Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional relationship between bacterial cell density and the efficacy of antibiotics.

OBJECTIVES To determine the functional relationship between the density of bacteria and the pharmacodynamics of antibiotics, and the potential consequences of this inoculum effect on the microbiological course of antibiotic treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infections. METHODS In vitro time-kill, MIC estimation and antibiotic bioassay experiments were performed with S. aureus ATCC 25923 to ascertain the functional relationship between rates of kill and the MICs of six classes of antibiotics and the density of bacteria exposed. The potential consequences of the observed inoculum effects on the microbiological course of antibiotic treatment are explored with a mathematical model. RESULTS Modest or substantial inoculum effects on efficacy were observed for all six antibiotics studied, such as density-dependent declines in the rate and extent of antibiotic-mediated killing and increases in MIC. Although these measures of antibiotic efficacy declined with inoculum, this density effect did not increase monotonically. At higher densities, the rate of kill of ciprofloxacin and oxacillin declined with the antibiotic concentration. For daptomycin and vancomycin, much of this inoculum effect is due to density-dependent reductions in the effective concentration of the antibiotic. For the other four antibiotics, this density effect is primarily associated with a decrease in per-cell antibiotic concentration. With parameters in the range estimated, our mathematical model predicts that the course of antibiotic treatment can be affected by cell density; treatment protocols based on conventional (density-independent) MICs can fail to clear higher density infections. CONCLUSIONS The MICs used for pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic indices should be functions of the anticipated densities of the infecting population.
On Chern-Simons matrix models

The contribution of reducible connections to the U(N) Chern-Simons invariant of a Seifert manifold $M$ can be expressed in some cases in terms of matrix integrals. We show that the U(N) evaluation of the LMO invariant of any rational homology sphere admits a matrix model representation which agrees with the Chern-Simons matrix integral for Seifert spheres and the trivial connection.
The almost rigidity of manifolds with lower bounds on Ricci curvature

We consider complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds with quadratically decaying lower Ricci curvature bounds and minimal volume growth. We first prove a rigidity result showing that ends with strongly minimal volume growth are isometric to warped product manifolds. Next we consider the almost rigid case in which manifolds with nonnegative and quadratically decaying lower Ricci curvature bounds have minimal volume growth. Compact regions in such manifolds are shown to be asymptotically close to warped products in the Gromov-Hausdorff topology. Manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature and linear volume growth are shown to have regions which are asymptotically close to being isometric products. The proofs involve a careful analysis of the Busemann functions on these manifolds using the recently developed Cheeger-Colding Almost Rigidity Theory. In addition, we show that the diameters of the level sets of Busemann functions in such manifolds grow sublinearly.
Progressive Left Ventricular Dysfunction and Remodeling in Rats Promote α Pathophysiologically Relevant Concentrations of Tumor Necrosis Factor-Print

Biykem Bozkurt, Scott B. Kribbs, Fred J. Clubb, Jr, Lloyd H. Michael, Vladimir V. Didenko, Progressive Left Ventricular Dysfunction and Remodeling in Rats Promote α Pathophysiologically Relevant Concentrations of Tumor Necrosis FactorPrint ISSN: 0009-7322. Online ISSN: 1524-4539 Copyright © 1998 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231 Circulation doi: 10.1161/01.CIR. 97.14. 1382 1998;97:1382-1391 Circulation. http://circ.ahajournals. org/content/97/14/1382 World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on the
Leveraging smart meter data to recognize home appliances

The worldwide adoption of smart meters that measure and communicate residential electricity consumption gives rise to the development of new energy efficiency services. Several particularly promising applications involve the disaggregation of individual appliances within a particular household in terms of their energy demand. In this paper we present an infrastructure and a set of algorithms that make use of smart meters together with smartphones to realize new energy efficiency services (such as itemized electricity bills or targeted energy saving advice). The smartphones, together with a novel filtering approach, much simplify the training process for appliances signature recognition. We also report on the performance of our system that was tested with 8 simultaneous devices, achieving recognition rates of 87%.
Pelabelan pada graf caterpillar dan graf t-pyramid berdasarkan kondisi jarak

Pelabelan graf adalah fungsi yang memetakan elemen–elemen graf ke bilangan bulat non negatif. Jika domainnya adalah himpunan vertex – vertex maka disebut vertex-labelling. Salah satu teknik pelabelan adalah pelabelan yang berdasarkan pada kondisi jarak yang dinotasikan L(d1,d2). L(d1,d2)-labelling graf G, adalah suatu fungsi sedemikian sehingga | f(u) – f(v)| ≥ di, dimana dan jarak antara u dan v adalah i dalam graf G, untuk i = 1, 2. Bilangan L(d1,d2) dalam G, adalah bilangan k terkecil sedemikian sehingga terdapat sebuah label L(d1,d2) dengan k adalah label terbesar. Tujuan dari penulisan skripsi ini adalah menentukan untuk graf caterpillar dan graf T-pyramid dengan . Metode yang digunakan dalam penulisan skripsi ini adalah studi literatur. Berdasarkan hasil pembahasan, diperoleh kesimpulan bahwa untuk kedua graf di atas berturut–turut sebagai berikut. 1. ( ) = n-2, ( ) = n-1, ( ) = 2n-3. 2.
Delivery settings and caesarean section rates in China.

