Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of ultrasound in confirmation of endotracheal tube in neonates: a review

Abstract Tracheal intubation (TI) is a commonly done procedure in neonatal intensive care unit and delivery room during resuscitation. The confirmation of endotracheal tube (ETT) position should be done quickly as tube malposition is associated with various serious adverse outcomes like hypoxemia, right upper lobe collapse, atelectasis, air leak syndromes and esophageal intubation. ETT position can be confirmed by various methods like clinical sign, chest radiography, capnography, external digital tracheal palpation, ultrasonography (USG), respiratory function monitor, video-laryngoscope and fiberoptic devices. The current gold standard test to confirm ETT position is a chest radiograph, but it has many fallacies thus presently there is the need for a modality that helps in detection of endotracheal intubation and tube position with minimal complications. USG has been used in adult and pediatric population for detecting ETT position but there are very less studies in neonates. In this review, we analyze all the published studies, case reports and personal experiences that have sought the use of USG in neonatal population for detection of ETT position.
Internal Migration, Remittances and Welfare Impacts: A Case Study in Dormaa Municipality, Ghana

Though international migration and its related remittance flows have attracted considerable attention in recent years, internal migration has been the focus of academic and policy discourse for a much longer period. Studies have shown that both internal and intra-regional migration are far more significant in terms of the numbers of people involved and the quantum of remittances involved than international migration. However, despite increasing internal migration with its associated remittances, their linkages with welfare impacts are complex and mixed. As such, the actual welfare impacts of this phenomenon have been a source of debate in the literature. Using mixed methods, this paper examines the relationship between internal migration, remittances and welfare impacts in Dormaa Municipality in Ghana. The study draws upon 202 migrant households on a sample of 358 households screened. The study investigates migration patterns and remittance flows, uses and impacts among migrant households in the municipality. The study suggests that many of the migrants moved to another town or village in Ghana for work-related reasons, notably job transfers, work or to seek work/better work. The study also shows that there have been substantial inflows of migrant remittances to households in Dormaa Municipality. These remittances have contributed significantly to improving migrant householdâ€™s access to health services and education, and have also become an important source of income for consumption smoothing. The study recommends that government should make efforts to monitor remittance flows in Ghana and also increase awareness about the importance of remittances for both national and household economies. Further, there is the need to scale up education on social attitudes and discourses about internal migration and policy initiatives in Ghana.
Effect of diacerein as an add-on to metformin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and inadequate glycemic control

ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate the effect of diacerein as an add-on to metformin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and inadequate glycemic control. Materials and methods A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was carried out on 12 patients with T2DM and inadequate glycemic control [glycated hemoglobin A1c (A1C) ≥ 7%] with metformin as monotherapy (≥ 1500 mg per day) for at least the previous 90 days. Fasting and postprandial glucose were measured before and after the pharmacological intervention. A1C, lipid profile, creatinine and uric acid were also evaluated. After randomization, all patients continued with their dose of metformin. Six subjects received placebo and the other six volunteers took diacerein. Data were tested using the Wilcoxon signed-rank, Mann-Whitney U and chi-square tests. The Institutional Ethics Committee approved the study protocol. Results After 90 days of diacerein as an add-on to metformin, there was a significant decrease in fasting glucose (196 ± 79 vs. 149 ± 70 mg/dL, p < 0.05), postprandial glucose (262 ± 99 vs. 187 ± 70 mg/dlL, p < 0.05) and A1C (8.4 ± 2.0 vs. 6.7 ± 1.7 %, p < 0.05). Conclusions Diacerein as an add-on to metformin in patients with T2DM improved their glycemic control.
Basis Functions for Divergence Constraints in the Finite Element Method

A method for implementing divergence constraints in the finite element method is given. This method yields a linearly independent, sparse set of constraints for a mesh of brick elements. The method is used to obtain the resonant frequencies of rectangular cavities with perfectly conducting walls. There is good agreement with exact values and there are no spurious modes.
The Mre11 Complex and the Response to Dysfunctional Telomeres

