Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Purification and characterization of serotype 6 fimbriae from Bordetella pertussis and comparison of their properties with serotype 2 fimbriae

Fimbriae were removed from Bordetella pertussis (serotype 1.3.6) by mechanical shearing and purified by precipitation with ammonium sulfate, pH-dependent precipitation at pH 7.4, followed by two successive extractions of the precipitated fimbriae with 4 M urea. By electron microscopy, the precipitated fimbriae appeared as aggregated bundles of long, relatively straight filaments which were disaggregated to individual flexuous filaments at pH 10.5. These purified fimbriae were identified as serotype 6 agglutinogens, since antibody to the purified fimbriae agglutinated B. pertussis strains serotyped as 1.3.6, 1.2. 3.6, or 1.2. 3.4. 6 but did not agglutinate strains of serotype 1.2. 3.4, 1.2. 3, or 1.3. In contrast, antibody to serotype 2 fimbriae only agglutinated B. pertussis strains containing serotype 2 agglutinogen. Purified type 6 and 2 fimbriae were found to be weakly cross-reactive by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, using polyclonal antibody to each type of fimbria. In an immunoblot assay, polyclonal antibodies to a 22,000-dalton subunit of fimbriae from B. bronchiseptica reacted strongly with the type 2 fimbrial subunit of B. pertussis, but only weakly with the type 6 subunit. When subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the protein subunit of the type 6 fimbriae migrated with a molecular weight of 21,500, whereas the type 2 fimbrial subunit had a molecular weight of 22,000. The two types of subunits had similar amino acid compositions and showed amino-terminal sequence homology in 15 of 21 amino acids. The amino-terminal amino acid sequences of the B. pertussis fimbriae were distinct from those reported for fimbriae from other gram-negative bacteria. Neither the type 6 nor the type 2 fimbriae caused hemagglutination when assayed with several types of erythrocytes.
The relationship between numbers of larvae recovered from the brain of Toxocara canis-infected mice and social behaviour and anxiety in the host

The effect of the nematode Toxocara canis on social behaviour and anxiety levels of adult male outbred (LACA) mice was examined following infection with a single dose of 2000 ova. The actual number of larvae recovered from the brain of each individual mouse was determined after behavioural testing. The effect of the parasite on mouse behaviour was analysed by both the initial dose administered (i.e. infected versus control) and the degree of infection in the brain. There was substantial variation in the number of larvae recovered from the brains of the individual mice and the magnitude of behavioural change was associated with the level of infection. Examination of social behaviour for both analyses revealed that the infection reduced levels of aggressive behaviour and increased levels of flight and defensive behaviours. High infection in the brain induced the greatest degree of behavioural change which decreased in mice with lower infections. In contrast the analysis of anxiety levels in mice by initial dose administered revealed no difference between infected and control mice. Mice with low infection in the brain, however, displayed a greater level of risk behaviour by spending more time in the vicinity of a predator odour and in the light area of a light/dark paradigm than control or high infection mice. The results suggest that the behaviour of mice infected with T. canis is influenced by the number of larvae accumulated in the brain. This may have important consequences for the conclusions drawn on the effect of this parasite on murine behaviour.
A comparative study of McGrath and Airtraq videolaryngoscopes for tracheal intubation

Background and Aims: Many cases of difficult tracheal intubation remain unrecognized until after induction of anesthesia. McGrath and Airtraq videolaryngoscopes are among the novel laryngoscopes that have an advantage over the conventional laryngoscopes in case of unanticipated difficult airway. Thus, we did a comparative study between McGrath and Airtraq videolaryngoscopes to evaluate their efficacy in routine anesthesia practice. Material and Methods: Sixty anesthetized patients were divided into two groups using computer-based randomization, and tracheal intubation was performed using either McGrath or Airtraq laryngoscope. The primary outcome measures were duration and incidence of successful tracheal intubation. Hemodynamic response, glottic view (percentage of glottic opening score [POGO]), ease of intubation, and airway complications were also measured. Results: Both McGrath and Airtraq groups were comparable in terms of incidence of successful tracheal intubation (93.3% vs. 96.6%), ease of intubation (70% vs. 77%), and POGO scoring. Intubation time was significantly shorter with Airtraq (13.5 vs. 17.8 s; P < 0.001). There were statistically significant changes in the heart rate and blood pressure after tracheal intubation in both the groups (P < 0.001); however, these parameters reached baseline within 5 min of intubation in both the groups. The incidence of injury was 10% with McGrath videolaryngoscope and 13.3% with Airtraq and was comparable. Conclusion: Both Airtraq and McGrath videolaryngoscope have high success rates of intubation. Airtraq is better than McGrath laryngoscope due to shorter tracheal intubation time.
Burden of Illness in Screen-detected Children With Celiac Disease and Their Families

