Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcranial magnetic stimulation techniques in clinical investigation

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique that can activate cortical motor areas and the corticospinal tract without causing the subject discomfort. Since TMS was introduced, numerous applications of the technique have been developed for the evaluation of neurologic diseases. Standard TMS applications (central motor conduction time, threshold and amplitude of motor evoked potentials) allow the evaluation of motor conduction in the CNS. Conduction studies provide specific information in neurologic conditions characterized by clinical and subclinical upper motor neuron involvement. In addition, they have proved useful in monitoring motor abnormalities and the recovery of motor function. TMS also gives information on the pathophysiology of the processes underlying the various clinical conditions. More complex TMS applications (paired-pulse stimulation, silent period, ipsilateral silent period, input-output curve, and evaluation of central fatigue) allow investigation into the mechanisms of diseases causing changes in the excitability of cortical motor areas. These techniques are also useful in monitoring the effects of neurotrophic drugs on cortical activity. TMS applications have an important place among the investigative tools to study patients with motor disorders.
Cyclophilin A, TRIM5, and Resistance to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection

Upon entry of a retrovirus into the cytoplasm of a permissive cell, a viral protein, reverse transcriptase, generates cDNA using viral genomic RNA as template. In a subsequent but also essential step in the retroviral replication cycle, the nascent viral cDNA is ligated to chromosomal DNA by another viral protein, integrase, establishing the provirus. Retroviral infection is thus mutagenic to the host. One highly publicized illustration of the potential for retroviruses to disrupt host gene expression involved activation of the LMO2 proto-oncogene by proximal integration of a vector in a gene therapy trial for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (33). Aside from altering host gene expression, retroviruses such as human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) may cause pathology by transducing toxic genes (24). In addition to the genes encoding structural proteins and enzymes, which are themselves toxic to host cells, HIV-1 possesses six accessory genes that exhibit wide-ranging effects on cell physiology. Despite immune responses that decrease HIV-1 viremia after acute infection and appear to limit viral pathology for a decade, HIV-1 ultimately kills the host, most likely via complex effects involving all nine of the transduced viral genes. Given the potent effects of retrotransposition on biology and evolution, it is not hard to imagine that susceptible host organisms would elaborate factors that block reverse transcription or any of the steps that lead to integration. Several such factors have been identified and have been discussed previously in a comprehensive fashion (7, 31). This review will focus on how, in the course of efforts to identify retroviral inhibitory factors, cyclophilin A (CypA) was discovered to be an HIV-1 CA-binding protein. It will then describe how the characterization of the HIV-1 CA-CypA interaction revealed TRIM5 to be a potent antiretroviral restriction factor. Finally, it will present our current understanding of the mechanism of retroviral inhibition by TRIM5 and explain how CypA modulates retroviral restriction activity.
Detecting Curve Text in the Wild: New Dataset and New Solution

Scene text detection has been made great progress in recent years. The detection manners are evolving from axis-aligned rectangle to rotated rectangle and further to quadrangle. However, current datasets contain very little curve text, which can be widely observed in scene images such as signboard, product name and so on. To raise the concerns of reading curve text in the wild, in this paper, we construct a curve text dataset named CTW1500, which includes over 10k text annotations in 1,500 images (1000 for training and 500 for testing). Based on this dataset, we pioneering propose a polygon based curve text detector (CTD) which can directly detect curve text without empirical combination. Moreover, by seamlessly integrating the recurrent transverse and longitudinal offset connection (TLOC), the proposed method can be end-to-end trainable to learn the inherent connection among the position offsets. This allows the CTD to explore context information instead of predicting points independently, resulting in more smooth and accurate detection. We also propose two simple but effective post-processing methods named non-polygon suppress (NPS) and polygonal non-maximum suppression (PNMS) to further improve the detection accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed approach in this paper is designed in an universal manner, which can also be trained with rectangular or quadrilateral bounding boxes without extra efforts. Experimental results on CTW-1500 demonstrate our method with only a light backbone can outperform state-of-the-art methods with a large margin. By evaluating only in the curve or non-curve subset, the CTD + TLOC can still achieve the best results. Code is available at this https URL
Intrinsic Josephson effects in high-Tc superconductors.

