Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shear stress induced by a gas bubble pulsating in an ultrasonic field near a wall

Some of the effects that therapeutic ultrasound has in medicine and biology may be associated with steady oscillations of gas bubbles in liquid, very close to tissue surface. The bubble oscillations induce on the surface steady shear stress attributed to microstreaming. A mathematical simulation of the problem for both free and capsulated bubbles, known as contrast agents, is presented here. The simulation is based on a solution of Laplace's equation for potential flow and existing models for microstreaming. The solution for potential flow was obtained numerically using a boundary integral method. The solution provides the evolution of the bubble shape, the distribution of the velocity potential on the surface, and the shear stress along the surface. The simulation shows that significant shear stresses develop on the surface when the bubble bounces near the tissue surface. In this case, pressure amplitude of 20 kPa generates maximal steady shear stress of several kilo Pascal. Substantial shear stress on the tissue surface takes place inside a circular zone with a radius about half of the bubble radius. The predicted shear stress is greater than stress that causes hemolysis in blood and several orders of magnitude greater than the physiological stress induced on the vessel wall by the flowing blood.
Political Cycles and Analyst Bias

We examine the role that political-economic factors play in shaping financial analyst bias using a series of scheduled provincial elections in China. Theory on political business cycles holds that, in a short period prior to these political events, provincial politicians have stronger incentives to bias analyst opinions toward optimism. Consistent with this intuition, we document that analysts are significantly more likely to issue favorable recommendations or revise their recommendations upward during political event periods. In cross-sectional evidence consistent with expectations, we find that the relation between political events and analyst optimism is more pronounced for analysts: covering local state-controlled companies, working for brokerage firms affiliated with local politicians, covering companies in provinces with more potential investment banking business, and working for brokerage firms with less valuable reputations to protect. Supporting that foreign analysts are more immune to local political forces, we find that their recommendations do not become more optimistically biased during political event periods. Analyzing stock returns upon and subsequent to the release of favorable recommendations issued during political event periods reveal that investors perceive such recommendations as less credible, although they fail to fully discount their information value. Reinforcing our main evidence, we also find that financial analysts are more likely to issue optimistic earnings forecasts during political event periods. Collectively, our research implies that politicians successfully distort analyst incentives for political purposes.
Entropy, the Information Processing Cycle, and the Forecasting of Bull and Bear Market Peaks and Troughs

Many econophysics applications have modeled financial systems as if they were pure physical systems devoid of human limitations and errors. On the other hand, traditional financial theory has ignored limits that physics would impose on human interactions, communications, and computational abilities. The entropic yield curve blends the physical and human financial worlds in a new, powerful, and surprisingly simple way. This article uses this information theoretic perspective to provide a new explanation of the dynamics and timing of financial cycles. Additionally, the entropic yield curve offers a new method of forecasting market peaks and troughs.
ECG signal filtering using DWT haar wavelets coefficient techniques

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are very suspicious on different types of noise includes artifacts, Power line interferences obtained from Instrumentation disturbances and human interferences. These noises degrade the signal quality, which may be critical for monitoring and diagnostics for various types of arrhythmias. To overcome this problem various filtering Techniques are being used, among which Gaussian filtering along with Haar DWT wavelet transformation shows the better results in removing the noise and smoothes the signal. The ECG signal filtering process provides the testing and validate into real world emulation. The ECG signal filter banks with reconstructed signal and their simulation results provide improved PSNR ratios. The input data derived from MIT-BIH waveform database (WFDB) to accomplish the Co-simulation data performance using Matlab Simulink. The Hardware implementation carried out using Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA Kit. The resultant signals in frequency domain for advanced digital signal processing.
CTCF regulates the human p53 gene through direct interaction with its natural antisense transcript, Wrap53

The CTCF protein functions as an insulator and higher-order chromatin organizer. Reinberg and colleagues report that in addition to its DNA-binding activity, CTCF binds RNA. They map the RNA-binding domain and demonstrate that apart from its established role at the p53 promoter, CTCF regulates p53 expression through its physical interaction with the Wrap53 RNA. Furthermore, the authors show that the RNA-binding domain facilitates CTCF multimerization in an RNA-dependent manner, which may bear directly on its role in establishing higher-order chromatin structures.
People’s Councils for Ethical Machine Learning

