Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Demographics of Pediatric Orbital Lesions: A Tertiary Eye Center Experience in Saudi Arabia

Orbital lesions vary in their classification, incidence, and presentation depending on the age and geographic distribution. Such lesions in the pediatric age group have been studied extensively because of the possibility of faster progression of orbital involvement and the higher risk of morbidity in this age group in which vision is still developing. In Saudi Arabia, orbital lesions were studied over a 6-year period in the late 1980s, when retinoblastoma cases used to present late with orbital involvement. In this study, we revisited the same topic 20 years later aiming to find out the most recent prevalence of orbital lesions in a similar population of patients over a longer period (14 years) in the same eye center, and compare the current results to other reports worldwide. A total of 107 lesions from 106 patients were identified by tissue diagnosis, of which more than half of the lesions were benign cystic (being the most common), vasculogenic, and inflammatory in 63% [95% confidence interval (CI, 53.3–72.0)] of all biopsied lesions. Neoplasms accounted for 37% [95% CI (28.0–45.8)] with rhabdomyosarcoma being the most common, accounting for about one third of neoplasms, and no orbital cases of retinoblastoma were found. Our results demonstrated different distribution of orbital lesions in recent years reflecting the indirect effect of the improved health awareness and medical care in Saudi Arabia. This baseline demographic study is expected to be helpful for further clinical and prognostic studies with emphasis on pediatric orbital malignant lesions, their clinical presentation, management, and prognosis.
Heterogeneous characteristics of streambed saturated hydraulic conductivity of the Touchet River, south eastern Washington, USA

Traditionally a streambed is treated as a layer of uniform thickness and low saturated hydraulic conductivity (K) in surface‐ and ground‐water studies. Recent findings have shown a high level of spatial heterogeneity within a streambed and such heterogeneity directly affects surface‐ and ground‐water exchange and can have ecological implications for biogeochemical transformations, nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and reproduction of gravel spawning fish. In this study a detailed field investigation of K was conducted in two selected sites in Touchet River, a typical salmon spawning stream in arid south eastern Washington, USA. In‐stream slug tests were conducted to determine K following the Bouwer and Rice method. For the upper and lower sites, each 50 m long and 9 m wide and roughly 20 m apart, a sampling grid of 5 m longitudinally and 3 m transversely was used. The slug tests were performed for each horizontal coordinate at 0·3–0·45, 0·6–0·75, 0·9–1·05 and 1·2–1·35 m depth intervals unless a shallower impenetrable obstruction was encountered. Additionally, water levels were measured to obtain vertical hydraulic gradient (VHG) between each two adjacent depth intervals. Results indicated that K ranged over three orders of magnitude at both the upper and lower sites and differed between the two sites. At the upper site, K did not differ significantly among different depth intervals based on nonparametric statistical tests for mean, median, and empirical cumulative distribution, but the spatial pattern of K varied among different depth intervals. At the lower site, K for the 0·3–0·45 m depth interval differed statistically from those at other depth intervals, and no similar spatial pattern was found among different depth intervals. Zones of upward and downward water flow based on VHG also varied among different depth intervals, reflecting the complexities of the water flow regime. Detailed characterization of the streambed as attempted in this study should be helpful in providing information on spatial variations of streambed hydraulic properties as well as surface‐ and ground‐water interaction. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Movements and Home Ranges of Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) in the Inland Waters of the Pacific Northwest

