Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lipid Profile in HIV-Infected Patients Using First-Line Antiretroviral Drugs

Objective: To determine the prevalence of dyslipidemia in HIV-infected patients using the first-line antiretroviral (ARV) drugs triple regimen. Methods: HIV-infected patients aged ≥15 years and attending Care and Treatment Clinic (CTC) at Muhimbili National Hospital, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were recruited for the study. Blood samples from patients were collected during their regular visits at the CTC and assayed for determination of total cholesterol, triglycerides (TGs), high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and CD4 counts. Results: The median CD4 count was 346 cells/mm3 (2-2600). Triple therapy combinations of ARV drugs used by patients included zidovudine (ZDV)/lamivudine (3TC)/efavirenz (EFV; 42.4%), ZDV/3TC/nevirapine (NVP; 33.8%), tenofovir (TDF)/emtricitabine/EFV (19.9%), and TDF/3TC/EFV (3.9%). The overall prevalence of dyslipidemia in patients was 77.5%. There were varied prevalence of derangement of individual lipids among patients. Age, body mass index, CD4 count, sex, and duration of ARV drug use were the predictors of poor lipid profiles. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate the need for routine monitoring of lipids among HIV-infected patients.
Do group dynamics affect colour morph clines during a range shift?

Species exhibiting colour polymorphism are thought to have an ecological advantage at the landscape scale, because spatial segregation of alternatively adapted ecotypes into diverse habitats can increase the species' niche breadth and thus confer greater geographic range size. However, morph frequencies are also influenced by intrapopulational processes such as frequency‐ or density‐dependent social interactions. To identify how social feedback may affect clinal variation in morph frequencies, we investigated reciprocal interactions between morph‐specific thermal tolerance, local climatic conditions and social environments, in the context of a colour‐morph frequency cline associated with a recent range expansion in blue‐tailed damselflies (Ischnura elegans) in Sweden. Cold tolerances of gynochromes (female‐like female morph) were positively correlated with local gynochrome frequencies, suggesting a positive frequency‐dependent fitness benefit. In contrast, androchrome (male‐mimic female morph) cold tolerances were improved following recent exposure to cold weather, suggesting a beneficial environmental acclimation effect. Thus, according to an environment‐matching hypothesis for clinal variation, androchrome frequencies should therefore increase towards the (cooler) range limit. In contrast to this prediction, gynochrome frequencies increased at the expanding range limit, consistent with a positive frequency‐dependent social feedback that is beneficial when invading novel climates. Our results suggest that when phenotypes or fitnesses are affected by interactions with conspecifics, beneficial social effects on environmental tolerances may (i) facilitate range shifts, and (ii) reverse or counteract typical patterns of intraspecific interactions and environment‐matching clines observed in stable populations observed over broader geographic scales.
Foreign body gingival lesions: distribution, morphology, identification by X-ray energy dispersive analysis and possible origin of foreign material.

BACKGROUND Foreign material may cause and aggravate gingival lesions. This is rarely considered clinically. The lesions are resistant to frequently protracted conventional therapy. The foreign material is often inconspicuous and easily overlooked by the pathologist. METHODS 85 cases of gingival lesions containing foreign material were investigated by conventional and polarization light microscopy, focusing on the morphology and optical characteristics of the foreign substance. Supplemented with the results of X-ray energy dispersive analysis the foreign material was compared with commonly used dental materials. RESULTS The foreign material was most frequently compatible with amalgam. Inconspicuous crystals, often revealed only by polarization microscopy, were most commonly compatible with abrasives, particularly corundum and silicates, and mostly occurred together with amalgam dust. CONCLUSIONS Iatrogenic introduction of dental materials during dental procedures explains most foreign body gingival lesions which could be reduced or avoided by prophylactic measures. Pathologists should meticulously scrutinize gingival biopsies routinely applying polarization microscopy.
Should Parents Be Co-Clients in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxious Youth?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders in youth has been evaluated in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), and recent studies have sought to determine if the effects can be enhanced by an adjunctive parent component. The rationale for adding parents as active participants to treatment for anxious youth includes the notions that parenting factors (a) can contribute to the maintenance of anxiety, (b) could facilitate the generalization of treatment gains, and (c) have had favorable results in treatment of other childhood disorders. To date, there have been 9 CBT treatment outcome trials with anxious youth that included parents in treatment. This article (a) provides a critical review of the research on active parent involvement in CBT of anxious youth, (b) calculates and reports effect sizes emerging from these studies, and (c) recommends areas for future research.
[Agglutinating and immobilizing activity of an ethanol extract of Bursera fagaroides on human and other mammalian spermatozoa].

