Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuropsychiatric and Psychosocial Issues of Patients With Hepatitis C Infection: A Selective Literature Review

Context We briefly reviewed the evidence on the association of hepatitis C (HCV) infection with several aspects of mental and psychosocial health. Evidence Acquisition Medline was searched with appropriate keywords. The primary sources were the systematic reviews. If systematic reviews were not available for a subject, then the most relevant and methodologically sound original studies were selected. Results HCV infection is associated with poorer health-related quality of life, and physical, mental, and social health. A part of impaired health of these patients is related to cirrhosis, intravenous drug use, co morbid psychiatric disorders, stigmatization, poor social support, alcohol abuse, and interferon treatment. However, HCV itself is also associated with poorer health status particularly in the physical and cognitive domains, which might be related to brain alterations induced by the virus. Interferon treatment is an important cause of depression in HCV patients and sometimes is associated with irritability, manic episode, or acute confusional state. Social health of HCV patients is significantly impaired by stigmatization, poor social support, psychiatric comorbidties, and impaired coping. Psychosocial impairment of HCV patients significantly impairs their treatment adherence. A supportive and nonjudgmental multidisciplinary team is required for optimal management of these patients. Conclusions Patients with HCV infection had complex neuropsychiatric and psychosocial problems. These problems are challenges for management of HCV infection, affect the patient’s care significantly, and might alter the course of the disease. A multidisciplinary approach, a supportive environment, and a nonjudgmental healthcare team are required for optimal medical and psychosocial management of patients with HCV.
Risk factors for the occurrence and spread of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 in commercial poultry farms in Kano, Nigeria

Outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) subtype H5N1 occurred previously for three consecutive years, 2006, 2007 and 2008 in Kano State, Nigeria, causing heavy economic losses to farmers and the government. It was against this background that risk factors for the occurrence and spread of HPAI H5N1 among commercial poultry farms in the State were evaluated. A total of 64 farms comprising 32 affected (AF) and 32 non-affected (NAF) farms were enrolled for this study. Questionnaires were designed and administered to the selected farms through interviews with farm owners or farm managers during on-site visits. Information on flock profile including farm characteristics and environment, husbandry practices, biosecurity practices, farm trade practices and employee activities were obtained and analyzed. Pearson Chi square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to compare categorical variables. Values of p< 0.05 were considered significant. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to measure the strength and statistical significance of associations between the variables and occurrence and spread of HPAI H5N1 in commercial poultry farms in the State. The most significant risk factors were the presence of untreated surface water on farms (OR 18.6, 95%CI 2.24 – 154.34, p = 0.001), exchange of egg crates between traders and farmers (OR 12.1, 95%CI 1.43 – 102.61, p = 0.006), allowing egg crates of traders into poultry pens (OR 11.67, 95%CI 2.37 – 57.86, p = 0.001) and allowing rodents/wild birds access to poultry feed (OR 3.65, 95%CI 0.23 – 1.87, p = 0.024). It was recommended that veterinary inspection to enforce and encourage best biosecurity practices for the poultry farms should be introduced and sustained.
Structure-function analyses of the Ssc1p, Mdj1p, and Mge1p Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial proteins in Escherichia coli

The DnaK, DnaJ, and GrpE proteins of Escherichia coli have been universally conserved across the biological kingdoms and work together to constitute a highly efficient molecular chaperone machine. We have examined the extent of functional conservation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ssc1p, Mdj1p, and Mge1p by analyzing their ability to substitute for their corresponding E. coli homologs in vivo. We found that the expression of yeast Mge1p, the GrpE homolog, allowed for the deletion of the otherwise essential grpE gene of E. coli, albeit only up to 40 degrees C. The inability of Mge1p to substitute for GrpE at very high temperatures is consistent with our previous finding that it specifically failed to stimulate DnaK's ATPase at such extreme conditions. In contrast to Mge1p, overexpression of Mdj1p, the DnaJ homolog, was lethal in E. coli. This toxicity was specifically relieved by mutations which affected the putative zinc binding region of Mdj1p. Overexpression of a truncated version of Mdj1p, containing the J- and Gly/Phe-rich domains, partially substituted for DnaJ function at high temperature. A chimeric protein, consisting of the J domain of Mdj1p coupled to the rest of DnaJ, acted as a super-DnaJ protein, functioning even more efficiently than wild-type DnaJ. In contrast to the results with Mge1p and Mdj1p, both the expression and function of Ssc1p, the DnaK homolog, were severely compromised in E. coli. We were unable to demonstrate any functional complementation by Ssc1p, even when coexpressed with its Mdj1p cochaperone in E. coli.
Does prostacyclin enhance the selective pulmonary vasodilator effect of oxygen in children with congenital heart disease?

