyruvate dehydrogenase region, and two IPTG-independent polypeptides, of 29 kDa and 57 kDa, were identified on immunoblots. Following vaccination, significant anti-M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype responses were observed in mice vaccinated with clones λ-A8 and λ-B1. A significant stimulation index was observed following incubation of splenocytes from mice vaccinated with clone λ-A8 with whole live M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype cells, indicating cellular proliferation. After challenge, mice vaccinated with clone λ-A8 also exhibited a reduced level of mycoplasmemia compared to controls, suggesting that the MSC_0397 lipoprotein has a protective effect in the mouse model when delivered as a bacteriophage DNA vaccine. Bacteriophage-mediated immunoscreening using an appropriate vector system offers a rapid and simple technique for the identification and immediate testing of putative candidate vaccines from a variety of pathogens.
Some Suggestions for the Study of Stance in Communication

Interlocutors, express not only information in the form of spoken words but also their feelings and commitments with regard to what is being said. In face-to-face communication participants interact in such a way that they react to one another's multimodal positioning in the conversation. Often this means that they take a "stance". The goal of this paper is to explore the notion of stance through a review and discussion of some of the relevant literature and then relate this to research on social signal processing (SSP). The main focus of the review is on the notion of stance in linguistics, as the point of departure for exploring other fields. Consideration of the relation between gestural communication and expression of emotions will give a more complete view of how a stance is taken and upheld.
Prevention of foot ulcers in the at‐risk patient with diabetes: a systematic review

Prevention of foot ulcers in patients with diabetes is extremely important to help reduce the enormous burden of foot ulceration on both patient and health resources. A comprehensive analysis of reported interventions is not currently available, but is needed to better inform caregivers about effective prevention. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the effectiveness of interventions to prevent first and recurrent foot ulcers in persons with diabetes who are at risk for ulceration.
The Occurrence of Bioactive Micromonosporae in Aquatic Habitats of the Sunshine Coast in Australia

Screening strategies based on the ecological knowledge of antibiotic producing microorganisms and their roles in the natural environment are being increasingly employed in the search for novel antibiotic agents. Micromonosporae are common inhabitants of aquatic habitats and have proved to be a continuing source of novel bioactive compounds including antibacterial and antitumor agents. The ecological distribution and frequency of bioactive micromonosporae in Sunshine Coast region aquatic habitats were studied through a range of selective isolation procedures designed to negatively select against the isolation of unwanted microbial taxa commonly associated with marine environments. It was revealed that bioactive compound producing species of micromonosporae were present in the aquatic habitats of the Sunshine Coast region in Australia.
K-centroids-based supervised classification of texture images: Handling the intra-class diversity

Natural texture images exhibit a high intra-class diversity due to different acquisition conditions (scene enlightenment, perspective angle, . ). To handle with the diversity, a new supervised classification algorithm based on a parametric formalism is introduced: the K-centroids-based classifier (K-CB). A comparative study between various supervised classification algorithms on the VisTex and Brodatz image databases is conducted and reveals that the proposed K-CB classifier obtains relatively good classification accuracy with a low computational complexity.
Fatal heroin-related overdose in San Francisco, 1997–2000: a case for targeted intervention

Heroin-related overdose is the single largest cause of accidental death in San Francisco. We examined demographic, location, nontoxicological, and toxicological characteristics of opiate overdose deaths in San Francisco, California. Medical examiner’s case files for every opioid-positive death from July 1, 1997, to June 30, 2000, were reviewed and classified as overdose deaths or other. Demographic variables were compared to two street-based studies of heroin users and to census data. From 1997 to 2000, of all heroin-related overdoses in San Francisco 47% occurred in low-income residential hotels; 36% occurred in one small central area of the city. In 68% of deaths, the victim was reportedly alone. When others were present between last ingestion of heroin and death, appropriate responses were rare. In three cases, police arrested the person who called emergency services or others present on the scene. We recommend the development of overdose response training targeted at heroin users and those close to them, including the staff of residential hotels.
Pulmonary lesions associated with oxygen therapy and artificial ventilation.