Marine resources are under increasing human pressure and conservation managers are using tools such as marine reserves to increase target fish stocks. However, marine predators may respond to the resultant changes in fish abundance. Harbor seals, Phoca vitulina, are abundant marine predators in the inland waters of the Pacific Northwest with the potential to influence the recovery of depressed fish stocks, yet relatively little is known about their movement patterns and home range sizes in the region. To describe harbor seal behavior, I deployed satellite and time-depth recorder tags during April and May 2007 on 20 individuals at three haul-out sites in the inland waters of the Pacific Northwest: six at a rocky reef site in the eastern San Juan Islands, six at an estuarine bay site directly east of the San Juan Islands and eight at a rocky reef site in the Canadian Gulf Islands. Tags were deployed for a mean (± SD) of 110 (± 32) d and transmitted a mean 726 (± 382) satellite locations seal. Satellite locations allowed me to quantify distances moved from the capture site, minimum convex polygon size, home range size, utilization of candidate marine reserve sites in the eastern San Juan Islands and haul-out site fidelity. This study used novel analysis techniques, including weighting satellite transmissions to account for autocorrelation within the data to calculate harbor seal home ranges using fixed kernel density estimates. Overall, harbor seals moved
Same, Same But Different: Recovering Neural Network Quantization Error Through Weight Factorization

Quantization of neural networks has become common practice, driven by the need for efficient implementations of deep neural networks on embedded devices. In this paper, we exploit an oft-overlooked degree of freedom in most networks for a given layer, individual output channels can be scaled by any factor provided that the corresponding weights of the next layer are inversely scaled. Therefore, a given network has many factorizations which change the weights of the network without changing its function. We present a conceptually simple and easy to implement method that uses this property and show that proper factorizations significantly decrease the degradation caused by quantization. We show improvement on a wide variety of networks and achieve state-of-the-art degradation results for MobileNets. While our focus is on quantization, this type of factorization is applicable to other domains such as network-pruning, neural nets regularization and network interpretability.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Revising the diagnosis of congenital amusia with the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia

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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Reviewing a decade of research on the "Base/Bottom of the Pyramid" (BOP) concept.

In 1998-1999, Prahalad and colleagues introduced the Base/Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) concept in an article and a working paper. This article’s goal is to answer the question: What has become of the concept over the decade following its first systematic exposition in 1999? To answer this question, the authors conducted a systematic review of articles on the BOP, identifying 104 articles published in journals or proceedings over a ten-year period (2000-2009). This count excludes books, chapters, and teaching cases. The review shows that the BOP concept evolved dramatically following Prahalad’s original call to multinational enterprises (MNEs). De-emphasizing the role of MNEs over time, published BOP articles portray a more complex picture, with wide variations in terms of BOP contexts, of BOP initiatives, and of impacts of the BOP approach. A simple framework for organizing the reviewed articles helps discuss findings, identify the gaps that still exist in the literature, and suggest directions for future research.
Sketch2Reality: Immersive 3D Indoor Scene Synthesis via Sketches

Sketching indoor scenes is helpful in daily activities as it allows for quick visualization and planning of room layouts, furniture arrangements, design ideas, or scene creation for games and entertainment. This motivates our proposal of Sketch2Reality, a system to simplify the creation of immersive 3D indoor scenes from 2D sketch images. Users sketch their desired scene, and our system identifies sketched objects and their positions, then retrieves and populates corresponding 3D models into the generating 3D scene. Users can then modify the scene, rearrange furniture, adjust lighting, and add or remove objects. Integration with Virtual Reality technology allows users to experience and interact with the scene realistically. Our experiments with three groups of users with different experience levels in 3D scene design and creation demonstrate the efficiency and usefulness of our solution. Sketch2Reality empowers users to dynamically bring their ideas to life, combining sketching, AI assistance for 3D generation, and VR for enhanced creativity and design exploration.
Investigation of the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Graphene-Aluminium Alloy Composite Fabricated by Stir Casting Process

