Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Mining of Multi-granularity Temporal Regularity from Trajectory Data

Temporal regularity in trajectory data is an important basis for traffic management, public service and marketing. Although many efforts have been made to study temporal regularity, yet almost all existing works select time granularity intuitively. User-specified time granularity and other parameters may lead to biased results. Moreover, as the size of datasets grows, the costs of parameters tuning also increases. To solve these problems, we propose the Automatic Multi-granularity Temporal Regularity Detection algorithm (auto-MTRD) for trajectory data. Our approach clusters time series from the trajectory data using automatic parameter selection and generates a temporal regularity tree to indicate multi-granularity temporal regularity. It cannot only avoid the negative effect of human intervention, but also evaluate the relative importance of multiple time granularities at the same time. Two real-life datasets are used to validate the effectiveness of our method.
[Evaluation of growth of clinical Clostridium difficile strains belonging to different PCR-ribotypes on chromID C. difficile Agar].

INTRODUCTION Clostridium difficile is main reason of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in hospitalized patients. Diagnostic method for detection of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) are limited to an enzyme immunoassays (EIAs), while the culture of toxigenic strains is still seen as the gold standard for the laboratory diagnosis. The aim of this study was to compare growth of C. difficile strains belonging to different polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ribotypes on new ChromID C. difficile Agar (CDIFF, bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France). MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred thirty one of clinical C. difficile strains stored. in Anaerobic Laboratory were cultured on ChromID C. difficile Agar. Ten faecal samples were cultured on the same chromogenic medium and incubated at 37°C for 24 h under anaerobic conditions. Isolates were confirmed as C. difficile on the basis of well-known criteria. PCR-ribotyping was performed by visually comparison of patterns of PCR products of the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region. We examined the occurrence of beta-glucosidase gene, responsible for the dark color of the colony C. difficile on ChromID C.difficile Agar using a pair of primers: gluF (5'-AAGGT GTAAATTTAGGAGGTTGGTT-3') i gluR (5'-AGGTCCCAACTATCCC ATCC-3'). RESULTS Among ten C. dfficile isolates obtained from stool specimens one formed colorless colonies. We received 8 colorless isolates from 131 additional examined strains. All C. difficile isolates forming colorless colonies belonged to PCR ribotype 023. The prevalence of PCR-ribotype 023 was about 6%. We detected lack of beta-glucosidase gene in PCR-ribotype 023 isolates. CONCLUSIONS There are some C. difficile strains forming colorless colonies on ChromID C.difficile Agar. This appearance is important in routine diagnostic use this chromogenic culture medium.
odelling challenges in context : Lessons from malaria , HIV , and uberculosis

Malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis (TB) collectively account for several million deaths each year, with all three ranking among the top ten killers in low-income countries. Despite being caused by very different organisms, malaria, HIV, and TB present a suite of challenges for mathematical modellers that are particularly pronounced in these infections, but represent general problems in infectious disease modelling,
Withdrawing very low-burden interventions in chronically ill patients.

ISCUSSIONS OF WITHDRAWING OR WITHHOLDING treatment from patients have focused, for the most part, on critical care management of gravely ill patients or those with advanced or end-stage dis- ease. In this article, we address the distinctive ethical is- sues that arise when the physician considers withdrawing low-burden clinical management from chronically—but not critically—ill patients. Case Report cal management at any time, even if his or her physicians disagree with the reasons for that refusal. Surrogate deci- sion makers are expected to make decisions based as much as possible on the patient's known values or preferences. If these are not known, then the surrogate should decide among alternatives that are consistent with the patient's best inter- ests. A surrogate decision is rightly regarded as problem- atic when it is inconsistent with the patient's known values and preferences and with clinical judgment about the bal- ance of benefits and risks of treatment. In this case, the pa- tient's wishes—to execute his living will and to avoid sui- cide—may be in conflict. Deactivating the pacemaker may be considered a form of killing or suicide. Thus, the wife's request must be carefully considered for its ethical justifi- cation before it is implemented. This leads to the following question: should the physician carry out a request by a pa- tient's wife to deactivate a severely demented patient's pace- maker, when the patient has previously stated he would not commit suicide?
The Role of Internet Service Providers in the Fight Against Child Pornography

Currently the question whether further action is needed to improve the fight against child pornography is discussed intensively. Within this discussion an important role is played by various approaches aiming to involve Internet Service Providers (ISPs) more intensively. The article presents the discussed approaches to increase legal obligations of ISPs and outlines their consequences (III.).
Study on Security Risk Propagation of Immune Mechanism under Complex Network Background