OBJECTIVE To quantify the influence of increasing use of health-care services on rising rates of caesarean section in China. METHODS We used data from a population-based survey conducted by the United Nations Population Fund during September 2003 in 30 selected counties in three regions of China. The study sample (derived from birth history schedule) consisted of 3803 births to mothers aged less than 40 years between 1993 and 2002. Multiple logistic regression models were used to estimate the effect of health-care factors on the odds of a caesarean section, controlling for time and selected variables. FINDINGS Institutional births increased from 53.5% in 1993-1994 to 82.2% in 2001-2002, while the corresponding increase in births by caesarean section was from 8.9% to 24.8%, respectively. Decomposition analysis showed that 69% of the increase in rates of caesarean section was driven by the increase in births within institutions. The adjusted odds of a caesarean section were 4.6 times (95% confidence interval, CI: 3.4-11.8) higher for recent births. The adjusted odds were also significantly higher for mothers who had at least one antenatal ultrasound test. Rates of caesarean section in secondary-level facilities markedly increased over the last decade to the same levels as in major hospitals (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The upsurge in rates of births by caesarean section in this population cannot be fully explained by increases in institutional births alone, but is likely to be driven by medical practice within secondary-level hospitals and women's demand for the procedure.
BDI agents in games.

Intelligent agents are the focus of interest by many fields of computer science. Agent-based systems are being used in an wide variety of applications from small scale systems such as email filters to large scale systems such as air traffic control. Rather recently, video games have attracted a lot of attention, however, there are still a large number of open issues regarding the application of AI to the field. Although, these areas appear to be different, they share one common factor; intelligent behavior. Intelligent behavior in video games is accomplished in many ways these days, from finite-state machines to neural networks, even more ad-hoc approaches. In this work we address the problem of devising a simple way to create game characters, using agent-based architecture, so that these characters (agents) are able to achieve their goals in an intelligent manner. A simple way here means an easy way to: • specify and manage agent behavior. • provide the means to easily adjust agent behavior to specific conditions. • allow to easily encode complex behavior. To address the problem stated above, this work reports on the implementation of a well defined and documented web application that generates agent simulation projects for experimentation. As it turns out, BDI architecture is perfectly suited for the task. Not all genres of games are appropriate, but most of modern games such as roleplaying-games (RPGs) or first-person-shooters (FPSs) are most likely to benefit from this approach.
Random Scrambling and Running Addition of PCA coefficients for Cancelable biometrics

In terms of user authentication, biometric systems offer numerous advantages in terms of convenience. However, they also suffer from disadvantages in some applications, for example, in the area of privacy protection. To enhance security and privacy in biometrics, cancelable biometrics have been introduced. In this paper, we propose cancelable biometrics for face recognition using a PCA method approach. In the proposed method, our experiment compares the performance between the cases where PCA coefficient vectors, and the transformed coefficient vectors are respectively used for verification. As a result, the proposed method satisfies a good level of condition for cancelable biometrics. The proposed method not only resolves a weak point of biometric systems, but also the method is simple.
A Unified View of Multi-Label Performance Measures

Multi-label classification deals with the problem where each instance is associated with multiple class labels. Because evaluation in multi-label classification is more complicated than single-label setting, a number of performance measures have been proposed. It is noticed that an algorithm usually performs differently on different measures. Therefore, it is important to understand which algorithms perform well on which measure(s) and why. In this paper, we propose a unified margin view to revisit eleven performance measures in multi-label classification. In particular, we define label-wise margin and instance-wise margin, and prove that through maximizing these margins, different corresponding performance measures will be optimized. Based on the defined margins, a max-margin approach called LIMO is designed and empirical results verify our theoretical findings.
Screening of Filamentous Fungi to Identify Biocatalysts for Lupeol Biotransformation

