Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Craniofacial Reconstruction Evaluation by Geodesic Network

Craniofacial reconstruction is to estimate an individual's face model from its skull. It has a widespread application in forensic medicine, archeology, medical cosmetic surgery, and so forth. However, little attention is paid to the evaluation of craniofacial reconstruction. This paper proposes an objective method to evaluate globally and locally the reconstructed craniofacial faces based on the geodesic network. Firstly, the geodesic networks of the reconstructed craniofacial face and the original face are built, respectively, by geodesics and isogeodesics, whose intersections are network vertices. Then, the absolute value of the correlation coefficient of the features of all corresponding geodesic network vertices between two models is taken as the holistic similarity, where the weighted average of the shape index values in a neighborhood is defined as the feature of each network vertex. Moreover, the geodesic network vertices of each model are divided into six subareas, that is, forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, and chin, and the local similarity is measured for each subarea. Experiments using 100 pairs of reconstructed craniofacial faces and their corresponding original faces show that the evaluation by our method is roughly consistent with the subjective evaluation derived from thirty-five persons in five groups.
Food habits of rural Swazi households : 1939-1999. Part 1 : technological influences on Swazi food habits

Hierdie artikel bied basiese inligting oor die eetgewoontes van landelike Swazi-huishoudings. Dit bevat ‘n oorsig van die literatuur in verband met Swazi-eetgewoontes gedurende die afgelope ses dekades asook die bevindings van ’n gevallestudie oor die eetgewoontes van tien geselekteerde Swazi-huishoudings in Ka-Mantsholo in die Badplaasdistrik. Hamilton se model (1987) vir die drie komponente van kultuur, naamlik tegnologie, sosiale struktuur en ideologie, is vir die teoretiese raamwerk gebruik. Die gepubliseerde literatuur asook die bevindings van die gevallestudie dui daarop dat die beskikbare tegnologie ‘n invloed op die tradisionele asook die huidige eetgewoontes van landelike Swazi-huishoudings uitgeoefen het. Die bevindings van die gevallestudie dui op akkulturasie met betrekking tot die eetgewoontes van hierdie groep huishoudings, veral ten opsigte van die aanvaarding en insluiting van sekere Westerse voedselsoorte en voedselbereidingstegnieke. Ten spyte van akkulturasie vorm tradisionele Swazi-geregte wat van inheemse gewasse en veldplante berei word, egter steeds ‘n belangrike komponent in die Swazi dieet. Tradisionele voedsel en voedselbronne behoort dus in voedselsekuriteitsprogramme ingesluit te word. Op sy beurt bepaal die beskikbare tegnologie die beskikbaarheid en verbruik van hierdie voedsel.
Hyperglycaemic crisis in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa: high mortality and association of hyperosmolar ketoacidosis with a new diagnosis of diabetes.

OBJECTIVES To describe the frequencies, presenting characteristics (demographic, clinical and biochemical) and outcomes (duration of admission and mortality rates) for various types of hyperglycaemic crisis. METHODS Retrospective review of medical records of patients with hyperglycaemic crisis admitted to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, Mthatha, E Cape, from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2009. Outcome measures were duration of admission and mortality. RESULTS Data were available for 269 admissions (response rate 81.0%), 169 females and 100 males. Admissions for hyperglycaemia (HG, N=119), and non-hyperosmolar diabetic ketoacidosis (NHDKA, N=97) were more frequent than those for hyperosmolar hyperglycaemic state (HHS, N=29) and hyperosmolar diabetic ketoacidosis (HDKA, N=24). Duration of admission was similar in all groups. Mortality was high in all groups, but was higher in patients with HDKA (37.5%, risk ratio (RR) 3.88, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.41 - 10.67, p=0.009), HHS (31.0%, RR 2.91, 95% CI 1.09 - 7.75, p=0.033) and HG (19.5%, RR 1.56, 95% CI 0.75 - 3.21, p=0.236) than in those with NHDKA (13.4%). HDKA (62.5%) was associated with new-onset diabetes more often than NHDKA (27.8%), HHS (44.8%) or HG (17.6%) (p<0.0001). An altered level of consciousness was more frequent in HDKA than NHDKA admissions (RR 5.71, 95% CI 1.90 - 17.17, p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS Duration of hospital stay was similar across groups. Mortality rates were high in all groups. New-onset diabetes, altered level of consciousness and mortality were more characteristically associated with HDKA than any of the other types of hyperglycaemic crisis. Optimal glycaemic control in known diabetic patients will reduce rates of hyperglycaemic crisis admissions.
Comparison of Burrowing and Stimuli-Evoked Pain Behaviors as End-Points in Rat Models of Inflammatory Pain and Peripheral Neuropathic Pain