Objectives: Because of a variable clinical picture, most children with celiac disease remain unrecognized without active serologic screening. Because, however, many patients are asymptomatic, the justification for screening remains unclear. We assessed health and well-being and the effect of a 1-year gluten-free diet in a nationwide cohort of children with celiac disease detected by screening in at-risk groups. Methods: A total of 222 newly detected children received a validated questionnaire covering aspects of the burden caused by the undiagnosed celiac disease. After 1 year, adherence to the diet and difficulties attending this, attitudes toward and effects of disease and diet on daily life, and parents’ satisfaction with the diagnosis were inquired about. The children's health and parents’ concern for it were asked about at diagnosis and on treatment. The outcomes of screen-detected children were compared with those of children diagnosed on the basis of clinical symptoms. Results: Forty-three screen-detected and 88 symptom-detected children responded. Also, 65% of the screen-detected patients experienced symptoms; these, however, being less troublesome and of shorter duration than in symptom-detected subjects. There were no differences between the groups in dietary adherence (71% vs 84% strict diet), management of the diet (80% vs 80%), alleviation of symptoms (78% vs 86%), and improvement in daily life (73% vs 69%), or in satisfaction with the diagnosis (93% vs 88%). Improved health and reduced parental concern were observed in both groups. Conclusions: Screen-detected children with celiac disease can attain satisfactory dietary adherence and benefit from treatment similarly to symptom-detected patients. The results support intensified screening for celiac disease in at-risk children.
A New System for Severity Scoring of Facial Fractures: Development and Validation

Facial fractures are often the result of high-velocity trauma, causing skeletal disruption affecting multiple anatomic sites to varying degrees. Although several widely accepted classification systems exist, these are mostly region-specific and differ in the classification criteria used, making it impossible to uniformly and comprehensively document facial fracture patterns. Furthermore, a widely accepted system that is able to provide a final summary measure of fracture severity does not exist, making it difficult to investigate the epidemiologic data surrounding facial fracture severity. In this study, a comprehensive method for panfacial fracture documentation and severity measurement is proposed and validated through a retrospective analysis of 63 patients operated on for acute facial fracture. The severity scale was validated through statistical analysis of correlation with surrogate markers of severity (operating room procedure time and number of implants). Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated, and a statistically significant correlation was found between severity score and both number of implants and operating room procedure time (R = 0.92790 and R = 0.68157, respectively). Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess intrarater and interrater reliabilities of the severity scale and were found to be high (0.97 and 0.99, respectively). This severity scale provides a valuable, validated research tool for the investigation of facial fracture severity across patient populations, allowing for systematic evaluation of facial fracture outcomes, cost-benefit analysis, and objective analysis of the effect of specific interventions.
Corporate Asset Pricing Models and Debt Contracts

In the past decades financial markets rapidly gained on complexity due to an increased demand for risk diversification and hedging. A number of sophisticated instruments was developed that capture various aspects of price movements, correlations of assets, macro-economic developments, and other changes that might affect the future income generated by the considered securities. The pricing of these securities was not sufficiently accurate using the traditional asset pricing models. In the search for new methods two different approaches appeared. One stream of literature (called the reduced-form approach) focused on finding a purely mathematical way of asset pricing, without the effort of finding any economical intuition behind the models. In contrast, the other group of academics studied the firm and its evolution. These, so-called structural models have an intuitive connection to the underlying economics, and therefore they can be helpful in understanding the reasons of price movements. This work fits in the category of structural approaches.
Enhanced Compressibility of EEG Signal in Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is considered to be the most common and the fastest growing neurological disease in the world. Biomarker tools for early diagnosis and disease progression in AD remain key issues for clinical applications (patient's control and monitoring), sanitary systems (growth of prevalence of AD in the near future), and pharmaceutical companies (drug developments). Electroencephalogram (EEG) yields, in principle, a powerful and relatively cheap way for screening of dementia and AD in their early stages although not reaching the specificity prescribed for clinical use. Portable EEG systems based on wireless sensors can be used for unobtrusive long term monitoring provided they can solve technological problems (e.g., size and operational lifetime of batteries). Clinical applications require intensive recording of massive EEG data, raising the need for efficient, and flexible compression techniques. In this paper, this compression problem is viewed from a different perspective: is it possible to imagine a compressive sampling/sensing system that not only can reduce the throughput data but can also discriminate among brain states? If this is the case, it would be possible to distinguish among AD patients, mild cognitive impaired (MCI) subjects and normal healthy elderly. Accordingly, this paper investigates the performance of EEG compression techniques to recover data with the quality required by clinical constraints when making an assessment of the patients' status simultaneously. A sparsity coefficient is shown to be a good marker of AD being able to differentiate AD EEG from both MCI and healthy controls. The research, carried out on an experimental database, also compare the thresholding wavelet approach to the emerging method of compressive sensing. The results show the relationships between the compression ratio and the entropic measures of EEG complexity, whose reduction is considered the hallmark of AD onset.
Effects of Korean red ginseng extract on behavior in children with symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial.

