Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hiv/aids -research and Palliative Care Dovepress Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevalence in an Unbooked Obstetric Population in the Niger Delta

Despite recent advances in the prevention of transmission of human immuno­ deficiency virus (HIV) infection from mother to child during pregnancy, infants continue to be born and infected with HIV, particularly in Africa. This study was undertaken to determine the seroprevalence of HIV infection among unbooked pregnant women in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. One hundred and eighteen consecutively recruited unbooked subjects presenting to the isolation ward at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital were screened for HIV. Among the 118 subjects studied, 30 (25.4%) were positive for HIV. HIV­1 was the predominant viral strain. Gestational age of subjects at presentation was 28–40 weeks and mean age was 35.04 ± 8.06 years. The majority of subjects were primigravidas 66 (55.9%), while 52 (44.1%) were multigravidas. The prevalence of HIV was significantly higher among unbooked pregnant women with less formal education: 14 (11.9%) compared with 9 (7.6%), 5 (4.2%), and 2 (1.7%) for those with primary, secondary, and tertiary education, respectively (P = 0.01). Among the occupational groups, the prevalence of HIV was significantly higher among traders 14 (11.9%) than in career women 5 (4.2%, P = 0.04). Multigravid women were more susceptible to HIV infection 17 (14.4%) than primigravid women. Perinatal mortality and emergency cesarean section was high among unbooked pregnant women. The prevalence of HIV observed amongst unbooked antenatal subjects in this study is significantly higher than those of booked patients in previous studies. These findings are very pertinent to health care delivery, because this pool of unbooked patients may not be benefiting from the Prevention of Maternal to Child Transmission program, thus increasing the pediatric HIV burden in our environment.
Prediction of Renal Transporter Mediated Drug-Drug Interactions for Pemetrexed Using Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling

Pemetrexed, an anionic anticancer drug with a narrow therapeutic index, is eliminated mainly by active renal tubular secretion. The in vitro to in vivo extrapolation approach used in this work was developed to predict possible drug-drug interactions (DDIs) that may occur after coadministration of pemetrexed and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and it included in vitro assays, risk assessment models, and physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models. The pemetrexed transport and its inhibition parameters by several NSAIDs were quantified using HEK-PEAK cells expressing organic anion transporter (OAT) 3 or OAT4. The NSAIDs were ranked according to their DDI index, calculated as the ratio of their maximum unbound concentration in plasma over the concentration inhibiting 50% (IC50) of active pemetrexed transport. A PBPK model for ibuprofen, the NSAID with the highest DDI index, was built incorporating active renal secretion in Simcyp Simulator. The bottom-up model for pemetrexed underpredicted the clearance by 2-fold. The model we built using a scaling factor of 5.3 for the maximal uptake rate (Vmax) of OAT3, which estimated using plasma concentration profiles from patients given a 10-minute infusion of 500 mg/m2 of pemetrexed supplemented with folic acid and vitamin B12, recovered the clinical data adequately. The observed/predicted increases in Cmax and the area under the plasma-concentration time curve (AUC0–inf) of pemetrexed when ibuprofen was coadministered were 1.1 and 1.0, respectively. The coadministration of all other NSAIDs was predicted to have no significant impact on the AUC0–inf based on their DDI indexes. The PBPK model reasonably reproduced pemetrexed concentration time profiles in cancer patients and its interaction with ibuprofen.
Dopamine Modulates the Neural Representation of Subjective Value of Food in Hungry Subjects

Although there is a rich literature on the role of dopamine in value learning, much less is known about its role in using established value estimations to shape decision-making. Here we investigated the effect of dopaminergic modulation on value-based decision-making for food items in fasted healthy human participants. The Becker-deGroot-Marschak auction, which assesses subjective value, was examined in conjunction with pharmacological fMRI using a dopaminergic agonist and an antagonist. We found that dopamine enhanced the neural response to value in the inferior parietal gyrus/intraparietal sulcus, and that this effect predominated toward the end of the valuation process when an action was needed to record the value. Our results suggest that dopamine is involved in acting upon the decision, providing additional insight to the mechanisms underlying impaired decision-making in healthy individuals and clinical populations with reduced dopamine levels.
Amino acid and energy interrelationships in growing beef steers: II. Effects of energy intake and metabolizable lysine supply on growth.

