Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in Outcome of Persons Initiating Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy at a CD4 Count Less Than 50 Cells/mm3

Background:Although HIV treatment guidelines recommend highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) initiation before reaching a CD4 count of 200 cells/mm3, many people in resource-rich settings, and a substantial proportion in resource-limited settings, present at levels <50 cells/mm3. Methods:Using UK Collaborative HIV Cohort data, we assessed virologic response to HAART for antiretroviral-naive persons initiating therapy at a CD4 count <50 cells/mm3. We also investigated changes in the probability of having a viral level <400 copies/mL at 48 weeks over calendar time adjusting for gender, age, exposure category, ethnicity, baseline CD4 count and viral load, and whether the regimen contained a protease inhibitor. Results:At 12, 24, 36, and 48 weeks, 80%, 83%, 85%, and 83% of participants, respectively, had a viral level <400 copies/mL. This proportion rose from 1997 to 1998, falling slightly in the most recent calendar period. By far the most important predictor of virologic suppression was calendar year of starting HAART (odds ratio [OR] = 2.49, 4.28, and 3.28 for 1999 to 2000, 2001 to 2002, and 2003 to 2005, respectively, compared with 1997 to 1998). Women were more likely to have a viral level <400 copies/mL at week 48 compared with men (OR = 1.74, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07 to 3.02), as were older individuals (OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.11 to 1.96 for every 10 years older). There was marginal or no evidence that other factors were associated with outcome. The estimated corresponding probabilities of achieving a viral level <50 copies/mL at week 48 were 71%, 75%, and 79% for a woman aged 25, 35, and 45 years, respectively, initiating HAART in the most recent calendar period. The respective probabilities for a man at those ages were 68%, 73%, and 78%. Conclusions:These data, albeit under conditions of good infrastructure for care delivery, are a useful comparator for other populations starting therapy at similar levels of immunodeficiency and may be valuable for evaluating the success of antiretroviral therapy rollout programs.
Control of variable speed wind energy conversion systems by a discrete-time sliding mode approach

This paper presents a discrete-time variable-structure-based control designed for a variable speed wind energy conversion system based on a permanent magnet synchronous generator. A cascade control scheme is proposed to obtain the maximum power efficiency. The analysis of the control stability is given and the ultimate boundedness of the speed tracking error is proved. Reported numerical simulations show that the proposed controller enhances the overall performance obtaining the maximum power efficiency and it is robust under variable operating conditions and in the presence of disturbances affecting the system.
In depolarized and glucose‐deprived neurons, Na+ influx reverses plasmalemmal K+‐dependent and K+‐independent Na+/Ca2+ exchangers and contributes to NMDA excitotoxicity

Cerebellar granule cells (CGCs) express K+‐dependent (NCKX) and K+‐independent (NCX) plasmalemmal Na+/Ca2+ exchangers which, under plasma membrane‐depolarizing conditions and high cytosolic [Na+], may reverse and mediate potentially toxic Ca2+ influx. To examine this possibility, we inhibited NCX or NCKX with KB‐R7943 or K+‐free medium, respectively, and studied how gramicidin affects cytosolic [Ca2+] and 45Ca2+ accumulation. Gramicidin forms pores permeable to alkali cations but not Ca2+. Therefore, gramicidin‐induced Ca2+ influx is indirect; it results from fluxes of monovalent cations. In the presence of Na+, but not Li+ or Cs+, gramicidin induced Ca2+ influx that was inhibited by simultaneous application of KB‐R7943 and K+‐free medium. The data indicate that gramicidin‐induced Na+ influx reverses NCX and NCKX. To test the role of NCX and/or NCKX in excitotoxicity, we studied how NMDA affects the viability of glucose‐deprived and depolarized CGCs. To assure depolarization of the plasma membrane, we inhibited Na+,K+‐ATPase with ouabain. Although inhibition of NCX or NCKX reversal failed to significantly limit 45Ca2+ accumulation and excitotoxicity, simultaneously inhibiting NCX and NCKX reversal was neuroprotective and significantly decreased NMDA‐induced 45Ca2+ accumulation. Our data suggest that NMDA‐induced Na+ influx reverses NCX and NCKX and leads to the death of depolarized and glucose‐deprived neurons.
Toothbrushing Recognition using Neural Networks

