Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distinctive Distribution of Pathogens Associated With Peritonitis in Neonates With Focal Intestinal Perforation Compared With Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Objective. Candida and coagulase-negative staphylococci are emerging pathogens associated with focal intestinal perforation (FIP) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in neonates. The objective of this study was to determine whether there are significant differences in the predominant pathogens in culture-positive cases of peritonitis associated with FIP compared with NEC in neonates. Methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted of neonates with peritoneal culture-positive peritonitis associated with FIP or NEC over a 12-year study period (1989–2000). Cases with peritonitis were identified from a microbiology database. NEC was defined by radiologic evidence of pneumatosis intestinalis or portal venous gas or by pathology reports or surgical operative notes describing large areas of transmural bowel necrosis. FIP was defined as a <1-cm intestinal perforation surrounded by otherwise normal tissue in the absence of NEC. Results. Thirty-six cases of FIP were compared with 80 cases of NEC. Birth weight and gestational age were significantly lower in infants with FIP compared with NEC. Age at intestinal perforation and case fatality rates were similar between FIP and NEC. There were striking differences in the distribution of predominant pathogens associated with peritonitis in NEC and FIP cases. Enterobacteriaceae were present in 60 (75%) of 80 NEC cases compared with 9 (25%) of 36 FIP cases. In contrast, Candida species were found in 16 (44%) of 36 FIP cases compared with 12 (15%) of 80 NEC cases, and coagulase-negative staphylococci were present in 18 (50%) of 36 FIP cases versus 11 (14%) of 80 NEC cases. There were no significant differences between FIP and NEC cases for the presence of Enterococcus species (28% vs 23%) or anaerobes (3% vs 6%). Stratified analysis for birth weight <1200 g found similar significant differences in the predominant pathogens for FIP (n = 29) and NEC (n = 38). Results from peritoneal fluid cultures resulted in changes in antimicrobial therapy in 46 (40%) of 116 cases. Conclusions. Candida species and coagulase-negative staphylococci were the predominant pathogens in FIP peritonitis in contrast to Enterobacteriaceae in NEC peritonitis. A peritoneal fluid culture should be obtained in all neonates with intestinal perforation, regardless of cause, because it may help to direct the choice of the most effective antimicrobial.
The patchwork of alcohol-free zones and alcohol-prohibited areas in New South Wales (Australia)

Purpose Developing policies to curb public alcohol consumption is a priority for governments. In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), local governments have introduced alcohol-free zones (AFZs) and alcohol-prohibited areas (APAs) to prohibit the public consumption of alcohol and reduce crime stemming from intoxication. Previous studies, however, argue that these policies are driven by stakeholder desire rather than alcohol-related crime and may result in increased criminal justice contact for vulnerable populations. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the number of AFZs and APAs in NSW and examine the extent to which these policies are connected to the frequency of alcohol-related crime. Design/methodology/approach Examining the 152 local government areas (LGAs) of NSW, the authors analysed whether the implementation of AFZs and APAs were linked to the frequency of liquor offences and assaults using group-based trajectory models. Findings The authors found that AFZs and APAs were often not advertised nor inconsistently implemented both across and within jurisdictions. Group-based trajectory models indicated that AFZs were more common in low liquor offence LGAs than high liquor offences LGAs, but were more frequently implemented in high assault LGAs compared to low assault LGAs. APAs were more common in the lowest crime LGAs compared to those LGAs that experienced higher levels of recorded crime. Originality/value These analyses demonstrate how widespread AFZs and APAs have become and provides evidence that the implementation of is only tenuously linked to the frequency of crime.
Awareness and cooperative work: the POLITeam approach

The paper investigates design issues which support awareness in collaborative environments. The work we present is part of the POLITeam project, an ongoing research effort aimed at the development of electronic tools to support the cooperation of German government sites distributed between Bonn and Berlin. The paper addresses social, ethical, legal, and technical issues which form important prerequisites for the design of awareness functionality in large organizations. These aspects have been identified as the result of a tight interaction process among the systems developers and selected pilot users in a federal ministry. Based on these requirements, we present the architectural model of the awareness service of the POLITeam system.
Integrating Usability Techniques into Rational Unified Process

RUP is a process that emphasizes the development of very complex projects that includes a great volume of activities and artifacts implying software developers do not consider usability aspects. In that way, there is a possibility of enriching this process by taking into account the benefits of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The main goal of this paper is to describe a strategy that provides usability to the business applications within the Rational Unified Process (RUP).
The impact of experienced stress on aged spatial discrimination: Cortical overreliance as a result of hippocampal impairment