Machine learning is a form of knowledge production native to the era of big data. It is at the core of social media platforms and everyday interactions. It is also being rapidly adopted for research and discovery across academia, business, and government. This article will explores the way the affordances of machine learning itself, and the forms of social apparatus that it becomes a part of, will potentially erode ethics and draw us in to a drone-like perspective. Unconstrained machine learning enables and delimits our knowledge of the world in particular ways: the abstractions and operations of machine learning produce a “view from above” whose consequences for both ethics and legality parallel the dilemmas of drone warfare. The family of machine learning methods is not somehow inherently bad or dangerous, nor does implementing them signal any intent to cause harm. Nevertheless, the machine learning assemblage produces a targeting gaze whose algorithms obfuscate the legality of its judgments, and whose iterations threaten to create both specific injustices and broader states of exception. Given the urgent need to provide some kind of balance before machine learning becomes embedded everywhere, this article proposes people’s councils as a way to contest machinic judgments and reassert openness and discourse.
Safety and tolerability of antidepressant co-treatment in acute major depressive disorder: results from a systematic review and exploratory meta-analysis

Introduction: Although antidepressant (AD) monotherapy is recommended first-line for major depressive disorder (MDD), AD + AD co-treatment is common. Areas covered: We conducted the first systematic review searching PubMed/MEDLINE/PsycInfo/Embase from database inception until 1 June 2015 for acute randomized trials in ≥ 20 adults with MDD comparing AD monotherapy with AD + AD co-treatment that reported quantitative data on adverse events (AEs). Meta-analyzing 23 studies (n = 2435, duration = 6.6 weeks) AD monotherapy and AD + AD co-treatment were similar regarding intolerability-related discontinuation (risk ratio [RR] = 1.38, 95% CI = 0.89 – 1.10) and frequency of ≥ 1 AE (RR = 1.19, 95% CI = 0.95 – 1.49). Nevertheless, AD + AD co-treatment was associated with significantly greater burden regarding 4/25 AEs (tremor: RR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.01 – 2.38; sweating: RR = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.13 –3.38, ≥ 7% weight gain: RR = 3.15, 95% CI = 1.34 – 7.41; weight gain = 2.17, 95% CI = 0.71 – 3.63 kg), but not more CNS, gastrointestinal, sexual or alertness-related AEs. However, 11/25 AEs (44.0%) were reported in only 1 – 2 studies. Adding noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressants (NaSSA) or tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) was specifically associated with more AEs. Expert opinion: The potential for increased AEs with AD + AD co-treatment needs to be considered vis-à-vis unclear efficacy benefits of this strategy. In particular, NaSSAs and TCAs should be added to SSRIs with caution. Clearly, more data on side-effect burden of AD + AD co-treatment are needed.
Energy Consumption Analysis and Optimization of BER-Constrained Amplify-and-Forward Relay Networks

In this paper, we first develop an analytical framework for the total energy consumption of an amplify-and-forward (AF) multihop network employing M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) while satisfying an average bit error rate (BER) requirement at the destination over Rayleigh fading channels. Based on this framework, we then establish the conditions under which a dual-hop relay network is always more energy efficient when compared with a reference single-hop network. Moreover, the impact of the relay's location and the energy resource allocation between the relay and the source on the possible energy savings is also analyzed. Since a realistic power consumption model is considered, it is shown that there exists an optimal number of relays for the linear multihop relay network and that the maximum energy efficiency (EE) is obtained through the joint optimization of the number of relays and the constellation size. Considering this fact, we first formulate the optimization problem, and then, this problem is transformed into a convex form by relaxing constraints to be defined over the real numbers (instead of taking only discrete values). The new closed-form optimal solution that involves only elementary functions is derived for this relaxed problem. It is also demonstrated that the optimized multihop network has the potential not only to reduce the total energy consumption but to satisfy the peak-power constraint simultaneously at the expense of more delay as well. Finally, our analysis shows that significant energy savings are possible through joint optimization not only for delay-tolerant networks but for delay-limited networks as well, and up to about 55% energy savings are achievable over the optimized single-hop system.
In vivo screening of five phytochemicals/extracts and a fungal immunomodulatory protein against colibacillosis in broilers

