Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling IEEE 802.15.4 Networks Over Fading Channels

Although the performance of the medium access control (MAC) of the IEEE 802.15. 4 has been investigated under the assumption of ideal wireless channel, the understanding of the cross-layer dynamics between MAC and physical layer is an open problem when the wireless channel exhibits path loss, multi-path fading, and shadowing. The analysis of MAC and wireless channel interaction is essential for consistent performance prediction, correct design and optimization of the protocols. In this paper, a novel approach to analytical modeling of these interactions is proposed. The analysis considers simultaneously a composite channel fading, interference generated by multiple terminals, the effects induced by hidden terminals, and the MAC reduced carrier sensing capabilities. Depending on the MAC parameters and physical layer thresholds, it is shown that the MAC performance indicators over fading channels can be far from those derived under ideal channel assumptions. As novel results, we show to what extent the presence of fading may be beneficial for the overall network performance by reducing the multiple access interference, and how this information can be used for joint selection of MAC and physical layer parameters.
Management of inflammatory bowel disease in older persons: evolving paradigms

The incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasing, and considering the aging population, this number is set to increase further in the future. The clinical features and natural history of elderly-onset IBD have many similarities with those of IBD in younger patients, but with significant differences including a broader differential diagnosis. The relative lack of data specific to elderly patients with IBD, often stemming from their typical exclusion from clinical trials, has made clinical decision-making somewhat challenging. Treatment decisions in elderly patients with IBD must take into account age-specific concerns such as comorbidities, locomotor and cognitive function, and polypharmacy, to set realistic treatment targets in order to enable personalized treatment and minimize harm. Notwithstanding paucity of clinical data, recent studies have provided valuable insights, which, taken together with information gleaned from previous studies, can broaden our understanding of IBD. These insights may contribute to the development of paradigms for the holistic and, when possible, evidence-based management of this potentially vulnerable population and are the focus of this review.
Somatic hypermutation of human immunoglobulin heavy chain genes: targeting of RGYW motifs on both DNA strands

The impact of the somatic hypermutational machinery was examined by analyzing the frequency and distribution of mutations in nonproductive VHDJH rearrangements obtained from individual human peripheral B cells. A strong bias toward nucleotide substitutions within the quadruplet motif RGYW was observed. In addition, there was a comparably increased frequency of mutations of the inverse repeat of RGYW, WRCY. Together, mutations of RGYW / WRCY accounted for 37 % of all nucleotide substitutions. No significant strand polarity of the distribution of mutations was evident when nucleotide substitutions of highly mutated quartets and triplets as well as of their inverse repeats were analyzed. Furthermore, detailed analysis of mutations of specific triplets, such as AGC and TAC provided evidence that they were mutated more frequently when they were included within RGYW and WRCY, respectively. Despite being a target of the mutational machinery, neither RGYW nor WRCY was mutated in the absence of a large number of substitutions of other nucleotides in the same sequence. These results indicate that the mutational machinery targets RGYW sequences for mutations on either DNA strand and do not support the contention that the mutational machinery exhibits DNA strand polarity.
Simulation of PMSM in maxwell 3D/simplorer to optimize direct flux control

This paper discusses the problem of a sensorless control method for permanent magnet synchronous machines named Direct Flux Control (DFC). Direct Flux Control provides its users with the angle of the total flux in the machine at all working points, including standstill. The Direct Flux Control signals are a mirror for the current inductivity and flux distribution in a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM). Due to this reason, the focus of this research is to find the best possible permanent magnet synchronous machine for Direct Flux Control. This paper presents a design criterion for the permanent magnet synchronous machines so that it delivers a highly precise DFC signal to obtain the rotor position signal for a sensorless control approach.
Extending touch-less interaction with smart glasses by implementing EMG module

In this paper we propose to use temporal muscle contraction to perform certain actions. Method: The set of muscle contractions corresponding to one of three actions including “single-click”, “double-click” “click-n-hold” and “non-action” were recorded. After recording certain amount of signals, the set of five parameters was calculated. These parameters served as an input matrix for the neural network. Two-layer feedforward neural network with one hidden layer of 200 neurons was applied to classify gestures based on the input matrix. Results: The network was trained using the dataset consisted of 43 samples and then tested on the 34 samples dataset. All gestures from the test set were correctly classified.
Covariate balancing propensity score by tailored loss functions

