Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of Toxoplasma gondii from Clinical Specimens of Patients Receiving Renal Transplant Using ELISA and PCR

Background Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic parasitic organism causing infection in many mammals, including immunosuppressed patients. Toxoplasmosis as an opportunistic infection is highly prevalent among patients receiving a kidney transplant. Objectives The purpose of this study was to identify and determine the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in clinical samples collected from patients receiving renal transplants. Patients and Methods A total of 50 blood samples and 40 lung lavage samples from transplanted patients admitted to the infectious wards and the patients undergoing bronchoscopy were collected. The B1 Gene of Toxoplasma gondii was amplified using PCR of the blood and bronoalveolar lavage BAL samples, and IgG and IgM antibodies against Toxoplasma were detected in serum samples using ELISA. Results Our results indicated that anti-toxoplasma specific IgG and IgM antibodies were prevalent among transplant recipients with values of 54% and 4% respectively. PCR was performed to detect Toxoplasma gondii in 3 blood and lavage samples (3.3%) with 100% sensitivity and 97.9% specificity. Conclusions Toxoplasma gondii pulmonary infection is measured along with brain toxoplasmosis in patients receiving a kidney transplant. After serological methods, PCR is the second useful method for Toxoplasma gondii screening. Proper prophylaxis before and after receiving a kidney transplant together with Toxoplasma gondii screening of donor and transplant is recommended.
Inheritance and Bulked Segregant Analysis of Leaf Rust and Stem Rust Resistance in Durum Wheat Genotypes

Leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina, and stem rust, caused by P. graminis f. sp. tritici, are important diseases of durum wheat. This study determined the inheritance and genomic locations of leaf rust resistance (Lr) genes to P. triticina race BBBQJ and stem rust resistance (Sr) genes to P. graminis f. sp. tritici race TTKSK in durum accessions. Eight leaf-rust-resistant genotypes were used to develop biparental populations. Accessions PI 192051 and PI 534304 were also resistant to P. graminis f. sp. tritici race TTKSK. The resulting progenies were phenotyped for leaf rust and stem rust response at seedling stage. The Lr and Sr genes were mapped in five populations using single-nucleotide polymorphisms and bulked segregant analysis. Five leaf-rust-resistant genotypes carried single domi-nant Lr genes whereas, in the remaining accessions, there was deviation from the expected segregation ratio of a single dominant Lr gene. Seven genotypes carried Lr genes different from those previously characterized in durum. The single dominant Lr genes in PI 209274, PI 244061, PI387263, and PI 313096 were mapped to chromosome arms 6BS, 2BS, 6BL, and 6BS, respectively. The Sr gene in PI 534304 mapped to 6AL and is most likely Sr13, while the Sr gene in PI 192051 could be uncharacterized in durum.
Age at Adoption: A Measure of Time in the Orphanage or Child-Specific Factors?

This study examined the association between pre-adoption variables (e.g., time in orphanage, birth weight) and age at adoption in a sample of 169 children, aged 0–4 years, adopted from orphanages in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. Time in orphanage was the best predictor of age at adoption. Later adoptees were also more likely to have spent time in a family prior to the orphanage and to have experienced abuse/neglect than earlier adoptees. These results suggest that age at adoption is most strongly related to time in the orphanage; however, family experience, especially abuse/neglect, should also be evaluated in post-institutionalized (PI) children.
Role of macrophages in resistance of mice to experimental cryptococcosis

Mice with either a stimulated or depressed reticuloendothelial system were used to study the role of macrophages in resistance to experimental Cryptococcus neoformans infection. Silica, administered intravenously to destroy macrophages, considerably decreased the phagocytic index of the reticuloendothelial system as determined by a carbon clearance test. Silica given 1 day before intravenous challenge with 5 X 10(3) (1 50% lethal dose) of C. neoformans markedly decreased the resistance of mice to cryptococcal infection. Mice given repeated doses of BCG to nonspecifically activate their macrophages could withstand a challenge of 100 50% lethal doses of C. neoformans. These results provide evidence that macrophages play an essential role in natural or nonspecific cell-mediated immunity to murine cryptococcosis.
Mitigating the Acoustic Impacts of Modern Technologies

Wind turbine noise is annoying and has been linked to increased levels of psychological distress, stress, difficulty falling asleep, and sleep interruption. For these reasons, there is a need for competently designed noise standards to safeguard community health and well-being. The authors identify key considerations for the development of wind turbine noise standards, which emphasize a more social and humanistic approach to the assessment of new energy technologies in society.
Design of an anthropomorphic dexterous hand for a 2-years-old humanoid: ongoing work

