Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental origin of the frontoparietal bone in bombina variegata (anura: discoglossidae)

Development of the frontoparietal bone in the European yellow‐bellied toad, Bombina variegata, was followed on the basis of histological analysis of transverse serial sections through the larval skulls to recognize early stages of ossification represented by osteoid (uncalcified bone matrix) and on cleared and stained specimens to investigate more advanced stages. Ossification of the frontal begins as three tiny areas of osteoid (F1, F2, F3) adjoining the dorsal surface of the orbital cartilage, which are separated by areas without osteoid. F3 is the largest (most advanced). Prior to calcification, F3 extends to fuse with F2 and then with F1, but it does not expand over the prootic fissure posteriorly. As calcification begins the strip of bone is joined posteromedially by F4. Only then does a single ossification center corresponding to the parietal arise on the anterodorsal surface of the otic capsule. This ossification sequence corresponds to those observed in the Actinopterygii and in caudate amphibians. J. Morphol. 255:122–129, 2003. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Same-Sex Sexual Behaviors Among Male Migrants in a Context of Male “Marriage Squeeze”

The male marriage squeeze in China may increase the prevalence of male same-sex sexual behaviors among unmarried male migrants who lack stable female sexual partners. The same-sex sexual behaviors among unmarried male migrants appear to be at high risk of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), mainly because of a lack of knowledge of these diseases. Using data from the “Survey on Reproductive Health and Family Life of Migrant Male Bachelors in Urban Areas” conducted in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, in December 2009 and January 2010, this study compares same-sex sexual behaviors of unmarried with that of married male migrants (including married but separated men who are migrating without their spouse or partner and cohabitating men who are migrating with their spouse or partner). It is reported that the prevalence of same-sex sexual behaviors among unmarried males reaches 11%, more than twice the 5.1% reported by married but separated men and thrice the 3.8% reported by cohabitating men. It also appears that the same-sex sexual behaviors is significantly associated with men’s attitudes toward same-sex sexual behaviors (odds ratio = 1.59, p < .001), toward life-long bachelorhood (odds ratio = 1.35, p < .01), and with marital status (odds ratio = 0.37, p < .01). The frequency of condom use appears to be higher among unmarried men than among men who are married, whether or not they migrated with their wives, and is significantly associated with scores on knowledge about HIV/AIDS (estimated coefficient = .12, p < .001) and STIs (estimated coefficient = .22, p < .01). It is also associated with the likelihood of same-sex sexual behaviors (estimated coefficients = .83, p < .01) and marital status (estimated coefficients for married but separated = −.50, p < .05; estimated coefficients for cohabitating = −.77, p < .001).
Specific Antivenom Ability in Neutralizing Hepatic and Renal Changes 24 Hours after Latrodectus dahli Envenomation

Background: Latrodectism, a syndrome caused by Latrodectus genus, is one of the clinical problems that occur predominantly in north east of Iran. Nowadays antivenom therapy has become the most useful treatment for animal bites; however there is still a controversy about route and time of antivenom administration in spider bite. The aim of the present study was to determine the efficacy of specific antivenom in neutralizing hepatic and renal symptoms 24 h after Latrodectus dahli envenomation. Methods: We selected a group of male New Zealand white rabbits, weighing 2±0.3 kg. The L. dahli venom (0.5 mg/kg) was injected subcutaneously. Specific antivenom (2.5 ml, I.V) was injected 24 h following venom injection. Blood sampling was performed before and 24 h after venom injection, as well within 24, 48 and 72 h after antivenom administration. Serum levels of (aspartate amino transferase (AST) alanine amino transferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), urea, bilirubin, creatinine and albumin were determined in all the sam. Results: Latrodectus dahli venom caused significant increase (P< 0.05) in all foresaid serum parameters. Antivenom reversed the AST, ALP, creatinine, urea and bilirubin to normal levels, but failed about ALT level, also non-significant decrease was observed in albumin levels. Conclusion: Antivenom administration 24 h after venom injection can greatly reverse symptoms caused by venom. Future studies in human beings should be conducted to assess the protection against the specific-Latrodectus anti-venom.
Fat deposition in a broiler sire strain