The economic situation highlights the significant role of the application of computer in human society since the 21st century, especially since 2015. This thesis probes into the security risk propagation of immune mechanism under complex network background. Focusing on the issue of network security under network background, the thesis deploys the analysis by adopting the mechanism model of immune mechanism, immunizing parts of the nodes, establishing stochastic immune mechanism of security risk and introducing stochastic immune mechanism propagation model of security risk. To further study the security risk propagation of immune mechanism under complex network background, the thesis presents the model rules, introduces the security risk acquaintance immune mechanism and establishes models of acquaintances immune mechanism. Finally, attributing to the simulation experiments, the simulation results, the characteristics of security risk propagation model, and the study of stochastic immune mechanism propagation model and acquaintance immune mechanism stochastic model, the thesis reaches the conclusion that at the initial stage of propagation, the die-out rate of the security risk is inversely proportional to the propagation rate.
On using resetting integrator in current control loop for active power filter

Current control loops is the key element in the control structure of active power filter systems. Among linear control techniques, deadbeat control has widely been accepted as a feasible current control technique as far the DSP implementation of APF is concerned. This control technique that uses high gains on the errors measured at one sample is very sensitive to any error or noise in the measurements, which is always there in electrical systems. Especially, the periodic noise in parallel implementation of an inverter or APF demands a higher order filter at the current transducer output, which affects the system dynamic response. Recently few papers have reported the results about the use of resetting integrators as filter in some electronic applications. This paper is an attempt to show possible application of resetting integrator as filter to current control for APF, where linear control methods have better frequency characteristics and current response than general deadbeat control. Simulation and experiment verify that these filters can be adopted to improve the performances of a current loop in APF
Vaccines against bovine babesiosis: where we are now and possible roads ahead

SUMMARY Bovine babesiosis caused by the tick-transmitted haemoprotozoans Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina and Babesia divergens commonly results in substantial cattle morbidity and mortality in vast world areas. Although existing live vaccines confer protection, they have considerable disadvantages. Therefore, particularly in countries where large numbers of cattle are at risk, important research is directed towards improved vaccination strategies. Here a comprehensive overview of currently used live vaccines and of the status quo of experimental vaccine trials is presented. In addition, pertinent research fields potentially contributing to the development of novel non-live and/or live vaccines are discussed, including parasite antigens involved in host cell invasion and in pathogen-tick interactions, as well as the protective immunity against infection. The mining of available parasite genomes is continuously enlarging the array of potential vaccine candidates and, additionally, the recent development of a transfection tool for Babesia can significantly contribute to vaccine design. However, the complication and high cost of vaccination trials hinder Babesia vaccine research, and have so far seriously limited the systematic examination of antigen candidates and prevented an in-depth testing of formulations using different immunomodulators and antigen delivery systems.
Comparison of the critical periods for monocular and directional deprivation in cats.

1. Earlier experiments rearing kittens with one eye closed and reversing the closure after a certain age, or rearing kittens in a rotating drum and reversing the direction after a certain age, suggest that the critical periods for ocular dominance and directional sensitivity may differ. Since these results were obtained by different investigators in different laboratories, we have made a direct comparison of the two types of visual deprivation. 2. Four pairs of litter‐mate kittens (matched in weight) were reared. One animal in each pair was monocularly deprived with subsequent eye reversal; the other animal was directionally deprived with reversal of drum direction. All reversals took place at age 5 weeks. Both kittens in a given pair were either 'left first' (left eye open first or left direction first) or both were right first. One died prematurely. 3. Recordings were made from the visual cortex at some age after 4 months. Some recordings were made in the left cortex and some in the right. In all cases of monocular deprivation, the majority of cells were driven by the eye that was open last (i.e. open after 5 weeks of age). In all cases of directional deprivation, the majority of the cells preferred movement in the first direction of exposure (i.e. the direction before 5 weeks of age). 4. We conclude that the critical period for directional deprivation terminates earlier than the critical period for monocular deprivation.
Why is the Value Relevance of Earnings Lower for High-Tech Firms?

