Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validation of Trypanosoma cruzi-GPI Anchored Membrane Proteins for Specific Sero-Diagnosis of Chagas Disease

Trypanosoma cruzi-GPI anchored membrane proteins (T. cruzi-GPI-AMP) were isolated, purified, characterized and antigenically validated to be proposed as candidates to serologically diagnose Chagas disease. The partition Triton-114 protein fractioning method allowed recovering nearly 7% T. cruzi-GPI-AMP from the total parasite proteins. The immunogenic capability of T. cruzi-GPI-AMP was demonstrated in experimental hosts. Validation of T. cruzi-GPI-AMP, as an antigenic product to make up an alternative test for serologic diagnosis of Chagas disease, was performed in 174 sera samples: 112 from unquestionable chagasic patients and 62 from non-chagasic to estimate its sensitivity and specificity, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed 100% sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, with P<0.005. In addition, estimation of the Kappa index revealed 100% agreement, indicating a perfect concordance between the T. cruzi-GPI-AMP test and the condition of the chagasic patients following clinical, parasitological and serological criteria. Separation by electroelution revealed the presence of several T. cruzi-GPI-AMP fractions, ranging from 23 to 123 kDa, specifically recognized by anti-T. cruzi antibodies contained in sera from acute and chronic chagasic patients. These results lead us to conclude that T. cruzi-GPI-AMP antigen is an alternative diagnostic test sensitive and specific enough to warrant a reliable sero-diagnosis of Chagas disease.
The fraction 1 and V protein antigens of Yersinia pestis activate dendritic cells to induce primary T cell responses

The F1 and V antigens of Yersinia pestis, despite acting as virulence factors secreted by the organism during infection, also combine to produce an effective recombinant vaccine against plague, currently in clinical trial. The protective mechanisms induced by rF1 + rV probably involve interactions with dendritic cells (DC) as antigen uptake, processing and presenting cells. To study such interactions, naive ex vivo DC from bone marrow, spleen and lymph node were cultured with rF1, rV or combined antigens and demonstrated to secrete interleukin (IL)‐4 and IL‐12 into the culture supernatant. Cytokine production in response to pulsing was dependent on the maturity of the bone marrow‐derived DC culture, so that pulsed 8‐day‐old cultures had accumulated significantly more intracellular IL‐4 and IL‐12 than unpulsed cells. DC, pulsed with rF1 + rV for 2–24 h, were able to prime naive autologous lymph node T cells to proliferate in an antigen dose‐dependent manner, with an order of potency of 3d bone marrow‐derived DC (BMDC) > 7d BMDC > splenic DC. Significantly, cell‐free supernatants from rF1 + rV‐pulsed BMDC and splenic DC were also able to induce specific primary responses effectively in naive T cells, suggesting that these supernatants contained stimulatory factor(s). This study suggests an important role for DC, or factors secreted by them, in the induction of protective immunity to plague by the rF1 and rV antigens.
Finding Similar Users in Social Networks by Using the Neural-Based Skyline Region

Finding similar users in a community network is a very important part of the recommendation system. Traditionally, algorithms of this kind are based on a single condition to search for similar users. In recent years, some scholars have proposed the popular multi-criteria algorithm Skyline Query to search for similar users. However, their proposed methods might have found users not similar to the target user and are subject to the problem of slow execution. To solve these issues, this paper introduces the concepts of neural-based skyline region and neural network. The simulation results have verified the effectiveness and execution efficiency of the target method.
Social Skill Generalization with "Book in a Bag": Integrating Social Skills into the Literacy Curriculum at a School-Wide Level

Social Skill Generalization with “Book in a Bag”: Integrating Social Skills into the Literacy Curriculum at a School-Wide Level Buddy D. Alger Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, BYU Educational Specialist in School Psychology Social skill instruction is needed in both targeted and universal contexts. This research utilized a universal social skill intervention, Book in a Bag (BIB), to increase the use of a specific social skill by all students within an elementary school, including students identified as at-risk for behavior problems. BIB was designed to integrate social skills into the curriculum by way of children’s literature, specifically a read-aloud book using a direct instruction strategy. The results indicate that BIB had a positive effect on students’ behavior in the classroom both for students identified and those not identified as being at-risk for behavior problems. Outcomes suggest that students used the skill across a variety of instructional, independent work, and group work settings. Teacher perceptions of the research were reported as acceptable. Teachers noted positive changes in their classroom. Implications of this research for practice include using BIB as a universal intervention to target specific social skill deficits in students, and using social skill instruction to increase positive student behavior.
The Politics of Teacher Professional Development: Policy, Research and Practice. Routledge Research in Education.