Establishment and validation of ethologically-relevant, non-evoked behavioral end-points as surrogate measures of spontaneous pain in rodent pain models has been proposed as a means to improve preclinical to clinical research translation in the pain field. Here, we compared the utility of burrowing behavior with hypersensitivity to applied mechanical stimuli for pain assessment in rat models of chronic inflammatory and peripheral neuropathic pain. Briefly, groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats were habituated to the burrowing environment and trained over a 5-day period. Rats that burrowed ≤ 450 g of gravel on any 2 days of the individual training phase were excluded from the study. The remaining rats received either a unilateral intraplantar injection of Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) or saline, or underwent unilateral chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve- or sham-surgery. Baseline burrowing behavior and evoked pain behaviors were assessed prior to model induction, and twice-weekly until study completion on day 14. For FCA- and CCI-rats, but not the corresponding groups of sham-rats, evoked mechanical hypersensitivity developed in a temporal manner in the ipsilateral hindpaws. Although burrowing behavior also decreased in a temporal manner for both FCA-and CCI- rats, there was considerable inter-animal variability. By contrast, mechanical hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia in the ipsilateral hindpaws of FCA- and CCI-rats respectively, exhibited minimal inter-animal variability. Our data collectively show that burrowing behavior is altered in rodent models of chronic inflammatory pain and peripheral neuropathic pain. However, large group sizes are needed to ensure studies are adequately powered due to considerable inter-animal variability.
Promoters and transcripts associated with the aroP gene of Escherichia coli

Analysis of in vitro transcriptional events initiating within the region immediately upstream of the aroP coding region has revealed the presence of three promoters, P1, P2, and P3. Both P1 and P2 give rise to mRNA encoding the AroP protein, whereas P3 initiates transcription in the opposite direction. Both P1 and P3 contain UP elements which contribute to promoter strength. Regulation of expression from these three promoters has been examined in vitro by using supercoiled DNA templates and in vivo by using lacZ transcriptional fusions and specific promoter mutants. Expression from P2 is partially repressed by TyrR alone both in vitro and in vivo. Addition of the aromatic amino acid tyrosine, phenylalanine, or tryptophan further increases this repression. P1 is not repressed by TyrR alone but is repressed in vivo in the presence of phenylalanine, tyrosine, or tryptophan. This also occurs in vitro but requires Ca2+ ions in the reaction mixture for its demonstration. Under these conditions, transcription from P3 is enhanced by TyrR protein with phenylalanine, tyrosine, or tryptophan. However, we were unable to demonstrate P3 expression in vivo. Under repressing conditions, there is no production of truncated RNA molecules (from P1), which would be expected if repression involved a roadblock mechanism.
Efficient principal component analysis for multivariate 3D voxel‐based mapping of brain functional imaging data sets as applied to FDG‐PET and normal aging

