Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Infections of Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices: Etiology, Prevention and Treatment

Since the initial use of prosthetic heart valves, the use of cardiac prosthesis and implantable devices has revolutionized the therapeutic options available to patients (de Oliveira et al.,2009). Cardiac Permanent PaceMakers (PPMs) have been implanted since the early 1960s. Over the past 50 years there have been tremendous advances in both the design of the device and the software employed. In the mid 1960s, transvenous leads were developed that could be inserted through a vein and thence into the heart, thus preventing the need for a thoracotomy. The development of ‘active fixation’ leads ensured a better contact with the endocardium and the presence of a steroid eluting tip helped to reduce any inflammation that might result. The introduction of the lithium iodine battery has dramatically increased the battery life to well over ten years. Radiofrequency programming became available in the 1970s, allowing simple adjustments to be made to pacemaker’s settings without the need for surgery. Today, permanent pacemakers and ICD (Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator), together with any adjustments, can be completed within minutes using a portable computer. Information regarding events such as periods of bradycardia, tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation can be stored within the memory of the device and accessed by the specialist during the routine checkup. To maintain atrio-ventricular synchrony, dual chamber pacing was then introduced. Moreover, in the late 1990s, pacemaker technology had improved to the extent that it became possible to increase the pacing rate to match the patient’s activity level (Allen et al., 2007). A wide range of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are now available, including ICDs and cardiac resynchronization systems. PPMs are commonly used in patients with atrioventricular conduction block, sick sinus syndrome, and symptomatic sinus bradycardia, whereas ICDs target primarily patients at risk for life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. Since clinical trials have consistently demonstrated the ability of the ICD to reduce mortality in selected patients with moderate-to-severe left ventricular systolic
Scintillations of the GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo signals at equatorial latitude

Small scale ionospheric disturbances can lead to fluctuations of the received satellite signal, so-called signal scintillations. For global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) this reduces the positioning accuracy. Particular strong events can even lead to a loss of lock between satellite and receiver. All GNSS signals are affected by this phenomenon. The influence of the short scale disturbances on the different GNSS signals is expected to be different for each signal, since the signals are transmitted by different carrier frequencies and are constructed in different ways. In this paper, we compare the occurrence rate of signal scintillations between the different global navigation satellite systems and their different signal frequencies. In particular, we consider GPS L1, L2, and L5, GLONASS L1 and L2, and Galileo E1 and E5a. This analysis uses data from a high-rate GNSS station of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) placed in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia at 11°36′ N 37°23′ E. The station collects 50 Hz raw data from which the amplitude scintillation index S 4 is calculated. The data has been collected for the whole year 2013. Since the number of strong scintillation events with S 4 > 0.5 was smaller than expected, additionally weak scintillation events with S 4 ≥ 0.25 are taken into account. An algorithm is used that provides a soft barrier for S 4 ≥ 0.25. The resulting events are shown as daily and seasonal averages. Finally, the overall influence of short scale ionospheric disturbances in the form of signal scintillations on the GNSS signals is estimated.
The role of physical, chemical, and microbial heterogeneity on the field‐scale transport and attachment of bacteria

A field‐scale bacterial transport experiment was conducted at the Narrow Channel Focus Area of the South Oyster field site located in Oyster, Virginia. The goal of the field experiment was to determine the relative influence of subsurface heterogeneity and microbial population parameters on flow direction, velocity, and attachment of bacteria at the field scale. The field results were compared with results from laboratory‐scale column experiments to develop a method for predicting field‐scale bacterial transport. The field site is a shallow, sandy, unconfined, aerobic aquifer that has been characterized by geophysical, sedimentological, and hydrogeological methods. Comamonas sp. strain DA001 and a conservative tracer, bromide (Br), were injected into an area of high permeability for 12 hours. The Br and bacterial concentrations in the groundwater were monitored for 1 week at 192 sampling ports spaced over a 2‐m vertical zone located from 0.5 to 7 m down‐gradient of the injection well. The bacterial and Br plume was observed to move past 95 sampling ports. The densely characterized field site enabled the comparison of variations in DA001 transport to the aquifer properties. The velocity of the injected plume was correlated with geophysical estimates of hydraulic conductivity. The bacterial and Br plume appeared to follow flow paths not coincident with the hydraulic gradient but through a zone of higher permeability located off the flow axis. The amount of breakthrough of the bacteria was similar in both the high and low permeability layers with only a weak correlation between the observed hydraulic conductivity and amount of bacterial breakthrough. The uniformity in the observed attachment rates across varying grain sizes could be explained by heterogeneity of microbial properties within the single strain of injected bacteria. Application of colloid filtration theory to the field data indicated that variations in the microbial population were described by a lognormal distribution of the collision efficiency (α). Core‐scale studies were used to predict the α distribution and field‐scale transport distances of DA001. In sandy aquifers, physical heterogeneity may play a secondary role in controlling field‐scale bacterial transport, and future research should focus on the microbial factors affecting transport.
A Robotic Cube to Preschool Children for Acquiring the Mathematical and Colours Concepts

