Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbial Keratitis in South India: Influence of Risk Factors, Climate, and Geographical Variation

Purpose: To determine the influence of risk factors, climate, and geographical variation on the microbial keratitis in South India. Methods: A retrospective analysis of all clinically diagnosed infective keratitis presenting between September 1999 and August 2002 was performed. A standardised form was filled out for each patient, documenting sociodemographic features and information pertaining to risk factors. Corneal scrapes were collected and subjected to culture and microscopy. Results: A total of 3,183 consecutive patients with infective keratitis were evaluated, of which 1,043 (32.77%) were found to be of bacterial aetiology, 1,095 (34.4%) were fungal, 33 (1.04%) were Acanthamoeba, 76 (2.39%) were both fungal and bacterial, and the remaining 936 (29.41%) were found to be culture negative. The predominant bacterial and fungal pathogens isolated were Streptococcus pneumoniae (35.95%) and Fusarium spp. (41.92%), respectively. Most of the patients (66.84%) with fungal keratitis were between 21 and 50 years old, and 60.21% of the patients with bacterial keratitis were older than 50 (p < 0.0001) (95% CI: 5.19–7.19). A majority of patients (64.75%) with fungal keratitis were agricultural workers (p < 0.0001) [odds ratio (OR): 1.4; 95% CI: 1.19–1.61], whereas bacterial keratitis occurred more commonly (57.62%) in nonagricultural workers (p < 0.0001) (OR: 2.88; 95% CI: 2.47–3.36). Corneal injury was identified in 2,256 (70.88%) patients, and it accounted for 92.15% in fungal keratitis (p < 0.0001) (OR: 7.7; 95% CI: 6.12–9.85) and 100% in Acanthamoeba keratitis. Injuries due to vegetative matter (61.28%) were identified as a significant cause for fungal keratitis (p < 0.0001) (OR: 23.6; 95% CI: 19.07–29.3) and due to mud (84.85%) for Acanthamoeba keratitis (p < 0.0001) (OR: 26.01; 95% CI: 3.3–6.7). Coexisting ocular diseases predisposing to bacterial keratitis accounted for 68.17% (p < 0.0001) (OR: 33.99; 95% CI: 27.37–42.21). The incidence of fungal keratitis was higher between June and September, and bacterial keratitis was less during this period. Conclusion: The risk of agricultural predominance and vegetative corneal injury in fungal keratitis and associated ocular diseases in bacterial keratitis increase susceptibility to corneal infection. A hot, windy climate makes fungal keratitis more frequent in tropical zones, whereas bacterial keratitis is independent of seasonal variation and frequent in temperate zones. Microbial pathogens show geographical variation in their prevalence. Thus, the spectrum of microbial keratitis varies with geographical location influenced by the local climate and occupational risk factors.
Computer Vision for Mobile Robot Navigation

Vision is a very important sense for humans. Robots also need to be aware of their environment for working in it. This is even more important for mobile robots that operate in unknown environments that are not prepared for robots. In this paper, we focus on the aspect of navigation of mobile robots for applications in search and rescue as well as planetary exploration. We discuss a typical vision pipeline and navigation stack that has been developed at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In recent years, we have successfully applied the solution to a number of crawling, driving and flying robots. We present mobile systems in several applications and also discuss the relation between computer vision and photogrammetry.
Individual differences in behaviour - dog personality.

