Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE ROLE OF MITE, HOUSE DUST AND CANDIDA ALLERGENS IN CHRONIC URTICARIA

Intradermal skin tests and in vitro antigen‐induced histamine release from leucocytes were carried out using mite, house dust and candida allergens in 49 patients with chronic urticaria in whom the cause was not identifiable from the history. None of them had other atopic diseases. Among the 49 cases, the number of patients who gave positive skin reactions to different allergens was as follows: mite, 24; house dust, 18; candida, 17. Significant histamine release from leucocytes by mite antigen was observed in 8 out of 12 patients who had 2+ or 3+ skin reactions. The present results suggest that mite, house dust and candida allergens may play a role in chronic urticaria, and especially that the mite may be one of the possible allergens in chronic urticaria.
Molecules versus morphology? Not for the human cranium

Evolutionary investigations of human crania typically take a limited view of cranial diversity as they discount the possibility that human cranial variation could simply be due to the effects of random genetic drift, gene flow and mutation in favor of natural selection and developmental changes. Natural selection alone cannot explain similarities between patterns of cranial and molecular diversity observed in humans. It appears that the amount of phenotypic variance in the human cranium decreases at the population level as a function of distance from Sub‐Saharan Africa much in the same way as observed for human molecular data. 1 BioEssays 29:1185–1188, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Design and Development of Test Rig for Vibration Measurement of Shaft-Rolling Bearing System

Rolling element bearing is a most critical part of any rotating machinery. The machine could be unsafe if any fault occurs in the bearing elements due to fatigue, manufacturing errors and operating conditions. Due to sudden failure of bearing the machine may cause serious accident, economical loss and time. Therefore, it is necessary to predict the faults in bearing well in advance for preventive maintenance of machinery. The vibration based condition monitoring is most effective method for identifying fault in the bearing during its operation. In this paper a test rig has been designed and developed for vibration measurement of shaft-rolling bearing system. The development of test rig includes design and manufacturing of shaft, selection of support and test bearing along with suitable pedestal, selection of belt, pulley and motor. The vibrations data has been captured by accelerometer for test bearing in presence of normal and defective bearing outer raceway. The measured vibrations has been analysed in frequency domain to predict the fault characteristics. The vibrations generated by bearing depends on bearing geometry, load and shaft speed. It has been also study the effect of defect size, load and shaft speed on vibration response of healthy and defective bearing.
Elasticity and tensile strength of the anterior cruciate ligament in rabbits as influenced by training.

The effects of training in a running machine were studied on nineteen rabbits while seventeen of the same stock were used as controls. The rabbits were at the start of the training period about three months old and the mechanical tests were performed forty weeks later. Tensile strength and elasticity tests were performed on anterior cruciate ligaments from their knee joints utilizing the femur and the tibia as fixture points. It is concluded that the weakest point in the system of tibia-ligamentum cruciatum anterius—femur is one of the bony attachments and most often the tibial one. The energy required to break the system is increased by training and so are the maximun load and the deformation at that point. All these phenomena can be accounted for by strengthening of the bones. The elasticity tests, however, show a larger load-relaxation phenomenon in the ligaments from the trained animals and it occurs with a higher speed, indicating altered viscous properties. It is concluded that these changes must be qualitative changes occurring in the ligamentous tissue.
Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Lipid Anchoring of Plant Proteins. Sensitive Prediction from Sequence- and Genome-Wide Studies for Arabidopsis and Rice1

Posttranslational glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) lipid anchoring is common not only for animal and fungal but also for plant proteins. The attachment of the GPI moiety to the carboxyl-terminus after proteolytic cleavage of a C-terminal propeptide is performed by the transamidase complex. Its four known subunits also have obvious full-length orthologs in the Arabidopsis and rice (Oryza sativa) genomes; thus, the mechanism of substrate protein processing appears similar for all eukaryotes. A learning set of plant proteins (substrates for the transamidase complex) has been collected both from the literature and plant sequence databases. We find that the plant GPI lipid anchor motif differs in minor aspects from the animal signal (e.g. the plant hydrophobic tail region can contain a higher fraction of aromatic residues). We have developed the “big-Π plant” program for prediction of compatibility of query protein C-termini with the plant GPI lipid anchor motif requirements. Validation tests show that the sensitivity for transamidase targets is approximately 94%, and the rate of false positive prediction is about 0.1%. Thus, the big-Π predictor can be applied as unsupervised genome annotation and target selection tool. The program is also suited for the design of modified protein constructs to test their GPI lipid anchoring capacity. The big-Π plant predictor Web server and lists of potential plant precursor proteins in Swiss-Prot, SPTrEMBL, Arabidopsis, and rice proteomes are available at http://mendel.imp. univie.ac. at/gpi/plants/gpi_plants. html. Arabidopsis and rice protein hits have been functionally classified. Several GPI lipid-anchored arabinogalactan-related proteins have been identified in rice.
USE OF ALPHA SPECTROSCOPY FOR CONDUCTING RAPID SURVEYS OF TRANSURANIC ACTIVITY ON AIR SAMPLE FILTERS AND SMEARS

