Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diseases mortality patterns in elderly patients: A Nigerian teaching hospital experience in Irrua, Nigeria

Background: Currently, in developing countries, there is a paradigm shift in the mortality patterns from communicable to non-communicable diseases. Objective: This study is aimed at providing a broad spectrum on the mortality patterns in elderly within a 5-year-period in a tertiary healthcare provider in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This study is a retrospective review of mortality patterns of elderly patients from January 2007 to December 2011 occurring in Irrua specialist teaching hospital, (ISTH), Irrua and its environs. Information derived from the request cards include age, sex, clinical history, diagnosis, duration and cause of death. Results: During this period a total of 3,002 elderly (>65 years) admissions were seen. Of this, 561 patients were confirmed dead. Among this, 317 and 244 cases were elderly male and female patients, respectively. Hence the ratio of male to female was 1.3:1.0. The peak age group was 65-70 years accounting for 147 patients (26.2%). The age range of patients was 65-104 years while the modal and mean ages were 69 years and 74 years ΁ 4.2 standard deviation (SD), respectively. The most commonly encountered cause of mortality was cerebrovascular accident constituting 141 (25.1%) cases. The 2nd and 3rd majority of mortality cases were malignancies and diabetes mellitus (metabolic disorder) accounting for 85 (15.2%) and 45 (8%) cases, respectively. Others include congestive cardiac failure 35 (6.2%), Septicaemia 29 (5.2%), trauma 26 (4.6%) while chronic renal failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease consist of 22 cases (3.9%) each. Conclusion: Non-communicable diseases particularly cerebrovascular diseases and malignancies were the most commonly encountered cause of elderly mortality in our environment. Notwithstanding a large percentage of mortality patterns also results from communicable diseases with sepsis as the leading cause of mortality.
Integrating hyperspectral imagery at different scales to estimate component surface temperatures

Different methods for classifying land cover and extracting temperatures of surface components from hyperspectral images at different scales were compared using airborne imagery (Reflective Optics System Imaging Spectrometer (ROSIS) at 1.2 m spatial resolution and Digital Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (DAIS 7915) at 3.3 m spatial resolution) for a ‘montado/dehesa’ landscape in the Alentejo, Portugal. For calibration purposes, surface temperatures and stomatal conductance of component vegetation types were also measured at ground level. Manual classification was compared with a range of automated classification methods to determine the most accurate method for the study area. The ‘scale’ for each cover type was characterized by analysing the frequency distribution of contiguous pixels of each cover type at 1.2 m. Temperatures of different surface components were estimated using different combinations of 1.2 m and 3.3 m data (using spectral angle mapper classification) as well as linear spectral unmixing and disaggregation approaches for extracting thermal information at sub‐pixel resolution. The relative advantages of the different methods are discussed and a recommended strategy for integrating hyperspectral imagery at different scales to extract component surface temperatures in montado/dehesa‐type systems is proposed.
Kolaviron and vitamin E ameliorate hematotoxicity and oxidative stress in brains of prepubertal rats treated with an anticonvulsant phenytoin

Abstract Phenytoin (PHT), an anticonvulsant agent, widely used for the treatment of epilepsy has been reported to exhibit toxic side effects. The present study investigated the protective effects of kolaviron and vitamin E on hematotoxicity and neurotoxicity induced by phenytoin, in prepubertal male rats. The animals were treated with PHT (75 mg/kg) separately or in combination with either kolaviron (200 mg/kg) or vitamin E (500 mg/kg) for 14 days. Phenytoin treatment significantly decreased the hemoglobin, white blood cells, lymphocytes and mean corpuscular volume levels without affecting red blood cell, packed cell volume, neutrophils, mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration when compared with the control rats. There was a significant increase in lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide levels with marked depletion in antioxidant status in brains of PHT-treated rats when compared with the control. Although PHT treatment had no effect on the granular layer, widest diameter of Purkinje cells and Purkinje layer of the cerebellum, it significantly reduced its molecular layer and the density of Purkinje cell. Administration of PHT significantly reduced the densities of the granule cells of the dentate gyrus and the pyramidal neurons of the cornu ammonis of hippocampus proper. Co-treatment with kolaviron and vitamin E effectively reversed the PHT-mediated alterations in the hematology, brain antioxidant status and histomorphometry when compared to PHT only. Taken together, the present data indicate the abilities of kolaviron and vitamin E to ameliorate phenytoin-induced hematotoxicity and oxidative stress in brains of rats.
The Gender Similarities Hypothesis the Role of Meta-analysis in Assessing Psychological Gender Differences