The development in poultry meat production and consumption causes changes in the type of broiler demanded. At the onset of specialized broiler production, most improvements were made by intensive selection for weight gain, whereas little attention was given to carcass composition or quality, other than the shape of the whole carcass. The increasing quality awareness of consumers and their increasing demand for chicken parts and further processed products require properties of the broiler other than fast weight gain only. For further processing, the anatomical composition of chickens determines for a large part the yield for the slaughter plant. The proportion of offal is of more importance when parts are produced than when whole carcasses are the end product. Fat depots are anatomical parts that are considered as offal nowadays, the more so as consumers are advised to diminish their fat consumption. Processing yields worsen when fat depots are removed from the carcass. When not removed, they can affect the healthy and low-in-fat-content image of poultry meat. The low fat content is a main reason why poultry meat is preferred above red meat. The main fat depot in broilers is the abdominal fat. It extends from the cloaca over the intestines and around the gizzard. The abdominal fat forms about 2.5% of the total live weight of a broiler. This implies that in the Netherlands more than 10000 tons of abdominal fat are produced per year. Against this background, in 1980 a research program was started at the Spelderholt Centre aimed at reducing fatness in broilers. The purpose of the program was to examine the possibilities and the consequences of selection against fatness. The results of the research program are set forth in this thesis
Assessing women's satisfaction with family planning services in Mozambique

Background The contraceptive prevalence rate in Mozambique was estimated as 11.3% in the last Demographic and Health Survey. The impact of family planning (FP) on women's health and on the reduction of maternal mortality is well known. Methods Acknowledging the importance of user satisfaction in the utilisation of health services, exit interviews were used to assess women's satisfaction with FP services in Mozambique. The survey, conducted in 174 health facilities, was representative at the national level, covered all provinces, and both urban and rural areas. Results Overall, 86% of respondents were satisfied with FP services, but issues such as insufficient supplies of oral contraceptives and the low quality of healthcare provider/client interactions were given as reasons for women's dissatisfaction. Conclusion Defined actions at the level of health service provision are needed to tackle the identified issues and ensure improved satisfaction with, and better utilisation of, FP services in Mozambique.
“Traditional versus Computer Assisted Teaching of Human Osteology: A Randomized Control Trial Study.”

Introduction: Osteology teaching is effective when it is taught in small groups, but due to time constraint, shortage of trained faculty and increase in the number of intake of students, traditional teaching in small group has become challenging. Therefore, an innovative technique for teaching osteology was developed to overcome the above limitations. Methods: Sony handycam with 500 optical zoom was connected directly to the LCD projector which gave a highly magnified image of bone on the screen. The teacher had freedom to move the bone as and when required and was able to emphasize the details as per need of students. First year BDS students (n=90) were randomly divided into two groups. One group was taught osteology by traditional method and other with the help of developed device by the same teacher. Total 4 tutorial classes were taken of each group. After completion of each class objective structured practical examination was conducted to assess the performance. Students' feedback was also taken. Results: It was found that performance after teaching with the help of visual aid was better and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.0204). Student's feedback on the two methodologies of teaching revealed that students preferred traditional way of teaching. Key notes: Effect of visual aided teaching of human osteology on the performance of students
A real-time filled pause detection system for spontaneous speech recognition

This paper describes a method for automatically detecting filled (vocalized) pauses, which are one of the hesitation phenomena that current speech recognizers typically cannot handle. The detection of these pauses is important in spontaneous speech dialogue systems because they play valuable roles, such as helping a speaker keep a conversational turn, in oral communication. Although a few speech recognition systems have processed filled pauses within subword-based connected word recognition or word-spotting frameworks, they did not detect the pauses individually and consequently could not consider their roles. In this paper we propose a method that detects filled pauses and word lengthening on the basis of small fundamental frequency transition and small spectral envelope deformation under the assumption that speakers do not change articulator parameters during filled pauses. Experimental results for a Japanese spoken dialogue corpus show that our real-time filled-pause-detection system yielded a recall rate of 84.9% and a precision rate of 91.5%.
Sampling from large graphs

