Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lipid-lowering activity of Cow urine ark in guinea pigs fed with a high cholesterol diet

Objectives: Cow urine ark (CUA), known as “Amrita” as mentioned in Ayurveda, contains‎ anti-hyperglycemic and antioxidant effects. Therefore, we designed the present study to evaluate the lipid ‎lowering activity of CUA and its possible implication in metabolic syndrome. ‎ Materials and Methods: Thirty guinea pigs of either sex were divided into five groups: Group 1 and 2 serving as a vehicle ‎and sham control, received normal and high fat diet for 60 days respectively; Group 3, 4 and 5 ‎received high fat diet for 60 days with CUA 0.8 ml/kg, 1.6 ml/kg and rosuvastatin (1.5 mg/kg) on the‎last 30 days of study period, respectively. Serum lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-‎C, VLDL-C, HDL-C, total Cholesterol/HDL-C) and serum enzymes (ALT, AST, ALP, LDH and CK-MB) ‎were performed in each group at the beginning and end of the study. Histological study of liver and ‎kidney was done in each group. Results: CUA (0.8 ml/kg) significantly decreased the serum triglycerides and VLDL-C, but CUA (1.6 ml/kg) ‎decreased the total serum Cholesterol, triglycerides and VLDL-C (p < 0.05). Higher dose (1.6 ml/kg) of ‎CUA also increased HDL-C level, significantly (p < 0.05). CUA reduced serum AST, ALP and LDH ‎level, which was statistically significant as well, while it also decreased the accumulation of lipid in hepatocytes as ‎compared to sham control. ‎ Conclusions: CUA reduced triglycerides, increased HDL-C and found to be hepatoprotective in ‎animals that are on a high fat diet.
Profil Keterampilan Argumentasi Ilmiah Mahasiswa Pendidikan Biologi FKIP UNS Pada Mata Kuliah Anatomi Tumbuhan

Lemahnya argumentasi ilmiah mahasiswa dalam pembelajaran telah banyak menjadi perhatian, terutama dalam hal mengevaluasi dan mengkonstrak permasalahan dan solusinya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana profil keterampilan argumentasi ilmiah mahasiswa pada mata kuliah Anatomi Tumbuhan. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif untuk mendapatkan gambaran keterampilan argumentasi mahasiswa semester 3 di Prodi Pendidikan Biologi FKIP UNS melalui tugas tertulis yang diberikan. Penilaian argumentasi mahasiswa mengacu pada Toulmin’s Argumentation Pattern (TAP) yang memuat komponen claim, evidence, reasoning dan rebuttal . Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kemampuan argumentasi ilmiah mahasiswa Pendidikan Biologi FKIP UNS masih tergolong rendah, dibuktikan dengan skor rerata claim sebesar 52%, evidence sebesar 42%, reasoning sebesar 15% dan rebuttal sebesar 10%. Temuan ini akan dijadikan dasar bagi penelitian lanjutan mengenai model dan strategi pembelajaran inovatif yang dapat meningkatkan kemampuan argumentasi dan penalaran ilmiah terutama bagi calon guru biologi. Keywords: argumentasi ilmiah, Toulmin’s Argumentation Pattern
Personality Characteristics of Parkinson's Disease

The 18 patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease were individually administered the Rorschach test. They showed less Dd%, more S%, more FC, and slightly more M responses than Japanese normal adults. These findings suggest the following personality characteristics of Parkinsonians: they are reserved, self-reliant, over-control emotionality in their inner lives, and like going their own ways. They have good common sense.
Complications of ventilation tube insertion in children with and without cleft palate: a nested case-control comparison.

