Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new species of Psychrophrynella (Amphibia, Anura, Craugastoridae) from the humid montane forests of Cusco, eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes

We describe a new species of Psychrophrynella from the humid montane forest of the Department Cusco in Peru. Specimens were collected at 2,670–3,165 m elevation in the Área de Conservación Privada Ukumari Llakta, Japumayo valley, near Comunidad Campesina de Japu, in the province of Paucartambo. The new species is readily distinguished from all other species of Psychrophrynella but P. bagrecito and P. usurpator by possessing a tubercle on the inner edge of the tarsus, and from these two species by its yellow ventral coloration on abdomen and limbs. Furthermore, the new species is like P. bagrecito and P. usurpator in having an advertisement call composed of multiple notes, whereas other species of Psychrophrynella whose calls are known have a pulsed call (P. teqta) or a short, tonal call composed of a single note. The new species has a snout-vent length of 16.1–24.1 mm in males and 23.3–27.7 mm in females. Like other recently described species in the genus, this new Psychrophrynella inhabits high-elevation forests in the tropical Andes and likely has a restricted geographic distribution.
Airborne Asian sand dust enhances murine lung eosinophilia

There is no experimental study demonstrating the effects of airborne Asian sand dust (AASD) on allergic lung eosinophilia. The organic substances adsorbed onto AASD collected from the atmosphere of Iki-island in Japan were excluded by heat treatment at 360°C for 30 min. The effects of AASD or heated-AASD (H-AASD) towards allergic lung inflammation were compared in murine lungs to investigate the role of organic substances. ICR mice were administrated with the two kinds of AASD and/or ovalbumin (OVA) intratracheally four times at 2-week intervals. AASD and H-AASD enhanced eosinophil recruitment induced by OVA in the alveoli and in the submucosa of the airway, which has a goblet cell proliferation in the bronchial epithelium. AASD and H-AASD synergistically increased Th2 cytokines—interleukin-13 (IL-13), eosinophil-relevant cytokine and chemokine, such as IL-5, and monocyte chemotactic protein-3 (MCP-3) induced by OVA in whole lung lavage fluid. The enhancing effects were much greater in AASD than in H-AASD. AASD induced adjuvant effects on OVA-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) and IgG1 production. In an in vitro study using RAW264.7 cells, AASD increased the expression of Toll-like receptors 2 (TLR2) mRNA, but not TLR4 mRNA. AASD increased mRNA expression of NALP3, ASC, and IL-1β compared with the control. H-AASD caused no expression of either mRNA. These results suggest that the aggravated lung eosinophilia in AASD is due to activation of a Th2-associated immune response and that the activation of TLR2 and NALP3 inflammasome by microbial materials could be participating in this phenomenon.
Long-term outcomes after acute kidney injury

Acute kidney dysfunction is a common problem in intensive care units. It is not only associated with increased morbidity and mortality but also with increased healthcare costs. Limited healthcare budgets have now raised the issue of how much therapy should be dedicated to these critically ill patients. A precondition for any further discussion on this topic is the question on the long-term outcome and quality of life of these patients. However, only limited data are available in this field. In this review, we will focus on the existing literature, considering not only acute renal failure patients requiring renal replacement therapy but also those patients with mild or moderate impaired renal function. The intention of this review is to show that acute kidney injury is an important but often underestimated disease and a disease that deserves major attention because it is associated with impaired short- and long-term outcome. We will demonstrate that acute kidney injury patients requiring dialysis have a reasonable long-term survival rate and good quality of life. There is no doubt that aggressive intensive care unit treatment is justified in these patients, irrespective of the health costs.
The Effect of Blood Flow on H-Reflex and Motor Responses in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes

To examine the effect of blood flow on peripheral nerve function in adults with type 2 diabetes. Ten adults with type 2 diabetes and 10 age- and body mass index-matched controls participated in the study. Soleus H-reflex and motor recruitment curves were determined for subjects at baseline, during 10 minutes of ischemia by femoral artery occlusion, and after a 10-minute bout of leg exercise. At baseline, the H-reflex threshold occurred at 77.44% ± 1.12% and 92.23% ± 0.04% (mean ± SE) of motor threshold at baseline for the diabetes and control groups, respectively. During ischemia, the H-reflex threshold occurred at 72.44% ± 7.19% and 88.79% ± 7.80% of motor threshold at baseline for the diabetic and control groups, respectively. Following exercise, the H-reflex threshold occurred at 64.44% ± 8.47% and 94.93% ± 4.30% of motor threshold at baseline for the diabetes and control groups, respectively, which significantly differed from baseline. Hmax/Mmax ratios were significantly reduced with acute ischemia for the diabetes group (25.6%). Postexercise, the Hmax/Mmax ratio returned to baseline for controls while remaining significantly lower than baseline in the diabetes group. H-reflex and motor responses were hypoexcitable with an accompanying hyperemia for controls. In the diabetes group, the postexercise period resulted in a hyperexcitable H-reflex and motor response. Acute ischemia decreases H-reflex thresholds in adults with diabetes and exercise-induced increases in blood flow further decrease these thresholds. These responses are markedly more pronounced than those of their peers without diabetes and are accompanied by changes in sensory transmission to the motoneuron.
Multiple views of the response of an ensemble of spectro-temporal features support concurrent classification of utterance, prosody, sex and speaker identity

Models of auditory processing, particularly of speech, face many difficulties. These difficulties include variability among speakers, variability in speech rate and robustness to moderate distortions such as time compression. In contrast to the ‘invariance of percept’ (across different speakers, of different sexes, using different intonation, and so on) is the observation that we are sensitive to the identity, sex and intonation of the speaker. In previous work we have reported that a model based on ensembles of spectro-temporal feature detectors, derived from onset sensitive pre-processing of a limited class of stimuli, preserves significant information about the stimulus class. We have also shown that this is robust with respect to the exact choice of feature set, moderate time compression in the stimulus and speaker variation. Here we extend these results to show a) that by using a classifier based on a network of spiking neurons with spike-driven plasticity, the output of the ensemble constitutes an effective rate coding representation of complex sounds; and b) that the same set of spectro-temporal features concurrently preserve information about a range of qualitatively different classes into which the stimulus might fall. We show that it is possible for multiple views of the same pattern of responses to generate different percepts. This is consistent with suggestions that multiple parallel processes exist within the auditory ‘what’ pathway with attentional modulation enhancing the task-relevant classification type. We also show that the responses of the ensemble are sparse in the sense that a small number of features respond for each stimulus type. This has implications for the ensembles' ability to generalise, and to respond differentially to a wide variety of stimulus classes.
Quantitative analysis of 3D mitral complex geometry using support vector machines

Quantitative analysis of 3D mitral complex geometry is crucial for a better understanding of its dysfunction. This work aims to characterize the geometry of the mitral complex and utilize a support-vector-machine-based classifier from geometric parameters to support the diagnosis of congenital mitral regurgitation (MR). The method has the following steps: (1) description of the 3D geometry of the mitral complex and establishment of its local reference coordinate system, (2) calculation of geometric parameters and (3) analysis and classification of these parameters. With a control group of 20 normal young children (11 boys, 9 girls, mean age 5.96 ± 3.12 years) and with the normal structure of mitral apparatus, 20 patients (9 boys, 11 girls, mean age 5.59 ± 3.30 years) suffering from severe congenital MR are studied in this study. The average classification accuracy is up to 90.0% of the present population, with the possibility of exploring quantitative association between the mitral complex geometry and the mechanism of congenital MR.
Streptococcus suis vaccines: candidate antigens and progress

