Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nevirapine and zidovudine at birth to reduce perinatal transmission of HIV in an African setting: a randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT Antenatal counseling and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing are not universal in Africa; thus, women often present in labor with unknown HIV status without receiving the HIVNET 012 nevirapine (NVP) regimen (a single oral dose of NVP to the mother at the start of labor and to the infant within 72 hours of birth). OBJECTIVE To determine risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV when either standard use of NVP alone or in combination with zidovudine (ZDV) was administered to infants of women tested at delivery. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A randomized, open-label, phase 3 trial conducted between April 1, 2000, and March 15, 2003, at 6 clinics in Blantyre, Malawi, Africa. The trial included all infants born to 894 women who were HIV positive, received NVP intrapartum, and were previously antiretroviral treatment-naive. Infants were randomly assigned to NVP (n = 448) and NVP plus ZDV (n = 446). Infants were enrolled at birth, observed at 6 to 8 weeks, and followed up through 3 to 18 months. The HIV status of 90% of all infants was established at 6 to 8 weeks. INTERVENTION Mothers received a 200-mg single oral dose of NVP intrapartum and infants received either 2-mg/kg oral dose of NVP or NVP (same dose) plus 4 mg/kg of ZDV twice per day for a week. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES HIV infection of infant at birth and 6 to 8 weeks, and adverse events. RESULTS The mother-to-child transmission of HIV at birth was 8.1% (36/445) in infants administered NVP only and 10.1% (45/444) in those administered NVP plus ZDV (P =.30). A life table estimate of transmission at 6 to 8 weeks was 14.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.7%-17.4%) in infants who received NVP and 16.3% (95% CI, 12.7%-19.8%) in those who received NVP plus ZDV (P =.36). For infants not infected at birth and retested at 6 to 8 weeks, transmission was 6.5% (23/353) in those who received NVP only and 6.9% (25/363) in those who received NVP plus ZDV (P =.88). Almost all infants (99%-100%) were breastfed at 1 week and 6 to 8 weeks. Grades 3 and 4 adverse events were comparable; 4.9% (22/448) and 5.4% (24/446) in infants receiving NVP only and NVP plus ZDV, respectively (P =.76). CONCLUSIONS The frequency of mother-to-child HIV transmission at 6 to 8 weeks in our 2 study groups was comparable with that observed for other perinatal HIV intervention studies among breastfeeding women in Africa. The safety of the regimen containing neonatal ZDV was similar to that of a standard NVP regimen.
Modelling the effects of process variables on thermal behaviour during high speed resistance welding of tinplate

Abstract High speed resistance welding (HSRW) is a high volume manufacturing route for the production of welded cans. Full optimisation of such a process requires a scientific understanding of the relationships between process variables and thermal effects occurring in the weld zone and heat affected zone. This paper describes work undertaken as part of an ongoing project to develop a predictive computer model of the HSRW process. Currently, the model has been used to investigate the effects of process variables on the macroscale thermal fields developed during welding. The model formulation and some results generated using the model are discussed in order to highlight the effects of certain key process variables.
tRNADB-CE: tRNA gene database well-timed in the era of big sequence data

The tRNA gene data base curated by experts “tRNADB-CE” (http://trna.ie.niigata-u.ac.jp) was constructed by analyzing 1,966 complete and 5,272 draft genomes of prokaryotes, 171 viruses’, 121 chloroplasts’, and 12 eukaryotes’ genomes plus fragment sequences obtained by metagenome studies of environmental samples. 595,115 tRNA genes in total, and thus two times of genes compiled previously, have been registered, for which sequence, clover-leaf structure, and results of sequence-similarity and oligonucleotide-pattern searches can be browsed. To provide collective knowledge with help from experts in tRNA researches, we added a column for enregistering comments to each tRNA. By grouping bacterial tRNAs with an identical sequence, we have found high phylogenetic preservation of tRNA sequences, especially at the phylum level. Since many species-unknown tRNAs from metagenomic sequences have sequences identical to those found in species-known prokaryotes, the identical sequence group (ISG) can provide phylogenetic markers to investigate the microbial community in an environmental ecosystem. This strategy can be applied to a huge amount of short sequences obtained from next-generation sequencers, as showing that tRNADB-CE is a well-timed database in the era of big sequence data. It is also discussed that batch-learning self-organizing-map with oligonucleotide composition is useful for efficient knowledge discovery from big sequence data.
Histone H3 phosphorylation and non-disjunction of the maternal X chromosome during male meiosis in sciarid flies