IMPORTANCE Optimizing hearing in patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) by early recognition and management of otitis media with effusion is essential for speech development. Some evidence has suggested higher complication rates from ventilation tube (VT) insertion in patients with CLP and has led to a trend not to treat these patients surgically. However, studies have failed to match comparison groups for age and sex. OBJECTIVE To compare complication rates from VT insertion in pediatric patients with and without CLP. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The study used a nested case-control design to evaluate 60 pediatric patients with CLP who underwent VT insertion at a children's hospital. The control group of age- and sex-matched patients was selected from a database of 2943 VT insertions. INTERVENTIONS All patients were administered general anesthesia and underwent VT insertion by a pediatric otorhinolaryngology (ENT) team. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcomes were numbers of otorrhea complications. Secondarily, rates of attendance at an ENT clinic specifically for complications were evaluated. Finally, numbers of complications other than otorrhea were assessed but not statistically analyzed owing to the varied types and low numbers in each group. RESULTS The control cohort had 151 documented cases of otorrhea compared with 121 in the CLP group (ratio 1.25:1); the difference between groups was not statistically significant (P = .52). There was no significant difference in mean ENT clinic visits per patient for complications between groups (0.80 in the CLP group, 0.78 for controls) (P = .66). Regarding complications other than otorrhea, the control group reported more than the CLP group (43 vs 25; ratio, 1.7:1). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Complication rates of VT placement among patients with CLP were not higher than those among patients without CLP. Therefore, treatment with VT insertion should be administered to patients with CLP under the same guidelines as for those without CLP. Indeed, there could be an argument for a shift in practice toward more aggressive treatment of patients with CLP, who are already vulnerable to speech and social developmental delay.
Holistic Conditionalization and Underminable Perceptual Learning

Seeing a red hat can (i) increase my credence in the hat is red , and (ii) introduce a negative dependence between that proposition and potential undermining defeaters such as the light is red . The rigidity of Je ↵ rey Conditionalization makes this awkward, as rigidity preserves independence. The picture is less awkward given ‘Holistic Conditionalization’, or so it is claimed. I defend Je ↵ rey Conditionalization’s consistency with underminable perceptual learning and its superiority to Holistic Conditionalization, arguing that the latter is merely a special case of the former, is itself rigid, and is committed to implausible accounts of perceptual conﬁrmation and of undermining defeat.
Glucose response during craniotomy: propofol-remifentanil versus isoflurane-remifentanil.

BACKGROUND Major surgery is associated with a stress response. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of isoflurane or propofol, both supplemented with remifentanil, on the glucose, cortisol and insulin-based stress responses prospectively. METHODS Forty patients undergoing craniotomy randomly received either 1% isoflurane (Group I, N.=20) or propofol 6 mg kg h(-1) (Group P, N.=20) during remifentanil-based (0.125 μg kg min(-1)) anesthesia. Blood glucose was recorded preoperatively, after induction, intubation and pin placement, before and after skin incision, craniotomy, dura incision, 15th, 30th, 60th, 90th, 120th, 150th, 180th min post-dura incision, following dura and skin closure, extubation and at the 1st and 24th postoperative hours. Insulin and cortisol were measured preoperatively, after intubation, dura incision, at the 60th min, extubation and at the 1st and 24th hour postoperatively. The glucose/insulin ratio and glycemic stress index were calculated after all the measurements were obtained. RESULTS Patient characteristics were comparable in both groups. Blood glucose significantly decreased after induction in comparison to the baseline value in both groups. Blood glucose was significantly higher in Group I than Group P before skin incision, after craniotomy and dura incision and at all measurement time points after the 60th minute following dura incision. There was a significant alteration with time in insulin values in both groups and the insulin values at the 60th min were significantly lower in Group I than in Group P. There was not any difference in the inter-group analysis of cortisol; however, there was a significant change over time in the insulin values in both groups. There was no difference in the intra-group glucose/insulin ratio, however, there was a significant difference between groups at the 60th min and at extubation. The Glycemic Stress Index was comparable between groups (Group I vs. Group P: 2.48±1.15 vs. 2.15±0.86, P=0.465). CONCLUSION Isoflurane and propofol, both combined with remifentanil, provided clinically comparable cortisol and insulin responses to surgery in craniotomy operations, whereas propofol attenuated the increase in plasma blood glucose.
A CMOS photosensor array for 3D imaging using pulsed laser

A 32×2 pixel optical time of flight range sensor in standard 0.5 μm CMOS acquires up to 20k BD-images/s combines CDS, S&H, multiple double short time integration, a high-speed synchronous shutter, and a phase synchronizer enabling exposures <30 ns with <5.2 W/m/sup 2/ NEP. This CMOS imager chip for 3D imaging applications contains a photodiode array and the aforementioned features enable optical TOF measurements of laser pulses reflected from a target. The 42 mm/sup 2/ chip dissipates 330 mW.
Identification of etoposide glucuronide as a major metabolite of etoposide in the rat and rabbit.