We have obtained dose-response curves for the effects of prostacyclin on the pulmonary and systemic circulations in 20 children (median age 3 years) with pulmonary hypertension complicating congenital heart disease. Results were obtained with the children breathing both air and 100% oxygen. Under both sets of conditions, remote respiratory mass spectrometry was used to measure oxygen consumption and hence cardiac output by the direct Fick principle. When the subjects breathed air, prostacyclin caused a dose-dependent fall in pulmonary vascular resistance (measured in mm Hg . liter-1 . min . m2) (11.12 to 8.07, standard error of difference [SED] = 0.5, p less than .01). The level of the pulmonary vascular resistance when the subjects breathed air during the infusion of 20 ng/kg/min prostacyclin was not significantly different from that found when they breathed 100% oxygen and did not receive the drug (8.67 vs 8.93, SED = 0.55, p = NS). When infused while the subjects breathed 100% oxygen, prostacyclin caused additional dose-dependent pulmonary vasodilation (pulmonary vascular resistance 8.93 to 7.23, SED = 0.3, p less than .01). Unlike 100% oxygen, prostacyclin was not selective, and caused tachycardia and systemic hypotension at the higher doses. These results suggest that in children with congenital heart disease 100% oxygen does not maximally vasodilate the pulmonary circulation, and further pulmonary vasodilatation can be obtained with a blood-borne agent.
BEES: exploring Mars with bioinspired technologies

The bioinspired engineering of exploration systems (BEES) applies insects' biological sensory and flight control abilities to the design of real-time autonomous, visual-navigation and control systems for small unmanned flying vehicles. The bioinspired engineering of exploration systems focuses on using the variety of nature-tested mechanisms successfully implemented by biological organisms but not easily accomplished by conventional methods. We apply BEES technology to the development of bioinspired visual navigation sensors integrated on small flyers to enable autonomous flight. BEES technology extracts the salient principles from a variety of diverse organisms adept at flight, and applies them to machines that can fly on Mars.
Schwann Cells Express Active Agrin and Enhance Aggregation of Acetylcholine Receptors on Muscle Fibers

To explore novel roles of glial cells in synaptic function and formation, we examined the expression of agrin in frog Schwann cells and tested their role in the aggregation of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs). Using reverse transcription-PCR, we found that Schwann cells along nerve fibers in tadpoles expressed only the inactive agrin isoform B0 but began to also express active agrin isoforms B11 and B19 at approximately metamorphosis. During nerve regeneration in the adult, the expression of these active agrin isoforms in Schwann cells was upregulated, including the appearance of the most potent isoform, B8. This upregulation was induced by regenerating axons but not by nerve injury per se. In muscle cultures, the presence of adult Schwann cells enhanced the number and the total area of AChR aggregates 2.2- and 4.5-fold, respectively, and this enhancement was eliminated by heparin treatment. Furthermore, adult Schwann cells in culture expressed active agrin isoforms and produced agrin protein. Using a novel technique to selectively ablate perisynaptic Schwann cells (PSCs) at the neuromuscular junction, we found that PSCs also expressed active agrin isoforms B11 and B19, and these active isoforms were upregulated, including the appearance of B8, during reinnervation. Observationin vivo showed that extrajunctional AChR aggregates were associated with PSC sprouts after nerve injury and subsequent reinnervation. These results suggest that, contrary to the prevailing view that only neurons express active agrin, glial cells also express active agrin and play a role in the aggregation of AChRs both in vitro and in vivo.
The Stability of Power Structures in Short-Term Simulations

Systems of social interaction can be described in terms of many distinct variables, but some of these variables are undoubtedly more important than others in determining overall behavioral variation within the group. Furthermore, some of the most important variables in this respect are among the most elementary in form or "simple" in conceptualization. Certainly, the works of Thibaut and Kelley (1959), Homans (1961), Kuhn (1963), and Blau (1964), to mention only a few examples, strongly suggest that this is the case. The present paper examines a relationship between two of these "elementary" variables as they are observed to operate within the context of simulated formal structures. The variables are (1) acts which seek to direct task-activity in intragroup interaction and (2) acts which comply with these directives. By considering the total number of directive acts sent and the total number of compliant acts received as bases for calculating proportions, the relationship expected to form between these variables can be stated in the following hypothesis: the greater the proportion of directive acts sent by an individual, the greater the proportion of compliant acts he will receive. Generally, sending directives means engaging in behaviors which attempt to direct or guide task activity. Directive acts may be in the form of suggestions, orders, requests, etc., which indicate the way in which task activity is to be performed. In this context, compliant acts are acts which occur in response to and in accordance with directives. The hypothesis is expected to hold for task-oriented groups, although, with minor modification, it could be stated for non-task or "expressive" groups as well. The principal import of this hypothesis derives from the great generality of its variables. The set of influence attempts defines the basis for any degree of influence or control which may occur in ongoing interaction. The extent of power or control which group members may exert is then directly defined by the set of compliant behaviors emitted in response to these attempts. That is, compliant responses define the realm of effective influence. ' Regardless of the aspect of influence we wish to study (whether it is defined as power, control, authority, etc.), if we find a strong relationship between the two variables which define the entire process, influence attempts and compliant responses to these attempts, we have a basic building block around which to construct detailed models of interpersonal power. If such a relationship exists between these variables, and if it is indeed a strong relationship, then it would be impossible to construct an adequate model of interpersonal power without taking it into account. As might be expected, this hypothesis has a reasonably long research istory, although
Indexing bi-temporal windows