An extremely unorthodox method of chromosome segregation is found in sciarid flies (Diptera, Sciaridae), where at male meiosis, the whole paternal complement is eliminated and the maternal X chromosome undergoes non-disjunction. At meiosis I, a monopolar spindle directs the segregation of maternal chromosomes to the single pole, whereas paternal chromosomes are discarded. At meiosis II, although maternal autosomes segregate normally, the X chromosome remains undivided. A cis-acting locus within the heterochromatin proximal to the centromere is known to regulate X centromere activity. By immunofluorescence analysis in spermatocytes from Sciara ocellaris and Sciara coprophila, we investigated histone H3 phosphorylation at Ser10, Ser28, Thr3 and Thr11 during male meiosis. We found that chromosome condensation and H3 phosphorylation patterns differ between chromosomes of different parental origin at the time of paternal set elimination. Importantly, at meiosis II, the maternal X chromosome differs from the rest of the chromosomes in that its centromeric region does not become phosphorylated at the four histone H3 sites. We provide here the first evidence linking the under-phosphorylated H3 status of the X chromosome centromeric region with its meiotic non-disjunction in sciarid flies. Our findings strongly support the idea that the deficiency in local H3 phosphorylation inactivates the X centromere at the transition from meiosis I to meiosis II.
Influences on pre-service teachers' preparedness to use ICTs in the classroom

The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the school classroom is becoming increasingly prominent, both because of the need for children to develop skills that will empower them in modern society and because of the potential value of such technologies as tools for learning. One of the challenges facing teacher educators is how to ensure that graduate teachers have the necessary combination of skills and pedagogical knowledge that will enable them to both effectively use today’s technologies in the classroom as well as continue to develop and adapt to new technologies that emerge in the future. This study explores first year teacher education student preparedness to use ICTs in the classroom. The primary data source for the study is a set of intensive interviews with eight teacher education students. The results suggest that despite the prevailing view that this generation of University students are ‘Digital Natives’ (Prensky, 2001), there are a number of barriers to their preparedness to use ICTs in the classroom. In particular the study suggests that as well as looking at the teacher education curriculum and other aspects of the formal preparation of these pre-service teachers, the pre-service teachers’ personal preparedness including attitude, motivation, and confidence, along with various social factors are important. The results are discussed in the context of various models of preservice teacher ICT pedagogical development. As well as being important for teacher educators, the findings are also important in the context of academic staff development associated with the use of ICTs as a learning tool in tertiary education, as well as in the context of other disciplines where similar assumptions about the ICT literacy of first year university students are being made.
Performance and Preference for ACE Stimulation Rates Obtained with Nucleus RP 8 and Freedom System

Cochlear recently released the Nucleus® Freedom™ System which has been based on the Nucleus® Research Platform 8. Both systems make use of the same implant, the CI24RE, which includes expanded total stimulation rates up to 32 kHz. In this study the performance of the ACE strategy at 500, 1200 and 3500 pps/channel was investigated using an ABC-CBA design. At the end of each period speech tests were performed. In the CBA phase the patients completed a comparative questionnaire to determine the subjective rate preference. Preliminary results in 13 recipients indicate no differences in for the ACE strategy at rates ranging from 500 pps to 3500 pps/channel.
Dental management in patients with hypertension: challenges and solutions

Hypertension is a chronic illness affecting more than a billion people worldwide. The high prevalence of the disease among the American population is concerning and must be considered when treating dental patients. Its lack of symptoms until more serious problems occur makes the disease deadly. Dental practitioners can often be on the frontlines of prevention of hypertension by evaluating preoperative blood pressure readings, performing risk assessments, and knowing when to consider medical consultation of a hypertensive patient in a dental setting. In addition, routine follow-up appointments and patients seen on an emergent basis, who may otherwise not be seen routinely, allow the oral health provider an opportunity to diagnose and refer for any unknown disease. It is imperative to understand the risk factors that may predispose patients to hypertension and to be able to educate them about their condition. Most importantly, the oral health care provider is in a pivotal position to play an active role in the management of patients presenting with a history of hypertension because many antihypertensive agents interact with pharmacologic agents used in the dental practice. The purpose of this review is to provide strategies for managing and preventing complications when treating the patient with hypertension who presents to the dental office.
Predicting drunk driving: contribution of alcohol use and related problems, traffic behaviour, personality and platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity.

