Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrographic Seizures in Preterm Infants During the First Week of Life Are Associated With Cerebral Injury

The aim of the study was to determine the incidence of electrographic seizure activity in a prospective cohort of preterm infants and relate it to the presence of cerebral injury. Infants born <30-wk gestation received a median 74 h of continuous 2-channel EEG with amplitude-integrated EEG monitoring in the first week of life. Infants were classified in the abnormal outcome group if they died in the neonatal period and/or had grades 3–4 intraventricular hemorrhage and/or moderate or severe abnormalities on cerebral MRI. Seizures were defined as rhythmic spike and/or wave activity lasting at least 10 s on the raw EEG trace. Eleven of 51 infants monitored had electrographic seizures. These infants were more premature had lower birth weights and a greater proportion had abnormal outcomes. In four infants, seizures preceded ultrasound findings of grades 3–4 intraventricular hemorrhage. Three of the four infants with seizures and concurrent physiologic recordings displayed concurrent rises in heart rate and one showed a fall in respiratory rate. In conclusion, electrographic seizures were more likely to occur in the sicker and more premature infants with abnormal outcomes. Seizures detected on continuous amplitude-integrated EEG monitoring with the raw EEG were associated with poor outcome.
Planctomycetes and macroalgae, a striking association

Planctomycetes are part of the complex microbial biofilm community of a wide range of macroalgae. Recently, some studies began to unveil the great diversity of Planctomycetes present in this microenvironment and the interactions between the two organisms. Culture dependent and independent methods revealed the existence of a great number of species but, so far, only less than 10 species have been isolated. Planctomycetes comprise the genera Rhodopirellula, Blastopirellula, and Planctomyces, Phycisphaera and the uncultured class OM190 and some other taxa have only been found in this association. Several factors favor the colonization of macroalgal surfaces by planctomycetes. Many species possess holdfasts for attachment. The macroalgae secrete various sulfated polysaccharides that are the substrate for the abundant sulfatases produced by planctomycetes. Specificity between planctomycetes and macroalgae seem to exist which may be related to the chemical nature of the polysaccharides produced by each macroalga. Furthermore, the peptidoglycan-free cell wall of planctomycetes allows them to resist the action of several antimicrobial compounds produced by the macroalgae or other bacteria in the biofilm community that are effective against biofouling by other microorganisms. Despite the increase in our knowledge on the successful planctomycetes-macroalgae association, a great effort to fully understand this interaction is needed.
Motor Unit Number Estimation in Normal and Parkinsonism Model of Medial Gastrocnemius Muscle in Rats

Motor units (MUs) reflect the function of the central nervous motor system. Thus, the estimated MU number is a good option to investigate the functional movement disorder in the Parkinson’s disease (PD). The purpose of this study was to compare the estimated MUs number in the medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscle of the normal rats and those with the parkinsonism. The MG muscle of two age-matched group (normal and parkinsonism) of anesthetized male, adult (154-304 days old) Wistar rats were studied after the insertion of electromyography (EMG) needles. The insertion activity and the MU recruitment (MUR), the strengths of mechanical involuntary contractions and the evoked spike potentials, were recorded. The means initial and the maximal amplitudes of the motor unit potentials (MUPs) were calculated for the estimated MUs number. The spinal cord at the L4-L6 was removed for pathological study. The parkinsonism MUPs trace showed irregular and low threshold discharge rate. The normal spikes trace, however, was different. Increased age was not associated with any increase in the MU number in the two groups. However, there was a significant correlation between the mentioned parameters and the insertion activity (r= -0.25, r= -0.177) and the MUR (r= 0.86, r= 0.248) in the normal and the parkinsonism groups, respectively. There was a correlation between the ages and mean MUP amplitude in the normal and the parkinsonism insertion activity (r =0.766, r =0.659) and the MUR (r =0.89, r = 0.4), respectively. Similarly, there was a correlation between the ages and maximal amplitudes in the normal and parkinsonism groups (r =0.53, r =0.42; r =0.86, r =0.248), respectively, (p<0.001). In the parkinsonism group, there was no significant correlation between the MUs number and the mean MUPs amplitudes in the insertion activity (r= 0.074, p= 0.088) and the MUR (r= 0.226, p=0.762). The spinal cord in the parkinsonism group showed degenerated nerve fibers and apoptosis in the degenerative nerve fibers and in the medium and large motor neurons with Lewy bodies and neurofibrillary tangles. The small ones, however, remained intact. The parkinsonism MUPs, compared to normal ones, have lower threshold and recruit less MUs. The apoptotic medium and large motor neurons with Lewy bodies contribute to the disuse of the relative MUs, while small ones remain intact.
Ontology-Based Structured Cosine Similarity in Speech Document Summarization