We have investigated the coupling between ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{2}$ layers in high-${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}$ superconductors by direct measurements of all dc and ac Josephson effects with current flow in the c-axis direction. The measurements have been performed on small single crystals of ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}$${\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2}$${\mathrm{O}}_{8}$, (${\mathrm{Pb}}_{\mathit{y}}$${\mathrm{Bi}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{y}}$${)}_{2}$${\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}$${\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2}$${\mathrm{O}}_{8}$, ${\mathrm{Tl}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Ca}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}$${\mathrm{O}}_{10}$, and ${\mathrm{YBa}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}$${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$ and on a-axis-oriented ${\mathrm{YBa}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}$${\mathrm{O}}_{7}$ thin films. The results clearly show that all materials behave like stacks of superconductor-insulator-superconductor Josephson junctions. The current-voltage characteristics exhibit large hystereses and multiple branches, which can be explained by a series connection of highly capacitive junctions. From the modulation of the critical current in a magnetic field parallel to the layers, we infer a junction thickness of approximately 15 \AA{}. In our microwave emission experiments we were able to prove explicitly that every pair of ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{2}$ double or triple layers forms a working Josephson contact. An exception is ${\mathrm{YBa}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}$${\mathrm{O}}_{7}$, where only flux-flow behavior has been observed.
Practical implementation of defect-oriented testing for a mixed-signal class-D amplifier

This paper describes the flow of defect-oriented testing from beginning to end, based on the industrial test development for a commercial mixed-signal class-D amplifier. A software tool called DOTSS (Defect-Oriented Test Simulation System) was used to perform the fault simulations. The greatest benefit of using defect-oriented testing turns out to be that it gives more insight in the underlying fault mechanisms. This information can be used to generate complementary tests or to take design-for-testability measures to achieve a high fault coverage.
Identification of a regulatory function for an orphan receptor in muscle: COUP-TF II affects the expression of the myoD gene family during myogenesis.

COUP-TF II is an 'orphan steroid receptor' that binds a wide variety of AGGTCA repeats and represses thyroid hormone (T3) and retinoid dependent trans-activation; however, very little is known of its functional and/or developmental role during mammalian cell differentiation. T3 and retinoids have been demonstrated to promote terminal muscle differentiation via activation of the muscle specific myoD gene family (myoD, myogenin, myf-5 and MRF-4). The myoD gene family can direct the fate of mesodermal cell lineages, repress proliferation, activate differentiation and the contractile phenotype. Hence, we investigated the expression and functional role of COUP-TF II during muscle differentiation. Proliferating C2C12 myoblasts expressed COUP-TF II mRNA which was repressed when cells were induced to differentiate into post-mitotic multinucleated myotubes by serum withdrawal. Concomitant with the decrease of COUP-TF II mRNA was the appearance of muscle specific mRNAs (e.g. myogenin, alpha-actin). We show that Escherichia coli expressed full length and truncated COUP-TF II bound in a sequence specific manner to the T3 response elements (TREs) in the myoD and myogenin regulatory HLH genes [Olson (1992) Dev. Biol. 154, 261-272]; and the TRE in the skeletal alpha-actin contractile protein gene. COUP-TF II diminished the homodimeric binding of the thyroid hormone receptor and the heterodimeric binding of thyroid hormone and retinoid X receptor complexes to these TREs. Constitutive over-expression of COUP-TF II cDNA in mouse C2C12 myogenic cells suppressed the levels of myoD mRNA and blocked the induction of myogenin mRNA, whereas constitutive expression of anti-sense COUP-TF II cDNA significantly increased the steady state levels of myoD mRNA and hyper-induced myogenin mRNA. These studies demonstrate for the first time (i) that COUP-TF II, functions as a physiologically relevant antagonistic regulator of myogenesis via direct effects on the myoD gene family and (ii) direct evidence for the developmental role of COUP-TF II during mammalian cell differentiation.
Situation Awareness

The construct of situation awareness (SA) and Endsley’s 1995 model of SA are considered in the context of the history of the struggle to determine the role of matter (situations) and mind (awareness) for both basic and applied cognitive science. This struggle is framed in terms of two alternative views of the underlying semiotic system. The dyadic view puts the focus on structures of mind. This view leads to a dualistic ontology in which mind and matter tend to be considered as two distinctive systems. The triadic view puts the focus on mind as a means for adapting to the functional demands of situations. This view leads to a monist ontology whereby mind and matter interact as a single system shaping human experience. As a result of Endsley’s model, today the debate is framed in terms of SA.
Functional morphology in the pages of the AJPA.

