Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental models of malnutrition and its effect on skin trophism.

BACKGROUND The skin requires adequate levels of nutrients to function properly. OBJECTIVE To analyze skin trophism in well-nourished and undernourished rats using two models of malnutrition. METHODS In the marasmus model, 60 Wistar rats were kept on a controlled diet, 30 being randomly selected to receive half the established diet for 60 days. In the gelatin model, 60 rats were used, 30 of which received a diet consisting of poor quality protein (gelatin) for 30 days. The nutritional status of the animals was evaluated according to body mass index, clinical signs and serum albumin measurement. After the period of malnutrition, histology was performed on the animals' skin to analyze the thickness of the dermis and epidermis using the Leica Application Suite software. Collagen was analyzed on slides stained with Gömöri trichrome using the ImageJ software program. RESULTS The body mass index of the malnourished animals in the marasmus and gelatin groups was significantly lower than that of the well-nourished animals in the two groups (p<0.0001 in both models). With respect to serum albumin, there was no difference between the groups in either of the two models. In relation to the histological analysis of skin thickness, the dermis of the malnourished animals was significantly thinner compared to that of the well-nourished animals (p<0.0001 in both models). The percentage of collagen was lower in the malnourished animals compared to the well-nourished animals (p<0.0005 and p<0.003 in the marasmus and gelatin model, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Skin thickness measurements were lower in the malnourished animals in both models, and this finding was histologically confirmed by the lower percentage of collagen, showing the negative effect of malnutrition on skin trophism.
Using a Random Forest Classifier to Find Nuclear Export Signals in Proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana

This paper presents a new computational strategy for predicting Nuclear Export Signals (NESs) in proteins of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana based on a random forest classifier. NESs are amino acid sequences that enable a protein to interact with a nuclear receptor and in this way to be exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. The proposed classifier uses two kinds of features, the sequence of the NESs expressed as the score obtained from a HMM profile and physicochemical properties of the amino acid residues expressed as amino acid index values. Around 5000 proteins from the total of protein sequences from Arabidopsis were predicted as containing NESs. A small group of these proteins was experimentally tested for the actual presence of an NES. 11 out of 13 tested proteins showed positive interaction with the receptor Exportin 1 (XPO1a) from Arabidopsis in yeast two-hybrid assays, which indicates they contain NESs. The experimental validation of the nuclear export activity in a selected group of proteins is an indicator of the potential usefulness of the tool. From the biological perspective, the nuclear export activity observed in those proteins strongly suggests that nucleo-cytoplasmic partitioning could be involved in regulation of their functions.
Commentary: Intramedullary Nailing Supplemented with Poller Screws for Proximal Tibial Fractures

is challenging owing to the relatively high chance of displacement during nail insertion. The stability of the proximal fixation is inferior because of the wider diameter of the intramedullary canal in the metaphysis. This has led to the use of Poller screws for additional blocking during intramedullary fixation of proximal or distal tibial fractures.1 The effects of Poller screw is two-fold. First, fracture reduction is better maintained during nail insertion, which reduces the chance of malunion. Second, the stability achieved by additional Poller screws enables quicker fracture union. Stability can be further enhanced by modifying nail design and locking options,2 such as increasing the number of locking screws inserted into the metaphyseal fragment, and using angularly stable locking screws that diminish the amount of nail wobble in the screw hole.3 Commentary: Intramedullary nailing supplemented with Poller screws for proximal tibial fractures
Significance of Space Charge and the Earth Magnetic Field on the Dispersive Characteristics of a Low Energy Electron Beam

The combination of energy spread and space charge provides a rich domain for interesting beam dynamics that are currently not well understood. The University of Maryland Electron Ring (UMER) [1] is a small scaled ring designed to probe the little-known regions of higher beam intensities using low-energy electrons. As such, design, commissioning and operation of UMER present many challenges, some quite novel. For example the UMER beam energy of 10 keV makes the beam very sensitive to the Earth magnetic field, which we can fortunately use to assist in bending the beam. This paper presents a systematic simulation study of the interaction of space charge and energy spread, with and without the earth magnetic field.
Non-Invasive Detection of Anaemia Using Digital Photographs of the Conjunctiva