Development of algorithms for automated text categorization in massive text document sets is an important research area of data mining and knowledge discovery. Most of the text-clustering methods were grounded in the term-based measurement of distance or similarity, ignoring the structure of terms in documents. In this paper we present a novel method named Structured Cosine Similarity that furnishes document clustering with a new way of modeling on document summarization, considering the structure of terms in documents in order to improve the quality of speech document clustering.
Koch curves as attractors and repellers

Two methods are presented for generating Koch curves, analogous to the commonly used iterative methods for producing images of Julia sets. The attractive method is based on a characterization of Koch curves as the smallest nonempty sets closed with respect to a union of similarities on the plane. The repelling method is in principle dual to the attractive one but involves a nontrivial problem of selecting the appropriate transformation to be applied at each iteration step. Both methods are illustrated with a number of computer-generated images. The mathematical presentation emphasizes the relationship between Koch construction and formal languages theory. <<ETX>>
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease vs. obesity on the risk of erosive oesophagitis

Erosive oesophagitis (EE) may be complicated by oesophageal ulcers, peptic stricture, Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. There have been few studies examining the influence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) on EE, and even fewer exploring the simultaneous effects of NAFLD, general and central obesity on EE. We thus aim to clarify the relationship between NAFLD and EE when general and/or central obesity are considered simultaneously.
Hazardous alcohol consumption is not associated with CD4+ T-cell count decline among PLHIV in Kampala Uganda: A prospective cohort study

Introduction There is limited data on the effects of alcohol on immunological response among persons living with HIV (PLHIV) in sub-Saharan Africa. We assessed the relationship between hazardous alcohol use and CD4+ T-cell count, among PLHIV in Uganda. Methods PLHIV aged ≥ 18 years were enrolled in a cohort study at the Infectious diseases clinic Kampala, Uganda. Alcohol consumption was assessed at enrolment (baseline) and 6 monthly thereafter using the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT). The CD4+ T-cell counts, assessed at baseline and over the next 12 months were compared between alcohol use strata, using linear mixed effects regression. Using longitudinal mediation analysis methods, we estimated the effect of alcohol induced ART non-adherence on CD4+ T-cell count. Results Of the 1566 participants enrolled, 863(44.1%) were non-alcohol users (AUDIT score = 0), 433(27.7%) were non-hazardous (AUDIT score 1–7) alcohol users while 270 (17.2%) were hazardous (AUDIT score ≥ 8) alcohol users. The overall median (IQR) baseline CD4+ T-cell count was 356 (243–516) cells/μl. There were no differences in the median baseline CD4+ T-cell count between hazardous and non-hazardous alcohol users compared to non-alcohol users in both the non-ART (p = 0.43) and ART group (p = 0.77). The mean CD4+ T-cell count over 12 months was not different between hazardous alcohol users and non-alcohol users (non-ART group p = 0.88 and ART group p = 0.62), nor between non-hazardous alcohol users and non-alcohol users (and non-ART group p = 0.66 and ART group p = 0.20). Alcohol use was not associated with a significant natural direct effect on CD4+ T-cell count (1.37 95%CI [-1.78, 4.52] cells/μl, p = 0.39) but had a statistically significant natural indirect effect on reduction of CD4+ T-cell count (-0.91 cells/μl [-1.36, -0.45], p < 0.001) mediated through ART non-adherence. Conclusion Hazardous alcohol use among PLHIV was not directly associated with lower CD4+ T-cell count but had a significant natural indirect effect on CD4+ T-cell count mediated through ART non-adherence. Among PLHIV with lower than expected CD4+ T-cell count, alcohol consumption should be excluded as an underlying factor for non-adherence to ART and any interventions targeting alcohol use should tackle possible ART non-adherence.
Parallel comparative studies on toxicity of quantum dots synthesized and surface engineered with different methods in vitro and in vivo

