Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pattern of serum total calcium magnesium and zinc in human immunodeficiency virus disease / acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients of Saki-West local government area of Oyo state - Nigeria.

Fifty HIV disease/AIDS seronegative subjects aged 23.6 ± 16.5years (female=25: male =25) were recruited as normal control subjects. Thirty HIV disease/AIDS seropositive patients that presented with the symptoms of AIDS especially, aged 19.2 ± 10.7years (female: 15 aged 22.0 ± 12.1 years: males = 15 aged 20.6 ± 11.3years) were used as test subjects. Serum total calcium, magnesium and zinc were analysed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry and HIV tests were carried out on each of the subjects. There was no significant gender difference in the mean values of serum total calcium, magnessium and Zinc obtained from the HIV disease/AIDS seropositive females compared with those observed in their male counterparts (p>0.05). A lower significant mean value of serum total calcium, magnesium and Zinc was observed in the HIV disease/AIDS seropositive subjects compared to the mean values of the parameters observed in the normal control subjects (p Key words: HIV/AIDS, Pattern, Minerals, Serum Biokemistri Vol.17(1) 2005: 39-43
Thoracic Epidural Blood Patches in the Treatment of Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension: A Retrospective Case Series.

BACKGROUND Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) results from leaks developing in the dura mater. The major symptom is orthostatic headache which gradually disappears after lying down. Lumbar epidural blood patches (EBPs) can be effective in relieving headaches, however, thoracic and cervical EBPs have also been applied to alleviate the symptoms. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS Retrospective collection of the main characteristics of SIH, site and amount of blood injection, and clinical outcomes of 18 patients who underwent thoracic EBPs for intractable SIH. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective case series RESULTS All thoracic autologous EBPs except 3 were performed in the sitting position. Patients undergoing epidural puncture at lower thoracic levels (T10-T12) received 25 mL of autologous blood, 15 mL and 18 mL were injected at spinal segments T5-T7 (mid-thoracic) and T2-T4 (upper- thoracic), respectively. Thoracic EBPs did not lead to immediate resolution of symptoms in 3 of 18 patients; one of them underwent early repetition with complete headache relief, one refused a second EBP, and one experienced partial resolution, followed by a recurrence, and then satisfactory improvement with a second high thoracic EBP. In long-term follow-up only 2 patients complained of symptoms or relapses. LIMITATIONS Retrospective nature of the case series, single center experience. CONCLUSIONS Performing thoracic-targeted EBPs as the preferred approach theoretically improves results with respect to those observed with lumbar EBPs. The immediate response was comparable with that of other reports, but the long-term success rate (90%) turned out to be very effective in terms of both quality of headache relief and very low incidence of recurrence.
Effect of Noncustom Bimolar Mouthguards on Peak Ventilation in Ice Hockey Players

Objective:To examine the effect of a noncustom bimolar mouthguard on ventilation in female varsity ice hockey players. Design:Prospective crossover study. Main Outcome Measures:Expired ventilation (VE), oxygen uptake (VO2), and heart rate were measured in 12 university varsity female ice hockey players while these players were skating on a skating treadmill. Data were collected for each player with and without a mouthguard at both submaximal and maximal efforts to recreate the intensity of games. Results:VE and VO2 were similar (P > 0.05) with and without a noncustom bimolar mouthguard at submaximal effort. The mean VE at maximal effort (VEmax) was significantly lower (P < 0.05) using the mouthguard (108.5 l/min) compared with without a mouthguard (114.1 l/min). VO2 at maximal effort (VO2max) was significantly lower (P < 0.05) using the mouthguard (48.8 mL·kg−1·min−1) compared with without a mouthguard (52.4 mL·kg−1·min−1). Heart rates were similar for players with and without a mouthguard at both submaximal and maximal efforts. Conclusions:Noncustom bimolar mouthguards may reduce ventilation and oxygen uptake at maximal efforts by female ice hockey players.
Prokaryotic multicellularity: a nanopore array for bacterial cell communication