Five phytochemicals/extracts (an extract from Echinacea purpurea, a β-glucan-rich extract from Shiitake, betaine [Betain™], curcumin from Curcuma longa [turmeric] powder, carvacrol and also a recombinant fungal immunomodulatory protein [FIP] from Ganoderma lucidum) cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli were investigated for their anticolibacillosis potential in three chicken experiments, which were conducted in floor pens. Birds that were inoculated with E. coli intratracheally were treated with the phytochemicals/extracts or the FIP and compared with doxycycline-medicated and non-medicated infected broilers. Non-medicated and non-infected birds were used as negative controls. Mortality, colibacillosis lesions and body weight gains were used as parameters. Considering the sum of dead birds and chickens with generalized colibacillosis per group, there was no significant difference between the positive control groups and birds treated with phytochemicals/extracts or the FIP. In contrast, doxycycline-treated birds showed significantly lower mortality and generalized colibacillosis. Moreover, none of the phytochemicals/extracts and the FIP improved recovery from colibacillosis lesions, while all doxycycline-treated broilers recovered completely. The negative control birds and doxycycline-treated groups consistently showed the highest weight gains. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of reisolates showed that they were genetically indistinguishable from the inoculation strain. In conclusion, none of the tested phytochemicals/extracts and the FIP significantly reduced the E. coli-induced mortality and generalized colibacillosis, and nor did they improve recovery from colibacillosis lesions.
Wages and Employment: The Role of Occupational Skills

How skills acquired in vocational education and training (VET) affect wages and employment is not clear. We develop and estimate a search and matching model for workers with a VET degree. Workers differ in interpersonal, cognitive and manual skills, while firms require and value different combinations of these skills. Assuming that match productivity exhibits worker-job complementarity, we estimate how interpersonal, cognitive and manual skills map into job offers, unemployment and wages. We find that firms value cognitive skills on average almost twice as much as interpersonal and manual skills, and they prize complementarity in cognitive and interpersonal skills. The average return to VET skills in hourly wages is 9%, similar to the returns to schooling. Furthermore, VET appears to improve labour market opportunities through higher job arrival rate and lower job destruction. Workers thus have large benefits from acquiring a VET degree.
Genetic identification of endangered North African ungulates using noninvasive sampling

North African ungulates include several threatened and emblematic species, yet are poorly studied mainly due to their remoteness and elusiveness. Noninvasive sampling provides a useful approach to obtain ecological and genetic information essential to guide conservation actions. The very first and most important step in conservation planning is to accurately identify species, and molecular genetics has been proved to be a useful tool. Several molecular genetics protocols are available for species identification, even for samples with poor quality DNA, such as faeces, hairs or bones. Most of these protocols use mitochondrial DNA for barcoding despite this marker being especially prone to problems, including mtDNA introgression, nuclear insert copies, high intraspecific diversity or heteroplasmy. In this work, we developed a molecular method based on polymorphisms in small fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb, mtDNA) and the nuclear kappa casein genes (KCAS, nDNA) for identifying endangered North African ungulates. These fragments revealed polymorphisms, including species‐specific variation, which allowed species identification of nine ungulate species that co‐occur in North Africa. The method was validated across more than 400 samples, including different types of noninvasive samples collected in the field. The simplicity, high reliability and relative low cost of the described method make it a promising tool to improve ecological studies of the North African ungulates and consequently, the implementation of more efficient management and conservation plans for these endangered ungulates.
Comparison of WHO and endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia classifications in predicting the presence of coexistent malignancy in endometrial hyperplasia.

OBJECTIVE The most commonly used classification system for endometrial hyperplasia is the World Health Organization system which is based on subjective criteria. Another classification system is endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia (EIN) system which uses diagnostic criteria including cytological demarcation, crowded gland architecture, minimum size of 1 mm, and careful exclusion of mimics, and aims to identify a precancer or cancer. The objective of this study was to compare the two classification systems in terms of predicting the presence of a coexistent cancer in surgically treated patients. METHODS Biopsy and hysterectomy specimens of 49 women who were subjected to surgery with a preoperative diagnosis of endometrial hyperplasia (EH) according to the WHO system were re-evaluated retrospectively by using EIN system. RESULTS Among the 49 patients, 69.4% had complex atypical EH and 75.5% had EIN at biopsy specimens. EIN was detected in 94.1% of complex atypical EH, and 41.7% of non-atypical EH. Nine women (18.4%) had endometrial cancer. Among women with cancer, all had complex atypical EH or EIN. The rate of coexistent endometrial cancer was 26.5% in women with complex atypical EH and 24.3% in women with EIN. CONCLUSION Diagnoses of atypical or complex atypical EH and EIN had similar sensitivities and negative predictive values in predicting the coexistent endometrial cancer. Either of these two classification systems may be used safely when an experienced pathologist is available. However, use of the objective EIN system may be preferred whenever possible to prevent diagnostic errors in centers where an experienced pathologist is not available.
The relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth of Bulgaria. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth of Bulgaria for the period 1990-2016, based on annual data, by using the Toda–Yamamoto analysis and Autogressive Distrubuted Lag (ARDL) bound test. This period is characterized by the democratization of the Balkans and several crisis cycles in Bulgaria. Renewable energy consumption (REC, percentage of total final energy consumption), renewable electricity output (REO, percentage of total electricity output) and economic growth (GDP constant 2010 US$) were used. The levels or differences of the variables that are stationary were investigated using the augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF), Philips–Perron (PP) and Kwiatkowski-Philips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) unit root tests. Findings Three different results were obtained from this study. One showed that renewable energy consumption and renewable electricity output are the causes of economic growth. Another result of this study is that economic growth and renewable electricity output are the causes of renewable energy consumption. The last result is that economic growth and renewable energy consumption are not causes of renewable electricity output. There was no long-term relationship between variables. Research limitations/implications The ARDL and Toda–Yamamoto tests were used because of lack of data sets. Thus, it is estimated that there is no long-term relationship. Originality/value This study is an original work for Bulgaria, showing the results of the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth. In line with the results of this study, renewable energy projects related to Bulgaria can be predicted.
Impairment and coping in children and adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome: a comparative study with other paediatric disorders.

