Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of single‐sample effective size estimators using empirical toad (Bufo calamita) population data: genetic compensation and population size‐genetic diversity correlations

The accuracy and precision of four single‐sample estimators of effective population size, Ne (heterozygote excess, linkage disequilibrium, Bayesian partial likelihood and sibship analysis) were compared using empirical data (microsatellite genotypes) from multiple natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) populations in Britain (n = 16) and elsewhere in Europe (n = 10). Census size data were available for the British populations. Because toads have overlapping generations, all of these methods estimated the number of effective breeders Nb rather than Ne. The heterozygote excess method only provided results, without confidence limits, for nine of the British populations. Linkage disequilibrium gave estimates for 10 British populations, but only six had finite confidence limits. The Bayesian and sibship methods both produced estimates with finite confidence limits for all the populations. Although the Bayesian method was the most precise, on most criteria (insensitivity to locus number, correlation with other effective and census size estimates and correlation with genetic diversity) the sibship method performed best. The results also provided evidence of genetic compensation in natterjack toads, and highlighted how the relationship between effective size and genetic diversity can vary as a function of geographical scale.
Tubular structures associated with acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis in young children

We clearly demonstrated a fine morphology of the tumbular structures antigenically related to the reovirus-like particles associated with acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis in young children. The tubular structures with a caplike structure on each end seemed to be complete forms, 75 to 80 nm in width and approximately 1,000 nm in length.
Impact of HIV seropositivity on graft and patient survival after cadaveric renal transplantation in the United States in the pre highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era: an historical cohort analysis of the United States Renal Data System

Abstract: Background.National statistics are presented for patient survival and graft survival in patients seropositive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV+) at the time of renal transplantation in the era prior to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Methods. Historical cohort analysis of 63, 210 cadaveric solitary renal transplant recipients with valid HIV serology entries in the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) from 1 January 1987 to 30 June 1997. The medical evidence form was also used for additional variables but, because of fewer available values, was analyzed in a separate model. Outcomes were patient characteristics and survival associated with HIV+ status. Results. Thirty‐two patients (0.05%) in the study period were HIV+ at transplant. HIV+ patients were comparable to the national renal transplant population in terms of gender and ethnic distribution but were younger and had younger donors and better HLA matching than the USRDS population. Patient and graft three‐year survival were significantly reduced in HIV+ recipients (53% graft, 83% patient survival) relative to the USRDS population (73% and 88%, respectively). In multivariate analysis, HIV+ status was independently associated with patient mortality and decreased graft survival in recipients of cadaveric kidney transplants. Conclusions. This analysis was retrospective and may underestimate the number of HIV+ patients transplanted in the United States. Although the clinical details of patient selection for transplant were unknown, these results show HIV+ patients can have successful outcomes after cadaveric renal transplantation, although outcomes are significantly different from HIV– recipients.
Robotic assembly operation based on task-level teaching in virtual reality

The authors propose a robot teaching interface which uses virtual reality. The teaching method provides a user interface with which a novice operator can easily direct a robot. The operator performs the assembly task in a virtual workspace generated by a computer. The operator's movements are recognized as robot task-level operations by using a finite automation. The system interprets the recognized operations into manipulator-level commands using task-dependent interpretation rules and a world model. A robot executes the assembly task in the workplace by replicating the operator's movements in the virtual workspace. <<ETX>>
Association of cholesterol subfractions and carotid lipid core measured by MRI.

To the Editor: A strong relationship exists between cholesterol and atherosclerosis,1 with low density lipoprotein (LDL) being a major risk factor.2 However, 50% of patients with acute coronary events have “normal” cholesterol, and 75% patients with premature coronary heart disease (CHD) have normal LDL.3 Thus, contribution of other lipoproteins has been explored. High density lipoprotein (HDL), comprised primarily of 2 subfractions, HDL2 (large buoyant) and HDL3 (small dense), has a protective role in CHD.4,5 LDL can be dense or buoyant, and dense LDL is highly atherogenic, associated with 4-fold increased CHD risk.6 Lipoproteina [Lp(a)], is a strong risk factor for CHD and stroke.7 MRI can noninvasively visualize arterial wall remodelling and atherosclerotic plaque components (lipid core, fibrous cap, and calcium). 8,9 However, in vivo relationships between plaque components and cholesterol subfractions have not been demonstrated in humans. We examined in vivo relationship between cholesterol subfractions and atherosclerotic plaque, measured by MRI, in internal carotid arteries (ICA) of atherosclerotic patients. This was an exploratory cross-sectional study of consecutively enrolled initial 28 patients who were part of an ongoing randomized trial testing the effects of extended release Niacin versus placebo station top of baseline therapy on carotid plaque regression, analyzed at baseline. All patients signed written informed consent and had documented atherosclerosis in …
A Pilot Study of Comprehensive Ultrasound Education at the Wayne State University School of Medicine

