Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prophylactic Antibiotics for Suction Curettage in Incomplete Abortion

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of 200 mg of prophylactic doxycycline in preventing pelvic infection after curettage for spontaneous (incomplete) abortion. Methods: A randomized, prospective, double-blinded study was carried out involving 300 women with an incomplete abortion who were given either placebo or 200 mg of doxycycline orally 30–60 min prior to curettage. A hematocrit, WBC count, pregnancy test, syphilis serology, Neisseria gonorrhoeae culture, and Micro Trak (monoclonal antibody test, Syba, San Jose, CA) for Chlamydia trachomatis were performed. The patients were scheduled for follow-up 2 weeks later. Antibiotic administration for any reason as well as the postoperative infection rate in these women was assessed. Results: Eleven women were excluded from analysis, leaving 289 evaluable. N. gonorrhoeae was isolated from 6 (2%) women and C. trachomatis from 8 (3%) women, and the syphilis serology was serofast in 4 (1%) women. Endometritis complicated the procedure in 4 women who received placebo and in 1 woman who received doxycycline (P = 0.22). Conclusion: Prophylactic doxycycline is not effective in preventing pelvic infection after curettage for spontaneous (incomplete) abortion.
Uncorrected Proof ) Learning and Memory in Barnes Maze Don ’ t Lead to Synaptic Potentiation in Freely Moving Rat Hippocampus

1-Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. 2Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran. 3Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. *Corresponding author: : Javad Mirnajafi-Zadeh, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, PO Box: 14115-331, Iran, Tel: +98-21 82883865, Fax: +98-21 82884825, E-mail: mirnajaf@modares.ac. ir
Diversity for design: a framework for involving neurodiverse children in the technology design process

The neurodiversity movement seeks to positively reframe certain neurological conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and dyslexia, by concentrating on their strengths. In recent years, neurodiverse children have increasingly been involved in the technology design process, but the design approaches adopted have focused mostly on overcoming difficulties of working with these children, leaving their strengths untapped. We present a new participatory design (PD) framework, Diversity for Design (D4D), which provides guidance for technology designers working with neurodiverse children in establishing PD methods that capitalize on children's strengths and also support potential difficulties. We present two case studies of use of the D4D framework, involving children with ASD and dyslexia, showing how it informed the development and refinement of PD methods tailored to these populations. In addition, we show how to apply the D4D framework to other neurodiverse populations.
Posture regulation for unicycle-like robots with prescribed performance guarantees

This study aims to address the regulation problem for the unicycle model while guaranteeing prescribed performance. Different controllers based either on polar coordinates or time-varying laws are proposed. The main contribution is the combination of the standard control laws that allow to achieve posture regulation for the unicycle, with the prescribed performance control technique that imposes time-varying constraints to the system coordinates. To apply prescribed performance to the unicycle system which is subject to a non-holonomic constraint, the authors design a specific transformation function that is instrumental in the proof of asymptotic convergence with prescribed guaranties.
Trading Interpretability for Accuracy: Oblique Treed Sparse Additive Models

Model interpretability has been recognized to play a key role in practical data mining. Interpretable models provide significant insights on data and model behaviors and may convince end-users to employ certain models. In return for these advantages, however, there is generally a sacrifice in accuracy, i.e., flexibility of model representation (e.g., linear, rule-based, etc.) and model complexity needs to be restricted in order for users to be able to understand the results. This paper proposes oblique treed sparse additive models (OT-SpAMs). Our main focus is on developing a model which sacrifices a certain degree of interpretability for accuracy but achieves entirely sufficient accuracy with such fully non-linear models as kernel support vector machines (SVMs). OT-SpAMs are instances of region-specific predictive models. They divide feature spaces into regions with sparse oblique tree splitting and assign local sparse additive experts to individual regions. In order to maintain OT-SpAM interpretability, we have to keep the overall model structure simple, and this produces simultaneous model selection issues for sparse oblique region structures and sparse local experts. We address this problem by extending factorized asymptotic Bayesian inference. We demonstrate, on simulation, benchmark, and real world datasets that, in terms of accuracy, OT-SpAMs outperform state-of-the-art interpretable models and perform competitively with kernel SVMs, while still providing results that are highly understandable.
Perception of onchocerciasis by rural hausa women in northeast Nigeria and the implications for onchocerciasis control