This paper presents the latest results in developing an anthropomorphic dextrous hand for a 2-years-old humanoid. As this robot is aimed to be a physical platform for cognition, the number of degrees of freedom of the upper part of the body has been maximized. The robotic hand has 20 DoFs and 9 motors to accomplish optimal grasping and manipulation. Based on the manipulation tasks required in the project and on the human hand functional anatomy, a mixed implementation of cable directed driven and underactuated joints has been designed, developed, tested and debugged. The abduction/adduction of the fingers and the hollowing of the palm have been implemented and coupled together, driven by a single actuator. The latest prototype has been developed; it includes the hand mechanism, the actuators and a proprioceptive sensory system for the joint positioning and the grasping force control. Index Terms – Cognitive, Manipulation, Hand, Humanoid, Under-actuation.
A Collaborative Planning Model of Intentional Structure

An agent's ability to understand an utterance depends upon its ability to relate that utterance to the preceding discourse. The agent must determine whether the utterance begins a new segment of the discourse, completes the current segment, or contributes to it. The intentional structure of the discourse, comprised of discourse segment purposes and their interrelationships, plays a central role in this process (Grosz and Sidner 1986). In this paper, we provide a computational model for recognizing intentional structure and utilizing it in discourse processing. The model is based on the collaborative planning framework of SharedPlans (Grosz and Kraus 1996).
Introduction: The many faces of human cognition in musical research and practice

The presentations at the Symposium on Music and the Cognitive Sciences covered a vast array of approaches and aims from disciplines such as music composition, musicology, music theory, music analysis, experimental psychology, neuropsychology, mathematics, and computer science. These different approaches are briefly described. A plethora of fundamental concerns were raised across these disciplines. Those discussed in this chapter include the perception and representation of musical attributes, patterns, and forms, the mental organization of musical material and form, the development and learning of musical skills, and musical universals. A number of problems in the cross-disciplinary dialogue are also noted and discussed, with emphasis being placed on the problems that the basic assumptions of each discipline pose when considering what is relevant in other disciplines.
Trauma-Related Mortality among Adults in Rural Western Kenya: Characterising Deaths Using Data from a Health and Demographic Surveillance System

Background Information on trauma-related deaths in low and middle income countries is limited but needed to target public health interventions. Data from a health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) were examined to characterise such deaths in rural western Kenya. Methods And Findings Verbal autopsy data were analysed. Of 11,147 adult deaths between 2003 and 2008, 447 (4%) were attributed to trauma; 71% of these were in males. Trauma contributed 17% of all deaths in males 15 to 24 years; on a population basis mortality rates were greatest in persons over 65 years. Intentional causes accounted for a higher proportion of male than female deaths (RR 2.04, 1.37-3.04) and a higher proportion of deaths of those aged 15 to 65 than older people. Main causes in males were assaults (n=79, 25%) and road traffic injuries (n=47, 15%); and falls for females (n=17, 13%). A significantly greater proportion of deaths from poisoning (RR 5.0, 2.7-9.4) and assault (RR 1.8, 1.2-2.6) occurred among regular consumers of alcohol than among non-regular drinkers. In multivariate analysis, males had a 4-fold higher risk of death from trauma than females (Adjusted Relative Risk; ARR 4.0; 95% CI 1.7-9.4); risk of a trauma death rose with age, with the elderly at 7-fold higher risk (ARR 7.3, 1.1-49.2). Absence of care was the strongest predictor of trauma death (ARR 12.2, 9.4-15.8). Trauma-related deaths were higher among regular alcohol drinkers (ARR 1.5, 1.1-1.9) compared with non-regular drinkers. Conclusions While trauma accounts for a small proportion of deaths in this rural area with a high prevalence of HIV, TB and malaria, preventive interventions such as improved road safety, home safety strategies for the elderly, and curbing harmful use of alcohol, are available and could help diminish this burden. Improvements in systems to record underlying causes of death from trauma are required.
Testosterone testing in adult males

The number of requests for testosterone testing in adult males has been increasing in recent years. In this review, the biochemistry and physiology of testosterone in males relevant to the chemical pathologist or clinical biochemist is outlined. The methodology for total testosterone and various laboratory tests associated with the assessment of testosterone status including free testosterone, calculated free testosterone (CFT), bioavailable testosterone (BAT) and free androgen index (FAI) is then summarised. Clinical and laboratory criteria for the diagnosis of late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) in men are critically discussed with particular emphasis on the interpretation of laboratory test results. Finally, other indications for testosterone testing in adult men such as infertility are also reviewed.
Author ' s personal copy Homotopy methods for counting reaction network equilibria

Dynamical system models of complex biochemical reaction networks are usually high-dimensional, nonlinear, and contain many unknown parameters. In some cases the reaction network structure dictates that positive equilibria must be unique for all values of the parameters in the model. In other cases multiple equilibria exist if and only if special relationships between these parameters are satisfied. We describe methods based on homotopy invariance of degree which allow us to determine the number of equilibria for complex biochemical reaction networks and how this number depends on parameters in the model. 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Fluctuations in a coupled-oscillator model of the cardiovascular system