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a well‐known technique for reduction of dimensionality of functional imaging data. PCA can be looked at as the projection of the original images onto a new orthogonal coordinate system with lower dimensions. The new axes explain the variance in the images in decreasing order of importance, showing correlations between brain regions. We used an efficient, stable and analytical method to work out the PCA of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images of 74 normal subjects using [18F]fluoro‐2‐deoxy‐D‐glucose (FDG) as a tracer. Principal components (PCs) and their relation to age effects were investigated. Correlations between the projections of the images on the new axes and the age of the subjects were carried out. The first two PCs could be identified as being the only PCs significantly correlated to age. The first principal component, which explained 10% of the data set variance, was reduced only in subjects of age 55 or older and was related to loss of signal in and adjacent to ventricles and basal cisterns, reflecting expected age‐related brain atrophy with enlarging CSF spaces. The second principal component, which accounted for 8% of the total variance, had high loadings from prefrontal, posterior parietal and posterior cingulate cortices and showed the strongest correlation with age (r = −0.56), entirely consistent with previously documented age‐related declines in brain glucose utilization. Thus, our method showed that the effect of aging on brain metabolism has at least two independent dimensions. This method should have widespread applications in multivariate analysis of brain functional images. Hum. Brain Mapping 18:13–21, 2003. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Prospective Comparison of Clinical and Genomic Multivariate Predictors of Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer

Purpose: Several different multivariate prediction models using routine clinical variables or multigene signatures have been proposed to predict pathologic complete response to combination chemotherapy in breast cancer. Our goal was to compare the performance of four conceptually different predictors in an independent cohort of patients. Experimental Design: Gene expression profiling was done on fine-needle aspirations of 100 stage I to III breast cancers before preoperative paclitaxel, 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide combination chemotherapy. Pathologic response was correlated with prediction results from a clinical nomogram, a human cancer–derived genomic predictor (DLDA30), a cell line–based genomic predictor [in vitro coexpression extrapolation (COXEN)], and an optimized cell line–derived (in vivo COXEN) predictor. None of the 100 test cases were used in the development of these predictors. Results: The in vitro COXEN using a combination of four individual drug sensitivity predictions derived from cell lines was not predictive [area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC), 0.5; 95% confidence interval, (95% CI), 0.41-0.59]. The clinical nomogram (AUC, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.65-0.80) and the DLDA30 (AUC, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.66-0.80) genomic predictor had similar performances. The in vivo COXEN that used informative genes from cell lines but was trained on a separate human data set also showed significant predictive value (AUC, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.60-0.74). These three different prediction scores correlated with each other and were significant in univariate but not in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Three conceptually different predictors performed similarly in this validation study and tended to identify the same patients as responders. A genomic predictor that relied solely on a composite of individual drug sensitivity predictions from cell lines did not show any predictive value. Clin Cancer Res; 16(2); 711–8
Adsorption of CO2 by alginate immobilized zeolite beads