AIMS The aim of the study was to characterize the predictive value of socio-economic data, alcohol consumption measures, smoking, platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity, traffic behaviour habits and impulsivity measures for actual drunk driving. METHODS Data were collected from 203 male drunk driving offenders and 211 control subjects using self-reported questionnaires, and blood samples were obtained from the two groups. RESULTS We identified the combination of variables, which predicted correctly, approximately 80% of the subjects' belonging to the drunk driving and control groups. Significant independent discriminators in the final model were, among the health-behaviour measures, alcohol-related problems, frequency of using alcohol, the amount of alcohol consumed and smoking. Predictive traffic behaviour measures were seat belt use and paying for parking. Among the impulsivity measures, dysfunctional impulsivity was the best predictor; platelet MAO activity and age also had an independent predictive value. CONCLUSIONS Our results support the notion that drunk driving is the result of a combination of various behavioural, biological and personality-related risk factors.
A Tensor-Based Subspace Approach for Bistatic MIMO Radar in Spatial Colored Noise

In this paper, a new tensor-based subspace approach is proposed to estimate the direction of departure (DOD) and the direction of arrival (DOA) for bistatic multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar in the presence of spatial colored noise. Firstly, the received signals can be packed into a third-order measurement tensor by exploiting the inherent structure of the matched filter. Then, the measurement tensor can be divided into two sub-tensors, and a cross-covariance tensor is formulated to eliminate the spatial colored noise. Finally, the signal subspace is constructed by utilizing the higher-order singular value decomposition (HOSVD) of the cross-covariance tensor, and the DOD and DOA can be obtained through the estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance technique (ESPRIT) algorithm, which are paired automatically. Since the multidimensional inherent structure and the cross-covariance tensor technique are used, the proposed method provides better angle estimation performance than Chen's method, the ESPRIT algorithm and the multi-SVD method. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness and the advantage of the proposed method.
Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) of Iron Fischer–Tropsch Catalysts

Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy have been used to study iron catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. When silica-containing iron oxide precursors are activated in flowing CO, the iron phase segregates into iron carbide crystallites, leaving behind some unreduced iron oxide in an amorphous state coexisting with the silica binder. The iron carbide crystallites are found covered by characteristic amorphous carbonaceous surface layers. These amorphous species are difficult to analyze by traditional catalyst characterization techniques, which lack spatial resolution. Even a surface-sensitive technique such as XPS shows only broad carbon or iron peaks in these catalysts. As we show in this work, EELS allows us to distinguish three different carbonaceous species: reactive amorphous carbon, graphitic carbon, and carbidic carbon in the bulk of the iron carbide particles. The carbidic carbon K edge shows an intense “π*” peak with an edge shift of about 1 eV to higher energy loss compared to that of the π* of amorphous carbon film or graphitic carbon. EELS analysis of the oxygen K edge allows us to distinguish the amorphous unreduced iron phase from the silica binder, indicating these are two separate phases. These results shed light onto the complex phase transformations that accompany the activation of iron catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis.
Dissolution of calcium carbonate: observations and model results in the subpolar North Atlantic

Abstract. We investigate the significance of in situ dissolution of calcium carbonate above its saturation horizons using observations from the open subpolar North Atlantic [sNA] and to a lesser extent a 3-D biogeochemical model. The sNA is particularly well suited for observation-based detections of in situ, i.e. shallow-depth CaCO3 dissolution [SDCCD] as it is a region of high CaCO3 production, deep CaCO3 saturation horizons, and precisely-defined pre-formed alkalinity. Based on the analysis of a comprehensive alkalinity data set we find that SDCCD does not appear to be a significant process in the open sNA. The results from the model support the observational findings by indicating that there is not a significant need of SDCCD to explain observed patterns of alkalinity in the North Atlantic. Instead our investigation points to the importance of mixing processes for the redistribution of alkalinity from dissolution of CaCO3 from below its saturation horizons. However, mixing has recently been neglected for a number of studies that called for SDCCD in the sNA and on global scale.
Influence of in-feed zinc bacitracin and tiamulin treatment on experimental avian intestinal spirochaetosis caused by Brachyspira intermedia