The differences model, which argues that males and females are vastly different psychologically, dominates the popular media. Here, the author advances a very different view, the gender similarities hypothesis, which holds that males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables. Results from a review of 46 meta-analyses support the gender similarities hypothesis. Gender differences can vary substantially in magnitude at different ages and depend on the context in which measurement occurs. Overinflated claims of gender differences carry substantial costs in areas such as the workplace and relationships. T he mass media and the general public are captivated by findings of gender differences. John Gray's (1992) Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, which argued for enormous psychological differences between women and men, has sold over 30 million copies and been translated into 40 languages (Gray, 2005). Deborah Tannen's (1991) You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation argued for the different cultures hypothesis: that men's and women's patterns of speaking are so fundamentally different that men and women essentially belong to different linguistic communities or cultures. That book was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly four years and has been translated into 24 languages (AnnOnline, 2005). Both of these works, and dozens of others like them, have argued for the differences hypothesis: that males and females are, psychologically , vastly different. Here, I advance a very different view—the gender similarities hypothesis (for related state-The Hypothesis The gender similarities hypothesis holds that males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables. That is, men and women, as well as boys and girls, are more alike than they are different. In terms of effect sizes, the gender similarities hypothesis states that most psychological gender differences are in the close-to-zero (d Յ 0.10) or small (0.11 Ͻ d Ͻ 0.35) range, a few are in the moderate range (0.36 Ͻ d Ͻ 0.65), and very few are large (d ϭ 0.66 –1.00) or very large (d Ͼ 1.00). Although the fascination with psychological gender differences has been present from the dawn of formalized psychology around 1879 (Shields, 1975), a few early researchers highlighted gender similarities. Thorndike (1914), for example, believed that psychological gender differences were too small, compared with within-gender variation, to be important. Leta Stetter Hollingworth (1918) reviewed available research on gender differences in mental traits and found little evidence …
Genetic Diversity in the mtDNA control region and population structure of Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus from selected Nigerian rivers: Implications for conservation and aquaculture

Abstract The genetic diversity and population structure of Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus were evaluated using a 443 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial control region. Among the eight populations collected comprising 129 individuals, a total of 89 polymorphic sites defined 57 distinct haplotypes. The mean haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity of the eight populations were 0.966±0.006 and 0.0359±0.004, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance showed significant genetic differentiation among the eight populations (FST =0.34; P < 0.01). The present results revealed that C. nigrodigitatus populations had a high level of genetic diversity and distinct population structures. We report the existence of two monophyletic matrilineal lineages with mean genetic distance of 10.5% between them. Non-significant negative Tajima’s D and Fu’s Fs for more than half the populations suggests that the wild populations of C. nigrodigitatus underwent a recent population expansion, although a weak one since the late Pleistocene.
Estimating Central Equatorial Pacific SST Variability over the Past Millennium. Part II: Reconstruct