Streptococcus suis is a major swine pathogen and an emerging zoonotic agent of human meningitis and streptococcal toxic shock-like syndrome. S. suis is a well-encapsulated pathogen and multiple serotypes have been described based on the capsular polysaccharide antigenic diversity. In addition, high genotypic, phenotypic and geographic variability exits among strains within the same serotype. Besides, S. suis uses an arsenal of virulence factors to evade the host immune system. Together, these characteristics have challenged the development of efficacious vaccines to fight this important pathogen. In this careful and comprehensive review, clinical field information and experimental data have been compiled and compared for the first time to give a precise overview of the current status of vaccine development against S. suis. The candidate antigens and vaccine formulations under research are examined and the feasibility of reaching the goal of a “universal” cross-protective S. suis vaccine discussed.
Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Pelleting of Biomass: A Designed Experimental Investigation on Pellet Quality and Sugar Yield

Increasing demands and concerns for the reliable supply of liquid transportation fuels make it important to find alternative sources to petroleum based fuels. One such alternative is cellulosic biofuels. However, several technical barriers have hindered large-scale, cost-effective manufacturing of cellulosic biofuels, such as the low density of cellulosic feedstocks (causing high transportation and storage costs) and the low efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis process (causing longer processing time and low sugar yield). Ultrasonic vibration-assisted (UV-A) pelleting can increase the density of cellulosic materials by compressing them into pellets. UV-A pelleting can also increase the sugar yield of cellulosic biomass materials in hydrolysis. At present, the effects of process variables in UV-A pelleting on pellet quality (density, durability, and stability) and sugar yield have not been adequately investigated. This paper reports an experimental investigation on UV-A pelleting of wheat straw. A 24 factorial design is employed to evaluate the effects of process variables (moisture content, particle size, pelleting pressure, and ultrasonic power) on output variables (pellet density, durability, stability, and sugar yield). © 2010 ASME
Effect of Aging on Superovulation Efficiency, Aneuploidy Rates, and Sister Chromatid Cohesion in Mice Aged Up to 15 Months1

ABSTRACT Human eggs are highly aneuploid, with female age being the only known risk factor. Here this aging phenomenon was further studied in Swiss CD1 mice aged between 1 and 15 mo. The mean number of eggs ± SEM recovered from mice following superovulation peaked at 22.5 ± 3.8 eggs/oviduct in 3-mo-old females, decreasing markedly between 6 and 9 mo old, and was only 2.1 ± 0.2 eggs/oviduct by 15 mo. Measurement of aneuploidy in these eggs revealed a low rate, ∼3–4%, in mice aged 1 and 3 mo, rising to 12.5% by 9 mo old and to 37.5% at 12 mo. Fifteen-month-old mice had the highest rate of aneuploidy, peaking at 60%. The in situ chromosome counting technique used here allowed us to measure with accuracy the distance between the kinetochores in the sister chromatids of the eggs analyzed for aneuploidy. We observed that this distance increased in eggs from older females, from 0.38 ± 0.01 μm at 1 mo old to 0.82 ± 0.03 μm by 15 mo. Furthermore, in 3- to 12-mo-old females, aneuploid eggs had significantly larger interkinetochore distances than euploid eggs from the same age, and measurements were similar to eggs from the oldest mice. However, the association between aneuploidy and interkinetochore distance was not observed at the oldest, 15-mo age, despite such measurements being maximal. We conclude that in aging CD1 mice, a reduction in the ovulated egg number precedes a rise in aneuploidy and, furthermore, except at very advanced ages, increased interkinetochore distance is associated with aneuploidy.
Factors Affecting Procurement Performance: A Case of Ministry of Energy

