Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of the effect of certain inorganic salts on suppression acute skin irritation by human biometric assay: A randomized, double-blind clinical trial

Background: Strontium, zinc, and potassium salts have been demonstrated to inhibit irritation and inflammation when applied topically. Particularly, strontium chloride (SC) and potassium nitrate (KN) are reported to reduce skin and tooth sensitivity. The aim of the present study was to compare the anti-irritant effects of four inorganic salts and assign the ingredient which can suppress skin irritation due to chemical or environmental exposure, more effectively. We compared the anti-inflammatory effects of SC, strontium nitrate (SN), KN, and zinc chloride (ZC). Materials and Methods: This double-blind trial was conducted on 32 healthy volunteers with sensitive skin. Irritation was induced by 24 h exposure with 1.0% sodium lauryl sulfate on arms. Treatments were applied by an ointment of SN, SC hexahydrate, KN, and ZC and their 1%, 3%, and 5% (w/v) concentrations were prepared. The dosage was twice daily for 6 days to the irritated areas. Skin reactions were evaluated instrumentally. Results: SC had a beneficial effect that was significant overall. All other treatments exert a protective effect in skin barrier function but not significantly. With the exception of ZC, all test substances improved skin hydration but the effect of SC was significant. In respect of colorimetric assessment, all treatments, excluding ZC, reduced erythema significantly compared with an untreated control 7 days after treatment start. There was no support for a dose-response effect. Conclusion: Analysis of the biometric measurements revealed that the strontium salts are best, not treating is worst, and there is little difference between the other treatments. Hence, the skin care products containing SC and SN may reduce the signs and symptoms of irritant contact dermatitis.
Comparison of in vitro culture, immunohistochemical staining, and PCR for detection of Borrelia burgdorferi in tissue from experimentally infected animals

An avidin-biotin-amplified immunophosphatase staining method with a purified polyclonal rabbit anti-Borrelia burgdorferi hyperimmune serum was developed for identification of B. burgdorferi in tissue specimens. The diagnostic efficacy was compared with those of in vitro culture and PCR with fresh and fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. A nested PCR assay was developed for identification of a 276-bp fragment of the B. burgdorferi flagellin gene. The diagnostic sensitivities of the different techniques were evaluated with spleen, renal, and urinary bladder tissues from eight experimentally infected gerbils. A systemic infection was verified by positivity of 23 of 24 (96%) organ cultures. B. burgdorferi was visualized immunohistochemically in 9 of 23 (39%) of the specimens. Among these nine specimens, an average of 33% of the 15 sections examined were positive. The spirochetes accumulated in discrete clusters and were associated with focal lymphocytic infiltration. The diagnostic sensitivity obtained by PCR with fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue was 21%, considerably lower than that with fresh tissue (71%). Thus, the reliable demonstration of B. burgdorferi by immunohistochemical staining is possible but extremely laborious, and considering the fact that the density of B. burgdorferi in human tissue is even lower than that in experimentally infected animals, the method is not useful in a clinical setting. It may, however, still be valuable in pathogenetic research. Detection of B. burgdorferi DNA by PCR should be performed with fresh tissue specimens and not with fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens.
Fusion of Visual and Thermal Face Recognition Techniques : A Comparative Study

Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank all IRIS Lab members. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Mongi Abidi. His willingness to support my work and his guidance throughout my studies has allowed me to develop my skills as a face recognition researcher within a supportive team environment. Abstract This paper describes how fusion of visual and thermal face recognition can increase the overall performance of face recognition systems. Visual face recognition systems perform relatively reliably under controlled illumination conditions. Thermal face recognition systems are advantageous for detecting disguised faces or when there is no control over illumination. Thermal images of individuals wearing eyeglasses may result in poor performance since eyeglasses block the infrared emissions around the eyes, which are important features for recognition. With taking advantages of each visual and thermal image, the new fused systems can be implemented in collaborating low-level data fusion and high-level decision fusion. This paper contains a comparative analysis of visual, thermal and fused face recognition performance and provides a breakthrough for future intelligent face recognition capable of making decisions based on visual, thermal or fused images depending on different situations.
Visual discovery and model-driven explanation of time series patterns

Gatherminer is an interactive visual tool for analysing time series data with two key strengths. First, it facilitates bottom-up analysis, i.e., the detection of trends and patterns whose shapes are not known beforehand. Second, it integrates data mining algorithms to explain such patterns in terms of the time series' metadata attributes - an extremely difficult task if the space of attribute-value combinations is large. To accomplish these aims, Gatherminer automatically rearranges the data to visually expose patterns and clusters, whereupon users can select those groups they deem `interesting. ' To explain the selected patterns, the visualisation is tightly coupled with automated classification techniques, such as decision tree learning. We present a brief evaluation with telecommunications experts comparing our tool against their current commercial solution, and conclude that Gatherminer significantly improves both the completeness of analyses as well as analysts' confidence therein.
A 20-Amino-Acid Deletion in the Neuraminidase Stalk and a Five-Amino-Acid Deletion in the NS1 Protein Both Contribute to the Pathogenicity of H5N1 Avian Influenza Viruses in Mallard Ducks

