Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Representation and generalization properties of class-entropy networks

Using conditional class entropy (CCE) as a cost function allows feedforward networks to fully exploit classification-relevant information. CCE-based networks arrange the data space into partitions, which are assigned unambiguous symbols and are labeled by class information. By this labeling mechanism the network can model the empirical data distribution at the local level. Region labeling evolves with the network-training process, which follows a plastic algorithm. The paper proves several theoretical properties about the performance of CCE-based networks, and considers both convergence during training and generalization ability at run-time. In addition, analytical criteria and practical procedures are proposed to enhance the generalization performance of the trained networks. Experiments on artificial and real-world domains confirm the accuracy of this class of networks and witness the validity of the described methods.
Efficacy of the prothrombin complex concentrate prothromplex in patients requiring urgent reversal of vitamin K antagonists or presenting with uncontrolled bleeding: a retrospective, single center study

The objective of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of a four-factor prothrombin complex concentrate (Prothromplex, PTX) in shortening prolonged international normalized ratio or controlling life-threatening bleeding. The study was a retrospective single-centre study that included 142 patients treated with PTX and allocated in three groups: patients on vitamin K antagonists (VKA) (acenocumarol) and undergoing invasive procedure or presenting with severe bleeding (n = 76), patients treated with VKA presenting with intracranial haemorrhage (n = 22), and patients not on VKA and presenting with uncontrolled bleeding (n = 44). The primary outcome variable was international normalized ratio (INR) return to the norm after PTX infusion. Secondary outcome variables included bleeding control and reduction of transfusion rate. Overall, patients received a median of 1200 IU (≈15 IU/kg) of PTX, and INR decreased from 4 ± 3 to 1.7 ± 1.2 (P < 0.01) in all groups, although it remained at least 1.4 in 38% of patients (29.3% among patients receiving 25 IU/kg vs. 42.6% among those receiving 15 IU/kg; P < 0.05). Patients with initial INR at least 4 benefited the most from treatment. After PTX administration, there was a significant reduction in both transfused blood components units (P < 0.01) and estimated blood loss volume (from 1500 ± 1500 to 200 ± 100 ml; P < 0.01), and only one episode of deep venous thrombosis was observed. Administration of fixed doses of PTX shortened prolonged international normalized ratio and improved life-threatening bleeding in patients with or without VKA therapy. Higher dose attained a more adequate post-infusion INR.
A 950MHz RF 20MHz bandwidth direct RF sampling bit streamer receiver based on an FPGA

A 950 MHz direct RF sampling bit streamer receiver architecture based on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is presented. In proposed architecture, an RF input signal is divided into the envelope and phase detectors. They are directly converted to two 1 bit streams using multi-gigabit transceivers on an FPGA, then are reconstructed into I/Q signal in an FPGA. The measured error vector magnitudes are 2.7 % and 8.4 % for QPSK 5 MHz and 64-QAM 20 MHz input signals respectively. The architecture provides major benefits of eliminating ADC devices, simplifying the inter-connection of RF front end devices to digital base band, and cutting down the power consumption significantly for the multi-channel RF systems.
An automated design of pin-constrained digital microfluidic biochip on MEDA architecture

Pin-constrained design of digital microfluidic biochips (DMFBs) for general purpose assay operations is receiving much attention in recent years as it can reduce the total product cost by simplifying chip fabrication and packaging. Most of the existing works of pin-constrained biochip designs and pin reduction solutions are applicable for specific biotechnology applications. A proficient electrowetting-on-dielectric based architecture namely Microelectrode Dot Array (MEDA) has recently been introduced as a new, highly reconfigurable, scalable and field programmable dot array architecture being capable of undergoing dynamic configuration. In this paper, we present some essential sufficient pin-assignment architecture on pin-constrained MEDA based biochips and propose a pin assignment technique for multifunctional biochips in order to solve the pin reduction problem. Some random specific benchmarks are used for evaluating our technique to prove its effectiveness.
In vitro activity of difloxacin hydrochloride (A-56619), A-56620, and cefixime (CL 284,635; FK 027) against selected genital pathogens

