Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcription of the Huntington disease gene during the quinolinic acid excitotoxic cascade

&NA; Although Huntington disease (HD) is characterized by the selective neurodegeneration of the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex, efforts to define the disease pathology have been complicated by the widespread expression of the disease gene (IT15) throughout the body. In this study, we examined IT15 mRNA levels during the quinolinic acid (QA) excitotoxic cascade to determine whether neuronal and/or glial expression is regulated by neurodegeneration. Following an initial increase between 1 h and 6 h, IT15 mRNA levels declined in a pattern homologous to a group of neuron‐specific genes. Decreased mRNA levels after 24 h demonstrated that glial transcription is not activated by neurodegeneration or gliosis. The 1 h and 24 h mRNA levels strongly suggest that IT15 transcription preferentially localizes to degenerating neurons.
Prevalence of Induced Abortion and Associated Factors among Chinese Female Sex Workers in Hong Kong

In this study, we interviewed 293 Chinese female sex workers (FSW) in Hong Kong of them, 55.6% of had experienced induced abortion 52.0% of which were accomplished in registered clinics. Those who were older, married, with frequent insomnia, did not use condom in the last episode of serving a client, and would agree not to use condom if paid more, were more likely than others to have had induced abortion (multivariate OR = 2.34 to 3.64). Those who were younger, had harmed herself, and drank at least 5 cans of beer per day (OR = 0.36 to 3.02) were more likely than others to have the induced abortion performed via improper means.
Scale-chromatic ‘whiteness’ indexing for saliency pattern organization

A saliency driven pattern organization scheme is presented for attention generation in first visit scenes. By identifying ‘what-to-be-observed’ with ‘easy-to-compute’ patterns, scale-chromatic ‘whiteness’ is indexed to separate saliency distributions from noisy background. Through experimental studies, resulted locally parallel mechanism has been verified to effectively confine landmark images without ad-hoc post processing.
Solving sudokus via metaheuristics and AC3

The Sudoku puzzle consists in filling a square matrix with 9 rows and 9 columns, divided into 9 3×3 regions, so that each column, row, and region contains different digits from 1 to 9. Such a puzzle belongs to the NP-complete class of problems, existing different exact and approximate methods able to solve it. This paper reports recent results for solving Sudokus achieved by combining metaheuristics and a filtering technique coming from the constraint programming domain named AC3.
Uniform Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Illumination Enables Live Cell Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Microscopy

Abstract Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy is a powerful technique to quantify dynamic protein-protein interactions in live cells. Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy can selectively excite molecules within about 150 nm of the glass-cell interface. Recently, these two approaches were combined to enable high-resolution FRET imaging on the adherent surface of living cells. Here, we show that interference fringing of the coherent laser excitation used in TIRF creates lateral heterogeneities that impair quantitative TIRF-FRET measurements. We overcome this limitation by using a two-dimensional scan head to rotate laser beams for donor and acceptor excitation around the back focal plane of a high numerical aperture objective. By setting different radii for the circles traced out by each laser in the back focal plane, the penetration depth was corrected for different wavelengths. These modifications quell spatial variations in illumination and permit calibration for quantitative TIRF-FRET microscopy. The capability of TIRF-FRET was demonstrated by imaging assembled cyan and yellow fluorescent protein–tagged HIV-Gag molecules in single virions on the surfaces of living cells. These interactions are shown to be distinct from crowding of HIV-Gag in lipid rafts.
mHealth implementation in South Africa

Amid the rapid proliferation of first mobile devices and lately, mobile broadband, South Africa is uniquely situated to harness the promises that Mhealth have been reported to hold. Over the past years, Mhealth implementations have spread to incorporate a wide range of Mhealth applications to service the Health System information needs and end user needs. This paper aims to describe the current state of mHealth applications and implementation in South Africa by a review of reported MHealth Implementations and the stakeholders that collaborate in the space.
Migration of Ruthenium-106 in a Nevada Test Site Aquifer: Discrepancy Between Field and Laboratory Results