AbstractThis chapter examines the value relevance of earnings in high- and low-technology industries, a topic about which unresolved questions remain. The focus is on high-tech firms, given assertions that financial reporting is least effective for their industries. It is found that adjusting for expense mismatching is more effective in low-tech industries, while diversifying noise in high-tech industries substantially increases the association of earnings and stock returns. The value relevance of earnings for either type is indistinguishable when noise and expense mismatching are jointly controlled. It is thus concluded that noise arising from uncertainty of realizing future R&D benefits is the main factor explaining the weaker association of earnings and stock returns for high-tech firms.
Relative debugging in an integrated development environment

Relative Debugging allows a user to compare the internal state of two programs as they run, making it possible to test whether two programs perform the same function given the same input. When implemented with a command line user interface, a relative debugger looks like traditional debugging tools with the addition of commands that describe which structures should be equivalent in the two programs. In this paper, we discuss relative debugging within an integrated development environment, and show that there are significant advantages over a command line form. We describe a pluggable, modular, architecture that works with a variety of different products, including Microsoft's Visual Studio, SUN's NetBeans, and IBM's Eclipse. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Axonal sprouting in commissurally projecting parvalbumin‐expressing interneurons

Previous research has shown that in vivo on‐demand optogenetic stimulation of inhibitory interneurons expressing parvalbumin (PV) is sufficient to suppress seizures in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Surprisingly, this intervention was capable of suppressing seizures when PV‐expressing interneurons were stimulated ipsilateral or contralateral to the presumed seizure focus, raising the possibility of commissural inhibition in TLE. There are mixed reports regarding commissural PV interneuron projections in the healthy hippocampus, and it was previously unknown whether these connections would be maintained or modified following the network reorganization associated with TLE. Using retrograde labeling and viral vector technology in both sexes and the intrahippocampal kainate mouse model of TLE, we therefore examined these issues. Our results reveal that healthy controls possess a population of commissurally projecting hippocampal PV interneurons. Two weeks post kainate injection, we observed a slight, but not statistically significant decrease in retrogradely labeled PV interneurons in the hippocampus contralateral to kainate and tracer injection. By 6 months post kainate, however, there was a significant increase in retrogradely labeled PV interneurons, suggesting commissural inhibitory axonal sprouting. Using viral green fluorescent protein expression selectively in PV neurons, we demonstrated sprouting of commissural PV projections in the dentate gyrus of the kainate‐injected hippocampus 6 months post kainate. These findings indicate that PV interneurons supply direct inhibition to the contralateral hippocampus and undergo sprouting in a mouse model of TLE. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Creating Value for Online Shoppers: Implications for Satisfaction and Loyalty

Customer value is the foremost driver of competitive advantage in the Internet shopping environment. The authors of this study identify two types of online shopping values - utilitarian value (including price savings, service excellence, time savings, and selection dimensions) and experiential value (including entertainment, visual, escape, and interaction dimensions). Using structural equation modeling, the impact of these online shopping values upon consumers' satisfaction and loyalty is examined. The results of this study indicate that Internet shopping does indeed invoke various types of shopping values. Both utilitarian and experiential values positively affected customer satisfaction, leading to heightened loyalty. Discussions of the results and managerial implications are offered.
Effectiveness of Qigong in Promoting the Health of Wheelchair-Bound Older Adults in Long-Term Care Facilities

Institutional wheelchair-bound older adults often do not get regular exercise and are prone to health problems. The aim of this study was to test the effects of a 12-week qigong exercise program on the physiological and psychological health of wheelchair-bound older adults in long-term care facilities. Study design was quasi-experimental, pre–post test, nonequivalent control group. Participants comprised a convenience sample of 72 wheelchair-bound older adults (qigong = 34; control = 38). The qigong group exercised 35 min/day, 5 days/week for 12 weeks. Measures for physical health (blood pressure, heart rate variability, and distal skin temperature) and psychological health (Brief Symptom Rating Scale-5) were collected before and during study Weeks 4, 8, and 12. The qigong group participants’ blood pressure, distal skin temperature, and psychological health were significantly improved (all p < .001). These findings suggest that qigong exercise is a suitable daily activity for elderly residents in long-term care facilities and may help in the control of blood pressure among older adults.
Retinal Microglial Activation Following Topical Application of Intracellular Toll-Like Receptor Ligands.