AbstractReducing the uncertainties surrounding the impacts of anthropogenic climate change requires vetting general circulation models (GCMs) against long records of past natural climate variability. This is particularly challenging in the tropical Pacific Ocean, where short, sparse instrumental data preclude GCM validation on multidecadal to centennial time scales. This two-part paper demonstrates the application of two statistical methodologies to a network of accurately dated tropical climate records to reconstruct sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the Nino-3.4 region over the past millennium. While Part I described the methods and established their validity and limitations, this paper presents several reconstructions of Nino-3.4, analyzes their sensitivity to procedural choices and input data, and compares them to climate forcing time series and previously published tropical Pacific SST reconstructions. The reconstructions herein show remarkably similar behavior at decadal to multidecadal s.
Vertebrate remains from the Lower Muschelkalk of Raciborowice Górne (North-Sudetic Basin, SW Poland)

Vertebrate remains, mostly fish teeth and scales, are described from the Lower Muschelkalk of Raciborowice Gorne, North-Sudetic Basin, SW Poland. The assemblage occurs in dark grey organodetrital limestone of unit C. Vertebrate remains, represented mainly by vertebrate bones and coprolites, are also known from unit B. Five taxa of chondrichthyan teeth -- Acrodus lateralis, Acrodus cf. lateralis, Acrodus sp. , Palaeobates angustissimus, Palaeobates sp. and, for the first time from this region, two taxa of osteichthyan remains -teeth of Birgeria sp. , scales from Gyrolepis sp. as well as scales from unclassified actinopterygians and enigmatic bones (fishes? ) are described from the Lower Muschelkalk at Raciborowice Gorne. Reptile teeth representing the Nothosauridae or Cymatosauridae have been found for the first time at this locality. They were discovered in the Bone Bed of unit C, that had previously only yielded fish teeth. The material collected has allowed reconstruction of the vertebrate assemblage of the Lower Muschelkalk of the North-Sudetic Basin. It has also helped to constrain reconstructions of the palaeoenvironment, suggesting that it represented a deepening lagoon. The assemblage has been correlated with age-equivalents from other regions of Europe, the faunas from the Holy Cross Mts. (Central Poland) being the closest analogy. The evidence indicates that, during the deposition of units B and C that, contain the vertebrate remains, connection with the Tethys Ocean was through the Silesian-Moravian and East Carpathian marine gateways.
Creativity: A Framework for the Design/Problem Solving Discourse in Technology Education

Subjects for which aesthetics and creative performance are critical curricular dimensions (such as art, physical education, music, and technology education), and which are accommodative of students across the range of intelligences (Gardner, 1999) are not readily or completely captured by content standards. Therefore content knowledge in these fields that target student achievement as conventionally conceived must be complemented by treatment of more subjective and elusive goals such as the development of connoisseurship, appreciation, or creative insight. With the publication of standards for the subject (International Technology Education Association, 2000), the need for focus upon creativity in technology education has been made more urgent than before because of the prominence given to the teaching and learning of design. Four of the standards (8, 9, 10, and 11) address design directly. Technological design is a medium through which dimensions of children's creative abilities can be stimulated and augmented. This creative potential of design teaching can be seen in the work of Druin & Fast (2002), where Swedish children who are included in the design of technology reveal inventive dispositions in their journaling. It can be seen also in the work of Arguably, stimulating creative impulses in children through design and problem-solving activities is as grand a goal of curriculum as is the achievement of particular design-based, measurable outcomes. But how do we get children to improve upon the quality of their designs? What makes one design solution more elegant than the other? There are no easy answers here because creativity does not quite respond to the accustomed inquiry questions that we pose in discussion of curriculum, instruction and assessment questions in technology education. As Bruner (1962) pointed out, creativity is a silent process which by its very nature will not be responsive to the processes ordinarily employed to determine content standards. Instead, it requires its own set of questions, including examination of its nature. This article seeks to stimulate a conversation about the inculcation of creativity as an important goal of technology education, and as a concomitant of
Combinatorial signaling pathways determine fibroblast proliferation and myofibroblast differentiation

