Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Recovery After Acoustic Neuroma Resection

In order to determine which variables influence recovery from acoustic neuroma resection, acutely postoperative patients were divided into two groups and treated twice daily at bedside as inpatients at a tertiary care center. Treatment times were increased gradually from 5 to 30 min. Exercise subjects underwent passive and active head movements and walking with augmented head movements. Control subjects received attention without exercise. Pre- and post-tests included vertigo intensity and frequency, low-frequency vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), posturography and path integration. Post-tests were given at discharge and at , 4-week intervals for 3 months. Multilevel statistical analyses showed that neither group assignment nor age affected the outcome. All measures were abnormal at discharge but improved towards normal within 3 weeks. VOR on the unoperated side returned to normal values but on the lesioned side did not. Therefore, compensation is influenced by tumor size but not by age or early postoperative vestibular rehabilitation. Most compensation occurs within 3 weeks, probably due to central mechanisms, although some measures may not recover completely.
Relationship between Problematic Internet Use and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms among Students Following the Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea

We investigated the association between problematic internet use (PIU) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in children and adolescents in South Korea. A cross-sectional survey was administered to community students who attended primary, secondary, and high schools in the Jindo area 1–2.5 months after the Sewol ferry disaster. Of the 1,744 respondents, 392 students who were exposed to the disaster, witnessing the rescue work directly, were evaluated. PTSD symptoms were measured using the University of California Los Angeles Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (UCLA PTSD-RI). The severity of impairment caused by excessive internet use was evaluated using Young's Internet Addiction Test. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and State Anxiety Inventory for Children (SAIC) were also used. Logistic regression analysis revealed that PIU was significantly and independently associated with a high level of PTSD symptoms. Our findings suggest that children and adolescents with PIU require intensive follow-up and special care to prevent the development of PTSD symptoms following a disaster.
Synthesis and characterization of some abundant nanoparticles, their antimicrobial and enzyme inhibition activity.

Although the antimicrobial activity of the engineered nanoparticles (NPs) is well known, the biochemical mechanisms underlying this activity are not clearly understood. Therefore, four NPs with the highest global production, namely SiO2, TiO2, ZnO, and Ag, were synthesized and characterized. The synthesized SiO2, TiO2, ZnO, and Ag NPs exhibit an average size of 11.12, 13.4, 35, and 50 nm, respectively. The antimicrobial activity of the synthesized NPs against bacteria and fungi were also determined. NPs-mediated inhibition of two very important enzymes, namely urease and DNA polymerase, is also reported. The synthesized NPs especially Ag and ZnO show significant antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus even at low concentration. The DNA polymerase activity was inhibited at a very low concentration range of 2-4 µg/ml, whereas the urease activity was inhibited at a high concentration range of 50-100 µg/ml. Based on their ability to inhibit the urease and DNA polymerase, NPs can be arranged in the following order: Ag > ZnO > SiO2 > TiO2 and Ag > SiO2 > ZnO > TiO2, respectively. As the synthesized NPs inhibit bacterial growth and suppress the activity of urease and DNA polymerase, the use of these NPs to control pathogens is proposed.
Environmental determination of selective significance or neutrality of amylase variants in Drosophila melanogaster.

Strains homozygous at the amylase locus were derived from a polymorphic laboratory population of Drosophila melanogaster. The Amy4,6 strain has higher enzyme activity than Amy1 strain. -Maltose has the same nutritional value as starch. - The effect of starch in pure culture depends on the yeast level. At low yeast level increasing starch increases survival, at high yeast level increasing starch increases mean dry weight. The strains do not differ in survival or mean dry weight in pure culture. --In mixed cultures at 50% input of Amy4,6 and Amy1 as larvae the percentage Amy4,6 in adults is present with increasing maltose at low yeast levels in mixed culture. The increase in percentage Amy4,6 with increasing starch must be due to selection on the amylase locus working by competition for food in the larval stage. The single locus selection coefficient is determined by the environment and can reach quite high values. --Viability selection in the presence of starch is in the direction indicated by the enzyme activities.
Produtividade de híbridos de milho em região de fronteira agrícola no nordeste do Maranhão

