Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-time PCR-assay in the delivery suite for determination of group B streptococcal colonization in a setting with risk-based antibiotic prophylaxis

Abstract Objective: Intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) reduces the incidence of neonatal early onset group B streptococcal infections. The present study investigated if an automated PCR-assay, used bedside by the labor ward personnel was manageable and could decrease the use of IAP in a setting with a risk-based IAP strategy. Methods: The study comprises two phases. Phase 1 was a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial. Women with selected risk-factors were allocated either to PCR-IAP (prophylaxis given if positive or indeterminate) or IAP. A vaginal/rectal swab and superficial swabs from the neonate for conventional culture were also obtained. Phase 2 was non-randomized, assessing an improved version of the assay. Results: Phase 1 included 112 women in the PCR-IAP group and 117 in the IAP group. Excluding indeterminate results, the assay showed a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 90%. In 44 % of the PCR assays the result was indeterminate. The use of IAP was lower in the PCR group (53 versus 92%). Phase 2 included 94 women. The proportion of indeterminate results was reduced (15%). The GBS colonization rate was 31%. Conclusion: The PCR assay, in the hands of labor ward personnel, can be useful for selection of women to which IAP should be offered.
Human serum amyloid A (SAA) protein: a prominent acute‐phase reactant for clinical practice

Serum amyloid A (SAA) proteins comprise a family of apolipoproteins synthesized in response to cytokines released by activated monocytes/macrophages. Acute‐phase protein concentrations have been advocated as objective biochemical indices of disease activity in a number of different inflammatory processes. Clinical studies in large groups of patients with a variety of disorders confirmed the rapid production and exceptionally wide dynamic range of the SAA response. It is as sensitive a marker for the acute‐phase as C‐reactive protein (CRP). Recent studies indicate that SAA is the most sensitive non‐invasive biochemical marker for allograft rejection. Further studies comparing the measurement of SAA to CRP could reveal other indications for its specific use. These studies are now more feasible given newer assays to measure this acute‐phase reactant. Observations that the acute‐phase response is tightly coupled to lipoprotein abnormalities and the fact that acute‐SAA proteins are mainly associated with plasma lipoproteins of the high density range suggested a possible role of this apolipoprotein (apo SAA) in the development of atherosclerosis. The expression of SAA mRNA in human atherosclerotic lesions and the induction of acute‐phase SAA by oxidized low‐density lipoproteins strengthen the hypothesis that SAA might play a role in vascular injury and atherogenesis.
The threshold growth response of Lactobacillus casei to 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid: implications for folate assays

1. The comparative and absolute growth response of Lactobacillus casei was measured nephelometrically for time periods of 17–23 h in the microbiological assay of folic acid and 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid at concentrations of 0–8 ng/10 ml basal medium at pH 6.8. 2. At concentrations of 0–1 ng/10 ml the comparative growth response to 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid was markedly depressed whereas growth was the same at 2 ng/10 ml and above. Comparative growth was unaffected by the length of assay incubation, depressed growth being due to differences in log-phase growth rates with the rate-plot for 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid being sigmoidal and for folk acid being a rectangular hyperbola with linearity only in the 0–1 ng/10 ml range. The reciprocal rate-plot for folic acid was linear whereas that for 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid was coincidental only in part, giving rise to the same estimate of maximum velocity and substrate concentration for half-maximum velocity, with the exhibition of a strong threshold at low concentration. 3. A previous observation (Phillips & Wright, 1982) that the L. casei growth response to 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid may be significantly less than that to folic acid is confirmed as is the long-established view that the response to both folates may be equal. In the light of current knowledge regarding folate-binding, transport and metabolism by L. casei, it is argued that the intracellular oxidation of 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid to 5, 10-methylene-tetrahydrofolic acid is a rate-limiting step at low substrate concentrations, subsequently giving rise to a threshold growth response peculiar to 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid. Since the rate of L. cusei growth with folk acid is not linearabove 1 ng/10 ml, it is recommended that microbiological folate assays be conducted only in the 0–1 ng/10 ml range and at a pH that elicits the same growth response from L. casei to 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid as to folic acid and other folate monoglutamates.
The CrossPath Attack: Disrupting the SDN Control Channel via Shared Links