Dogs are highly capable of adapting to new environments and learning to perform different behaviour in certain situations (see Chapter 8 in this volume). However, some aspects of a dog's behaviour might have limited plasticity. In fact, if you observe dogs and are focused on behavioural stability, you might find the dog quite consistent in a range of situations. For example, the dog's strategy when meeting unfamiliar persons may be very similar in different contexts and over long periods of time. A dog that shows signs of fear when exposed to loud and strange noise may still, several years later, show similar tendencies in such situations. Other exan1ples are a dog's typical tendency to get excited or to be aggressive. Such stable dispositions create what could be called the behavioural style of a dog, which has also been referred to as temperament, individuality, coping style, behavioural syndromes and, more lately, as animal personality.
Rationale and design of three observational, prospective cohort studies including biobanking to evaluate and improve diagnostics, management strategies and risk stratification in venous thromboembolism: the VTEval Project

Introduction Venous thromboembolism (VTE) with its two manifestations deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major public health problem. The VTEval Project aims to investigate numerous research questions on diagnosis, clinical management, treatment and prognosis of VTE, which have remained uncertain to date. Methods and analysis The VTEval Project consists of three observational, prospective cohort studies on VTE comprising cohorts of individuals with a clinical suspicion of acute PE (with or without DVT), with a clinical suspicion of acute DVT (without symptomatic PE) and with an incidental diagnosis of VTE (PE or DVT). The VTEval Project expects to enrol a total of approximately 2000 individuals with subsequent active and passive follow-up investigations over a time period of 5 years per participant. Time points for active follow-up investigations are at months 3, 6, 12, 24 and 36 after diagnosis (depending on the disease cohort); passive follow-up investigations via registry offices and the cancer registry are performed 48 and 60 months after diagnosis for all participants. Primary short-term outcome is defined by overall mortality (PE-related death and all other causes of death), primary long-term outcome by symptomatic VTE (PE-related death, recurrence of non-fatal PE or DVT). The VTEval Project includes three ‘all-comer’ studies and involves the standardised acquisition of high-quality data, covering the systematic assessment of VTE including symptoms, risk profile, psychosocial, environmental and lifestyle factors as well as clinical and subclinical disease, and it builds up a large state-of-the-art biorepository containing various materials from serial blood samplings. Ethics and dissemination The VTEval Project has been approved by the local data safety commissioner and the responsible ethics committee (reference no. 837.320.12 (8421-F)). Trial results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international scientific meetings. Trial registration number NCT02156401.
Abnormal Pressure Natriuresis in the Dog Model of Obesity‐Induced Hypertension

Obesity is considered to be a major factor in the pathogenesis of hypertension in industrialized countries. Recent studies have suggested that the kidneys may play an important role in the development of obesity-induced hypertension. The purpose of this study was to determine whether obesity-induced hypertension is associated with abnormalities in the pressure-natriuresis relation. Renal function studies were performed in anesthetized control dogs (body weight, 20.2±0.8 kg) and obese dogs (body weight, 26.4±0.7 kg) that were maintained on a high-fat diet for 5 to 6 weeks. Mean arterial pressure averaged 122±5 mm Hg in the control group (n=6) and 148±7 mm Hg in the obese group (n=8). The effects of renal perfusion pressure on renal hemodynamics as well as sodium and water excretions were examined at five levels of renal perfusion pressure ranging from 75 to 165 mm Hg. Pressure-natriuretic and diuretic responses were reduced in the obese dogs by 40% to 50%. The renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate autoregulatory responses and fractional lithium excretion responses to changes in renal perfusion pressure were similar in the control and obese dog groups. Associated with the attenuated natriuretic response to renal perfusion pressure in the obese dogs were significant elevations in plasma renin activity (4.3±1.6 versus 1.6±0.5 ng angiotensin I/mL per hour), plasma aldosterone concentration (34.4±6.4 versus 15.3±3.2 ng/dL), and plasma insulin concentration (30.5±6.8 versus 20.9±2.9 IU/mL). The results of this study establish that obesity-induced hypertension in the dog is associated with a shift in the pressurenatriuresis relation. The underlying mechanism responsible for the abnormal pressure-natriuresis relation in this model of obesity may be due to activation of various sodiumretaining systems such as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.
Relationship of Engagement and Practice Trials to Student Achievement