Isolated livers from male Sprague-Dawley rats were perfused at 20 ml/min for 3 h at 37 degrees C with 100 ml of an oxygenated, recirculating solution of 20% rat blood in Krebs bicarbonate buffer containing 20 micrograms/ml [3H]etoposide. Ninety % of administered radioactivity was eliminated in bile over a 3-h collection period. The clearance of etoposide was 3.56 ml/min indicating that, in the rat, it is not highly extracted. Its clearance is, therefore, independent of hepatic blood flow. Etoposide was both excreted into the bile and metabolized by the liver. Perfusate and bile samples analyzed by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography techniques were found to contain three peaks of radioactivity. Positive and negative ion fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry identified the first two peaks as etoposide glucuronides and the third peak as parent drug. Following the i.v. administration of etoposide to rabbits, etoposide glucuronide was also identified in rabbit urine. The recovery of etoposide both from rabbit urine and rat bile was increased by preincubation with glucuronidase. However, the glucuronides were relatively resistant to the action of glucuronidase and showed varying sensitivity to the type of glucuronidase and the reaction conditions used. These studies document the presence of etoposide glucuronide as an etoposide metabolite in two mammalian species and suggest that previous clinical studies using beta-glucuronidase to quantitate glucuronide formation may have underestimated this metabolite due to its relative resistance to some glucuronidase preparations.
A Rare Association of Congenital Asplenia with Jejunal Arteriovenous Malformation

Patient: Male, 21 Final Diagnosis: AVM intestinal bleeding Symptoms: Melena Medication: — Clinical Procedure: EGD/colonoscopy/enteroscopy Specialty: Gastroenterology and Hepatology Objective: Congenital defects/diseases Background: Isolated congenital asplenia is a poorly understood and rare form of primary immunodeficiency, often associated with life-threatening infections. Case Report: We encountered a unique case of a 22-year-old asplenic male who presented with severe iron-deficiency anemia secondary to occult gastrointestinal bleeding since age 15. Our extensive work-up confirmed jejunal arteriovenous malformations as the source of the bleed. Six months after the treatment, the patient has reported no further episodes of gastrointestinal bleeding and his hemoglobin has remained stable. Conclusions: A comprehensive literature review confirmed that this is the first reported case of adult congenital asplenia associated with arteriovenous malformation in the United States. The relationship of isolated congenital asplenia and arteriovenous malformation-associated bleeding remains unknown at this time; we postulate that this may be a congenital syndrome on its own. Obscure bleeding in the presence of rare anomalies such as asplenia should be investigated as one of the important causes of unexplained intestinal arteriovenous malformations.
Symptoms of depression among blacks and whites.

OBJECTIVES We sought to examine relationships between sociodemographic indicators of risk and depression symptoms within the Black and White populations. METHODS In a national probability sample, differences in sex, age, marital status, religion, social class, employment status, urbanicity, and region were evaluated against a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale score of 16 or greater. Risk factors were identified within the two populations and compared between them. RESULTS For both races, females were at greater risk for depression than males, and respondents who were formerly married or separated were at greater risk than those who were currently married. Major differences in patterns of risk were also found between the races. Blacks who were 30 to 39 years of age, belonged to non-Western religious groups, and lived in the West were at greater risk than comparable Whites. Blacks who were widowed, members of the middle and lower-middle class, and unemployed were at less risk. CONCLUSIONS Similarities and differences in patterns of risk were evident. The nature of the differences suggests important divergence in sociocultural and economic experience.
TICK INFESTATIONS OF WHITE-TAILED DEER IN ALABAMA