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) enables network innovations with a centralized controller controlling the whole network through the control channel. Because the control channel delivers all network control traffic, its security and reliability are of great importance. For the first time in the literature, we propose the CrossPath attack that disrupts the SDN control channel by exploiting the shared links in paths of control traffic and data traffic. In this attack, crafted data traffic can implicitly disrupt the forwarding of control traffic in the shared links. As the data traffic does not enter the control channel, the attack is stealthy and cannot be easily perceived by the controller. In order to identify the target paths containing the shared links to attack, we develop a novel technique called adversarial path reconnaissance. Both theoretic analysis and experimental results demonstrate its feasibility and efficiency of identifying the target paths. We systematically study the impacts of the attack on various network applications in a real SDN testbed. Experiments show the attack significantly degrades the performance of existing network applications and causes serious network anomalies, e.g., routing blackhole, flow table resetting, and even network-wide DoS.
Three dimensional simulation of gridded TWT guns

It is known that the presences of the grid electrodes in a Pierce-type electron gun disturbs the local fields and, consequently, the beam focusing properties. To illustrate the manner in which the beam laminarity characteristics are modified, we employ an hybridized 3D/2D approach to gridded gun-simulation which includes relativistic kinematics and a flux function treatment of the magnetic fields with provision for PPM focusing.
A NALYSIS OF LIGHTNING STRIKE WITH CORONA ON OHTL NEAR THE SUBSTATION BY EMTP

Lightning protection and insulation coordination of transmission lines and substations require an accurate knowledge of the magnitudes and waveforms of lightning overvoltage. To simulate the lightning overvoltage precisely near the substation, this study has shown how to consider the lightning impulse corona for distortion effect of this overvoltage. Attenuation and deformation effects of lightning impulse corona along transmission lines are evaluated by the simulation results. This paper describes the substation equipment modeling in the software Electromagnetic Transients Program–Alternative Transients Program EMTP. Corona effect is incorporate in order to estimate the attenuation and deformation of overvoltage’s travelling waves on transmission lines near substations. Variations of lightning stroke current magnitudes, protection distances, and the impact points are obvious due to the applied dynamic corona model. Several elements of substation equipment are modeled in ATP/EMTP using MODELS language. The Simulation results show that the amplitude and voltage travelling wave-fronts attenuated remarkably. Deformation of the wave shapes mainly occurs when the impulse voltage exceeds the corona inception voltage.
A Fast Algorithm for Network Forecasting Time Series

Time series has a wide range of applications in various fields. Recently, a new math tool, named as visibility graph, is developed to transform the time series into complex networks. One shortcoming of the existing network-based time series prediction methods is time consuming. To address this issue, this paper proposes a new prediction algorithm based on visibility graph and Markov chains. Among the existing network-based time series prediction methods, the main step is to determine the similarity degree between two nodes based on link prediction algorithm. A new similarity measure between two nodes is presented without the iteration process in the classical link prediction algorithm. The experiments show that the proposed method has better accuracy with less time consuming.
Devising Mineral Resource Supply Pathways to a Low-Carbon Electricity Generation by 2100

Achieving a “carbon neutral” world by 2100 or earlier in a context of economic growth implies a drastic and profound transformation of the way energy is supplied and consumed in our societies. In this paper, we use life-cycle inventories of electricity-generating technologies and an integrated assessment model (TIMES Integrated Assessment Model) to project the global raw material requirements in two scenarios: a second shared socioeconomic pathway baseline, and a 2 °C scenario by 2100. Material usage reported in the life-cycle inventories is distributed into three phases, namely construction, operation, and decommissioning. Material supply dynamics and the impact of the 2 °C warming limit are quantified for three raw fossil fuels and forty-eight metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources. Depending on the time horizon, graphite, sand, sulfur, borates, aluminum, chromium, nickel, silver, gold, rare earth elements or their substitutes could face a sharp increase in usage as a result of a massive installation of low-carbon technologies. Ignoring nonfuel resource availability and value in deep decarbonation, circular economy, or decoupling scenarios can potentially generate misleading, contradictory, or unachievable climate policies.
Retina Blue Cone Monochromacy Caused by the C 203 R Missense Mutation or Large Deletion Mutations