Human spermatozoa and those obtained from mouse epididymis incubated in ethanolic from mouse epididymis incubated in ethanolic extracts of the cortex of Bursera fagaroides became agglutinated and immobilized in 100% with 30% of viability decrease. This double effect occurred in 50% of pig'ssperm and 50% of rabbit sperm when the concentration was increased tenfold. The pattern of progressive motility was affected 80% of rat's spermatocytes without agglutination. The values remained the same when the extracts were partially purified with salts of Zn++ and Ba++ or by filtration in a sephadex g-10 column. Analysis with thin layer chromatography of both purified extracts produced 3 compounds in comparison with the ethanolic unpurified extract. The extract of the plant Bursera fagaroides contains 3 compounds, which apparently are glycosides with a potent activity upon agglutination -immobilization and a low effect upon spermatocytes viability, which might be used as contraceptives .
Detection of interstitial increase in macrophages, characteristic of acute interstitial rejection, in routinely processed renal allograft biopsies using the monoclonal antibody KP1

Acute interstitial rejection (AIR) of renal allografts is accompanied by a characteristic peritubular increase in macrophages, which can be identified with the CD14 monoclonal antibody (mAb) WT14 in cryostat sections. Since frozen tissue is not always available, we tested whether this increase can also be demonstrated in Bouin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsies, using the CD68 antimacrophage mAb KP1, which can also be applied to paraffin sections. Sections of 16 biopsies with AIR and 11 controls were stained with KP1. In 25 of the 27 biopsies, macrophages were strongly positive for KP1. Two AIR biopsies were completely negative, probably due to prolonged fixation. In the remaining 14 AIR biopsies, the number of KP1-positive cells was significantly higher than in the controls [1184±410 per mm2 (mean±SD) vs 112±126 per mm2]. We conclude that, especially in cases in which frozen tissue is not available, the demonstration of increased numbers of monocytes/macrophages with mAb KP1 can be a helpful adjunct in the histological diagnosis of AIR in routinely processed renal biopsies.
Application resource and activity footprinting to influence management in next generation clouds

Standardised and interoperable management solutions are an objective for the next generation of cloud to autonomically provision and configure resources in a manner generically applicable across platforms and applications. Cloud interoperability is desirable in spite of platforms having variable management requirements and applications having various resource demands. In this paper, the resource footprint of an application, Wisekar, developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is explored, alongside consideration of its scalability with increasing volumes of requests. The limiting network resource in this deployment is bandwidth, which restricts the extent to which memory and CPU resources can be consumed, regardless of the number of application requests sent to the server. Definition of resource consumption relationships between attributes while servicing application requests leads to recommendations on server and network loading which optimises the overall utilisation across all. This results in an average footprint across CPU, memory and network of 0.85 (max. of 1).
Functional Interaction of p53 and BLM DNA Helicase in Apoptosis*

The Bloom syndrome (BS) protein, BLM, is a member of the RecQ DNA helicase family that also includes the Werner syndrome protein, WRN. Inherited mutations in these proteins are associated with cancer predisposition of these patients. We recently discovered that cells from Werner syndrome patients displayed a deficiency in p53-mediated apoptosis and WRN binds to p53. Here, we report that analogous to WRN, BLM also binds to p53 in vivo andin vitro, and the C-terminal domain of p53 is responsible for the interaction. p53-mediated apoptosis is defective in BS fibroblasts and can be rescued by expression of the normalBLM gene. Moreover, lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) derived from BS donors are resistant to both γ-radiation and doxorubicin-induced cell killing, and sensitivity can be restored by the stable expression of normal BLM. In contrast, BS cells have a normal Fas-mediated apoptosis, and in response to DNA damage normal accumulation of p53, normal induction of p53 responsive genes, and normal G1-S and G2-M cell cycle arrest. BLM localizes to nuclear foci referred to as PML nuclear bodies (NBs). Cells from Li-Fraumeni syndrome patients carrying p53 germline mutations and LCLs lacking a functional p53 have a decreased accumulation of BLM in NBs, whereas isogenic lines with functional p53 exhibit normal accumulation. Certain BLM mutants (C1055S or Δ133–237) that have a reduced ability to localize to the NBs when expressed in normal cells can impair the localization of wild type BLM to NBs and block p53-mediated apoptosis, suggesting a dominant-negative effect. Taken together, our results indicate both a novel mechanism of p53 function by which p53 mediates nuclear trafficking of BLM to NBs and the cooperation of p53 and BLM to induce apoptosis.
INVITED EDITORIAL COMMENT

1. Noel Amenc 1. is a professor of finance at EDHEC Business School, Ceo of Eri Scientific Beta, and the Director of EDHEC-Risk Institute In Nice, France . (noel.amenc{at}edhec-risk.com) 2. Lionel Martellini 1. is a professor of finance at EDHEC Business School, a senior scientific
Temporal variability of defibrillation threshold in a two-dimensional supercomputer model of “ventricular fibrillation”

