A Novel Cultural Crowd Model Toward Cognitive Artificial Intelligence

Existing literature shows cultural crowd management has unforeseen issues due to four dynamic elements; time, capacity, speed, and culture. Cross-cultural variations are increasing the complexity level because each mass and event have different characteristics and challenges. However, no prior study has employed the six Hofstede Cultural Dimensions (HCD) for predicting crowd behaviors. This study aims to develop the Cultural Crowd-Artificial Neural Network (CC-ANN) learning model that considers crowd’s HCD to predict their physical (distance and speed) and social (collectivity and cohesion) characteristics. The model was developed towards a cognitive intelligent decision support tool where the predicted characteristics affect the estimated regulation plan’s time and capacity. We designed the experiments as four groups to analyze the proposed model’s outcomes and extract the interrelations between the HCD of crowd’s grouped individuals and their physical and social characteristics. Furthermore, the extracted interrelations were verified with the dataset’s statistical correlation analysis with a P-value < 0.05. Results demonstrate that the predicted crowd’s characteristics were positively/negatively affected by their considered cultural features. Similarly, analyzing outcomes identified the most influential HCD for predicting crowd behavior. The results also show that the CC-ANN model improves the prediction and learning performance for the crowd behavior because the achieved accepted level of accuracy does not exceed 10 to 20 epochs in most cases. Moreover, the performance improved by 90%, 93% respectively in some cases. Finally, all prediction best cases were related to one or more cultural features with a low error of 0.048, 0.117, 0.010, and 0.014 mean squared error, indicating a novel cultural learning model.     

Efficacy of single dose albendazole on the prevalence and intensity of infection of soil-transmitted helminths in Orang Asli children in Malaysia

The efficacy of a single-dose 400 mg albendazole to treat Ascaris, Trichuris and hookworm infection was studied in Orang Asli community. Kato-Katz examination was performed on fecal samples which were collected before treatment, 1 and 4 months after treatment. A total of 123 children were involved in all three surveys. The cure rate of Ascaris infection was 97.4% and the egg reduction after treatment was 99.9%. The cure rate for hookworm infection was 93.1% with 96.6% egg reduction. Although the cure rate was low in Trichuris infection (5.5%), egg reduction was more evident (49.1%). The reinfection rate at 4 months after treatment was 54.5%, 3.6% and 10.3% for Ascaris, Trichuris and hookworm infection, respectively. Within 4 months after treatment almost one-fifth children with Ascaris and hookworm infection reached pre-treatment intensity infection. In Trichuris infection, however more than half of the children reached their pre-treatment intensity infection at 4 months after treatment. Findings suggest that 4-monthly targeted periodic treatment with 400 mg single-dose albendazole in highly endemic areas can have a significant impact on intensity infection of Ascaris and hookworm, but not on Trichuris infection.     

Fault localization for automated program repair: effectiveness,performance, repair correctness

Automated program repair (APR) tools apply fault localization (FL) techniques to identify the locations of likely faults to be repaired. The effectiveness, performance, and repair correctness of APR depends in part on the FL method used. If FL does not identify the location of a fault, the application of an APR tool will not be effective—it will fail to repair the fault. If FL assigns the actual faulty statement a low priority for repair, APR performance will be reduced by increasing the time required to find a potential repair. In addition, the correctness of a generated repair will be decreased since APR will modify fault-free statements that are assigned a higher priority for repair than an actual faulty statement. We conducted a controlled experiment to evaluate the impact of ten FL techniques on APR effectiveness, performance, and repair correctness using a brute force APR tool applied to faulty versions of the Siemens Suite and two other large programs: space and sed. All FL techniques were effective in identifying all faults; however, Wong3 and Ample1 were the least effective FL techniques since they assigned the lowest priority for repair in more than 26 % of the trials. We obtained the worst APR performance significantly when Ample1 was used since it generated a large number of variants in 29.11 % of the trials, and took the longest time to produce potential repairs. Jaccard FL improved repair correctness by generating more validated repairs–potential repairs that pass a set of regression tests, and generating potential repairs that failed fewer regression tests. Also Jaccard’s performance is noteworthy in that it never generated a large number of variants during the repair process compared to the alternatives.     