“Functional morphology,” in its broadest sense, is simply the study of relationships between biological form and its functions. “Function” can include many different aspects of an organism’s biological adaptations, but in this context, and as most often used in physical anthropology, I will concentrate on mechanical function. There is a very long history of interest in the mechanical significance of anatomical variation (Galilei, 1638). Engineering principles were applied to the human skeleton by anatomists and orthopedic surgeons in the 1800s, most famously by Wolff (1892), whose name became associated with the concept of bone functional adaptation (i.e., “Wolff’s Law”), despite many problems with the original formulation of the concept (Ruff, Holt, & Trinkaus, 2006). Comparative anatomists and anthropologists were aware of this work (Keith, 1918; Morton, 1924). However, the actual application of mechanical principles to the interpretation of extant and fossil humans and other primates was relatively rare during the early history of physical anthropology. Today, functional morphological studies make up a significant and expanding component of research in our field, due to many conceptual and technical advances over the past 100 years, particularly during the past 50 years. In this article, I review these developments, focusing in particular on the role of the AJPA as an outlet for encouraging and presenting new research in this area.
Learning from the past: young Indigenous people's accounts of blood-borne viral and sexually transmitted infections as resilience narratives

The Indigenous Resilience Project is an Australian community-based participatory research project using qualitative methods to explore young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's views of blood-borne viral and sexually transmitted infections (BBV/STI) affecting their communities. In this paper we present an analysis of narratives from young people who had a previous BBV/STI diagnosis to explore how they actively negotiate the experience of BBV/STI infection to construct a classic resilience narrative. We examine two overarching themes: first, the context of infection and diagnosis, including ignorance of STI/BBV prior to infection/diagnosis and, second, turning points and transformations in the form of insights, behaviours, roles and agency. Responding to critical writing on resilience theory, we argue that providing situated accounts of adversity from the perspectives of young Indigenous people prioritises their subjective understandings and challenges normative definitions of resilience.
STEREOLOGICAL ESTIMATION OF ITO CELLS FROM RAT LIVER USING THE OPTICAL FRACTIONATOR - A PRELIMINARY REPORT

In the last two decades, much light has been shed on hepatic fibrosis, and the activation / proliferation of Ito cells (IC) emerged to play a central role. Therefore, it is essential to have solid quantitative data in nonpathological statuses; yet, this data is scarce and confined to "number per area" or semiquantitative information. Moreover, the supposed heterogeneous distribution of IC in the hepatic lobule was never analysed with design-based (unbiased) stereology. In the present study, the total number (N) of IC in rat liver was estimated for the first time, by combining immunocytochemistry with the optical fractionator. Quantification was extended to the hepatocytes, to disclose the IC index, an often-used ratio in hepatology. Systematic uniform random liver sections were obtained from male Wistar rats (n = 3), and immunostained against glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a known specific marker for hepatic IC. For the first time, these were marked against GFAP in thick (30 µm) paraffin sections. The estimated N of IC was 224E 06 ; with a coefficient of error of 0.04 or 0.06, depending on the particular equation used (based on the so-called "quadratic approximation"). The IC index was 91 IC/1000 hepatocytes. Concerning the lobular heterogeneity, it was proved the liver harbours a larger total number of periportal IC and hepatocytes.
Analysis of HLA antigens on germ cells in human semen