Daily toothbrushing is essential for maintaining oral health. Recently, a wrist-watch based system was designed to monitor the eectiveness of toothbrushing at home [3]. Since toothbrushing involves complex motions of the hand and the toothbrush, advanced machine learning techniques are needed for accurate recognition. In this paper, we design a neural network classier to recognize toothbrushing surfaces based on wrist watch sensor data, including accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer data. Experiments shows that our algorithm successfully recognized toothbrushing surfaces with a recognition precision of 91.2%, outperforming existing solutions.
Comparison of self-report and performance-based measures of everyday functioning in individuals with schizophrenia: implications for measure selection

Introduction. Both self-report and performance-based measures are often used in assessment of everyday functioning for individuals with schizophrenia. However, there is little evidence of overlap between them, and there are no established standards for which measures might be most appropriate. In order to better understand differences among these types of measures, we examined relationships between a self-report and two performance-based measures of everyday functioning. We also examined their patterns of interrelationships to neurocognition and psychiatric symptoms. Methods. Participants were 71 outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Measures of everyday functioning (Independent Living Skill Survey-Self Report (ILSS-SR); University of California San Diego Performance-based Skills Assessment; and Medication Management Ability Assessment), cognition and psychiatric symptoms were administered. Correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among the functioning measures, and their relationships to cognition and symptoms. Regression analyses further examined the unique contributions of neurocognitive and symptom variables to functional measures. Results. Consistent with the literature, the two performance-based measures were related to each other, but not to the self-report measure. Whereas the performance-based measures were related to neurocognition but not to the psychiatric symptoms, the opposite pattern was observed for the self-report measure. Conclusions. The pattern of interrelationships among these self-report and performance-based measures suggests that they tap different aspects of everyday functioning. This has important implications for measure selection, particularly for evaluating intervention outcomes. When targeting symptoms, a self-report measure like the ILSS-SR may be more appropriate, whereas a performance-based measure may be more sensitive to functional changes subsequent to treatments targeting cognition.
Refining the structure and content of clinical genomic reports

To effectively articulate the results of exome and genome sequencing we refined the structure and content of molecular test reports. To communicate results of a randomized control trial aimed at the evaluation of exome sequencing for clinical medicine, we developed a structured narrative report. With feedback from genetics and non‐genetics professionals, we developed separate indication‐specific and incidental findings reports. Standard test report elements were supplemented with research study‐specific language, which highlighted the limitations of exome sequencing and provided detailed, structured results, and interpretations. The report format we developed to communicate research results can easily be transformed for clinical use by removal of research‐specific statements and disclaimers. The development of clinical reports for exome sequencing has shown that accurate and open communication between the clinician and laboratory is ideally an ongoing process to address the increasing complexity of molecular genetic testing. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Safety, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity of Human Rotavirus Vaccine RIX4414 in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-positive Infants in South Africa