This study investigated relationships between two groups of process variables, student engagement and practice trials, and achievement. The effect of initial skill level and class membership in these relationships was also examined. Students (N = 57 after attrition) were pretested, instructed, and posttested on a swimming skill. The two instructional periods were videotaped and coded for motor engagement, cognitive engagement, and the quantity, type, and difficulty level of practice trials. Motor and cognitive engagement were not significant predictors of achievement for the entire sample. Whole-appropriate practice trials were positive predictors of achievement and whole-inappropriate practice trials were negative predictors of achievement. A variety of significant relationships were found when data were analyzed by skill level and class. The data indicate that engagement paradigms may extend to psychomotor skill learning and that the type of practice trials are more important than simple engaged time.
Virtual fixture control of a hybrid parallel-serial robot for assisting ophthalmic surgery: An experimental study

This paper presents the virtual fixture control methods for a hybrid parallel-serial micromanipulator, which is designed for assisting ophthalmic surgeons. Virtual fixtures are features of surgical robotic setups to improve quality of the surgery and reduces the operation risk. In the domain of ophthalmic surgery lack of virtual fixtures in manual operations has limited, and sometimes even blocked, the treatment options. The contribution of this paper is concept analysis and implementation of flexible virtual fixture for the novel hybrid parallel-serial mechanism and experimentally evaluation of this concept. The virtual fixture using this mechanism enables the user to adjust them even during the procedure. Pivoting around a Remote Center of Motion (RCM), which in retinal surgery is the incision point, is the most famous virtual fixture of ophthalmic surgery. Autonomous RCM adjustment for Vitreo-Retinal surgery, implying retinal reachability study, is the secondary contribution which is investigated in this paper.
The Social Ultimatum Game and Adaptive Agents (Demonstration)

The Ultimatum Game is a key exemplar that shows how human play often deviates from “rational” strategies suggested by game-theoretic analysis. One explanation is that humans cannot put aside the assumption of being in a multi-player multi-round environment that they are accustomed to in the real world. We introduce the Social Ultimatum Game (SUG), where players can choose their partner among a society of agents, and engage in repeated interactions of the Ultimatum Game. We develop mathematical models of human play that include “irrational” concepts such as fairness and adaptation to the expectations of the society. We will display a system where people can play SUG against a mixed system of other humans and autonomous agents based on our mathematical models.
Seeding simulated queries with user-study data for personal search evaluation

In this paper we perform a lab-based user study (n=21) of email re-finding behaviour, examining how the characteristics of submitted queries change in different situations. A number of logistic regression models are developed on the query data to explore the relationship between user- and contextual- variables and query characteristics including length, field submitted to and use of named entities. We reveal several interesting trends and use the findings to seed a simulated evaluation of various retrieval models. Not only is this an enhancement of existing evaluation methods for Personal Search, but the results show that different models are more effective in different situations, which has implications both for the design of email search tools and for the way algorithms for Personal Search are evaluated.
Accurate measurement of reference power for Virtual Synchronous Generator with precise frequency detection techniques

Rotor inertia and damping of Synchronous Generator(SG) plays vital role in frequency stability of grid. In upcoming era of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) with power electronic interface, these properties of SG are deficit. Mimicking inverters to behave as SG has evolved concept of Virtual Synchronous Generators(VSG). Their performance during frequency deviations depends on real time calculations of grid frequency and power reference. This paper contributes to accurate measurement of frequency to generate power reference using Smart Discrete Fourier Transform (SDFT) for smooth operation of VSG.
Automatic grammar correction for second-language learners

A computer conversational system can potentially help a foreignlanguage student improve his/her fluency through practice dialogues. One of its potential roles could be to correct ungrammatical sentences. This paper 1 describes our research on a sentencelevel, generation-based approach to grammar correction: first, a word lattice of candidate corrections is generated from an illformed input. A traditional n-gram language model is used to produce a small set of N-best candidates, which are then reranked by parsing using a stochastic context-free grammar. We evaluate this approach in a flight domain with simulated ill-formed sentences. We discuss its potential applications in a few related tasks. Index Terms: computer-assisted language learning, dialogue systems, natural language generation.
Attachment and the regulation of the right brain