ABSTRACT In this study, we examine the telomeric functions of the mammalian Mre11 complex by using hypomorphic Mre11 and Nbs1 mutants (Mre11ATLD1/ATLD1 and Nbs1ΔB/ΔB, respectively). No telomere shortening was observed in Mre11ATLD1/ATLD1 cells after extensive passage through culture, and the rate of telomere shortening in telomerase-deficient (TertΔ/Δ) Mre11ATLD1/ATLD1 cells was the same as that in TertΔ/Δ alone. Although telomeres from late-passage Mre11ATLD1/ATLD1TertΔ/Δ cells were as short as those from TertΔ/Δ, the incidence of telomere fusions was reduced. This effect on fusions was also evident upon acute telomere dysfunction in Mre11ATLD1/ATLD1 and Nbs1ΔB/ΔB cells rendered Trf2 deficient by cre-mediated TRF2 inactivation than in wild-type cells. The residual fusions formed in Mre11 complex mutant cells exhibited a strong tendency toward chromatid fusions, with an almost complete bias for fusion of telomeres replicated by the leading strand. Finally, the response to acute telomere dysfunction was strongly impaired by Mre11 complex hypomorphism, as the formation of telomere dysfunction-induced DNA damage foci was reduced in both cre-infected Mre11ATLD1/ATLD1Trf2F/Δ and Nbs1ΔB/ΔBTrf2F/F cells. These data indicate that the Mre11 complex influences the cellular response to telomere dysfunction, reminiscent of its influence on the response to interstitial DNA breaks, and suggest that it may promote telomeric DNA end processing during DNA replication.
Therapeutic HPV DNA vaccines

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been associated with several human cancers, including cervical cancer, vulvar cancer, vaginal and anal cancer, and a subset of head and neck cancers. The identification of HPV as an etiological factor for HPV-associated malignancies creates the opportunity for the control of these cancers through vaccination. Currently, the preventive HPV vaccine using HPV virus-like particles has been proven to be safe and highly effective. However, this preventive vaccine does not have therapeutic effects, and a significant number of people have established HPV infection and HPV-associated lesions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop therapeutic HPV vaccines to facilitate the control of HPV-associated malignancies and their precursor lesions. Among the various forms of therapeutic HPV vaccines, DNA vaccines have emerged as a potentially promising approach for vaccine development due to their safety profile, ease of preparation and stability. However, since DNA does not have the intrinsic ability to amplify or spread in transfected cells like viral vectors, DNA vaccines can have limited immunogenicity. Therefore, it is important to develop innovative strategies to improve DNA vaccine potency. Since dendritic cells (DCs) are key players in the generation of antigen-specific immune responses, it is important to develop innovative strategies to modify the properties of the DNA-transfected DCs. These strategies include increasing the number of antigen-expressing/antigen-loaded DCs, improving antigen processing and presentation in DCs, and enhancing the interaction between DCs and T cells. Many of the studies on DNA vaccines have been performed on preclinical models. Encouraging results from impressive preclinical studies have led to several clinical trials.
Selective and Non-Selective Autophagic Degradation of Mitochondria in Yeast

Mitochondria are essential to oxidative energy production in aerobic eukaryotic cells, where they are also required for multiple biosynthetic pathways to take place. Mitochondrial homeostasis also plays a crucial role in ageing and programmed cell death, and recent data have suggested that mitochondria degradation is a strictly regulated process. Autophagy is an evolutionary conserved mechanism that provides cells with a mechanism for the continuous turnover of damaged and obsolete macromolecules and organelles. In this work, we investigated mitochondria degradation by autophagy. Electron microscopy observations of yeast cells submitted to nitrogen starvation after growth on different carbon sources provided evidence that microautophagy, rather than macroautophagy, preferentially occurred in cells grown under non-fermentable conditions. The observation of mitochondria degradation showed that both a selective process and a non-selective process of mitochondria autophagy occurred successively. In a yeast strain inactivated for the gene UTH1, the selective process was not observed.
Polymorphisms in XRCC1 Modify the Association between Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon-DNA Adducts, Cigarette Smoking, Dietary Antioxidants, and Breast Cancer Risk