CLINICIANS concerned with the care of patients requiring mechanical artificial ventilation have been impressed by the occasional development of gradually progressive deterioration of pulmonary function, apparently unrelated to the disease that necessitated the respiratory assistance. These patients have increasing reduction in pulmonary compliance and vital capacity, with consequent hypoxia, are difficult to wean from the ventilator and often die of pulmonary insufficiency.1 Many have had no respiratory or cardiac disease before the use of the ventilator. Clinicians have referred to this symptom complex as the "respirator lung syndrome. " At autopsy in such cases the unusual gross and microscopical appearance of .
An Empirical Analysis of the Instructional Effectiveness in Visualized Instruction

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relative effectiveness of specific media attributes on student performance on criterion tests measuring different levels of understanding. Specifically, it attempted to identify which of two levels of stimulus explicitness in visuals was most effective in facilitating student achievement on criterion tests of knowledge, comprehension, and total understanding for students possessing two different levels of entering behavior. One hundred seventY-ilne subjects participated in the study. The twoway ANOVA procedure was utilized to investigate the existence of interaction between entering behavior and level of stimulus explicitness. Results indicated that a significant relationship existed between entering behavior and performance on post-criterion tests; no relationship existed between stimulus explicitness and achievement on the criterion tests; and insignificant interactions were found to exist between entering behavior and instructional treatment.
A prospective crossover comparison of neurally adjusted ventilatory assist and pressure-support ventilation in a pediatric and neonatal intensive care unit population*

Objective: To compare neurally adjusted ventilatory assist ventilation with pressure-support ventilation. Design: Prospective, crossover comparison study. Setting: Tertiary care pediatric and neonatal intensive care unit. Patients: Sixteen ventilated infants and children: mean age = 9.7 months (range = 2 days-4 yrs) and mean weight = 6.2 kg (range = 2.4-13.7kg). Interventions: A modified nasogastric tube was inserted and correct positioning was confirmed. Patients were ventilated in pressure-support mode with a pneumatic trigger for a 30-min period and then in neurally adjusted ventilatory assist mode for up to 4 hrs. Measurements and Main Results: Data collected for comparison included activating trigger (neural vs. pneumatic), peak and mean airway pressures, expired minute and tidal volumes, heart rate, respiratory rate, pulse oximetry, end-tidal CO2 and arterial blood gases. Synchrony was improved in neurally adjusted ventilatory assist mode with 65% (±21%) of breaths triggered neurally vs. 35% pneumatically (p < .001) and 85% (±8%) of breaths cycled-off neurally vs. 15% pneumatically (p = .0001). The peak airway pressure in neurally adjusted ventilatory assist mode was significantly lower than in pressure-support mode with a 28% decrease in pressure after 30 mins (p = .003) and 32% decrease after 3 hrs (p < .001). Mean airway pressure was reduced by 11% at 30 mins (p = .13) and 9% at 3 hrs (p = .31) in neurally adjusted ventilatory assist mode although this did not reach statistical significance. Patient hemodynamics and gas exchange remained stable for the study period. No adverse patient events or device effects were noted. Conclusions: In a neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit population, ventilation in neurally adjusted ventilatory assist mode was associated with improved patient-ventilator synchrony and lower peak airway pressure when compared with pressure-support ventilation with a pneumatic trigger. Ventilating patients in this new mode seem to be safe and well tolerated.
Compiling for Resource-Constrained Platforms using ASSHes: Application- and System-Specific Heuristics

We present and evaluate application- and system-specific heuristics (ASSHes) for optimizing embedded software. ASSHes are scripts that decide which compiler optimizations to apply; they make decisions using feedback from previous compilations, using the results of program analyses, and using high-level information, e.g., “there are only 4 KB of RAM, and interrupt handlers 5‐7 should be fast since we expect them to execute very frequently. ” In contrast, traditional compilers base optimization decisions on built-in heuristics that are oblivious to high-level application- and platform-specific concerns. The ASSH effectively becomes the high-level optimization policy and the existing compiler becomes a low-level mechanism for applying code transformations. ASSHes are more generic than previous approaches to compiling embedded software: they permit compilation to be directed towards meeting many different goals and combinations of goals. So far we have investigated ASSHes that control two optimizations: loop unrolling and function inlining. We evaluate ASSHes by applying them to TinyOS sensor network applications, where they have successfully reduced resource usage. For example, for one large application we can either reduce worst-case stack depth by 16%, reduce code size by 3.5%, or reduce the amount of time the processor is active by 14% (our baseline for comparison is the output of the nesC compiler, which itself performs aggressive crossmodule inlining). These various improvements conflict: they can be achieved individually but not together—dealing with tradeoffs among resources is central to designing efficient embedded systems.
A study of master-slave approaches to parallelize NSGA-II