Objective. Ultrasound is a versatile diagnostic modality used in a variety of medical fields. Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) is one of the first medical schools in the United States to integrate an ultrasound curriculum through both basic science courses and clinical clerkships. Methods. In 2006, 25 portable ultrasound units were donated to WSUSOM. First‐year medical students were provided an ultrasound curriculum consisting of 6 organ‐system sessions that addressed the basics of ultrasound techniques, anatomy, and procedural skills. After the last session, students were administered 2 anonymous and voluntary evaluations. The first assessed their overall experience with the ultrasound curriculum, and the second assessed their technical skills in applying ultrasound techniques. Results. Eighty‐three percent of students agreed or strongly agreed that their experience with ultrasound education was positive. On the summative evaluation, nearly 91% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they would benefit from continued ultrasound education throughout their 4 years of medical school. Student performance on the technical assessment was also very positive, with mean class performance of 87%. Conclusions. As residency programs adopt ultrasound training, medical school faculty should consider incorporating ultrasound education into their curriculum. Portable ultrasound has the potential to be used in many different settings, including rural practice sites and sporting events. The WSUSOM committee's pilot ultrasound curriculum will continue to use student feedback to enhance the ultrasound experience, helping students prepare for challenges that they will face in the future.
Trichomoniasis in Men: Old Issues and New Data

Background and Objectives Trichomoniasis is common among sexually active women, but its importance as a cause of morbidity among sexually active men remains uncertain. Study Design The article outlines areas of controversy and presents pertinent new data from case-control and natural history studies. Results: Trichomonas vaginalis was documented in 11% of 447 men at risk for a sexually transmitted disease. Although 54% of infected men complained of urethral discharge, the discharge was only mild or moderately severe. Elimination of Trichomonas vaginalis was associated with resolution of urethritis. Conclusions: Trichomonas vaginalis is an important consideration in sexually active men with urethral symptoms or inflammation but with little or no evidence of discharge on physical examination.
AMEE Education Guide no. 28: The development and role of departments of medical education

A department of medical education is becoming an essential requirement for a medical school. This publication is intended for those wishing to establish or develop a medical education department. It may also prove useful to teachers in medicine by providing information on how such a department can support their activities. This will vary with the local context but the principles are generalizable. Medical education departments are established in response to increased public expectations relating to healthcare, societal trends towards increased accountability, educational developments, increased interest in what to teach and how to educate doctors and the need to train more doctors. The functions of a department of medical education include research, teaching, service provision and career development of the staff. The scope of its activities includes undergraduate and postgraduate education, continuing professional development and continuing medical education. These activities may be extended to other healthcare professions. Flexibility is the key to staffing a department of medical education. Various contractual arrangements, affiliations and support from non-affiliated personnel are needed to provide a multi-professional team with a range of expertise. The precise structure of the department will depend on the individual institution. The name of the department may suggest its position within the university structure. The director provides academic leadership for the department and his/her responsibilities include promotion of staff collaboration, fostering career development of the staff and establishing local, regional and international links. Financial support may come from external funding agencies, government or university sources. Some departments of medical education are financially self-supporting. The department should be closely integrated with the medical school. Support for the department from the dean is an essential factor for sustainability. Several case studies of medical education departments throughout the world are included as examples of the different roles and functions of a department of medical education.
Gene diversity in finite populations.

DNA sequence comparison among homologous genes sampled at random from one or two populations allows one to estimate the ultimate amount of genetic variation maintained in a population and to construct the gene genealogy within and between populations. Moreover, if we use the finding of the molecular clock (Zuckerkandl & Pauling, 1965), it is also possible to estimate the divergence time of populations examined. Such an estimated divergence time is, however, intricately affected by samples and stochastic forces occurring in the course of evolution. The net nucleotide differences, d, defined by Nei & Li (1979) is one of the most popular quantities in analysing DNA sequences and constructing the genealogy. To estimate the accuracy of the method of using d, Takahata & Nei (1985) studied the variance of d when an arbitrary number of genes are sampled from each of two populations. Their study shows that increasing the sample size generally reduces V(d), but the extent of which depends greatly on the levels of polymorphism: the more polymorphic, the more samples are required to reduce V(d). In addition, multiple samples take effect when closely related species are compared, but otherwise they do not make much difference to the accuracy of the method. There is an inevitable stochastic variance which cannot be removed by increasing the sample size, and they concluded that the only way to avoid this difficulty and obtain a reliable estimate of species divergence time is to use many independent (unlinked) genes. In this note, we are concerned with two homologous genes sampled at random each from a population. The results for a single population are included as a special case of the analysis described below. We here extend the previous work to the case where back and parallel mutations at a single site are incorporated. This mutation model makes clear the relationship among various models including the infinite-site model (Kimura, 1971) and the infinite allele model (Kimura & Crow, 1964). We study the distribution of nucleotide
Validation of Loop Parallelization and Loop Vectorization Transformations