Immobilized zeolit in alginate beads for adsorption of CO2 was developed. Alginate immobilized zeolit beads was generated by dropping the mixture of Na-alginate and zeolite solution into Ca2+ solution. The adsorption efficacy such as the influence of contact time, mass of zeolite, flowrate of CO2, and mass of adsorbent was evaluated. The adsorption of CO2 onto alginate immobilized zeolit beads was investigated by performing both equilibrium and kinetic batch test. Bead was characterized by FTIR and SEM. Alginate immobilized zeolit beads demonstrated significantly higher sorption efficacy compared to plain alginate beads and zeolite with 0.25 mmol CO2 adsorbed /g adsorbent. Optimum condition was achieved with mass composition of alginate:zeolite (3:1), flowrate 50 mL/min for 20 minutes. The alginate immobilized zeolit beads showed that adsorption of CO2 followed Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second order kinetic model. Adsorption of CO2 onto alginate immobilized zeolite beads is a physisorption with adsor.
Wear resistance of packable resin composites after simulated toothbrushing test.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the wear resistance of five different packable composites versus two different composite controls using a laboratory toothbrushing simulation test. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twelve samples measuring 5 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick were prepared from the following resin composites: Packable resin composites SureFil (Dentsply Ind. Com. Ltda, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Alert (Jeneric Pentron Incorporated, Wallingford, CT, USA), Filtek P60 (3M ESPE Dental Products, St. Paul, MN, USA), Prodigy Condensable (sds Kerr, Orange CA, USA), Solitaire (Heraeus Kulzer GmbH, Wehrheim, Germany), and control resin composites Z100 Restorative (3M ESPE) and Silux Plus (3M ESPE). Finishing and polishing were conducted with Sof-Lex disks (3M ESPE), and baseline weight (grams) and surface roughness (measured with Hommel Tester T 1000, Hommelwerke, GmbH, Alte Tuttinger Strebe 20. D-7730 VS-Schwenningen, Germany) were recorded. Specimens were aged for 2 weeks until they reached a weight that remained constant for 5 consecutive days, and then were subjected to 100,000 cycles of brushing (representative of 4.2 yr) using a toothbrushing testing machine. Toothbrush heads with soft bristle tips (Colgate Classic, Colgate-Palmolive Co., Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil) with dentifrice suspension (Colgate MFP, Colgate-Palmolive Co.) in deionized water were used under a 200 g load. Changes in weight and surface roughness were determined after toothbrushing cycles. RESULTS Significant differences of weight loss and surface roughness were found (paired t-test, p < .05). Weight loss percentage (mean [SD]) ranged from 0.38 to 1.69% (analysis of variance and Tukey's least significant difference, p < .05); the weight loss of the materials ranked from least to most as follows: SureFil (0.38 [0.56]), Alert (0.52 [0.18]), Z100 (1.16 [0.27]), Filtek P60 (1.31 [0.17]), Solitaire (1.51 [0.45]), Prodigy Condensable (1.55 [0.471), and Silux Plus (1.69 [0.66]). Regarding surface roughness, Prodigy Condensable (0.19 [0.08]), Solitaire (0.28 [0.06]), and Z100 (0.30 [0.07]) became less rough after toothbrushing, whereas all the others were rendered rougher: Alert (0.49 [0.29]), Filtek P60 (0.28 [0.08]), Silux Plus (0.39 [0.091), and SureFil (0.81 [0.32]). CONCLUSION SureFil and Alert were statistically more resistant to wear (less weight loss) than were the other materials. SureFil became significantly rougher than did all the others. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Overal, packable resin composites are unlikely to show superior wear resistance with regard to weight loss and surface roughness compared with current resin composites also indicated for posterior restorations.
Prevalence of GAD65 Antibodies in Lean Subjects with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract: While type 2 diabetic subjects in developed countries are predominantly obese or overweight, those in India are often nonobese or lean. The reasons for leanness in these subjects has not been well understood. We assessed the prevalence of pancreatic islet autoimmunity in 83 lean adult subjects (BMI < 18.5 kg/m2) with type 2 diabetes by measuring antibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase‐65 (GAD Abs). Positivity to GAD Ab was present in 21 (25.3%) subjects. In addition, subjects with GAD Ab positivity were younger and had lower beta cell function (homeostasis model assessment, HOMA) as compared to the GAD Ab‐negative group. This suggests that the antibody‐positive group could have a slowly progressive form of type 1 diabetes.
International Journal of Nanomedicine Dovepress Comparative Microstructures and Cytotoxicity Assays for Ballistic Aerosols Composed of Micrometals and Nanometals: Respiratory Health Implications

Aerosol particulates collected on filters from ballistic penetration and erosion events for W–Ni–Co and W–Ni–Fe kinetic energy rod projectiles penetrating steel target plates were observed to be highly cytotoxic to human epithelial A549 lung cells in culture after 48 hours of exposure. The aerosol consisted of micron-sized Fe particulates and nanoparticulate aggregates consisting of W, Ni or W, Co, and some Fe, characterized by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, and using energy-dispersive (X-ray) spectrometry for elemental analysis and mapping. Cytotoxic assays of manufactured micron-sized and nanosized metal particulates of W, Ni, Fe, and Co demonstrated that, consistent with many studies in the literature, only the nanoparticulate elements demonstrated measurable cytotoxicity. These results suggest the potential for very severe, short-term, human toxicity, in particular to the respiratory system on inhaling ballistic aerosols.
Hardware-Acceleration of Short-Read Alignment Based on the Burrows-Wheeler Transform