Since 2003, H5N1-subtype avian influenza viruses (AIVs) with both a deletion of 20 amino acids in the stalk of the neuraminidase (NA) glycoprotein (A−) and a deletion of five amino acids at positions 80 to 84 in the non-structural protein NS1 (S−) have become predominant. To understand the influence of these double deletions in the NA and NS1 proteins on the pathogenicity of H5N1-subtype AIVs, we selected A/mallard/Huadong/S/2005 as a parental strain to generate rescued wild-type A−S− and three variants (A−S+ with a five-amino-acid insertion in the NS1 protein, A+S− with a 20-amino-acid insertion in the NA stalk, and A+S+ with insertions in both NA and NS1 proteins) and evaluated their biological characteristics and virulence. The titers of the AIVs with A− and/or S− replicated in DEF cells were higher than that of A+S+, and the A−S− virus exhibited a replication predominance when co-infected with the other variants in DEF cells. In addition, A−S− induced a more significant increase in the expression of immune-related genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of mallard ducks in vitro compared with the other variants. Furthermore, an insertion in the NA and/or NS1 proteins of AIVs resulted in a notable decrease in virulence in ducks, as determined by intravenous pathogenicity index, and the two insertions exerted a synergistic effect on the attenuation of pathogenicity in ducks. In addition, compared with A+S+ and A+S−, the A−S+ and A−S− viruses that were introduced via the intranasal inoculation route exhibited a faster replication ability in the lungs of ducks. These data indicate that both the deletions in the NA stalk and the NS1 protein contribute to the high pathogenicity of H5N1 AIVs in ducks.
Protein Chemistry: Misfolding the Way to Disease

Protein chemists have long been plagued by the tendency of proteins to aggregate in the test tube. But these aggregates, once considered to be worthless junk at best, are beginning to take on new meaning. Researchers are coming to realize that the test tube protein clumping is remarkably similar to the formation of the so-called “amyloid” protein deposits that are the pathological hallmarks of a dozen different diseases, including the common memory disorder Alzheimer's. Both apparently occur when normal protein folding goes awry, allowing incompletely folded protein molecules to grab onto each other and self-assemble into insoluble fibril aggregates. Work on this “junk” is not only leading to a better understanding of the amyloid diseases but also suggests some potential therapeutic strategies to combat them.
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) for Characterizing Oxidation Damage in Cracked Reinforced Carbon–Carbon

In this study, coated reinforced carbon–carbon (RCC) samples of similar structure and composition as that from the NASAspace shuttle orbiter’s thermal protection system were fabricated with slots in their coating simulating craze cracks. These specimenswere used to study oxidation damage detection and characterizat ion using nondestructive evalua tion (NDE) methods. These spec-imens were heat treated in air at 1143 1C and 12001C to create cavities in the carbon substr ate underneath the coating as oxygenInt. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol. , 7 [5] 652–661 (2010)DOI:10.1111/j.1744-7402.2009. 02372.xCeramic Product Development and Commercialization
The Porous Prison

A follow-up study of 19,955 releases from Irish prisons shows interesting variation in rates of recidivism. Prisoners who, during their sentences, were occasionally allowed to venture outside for vocational or family-related purposes were significantly less likely to be reimprisoned. This held true up to 4 years after their eventual release and is a clear empirical demonstration of the benefits, other than humanitarian, of maintaining prisoners' social capital.
Use of immobilized lactoperoxidase to label L cell proteins involved in adhesion to polystyrene

Proteins involved in the attachment of murine L cells to polystyrene have been identified by a technique designed to iodinate only those macromolecules coming into closet apposition to the substratum. Whereas soluble lactoperoxidase (LPO) catalyzes the radioiodination of a broad spectrum of polypeptides, the same enzyme immobilized on polystyrene tissue culture flasks discriminately labels 55,000 and 42,000 mol wt polypeptides that adhere tightly to the substratum after the cells are removed. One-dimensional peptide mapping following limited proteolysis showed that the labeled 55,000 mol wt polypeptide is similar to a component of comparable molecular weight present in the detergent- extracted cytoskeleton. The functional association of two cytoskeletal structures, presumably 10-nm filaments and actin, is discussed, and alternative explanations for their susceptibility to iodination by immobilized LPO are presented.
FANMOD: a tool for fast network motif detection