Given a huge real graph, how can we derive a representative sample? There are many known algorithms to compute interesting measures (shortest paths, centrality, betweenness, etc.), but several of them become impractical for large graphs. Thus graph sampling is essential.The natural questions to ask are (a) which sampling method to use, (b) how small can the sample size be, and (c) how to scale up the measurements of the sample (e.g., the diameter), to get estimates for the large graph. The deeper, underlying question is subtle: how do we measure success? We answer the above questions, and test our answers by thorough experiments on several, diverse datasets, spanning thousands nodes and edges. We consider several sampling methods, propose novel methods to check the goodness of sampling, and develop a set of scaling laws that describe relations between the properties of the original and the sample.In addition to the theoretical contributions, the practical conclusions from our work are: Sampling strategies based on edge selection do not perform well; simple uniform random node selection performs surprisingly well. Overall, best performing methods are the ones based on random-walks and "forest fire"; they match very accurately both static as well as evolutionary graph patterns, with sample sizes down to about 15% of the original graph.
A NEW PCR ASSAY FOR SIMULTANEOUS STUDIES OF LEUCOCYTOZOON, PLASMODIUM, AND HAEMOPROTEUS FROM AVIAN BLOOD

Many bird species host several lineages of apicomplexan blood parasites (Protista spp., Haemosporida spp.), some of which are shared across different host species. To understand such complex systems, it is essential to consider the fact that different lineages, species, and families of parasites can occur in the same population, as well as in the same individual bird, and that these parasites may compete or interact with each other. In this study, we present a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol that, for the first time, enables simultaneous typing of species from the 3 most common avian blood parasite genera (Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon). By combining the high detection rate of a nested PCR with another PCR step to separate species of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus from Leucocytozoon, this procedure provides an easy, rapid, and accurate method to separate and investigate these parasites within a blood sample. We have applied this method to bird species with known infections of Leucocytozoon spp. , Plasmodium spp. , and Haemoproteus spp. To obtain a higher number of parasite lineages and to test the repeatability of the method, we also applied it to blood samples from bluethroats (Luscinia svecica), for which we had no prior knowledge regarding the blood parasite infections. Although only a small number of different bird species were investigated (6 passerine species), we found 22 different parasite species lineages (4 Haemoproteus, 8 Plasmodium, and 10 Leucocytozoon).
Use of ChIP-Seq data for the design of a multiple promoter-alignment method

We address the challenge of regulatory sequence alignment with a new method, Pro-Coffee, a multiple aligner specifically designed for homologous promoter regions. Pro-Coffee uses a dinucleotide substitution matrix estimated on alignments of functional binding sites from TRANSFAC. We designed a validation framework using several thousand families of orthologous promoters. This dataset was used to evaluate the accuracy for predicting true human orthologs among their paralogs. We found that whereas other methods achieve on average 73.5% accuracy, and 77.6% when trained on that same dataset, the figure goes up to 80.4% for Pro-Coffee. We then applied a novel validation procedure based on multi-species ChIP-seq data. Trained and untrained methods were tested for their capacity to correctly align experimentally detected binding sites. Whereas the average number of correctly aligned sites for two transcription factors is 284 for default methods and 316 for trained methods, Pro-Coffee achieves 331, 16.5% above the default average. We find a high correlation between a method's performance when classifying orthologs and its ability to correctly align proven binding sites. Not only has this interesting biological consequences, it also allows us to conclude that any method that is trained on the ortholog data set will result in functionally more informative alignments.
Sequence analysis of the S gene of recombinant MHV-2/A59 coronaviruses reveals three candidate mutations associated with demyelination and hepatitis