The survey was conducted to explore the hard-held beliefs of rural Hausa women that help to sustain onchocerciasis transmission in an onchocerciasis endemic focus in North eastern Nigeria. The beliefs explored pertained to the perceived symptoms and effects of onchocerciasis peculiar to women. The study area was the Hawul River Valley, North Eastern, Nigeria. An area known for serious ocular and socio-economic tolls of onchocerciasis. 158 women (age range 20 to 60) enlisted by purposive sampling were surveyed on their disease perception of onchocerciasis using standard guidelines. Focal group discussions, in-depth interviews and questionnaires were used as instruments. The disorders that the respondents associated with onchocerciasis included blindness (86.1 %), various menstrual problems (65.8 %), impaired (failing/blurred) Vision (61.4 %) and itching (58.2 %). Least responses were for ‘others’ (17.7 %) and scrotal enlargement (22.8%). The respondents significantly associated barrenness ( c 2 = 3.41; df = 4; P 0.01). Irregular menstruation (54.8 %); prolonged menstrual period (36.5%); painful menstruation (29.8 %) and others (22.1 %) were implicated for menstrual problems. Popular beliefs and deep-rooted convictions are valuable in formulating socio-culturally accepted health education programmes that directly address people’s areas of concern while deep-rooted ignorance and incorrect beliefs about the causes and effects of a disease may lead to neglect of personal protection measures and allow the intensification of disease morbidity. The study throws more insight into local disease perception, which is known to have direct effect on health and illness behaviour.
A repetitive observation strategy for recognizing a true anomaly and estimating its position.

For many surveillance situations, the use of mobile robots has several advantages over static sensors. One of the advantages is that immediate action or investigation can be undertaken when an anomaly is detected. This paper presents a surveillance mobile robot that uses novelty detection. In this project, a neural network is trained to remember the normal measurements of the robot sensors, and highlight any discrepancies from the normal encountered during the inspection period. The contribution of this paper is a new approach to estimating the possible location of the detected anomaly using sensors which provide directional information. The method reduces the number of false alarms by taking into account the location where sensor measurements are made and not just their value. This paper presents details of the method and experimental results demonstrating its application.
A Similarity Metric for Retrieval of Compressed Objects: Application for Mining Satellite Image Time Series

This paper addresses the problem of building an index of compressed object databases. We introduce an informational similarity measure based on the coding length of two part codes. Then, we present a methodology for compressing the database by taking into account interobject redundancies and by using the informational similarity measure. The method produces an index included in the code of the data volume. This index is built such that it contains the minimal sufficient information to discriminate the data-volume objects. Then, we present an optimal two-part coder for compressing spatio-temporal events contained in satellite image time series (SITS). The two-part coder allows us to measure similarity and then to derive an optimal index of SITS spatio-temporal events. The resulting index is representative of the SITS information content and enables queries based on information content.
An Attempt at a Molecular Prediction of Metastasis in Patients with Primary Cutaneous Melanoma

Background Current prognostic clinical and morphological parameters are insufficient to accurately predict metastasis in individual melanoma patients. Several studies have described gene expression signatures to predict survival or metastasis of primary melanoma patients, however the reproducibility among these studies is disappointingly low. Methodology/Principal Findings We followed extended REMARK/Gould Rothberg criteria to identify gene sets predictive for metastasis in patients with primary cutaneous melanoma. For class comparison, gene expression data from 116 patients with clinical stage I/II (no metastasis) and 72 with III/IV primary melanoma (with metastasis) at time of first diagnosis were used. Significance analysis of microarrays identified the top 50 differentially expressed genes. In an independent data set from a second cohort of 28 primary melanoma patients, these genes were analyzed by multivariate Cox regression analysis and leave-one-out cross validation for association with development of metastatic disease. In a multivariate Cox regression analysis, expression of the genes Ena/vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein-like (EVL) and CD24 antigen gave the best predictive value (p = 0.001; p = 0.017, respectively). A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model revealed these genes as a potential independent predictor, which may possibly add (both p = 0.01) to the predictive value of the most important morphological indicator, Breslow depth. Conclusion/Significance Combination of molecular with morphological information may potentially enable an improved prediction of metastasis in primary melanoma patients. A strength of the gene expression set is the small number of genes, which should allow easy reevaluation in independent data sets and adequately designed clinical trials.
Outage & diversity analysis of cooperative spectrum sharing protocol with decode-and-forward relaying

In this paper, we analyze a two-phase hierarchical spectrum sharing protocol based on cooperative decode and forward relay transmission wherein it is assumed that the cognitive (i.e secondary) system is equipped with multiple antennas. The performance of the licensed (i.e. primary) as well as cognitive system is quantified by deriving the closed form expressions for outage probability. The theoretical and simulation results show that by exploiting multiple antennas at secondary transmitter (ST), we can drastically improve the performance of both primary and secondary systems as compared to conventional spectrum sharing schemes.
The Case Study on CSI of Household Electrical Appliances Based on Customer Delivered Value