Loop parallelization and loop vectorization of array-intensive programs are two common transformations applied by parallelizing compilers to convert a sequential program into a parallel program. Validation of such transformations carried out by untrusted compilers are extremely useful. This paper proposes a novel algorithm for construction of the dependence graph of the generated parallel programs. The transformations are then validated by checking equivalence of the dependence graphs of the original sequential program and the parallel program using a standard and fairly general algorithm reported elsewhere in the literature. The above equivalence checker still works even when the above parallelizing transformations are preceded by various enabling transformations except for loop collapsing which changes the dimensions of the arrays. To address the issue, the present work expands the scope of the checker to handle this special case by informing it of the correspondence between the index spaces of the corresponding arrays in the sequential and the parallel programs. The augmented algorithm is able to validate a large class of static affine programs. The proposed methods are implemented and tested against a set of available benchmark programs which are parallelized by the polyhedral auto-parallelizer LooPo and the auto-vectorizer Scout. During experiments, a bug of the compiler LooPo on loop parallelization has been detected.
Prostate Cancer Screening in a Large Corporation Population

The Polaroid Medical Department conducted a prostate cancer screening program of all male employees over the age of 49 years. The screening consisted of a World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaire, a digital rectal examination (DRE) by an occupational medicine doctor, and a serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) study. There were 2241 eligible employees (males between 50 and 65 years of age). 1219 (54 %) took part in the screening. Thirty-seven PSAs above the 3.9 level were found (3%) and were further evaluated with ultrasound and/or biopsy. Twelve previously unknown cancers of the prostate (1 %) were discovered. The cost of the entire program to the Polaroid Medical Department, including ultrasound and biopsy studies, was $72,130 ($6,012 per cancer detected). Of the 12 cancers, two were discovered by abnormal DEE alone, eight by an elevated PSA alone, and two by both an abnormal DRE and elevated PSA. There appeared to be no correlation between the WHO symptom score and the detection of prostate cancer. Our final conclusion was that a corporate medical department screening for cancer of the prostate is both effective and cost efficient.
Role of reinnervation in the management of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury: current state and advances

Purpose of review To present the current state of knowledge concerning different laryngeal reinnervation procedures for unilateral and bilateral vocal palsy. Recent findings Recent reports show positive outcomes on both unilateral and bilateral reinnervations. The phrenic nerve is the most commonly used donor for bilateral vocal palsy, but use of the superior laryngeal nerve has also been suggested. Summary Reinnervation of the larynx is a complex undertaking that can be performed by ENT surgeons with skills in microsurgery. Advances in this this field represent a paradigm shift in laryngeal rehabilitation and a prerequisite for laryngeal transplantation. Advances in basic understanding of nerve regeneration and in particular the need to surgically manage competitive reinnervation make the results of laryngeal reinnervation more predictable.
TEFRAS EMITIDAS DURANTE LA FASE INICIAL HIDROMAGMÁTICA (JULIO DE 2012) DEL CICLO ERUPTIVO 2012-ACTUAL (2016) DEL VOLCÁN COPAHUE (ANDES DEL SUR)

El volcan Copahue presenta un registro de erupciones historicas de limitada intensidad cuyo caracter ha sido analizado principalmente a partir de los eventos de las ultimas decadas. Hacia fines del ano 2011 comenzaron a observarse cambios significativos en diversos parametros asociados a la actividad del volcan hasta que, luego de doce anos de quietud, en julio de 2012 comenzo un nuevo ciclo eruptivo. En este trabajo se presenta la caracterizacion de los productos piroclasticos emitidos durante el evento del dia 19 de julio de 2012, el cual tuvo una dispersion limitada, pero resulta de importancia para la definicion del caracter de la fase inicial del ciclo eruptivo. Una alta proporcion de litoclastos y la presencia de vitroclastos juveniles primarios, los cuales son estudiados en detalle, permiten caracterizar el mecanismo eruptivo, consistente con una erupcion hidromagmatica. La particularidad de la tefra generada esta dada por la presencia de azufre piroclastico. Si bien este tipo de particulas ha sido identificado en erupciones previas, su presencia resulta de importancia ya que refleja la existencia de azufre fundido por debajo del lago de crater. La participacion de este material precipitado permitiria inferir la influencia del mismo en el mecanismo eruptivo.
Japanese Psychology Students as Psychiatric Diagnosticians: Application of Criteria of Mood and Anxiety Disorders to Written Case Vignettes Using the RDC and DSM-IV