It has been three decades since John Bowlby érst presented an over-arching model of early human development in his groundbreaking volume, Attachment. In the present paper I refer back to Bowlby’s original charting of the attachment landscape in order to suggest that current research and clinical models need to return to the integration of the psychological and biological underpinnings of the theory. Towards that end, recent contributions from neuroscience are offered to support Bowlby’s assertions that attachment is instinctive behavior with a biological function, that emotional processes lie at the foundation of a model of instinctive behavior, and that a biological control system in the brain regulates affectively driven instinctive behavior. This control system can now be identiéed as the orbitofrontal system and its cortical and subcortical connections. This ‘senior executive of the emotional brain’ acts as a regulatory system, and is expanded in the right hemisphere, which is dominant in human infancy and centrally involved in inhibitory control. Attachment theory is essentially a regulatory theory, and attachment can be deéned as the interactive regulation of biological synchronicity between organisms. This model suggests that future directions of attachment research should focus upon the early-forming psychoneurobiological mechanisms that mediate both adaptive and maladaptive regulatory processes. Such studies will have direct applications to the creation of more effective preventive and treatment methodologies.
Multihoming support in the Internet : A state of the art Amine Dhraief Abdelfettah

Multihoming is a solution that enables a faulttolerant access to the Internet by configuring on each network entity several IP addresses associated with distinct ISP. Multihoming protocols provide an indispensable support to take full advantage of the redundant access and a framework for multiple addresses management. With the forthcoming version of the IP network, IPv6, lots of efforts have been made to enable multihoming benefits, such as reliability, session survivability and load sharing. We review in this paper the most common IPv6 and IPv4 multihoming protocols.
Sleep disturbances, behavioural problems and adaptive skills in children with Down’s syndrome

ABSTRACT The study was performed in St. Petersburg in 2015 and comprised 34 children with diagnosed Down’s syndrome (DS) aged 9–15 (mean 11) years (17 boys, 17 girls) who attended special schools. Control group was made up of 34 clinically healthy normal intelligence schoolchildren matched for age, sex and geographical distribution. The mothers were requested to fill in the Child Sleep Habit Questionnaire (CSHQ). The teachers were approached with the Achenbach Child Behaviour Check List and the Diagnostic Adaptive Behaviour Scale (DABS). Children with DS had significantly higher scores on reported sleep problems. The most prominent behavioural disturbance was on DSM-oriented attention-deficit/hyperactivity problems scale. DS children presented with lower scores on all DABS subscales and total DABS score. The values of IQ and the total sleep disturbance score were significant predictors of attention-deficit/hyperactivity problems, and the values of IQ and of the attention-deficit/hyperactivity were significant predictors of adaptive skills.
Angiogenic proteins, placental weight and perinatal outcomes among pregnant women in Tanzania

