Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The human immunoglobulin loci introduced into mice: V (D) and J gene segment usage similar to that of adult humans

Variable gene segments of the human immunoglobulin loci are represented in the human peripheral repertoire at different frequencies. XenoMouseTM strains contain approximately 2 megabases of the human immunoglobulin heavy and kappa light chain loci that functionally recapitulate the human humoral immune system. Analysis of human antibody transcripts from XenoMouse spleens and lymph nodes revealed that V, D and J gene segment utilization from these unimmunized animals were nearly identical to the gene segment utilization reported for humans with extensive antigenic histories.
Frequency of restoration replacement in posterior teeth for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM There are no recent data that describe the replacement rates of resin composite and dental amalgam restorations placed by US Navy dentists. Information is needed to provide the best possible care for our military personnel which would minimize the probability of dental emergencies, especially for those who are deployed. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine if the frequency of posterior restoration replacement in military personnel differed based on the type of restorative material utilized. METHODS AND MATERIALS Data contained in dental records in an observational study (retrospective cohort) were evaluated to identify resin composite and dental amalgam restorations placed by navy dentists in posterior teeth. The status of all erupted, unerupted, missing, and replaced teeth was documented. The type and condition of all existing restorations were recorded for each posterior tooth. Investigators reviewed 2921 dental records, and of those, 247 patients met the criteria for inclusion in the study. A total of 1050 restorations (485 resin composite and 565 amalgam) were evaluated. RESULTS A Cox proportional hazards model was adjusted for number of tooth surfaces restored, caries risk, and filled posterior surfaces at initial exam. The overall rate of replacement for all restorations in the sample was 5.7% during the average 2.8-year follow-up. No significant elevation of risk for restoration replacement existed when comparing resin composite and amalgam. Both the number of restored surfaces and caries risk status were independent risk factors for replacement. When restoring multisurface cavity preparations, providers placed amalgams by an approximate 2:1 ratio over resin composites for this study population. CONCLUSION The results for this study show that no difference existed in the rate of replacement for amalgam vs resin composite. When restorations increased from just a single occlusal surface to additional surfaces, the rate of replacement was elevated and statistically significant for both materials. A higher caries risk status was also significant in elevating replacement rates for both materials.
Motivation and preparedness of first semester medical students for a career in medicine.

PURPOSE To determine motivation of medical students towards a medical career, and their knowledge of and preparation for it. METHODS After ethical committee approval, students admitted in 2009, who volunteered, were administered an anonymous questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was done. RESULTS Of 150 students admitted, 103 (68.7%) submitted completed questionnaires. Fifty-seven students (55%) got admission after > or = 2 attempts; 65 (63%) decided on a medical career before class ten. Accurate knowledge about the curriculum was poor even though many had a family member in the health field and were encouraged to take up medicine. Only half had sought guidance from a medical person; most had never undergone career preparation activity. CONCLUSION Students are early deciders and highly motivated to join medicine. Family is a strong motivator and could encourage career preparation activities. Policy makers could design interventions to inform school students before they make the critical decision to join medicine.
Right Atrial Ball Thrombus as a Complication of Subclavian Catheter Insertion for Hemodialysis Access

In two patients right atrial ball thrombi developed following prolonged subclavian cannulation for hemodialysis. One patient died, the other had the ball thrombus removed by open heart surgery. It appears that repeated friction of the catheter tip may have damaged the endothelium of the right atrial wall. This hitherto unrecognised complication might be prevented by ensuring that subclavian hemodialysis catheters are never allowed to reach as far as the right atrium.
Identification of two proteins associated with virulence of Streptococcus suis type 2