Background: Rotavirus and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are a cause of great public health concern in developing countries. The current study evaluated the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of RIX4414 vaccine in asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic (clinical stages I and II according to WHO classification) HIV-infected South African infants. Methods: A total of 100 HIV-positive infants aged 6 to 10 weeks enrolled in this double-blind, 1:1 randomized, placebo-controlled study were allocated into 2 groups to receive 3 doses of RIX4414 vaccine/placebo according to a 0-, 1-, and 2-month schedule. Routine vaccines were concomitantly administered. Solicited and unsolicited symptoms were recorded for 15 and 31 days after each dose, respectively. Serious adverse events were recorded throughout the study period. Serum antirotavirus IgA concentrations (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, cut-off ≥20 U/mL) and the immunodeficiency status were determined at screening and 2 months post-Dose 3. Stool samples were analyzed for rotavirus using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at predetermined points and during diarrhea episodes. Results: All symptoms (solicited and unsolicited) occurred at a similar frequency in both groups. Six fatal serious adverse events in RIX4414 and 9 in placebo groups were reported. At 2 months post-Dose 3, the seroconversion rates were 57.1% (95% CI: 34–78.2) in RIX4414 and 18.2% (95% CI: 5.2–40.3) in the placebo group. The mean absolute CD4+ cell count, CD4+ percentage, and HIV-1 viral load were comparable in both groups at screening and 2 months post-Dose 3. Rotavirus shedding peaked at Day 7 after Dose 1 of RIX4414 with prolonged shedding was observed in 1 infant only. Conclusions: Three doses of RIX4414 vaccine was tolerated well by the South African HIV-positive infants. A satisfactory immune response was mounted without aggravating their immunologic or HIV condition.
A polynomial solution to the model matching problem of nonlinear time-delay systems

In this paper the model matching problem is considered for single input single output nonlinear systems with delays. A full characterization for its solvability is provided within a simple class of compensators. The approach is developed by means of the transfer functions of nonlinear time-delay systems. The state elimination problem for the systems given by their state-space representation is discussed as well.
Load forecasting based on neural networks and load profiling

This work presents a novel perspective of load forecasting based on neural networks and load profiling. In addition to the variables that are typically used to predict future load demand, such as past load values, meteorological variables, seasonal effects or macroeconomic indexes, it is expected that the use of load profiles and detailed information of individual consumers could favor the forecasting process. The methodology can be extended to different temporal horizons being predicted and the eventual threat of overparametrization is attenuated by the use of neural networks since the complexity of the model does not necessarily depends on the number of its weights and biases, as some of these parameters might be found irrelevant in the process. Another way to reduce the risk of overparametrization and overfitting is through the use of a considerable number of data points (whenever historical data is available) to train the network.
Human De-Etiolated-1 Regulates c-Jun by Assembling a CUL4A Ubiquitin Ligase

Arabidopsis thaliana De-etiolated-1 (AtDET1) is a highly conserved protein, with orthologs in vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. AtDET1 negatively regulates photomorphogenesis, but its biochemical mechanism and function in other species are unknown. We report that human DET1 (hDET1) promotes ubiquitination and degradation of the proto-oncogenic transcription factor c-Jun by assembling a multisubunit ubiquitin ligase containing DNA Damage Binding Protein-1 (DDB1), cullin 4A (CUL4A), Regulator of Cullins-1 (ROC1), and constitutively photomorphogenic-1. Ablation of any subunit by RNA interference stabilized c-Jun and increased c-Jun–activated transcription. These findings characterize a c-Jun ubiquitin ligase and define a specific function for hDET1 in mammalian cells.
Increasing Prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni in Feedlot Cattle through the Feeding Period

ABSTRACT The prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni in commercial feedlot cattle was monitored throughout the feeding period by repeated bacteriologic culture of feces. Fecal pats (n = 10) in 20 feedlot pens were sampled at 2-weeks interval beginning at entry into the feedlot and continuing until slaughter. The least-squares mean C. jejuni prevalence increased from 1.6% at the first sampling to 61.3% at the final sampling just prior to slaughter. Diverse C. jejuni pulsed-field gel electrophoresis macrorestriction profiles (MRP) were identified among the cattle isolates, but five prevalent MRP and minor variants accounted for >80% of all typed isolates. Chlorination of the water supplied to the water troughs of half of the pens did not affect C. jejuni prevalence in the cattle. Overall, the least-squares mean C. jejuni prevalences were 45.6 and 43.6% in chlorinated and nonchlorinated feedlot pens, respectively. The results of this study demonstrate apparent transmission of C. jejuni among feedlot cattle during the feeding period, unaffected by water chlorination, resulting in a high prevalence of C. jejuni excretion by cattle approaching slaughter.
Needs assessment for development of 6for6: Longitudinal research skills program tailored to rural and remote family physicians.