Bi-temporal databases support system (transaction) and application time, enabling users to query the history as recorded today and as it was known in the past. In this paper, we study windows over both system and application time, i.e., bi-temporal windows. We propose a two-dimensional index that supports one-time and continuous queries over fixed and sliding bi-temporal windows, covering static and streaming data. We demonstrate the advantages of the proposed index compared to the state-of-the-art in terms of query performance, index update overhead and space footprint.
Learning to bridge colloquial and formal language applied to linking and search of E-Commerce data

We study the problem of linking information between different idiomatic usages of the same language, for example, colloquial and formal language. We propose a novel probabilistic topic model called multi-idiomatic LDA (MiLDA). Its modeling principles follow the intuition that certain words are shared between two idioms of the same language, while other words are non-shared, that is, idiom-specific. We demonstrate the ability of our model to learn relations between cross-idiomatic topics in a dataset containing product descriptions and reviews. We intrinsically evaluate our model by the perplexity measure. Following that, as an extrinsic evaluation, we present the utility of the new MiLDA topic model in a recently proposed IR task of linking Pinterest pins (given in colloquial English on the users' side) to online webshops (given in formal English on the retailers' side). We show that our multi-idiomatic model outperforms the standard monolingual LDA model and the pure bilingual LDA model both in terms of perplexity and MAP scores in the IR task.
3-cycle-free rigidity for multi-agent control systems

This paper is concerned with rigid formations of mobile autonomous agents. For the problem of relative formation stabilization, Nyquist-like criterion for formation stabilization is used in literature, where spectral properties of the Laplacian matrix play a role in evaluating desirable structural properties of formations. Establishing measures of near-periodicity would be useful in quantifying formation stability margins. In this paper, we analyze constructions to create non-3-periodic rigid formations, i.e., we study the constructions to create 3-cycle-free rigid formations. Central to the development of our analysis will be the use of tools from rigidity theory and graph Laplacians.
Model Evolution-Based Theorem Proving

The area of automated theorem proving is characterized by the development of numerous calculi and proof procedures, from general purpose to rather specialized ones for specific subsets of first-order logic and logical theories. This article highlights two trends that have received considerable attention over the last 10 years. One is the integration of reasoning methods for propositional and for first-order logic, with a best-of-both-worlds motivation. The other is built-in reasoning support modulo background theories, such as equality and integer arithmetic, which are of pivotal importance for, for example, software verification applications. This survey of the major paradigms in this space comes from the perspective of my own developments, mainly the model evolution calculus. This is an ongoing quest for the convergence of automated reasoning methods.
Deletion of CCK2 Receptor in Mice Results in an Upregulation of the Endogenous Opioid System

Stimulation of the brain CCK2 receptor by the C-terminal octapeptide CCK8 of cholecystokinin (CCK) negatively modulates opioid responses. This suggests the existence of physiologically relevant interactions between endogenous CCK and opioid peptides, opening new perspectives particularly in the treatment of pain or drug addiction. CCK2 receptor-deficient mice were used to analyze the incidence of this gene invalidation on opioid system. Compared with wild-type mice, mutants exhibited the following: (1) a hypersensitivity to the locomotor activity induced by inhibitors of enkephalin catabolism or by morphine; (2) a spontaneous hyperalgesia to thermal nociceptive stimulus, which was reversed by previous administration of the NMDA antagonist MK-801 [(+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo [a,d] cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate], and a large reduction in analgesic effects of endogenous or exogenous opioids; and (3) a more severe withdrawal syndrome after chronic morphine treatment. As expected, stimulation of μ, δ, and D2 receptors on brain tissue of wild-type animals induced a dose-dependent decrease in adenylate cyclase activity, whereas a striking mirror effect was observed in mutants. All of these results suggest that the absence, in knock-out mice, of the negative feedback control on the opioid system, normally performed out by CCK2 receptor stimulation, results in an upregulation of this system. These biochemical and pharmacological results demonstrate the critical role played by CCK2receptors in opioid-dependent responses.
Emulating and diagnosing IR-drop by using dynamic SDF

