Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interaktive medizinische Volumenvisualisierung - ein Überblick

Zusammenfassung. Die Techniken zur Volumenvisualisierung sind in den letzten Jahren, vor allem durch dedizierte Hardwareunterstützung, so verbessert worden, dass sie in der klinischen Routine genutzt werden. Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblick über die Verfahren zur Visualisierung regelmäßiger Volumendaten, die in medizinischen Anwendungen vorherrschen. Schwerpunkte sind die direkte Visualisierung von Volumendaten durch bildbasierte, objektbasierte und texturbasierte Verfahren sowie Interaktionstechniken zum Umgang mit den Volumendaten. Neue Anwendungen ergeben sich durch die Überlagerung mehrerer Volumendatensätze, die durch eine Registrierung aufeinander abgebildet werden. Die Exploration derart fusionierter Volumen wird ebenfalls behandelt. Der Überblick wird durch eine Übersicht über die Produkte zur Volumenvisualisierung abgerundet.
Floc Dynamics, Sediment Flux, and Facies Generation on the Continental Shelf

Abstract : The goals of this research are to develop greater understanding of the links between floc dynamics and the generation of sedimentary facies on the continental shelf. In particular, we seek greater understanding of the dynamics underlying the sand-mud transition through investigation of how flocculation affects the transport and deposition of fine-grained sediments.
Supplementation with Lactobacillus paracasei or Pediococcus pentosaceus does not prevent diarrhoea in neonatal pigs infected with Escherichia coli F18

Abstract Infectious diarrhoea is a worldwide problem in newborns. Optimal bacterial colonisation may enhance gut maturation and protect against pathogenic bacteria after birth. We hypothesised that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) administration prevents pathogen-induced diarrhoea in formula-fed newborns. Newborn caesarean-delivered, colostrum-deprived term piglets on parenteral nutrition for the first 15 h, were used as models for sensitive newborn infants. A commercially available probiotic strain, Lactobacillus paracasei F19 (LAP, 2·6×108 colony-forming units (CFU)/kg per d) and a novel LAB isolate, Pediococcus pentosaceus (PEP, 1·3×1010 CFU/kg per d), were administered for 5 d with or without inoculation of the porcine pathogen, Escherichia coli F18 (F18, 1010 CFU/d). This resulted in six treatment groups: Controls (n 9), LAP (n 10), PEP (n 10), F18 (n 10), F18–LAP (n 10) and F18–PEP (n 10). The pathogen challenge increased diarrhoea and density of F18 in the intestinal mucosa (P<0·05). LAB supplementation further increased the diarrhoea score, relative to F18 alone (P<0·01). Intestinal structure and permeability were similar among groups, whereas brush border enzymes were affected in variable intestinal regions with decreased activities in most cases after F18 and LAB inoculation. Bacterial density in colon mucosa increased after F18 inoculation (P<0·05) but was unaffected by LAB supplementation. In colon contents, acetic and butyric acids were increased by PEP (P<0·05). The LAB used in this study failed to reduce E. coli-induced diarrhoea in sensitive newborn pigs. In vulnerable newborns there may be a delicate balance among bacterial composition and load, diet and the host. Caution may be required when administering LAB to compromised newborns suffering from enteric infections.
Analysis of a novel coupled inductor for LCL filter in grid-connected inverter

Because of the excellent effects for attenuating high frequency current harmonics, LCL filter is widely used in single phase and three phase systems. A LCL filter has two individual inductors which need large volume. This paper proposed a novel LCL filter with coupled inductor which can obtain the similar filtering performance as traditional LCL filter as well as the core size reduction due to the magnetic-integration. The proposed filter only need one inductor in the series main power loop which helps to reduce the volume of the magnetic by decreasing the usage of the thick windings wire conducting high current. And thus the proposed filter can effectively reduce the volume of the magnetics compared with traditional LCL filter. Theoretical analysis and implement approaches are shown in detail. The inductors of two kinds of filters for a 1.2kW inverter prototype are fabricated to verify the analysis. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the analysis.
Galbibacter marinus sp. nov., isolated from deep-sea sediment.