Background and Aims Anaemia is a major health burden worldwide. Although the finding of conjunctival pallor on clinical examination is associated with anaemia, inter-observer variability is high, and definitive diagnosis of anaemia requires a blood sample. We aimed to detect anaemia by quantifying conjunctival pallor using digital photographs taken with a consumer camera and a popular smartphone. Our goal was to develop a non-invasive screening test for anaemia. Patients and Methods The conjunctivae of haemato-oncology in- and outpatients were photographed in ambient lighting using a digital camera (Panasonic DMC-LX5), and the internal rear-facing camera of a smartphone (Apple iPhone 5S) alongside an in-frame calibration card. Following image calibration, conjunctival erythema index (EI) was calculated and correlated with laboratory-measured haemoglobin concentration. Three clinicians independently evaluated each image for conjunctival pallor. Results Conjunctival EI was reproducible between images (average coefficient of variation 2.96%). EI of the palpebral conjunctiva correlated more strongly with haemoglobin concentration than that of the forniceal conjunctiva. Using the compact camera, palpebral conjunctival EI had a sensitivity of 93% and 57% and specificity of 78% and 83% for detection of anaemia (haemoglobin < 110 g/L) in training and internal validation sets, respectively. Similar results were found using the iPhone camera, though the EI cut-off value differed. Conjunctival EI analysis compared favourably with clinician assessment, with a higher positive likelihood ratio for prediction of anaemia. Conclusions Erythema index of the palpebral conjunctiva calculated from images taken with a compact camera or mobile phone correlates with haemoglobin and compares favourably to clinician assessment for prediction of anaemia. If confirmed in further series, this technique may be useful for the non-invasive screening for anaemia.
Distributed formation control of unicycle robots

In this paper, we consider the problem of distributed formation control for a group of unicycle robots. We propose a control algorithm that solves the formation control problem in that it ensures that robots create a desired time-varying formation shape while the formation as a whole follows a prescribed trajectory. Moreover, we show that it is also possible to obtain coordination of robots in the formation, regardless of the trajectory tracking of the formation. We illustrate the behavior of a group of robots controlled by the formation control algorithm proposed in this paper in a simulation study.
SPINDLES, SPINDLE PLAQUES, AND MEIOSIS IN THE YEAST SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE (HANSEN)

The intranuclear spindle of yeast has an electron-opaque body at each pole. These spindle plaques lie on the nuclear envelope. During mitosis the spindle elongates while the nuclear membranes remain intact. After equatorial constriction there are two daughted nuclei, each with one spindle plaque. The spindle plaque then duplicates so that two side-by-side plaques are produced. These move rapidly apart and rotate so that they bracket a stable 0.8 µm spindle. Later, during mitosis, this spindle elongates, etc. Yeast cells placed on sporulation medium soon enter meiosis. After 4 hr the spindle plaques of the more mature cells duplicate, producing a stable side-by-side arrangement. Subsequently the plaques move apart to bracket a 0.8 µm spindle which immediately starts to elongate. When this meiosis I spindle reaches its maximum length of 3–5 µm, each of the plaques at the poles of the spindle duplicates and the resulting side-by-side plaques increase in size. The nucleus does not divide. The large side-by-side plaques separate and bracket a short spindle of about 1 µm which elongates gradually to 2 or 3 µm. Thus there are two spindles within one nucleus at meiosis II. To the side of each of the four plaques a bulge forms on the nucleus. The four bulges enlarge while the original nucleus shrinks. These four developing ascospore nuclei are partially surrounded by cytoplasm and by a prospore wall which originates from the cytoplasmic side of the spindle plaque. Eventually the spore nuclei pinch off and the spore wall closes. In some of the larger yeast cells this development is completed after 8 hr on sporulation medium.
Hospital waste management in developing countries: A mini review