Nucleated cells other than sperm (NCOS) were isolated from human semen by centrifugation on a Ficoll density gradient. Using tissue‐specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb) > 99% of the NCOS were found to be sperm cell precursors (SpP). These cells were tested for the expression of class I and II (DR, DP and DQ) HLA antigens by using specific mAb. The anti‐HLA class I and II and anti‐β2‐microglobulin mAb reacted with < 1% of the NCOS. This was demonstrated by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy and fluorescence‐activated cell sorter analysis. These results were similar to those obtained from testing germ cells in frozen sections of normal adult testis using the same panel of mAb. In mixed lymphocyte‐NCOS cultures, the SpP failed to stimulate allogeneic lymphocytes even when different concentrations of cells were used. These results indicate little or no expression of HLA class I and II including the HLA‐D (T cell‐defined) determinant on the SpP, a phenomenon which could be of biological importance.
Isolation and Molecular Identification of Two Fungal Strains Capable of Degrading Hydrocarbon Contaminants on Saudi Arabian Environment

In the vicinity of red sea about 15 fungi species were isolated from oil contaminated sites. On the basis of aptitude to degrade the crude oil and DCPIP assay, two fungal isolates were selected amongst 15 oil degrading strains. Analysis of ITS-1, ITS-2 and amplicon pyrosequencing studies of fungal diversity revealed that these strains belong to Penicillium and Aspergillus species. Two strains that proved to be the most efficient in degrading crude oil was Aspergillus niger (54%) and Penicillium commune (48%) Subsequent to two weeks of cultivation in BHS medium the degradation rate were recorded by using spectrophotometer and GC-MS. Hence, it is cleared that these fungal strains has capability of degradation and can be utilize for cleaning the Saudi Arabian environment. Keywords—Fungal strains, hydrocarbon contaminants, molecular identification, biodegradation, GC-MS.
Spread of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci: Why Did It Happen in the United States?

Abstract The question of why vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) became epidemic in the United States can be answered on at least three basic levels: (1) molecular and genetic, (2) factors affecting host-microbe interactions, and (3) epidemiological. This article will address the epidemiological issues and seek to defend the assertion that, once VRE had evolved, its spread throughout hospitals in the United States was all but assured. Nosocomial VRE outbreaks were reported first in the mid- and late-1980s. Since that time, scientific reports of VRE have increased over 20-fold. Among hospitals participating in the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System from 1989 to 1997, the percentage of enterococci reported as resistant to vancomycin increased from 0.4% to 23.2% in intensive-care settings and from 0.3% to 15.4% in non-intensive-care settings. Factors leading to the spread of VRE in US hospitals include (1) antimicrobial pressure, (2) sub-optimal clinical laboratory recognition and reporting, (3) unrecognized “silent” carriage and prolonged fecal carriage, (4) environmental contamination and survival, (5) intrahospital and interhospital transfer of colonized patients, (6) introduction of unrecognized carriers from community settings such as nursing homes, and (7) inadequate compliance with hand washing and barrier precautions. Guidelines developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee address each of these factors. The impact of these guidelines on the spread of VRE within individual institutions has been variable, and the overall impact of the guidelines nationally is unknown.
THE INFLUENCE OF ANTIEPILEPTIC POLYTHERAPY AND VAGUS NERVE STIMULATION ON SLEEP IN PATIENTS WITH DRUG RESISTANT EPILEPSY