PROBLEM ADDRESSED Rural and remote family physicians (RRFPs) face greater barriers to research engagement than their urban colleagues and have access to fewer faculty development programs (FDPs) to foster their research skills. OBJECTIVE OF PROGRAM To identify and prioritize skills and services that RRFPs need to engage in research. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION Memorial University of Newfoundland in St John's used a needs assessment as the foundation for developing an FDP for RRFPs. The assessment comprised a systematic literature review and environmental scan, key informant interviews (n = 10), a focus group with RRFPs (n = 15), expert group meetings (n = 2), and needs assessment surveys (n = 19). CONCLUSION The assessment identified barriers to RRFPs engaging in research, priority considerations for the development of a research FDP for RRFPs, and research areas to be included in the program curriculum. This information was used to inform phases 2 and 3 of program development, which are further discussed in a companion article.
Dynamic rule and rule-field optimisation for improving firewall performance and security

A novel approach is presented to improve firewall packet filtering through optimising the order of firewall rules for early packet acceptance as well as the order of rule-fields for early packet rejection. The proposed approach is based on the calculation of the histograms of packet matching rules and of packet not matching rule-fields. These histograms are able to effectively monitor firewall performance in real-time and to predict the patterns of packet filtering in terms of rules order and rule-fields order. Furthermore, the proposed approach becomes even more significant when firewall is heavily loaded with burst traffic. A comparison of the proposed approach and the other conventional approaches, including static rule order approach and dynamic rule order approach is presented. The numerical results obtained by simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to significantly improve the firewall efficiency in terms of cumulative processing time compared to other conventional approaches. Furthermore, the proposed scheme also has the capability to significantly reduce the effect of many common network attacks on firewall performance.
A quadrature charge-domain sampler with embedded FIR and IIR filtering functions

A circuit technique for integrating built-in complex finite-impulse-response (FIR) and infinite-impulse-response (IIR) filtering functions into operation of a subsampler is presented. Based on integrative multiple sampling in the charge domain, the complex FIR filtering function of the sampler provides internal anti-aliasing and image band suppression prior to quadrature downconversion by subsampling. The complex IIR filtering function, taking place at the output sampling rate of the sampler, performs further first-order channel selection filtering on the downconverted signal. An example 50-MHz IF-sampler implementation in 0.8-/spl mu/m BiCMOS demonstrating the feasibility of the technique is presented in the paper.
Manejo terapéutico de la queratopatía asociada a aniridia congénita

OBJECTIVE To attempt to review the aniridia keratopathy pathogenesis and establish a treatment protocol according to the severity of the symptoms. METHODS Personal experience in aniridic keratopathy management and a bibliography review. RESULTS The ocular manifestations of this anomaly include defects of the cornea, glaucoma, lens subluxation, cataracts, hypoplasia of the iris, fovea and optic nerve, amblyopia and nystagmus. The keratopathy occurs in a 20% of patients with aniridia. The correct PAX6 expression is necessary for normal corneal development, limbal stem cell activity and correct corneal epithelial cell migration and adhesion. CONCLUSIONS The management of ocular surface diseases due to limbal stem cell deficiency in aniridia is complex but has changed in recent years, as an understanding of the limbal stem cells and their microenvironment has modified the therapeutic approach. The use of autologous serum eye drops, amniotic membrane transplantation, limbal transplantation or cultivated limbal cell transplantation have all been reported as a treatment for several ocular surface diseases.
ECHO-4 viruses: improved methods and strain selection for identification and serodiagnosis.