We have investigated the question: Do defibrillation thresholds (DFTs) vary during an episode of “fibrillation,” and if so, what are the cellular mechanisms involved? Unstable microreentry ("fibrillation") and defibrillation (DF) shocks were simulated in a two-dimensional model of cardiac tissue on a massively parallel processor Connection Machine. The modelled tissue consisted of 16384 (128×128) 100 × 100 μm<sup>2</sup> ventricular patches that obeyed modified Beeler-Reuter membrane kinetics. Reentry was initiated by stimulating the central region of the sheet during the repolarization phase of a passing planar wavefront. The DFT was then determined for several times following this premature stimulus. DFTs remained low (< 13 μA/cm<sup>2</sup>) until the initial figure-of-eight reentry degenerated into multiple unstable vortices (DFT ≈ 21 μA/cm<sup>2</sup>). Superimposed on this jump in DFTs was a small (±2.5 μA/cm<sup>2</sup>) quasi-periodic oscillation in DFTs whose average frequency correlated with the rotational frequency of the vortices. Therefore, we conclude that (1) there exists temporal variation in DFTs during fibrillation, (2) DFTs are lower during early fibrillation, and (3) DF shocks above ≈ 24 μA/cm<sup>2</sup> are always successful.
Development of Bainitic Steels for Engineering Applications

Enormous efforts have been put in in an attempt to design steel with microstructure in the Nano range. Phase transformation theory has contributed to the successful design of these steels. This paper presents some of these developments, the physical metallurgy theory involved and areas where these materials have been destined. Keywords— phase transformations, bainitic steel, engineering application
Does a balanced gender ratio improve performance? The case of Spanish banks (1999-2010)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the dynamics of the gender diversity-to-performance relationship in the Spanish banking sector in the period 1999-2010. Specifically the authors try to study how different proportions of men and women in banking institutions lead to different levels of return on assets (ROA) and sales productivity. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use conventional panel data methods to find an optimal mix of males and females which leads to higher levels of financial results. With the aim of controlling unobserved heterogeneity, equations are estimated using the random-effects model. Findings – The findings show that the proportion of women in the workforce does not affect productivity but significantly explains ROA. In addition low-moderated levels (27 per cent) of women in technical positions optimize ROA. Originality/value – This research empirically explores the business case for gender diversity going beyond the upper echelons of organizations. The authors a.
Aproximación con algoritmos evolutivos de la frontera de Pareto de un modelo dinámico de agente-principal con acciones discretas

We use Evolutionary Algorithms to approximate the Pareto frontier of a dynamic Principal-Agent model with discrete actions. The Pareto frontier that we obtain is concave, a result that is due to the asymmetry of information between the Principal and the Agent. As we move in the Pareto frontier towards contracts that favor the discounted expected utility of the agent, we obtain compensation schemes in which the Principal primarily assumes the risk inherent to the productive activity. Given changes in the discount factor of the Principal and the Agent and in the relative cost of exerting an additional effort unit, the Pareto frontier preserves its topological characteristics. When the Principal and the Agent are more patient, both of them obtain higher values of discounted expected utility and the relationship generates higher economic surplus. When it is costlier to exert an additional effort unit, the Principal tends to bear the majority of the risk inherent to the productive activity along the Pareto frontier.
Development of a bilingual corpus of Arabic and Arabic Sign Language based on a signed content

This paper deals with the creation process of a bilingual corpus of Arabic and Arabic Sign Language. This work will be concerned with a challenging research approach that aims to develop a solution that meets communication need of the Arab deaf community. Many sign language corpora have been proposed, but unfortunately, none of them is adapted to Arabic Sign Language (ArSL). To tackle this problem we designed a methodology for developing a bilingual Arabic and Arabic Sign Language corpus. To achieve this, the study will rely on sign content exported from Aljazeera Mubachir Egypt [1] TV news for deaf and hearing-impaired people.
Novel TOR1A mutation p.Arg288Gln in early-onset dystonia (DYT1)

Background: The three-nucleotide deletion, GAG (within the gene TOR1A), is the only proven cause of childhood-onset dystonia (DYT1). A potentially pathogenic role of additional sequence changes within TOR1A has not been conclusively shown. Methods: DNA sequencing of exon 5 of TOR1A in a patient with DYT1. Results: Detection of sequence change c.863G>A in exon 5 of TOR1A in the patient. The G>A transition results in an exchange of an arginine for glutamine (p.Arg288Gln) in subdomain α5 of TOR1A. Several findings point to a potentially pathogenic role of the sequence change in the patient: The base change is absent in 1000 control chromosomes; an Arg at position 288 of TOR1A has been conserved throughout vertebrate evolution, indicating an important role of Arg288 in TOR1A function; functional studies demonstrate enlarged perinuclear space in HEK293 cells overexpressing TOR1A with the p.Arg288Gln mutation. The same morphological changes are observed in cells overexpressing the common GAG TOR1A mutation but not in cells overexpressing wild-type TOR1A. Conclusions: The sequence change described here may be a novel pathogenic mutation of TOR1A in DYT1.
Environmental and individual determinants of parasite richness across seasons in a free-ranging population of Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx).