The goal of the study was to evaluate the ability of filamentous fungi to biotransform the pentacyclic triterpene lupeol. The microbial transformations were carried out in shake flasks in different media. Experiments were also run with control flasks. Samples of each culture were taken every 24 hours, extracted with ethyl acetate, and analyzed by GC-MS. The biotransformation of lupeol by Aspergillus ochraceus and Mucor rouxii afforded two compounds in each culture, which were detected in the cultures developed for more than seven days only in the Koch’s K1 medium. The obtained data demonstrated that A. ochraceus is a good biocatalyst to introduce double bonds in the lupeol structure, whereas M. rouxii exhibits ability to biocatalyze oxygen insertions in that pentacyclic triterpene. Mass spectrometry was demonstrated to be an efficient analytical method to select promising biocatalysts for the compound investigated in this study. The biotransformation processes were influenced by the culture medium and incubation period. The obtained results open the perspective of using A. ochraceus and M. rouxii in pentacyclic triterpene biotransformations.
Wedgelets: nearly minimax estimation of edges

We study a simple \Horizon Model" for the problem of recovering an image from noisy data; in this model the image has an edge with fi-Holder regularity. Adopting the viewpoint of computational harmonic analysis, we develop an overcomplete collection of atoms called wedgelets, dyadically organized indicator functions with a variety of locations, scales, and orientations. The wedgelet representation provides nearly-optimal representations of objects in the Horizon model, as measured by minimax description length. We show how to rapidly compute a wedgelet approximation to noisy data by flnding a special edgelet-decorated recursive partition which minimizes a complexity-penalized sum of squares. This estimate, using su-cient sub-pixel resolution, achieves nearly the minimax mean-squared error in the Horizon Model. In fact, the method is adaptive in the sense that it achieves nearly the minimax risk for any value of the unknown degree of regularity of the Horizon, 1• fi• 2. Wedgelet analysis and de-noising may be used successfully outside the Horizon model. We study images modelled as indicators of star-shaped sets with smooth bound- aries and show that complexity-penalized wedgelet partitioning achieves nearly the minimax risk in that setting also.
Depressive Symptoms and Cortisol Rhythmicity Predict Survival in Patients with Renal Cell Carcinoma: Role of Inflammatory Signaling

Purpose Evidence has supported the association between psychological factors and cancer biology; however, findings are equivocal on the role of psychosocial factors in cancer progression. This study generates a hypothesis of mechanistic variables by examining the clinical effects of psychosocial factors and cortisol dysregulation in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and examines associated activation of transcription control pathways. Methods Patients with metastatic RCC (n = 217) were prospectively enrolled in this study. Patients completed questionnaires (Centers for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression; SF-36 Health Status Survey; Duke Social Support Index; Coping Operations Preference Enquiry; organized and non-organized religious activity; and intrinsic religiosity), and provided blood and saliva samples. Cortisol levels and whole genome transcriptional profiling were assessed to identify potential alterations in circadian rhythms and genomic pathways. Results Separate Cox regression models, controlling for disease risk category, revealed that CES-D scores (p = 0.05, HR = 1.5, 95% CI for HR: 1.00–2.23) and cortisol slope (p = 0.002; HR = 1.9; 95%CI for HR: 1.27–2.97) were significantly associated with decreased survival. Only cortisol slope and risk category remained significant in the complete model. Functional genomic analyses linked depressive symptoms to increased expression of pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic genes in circulating leukocytes. 116 transcripts were found to be upregulated by an average of 50% or more in high CES-D patients, and 57 transcripts downregulated by at least 50%. These changes were also found in the tumor in a subset of patients. Conclusion These findings identify depressive symptoms as a key predictor of survival in renal cell carcinoma patients with potential links to dysregulation of cortisol and inflammatory biology.
She knew only when the garland was put around her neck': Findings from an exploratory study on early marriage in Rajasthan

Early marriage that is marriage below 18 years of age violates girls rights truncates their childhood and denies them a say in the choice of partner and timing of marriage. In India despite several policy and programme efforts early marriage persists with considerable variation between and within states. Unravelling the complex drivers of early marriage in particular contexts requires careful site-specific diagnostic research. Whether and how these downward pressures on age at marriage are ameliorated by Indias national and state efforts to foster later marriage is not well understood. Research is required at the community level to understand the extent of actual implementation of various policies and programmes intended to prevent early marriage and the extent to which such efforts have found acceptability among parents and the community. To begin to fill this gap in existing research and to inform the possible future development of programmes the Population Council undertook an exploratory qualitative study in two districts in Rajasthan. (excerpt)
Using the event calculus for tracking the normative state of contracts