— This work presents a robot called Conceptual Robotic Cube, CR-Cube. The robot can be used as an educational tool for children from the age of three. It has a cube shape attached with a camera colours sensor. In addition, it contains four wheels to move smoothly. The researchers prepared a questionnaire to measure the efficiency of the robot. The design and the questionnaire was presented to 11 experts who agreed that the robot is appropriate for learning numbering and colours for preschool children.
Late Glacial organic sediments in palaeogeographical reconstructions (cases from the Łódź region)

Abstract Late Glacial organic succession is recorded at the Żabieniec and Koźmin Las sites, in the Łódź region. A multiproxy approach provides a palaeogeographical assessment and yields a new insight into the old morainic area of the Polish Lowland. Additionally, the key profile Witów contributes in the reconstruction. It is demonstrated that the Late Glacial organic sediments of the Łódź region contain signs of environmental changes, starting from the first warming just after the Weichselian ice-sheet retreat from the Polish territory. Records at Żabieniec, apart from registering biotic and abiotic conditions which influenced functioning of a peatbog, provides information on the permafrost behaviour throughout the Late Glacial. At Koźmin Las, a unique discovery of the in situ riparian forest accompanied by organic sediments led to a high-resolution study of a series of events taking place on the floodplain during the Younger Dryas.
Real-time FPGA-based Anomaly Detection for Radio Frequency Signals

We describe an open source, FPGA accelerated neural network-based anomaly detector. The detector derives its training set from observed exemplar data and continuous learning in software can be undertaken in an unsupervised manner. Trained network weights are passed to the FPGA, which performs continuous high-speed anomaly detection, combining parallelism reduced precision, and a single-chip design to maximise performance and energy efficiency. Our design can process continuous 200 MS/s complex inputs, producing anomaly classifications at the same rate, with a latency of 105 ns, an improvement of at least 4 orders of magnitude over a software radio such as GNU Radio.
Ecology of mast-fruiting in three species of North American deciduous oaks.

We conducted an 8—yr study of flower and acorn production in three species of oak in east—central Missouri: white oak (Quercus alba), red oak (Q. rubra), and Black oak (Q. velutina). The goal was to evaluate whether mast—fruiting, the synchronous production of large seed crops followed by small seed crops, is simply a response to weather conditions or is actually an evolved reproductive strategy. In this paper, we address four specific questions: (1) Are annual fluctuations in acorn crop size the result of synchronous production of acorns by individuals? (2) Are large acorn crops the result of large flower crops and/or high survival of those flowers to mature fruit? (3) To what extent do weather variables account for variation in acorn production among years? (4) Does acorn crop size correlate negatively with prior acorn production? Red oak and white oak showed a greater degree of mast—fruiting than did black oak. Within a species, individuals tended to produce large acorn crops in the same years, but each species differed in which years they produced large crops. The size of a given acorn crop was determined by both flower abundance and survival of flowers to fruit. Principal components and multiple—regression analyses were used to describe the relationship between weather variables and acorn production. The first principal component explained the largest amount of the variation in black oak (R2 = 0.55) and the red oak (R2 = 0.89). In white oak, two principal components combined to explain 77% of the variation in acorn production. The weather variables that were associated with these principal components included spring temperature (positive effect) and summer drought (negative effect). Past acorn production had a major impact on the size of the current acorn crop, with each species showing a different pattern. In black oak, the current acorn crop was negatively correlated with the crop 3 yr prior but positively correlated with the crop 2 yr prior. In red oak, acorn crop size 1, 2, and 3 yr prior had negative correlations with current acorn crop, while acorn crop size 4 yr prior was positively correlated. In white oak, there were negative correlations between acorn crop size and crop size 1, 2, and 4 yr prior but a positive correlation with the acorn crop size 3 yr prior. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that mast—fruiting species must store resources during some years in order to produce a mast crop. We discuss the possibility that these three species may have inherent cycles of reproduction that are modified by the impact of weather conditions, black oak with 2—yr cycles, white oak with 3—yr cycles, and red oak with 4—yr cycles. We conclude that the patterns of acorn production for black oak, red oak, and white oak are not simply responses to weather events but are also a function of prior reproductive events. This suggests that masting is an evolved reproductive strategy.
Dropout Distillation for Efficiently Estimating Model Confidence