It is commonly believed in Japan that only psychiatrists are capable of providing reliable psychiatric diagnosis. The present study, therefore, examined using a case vignette design, how well Japanese psychology students agreed with a psychiatrist on the diagnoses of mood disorders (major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder) and anxiety disorders (panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder). The results suggest that appropriately trained Japanese psychology students can apply reliably the diagnostic criteria for these disorders, except for generalized anxiety disorder. It appeared that the students did not identify symptoms of restlessness and nervous tension, which may explain the relatively low reliability of the diagnosis for generalized anxiety disorder. The cross-cultural variation in the experience of anxiety is suggested as an explanation. The present study argues that it is feasible that Japanese nonmedical mental health professionals become familiar with the psychiatric diagnoses.
Correlation of Apgar Scores and Umbilical Artery Acid-Base Status to Mortality and Morbidity in the Low Birth Weight Neonate

Neonatal mortality, idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome, and early periventricular/intraventricular hemorrhage in the neonate weighing 2000 g or less were correlated with umbilical artery acid-base status. Neonatal mortality and, to a lesser extent, idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome correlated with umbilical artery acidosis. Early periventricular/ intraventricular hemorrhage was associated with low Apgar scores, but showed no correlation with umbilical artery acid-base status. (Obstet Gynecol 73:597, 1989)
Alterations of hypothalamic RF-amide related peptide-3 and Kiss 1 gene expressions during spermatogenesis of rat in chronic stress conditions

1Department of Basic sciences, azad University, Gachsaran branch, Gachsaran, iran 2stem Cells technology research Center, shiraz University of Medical sciences, shiraz, iran 3infertility research Center, shiraz University of Medical sciences, shiraz, iran 4Department of Basic sciences, school of Veterinary Medicine, shiraz University, shiraz, iran 5Department of Medical Biotechnology, school of advanced Medical sciences and technology, shiraz University of Medical sciences, shiraz, iran 6institute of Cancer research, shiraz University of Medical sciences, shiraz, iran 7Center of Comparative and experimental Medicine, shiraz University of Medical sciences, shiraz, iran
Isolation and Identification of Rickettsia massiliae from Rhipicephalus sanguineus Ticks Collected in Arizona

ABSTRACT Twenty Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks collected in eastern Arizona were tested by PCR assay to establish their infection rate with spotted fever group rickettsiae. With a nested PCR assay which detects a fragment of the Rickettsia genus-specific 17-kDa antigen gene (htrA), five ticks (25%) were found to contain rickettsial DNA. One rickettsial isolate was obtained from these ticks by inoculating a suspension of a triturated tick into monolayers of Vero E6 monkey kidney cells and XTC-2 clawed toad cells, and its cell culture and genotypic characteristics were determined. Fragments of the 16S rRNA, GltA, rOmpA, rOmpB, and Sca4 genes had 100%, 100%, 99%, 99%, and 99%, respectively, nucleotide similarity to Rickettsia massiliae strain Bar29, previously isolated from R. sanguineus in Catalonia, Spain (L. Beati et al., J. Clin. Microbiol. 34:2688-2694, 1996). The new isolate, AZT80, does not elicit cytotoxic effects in Vero cells and causes a persistent infection in XTC-2 cells. The AZT80 strain is susceptible to doxycycline but resistant to rifampin and erythromycin. Whether R. massiliae AZT80 is pathogenic or infectious for dogs and humans or can cause seroconversion to spotted fever group antigens in the United States is unknown.
Importance of intervertebral displacement for whiplash investigations

Abstract It is often reported that the physiological rotational limits of adjacent vertebrae in the cervical spine are exceeded in rear-end accidents which play a significant role in Whiplash Associated Disorders (WAD). This paper presents the first analysis of existing experimental and computational intervertebral displacement research. Existing techniques to capture intervertebral displacement in experimental studies can be grouped into three methods: visual targets method, electronic sensors method and X-Ray method. The analysis of intervertebral displacements has led to the development of the intervertebral neck injury criterion (IV-NIC); it has also shown an upward shift of the C5C6 instantaneous axis of rotation and that the flexion changes to extension point between C2 and C4. Furthermore, it is also shown that when a computational model is validated only for the head kinematics, it should not be assumed that the model provides good neck kinematics. Lastly, current rear-impact dummies are incapable of providing true neck kinematics.