In this work, we have been principally concerned with the representation of contracts so that their normative state may be tracked in an automated fashion over their deployment lifetime. The normative state of a contract, at a particular time, is the aggregation of instances of normative relations that hold between contract parties at that time, plus the current values of contract variables. The effects of contract events on the normative state of a contract are specified using an XML formalization of the Event Calculus, called ecXML. We use an example mail service agreement from the domain of web services to ground the discussion of our work. We give a characterization of the agreement according to the normative concepts of obligation, power and permission, and show how the ecXML representation may be used to track the state of the agreement, according to a narrative of contract events. We also give a description of a state tracking architecture, and a contract deployment tool, both of which have been im.
α‐Synuclein implicated in Parkinson's disease is present in extracellular biological fluids, including human plasma

Parkinson's disease (PD) and other related disorders are characterized by the accumulation of fibrillar aggregates of α‐synuclein protein (α‐syn) inside brain cells. It is likely that the formation of α‐syn aggregates plays a seminal role in the pathogenesis of at least some of these diseases, because two different mutations in the gene encoding α‐syn have been found in inherited forms of PD. α‐Syn is mainly expressed by neuronal cells and is generally considered to exist as a cytoplasmic protein. Here, we report the unexpected identification of α‐syn in conditioned culture media from untransfected and α‐syn‐transfected human neuroblastoma cells, as well as in human cerebrospinal fluid and blood plasma. The method used was immunocapture by using anti‐α‐syn antibodies coupled to magnetic beads, followed by detection on Western blots. In all cases, α‐syn was identified as a single 15 kDa band, which co‐migrated with a recombinant form of the protein and reacted with five different antibodies to α‐syn. Our findings suggest that cells normally secrete α‐syn into their surrounding media, both in vitro and in vivo. The detection of extracellular α‐syn and/or its modified forms in body fluids, particularly in human plasma, offers new opportunities for the development of diagnostic tests for PD and related diseases.
An aberrant precision account of autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by problems with social-communication, restricted interests and repetitive behavior. A recent and thought-provoking article presented a normative explanation for the perceptual symptoms of autism in terms of a failure of Bayesian inference (Pellicano and Burr, 2012). In response, we suggested that when Bayesian inference is grounded in its neural instantiation—namely, predictive coding—many features of autistic perception can be attributed to aberrant precision (or beliefs about precision) within the context of hierarchical message passing in the brain (Friston et al., 2013). Here, we unpack the aberrant precision account of autism. Specifically, we consider how empirical findings—that speak directly or indirectly to neurobiological mechanisms—are consistent with the aberrant encoding of precision in autism; in particular, an imbalance of the precision ascribed to sensory evidence relative to prior beliefs.
Adaptive parallel compressed event matching

The efficient processing of large collections of patterns expressed as Boolean expressions over event streams plays a central role in major data intensive applications ranging from user-centric processing and personalization to real-time data analysis. On the one hand, emerging user-centric applications, including computational advertising and selective information dissemination, demand determining and presenting to an end-user the relevant content as it is published. On the other hand, applications in real-time data analysis, including push-based multi-query optimization, computational finance and intrusion detection, demand meeting stringent subsecond processing requirements and providing high-frequency event processing. We achieve these event processing requirements by exploiting the shift towards multi-core architectures by proposing novel adaptive parallel compressed event matching algorithm (A-PCM) and online event stream re-ordering technique (OSR) that unleash an unprecedented degree of parallelism amenable for highly parallel event processing. In our comprehensive evaluation, we demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed techniques. We show that the adaptive parallel compressed event matching algorithm can sustain an event rate of up to 233,863 events/second while state-of-the-art sequential event matching algorithms sustains only 36 events/second when processing up to five million Boolean expressions.
Assessing payer perspectives on health information exchange

Objective To identify factors that impede payer engagement in a health information exchange (HIE), along with organizational and policy strategies that might effectively address the impediments. Materials and Methods Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with leaders from 17 varied payer organizations from across the country (e.g., large, national payers; state Blues plans; local Medicaid managed care plans). Results We found a large gap between payers’ vision of what optimal HIE should be and the current approach to HIE in the United States. Notably, payers sought to be active participants in HIE efforts – both providing claims data and accessing clinical data to support payer HIE use cases. Instead, payers were often asked by HIE efforts only to provide financial support without the option to participate in data exchange, or, when given the option, their data needs were secondary to those of providers. Discussion Efforts to engage payers in pursuit of more robust and sustainable HIE need to better align their value proposition with payer HIE use cases. This will require addressing provider concerns about payer access to clinical data. Policymakers should focus on creating the conditions for broader payer engagement by removing common obstacles, such as low provider engagement in HIE. Conclusion Despite variation in the extent to which payers engaged with current HIE efforts, there was agreement on the vision of optimal HIE and the facilitators of greater payer engagement. Specific actions by those leading HIE efforts, complemented by policy efforts nationally, could greatly increase payer engagement and enhance HIE sustainability.