A taxonomic study was carried out on a novel bacterium, designated strain ck-I2-15(T), which was isolated from deep-sea sediment collected from the South-west Indian Ocean Ridge. Cells of strain ck-I2-15(T) were Gram-reaction-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile, moderately halophilic and capable of denitrification. Growth was observed with 0-9 % (w/v) NaCl and at temperatures of 10-37 °C. The novel strain was unable to degrade gelatin. The dominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and summed feature 9 (iso-C17 : 1ω9c and/or 10-methyl C16 : 0). The major respiratory quinone was MK6 and the polar lipid profile comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid, two unidentified aminolipids, one unidentified glycolipid and four other unidentified lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 38 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison indicated that strain ck-I2-15(T) was most closely related to Galbibacter mesophilus Mok-17(T) (92.9 % sequence similarity), followed by 'Joostella atrarenae' M1-2 (92.8 %), Joostella marina En5(T) (92.7 %) and Zhouia amylolytica HN-171(T) (91.6 %). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ck-I2-15(T) formed a clade with the genus Galbibacter, within the family Flavobacteriaceae. Several phenotypic properties allowed strain ck-I2-15(T) to be distinguished from its closest phylogenetic relatives. On the basis of the phenotypic and phylogenetic data, strain ck-I2-15(T) represents a novel species of the genus Galbibacter, for which the name Galbibacter marinus is proposed. The type strain is ck-I2-15(T) ( = CCTCC AB 209062(T) = LMG 25228(T) = MCCC 1A03044(T)).
A Vision-based System to Help Senior Citizens for Memory Recall of Object-placing

Human memory ability is gradually degenerated followed by the increasing of age. It is annoying for senior citizens to often forgetting and trying to recall the places of those objects commonly used in their daily lives. This paper presents a preliminary study for developing a vision-based system and helping senior citizens to recall the process of object-placing. In the initial stage, SURF (Speeded Up Robust Features) is adopted to extract feature points from the object image that are further used for the matching to its corresponding video clips in the video database. Experimental results have demonstrated that correct video clips can be retrieved from the database and played for the user to recall after the desired object image is provided. Although impressive results have been achieved, to increase the robustness of this system, more features and objects will be analyzed and used in the future.
Out-patient Service Quality Perceptions in Private Thai Hospitals

The purpose of the study was to determine the dimensions used in judging the hospital services quality; to develop a tool for measuring perceived service quality for hospitals; to test the validity and reliability of the new scale; and finally to use the results of the data collected to suggest improving service quality. A cross-sectional field study was conducted among 400 hospital out-patients in Thailand. The researchers administered the SERVQUAL instrument in order to assess the applicability of these service quality attributes to the out-patient hospital setting in Thailand. The data collected were used to assess the psychometric properties of the SERVQUAL instrument and to analyze whether and to what extent the SERVQUAL dimensions adequately predicted overall service quality among Thai hospital out-patient respondents. The psychometric properties of the instrument were quite acceptable and the resulting 5-factor structure was consistent to and confirms earlier measurement theory. The measurement model as estimated by the use of structural equation modeling further showed that the hypothesized model fit the empirical data quite well. The results indicate that SERVQUAL’s five latent dimensions had a significant influence on overall service quality. Responsiveness had most influence; followed by empathy, tangibles, assurance; and finally reliability. The results of this study further demonstrate that service quality can be assessed in diverse service settings such as hospital out-patient departments. SERVQUAL is robust enough to capture the critical elements used to assess overall service quality. The study was limited in its external validity and prediction was constrained due to the nature of the data collected, i.e. cross-sectional design. This study also chose to focus on one outcome variable, i.e. overall service quality. Other critical variables might be reasonably assessed, e.g., customer satisfaction, loyalty intentions, firm performance
Novel Mechanism of Activation of NADPH Oxidase 5