UNLABELLED Abstract Objective: There is evidence that Korean red ginseng (KRG) can reduce the production of the adrenal corticosteroids, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and thus may be a viable treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial tested the effect of KRG on children with ADHD symptoms. METHODS Subjects 6-15 years, who satisfied the inclusion criteria and had ADHD symptoms, were randomized into a KRG group (n=33) or a control group (n=37). The KRG group received one pouch of KRG (1g KRG extract/pouch) twice a day, and the control group received one pouch of placebo twice a day. At the 8 week point, the primary outcomes were the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria for inattention and hyperactivity scale scores, which were measured at baseline and 8 weeks after starting treatment. Secondary outcomes were quantitative electroencephalography theta/beta ratio (QEEG TBR) (measured at baseline and week 8) and salivary cortisol and DHEA levels (measured at baseline and at 4 and 8 weeks). RESULTS The baseline characteristics of the KRG and control groups were not statistically different. The mean ages of the KRG and control groups were 10.94±2.26 and 10.86±2.41, respectively. The KRG group had significantly decreased inattention/hyperactivity scores compared with the control group at week 8 (least squared means of the differences in inattention adjusted for baseline scores: -2.25 vs. -1.24, p=0.048; hyperactivity: -1.53 vs. -0.61, p=0.047). The KRG group had significantly decreased QEEG TBR compared with the control group (least squared means of the differences: -0.94 vs. -0.14, p=0.001). However, neither the KRG group nor the control group exhibited significant differences in salivary cortisol or DHEA levels at week 8 compared with the baseline levels. No serious adverse events were reported in either group. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that KRG extract may be an effective and safe alternative treatment for children with inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms. Further studies to investigate the efficacy and safety of KRG are warranted.
Economic Benefit of Maximum Truck Weight Regulation Change for Estonian Forest Sector

Current paper is focused on analyzing the economic benefit of increasing maximum allowed truck weight for Estonian forest sector. It is producing economic benefits to the firms of forest sector in two broad areas. The change in truck weight limit regulation is causing the reduction of transportation costs for forest sector firms.Increase of the truck weight limit from current 44 up to 60 tonnes is going to reduce the share of transportation costs in roundwood material prices from 17.7% to 14.2%. Secondly, the growth of demand for roundwood as the result of decreasing transportation costs was determined. Using own and cross elasticities between road and rail transportation, the apparent domestic consumption is expected to grow in the range from 0.7-4.6 % depending on the change of regulation from 44 to 60 tonnes, whereas in the most probable situation (change from 52 to 60 tonnes) the growth in apparent domestic consumption is 0.3-1.1%.
Randomized Controlled Trial of Cryoanalgesia (Ice Bag) to Reduce Pain Associated With Arterial Puncture

BACKGROUND: Arterial puncture can be a painful procedure for many patients. This study investigates whether precooling of a puncture site with ice can reduce the pain associated with arterial puncture. METHODS: This was a stratified randomized controlled trial of a convenience sample of out-patients with a physician order for an arterial blood gas (ABG) test. The intervention group had a plastic bag of ice applied to their wrists for 3 min before drawing an ABG sample from the radial artery. The control group had an ABG sample drawn from the radial artery without the application of ice. Pain from the arterial puncture was measured with a 100-mm visual analog scale. RESULTS: Subjects pretreated with ice reported less pain from arterial puncture compared with subjects in the control group (mean visual analog scale 13.8 ± 16.9 vs 25 ± 23 mm, P = .01; median visual analog scale 7 mm, interquartile range (IQR) 1.5–19 vs 20 mm, IQR 4.5–38.5 mm, P = . 01). Stratified analysis showed that visual analog scale pain scores were lower in the naive group when ice was applied (naive ice vs naive control: mean visual analog scale 11 ± 14.3 vs 26.5 ± 25 mm, P = .02; median visual analog scale 5 mm, IQR 2–14.5 vs 20 mm, IQR 6.5–36 mm, P = .02). Visual analog scale pain scores trended lower in the experienced group when ice was applied (experienced ice vs experienced control: mean visual analog scale 15.9 ± 18.9 vs 25.1 ± 22 mm, P = .15; median visual analog scale 8 mm, IQR 0.5–26.5 vs 23 mm, IQR 3.5–40 mm, P = .08). There was no difference in first-attempt success between groups (ice group: 85%, control group: 82.5%, P > .99). Only 3 subjects could not tolerate 3-min ice application. CONCLUSIONS: Ice application before arterial puncture is well tolerated and reduces procedure-related pain. (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02065115).
Effect of Temperature on the Performance of