The alignment of millions of short DNA fragments to a large genome is a very important aspect of the modern computational biology. However, software-based DNA sequence alignment takes many hours to complete. This paper proposes an FPGA-based hardware accelerator to reduce the alignment time. We apply a data encoding scheme that reduces the data size by 96 percent, and propose a pipelined hardware decoder to decode the data. We also design customized data paths to efficiently use the limited bandwidth of the DDR3 memories. The proposed accelerator can align a few hundred million short DNA fragments in an hour by using 80 processing elements in parallel. The proposed accelerator has the same mapping quality compared to the software-based methods.
Multidimensional Scaling of Integrated Neurocognitive Function and Schizophrenia as a Disconnexion Disorder

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a multivariate statistical technique that can be used to define subsystems of functionally connected brain regions based on the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Here we introduce three-way multidimensional scaling as a method for the analysis of a group of fMRI data, which yields both a generic interregional configuration in low-dimensional space and a measure of each individual's deviation from the generic configuration. The distance between two generic interregional configurations obtained by MDS of two groups of data can be minimized by generalized Procrustes analysis, and the probability under the null hypothesis (that the two groups are sampled from the same population) of any residual group difference in interregional configurations can be assessed by a permutation test. These methods are developed and applied to activated fMRI time series acquired from 19 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal comparison subjects during the performance of a semantic categorization and subvocal rehearsal task. The first three scaling dimensions are interpretable in terms of the major anatomical or functional subsystems of the activated system: "left-right," "input processing-other," and "subvocal output-other". We found no significant global or local differences between groups in interregional configurations in this 3D space. However, there was significantly greater variability of interregional configurations within the group of patients with schizophrenia. The implications for schizophrenia as a disconnexion disorder are discussed.
The risk for four specific congenital heart defects associated with assisted reproductive techniques: a population-based evaluation.

STUDY QUESTION Are the risks of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, transposition of great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and coarctation of the aorta increased in infants conceived by different assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs)? STUDY ANSWER ARTs, and particularly intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), are specifically associated with a higher risk of TOF. WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ARTs are associated with an increase in the overall risk of birth defects. The risk for congenital heart defects (CHDs) associated with ARTs has been evaluated as a whole but there is limited information on the risks for specific CHDs. STUDY DESIGN, MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a case-control study using population-based data from the Paris registry of congenital malformations for the period 1987-2009 and a cohort study of CHD (EPICARD) on 1583 cases of CHDs and 4104 malformed controls with no known associations with ARTs. ARTs included ovulation induction only, IVF and ICSI. RESULTS Exposure to ARTs was significantly higher for TOF than controls (6.6 versus 3.5%, P = 0.002); this was not the case for the other three CHDs. ARTs (all methods combined) were associated with a 2.4-fold higher odds of TOF after adjustment for maternal characteristics, paternal age and year of birth [adjusted odds ratios (OR): 2.4, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.5-3.7] with the highest risk associated with ICSI (adjusted OR: 3.0, 95% CI: 1.0-8.9). No statistically significant associations were found for the other CHDs. LIMITATIONS Our study cannot disentangle to what extent the observed associations between the risk of TOF and ARTs are due to causal effects of ARTs and/or the underlying infertility problems of couples who conceive following ART. IMPLICATIONS The developmental basis of the specific association between the risk of TOF and ARTs need to be further investigated.
ASP On-Demand Versus MOTS In-House Software Solutions

Application Service Providers (ASPs) deliver on-demand information processing services to user firms via the Internet. They have been an attractive alternative to purchasing, installing, and maintaining modifiable off-the-shelf (MOTS) software solutions. We study several critical aspects of a user firm's choice between an ASP and MOTS software. The competitive model considers heterogeneous users who differ in terms of their expected transaction volume, while ASPs and MOTS vendors differ in terms of their pricing structure, setup cost, system customization, and service level arrangement. Our results identify and characterize the equilibrium conditions under which ASPs and MOTS vendors can coexist in a competitive market, and they explain which firms could be the primary beneficiaries of each vendor type. We show that the value added by ASPs comes as much from the efficient pooling of transaction volatility risks as from the reduction in IT implementation costs. As users' transaction volatility increases, the competitive advantage of the ASP approach increases significantly. Our findings predict that the existence of ASPs would not be a temporary phenomenon. These new software deliverers are likely to compete, survive, and coexist with the traditional software vendors in the market.