We present a model of the cardiovascular system (CVS) based on a system of coupled oscillators. Using this approach we can describe several complex physiological phenomena that can have a range of applications. For instance, heart rate variability (HRV), can have a new deterministic explanation. The intrinsic dynamics of the HRV is controlled by deterministic couplings between the physiological oscillators in our model and without the need to introduce external noise as is commonly done. This new result provides potential applications not only for physiological systems but also for the design of very precise electronic generators where the frequency stability is crucial. Another important phenomenon is that of oscillation death. We show that in our CVS model the mechanism leading to the quenching of the oscillations can be controlled, not only by the coupling parameter, but by a more general scheme. In fact, we propose that a change in the relative current state of the cardiovascular oscillators can lead to a cease of the oscillations without actually changing the strength of the coupling among them. We performed real experiments using electronic oscillators and show them to match the theoretical and numerical predictions. We discuss the relevance of the studied phenomena to real cardiovascular systems regimes, including the explanation of certain pathologies, and the possible applications in medical practice.
Autism spectrum disorder causes, mechanisms, and treatments: focus on neuronal synapses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of developmental disabilities characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication and restricted and repetitive interests/behaviors. Advances in human genomics have identified a large number of genetic variations associated with ASD. These associations are being rapidly verified by a growing number of studies using a variety of approaches, including mouse genetics. These studies have also identified key mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of ASD, many of which involve synaptic dysfunctions, and have investigated novel, mechanism-based therapeutic strategies. This review will try to integrate these three key aspects of ASD research: human genetics, animal models, and potential treatments. Continued efforts in this direction should ultimately reveal core mechanisms that account for a larger fraction of ASD cases and identify neural mechanisms associated with specific ASD symptoms, providing important clues to efficient ASD treatment.
Does unconscious thought outperform conscious thought on complex decisions? A further examination

Two experiments examined the benefits of unconscious thought on complex decisions (Dijksterhuis, 2004). Experiment 1 attempted to replicate and extend past research by examining the effect of providing reasons prior to rating the options. Results indicated no significant differences between the conditions. Experiment 2 attempted to replicate the findings of Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, and van Baaren (2006) and determine if a memory aid could overcome the limitations of conscious thought on complex tasks. Results revealed that a memory aid improved decisions compared to the conscious thought condition. Participants in the unconscious thought condition did not perform significantly better than did participants in the conscious thought condition.
Entry of Shigella flexneri into HeLa cells: evidence for directed phagocytosis involving actin polymerization and myosin accumulation

The enteroinvasive bacterium Shigella flexneri expresses a plasmid-mediated capacity to penetrate into nonphagocytic cells. By using 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-phallacidin (NBD-phallacidin), a fluorescent dye which specifically stains microfilaments, we observed condensations of filamentous actin underneath the plasma membrane of HeLa cells which interacted with the invasive isolate M90T. As demonstrated by indirect immunofluorescence with the antimyosin monoclonal antibody CC-212, myosin accumulated at the same sites. The entry process could be synchronized by using strain SC301, a pIL22 transformant of M90T. pIL22, a recombinant plasmid encoding the Escherichia coli afimbrial adhesin AFA I, rendered shigellae highly adherent to HeLa cells. Using such a system, we demonstrated that the occurrence of bacterial penetration and the appearance of structures brightly stained by NBD-phallacidin were simultaneous events. Such microfilamentous structures resulted from de novo polymerization of the monomeric actin pool in a DNase I inhibition assay, as shown by measurement of the monomeric versus total actin content of infected HeLa cells. These data provide direct evidence that the penetration of S. flexneri into HeLa cells occurs through a mechanism similar to phagocytosis by professional phagocytes.
Continuous Integration and Delivery Traceability in Industry: Needs and Practices

The importance of traceability in software development has long been recognized, not only for reasons of legality and certification, but also to enable the development itself. At the same time, organizations are known to struggle to live up to traceability requirements, and there is an identified lack of studies on traceability practices in the industry, not least in the area of tooling and infrastructure. This paper identifies traceability as a key challenge in achieving continuous integration and delivery and documents an industry developed framework -- Eiffel -- designed to provide real time traceability in continuous integration and delivery. The efficacy of the Eiffel framework is then investigated through comparison with previous traceability methods.
Becoming a smoker: Adapting Becker’s model of deviance for adolescent smoking

Abstract This study examines attitudes to smoking among adolescents. Data for the study is derived from a large quantitative French cross-sectional survey of school students. Attitudes toward smoking were found to be associated with regularity and quantity of consumption, and the type of school attended. These associations are explained according to Becker’s concept of a ‘moral career’, for attitudes differ among occasional, regular and heavy smokers. The association with school type indicates advanced formal schooling enables students to offer sophisticated rationalisations for smoking, combining an acknowledgement of health-related risks of smoking, emphasis on personal benefits derived from smoking, and claims that smoking is a private matter.
Synergetic behavior in the cascading failure propagation of power grid