The transition from unicellular to multicellular life, which occurred several times during evolution, requires tight interaction and communication of neighboring cells. The multicellular cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133 forms filaments of hundreds of interacting cells exchanging metabolites and signal molecules and is able to differentiate specialized cells in response to environmental stimuli. Mutation of cell wall amidase AmiC2 leads to a severe phenotype with formation of aberrant septa in the distorted filaments, which completely lack cell communication and potential for cell differentiation. Here we demonstrate the function of the amidase AmiC2 in formation of cell‐joining structures. The AmiC2 protein localizes to the young septum between cells and shows bona fide amidase activity in vivo and in vitro. Vancomycin staining identified the overall septum morphology in living cells. By electron microscopy of isolated peptidoglycan sacculi, the submicroscopic structure of the cell junctions could be visualized, revealing a novel function for a cell wall amidase: AmiC2 drills holes into the cross‐walls, forming an array of ~155 nanopores with a diameter of ~20 nm each. These nanopores seem to constitute a framework for cell‐joining proteins, penetrating the cell wall. The entire array of junctional nanopores appears as a novel bacterial organelle, establishing multicellularity in a filamentous prokaryote. —Lehner, J., Berendt, S. , Dörsam, B. , Pérez, R. , Forchhammer, K. , Maldener, I. Prokaryotic multicellularity: a nanopore array for bacterial cell communication. FASEB J. 27, 2293–2300 (2013). www.fasebj. org
Factors associated with phantom limb pain: a 3½-year prospective study

Objective: To analyse the prevalence of phantom (limb) pain over time and to analyse factors associated with phantom (limb) pain in a prospective cohort of amputees. Design: A multicentre longitudinal study. Patients: One hundred and thirty-four patients scheduled for amputation were included. Methods: Patients filled in questionnaires before amputation, and postal questionnaires six months, 1½ years and 2½ years to a maximum of 3½ years after amputation. Preoperative assessment included patients’ characteristics, date, side and level of, and reason for amputation. The follow-up questionnaires assessed the frequencies of the experienced phantom pain, prosthetic use and walking distance. The occurrence of phantom pain was defined as phantom pain a few times a day or more frequently. Results: Pre- and postoperative questionnaires were available filled in by 85 amputees (33 females and 52 males). The percentage of lower limb amputees with phantom pain was the highest at six months after amputation, and of upper limb amputees at 1½ years. In general, more women than men experienced phantom pain. One and a half years and 2½ years after amputation the highest percentages of the lower limb amputees used their prosthesis more than 4 hours a day (66%), after that time this percentage decreased to 60%. The results of the two-level logistic regression analysis to predict phantom pain show that phantom pain was less frequently present in men (odds ratio (OR) = 0.12), in lower limb amputees (OR = 0.14) and that it decreased in due course (OR = 0.53 for 1 year). Conclusion: Protective factors for phantom pain are: being male, having a lower limb amputation and the time elapsed since amputation.
A novel combined first and second order Lagrange interpolation sampling process for a digital class D amplifier

In this paper, we propose a sampling process for low voltage (1.1V) power-critical low-distortion digital class D amplifiers. The sampling process combines first and second-order Lagrange interpolation techniques to effectively increase the sampling rate without the usual overheads. The computation is also simple. The complete class D amplifier features a very low power dissipation (58.8/spl mu/W), low total harmonic distortion (-85.6dB FS) and high signal-to-noise ratio (99dB FS). The power saving is /spl sim/21% and the THD is improved by 9.8dB FS compared to a design embodying only a first order sampling process. We also provide an analysis of the power dissipation of the load power.
[Functional-anatomic evaluation of dilated uropathies in children using combined MR-nephrography and MR-urography compared to renal scintigraphy].