The protein profiles of various cell fractions of 180 strains of Streptococcus suis type 2, which were isolated from diseased pigs, from healthy pigs when they were slaughtered, and from human patients, were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting. The isolates from diseased pigs contained two proteins that were absent in most of the isolates from healthy pigs. One of these proteins was a 136-kDa protein that was previously identified as the muramidase-released protein (MRP). This protein was predominantly detected in protoplast supernatants and culture supernatants. The second protein was a 110-kDa protein that was detected only in culture supernatants and therefore was provisionally called extracellular factor (EF). Three phenotypes of S. suis type 2 strains were recognized. Isolates from organs of diseased pigs mainly belonged to the MRP+ EF+ phenotype (77%), while isolates from tonsils of healthy pigs mainly had the MRP- EF- phenotype (86%). Most of the isolates from human patients contained MRP (89%); 74% had the MRP+ EF- phenotype. These findings confirm the results of previous investigations which demonstrated that S. suis type 2 strains differ in virulence. Monoclonal antibodies raised against the 110-kDa EF recognized proteins with higher molecular weights in culture supernatants of all of the strains with the MRP+ EF- phenotype. However, none of the strains with the MRP+ EF+ phenotype produced these high-molecular-weight proteins. Our results demonstrate that MRP and EF are associated with virulence. This suggests that one or both of these proteins are virulence factors that play a role in the pathogenesis of S. suis type 2 infections in pigs and human patients.
Physico-chemical and sensory properties of musts and wines from

In this study, the fully ripe fruits of Melodorum fruticosum Lour. were evaluated as material for red wine production. The effects of juice-to-water ratio (1:3 and 1:5v/v) and initial total soluble solids (18 and 20 o Brix) on physico-chemical and sensory characteristics of musts and wines were examined. The results showed that during fermentation for 10 days the total soluble solids of all musts decreased to 7.5 - 9.3 o Brix (P ≤ 0.05) while the pH was decreased slightly from 3.7 to 3.5 - 3.6. The resultant wines had similar alcohol content (11.9 - 12.6%). The radical scavenging activities of most wines after ageing at 4 o C for 4 weeks were similar to their corresponding musts, decreasing from 85 - 89% to 80 - 86%. Anthocyanin content was also found decreasing by 27 - 41% but total phenolics increased by 10 - 54%. The results of sensory evaluation showed a significant difference in terms of colour, clarity, sweetness, and bitterness, among the four aged wines. Samples made from juice-to-water ratio at 1:5 and initial soluble solid of 20 o Brix showed the highest overall acceptance.
Author Verification Using a Semantic Space Model

In this work we propose to solve the author verification problem using a semantic space model through Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). We experiment with the corpus used in the author identification tasks at PAN 2014 and PAN 2015. These datasets consist of subsets in the following languages: English, Spanish, Dutch and Greek. Each problem contained in these corpora is formed by one to five known documents which were written by one author and one unknown document. The task is to predict whether the unknown document was written by the author who wrote the known documents. We processed the documents in the dataset and captured the fingerprint of authors by generating a probabilistic distribution of words in the documents. In PAN 2015 classification, we achieved 81.6%, 75.4%, 74.1%, 67.1% accuracy for each English, Spanish, Dutch and Greek subset respectively. In particular for the English subset, we outreached the best result reported in both competitions.
The effect of the nuclear experiments and nuclear disasters on the evolution of pregnancy

This paper explores a less-known aspect of the abortion issue, namely the link between abortion and environmental factors. Environmental factors are sometimes the cause or at least a very important link in a causal chain which can have significant effects on the abortion issue. As we try to identify environmental factors which influence the evolution of pregnancy, we realise that these factors are mainly created because of the people’s influence over environment, and are not effects created solely by natural environment. Mainly the discussion about abortions which occurs due to environmental influence focuses on the abortions which occur when the pregnant woman would want to keep the pregnancy. When the pregnancy is not wanted, the question does not have the same relevance, as the pregnant woman would have probably tried to have an induced abortion. Many studies revealed the link between exposure to the residues of different fuels and abortion rates. Studies have proved that there is, beyond doubt, a link between women’s exposure to radioactivity and miscarriages. As we can no longer deny the effects of the environment on the evolution of pregnancy, it is our duty to take effective measures in order to reduce the number of abortions determined by environmental factors, before it is too late.
with Setup Time, Bernoulli Vacation, Break Down, and Delayed Repair