Coronaviruses, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) strains, exhibit various degrees of neurotropism and hepatotropism following intracerebral (IC) infection of 4-week-old C57Bl/6 mice. Whereas MHV-A59 produces acute meningitis, encephalitis, hepatitis, and chronic demyelination, a closely related strain, MHV-2, produces only acute meningitis and hepatitis. We previously reported that the spike glycoprotein gene of MHV contains determinants of demyelination and hepatitis. To further investigate the site of demyelination and hepatitis determinants within the S gene, we sequenced the S gene of several nonde-myelinating recombinant viruses. We found that three encephalitis-positive, demyelination-negative, hepatitis-negative recombinant viruses have an MHV-A59-derived S gene, which contains three identical point mutations (I375M, L652I, and T1087N). One or more of the sites of these mutations in the MHV-A59 genome are likely to contribute to demyelination and hepatitis.
Expression Changes in the Stroma of Prostate Cancer Predict Subsequent Relapse

Biomarkers are needed to address overtreatment that occurs for the majority of prostate cancer patients that would not die of the disease but receive radical treatment. A possible barrier to biomarker discovery may be the polyclonal/multifocal nature of prostate tumors as well as cell-type heterogeneity between patient samples. Tumor-adjacent stroma (tumor microenvironment) is less affected by genetic alteration and might therefore yield more consistent biomarkers in response to tumor aggressiveness. To this end we compared Affymetrix gene expression profiles in stroma near tumor and identified a set of 115 probe sets for which the expression levels were significantly correlated with time-to-relapse. We also compared patients that chemically relapsed shortly after prostatectomy (<1 year), and patients that did not relapse in the first four years after prostatectomy. We identified 131 differentially expressed microarray probe sets between these two categories. 19 probe sets (15 genes overlapped between the two gene lists with p<0.0001). We developed a PAM-based classifier by training on samples containing stroma near tumor: 9 rapid relapse patient samples and 9 indolent patient samples. We then tested the classifier on 47 different samples, containing 90% or more stroma. The classifier predicted the risk status of patients with an average accuracy of 87%. This is the first general tumor microenvironment-based prognostic classifier. These results indicate that the prostate cancer microenvironment exhibits reproducible changes useful for predicting outcomes for patients.
Large-bore nitinol stents for malignant superior vena cava syndrome: factors influencing outcome.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to retrospectively evaluate the technical and clinical outcomes of large-bore nitinol stents for treating malignant superior vena cava syndrome. In addition, we analyzed factors potentially influencing the outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS Over a 7-year period, 78 consecutive patients presented with superior vena cava syndrome related to primary lung tumor (n=62) or malignant lymphadenopathies (n=16). The factors analyzed were Kishi score at admission, tumor type, and need for an additional balloon-expandable stent. RESULTS Technical success was obtained in all but one patient (99%), who presented with a stent migration immediately after insertion. In 17 patients (22%), an additional balloon-expandable stent was needed for complete expansion of the nitinol stent. For patients with symptomatic malignant lymphadenopathies or primary lung tumor, overall survival rates were 50% (n=8) and 54% (n=34), respectively, at 6 months and 19% (n=3) and 34% (n=21), respectively, at 12 months (p=0.376). There was no difference in survival as a function of the Kishi score (p=0.80) or of the placement of an additional balloon-expandable stent (p=0.35). Finally, reocclusion events were noted in patients both with (n=1) and without (n=7) a balloon-expandable stent. CONCLUSION Large-bore nitinol stents are highly effective for malignant superior vena cava syndrome. The survival rates of patients with caval vein stenosis due to either the primary tumor or secondary enlarged adenopathies were equal. An additional balloon-expandable stent was required in 22% of cases owing to incomplete expansion of the nitinol stent but was not associated with higher thrombosis rate.
Biologic therapy and pregnancy. A systematic literature review.

AIM To review available data regarding the safety of biological therapies during pregnancy, focusing on agents used in rheumatology. METHODS A systematic literature search was carried out to identify all studies with human data on fetal and/or child outcomes following exposure to biologic agents during pregnancy. RESULTS A total of 65 publications out of 745 identified references were included in the review. CONCLUSIONS Experience with pregnancy exposure to anti-TNF agents has been slowly accumulating. Although the numbers are small and with few controlled studies the reviewed data suggest that the overall risk of TNF antagonists is relatively low and benefits may outweigh the risks of drug exposure to the fetus. Information on other biologic agents is still very limited. Large controlled studies with longer follow-up periods will be necessary before firm conclusions about the safety of biologics du-ring conception and pregnancy can be drawn.
Cross-reactivity between heat labile enterotoxins of Vibrio cholerae and Escherichia coli in neutralization tests in rabbit ileum and skin.