Influence factors of customer's satisfaction index about household electrical appliances were studied from the point view of customer delivered value. Its content lied in : (1) based on customer delivered value theory, a table for weighing household electrical appliances was designed in order to study influence factors of customer's satisfaction index for household electrical appliances; (2) the important degree about Index of household electrical appliances was studied. Regarding customers as major study objects, questionnaires were performed and data was analyzed and processed with SPSS software. Results show that age, academic background, family situation and profession has significant influence on the importance degree about customer delivered value, and, income and region have not obvious influence.
Acute Mechanisms Underlying Antibody Effects in Anti–N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis

A severe but treatable form of immune‐mediated encephalitis is associated with antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) against the GluN1 subunit of the N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor (NMDAR). Prolonged exposure of hippocampal neurons to antibodies from patients with anti‐NMDAR encephalitis caused a reversible decrease in the synaptic localization and function of NMDARs. However, acute effects of the antibodies, fate of the internalized receptors, type of neurons affected, and whether neurons develop compensatory homeostatic mechanisms were unknown and are the focus of this study.
Retroviral Expression in Embryonic Stem Cells and Hematopoietic Stem Cells

ABSTRACT Achieving long-term retroviral expression in primary cells has been problematic. De novo DNA methylation of infecting proviruses has been proposed as a major cause of this transcriptional repression. Here we report the development of a mouse stem cell virus (MSCV) long terminal repeat-based retroviral vector that is expressed in both embryonic stem (ES) cells and hematopoietic stem (HS) cells. Infected HS cells and their differentiated descendants maintained long-term and stable retroviral expression after serial adoptive transfers. In addition, retrovirally infected ES cells showed detectable expression level of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Moreover, GFP expression of integrated proviruses was maintained after in vitro differentiation of infected ES cells. Long-term passage of infected ES cells resulted in methylation-mediated silencing, while short-term expression was methylation independent. Tissues of transgenic animals, which we derived from ES cells carrying the MSCV-based provirus, did not express GFP. However, treatment with the demethylating agent 5-azadeoxycytidine reactivated the silent provirus, demonstrating that DNA methylation is involved in the maintenance of retroviral repression. Our results indicate that retroviral expression in ES cells is repressed by methylation-dependent as well as methylation-independent mechanisms.
Adaptive Human Action Recognition With an Evolving Bag of Key Poses

Vision-based human action recognition allows to detect and understand meaningful human motion. This makes it possible to perform advanced human-computer interaction, among other applications. In dynamic environments, adaptive methods are required to support changing scenario characteristics. Specifically, in human-robot interaction, smooth interaction between humans and robots can only be performed if these are able to evolve and adapt to the changing nature of the scenarios. In this paper, an adaptive vision-based human action recognition method is proposed. By means of an evolutionary optimization method, adaptive and incremental learning of human actions is supported. Through an evolving bag of key poses, which models the learned actions over time, the current learning memory is developed to recognize increasingly more actions or actors. The evolutionary method selects the optimal subset of training instances, features and parameter values for each learning phase, and handles the evolution of the model. The experimentation shows that our proposal achieves to adapt to new actions or actors successfully, by rearranging the learned model. Stable and accurate results have been obtained on four publicly available RGB and RGB-D datasets, unveiling the method's robustness and applicability.
A semantic web approach applied to integrative bioinformatics experimentation: a biological use case with genomics data

MOTIVATION The numerous public data resources make integrative bioinformatics experimentation increasingly important in life sciences research. However, it is severely hampered by the way the data and information are made available. The semantic web approach enhances data exchange and integration by providing standardized formats such as RDF, RDF Schema (RDFS) and OWL, to achieve a formalized computational environment. Our semantic web-enabled data integration (SWEDI) approach aims to formalize biological domains by capturing the knowledge in semantic models using ontologies as controlled vocabularies. The strategy is to build a collection of relatively small but specific knowledge and data models, which together form a 'personal semantic framework'. This can be linked to external large, general knowledge and data models. In this way, the involved scientists are familiar with the concepts and associated relationships in their models and can create semantic queries using their own terms. We studied the applicability of our SWEDI approach in the context of a biological use case by integrating genomics data sets for histone modification and transcription factor binding sites. RESULTS We constructed four OWL knowledge models, two RDFS data models, transformed and mapped relevant data to the data models, linked the data models to knowledge models using linkage statements, and ran semantic queries. Our biological use case demonstrates the relevance of these kinds of integrative bioinformatics experiments. Our findings show high startup costs for the SWEDI approach, but straightforward extension with similar data.
Effect of stepped care on health outcomes in patients with osteoarthritis: an observational study in Dutch general practice.