We conducted three experiments to determine the optimal metabolizable Lys:net energy ratio for growth of beef calves. The single basal diet fed contained corn (56.1%), soybean hulls (18%), cottonseed hulls (15%), animal fat (4.25%), and corn gluten meal (5.6%). In Exp. 1, 54 steers were individually fed the basal diet at 1.5, 2.25, and 3.0 times NEm requirement; rations were top-dressed with 3.4 g of rumen-stable (RS) Met and either 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 g of RS-Lys daily. An additional 18 steers were fed the same three levels of energy and supplemented with 125 g of blood meal per steer. In Exp. 2, 68 crossbred steers were subjected to the same experimental protocol, with the exception that only the two highest levels of energy were used. Of these steers, 48 were fed individually and received the RS-Lys treatments; the remaining 20 steers received 125 g of blood meal per steer. No interaction (P > .10) was detected between level of supplemental Lys and energy intake in Exp. 1 or 2. Supplementation with RS-Lys improved (P < .01) ADG in Exp. 1, but it had no effect (P > .10) on growth in Exp. 2. The Lys requirement estimates were 44.3 and 51.3 g/d, corresponding to maximal growth rates of 1.21 and 1.64 kg/d for the 2.25 and 3.0 times maintenance treatments, respectively. Comparing the growth rates of steers fed supplemental Lys with those of steers fed blood meal in Exp. 1 and 2 revealed an ADG advantage (P < .03) with blood meal supplementation. To confirm the blood meal response, Exp. 3 used 75 crossbred steers fed the basal diet at 3.0 times NEm requirement plus either 3.4 g RS-Met, 3.4 g RS-Met and 12 g RS-Lys, or 125 g of blood meal per steer. Blood meal supplementation improved (P < .01) growth of steers over those fed supplemental Met or Met plus Lys. Although a distinct relationship between amino acid requirements and energy supply may exist, Lys and Met were not first-limiting in these experiments, or selective supplementation with undegradable protein may have provided some factor that enhanced performance beyond that detected with Lys and Met alone.
Effects of pelleting growing-finishing diets with distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and commercial bacon slicing yields of barrows and gilts

Barrows and gilts (192, initial BW = 25.75 ± 2.29 kg) were allotted to two 24-pen blocks with 2 barrows and 2 gilts per pen. A 2 × 2 factorial in a randomized complete block design was used with 2 diet forms (meal or pellet) and 2 levels of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS, 0 or 30%) resulting in 4 treatment combinations. Pigs were weighed at the beginning of the experiment and again at the end of each of the 3 feeding phases (d 35, 70, 91). Pigs were slaughtered at the University of Illinois Meat Science Laboratory at the end of the 91 d feeding trial. Full gastrointestinal (GI) tract and GI tract component weights were recorded immediately following evisceration. Carcass characteristics and meat quality were determined after a 24 h chill. Overall ADG was increased (P < 0.01) by 3.2% when pelleted diets were fed. Overall ADFI of pigs fed 30% DDGS was 4.7% greater (P < 0.01) than pigs fed 0% DDGS in meal form diets. Overall ADFI of pigs fed pelleted diets did not differ (P ≥ 0.19) between the 30% and 0% DDGS diets. Pigs fed 0% DDGS had 2.7% greater (P = 0.02) overall G:F than pigs fed 30% DDGS in meal form. There was no difference (P = 0.42) in overall G:F regardless of DDGS inclusion in pellet form diets. There was no effect of DDGS inclusion on overall ADG (P = 0.46) regardless of diet form. Pigs fed pelleted diets had 2.9% heavier HCW (P = 0.01), 10.4% thicker 10th rib back fat (P = 0.01), and 1.8 percentage unit less estimated lean percentage (P = 0.04) than meal-fed pigs. Full GI tracts of pigs fed pelleted diets represented 0.33 percentage units less (P = 0.03) of the ending live weight than meal-fed pigs due to decreased (P < 0.01) gut fill.
THE PATHOGENICITY OF KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE FOR MICE: THE RELATIONSHIP TO THE QUANTITY AND RATE OF PRODUCTION OF TYPE-SPECIFIC CAPSULAR POLYSACCHARIDE