The tray/multi-tray distillation process is a topic that has been investigated to great detail over the last decade by many teams such as Jubran et al. [1], Adhikari et al. [2], Mowla et al. [3], Shatat et al. [4] and Fath [5] to name a few. A significant amount of work and effort was spent focusing on modeling and/simulation of specific distillation hardware designs. In this work, we have focused our efforts on investigating and gathering experimental data on several engineering and design variables to quantify their influence on the yield of the multi-tray distillation process. Our goals are to generate experimental performance data to bridge some existing gaps in the design, engineering, optimization and theoretical modeling aspects of the multi-tray distillation process. Keywords—Distillation, Desalination, Multi-Stage still, Solar Energy
Cleavage of Shigella surface protein VirG occurs at a specific site, but the secretion is not essential for intracellular spreading

The large plasmid-encoded outer membrane protein VirG (IcsA) of Shigella flexneri is essential for bacterial spreading by eliciting polar deposition of filamentous actin (F-actin) in the cytoplasm of epithelial cells. Recent studies have indicated that VirG is located at one pole on the surface of the bacterium and secreted into the culture supernatant and that in host cells it is localized along the length of the F-actin tail. The roles of these VirG phenotypes in bacterial spreading still remain to be elucidated. In this study, we examined the surface-exposed portion of the VirG protein by limited trypsin digestion of S. flexneri YSH6000 and determined the sites for VirG processing during secretion into the culture supernatant. Our results indicated that the 85-kDa amino-terminal portion of VirG is located on the external side of the outer membrane, while the 37-kDa carboxy-terminal portion is embedded in it. The VirG cleavage required for release of the 85-kDa protein into the culture supernatant occurred at the Arg-Arg bond at positions 758 to 759. VirG-specific cleavage was observed in Shigella species and enteroinvasive Escherichia coli, which requires an as yet unidentified protease activity governed by the virB gene on the large plasmid. To investigate whether the VirG-specific cleavage occurring in extracellular and intracellular bacteria is essential for VirG function in bacterial spreading, the Arg-Arg cleavage site was modified to an Arg-Asp or Asp-Asp bond. The virG mutants thus constructed were capable of unipolar deposition of VirG on the bacterial surface but were unable to cleave VirG under in vitro or in vivo conditions. However, these mutants were still capable of eliciting aggregation of F-actin at one pole, spreading into adjacent cells, and giving rise to a positive Sereny test. Therefore, the ability to cleave and secrete VirG in Shigella species is not a prerequisite for intracellular spreading.
The Global Financial Crisis in Comparative Perspective: Have Policy Makers “Learnt Their Lessons”?

ABSTRACT Have policy makers “learnt their lesson” from the global financial crisis that began in 2007? This article addresses this question by examining the regulatory responses to the global financial crisis in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Theoretically, the article is informed by an advocacy coalition approach to policy change and learning. Methodologically, it process-traces regulatory and supervisory changes in the selected jurisdictions, identifying the main coalitions at play, their belief systems, policy learning across coalitions and within coalitions, as well as the conditions that promoted or slowed down learning. Some of the findings can be generalised to other countries and policy areas.
Scale for assessing perceptual anomalies. Validation of a Spanish version of the SIAPA scale in a sample of Cuban schizophrenic patients.

INTRODUCTION Perceptual-attentional disorders other than hallucinations in schizophrenic patients have been studied little. In this work, the results of the Spanish version of the SIAPA scale to detect perceptual-attentional anomalies to real stimuli other than hallucinations in a sample of schizophrenic patients in a community study in Cuba are presented. METHODS 329 subjects were studied: 129 schizophrenic patients and 200 controls. Patients were diagnosed by psychiatrists according to DSM-IV criteria. The SIAPA and PANSS scales were used for the study. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was determined to analyze internal consistency. Reliability, validity of current criterion and structural validity were measured. Comparisons between groups were made using the ANOVA. RESULTS Schizophrenic patients had more perceptual anomalies than healthy controls. Auditory and visual perceptual anomalies were more frequent. The scale showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.84). Using a PANSS scale cut-off score of 60, validity had a sensitivity of 56 % and specificity of 79 %. All modalities of SIAPA scales showed good kappa coefficients (0.72-0.85). CONCLUSIONS This scale showed similar internal validity and test-retest reliability to those reported in the English version. The results showed that this scale can differentiate the presence of perceptual anomalies in schizophrenic patients from healthy controls. Therefore, we suggest that the SIAPA scale may be useful for assessing perceptual anomalies in clinical researching for cognitive impairment evaluations.