Cascading failure is the main mechanism of large blackouts in power grid. In this paper, a model of cascading failure propagation based on synergetics theory is constructed. Numerical simulations show that the macroscopic properties of the power grid during cascading failure propagation are governed by the general laws of synergetics. Real blackout data are also consistent with this model. This discovery of synergetic behavior in cascading failure propagation in power grid might shed some new lights on analyzing and preventing large blackouts in complex power grid.
The BENEFITS OF CO‐OPERATION

In opening this afternoon session, I feel rather like the London business man who, shortly before Christmas, had had a serious argument with the ‘ghost’ writer he employed to prepare his speeches. He was to deliver a speech at a City function of some importance, and, having duly received his notes—which, as usual, he had no time to read—went off to the dinner. When called upon to deliver his speech he rose and began ‘Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. The world today is full of problems. There are grave international problems, social problems, industrial and trade union problems, and many similar and equally‐serious difficulties. With your permission, I should like to deal with some of these problems in detail tonight. ’ Here, having reached the end of his first page, he turned it over, only to find scrawled across the next, otherwise blank sheet, the words ‘Now talk yourself out of that one! ’
A novel approach to express emotions through a flock of virtual beings

This paper proposes and explores a novel approach to express emotions in cyberworlds through a flock of virtual beings. Emotions are represented in terms of the arousal and valence dimensions and they are visually expressed in a simple way through the behaviour and appearance of the individuals in the flock. In particular, the arousal value parameterizes the Reynolds' flocking algorithm, and the valence value determines the number of different colors in the flock. Furthermore, the paper describes a study with users, whose interesting results are also discussed.
Photodynamic Therapy of New Amphiphilic Phthalocyanine Zinc Inhibits the Proliferation of Human Hepatoma Bel-7402 Cells through the Induction of Apoptosis

Photodynamic therapy of phthalocyanines has been shown to have antitumor activity in some tumor cells. However, the photodynamic therapy mechanism of amphiphilic phthalocyanine zinc in Human Hepatoma Bel-7402 cells has not been clarified. In the present study, therefore, the photodynamic therapy effect of amphiphilic phthalocyanine zinc on the proliferation and apoptosis in Bel-7402 cells was investigated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide, AnnexinV-FITC/ Propidium Iodide double staining, electron microscopy and inverted microscope assay, respectively. We found that photodynamic therapy of amphiphilic phthalocyanine zinc significantly led to inhibition of proliferation and induction of apoptosis in Bel-7402 cells. Therefore, we conclude that photodynamic therapy of amphiphilic phthalocyanine zinc inhibits the proliferation of Bel-7402 cells through the induction of apoptosis. Keywords-Human Hepatoma Bel-7402 cells; Photodynamic therapy; Apoptosis; Proliferation; Amphiphilic phthalocyanine zinc
Inhibition of NF-κB Activation in Combination with Bcl-2 Expression Allows for Persistence of First-Generation Adenovirus Vectors in the Mouse Liver

ABSTRACT NF-κB is a key regulator of the innate antiviral immune response, due in part to its transcriptional activation of cytokines and adhesion molecules, which, in turn, function in chemotaxis and activation of inflammatory cells. We reported earlier that viral gene expression in hepatocytes transduced with first-generation (E1-deleted) adenoviruses induced NF-κB activation, elevation of serum cytokines, and hepatocellular apoptosis during the first days postinfusion. These events did not occur in mice infused with an adenovirus vector deleted for E1, E2, E3, and late gene expression. In the present study, we used an adenovirus expressing an IκBα supersuppressor (Ad.IκBM) andbcl-2 transgenic mice to unravel the role of virus-induced NF-κB activation and apoptosis in the clearance of recombinant adenovirus vectors from the liver. The combined action of IκBM and Bcl-2 allowed for vector persistence in livers of C57BL/6 × C3H mice. In the absence of Bcl-2, IκBM expression in mouse livers significantly reduced NF-κB activation, cytokine expression, leukocyte infiltration, and the humoral immune response against the transgene product; however, this was not sufficient to prevent the decline of vector DNA in transduced cells. Infusion of Ad. IκBM caused extended apoptosis predominantly in periportal liver regions, indicating that NF-κB activation may protect transduced hepatocytes from apoptosis induced by adenovirus gene products. To confer vector persistence, bcl-2 transgene expression was required to block virus-induced apoptosis if NF-κB protection was inactivated by IκBM. Expression of gene products involved in early stages of apoptotic pathways was up-regulated in response to virus infusion inbcl-2 transgenic mice, which may represent a compensatory effect. Our study supports the idea that the suppression of innate defense mechanisms improves vector persistence.