Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Haematological malignancy in the intensive care unit: microbiology results and mortality

Mortality prediction models of patients with a haematological malignancy admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) do not include the presence of neutropenia and microbiology results. We performed a registry‐based retrospective study of haematology patients admitted to the ICU to investigate the relation between neutropenia, microbiology results and outcome of these patients.
A methodical study of the role of trust at various development stages of virtual organisations

Virtual organisation VO is an outcome of technological advancements and the introduction of structural flexibilities in organisations. It is a temporary combination of internally independent parties to exploit the emerging market opportunities. The need to demonstrate extra efficiency in its limited life-span, geographical distribution of parties, lack of face-to-face communication, and the absence of complete information about partners working at a distance call for establishing trust-based relationship in virtual organisations. Almost all the researchers agree upon the importance of trust for virtual organisation but its nature and role at various development stages of these organisations is still unexplored. Therefore, in this research we have conducted a methodical investigation to propose the models explaining nature and role of trust at various development stages of virtual organisations. The result of this research would help the members to formulate effective trust-based relationship that could ultimately increase the efficiency and performance of virtual organisations.
Isolation of a cDNA for HSF2: evidence for two heat shock factor genes in humans.

The heat shock response is transcriptionally regulated by an evolutionarily conserved protein termed heat shock factor (HSF). We report the purification to homogeneity and the partial peptide sequence of HSF from HeLa cells. The peptide sequence was used to isolate a human cDNA with a predicted open reading frame that has homology to the DNA binding domains of both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila HSFs. The cDNA directs the synthesis of a protein that binds to the heat shock element with specificity identical to HeLa HSF and stimulates transcription from a heat shock promoter. The expressed protein cross-reacts with anti-HSF antibodies. Surprisingly, however, this cDNA does not encode all of the peptides obtained from purified HeLa HSF. These peptides are encoded by a distinct human cDNA, HSF1, described by Rabindran et al. [Rabindran, S. K. , Giorgi, G. , Clos, J. & Wu, C. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 6906-6910. ] It therefore appears that there is a human heat shock factor gene family and that at least two separate but related HSF proteins regulate the stress response in humans.
Describing function-based approximations of biomolecular signalling systems

Developing tools to understand biomolecular systems is important both for the analysis of naturally occurring systems as well as for the design of new ones. However, there is a need to develop new tools suited for analysis of such systems and to adapt existing tools used in other similar contexts. Here, we apply the method of sinusoidal-input describing function for the analysis of such systems using a combination of analytic and computational means. Using this technique, we approximate the input-output response of simple representative biomolecular signaling systems exhibiting different saturating as well as hysteretic input-output maps. We investigate the dependence of this approximation on system parameters. Finally, we estimate the error involved in these approximations finding that they are always better than standard linearization. These results provide system approximations that can help to compute system response to other periodic inputs as well as analysis and design of cell behaviour such as limit cycles and frequency entrainment.
R Plasmids in Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B)

Two plasmids determining resistance to tetracycline (RIP500) and to chloramphenicol, erythromycin, lincomycin, and pristinamycin I (RIP501) were isolated from a strain of Streptococcus agalactiae. The frequency-of-resistance loss is very low for RIP500 (<3 × 104) but higher for RIP501 (the efficiency was dependent upon the curing agents and incubation temperature and varied between 0.5 and 96%). Derivatives susceptible to all drugs were also obtained. RIP500 and RIP501 have similar molecular weights (17.9 × 106 and 20 × 106, respectively) and represent different percentages of total deoxyribonucleic acid (0.4 and 4%, respectively). The number of copies of RIP500 and RIP501 per cell is different, and these plasmids are likely replicated under different kinds of control (stringent and/or relaxed). No plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid was found in a derivative of strain B96 susceptible to all drugs.
Blood Pressure, Serum Glucose, Cholesterol, and Triglycerides in Dogs with Different Body Scores

The objective of this research was to determine the frequency for the occurrence of MS in dogs, using the criteria determined, and to correlate the criteria of dogs that would characterize the MS with different body condition score (BCS). 271 dogs with different body scores were studied, with 101 dogs with BCS 4-5; 101 dogs with BCS 6-7; and 69 dogs with BCS 8-9. Among the dogs studied, 62 (22,87%) had two or more inclusion criteria for MS. Of these, 28 had BCS 6-7, while 34 dogs had BCS 8-9. Therefore, 27,72% of overweight dogs had inclusion criteria for MS and 49,27% of obese ones had two or more inclusion criteria for MS. When only overweight and obese dogs were considered as a total population, it was observed that 36,47% got inclusion criteria for the MS. No dog with BCS 4-5 showed two or more inclusion criteria for MS. The metabolic syndrome, according to the parameters for inclusion defined in the literature, was observed in 22,87% of the animals studied and in 36% of dogs overweight or obese. Furthermore, MS was most common in obese (49%) compared to overweight dogs (27%).
Down‐regulation of spinophilin in lung tumours contributes to tumourigenesis

