Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The wrong and wounding road: Paediatric polytrauma admitted to a level 1 trauma intensive care unit over a 5-year period.

BACKGROUND Injury in childhood is a major cause of potentially preventable morbidity and mortality. In order to implement effective preventive strategies, epidemiological data on mechanisms of injury and outcome are essential. OBJECTIVES To assess the causation, severity of injury, morbidity and mortality of paediatric trauma admitted to a level 1 trauma intensive care unit (TICU). METHODS Children were defined as being <16 years of age. The study covered the 5-year period January 2008-December 2012. Eligible patients were identified from a prospective database maintained in the level 1 TICU at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, Durban, South Africa. Data extracted were referral source, mechanism of injury, age and gender distribution, injury severity score (ISS), anatomical distribution of injury and mortality. RESULTS A total of 181 patients admitted during the study period accounted for 15.9% of all admissions. There were 84 females (46.4%) and 97 males (53.6%), with a median age of 7 years (interquartile range (IQR) 4-10). Sources of admission were directly from the scene in 38 cases (21.0%), from a primary healthcare facility in 47 (26.0%), from a regional hospital in 56 (31.0%) and from a tertiary facility in 40 (22.0%). Mortality rates according to location of transfer were regional hospital 8 deaths (30.8%), tertiary facility 7 (26.9%), primary health clinic 7 (26.9%), and from the scene 4 (15.4%). Mechanisms of injury were pedestrian-motor vehicle collision (PMVC) in 105 cases (58.0%), motor vehicle passenger in 38 (21.0%), non-vehicular blunt trauma in 18 (10.0%), gunshot wounds (GSWs) in 12 (6.6%), stab wounds in 6 (3.3%), bull goring in 1 (0.5%) and bicycle accident 1 (0.5%). The median ISS for all admissions was 25 (IQR 16-38). ISSs were >25 in 98 patients (54.1%), 16-25 in 51 (28.2%), 9-15 in 9 (4.9%) and <9 in 13 (7.2%); 61.9% of patients had head injuries, 48.1% injuries to the extremities, 41.4% abdominal trauma, 40.3% thoracic trauma, 20.4% external soft-tissue trauma, 9.9% cervical injury and 9.4% facial trauma. There were 26 deaths (14.4%), of which PMVCs accounted for 16 (61.5%), motor vehicle passengers for 7 (26.9%), blunt trauma for 2 (7.7%) and GSWs for 1 (3.8%). The majority of deaths (92%) were of patients with an ISS>25. Of the 26 patients who died, 88.4% had a head injury, 46.2% an extremity injury, 38.5% an external injury, 34.6% abdominal or chest injuries, 19.2% neck injury and 11.5% facial injury. CONCLUSIONS Motor vehicle-related injuries, especially PMVCs, dominate severe paediatric trauma and there is an urgent need for more road traffic education and stringent measures to decrease the incidence and associated morbidity and mortality.
Spatio-Temporal Expression of the Germ Cell Marker Genes MATER, ZAR1, GDF9, BMP15, and VASA in Adult Bovine Tissues, Oocytes, and Preimplantation Embryos1

Abstract We have cloned the bovine homologue of Mater (maternal antigen that embryos require) cDNA, potentially the first germ cell-specific maternal-effect gene in this species. The 3297 base-pair longest open reading frame encodes a putative protein of 1098 amino acids with a domain organization similar to its human counterpart. By reverse transcription coupled to polymerase chain reaction, we have analyzed the spatiotemporal expression of MATER, along with other potential markers of germ cells or oocytes: ZAR1 (zygotic arrest 1), GDF9 (growth and differentiation factor 9), BMP15 (bone morphogenetic protein 15), and VASA. In agreement with a preferential oocyte origin, MATER, ZAR1, GDF9, and BMP15 transcripts were detected in the oocyte itself at a much higher level than in the gonads, while no significant expression was detected in our panel of somatic tissues (uterus, heart, spleen, intestine, liver, lung, mammary gland, muscle). In situ hybridization confirmed oocyte-restricted expression of MATER and ZAR1 within the ovary, as early as preantral follicle stages. VASA was highly represented in the testis and the ovary, and still present in the oocyte from antral follicles. Maternal MATER, ZAR1, GDF9, and BMP15 transcripts persisted during oocyte in vitro maturation and fertilization and in preimplantation embryo until the five- to eight-cell or morula stage, but transcription was not reactivated at the time of embryonic genome activation.
Detection of Feline Leukemia Virus in the Endangered Iberian Lynx (Lynx Pardinus)