PURPOSE We previously have reported that application of the intracellular toll-like receptor (TLR)-9 ligand CpG-ODN onto the injured corneal surface induces widespread inflammation within the eye, including the retina. We tested the hypothesis that topical application of two other intracellular TLR agonists, Poly I:C and R848, would cause retinal microglial activation and migration into the subretinal space. METHODS C57BL/6J wild-type and Cx3cr1gfp/+ mice were anesthetized and received central corneal abrasions followed by topical application of Poly I:C (TLR3 agonist), R848 (TLR7/8 agonist), or CpG-ODN (TLR9 agonist). Eyes were imaged in vivo by using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography to assess and quantify vitreous cells and retinal edema. Tissues were processed for whole-mount immunofluorescence staining or gene expression studies. Microglial activation was determined by morphologic changes, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II reactivity, and migration to the subretinal space. Expression of proinflammatory cytokine gene IL-6, IL-1β, IFN-γ, and MCP-1 in retinal tissues were analyzed. RESULTS At 24 hours, topical treatment with CpG-ODN and R848, but not Poly I:C, led to altered microglial morphology. One week after CpG-ODN and R848-treatment, eyes exhibited vitritis and mild inner retinal edema, increased number of subretinal Iba-1+ cells, and an increase in MHC II+ cells in the neural retina. Proinflammatory cytokine genes were upregulated after R848 treatment, whereas in the CpG-ODN group, only IL-1β and MCP-1 were significantly upregulated. Retinal microglial activation was not observed in the Poly I:C-treated group. CONCLUSIONS Topical application of CpG-ODN and R848, but not Poly I:C, to the damaged corneal surface can cause activation and migration of retinal microglia.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress induces the phosphorylation of small heat shock protein, Hsp27

There are several reports describing participation of small heat shock proteins (sHsps) in cellular protein quality control. In this study, we estimated the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress‐induced response of Hsp27 and αB‐crystallin in mammalian cells. Treatment targeting the ER with tunicamycin or thapsigargin induced the phosphorylation of Hsp27 but not of αB‐crystallin in U373 MG cells, increase being observed after 2–10 h and decline at 24 h. Similar phosphorylation of Hsp27 by ER stress was also observed with U251 MG and HeLa but not in COS cells and could be blocked using SB203580, an inhibitor of p38 MAP kinase. Other protein kinase inhibitors, like Gö6983, PD98059, and SP600125, inhibitors of protein kinase C (PKC), p44/42 MAP kinase, and JNK, respectively, were without major influence. Prolonged treatment with tunicamycin but not thapsigargin for 48 h caused the second induction of the phosphorylation of Hsp27 in U251 MG cells. Under these conditions, the intense perinuclear staining of Hsp27, with some features of aggresomes, was observed in 10%–20% of the cells. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Background DAC Error Estimation Using a Pseudo Random Noise Based Correlation Technique for Sigma-Delta Analog-to-Digital Converters

This paper presents a new approach for estimating non-idealities in unit element feedback digital-to-analog converters of Sigma-Delta analog-to-digital converters. The presented method involves a background correlation technique to determine static and dynamic device mismatches causing linear time-invariant errors of the unit cells, as well as a way to digitally correct a modulator's output. Simulations show that the method can be used to precisely estimate imperfections and improve non-ideal modulators up to their ideal resolution, independent from the chosen oversampling ratio or architecture. The method is defined mathematically and verified by simulations. Comparisons with a common dynamic element matching technique show its superior behavior especially for low oversampling ratios.
Development of a questionnaire assessing work-related stress in women – identifying individuals who risk being put on sick leave

Purpose. To develop a self-administered questionnaire assessing work-related stress in women, aiming to identify individuals that risk long-term sick leave, and to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire. Method. The study was carried out in two phases. The initial phase was to construct the questionnaire and to confirm its face validity. The second phase was to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Results. The questionnaire was constructed from an empirical standpoint and based on a qualitative study. Two main themes were identified: One was related to factors at work and the other to the persons themselves. Eight categories were recognized from these themes and questions were constructed. A pilot group confirmed the validity of the questions. A first version of the questionnaire was subjected to test-retest analysis and all unstable items were improved. The reliability of the revised version was satisfactory. Conclusions. A simple questionnaire, containing 20 questions assessing work-related stress in women, with the purpose of identifying individuals that risk long-term sick leave was developed. The questionnaire was found to have good face validity and high reliability. Since there is a need for preventive methods in identifying individuals that risk being put on sick leave, this questionnaire can be a useful tool for health professionals.
A pilot course as a model for implementing a PBL curriculum

Many medical schools are shifting to a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum, some without any transition period, others using periods of parallel-track curricula. The authors report on and discuss a third strategy for implementing PBL: using a pilot course as a model to facilitate the transition. After the Universite de Montreal Faculty of Medicine chose to switch PBL, one course in the third year of the traditional curriculum was changed to PBL format 11 months before the new curriculum was to start in September 1993. This was done to develop local expertise, to gain confidence, to test the feasibility of the method, to produce a showcase, to assess more accurately the resources required, and to provide a practice ground for the curriculum planners and managers and the faculty-development training team. The authors discuss the planning of the pilot course, the training of the faculty in various aspects of PBL (writing problems, tutoring methods, etc.), the course implementation, and the course evaluation. Overall, the pilot course was well received by both the faculty and the students and provided much beneficial information that assisted the university in its transition to a new PBL curriculum.