Quantum dots (QDs) have been considered to be promising probes for biosensing, bioimaging, and diagnosis. However, their toxicity issues caused by heavy metals in QDs remain to be addressed, in particular for their in vivo biomedical applications. In this study, a parallel comparative investigation in vitro and in vivo is presented to disclose the impact of synthetic methods and their following surface modifications on the toxicity of QDs. Cellular assays after exposure to QDs were conducted including cell viability assessment, DNA breakage study in a single cellular level, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) receptor measurement, and transmission electron microscopy to evaluate their toxicity in vitro. Mice experiments after QD administration, including analysis of hemobiological indices, pharmacokinetics, histological examination, and body weight, were further carried out to evaluate their systematic toxicity in vivo. Results show that QDs fabricated by the thermal decomposition approach in organic phase and encapsulated by an amphiphilic polymer (denoted as QDs-1) present the least toxicity in acute damage, compared with those of QDs surface engineered by glutathione-mediated ligand exchange (denoted as QDs-2), and the ones prepared by coprecipitation approach in aqueous phase with mercaptopropionic acid capped (denoted as QDs-3). With the extension of the investigation time of mice respectively injected with QDs, we found that the damage caused by QDs to the organs can be gradually recovered. This parallel comparative investigation suggests that synthetic methods and their resulting surface microenvironment play vital roles in the acute toxicity profiles of QDs. The present study provides updated insights into the fabrication and surface engineering of QDs for their translational applications in theranostics.
Increased expression and dysregulated association of restriction factors and type I interferon in HIV, HCV mono‐ and co‐infected patients

Host restriction factors and type I interferon are important in limiting HIV and HCV infections, yet the role of HIV, HCV mono‐ and co‐infection in regulating these antiviral genes expression is not clear. In this study, we measured the levels of TRIM5α, TRIM22, APOBEC3G, and IFN‐α, ‐β mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 43 HIV mono‐infected, 70 HCV mono‐infected and 64 HIV/HCV co‐infected patients along with 98 healthy controls. We also quantified HIV and HCV viral loads in mono‐ and co‐infected patients. The results showed that HCV, HIV mono‐ and co‐infection differentially increased TRIM22, APOBEC3G, and IFN‐α, ‐β mRNA expression while the mRNA expression of TRIMα was upregulated only by HCV‐mono infection. HIV/HCV co‐infection was associated with higher viral load, compared to either HIV or HCV mono‐infection. Additionally, we showed TRIMα and TRIM22 positively correlated with IFN‐α, ‐β, which could be dysregulated by HIV, HCV mono‐ and co‐infection. Furthermore, we found TRIM22 negatively correlated with HCV viral load in mono‐infected patients and APOBEC3G positively correlated with HCV viral load in co‐infected patients. Collectively, our findings suggest the potential role of restriction factors in restricting HIV, HCV mono‐ and co‐infection in vivo, which appears to be a therapeutic target for potential drug discovery. J. Med. Virol. 88:987–995, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Reducing test power, time and data volume in SoC testing using selective trigger scan architecture

Time, power and data volume are among the most challenging problems in test of system-on-chip (SoC) devices. These problems become even more important in scan-based test. The selective trigger scan architecture introduced in this paper addresses these problems. This architecture reduces switching activity in the circuit-under-test (CUT) and increases the scan clock frequency. The format of data for this reduced activity architecture enables us to perform a good compression and further reduce the test time. Our experiments on ISCAS 85 and 89 benchmark circuits show the effectiveness of this architecture in improving SoC test in terms of power, time and data volume.
The role of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis P 55 efflux pump in 1 intrinsic drug resistance , oxidative stress responses and growth 2 3

21 Bacterial efflux pumps have been traditionally studied as low-level drug 22 resistance determinants. Recent insights have suggested that efflux systems are 23 often involved with fundamental cellular physiological processes, suggesting that 24 drug extrusion may be a secondary function. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis little 25 is known about the physiological or drug resistance roles of efflux pumps. Using 26 Mycobacterium bovis BCG as a model system, we showed that deletion of the 27 Rv1410c gene encoding the P55 efflux pump made the strain more susceptible 28 to a range of toxic compounds including rifampicin and clofazimine, firstand 29 second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs. Efflux pump inhibitors CCCP and 30 valinomycin inhibited P55-determined drug resistance suggesting active export of 31 the compounds using the transmembrane proton and electrochemical gradients 32 as sources of energy. In addition, the P55 efflux pump mutant was more 33 susceptible to redox compounds, and displayed increased intracellular redox 34 potential, suggesting an essential role in detoxification processes coupled to 35 oxidative balance within the cell. Finally, cells that lack the p55 gene displayed 36 smaller colony size and had a growth defect in liquid culture. This, together with 37 an increased susceptibility to the cell-wall targeting compounds bacitracin and 38 vancomycin, suggested that P55 is needed for proper cell wall assembly and 39 normal growth in vitro. Thus, P55 plays a fundamental role in oxidative stress 40 responses and in vitro cell growth, in addition to contributing to intrinsic antibiotic 41 resistance. Inhibitors of P55 efflux pump could help to improve current TB 42 treatment. 43 on N ovem er 3, 2017 by gest httpaac.asm . rg/ D ow nladed fom
The Mediation Effect of Coping Style on the Relations between Personality and Life Satisfaction in Chinese Adolescents