In observational studies, propensity scores are commonly estimated by maxi- mum likelihood but may fail to balance high-dimensional pre-treatment covariates even after specification search. We introduce a general framework that unifies and generalizes several recent proposals to improve covariate balance when designing an observational study. In- stead of the likelihood function, we propose to optimize special loss functions---covariate balancing scoring rules (CBSR)---to estimate the propensity score. A CBSR is uniquely determined by the link function in the GLM and the estimand (a weighted average treatment effect). We show CBSR does not lose asymptotic efficiency to the Bernoulli likelihood in estimating the weighted average treatment effect compared, but CBSR is much more robust in finite sample. Borrowing tools developed in statistical learning, we propose practical strategies to balance covariate functions in rich function classes. This is useful to estimate the maximum bias of the inverse probability weighting (IPW) estimators and construct honest confidence interval in finite sample. Lastly, we provide several numerical examples to demonstrate the trade-off of bias and variance in the IPW-type estimators and the trade-off in balancing different function classes of the covariates.
Evaluation of the erosive capacity of children’s beverages on primary teeth enamel: An in vitro study

Background The consumption of acidified beverages, associated with lower mineralization of primary enamel, is the ideal combination for the development and progression of dental erosion. The objective of this study is to analyze the erosive capacity and the surface roughness of primary teeth enamel after exposure to three different brands of grape juices. Material and Methods Forty enamel blocks of primary teeth were obtained, attened and polished. They were submitted to initial surface roughness analysis (baseline), and randomly assigned into four groups (n = 10): NAT: natural grape juice (Campo Largo); IND: industrialized grape juice (Dell Vale Kapo); SOY: soy-based grape juice (Ades); and CONT (control): artificial saliva. Blocks were immersed for 2 min, 3 times per day, for 9 days. During the whole time of the experiment, the enamel blocks were stored in artificial saliva. After the 9 days, the roughness parameters were determined again. The beverages were analyzed for pH and titratable acidity. Data were statistically analyzed (α = 0.05). Results The surface roughness did not differ significantly among groups (p > 0.05). However, after the immersion in the different grape juices, the surface roughness values increased significantly (p< 0.05). The pH values were weakly correlated to acidity values; NAT showed the highest titratable acidity values than the other juices (p<0.05). Conclusions Although the surface roughness values of the experimental groups did not differ from the control group, there was a difference in initial and final roughness in all groups. Grape juices, especially natural, may have an erosive capacity, changing the surface roughness of primary dental enamel. Key words:Dental erosion, beverages, enamel, roughness.
The consequences of cochlear damages on auditory scene analysis

In ecological complex acoustical environments in which several acoustic sources interact, for example several speakers, the input of the auditory system is an acoustical mixture that is the summation of waves from all acoustic sources. Most of the time, it remains possible to split the mixture in auditory streams corresponding to individual acoustic sources. Thus, acoustic mixtures are processed by the auditory system using the mechanisms of Auditory Scene Analysis that have been extensively reviewed by Albert Bregman [Bregman A, Auditory scene analysis, MIT Press, 1990]. Several mechanisms underlying auditory scene analysis have already been identified but spectral pitch-cues have been evidenced to be one of the strongest factors of segregation. Cochlear damages are usually related to a loss of cochlear resolution which is responsible for an alteration of the primitive spectral pitch-cues involved in the segregation. The specific difficulties of hearing-impaired listeners in Cocktail-Party situations could be related to this lack of cochlear resolution leading to a deficit in auditory scene analysis mechanisms. Some previous works about the consequences of hearing loss on auditory scene analysis will be reviewed.
Fortification of the food supply with folic acid to prevent neural tube defects is not yet warranted.

The relationship between adequate folate intake by pregnant women and reduced risk of delivering infants with neural tube defects (NTDs) has raised the public health issue of increasing folate intake among women of reproductive age. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed fortifying cereal and grain products with folate, although at a level less than half that recommended by its sister agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We question the wisdom of fortifying foods with folate at this time, given a variety of uncertainties, which include the following: 1) the fact that neural tube defects seem to be a multifactorial group of disorders that are polygenic as well, so folate will not help in all or perhaps even in most cases; 2) the incidence of NTDs, which varies geographically, has been decreasing in the United States for years; 3) fortifying more food with folate may pose safety concerns for some not as risk for NTDs; 4) no dose-response relationship has been established between folate and NTDs; and 5) fortification in this case would represent a conceptually new intervention strategy for addressing what may be a metabolic abnormality where pharmacological doses of a nutrient may be required. Launching a major nutritional intervention before better understanding the relationship between nutrients and NTDs and without reasonable assurance that it will not shift health risks from one group (developing embryos) to another (primarily adults with pernicious anemia) might prove ineffective and/or harmful.
Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Chronic Granulomatous Disease: Controversies and State of the Art

