Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short-course antibiotic therapy: The next frontier in antimicrobial stewardship

Ensuring appropriate use of antibiotics is critical to preserving their effectiveness through limiting the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance. Evidence is accumulating that shorter courses of antibiotics are as effective as traditional longer regimens for many common infections and can reduce the risk of adverse events. Despite the availability of evidence and guidelines supporting short-course antibiotic therapy for these conditions, prolonged use of antibiotics remains common. This article will review the origins and evolution of our approach regarding antimicrobial prescription duration, the evidence for the use of short-course therapy for selected infections, barriers to the uptake of this practice and potential approaches that can be taken to reduce inappropriately long antibiotic use.
Multi‐scale structure of the electron diffusion region

Kinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection indicate that the electron diffusion region (EDR) can elongate into a highly stretched current layer with a width on the electron scale and a length that exceeds tens of ion inertial lengths. The resulting structure has no fluid analogue and consists of two regions in the exhaust direction. The inner region is characterized by the locale where electrons reach a peak outflow speed near the electron Alfvén velocity. Ions also approach ∼80% of their peak velocity in this inner region but remain sub‐Alfvénic. There exists a large electrostatic potential that can temporarily trap electrons within this inner region. The electron frozen‐in condition is violated over a wider outer region characterized by highly collimated electron jets that are gradually decelerated and thermalized. Reconnection proceeds continuously but the rate is modulated in time as the EDR elongates into an extended layer. The elongation of the EDR is controlled by the competition between the outward convection of magnetic flux and the non‐ideal term involving the divergence of the electron pressure tensor. The occasional balance between these two terms leads to periods of quasi‐steady reconnection. However, over longer time scales, a natural feature of the reconnection process appears to be frequent formation of plasmoids due to the instability of the elongated EDR which leads to larger variations in the reconnection rate. These new findings provide testable predictions and indicate the need to reconsider the diagnostics for identification of the diffusion region and interpretation of observational data.
The Effects of Magnet Therapy on Pain and Disability in Patients with Shoulder Impingement Syndrome

Background: Shoulder pain felt when performing daily activities is a common complaint at all ages. Shoulder impingement syndrome is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain. Since this disease is relatively prevalent, there is an urgent need to develop a treatment method with fewer complications. Magnet therapy (MT) is one of the therapies that has been recently used to treat various musculoskeletal disorders. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of MT on pain and disability in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome. Methods: In this double-blind clinical trial study, 60 patients diagnosed with shoulder impingement syndrome were randomly assigned to three groups including the "MT 18 Hz" group, the "MT 100 Hz" group, and the "Sham" group. All patients received Magnet therapy three times a week for four weeks in addition to routine treatment. In the sham group, Magnet therapy was used as a placebo. All three groups received routine electrotherapy and exercise therapy. Before and after the treatment, the pain level was evaluated by the NRS scale, the disability level was assessed by the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand Questionnaire (DASH), and the range of motion of the shoulder was measured using a goniometer. The values obtained in the groups and for the groups were compared before and after the treatment. Results: The intragroup comparison of the three groups revealed a statistically significant improvement in all variables (including NRS score, DASH, and shoulder range of motion) (P < 0.05). The intergroup comparison, on the other hand, showed no statistically significant difference for any of the variables (P > 0.05). Conclusions: It was concluded that routine physiotherapy significantly reduced pain and disability as well as improved shoulder range of motions in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome. Moreover, using magnet therapy with two frequencies of 18 and 100 Hz along with the routine electrotherapy and exercise therapy had no additional positive effect on the recovery process of patients with shoulder impingement syndrome.
On the Relationship between North Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures and U.S. Hurricane Landfall Risk

Abstract In the recent literature, considerable attention has been paid to the relationship between climate signals and tropical cyclone activity. Much of the research has focused on Atlantic Ocean basin activity while less attention has been given to landfall frequency and the geographic distribution of risk to life and property. However, recent active seasons like 2004 and 2005 and the resulting damage and economic loss have generated significant interest in the relationship between climate and landfall risk. This study focuses on sea surface temperatures (SST) and examines modulation of landfall activity occurring in anomalously warm-SST seasons. The objective of the study is to evaluate the effect of warmer ocean conditions on U.S. landfall risk. The study is broken into two parts–—statistical and physical. The statistical analysis categorizes historical hurricane seasons as either warm or cool and then estimates shifts in landfall frequency under these two climate modes. The analysis is carried out f.
Nonlinear Hebbian training of the perceptron