The prevalence of Trichuris, Ascaris and hookworm infection in Orang Asli children

Microcin B17 (MccB17) is a ribosomally encoded DNA-gyrase inhibitor. Ribosomally encoded antibiotics are derived from precursors containing an N-terminal leader, which is removed during maturation, and a C-terminal structural peptide. PreMccB17, the translational product of mcbA, is modified into proMccB17 by the action of three enzymes, McbB, McbC, and McbD. A chromosomally encoded peptidase then converts proMccB17 into MccB17. The role of McbB, McbC, and McbD is to convert glycine, cysteine, and serine residues present in preMccB17 into four thiazole and four oxazole rings. Using a modification-specific antibody rather than antimicrobial activity, we show that the 26-amino-acid N-terminal leader of preMccB17 is essential for the conversion of preMccB17 into proMccB17. Neither a preMccB17 peptide lacking the leader nor a preMccB17-beta-galactosidase fusion lacking the leader are post-translationally modified.     

Angiotensin II Exaggerates SARS-CoV-2 Specific T-Cell Response in Convalescent Individuals following COVID-19

Dysregulation of renin−angiotensin systems during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection worsens the symptoms and contributes to COVID-19 severity and mortality. This study sought to investigate the effect of exogenous angiotensin II (Ang-II) on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific T-cells response in recovered COVID-19 patients. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were treated with Ang II and then stimulated with a SARS-CoV-2 peptide pool. T-cell responses were measured using flow cytometry, while enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) assays determined functional capability and polarization. Additionally, the relative level of protein phosphorylation was measured using a phosphokinase array. Our results showed that Ang II treatment significantly increased the magnitude of SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell response in stimulated PBMCs with a SARS-CoV-2 peptide pool. Moreover, the phosphorylation levels of numerous proteins implicated in cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, and viral infection showed significant increases in the presence of Ang II. The mitogenic stimulation of PBMCs after Ang II and SARS-CoV-2 peptide pool stimulation showed functional polarization of T-cells toward Th1/Th17 and Th17 phenotypes, respectively. Meanwhile, ELISA showed increased productions of IL-1β and IL-6 in Ang II-stimulated PBMCs without affecting the IL-10 level. To our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that Ang II exaggerates SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cells response. Therefore, during COVID-19 infection, Ang II may aggravate the inflammatory response and change the immune response toward a more inflammatory profile against SARS-CoV-2 infection.     

Magnetic resonance imaging of the pulsing brain: a systematic review

Objective

To perform a systematic review of the literature exploring magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for measuring natural brain tissue pulsations (BTPs) in humans.

Methods

A prospective systematic search of MEDLINE, SCOPUS and OpenGrey databases was conducted by two independent reviewers using a pre-determined strategy. The search focused on identifying reported measurements of naturally occurring BTP motion in humans. Studies involving non-human participants, MRI in combination with other modalities, MRI during invasive procedures and MRI studies involving externally applied tests were excluded. Data from the retrieved records were combined to create Forest plots comparing brain tissue displacement between Chiari-malformation type 1 (CM-I) patients and healthy controls using an independent samples t-test.

Results

The search retrieved 22 eligible articles. Articles described 5 main MRI techniques for visualisation or quantification of intrinsic brain motion. MRI techniques generally agreed that the amplitude of BTPs varies regionally from 0.04 mm to ~ 0.80 mm, with larger tissue displacements occurring closer to the centre and base of the brain compared to peripheral regions. Studies of brain pathology using MRI BTP measurements are currently limited to tumour characterisation, idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), and CM-I. A pooled analysis confirmed that displacement of tissue in the cerebellar tonsillar region of CM-I patients was + 0.31 mm [95% CI 0.23, 0.38, p < 0.0001] higher than in healthy controls.

Discussion

MRI techniques used for measurements of brain motion are at an early stage of development with high heterogeneity across the methods used. Further work is required to provide normative data to support systematic BTPs characterisation in health and disease.