Ruthenium-106 has been observed to migrate in ground water at about the same velocity as tritium from the site of an underground nuclear explosion to a pumped satellite well 91 meters distant. This finding contradicts the prediction, based on laboratory batch sorption measurements, that ruthenium-106 should migrate at a much lower rate than tritium. To predict migration of radionuclides in ground water, more relevant laboratory measurements are required.
Information processing in anxiety: a pilot study of the effect of manipulating 5-HT function

We gave the indirect 5-HT agonist, D-fenfluramine (30 mg), the 5-HT antagonist methysergide (2 mg) and placebo to 11 patients with an anxiety disorder and 12 controls in a double-blind, balanced-order, cross-over design. Compared to controls, patients had significantly higher anxiety ratings, were slower in naming colours in computerized Stroop tests and showed greater interference for anxiety-related words. Patients tended to have a lower critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT) than controls and in the subjects taken as a whole there was a significant inverse correlation between CFFT and Spielberger state (r=—0.54, p<0.01) and trait anxiety (r= - 0.55, p<0.01). Neither drug had significant effects on anxiety ratings or on Stroop interference. D- Fenfluramine significantly increased CFFT (p < 0.02) and methysergide non-significantly reduced CFFT with no significant differences between patients and controls. 5-HT may be involved in lower-level visual information processing but we found no evidence for its direct involvement in the attentional bias for anxiety- related information in the emotional Stroop.
Distribution of pre‐pro‐glucagon and glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor messenger RNAs in the rat central nervous system

Glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) is derived from the peptide precursor pre‐pro‐glucagon (PPG) by enzymatic cleavage and acts via its receptor, glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor (GLP‐1R). By using riboprobes complementary to PPG and GLP‐1R, we described the distribution of PPG and GLP‐1R messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in the central nervous system of the rat. PPG mRNA‐expressing perikarya were restricted to the nucleus of the solitary tact or to the dorsal and ventral medulla and olfactory bulb. GLP‐1R mRNA was detected in numerous brain regions, including the mitral cell layer of the olfactory bulb; temporal cortex; caudal hippocampus; lateral septum; amygdala; nucleus accumbens; ventral pallium; nucleus basalis Meynert; bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; preoptic area; paraventricular, supraoptic, arcuate, and dorsomedial nuclei of the hypothalamus; lateral habenula; zona incerta; substantia innominata; posterior thalamic nuclei; ventral tegmental area; dorsal tegmental, posterodorsal tegmental, and interpeduncular nuclei; substantia nigra, central gray; raphe nuclei; parabrachial nuclei; locus ceruleus, nucleus of the solitary tract; area postrema; dorsal nucleus of the vagus; lateral reticular nucleus; and spinal cord. These studies, in addition to describing the sites of GLP‐1 and GLP‐1R synthesis, suggest that the efferent connections from the nucleus of the solitary tract are more widespread than previously reported. Although the current role of GLP‐1 in regulating neuronal physiology is not known, these studies provide detailed information about the sites of GLP‐1 synthesis and potential sites of action, an important first step in evaluating the function of GLP‐1 in the brain. The widespread distribution of GLP‐1R mRNA‐containing cells strongly suggests that GLP‐1 not only functions as a satiety factor but also acts as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator in anatomically and functionally distinct areas of the central nervous system. J. Comp. Neurol. 403:261–280, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Speckle variance OCT imaging of the vasculature in live mammalian embryos