Public Procurement has increasingly become prominent in the print and electronic media underlining how public entities handle the entire process. Despite its importance, limited scientific research has been undertaken to examine the factors that influence procurement performance in public institutions in Kenya. This study aimed to ascertain the determinants of procurement performance in public entities a case of Ministry of Energy. Specifically the study sought to establish the impact of procurement planning on procurement performance; ascertain the influence of resource allocations on procurement performance; discern the impact of staff competency on procurement performance and finally reveal the extent to which contract management in the procurement cycle affects procurement performance. The study was conducted through a descriptive design using a cross sectional survey within Kenya’s Ministry of Energy workforce at the Nairobi head office. The study employed purposive sampling to select the sample and sample elements. This resulted to a sample size of 72 staff. A semi structured questionnaire as a data collection instrument was used. The field data was statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics and narrative summary analyses. Findings indicate that procurement planning has a significant impact on procurement performance. From the study conclusions are made. First the model depicts that Planning accounts for 26.9% of variations in procurement performance, second resource allocation accounts for 17.2%, third, staff competency accounts for 20.1 % and lastly contract management accounts for 23.3% of variations in procurement performance.
Kyphosis in spinal tuberculosis – Prevention and correction

Spinal deformity and paraplegia/quadriplegia are the most common complications of tuberculosis (TB) of spine. TB of dorsal spine almost always produces kyphosis while cervical and lumbar spine shows reversal of lordosis to begin with followed by kyphosis. kyphosis continues to increase in adults when patients are treated nonoperatively or by surgical decompression. In children, kyphosis continues to increase even after healing of the tubercular disease. The residual, healed kyphosis on a long follow-up produces painful costopelvic impingement, reduced vital capacity and eventually respiratory complications; spinal canal stenosis proximal to the kyphosis and paraplegia with healed disease, thus affecting the quality and span of life. These complications can be avoided by early diagnosis of tubercular spine lesion to heal with minimal or no kyphosis. When tubercular lesion reports with kyphosis of more than 50° or is likely to progress further, they should be undertaken for kyphus correction. The sequential steps of kyphosis correction include anterior decompression and corpectomy, posterior column shortening, posterior instrumentation, anterior bone grafting and posterior fusion. During the procedure, the spinal cord should be kept under vision so that it should not elongate. Internal kyphectomy (gibbectomy) is a preferred treatment for late onset paraplegia with severe healed kyphosis.
Laser spallation of rocks for oil well drilling

Laser rock spallation is a rock removal process that utilizes laser-induced thermal stress to fracture the rock into small fragments before melting of the rock occurs. High intensity laser energy, applied on a rock that normally has very low thermal conductivity, concentrates locally on the rock surface area and causes the local temperature to increase instantaneously. The maximum temperature just below the melting temperature can be obtained by carefully controlling the laser parameters. This results in a local thermal stress in subsurface that is enough to spall the rock. This process continues on a new rock surface with the aid of the high pressure gas purging blowing away the cracked fragments. Laser parameters that affect the laser spallation efficiency will be discussed in the paper. Also reported in the paper is the multi laser beam spot spallation technique that has been developed for potentially drilling large diameter and deep gas and oil wells.
Direct measurements of laser absorptivity during metal melt pool formation associated with powder bed fusion additive manufacturing processes

Direct calorimetric measurements are used to study the effective optical absorptivity at 1070 nm laser wavelength for bulk and powder-coated discs of industrially relevant metals. Effective absorptivity is plotted as a function of nominal laser power from 30 up to 600 W for scanning velocities of 100, 500, and 1500 mm/s. The absorptivity versus power curves of the bulk materials typically shows a reduction in effective absorptivity until the beginning of the formation of a keyhole-type surface depression that is associated with an increased absorption of the laser light in the growing keyhole until a saturation value is reached. For powders, an additional plateau of higher absorptivity can be observed for low laser power, until the curves qualitatively collapse when full melting of the powder tracks is achieved. It is shown that, under conditions associated with laser powder-bed fusion additive manufacturing, absorptivity values can vary greatly, and differ from both room temperature powder layer measurements and liquid metal estimates from the literature.Direct calorimetric measurements are used to study the effective optical absorptivity at 1070 nm laser wavelength for bulk and powder-coated discs of industrially relevant metals. Effective absorptivity is plotted as a function of nominal laser power from 30 up to 600 W for scanning velocities of 100, 500, and 1500 mm/s. The absorptivity versus power curves of the bulk materials typically shows a reduction in effective absorptivity until the beginning of the formation of a keyhole-type surface depression that is associated with an increased absorption of the laser light in the growing keyhole until a saturation value is reached. For powders, an additional plateau of higher absorptivity can be observed for low laser power, until the curves qualitatively collapse when full melting of the powder tracks is achieved. It is shown that, under conditions associated with laser powder-bed fusion additive manufacturing, absorptivity values can vary greatly, and differ from both room temperature powder layer measurem.
Oral manifestations in human immunodeficiency virus infected children in highly active antiretroviral therapy era.

