Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gait deviations and compensations in pediatric patients with increased femoral torsion

Coxa antetorta describes an abnormal torsion of the femur. It is commonly considered a cosmetic problem and is treated surgically only in severe cases and the presence of physical complaints. The purpose of this study was to identify deviations in gait kinematics and kinetics in pediatric patients caused by coxa antetorta and to categorize these deviations into primary and secondary deviations. We conducted a retrospective, cross‐sectional three‐dimensional (3D) gait analysis study to detect gait deviations in adolescents (n = 18; age range 10.5–17.5 years) with coxa antetorta compared to age‐matched healthy control subjects (n = 17). Principal component (PC) analysis was used for data reduction. Linear mixed models applied to PC‐scores were used to estimate the main effects within retained PCs followed by a post‐hoc subgroup analysis. Patients walked with smaller external foot progression angle, greater knee adduction, more internally rotated and flexed hips and greater anterior pelvic tilt. Subgroup analysis revealed that—depending on knee alignment—patients had higher knee and hip adduction moments. These deviations in joint kinematics and kinetics may be associated with physical complaints and accelerated development of osteoarthritis. Assessment of gait deviations related to coxa antetorta using 3D gait analysis may be an additional tool in individual clinical decision‐making. © 2014 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 33:155–162, 2015.
A Structural Biology Approach to Understand Human Lymphatic Filarial Infection

The presence of aspartic protease inhibitor in filarial parasite Brugia malayi (Bm-Aspin) makes it interesting to study because of the fact that the filarial parasite never encounters the host digestive system. Here, the aspartic protease inhibition kinetics of Bm-Aspin and its NMR structural characteristics have been investigated. The overall aim of this study is to explain the inhibition and binding properties of Bm-Aspin from its structural point of view. UV-spectroscopy and multi-dimensional NMR are the experiments that have been performed to understand the kinetic and structural properties of Bm-Aspin respectively. The human aspartic proteases that are considered for this study are pepsin, renin, cathepsin-E and cathepsin-D. The results of this analysis performed with the specific substrate [Phe-Ala-Ala-Phe (4-NO2)-Phe-Val-Leu (4-pyridylmethyl) ester] against aspartic proteases suggest that Bm-Aspin inhibits the activities of all four human aspartic proteases. The kinetics studies indicate that Bm-Aspin follows a competitive mode of inhibition for pepsin and cathepsin-E, non-competitive for renin and mixed mode for cathepsin-D. The triple resonance NMR experiments on Bm-Aspin suggested the feasibility of carrying out NMR studies to obtain its solution structure. The NMR titration studies on the interactions of Bm-Aspin with the proteases indicate that it undergoes fast-exchange phenomena among themselves. In addition to this, the chemical shift perturbations for some of the residues of Bm-Aspin observed from 15N-HSQC spectra upon the addition of saturated amounts of aspartic proteases suggest the binding between Bm-Aspin and human aspartic proteases. They also provide information on the variations in the intensities and mode of binding between the proteases duly corroborating with the results from the protease inhibition assay method.
Dataset Retrieval

Recently, a large number of dataset repositories, catalogs and portals are emerging in the science and government realms. Once a large number of datasets are published on such data portals, the question arises how to retrieve datasets satisfying an information need. In this paper, we present an approach for retrieving datasets according to user queries. We define dataset retrieval as a specialization of information retrieval. Instead of retrieving documents that are relevant to a certain information need, dataset retrieval describes the process of returning relevant RDF datasets. As with information retrieval, the term relevance cannot be clearly defined when using traditional methods like stemming. The inherent usage of RDF in these datasets enables a better way of retrieving relevant ones. We therefore propose an additional retrieval mechanism, which is inspired by facet search: dataset filtering. When querying, the entire set of available datasets is processed by a set of semantic filters each of which can unambiguously decide whether or not a given dataset is relevant to the query. The resulting set is then given back to the requester. We implemented and evaluated our approach in CKAN, which fuels publicdata.eu and is the most popular data portal worldwide.
Patients' satisfaction with immediate breast reconstruction with a latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap

Abstract Immediate breast reconstruction with a latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous (LDM) flap is still not much reported, particularly in studies of patients' views. The aim of this study was to assess the level of patients' satisfaction with the technique. All patients (n = 257) who had had a mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction with a LDM flap at a single hospital between January 1999 and December 2005 were identified, and 196 patients free of recurrence were included. The operations were done by the same surgical team in a standard manner. Clinical data, technical details, and outcome were collected prospectively. To assess the patients' degree of satisfaction with the aesthetic results in relation to clinical characteristics and treatment, a study-specific questionnaire and a visual analogue scale were sent to 196 patients; 178 forms were completed and returned. To analyse general satisfaction and aesthetic results we used the Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, chi square, or Fisher's exact test, as appropriate. The median reconstruction follow-up period was 34 months. Patients who were 51 years or older at the time of reconstruction were less likely to opt for immediate breast reconstruction with LDM flap than younger patients. Patients who were divorced and those who had postoperative complications were less likely to be satisfied. One hundred and sixty-four patients (92%) were satisfied, and 161 (90%) said they would recommend the reconstruction. The median satisfaction score was 9 (range 1-10, mean 8.5). The technique provided satisfactory immediate breast reconstruction according to the patients' evaluation.
Differentiation of Human Epidermis-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Like Pluripotent Cells into Neural-Like Cells in Culture and after Transplantation

Skin is the largest organ of the human body and a possible source of stem cells for research and cell-based therapy. We have isolated a population of mesenchymal stem cell-like pluripotent cells from human epidermis, termed human (h) EMSCPCs. This preliminary study tested if these hEMSCPCs can be induced to differentiate into neural-like cells. Human EMSCPCs were first cultured for four to seven days in a serum-free neural stem cell (NSC) medium for pre-induction. During pre-induction, hEMSCPCs coalesced into dense spheres that resembled neural rosettes. In the presence of a conditioned differentiation medium, pre-induced cells took on the morphological characteristics of neural cells, including slender projections with inflated or claw-like ends that contacted the soma or projections of other cells as revealed by confocal microscopy. Moreover, these differentiating cells expressed the neural-specific markers β-III tubulin, MAP2, GFAP, and synapsin I as evidenced by immunocytochemistry. Both pre-induced hEMSCPCs and uninduced hEMSCPCs were labeled with CM-DiI and transplanted into the vitreous cavities of nude mice. Transplanted cells were examined four weeks later in frozen eyeball sections by immunofluorescence staining, which demonstrated superior retinal migration and neural differentiation of pre-induced cells. Our study is the first to demonstrate that hEMSCPCs possess the capacity to differentiate into neural-like cells, suggesting potential uses for the treatment of retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration.
Enhancer-associated H 3 K 4 monomethylation by Trithorax-related , the Drosophila homolog of mammalian Mll 3 / Mll 4

Monomethylation of histone H3 on Lys 4 (H3K4me1) and acetylation of histone H3 on Lys 27 (H3K27ac) are histone modifications that are highly enriched over the body of actively transcribed genes and on enhancers. Although in yeast all H3K4 methylation patterns, including H3K4me1, are implemented by Set1/COMPASS (complex of proteins associated with Set1), there are three classes of COMPASS-like complexes in Drosophila that could carry out H3K4me1 on enhancers: dSet1, Trithorax, and Trithorax-related (Trr). Here, we report that Trr, the Drosophila homolog of the mammalian Mll3/4 COMPASS-like complexes, can function as a major H3K4 monomethyltransferase on enhancers in vivo. Loss of Trr results in a global decrease of H3K4me1 and H3K27ac levels in various tissues. Assays with the cut wing margin enhancer implied a functional role for Trr in enhancer-mediated processes. A genome-wide analysis demonstrated that Trr is required to maintain the H3K4me1 and H3K27ac chromatin signature that resembles the histone modification patterns described for enhancers. Furthermore, studies in the mammalian system suggested a role for the Trr homolog Mll3 in similar processes. Since Trr and mammalian Mll3/4 complexes are distinguished by bearing a unique subunit, the H3K27 demethylase UTX, we propose a model in which the H3K4 monomethyltransferases Trr/Mll3/Mll4 and the H3K27 demethylase UTX cooperate to regulate the transition from inactive/poised to active enhancers.
A low-complexity antenna subset modulation for secure millimeter-wave communication