Mechanical properties of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) reinforced aluminum matrix composite fabricated by the semi-solid stir casting method were investigated. Aluminum alloy A356 is selected based on being widely used in automotive and aircraft industries. Recently, graphene has attracted wide attention from a scientific committee due to its outstanding properties. GNPs are an ideal reinforcement for nanocomposites' productions due to their excellent mechanical properties for strength enhancement. In this study, the effect of different weight fraction of GNPs content (0,0.3,0.5,1.0,and 1.5 wt.%) reinforced with A356 aluminum alloy was analysed. A 45-degree carbide impeller performed the stirring process of 500 rpm for 5 minutes. The samples were then characterised by microscopic examination, Vickers hardness, and tensile test Morphology of the fracture surface of the composite were observed using scanning electron microscopy.The microstructure revealed a homogenous distribution of nanoparticles in the matrix alloy. The composite exhibits improved mechanical properties, maximum tensile strength and hardness of 236MPa and 83 HV are obtained respectively. The composite has shown significant enhancement in the tensile and hardness which is 20% times higher than unreinforced A356 alloy. The hardness increased as the weight fractions of GNP in the A356 matrix has increased. However, when the content of GNPs used above 1.0 wt%, its tensile strength is reduced. Meanwhile, the fracture sample is ductile with a fine dimple structure. These findings may contribute to the process field of semi-solid stir casting, particularly on the GNPs addition to aluminium alloy as their primary material.
A female-biased gene expression signature of dominance in cooperatively breeding meerkats

Dominance is a primary determinant of social dynamics and resource access in social animals. Recent studies show that dominance is also reflected in the gene regulatory profiles of peripheral immune cells. However, the strength and direction of this relationship differs across the species and sex combinations investigated, potentially due to variation in the predictors and energetic consequences of dominant status. To test this possibility, we investigated the association between social status and gene expression in the blood of wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta; n=113 unique individuals), including in response to lipopolysaccharide, Gardiquimod, and glucocorticoid stimulation. Meerkats are cooperatively breeding social carnivores in which breeding females physically outcompete other females to suppress reproduction, resulting in high reproductive skew. They therefore present an opportunity to disentangle the effects of social dominance from those of sex per se. We identify a sex-specific signature of dominance, including 1,045 differentially expressed genes in females but none in males. Dominant females exhibit elevated activity in innate immune pathways and an exacerbated response to LPS challenge. In this respect, female meerkats resemble wild male baboons (for which similar data are available), where physical competition is also central to determining rank hierarchies and mating effort is high. However, they differ from female primates in which social status is nepotistically determined. Our results support the hypothesis that the gene regulatory signature of social status depends on the determinants and energetic costs of social dominance. They also support potential life history trade-offs between investment in reproduction versus somatic maintenance.
Detection of high-frequency tensile vibrations of a fault during shear rupturing: observations from the 2008 West Bohemia swarm

SUMMARY The analysis of 12 earthquakes of magnitudes between 1.7 and 3.7 that occurred in 2008 in West Bohemia, Czech Republic reveals that shear rupturing along a fault is accompanied by weak tensile vibrations of the fault. The vibrations are of a narrow frequency band with frequencies distinctly higher than those of shear rupturing. The tensile vibrations decay slowly in time and often resemble resonant waves. They complicate the radiated P waveforms and the P-wave radiation pattern. The tensile vibrations can be observed in waveforms in directions near the nodal lines where the dominance of shear-faulting radiation is lost. The tensile vibrations are probably generated by opening of the fault during shear rupturing or by creating a wing tensile crack at the tip of the fault when shear fracturing stops.
Molecular Epidemiology of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus among Patients Diagnosed with Surgical Site Infection at Four Hospitals in Ethiopia