A large body of neuroscientific work indicates that exposure to experienced stress causes damage to both cortical and hippocampal cells and results in impairments to cognitive abilities associated with these structures. Similarly, work within the domain of cognitive aging demonstrates that elderly participants who report experiencing greater amounts of stress show reduced levels of cognitive functioning. The present article attempted to combine both findings by collecting data from elderly and young participants who completed a spatial discrimination paradigm developed by Reagh and colleagues [Reagh et al. ( ) Hippocampus 24:303–314] to measure hippocampal‐mediated cognitive processes. In order to investigate the effect of stress on the cortex and, indirectly, the hippocampus, it paired the paradigm with electroencephalographic recordings of the theta frequency band, which is thought to reflect cortical/hippocampal interactions. Findings revealed that elderly participants with high levels of experienced stress performed significantly worse on target recognition and lure discrimination and demonstrated heightened levels of cortical theta synchronization compared with young and elderly low stress counterparts. Results therefore provided further evidence for the adverse effect of stress on cognitive aging and indicate that impaired behavioral performance among high stress elderly may coincide with an overreliance on cortical cognitive processing strategies as a result of early damage to the hippocampus. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Neonatal Hypercalcemia Secondary to Subcutaneous Fat Necrosis Successfully Treated with Pamidronate: A Case Series and Literature Review

Abstract Subcutaneous fat necrosis (SCFN) is a noninfectious panniculitis that occurs in term infants who experience significant distress in the 1st weeks of life, including hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Since the introduction of therapeutic hypothermia for HIE, there have been a few published case reports of SCFN, following this modality of treatment. Although, most cases of SCFN resolve spontaneously, SCFN may be associated with hypercalcemia, which may sometimes reach dangerous levels. Approaches used for the management of this potentially life-threatening condition, include hyperhydration, calciuric diuretics, corticosteroids, and in more resistant cases pamidronate, a bisphosphonate. We report our experience on the use of pamidronate in two cases of severe hypercalcemia associated with SCFN following therapeutic hypothermia for HIE. We believe that with increasing use of therapeutic hypothermia for HIE, clinicians are likely to encounter this condition more frequently.
Towards a Recommender System for Statistical Research Data

To effectively promote the exchange of scientific data, retrieval services are required to suit the needs of the research community. A large amount of research in the field of economics is based on statistical data, which is often drawn from external sources like data agencies, statistical offices or affiliated institutes. Since producing such data for a particular research question is expensive in time and money—if possible at all— research activities are often influenced by the availability of suitable data. Researchers choose or adjust their questions, so that the empirical foundation to support their results is given. As a consequence, researchers look out and poll for newly available data in all sorts of directions due to a lacking information infrastructure for this domain. This circumstance and a recent report from the High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data motivate recommendation and notification services for research data sets. In this paper, we elaborate on a case-based recommender system for statistical data, which allows for precise query specification. We discuss required similarity measures on the basis of cross-domain code lists and propose a system architecture. To address the problem of continuous polling, we elaborate on a notification service to inform researchers on newly avaible data sets based on their personal request.
Prevalence of Anemia and Its Determinants Among Pregnant, Lactating, and Nonpregnant Nonlactating Women in India

Despite the existence of several policies and programs, anemia among pregnant and lactating women continues to be a serious concern for public health policy in India. The main objective of this study is to examine the prevalence and determinants of anemia among pregnant and lactating versus nonpregnant nonlactating (NP-NL) women for priority setting in health policies of the country. Data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS3) conducted in 2005-2006 has been used for the analyses of this study. The results revealed that the prevalence of anemia was higher among lactating women (63%), followed by pregnant women (59%) than NP-NL women (53%). Younger lactating (71%) and older pregnant women (67%) had a higher burden of anemia. Along with socioeconomic factors, demographic indicators such as children ever born and program factors like nutrition advice and supplementary nutrition during anti natal care and postnatal care emerged as significant predictors in the case of anemia among both pregnant and lactating women, while socioeconomic indicators emerged as critical factors in the case of anemia among NP-NL women. Hence, targeting demographic and program factors, along with key socioeconomic and demographic factors in public health policy, is critical in reducing anemia among lactating and pregnant women, while targeting significant socioeconomic factors is the key for reducing anemia among NP-NL women.
Estimating Trans-Seasonal Variability in Water Column Biomass for a Highly Migratory, Deep Diving Predator