The effects of nonlinear modulation of the Hebbian learning rule on the performance of a perceptron are investigated. Both random classification and classification provided by a teacher perceptron are considered. It is seen that both the generalization and learning rate depend on the overlap between the teacher and the student and the signal-to-noise ratio in the local field. Furthermore, they are independent of the specific teacher distribution when the ratio between the number of training examples and the perceptron size is small. An analytic expression is obtained for the optimal modulation function for different classification schemes. For random and Gaussian teacher classifications the best choice for modulation appears to be linear. For binary teachers it is shown to be the hyperbolic tangent. The modifications on the latter from diluting the binary teacher are also obtained in analytic form.
Comparing color edge detection and segmentation methods

The authors report the results of a controlled comparative study of four proposed methods for extracting boundaries in static images using color information. The first two techniques are, more properly speaking, edge-detection methods. These include the adaptation of the Hueckel operator to color images by R. Nevatia (1977) and the DOOG (difference of offset Gaussians) operator proposed by R. Young (1985, 1986). The latter two methods are examples of region-based segmentation. These include the adaptation of R. Ohlander et al. (1978), region splitting by Y. Ohta et al. (1980), and the fuzzy c-means segmentation and edge-detection methods of T.L. Huntsberger et al. (1985). The methods are compared using both simulated, controlled images as well as a variety of natural scene images. Images with various levels of randomly additive noise provide some indication of the degradation of performance of these methods under noisy conditions. <<ETX>>
ELASTIC RESONANCES IN ELECTRON SCATTERING FROM He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, AND Hg

Abstract : The transmission of electrons through the rare gases and mercury vapor has been examined as a function of electron energy, with energy resolution of about 0.04 eV. Many anomalies (resonances) localized in energy have been observed, totaling 11 in helium, six in neon, two each in argon and krypton, five in xenon, and 13 in mercury. The interpretation of these resonances in terms of compound negative ion formation is discussed, and in several cases electron configurations are assigned to the negative ions. In helium, neon, xenon, and mercury, sharp decreases in transmission are observed which are attributed to the onset of inelastic processes. Definite identification of the inelastic processes in the case of helium permits calibration of the absolute electron energy scale to within =0.03 eV. (Author)
Mitotic progression and dual spindle formation caused by spindle association of de novo–formed microtubule-organizing centers in parthenogenetic embryos of Drosophila ananassae

Abstract Facultative parthenogenesis occurs in many animal species that typically undergo sexual reproduction. In Drosophila, such development from unfertilized eggs involves diploidization after completion of meiosis, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. Here we used a laboratory stock of Drosophila ananassae that has been maintained parthenogenetically to cytologically examine the initial events of parthenogenesis. Specifically, we determined whether the requirements for centrosomes and diploidization that are essential for developmental success can be overcome. As a primal deviation from sexually reproducing (i.e. sexual) strains of the same species, free asters emerged from the de novo formation of centrosome-like structures in the cytosol of unfertilized eggs. Those microtubule-organizing centers had distinct roles in the earliest cycles of parthenogenetic embryos with respect to mitotic progression and arrangement of mitotic spindles. In the first cycle, an anastral bipolar spindle self-assembled around a haploid set of replicated chromosomes. Participation of at least one microtubule-organizing center in the spindle was necessary for mitotic progression into anaphase. In particular, the first mitosis involving a monastral bipolar spindle resulted in haploid daughter nuclei, one of which was associated with a microtubule-organizing center whereas the other was not. Remarkably, in the following cycle, biastral and anastral bipolar spindles formed that were frequently arranged in tandem by sharing an aster with bidirectional connections at their central poles. We propose that, for diploidization of haploid nuclei, unfertilized parthenogenetic embryos utilize dual spindles during the second mitosis, as occurs for the first mitosis in normal fertilized eggs.
SPoFC: A framework for stream data aggregation with local differential privacy

Collecting and analysing customers' data plays an essential role in the more intense market competition. It is critical to perform data analysis effectively while ensuring the user's privacy, especially after various privacy regulations are enacted. In this paper, we consider the problem of aggregating the stream data generated from wearable devices in a specific time period in a privacy‐preserving manner. Specifically, we adopt the local differential privacy mechanism to provide a strong privacy guarantee for users. One major challenge is that all values of the stream need to be perturbed. The additive noise makes it hard to release an accurate data stream. One way to reduce the noise scale is to select some data points to perturb instead of all. The intuition is that more privacy budgets are applied to a single data point, which ensures the statistical accuracy. The perturbed data points are used to predict the un‐selected data points without consuming an extra privacy budget. Based on this idea, we propose a novel stream data statistical framework, which includes four components, data fitting, skeleton point selection, noisy stream generation, and data aggregation. Extensive experiment results show that our proposed method achieves a much smaller mean square error given a fixed privacy budget compared with the state‐of‐the‐art.
Mechanocardiography-Based Measurement System Indicating Changes in Heart Failure Patients during Hospital Admission and Discharge