SUMMARY Motifs are small connected subnetworks that a network displays in significantly higher frequencies than would be expected for a random network. They have recently gathered much attention as a concept to uncover structural design principles of complex biological networks. FANMOD is a tool for fast network motif detection; it relies on recently developed algorithms to improve the efficiency of network motif detection by some orders of magnitude over existing tools. This facilitates the detection of larger motifs in bigger networks than previously possible. Additional benefits of FANMOD are the ability to analyze colored networks, a graphical user interface and the ability to export results to a variety of machine- and human-readable file formats including comma-separated values and HTML.
Using Task Descriptions for the Specification of Web Application Requirements

There are a significant number of proposals for modelling and developing Web Applications, but very few of them state rigorously how to elicit and represent requirements, and how to go from the requirements specification to the conceptual schema with a sound methodological basis. This work presents an approach to capture Web application requirements by means of: (1) the identification of the tasks that users must be able to achieve and (2) the description of these tasks from the point of view of the interaction that the user requires of the web application. In addition, we show how the navigational structure of a Web application can be systematically derived from the task-based requirement specification.
Promoting prosocial pupil behaviour: 1‐A multilevel theoretical model

Background. Usually much attention is given to different forms of antisocial pupil behaviour. One of the possibilities to prevent or reduce this behaviour is to stimulate educational conditions that foster prosocial pupil behaviour. Aim. To specify a theoretical multilevel model to promote prosocial pupil behaviour. The model should allow empirical checks on the occurrence of pupil level effects because of educational changes at the classroom and school level. Methods. Information from the literature and previous research is used to construct a three-level model in which longitudinal pupil effects are caused by classroom and school characteristics, while controlling for covariables. The causal class and school variables mainly refer to pupils' participation and responsibility in specifying and controlling behavioural and didactic rules, and are assumed to be related to didactic differentiation during lessons. Results. The multilevel theorising results in a model of social-pedagogical and didactic class and school variables, of home and peer support variables, and of their potential effects on the development of a pupil's prosocial behaviour. The three-level model will be empirically checked in a second article (this issue).
Colloid cyst of the third ventricle: a clinical review of 39 cases

This paper is a retrospective review of all patients treated for a colloid cyst of the third ventricle at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital over an 18-year consecutive period. Our experience is fairly typical compared with other published series. Colloid cys ts made up 1.6% of tumours treated by the neurosurgical unit. Patients presented with non-specific neurological symptoms and signs, commonly suggestive of raised intracranial pressure. Microsurgical excision was carried out via the transcallosal route in 34 cases and the transfrontal approach in four cases. There was no apparent difference in results from the different surgical approaches. In 86% of patients reviewed after more than 6 months good long term outcome was achieved. These benign tumours can be safely cured if the diagnosis is made early and the cyst removed by careful microsurgical techniques.
Emotion-Induced Engagement in Internet Video Advertisements

This study shows how advertisers can leverage emotion and attention to engage consumers in watching Internet video advertisements. In a controlled experiment, the authors assessed joy and surprise through automated facial expression detection for a sample of advertisements. They assessed concentration of attention through eye tracking and viewer retention by recording zapping behavior. This allows tests of predictions about the interplay of these emotions and interperson attention differences at each point in time during exposure. Surprise and joy effectively concentrate attention and retain viewers. However, importantly, the level rather than the velocity of surprise affects attention concentration most, whereas the velocity rather than the level of joy affects viewer retention most. The effect of joy is asymmetric, with higher gains for increases than losses for decreases. Using these findings, the authors develop representative emotion trajectories to support ad design and testing.
Self-adaptive image fusion based on multi-resolution decomposition using wavelet packet analysis

A self-adaptive image fusion method using multi-resolution analysis is proposed, in which multi-spectral (TM) and SAR images are fused. Firstly, we convert TM images from RGB to IHS colour space. Then, the I component in TM images are fused with SAR images using quadtree decomposition of images by wavelet packet analysis. The final results are obtained through inverse wavelet and IHS transforms, respectively. The highlight of our method is regional edge intensity (REI) based self-adaptive fusion. Experimental results demonstrate that better performance can be obtained from our method in improving definitions and correlations compared with original TM and SAR images.
FRET-FLIM Investigation of PSD95-NMDA Receptor Interaction in Dendritic Spines; Control by Calpain, CaMKII and Src Family Kinase

Little is known about the changes in protein interactions inside synapses during synaptic remodeling, as their live monitoring in spines has been limited. We used a FRET-FLIM approach in developing cultured rat hippocampal neurons expressing fluorescently tagged NMDA receptor (NMDAR) and PSD95, two essential proteins in synaptic plasticity, to examine the regulation of their interaction. NMDAR stimulation caused a transient decrease in FRET between the NMDAR and PSD95 in spines of young and mature neurons. The activity of both CaMKII and calpain were essential for this effect in both developmental stages. Meanwhile, inhibition of Src family kinase (SFK) had opposing impacts on this decrease in FRET in young versus mature neurons. Our data suggest concerted roles for CaMKII, SFK and calpain activity in regulating activity-dependent separation of PSD95 from GluN2A or GluN2B. Finally, we found that calpain inhibition reduced spine growth that was caused by NMDAR activity, supporting the hypothesis that PSD95-NMDAR separation is implicated in synaptic remodeling.
Effect on hearing of ganciclovir therapy for asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection: four to 10 year follow up.

