Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pneumococcal Colonization Rates in Patients Admitted to a United Kingdom Hospital with Lower Respiratory Tract Infection: a Prospective Case-Control Study

ABSTRACT Current diagnostic tests are ineffective for identifying the etiological pathogen in hospitalized adults with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs). The association of pneumococcal colonization with disease has been suggested as a means to increase the diagnostic precision. We compared the pneumococcal colonization rates and the densities of nasal pneumococcal colonization by (i) classical culture and (ii) quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) targeting lytA in patients with LRTIs admitted to a hospital in the United Kingdom and control patients. A total of 826 patients were screened for inclusion in this prospective case-control study. Of these, 38 patients were recruited, 19 with confirmed LRTIs and 19 controls with other diagnoses. Nasal wash (NW) samples were collected at the time of recruitment. Pneumococcal colonization was detected in 1 patient with LRTI and 3 controls (P = 0.6) by classical culture. By qPCR, pneumococcal colonization was detected in 10 LRTI patients and 8 controls (P = 0.5). Antibiotic usage prior to sampling was significantly higher in the LRTI group than in the control group (19 versus 3; P < 0.001). With a clinically relevant cutoff of >8,000 copies/ml on qPCR, pneumococcal colonization was found in 3 LRTI patients and 4 controls (P > 0.05). We conclude that neither the prevalence nor the density of nasal pneumococcal colonization (by culture and qPCR) can be used as a method of microbiological diagnosis in hospitalized adults with LRTI in the United Kingdom. A community-based study recruiting patients prior to antibiotic therapy may be a useful future step.
Intracellular location of the Ah receptor

The subcellular distribution of the Ah receptor from the mouse hepatoma line, Hepa‐1, was investigated following cytochalasin B treatment and cell enucleation. Probing the resultant cytoplast and nucleoplast fractions with radiolabelled tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin (TCDD) revealed the presence of a specifically bound peak of receptor only in the cytoplast fraction. However, the quantity of receptor recovered in these experiments was only 10–12% of the expected value. We therefore undertook an investigation to determine the fate of the Ah receptor in the presence of cytochalasin B. Incubation of Hepa‐1 cells with this compound resulted in a rapid loss or inactivation of cytosolic binding activity with a concomitant decrease in the amount of receptor partitioned into the nucleus at all time periods examined. Control experiments indicated that cytochalasin B did not compete with TCDD for binding to the Ah receptor and furthermore, that its mechanism of action could not be attributed to a non‐specific effect on all cytosolic proteins. The results obtained are discussed in relation to the proposed models for induction by the estrogen and glucocorticoid binding receptors.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Decision Making in Cocaine Dependence

Background Chronic stimulant abuse is associated with both impairment in decision making and structural abnormalities in brain gray and white matter. Recent data suggest these structural abnormalities may be related to functional impairment in important behavioral processes. Methodology/Principal Findings In 15 cocaine-dependent and 18 control subjects, we examined relationships between decision-making performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and white matter integrity as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Whole brain voxelwise analyses showed that, relative to controls, the cocaine group had lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher mean of the second and third eigenvalues (λ⊥) in frontal and parietal white matter regions and the corpus callosum. Cocaine subjects showed worse performance on the IGT, notably over the last 40 trials. Importantly, FA and λ⊥ values in these regions showed a significant relationship with IGT performance on the last 40 trials. Conclusions Compromised white matter integrity in cocaine dependence may be related to functional impairments in decision making.
A trans-diagnostic perspective on obsessive-compulsive disorder

Progress in understanding the underlying neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has stalled in part because of the considerable problem of heterogeneity within this diagnostic category, and homogeneity across other putatively discrete, diagnostic categories. As psychiatry begins to recognize the shortcomings of a purely symptom-based psychiatric nosology, new data-driven approaches have begun to be utilized with the goal of solving these problems: specifically, identifying trans-diagnostic aspects of clinical phenomenology based on their association with neurobiological processes. In this review, we describe key methodological approaches to understanding OCD from this perspective and highlight the candidate traits that have already been identified as a result of these early endeavours. We discuss how important inferences can be made from pre-existing case-control studies as well as showcasing newer methods that rely on large general population datasets to refine and validate psychiatric phenotypes. As exemplars, we take ‘compulsivity’ and ‘anxiety’, putatively trans-diagnostic symptom dimensions that are linked to well-defined neurobiological mechanisms, goal-directed learning and error-related negativity, respectively. We argue that the identification of biologically valid, more homogeneous, dimensions such as these provides renewed optimism for identifying reliable genetic contributions to OCD and other disorders, improving animal models and critically, provides a path towards a future of more targeted psychiatric treatments.
The REPERE Corpus : a multimodal corpus for person recognition