Alexander Sumaroka, Alexandra V. Garafalo, Artur V. Cideciyan, Jason Charng, Alejandro J. Roman, Windy Choi, Supna Saxena, Valeryia Aksianiuk, Susanne Kohl, Bernd Wissinger, and Samuel G. Jacobson Scheie Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Institute for Ophthalmic Research, Centre for Ophthalmology, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
Human Folate Bioavailability

The vitamin folate is recognized as beneficial health-wise in the prevention of neural tube defects, anemia, cardiovascular diseases, poor cognitive performance, and some forms of cancer. However, suboptimal dietary folate intake has been reported in a number of countries. Several national health authorities have therefore introduced mandatory food fortification with synthetic folic acid, which is considered a convenient fortificant, being cost-efficient in production, more stable than natural food folate, and superior in terms of bioavailability and bioefficacy. Other countries have decided against fortification due to the ambiguous role of synthetic folic acid regarding promotion of subclinical cancers and other adverse health effects. This paper reviews recent studies on folate bioavailability after intervention with folate from food. Our conclusions were that limited folate bioavailability data are available for vegetables, fruits, cereal products, and fortified foods, and that it is difficult to evaluate the bioavailability of food folate or whether intervention with food folate improves folate status. We recommend revising the classical approach of using folic acid as a reference dose for estimating the plasma kinetics and relative bioavailability of food folate.
Very low supply voltage room temperature test to screen low temperature soft blown fuse fails which result in a resistive bridge

Once a device goes into high volume production if the part has not been characterized correctly the customer will start to see problem devices and returns will start to flow. This paper will show a correlation of One Time Programmable fuse failures that occur at low temperature to very low supply voltage test at room temperature. Multiple wafermaps will be presented showing the effects of the low temperature and the effect of screening at very low voltage on both good material and material exhibiting a step field issue causing OTP failures. This will then be further developed to demonstrate how the neighbor dice that would need manual inking are caught with the very low supply voltage test. This work will also go some way to proving previous papers' theories on very low voltage testing to find resistive bridge faults at low temperature failures.
COMPARING THE NONSTANDARD LANGUAGE OF SLOVENE , CROATIAN AND SERBIAN TWEETS

V prispevku predstavimo ve~jezi~no primerjavo nestandardnih jezikovnih prvin v dru`benih medijih za sloven{~ino, hrva{~ino in srb{~ino. Cilj analize je dvojen: (1) ugotoviti `elimo, do katere mere so identificirani pojavi univerzalni za to zvrst komunikacije in katere so tiste prvine, ki so jezikovno specifi~ne, ter (2) predlagati pristop za avtomatsko ocenjevanje stopnje (ne)standardnosti spletnih uporabni{kih vsebin, ki ga lahko kot dodatno oznako s pridom uporabimo pri ozna~evanju korpusov. Kvantitativna in kvalitativna analiza rezultatov ka`eta, da je jezik, ki se uporablja na Twitterju, pravzaprav precej standarden, {e posebej v Sloveniji in na Hrva{kem. Prevladujo~a zna~ilnost nestandardnih slovenskih tvitov je nestandardna ortografija, medtem ko je za srbske tvite tipi~na nestandardna leksika, ki nakazuje na mlaj{i profil uporabnikov tega dru`benega medija v Srbiji.
WEAKLY SUPERVISED SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION 3 priors can give good pixel labelling results