Heart failure (HF) is a disease related to impaired performance of the heart and is a significant cause of mortality and treatment costs in the world. During its progression, HF causes worsening (decompensation) periods which generally require hospital care. In order to reduce the suffering of the patients and the treatment cost, avoiding unnecessary hospital visits is essential, as hospitalization can be prevented by medication. We have developed a data-collection device that includes a high-quality 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope and a single-lead ECG. This allows gathering ECG synchronized data utilizing seismo- and gyrocardiography (SCG, GCG, jointly mechanocardiography, MCG) and comparing the signals of HF patients in acute decompensation state (hospital admission) and compensated condition (hospital discharge). In the MECHANO-HF study, we gathered data from 20 patients, who each had admission and discharge measurements. In order to avoid overfitting, we used only features developed beforehand and selected features that were not outliers. As a result, we found three important signs indicating the worsening of the disease: an increase in signal RMS (root-mean-square) strength (across SCG and GCG), an increase in the strength of the third heart sound (S3), and a decrease in signal stability around the first heart sound (S1). The best individual feature (S3) alone was able to separate the recordings, giving 85.0% accuracy and 90.9% accuracy regarding all signals and signals with sinus rhythm only, respectively. These observations pave the way to implement solutions for patient self-screening of the HF using serial measurements.
Recent Developments in Wireless Soil Moisture Sensing to Support Scientific Research and Agricultural Management

In recent years, wireless sensor network (WSN) technology has emerged as an important technique for wireless sensing of soil moisture from the field to the catchment scale. This review paper presents the current status of wireless sensor network (WSN) technology for distributed, near real-time sensing of soil moisture to investigate seasonal and event dynamics of soil moisture patterns. It is also discussed how WSN measurements of soil measurements contribute to the validation and downscaling of satellite data and non-invasive geophysical instruments as well as the validation of distributed hydrological models. Finally, future perspectives for WSN measurements of soil moisture are highlighted, which includes the improved integration of real-time WSN measurements with other information sources using the latest wireless communication techniques and cyberinfrastructures.
Plausibility of Substantial Dry Adiabatic Subsidence in a Tornado Core

Abstract The question of whether or not the cores of some tornadoes are significantly warmed above the moist adiabatic temperature of their parent Cb by dry adiabatic subsidence is discussed in terms of limited supporting evidence and scientific arguments both for and against. Further supporting evidence is provided by axisymmetric numerical simulations described here in which a background field of vertical vorticity is spun up at low levels by a moist convective updraft in a potentially unstable thermal environment typical for tornado events. Substantial axial subsidence heating develops in the simulations provided the vortex swirl is comparable to, or larger than, the maximum values observed in tornadoes. The significant axial forces, including buoyancy, vertical acceleration, and momentum diffusion, are examined in detail for their effect on the surface pressure deficit and the maximum low-level windspeed.
KERNEL’S ESTIMATION OF GINI INDEX BASED ON THE VARYING BANDWIDTH PARAMETER

Most of the measures of income inequality are derived from the Lorenz curve, and many authors state that the Gini index is the best single measure of inequality. The present paper reviews some of the theorical properties of the Lorenz curve and provides a nonparametric estimate of the Gini index and the almost sure convergence of this estimate. And to confirm the performance of the estimator, an application on real data was carried out.
The Combined Strategy of Energy Replenishment and Data Collection in Heterogenous Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks

The wireless energy transfer technology provides an effective solution of the energy shortage of wireless sensor networks. However, facing with complicated network areas and various kinds of applications, using one type of mobile devices and one data transmission mode: mobile sink mode or multihop transmission, cannot satisfy the requirements of the wireless rechargeable sensor networks (WRSN). To address this, a novel data collection and relay strategy is proposed. Under this strategy, considering various kinds of traffic requirements and limitations of sensor nodes, we propose a jointly scheduling of moving vehicles (MVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to adapt to the complex environment and improve network performance. Through planning charging path and designing data transmission policy, the proposed algorithm prolongs the network lifetime while guarantees the quality of service of heterogeneous traffics. As the differences in moving speed, charging rate, and the amount of responsible data, there is some spare time of the MV or the UAV in a cycle and a global charging. A collecting algorithm is proposed to further charge and collect data from the cluster out of the original path. Finally, the results verify that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the dead time of the network and improve the energy efficiency simultaneously.
The Shrinkage Adjusted Sharpe Ratio: An Improved Method for Mutual Fund Selection