Fibroblast proliferation, differentiation into myofibroblasts, and increased collagen synthesis are key events during both normal wound repair and fibrotic lesion formation. Here we report that these biological responses to TGF–β by fibroblasts are regu¬lated via a CTGF–dependent pathway in concert with either EGF or IGF–2. Our studies indicate these re¬sponses to TGF–β are mutually exclusive, and cells that are proliferating do not express α–SMA or elevated levels of collagen synthesis. Cells expressing α–SMA do not exhibit DNA synthesis but do coexpress higher levels of types I and III collagen mRNA Thus, fibro–blast proliferation and differentiation are controlled by combinatorial signaling pathways involving not only components of the TGF–β/CTGF pathway, but also signaling events induced by EGF and IGF–2–activated receptors. Collectively, our studies indicate TGF–β functions as a classic embryonic inducer, initiating a cascade that is controlled by other factors in the cellular environment. We propose a model for this process with regard to wound repair and fibrotic lesion formation that is likely applicable to other instances of CTGF action during embryogenesis. —Grotendorst, G. R. , Rahmanie, H. , Duncan, M. R. Combinatorial signaling pathways determine fibroblast proliferation and myofibroblast differentiation.
Hardware-accelerated texture advection for unsteady flow visualization

We present a novel hardware-accelerated texture advection algorithm to visualize the motion of two-dimensional unsteady flows. Making use of several proposed extensions to the OpenGL-1.2 specification, we demonstrate animations of over 65,000 particles at 2 frames/sec on an SGI Octane with EMXI graphics. High image quality is achieved by careful attention to edge effects, noise frequency, and image enhancement. We provide a detailed description of the hardware implementation, including temporal and spatial coherence techniques, dye advection techniques, and feature extraction.
The mineral composition of the Burkland Cu-sulphide deposit at Zinkgruvan, Sweden : a supplementary study

The Zinkgruvan Mining AB, situated in south-central Sweden in Orebro County, south-east of Ammeberg, plans to expand their production on a massive, carbonate hosted copper-sulphide ore deposit, the Burkland Cu-mineralization in the eastern part of Knalla. At present mainly Zn-Pb-Ag are mined. The deformed Cu-mineralization belongs to the south-western Bergslagen ore province. It is of Paleoproterozoic age, hosted by supracrustal, metavolcanic- and metasedimentary rocks, mainly serpentine- and dolomitic marble as well as skarn. Hydrothermal ore forming processes are suggested for the formation of the Zinkgruvan deposit. It is described as a Volcanic Massive Sulphide (VMS) and a volcanic SEDimentary EXhalative (SEDEX) type. In order to judge the economic value of the Cu-ore deposit, the mineralogy and possible variation in chemical composition of the opaque minerals as well as the mineral distribution have been investigated. Also the distribution of problematic elements such as Sb, As, Hg and Bi were studied. These can lead to fines during the processing of Cuore. Ten thin sections from the most ore rich 18m section of the drillcore DBH2992 have been analysed under a reflected light and in a scanning electron microscope. This study is a complement to the master thesis of Bjarnborg (2009) on the same topic to test and strengthen her findings through extra samples and analysis. The major ore mineral found in this study is chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), mostly occurring in aggregates. Other common ore minerals are sphalerite, pentlandite and magnetite both in aggregates and as disseminated grains. Cubanite is often found intimately intergrown as lamellea in chalcopyrite or as almost massive grains. Minor ore minerals found are breithauptite, cobaltite and pyrrhotite/mackinawite. The latter two minerals could not definitely be discriminated. The problematic elements Sb and As are found in nine different minerals. None of the major or common ore phases contain Sb or As. The Sb carrying minor ore phase breithauptite (NiSb) occurs in all but one sample. Most of the Sb or As is contained in rare minerals that are found in samples poor in ore. No Hg or Bi is found during this study. The occurrence of Ag is linked to an extensive red to purple-blue tarnish of chalcopyrite. However, tarnishing is common also when no Ag is present. No distinct mineral zoning throughout the studied section is observed. With increasing ore grade, the number of different ore minerals is stable or even decreased. The host rock composition influences the ore grade: Skarn seems to contain the highest quantities of ore minerals. No major variation in chemistry is found in most opaque minerals. Exceptions are pentlandite with varying amounts of (Fe,Co,Ni), sphalerite (a low-Fe and a high-Fe type) and safflorite with a Co-rich and a Fe-riche type.
Summer Land–Atmosphere Coupling Strength over the United States: Results from the Regional Climate Model RegCM4–CLM3.5