Four species of ticks were collected from 537 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), examined during the hunting seasons (November to January) of 1988–89 and 1989–90 at selected locations in Alabama (USA). Ixodes scapularis was the most common tick recovered (2,060 specimens) and infested 54% of the deer. Dermacentor albipictus was the second most frequent tick (1,253 specimens) and infested 15% of the deer. Amblyomma americanum was the third most frequent tick (315 specimens) and infested 24% of the deer; this was the only species of tick collected from deer at all sampling locations. Amblyomma maculatum was an infrequent parasite (five specimens) and infested only 1% of the deer; this tick species was only recorded during the 1989–90 season. Year-to-year and geographical differences in tick infestation parameters were noted. The data are compared with those reported for previous surveys of ticks infesting white-tailed deer in Alabama and adjacent states.
Development of a Real-Time PCR Assay for Detecting and Quantifying Human Bocavirus 2

ABSTRACT Human bocavirus 2 (HBoV2) is a parvovirus that has been recently identified in stool samples from children. Any association between the virus and clinical disease is unclear. A rapid, reliable diagnostic method is necessary to address this issue. In this study, we developed a sensitive and specific HBoV2 quantitative real-time PCR assay that targets the HBoV2 NP-1 gene, based on the TaqMan method. The assay could reproducibly detect 10 copies of a recombinant DNA plasmid containing a partial region of the HBoV2 genome, with a dynamic range of 8 log units (101 to 108 copies). A clinical evaluation detected HBoV2 in 85 (24.6%) of 345 children with gastroenteritis, with viral loads ranging from 1.67 × 102 to 4.27 × 109 copies per ml of stool specimen.
Macroscopic oropharyngeal signs indicating impaired defensive function of palatine tonsils in adults suffering from recurrent tonsillitis

The present study explored in adults suffering from recurrent tonsillitis the association between macroscopic oropharyngeal signs of recurrent inflammation, immunomorphology of palatine tonsils (counts of neutrophils by CD4 and macrophages by CD68 monoclonal antibodies in tonsillar microcompartments) and the occurrence of post‐tonsillectomy bacteremia. The study involved 50 adults (31 females and 19 males) with recurrent tonsillitis. According to predominance of either inflammatory changes or evidence of sclerotic process in palatine tonsils and surrounding tissue macroscopic at oropharyngeal examination, the patients were divided into groups with ‘inflammatory‐type’ and ‘sclerotic‐type’ tonsils. Biochemically detected mean collagen content was significantly higher in ‘sclerotic‐type’ tonsils than in ‘inflammatory‐type’ tonsils (p=0.001). Post‐tonsillectomy bacteremia was found in 22 patients (44%). A noteworthy finding was the higher recovery of anaerobes from blood cultures than in previous studies. A logistic regression analysis revealed that the post‐tonsillectomy bacteremia was strongly associated with ‘sclerotic‐type’ tonsils (p=0.0015) and with low counts of neutrophils in tonsillar tissue (p=0.047). We conclude that macroscopic oropharyngeal signs of sclerotic process in palatine tonsils indicate impaired tonsillar defense, in terms of lowered counts of neutrophils, increasing the risk of post‐tonsillectomy bacteremia.
The Effect of the Photoperiod and Exogenous Melatonin on the Protein Content in Sheep Milk

© 2012 Molik et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Effect of the Photoperiod and Exogenous Melatonin on the Protein Content in Sheep Milk
Error-robust coding and transformation of compressed hybered hybrid video streams for packet-switched wireless networks