O Maranhao e um estado onde a agricultura tecnificada esta em rapida expansao e que possui excelente potencial para desenvolvimento do agronegocio e para a exportacao de produtos agricolas. No entanto, ainda e escassa a realizacao de pesquisas na regiao, incluindo pesquisas com a cultura do milho. Esse fato levou a realizacao deste trabalho, visando avaliar a produtividade de hibridos modernos de milho. Assim, 42 hibridos foram avaliados no ano de 2008 em dois locais (Anapurus e Brejo), em regiao de fronteira agricola no nordeste do Estado do Maranhao. O rendimento medio foi de 5.593 kg ha-1 na analise conjunta, 5.097 kg ha-1 em Anapurus e 6.089 kg ha -1 em Brejo, demonstrando excelente potencial regional para o cultivo do milho. Foram significativas as diferencas entre hibridos e entre locais, sendo possivel encontrar hibridos com rendimento acima de 8.000 kg ha-1, quando maximizadas as variaveis ambiente e cultivar. No entanto, nao ocorreu interacao significativa entre hibridos e locais. Na media, os hibridos simples sao superiores aos triplos e duplos e os hibridos triplos, superiores aos duplos, apesar de a diferenca nem sempre ser estatisticamente significativa
Executive functioning of complicated-mild to moderate traumatic brain injury patients with frontal contusions

ABSTRACT Executive dysfunctions are among the most prevalent neurobehavioral sequelae of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Using culturally validated tests from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS: Trail Making, Verbal Fluency, Design Fluency, Sorting, Twenty Questions, and Tower) and the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS: Rule Shift Cards, Key Search, and Modified Six Elements), the current study was the first to examine executive functioning in a group of Iranian TBI patients with focal frontal contusions. Compared with a demographically matched normative sample, the frontal contusion patients showed substantial impairments, with very large effect sizes (p ≤ .003, 1.56 < d < 3.12), on all the executive measures. Controlling for respective lower-level/fundamental conditions, the differences on the highest-level executive (cognitive switching) conditions were still significant. The frontal patients also committed more errors. Patients with lateral prefrontal (LPFC) contusions were qualitatively worst. For example, only the LPFC patients committed perseverative repetition errors. Altogether, our results support the notion that the frontal lobes, specifically the lateral prefrontal regions, play a critical role in cognitive executive functioning, over and above the contributions of respective lower-level cognitive abilities. The results provide clinical evidence for validity of the cross-culturally adapted versions of the tests.
The proportion of intensive care unit admissions related to alcohol use: a prospective cohort study

Background: Alcohol abuse is a risk factor for serious illnesses, and a history of chronic alcohol abuse adversely affects the outcome of critically ill patients. It is not known what proportion of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions is related to alcohol use. Therefore, we investigated the proportion of emergency admissions related to alcohol.
Continuity within primary palliative care: an audit of general practice out-of-hours co-operatives.

BACKGROUND The transfer of information between general practitioners (GPs) and their out-of-hours providers on vulnerable patient groups is essential to ensure continuity of care. This will be critical when, in 2006, NHS Direct will triage and route all out-of-hours calls. This study investigates the current use of information handover systems for palliative care patients within four out-of-hours co-operatives. METHODS Paper records of all 13,460 contacts during August 2002 were scrutinized. Using a standardized data extraction form we recorded details on all palliative or terminal contacts, and the existence of information handover. RESULTS Across the four co-operatives, 2.1 per cent of all calls were from palliative care patients; co-operatives held handover information for between one (1.2 per cent) and 13 (32.5 per cent) of these patients. CONCLUSION The systems in place to alert these co-operatives to the needs of palliative care patients are currently under-utilized. As services move towards an integrated approach, scrutiny of information transfer systems and encouragement of GPs and district nurses to update information, may help to ensure better continuity of care
Local role of Ca2+ in formation of veils in growth cones