Feline retroviruses are rarely reported in lynx species. Twenty-one Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) blood and tissue samples collected from Doñana National Park and Los Villares (Sierra Morena) in southern Spain during 1993–2003 were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction to amplify nucleic acids from feline retroviruses. Six samples were positive for Feline leukemia virus (FeLV), but no samples tested positive for Feline immunodeficiency virus. The BLAST analysis indicated that 5 of the 6 sequences were closely related to FeLV strain Rickard subgroup A, whereas 1 sequence was identical to FeLV. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of FeLV in the endangered Iberian lynx.
Digital 3D barcode image as a container for data hiding using steganography

Steganography is a technique of concealing private information in a cover medium in such a way that it becomes impossible for the third person to come to know that some confidential information is contained in the cover envelope. In today's era with the inception of new emerging technologies, barcodes has become one of the most popular methods to provide a mechanism for protecting sensitive information.3D barcodes are used to accommodate high data rates by making use of third dimension as a color. 3D barcodes serves as the most reliable technique to hide data because they do not make use of any error correction levels due to the reason that it is very difficult to alter the encoded information. This paper introduces the concept of data hiding in barcodes by using color as third dimension. The process is classified into different categories and performance is evaluated by using various statistical parameters.
Antibody mapping of functional domains in vinculin.

We have analyzed the functional domain structure of vinculin, a protein involved in linking microfilaments to the cytoplasmic face of cell membranes in animal cells. For this purpose, we used several monoclonal antibodies raised against chicken gizzard vinculin whose epitopes could be assigned to discrete regions in the vinculin sequence by immunoblotting of proteolytic fragments combined with N‐terminal amino acid sequencing. Two of these antibodies induced the disruption of stress fibers and changed the number of morphology of focal contacts after microinjection in chicken embryo fibroblasts. Based on the location of its epitope in comparison with vinculin domains previously identified by other groups, we propose that one of these antibodies (15B7) interferes with the binding of vinculin to talin, the most peripheral of the microfilament proteins. The second antibody (14C10) binds within a region comprising three internal repeats and might therefore distort the inner architecture of vinculin. A third antibody (As3) inhibited the binding of F‐actin to vinculin in an in vitro assay but had no effect on the microfilament system in cells. These data emphasize the role of vinculin as a key protein in microfilament‐membrane linkage and support previous work on a direct interaction between vinculin and actin.
Paradigms, citations, and maps of science: A personal history

Can maps of science tell us anything about paradigms? The author reviews his earlier work on this question, including Kuhn's reaction to it. Kuhn's view of the role of bibliometrics differs substantially from the kinds of reinterpretations of paradigms that information scientists are currently advocating. But these reinterpretations are necessary if his theory will ever be empirically tested, and further progress is to be made in understanding the growth of scientific knowledge. A new Web tool is discussed that highlights rapidly changing specialties that may lead to new ways of monitoring revolutionary change in real time. It is suggested that revolutionary and normal science be seen as extremes on a continuum of rates of change rather than, as Kuhn originally asserted, as an all or none proposition.
A study of vignetting correction methods in camera colorimetric calibration