In contrast to other Nox isoforms, the activity of Nox5 does not require the presence of accessory proteins and is entirely dependent on the elevation of intracellular calcium. Previous studies have shown that the EC50 of Nox5 for calcium is relatively high and raises the question of whether Nox5 can be sufficiently activated in cells that do not experience extreme elevations of intracellular calcium. In the current study, we have identified a novel mechanism governing the activity of Nox5. Exposure of cells expressing Nox5 to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) resulted in a slow and sustained increase in ROS, which was markedly different from the rapid response to ionomycin. PMA greatly potentiated the activity of Nox5 in response to low concentrations of ionomycin. The ability of PMA to increase Nox5 activity was abolished by calcium chelation and was a direct effect on enzyme activity, since PMA increased the calcium sensitivity of Nox5 in a cell-free assay. PMA stimulated the time-dependent phosphorylation of Nox5 on Thr494 and Ser498. Mutation of these residues to alanine abolished both PMA-dependent phosphorylation and calcium sensitization. Conversely, mutation of Thr494 and Ser498 to glutamic acid produced a gain of function mutant that had increased activity at low concentrations of ionomycin. Within the cell, Nox5 was detected in detergent-resistant microdomains of the endoplasmic reticulum. In summary, the phosphorylation of Nox5 at key residues facilitates enzyme activation at lower levels of intracellular calcium and may provide an avenue for enzyme activation in response to a greater variety of extracellular stimuli.
Energy Efficient Qos Routing Protocol Using Swarm Intelligence For MANET

In MANETs, due to the continuous change in the node location, the paths available for the transmission of data from the source to the destination also keep varying. Since the node power is a critical factor for the efficient working of the MANET, the usage of power in the network should be highly efficient. So, during the transmission of the data from the source towards the destination, routes selected for this purpose should be effective, so that no energy is wasted in transmitting data through the paths that make the transmission unsuccessful, causing the data packet to be dropped. Hence in this paper, we employ Swarm Intelligence for efficient route detection, which performs this task by considering important factors like fitness function for route selection.
Propagation of Strains of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Unweaned White Mice

ALL attempts by the earliest workers in the field of foot-and-mouth disease research to produce obvious clinical signs of infection with the virus in white mice were unsuccessful. Later, following upon the successful development in white mice of "neurotropic" strains of the viruses of yellow fever and horse sickness for immunizing purposes, a similar attempt was made by Nagel (1937) with the virus of foot-and-mouth disease. He found that it was possible to maintain the virus in white mice only if the brain was passaged within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of its inoculation. There were no clinical signs until 140 intracerebral passages had been made (Hofmann, 1941, 1944). Galloway (1939), Rohrer (1944) and Hudson (1947) made experiments with seven other strains of virus. With five of these strains no clinical signs were seen although from 36 to 104 passages were made. With two strains, clinical signs appeared after 76 and 144 intracerebral passages and were considered to be due to an encephalomyelitis. Many more passages were required before the virus lost its property of producing vesicular lesions in guinea-pigs or cattle and such strains have not been put to any practical use. The mice used in all the; above work are believed to have been at least 4 to 5 weeks old. Had unweaned mice 1 to 2 weeks old been used fatal symptoms associated with gross changes in the myocardium and skeletal muscles might have been observed from the earliest passages, for this has been the experience with nine bovine strains and six guinea-pig strains of the virus in the work now to be reported.
Performance of multicarrier DS CDMA systems

In this paper, we apply a multicarrier signaling technique to a direct-sequence CDMA system, where a data sequence multiplied by a spreading sequence modulates multiple carriers, rather than a single carrier. The receiver provides a correlator for each carrier, and the outputs of the correlators are combined with a maximal-ratio combiner. This type of signaling has the desirable properties of exhibiting a narrowband interference suppression effect, along with robustness to fading, without requiring the use of either an explicit RAKE structure or an interference suppression filter. We use bandlimited spreading waveforms to prevent self-interference, and we evaluate system performance over a frequency selective Rayleigh channel in the presence of partial band interference; we also compare system performance with that of a single-carrier RAKE system.
On the simulation of carrier dynamics in terahertz photoconductive antennas