We propose an efficient way to output better calibrated uncertainty scores from neural networks. The Distilled Dropout Network (DDN) makes standard (non-Bayesian) neural networks more introspective by adding a new training loss which prevents them from being overconfident. Our method is more efficient than Bayesian neural networks or model ensembles which, despite providing more reliable uncertainty scores, are more cumbersome to train and slower to test. We evaluate DDN on the the task of image classification on the CIFAR-10 dataset and show that our calibration results are competitive even when compared to 100 Monte Carlo samples from a dropout network while they also increase the classification accuracy. We also propose better calibration within the state of the art Faster R-CNN object detection framework and show, using the COCO dataset, that DDN helps train better calibrated object detectors.
rEDUcING MYOcarDIaL rEPErFUsION INJUrY bY POstcONDItIONING

Fenomenul de postcondi]ionare const\ n aplicarea unor scurte perioade de ocluzie coronarian\, alternate cu reperfuzii imediat dup\ reluarea perfuziei postinfarct miocardic. Postcondi]ionarea experimental\ realizeaz\ o form\ de "reperfuzie controlat\" responsabil\ de caracterul dual al protec]iei: (i) protec]ie vascular\ prin efectul benefic asupra hemodinamicii coronariene cu reducerea disfunc]iei endoteliale [i (ii) protec]ie antiinfarct similar\ celei realizate de precondi]ionarea ischemic\ clasic\, utiliznd, cel putin par]ial, c\i comune de semnalizare intracelular\. Mecanismul complex al protec]iei presupune interven]ia a 3 tipuri de factori: declan[atori, de tipul adenozinei si opioidelor endogene, mediatori, cum sunt proteinkinaza C, canalele de potasiu mitocondriale ATP-dependente [i respectiv, kinazele asociate cu supravietuirea celular\ [i efectori finali, evenimentul central fiind reprezentat de inhibi]ia deschiderii porului de permeabilitate mitocondrial\ tranzitorie. Avnd n vedere avantajul aplic\rii protocoalelor de postcondi]ionare n condi]ii clinice, elucidarea mecanismelor intime de desf\[urare n vederea identific\rii unor agen]i farmacologici ce pot reproduce protec]ia oferit\ de postcondi]ionare (mimeticele postcondi]ion\rii) constituie o prioritate. Rolul major n cardioprotec]ie este de]inut de activarea unei c\i de semnalizare comune att pre- ct [i postcondi]ion\rii, reprezentat\ de activarea kinazelor protectoare cu inhibi]ia consecutiv\ a deschiderii porului de permeabilitate mitocondrial\ tranzitorie (PMT). Aceasta din urm\ este considerat\ la ora actual\ terapia de elec]ie a leziunilor letale induse de reperfuzia experimental\. Articolul de fa]\ rezum\ datele referitoare la studiile privind fenomenul de postcondi]ionare, cu sublinierea celor mai recente descoperiri n privin]a mecanismelor cardioprotec]iei. Cuvinte cheie: reperfuzia miocardic\, infarct miocardic, cardioprotec]ie, postcondi]ionare, tranzi]ia permeabilit\]ii mitocondriale
On functions of neurotrophic factors in taste buds and teeth

4 Table of ContentS . 5 ABBREVIATIONS . 7 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS . 8 INTRODUCTION . 9 Neurotrophic factors . 9 Neurotrophins and their receptors . 9 Sensory neurons – peripheral nervous system . 10 Sympathetic neurons – peripheral nervous system . 11 Central nervous system . 11 The glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) family . 11 TASTE SYSTEM . 12 Taste buds, their innervation and neurotrophic factors . 12 Taste bud formation . 13 Taste bud morphology . 14 Taste transduction of salt, sweet, bitter, umami, and sour taste . 15 Number of fungiform papillae and bitter receptors are increased in supertasters . 16 Neurotransmitters in the gustatory system . 17 Taste disorders . 18 NEUROBIOLOGY OF TEETH . 18 Vertebrate dentition . 18 The origin of teeth, tooth development and signaling molecules . 19 Dental stem cells involved in tooth development . 22 Tooth innervation, neurotrophic factors and semaphorin . 23 Nerve supply in mature teeth . 25 Dental nociception . 25 1. The neural theory . 25 2. The hydrodynamic theory . 26 3. The odontoblast transducer theory . 26 SPECIFIC AIMS . 27 MATERIALS . 28 Embryonic human tongue, embryonic human teeth, and adult human tongue biopsies . 28 Human dental pulp cells . 28 Homozygous BDNF−/− x NT-3−/− mice . 28 Sprague-Dawley rats . 28 Timed pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats . 29 METHODS . 30 Radioactive in situ hybridization . 30 Evaluation and processing of in situ hybridized tissues . 30 Immunohistochemistry . 31
Kaleidoscope careers: An alternate explanation for the “opt-out“ revolution

