Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 1-Year Experience with Human Metapneumovirus in Children Aged <5 Years

Abstract Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a recently discovered respiratory pathogen. We tested respiratory specimens for the presence of hMPV by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. These specimens were obtained over a 1-year period from children aged <5 years and had negative results by the direct fluorescent antibody test for respiratory syncytial virus, influenza A and B, parainfluenza viruses 1–3, and adenovirus. Overall, 54 (8.1%) of 668 individuals tested positive for hMPV. During March and April of the study period, hMPV was detected in 17.6% and 25.0% of specimens tested, respectively. At least 2 distinct genotypes of hMPV circulated during the study period. Fever, tachypnea, cough, rhinorrhea, retractions of the chest wall, and wheezing were common findings. Of hMPV-positive children, 60.4% were aged <12 months. hMPV accounted for a small but significant proportion of respiratory-tract disease in infants and children.
A novel type of defective viral genome suggests a unique strategy to establish and maintain persistent lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infections

Defective interfering RNAs have long been thought to be a causal factor of persistent RNA virus infections. Here we describe a novel type of defective genome of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus and the unique mechanism by which these RNAs appear to contribute to the establishment and maintenance of persistent infection. The defective genomes have short deletions in the untranslated regions at their termini and additional nontemplated terminal nucleotides. This and previous work from our laboratory suggested that the RNAs were competent for replication but not for transcription. From experiments using a technique to unambiguously determine the sequences of individual RNA termini, it appears that some truncated RNAs can be repaired. The data suggest that the loss or gain of nucleotides from the RNA termini during the course of infection is the mechanism for establishing and maintaining persistence.
Two patterns of development of interstitial cells of Cajal in the human duodenum

At the end of the embryonic period of human development, c‐kit immunoreactive (c‐kit IR) cells identifiable as interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) are present in the oesophagus and stomach wall. In the small and large bowel, c‐kit‐IR cells appear later (in the small bowel at 9 weeks, and in the colon at 10–12 weeks), also in the MP region. The object of this study was to determine the timing of appearance and distribution of c‐kit IR cells in the human embryonic and foetal duodenum. I used immunohistochemistry to examine the embryonic and foetal duodenum for cells expressing CD117 (Kit), expressed by mature ICC and ICC progenitor cells and CD34 to identify presumed ICC progenitors. Enteric plexuses were examined by way of antineuron‐specific enolase and the differentiation of smooth muscle cells was studied using antidesmin antibodies. At the end of the embryonic period of development, c‐kit IR cells were solely present in the proximal duodenum in the form of a wide belt of densely packed cells around the inception of the myenteric plexus (MP) ganglia. In the distal duodenum, c‐kit IR cells emerged at the beginning of the foetal period in the form of thin rows of pleomorphic cells at the level of the MP. From the beginning of the fourth month, the differences in the distribution of ICC in the different portions of the duodenum were established, and this relationship was still present in later developmental stages. In fact, in the proximal duodenum, ICC of the MP (ICC‐MP), ICC of the circular muscle (ICC‐CM) and ICC of the septa (ICC‐SEP) were present, and in the distal duodenum ICC‐MP and ICC‐SEP only. In conclusion, in the humans there is a difference in the timing and patterns of development of ICC in the proximal duodenum compared to the distal duodenum.
Does the Tachyon Matter

Abstract We study time-dependent solutions of Einstein–Maxwell gravity in four dimensions coupled to tachyon matter—the Dirac–Born–Infeld Lagrangian that provides an effective description of a decaying tachyon on an unstable D-brane in string theory. Asymptotically, the solutions are similar to the recently studied space-like brane solutions and carry S-brane charge. They do not break the Lorentzian R-symmetry. We study tachyon matter as a probe in such a background and analyze its backreaction. For early/late times, the tachyon field has a constant energy density and vanishing pressure as in flat space. On the other hand, at intermediate times, the energy density of the tachyon diverges and produces a space-like curvature singularity.
Study of Serum Magnesium Levels in Neonatal Jaundice: The Effect of Phototherapy.

Background: Jaundice is a significant problem in early neonatal period. It is suggested that there is a positive correlation between plasma ionized Mg levels and severity of hyperbilirubinemia in newborn. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 120 neonates in neonatology unit, Pediatrics Department, Tanta University Hospital from August 2013 to August 2014. All of them suffering from neonatal jaundice. Blood samples for determination of plasma Mg (total and ionized) and serum bilirubin levels were obtained from infants. Results: There was statistically a significant difference in relation to magnesium level between group of before phototherapy and group of after phototherapy. There was statistically a significant difference in relation to ionized magnesium level between group of before phototherapy and group of after phototherapy. Conclusion: We concluded that Phototherapy decrease serum Mg level as it decrease serum bilirubin and there is a positive relation between serum bilirubin and serum Mg levels. Recommendation: Oral magnesium supplementation and covering head during phototherapy in order to prevent reaching light to the pineal gland and so prevention of melatonin decrease which leads to the prevention of hypomagnesemia
Progress in the Articulation of Undergraduate and Graduate Public Health?