This communication shows the relevance of accounting for accurate physical models of carrier dynamics for the simulation of radiative semiconductor photoconductive devices in the terahertz operation regime. In particular, a significant influence of the semiconductor biased state was displayed for calculating the radiated electromagnetic field at the broadside direction. Comparison with experimental measurements demonstrates the superior performance of numerical schemes, including a detailed description of the biasing, considering not only the electric potential but also the carrier dynamics and local mobilities.
Clinical signs, pathology and dose-dependent survival of adult wood frogs, Rana sylvatica, inoculated orally with frog virus 3 Ranavirus sp., Iridoviridae.

Amphibian populations suffer massive mortalities from infection with frog virus 3 FV3, genus Ranavirus, family Iridoviridae, a pathogen also involved in mortalities of fish and reptiles. Experimental oral infection with FV3 in captive-raised adult wood frogs, Rana sylvatica Lithobates sylvaticus, was performed as the first step in establishing a native North American animal model of ranaviral disease to study pathogenesis and host response. Oral dosing was successful LD50 was 10(2.93 2.423.44) p.f. u. for frogs averaging 35mm in length. Onset of clinical signs occurred 614days post-infection p.i. median 11 days p.i. and time to death was 1014 days p.i. median 12 days p.i. Each tenfold increase in virus dose increased the odds of dying by 23-fold and accelerated onset of clinical signs and death by approximately 15. Ranavirus DNA was demonstrated in skin and liver of all frogs that died or were euthanized because of severe clinical signs. Shedding of virus occurred in faeces 710 days p.i. 34.5days before death and skin sheds 10 days p.i. 01.5days before death of some frogs dead from infection. Most common lesions were dermal erosion and haemorrhages haematopoietic necrosis in bone marrow, kidney, spleen and liver and necrosis in renal glomeruli, tongue, gastrointestinal tract and urinary bladder mucosa. Presence of ranavirus in lesions was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies probably viral were present in the bone marrow and the epithelia of the oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract, renal tubules and urinary bladder. Our work describes a ranaviruswood frog model and provides estimates that can be incorporated into ranavirus disease ecology models.
Optimal r-order of an adjoint Broyden method without the assumption of linearly independent steps

Quasi-Newton methods based on least change secant updating formulas that solve linear equations Ax=b in n=dim(x)=dim(b) steps can be expected to solve the smooth nonlinear systems n-step quadratically, i.e. with an r-order of ρ=21/n =1+1/n+O(1/n 2). The best rate one can generally expect is ρ n−k for some fixed k, where ρ n is the positive root of ρ n (ρ−1)=1. Irrespective of the shift k, the ratio tends to 1 for large n. To show that this asymptotically optimal rate is actually achieved, one usually has to impose a priori some kind of linear independence condition on the sequence of steps taken by the quasi-Newton iteration in question. Without any such assumptions, we establish in this paper the convergence order ρ n for the adjoint Broyden formula proposed by Schlenkrich et al. [S. Schlenkrich, A. Griewank, and A. Walther, Local convergence analysis of TR1 updates for solving nonlinear equations, MATHEON Preprint 337 (2006)]. It requires the evaluation of adjoint vectors, is invariant with respect to linear transformations on the variable domain, and combines the properties of bounded deterioration and heredity.
Dissociable effects of social context on song and doublecortin immunoreactivity in male canaries

Variation in environmental factors such as day length and social context greatly affects reproductive behavior and the brain areas that regulate these behaviors. One such behavior is song in songbirds, which males use to attract a mate during the breeding season. In these species the absence of a potential mate leads to an increase in the number of songs produced, while the presence of a mate greatly diminishes singing. Interestingly, although long days promote song behavior, producing song itself can promote the incorporation of new neurons in brain regions controlling song output. Social context can also affect such neuroplasticity in these song control nuclei. The goal of the present study was to investigate in canaries (Serinus canaria), a songbird species, how photoperiod and social context affect song and the incorporation of new neurons, as measured by the microtubule‐associated protein doublecortin (DCX) in HVC, a key vocal production brain region of the song control system. We show that long days increased HVC size and singing activity. In addition, male canaries paired with a female for 2 weeks showed enhanced DCX‐immunoreactivity in HVC relative to birds housed alone. Strikingly, however, paired males sang fewer songs that exhibited a reduction in acoustic features such as song complexity and energy, compared with birds housed alone, which sang prolifically. These results show that social presence plays a significant role in the regulation of neural and behavioral plasticity in songbirds and can exert these effects in opposition to what might be expected based on activity‐induced neurogenesis.
Studies of Synthetic Polymers by Nonradiative Energy Transfer