Management of sexually transmitted diseases is facilitated by having antimicrobial agents with activity against all of the major genital pathogens. Newer quinolones show promise of being active against Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. Two quinolones, difloxacin (A-56619) and A-56620, and an oral cephalosporin, cefixime (CL 284,635; FK 027), were evaluated in vitro. All three were highly active against 400 isolates of N. gonorrhoeae, including penicillinase-producing N. gonorrhoeae, N. gonorrhoeae with chromosomally mediated resistance, and isolates with penicillin MICs of less than 1 microgram/ml. Susceptibilities to one antimicrobial agent were usually strongly correlated with susceptibilities to the other antimicrobial agents evaluated, but isolates with increasing resistance to beta-lactams were least likely to show increasing resistance to quinolones. Difloxacin and, to a lesser extent, A-56620 were active against all 10 strains of C. trachomatis, and both had moderate activity against over 200 strains of Gardnerella vaginalis. Based on in vitro activity, difloxacin and A-56620 merit in vivo assessment for management of both C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae infections, and cefixime shows considerable promise for treatment of N. gonorrhoeae infections.
Inhibition of human cytochrome p450 metabolism by blended herbal products and vitamins.

PURPOSE The use of supplements as herbal and micronutrient natural health products with conventional health products has become increasingly popular. It has been reported that some herbal products can inhibit the activity of cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism and drug disposition. This study was designed to investigate a case report of a severe adverse event to determine the potential interactions of femMED, Thyrosense and vitamins on cytochrome P450-mediated drug metabolism. METHODS The effect of extracts from these commercially available herbal formulations, trans-ß-carotene, multivitamins, and vitamin D3 supplements on cytochrome P450-mediated drug metabolism of marker substrates was determined in vitro. RESULTS The blended herbal products femMED and Thyrosense had a high potential to affect the safety and efficacy of many health products. Some vitamin and trans-β-carotene containing products also have the potential to affect drug disposition. The tBC content of various products was analyzed and significant discrepancies were found among them and between values indicated on product labels. Product extracts also exhibited a low to moderate capacity to inhibit cytochrome P450 2C9, 2C19 and 3A4-mediated metabolism. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study suggest that these herbal products and most vitamin products may have an inhibitory effect on cytochrome P450 activity that could contribute to development of an adverse event. Further work is warranted to determine how supplementation with these products may affect drug metabolism in an in vivo context.
Mass measles control in West and Central Africa.

Further attenuated measles vaccine has been given to 13 million children in 19 West and Central African countries as part of a regional program of smallpox eradication and measles control. Measles transmission has been significantly reduced in most countries and interrupted only in Gambia. Analysis of measles cases in the post-campaign period has identified measles in nonparticipants in the mass campaign, new susceptibles, and in a small number of vaccines. Although the original program envisioned recycling, the immunization of new susceptibles, every 2-3 years, epidemiological investigation has indicated that the frequency of recycling must be increased to achieve effective control. The current development of maintenance programs is directed at maximum utilization of mobile teams and static health facilities to achieve immunization of new susceptibles every 6 months in high density population areas and every 12-18 months in low density areas. (author's)
Clinical effectiveness of treatment with hyperbaric oxygen for neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy: systematic review of Chinese literature