We present a single server in which customers arrive in batches and the server provides service one by one. The server provides two heterogeneous service stages such that service time of both stages is different and mandatory to all arriving customers in such a way that, after the completion of first stage, the second stage should also be provided to the customers. The server may subject to random breakdowns with brake down rate and, after break down, it should be repaired but it has to wait for being repaired and such waiting time is called delay time. Both the delay time and repair time follow exponential distribution. Upon the completion of the second stage service, the server will go for vacation with probability or stay back in the system probability , if any. The vacation time follows general (arbitrary) distribution. Before providing service to a new customer or a batch of customers that joins the system in the renewed busy period, the server enters into a random setup time process such that setup time follows exponential distribution. We discuss the transient behavior and the corresponding steady state results with the performance measures of the model.
In vitro determination of carcinogenicity of sixty‐four compounds using a bovine papillomavirus DNA‐carrying C3H/10T½ cell line

A new in vitro test for predicting rodent carcinogenicity is evaluated against a testing database of 64 chemicals including both genotoxic and nongenotoxic carcinogens and carcinogens that normally require addition of an S‐9 microsomal fraction for detection in the bacterial mutagenicity assay. The assay uses focus formation in a stable, bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV‐1) DNA carrying C3H/10T½ mouse embryo fibroblast cell line (T1) that does not require transfection, infection with virus, isolation of primary cells from animals, or addition of a microsomal fraction. Of a total database of 64 compounds, 92% of the carcinogens, promoters, or noncarcinogens were correctly predicted. Based on previously reported results, the test of bacterial mutagenicity would have correctly predicted 58% of carcinogens, promoters or noncarcinogens and the Syrian hamster embryo test would have correctly predicted 87% of carcinogens, promoters, or noncarcinogens of this database. Of carcinogens that normally require addition of an S‐9 fraction, T1 cells correctly predicted rodent carcinogenicity of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, aflatoxins, azo‐compounds, nitrosamines, and hydrazine without the addition of an S‐9 fraction. Of nongenotoxic carcinogens, T1 cells correctly predicted diethylstilbestroel, diethylhexylphthalate, acetamides, alkyl halides, ethyl carbamate, and phorbol ester tumour promoters. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 35:300–311, 2000 © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A prospective study on the use of intraoperative computed tomography (iCT) for image-guided placement of thoracic pedicle screws

Background. Placement of thoracic pedicle screws is a technically demanding procedure. The risk of thoracic pedicle breaches range from 6.5 to 41%. Current image guidance systems consist of computer based systems utilizing preoperative CT scans or 2D/3D intraoperative fluoroscopy. Objective. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the clinical feasibility and accuracy of a new intraoperative CT (iCT) based image guidance system for thoracic pedicle screw instrumentation. Methods. We prospectively studied the use of iCT for the first 43 consecutive cases for which thoracic pedicle screws were inserted as part of the instrumentation for spinal fusion between April 2008 and July 2011. In every case, a post-instrumentation intraoperative check CT was done before wound closure to assess accuracy of implant placement. Outcomes were analysed with regards to the incidence of pedicle wall violations detected on intraoperative check CT imaging, and the rate of immediate intraoperative revision of misplaced screws. Pedicle violations were graded according to an established classification system, Results. A total of 261 thoracic pedicle screws (T1–T12) were inserted in 43 patients (age range 13–83). Mean follow-up was 12 months. There were 7 (2.7%) pedicle violations detected on the intraoperative check CT. Out of the seven, three were grade I (< 2 mm), two were grade II (2–4 mm) and rest two were grade III (> 4 mm) violations. Only four of the screws (1.5%) that breached the pedicle wall by more than 2 mm were immediately revised before wound closure. Conclusion. The iCT based spinal neuronavigation system allowed for highly safe and accurate placement (97.3%) of thoracic pedicle screws in our institution with no neurovascular injury reported.
Eradication of Cryptosporidia and Microsporidia Following Successful Antiretroviral Therapy