Teacher professional development ('PD') is increasingly seen as vital for renewing and reforming national education systems in a global context of pressure for improved educational outcomes. National governments throughout the world promote professional development as a way of fostering quality teaching, student learning and enhanced learning outcomes. However, despite more directed attention to and interest in professional development, the influence of the broader conditions in which decisions about professional development are made remains insufficiently recognised and understood. For this reason, teacher professional development needs to be thought anew. [introduction extract]
An iterative diagnosis approach for ECC-based memory repair

In modern SoCs embedded memories should be repaired to achieve acceptable yield. They should also be protected by ECC against field failures to achieve acceptable reliability. In technologies affected by high defect densities, conventional repair induce very high costs. To reduce them, we can use ECC to fix words comprising a single faulty cell and repair to fix all other faulty words. However it was shown that, for high defect densities, the diagnosis required for ECC-based repair may induce very large cost. In previous work this issue was fixed by means of new memory test algorithms that exhibit the so-called “single-read double-fault detection” property. As these algorithms are complex and increase test length, we explore a new iterative diagnosis approach, which provides tradeoffs in terms of hardware cost and test length.
A kidney injury molecule‐1 (Kim‐1) gene reporter in a mouse artificial chromosome: the responsiveness to cisplatin toxicity in immortalized mouse kidney S3 cells

Kidney injury molecule‐1 (Kim‐1) has been validated as a urinary biomarker for acute and chronic renal damage. The expression of Kim‐1 mRNA is also activated by acute kidney injury induced by cisplatin in rodents and humans. To date, the measurement of Kim‐1 expression has not fully allowed the detection of in vitro cisplatin nephrotoxicity in immortalized culture cells, such as human kidney‐2 cells and immortalized proximal tubular epithelial cells.
Review on psychophysiological methods in game research

This paper reviews the psychophysiological method in game research. The use of psychophysiological measurements provides an objective, continuous, real-time, non-invasive, precise, and sensitive way to assess the game experience, but for best results it requires carefully controlled experiments, large participant samples and specialized equipment. We briefly explain the theory behind the method and present the most useful measures. We review previous studies that have used psychophysiological measures in game research, and provide future directions.
Quality and Impact of Qualitative Research

This paper presents an illustrative demonstration of the qualitative data analysis tool NVivo (version 2.0), as employed across a multi-method research design as a comprehensive tool in support of overall research management. The paper will be of interest to (a) novice researchers, as a reference in their research design efforts; (b) academics, involved in research training, where this narrative can be used as a rich teaching case and; potentially to (c) vendors, of similar software tools, who may identify potential new tool applications and valuable tool enhancements.
Ice break‐up on southern Lake Baikal and its relationship to local and regional air temperatures in Siberia and to the North Atlantic Oscillation

The calendar date of ice break‐up on southern Lake Baikal has been recorded uninterruptedly since 1869. A strong trend to earlier thawing up to around 1920 (1 d per 3.3 yr) is followed by the lack of any significant trend thereafter. For the period 1931–1994, the timing of break‐up is related to local surface air temperatures integrated over periods of 1–3 months. Although highest unimodal correlations are with the 3‐month mean air temperature, a bimodal relationship between break‐up and air temperature exists at shorter integration times, with break‐up date being related not only to the air temperature prevailing during thawing (April) but also to that prevailing during the time of ice formation, when air temperatures are lowest (February). High frequency (interannual) fluctuations in the timing of break‐up appear to be influenced mainly by the air temperatures prevailing during thawing, and low‐frequency (interdecadal) fluctuations by those prevailing during ice formation. Whereas correlations with April air temperatures are always significant, those with February air temperatures are only significant during the latter part of this century, i.e., after cessation of the tendency toward earlier thawing.
Cost-effectiveness of various treatment modalities for adult chronic periodontitis.

The aim of this review was to assess the cost-effectiveness of various modalities for chronic periodontitis in adults. We searched the literature for studies where time consumption and monetary costs (where available) were used as expressions of the resources required to perform the following types of services: providing information on the disease and oral hygiene instruction for patients; removal of subgingival calculus; access surgery; and maintenance and prevention of recurrence of the disease. The following outcome variables were chosen: retention of teeth, or a surrogate variable such as change in bone level measured on X-rays taken at the start and at the end of a 1-year (or longer) period. The literature search did not reveal any studies where these outcome variables could be linked to information on resources used in treatment. Therefore, we reviewed relevant studies where different treatment techniques were used but where the outcome variables were different. This review revealed that in most cases it was difficult to assess whether one type of treatment (or intervention) is more effective than another. We conclude that better data are needed, in particular on outcomes, so that valid comparisons can be made between different types of treatment, for different types of studies. Periodontal disease is an inflammatory disease induced by bacterial plaque adhering to the tooth surface in contact with the gingiva. A lesion that is contained in the gingival margin is termed gingivitis. Gingivitis may be regarded as the result of an
The Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Intraocular Pressure in Horse