I ABSTRACT NEDERLANDS . II LIST OF FIGURES . III LIST OF TABLES . III LIST OF ACRONYMS . IV INTRODUCTION . 1 1. Relationship epilepsy sleep . 1 2. Normal sleep-patterns in non-epilepsy patients and neural mechanisms involved in sleep . 3 2.1. Normal sleep patterns . 3 2.2. Neural mechanisms involved in sleep . 5 3. Epilepsy . 6 METHODOLOGY . 6 1. Study description . 6 2. Selection criteria for articles . 7 3. Search strategy . 7 4. Pubmed . 8 5. Database Ghent University . 10 RESULTS . 10 1. Sleep EEG in epilepsy patients . 10 2. Sleep disorders in epilepsy patients . 13 3. Diagnostic evaluation of sleepiness in patients with epilepsy . 15 4. Drug resistant epilepsy . 16 5. VNS implantation . 17 6. The treatment of epilepsy with VNS . 20 7. Drug resistant epilepsy – AED and their effect on sleep in this patient population . 23 8. Influence of AED on sleep in patients with (drug resistant) epilepsy . 27 9. Overview most commonly used AEDs and their effect on sleep in epilepsy patients . 29 9.1. Benzodiazepines (BDZ) . 29 9.2. Phenobarbital (PBT) . 30 9.3. Ethosuximide (ETX) . 30 9.4. Phenytoin (PHT) . 30 9.5. Carbamazepine (CBZ) . 30 9.6. Valproic Acid (VPA) . 31 9.7. Felbamate (FBM) . 31 9.8. Lamotrigine (LTG) . 31 9.9. Levetiracetam (LEV) . 32 9.10. Zonisamide (ZNS) . 33 9.11. Topiramate (TPM) . 33 9.12. Gabapentin (GBP) . 34 9.13. Pregabaline (PGB) . 35 9.14. Tiagabine (TGB) . 35 9.15. Vigabatrin (VGB) . 35 9.16. Lacosamide (LCM) . 36 9.17. Oxacarbazepine (OXC) . 36 9.18. Perampanel (PPN) . 36 10. Effects of VNS on respiration during sleep in drug resistant epilepsy patients . 36 11. VNS reduces daytime sleepiness in drug resistant non-OSAS epilepsy patients . 39 12. Effects of chronic VNS on sleep structure . 42 DISCUSSION . 45 CONCLUSION . 48 REFERENCES . 49
Measurement of single breath‐hold carbon monoxide diffusing capacity in healthy infants and toddlers

We describe a method for measuring carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) and alveolar volume (VA) in sleeping infants, using a single 4‐sec breath‐hold technique. The breath‐hold maneuver is obtained by inducing a respiratory pause of the respiratory system. Several inflations of the respiratory system with room air to a lung volume with an airway pressure of 30 cmH2O (V30) inhibit inspiratory effort. The respiratory system is then inflated with a test gas containing helium and a stable isotope of carbon monoxide (C18O), and a respiratory pause is maintained for 4 sec and followed by passive expiration to functional residual capacity. Concentrations of helium and C18O are continuously measured with a mass spectrometer. Twelve healthy infants between 6–22 months of age were evaluated. For 9 of 12 subjects, duplicate measurements of alveolar volume at 30 cmH2O (VA30) and DLCO were within 10%, which are the recommendations for older children and adults. Among these 9 subjects, values of VA30 and DLCO increased with increasing body length (r2 = 0.82 and 0.79, respectively). The remaining 3 subjects had two values within 10–15%. Measurement of VA and DLCO with the single breath‐hold technique at an elevated lung volume offers the potential to assess growth and development of the lung parenchyma early in life. Pediatr Pulmonol. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Vitiligo management strategy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as reported by dermatologists and experienced by patients

Background: Vitiligo patients repeatedly experience disinterest from the medical world regarding their disease as it does not cause physical impairment. Several therapeutic options are available for vitiligo management. Objectives: The aim is to study vitiligo management strategy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (KSA) as indicated by dermatologists and as experienced by patients. Methods: A written questionnaire was distributed to 132 dermatologists practicing in Jeddah, KSA. Another questionnaire was filled by 186 vitiligo patients attending dermatology outpatient clinic Al-Jedaani Hospital. Results: For 76% of the participating dermatologists in Jeddah, KSA, vitiligo is not a pure cosmetic problem and 69% of the participating dermatologists encourage vitiligo treatment (acknowledged by 65% of patients). The main therapy was topical steroids and narrowband ultraviolet-B (NB-UVB) therapy in vitiligo focalis and vulgaris, respectively, for both children and adults. Of the participating patients, 51%, 57%, and 21% of patients reported getting adequate information from their first dermatologists about the disease name, treatment options, and prognosis, respectively. There is a significant correlation between ever receiving treatment and awareness of the exact diagnosis (p < 0.01), awareness of treatment options (p < 0.05) and treatment encouragement (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Dermatologists in Jeddah, KSA, are enthusiastic about vitiligo management; however, still some patients feel discouraged and misinformed. The study demonstrates the need for national evidence-based guidelines reflecting unique features of patients in this community.