Objectives: Incidence of opportunistic protozoal infections causing diarrheal illnesses in patients with HIV has decreased since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The objective of this study was to determine whether the parasites, cryptosporidia, and microsporidia were effectively eradicated or only suppressed following treatment. Design: Six HIV‐positive patients with diarrheal symptoms caused by cryptosporidia or microsporidia were prospectively followed up with stool samples and duodenal biopsies. Samples were taken before HAART, between 1 to 3 months, and 6 months post‐HAART. Methods: Duodenal samples were analyzed using routine histology and transmission electron microscopy. Stool samples were analyzed by both light microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. Results: Patients who responded successfully to HAART eradicated both cryptosporidial and microsporidial organisms. Symptoms improved within 1 month of therapy but complete eradication of the organisms was only observed after 6 months of treatment. Conclusions: AIDs‐related cryptosporidiosis and microsporidiosis can be cured following successful antiretroviral therapy.
Flood-risk mapping for sea-level rise and extreme wave events using bathymetric and topographic lidar within the basque coast

The mean sea level in the Bay of Biscay is expected to rise between 29 and 49 cm from 2001 to 2099, as a result of regional thermal expansion and global ice-melting. The objective of this contribution is to assess the impacts of the future projected sea level rise (SLR) in the Bay of Biscay and extreme wave events on Basque coastal habitats (saltmarshes, sandy beaches and dunes, estuaries and urban areas) by generating flood risk maps within the Basque coast (Gipuzkoan coast and the Oka estuary). A flood-risk map has been generated by delimiting the SLR projected (i.e., 49 cm) over a high-resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM). This DTM has been extracted from airborne laser altimetry data (topographic and bathymetric LiDAR). Also, the risk of flood during storm-surge events has been calculated, by combining the action from tidal level (as the sum of the astronomic tide component and the meteorological conditions) and run-up. The impacts on land use and biological communities have been assessed, by overlaying the flood risk maps and a coastal habitat classification. The results indicate that sea level rise and extreme waves predicted with a 50-yr return period will affect 110.8 ha and 164.1 ha, respectively, of the supralittoral area of the Gipuzkoan coast by the end of the 21st century. The impacted areas by sea level rise are concentrated over low-lying areas within the inner estuaries, with terrestrial and artificial habitats being the most affected. Sandy beaches are expected to undergo mean shoreline retreats of between 25% and 40%, of their width. The Oka estuary is expected to be affected by 12 ha by the sea level rise. The extreme waves predicted with a 50-yr return period will affect mainly sandy beaches, harbours and urban areas exposed to high wave energy (NW orientation). The risk assessment of the areas, coastal land uses and habitats that will be affected is potentially useful for local management, in order to adopt adaptation measures to the SLR and extreme wave events induced by the global climate change.
Genome analysis of Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010 reveals metabolic pathways for host-derived glycan foraging

The human intestine is densely populated by a microbial consortium whose metabolic activities are influenced by, among others, bifidobacteria. However, the genetic basis of adaptation of bifidobacteria to the human gut is poorly understood. Analysis of the 2,214,650-bp genome of Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010, a strain isolated from infant stool, revealed a nutrient-acquisition strategy that targets host-derived glycans, such as those present in mucin. Proteome and transcriptome profiling revealed a set of chromosomal loci responsible for mucin metabolism that appear to be under common transcriptional control and with predicted functions that allow degradation of various O-linked glycans in mucin. Conservation of the latter gene clusters in various B. bifidum strains supports the notion that host-derived glycan catabolism is an important colonization factor for B. bifidum with concomitant impact on intestinal microbiota ecology.
Effects of Glucose Deprivation or Glucose Instability on Mesangial Cells in Culture