The variability in DNA repair capacity of the general population may depend in part upon common variants in DNA repair genes. X-ray repair cross complementing group 1 (XRCC1) is an important DNA base excision repair gene and exhibits polymorphic variation. Using the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project, a population-based case-control study, we evaluated the hypothesis that two common single nucleotide polymorphisms of XRCC1 (codon 194 Arg→Trp and 399 Arg→Gln) influence breast cancer susceptibility and interact with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-DNA adducts, cigarette smoking, and intake of fruits and vegetables and antioxidants. The available sample for genotyping included 1,067 cases and 1,110 controls. Genotyping was done by a high-throughput single-nucleotide extension assay with fluorescence polarization detection of the incorporated nucleotide. We observed no significant increases in risk among all subjects who were carriers of XRCC1 194Trp or 399Gln alleles. Among never smokers, we observed an increased risk of breast cancer in 399Gln carriers [odds ratio (OR), 1.3; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.0-1.7). Further analysis indicated a suggestive weak additive interaction between the 399Gln allele and detectable PAH-DNA adducts (OR for exposure with mutant genotype, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.2-3.1). The estimated age-adjusted interaction contrast ratio (ICR) and 95% CI (ICR, 0.38; 95% CI, −0.32 to 1.10) indicated that the departure from additivity was not statistically significant, but that there was some suggestion of a relative excess risk due to the interaction. In subjects with at least one copy of XRCC1 194Trp allele, there was a moderate interaction with high intake of fruits and vegetables (≥35 half-cup servings per week of any fruits, fruit juices, and vegetables, OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.38-0.89; ICR, −0.49; 95% CI, −0.03 to −0.95), and dietary plus supplement antioxidant intake with 33% to 42% decreases in breast cancer risk compared with those with the Arg194Arg genotype and low-intake individuals. These results do not show that the two genetic polymorphisms of XRCC1 independently influence breast cancer risk. However, there is evidence for interactions between the two XRCC1 single nucleotide polymorphisms and PAH-DNA adducts or fruit and vegetable and antioxidant intake on breast cancer risk. Further understanding of the biological function of XRCC1 variants and their interactions with PAH-DNA adducts, antioxidants, and other genes in the pathway are needed.
A new method for determining bra size and predicting postaugmentation breast size.

The current popular system of determining bra size is inaccurate so often as to be useless. Add to this the many different styles of bras and the lack of standardization between brands, and one can see why finding a comfortable, well-fitting bra is more a matter of educated guesswork, trial, and error than of precise measurements. An improved method of determining cup size by directly measuring the circumference of the breast is presented in this paper. If adopted commercially, this simple method could reduce dramatically the number of women said to be wearing the "wrong-sized bra. " The technique has also been found to be an accurate predictor of postoperative breast size in augmentation and reduction surgery, and thus offers plastic surgeons an opportunity to better meet the expectations of women undergoing these procedures.
Synaptic organization of substance P‐like immunoreactive amacrine cells in goldfish retina

A class of amacrine cells in the goldfish retina displays substance P‐like immunoreactivity (SPIR). We studied the synaptic organization of SPIR amacrine cells by electron microscopical immunocytochemistry. Amacrine cells showing SPIR have processes which ramify in a very narrow band in layer 3 of the inner plexiform layer. SPIR is restricted to large dense‐cored vesicles (DCVs) which are distributed throughout the dendrites. Processes labeled with SPIR contain a mixture of DCVs and numerous small agranular vesicles. of 88 synaptic contracts analyzed, SPIR processes occurred as the presynaptic element 57 times and as the postsynaptic element 31 times. SPIR processes made synapses upon amacrine and ganglion cell dendrites with equal frequency and received synaptic input from both amacrine and bipolar cells. The stratification of SPIR amacrine cells in proximal sublamina α suggests that their synaptic interactions are restricted to “off” and “on‐off” neurons. However, this is in contrast to published electrophysiological data. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed in detail.
Proteolysis-Dependent Remodeling of the Tubulin Homolog FtsZ at the Division Septum in Escherichia coli