The REPERE Challenge aims to support research on people recognition in multimodal conditions. To assess the technology progression, annual evaluation campaigns will be organized from 2012 to 2014. In this context, the REPERE corpus, a French videos corpus with multimodal annotation, has been developed. This paper presents datasets collected for the dry run test that took place at the beginning of 2012. Specific annotation tools and guidelines are mainly described. At the time being, 6 hours of data have been collected and annotated. Last section presents analyses of annotation distribution and interaction between modalities in the corpus.
Equilibrium selection by co-evolution for bargaining problems under incomplete information about time preferences

The main purpose of this work is to measure the impact of players' information completeness on the outcomes in dynamic strategic games. We apply co-evolutionary algorithms to solve four incomplete information bargaining problems and investigate the experimental outcomes on players' shares from agreements, the efficiency of agreements and the evolutionary time for convergence. Empirical analyses indicate that in the absence of complete information on the counterpart(s)' preferences, co-evolving populations are still able to select equilibriums which are Pareto-efficient and stationary. This property of the co-evolutionary algorithm supports its future applications on complex dynamic games.
Fecal microbiomes of non‐human primates in Western Uganda reveal species‐specific communities largely resistant to habitat perturbation

Primate gastrointestinal microbial communities are becoming increasingly appreciated for their relevance to comparative medicine and conservation, but the factors that structure primate “microbiomes” remain controversial. This study examined a community of primates in Kibale National Park, Uganda, to assess the relative importance of host species and location in structuring gastrointestinal microbiomes. Fecal samples were collected from primates in intact forest and from primates in highly disturbed forest fragments. People and livestock living nearby were also included, as was a geographically distant population of related red colobus in Kenya. A culture‐free microbial community fingerprinting technique was used to analyze fecal microbiomes from 124 individual red colobus (Procolobus rufomitratus), 100 individual black‐and‐white colobus (Colobus guereza), 111 individual red‐tailed guenons (Cercopithecus ascanius), 578 human volunteers, and 364 domestic animals, including cattle (Bos indicus and B. indicus × B. taurus crosses), goats (Caprus hircus), sheep (Ovis aries), and pigs (Sus scrofa). Microbiomes sorted strongly by host species, and forest fragmentation did not alter this pattern. Microbiomes of Kenyan red colobus sorted distinctly from microbiomes of Ugandan red colobus, but microbiomes from these two red colobus populations clustered more closely with each other than with any other species. Microbiomes from red colobus and black‐and‐white colobus were more differentiated than would be predicted by the phylogenetic relatedness of these two species, perhaps reflecting heretofore underappreciated differences in digestive physiology between the species. Within Kibale, social group membership influenced intra‐specific variation among microbiomes. However, intra‐specific variation was higher among primates in forest fragments than among primates in intact forest, perhaps reflecting the physical separation of fragments. These results suggest that, in this system, species‐specific processes such as gastrointestinal physiology strongly structure microbial communities, and that primate microbiomes are relatively resistant to perturbation, even across large geographic distances or in the face of habitat disturbance. Am. J. Primatol. 76:347–354, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Bombe a Remarkable Logic Machine

The bombe was an electromechanical machine devised by Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman for breaking the. German Enigma cipher in World War II. The way in which it used a reductio ad absurdum logic to reduce 263 possibilities to a few is a unique example of ingenious circuit design, which is described in detail. Its relationship to the Polish version of the ‘bombe’ is explored. The importance of the diagonal board is shown as is the threat that this device faced from the German's use of the ‘Enigma-Uhr’.
Understanding Quantitative Genetics in the Systems Biology Era

Biology is now entering the new era of systems biology and exerting a growing influence on the future development of various disciplines within life sciences. In early classical and molecular periods of Biology, the theoretical frames of classical and molecular quantitative genetics have been systematically established, respectively. With the new advent of systems biology, there is occurring a paradigm shift in the field of quantitative genetics. Where and how the quantitative genetics would develop after having undergone its classical and molecular periods? This is a difficult question to answer exactly. In this perspective article, the major effort was made to discuss the possible development of quantitative genetics in the systems biology era, and for which there is a high potentiality to develop towards "systems quantitative genetics". In our opinion, the systems quantitative genetics can be defined as a new discipline to address the generalized genetic laws of bioalleles controlling the heritable phenotypes of complex traits following a new dynamic network model. Other issues from quantitative genetic perspective relating to the genetical genomics, the updates of network model, and the future research prospects were also discussed.
GTP , yS Inhibits Organelle Transport along Axonal Microtubules