BACKGROUND Functional impairment is a key feature of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) of childhood. AIM To compare impairment, illness attitudes and coping mechanisms in childhood CFS and in other paediatric disorders. METHOD Participants were 28 children and adolescents with CFS, 30 with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and 27 with emotional disorders (ED). The measures used were interviews with children and parents, with detailed enquiry on impairment, including the Functional Disability Inventory (FDI), Illness Attitudes Scales (IAS), and Kidcope to measure coping styles in relation to common problems, illness and disability. RESULTS Children with CFS reported significantly more illness impairment, especially in school attendance, than those with JIA and ED. They had higher 'worry about illness' scores on the IAS. On the Kidcope they named school issues (work, expectations, attendance) as illness- or disability-related problems more than the other two groups. Fewer CFS participants reported using problem solving as a strategy to cope with illness and disability than with other problems in their lives. More in the CFS than in the JIA group used emotional regulation to cope with illness and disability. Fewer in the CFS than in the ED groups used social withdrawal to cope with illness and self-criticism for disability, but more used resignation to cope with disability. CONCLUSION Severe illness-related impairment, particularly through school non-attendance, and high levels of illness-related school concerns appear specific to CFS. CFS may also have characteristically high levels of generalised illness worry and particular styles of coping with illness and disability.
Development of a New Experimental Model of Penicillin-ResistantStreptococcus pneumoniae Pneumonia and Amoxicillin Treatment by Reproducing Human Pharmacokinetics

ABSTRACT The increase of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP) pneumonia results in a greater risk of antibiotic treatment failure. In vitro data are not sufficient predictors of clinical efficacy, and animal models may be insufficiently contributive, since they often use immunocompromised animals and do not always respect the human pharmacokinetics of antibiotics. We developed an experimental PRSP pneumonia model in immunocompetent rabbits, by using intrabronchial instillation of PRSP (MIC = 4 mg/liter), without any adjuvant. This reproducible model was used to assess amoxicillin efficacy by reproducing human serum pharmacokinetics following 1-g oral or intravenous administrations of amoxicillin every 8 h. Evaluation was performed by using clinical, CT scan, macroscopic, histopathologic, and microbiological criteria. Experimental pneumonia in untreated rabbits was similar to untreated severe human bacteremic untreated pneumonia; in both rabbits and humans, (i) cumulative survival was close to 50%, (ii) red or gray lung congestion and pleuritis were observed, and (iii) lung and spleen concentrations reached 5 and 4 log10 CFU/g. A 48-h treatment resulted in a significant bacterial clearance in the lungs (1.53 versus 5.07 log10 CFU/ml, P < 0.001) and spleen (1.00 versus 4.40 log10 CFU/ml,P < 10−6) and a significant decrease in mortality (0% versus 50%, P = 0.02) in treated versus untreated rabbits. No difference was observed on macroscopic and histopathologic lesions between treated and untreated rabbits (P = 0.36 and 0.78, respectively). Similar results were obtained by using a fully penicillin-susceptible S. pneumoniae strain (MIC = 0.01 mg/liter). Our findings suggest that (i) this new model can be contributive in the evaluation of antibacterial agents and (ii) 1 g of amoxicillin three times a day may be sufficient to treat PRSP pneumonia in immunocompetent humans.