BACKGROUND Congenital cytomegalovirus infection is the leading identified nongenetic cause of congenital sensorineural hearing loss. Most of the infections are asymptomatic but may be detected from umbilical cord vein and/or newborn serum positivity for human cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin M, and from urine positivity (on polymerase chain reaction) for human cytomegalovirus deoxyribonucleic acid in the newborn period. Children infected by cytomegalovirus may later develop sensorineural hearing loss. In symptomatically infected infants, ganciclovir therapy administered in the neonatal period prevents hearing deterioration. However, preventative therapy of asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus disease with ganciclovir is controversial, as side effects such as severe neutropenia may occur during treatment. METHODS The study population consisted of 23 asymptomatic children with congenital cytomegalovirus infection. Twelve children were treated just after diagnosis of cytomegalovirus infection in the newborn period, with ganciclovir 10 mg/kg bodyweight for 21 days. The other 11 children were observed without therapy. Over a four to 10 year follow-up period, we evaluated all the children's hearing status using pure tone audiometry. RESULTS All 23 children had normal sensorineural hearing at one year follow up. Five of the 23 children (21.7 per cent) were lost to follow up over the four to 11 year follow-up period. Of the remaining 18 children, sensorineural hearing loss occurred in two (11.1 per cent). Neither child had been treated with ganciclovir in the newborn period. An eight-year-old boy showed bilateral high frequency loss and a 10-year-old girl showed severe unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. In the ganciclovir-treated group (nine children), none showed sensorineural hearing loss. During ganciclovir therapy, moderate neutropenia occurred as a side effect in two out of 12 (16.6 per cent) treated children. Speech and general development were normal in all children. CONCLUSION Asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection is likely to be a leading cause of sensorineural hearing loss in young children. Intravenous ganciclovir therapy seems to offer a medical option to prevent subsequent sensorineural hearing loss. Further studies including a greater number of children are needed. Cytomegalovirus screening models are mandatory if medical therapy is to be implemented in time.
TI-BIST: a temperature independent analog BIST for switched-capacitor filters

This paper describes a method to obtain a temperature independent analog BIST. The test procedure is based on the reuse of existing analog circuits, configured either as stimuli generators or as signature analyzers. The paper explains the general problem of temperature deviation present in analog BIST, and shows an approach to overcome this limitation, validated by simulation results.
Role of Practice Tests in the Accuracy of Test Predictions on Text Material.

The role of practice tests in predictions about test performance on texts was investigated. Generally, subjects predicted their relative performance on texts accurately. However, answering practice-test questions that were drawn from the same pool as criterion-test questions did not improve prediction accuracy. The main reason for this was that practice-test scores for specific texts did not correlate with criterion-test scores. In addition, neither practice tests that were identical to the criterion tests nor practice tests consisting of the question stems improved the accuracy of test predictions relative to no-practice tests
Towards a Temporal Extension to OWL 2: A Study based on tOWL Language

The Semantic Web is becoming fundamental in the Web. The amount of data available in the Web is increasing in great proportions, it is very important to find ways to deal with this trend. The Semantic Web can help with this, by giving meaning to this data in a way that machines can understand what information it contains and automatically process it. In this paper we present a study about the compatibility between the latest version of the Web Ontology Language (OWL 2) and the Temporal Web Ontology Language (tOWL), based on the first version of OWL. We analyze which constructs of tOWL can be used and modified into OWL 2 maintaining decidability aspects. The current version of OWL does not have resources to represent complex time information and the main contribution of this work is a new proposal to represent time in OWL 2.
Anger Management for Female Juvenile Offenders: Results of a Pilot Study

ABSTRACT In recent years, while the violent crime arrest rate has decreased for boys, it has increased for girls. Anger-related behaviors, such as physical and relational aggression, account for a significant proportion of the crimes for which these youth are arrested. Nevertheless, there exists no empirically evaluated anger management intervention designed specifically for a female juvenile offender population. This pilot study is a first step in developing such an intervention. Participants were 12 girls in a post-adjudication facility who were randomly assigned to either the 18- session anger management treatment condition or the treatment-as-usual control condition. Although significant differences between the groups on measures of anger and aggression were difficult to detect because of the pilot study's small sample size, medium- to large-effect sizes were obtained. These findings suggest promise for a larger-scale efficacy study. Further revisions to the treatment manual for the larger-scale efficacy study are discussed.