The scaffold protein spinophilin (Spn, PPP1R9B) is one of the regulatory subunits of phosphatase‐1a (PP1), targeting it to distinct subcellular locations and to its target. Loss of Spn reduces PPP1CA levels, thereby maintaining higher levels of phosphorylated pRb. This effect contributes to an increase in p53 activity. However, in the absence of p53, reduced levels of Spn increase the tumourigenic properties of cells. In addition, Spn knockout mice have a reduced lifespan, an increased number of tumours and increased cellular proliferation in some tissues, such as the mammary ducts. In addition, the combined loss of Spn and p53 activity leads to an increase in mammary carcinomas, confirming the functional relationship between p53 and Spn. In this paper, we report that Spn is absent in 20% and reduced in another 37% of human lung tumours. Spn reduction correlates with malignant grade. Furthermore, the loss of Spn also correlates with p53 mutations. Analysis of miRNAs in a series of lung tumours showed that miRNA106a* targeting Spn is over‐expressed in some patients, correlating with decreased Spn levels. Proof‐of‐concept experiments over‐expressing miRNA106a* or Spn shRNA in lung tumour cells showed increased tumourigenicity. In conclusion, our data showed that miRNA106a* over‐expression found in lung tumours might contribute to tumourigenesis through Spn down‐regulation in the absence of p53. Copyright © 2011 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Flexibilidad en el uso de estrategias de lectura de palabras en aprendices españoles

Resumen Las estrategias que emplean los aprendices lectores dependen en buena medida de la consistencia de los sistemas ortográficos pues, mientras en las ortografías transparentes los aprendices se basan más en estrategias subléxicas, en las opacas tienen que recurrir a un uso flexible de estrategias de tipo subléxico y léxico. No obstante, algunas investigaciones recientes en ortografías transparentes han destacado el uso de estrategias léxicas ya en las primeras fases del aprendizaje. El objetivo de este artículo fue determinar si los aprendices españoles emplean diferentes estrategias en las primeras etapas o mantienen únicamente una lectura subléxica basada en las reglas de conversión grafema-fonema. Para ello se aplicó un diseño basado en bloques a una muestra de 37 alumnos de 7 y 9 años de edad en una tarea de lectura de palabras. Los análisis de modelos lineales de efectos mixtos mostraron un efecto de cambio de estrategia ya a los 7 años. Se confirma así que desde las primeras etapas los aprendices de ortografías transparentes también emplean la vía léxica y recurren a la flexibilidad en el uso de estrategias. Se discuten las consecuencias de los resultados en la concepción del aprendizaje de las ortografías transparentes.
A Small-Gain Condition for Interconnections of ISS Systems With Mixed ISS Characterizations

We consider interconnected nonlinear systems with external inputs, where each of the subsystems is assumed to be input-to-state stable (ISS). Sufficient conditions of small-gain type are provided guaranteeing that the interconnection is ISS with respect to the external input. To this end we extend recently obtained small-gain theorems to a more general type of interconnections. The small-gain theorem provided here is applicable to situations where the ISS conditions are formulated differently for each subsystem and are either given in the maximization or the summation sense. Furthermore, it is shown that the conditions are compatible in the sense that it is always possible to transform sum formulations to maximum formulations without destroying a given small-gain condition. An example shows the advantages of our results in comparison with the known ones.
The rhetorical parsing of unrestricted texts: a surface-based approach

Abstract Coherent texts are not just simple sequences of clauses and sentences, but rather complex artifacts that have highly elaborate rhetorical structure. This paper explores the extent to which well-formed rhetorical structures can be automatically derived by means of surface-form-based algorithms. These algorithms identify discourse usages of cue phrases and break sentences into clauses, hypothesize rhetorical relations that hold among textual units, and produce valid rhetorical structure trees for unrestricted natural language texts. The algorithms are empirically grounded in a corpus analysis of cue phrases and rely on a first-order formalization of rhetorical structure trees. The algorithms are evaluated both intrinsically and extrinsically. The intrinsic evaluation assesses the resemblance between automatically and manually constructed rhetorical structure trees. The extrinsic evaluation shows that automatically derived rhetorical structures can be successfully exploited in the context of text summarization.
Detection of Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin gene in lambs by loop mediated isothermal amplification