BACKGROUND A stepped care strategy (SCS) to improve adequate healthcare use in patients with osteoarthritis was developed and implemented in a primary care region in the Netherlands. AIM To assess the association between care that is in line with the SCS recommendations and health outcomes. DESIGN AND SETTING Data were used from a 2-year observational study of 313 patients who had consulted their GP because of osteoarthritis. METHOD Care was considered 'SCS-consistent' if all advised modalities of the previous steps of the SCS were offered before more advanced modalities of subsequent steps. Pain and physical function were measured with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (range 0-100); active pain coping with the Pain Coping Inventory (range 10-40); and self-efficacy with the Dutch General Self-Efficacy Scale (range 12-48). Crude and adjusted associations between SCS-consistent care and outcomes were estimated with generalised estimating equations. RESULTS No statistically significant differences were found in changes over a 2-year period in pain and physical function between patients who received SCS-inconsistent care (n = 163) and patients who received SCS-consistent care (n = 117). This was also the case after adjusting for possible confounders, that is, -4.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] = -10.3 to 1.7) and -1.9 (95% CI = -7.0 to 3.1), respectively. Furthermore, no differences were found in changes over time between groups in self-efficacy and pain coping. CONCLUSION The results raised several important issues that need to be considered regarding the value of the SCS, such as the reasons that GPs provide SCS-inconsistent care, the long-term effects of the SCS, and the effects on costs and side effects.
Risk of Parenteral Nutrition in Neonates—An Overview

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in preterm infants are a challenge to the care of these fragile patients. HAI-incidence rates range from 6 to 27 infections per 1000 patient-days. Most nosocomial infections are bloodstream infections and of these, the majority is associated with the use of central venous catheters. Many studies identified parenteral nutrition as an independent risk factor for HAI, catheter-associated bloodstream infection, and clinical sepsis. This fact and various published outbreaks due to contaminated parenteral nutrition preparations highlight the importance of appropriate standards in the preparation and handling of intravenous solutions and parenteral nutrition. Ready-to-use parenteral nutrition formulations may provide additional safety in this context. However, there is concern that such formulations may result in overfeeding and necrotizing enterocolitis. Given the risk for catheter-associated infection, handling with parenteral nutrition should be minimized and the duration shortened. Further research is required about this topic.
EFFICIENTLY MODELING AND CONTROLLING COMPLEX DYNAMIC SYSTEMS USING EVOLUTIONARY FUZZY COGNITIVE MAPS (INVITED PAPER)

Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) have gradually emerged as a powerful modeling and simulation technique applicable to numerous research and application fields. This primarily springs from the inherent capabilities of the conventional Cognitive Maps (CMs), most important of which are the flexibility, the abstractive reasoning and the white-box inference engine; however, extensions to the underlying theory are more than anything needed because of the feeble mathematical structure of FCMs and mostly the desire to assign advanced characteristics not met in other computational methodologies. Under this standpoint, four core issues are discussed and respective solutions are proposed; the first one concerns the case of multi-stimulus situations (parallel stimulation of many FCM concepts), the second one focuses on the design of a learning algorithm (using evolution strategies), and finally the generic real-world phenomena of conditional effects and synergies are properly modeled to support the inference mechanism of FCMs. Copyright c ©2002 Yang’s Scientific Research Institute, LLC. All rights reserved.
ENDOGENOUS ORIENTING OF ATTENTION WITHOUT AWARENESS

This study investigated the role of awareness in endogenous orienting of visual attention. Twenty-five subjects performed a Covert Attention Task, in which target stimuli were preceded by masked and unmasked symbolic central cues (i.e., digits). Results showed a facilitation effect in both the aware and unaware condition, suggesting that a symbolic cue was able to induce an endogenous orienting in the absence of subjective awareness
Sessionless SoC Test Scheduling With Frequency Scaling

Reducing test cost by minimizing the overall test time is one of the main goals of System-on-Chip (SoC) test scheduling. Power-aware strategies optimize the overall test time of a test schedule for a global peak power budget. For powerconstrained test scheduling with multiple test clock frequencies, a fast heuristic method for sessionless test scheduling is proposed. Experiments on several ITC’02 benchmarks show that a test time reduction of 10-20% over optimized conventional session-based test scheduling is possible.