During bacterial cell division a dynamic protein structure called the Z-ring assembles at the septum. The major protein in the Z-ring in Escherichia coli is FtsZ, a tubulin homolog that polymerizes with GTP. FtsZ is degraded by the two-component ATP-dependent protease ClpXP. Two regions of FtsZ, located outside of the polymerization domain in the unstructured linker and at the C-terminus, are important for specific recognition and degradation by ClpXP. We engineered a synthetic substrate containing green fluorescent protein (Gfp) fused to an extended FtsZ C-terminal tail (residues 317–383), including the unstructured linker and the C-terminal conserved region, but not the polymerization domain, and showed that it is sufficient to target a non-native substrate for degradation in vitro. To determine if FtsZ degradation regulates Z-ring assembly during division, we expressed a full length Gfp-FtsZ fusion protein in wild type and clp deficient strains and monitored fluorescent Z-rings. In cells deleted for clpX or clpP, or cells expressing protease-defective mutant protein ClpP(S97A), Z-rings appear normal; however, after photobleaching a region of the Z-ring, fluorescence recovers ~70% more slowly in cells without functional ClpXP than in wild type cells. Gfp-FtsZ(R379E), which is defective for degradation by ClpXP, also assembles into Z-rings that recover fluorescence ~2-fold more slowly than Z-rings containing Gfp-FtsZ. In vitro, ClpXP cooperatively degrades and disassembles FtsZ polymers. These results demonstrate that ClpXP is a regulator of Z-ring dynamics and that the regulation is proteolysis-dependent. Our results further show that FtsZ-interacting proteins in E. coli fine-tune Z-ring dynamics.
Human Alveolar Type II Cells Secrete and Absorb Liquid in Response to Local Nucleotide Signaling*

A balance sheet describing the integrated homeostasis of secretion, absorption, and surface movement of liquids on pulmonary surfaces has remained elusive. It remains unclear whether the alveolus exhibits an intra-alveolar ion/liquid transport physiology or whether it secretes ions/liquid that may communicate with airway surfaces. Studies employing isolated human alveolar type II (AT2) cells were utilized to investigate this question. Human AT2 cells exhibited both epithelial Na+ channel-mediated Na+ absorption and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator-mediated Cl− secretion, both significantly regulated by extracellular nucleotides. In addition, we observed in normal AT2 cells an absence of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator regulation of epithelial Na+ channel activity and an absence of expression/activity of reported calcium-activated chloride channels (TMEM16A, Bestrophin-1, ClC2, and SLC26A9), both features strikingly different from normal airway epithelial cells. Measurements of alveolar surface liquid volume revealed that normal AT2 cells: 1) achieved an extracellular nucleotide concentration-dependent steady state alveolar surface liquid height of ∼4 μm in vitro; 2) absorbed liquid when the lumen was flooded; and 3) secreted liquid when treated with UTP or forskolin or subjected to cyclic compressive stresses mimicking tidal breathing. Collectively, our studies suggest that human AT2 cells in vitro have the capacity to absorb or secrete liquid in response to local alveolar conditions.
Promoter elements determining weak expression of the GAL4 regulatory gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The GAL4 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (encoding the activator of transcription of the GAL genes) is poorly expressed and is repressed during growth on glucose. To determine the basis for its weak expression and to identify DNA sequences recognized by proteins that activate transcription of a gene that itself encodes an activator of transcription, we have analyzed GAL4 promoter structure. We show that the GAL4 promoter is about 90-fold weaker than the strong GAL1 promoter and at least 7-fold weaker than the feeble URA3 promoter and that this low level of GAL4 expression is primarily due to a weak promoter. By deletion mapping, the GAL4 promoter can be divided into three functional regions. Two of these regions contain positive elements; a distal region termed the UASGAL4 (upstream activation sequence) contains redundant elements that increase promoter function, and a central region termed the UESGAL4 (upstream essential sequence) is essential for even basal levels of GAL4 expression. The third element, an upstream repression sequence, mediates glucose repression of GAL4 expression and is located between the UES and the transcriptional start site. The UASGAL4 is unusual because it is not interchangable with UAS elements in other yeast promoters; it does not function as a UAS element when inserted in a CYC1 promoter, and a normally strong UAS functions poorly in place of UASGAL4 in the GAL4 promoter. Similarly, the UES element of GAL4 does not function as a TATA element in a test promoter, and consensus TATA elements do not function in place of UES elements in the GAL4 promoter. These results suggest that GAL4 contains a weak TATA-less promoter and that the proteins regulating expression of this regulatory gene may be novel and context specific.
Exploring and Exploiting the Multilevel Parallelism Inside SSDs for Improved Performance and Endurance