SummaryThese studies have shown that the tube neutralization identification test for ECHO-4 viruses is unreliable and that the most reliable identification method at present is the CF test. It has been demonstrated that immunization of guinea pigs and monkeys with ECHO-4 virus grown in Det. -504 human fibroblast-like cells produces an antiserum free of antibody which will react with RhMKCC antigens, thereby eliminating cell culture cross-reactions and yielding a highly specific diagnostic reaction even with virus antigens of low antigenicity. The ability of ECHO-4 antibodies to readily neutralize DuToit strain as reported by Barron and Karzon(3) has been confirmed and our strain 5705 was found to have similar properties. As suggested by these investigators, DuToit-like strains should probably be employed to detect NA in human patients' sera.
The Bulgarian National Corpus: Theory and Practice in Corpus Design

The paper discusses several key concepts related to the development of corpora and reconsiders them in light of recent developments in NLP. On the basis of an overview of present-day corpora, we conclude that the dominant practices of corpus design do not utilise adequately the technologies and, as a result, fail to meet the demands of corpus linguistics, computational lexicology and computational linguistics alike. We proceed to lay out a data-driven approach to corpus design, which integrates the best practices of traditional corpus linguistics with the potential of the latest technologies allowing fast collection, automatic metadata description and annotation of large amounts of data. Thus, the gist of the approach we propose is that corpus design should be centred on amassing large amounts of mono- and multilingual texts and on providing them with a detailed metadata description and high-quality multi-level annotation. We go on to illustrate this concept with a description of the compilation, structuring, documentation, and annotation of the Bulgarian National Corpus (BulNC). At present it consists of a Bulgarian part of 979.6 million words, constituting the corpus kernel, and 33 Bulgarian-X language corpora, totalling 972.3 million words, 1.95 billion words altogether. The BulNC is supplied with a comprehensive metadata description, which allows us to organise the texts according to different principles. The Bulgarian part of the BulNC is automatically processed (tokenised and sentence split) and annotated at several levels: morphosyntactic tagging, lemmatisation, word-sense annotation, annotation of noun phrases and named entities. Some levels of annotation are also applied to the Bulgarian-English parallel corpus with the prospect of expanding multilingual annotation both in terms of linguistic levels and the number of languages for which it is available. We conclude with a brief evaluation of the quality of the corpus and an outline of its applications in NLP and linguistic research.
Aerobic purification of hydrogenase from Rhizobium japonicum by affinity chromatography

We purified active hydrogenase from free-living Rhizobium japonicum by affinity chromatography. The uptake hydrogenase of R. japonicum has been treated previously as an oxygen-sensitive protein. In this purification, however, reducing agents were not added nor was there any attempt to exclude oxygen. In fact, the addition of sodium dithionite to aerobically purified protein resulted in the rapid loss of activity. Purified hydrogenase was more stable when stored under O2 than when stored under Ar. Sodium-chloride-washed hydrogen-oxidizing membranes were solubilized in Triton X-100 and deoxycholate and loaded onto a reactive red 120-agarose column. Purified hydrogenase elutes at 0.36 M NaCl, contains a nickel, and has a pH optimum of 6.0. There was 452-fold purification resulting in a specific activity of 76.9 mumol of H2 oxidized per min per mg of protein and a yield of 17%. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed subunits with estimated molecular weights of 65,000 and 33,000. Hydrogenase prepared in this manner was used to raise and affinity purify antibodies against both subunits.
Aspectual Bootstrapping in Language Acquisition: Telicity and Transitivity

Two studies looked at whether children used transitivity as a structural cue to telicity semantics. Telicity comprehension was tested using an event-counting task (Wagner & Carey, 2003). Children watched animated movies depicting a goal (a dog pushes a ball into a can) achieved via 2 spatiotemporally distinct steps (the dog pushes the ball twice). The movies were described with either a telic or an atelic predicate, and the dependent measure was whether children counted the event's goals or steps. The predicates conveyed telic meaning with either a transitive structure (The girl painted a flower) or an intransitive structure (The vase broke), or atelic meaning with either a transitive (The dog pushed the ball) or an intransitive structure (The vase moved). Experiment 1 showed that 3- and 5-year-old children successfully understood telic and atelic descriptions, regardless of their syntactic form. Experiment 2 showed that 2-year-old children were successful overall, but showed a bias toward linking transitive structures to telic meanings. The results support the idea that telicity is among the semantic features that are linked to the transitive sentence frame and can be signaled by a structural cue.