OBJECTIVE Conducted a literature review to identify studies that reported on the oral manifestations in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected children in highly active antiretrovial therapy (HAART) era. METHODS A search electronic data base were used and the terms used were 'oral lesions' and 'oral manifestations'. The studies of prevalence of oral manifestation in children with HIV worldwide, descriptive studies, case reports, studies on the association of oral lesions and levels of immune suppression, use of HAART and transmission of HIV were included. RESULTS There have been substantial changes in the management of HIV disease, especially in the past decade because of the use of HAART. However, children are still being infected and present some peculiarities when compared with adults. Molecular epidemiology, transmission and therapy of the common opportunistic oral infections of HIV disease need to be better understood as a consequence of improved anti-HIV strategies. Treatment with HAART improves the immune function and decreases mortality, morbidity, and opportunistic infections in HIV-infected persons. CONCLUSION The frequency and severity of oral disease associated with HIV infection have reduced considerably, although the use of HAART may be associated with an increased appearance of oral lesions associated with human papillomavirus and potentially increase the risk of later oral squamous cell carcinoma.
Mechanical Response and Damage of Woven Composite Materials Reinforced with Fique

In this paper, we present the experimental and numerical modelling for the mechanical behaviour of woven composites reinforced with fique (furcraeaselloa) fibre, for different fique fibre woven configurations embed in an R744 epoxy matrix. The woven configurations are taken from commercial models and their mechanical properties validated by experimental data. We perform experimental tests using ASTM D3039 for the tensile response. We obtain values for Young’s modulus, ultimate strength, and deformation of unidirectional and woven reinforced composites. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used for the fractographic analysis of the reinforced specimens. For the numerical model of the woven composite, we use the Texgen software to define the finite element voxel model and to estimate orthotropic mechanical parameters. Then, we determine the equivalent elastic properties of the composite, according to the materials and the fibre-matrix relations. We compare and validate the numerical results with the experimental data. We obtain stress and strain fields for the yarns and the matrix. The objective of this work is to establish a baseline of the mechanical behaviour of these natural reinforced composites to propose applications for structural engineering.
Molecular mechanisms of death ligand‐mediated immune modulation: A gene therapy model to prolong islet survival in type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes results from the T cell‐mediated destruction of pancreatic beta cells. Islet transplantation has recently become a potential therapeutic approach for patients with type 1 diabetes. However, islet‐graft failure appears to be a challenging issue to overcome. Thus, complementary gene therapy strategies are needed to improve the islet‐graft survival following transplantation. Immune modulation through gene therapy represents a novel way of attacking cytotoxic T cells targeting pancreatic islets. Various death ligands of the TNF family such as FasL, TNF, and TNF‐Related Apoptosis‐Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) have been studied for this purpose. The over‐expression of TNF or FasL in pancreatic islets exacerbates the onset of type 1 diabetes generating lymphocyte infiltrates responsible for the inflammation. Conversely, the lack of TRAIL expression results in higher degree of islet inflammation in the pancreas. In addition, blocking of TRAIL function using soluble TRAIL receptors facilitates the onset of diabetes. These results suggested that contrary to what was observed with TNF or FasL, adenovirus mediated TRAIL gene delivery into pancreatic islets is expected to be therapeutically beneficial in the setting of experimental models of type 1 diabetes. In conclusion; this study mainly reveals the fundamental principles of death ligand‐mediated immune evasion in diabetes mellitus. J. Cell. Biochem. 104: 710–720, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.