Abstract Objectives To investigate the clinical effectiveness of treatment with hyperbaric oxygen for neonates with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. This treatment is frequently used in China but much less often in the West. Data sources Western (Cochrane controlled trials register and database of systematic reviews, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and HealthSTAR) and Chinese (China Hospital Digital Library, Chinese Medical Journal Network) databases and hand search of Chinese journals. No language restrictions. Review methods Randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials of treatment with hyperbaric oxygen compared with “usual care” in term neonates with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. Outcomes included mortality and long term neurological sequelae. Standardised forms were used to extract and compare data. Criteria of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination were used to assess quality. Analysis was mainly qualitative but included meta-analysis. Results 20 trials were found, mainly from Chinese sources. The reporting quality of trials was poor by Western (CONSORT) standards. Treatment with hyperbaric oxygen had better outcomes than the comparator in almost all trials. The odds ratios of the meta-analyses were 0.26 (95% confidence interval 0.14 to 0.46) for mortality and 0.41 (0.27 to 0.61) for neurological sequelae. Conclusion Treatment with hyperbaric oxygen possibly reduces mortality and neurological sequelae in term neonates with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. Because of the poor quality of reporting in all trials and the possibility of publication bias, an adequately powered, high quality randomised controlled trial is needed to investigate these findings. The Chinese medical literature may be a rich source of evidence to inform clinical practice and other systematic reviews.
Two-stage method for salt-and-pepper noise removal using statistical jump regression analysis

This paper proposes a new two-stage method for image denoising under salt-and-pepper noise based on a median-type noise detector and the edge-preserving surface estimation using statistical jump regression analysis. In the first stage, a median-type noise detector is used to detect the pixels that are likely to be corrupted by salt-and-pepper noise. In the second stage, the image is denoised by using edge-preserving statistical jump regression analysis based on the uncorrupted pixels. The experiments show that the proposed approach obtains better tradeoff between denoising performance and computational complexity.
SledgeHMMER: a web server for batch searching the Pfam database

The SledgeHMMER web server is intended for genome-scale searching of the Pfam database without having to install this database and the HMMER software locally. The server implements a parallelized version of hmmpfam, the program used for searching the Pfam HMM database. Pfam search results have been calculated for the entire Swiss-Prot and TrEmbl database sequences (approximately 1.2 million) on 256 processors of IA64-based teragrid machines. The Pfam database can be searched in local, glocal or merged mode, using either gathering or E-value thresholds. Query sequences are first matched against the pre-calculated entries to retrieve results, and those without matches are processed through a new search process. Results are emailed in a space-delimited tabular format upon completion of the search. While most other Pfam-searching web servers set a limit of one sequence per query, this server processes batch sequences with no limit on the number of input sequences. The web server and downloadable data are accessible from http://SledgeHmmer.sdsc. edu.
A Comparison of Methods for Portraying School Demography Using Census Data

Several ways of indexing the demography of a school from Canadian census data were devised and compared. In one comparison, statistics based on the complete catchment area of a school were set against statistics specific to the neighborhoods inhabited by the students actually attending the school. In a second comparison, catchment-area statistics, which were based on the total population in the area, were compared with statistics based on the subpopulation of mothers of school-aged children residing in the area. The results indicate that the methods are not interchangeable, although the degree of discrepancy observed between methods varied with the demographic variable considered. The demography-indexing methods were also compared for degree of correlation with student achievement in language or mathematics. The demographic indicators obtained using the enrollment method were found to correlate a little more strongly with achievement than the indicators obtained using the catchment area method. All results are merely suggestive, however, pending further study.
Impact of HLA-B Alleles, Epitope Binding Affinity, Functional Avidity, and Viral Coinfection on the Immunodominance of Virus-Specific CTL Responses1

Immunodominance is variably used to describe either the most frequently detectable response among tested individuals or the strongest response within a single individual, yet factors determining either inter- or intraindividual immunodominance are still poorly understood. More than 90 individuals were tested against 184 HIV- and 92 EBV-derived, previously defined CTL epitopes. The data show that HLA-B-restricted epitopes were significantly more frequently recognized than HLA-A- or HLA-C-restricted epitopes. HLA-B-restricted epitopes also induced responses of higher magnitude than did either HLA-A- or HLA-C-restricted epitopes, although this comparison only reached statistical significance for EBV epitopes. For both viruses, the magnitude and frequency of recognition were correlated with each other, but not with the epitope binding affinity to the restricting HLA allele. The presence or absence of HIV coinfection did not impact EBV epitope immunodominance patterns significantly. Peptide titration studies showed that the magnitude of responses was associated with high functional avidity, requiring low concentration of cognate peptide to respond in in vitro assays. The data support the important role of HLA-B alleles in antiviral immunity and afford a better understanding of the factors contributing to inter- and intraindividual immunodominance.
Model Checking C Programs with Loops via k-Induction and Invariants