Thirty individually caged layer hens were inoculated with Brachyspira intermedia , and 20 control birds remained unchallenged. Birds received a diet containing 100 parts/10 6 zinc bacitracin (ZnB), and were monitored for 10 weeks. B. intermedia was recovered sporadically from five of the inoculated birds, and there were no significant effects on body weight, faecal water or egg production. ZnB was presumed to be indirectly inhibiting spirochaete growth, and when removed from the diet, 18 of the 30 inoculated birds rapidly became culture positive. After 4 weeks, 10 of the 30 infected birds were treated with tiamulin at 25 mg/kg for 5 days, and 10 were returned to the diet containing ZnB. Birds receiving tiamulin became spirochaete negative and maintained their egg production, but re-infection occurred. The other 20 infected birds had a significant drop in egg production, but those receiving ZnB showed a reduced colonization by B. intermedia after 3 weeks.
Treatment as Required versus Regular Monthly Treatment in the Management of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background To investigate whether treatment as required ‘pro re nata’ (PRN) versus regular monthly treatment regimens lead to differences in outcomes in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). Regular monthly administration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors is an established gold standard treatment, but this approach is costly. Replacement of monthly by PRN treatment can only be justified if there is no difference in patient relevant outcomes. Methods Systematic review and meta-analysis. The intervention was PRN treatment and the comparator was monthly treatment with VEGF-inhibitors. Four bibliographic databases were searched for randomised controlled trials comparing both treatment regimens directly (head-to-head studies). The last literature search was conducted in December 2014. Risk of bias assessment was performed after the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Findings We included 3 head-to-head studies (6 reports) involving more than 2000 patients. After 2 years, the weighted mean difference in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 1.9 (95% CI 0.5 to 3.3) ETDRS letters in favour of monthly treatment. Systemic adverse events were higher in PRN treated patients, but these differences were not statistically significant. After 2 years, the total number of intravitreal injections required by the patients in the PRN arms were 8.4 (95% CI 7.9 to 8.9) fewer than those having monthly treatment. The studies were considered to have a moderate risk of bias. Conclusions PRN treatment resulted in minor but statistically significant decrease in mean BCVA which may not be clinically meaningful. There is a small increase in risk of systemic adverse events for PRN treated patients. Overall, the results indicate that an individualized treatment approach with anti-VEGF using visual acuity and OCT-guided re-treatment criteria may be appropriate for most patients with nAMD.
Theoretical examinations of interface mediated interactions between colloidal particles

Soft interfaces can mediate interactions between particles bound to them. One example is the interaction of protein inclusions in a lipid membrane. Traditionally, this phenomenon is treated by calculating the total energy of the particle-interface system as a function of particle positions. The forces between the bound particles can then be obtained via appropriate derivatives. Unfortunately, the intrinsic nonlinearity of the problem generally forces one to restrict to linear approximations of the energetics. It is, however, possible to choose a different, covariant approach and gain some results that are also valid in the nonlinear regime: the forces between the particles are mediated through the interface and are thus encoded in its geometry. In analogy to classical elasticity theory one can write them as integrals over the surface stress tensor, which itself depends in a transparent way on the interfacial energy density. For standard symmetric two-particle situations this approach yields exact formulas for the force in terms of the midplane geometry. Sometimes the sign of the force is evident, i. e. the occurence of attraction or repulsion can be predicted even for large interface deformations.
Demographic loss, genetic structure and the conservation implications for Indian tigers

India is home to approximately 60 per cent of the world's remaining wild tigers, a species that has declined in the last few centuries to occupy less than 7 per cent of its former geographical range. While Indian tiger numbers have somewhat stabilized in recent years, they remain low and populations are highly fragmented. Therefore, the application of evidence-based demographic and genetic management to enhance the remaining populations is a priority. In this context, and using genetic data from historical and modern tigers, we investigated anthropogenic impacts on genetic variation in Indian tigers using mitochondrial and nuclear genetic markers. We found a very high number of historical mitochondrial DNA variants, 93 per cent of which are not detected in modern populations. Population differentiation was higher in modern tigers. Simulations incorporating historical data support population decline, and suggest high population structure in extant populations. Decreased connectivity and habitat loss as a result of ongoing fragmentation in the Indian subcontinent has therefore resulted in a loss of genetic variants and increased genetic differentiation among tiger populations. These results highlight that anthropogenic fragmentation and species-specific demographic processes can interact to alter the partitioning of genetic variation over very short time scales. We conclude that ongoing strategies to maximize the size of some tiger populations, at the expense of losing others, is an inadequate conservation strategy, as it could result in a loss of genetic diversity that may be of adaptive significance for this emblematic species.
Comparative analysis of neurulation: First impressions do not count

The central nervous system of vertebrate embryos originates from the neural tube (NT), a simple epithelium surrounding a central lumen. The mechanisms underlying the shaping of the NT, a process otherwise known as neurulation, have been the focus of numerous studies, using a variety of model systems. Yet, it remains unclear to what extent neurulation is conserved across vertebrates. This review provides a comparison between modes of neurulation, with a focus on cellular mechanisms. An emerging concept is that cell behaviors reveal similarities between modes of neurulation that cannot be predicted from morphological comparisons. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 76: 954–965, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.