Aim: The loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) was standardized for rapid detection of Clostridium perfringens. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 fecal samples were collected from enterotoxemia suspected lambs were used for screening of C. perfringens cpa gene by LAMP. The specificity of the LAMP amplified products was tested by digesting with restriction enzyme XmnI for alpha toxin gene. Results: Out of 120 samples screened 112 (93.3%) samples were positive by both LAMP and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of cpa gene which indicated the equal sensitivity of both the tests. The enzyme produced single cut in 162 base pair amplified product of alpha toxin gene at 81 base pair resulting in a single band in gel electrophoresis. Conclusion: Both LAMP and PCR for detection of cpa gene indicated the equal sensitivity of both the tests. Standardization of LAMP reaction for amplification of epsilon and beta toxin genes will help to identify the C. perfringens toxin types from the clinical samples. The test could be a suitable alternative to the PCR in detection of toxin types without the help of sophisticated machinery like thermal cycler. Considering its simplicity in operation and high sensitivity, there is the potential use of this technique in clinical diagnosis and surveillance of infectious diseases.
Improved Exemplar based Image Inpainting using Structure Tensor

Image Inpainting is technique in which mainly used to filling the region which are damaged and want to recover from unwanted object by collecting the information from the neighbouring pixels. Image inpainting technique has been widely used for reconstructing damaged old photographs and removing unwanted objects from images. In this paper, we present an improved Exemplar based Structure tensor inpainting method based on the exemplar-based image inpainting technique by modifying the distance function. The method proved to be effective in removing large objects from an image, ensuring accurate propagation of linear structures, and eliminating the drawback of “garbage growing” which is a common problem in other methods. Experimental results show that our method improves the quality of image inpainting compared with the conventional exemplar-based image completion algorithms.
Substance use and its impact on care outcomes among HIV-infected individuals in Manitoba

The high prevalence of substance use among HIV-infected individuals creates numerous challenges to patient care. This study was undertaken in order to understand the impact of substance use on care outcomes for HIV-infected individuals in Manitoba. Clinical records of 564 HIV-infected individuals in care at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba were reviewed. Clinical data were extracted from patient charts for substance users (illicit substance users, alcohol abusers and chronic users of opioids or benzodiazepines) and non-users. Substance users and non-users were analysed using chi-square analysis and logistic regression models to compare basic socio-demographic and clinic variables. Chi-square and analysis of variance were used to compare a subset of substance users based on similar socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Among HIV-infected individuals in Manitoba, 38% were substance users with over-representation by Aboriginals, females, young adults and residents of Winnipeg's core areas. Opioids and benzodiazepines were the most commonly used substances with the majority of substance users having used multiple classes of substances in their lifetime. Substance users were more likely than non-users to have missed clinic appointments. Among substance users, missed appointments were more common among those who self-identified as Aboriginal, female, young adults, residents of Winnipeg's core areas, heterosexuals and those who had abused alcohol or cocaine/crack. Aboriginal substance users were also less likely to achieve viral load suppression compared to non-Aboriginal substance users. With the high prevalence of substance use among HIV-infected individuals in Manitoba, it is important to identify at-risk individuals in order to implement appropriate care strategies and improve treatment adherence and health outcomes.
Neuromuscular and Vascular Hamartoma of the Small Bowel: A Rare Cause of Intestinal Obstruction

Neuromuscular and vascular hamartoma (NMVH) is a rare lesion arising chiefly in the small intestine. As it shares many of the histological features with other commonly occurring stricturous conditions of the small bowel, there is an ongoing debate whether it is truly hamartomatous or represents just a reactive condition. We are reporting a case of NMVH in the terminal ileum in a 32-year-old male who presented with symptoms of intestinal obstruction.
When the Physician-Researcher Gets Cancer: Understanding Cancer, Its Treatment, and Quality of Life from the Patient’s Perspective

The authors, both medical researchers, describe their personal experiences with cancer, its treatment, and its effects on their lives. They discuss the “eight Ds” that represent their concerns as they navigated this permanent disruption in their lives: diagnosis, dying, discomfort, disability, drug and other treatment effects, dependency, doubt, and death. They also discuss the beneficial effects that cancer has had on their lives and end with suggestions for clinicians and outcomes researchers who seek to assess and improve quality of life among persons with cancer.
Inferring Tie Strength from Online Directed Behavior

Some social connections are stronger than others. People have not only friends, but also best friends. Social scientists have long recognized this characteristic of social connections and researchers frequently use the term tie strength to refer to this concept. We used online interaction data (specifically, Facebook interactions) to successfully identify real-world strong ties. Ground truth was established by asking users themselves to name their closest friends in real life. We found the frequency of online interaction was diagnostic of strong ties, and interaction frequency was much more useful diagnostically than were attributes of the user or the user’s friends. More private communications (messages) were not necessarily more informative than public communications (comments, wall posts, and other interactions).
Smart Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs

We present an architecture for electronic catalogs, called Smart Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs. Smart catalogs are searchable, annotated combinations of machine-readable and machine-sensible product data. Virtual catalogs dynamically retrieve information from multiple smart catalogs and present this product data in a unified manner with its own look and feel, not that of the source smart catalogs. These virtual catalogs do not store product data from smart catalogs directly (except when caching for performance); instead virtual catalogs obtain current product data from smart catalogs to satisfy specific customer queries. Customers interact with smart catalogs and virtual catalogs through WWW or other interfaces. Product data is disseminated through the architecture using ACL (Agent Communication Language). In particular, ACL is used to communicate queries and answers among smart catalogs and virtual catalogs.
Students with Special Needs in the 21 st Century Music Classroom: Practices and Perceptions of Orff- and Non-Orff Trained Educators

Students with special needs are increasingly incorporated into the music classroom, yet research suggests music educators feel unsupported and inadequately prepared for work with students who have special needs. The current study investigated music educators’ experience with and perceptions of students with special needs in the music classroom. A total of 99 participants enrolled in graduate level Orff-Schulwerk and non-OrffSchulwerk courses answered 26 questions on (a) experiences with special learners in the music classroom, (b) teaching practices, and (c) perceptions regarding special learners in the music classroom. Results suggest that the only factor that significantly impacted feelings of preparation to teach special learners in the music classroom was the number of music-specific courses taken related to teaching special learners. The only demographic variable predictive of teachers’ use of multimodal activities in the classroom was the level of Orff training. This suggests that coursework on teaching special learners in the music classroom may contribute to teachers’ feelings of preparation and that the multi-sensory nature of the Orff approach has practical applications for teaching students with disabilities. Future studies should explore other factors that may impact teacher perceptions and practices when working with students with special needs.
Retrospective: the turn model for adaptive routing

when the Caltech Cosmic Cube [l] was implemented in 1981, it triggered a new wave on parallel processing and refreshed interest in hypercube topology. The research community has studied various direct network architectures, especially the k-ary n-cube, and their topological properties. Based on the underlying graph-theoretical model, many new theories and properties, such as routing paths and graph embedding, were discovered for various network topologies.
Down's Syndrome: Transport, Storage, and Metabolism of Serotonin in Blood Platelets

Extract: Serotonin (5HT) transport and metabolism were studied in platelets from 14 trisomy-21 patients who were matched with 12 sibling and 9 non-sibling control subjects with regard to age, sex, home environment, diet and weight. Endogenous 5HT content, in nanograms per milligram platelet protein, was reduced from 446 ± 66 in the sibling controls and from 492 ± 74 in the non-sibling controls to 158 ± 16 in the Down's syndrome group, a difference of 61% and 68% respectively (P < 0.001). Initial uptake of 14C-5HT measured after a 3-min incubation period was reduced 35% (P < 0.05) in the platelets from Down's syndrome patients, while the efflux of radiolabeled amine from platelets was not significantly altered in these patients. Since platelets do not synthesize 5HT, the decreased transport found may explain the lower 5HT levels in these patients. Mongols did not differ from control subjects in the activity of platelet monoamine oxidase.Speculation: Similarities in the uptake, storage, and release of 5HT between the human blood platelet and the serotonergic neuron suggest that the 5HT abnormality observed in mongol platelets may reflect disordered metabolism of the monoamine within the central nervous system.
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movement Training Promotes Recovery From Auditory and Visual Neglect

Background. No treatment for auditory neglect and no randomized controlled trial evaluating smooth pursuit eye movement therapy (SPT) for multimodal neglect are available. Objective. To compare the effects of SPT and visual scanning therapy (VST) on auditory and visual neglect in chronic stroke patients with neglect. Methods. A randomized, prospective trial was conducted. Fifty patients with left auditory and visual neglect were randomly assigned. Twenty-four patients completed SPT therapy and 21 patients VST. Five patients (4 VST, 1 SPT) were lost. Each group received 1-hour sessions of neglect therapy for 5 consecutive days totaling 5 hours. Outcome measures in visual neglect (digit cancellation, visuoperceptual- and motor line bisection, paragraph reading) and auditory neglect (auditory midline) were assessed twice before therapy, thereafter, and at 2-week follow-up. The SPT group practiced smooth pursuit eye movements while tracking stimuli moving leftward. The VST group systematically scanned the same but static stimuli. Both groups were divided into subgroups, and effects were separately investigated for mild and severe neglect. Results. Both groups did not differ before therapy in clinical/demographic variables or neglect severity (auditory/visual). After treatment, the SPT group showed significant and lasting improvements in all visual measures and normal performance in the auditory midline. Neither visual nor auditory neglect impairments changed significantly after VST. Moreover, the treatment effect sizes (Cohen’s d) were considerably higher for visual and auditory neglect after SPT versus VST, both for mild and severe neglect. Conclusions. Repetitive contralesional, smooth pursuit training induces superior, multimodal therapeutic effects in mild and severe neglect.