OBJECTIVES Parasites are ubiquitous and evolve fast. Therefore, they represent major selective forces acting on their hosts by influencing many aspects of their biology. Humans are no exception, as they share many parasites with animals and some of the most important outbreaks come from primates. While it appears important to understand the factors involved in parasite dynamics, we still lack a clear understanding of the determinants underlying parasitism. In this 2-year study, we identified several factors that influence parasite patterns in a wild population of free-ranging mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx). METHODS We explored the potential impact of seasonal factors-rainfall and temperature-and host characteristics, including sex, age, rank, and reproductive status, on parasite richness. We analyzed 12 parasite taxa found in 870 fecal samples collected from 63 individuals. Because nematodes and protozoa have different life-cycles, we analyzed these two types of parasites separately. RESULTS Contrary to other studies where humid conditions seem favorable to parasite development, we report here that rainfall and high temperatures were associated with lower nematode richness and were not associated with lower protozoa richness. In contrast, female reproductive status seemed to reflect the seasonal patterns found for protozoa richness, as early gestating females harbored more protozoa than other females. Sex and dominance rank had no impact on overall parasite richness. However, age was associated with a specific decrease in nematode richness. CONCLUSION Our study emphasizes the need to consider the ecological context, such as climatic conditions and habitat type, as well as the biology of both parasite and host when analyzing determinants of parasite richness.
Similar histopathological picture in males with Achilles and patellar tendinopathy.

PURPOSE To ascertain whether there are differences in the histopathological appearance of tendinopathic Achilles and patellar tendons. METHODS In males, we studied biopsies from tendinopathic Achilles (N = 28; average age 34.1 yr) and patellar tendons (N = 28; average age 32.1), Achilles tendons (N = 21; average age 61.8 yr) from deceased patients with no known tendon pathology, and patellar tendons (N = 15; average age 28.3) from patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Hematoxylineosin stained slides were interpreted using a semiquantitative grading scale (0: normal to 3: maximally abnormal) for fiber structure, fiber arrangement, rounding of the nuclei, regional variations in cellularity, increased vascularity, decreased collagen stainability, and hyalinization. All slides were assessed blindly twice, the agreement between two readings ranging from 0.170 to 0.750 (kappa statistics). RESULTS The highest mean score of tendinopathic Achilles tendons was not significantly different from that of tendinopathic patellar tendons (11.6 +/- 5 and 10.4 +/- 3, respectively). The ability to differentiate between an Achilles tendon and a patellar tendon was low. CONCLUSIONS Tendinopathic Achilles and patellar tendons show a similar histological picture. It was not possible to identify whether a specimen had been harvested from an Achilles or a patellar tendon on the basis of histological examination. The general pattern of degeneration was common to both tendinopathic Achilles and patellar tendons. A common, as yet unidentified, etiopathological mechanism may have acted on both these tendon populations.
Establishment, characterization, and long‐term maintenance of cultures of human fetal hepatocytes

Cultured human hepatocytes have broad research and clinical applications; however, the difficulties in culturing rodent and human hepatocytes are well known. These problems include the rapid loss of the hepatocytic phenotype in primary culture and the limited replicating capacity of the cultured cells. We describe the establishment of serum‐free primary cultures of human fetal hepatocytes (HFHs) that retain hepatocytic morphology and gene expression patterns for several months and maintain sufficient proliferative activity to permit subculturing for at least 2 passages. Initially, HFH cultures contained 2 main cell types that morphologically resembled large and small hepatocytes. The fetal hepatocytes expressed α‐fetoprotein (AFP), cytokeratin (CK) 19, albumin, and other hepatic proteins. Treatment of the cultures with oncostatin M (OSM) increased cell size and enhanced cell differentiation and formation of bile canaliculi, probably through an effect on hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF) 4α. Approximately 1 month after plating, multiple clusters of very small cells became apparent in the cultures. These cells had very few organelles and are referred to as blast‐like cells. Flow cytometric analysis of these cells showed that they express oval cell/stem cell markers such as CD90 (Thy‐1), CD34, and OV‐6 but do not stain with antibodies to β2‐microglobulin. HFH cultures maintained for 9 to 12 months produced grossly visible organoids containing ductular structures that stained for CK18, CK19, and AFP. In conclusion, HFH cultures, which might contain a population of hepatic stem cells, constitute an excellent tool for a variety of studies with human hepatocytes, including the mechanisms of viral infection.