A previous study that used high-resolution video (VEC-DIC) microscopy to examine axonal growth cones of Aplysia giant neurons growing in culture had demonstrated that growth occurs by the extension of veils of membrane between filopodia and the subsequent morphological transformation of these veils, in place, into the swollen, organelle- filled central region of the growth cone and then into the cylindrical axon. The possible involvement of Ca2+ in this sequence of events was now examined using VEC-DIC microscopy. Reduction of [Ca2+]o from the normal level of 11 to 1.3 mM or below or the addition of 20 mM Co2+, which blocks Ca2+ channels, caused a large decrease in the area of immature veil (flat and with few organelles) in the growth cone within minutes. Ba2+, 20 mM, which flows well through Ca2+ channels, and 5 microM A23187, a Ca2+ ionophore, caused new immature veil to form in the presence of reduced [Ca2+]o. Maturation of veil into central region was not inhibited by reduced [Ca2+]o. In fact, the disappearance of immature veil was often the result partly, or entirely, of continued veil maturation in the absence of formation of new veil. The next step in maturation, conversion of the central region to cylindrical axon, was also probably not inhibited by reduced [Ca2+]o. Ca2+ was microapplied to large growth cones that had lost their veils by exposure to reduced [Ca2+]o. There was a strong tendency for the first, or only, incidence of veil formation to occur near the micropipette, the rest of the perimeter of the growth cone remaining quiescent. It is concluded that intracellular Ca2+ plays a role in veil formation and that the site of the Ca2+-dependent step is close to the site of veil formation. If this step is exocytosis, veil forms where there is net addition of membrane. Whether a change in [Ca2+]i, rather than some other factor, normally directly triggers veil formation remains uncertain, but, if it does, then the site of formation, which will strongly influence the direction of axon growth, is probably determined by focal changes in [Ca2+]i within the growth cone.
The ALLHAT study: if you believe in evidence-based medicine, stick to it!

Let us start with the obvious: ALLHAT did not investigate initiation of treatment. In 90% of patients, ALLHAT evaluated the effect of ‘roll over’ from previous treatment to a well defined and, by design, restrictive treatment scheme; a scheme that excluded what is usually carried out in clinical medicine. Diuretics could not be combined with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and a calcium antagonist could not be added to the other two treatment regimens. How this relates to starting treatment, and what should be the next step when the first step fails, is beyond me. Nevertheless, it is predictable that the ALLHAT results will be neatly ensconced as the first mandatory step in future guidelines. I understand the economics of this, but not the science.
Optimizing the size of the sequence profiles to increase the accuracy of protein sequence alignments generated by profile-profile algorithms

MOTIVATION Profile-based protein homology detection algorithms are valuable tools in genome annotation and protein classification. By utilizing information present in the sequences of homologous proteins, profile-based methods are often able to detect extremely weak relationships between protein sequences, as evidenced by the large-scale benchmarking experiments such as CASP and LiveBench. RESULTS We study the relationship between the sensitivity of a profile-profile method and the size of the sequence profile, which is defined as the average number of different residue types observed at the profile's positions. We also demonstrate that improvements in the sensitivity of a profile-profile method can be made by incorporating a profile-dependent scoring scheme, such as position-specific background frequencies. The techniques presented in this article are implemented in an alignment algorithm UNI-FOLD. When tested against other well-established methods for fold recognition, UNI-FOLD shows increased sensitivity and specificity in detecting remote relationships between protein sequences. AVAILABILITY UNI-FOLD web server can be accessed at http://blackhawk.cs. uni.edu
Analytic Comparison Between X-Ray Fluorescence CT and K-Edge CT

X-ray fluorescence computed tomography (XFCT) and K-edge computed tomography (CT) are two important modalities to quantify a distribution of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in a small animal for preclinical studies. It is valuable to determine which modality is more efficient for a given application. In this paper, we report a theoretical analysis in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the two modalities, showing that there is a threshold of GNPs concentration such that XFCT has a better SNR than K-edge CT when GNPs concentration is less than this threshold, vice versa. Numerical tests are performed for XFCT and K-edge CT on two kinds of phantoms with multiple concentration levels and structural features. Experimental results illustrate that XFCT is superior to K-edge CT when contrast concentration is lower than 0.4% which coincides with the theoretical analysis.
Properties of a Soluble Nitrogenase in Azotobacter