Historically, in the absence of baccalaureate education in the public health, entry level education was offered at the graduate level in the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. As MPH education was not preceded by baccalaureate education in the discipline, there are not typically prerequisite requirements for MPH admission, and introductory coursework in public health has always been offered at the graduate level. Other disciplines including business and nursing offer joint and dual degree programs; however, these programs are typically designed to accelerate completion of baccalaureate and graduate degrees (1–4) rather than supplement graduate with undergraduate education. While the developers of new undergraduate public health programs may look at the experience in other disciplines, public health presents the atypical characteristic that well-established graduate education preceded undergraduate education. In addition, review of a variety of accelerated programs at different universities demonstrates that they tend to be unique to individual universities rather than of a standard design.
A Fuzzy Random Forest: Fundamental for Design and Construction

Following Breiman’s methodology, we propose a multi-classifier based on a “forest” of randomly generated fuzzy decision trees, i.e., a Fuzzy Random Forest. This approach combines the robustness of multi-classifiers, the construction efficiency of decision trees, the power of the randomness to increase the diversity of the trees in the forest, and the flexibility of fuzzy logic and the fuzzy sets for data managing.
Asthma, Rhinitis and Dermatitis Triggered by Fungal Infection: Therapeutic Effects of Terbinafine

We report 2 atopic patients suffering from tinea unguium caused by Trichophyton rubrum. In addition, both patients had symptoms of allergies: one had perennial rhinoconjunctivitis and bronchial asthma, the other had chronic dermatitis of the face and neck. In both cases, their allergy symptoms improved dramatically during oral therapy with the antifungal agent terbinafine (250 mg/day) and relapsed after its discontinuation.
Stream-based Biomedical Classification Algorithms for Analyzing Biosignals

Classification in biomedical applications is an important task that predicts or classifies an outcome based on a given set of input variables such as diagnostic tests or the symptoms of a patient. Traditionally the classification algorithms would have to digest a stationary set of historical data in order to train up a decision-tree model and the learned model could then be used for testing new samples. However, a new breed of classification called stream-based classification can handle continuous data streams, which are ever evolving, unbound, and unstructured, for instance--biosignal live feeds. These emerging algorithms can potentially be used for real-time classification over biosignal data streams like EEG and ECG, etc. This paper presents a pioneer effort that studies the feasibility of classification algorithms for analyzing biosignals in the forms of infinite data streams. First, a performance comparison is made between traditional and stream-based classification. The results show that accuracy declines intermittently for traditional classification due to the requirement of model re-learning as new data arrives. Second, we show by a simulation that biosignal data streams can be processed with a satisfactory level of performance in terms of accuracy, memory requirement, and speed, by using a collection of stream-mining algorithms called Optimized Very Fast Decision Trees. The algorithms can effectively serve as a corner-stone technology for real-time classification in future biomedical applications.
A DESEEDED AVENA TEST METHOD FOR SMALL AMOUNTS OF AUXIN AND AUXIN PRECURSORS

The main results presented in this article may be summarized as follows: 1. A test method with deseeded Avena seedlings for small concentrations of auxin and precursors of auxin has been described. 2. This method makes possible quantitative determinations of about ten times as low concentrations of hormone as can be obtained with the standard method, (a) Through an increase in the time of the test, so that nearly all the hormone applied can be utilized. (b) Through an increase in sensitivity of deseeded plants to unilaterally applied small concentrations of hormone. 3. The effect of deseeding in relation to curvature growth is primarily the prevention of auxin regeneration through the removal of the material for auxin synthesis, and in addition the prevention of physiological aging. 4. The mechanism of auxin synthesis in the tip of the coleoptile and the mechanism of auxin regeneration in the new physiological tip have been shown to be identical. 5. The application of the deseeded method is illustrated by determinations of auxin in primary leaves and coleoptile sections of Avena seedlings. 6. The deseeded method has been used as a test method for precursors of auxin obtainable from the coleoptile and from other sources. The method further makes possible a distinction between auxins and these substances which may become activated by the plant. 7. Evidence for the existence of a precursor of auxin in the plant is given (a) indirectly by determinations of the decrease in auxin synthesis in deseeded plants. (b) Directly by its isolation from the plant. 8. Precursors of hetero-auxin are demonstrated; their chemical nature and activation are briefly considered.
Molecular Epidemiology of Vancomycin-ResistantEnterococcus faecium in a Large Urban Hospital over a 5-Year Period