Health care activities can generate different kinds of hazardous wastes. Mismanagement of these wastes can result in environmental and occupational health risks. Developing countries are resource-constrained when it comes to safe management of hospital wastes. This study summarizes the main issues faced in hospital waste management in developing countries. A review of the existing literature suggests that regulations and legislations focusing on hospital waste management are recent accomplishments in many of these countries. Implementation of these rules varies from one hospital to another. Moreover, wide variations exist in waste generation rates within as well as across these countries. This is mainly attributable to a lack of an agreement on the definitions and the methodology among the researchers to measure such wastes. Furthermore, hospitals in these countries suffer from poor waste segregation, collection, storage, transportation and disposal practices, which can lead to occupational and environmental risks. Knowledge and awareness regarding proper waste management remain low in the absence of training for hospital staff. Moreover, hospital sanitary workers, and scavengers, operate without the provision of safety equipment or immunization. Unsegregated waste is illegally recycled, leading to further safety risks. Overall, hospital waste management in developing countries faces several challenges. Sustainable waste management practices can go a long way in reducing the harmful effects of hospital wastes.
Recurrent Structural Motifs in Non-Homologous Protein Structures

We have extracted an extensive collection of recurrent structural motifs (RSMs), which consist of sequentially non-contiguous structural motifs (4–6 residues), each of which appears with very similar conformation in three or more mutually unrelated protein structures. We find that the proteins in our set are covered to a substantial extent by the recurrent non-contiguous structural motifs, especially the helix and strand regions. Computational alanine scanning calculations indicate that the average folding free energy changes upon alanine mutation for most types of non-alanine residues are higher for amino acids that are present in recurrent structural motifs than for amino acids that are not. The non-alanine amino acids that are most common in the recurrent structural motifs, i.e., phenylalanine, isoleucine, leucine, valine and tyrosine and the less abundant methionine and tryptophan, have the largest folding free energy changes. This indicates that the recurrent structural motifs, as we define them, describe recurrent structural patterns that are important for protein stability. In view of their properties, such structural motifs are potentially useful for inter-residue contact prediction and protein structure refinement.
Topography and morphology of the inhibitory projection from superior olivary nucleus to nucleus laminaris in chickens (Gallus gallus)

The avian nucleus laminaris (NL) is involved in computation of interaural time differences (ITDs) that encode the azimuthal position of a sound source. Neurons in NL are bipolar, with dorsal and ventral dendritic arbors receiving input from separate ears. NL neurons act as coincidence detectors that respond maximally when input from each ear arrives at the two dendritic arbors simultaneously. Computational and physiological studies demonstrated that the sensitivity of NL neurons to coincident inputs is modulated by an inhibitory feedback circuit via the superior olivary nucleus (SON). To understand the mechanism of this modulation, the topography of the projection from SON to NL was mapped, and the morphology of the axon terminals of SON neurons in NL was examined in chickens (Gallus gallus). In vivo injection of AlexaFluor 568 dextran amine into SON demonstrated a coarse topographic projection from SON to NL. Retrogradely labeled neurons in NL were located within the zone of anterogradely labeled terminals, suggesting a reciprocal projection between SON to NL. In vivo extracellular physiological recording further demonstrated that this topography is consistent with tonotopic maps in SON and NL. In addition, three‐dimensional reconstruction of single SON axon branches within NL revealed that individual SON neurons innervate a large area of NL and terminate on both dorsal and ventral dendritic arbors of NL neurons. The organization of the projection from SON to NL supports its proposed functions of controlling the overall activity level of NL and enhancing the specificity of frequency mapping and ITD detection. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:358‐375, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of medicinal plants on Alzheimer's disease and memory deficits