AbstractThis study investigates the land–atmosphere coupling strength during summer over the United States using the Regional Climate Model version 4 (RegCM4)–Community Land Model version 3.5 (CLM3.5). First, a 10-yr simulation driven with reanalysis lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) is conducted to evaluate the model performance. The model is then used to quantify the land–atmosphere coupling strength, predictability, and added forecast skill (for precipitation and 2-m air temperature) attributed to realistic land surface initialization following the Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE) approaches. Similar to previous GLACE results using global climate models (GCMs), GLACE-type experiments with RegCM4 identify the central United States as a region of strong land–atmosphere coupling, with soil moisture–temperature coupling being stronger than soil moisture–precipitation coupling, and confirm that realistic soil moisture initialization is more promising in improving temperature forecasts tha.
ISWI Remodelling of Physiological Chromatin Fibres Acetylated at Lysine 16 of Histone H4

ISWI is the catalytic subunit of several ATP-dependent chromatin remodelling factors that catalyse the sliding of nucleosomes along DNA and thereby endow chromatin with structural flexibility. Full activity of ISWI requires residues of a basic patch of amino acids in the N-terminal ‘tail’ of histone H4. Previous studies employing oligopeptides and mononucleosomes suggested that acetylation of the H4 tail at lysine 16 (H4K16) within the basic patch may inhibit the activity of ISWI. On the other hand, the acetylation of H4K16 is known to decompact chromatin fibres. Conceivably, decompaction may enhance the accessibility of nucleosomal DNA and the H4 tail for ISWI interactions. Such an effect can only be evaluated at the level of nucleosome arrays. We probed the influence of H4K16 acetylation on the ATPase and nucleosome sliding activity of Drosophila ISWI in the context of defined, in vitro reconstituted chromatin fibres with physiological nucleosome spacing and linker histone content. Contrary to widespread expectations, the acetylation did not inhibit ISWI activity, but rather stimulated ISWI remodelling under certain conditions. Therefore, the effect of H4K16 acetylation on ISWI remodelling depends on the precise nature of the substrate.
Zircon U-Pb geochronology of plutonic rocks from the Antarctic Peninsula: Confirmation of the presence of unexposed Paleozoic crust

The Antarctic Peninsula represents the southernmost segment of a magmatic arc once present along the western margin of Gondwanaland. Zircon U-Pb geochronology of a suite of calc-alkaline granitoids from the west coast of Graham Land, northern Antarctic Peninsula, resulted in ages for the rocks ranging from 117.0 ± 0.8 to 73.6 ± 0.4 Ma. Discordant zircon populations from peraluminous granites reveal inheritance characteristics resulting from entrainment of older crustal materials. Upper intercept ages of discordant zircon populations in four samples indicate that the age of assimilated material is approximately late Paleozoic. This inherited component is present in four samples from Bone Bay, Charlotte Bay, and Stonington Island and thus may extend for ∼600 km along the west coast of Graham Land. A possible source for the inherited components is the late Paleozoic(? ) sediments of the Trinity Peninsula Group. However, a late Proterozoic upper intercept age for the Charlotte Bay granodiorite in western central Graham Land indicates that the age of the rocks assimilated by this suite of plutons is not uniformly late Paleozoic and might include unexposed basement rocks. Finally, an upper intercept age of 431 ± 12 Ma from a granite clast in metaconglomerate from Horseshoe Island provides further evidence for the presence of mid-Paleozoic basement in Graham Land. These results confirm the already postulated minimum early Paleozoic age for Antarctic Peninsula basement.