The present study was planned to investigate the effect of the intensity of exercise on intraocular pressure (IOP), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, glycaemia and blood lactate concentration in regularly trained Italian saddle jumper horses. On the first day five female horses performed 1 h of walking on an electronically controlled horse-walker at 100 m/min; on the second day 1 h session consisted of 5 min of walk, 30 min of trot, 20 min of gallop and one exercise of a 300 m long trail with eight jumps 90 cm high to be run in 1 min. The studied indicators were collected at rest, immediately after the exercise and 30 min after the exercise. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant effect of different workloads on blood lactate concentration, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. No significant difference was found in IOP reduction when comparing aerobic and moderate anaerobic exercise. Our results confirm that the lack of a significant change in IOP in the athletic horse after mild exercise is in accordance with the human athlete. The cardiovascular and haematological changes induced by aerobic and moderate anaerobic exercise had no significant effect on IOP, either. Different workloads, blood pressure, glycaemia, lactate
Strichartz inequalities for Lipschitz metrics on manifolds and nonlinear Schrödinger equation on domains

Nous considerons le probleme de Cauchy pour l'equation de Schrodinger non lineaire sur un domaine du plan avec des conditions aux limites de Dirichlet. Nous prouvons que le probleme est bien pose et qu'il existe une solution globale pour une non linearite polynomiale defocalisante. La preuve repose sur une inegalite de Strichartz generalisee sur des varietes munies d'une metrique de Lipschitz.
Selecting a learning management system (LMS) in developing countries: instructors' evaluation

Learning management systems (LMSs) contain hidden costs, unclear user environments, bulky developer and administration manuals, and limitations with regard to interoperability, integration, localization, and bandwidth requirements. Careful evaluation is required in selecting the most appropriate LMS for use, and this is a general problem in web-based education. One possibility is to automate this evaluation process using computer-aided techniques. In this article, the researcher has focused on the idea of automating the evaluation process and has developed a computer-aided system named Easy Way to Evaluate LMSs (EW-LMS), for the quick and efficient evaluation of LMSs, especially for developing countries, where the idea of using an LMS may be relatively new. The investigation described in this article was carried out with 88 voluntary higher education instructors to test the usefulness of the developed system. Two types of quantitative questionnaires were used during the study. The results obtained indicate that the instructors were highly satisfied using the developed system, and the EW-LMS is technically sound and well developed. Theevaluation system can help instructors to select the best LMS appropriate to their educational needs and their type of usage in the shortest possible time, with little effort, without any specialized technical knowledge/training and by following simple, user-friendly steps. The system is oriented to anyone interested in evaluating and using an LMS in web-based education. Those individuals who may be interested in using this software are instructors, students, or anyone else who may have an interest in LMSs, and educational organizations such as universities, schools, and institutes.
Magnons, their solitonic avatars and the Pohlmeyer reduction

We study the solitons of the symmetric space sine-Gordon theories that arise once the Pohlmeyer reduction has been imposed on a sigma model with the symmetric space as target. Under this map the solitons arise as giant magnons that are relevant to string theory in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular, we consider the cases Sn, Pn and SU(n) in some detail. We clarify the construction of the charges carried by the solitons and also address the possible Lagrangian formulations of the symmetric space sine-Gordon theories. We show that the dressing, or Backlund, transformation naturally produces solitons directly in both the sigma model and the symmetric space sine-Gordon equations without the need to explicitly map from one to the other. In particular, we obtain a new magnon solution in P3. We show that the dressing method does not produce the more general ``dyonic'' solutions which involve non-trivial motion of the collective coordinates carried by the solitons.
Nonuniform Sampling of Periodic Bandlimited Signals

Digital processing techniques are based on representing a continuous-time signal by a discrete set of samples. This paper treats the problem of reconstructing a periodic bandlimited signal from a finite number of its nonuniform samples. In practical applications, only a finite number of values are given. Extending the samples periodically across the boundaries, and assuming that the underlying continuous time signal is bandlimited, provides a simple way to deal with reconstruction from finitely many samples. Two algorithms for reconstructing a periodic bandlimited signal from an even and an odd number of nonuniform samples are developed. In the first, the reconstruction functions constitute a basis while in the second, they form a frame so that there are more samples than needed for perfect reconstruction. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are analyzed. Specifically, it is shown that the first algorithm provides consistent reconstruction of the signal while the second is shown to be more stable in noisy environments. Next, we use the theory of finite dimensional frames to characterize the stability of our algorithms. We then consider two special distributions of sampling points: uniform and recurrent nonuniform, and show that for these cases, the reconstruction formulas as well as the stability analysis are simplified significantly. The advantage of our methods over conventional approaches is demonstrated by numerical experiments.
Herpes Encephalitis Masquerading as Tumor