In this paper, we present a low-complexity version of the Antenna Subset Modulation (LC-ASM), to enhance the physical layer security. LC-ASM consists of a conventional phased-array transmitter followed by antennas with an on-off switching circuit. The proposed solution maintains the objective of scrambling the constellation points in both amplitude and phase in undesired directions, while preserving a clear constellation in the target direction. LC-ASM is different from the original ASM in the following ways: (1) LC-ASM is not restricted to the use of phase modulation, and can accept any modulation type including QAM, (2) it does not need to modulate the signal in the RF domain, where the conventional phasedarray transmitter circuits remain unchanged, (3) in the far-field, LC-ASM scrambles the signal constellation by randomly driving a subset of the transmitting antennas, (4) LC-ASM can easily integrated with the current infrastructure of phased-array transmitters, and (5) LC-ASM breaks up the correlation between the data rates and the switching speed. We analysed the LC-ASM performance and derived an exact expression of the bit error probability, and we derived the secrecy capacity in a closed form. The results show that LC-ASM is a simple and very efficient solution to improve the physical layer security of mm-wave communication.
The monitoring system of Business support system with emergency prediction based on machine learning approach

When Business support systems (BSS) suffer poor performance, the system administrator has to spot the problem of BSS as soon as possible. The monitoring system is a great help to quickly gain insight of the system from all sides. By the monitoring system, the administrator can evaluate various metrics on the different fields in one single arranged page and understands the whole picture of current system status from brief reports. Although this kind of problem solving flow does well in certain circumstance, it may still be too late for some critical BSS. To further improve the speed of trouble-shooting, administrator sets the thresholds to each performance metric. Those thresholds are set based on knowledge and experience of administrator. If the performance metric collected from the system is over the set threshold, monitoring system will send alerts to administrator to inform current BSS status, and he can check the system status in advance before the situation get worse. This kind of traditional approach finds the problem about ten minutes before the emergency break out. In our work, we leverage a machine learning approach to determine emergency earlier. The machine learning model we developed can predict the healthy status of the system before the emergency an hour with average 14 points error.
Metabolic engineering of essential oil yield and composition in mint by altering expression of deoxyxylulose phosphate reductoisomerase and menthofuran synthase

Peppermint (Mentha × piperita L.) was independently transformed with a homologous sense version of the 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase cDNA and with a homologous antisense version of the menthofuran synthase cDNA, both driven by the CaMV 35S promoter. Two groups of transgenic plants were regenerated in the reductoisomerase experiments, one of which remained normal in appearance and development; another was deficient in chlorophyll production and grew slowly. Transgenic plants of normal appearance and growth habit expressed the reductoisomerase transgene strongly and constitutively, as determined by RNA blot analysis and direct enzyme assay, and these plants accumulated substantially more essential oil (about 50% yield increase) without change in monoterpene composition compared with wild-type. Chlorophyll-deficient plants did not afford detectable reductoisomerase mRNA or enzyme activity and yielded less essential oil than did wild-type plants, indicating cosuppression of the reductoisomerase gene. Plants transformed with the antisense version of the menthofuran synthase cDNA were normal in appearance but produced less than half of this undesirable monoterpene oil component than did wild-type mint grown under unstressed or stressed conditions. These experiments demonstrate that essential oil quantity and quality can be regulated by metabolic engineering. Thus, alteration of the committed step of the mevalonate-independent pathway for supply of terpenoid precursors improves flux through the pathway that leads to increased monoterpene production, and antisense manipulation of a selected downstream monoterpene biosynthetic step leads to improved oil composition.
Socioeconomic, Disease, and Biochemical Factors in Adherence to Anti Tuberculosis Treatment Regime in Benin City, Nigeria: A Comparative Study