ABSTRACT To investigate the dissemination of vancomycin-resistantEnterococcus faecium (VREF) in a 728-bed tertiary-care hospital, all clinical VREF isolates recovered from June 1992 to June 1997 were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and the transfer histories of the patients were documented. A total of 413 VREF isolates from urine (52%), wounds (16%), blood (11%), catheter tips (6%), and other sites (15%) were studied. VREF specimens mostly came from patients on wards (66%) but 34% came from patients in an intensive care unit. The number of VREF isolates progressively increased over time, with higher rates of isolation during the winter months and lower rates in the late summer months. Four distinct banding patterns were detected by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis among 316 samples (76%). Strain A (122 samples; 30%) appeared in June 1992 as the first VREF strain and was found until December 1994 throughout the entire hospital. Type B (92 samples; 22%) was initially detected in January 1994 and disappeared in November 1996. Strain C (10 samples; 2%) was limited to late 1996 and early 1997. Strain D (92 samples; 22%) showed two major peaks during March 1996 to August 1996 and January 1997 to February 1997. Unrelated strains (97 samples; 24%) appeared 1 year after the appearance of the first VREF isolate, and the numbers increased slightly over the years. Nosocomial acquisition (i.e., no known detection prior to admission and first isolation from cultures performed with samples retrieved ≥2 days after hospitalization) was found for 316 (91%) of 347 patients. Despite the implementation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, the proportion of related strains and high number of nosocomial cases of infection indicate a high transmission rate inside the hospital. The results imply an urgent need for stringent enforcement of more effective infection control measures.
Great Lakes: An Ecoepidemiological Study

The objectives of this study were to determine whether contaminant-associated immunosuppression occurs in prefledgling herring gulls and Caspian terns from the Great Lakes and to evaluate immunological biomarkers for monitoring health effects in wild birds. During 1992 to 1994, immunological responses and related variables were measured in prefledgling chicks at colonies distributed across a broad gradient of organochlorine contamination (primarily polychlorinated biphenyls), which was measured in eggs. The phytohemagglutinin skin test was used to assess T-lymphocyte function. In both species, there was a strong exposure-response
Heterogeneity in Arterial Remodeling among Sublines of Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Objectives Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) have been used frequently as a model for human essential hypertension. However, both the SHR and its normotensive control, the Wistar Kyoto rat (WKY), consist of genetically different sublines. We tested the hypothesis that the pathophysiology of vascular remodeling in hypertension differs among rat sublines. Methods and Results We studied mesenteric resistance arteries of WKY and SHR from three different sources, at 6 weeks and 5 months of age. Sublines of WKY and SHR showed differences in blood pressure, body weight, vascular remodeling, endothelial function, and vessel ultrastructure. Common features in small mesenteric arteries from SHR were an increase in wall thickness, wall-to-lumen ratio, and internal elastic lamina thickness. Conclusions Endothelial dysfunction, vascular stiffening, and inward remodeling of small mesenteric arteries are not common features of hypertension, but are subline-dependent. Differences in genetic background associate with different types of vascular remodeling in hypertensive rats.
Impact of Intellectual Capital on Firm Performance: the Influence of Innovation Capability and Environmental Dynamism

The business values of intellectual capital (IntC) and innovation capability (InnoC) are enduring research questions, especially for high-tech firms. Although each one has been recognized as a critical factor for firm’s competitiveness, few studies discussed the influence of IntC and InnoC on firm performance in one integrated framework. Moreover, the moderating effects of environmental dynamism on IntC or InnoC to firm performance were often neglected. This paper developed a research model to explain IntC’s impact on firm performance, with InnoC as a mediating variable and environmental dynamism as a moderating variable. Using a survey study conducted in high-tech firms in China, we tested the research model and found that InnoC partly mediate the effect of IntC on firm performance. Environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between structural capital, relational capital, InnoC, and operational performance, as well as between structural capital and financial performance.
Preparation and evaluation of minoxidil gels for topical application in alopecia

In the present study four minoxidil gels were prepared using carbopol, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and combination of hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose for the treatment of alopecia. The gels were evaluated for drug content, viscosity determination, in vitro permeation (across dialysis membrane and mouse skin), skin irritation and stability at 4, 25 and 37° tests. The drug content of the gels was found to range from 96.40±0.57 to 98.10±0.32%. The viscosity of the gels ranged between 13,780±100 and 24,950±150 cps. The drug permeation across dialysis membrane from all the formulations at the end of 24 h was almost same and ranged between 92.05±1.52 and 93.52±1.95%. Although the difference is insignificant, the percentage release of drug was found to increase in the following order of the polymer composition: HPC>Carbopol>HPMC>HPMC+HPC. All the gel formulations released almost similar amounts of drug (90.05±1.92 to 91.56±1.65%) across the mouse skin; but the cumulative amount of drug permeated across dialysis membrane was more than that of the mouse skin. The marketed topical solution was found to diffuse almost 100% of drug across dialysis membrane and mouse skin at the end of 12 h. As supported by Higuchi's equation, the drug release mechanism from all the gels was found to be diffusion dominated. The prepared gels did not produce any dermatological reactions and were well tolerated by the mice. The gels were found to be stable with respect to viscosity, drug content and physical appearance at all temperature conditions for 3 months.
Handling Conditional Discrimination