Many of the optimization problems from the real world are multiobjective in nature, and the reference algorithm for multiobjective optimization is NSGA-II. Frequently, these problems present a high complexity, so classical metaheuristic algorithms fail to solve them in a reasonable amount of time; in this context, parallelism is a choice to overcome this fact to some extent. In this paper we study three parallel approaches (a synchronous and two asynchronous strategies) for the NSGA-II algorithm based on the master-worker paradigm. The asynchronous schemes are designed to be used in grid systems, so they can make use of hundreds of machines. We have applied them to solve a real world problem which lies in optimizing a broadcasting protocol using a network simulator. Our experiences reveal that significant time reductions can be achieved with the distributed approaches by using a grid system of more than 300 processors.
The Impact of Tourism and Travel Experience on Senior Travelers' Psychological Well-Being

This study explored the impact of travel and tourism ex perience on travelers' psychological well-being or level of happiness. Using a pretest-posttest experimental design, senior travelers taking an escorted tour were asked to assess their happiness before and after the tour. While the findings rejected the hypothesis that travel may change level ofhappi ness, other variables may explain the variation.
A Social Interaction Model Of The Effects Of Emotion Regulation On Work Strain

Current models of how emotion regulation impacts strain focus on intraindividual processes that operate within the mind and body of the person regulating the emotion. This article presents a social interaction model of how emotion regulation impacts strain based on interpersonal processes. In this model, explanations of how emotion regulation impacts strain are based on the receiver' response to the sender' emotion regulation and display, the form of emotion regulation, and the emotion being regulated.
The association between Staphylococcus aureus nasal colonization and symptomatic infection in children in Korea where ST72 is the major genotype

Abstract This study was performed to investigate the concordance in terms of molecular characteristics and antimicrobial susceptibility between colonizing and clinical Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained from children in Korea, where ST72 is the major genotype. This was a prospective observational descriptive study of culture-confirmed S aureus infections obtained from children ⩽18 years old admitted to Asan Medical Center Children's Hospital in Seoul, Korea, from March 2014 to April 2015. Molecular studies including multilocus sequence typing (MLST), SCCmec typing, polymerase chain reaction amplification of the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) genes, and antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed on S aureus isolates obtained from nares and clinical specimens. During the study period, 126 clinically significant S aureus infections were identified. Nasal swab cultures were made from 113 of the 126 children, and 46.0% (52/113) showed S aureus colonization. The overall concordance between colonizing and clinical isolates by methicillin susceptibility was 94.2% (49/52); all 3 discordant cases were HA-MSSA cases with nasal MRSA. Among the 37 pairs of colonizing and clinical S aureus isolates included in the genotyping analysis, ST72-SCCmec type IV was the most prevalent clone and the PVL genes were positive in 2 patients. Among the 31 pairs of healthcare-associated cases, concordance rates by methicillin susceptibility and sequence type (ST) were 90.3% (28/31) and 84% (26/31), respectively. For the 6 pairs of community-associated (CA) S aureus including 3 CA-MRSA cases, 100% concordance was observed by methicillin susceptibility and ST. The concordance between isolates obtained from children who required medical services was relatively high in Korean children where ST72-SCCmec type IV is the predominant clone as the colonizer and the pathogen. It is suggested that decolonization and continuous care to prevent transmission could be effective in managing and preventing both HA- and CA-SA infections in our setting.
Fuzzy Partitioning with FID 3 . 1

FID3.1 builds fuzzy decision trees, with a range of choices for fuzzy operators and inferences. Various FID algorithms are being widely used for dealing with numeric and/or imprecise data, for fuzzy classification or for generating fuzzy rules. FID 3.0 adds a number of new features, the most important being a fuzzy partitioning mechanism construction of fuzzy sets for continuous variables w/o predefined fuzzy terms. FID3.1 improves the mechanism in a number of ways. This paper describes the partitioning method and presents a few comparative experiments.
Fumigation with a combined quaternary ammonium compound and 2 alcohols after detection of bacterial and fungal air bioburden.