It is well established that among certain groups of microorganisms the presence of a capsule is essential for virulence; these studies are largely limited to all-or-none effects, i. e. the presence or absence of capsule. Among a few species, e. g. Diplococcus pneumoniae, some quantitative studies have been made which indicate that there is a relationship between size of capsule and degree of pathogenicity (Shaffer et al., 1936; Rich and McKee, 1936; MacLeod and Kraus, 1950). In an attempt to extend to organisms other than the pneumococcus the quantitative studies of the relationship of capsule size to pathogenicity, 4 strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae type 2 were investigated. While it was found that to some extent the pathogenicity for mice was influenced by capsule size, the rate of capsule production also proved to be a determining factor.
Protease-triggered unveiling of bioactive nanoparticles.

Nanomaterials modified with biological recognition motifs acquire a myriad of functions that can be exploited for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Nevertheless, while bioactive domains can be used to target nanoparticles to cell receptors, shuttle them across cell membranes, and activate cell signaling, such modifications typically include cationic or hydrophobic regions that lead to rapid reticuloendothelial system (RES) clearance of particles from the blood, ultimately reducing particle accumulation in tumors. [1,2] Further functionalization with hydrophilic polymers like poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) can improve blood half-lives and tumor accumulation, but often at the expense of efficient ligandmediated nanoparticle binding. [3‐5] To address this tradeoff between improved biodistribution and optimal functionality on nanoparticles, we present a general strategy for reversibly veiling bioactive domains on nanoparticles using sterically protective polymers. We demonstrate that these materials effectively accumulate via the hyperpermeable vasculature of tumors and can be activated by cancer-secreted proteases to unveil hidden functional domains.
Intact corneal stroma visualization of GFP mouse revealed by multiphoton imaging

The aim of this work is to demonstrate that multiphoton microscopy is a preferred technique to investigate intact cornea structure without slicing and staining. At the micron resolution, multiphoton imaging can provide both large morphological features and detailed structure of epithelium, corneal collagen fibril bundles and keratocytes. A large area multiphoton cross‐section across an intact eye excised from a GFP mouse was obtained by a homebuilt multiphoton microscope. The broadband multiphoton fluorescence (435–700 nm) and second harmonic generation (SHG, 360–400 nm) signals were generated by the 760 nm output of a femtosecond titanium‐sapphire laser. A water immersion objective (Fluor ™, 40X, NA 0.8; Nikon) was used to facilitate imaging the curve ocular surface. The multiphoton image over entire cornea provides morphological information of epithelial cells, keratocytes, and global collagen orientation. Specifically, our planar, large area multiphoton image reveals a concentric pattern of the stroma collagen, indicative of the laminar collagen organization throughout the stroma. In addition, the green fluorescence protein (GFP) labeling contributed to fluorescence contrast of cellular area and facilitated visualizing of inactive keratocytes. Our results show that multiphoton imaging of GFP labeled mouse cornea manifests both morphological significance and structural details. The second harmonic generation imaging reveals the collagen orientation, while the multiphoton fluorescence imaging indicates morphology and distribution of cells in cornea. Our results support that multiphoton microscopy is an appropriate technology for further in vivo investigation and diagnosis of cornea. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Category-based Pseudowords

A pseudoword is a composite comprised of two or more words chosen at random; the individual occurrences of the original words within a text are replaced by their conflation. Pseudowords are a useful mechanism for evaluating the impact of word sense ambiguity in many NLP applications. However, the standard method for constructing pseudowords has some drawbacks. Because the constituent words are chosen at random, the word contexts that surround pseudowords do not necessarily reflect the contexts that real ambiguous words occur in. This in turn leads to an optimistic upper bound on algorithm performance. To address these drawbacks, we propose the use of lexical categories to create more realistic pseudowords, and evaluate the results of different variations of this idea against the standard approach.
Discovery Radiomics for Computed Tomography Cancer Detection