Executive Overview Recently, there has been considerable media attention granted to “the opt-out revolution,“ a term coined to describe the alarming talent drain of highly trained women, largely working mothers, who choose not to aspire to the corporate executive suite. This article critically reviews explanations for this phenomenon, and posits an alternate explanation of the kaleidoscope career model that fits workers' concerns for authenticity, balance, and challenge, vis-a-vis the demands of their careers in this new millennium. In particular, the kaleidoscope model fits women's careers well as a means of understanding how women operate relationally to others in both work and non-work realms. Like a kaleidoscope that produces changing patterns when the tube is rotated and its glass chips fall into new arrangements, women shift the pattern of their careers by rotating different aspects in their lives to arrange their roles and relationships in new ways. The article concludes with guidelines on how wome.
GRAVITY IN NONCOMMUTATIVE GEOMETRY

The traditional arena of geometry and topology is a set of points with some particular structure that, for want of a better name, we call a space. Thus, for instance, one studies curves and surfaces as subsets of an ambient Euclidean space. It was recognized early on, however, that even such a fundamental geometrical object as an elliptic curve is best studied not as a set of points (a torus) but rather by examining functions on this set, specifically the doubly periodic meromorphic functions. Weierstrass opened up a new approach to geometry by studying directly the collection of complex functions that satisfy an algebraic addition theorem, and derived the point set as a consequence. In probability theory, the set of outcomes of an experiment forms a measure space, and one may regard events as subsets of outcomes; but most of the information is obtained from “random variables”, i.e., measurable functions on the space of outcomes. In noncommutative geometry, under the in influence of quantum physics, this general idea of replacing sets of points by classes of functions is taken further. In many cases the set is completely determined by an algebra of functions, so one forgets about the set and obtains all information from the functions alone. Also, in many geometrical situations the associated set is very pathological, and a direct examination yields no useful information. The set of orbits of a group action, such as the rotation of a circle by multiples of an irrational angle, is of this type. In such cases, when we examine the matter from the algebraic point of view, we often obtain a perfectly good operator algebra that holds the information we need; however, this algebra is generally not commutative. The Gelfand-Naimark theorem gives us a complete equivalence between the category of locally compact Hausdorff spaces with continuous maps and the category of commutative C∗-algebras with *-homomorphisms. In a famous paper [9] that has become a cornerstone of noncommutative geometry, Gelfand and Naimark in 1943 characterized the involutive algebras of operators by just dropping commutativity from the most natural axiomatization for the algebra of continuous functions on a locally compact Hausdorff space. Thus, a noncommutative C∗-algebra will be viewed as the algebra of continuous functions on some ’virtual noncommutative space. The algebra-topology duality can be neatly summed up with the following dictionary, from [15],
Cross-cultural research diary: a personal odyssey

This paper sheds light on how the environment I grew up in engendered my interest in cross-cultural research. Each and every project that I have undertaken in my career – from expatriates to ex-host country nationals, cross- and intra-national diversity and bicultural identity – represented a personal voyage of discovery for me and helped me understand some of the experiences that I have encountered and/or observed in my life. My research questions and hypotheses were guided by my first-hand experience of whether they made sense and what mattered most from the perspective of someone who has encountered much cross-national diversity.
Chromosome numbers of goldenrods, Euthamia and Solidago (Compositae: Astereae). II. Additional counts with comments on cytogeography

Chromosome number determinations were made from 407 wild or transplanted individuals and seedlings representing 65 taxa and hybrids inEuthamia andSolidago. The following are first reports:Euthamia remota, 2n=9II;Solidago leavenworthii, 2n=54;S. mollis, 2n=36;S. mollis var.angustata, 2n=36;S. rigida var.glabrata, 2n=9II;S. sempervirens var.azorica, 2n=9II; andS. sparsiflora, 2n=54. Most species have been sampled only a few times or are consistently of one cytotype. Sufficient counts have been made to indicate some general patterns of cytotype distribution in the following species complexes:S. gigantea, S. canadensis, S. flexicaulis, S. rugosa, andS. uliginosa.
Predicting Emotion from Music Audio Features Using Neural Networks

We describe our implementation of two neural networks: a static feedforward network, and an Elman network, for predicting mean valence/arousal ratings of participants for musical excerpts based on audio features. Thirteen audio features were extracted from 12 classical music excerpts (3 from each emotion quadrant). Valence/arousal ratings were collected from 45 participants for the static network, and 9 participants for the Elman network. For the Elman network, each excerpt was temporally segmented into four, sequential chunks of equal duration. Networks were trained on eight of the 12 excerpts and tested on the remaining four. The static network predicted values that closely matched mean participant ratings of valence and arousal. The Elman network did a good job of predicting the arousal trend but not the valence trend. Our study indicates that neural networks can be trained to identify statistical consistencies across audio features to predict valence/arousal values.