Movements of membrane-bounded organelles through cytoplasm frequently occur along microtubules, as in the neuron-specific case of fast axonal transport. To shed light on how microtubulebased organelle motility is regulated, pharmacological probes for GTP-binding proteins, or protein kinases or phosphatases were perfused into axoplasm extruded from squid (Loligo pealei) giant axons, and effects on fast axonal transport were monitored by quantitative video-enhanced light microscopy. GTP3,S caused concentration-dependent and time-dependent declines in organelle transport velocities. GDP/3S was a less potent inhibitor. Excess GTP, but not GDP, masked the effects of coperfused GTP3'S. The effects of GTP3,S on transport were not mimicked by broad spectrum inhibitors of protein kinases (K-252a) or phosphatases (microcystin LR and okadaic acid), or as shown earlier, by ATP3,S. Therefore, suppression of organelle motility by GTP3,S was guanine nucleotide-specific and evidently did not involve irreversible transfer of thiophosphate groups to protein. Instead, the data imply that organelle transport in the axon is modulated by cycles of GTP hydrolysis and nucleotide exchange by one or more GTP-binding proteins. Fast axonal transport was not perturbed by A1F4-, indicating that the GTP'yS-sensitive factors do not include heterotrimeric G-proteins. Potential axoplasmic targets of GTP3,S include dynamin and multiple small GTPbinding proteins, which were shown to be present in squid axoplasm. These collective findings suggest a novel strategy for regulating microtubule-based organelle transport and a new role for GTP-binding
Carbon–metal nanosheets from the water–hexane interface

This report describes a new approach to prepare atom thick metal–sulfide–graphene nanosheets produced by the subsequent annealing of crosslinked carbon–metal film formed at the water–hexane interface. A bipyridine dithiol (BPD) layer self-assembled in the water–hexane hydrophilic/hydrophobic biphasic medium was used to encapsulate metal ions (M2+) (M = Co or Ni). Subsequently, the BPD–M2+ film was crosslinked using UV-light. Then the resultant carbon–metal nanosheets were annealed at high temperature under N2, transforming these molecular sheets into a homogeneous nano-crystalline metal–sulfide–graphene hybrids (MSGH). This approach can produce semi-transparent conducting films having marked conductivity dependence on the number of nanosheets in a stack. The suggested strategy opens up broad prospects toward the MSGH architecture using a simple process with new properties for new applications such as energy conversion/storage and electronics.
Approximate Fisher Kernels of Non-iid Image Models for Image Categorization

The bag-of-words (BoW) model treats images as sets of local descriptors and represents them by visual word histograms. The Fisher vector (FV) representation extends BoW, by considering the first and second order statistics of local descriptors. In both representations local descriptors are assumed to be identically and independently distributed (iid), which is a poor assumption from a modeling perspective. It has been experimentally observed that the performance of BoW and FV representations can be improved by employing discounting transformations such as power normalization. In this paper, we introduce non-iid models by treating the model parameters as latent variables which are integrated out, rendering all local regions dependent. Using the Fisher kernel principle we encode an image by the gradient of the data log-likelihood w.r. t. the model hyper-parameters. Our models naturally generate discounting effects in the representations; suggesting that such transformations have proven successful because they closely correspond to the representations obtained for non-iid models. To enable tractable computation, we rely on variational free-energy bounds to learn the hyper-parameters and to compute approximate Fisher kernels. Our experimental evaluation results validate that our models lead to performance improvements comparable to using power normalization, as employed in state-of-the-art feature aggregation methods.
An Adaptive $Q$-Learning Algorithm Developed for Agent-Based Computational Modeling of Electricity Market

Balancing between exploration and exploitation with adaptation of the Q-learning (QL) parameters to the condition of dynamic uncertain environment has always been a significant subject of interest in the context of reinforcement learning. The peculiarities of the electricity market have provided such complex dynamic economic environment, and consequently have increased the requirement for advancement of the learning methods. In this economic system, the agent's market power plays a vital role in bidding decision-making problem. In order to improve the QL method, as main idea, adaptation of its parameters to the market power is proposed for making a good balance between exploration and exploitation. To implement this adaptation process, due to the fuzzy nature of human's decision-making process, a fuzzy system is designed to map each agent's market power into the QL parameters. Therefore, a fuzzy QL method is developed to model the power supplier's strategic bidding behavior in a computational electricity market. In the simulation framework, the QL algorithm selects the power supplier's bidding strategy according to the past experiences and the values of the parameters, which show the human's risk characteristic. The application of the proposed methodology for the power supplier in a multiarea power system shows the performance improvement in comparison to the QL with fixed parameters.
Development of a novel bioactive prosthesis based on an advanced surface modified nanocomposite material and circulating progenitor stem cells