PURPOSE To evaluate MR-tomographic assessment of split renal function and degree of obstruction compared to diuretic renal scintigraphy, and pathoanatomic imaging of the urinary tract as all in one exam. PATIENTS AND METHODS In a prospective study 62 children, aged 1 month to 9.5 years, mean 2.8 years, underwent diuretic renal scintigraphy and dynamic MR-Nephrography at the same day except for 7 patients with a time interval of 1 day. In all patients we did T2w (water-technique MR-Urography) additionally. RESULTS Comparing split renal function we found a very close correlation in 54 out of 62 patients (correlation coefficient = 0.95). Due to technical failures 8 cases couldn't be calculated. Comparing degrees of obstruction there was an agreement in 57 out of 62 patients, 3 studies were gradually over-, 2 underestimated. All but one morphologic diagnoses in advance obtained by ultrasound and completed by other imaging modalities later on were confirmed MR-urographically. Though correctly imaged the functionless upper moiety in a renal duplication with ureterocele was misinterpreted at a first glance. CONCLUSIONS Combined MR-Nephrography and MR- Urography allows reliable assessment of split renal function and urinary excretion in children with obstructive uropathies compared to renal scintigraphy. T(2)w MR-Urography provides excellent depiction of dilated urinary tract. In near future MR-tomographic techniques will reduce or even replace scintigraphic and radiographic modalities in patients with urinary tract anomalies.
Gross correlation between waist hip ratio and blood sugar level in a village.

INTRODUCTION Diabetes is one of the major public health problems in Nepal. Very few studies on correlation between waist hip ratio and random blood sugar have been done in remote areas of Nepal particularly in minor ethnic groups like Thami. This study attempted to compare waist hip ratio and blood sugar level in Thami community. METHODS This cross sectional study was conducted in sub-health post of Lapilang village of Dolakha district of Nepal. A total of 243 local inhabitants from Thami Tribe participated in the study. Waist hip ratio was calculated after taking measurements of waist and hip using flexible measuring tape; and, blood glucose level was measured by glucometer. RESULTS The mean age of the participants was 46.02 years; among participants 126 (51.9%) were males and 117 (48.1%) were females. Mean waist hip ratio was 0.87, mean blood sugar level was 124.5 mg%. Increase in Waist hip ratio correlated significantly with increase in random blood sugar level both in males (p=0.008) and females (p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS Increase in waist hip ratio is associated with increase in random blood sugar level. Therefore, there is a need of public awareness program to reduce waist circumference thus reducing weight of people to prevent development of diabetes mellitus in long run.
Relationship Between Buccolingual and Mesiodistal Tooth Diameters

The magnitude of the relationship between the mesiodistal and buccolingual crown diameters is of considerable theoretical importance. A high correlation would be suggestive of a single "size" factor that affects both dimensions, and a low correlation would indicate relative autonomy of factors that control the mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters, respectively. Furthermore one might expect different magnitudes of mediodistal and buccolingual correlations for anterior and cheek teeth. Therefore, such relationships have been examined in a sizable sample of Ohioborn subjects, largely of German, Scotch, English, or Irish derivation. Correlating mesiodistal with buccolingual crown diameters for 14 permanent teeth (Ii to M2, upper and lower) for males and females separately, it is clear that the two diameters are systematically and significantly related. As shown (Table), the interdimensional correlations average 0.55, slightly more in females than in males, and somewhat less for the lower teeth than for the upper teeth. From this best estimate of the true value of r, it would appear that approximately 26% of mesiodistal and buccolingual tooth size variance is determined by factors in common. It should be mentioned, however, that mesiodistal-buccolingual size correlations are systematically lower for the canines and central and lateral incisors than for the postcanine teeth. Moreover, there is a sex difference in the relative magnitudes of mesiodistal-buccolingual size correlations, such that, for the more distal tooth of each class, dimension correlations tend to be larger for the males (0.58) than for the females (0.53). From these studies, there emerges a new concept of crown size. Teeth that are larger mesio-
Effect of Lithium Disilicate Veneers of Different Thickness on the Degree of Conversion and Microhardness of a Light-Curing and a Dual-Curing Cement.