We present a novel proof by induction algorithm, which combines k-induction with invariants to model check C programs with bounded and unbounded loops. The k-induction algorithm consists of three cases: in the base case, we aim to find a counterexample with up to k loop unwindings; in the forward condition, we check whether loops have been fully unrolled and that the safety property P holds in all states reachable within k unwindings; and in the inductive step, we check that whenever P holds for k unwindings, it also holds after the next unwinding of the system. For each step of the k-induction algorithm, we infer invariants using affine constraints (i.e., polyhedral) to specify pre- and post-conditions. The algorithm was implemented in two different ways, with and without invariants using polyhedral, and the results were compared. Experimental results show that both forms can handle a wide variety of safety properties; however, the k-induction algorithm adopting polyhedral solves more verification tasks, which demonstrate an improvement of the induction algorithm effectiveness.
Extra‐large cluster formation by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) on Shodoshima Island, central Japan, and related factors

Japanese macaques on Shodoshima Island habitually form very large rest clusters, in which 50+ or even 100+ individuals huddle together. This behavior is not seen in any other populations of the species. Mean cluster sizes of two groups of Shodoshima monkeys are three and four in summer and 17 and 16 in winter, respectively. A maximum of 137 individuals have been seen to huddle in one cluster. It is difficult to explain the extra large clusters on Shodoshima only as an adaptive behavior against cold, since Shodoshima is relatively warm in the range of habitats for Japanese macaques. Compared with other groups of Japanese macaques, Shodoshima monkeys show: more frequent affinitive interactions, shorter inter‐individual distance, more frequent ignoring of exclusion, more frequent aggression, less intense aggression, and more frequent counter‐aggression. These characteristics suggest that the Japanese macaques on Shodoshima have relaxed dominant relations. The specific social organization of Shodoshima monkeys may sustain the formation of extra large clusters. Inter‐group comparisons suggest that the social structure of Japanese macaques might be highly plastic, and that Shodoshima monkeys have less despotic, more tolerant social relations than typically reported for this species. Am. J. Primatol. 69:1119–1130, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Thinking and acting in anticipation: a review of research on proactive behavior

Being proactive involves self-initiated, future-focused, and change-orientated behaviors. Such proactivity has been recognized as a positive way of behaving that can lead to the increased performance and effectiveness of individuals and organizations, especially when employees operate in contexts of unpredictable and changing demands. Because of its well-documented benefits, the antecedents and mechanisms of proactive behavior have been widely examined in an effort to identify how to promote such behavior in organizations. In this article, the authors first review various ways of conceptualizing proactivity, which includes an individual differences perspective, a behavior perspective, and a process perspective. A behavior perspective is mainly adopted in this article as this perspective is dominant in literature. Next, three mechanisms representing “can do”, “reason to” and “energized to” processes that can trigger proactive behavior are introduced. A review on antecedents of proactive behavior, including dispositional factors, situational factors and their interactions, is followed. The authors also summarize consequences that proactive behavior can bring, including job attitudes and performance. In addition to providing reviews, as the second part, the authors introduce their recent research that considers expanded dispositional predictors of proactive behavior (i.e., need for cognition, attachment style) as well as how these predictors interact with the situation. To conclude, the authors summarize what is well established in the literature, as well as what warrants further inquiry.
Urethral stricture.