Nonradiative energy transfer between fluorescent labels attached to polymers has been used to characterize polymer miscibility, the interpenetration of chain molecules in solution, micelle formation in graft copolymers, the unfolding of collapsed chain molecules in polymer melts, and the transfer of energy absorbed by a large number of donor labels to a small number of acceptors by an "antenna effect. " The change in the emission spectrum after ionomer solutions with different fluorescent counterions were mixed provided rate constants for counterion interchange. The fluorescence behavior of dispersions of donor-labeled polymers stabilized by a graft copolymer with acceptor fluorophores in the solution phase led to inferences about the morphology of the dispersed particles.
Zebrafish embryos as a model host for the real time analysis of Salmonella typhimurium infections

Bacterial virulence is best studied in animal models. However, the lack of possibilities for real time analysis and the need for laborious and invasive sample analysis limit the use of experimental animals. In the present study 28 h‐old zebrafish embryos were infected with DsRed‐labelled cells of Salmonella typhimurium. Using multidimensional digital imaging microscopy we were able to determine the exact location and fate of these bacterial pathogens in a living vertebrate host during three days. A low dose of wild‐type S. typhimurium resulted in a lethal infection with bacteria residing and multiplying both in macrophage‐like cells and at the epithelium of blood vessels. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) mutants of S. typhimurium, known to be attenuated in the murine model, proved to be non‐pathogenic in the zebrafish embryos and were partially lysed in the bloodstream or degraded in macrophage‐like cells. However, injection of LPS mutants in the yolk of the embryo resulted in uncontrolled bacterial proliferation. Heat‐killed, wild‐type bacteria were completely lysed extracellularly within minutes after injection, which shows that the blood of these zebrafish embryos does already contain lytic activity. In conclusion, the zebrafish embryo model allows for rapid, non‐invasive and real time analysis of bacterial infections in a vertebrate host.
Evaluation of Some Inflammatory Biomarkers in Male Albino Wistar Rats Following Ingestion of Crude Oil and the Role of Bee Honey, Vitamins C and E

Evaluation of some biomarkers of inflammation in male Albino Wistar rats following ingestion of Nigerian Bonny Light Crude Oil (NBLCO) and the effect of antioxidant supplementation was the focus of this study. Forty-eight adult male Albino Wistar rats weighing 150 - 180 g were randomly divided 8 per group into: group I (control) oral gavaged 3 ml/kg of normal saline; group II received 3 ml/kg of NBLCO; groups III, IV and V received in addition to 3 ml/kg of NBLCO 1 ml/kg vitamin C, vitamin E and 3 ml/kg of honey bee respectively; group VI received 3 ml/kg of honey. After 28 days of treatment, all animals were anaesthetized with chloroform and blood collected by cardiac puncture for analysis. Results showed that NBLCO administration significantly increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein while supplementation with antioxidant significantly reversed such effects (p < 0.05). NBLCO significantly reduced platelets and fibrinogen levels compared with the control group (p < 0.05). Interestingly, the vitamin supplementation significantly reduced platelets and fibrinogen levels compared to group II (NBLCO) (p < 0.05). Honey supplementation on the other hand significantly reduced platelets and fibrinogen compared to group II (NBLCO) (p < 0.05). From the results obtained it is concluded that ingestion of NBLCO has the potential to induce development and progression of inflammation but could substantially be mitigated by supplementation with antioxidant vitamins C, E and honey.