Mesangial cell (MC) abnormalities play a central role in diabetic nephropathy. Variations in plasma glucose levels may contribute to MC dysfunction. This study evaluated the effects of glucose deprivation or fluctuations on MC viability, glucose uptake, and mesangial matrix production. The expression levels of fibronectin and glucose transporters (GLUT-1 and GLUT-4) were determined. MCs were exposed to normal (NG, 10 mM), low (LG, 1 mM) or high (HG, 30 mM) glucose concentrations for 1, 4, 12, 24 and 72 h. Glucose oscillation was achieved by alternating the glucose concentration (LG, NG or HG) in the medium every 8, 12, and 4 h over a total of 24 h. LG induced a significant increase (90%) in glucose uptake dependent of GLUT-1, which was not followed by alteration in fibronectin expression. Fluctuations in glucose levels induced a rise in glucose uptake also mediated by GLUT-1. Fibronectin did not change in any oscillation group. Results suggest that, in spite of a rise in glucose uptake by MCs under low glucose availability, or exposed to glucose fluctuations, mesangial matrix overproduction did not occur. Thus, neither glucose deprivation nor glucose instability, at least during short periods, is involved in the mesangial matrix overproduction observed in diabetes.
Eliminating Uncertainty in Market Access: The Impact of New Bridges in Rural Nicaragua

We estimate the impact of new bridges in rural Nicaraguan villages facing seasonal floods that unpredictably eliminate access to outside markets. We collect detailed annual household surveys over three years and conduct weekly telephone followups with a subset of households for sixty-four weeks, both before and after construction. This information is collected in villages where bridges are built, and in comparable villages where no bridge was built for only engineering-related reasons. We find that bridges eliminate uncertainty in market access driven by floods: in absence of a bridge, household income falls significantly during floods. Bridges completely eliminate this effect. Compared to households in villages where no bridges are built, bridges cause substantial reallocation of activities between farming and wage work. There are also significant effects on agricultural choices: increased fertilizer spending, increased yields on farms, and lower crop storage. We develop a model of occupational choice and risky farm investment, and show that these results are a rational response to reduced market income risk from the bridges. We provide evidence that these results are not due to lower trade costs outside of flooding periods, nor due to looser collateral constraints.
A renormalization group method for studying the early universe in the Lorentzian IIB matrix model

We propose a new method for studying the early universe in the Lorentzian version of the IIB matrix model, which is considered to be a nonperturbative formulation of superstring theory. This method is based on the idea of renormalization group, and it enables us to study the time-evolution of the universe for much longer time than in the previous work, which showed that the SO(9) rotational symmetry is spontaneously broken down to SO(3) after a "critical time". We demonstrate how this method works in a simplified model, which is expected to capture the behaviors of the original model when the space is not so large. In particular, we present clear evidence that the three-dimensional space expands exponentially after the critical time in this simplified model.
Simultaneous olfactory discrimination elicits a strain‐specific increase in dendritic spines in the hippocampus of inbred mice

This study examines the extent to which simultaneous olfactory discrimination learning increases spine density on hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons in C57BL/6J (C57) and DBA/2J (DBA) inbred mice, characterized by spontaneous differences in hippocampal plasticity and hippocampus‐related learning. The behavioral data first showed a clear‐cut difference in performance between the two strains. C57 mice learned to identify the positively reinforced olfactory cue whereas DBA did not. Both strains, however, similarly acquired the procedural aspects of the task. The morphological analysis performed 24 h post‐training revealed that spine density was significantly increased along apical, oblique, and basal dendrites in trained C57 mice compared to trained DBA mice, and to pseudotrained as well as to control cage mice of both strains. These findings confirm the ability of C57 mice to solve hippocampal‐dependent tasks and provide the first evidence that simultaneous olfactory discrimination learning elicits spine growth in the mouse hippocampus. In addition, the finding that DBA mice failed to discriminate between the two olfactory cues but were as efficient as C57 mice in learning the procedural aspects of the task outlines that the structural changes observed in the latter strain were independent from any procedural learning component. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.