Crude enterotoxin preparations of porcine-enteropathogenic Escherichia coli were found to be active both in the ileal loop model and in the intradermal test in rabbits, as was crude and isolated exo-enterotoxin of Vibrio cholerae. The skin activity of the E. coli enterotoxic preparations was destroyed by incubation at 65° C for 10 minutes. Neutralization studies in the ileal loop and the intradermal tests indicated that the heat-labile enterotoxins produced by E. coli of different O groups shared antigenic determinants to a varying extent, and also showed some immunological cross-reactivity with the cholera exo-enterotoxin.
Clinical Investigation : Head and Neck Cancer Reducing Xerostomia After Chemo-IMRT for Head-and-Neck Cancer : Beyond Sparing the Parotid Glands

Reducing Xerostomia After Chemo-IMRT for Head-and-Neck Cancer: Beyond Sparing the Parotid Glands Michael Little, M.D.,* Matthew Schipper, Ph.D.,*,y Felix Y. Feng, M.D.,* Karen Vineberg, M.S.,* Craig Cornwall, D.M.D.,z Carol-Anne Murdoch-Kinch, D.D.S., Ph.D.,z and Avraham Eisbruch, M.D.* *Department of Radiation Oncology, yCancer Center Biostatistics Core, and zHospital Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cytotoxic Effect of Some Mycotoxins and their Combinations on Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells as Measured by the MTT Assay

The objective of this study was to assess cytotoxic effects of ochratoxin A (OTA), penicillic acid (PA), citrinin (CIT), fumonisin B1 (FB1) and their combinations (as naturally occur in real practice) on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) using a simple and cheap "in vitro" cytotoxicity test as MTT assay. A stronger suppression on metabolic activity of phytohaemagglutinin-p (PHA)-stimulated PBM was found for a mixture of the following mycotoxins: OTA, CIT and FB1 as compared to any single mycotoxin. PA was found to increase significantly the metabolic activity of the same cells in concentrations above 111 mg/L. There is no "in vitro" synergistic effect between OTA and PA as measured by MTT assay, unlike the strong "in vivo" synergistic effect between the same mycotoxins. The MTT bioassay is not appropriate to measure cell viability and cell proliferation, especially if metabolic activity of the cells is increased as was observed in PA treated human blood mononuclear cells or if the same is decreased. The doses which exert approximately 50% suppression of metabolic activity of PHA-stimulated human blood mononuclear cells (LD50) are determined to be as follows: for OTA - 1.56 to 3.125 mg/L, CIT - 62.5 to 111 mg/L and FB1 - 62.5 to 500 mg/L. Cell viability (proliferation) of all mycotoxin treated blood mononuclear cells was significantly decreased at the highest concentrations of mycotoxins, but this decrease was significantly stronger for OTA-treated cells and especially for different mixtures of mycotoxins.
Universal Architectures for Reed-Solomon Error-and-Erasure Decoder

This paper presents the universal architecture for Reed Solomon (RS) error-and-erasure decoder that can accommodate any codeword with different code parameters and finite field definitions. In comparison with other reconfigurable RS decoders, the proposed design, based on the Montgomery multiplication algorithm, can support various finite field degrees, different primitive polynomials, and erasure decoding functions. In addition, the decoder features an on-the-fly finite field inversion table for high speed error evaluation. The area efficient design approach is also presented. Implemented with 1.2V 0.13mum 1P8M technology, this decoder, correcting up to 16 errors, can operate at 300MHz and reach a 2.4Gb/s data rate. The total gate count is about 54K and the core size is 0.36mm2. The average power consumption is 20.2 mW