Historical data used for supervised learning may contain discrimination. We study how to train classifiers on such data, so that they are discrimination free with respect to a given sensitive attribute, e.g., gender. Existing techniques that deal with this problem aim at removing all discrimination and do not take into account that part of the discrimination may be explainable by other attributes, such as, e.g., education level. In this context, we introduce and analyze the issue of conditional non-discrimination in classifier design. We show that some of the differences in decisions across the sensitive groups can be explainable and hence tolerable. We observe that in such cases, the existing discrimination aware techniques will introduce a reverse discrimination, which is undesirable as well. Therefore, we develop local techniques for handling conditional discrimination when one of the attributes is considered to be explanatory. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the new local techniques remove exactly the bad discrimination, allowing differences in decisions as long as they are explainable.
Computing Yukawa couplings from magnetized extra dimensions

We compute Yukawa couplings involving chiral matter fields in toroidal com- pactifications of higher dimensional super-Yang-Mills theory with magnetic fluxes. Specif- ically we focus on toroidal compactifications of D=10 super-Yang-Mills theory, which may be obtained as the low-energy limit of Type I, Type II or Heterotic strings. Chirality is ob- tained by turning on constant magnetic fluxes in each of the 2-tori. Our results are general and may as well be applied to lower D = 6,8 dimensional field theories. We solve Dirac and Laplace equations to find out the explicit form of wavefunctions in extra dimensions. The Yukawa couplings are computed as overlap integrals of two Weyl fermions and one complex scalar over the compact dimensions. In the case of Type IIB (or Type I) string theories, the models are T-dual to (orientifolded) Type IIA with D6-branes intersecting at angles. These theories may have phenomenological relevance since particular models with SM group and three quark-lepton generations have been recently constructed. We find that the Yukawa couplings so obtained are described by Riemann ϑ-functions, which depend on the complex structure and Wilson line backgrounds. Different patterns of Yukawa textures are possible depending on the values of these backgrounds. We discuss the matching of these results with the analogous computation in models with intersecting D6-branes. Whereas in the latter case a string computation is required, in our case only field theory is needed.
Differential islet and incretin hormone responses in morning versus afternoon after standardized meal in healthy men.

CONTEXT The insulin response to meal ingestion is more rapid in the morning than in the afternoon. Whether this is explained by a corresponding variation in the incretin hormones is not known. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to assess islet and incretin hormones after meal ingestion in the morning vs. afternoon. DESIGN, SETTINGS, AND PARTICIPANTS Ingestion at 0800 and 1700 h of a standardized meal (524 kcal) in healthy lean males (n = 12) at a University Clinical Research Unit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES We assessed early (30-min) area under the curve (AUC30) of plasma levels of insulin and intact (i) and total (t) glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) after meal ingestion and made an estimation of beta-cell function by model analysis of glucose and C-peptide. RESULTS Peak glucose was lower in the morning than in the afternoon (6.1 +/- 0.2 vs. 7.4 +/- 0.3 mmol/liter, P = 0.001). AUC30(insulin) (4.9 +/- 0.6 vs. 2.8 +/- 0.4 nmol/liter . 30 min; P = 0.012), AUC30(tGLP-1) (300 +/- 40 vs. 160 +/- 30 pmol/liter . 30 min, P = 0.002), AUC30(iGIP) (0.7 +/- 0.1 vs. 0.3 +/- 0.1 nmol/liter . 30 min, P = 0.002), and AUC30(tGIP) (1.1 +/- 0.1 vs. 0.6 +/- 0.1 nmol/liter . min, P = 0.007) were all higher in the morning. AUC30(iGLP-1) (r = 0.68; P = 0.021) and AUC30(iGIP) (r = 0.78; P = 0.001) both correlated to AUC30(insulin). Model analysis of beta-cell function showed a higher first-hour potentiation factor in the morning (P = 0.009). This correlated negatively with the 60-min glucose level (r = -0.63; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The early release of GLP-1 and GIP are more pronounced in the morning than in the afternoon. This may contribute to the more rapid early insulin response, more pronounced potentiation of beta-cell function, and lower glucose after the morning meal.