Previous findings showed the associations between each of the Big Five personality trait and adolescents’ life satisfaction were different. Some traits (extraversion and neuroticism) correlated with adolescents’ life satisfaction, while other traits did not have the same associations with adolescents’ life satisfaction. In order to explain why the Big Five traits differed in their associations with adolescents’ life satisfaction, the present study verified the relations between each of the Big Five personality traits and life satisfaction, and demonstrated the mediating effects of coping style on the relations between these personality traits and life satisfaction in a sample of 2,357 Chinese adolescents. The results demonstrated that four of the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) had significant associations with life satisfaction. Further, coping style partially mediated the relations between these four traits and life satisfaction, whereas coping style fully mediated the relation between openness to new experience and life satisfaction. The results implied a plausible explanation for why the Big Five traits differed in their associations with life satisfaction found among the previous literature: that there might be some partial or full mediation variables (such as coping style in this study) left unexamined. Theoretical and practical implications of this study on further research and educational practice are discussed.
Expression and localization of α-adaptin isoforms

There are two α-adaptin genes, αA and αC, which in brain encode proteins of of Mr 108×103 and 104×103, respectively. Although both mRNAs can be detected on northern blots of brain and liver, the higher molecular mass polypeptide can only be detected on western blots of brain. Here we explain these observations by showing that αA is alternatively spliced and that the protein product in most tissues is different from the one expressed in brain in that it is missing 21 amino acids within the hinge region, giving it a similar mobility to that of αC. Monospecific antibodies were raised against the various α-adaptin isoforms and used to compare their distribution in cells and tissues. Both αA and αC are co-assembled into the same coated pits, and the larger isoform of αA is co-assembled with the smaller isoforms of α-adaptin, both in cells that naturally express it and in transfected cells. Examination of brain and spinal cord sections, labelled either for the larger isoform of αA or for αC, reveals that that the two are to some extent differentially distributed, consistent with previous in situ hybridisation studies. This finding, combined with the observation that there is considerable variability in the relative expression of the two isoforms in different tissues, indicates that the two genes are switched on in response to different stimuli. Moreover, the larger isoform of αA appears to be more efficiently concentrated in the nerve terminals than αC, which is found not only at the terminals but also diffusely distributed in the cell bodies and dendrites. This suggests that αC may play more of a role in the recycling of membrane components throughout the cell.
Role of BiPAP applied through endotracheal tube in unconscious patients suffering from acute exacerbation of COPD: a pilot study

Background and objectives Mechanical ventilation is the recommended treatment in unconscious patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hypercapenic respiratory failure. But, in resource-poor countries, many of these patients are not able to afford this treatment due to financial constraints. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness, safety and cost-effectiveness of bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) applied via endotracheal tube in such patients. Methods Twenty patients with acute exacerbation of COPD and altered sensorium, who were unable to afford ventilatory support, were intubated and BiPAP therapy was provided to these patients through the endotracheal tube. The outcome of these patients was studied. Results The BiPAP success rate and hospital mortality were 85% (17/20) and 15% (3/20) respectively. BiPAP failure was associated with high sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score at the time of admission (P = 0.002). Improvement in Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score (P < 0.001), pH (P = 0.001), PaCO2 (partial pressure of carbon dioxide) (P < 0.001), respiratory rate (P < 0.001), and SOFA score (P = 0.001) was observed among the responders following 2 hours of therapy. Only one of the responders developed aspiration pneumonitis, as a complication. The daily cost of BiPAP therapy was 8.75 times lower than the average cost of mechanical ventilation. Conclusion This pilot study reveals that this treatment modality could be a safe, cost-effective and efficacious method of treatment in unconscious patients with acute exacerbation of COPD.
Echocardiography and Heart Failure: A Glimpse of the Right Heart

The catastrophic consequences for patients in the settings of certain clinical conditions such as acute right ventricular infarction or massive pulmonary embolism with right heart failure illustrate the essential role that the right ventricle plays in sustaining life. With the development of more sophisticated diagnostic imaging technologies at the end of the last century and the dawn of this century, the importance of the right ventricle has been clearly demonstrated. The continued and evolving nature of our understanding of the right ventricle was emphasized in 2006, when the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute formed a working group focused on developing a better understanding of the right ventricle in both healthy and disease states. The objective of this review paper is to examine the right ventricle structure and function and describe the role of echocardiography in the evaluation of the right ventricle and right heart failure. Special focus will be on echocardiographic images and major society guidelines.