Introduction Placental vascular development, and ultimately placental weight, is essential to healthy fetal development. Here, we examined placental weight in a cohort of Tanzanian women in association with angiogenic proteins known to regulate placental vascular development and perinatal outcomes. Methods A total of n = 6579 women with recorded placental weight were included in this study. The relative risk of adverse perinatal outcomes (Apgar score, death, asphyxia, respiratory distress, seizures, pneumonia and sepsis) was compared between placental weight in the bottom and top 10th percentiles. We quantified angiogenic mediators (Ang-1, Ang-2, VEGF, PGF and sFlt-1) in plasma samples (n = 901) collected between 12 to 27 weeks of pregnancy using ELISA and assessed the relative risk of placental weight in the bottom and top 10th percentiles by protein levels in quartiles. Results Women with Ang-2 levels in the highest quartile had an increased relative risk of placental weight in the bottom 10th percentile (RR = 1.45 (1.10, 1.91), p = 0.01). Women with VEGF-A (RR = 0.73 (0.56, 0.96), p = 0.05) and PGF (RR = 0.58 (0.44, 0.72), p = 0.002) in the highest quartile had a reduced relative risk of placental weight in the bottom 10th percentile. Low placental weight (in bottom 10th percentile) was associated with an increased relative risk of Apgar score of <7 at 1 minute (RR = 2.31 (1.70, 3.13), p = 0.001), at 5 minutes (RR = 3.53 (2.34, 5.33), p = 0.001), neonatal death (RR = 5.02 (3.61, 7.00), p = 0.001), respiratory distress (RR = 4.80(1.71, 13.45), p = 0.001), and seizures (RR = 4.18 (1.16, 15.02), p = 0.03). Discussion The association between low placental weight and risk of adverse perinatal outcomes in this cohort suggests that placental weight could serve as a useful indicator, providing additional insight into high-risk pregnancies and identifying neonates that may require additional monitoring and follow-up.
Chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Disease Burden and Cost in the United States

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver transplantation. A better understanding of HCV disease progression and the associated cost can help the medical community manage HCV and develop treatment strategies in light of the emergence of several potent anti‐HCV therapies. A system dynamic model with 36 cohorts was used to provide maximum flexibility and improved forecasting. New infections incidence of 16,020 (95% confidence interval, 13,510‐19,510) was estimated in 2010. HCV viremic prevalence peaked in 1994 at 3.3 (2.8‐4.0) million, but it is expected to decline by two‐thirds by 2030. The prevalence of more advanced liver disease, however, is expected to increase, as well as the total cost associated with chronic HCV infection. Today, the total cost is estimated at $6.5 ($4.3‐$8.4) billion and it will peak in 2024 at $9.1 ($6.4‐$13.3) billion. The lifetime cost of an individual infected with HCV in 2011 was estimated at $64,490. However, this cost is significantly higher among individuals with a longer life expectancy. Conclusion: This analysis demonstrates that US HCV prevalence is in decline due to a lower incidence of infections. However, the prevalence of advanced liver disease will continue to increase as well as the corresponding healthcare costs. Lifetime healthcare costs for an HCV‐infected person are significantly higher than for noninfected persons. In addition, it is possible to substantially reduce HCV infection through active management. (HEPATOLOGY 2013;57:2164–2170)
DVCE: The Virtual Computing Environment Supported by Distributed VM Images

Compared to the conventional physical cluster, the virtual cluster technology has features such as flexible configuration, easy management and high system security, which provides users with an easily customized computing environment. Virtual machine image files as the most important stored objects in the virtual computing environment include all the information about the whole life cycle of virtual machine. The storage of the virtual machine images is an important part of virtual computing. There are mainly two ways to store the images, which include local storage and networking storage. This paper proposes a mechanism to manage the distributed image files to support the virtual computing environment. It uses the computing nodes` local storage as a chunk server in a distributed file system, and regards the distribution of the image files as a primary factor to choose the computing node to deploy virtual machine and to implement a backup mechanism of distributed images based on historical records of image files. Functional test and performance test results show that it can effectively support the virtual computing environment and has great values of applications and research.
Theory in practice for system design and verification

Methodology and tools for assisting developers in building high-confidence hardware and software at a reasonable cost has been one of the central themes in computer science since its inception. The formal methods research on this problem has focused on two complimentary goals: to provide mathematical abstractions to manage the complexity of the design and to develop analysis tools to check that the implementation works correctly as intended. Achieving these goals has proved to be extremely challenging for two reasons. First, the scale and complexity of systems being designed remains a moving target as computers have transformed from special-purpose and stand-alone number-crunching processors to networked devices interacting with the physical world. Second, once formalized, the computational problem of verifying that a system meets its specification is undecidable in the general case and has intractable complexity even in special cases.