Tuberculosis is a re-emergent disease of great epidemiological concern with the directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) recommended by the World Health Organization falling short of targeted expectations. The aim was to compare the impact of socioeconomic, disease, and biochemical factors on the decision of patients to return to (comply with) the six-month treatment schedule. Effects of education, age, occupational and marital (socioeconomic) and biochemical (drug side effects and values of biochemical indices of liver function) factors were compared between 52 SLR and 49 SNR patients. The results suggest that socioeconomic factors play a more prominent role than factors related to drug side effects in determining whether a patient returns to treatment after initial stoppage. A more integrated multi-disciplinary approach to DOTS administration with professional and social inputs is recommended
Primer3—new capabilities and interfaces

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a basic molecular biology technique with a multiplicity of uses, including deoxyribonucleic acid cloning and sequencing, functional analysis of genes, diagnosis of diseases, genotyping and discovery of genetic variants. Reliable primer design is crucial for successful PCR, and for over a decade, the open-source Primer3 software has been widely used for primer design, often in high-throughput genomics applications. It has also been incorporated into numerous publicly available software packages and web services. During this period, we have greatly expanded Primer3’s functionality. In this article, we describe Primer3’s current capabilities, emphasizing recent improvements. The most notable enhancements incorporate more accurate thermodynamic models in the primer design process, both to improve melting temperature prediction and to reduce the likelihood that primers will form hairpins or dimers. Additional enhancements include more precise control of primer placement—a change motivated partly by opportunities to use whole-genome sequences to improve primer specificity. We also added features to increase ease of use, including the ability to save and re-use parameter settings and the ability to require that individual primers not be used in more than one primer pair. We have made the core code more modular and provided cleaner programming interfaces to further ease integration with other software. These improvements position Primer3 for continued use with genome-scale data in the decade ahead.
Hypoxia Inhibits Cellular Senescence to Restore the Therapeutic Potential of Old Human Endothelial Progenitor Cells via the Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1&agr;–TWIST-p21 Axis