Training a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) for semantic segmentation requires a large number of masks with pixel level labelling, which involves a large amount of human labour and time for annotation. In contrast, web images and their image-level labels are much easier and cheaper to obtain. In this work, we propose a novel method for weakly supervised semantic segmentation with only image-level labels. The method utilizes the internet to retrieve a large number of images and uses a large scale co-segmentation framework to generate masks for the retrieved images. We first retrieve images from search engines, e.g. Flickr and Google, using semantic class names as queries, e.g. class names in the dataset PASCAL VOC 2012. We then use high quality masks produced by co-segmentation on the retrieved images as well as the target dataset images with image level labels to train segmentation networks. We obtain an IoU score of 56.9 on test set of PASCAL VOC 2012, which reaches the state-of-the-art performance.
A role for F-BAR protein Rga7p during cytokinesis in S. pombe

ABSTRACT F-BAR proteins are known to participate in cytokinesis, but their mechanisms are not well understood. Here we investigated Rga7p, an Schizosaccharomyces pombe F-BAR protein with a RhoGAP domain. Localization of Rga7p to the cytokinetic cleavage furrow depends on its F-BAR domain, actin filaments, the formins Cdc12p and For3p, and the presence of a contractile ring. Rga7p is not required for the constriction of the contractile ring but does participate in the transport of a β-glucan synthetase (Bgs4p) from the late Golgi compartments to plasma membrane that is adjacent to the contractile ring. Cells without Rga7p moved Bgs4p normally from the poles to the Golgi complex near to the cell center, but Bgs4p then moved slowly from the late Golgi compartments to the cleavage site. The late arrival and lower than normal numbers of Bgs4p result in septal defects late in cytokinesis, and in the lysis of separating cells, similar to that in cells with mutations in the cwg1+ gene (which encodes Bgs4p). Summary: F-BAR protein Rga7p is required for the timely delivery of a β-glucan synthetase (Bgs4p) to the cleavage furrow during cytokinesis of fission yeast.
Speech Disfluencies under Normal and Delayed Auditory Feedback Conditions

20 male and 20 female adults, matched by age, read under conditions of normal and 113-, 152-, 200-, 253-, 307-, and 347-msec. delayed auditory feedback. Disfluency counts were correlated with delayed auditory feedback reactions which were changes in disfluencies under delay conditions. Pearson product-moment and Spearman's rhos were negative and significant for delay times of 113, 153, 200, and 253 msec. The Pearson product-moment correlation for 307 msec, was also negative and significant. Two groups of 11 adults were selected from the original sample on the basis of high and low initial disfluency counts. Their reactions to delayed auditory feedback were compared, using a 2-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (groups × delay times). Both main effects were significant but not their interaction.
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AGRICULTURAL LAND PRODUCTIVITY : AN EVIDENCE FROM PUNJAB PROVINCE OF PAKISTAN 1

The recent change in climate has affected the global agricultural land productivity. In the current agrarian economy of Pakistan, climate change is becoming the burning issue. The change in temperature and rainfall patterns has become very threatening factor in the crop sector of the arid zone. The study undertaken carries an empirical investigation to estimate the impacts of climate change on the agricultural land productivity of Province Punjab, Pakistan. Auto Regressive Distributed Model has employed for this purpose. Time series data from 1985 to 2015 has been used in the research undertaken. The estimation of the study confirmed that a rise in average temperature and increase in average rainfall along with two non-climatic variables, i.e. fertilizer and credit disperse are affecting the agricultural land productivity significantly. Hence, it is critical to formulate the policy measures to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change on agricultural land productivity. Plant breeders should focus on the heat resistant seed varieties to mitigate the effect of increasing average temperatures and drought resistant to bear the water shortage because of disturbances in rain patterns in Province Punjab, Pakistan.
Vitamin D control of osteoblast function and bone extracellular matrix mineralization.