A 54 year old lady presented with lethargy and 15 kg weight loss over the past year. CT scan of the head revealed left temporal lobe hypodensity with a discrete area of hemorrhage within the left mesial temporal lobe. Due to concerns about impending central herniation, lumbar puncture was not performed. MRI of the brain showed a large lesion of the left temporal lobe, extending to the left frontal lobe, and very patchy meningeal enhancement. There was a noncontiguous lesion of the right insula. A differential diagnosis of herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) and multifocal infiltrative glioma was entertained. MR spectroscopy demonstrated an increased choline peak at the level of the medial left temporal lobe and MR perfusion demonstrated patchy areas of hyperperfusion within the left anterior temporal lobe, both suggestive of neoplastic disease. Following open brain biopsy, pathology revealed herpes simplex virus (HSV) positive nuclei in the cortex and subcortical white matter. As both herpes simplex encephalitis and low-grade glioma demontrate MRI findings of hypointensity on T1 images and hyperintensity on T2 images, the diagnosis of herpes encephalitis can be clouded by confounding factors, especially when cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cannot be obtained.
Drought and its effect on mental health--how GPs can help.

BACKGROUND Drought has been a major stressor affecting rural New South Wales communities since late 2001. While much is known about the effects on mental health of acute natural disasters, there is less research available on the effect to communities of chronic natural disasters. Of great concern for Australian rural communities is that independent of drought, the rate of suicide for some groups is higher in rural than urban communities, while access to mental health services is less. OBJECTIVE This article explores how general practitioners can identify and respond to the drought related mental health needs of farming residents. DISCUSSION Limited availability of mental health services to rural communities increases reliance on GPs for mental health care. Residents of farming communities report experiencing substantial distress in relation to the drought. The local GP is a key source of consultation, advice and treatment. Early intervention is a critical task in improving the mental health of rural communities. Early intervention provided by GPs will be enhanced through: working closely with other community agencies to promote early effective intervention for mental health problems, improve access to advice and initial consultation, and facilitate urgent consultation when needed; increasing access to services for farmers and responding promptly to needs; and utilising the support of rural organisational workers.
Comparison of postpolypectomy bleeding between epinephrine and saline submucosal injection for large colon polyps by conventional polypectomy: a prospective randomized, multicenter study.

AIM To evaluate and compare the clinical outcomes of prophylactic submucosal saline-epinephrine injection and saline injection alone for large colon polyps by conventional polypectomy. METHODS A prospective study was conducted from July 2003 to July 2004 at 11 tertiary endoscopic centers. Large colon polyps (> 10 mm in diameter) were randomized to undergo endoscopic polypectomy with submucosal saline-epinephrine injection (epinephrine group) or normal saline injection (saline group). Endoscopic polypectomy was performed by the conventional snare method, and early (< 12 h) and late bleeding complications (12 h-30 d) were observed. RESULTS A total of 561 polyps in 486 patients were resected by endoscopic polypectomy. Overall, bleeding complications occurred in 7.6% (37/486) of the patients, including 4.9% (12/244) in the epinephrine group, and 10.3% (25/242) in the saline group. Early and late postpolypectomy bleeding (PPB) occurred in 6.6% (32/486) and 1% (5/486) of the patients, respectively, including 4.5% (11/244), 0.4% (1/244) in the epinephrine group, and 8.7% (21/242), 1.7% (4/242) in the saline group. No significant differences in the rates of overall, early and late PPB were observed between the 2 groups. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that large size (> 2 cm) and neoplastic polyps were independently and significantly associated with the presence of PPB. CONCLUSION The prophylactic submucosal injection of diluted epinephrine does not appear to provide an additional advantage over the saline injection alone for the prevention of PPB.
Foodness Proposal for Multiple Food Detection by Training of Single Food Images

We propose a CNN-based "food-ness" proposal method which requires neither pixel-wise annotation nor bounding box annotation. Some proposal methods have been proposed to detect regions with high "object-ness" so far. However, many of them generated a large number of candidates to raise the recall rate. Considering the recent advent of the deeper CNN, these methods to generate a large number of proposals have difficulty in processing time for practical use. Meanwhile, a fully convolutional network (FCN) was proposed the network of which localizes target objects directly. FCN saves computational cost, although FCN is essentially equivalent to the sliding window search. This approach made large progress and achieved significant success in various tasks. Then, in this paper we propose an intermediate approach between the traditional proposal approach and the fully convolutional approach. Especially we propose a novel proposal method which generates high "food-ness" regions by fully convolutional networks and back-propagation based approach with training food images gathered from the Web.