Objective—Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) can significantly improve tissue repair by providing regeneration potential within injured cardiovascular tissue; however, it is challenging to obtain a sufficient amount of functional EPCs from aged patients for autologous stem cell therapy. To overcome this issue, we aimed to establish adequate ex vivo expansion protocols and identify repair modulators of cellular senescence. The senescence repair circuit of hypoxia-preconditioned senescent EPCs (hyp-old EPCs) was examined in an effort to enhance their regenerative potential. Approach and Results—Long-term culturing of EPCs in normoxic conditions markedly induced the expression of p21, whereas siRNA targeting of p21 in old EPCs significantly enhanced the proliferation potential of cells. Hyp-old EPCs displayed increased hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; and TWIST expression. siRNA inhibition of TWIST, a target molecule of the hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr;, markedly upregulated the expression of p21 in hyp-old EPCs by reprogramming cell-cycle regulatory proteins. In a hindlimb model of ischemia, the transplantation of hyp-old EPCs enhanced the blood flow ratio and capillary density, improved cellular proliferation and cell survival at ischemic sites, and augmented the secretion of pivotal tissue angiogenic cytokines. It has been previously demonstrated that the restoration of old EPCs from a senescent state by hypoxia preconditioning is tightly mediated by the downregulation of p21 via the hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr;–TWIST axis. Conclusions—This study introduces ex vivo expansion protocols involving hypoxic preconditioning that are suitable for efficiently expanding old EPCs without senescence through modulation of the hypoxia-induced hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr;–TWIST-p21 axis. In addition, the expanded cells are shown to be useful for therapeutic vasculogenesis.
o-Phenylenediamine-modified carbon fiber electrodes for the detection of nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide (NO.) sensors were prepared using o-phenylenediamine (o-PD) and Nafion to modify the surface of 30 microns diameter carbon fiber electrodes. These electrodes were compared with nickel porphyrin-type NO. sensors that have already been described. High-speed chronoamperometry, amperometry, and differential pulse voltammetry were used to compare the performance of sensors modified with various combinations of Nafion, o-PD, or nickel(II) meso-tetrakis(3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl) porphyrin (Ni-TMPP), in order to determine which electrodes had the most sensitivity and selectivity for NO. Our findings showed that electrodes treated with Nafion first, followed by o-PD, were very sensitive to NO., with a detection limit of 35 +/- 7 nM. In addition, o-PD electrodes were also very selective against ascorbate (> 600:1), dopamine (> 300:1), and nitrite (> 900:1). Moreover, in the range of 0-6 microM NO., o-PD electrodes displayed excellent linearity (R2 > or = 0.997). In contrast, Ni-TMPP electrodes (with Nafion) had significantly poorer detection limits (76 +/- 12 nM) and were less selective against dopamine (< 5:1) and nitrite (< 200:1). Ni-TMPP electrodes were also less linear than o-PD electrodes (R2 > or = 0.911). Finally, we tested the in vitro and in vivo performance of the o-PD electrode in terms of its ability to detect NO. release from isolated rat renal arterioles and to measure NO. diffusion in the extracellular space of the rat brain.
The influence of first impressions on technology acceptance.

This study is about the effect a first impression has on the final judgement. Visual complexity (VC) and prototypicality (PT) play a part in early visual processes. These processes occur before the stimulus is consciously perceived. In this case the study is about website. The final judgement is represented by technology acceptance which is defined in the Technology Acceptance Model (F. Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989a). TAM is concerned with the question of how do perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness lead to acceptance of a technology, in this case websites. The main question is do VC and PT have an influence on technology acceptance? The answer is found by having people rate websites in 17ms, 50ms, 500ms and in a condition in which they could all the time they wanted. The results were unexpected as there was no effect of VC and PT on technology acceptance. What was apparent was that the early judgements correlated a lot with the final judgement. In most cases the judgement made in the 500ms condition correlated about 50% with the final judgement of the unlimited condition. This indicates that early visual processes in the brain do take place and form a first impression. Therefore the first impression is important but not in the way we anticipated when we started this research.
Exploring the limits of frequency lowering.

PURPOSE This study examined how frequency lowering affected sentence intelligibility and quality for adults with postlingually acquired, mild-to-moderate hearing loss. METHOD Listeners included adults aged 60-92 years with sloping sensorineural hearing loss and a control group of similarly aged adults with normal hearing. Sentences were presented in quiet and babble at a range of signal-to-noise ratios. Intelligibility and quality were measured with varying amounts of frequency lowering, implemented using a form of frequency compression. RESULTS Moderate amounts of compression, particularly with high cutoff frequencies, had minimal effects on sentence intelligibility. Listeners with the greatest high-frequency hearing loss showed the greatest benefit. Sentence intelligibility decreased with more compression. Listeners were more affected by a given set of parameters in noise than in quiet. In quiet, any amount of compression resulted in lower speech quality for most listeners, with the greatest degradation for listeners with better high-frequency hearing. Quality ratings were lower with background noise, and in noise, the effect of changing compression parameters was small. CONCLUSIONS The benefits of frequency lowering in adults were affected by the compression parameters as well as individual hearing thresholds. The data are consistent with the idea that frequency lowering can be viewed in terms of improved audibility versus increased distortion trade-off.