This paper demonstrates the utility of a portable alpha Continuous Air Monitor (CAM) as a bench top scalar counter for multiple sample types. These include using the CAM to count fixed air sample filters and radiological smears. In counting radiological smears, the CAM is used very much like a gas flow proportional counter (GFPC), albeit with a lower efficiency. Due to the typically low background in this configuration, the minimum detectable activity for a 5-min count should be in the range of about 10 dpm which is acceptably below the 20 dpm limit for transuranic isotopes. When counting fixed air sample filters, the CAM algorithm along with other measurable characteristics can be used to identify and quantify the presence of transuranic isotopes in the samples. When the radiological control technician wants to take some credit from naturally occurring radioactive material contributions due to radon progeny producing higher energy peaks (as in the case with a fixed air sample filter), then more elaborate techniques are required. The techniques presented here will generate a decision level of about 43 dpm for such applications. The calibration for this application should alternatively be done using the default values of channels 92–126 for region of interest 1. This can be done within 10 to 15 min resulting in a method to rapidly evaluate air filters for transuranic activity. When compared to the 1-h count technique described by Hayes (2004), the technique presented in the present work demonstrates a technique whereby more than two thirds of samples can be rapidly shown (within 10 to 15 min) to be within regulatory compliant limits. In both cases, however, spectral quality checks are required to insure sample self attenuation is not a significant bias in the activity estimates. This will allow the same level of confidence when using these techniques for activity quantification as is presently available for air monitoring activity quantification using CAMs.
Linear programming bounds for tree codes (Corresp.)

Two asymptotic upper bounds on the information rate of a tree code as a function of its feedback decoding minimum distance are presented. These bounds are generalizations of the linear programming bounds for binary block codes proved by McEliece et al., and they are derived from linear programming problems based on Delsarte's theory of association schemes.
Effect of dried pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel powder (DPPP) on textural, organoleptic and nutritional characteristics of biscuits

Abstract Pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel is rich source of dietary fiber and bioactive compounds, hence could be used in the development of functional food formulations. Attempt was made to see the effect of dried pomegranate peel powder (DPPP) and emulsifiers on the rheological, nutritional and quality characteristics of biscuits. Incorporation of DPPP from 0 to 10% increased farinograph water absorption, decreased dough stability, increased amylograph pasting temperature and peak viscosity of wheat flour; increased hardness and decreased cohesiveness of biscuit dough; decreased spread ratio and increased breaking strength of biscuits. Sensory evaluation showed that biscuits incorporated with 7.5% DPPP were acceptable. Among emulsifiers, sodium stearoyl lactylate significantly improved the quality characteristics of 7.5% DPPP incorporated biscuits. Addition of 7.5% DPPP increased the protein, dietary fibre, minerals, anti-oxidant activity and β-carotene contents of biscuits. The studies indicated the possibility of utilizing DPPP to improve the nutritional characteristics of biscuits.
The Influence of Language Experience on Cortical Activation in Bilinguals 1

A recurrent question concerning the neural organization of language processing in bilinguals concerns the extent to which different languages engage brain regions involved in language processing. This question continues to result in new publications and fresh debate because activation topography can be influenced by task demands and language experience. In this presentation, we will review our own work as well as work by other functional imaging laboratories concerning the role of prior language experience on brain activation topography and magnitude.
Turbulent Plane Impinging Jet-Physical Insight and Turbulence Modeling

A 3D numerical simulation using large eddy simulation (LES) method is performed for a submerged turbulent water slot jet impinging normally on a flat plate with a nozzle-to-plate distance of 10 jet width and a Reynolds number of 16000 and the results are compared with the existing experimental data. The numerical platform is an open source CFD code based on the field operation and manipulation C++ class library for continuum mechanics (OpenFOAM) and is used to simulate the flow and represent the mean and instantaneous flow field characteristics. Also, simulations are performed with two different subgrid-scale (SGS) models, one-equation based subgrid-scale model and localized dynamic smagorinsky model. Evaluating the different subgrid-scale (SGS) models, a priori and a posteriori test is done. Comparison between results obtained using the SGS models and experimental data shows that the simulation results using localized dynamic Smagorinsky model are more compatible with the experimental data compared with those that obtained from the kinetic energy one-equation model especially in regions close to the impingement wall and in free jet region.
Unresolved issues in the comparison of therapies and determination of responses in Waldenström macroglobulinemia

Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) is an un- common clinico-pathological syndromic manifesta- tion of lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. In the more common sub-types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) there are internationally accepted robust and reproducible response criteria (1). As with other forms of NHL, WM can lead to tissue infiltration resulting in the clinical, laboratory, and radiological manifestations of lymphadenopathy, hepato-spleno- megaly, and peripheral blood cytopenias. In common with the standard response criteria for NHL, evalua- tion of reduction or complete resolution of these manifestations can be determined using routine clinical evaluation, laboratory, imaging, and bone marrow histologic evaluation criteria. However, WM potentially has two unique addi- tional manifestations which complicate response assessment. First, by definition, all cases of WM are associated with a monoclonal immunoglobulin M (IgM) paraprotein. Extrapolating from observations and conventions derived from studies in multiple myeloma (MM), in WM, while there is modest utility in comparing monoclonal IgM levels across patients as a measure of relative tumor burden, serial measurements of the monoclonal IgM paraprotein level in an individual patient are accepted as a quantitative measure of disease burden. While in MM disease progression can occur in the absence of a paraprotein rise, characterized by an increase of the free light chains in the serum only ('light chain escape'), particularly after a long course of disease with several lines of treatment (2), to our knowledge this has not been reported for WM. In the relatively rare case of WM-transformation to a high-grade lymphoma, this can occur either with or without increasing levels of the pre-existing paraprotein (3). Thus, appropriately quantitative measurement of the serum monoclonal IgM is included in response criteria for WM (4).
Influence of salinity and temperature on the growth and production of a freshwater mayfly in the Lower Mobile River, Alabama

Secondary production of the burrowing mayfly, Hexagenia limbata, was quantified from four sites differing in seasonal salinity within the Lower Mobile River, Alabama, from October 1995 to September 1996. This population was univoltine, with emergence occurring from late May through early August. Comparisons with other populations of this species showed latitudinal trends suggesting that summer temperatures may exceed an upper thermal threshold for growth. Longitudinal differences in riverine salinity (i.e., upriver sites, 0‰; downriver sites, 5.5‰ maximum salinity) explained most of the differences among sites, both for average density (upriver sites, 75.6 mayflies m−2; downriver sites, 2.54 mayflies m−2) and annual production (upriver, 1,669 mg m−2 yr−1; downriver, 46.6 g m−2 yr−1). Laboratory bioassays indicated that H. limbata nymphs could survive elevated salinity (LC50 of 6.3‰ at 18°C; 2.4‰ at 28°C), although growth experiments showed similar growth at 0, 2, 4, and 8‰ salinity treatments. Results from field observations and laboratory experiments demonstrated that these mayflies are tolerant of increases in salinity and showed that individuals surviving the stress of elevated salinity can grow at similar rates as mayflies in freshwater.
FUZZY LOGIC BASED VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL PERFORMANCE CONSIDERING DIFFERENT MEMBERSHIP TYPES

Vehicle dynamics like acceleration, braking, and other factors can be controlled based on its speed. This paper design and analyse a fuzzy logic controller to control the speed of a vehicle to achieve the optimum control characteristics. Different number of fuzzy sets and fuzzy membership types known as triangular, trapezoid and Gaussian are configured to obtain the best solution for the problem. The vehicle speed as the inputs for the system is varied to simulate different cases of vehicle movement to determine the effectiveness of the system. The vehicle acceleration as the output is then being tuned to match and decide the vehicle motion appropriately with smooth movement. The effectiveness and the validity of the controller will be verified by some simulations and are assessed based on time consumption. Result has shown that Gaussian membership type has better results for less than four fuzzy sets.
Effect of plaunotol in combination with clarithromycin against clarithromycin-resistant Helicobacter pylori in vitro and in vivo.

OBJECTIVES Recently, there has been a decrease in the eradication rate of Helicobacter pylori due to the increase in antibiotic resistance of this bacterium. Plaunotol, a cytoprotective anti-ulcer agent, exhibits antibacterial activity against H. pylori. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of plaunotol in combination with clarithromycin against clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori clinical isolates. METHODS AND RESULTS In the chequerboard titration method, the combination of plaunotol and clarithromycin showed a synergistic effect against 67% (10/15) clarithromycin-resistant strains and an additive effect against the other strains. No indifferent and antagonistic effects were observed against any of the strains tested. In a gastritis model of Mongolian gerbils infected with clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori, the plaunotol (40 mg/kg) and clarithromycin (66.6 mg/kg) combination exhibited synergistic effects; however, neither plaunotol nor clarithromycin alone showed bactericidal effects. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that plaunotol may play a useful role in combination with anti-H. pylori drugs in the treatment of diseases associated with clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori.
Dactylography in Relation to ABO Blood Groups : Egyptian vs . Malay Populations C