A nitrogenase system that remains in the supernatant fluid after centrifuging for 3 hr at 180,000 × g can be extracted from Azotobacter vinelandii by osmotic lysis of the bacteria. This nitrogenase preparation is oxygen-labile and appears to be similar, though not identical, to that obtained from Clostridium pasteurianum. The particulate characteristic and oxygen stability of previously described preparations are likely due to the method of cell disruption, e.g., in the French pressure cell. The data support a nitrogenase model system in the intact cell in which oxygen-labile enzymes are protected from oxygen by the extensive internal membranous system which Azotobacter synthesize only when they fix nitrogen.
Prevalence of Congenital Heart Diseases in Patients with Orofacial Clefts: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND The reports on prevalence rates of congenital heart diseases (CHDs) in patients with orofacial clefts (OFCs) have varied widely. OBJECTIVE To systematically review the prevalence rates of CHDs in patients with OFCs. MATERIAL AND METHOD A computer search was conducted through the PubMed from 1950 to June 2015 using key words or search terms of congenital heart diseases, orofacial clefts, cleft lip/palate and prevalence. RESULTS The search resulted in nine studies with 598 CHDs cases identified in 5,707 patients with OFCs. The prevalence of CHDs in patients with OFCs ranged from 3.9% to 23.9%. The five prospective studies had prevalence rates of 12.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 10.9 to 13.2) whilst the four retrospective studies had prevalence rates of 8.6% (95% CI: 7.5 to 9.8). Concerning the prospective studies, the newborn study had a higher prevalence than those of other childhood studies [23.9% vs. 11.5% (95% CI: 10.4 to 12.7)]. The newborn study with the use of echocardiography had a higher prevalence than those without using echocardiography (23.9% vs. 12.8%). Atrial septal defect was the most frequent CHD found. CONCLUSION CHD is commonly found in a patient with OFC. Echocardiography should be used to assess CHD in patients with OFCs.
Detection of Alzheimer's disease using group lasso SVM-based region selection

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most frequent forms of dementia and an increasing challenging public health problem. In the last two decades, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown potential in distinguishing patients with Alzheimer's disease and elderly controls (CN). To obtain AD-specific biomarkers, previous research used either statistical testing to find statistically significant different regions between the two clinical groups, or ℓ1 sparse learning to select isolated features in the image domain. In this paper, we propose a new framework that uses structural MRI to simultaneously distinguish the two clinical groups and find the bio-markers of AD, using a group lasso support vector machine (SVM). The group lasso term (mixed ℓ1- ℓ2 norm) introduces anatomical information from the image domain into the feature domain, such that the resulting set of selected voxels are more meaningful than the ℓ1 sparse SVM. Because of large inter-structure size variation, we introduce a group specific normalization factor to deal with the structure size bias. Experiments have been performed on a well-designed AD vs. CN dataset1 to validate our method. Comparing to the ℓ1 sparse SVM approach, our method achieved better classification performance and a more meaningful biomarker selection. When we vary the training set, the selected regions by our method were more stable than the ℓ1 sparse SVM. Classification experiments showed that our group normalization lead to higher classification accuracy with fewer selected regions than the non-normalized method. Comparing to the state-of-art AD vs. CN classification methods, our approach not only obtains a high accuracy with the same dataset, but more importantly, we simultaneously find the brain anatomies that are closely related to the disease.
Transcellular thiocyanate transport by human airway epithelia