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a common cause of severe surgical site infections (SSI). The molecular epidemiology of MRSA is poorly documented in Ethiopia. This study is designed to determine the prevalence of MRSA and associated factors among patients diagnosed with SSI. A multicenter study was conducted at four hospitals in Ethiopia. A wound culture was performed among 752 SSI patients. This study isolated S. aureus and identified MRSA using standard bacteriology, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), and cefoxitin disk diffusion test. The genes mecA, femA, vanA, and vanB were detected through PCR tests. S. aureus was identified in 21.6% of participants, with 24.5% of these being methicillin-resistant Staphylococci and 0.6% showing vancomycin resistance. Using MALDI-TOF MS for the 40 methicillin-resistant Staphylococci, we confirmed that 31 (77.5%) were S. aureus, 6 (15%) were Mammaliicoccus sciuri, and the other 3 (2.5%) were Staphylococcus warneri, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Staphylococcus haemolyticus. The gene mecA was detected from 27.5% (11/40) of Staphylococci through PCR. Only 36.4% (4/11) were detected in S. aureus, and no vanA or vanB genes were identified. Out of 11 mecA-gene-positive Staphylococci, 8 (72.7%) were detected in Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections were associated with the following risk factors: age ≥ 61 years, prolonged duration of hospital stay, and history of previous antibiotic use, p-values < 0.05. Hospitals should strengthen infection prevention and control strategies and start antimicrobial stewardship programs.
MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY OF METHICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS IN FINLAND

II. Salmenlinna S and Vuopio-Varkila J. Recognition of two groups of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains based on epidemiology , antimicrobial susceptibility, hypervariable-region type, and ribotype in Finland. background of predominant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Finland. Submitted for publication. In addition, some unpublished results are included. 8 ABBREVIATIONS AFLP amplified fragment length polymorphism agr accessory gene regulator aux auxilliary factors for methicillin resistance AP-PCR arbitrarily primed PCR BORSA borderline resistant Staphylococcus aureus EARSS European Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance System FAME fatty acid modifying enzyme fem factors essential for methicillin resistance HELICS Hospitals in Europe Link for Infection Control through Surveillance ICU intensive care unit Ig immunoglobulin IL interleukin MIC minimal inhibitory concentration MRSA methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus GlcNAc N-acetylglucosamine MurNAc N-acetylmuramic acid MHC major histocompatibility complex MLEE multilocus enzyme electrophoresis MLST multilocus sequence typing MSCRAMM microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules ORF open reading frame PAGE polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis PBP penicillin binding protein PCR polymerase chain reaction PFGE pulsed field gel electrophoresis PVL Penton-Valentine leucosidin RAPD randomly amplified polymorphic DNA RFLP restriction fragment length polymorphism sar staphylococcal accessory gene regulator SCCmec staphylococcal casette chromosome mec slv single locus variant ST sequence type TSST 1 toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 9 ABSTRACT Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of nosocomial infections worldwide, and hospital outbreaks caused by MRSA are common. Unless outbreaks are controlled, MRSA may reside permanently in a hospital environment. Such endemic MRSA are difficult to eradicate , and they most likely further increase the number of infections, the costs, and the length of hospital stays. MRSA strains are commmonly resistant to multiple antimicrobials, which narrows treatment possibilities and changes the spectrum of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals. This study was performed to analyze comprehensively the Finnish MRSA isolates collected through a nationwide surveillance program since 1992 by various molecular methods. We describe the elaboration of a typing scheme suitable for continuous national surveillance in a country with a low prevalence of MRSA, and analyze the overall trends of MRSA, as well as the proportion of community-acquired MRSA. We especially focus on the characterization of predominant MRSA strains linked to interhospital epidemics and local intrahospital outbreaks. We assess clonality, evolution, association with community acquisition , and molecular traits linked to increased transmissibility. The baseline number of annual MRSA remained stable in the 1980s and early 1990s. After a peak caused by extensive hospital epidemics in 1994, an increasing trend has …
Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonism Attenuates Cardiac Hypertrophy and Failure in Low-Aldosterone Hypertensive Rats