Abstract Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a congenital disorder characterized by recurrent life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections and development of severe inflammation secondary to a congenital defect in 1 of the 5 phagocyte oxidase (phox) subunits of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase complex. Hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) is a curative treatment for patients with CGD that provides donor neutrophils with functional NADPH and superoxide anion production. Many characteristics of CGD, including preexisting infection and inflammation and the potential for cure with mixed-donor chimerism, influence the transplant approach and patient outcome. Because of the dangers of short-term death, graft-versus-host disease, and late effects from chemotherapy, HCT historically has been reserved for patients with high-risk disease and a matched donor. However, as advances in CGD and HCT treatments have evolved, recommendations on transplant eligibility also must be amended, but the development of modern guidelines has proven difficult. In this review, we provide an overview of HCT in patients with CGD, including the debate over HCT indications in them, the unique aspects of CGD that can complicate HCT, and a summary of transplant outcomes.
A Single Amino Acid Substitution in the West Nile Virus Nonstructural Protein NS2A Disables Its Ability To Inhibit Alpha/Beta Interferon Induction and Attenuates Virus Virulence in Mice

ABSTRACT Alpha/beta interferons (IFN-α/β) are key mediators of the innate immune response against viral infection. The ability of viruses to circumvent IFN-α/β responses plays a crucial role in determining the outcome of infection. In a previous study using subgenomic replicons of the Kunjin subtype of West Nile virus (WNVKUN), we demonstrated that the nonstructural protein NS2A is a major inhibitor of IFN-β promoter-driven transcription and that a single amino acid substitution in NS2A (Ala30 to Pro [A30P]) dramatically reduced its inhibitory effect (W. J. Liu, H. B. Chen, X. J. Wang, H. Huang, and A. A. Khromykh, J. Virol. 78:12225-12235). Here we show that incorporation of the A30P mutation into the WNVKUN genome results in a mutant virus which elicits more rapid induction and higher levels of synthesis of IFN-α/β in infected human A549 cells than that detected following wild-type WNVKUN infection. Consequently, replication of the WNVKUNNS2A/A30P mutant virus in these cells known to be high producers of IFN-α/β was abortive. In contrast, both the mutant and the wild-type WNVKUN produced similar-size plaques and replicated with similar efficiency in BHK cells which are known to be deficient in IFN-α/β production. The mutant virus was highly attenuated in neuroinvasiveness and also attenuated in neurovirulence in 3-week-old mice. Surprisingly, the mutant virus was also partially attenuated in IFN-α/βγ receptor knockout mice, suggesting that the A30P mutation may also play a role in more efficient activation of other antiviral pathways in addition to the IFN response. Immunization of wild-type mice with the mutant virus resulted in induction of an antibody response of similar magnitude to that observed in mice immunized with wild-type WNVKUN and gave complete protection against challenge with a lethal dose of the highly virulent New York 99 strain of WNV. The results confirm and extend our previous original findings on the role of the flavivirus NS2A protein in inhibition of a host antiviral response and demonstrate that the targeted disabling of a viral mechanism for evading the IFN response can be applied to the development of live attenuated flavivirus vaccine candidates.
Approximation and inference methods for stochastic biochemical kinetics—a tutorial review

Stochastic fluctuations of molecule numbers are ubiquitous in biological systems. Important examples include gene expression and enzymatic processes in living cells. Such systems are typically modelled as chemical reaction networks whose dynamics are governed by the chemical master equation. Despite its simple structure, no analytic solutions to the chemical master equation are known for most systems. Moreover, stochastic simulations are computationally expensive, making systematic analysis and statistical inference a challenging task. Consequently, significant effort has been spent in recent decades on the development of efficient approximation and inference methods. This article gives an introduction to basic modelling concepts as well as an overview of state of the art methods. First, we motivate and introduce deterministic and stochastic methods for modelling chemical networks, and give an overview of simulation and exact solution methods. Next, we discuss several approximation methods, including the chemical Langevin equation, the system size expansion, moment closure approximations, time-scale separation approximations and hybrid methods. We discuss their various properties and review recent advances and remaining challenges for these methods. We present a comparison of several of these methods by means of a numerical case study and highlight some of their respective advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we discuss the problem of inference from experimental data in the Bayesian framework and review recent methods developed the literature. In summary, this review gives a D Schnoerr et al Approximation and inference methods for stochastic biochemical kinetics—a tutorial review Printed in the UK 093001 JPHAC5 © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd 50 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor.
Magnetic seismology of interstellar gas clouds: Unveiling a hidden dimension