PURPOSE Various materials and systems for bonding lithium disilicate to the tooth substrate are available to clinicians, who can adapt the materials to each clinical situation to maximize the performance of indirect esthetic restorations. This study aimed to evaluate the degree of conversion (DC) and the microhardness (MH) of a dual-curing and a light-curing cement under lithium disilicate discs of different thicknesses. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 48 lithium disilicate (IPS e.max CAD, Ivoclar Vivadent) samples were prepared and divided into three groups (n = 16) according to the thickness (group A was 0.6 mm; group B was 1.0 mm; group C was 1.5 mm). Each group was further divided into two subgroups (n = 8) according to the resin cement employed, NX3 (Kerr) or Choice 2 (Bisco). A standardized quantity of cement was placed on the sample, and DC was evaluated with an attenuated total reflectance Fourier transformed infrared spectrophotometer (Nicolet IS10, Thermo Scientific). Twenty-four hours after DC was established, Vickers test was performed on the cement with a microindentometer (Leica Microsystems). Results were statistically analyzed with analysis of variance test and significance set at P < . 05. RESULTS Statistical analysis showed cement type had a significant influence (P = .005) on DC. MH results were influenced by thicknesses only between 0.6 and 1.5 mm when light-cured cement was employed. CONCLUSION The light-curing and the dual-curing cements reached comparable DCs between 0.6 and 1.5 mm. However, the light-curing resin showed a higher DC and MH.
Epidemiological survey on the relationship between different iodine intakes and the prevalence of hyperthyroidism.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of different levels of iodine intake on the prevalence of hyperthyroidism and the impact of universal salt iodization on the incidence of hyperthyroidism. DESIGN A comparative cross-sectional and longitudinal survey was conducted in three areas with borderline iodine deficiency, mild iodine excess (previously mild iodine deficiency) and severe iodine excess. Universal salt iodization had been introduced 3 years previously except in the area with borderline iodine deficiency. METHODS In total 16 287 inhabitants from three areas answered a questionnaire concerning the history of thyroid disease. Among them 3761 unselected subjects received further investigations including thyroid function, thyroid autoantibodies, thyroid ultrasonography and urinary iodine excretion. RESULTS Among areas with median urinary iodine excretion of 103 microg/l, 375 microg/l and 615 microg/l (P<0.05), the prevalence of hyperthyroidism did not differ significantly (1.6%, 2% and 1.2%). The prevalence of subclinical hyperthyroidism was higher in areas with borderline iodine deficiency and mild iodine excess than in the area with severe excess iodine intake (3.7%, 3.9% and 1.1%, P<0.001). The prevalence of Graves' disease and its proportion in hyperthyroidism did not differ among areas. The incidence of hyperthyroidism did not significantly increase after the introduction of universal salt iodization. CONCLUSION Different iodine intakes under a certain range do not affect the prevalence and type of hyperthyroidism. Subclinical hyperthyroidism is more prevalent in the iodine deficient area than in the severe iodine excessive area. In the area with mild iodine deficiency, the introduction of universal salt iodization may not be accompanied by an increased incidence of hyperthyroidism.
Erythroid Suppressor Cells Compromise Neonatal Immune Response against Bordetella pertussis

Newborns are highly susceptible to infection. The underlying mechanism of neonatal infection susceptibility has generally been associated with neonatal immune cell immaturity. In this study, we challenged this notion and built upon our recent discovery that neonates are physiologically enriched with erythroid TER119+CD71+ cells (Elahi et al. 2013. Nature 504: 158–162). We have used Bordetella pertussis, a common neonatal respiratory tract infection, as a proof of concept to investigate the role of these cells in newborns. We found that CD71+ cells have distinctive immune-suppressive properties and suppress innate immune responses against B. pertussis infection. CD71+ cell ablation unleashed innate immune response and restored resistance to B. pertussis infection. In contrast, adoptive transfer of neonatal CD71+ cells into adult recipients impaired their innate immune response to B. pertussis infection. Enhanced innate immune response to B. pertussis was characterized by increased production of protective cytokines IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-12, as well as recruitment of NK cells, CD11b+, and CD11c+ cells in the lung. Neonatal and human cord blood CD71+ cells express arginase II, and this enzymatic activity inhibits phagocytosis of B. pertussis in vitro. Thus, our study challenges the notion that neonatal infection susceptibility is due to immune cell–intrinsic defects and instead highlights active immune suppression mediated by abundant CD71+ cells in the newborn. Our findings provide additional support for the novel theme in neonatal immunology that immunosuppression is essential to dampen robust immune responses in the neonate. We anticipate that our results will spark renewed investigation in modulating the function of these cells and developing novel strategies for enhancing host defense to infections in newborns.
Exploring Asymmetric Encoder-Decoder Structure for Context-based Sentence Representation Learning