Alzheimer's disease is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory deficits. Various studies have been carried out to find therapeutic approaches for Alzheimer's disease. However, the proper treatment option is still not available. There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, but symptomatic treatment may improve the memory and other dementia related problems. Traditional medicine is practiced worldwide as memory enhancer since ancient times. Natural therapy including herbs and medicinal plants has been used in the treatment of memory deficits such as dementia, amnesia, as well as Alzheimer's disease since a long time. Medicinal plants have been used in different systems of medicine, particularly Unani system of medicines and exhibited their powerful roles in the management and cure of memory disorders. Most of herbs and plants have been chemically evaluated and their efficacy has also been proven in clinical trials. However, the underlying mechanisms of actions are still on the way. In this paper, we have reviewed the role of different medicinal plants that play an important role in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and memory deficits using conventional herbal therapy.
Fibrous Structures with Designed Wicking Properties

Fibrous structures have been designed and tested to achieve anisotropic flow properties. A structure that transports liquid in one specific in-plane direction as fast as possible was formed by parallel arrangement of continuous filament yarns in the middle layer of a three-layer structure. The top and bottom layers consisted of low areal density nonwoven fabrics. Tests showed that flow was faster in the middle layer, yielding a nonuniform flow front among the layers. Structures with larger pores in the middle layer wicked faster, as anticipated from the Washburn equation. Although we maximized the in-plane orientation to increase the flow anisotropy of the structures, the flow anisotropy was only approximately 3, which can be usefully compared to a mechanical anisotropy of the structure of perhaps 50 or higher. A mathematical expression derived from combining the continuity equation with Darcy's Law was used to model the flow behavior in these structures. The predicted values of the flow front were within 20% of the experimental values. Another structure was designed to maximize liquid transport through the thickness of a fabric. It contained flocked fibers in the middle layer oriented parallel to the direction of flow. Structures with single and double layers of flocked fibers with varying fiber denier and flock density were made and tested. The number of layers, the fiber denier and the interaction between the number of layers and flock density influenced the transverse flow behavior of these structures. Single layer samples with high-flock density and high fiber denier promoted transverse flow best. Double layer high-flock density samples hindered the transverse flow, retaining the liquid in the middle region where the layers met to produce smaller pores.
High speed deficit round robin ASIC in ATM/Ethernet bridge

This paper presents a deficit round robin (DRR) application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which is fabricated in a standard TSMC 0. 18μm 1P6M technology. The proposed DRR ASIC not only replaces the first-in-first-out (FIFO) queue with DRR, but also improves the performance of ATM/Ethernet bridge with a fair queue in very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL). In the proposed DRR queue, two data formats, 4-bit and 8-bit widths, are studied. Notify that the average waiting time increases if the input queue works with small data format. According to the simulation result, the proposed DRR ASIC performs with the fault coverage of 99.5 % and the logic elements of 5,978 at the operating frequency of 50 MHz, the supplied voltage of 1.8 V and the power consumption of 90.1 mW; and that the chip area of the proposed DRR ASIC is 1.2×1.2 mm2 involving pads.
Studies on the Renal Kinetics of Growth Hormone (GH) and on the GH Receptor and Related Effects in Animals