The deployment of animal-borne electronic tags is revolutionizing our understanding of how pelagic species respond to their environment by providing in situ oceanographic information such as temperature, salinity, and light measurements. These tags, deployed on pelagic animals, provide data that can be used to study the ecological context of their foraging behaviour and surrounding environment. Satellite-derived measures of ocean colour reveal temporal and spatial variability of surface chlorophyll-a (a useful proxy for phytoplankton distribution). However, this information can be patchy in space and time resulting in poor correspondence with marine animal behaviour. Alternatively, light data collected by animal-borne tag sensors can be used to estimate chlorophyll-a distribution. Here, we use light level and depth data to generate a phytoplankton index that matches daily seal movements. Time-depth-light recorders (TDLRs) were deployed on 89 southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) over a period of 6 years (1999–2005). TDLR data were used to calculate integrated light attenuation of the top 250 m of the water column (LA250), which provided an index of phytoplankton density at the daily scale that was concurrent with the movement and behaviour of seals throughout their entire foraging trip. These index values were consistent with typical seasonal chl-a patterns as measured from 8-daySea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFs) images. The availability of data recorded by the TDLRs was far greater than concurrent remotely sensed chl-a at higher latitudes and during winter months. Improving the spatial and temporal availability of phytoplankton information concurrent with animal behaviour has ecological implications for understanding the movement of deep diving predators in relation to lower trophic levels in the Southern Ocean. Light attenuation profiles recorded by animal-borne electronic tags can be used more broadly and routinely to estimate lower trophic distribution at sea in relation to deep diving predator foraging behaviour.
Validación del cuestionario OLC (Organizational Learning Culture), para medir la cultura que promueve la creatividad y la innovación en las organizaciones ecuatorianas

La elaboracion del presente documento se llevo a cabo con la finalidad de validar el cuestionario OLC para su uso en el contexto ecuatoriano. Dicho cuestionario sirve para medir la orientacion de la cultura organizacional al aprendizaje. La falta de instrumentos validados para los estudios organizacionales en el area de cultura organizacional orientada al aprendizaje en Ecuador, reflejo la necesidad de llevar a cabo este estudio para la validacion del constructo de la herramienta OLC creada en Portugal. En este documento se incluye toda la informacion teorica y estadistica utilizada para validad el cuestionario OLC Ecuador. La adecuacion del contenido al contexto ecuatoriano, los analisis factoriales, el analisis de confianza del instrumento y una tabla comparativa de los resultados OLC Portugal con OLC Ecuador son en conjunto todo el sustento academico que permitio validar el constructo del cuestionario OLC Ecuador.
Virtual infant's online acquisition of vowel categories and their mapping between dissimilar bodies

In order to understand how humans learn speech imitation without access to detailed articulatory data of other talkers, simulated speech acquisition experiments between two virtual agents were carried out with the goal of maintaining the interaction between the two as natural as possible. As an outcome, a novel model of infants’ vowel acquisition is presented. In the experimental setup, a virtual infant learns vowels in interaction with a virtual caregiver: it babbles vowels randomly, the care-giver answers every babble with an utterance that contains the vowel uttered by the infant in addition to other vocalic content, and the infant associates its own productions to the caregiver’s responses. The infant and the caregiver have different vocal tract sizes, and hence the acoustic qualities of the same vowel differ between the infant and the caregiver. The infant learns on line to map acoustic qualities of its caregiver’s speech onto its own vowel articulations, allowing for instant imitation of the caregiver’s vowel sounds when recognized. As opposed to previous computational studies of vowel acquisition, the infant does not need initial mappings, initial vowel primitives, or knowledge of the caregiver’s vowel categories.
O tempo e o vento: notas sobre a arte de burocratizar políticas de cotas na USP

Why quotas in graduate studies? This article addresses this inquiry by presenting a thick description of the several bureaucratic paths fared along the implementation of an affirmative action policy. This process creates an almost unsustainable tension between the long-term temporality of the bureaucracy and the necessary winds of social change that, in this case, claim a transformation of science production technologies and the widening of legitimate environment for scientific knowledge production. This article presents the framework and the events that led to the conception and processing of a quota proposition to the Post-Graduate Program in Social Anthropology of the University of Sao Paulo (PPGAS/USP). Thus, we present a cartography of the quota policies among other Anthropology Post-Graduate Programs in Brazilian’s current scenario. Finally, a more epistemic stance is presented in order to clarify how the widening of knowledge development environments is fundamental to bring forth plural and democratic venue in the making of anthropological knowledge.
MARKS: Multicast Key Management using Arbitrarily Revealed Key Sequences

The goal of this work is to separately control individual secure sessions between unlimited pairs of multicast receivers and senders. At the same time, the solution given preserves the scalability of receiver initiated Internet multicast for the data transfer itself. Unlike other multicast key management solutions, there are absolutely no side eects on other receivers when a single receiver joins or leaves a session and no smartcards are required. Solutions are presented for single and for multi-sender multicast. Further, we show how each receiver’s data can be subject to an individual, watermarked audit trail. The cost per receiver-session is typically just one short set-up message exchange with a key manager. Key managers can be replicated without limit because they are only loosely coupled to the senders who can remain oblivious to members being added or removed. The technique is a general solution for access to an arbitrary sub-range of a sequence of information and for its revocation, as long as each session end can be planned at the time each access is requested. It might therefore also be appropriate for virtual private networks or for information distribution on other duplicated media such as DVD.
Signal Processing in the Workplace [Social Sciences]