The procedure of colorimetric calibration of the camera ensures accurate and repeatable acquisition of the scene colors. The most common approach defines the calibration only as the color transformation between the camera image colors and colorimetric colors. The only condition for image acquisition is an uniform illumination of the scene. Unfortunately, such assumption does not include many distortions caused by image acquisition. One of them is a vignetting, which can be described as a decrease of the light intensity from the image center to the image corners. This phenomenon causes the same effects as non-uniform illumination, which is the change of color values of the same object depending on image coordinates. This paper is an attempt to analyze the influence of vignetting correction on the results of the camera colorimetric calibration. The conducted experiment in uniform light conditions shows that the improvement of calibration quality depends on the chosen vignetting correction method.
Neurologic state transitions in the eye and brain: Kinetics of loss and recovery of vision and consciousness

Abstract Visual alterations, peripheral light loss (PLL) and blackout (BO), are components of acceleration (+Gz) induced loss of consciousness (LOC) and recovery of consciousness (ROC). The kinetics of loss of vision (LOV) and recovery of vision (ROV) were determined utilizing ocular pressure induced retinal ischemia and compared to the kinetics of LOC and ROC resulting from +Gz-induced cephalic nervous system (CPNS) ischemia. The time from self-induced retinal ischemia in completely healthy subjects (N = 104) to the onset of PLL and complete BO was measured. The time from release of ocular pressure, with return of normal retinal circulation, to the time for complete recovery of visual fields was also measured. The kinetics of pressure induced LOV and ROV was compared with previously developed kinetics of +Gz-induced LOC and ROC focusing on the rapid onset, vertical arm, of the +Gz-induced LOC and ROC curves. The time from onset of increased ocular pressure, immediately inducing retinal ischemia, to PLL was 5.04 s with the time to BO being 8.73 s. Complete recovery of the visual field from BO following release of ocular pressure, immediately abolishing retinal ischemia, was 2.74 s. These results confirm experimental findings that visual loss is frequently not experienced prior to LOC during exposure to rapid onset, high levels of +Gz-stress above tolerance. Offset of pressure induced retinal ischemia to ROV was 2.74 s, while the time from offset of +Gz-induced CPNS ischemia to ROC was 5.29 s. Recovery of retinal function would be predicted to be complete before consciousness is regained following +Gz-induced LOC. Ischemia onset time normalization in neurologic tissues permits comparison between different stress-induced times to altered function. The +Gz-time tolerance curves for LOV and LOC provide comparison and integration of neurologic state transition kinetics in the retina and CPNS.
Target Tracking by Using Particle Filter in Sensor Networks

This paper presents a distributed particle filter (DPF) over sensor networks. We propose two major steps to make a particle filter to work in a distributed way. The first step is the estimation of global mean and covariance of weighted particles by using an average consensus filter. Through this consensus filter, each sensor node can gradually diffuse its local mean and covariance of weighted particles over the entire network and asymptotically obtain the estimated global mean and covariance. The second step is the propagation of the estimated global mean and covariance through state transition distribution and likelihood distribution by using an unscented transformation (UT). Through this transformation, partial high order information of the estimated global mean and covariance can be incorporated into the estimates for non-linear models. Simulations of tracking tasks in a sensor network with 100 sensor nodes are given.
Hydroperoxides in Plasma Are Reduced by Intensified Insulin Treatment: A randomized controlled study of IDDM patients with microalbuminuria

OBJECTIVE An association between reactive oxygen species and diabetic micro- and macrovascular complications has been proposed. In the present study, we have examined the effect of an improved blood glucose control on plasma levels of hydroperoxides in patients with IDDM. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Subjects included 30 young IDDM patients with microalbuminuria who were randomized to receive either continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) by a portable insulin pump (n = 15) or conventional insulin treatment (CIT) (n = 15) for 24 months. Plasma levels of hydroperoxides were measured by the ferrous oxidation with Xylenol Orange, version 2 (FOX2) assay. This method measures total lipid hydroperoxides and, unlike other methods, does not suffer from extraction losses. RESULTS The mean HbA1c level was lower in the CSII group at the end of the study than in the CIT group: (mean [95% CI]) 8.6 (8.1–9.1) vs. 9.6 (9.0–10.3)%, respectively (P < 0.002). The level of plasma hydroperoxides was very similar at the start of the study but was significantly lower in the CSII group compared with the CIT group at the end of the study: 2.9 (2.1–3.7) vs. 4.3 (3.2–5.4) μmol/l, respectively (P < 0.02). In the CSII group, hydroperoxides were reduced by 31% from baseline (P < 0.001), whereas there was no change in levels of hydroperoxides in the CIT group. Mean hydroperoxide levels correlated with mean HbA1c during the study (r = 0.39, P < 0.04). Hydroperoxide levels were associated with the levels of microalbuminuria (r = 0.45, P < 0.02). CONCLUSIONS This study provides support for the hypothesis that hyperglycemia is an important factor in the generation of hydroperoxides, and, thus, reactive oxygen species, in the circulation of IDDM patients.
Preferential recognition of hepatitis B nucleocapsid antigens by Th1 or Th2 cells is epitope and major histocompatibility complex dependent