Vitamin D is the major regulator of calcium homeostasis and protects the organism from calcium deficiency via effects on the intestine, kidney, parathyroid gland, and bone. Disturbances in the vitamin D endocrine system (e.g., vitamin D-dependent rickets type I and type II), result in profound effects on the mineralization of bone. Recent studies with vitamin D receptor knockout mice also show effects on bone. It is questioned whether vitamin D has a direct effect on bone formation and mineralization. In rickets and particular vitamin D receptor knockout mice, calcium supplementation restores bone mineralization. However, the vitamin D receptor is present in osteoblasts, and vitamin D affects the expression of various genes in osteoblasts. This review focuses on the role of vitamin D in the control of osteoblast function and discusses the current knowledge of the direct effects of vitamin D on mineralization. Moreover, the role of vitamin D metabolism and the mechanism of action of vitamin D and interaction with other hormones and factors are discussed.
INNOVATIVE MODELLING : A TOOL FOR COASTAL DEVELOPMENTS

This article has been adapted from the paper that was published in the proceedings of IX PIANC-COPEDEC conference in October 2016. It is reprinted here with permission. Located in an inlet between Bages-Sigean lagoon and Mediterranean coast, Port-La Nouvelle harbour is home to a very complex hydro-sedimentary dynamics. In order to study it accurately, a package of five interacting hydro-sedimentary numerical models was developed. The package consisted of: a wave transformation model; a tridimensional hydrodynamic model; a model for the siltation of cohesive sediments within the harbour; a model for morphodynamic calculation of sandy sea bed in the short (1 year) and medium (10 years) terms; and a coastline evolution model. This article presents the methodology that combines the five models in order to handle the hydro-sedimentary issues and assess the impacts of a major port extension project.
Comparative Study of p53 Gene and Protein Alterations in Human Astrocytic Tumors

The p53 gene is a tumor suppressor gene involved in many common malignancies, including astrocytomas. Genetic analysis of the p53 gene and immunohistochemistry of the p53 protein have each been used to screen astrocytomas. To compare these methods, we performed immunohistochemistry with the monoclonal antibody PAb 1801 and single-strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) with sequence analysis on 34 astrocytic tumors (WHO grades II, III and IV). Seven cases had detectable p53 protein and gene mutations, while twelve cases had neither detectable protein nor gene mutations. Four tumors had frameshift mutations in the p53 gene that were not revealed by immunohistochemistry. One tumor had a genetic polymorphism and no detectable p53 protein. Ten tumors had p53 protein accumulation but no mutations by SSCP; these cases may represent p53 mutations outside of the conserved exons or elevated levels of wild-type p53 protein. Thus, some p53 mutations are missed with PAb 1801 immunohistochemistry alone. p53 immunohistochemistry, however, may reveal p53 accumulation independent of mutations in the conserved portions of the gene. Finally, we suggest that glioblastomas with p53 mutations in the conserved region of the gene may be a subset that are more common in women and in younger patients.
Expectational boundedness of stable LTI systems in the presence of nonvanishing stochastic perturbation

This paper studies the expectationally boundedness of stable linear time invariant (LTI) systems in the presence of nonvanishing stochastic perturbations. First, expectationally bounded random processes are defined and their characteristics are investigated. Afterward a theorem is stated, which assigns an upper bound to the Euclidean norm of the states of an intrinsically LTI stable system in the case that it is perturbed by nonvanishing stochastic perturbations.
A Novel Multi-Input Bidirectional LSTM and HMM Based Approach for Target Recognition from Multi-Domain Radar Range Profiles

Radars, as active detection sensors, are known to play an important role in various intelligent devices. Target recognition based on high-resolution range profile (HRRP) is an important approach for radars to monitor interesting targets. Traditional recognition algorithms usually rely on a single feature, which makes it difficult to maintain the recognition performance. In this paper, 2-D sequence features from HRRP are extracted in various data domains such as time-frequency domain, time domain, and frequency domain. A novel target identification method is then proposed, by combining bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BLSTM) and a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), to learn these multi-domain sequence features. Specifically, we first extract multi-domain HRRP sequences. Next, a new multi-input BLSTM is proposed to learn these multi-domain HRRP sequences, which are then fed to a standard HMM classifier to learn multi-aspect features. Finally, the trained HMM is used to implement the recognition task. Extensive experiments are carried out on the publicly accessible, benchmark MSTAR database. Our proposed algorithm is shown to achieve an identification accuracy of over 91% with a lower false alarm rate and higher identification confidence, compared to several state-of-the-art techniques.