A novel heart valve prosthesis was designed and fabricated using an advanced nanocomposite material based on polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanoparticle and polycarbonate ureaurethane (PCU). The valve material was characterised for mechanical and surface properties and was tested under physiological pulsatile flow conditions for calcification properties. The surface of the leaflets was further functionalised using bioactive peptides to enhance in-site endothelialisation potential. Circulating endothelial progenitor stem cells (EPCs) were isolated and the valves were incubated in bioreactor to study EPCs attachment and growth. The valves were also tested for hydrodynamic performance using a pulse-duplicator system. The results revealed improved mechanical and surface properties and significant resistance to calcification. EPC static culture showed excellent cell viability, clonal expansion and differentiation of EPCs to the endothelial cells after 3 weeks culture on the valve leaflets. Dynamic EPC culture on bioreactor proved the concept of cell attachment under simulated physiological pulsatile flow conditions. The valve revealed enhanced hydrodynamic performance compared to the controls in the pulse-duplicator system. The results indicate that this novel valve prototype can be considered as a breakthrough in the development of next generation bioactive valves with enhanced functional properties and in-situ endothelialisation potential.
Optimal siting and sizing of distributed energy storage systems via alternating direction method of multipliers

Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) has an important role in Active Distribution Networks (ADNs). Within this context this paper focuses on the problem of ESSs optimal siting and sizing. Following similar approaches already proposed by the Authors, this paper uses a multi-objective procedure to account various ancillary services that can be provided by ESSs. The proposed procedure takes into account the voltage support and network losses minimization along with minimization of the cost of energy from external grid. For the case of large-scale problems, accounting networks with large number of nodes and scenarios, the selection of the solution methodology is a non-trivial problem. In this respect, the paper proposes and discusses the applicability of the Alternative Direction Method of Multipliers in order to provide an efficient algorithm for large-scale networks that also provide a solution to the optimality aspect. A real large-scale network with real profiles of load and distributed photovoltaic generation is used as the case study to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
Resumption of oral anticoagulation after warfarin-associated intracerebral hemorrhage: no.

A hematology/thrombosis consultation for a patient admitted with warfarin-associated intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) should take into account the indication for anticoagulation, the treatment history with warfarin, any possible precipitating risk factors for the hemorrhage, the location of the hematoma, and the condition of the patient. Finally, the balance between the risk for ischemic stroke without anticoagulation and the risk of recurrent ICH with resumed anticoagulation should be assessed. Until recently, expert opinion1 as well as systematic reviews2,3 were favoring early resumption, that is, after 3 to 14 days, of anticoagulation in stable patients. A retrospective study of 234 patients with warfarin-associated ICH concluded that the resumption should be delayed by 10 to 30 weeks to avoid the early high-risk period for recurrent hemorrhage, during which full anticoagulation appeared to increase this risk 5-fold.4 In risk modeling, it could be calculated from the data in this study that resumption of warfarin after 1 month …
Stop the Truthiness and Just Be Wrong

Since their earliest days, databases have held themselves to a strict invariant: Never give the user a wrong answer. So ingrained into psyche of database theoreticians, researchers, and DBAs is this invariant, that those few attempts to violate it have included cumbersome data models [3,7,8], huge warning signs [4], or obnoxious language constructs that break classical SQL [1,5]. Sadly, by focusing on the quality of the database itself, database systems fail to acknowledge that the it is the data that is rarely precise, correct, valid, or unambiguous. The emphasis on certain, deterministic data forces the use of complex, hard-to-manage, slow-to-create extract-transformload (ETL) pipelines that emit deceptively certain, “truthy” data rather than acknowledging ambiguity or error. Database systems have always had a key role in automating complex data-driven decision processes. However, as more decisions are automated, even small errors in source data can have drastic impacts on peoples lives, from denying a person credit, to deciding that an 8-year old is a terrorist. User-facing software companies have surpassed databases in this respect. For example, Apple applications use facts data-mined from email to automatically populate databases in their contacts and calendar applications. Figure 1 illustrates how two applications presents extracted information to the user. Three features are prominent: First, these facts are explicitly kept distinct, clearly marked as being guesses and thus uncertain. Second, the interface includes intuitive provenance mechanisms that help the user understand the extraction system’s intent and puts the extracted information in context. Finally, the interface includes overt solicitations for feedback to help the user quickly correct unwanted extractions or mark the extracted data as valid. The illusion of accuracy in database query results can no longer be maintained. Database systems must learn how to acknowledge errors in source data, and how to use this
MK-fuzzy Automata and MSO Logics

We introduce MK-fuzzy automata over a bimonoid K which is related to the fuzzification of the McCarthy-Kleene logic. Our automata are inspired by, and intend to contribute to, practical applications being in development in a project on runtime network monitoring based on predicate logic. We investigate closure properties of the class of recognizable MK-fuzzy languages accepted by MK-fuzzy automata as well as of deterministically recognizable MK-fuzzy languages accepted by their deterministic counterparts. Moreover, we establish a Nivat-like result for recognizable MK-fuzzy languages. We introduce an MK-fuzzy MSO logic and show the expressive equivalence of a fragment of this logic with MK-fuzzy automata, i.e., a B\"uchi type theorem.