The Standard Delay Format (SDF) information is very important in timing-aware simulation of VLSI designs. However, conventionally, SDF is only design-dependent, but pattern-independent, which is called static SDF in this paper. Static SDF ignores all dynamic pattern dependent parameters, such as IR drop and crosstalk. In this paper, we propose a novel pattern-dependent SDF (called dynamic SDF) generation technique, and apply it to take IR-drop effects into consideration. With the proposed IR-drop-aware SDF generation technique, we improve the accuracy of simulation, and perform diagnosis on the failed patterns to pin point the pattern-dependent IR-drop defects in our design. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of this method when used for transition delay fault pattern application and diagnosis.
Performance of waterfilling-based schemes for interference cancellation in 4G networks

In this work we consider the optimization of the power assigned to the user streams in a coordinated base station downlink environment with Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM). In this scenario the base stations perform distributed cooperative processing with a block diagonalization scheme to remove interference among users. Two schemes based on the waterfilling technique are proposed and compared to the optimal solution, which can be obtained numerically, by using convex optimization. We show that the proposed schemes achieve a performance, in terms of weighted sum rate, very close to the optimal, without the heavy computational complexity required by the numerical solution. These sum rates are compared in a simplified scenario consisting of two-user and two-cell. Other more realistic multicell scenario and some examples of achievable rates are presented too.
Adaptive regularization with Lorentzian norm for image superresolution

Super-resolution reconstruction (SRR) is an effective approach for improving spatial resolution of image, which does not need change the original imaging system hardware. By introducing appropriate regularization term in the image SRR, the edge of the reconstructed image can be preserved while noise amplification being restrained. In addition, the choice of error term is important for SRR. However, how to construct a suitable cost function and regularization parameter had been an open question. In this paper, we propose an improved SRR method with Lorentzian norm combining adaptive regularization. The adaption of Lorentzian norm can resolve outlier problem and preserve edge of image. Furthermore, by adaptively selecting regularization parameter in the proposed method can avoid the randomness of trial and error method. Experimental results are on standard images show that the proposed method is effective.
Forbløffelse som udgangspunkt for forskning i musikpædagogiske praksisser

Astonishment as point of departure for research in music education practices The aim of the present article is to present a procedure for investigation of music education practices using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. The philosophical background and its consequences for the empirical methods are described. The investigation procedure is based on a seven step model developed in a course with music teacher students who were going to investigate and discuss a particular music teaching practice. The model was used in an exercise aiming at 1) establishing a research perspective that builds on an open attitude and without a specific research question as point of departure and 2) analyzing the music teaching practice using relevant psychological, pedagogical and music education theories. The concept of ”astonishment” is suggested as a fruitful point of departure for this kind of investigation. In anthropological research the concept is used about the special surprise or wonder in encountering foreign culture. As ”culture” is about human relations aimed at a common goal, also music education practice can be understood as a culture. The investigation procedure includes video observations in a music education practice. An ”astonishing” phenomenon connected with an educational problem may arise from the observation in the situation or later in the study of the collected material. The observed phenomenon is the point of departure of analysis and interpretation. This process deviates from a traditional way of doing research, where the point of departure is a problem defined by the researcher. As a consequence, theories used in analysis are not defined at the outset, but depend on the characteristic of the observed phenomenon.
Implementation and Optimization of H.264/AVC Encoder on Blackfin (ADSP-BF537) Processor

Real-time video images communication needs efficient implementation and optimization about the video compression algorithms on power-efficient platforms. To meet such needs several compression methodologies and techniques have been proposed and standardized. This paper presents the implementation details of H.264/AVC (the latest standard for video compression) encoder on ADSP-BF537 processor based Analog Devices BF537-STAMP board, and gives several optimization techniques which have been concurrently employed in this work to improve the performance of the encoder. In this paper, the improvement in performance has been evaluated for each optimization step and the results of the optimization demonstrate the potential of the low- power Micro-Signal Architecture of Blackfin processor as a good choice for next generation embedded multimedia applications.
Low level scheduling using the hierarchical task graph

This paper introduces a new efficient instruction scheduling algorithm that can schedule across basic blocks. Scheduling globally, across basic blocks, is done by using an extension of the control flow graph (CFG) that combines both data and control dependence constraints. It organizes control flow into a hierarchy of dags and includes dataflow edges that cross basic blocks. We assume a type of extended CFG called the hierarchical task graph (HTG). Previously, the HTG has been used to describe the functional parallelism of programs at medium or higher levels of parallelism. Here we use the HTG to assist in finding parallelism at the instruction level. The new generation of superscalar RISC chips must keep their pipelines full and maximize multiple issue for maximum performance. This means that scheduling across basic blocks is becoming increasingly important. The HTG data structure simplifies the task of scheduling instructions across basic blocks.