Context information plays an important role in human language understanding, and it is also useful for machines to learn vector representations of language. In this paper, we explore an asymmetric encoder-decoder structure for unsupervised context-based sentence representation learning. As a result, we build an encoder-decoder architecture with an RNN encoder and a CNN decoder, and we show that neither an autoregressive decoder nor an RNN decoder is required. We further combine a suite of effective designs to significantly improve model efficiency while also achieving better performance. Our model is trained on two different large unlabeled corpora, and in both cases transferability is evaluated on a set of downstream language understanding tasks. We empirically show that our model is simple and fast while producing rich sentence representations that excel in downstream tasks.
Embedding Senses via Dictionary Bootstrapping

This paper addresses the problem of embedding senses of a plain word according to its context. Natural language is inherently ambiguous, due to the presence of many multi-sensed words. Such ambiguity might have undesirable inﬂuence over many text-mining tools, including word embedding. Traditional word embedding techniques have focused on identifying which words tend to co-occur with one another in order to derive close embeddings for such words. However, the effectiveness of this approach is largely susceptible to the validity and neutrality of the training corpus. To address this problem, we propose to use the dictionary as the authoritative corpus for computing the word embeddings. The basic idea is to simultaneously embed the deﬁnition sentence while disambiguating words. Since dictionaries list a set of disambiguated senses, the proposed procedure yields sense embeddings which exhibit semantic characteristics comparable to plain word embeddings.
Influence of Surface Conditioning Protocols on Reparability of CAD/CAM Zirconia-reinforced Lithium Silicate Ceramic.

PURPOSE To test the effect of surface conditioning protocols on the reparability of CAD/CAM zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate ceramic compared to lithium-disilicate glass ceramic. MATERIALS AND METHODS Zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate ceramic (Vita Suprinity) and lithium disilicate glass-ceramic blocks (IPS e.max CAD) were categorized into four groups based on the surface conditioning protocol used. Group C: no treatment (control); group HF: 5% hydrofluoric acid etching for 60 s, silane (Monobond-S) application for 60 s, air drying; group HF-H: 5% HF acid etching for 60 s, application of silane for 60 s, air drying, application of Heliobond, light curing for 20 s; group CO: sandblasting with CoJet sand followed by silanization. Composite resin (Tetric EvoCeram) was built up into 4 x 6 x 3 mm blocks using teflon molds. All specimens were subjected to thermocycling (5000x, 5°C to 55°C). The microtensile bond strength test was employed at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min. SEM was employed for evaluation of all the debonded microbars, the failure type was categorized as either adhesive (failure at adhesive layer), cohesive (failure at ceramic or composite resin), or mixed (failure between adhesive layer and substrate). Two-way ANOVA and the Tukey's HSD post-hoc test were applied to test for significant differences in bond strength values in relation to different materials and surface pretreatment (p < 0.05). RESULTS The highest microtensile repair bond strength for Vita Suprinity was reported in group CO (33.1 ± 2.4 MPa) and the lowest in group HF (27.4 ± 4.4 MPa). Regarding IPS e.max CAD, group CO showed the highest (30.5 ± 4.9 MPa) and HF the lowest microtensile bond strength (22.4 ± 5.7 MPa). Groups HF, HF-H, and CO showed statistically significant differences in terms of all ceramic types used (p < 0.05). The control group showed exclusively adhesive failures, while in HF, HF-H, and CO groups, mixed failures were predominant. CONCLUSIONS Repair bond strength to zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate ceramics and lithium-disilicate glass ceramic could be improved when ceramic surfaces are sandblasted with CoJet sand followed by silanization.