TO THE EDITOR—How best to evaluate the effect of quaternary ammonium compound–based products after detection of postflood bacterial and fungal air bioburden remains uncertain. Thammasat University Hospital (Thailand) closed after severe black-water flooding in 2011; significant resources and costs were associated with hospital closure, reparations, and tiered reopening of select units [1]. In addition, an infectioncontrol surveillance program was created to optimize patient and healthcare worker safety [1]. After flood waters reached a maximum 3-foot height between 14 October and 2 November 2011, hospital units were inspected and reopened during the interval from 2 November 2011 to 31 August 2012. An infection-control protocol for cleaning and area decontamination was performed in accordance with a checklist from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [2]. Despite thorough manual environmental cleaning, several units had high bacterial and fungal air bioburden, defined as measurements >500 colonyforming units (CFU)/m [1]. Special area decontamination was then employed on all units that had subsequent high bacterial or fungal air bioburden after thorough manual environmental cleaning, using a nontouch technique of either a hydrogen peroxide vapor or a quaternary ammonium compound– based product [1]. Routine air sampling on a negativepressure hospital unit detected a high bacterial and fungal air bioburden on 1 August 2012, despite special area decontamination with repeated manual cleaning (Table 1). We designed a fumigation protocol, comprised of 2.5% isopropyltridecyl-dimethyl-ammonium (Umonium, Huckert's International, Nivelles, Belgium),
Consumer Behavior in Moral Markets. On the Relevance of Identity, Justice Beliefs, Social Norms, Status, and Trust in Ethical Consumption

This article addresses ethical consumer behavior and uses the purchase of Fair Trade (FT) coffee to gain insights into determinants of ‘moral behavior’ in the marketplace. Our primary concern is to clarify which theoretical concepts and determinants are more useful than others in explaining FT consumption. We compare the explanatory power of consumer budget restrictions, consumer identity, social and personal norms, social status, justice beliefs, and trust. Our second aim is methodological; we contrast data on self-reported consumption of FT coffee with experimental data on hypothetical choices of different coffee products. To gain insights into the robustness of our measurement and findings, we test our propositions using two samples of undergraduate students from Germany and the United States. Our data show that consumer identity and personal norms are the major determinants of FT consumption in both samples, the results from survey-based data and from our experimental data are similar in this regard. Further, we demonstrate that studies based on a limited number of determinants might overestimate effects; the effect of justice beliefs for instance vanishes if other determinants are taken into account.
Prediction and analysis of hot region in protein-protein interactions

Proteins play a crucial role in every organism, which perform a vast amount of functions. The hot regions in protein-protein interactions consist of hot spot residues in protein-protein binding sites which are called interfaces, can help proteins to perform their biological function. Residue based computational prediction of hot regions might be useful to understand the molecular mechanism and is crucial in drug design and protein design. However, it is very challenging to identify the hot regions in protein-proteins. In this paper, we have proposed a support vector machine based on ensemble learning system for predicting hot spot residues, and predicted hot regions in protein-protein interactions. The efficiency of our method is analyzed in identifying hot spots and hot regions in protein-protein interactions and the results obtained are compared with the existing techniques. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to identify the hot spots and hot regions in the protein interfaces.
Natural Language Production in Database Semantics

A theory of natural language production (speaker mode) has to answer the follow- ing questions: (i) Where does the content serving as input to language production come from? (ii) In which format is this relatively language-independe nt content stored, processed, and re- trieved? and (iii) How is activated content mapped into well-formed surfaces of a certain natural language? After brief answers to (i) and (ii), this p aper concentrates on (iii), illus- trating the time-linear method of Database Semantics (DBS) on some of the most notorious grammatical constructions of natural language.