Regulatory T-helper (Th) cells have been categorized into two functional subsets, Th1 and Th2 cells, which produce distinct lymphokines. In general, Th1 cells mediate cellular immune responses and Th2 cells mediate humoral immunity. Recent serological studies suggest that the Th1-Th2 balance may be relevant in acute and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections. The purpose of this study was to determine the potential of the nucleocapsid antigens (Ags) (hepatitis B core and e Ags [HBc/eAg]) of HBV to preferentially elicit either a Th1 or a Th2 dominant response. For this purpose, H-2 congenic B10.S and B10 mice were immunized with HBc/eAg, and Ag-specific T-cell proliferative responses, T-cell helper function, and T-cell cytokine production were analyzed. The results indicated that B10.S mice preferentially develop a Th1-like response whereas B10 mice preferentially develop a Th2-like response after immunization with HBc/eAg. Furthermore, the preferential Th1 and Th2 response patterns were reproduced when 12-residue peptides representing the dominant HBc/eAg-specific T-cell sites for B10.S (peptide 120-131) and B10 (peptide 129-140) mice were used as immunogens. Therefore, the combination of the T-cell site recognized and the major histocompatibility complex restricting element can in large part determine the Th phenotype of the HBc/eAg-specific T-cell response. Other factors that influenced Th phenotype were the presence of exogenous cytokines, Ag structure, and tissue distribution.
The effect of light scattering on multifocal electroretinography

Purpose: Unclear ocular media is a very common condition of older eyes characterized by significant light scattering and image degradation. The multifocal electroretinography (MERG) is a useful objective technique to measure retinal activity but its validity in the presence of cloudy ocular media remains unclear. We tested the MERG under controlled light scattering conditions using a liquid crystal diffuser (LCD) that simulated different degrees of image degradation.
Coordinated control and operation of DFIG and FSIG based Wind Farms

This paper considers a coordinated control strategy for adjacent FSIG and DFIG based wind farms whereby the reactive power output of the DFIG is prioritised over real power after a fault on the network, in order to boost the FSIG terminal voltage and improve its fault ride through capability. The issue of protection for a DFIG based wind turbine during network fault is also considered. It is seen that the large rotor currents can generally be ascribed to the small converter rating. Different protection arrangements for the converter are examined. The simulation results show that the stability margin of a FSIG can be significantly greater when there is extra reactive power compensation available from a DFIG in the vicinity.
High-throughput RNA sequencing: a step forward in transcriptome analysis