Establishing association between lip print patterns and those of fingerprints as well as blood groups is of fundamental importance in the forensic identification domain. The first aim of the current study was to determine the prevalent types of ABO blood groups, lip prints and fingerprints patterns in both studied populations. Secondly, to analyze any relation found between the different print patterns and the blood groups, which would be valuable in identification purposes. The present study was conducted on 60 healthy volunteers, (30 males and 30 females) from each of the studied population. Lip prints and fingerprints were obtained and classified according to Tsuchihashi's classification and Michael Kuchen’s classification, respectively. The results show that the ulnar loop was the most frequent among both populations. Blood group A was the most frequent among Egyptians, while blood groups O and B were the predominant among Malaysians. Significant relations were observed between lip print patterns and fingerprint (in the second quadrant for Egyptian males and the first one for Malaysian). For Malaysian females, a statistically significant association was proved in the fourth quadrant. Regarding the blood groups, 89.5% of ulnar loops were significantly related to blood group A among Egyptian males. The results proved an association between the fingerprint pattern and the lip prints, as well as between the ABO blood group and the pattern of fingerprints. However, further researches with larger sample sizes need to be directed to approve the current results. Keywords—ABO, cheiloscopy, dactylography, Egyptians, Malaysians.
Effects of stromal fibroblasts and fat cells and an environmental factor air exposure on invasion of laryngeal carcinoma (HEp-2) cells in a collagen gel invasion assay system.

OBJECTIVE To clarify the invasion mechanism of laryngeal carcinoma (HEp-2) cells. DESIGN Human HEp-2 cells were cultured on a collagen gel containing fibroblasts and/or fat cells. The HEp-2 cells were also treated with air exposure as the local environment of the laryngeal epithelial mucosa. A collagen gel invasion assay was conducted under these culture conditions. RESULTS No invasion of HEp-2 cells was found in the stromal cell-free collagen gel, but a slight invasion was observed in the fibroblast-embedded gel. A deeper invasion of HEp-2 cells occurred in the fibroblast- and fat cell-coembedded gel and in the fibroblast-embedded gel with air exposure. The most extensive invasion of HEp-2 cells was observed under the fibroblast- and fat cell-coembedded gel in combination with air exposure. CONCLUSIONS Fat cells and air exposure clearly increase the invasive effect of fibroblasts in squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. The combined effect of these 3 factors (ie, fat cells, fibroblasts, and air exposure) plays a very important role in the invasive growth of the carcinoma cells. This observation suggests that both tumor cell-stromal cell interaction and tumor cell-local environmental factor interaction should be taken into account in an investigation of the invasive and proliferative mechanisms of laryngeal carcinoma.
Differ between Musicians and NonMusicians

From an early age, musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills (e.g., the translation of visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands with simultaneous auditory monitoring of output), which they practice extensively from childhood throughout their entire careers. Using a voxel-by-voxel morphometric technique, we found gray matter volume differences in motor, auditory, and visual–spatial brain regions when comparing professional musicians (keyboard players) with a matched group of amateur musicians and non-musicians. Although some of these multiregional differences could be attributable to innate predisposition, we believe they may represent structural adaptations in response to long-term skill acquisition and the repetitive rehearsal of those skills. This hypothesis is supported by the strong association we found between structural differences, musician status, and practice intensity, as well as the wealth of supporting animal data showing structural changes in response to long-term motor training. However, only future experiments can determine the relative contribution of predisposition and practice.
Association of Fault Terminations With Fluid Flow in the Salt Wells Geothermal Field , Nevada , USA

The Salt Wells geothermal system is situated in a compound structural setting involving the termination of a major normal fault zone, a synclinal accommodation zone, and two prominent stepovers. The thermal anomaly, 12-km long, is principally coincident with a series of horsetail splays of the southward terminating Rainbow Mountain fault zone (RMFZ). Episodic dextral shear accommodated along northto north-northeast-striking normal faults of the RMFZ further enhances permeability in this system. Surface manifestations at Salt Wells include hot springs, patches of warm ground, evaporate mineral deposits, silicified sediments and bedrock, opal sinter, and argillic alteration. Lateral heterogeneities of the thermal anomaly and the distribution of surface manifestations are spatially associated with terminating horsetail splays oriented perpendicular to the least principle stress. These clusters of fault splays probably correspond to critically stressed rupture arrest regions along the RMFZ, as reflected in the distribution of Quaternary fault scarps. The 14 MWe-capacity power plant produces from five production wells at depths of 60 to 150 meters and temperatures of 135 to 140°C in the southern quarter of the thermal anomaly. The production area corresponds to the hottest part of the system as defined by temperature gradient holes, lying within the southernmost splays of the southward terminating RMFZ. Maximum bottom-hole temperatures from a 2.5 km-deep well, abundant near-surface silica deposition, and fluid geothermometry from several springs and wells collectively indicate ~180 to 190°C reservoir temperatures and the potential for additional power production capacity from a deeper reservoir.