Live imaging of normal and abnormal vascular development in mammalian embryos is important tool in embryonic research, which can potentially contribute to understanding, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular birth defects. Here, we used speckle variance analysis of swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) data sets acquired from live mouse embryos to reconstruct the 3-D structure of the embryonic vasculature. Both Doppler OCT and speckle variance algorithms were used to reconstruct the vascular structure. The results demonstrates that speckle variance imaging provides more accurate representation of the vascular structure, as it is not sensitive to the blood flow direction, while the Doppler OCT imaging misses blood flow component perpendicular to the beam direction. These studies suggest that speckle variance imaging is a promising tool to study vascular development in cultured mouse embryos.
Collection and annotation of Malay conversational speech corpus

We report the development of a Malay conversational speech corpus as part of our research in spontaneous conversational speech LVCSR. This corpus development effort is the collaboration between NTU and USM. The goal is to collect, transcribe, and annotate 50 hours of conversational Malay speech. The conversation is recorded from both close-talk and telephone channels, and both speakers' utterances are kept in separate tracks. Besides the word transcription, we also annotate linguistics phenomena such as fillers and disfluencies. To date, 20 hours have been recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The details of our analysis will be presented in this report.
Conversational Coherence in Instant Messaging and Getting Work Done

This paper explores the critical role conversational coherence plays in facilitating the ongoing, distributed work of one virtual team as they engage in instant messaging (IM) conversations to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate. In studying the IM conversations of team members over the course of a month, a number of challenges to coherence emerged as they communicated with each other and worked together. These challenges include two previously identified challenges - lack of simultaneous feedback, and disrupted turn adjacency - and two additional challenges: multi-tasking, and authority. We describe the team's responses to these challenges and conclude by discussing implications for research
The Clinical Utility of Makeshift Beds in Disaster Shelters

Abstract Objective Strong earthquakes have been reported to increase the incidence of diseases. One reason for these increases may be the stress from the poor living environment for evacuees in disaster shelters. To reduce stress, makeshift cardboard beds were introduced in shelters in the Ishinomaki region, one of the areas heavily damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake, 4 months after the earthquake. The study was performed to determine whether use of the beds offered a reduction in the disease burden. Methods Blood pressure and blood D-dimer values, often used as diagnostic tests for venous thrombosis, were checked. The timed Up & Go (TUG) test, which assesses functional mobility; a questionnaire survey about symptoms (cough, insomnia, and lumbago); and an SF-8 health survey, a health-related quality of life survey, were also administered before and 1 month after introducing the beds. Results Blood pressure measurements, TUG test results, and questionnaire survey scores improved significantly 1 month after the introduction of the beds. Also, evacuees with higher blood D-dimer values tended to show improvement, suggesting that the beds may have had a good effect on persons with underlying venous thrombotic disorders. Conclusion Makeshift beds of cardboard could be very useful in disaster shelters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:573–577)
Epidemiology And Patterns Of Care At The End Of Life: Rising Complexity, Shifts In Care Patterns And Sites Of Death.

In 2015 an estimated 2.7 million people in the United States (1 percent of the population) died. Although decedents' illness experience varies substantially, important trends in care at the end of life are evident. To identify the most pressing health care policy issues related to end-of-life care, we present a comprehensive picture of the epidemiology and care patterns of people in the last stage of life. We identify three key trends in end-of-life care: increasing diversity in the primary diagnoses of decedents, increases in multimorbidity and illness complexity among people with terminal illnesses, and shifts in patterns of care at the end of life and in sites of death. This changing epidemiology of those in the last phase of life puts new pressures on the Medicare hospice benefit to ensure the availability of high-quality end-of-life care. In addition, health care policy makers must grapple with the fact that even with increasing use of hospice care, care intensity increases at the end of life. We highlight and discuss tensions that must be managed to ensure that high-quality care is accessible for people at the end of life.
Comparison of the clinical efficacy of at-home and in-office bleaching