THE earliest records of medicine are much concerned with the management of urethral strictures by means of catheters and sounds. In ancient India Susruta described the use of a reed catheter lubricated with ghee*. In Greece, Socrates was known to joke about the gleet of others, and poor Epicurus committed suicide when he could no longer dilate his own stricture. In Rome in the first century, Celsus described the operation of external urethrotomy for a calculus impacted behind a stricture, and urethrotomy became part of the canon of classical medicine preserved by the Arabs only to be rediscovered in the Renaissance, when Ambroise Pare (1510-1590) devised an instrument for scraping 'carnosities' from the urethra. Silver catheters armed with a concealed lancet were in use in 1795, and in 1817 Civiale of Paris devised a practical internal urethrotome, improved by Maisonneuve in 1848 to screw on to a filiform guide. Gonorrhoea to the ancients was hardly more than a cold in an awkward place: Boswell makes little of his own attacks, and the gleet put a gentleman in the company of the great, which included Henry IV and Napoleon (Attwater, 1943; Lytton, 1976; N. I. Lopatkin, personal communication, 1977). For many years the distinction between gonorrhoea and syphilis was obscured by their common origin:
Allergic contact dermatitis from shellac in mascara

We report 6 cases of allergic contact dermatitis of the eyelids due to mascara. Allergy occurred in women aged 17–34 years, between September 1999 and June 2001. The main ingredient responsible for allergy was shellac, which gave positive patch test reactions in 5/5 patients. This resinous substance is mainly used in cosmetics, food and industry. The exact nature of the hapten remains unknown, and its presence and level in shellac can vary with the source and the treatments applied to it. One patient was also sensitized to quaternium‐22, a quaternary ammonium compound in the cosmetic. These reports underline the rôle of networks, such as REVIDAL‐GERDA, in monitoring the emergence of contact allergens and disseminating such information among the medical community.
Regulation of Cell Migration by the C2 Domain of the Tumor Suppressor PTEN

PTEN is a tumor suppressor protein that dephosphorylates phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5 trisphosphate and antagonizes the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase signaling pathway. We show here that PTEN can also inhibit cell migration through its C2 domain, independent of its lipid phosphatase activity. This activity depends on the protein phosphatase activity of PTEN and on dephosphorylation at a single residue, threonine383. The ability of PTEN to control cell migration through its C2 domain is likely to be an important feature of its tumor suppressor activity.
THE NEUROBEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF LOW-LEVEL EXPOSURE TO LEAD IN CHILDHOOD

Although awareness of the neurotoxic effects of lead extend back into antiquity, only recently has the issue of unrecognized damage due to low-level exposure come to public attention. The first mention of lead's relevance to the theory and practice of psychiatry may have been the comments of Dioscorides in the 2nd century B.C.: "Lead makes the
Hepcidin in Anemia and Inflammation in Chronic Kidney Disease

Maintaining the correct iron balance is crucial for health. Our understanding of the molecular control of iron metabolism has increased dramatically over the past 5 years due to the discovery of hepcidin. This is a circulating antimicrobial peptide mainly synthesized in the liver, which has been recently proposed as a factor regulating the uptake of dietary iron and its mobilization from macrophages and hepatic stores. Inflammation causes an increase of production of hepcidin, which is a potent mediator of anemia of chronic diseases. Anemia in chronic kidney disease is mainly due to erythropoietin deficiency but these patients often have a chronic inflammatory state. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge dealing with a possible role of hepcidin in iron metabolism and its regulation, particularly in kidney disease. In addition, current methods of determination of hepcidin are reviewed.
Data-only Malware

In this thesis, we discuss a new form of malware called data-only malware. This malware form is unique in that it is capable of infecting a system without introducing a single instruction. This is accomplished by reusing existing instructions to perform computations. The result is a dangerous malware form that can evade many existing defense mechanisms. To counteract the threat, we conduct an in-depth analysis of data-only malware and propose virtualization-based detection mechanisms.