The transcriptome plays an important role in the life of a cell. Detailed analysis of the transcriptome enables interpretation of its structure and functionality. High throughput sequencing technology signi cantly enhanced the understanding of transcriptome activity. The RNA-sequencing process currently provides the most accurate estimation of gene expression levels. Moreover, RNA-seq allows detection of isoform structure and novel RNA types along with transcription process details such as strand-speci city and much more. The rst chapter of this thesis describes the history of transcriptome exploration and e ective methods of RNA-seq application. Nevertheless, all steps of RNA-seq process can produce a number of biases that in uence the investigation results. Some typical errors appearing during ligation and ampli cation procedures might be present in any high throughput sequencing experiment, while other biases occur only in cDNA synthesis or are speci c for transcriptome activity. Quality control of sequencing data is important to verify and correct the analysis results. The second chapter of this thesis is devoted to the explanation of these issues and introduces a novel tool, Qualimap2. This instrument computes detailed statistics and presents a number of plots based on RNA-seq alignment and counts data processing. The generated results enable detection of problems that are speci c to RNA-seq experiments. Notably, the tool supports analysis of multiple samples in various conditions. Qualimap2 was faithfully compared to other available tools and demonstrated superior functionality in multi-sample quality control. Importantly, RNA-seq can be applied in a relatively novel research area: detection of chimeric transcripts and fusion genes occurring due to genomic rearrangement. Since fusions are related to cancer, their discovery is important not only for science, but also allows medical use of RNA-seq. The third chapter is devoted to the current status of this approach and illustrates a novel toolkit called InFusion, which provides a number of novelties in chimera discovery from RNA-seq data such as detection of fusions arising from the combination of a gene and an intronic or intergenic region. Moreover, strand-speci city of expressed fusion transcripts can be detected and reported. InFusion was compared in detail to a number of other existing tools based on simulated and real datasets and demonstrated higher precision and recall. Overall, RNA-sequencing technology goes further and more specialized analysis abilities are becoming available. New applications of RNA sequencing and future directions of research are discussed in the last chapter.
On water vapor transport in field soils

Measurements of soil volumetric moisture content and temperature were made at 2, 4, 7, 10, and 15 cm below the surface of a bare field soil, over a 1‐week period at 20‐min intervals. The conductive heat and liquid moisture fluxes were calculated for the soil layer 7–10 cm below the surface, and the water vapor flux was then determined from both the energy transfer and mass transfer equations. Water vapor flux in this layer transported a significant amount of the total energy flux ∥up to 50%) and an appreciable amount of the total moisture flux (up to 25%). There was reasonable agreement between the water vapor flux calculated by the mass transfer equation and the vapor flux calculated by the energy equation.
About the Control of the Underwater and Above Water Nuclear Explosions by Hydroacoustic Methods

Abstract : The analysis of the experimental data available at the IDG which may be applicable to the problem of the detection and identification of nuclear explosions by modern hydroacoustic methods is represented. These data includes some results of observations of nuclear explosions at the Novaya Zemlya test site; results of measurements of HE with weights to 100 kg at a shallow reservoir; explosions of deep water bombs and mines; modeling of explosions of small charges of HE including underwater explosions in cavities filled by air. On the basis of the analysis of the experimental data it was shown that methods of hydroacoustic control can be used for the detection and identification of nuclear explosions, which were conducted near bottom or the free surface of water, above water and at reservoir's coast including underground explosions. Application of high sensitive hydrophones established near the bottom of sea with low level of noise, existence of sound channels with small attenuation favor this inspection. From nuclear explosions conducted in confined reservoirs similar to the Bay of Chernaya, hydrophones can received signals in open sea from seismic waves before shock waves in water. These tests shows strong reducing effect of the bottom and free surface of the reservoir on the acoustic efficiency. Thus, it is necessary to conduct a special investigation for determining the advantages and disadvantages of the methods of hydroacoustic control respective to different methods. Special acoustic source function was developed which allows to determine parameters of acoustic signal at large distances before the acoustic wave comes into sound channel. Acoustic signals from various sources of natural and artificial origin: HE, impact of meteorites, earthquakes, tsunami and so on are used for identification of nuclear explosions.
Switch-Off Transients in Cellular Access Networks with Sleep Modes

The introduction of sleep modes in the operations of base stations is today considered one of the most promising approaches to reduce the energy consumption of cellular access networks. Several papers have considered this option, assuming that the switch-on and switch-off transients are of negligible duration. In this paper we study the switch-off transients for one cell, investigating the amount of time necessary to implement the switch-off, while allowing terminals to handover to a new BS without overloading the signaling channels, and we show that the switch-off times have a marginal impact on the energy savings achievable with the sleep mode scheme.