In this paper, a framework developed with collaborators in organizational psychology is described, aimed at inferring high-level constructs of interest in the workplace from nonverbal behavior. We summarize our experience tackling two tasks: identifying emergent leaders in small groups and assessing the hirability of candidates in employment interviews. The examples discussed in this paper have been recorded in a standard lab setting [9], in which sensors are fixed in a specific environment that volunteer participants have to visit, but also in moderately in-the-wild settings, where a portable sensing solution has been used to bring participants to quiet indoor environments for recordings [5], which gives flexibility for volunteer recruits.
Color- and texture-based salient map hierarchy

In content-based image retriaval (CBIR), the extraction of salient maps delivers regions focusing on the predominant objects of the images. This kind of description is aimed to specify the queries and to organize the image database index. This paper proposes a process providing a hierarchy of salient maps. This hierarchy is a multiscale description from fine to coarse maps using an adapted similarity measure based on texture and color specificities.
SETDB1, HP1 and SUV39 promote repositioning of 53BP1 to extend resection during homologous recombination in G2 cells

Recent studies have shown that homologous recombination (HR) requires chromatin repression as well as relaxation at DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). HP1 and SUV39H1/2 are repressive factors essential for HR. Here, we identify SETDB1 as an additional compacting factor promoting HR. Depletion of HP1, SUV39, SETDB1 or BRCA1 confer identical phenotypes. The repressive factors, like BRCA1, are dispensable for the initiation of resection but promote the extension step causing diminished RPA or RAD51 foci and HR in irradiated G2 cells. Depletion of the compacting factors does not inhibit BRCA1 recruitment but at 8 h post IR, BRCA1 foci are smaller and aberrantly positioned compared to control cells. BRCA1 promotes 53BP1 repositioning to the periphery of enlarged foci and formation of a devoid core with BRCA1 becoming enlarged and localized internally to 53BP1. Depletion of the compacting factors precludes these changes at irradiation-induced foci. Thus, the repressive factors are required for BRCA1 function in promoting the repositioning of 53BP1 during HR. Additionally, depletion of these repressive factors in undamaged cells causes diminished sister chromatid association at centromeric sequences. We propose a model for how these findings may be functionally linked.
Real-Life Performance of Protocol Combinations for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks today are used for many and diverse applications like nature monitoring, or process and wireless building automation. However, due to the limited access to large testbeds and the lack of benchmarking standards, the real-life evaluation of network protocols and their combinations remains mostly unaddressed in current literature. To shed further light upon this matter, this paper presents a thorough experimental performance analysis of six protocol combinations for TinyOS. During these protocol assessments, our research showed that the real-life performance often differs substantially from the expectations. Moreover, we found that combining protocols is far from trivial, as individual network protocols may perform very different in combination with other protocols. The results of our research emphasize the necessity of a flexible generic benchmarking framework, powerful enough to evaluate and compare network protocols and their combinations in different use cases.
Morphometric analysis of small arteries in the human retina using adaptive optics imaging: relationship with blood pressure and focal vascular changes

Objectives: The wall-to-lumen ratio (WLR) of retinal arteries is a recognized surrogate of end-organ damage due to aging and/or arterial hypertension. However, parietal morphometry remains difficult to assess in vivo. Recently, it was shown that adaptive optics retinal imaging can resolve parietal structures of retinal arterioles in humans in vivo. Here, using adaptive optics retinal imaging, we investigated the variations of parietal thickness of small retinal arteries with blood pressure and focal vascular damage. Methods: Adaptive optics imaging of the superotemporal retinal artery was done in 49 treatment-naive individuals [mean age (±SD) 44.9 years (±14); mean systolic pressure 132 mmHg (±22)]. Semi-automated segmentation allowed extracting parietal thickness and lumen diameter. In a distinct cohort, adaptive optics images of arteriovenous nicking (AVN; n = 12) and focal arteriolar narrowing (FAN; n = 10) were also analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Results: In the cohort of treatment-naive individuals, by multiple regression taking into account age, body mass index, mean, systolic, diastolic and pulse blood pressure, the WLR was found positively correlated to mean blood pressure and age which in combination accounted for 43% of the variability of WLR. In the cohort of patients with focal vascular damage, neither FANs or AVNs showed evidence of parietal growth; instead, at sites of FANs, decreased outer diameter suggestive of vasoconstriction was consistently found, while at sites of AVNs venous narrowing could be seen in the absence of arteriovenous contact. Conclusion: High resolution imaging of retinal vessels by adaptive optics allows quantitative microvascular phenotyping, which may contribute to a better understanding and management of hypertensive retinopathy.