Chronic elevation of plasma aldosterone contributes to heart failure. Mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonism is cardioprotective in such a setting, but whether such protection occurs in the presence of low-aldosterone concentrations remains unclear. We investigated whether MR blockade attenuates cardiac hypertrophy and failure in rats with salt-sensitive hypertension. Dahl salt-sensitive (DS) rats fed a high-salt diet from 7 weeks develop concentric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy secondary to hypertension at 12 weeks followed by heart failure at 19 weeks (DS-CHF). DS rats on such a diet were treated with a non-antihypertensive dose of the selective MR antagonist eplerenone from 12 to 19 weeks. Renin activity and aldosterone concentration in plasma were decreased in DS-CHF rats compared with controls. LV hypertrophy and fibrosis, as well as macrophage infiltration around coronary vessels, were apparent in DS-CHF rats. The amounts of mRNAs for 11&bgr;-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1, MR, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, and osteopontin were increased in these hearts. Treatment of DS-CHF rats with eplerenone inhibited these changes in gene expression, as well as coronary vascular inflammation and heart failure. Eplerenone attenuated both the decrease in the ratio of reduced to oxidized glutathione and the increase in NADPH oxidase activity apparent in DS-CHF rat hearts. MR blockade with eplerenone thus resulted in attenuation of LV hypertrophy and failure, without an antihypertensive effect, in rats with low-aldosterone hypertension. The beneficial cardiac effects of eplerenone are likely attributable, at least in part, to attenuation of myocardial oxidative stress and coronary vascular inflammation induced by glucocorticoid-activated MRs.
Msx genes delineate a novel molecular map of the developing cerebellar neuroepithelium

In the early cerebellar primordium, there are two progenitor zones, the ventricular zone (VZ) residing atop the IVth ventricle and the rhombic lip (RL) at the lateral edges of the developing cerebellum. These zones give rise to the several cell types that form the GABAergic and glutamatergic populations of the adult cerebellum, respectively. Recently, an understanding of the molecular compartmentation of these zones has emerged. The Msx genes are a family of three transcription factors that are expressed downstream of Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling in these zones. Using fluorescent RNA in situ hybridization, we have characterized the Msx (Msh Homeobox) genes and demonstrated that their spatiotemporal pattern segregates specific regions in the progenitor regions. Msx1 and Msx2 are compartmentalized within the rhombic lip (RL), while Msx3 is localized within the ventricular zone (VZ). The relationship of the Msx genes with an early marker of the glutamatergic lineage, Atoh1, was examined in Atoh1-null mice and it was found that the expression of Msx genes persisted. Importantly, Msx1 and Msx3 expressions expanded in response to the elimination of Atoh1. These results point to early markers of cerebellar progenitor zones and more importantly to an updated view of the molecular parcellation of the RL with respect to the canonical marker of the RL, Atoh1.
PREVALENCE OF GASTROINTESTINAL PARASITES OF DOMESTIC SHEEP ( OVIS ARIES ) IN DISTRICT SIALKOT , PUNJAB , PAKISTAN

In Pakistan, parasitic infections are among major constraints to animal production. Gastro-intestinal (GI) parasites cause huge economic losses (direct or indirect) to livestock. In Pakistan, distribution and effect of GI parasitism in sheep is not very well studied. The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of GI parasites in sheep population of Sialkot district, Punjab, Pakistan. To this end, 384 faecal samples were collected directly from the rectum of sheep and examined for faecal egg counts by using a modified McMaster method. The overall prevalence of GI parasites in study district was 32.6%. Prevalence of GI parasites was found to be significantly higher (P<0.05) in ewes than rams; however, age and breed was found to be non-significant (P>0.05). The endoparasites identified in sheep included Fasciola (F.) hepatica (3.1%), F. gigantica (5.2%), Haemonchus contortus (23.4%), Eimeria crandallis (18.2%), Gongylonema pulchrum (7.5%), and Trichostrongylus sp. (12.2%). Among variables like age, sex and breed (Thalli, Kajli, Fat-tailed and Salt range), only sex was found significant in district Sialkot during autumn 2014. The degree (severity) of GI parasitic infection was also determined from the total faecal egg count and an insignificant difference (P>0.05) in the eggs per gram count was determined.