Human airway mucosa synthesizes and secretes lactoperoxidase (LPO). As H2O2 and thiocyanate (SCN−) are also present, a functional LPO antibacterial defence system exists in the airways. SCN− concentrations in several epithelial secretions are higher than in serum, although the mechanisms of transepithelial transport and accumulation in these secretions are unknown. To examine SCN− accumulation in secretions, human airway epithelial cells, re‐differentiated at the air–liquid interface, were used in open‐circuit conditions. [14C]SCN−, in the basolateral medium, was transported across the epithelium and concentrated tenfold at the apical surface. Measurement of the transepithelial potential showed that the basolateral compartment was positive relative to the apical surface (13.7 ± 1.8 mV) and therefore unfavourable for passive movement of SCN−. Transport was dependent on basolateral [SCN−] and saturable (Km,app= 69 ± 25 μm); was inhibited by increased apical [SCN−]; and was dependent on the presence of basolateral Na+. Perchlorate (Ki,app= 0.6 ± 0.05 μm) and iodide (Ki,app= 9 ± 8 μm) in the basolateral medium reversibly inhibited transport, but furosemide did not. Iodide was also transported (Km,app= 111 ± 69 μm). RT‐PCR and immunohistochemistry confirmed expression of Na+−I− symporter (NIS) in the airways. SCN− transport was insensitive to apical disulphonic acid Cl− channel blockers, but sensitive to apical glibenclamide and arylaminobenzoates. Forskolin and dibutyryl cAMP increased transport. These data suggest SCN− transport may occur through basolateral NIS‐mediated SCN− concentration inside cells, followed by release through an apical channel, perhaps cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator.
Coverage and Political Accountability

In this paper we estimate the impact of press coverage on citizen knowledge, politicians’ actions, and policy. We find that a poor fit between newspaper markets and political districts reduces press coverage of politics. We use variation in this fit due to redistricting to identify the effects of reduced coverage. Exploring the links in the causal chain of media effects — voter information, politicians’ actions and policy — we find statistically significant and substantively important effects. Voters living in areas with less coverage of their U.S. House representative are less likely to recall their represenative’s name, and less able to describe and rate them. Congressmen who are less covered by the local press work less for their constituencies: they are less likely to stand witness before congressional hearings, to serve on constituency-oriented committees (perhaps), and to vote against the party line. Finally, this congressional behavior affects policy. Federal spending is lower in areas where there is less press coverage of the local members of congress. ∗Department of Political Science and Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. email: millett@mit.edu †Institute for International Economic Studies, Stocholm University. email: david.stromberg@iies.su. se
El efecto de la desigualdad y el acceso al crédito sobre la acumulación de capital humano

La acumulacion de capital humano es reconocida como uno de los principales factores de crecimiento economico de los paises en el largo plazo. Una rama de esta literatura se ha centrado en demostrar la relacion existente entre los mercados financieros, la desigualdad y la acumulacion de capital humano. De acuerdo con Galor y Zeira (1993), la desigualdad en el ingreso tiene efectos negativos de largo plazo sobre la inversion en el capital humano y, por ende, sobre el desarrollo economico, debido a las imperfecciones en los mercados de credito. Esta investigacion verifica empiricamente el efecto conjunto de la desigualdad en el ingreso y el acceso al credito sobre la acumulacion de capital humano en Colombia. En ella, se evidencia que la desigualdad tiene efectos negativos sobre la asistencia escolar; simultaneamente, una mayor presencia del sector financiero tiene efectos positivos sobre esta variable. En cuanto al efecto conjunto, se observa que el mayor acceso al sistema financiero contrarresta parcialmente los efectos negativos de la desigualdad. Estos resultados son mas fuertes en aquellos municipios con mayores grados de desigualdad en el ingreso.
A low-power self-timed Viterbi decoder

Viterbi decoders are used for decoding data encoded using convolutional forward error correction codes or data that suffers from inter-symbol interference. They occur in a large proportion of digital transmission and digital recording systems, including digital mobile telephony and digital TV broadcast, CD-ROM and magnetic disk reading. This paper describes a design for a self-timed Viterbi decoder The new design is based upon serial, unary arithmetic for the manipulation and storage of metrics. In the trace-back system, multiple concurrent trace-backs may be running and trace-backs are terminated as soon as they cease to be useful. The new architecture occupies between 29% and 23% less area than a selection of synchronous implementations with the same design parameters which use the same process and cell-library.