Objective: Lung cancer is the leading cause for cancer related deaths. As such, there is an urgent need for a streamlined process that can allow radiologists to provide diagnosis with greater efficiency and accuracy. A powerful tool to do this is radiomics. Method: In this study, we take the idea of radiomics one step further by introducing the concept of discovery radiomics for lung cancer detection using CT imaging data. Rather than using pre-defined, hand-engineered feature models as with current radiomics-driven methods, we discover custom radiomic sequencers that can generate radiomic sequences consisting of abstract imaging-based features tailored for characterizing lung tumour phenotype. In this study, we realize these custom radiomic sequencers as deep convolutional sequencers using a deep convolutional neural network learning architecture based on a wealth of CT imaging data. Results: To illustrate the prognostic power and effectiveness of the radiomic sequences produced by the discovered sequencer, we perform a classification between malignant and benign lesions from 93 patients with diagnostic data from the LIDC-IDRI dataset. Using the clinically provided diagnostic data as ground truth, proposed framework provided an average accuracy of 77.52% via 10-fold cross-validation with a sensitivity of 79.06% and specificity of 76.11%. We also perform quantitative analysis to establish the effectiveness of the radiomics sequences. Conclusion: The proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the art approach for lung lesion classification. Significance: These results illustrate the potential for the proposed discovery radiomics approach in aiding radiologists in improving screening efficiency and accuracy.
Privacy Preserving Naïve Bayesian Classifier Based on Transition Probability Matrix

Recently, lots of researchers pay attention to privacy preserving data mining, which can discover useful knowledge and concurrently preserve the data privacy. In this paper, we propose a Naïve Bayesian classifier based on transition probability matrix, NBCTPM, which uses transition probability matrix to generate the private data. Different from existing techniques, transition probability matrix can also be used for processing non-char data. NBCTPM firstly adopts transition probability matrix to generate private dataset from the original one. Then it builds a Bayesian classifier based on it, and classifies test datasets. Finally, we make some experimental tests on some benchmark datasets. The experimental results show the efficiency of the presented classifier.
Metabolic syndrome and obesity among workers at Kanye Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital, Botswana.

INTRODUCTION Metabolic syndrome and obesity are risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus and/or cardiovascular disease, especially stroke. There is evidence worldwide of the high prevalence of these pathologies in health care providers. OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of metabolic syndrome, overweight, obesity and risk of developing metabolic syndrome in workers at Kanye Seventh-day Adventist Hospital, Kanye, Botswana. METHODS An observational and cross-sectional study. For the detection of metabolic syndrome, the criteria of the Adult Treatment Panel III were used; for obesity, the body mass index of 150 workers was applied. Data were grouped and analysed according to gender, age and type of work. RESULTS Thirty-four per cent of the hospital's workers had metabolic syndrome, the same percentage were at high risk of developing metabolic syndrome, 28.7% were obese, and 27.3% were overweight. Female gender was found to be strongly associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. The age group of 35-54 years was most affected. CONCLUSIONS There is a high prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome among Kanye Seventh-day Adventist Hospital workers. We recommend the implementation of programmes to screen these risk factors by means of routine medical exams and improving the lifestyles of Botswana health care workers. The study findings could be the basis for future research among hospital staff and the general population.
Exaggerated Cardiovascular Stress Responses and Impaired β-Adrenergic–Mediated Pressor Recovery in Obese Zucker Rats

Clinical studies have demonstrated that the pressor response to acute stress is larger in obese versus lean individuals. We therefore tested the hypotheses that the pressor response to behavioral stress is greater in obese (OZRs) versus lean Zucker rats (LZRs) and that reduced β-adrenergic–mediated vasodilation contributes to the enhanced pressor response. Animals were restrained and subjected to acute pulsatile air jet stress (3 minutes), followed by a poststress period of 20 minutes; β-adrenergic blockade was achieved with propranolol (5 mg/kg, IV) given 15 minutes before the start of air jet stress. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) was continuously monitored by telemetry. Untreated OZRs responded with a greater integrated pressor response (area under the curve [AUC]) to acute stress (41.2±6.1 versus 21.2±3.3 mm Hg×3 minutes, OZR versus LZR; P<0.05) and significantly reduced poststress recovery of MAP. β-Adrenergic blockade had no effect on stress AUC in either LZRs or OZRs but significantly attenuated the poststress recovery of MAP in LZRs only (poststress AUC: −100.1±48.1 versus 49.0±13.5 mm Hg×20 minutes, untreated versus propranolol; P<0.05). In anesthetized animals, significantly smaller increases in mesenteric vascular conductance contributed to blunted depressor responses to isoproterenol in OZRs versus LZRs, suggesting that β-adrenergic stimulation causes a greater reduction in total peripheral resistance in lean versus obese animals. We conclude that β-adrenergic–mediated vasodilation facilitates blood pressure recovery after stress and that this pathway is compromised in an animal model of morbid obesity, resulting in the impaired ability to regulate blood pressure during stress.
CD11b/CD18 Mediates Production of Reactive Oxygen Species by Mouse and Human Macrophages Adherent to Matrixes Containing Oxidized LDL

Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and other proinflammatory substances by macrophages adherent to matrix proteins that contain or have been modified by oxidized LDL (oxLDL) may play an important role in atherogenesis. In vitro, human macrophages adhere to matrixes containing oxLDL via scavenger receptors and are signaled to produce ROS partly by interactions of the class B scavenger receptor (SR-B) CD36 with ligands on the matrix. In this report, we show that macrophages from mice genetically deficient in SR-A or CD36 adhered equally as well and produced equal amounts of ROS on interaction with matrix-associated oxLDL. In contrast, macrophages from mice genetically deficient in the CD18 chain of &bgr;2-integrins produced insignificant amounts of ROS on interaction with oxLDL-containing matrixes, even though they adhered to these matrixes as efficiently as did macrophages from wild-type mice. Antibodies against CD18, CD11b, or EDTA, the last of which chelates divalent cations required for integrin function, had no effect on adhesion of normal mouse or human macrophages to matrixes containing oxLDL but almost completely inhibited ROS production by macrophages adherent to this matrix. Thus, CD11b/CD18 plays an important role in regulating production of ROS by mouse and human macrophages adherent to matrixes containing oxLDL. It may play a hitherto-unsuspected role in regulating macrophage signaling pathways involved in inflammation and atherogenesis.
A Tetrodotoxin-Producing Vibrio Strain, LM-1, from the Puffer Fish Fugu vermicularis radiatus

ABSTRACT Identification of tetrodotoxin (TTX) and its derivatives produced from a Vibrio strain in the intestine of the puffer fishFugu vermicularis radiatus was performed by thin-layer chromatography, electrophoresis, high-performance liquid chromatography, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, together with a mouse bioassay for toxicity. It was demonstrated that the isolated bacterium produced TTX, 4-epi-TTX, and anhTTX during cultivation, suggesting that Vibrio strains are responsible for the toxification of the puffer fish.
Sliding Mode ∑‐Δ Modulation Control of the Boost Converter

A switched implementation of average dynamic output feedback laws trough a ∑‐Δ‐modulator, widely known in the classic communications and analog signal encoding literature, not only frees the sliding mode control approach from state measurements and the corresponding synthesis of sliding surfaces in the plant's state space, but it also allows to effectively transfer all desired closed loop features of an uniformly bounded, continuous, average output feedback controller design into the more restrictive discrete‐valued (ON‐OFF) control framework of a switched system. The proposed approach is here used for the input‐output sliding mode stabilization of the “boost” DC‐to‐DC converter. This is achieved by means of a well known passivity based controller but any other output feedback design would have served our purposes. This emphasizes the flexibility of the proposed sliding mode control design implementation through ∑‐Δ‐modulators.
Design principles for contrast gain control from an information theoretic perspective

Contrast gain control is an important and common mechanism underlying the visual system’s adaptation to the statistics of the visual scenes. In this paper, we first showed that the threshold and saturation determine the preferred contrast sensitivity as well as the maximum information coding capacity of the neuronal model. Then we investigated the design principles underlying adaptation behavior in contrast gain control phenomena by an adaptive linear-nonlinear model. We found that an adaptive rescaling mechanism predicted by information transmission maximization can explain a variety of observed contrast gain control phenomena in neurophysiological experiments, including the divisive input-output relations, and the inverse power law relation between response gain and input contrast. Our results suggest that contrast gain control in visual systems might be designed for information maximization.