This dissertation considers packet-switched wireless networks for transmission of variable-rate layered hybrid video streams. Target applications are video streaming and broadcasting services. The work can be divided into two main parts.In the first part, a novel quality-scalable scheme based on coefficient refinement and encoder quality constraints is developed as a possible extension to the video coding standard H.264. After a technical introduction to the coding tools of H.264 with the main focus on error resilience features, various quality scalability schemes in previous research are reviewed. Based on this discussion, an encoder decoder framework is designed for an arbitrary number of quality layers, hereby also enabling region-of-interest coding. After that, the performance of the new system is exhaustively tested, showing that the bit rate increase typically encountered with scalable hybrid coding schemes is, for certain coding parameters, only small to moderate. The double- and triple-layer constellations of the framework are shown to perform superior to other systems.The second part considers layered code streams as generated by the scheme of the first part. Various error propagation issues in hybrid streams are discussed, which leads to the definition of a decoder quality constraint and a segmentation of the code stream to transmit. A packetization scheme based on successive source rate consumption is drafted, followed by the formulation of the channel code rate optimization problem for an optimum assignment of available codes to the channel packets. Proper MSE-based error metrics are derived, incorporating the properties of the source signal, a terminate-on-error decoding strategy, error concealment, inter-packet dependencies, and the channel conditions. The Viterbi algorithm is presented as a low-complexity solution to the optimization problem, showing a great adaptivity of the joint source channel coding scheme to the channel conditions. An almost constant image qualiity is achieved, also in mismatch situations, while the overall channel code rate decreases only as little as necessary as the channel quality deteriorates. It is further shown that the variance of code distributions is only small, and that the codes are assigned irregularly to all channel packets.A double-layer constellation of the framework clearly outperforms other schemes with a substantial margin. Keywords — Digital lossy video compression, visual communication, variable bit rate (VBR), SNR scalability, layered image processing, quality layer, hybrid code stream, predictive coding, progressive bit stream, joint source channel coding, fidelity constraint, channel error robustness, resilience, concealment, packet-switched, mobile and wireless ATM, noisy transmission, packet loss, binary symmetric channel, streaming, broadcasting, satellite and radio links, H.264, MPEG-4 AVC, Viterbi, trellis, unequal error protection
Parental influences do matter!

Parental rearing behaviour is important because of its determinant relevance for attachment and, by implication, its later influence on personality development and mental health (1,2). For example, Franz et al. (3) demonstrated that over a period of 36 years, the children of warm, affectionate fathers, and boys with warm mothers and less stressful childhood years were more likely to be well adjusted adults who, at the age of 41 years, were mentally healthy, coping adequately, and psychosocially mature. In addition, Livianos-Aldana and Rojo-Moreno (4) have, in this issue of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, briefly summarized several of the psychiatric conditions that have been linked with atypical parental upbringing. Yet some researchers have still attempted to downplay the role of parenting by noting that the cross-sectional associations between parental rearing factors on the one hand and psychological (states and) traits on the other are extremely small, ranging from 0.09 to 0.30 in absolute magnitude, and thus accounting for only about 1-9% of the variance in adult trait scores (5 , p.109). On the basis of findings such as these, McCrae and Costa ( 5 ) concluded, among other things, that parents fail to have any influence on their children, and that such low values of r2 would sound the death knell for the part played by parents. However, this belittling of parental influences is unjustified as it is based on at least two misconceptions. First, Rosenthal and Rubin (6) have shown that a Pearson r of, for example, 0.32 associated with an r2 of only 10% was the correlational equivalent of increasing a success rate from 34% to 66% by means of an experimental treatment procedure. For instance, these values could mean that a death rate under the control condition is 66%, but that it is only 34% under the experimental condition. Rosenthal and Rubin noted that it is absurd to label even as ‘modest’ (McCrae and Costa used the term ‘extremely small’) an effect size equivalent to increasing the success rate of a treatment from 34% to 66%. Thus, the reliance on what r2 reflects can be highly misleading.
Expression and prognostic significance of microRNA-451 in human epithelial ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE MicroRNA-451 has been proved to be downregulated in many human malignancies and correlated with tumor progression. However, its expression and clinical significance in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is still unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of miR-451 in EOC tumorigenesis and development. MATERIALS AND METHODS The expression levels of miR-451 were quantified by qRT-PCR in 115 EOC and 34 normal ovarian tissues, and correlated with clinicopathological factors and prognosis. MTT, flow cytometric assay, and transwell invasion assay were used to test the proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion of SKOV-3 EOC cells transfected with miR-451 mimics or negative control (NC) RNA-oligonucleotides. RESULTS MiR-451 expression was significantly downregulated in EOC compared with normal ovarian tissues. Low level of miR-451 was associated with advanced FIGO stage (p = 0.005), higher serum CA125 expression level (p = 0.005), and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.002). Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified decreased miR-451 expression as an independent factor predicting poor prognosis for EOC patients. In addition, transfection of miR-451 mimics in SKOV-3 was able to reduce cell proliferation, promote cell apoptosis, and inhibit cell invasion. CONCLUSIONS miR-451 may act not only as a novel diagnostic and prognostic marker, but also as a potential target for molecular therapy of EOC.