A vibrating molecular cloud in three dimensions Molecular clouds are relatively dense assemblies of interstellar dust and gas (mostly molecular hydrogen) from which stars form. Determining the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of these clouds is difficult because we only see a 2D projection of them onto the sky. While examining far-infrared observations of the nearby Musca cloud, Tritsis and Tassis discovered that the cloud is vibrating with magnetohydrodynamic waves. The pattern of vibrations reveals the 3D structure and shows that Musca is a sheet seen edge-on, not a filament as previously assumed. Science, this issue p. 635 The interstellar molecular cloud Musca is found to be vibrating, revealing its three-dimensional morphology. Stars and planets are formed inside dense interstellar molecular clouds by processes imprinted on the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the clouds. Determining the 3D structure of interstellar clouds remains challenging because of projection effects and difficulties measuring the extent of the clouds along the line of sight. We report the detection of normal vibrational modes in the isolated interstellar cloud Musca, allowing determination of the 3D physical dimensions of the cloud. We found that Musca is vibrating globally, with the characteristic modes of a sheet viewed edge on, not the characteristics of a filament as previously supposed. We reconstructed the physical properties of Musca through 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, reproducing the observed normal modes and confirming a sheetlike morphology.
Energetics and water economy of common spiny mice Acomys cahirinus from north‐ and south‐facing slopes of a Mediterranean valley

Summary 1 A comparison was made of the daily energy expenditure (DEE), resting metabolic rate (RMR) and water turnover (WTO) of two populations of Common Spiny Mice Acomys cahirinus from north- and south-facing slopes (NFS and SFS) of the same valley, which represented ‘Mediterranean’ and ‘desert’ habitats, respectively. 2 An examination was made as to whether these physiological characteristics differed between mice that had been in the laboratory (outdoor conditions) for 2 months compared with mice captured from the field. 3 Mice from the field had greater RMR values than mice in the laboratory and NFS mice had greater RMR values than SFS mice. In the field, NFS individuals had greater DEE values than SFS individuals. Mass-specific RMR values of SFS mice were 20% less than the allometrically predicted value, whereas those of NFS were not. WTO and sustained metabolic scope (DEE/RMR) were lower in the field than in the laboratory. 4 The results indicate that physiological capabilities are phenotypically plastic, as differences exist between the field and laboratory and between NFS and SFS mice. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of using field studies for understanding the link between energetics and physiological adjustment to environmental conditions.
Limitations of Serum Ferritin in Diagnosing Iron Deficiency in Inflammatory Conditions

Patients with inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), chronic heart failure (CHF), and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have high rates of iron deficiency with adverse clinical consequences. Under normal circumstances, serum ferritin levels are a sensitive marker for iron status but ferritin is an acute-phase reactant that becomes elevated in response to inflammation, complicating the diagnosis. Proinflammatory cytokines also trigger an increase in hepcidin, which restricts uptake of dietary iron and promotes sequestration of iron by ferritin within storage sites. Patients with inflammatory conditions may thus have restricted availability of iron for erythropoiesis and other cell functions due to increased hepcidin expression, despite normal or high levels of serum ferritin. The standard threshold for iron deficiency (<30 μg/L) therefore does not apply and transferrin saturation (TSAT), a marker of iron availability, should also be assessed. A serum ferritin threshold of <100 μg/L or TSAT < 20% can be considered diagnostic for iron deficiency in CHF, CKD, and IBD. If serum ferritin is 100–300 μg/L, TSAT < 20% is required to confirm iron deficiency. Routine surveillance of serum ferritin and TSAT in these at-risk groups is advisable so that iron deficiency can be detected and managed.
Higher Order Factor Structure of the WISC-IV in a Clinical Neuropsychological Sample

A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted examining the higher order factor structure of the WISC-IV scores for 344 children who participated in neuropsychological evaluations at a large children's hospital. The WISC-IV factor structure mirrored that of the standardization sample. The second order general intelligence factor (g) accounted for the largest proportion of variance in the first-order latent factors and in the individual subtests, especially for the working memory index. The first-order processing speed factor exhibited the most unique variance beyond the influence of g. The results suggest that clinicians should not ignore the contribution of g when interpreting the first-order factors.
DEPRESSION AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL GIRLS: THE ROLE OF CHILDHOOD EMOTIONAL ABUSE AND EATING DISORDER

The study investigated the depression among secondary school girls: the role of childhood emotional abuse and eating disorder. Using convenience sampling technique, 103 participants comprising of 48 JSS2 and 55 SS1 from Girls Grammar School Awkunanaw were drawn to participate in the study. Radloff (1977) Center for Epidemiological Studies- Depression Scale (CES-D), Sanders & Becker- Lausen (1995) Child Abuse and Trauma Scale-Emotional Abuse Subscale and Garner (1991) Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) were administered individually to the participants. A co-relational design and multiple regression statistics were used for data collection and analysis to test the hypothesis which stated that childhood emotional abuse and eating disorder would neither jointly nor independently predict depression among secondary school girls. Result showed that there was a significant relationship between the predictor variables i.e. childhood emotional abuse and eating disorder and the criterion variable on depression of r2= 0.78, F(2,103)= 4.21, P<. 02. It was suggested that childhood emotional abuse could have a negative impact on the girl child which resulted to disordered eating behaviours as an attempt to cope with overwhelming affect of abuse which led to depression.