Growth hormone (GH) is filtered through the kidney, and may exert effects on renal function when presented via the circulation. Investigations on kidney-related aspects of GH are increasing in number. Using in vitro and in vivo approaches, the present study attempted to provide answers to a number of unresolved or debated issues. In vitro, we detected both GH and type 1 IGF receptors (R) in a porcine renal epithelial cell line. The saturation and down regulation kinetics of the GH-R indicate that it has the properties of a classical GH-R. Furthermore, the simultaneous presence of GH-R and IGF-R on a phenotypically homogeneous cell line suggests the presence of GH-induced auto-/paracrine IGF-1 bioactivity in the kidney. Experiments with isolated proximal rabbit tubules incubated with physiological concentrations of 125I-GH demonstrated a time-and dose-dependent increase in unlabelled GH-displaceable cell-associated radioactivity, lending support to the concept of GH mediating its renal effects via proximal tubular GH-R. Short term administration of GH to rats and humans elicited electrolyte and water retention that may cause edema in adults. In the present study, long term administration of GH to rats caused only a minor increase in serum phosphate levels, with no changes observed in the renal electrolyte clearance. During the first 4 days of GH treatment in rats, no change in plasma renin activity was detected and we were thus unable to confirm the hypothesis that the renin-angiotensin system is responsible for the early phase of GH-associated fluid retention. Pharmacokinetically, when GH was administered to rats with functional disconnection of the kidneys as a model of renal insufficiency, the whole body clearance of GH decreased by ca. two thirds, and was reflected by an increase in the mean residence time and AUCplasma for GH. The plasma half-life, however, was not significantly affected, suggesting that the volume of distribution (Vd) had decreased for the GH administered to the renally compromised animals. A renal contribution to the Vd was visualized as intense radioactive staining in the kidney region on whole body autoradiographs (WBA) of rats dosed with 125I-labelled hGH. The liver region was also intensely stained. Kidney-associated radioactivity was found to be related not only to glomerular filtration, but also to peritubular uptake, since the renal clearance of free GH was found to exceed the GFR. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Face Recognition by Using Combined Method of Centroid Shift and Fixed-Point ICA Based on Secant Method

This paper proposes a face recognition using both a preprocessing method by centroid shift and a fixed-point (FP) independent component analysis (ICA) based on secant method. The centroid shift is applied to find a validity image by removing the background of source images. FP-ICA of secant method is an alternate of the conventional FP-ICA based on Newton's method, which is to exclude the complex computation of differential process in Newton's method. The proposed method has been applied to a problem which recognizes the 48 Yale face images. The experimental results show that the proposed FP-ICA method is superior to the conventional in the recognition performance for the test images and that the case preprocessed with the proposed method has better outcome in face recognition rate and processing time than the cases not preprocessed
Effectiveness of Weight Management Interventions in Children: A Targeted Systematic Review for the USPSTF

CONTEXT: Targeted systematic review to support the updated US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for obesity in children and adolescents. OBJECTIVES: To examine the benefits and harms of behavioral and pharmacologic weight-management interventions for overweight and obese children and adolescents. METHODS: Our data sources were Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, the Education Resources Information Center, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, the Cochrane databases, reference lists of other reviews and trials, and expert recommendations. After 2 investigators reviewed 2786 abstracts and 369 articles against inclusion/exclusion criteria, we included 15 fair- to good-quality trials in which the effects of treatment on weight, weight-related comorbidities, and harms were evaluated. Studies were quality rated by 2 investigators using established criteria. Investigators abstracted data into standard evidence tables. RESULTS: In the available research, obese (or overweight) children and adolescents aged 4 to 18 years were enrolled, and no studies targeted those younger than 4 years. Comprehensive behavioral interventions of medium-to-high intensity were the most effective behavioral approach with 1.9 to 3.3 kg/m2 difference favoring intervention groups at 12 months. More limited evidence suggests that these improvements can be maintained over the 12 months after the end of treatments and that there are few harms with behavioral interventions. Two medications combined with behavioral interventions resulted in small (0.85 kg/m2 for orlistat) or moderate (2.6 kg/m2 for sibutramine) BMI reduction in obese adolescents on active medication; however, no studies followed weight changes after medication use ended. Potential adverse effects were greater than for behavioral interventions alone and varied in severity. Only 1 medication (orlistat) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for prescription use in those aged ≥12 years. CONCLUSIONS: Over the past several years, research into weight management in obese children and adolescents has improved in quality and quantity. Despite important gaps, available research supports at least short-term benefits of comprehensive medium- to high-intensity behavioral interventions in obese children and adolescents.