Given the multilevel internal SSD parallelism at the different four levels: channel-level, chip-level, die-level, and plane-level, how to exploit these levels of parallelism will directly and significantly impact the performance and endurance of SSDs, which is in turn primarily determined by three internal factors, namely, advanced commands, allocation schemes, and the priority order of exploiting the four levels of parallelism. In this paper, we analyze these internal factors to characterize their impacts, interplay, and parallelism for the purpose of performance and endurance enhancement of SSDs through an in-depth experimental study. We come to the following key conclusions: 1) Different advanced commands provided by Flash manufacturers exploit different levels of parallelism inside SSDs, where they can either improve or degrade the SSD performance and endurance depending on how they are used; 2) Different physical-page allocation schemes employ different advanced commands and exploit different levels of parallelism inside SSDs, giving rise to different performance and endurance impacts; 3) The priority order of using the four levels of parallelism has the most significant performance and endurance impact among the three internal factors. The optimal priority order of using the four levels of parallelism in SSDs is found to be: 1) the channel-level parallelism; 2) the die-level parallelism; 3) the plane-level parallelism; and 4) the chip-level parallelism.
Human silhouette extraction on FPGAs for infrared night vision military surveillance

Infrared visual surveillance has become an important mean to secure military camps, reassure soldier security, and detect suspected terror activities in the battle fields. An intelligent infrared surveillance system is aimed to provide real-time intelligent analysis of the perceived scene and find out human targets instantly to assist the soldier/commanders to make the right decision in a just-in-time mode to save our soldiers from life risks. To attain this, automatic detection of moving human objects from the scene is an essential step. In this paper, we present an FPGAs-based architecture to perform on-chip human silhouette extraction using a parallel architecture with systolic arrays. The architecture is designed in VHDL and simulated with real FLIR videos. The experiment shows that the designed processor on FPGAs can efficiently extract the human contour instantly from infrared videos, which exhibits great potential to facilitate the further analysis of the battlefield scenes for military-purpose surveillance systems.
UWB Monopole Antenna With Stable Radiation Pattern and Low Transient Distortion

In this letter, an ultrawideband (UWB) microstrip-fed planar monopole antenna with stable radiation pattern is presented. Although compact and simple structure of the planar antennas made them a good candidate in UWB applications, due to unwanted current distribution on the ground section, they suffer from transient distortion and radiation pattern rotation in different frequencies. To alleviate this effect, a metallic staircase plane is placed in the bottom of the substrate. In addition, a mushroom-like electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure is embedded on the top layer of the substrate to increase the gain in higher frequencies. Measurement results show 2.2-6 dB gain in broadside direction in 3-10-GHz frequency. A new definition of pattern stability factor (PSFII) is proposed, which is proper for both directional and omnidirectional radiation patterns. Calculated PSFII for the proposed antenna is higher than 95%, which shows a stable radiation pattern. Furthermore, it shows a low distortion manner where the fidelity factor in the main beam direction is more than 95%. In comparison to similar antennas presented in literature, PSFII and gain have been improved noticeably.