Background: There is a lack of consensus regarding the superiority of the two vital bleaching methods. Aims: To compare the clinical efficacies of the two methods at home and in- office. Materials & Methods: Data was collected from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Lilacs, Scielo and BBO. Two independent researchers selected the articles, ie. , only randomized clinical trials. Where there was no initial agreement, researchers reached a consensus. The search strategy initially yielded 483 titles. After the exclusion by titles, 408 articles remained and following the abstract-based evaluation, only 5 were subjected to further analysis. Results: The most of the authors did not find any statistically significant differences between at home and in-office bleaching procedures. Conclusion: Both the at home and in-office methods alone or in association are equally efficient when a 14 day protocol is used.
Impact of an Oral Protocol 1 Running head: IMPACT OF AN ORAL PROTOCOL Impact of an Oral Protocol on Post Stroke Survivors

Post –stroke survivors are at risk for poor oral health as the provision of oral care is not usually a priority. Few research studies have focused on oral care for post -stroke patients in rehabilitation hospitals. Most oral care research has used samples of patients in intensive care settings, oncology patients, and older adults residing in nursing homes. A standardized protocol for the provision of oral care to post-stroke patients was developed that is being tested for its effectiveness by nurses in a rehabilitation hospital. Using the germ theory of disease, this honor thesis focused on the effects of an oral protocol compared to standard oral care on the incidence of nosocomial infections and pneumonia in post-stroke survivors. A prospective randomized design was used where participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. Data was collected from each participant for a period of ten days. The nine participants in this study were drawn from the larger study. Six of the participants were in the intervention group and 3 were in the control group. The majority of the participants were females (n=6), Caucasians (n=8), and over 60 years of age (n=6). The revised THROAT assessment tool showed an overall improvement in positive oral outcomes (normal to mild) in the intervention group compared with the control group outcomes (mild-moderate). In both groups, the Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA) scores had an overall decline in dysphagia and aspiration severity from Day 2 to Day 10. The Functional Oral Intake Scale scores indicated that most participants had minimal or no restrictions with their diet, except for one participant in the intervention group that was tube dependent throughout the study. The results from the oral cultures indicated that none of the participants were positive for S. aureus or MMSA throughout the study. Two were positive for MSSA however converted to negative by the end of the study. None of the participants in either group had any signs and symptoms of pneumonia. These findings are preliminary in determining the effectiveness of the oral protocol intervention in terms of outcomes. No definitive conclusions can be made until the larger study is complete. Impact of an Oral Protocol 3 Impact of an Oral Protocol on Post Stroke Survivors Chapter
Advances in Methods for Diagnosing Coronal Caries-a Review

Diagnostic methods for coronal caries in common use include visual inspection, tactile examination with a probe, bite-wing radiography, and often fiber-optic-transillumination (FOTI). Early diagnosis enables small lesions to be identified so that remineralization of lesions by preventive measures can be attempted; in clinical research, it may shorten the time for clinical trials. Quantitative methods may potentially decrease interexaminer variations and facilitate the determination of small progressions or regressions. This review discusses recent advances in the development of such methods, i.e., endoscopic methods, FOTI, light-scattering, laser fluorescence, ultraviolet illumination, penetration of dyes, iodide penetration, electrical resistance, ultrasonic imaging, and improved radiographic imaging techniques. Diagnosis of occlusal surfaces gains from the use of the electrical resistance method (preferable when the emphasis is on finding lesions) or radiography (when the emphasis is on identifying sound surfaces). Digitized radiography with simple contrast enhancement gives some further improvement. Quantitative methods are not yet proven to be good enough to measure small changes. Quantitative methods are not yet proven to be good enough to measure small changes. For occlusal surfaces, the electrical resistance method may be, but this has to be confirmed. For approximal surfaces, digitized radiography and fluorescent dye penetration have to be tested for clinical feasibility. It is concluded that there are many methods in development, but all require clinical testing, and many still need development before clinical use.
Bandwidth allocation and distributed relay selection for multiple‐user and multiple‐relay cooperative systems using Stackelberg game