Mutual fund selection is a notoriously difficult task, because past performance is a poor predictor of future performance. We propose a fund performance measure that incorporates a simple idea: shrinkage, in the sense of Bayes-James-Stein, should be applied to gross return parameters, but not to fees, which are known. The proposed Shrinkage Adjusted Sharpe ratio (SAS) substantially improves the prediction of out-of-sample performance relative to existing methods. The best prediction is obtained when fees are weighed five times heavier than sample returns.
A framework to estimate climate mitigation potential for US cropland using publicly available data

The US agricultural sector is proposed as one opportunity to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions—reductions that are needed to limit atmospheric warming to be more in line with the US Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement. Improved management of agricultural soils can both mitigate GHG emissions and increase carbon (C) sequestration, but disagreement exists regarding what levels of adoption are possible and to what extent they may mitigate net GHG emissions. In this paper, we provide a framework for setting reasonable, short-term conservation practice adoption targets and quantifying the associated net emissions reductions. Our framework was constructed using USDA-based publicly available inventory data and mitigation potentials from the COMET-Planner tool scaled to nine farm resource regions. The framework includes 2017 levels of conservation practice adoption and two 10-year growth scenarios: business-as-usual (BAU) and accelerated adoption rates. We evaluated six cropland management practices and practices associated with Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) establishment. Based on existing (2017) census data, we estimated that 134.2 million tonnes (Mt) carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per year have been or continue to be reduced through the adoption of conservation management practices on a cumulative total of 133.5 million hectares (Mha) of cropland. Under the BAU scenario, we estimated an additional 6.2 Mha y−1 of adoption could result in a reduction potential of 48.7 Mt CO2e y−1. Under the accelerated scenario, we estimated an additional 13.1 Mha y−1 of adoption could result in a reduction potential of 118.5 Mt of CO2e y−1 over the next 10 years. This framework highlights three key outcomes: (1) agriculture has had a substantial impact on GHG mitigation through existing/historical adoption of six cropland management practices and conversion of lands to the CRP; (2) these shifts in adoption provide an important baseline to make future projections of changes in practice adoption given regional trends and the resulting GHG mitigation potentials; and (3) disaggregating national estimates to the farm resource region level can help to inform and prioritize programs and policies consistent with existing climate goals. Estimates reported here reflect the current state of national modeling efforts and agricultural inventory sources. As new data such as the pending 2022 Ag Census report and model enhancements are made, the framework we outline here can be used to revise and update the estimates to improve accuracy and applicability.
Functional Observer Design for Parallel Connected Li-Ion Battery: A Descriptor Systems Theory Approach

This letter investigates cell-level state of charge (SOC) estimation in a parallel connected lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack under a reduced sensing scenario. The internal states of individual cells within a battery pack are likely to differ due to cell inconsistencies caused by manufacturing tolerances and usage conditions. This creates a need for cell-level estimation in a parallel connected battery pack. The dynamics of parallel connected battery packs require solving differential algebraic equations (DAEs). This letter considers the reduced sensing scenario, measuring only the total current and voltage for estimating individual cell SOCs and local currents in a battery pack. A novel functional observer, designed under milder conditions, is proposed and the observer design is formulated in terms of a feasible linear matrix inequality (LMI) problem. In the simulation, the SOC of two cylindrical Li-ion battery cells are estimated, and the results illustrate a fast convergence and hence the effectiveness of our approach.
Design considerations of ROIC for single color LWIR and multicolor IR focal plane arrays

LWIR and Multi-color LWIR Focal Planes are being developed for a variety of Space applications. A variety of Focal Plane array technologies, that includes HgCdTe, PbSnTe and other novel technologies are being developed. These detectors FPAs will require High quality two-dimensional, small unit cell, Silicon CMOS based ROICs for efficient read-out circuits. This Paper will discuss some of the salient features of various approaches being developed for the IR focal plane applications. We will also present Trade-off analysis for design of a trans-impedance input amplifier with reset and compact signal average for low noise performance. We will also discuss the various approaches for design of an A/D converter with high linearity and speed. We will discuss approaches to achieve ROIC with low noise floor, high dynamic range and high frame rate.