Cooperative communication is an ongoing research area which lies on the basic idea of transmission of information from the transmitter to the receiver with the assistance of a virtual array of relay nodes in between, which will eventually provide the spatial diversity. This paper deals with the resource allocation (bandwidth in this case) among multiple users (source‐ destination pairs) in a cooperative communication environment along with the relay selection when there are multiple relay nodes to assist the transmitting nodes to pass on their data signal to respective receivers. A multi‐user, multi‐relay system model is considered here on which Amplify‐and‐Forward relaying scheme is applied. The bandwidth allocation and relay selection are done based on the Stackelberg game according to which transmitting nodes are treated as purchasers and relaying nodes are treated as vendors. By this planned approach, the transmitting nodes can discover the relays at comparatively better positions and can purchase the optimal bandwidth from those helping relays. By this approach, the relays which are competing with each other can increase their own utilities by demanding the optimal prices and the multiple users which are competing with each other can maximize their own utilities by demanding the optimal bandwidths. Distributed relay selection scheme is applied here which does not require precise information of channel state information as opposed to Centralized scheme and it gives comparable results, too.
Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion therapy for children and adolescents: an option for routine diabetes care.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) (insulin pump) therapy in routine pediatric diabetes care by comparing the HbA(1c), body mass index (BMI), and hypoglycemic episodes before and after initiation of CSII therapy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data from 56 patients (7-23 years old) were collected during regularly scheduled visits at a frequency similar to non-CSII patients. RESULTS The data were analyzed for the entire cohort and 3 subgroups (decreased, stable, or increased HbA(1c)) stratified according to a >/=0.5% change in HbA(1c). The total cohort demonstrated a decrease in HbA(1c) from 8.5% to 8.3%. The decreased cohort (39.4% of the total cohort) demonstrated a significant decrease in HbA(1c) from 8.6% to 7.6%. The mean HbA(1c) of the stable cohort (41.0%) was 8.7%. The increased cohort (19.6%) had an increase in HbA(1c) from 7.8% to 8.8%. Thirty-six patients (64.3%) maintained or achieved a HbA(1c) <8.0% or achieved a HbA(1c) at least 1% lower than their pre-CSII level. Of concern, 6 patients (10.7%) demonstrated a clinically significant increase in HbA(1c) from 8.3% to 9.6%. For the entire cohort, the rate of severe hypoglycemia before and on CSII therapy was 12.3 and 9.5 events per 100 patient-years, respectively. A statistically significant proportion of patients reported a decrease in seizure frequency versus an increase (17.9% vs 1.8%) as well as a decrease in overall hypoglycemic frequency versus an increase (41.1% vs 17.9%). There was not a clinically significant increase in BMI, even in the decreased HbA(1c) cohort. CONCLUSIONS CSII therapy is an appropriate option for some children in routine pediatric diabetes care. It can effectively decrease the HbA(1c) and reduce hypoglycemic episodes, without producing an abnormal increase in BMI.
Oscillation-based Built-In Self Test of integrated active analog filters

A new strategy for Oscillation-based Built-In Self Test (OBIST) of active analog filters, applicable for either a whole chip or a part of complex analog and mixed-signal systems, is described. In the test mode, a Circuit Under Test (CUT) is transformed to an oscillator, and the oscillation frequency is then compared to a reference frequency. In our approach, the reference frequency is given by the Schmitt trigger oscillator, which has been realized on-chip to compensate technology variations.
Interactive Parameter Retrieval for Two‐Tone Procedural Textures

The choice of parameters for procedural textures to achieve a desired appearance poses a challenging problem even for experienced artists. We propose a method to automatically determine such parameters to reproduce the appearance of input images. Addressing two‐tone textures, we separate the estimation of color and structure information and interpret the problem as image retrieval task from the space of procedural outputs. Applying a perceptually motivated image metric based on a texture descriptor enables us to precompute a comprehensive collection of possible parameter sets and yet achieve interactive retrieval performance. Our method supports a large variety of procedural texture models with a unified approach.