Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypertension, natriuresis, and the renal prostaglandins.

Substantial evidence has accumulated that the prostaglandins A (PGA) compounds, potent naturally occurring renal antihypertensive agents, may function as circulating renal vasodilators and may be responsible at least in part for the antihypertensive function of the kidney. The concept that essential hypertension is not solely the result of increased renal pressure mechanisms but may be a deficiency disorder of renal vasodepressor agents has been reinforced with isolation from the kidney of the naturally occurring peripheral vasodilator, PGA2. Along with its possible role in essential hypertension, PGA2 might function as a natriuretic "hormone. " All available data indicate that the renal response to prostaglandin infusion in animals and humans with essential hypertension is characterized by an increase in cortical blood flow, glomerular filtration rate, sodium and potassium excretion, urine flow, and free-water clearance. Of all the prostaglandins investigated thus far, the most promising compounds from a cardiovascular-renal perspective are the PGA class. From their highly desirable mechanism of antihypertension and natriuretic action, the greatest immediate potential for PGA1 and PGA2 is for pharmacological use in the treatment of such disorders as hypertension and edema.
Comparing Cerebral White Matter Lesion Burdens between Parkinson’s Disease with and without Dementia

Cerebral white matter lesions (CWMLs) have been suggested to be associated with an increased risk of dementia, disability, and death. CWMLs are more common in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than in normal elderly individuals of comparable age. Only a few studies have been done to determine whether CWMLs may influence cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Fully developed PD with concurrent AD was reported to likely cause impaired cognition in spite of accumulating evidence suggesting that PD with dementia (PDD) is more closely associated with Lewy body (LB) pathology. Currently, contradictory data on the neuropathology of dementia in PD require further prospective clinicopathological studies in larger cohorts to elucidate the impact of AD and α-synuclein (SCNA) pathologies on the cognitive status in these disorders. Previous reports did not suggest CWMLs to be associated with an increased risk of PDD. After adjusting for age at death, age at onset of PD, and duration of PD, our recent study investigating CWMLs in PDD via autopsy has shown a positive correlation between the burden of CWMLs and PDD. The frequent co-existence of both LB and AD lesions suggests that both pathologies independently or synergistically contribute to both movement disorders and cognitive impairment. The individual and cumulative burden of CWMLs, LB lesions, and AD lesions may synergistically contribute to cognitive decline in LB disorders such as PDD.
Retrospective cohort study on risk factors for development of gestational diabetes among mothers attending antenatal clinics in Nairobi County

Introduction World Health Organization estimates that deaths resulting from diabetes will rise above 50% by the year 2020; hence urgent action is needed to reverse the trend notably through nutrition and lifestyle intervention among populations at risks. Studies have established that nutritional environment and physiology of the mother affects neonate's health at infancy and later in life thus this study sought to investigate the risk factors for development of gestational diabetes focusing age, weight, family history and pre-existing medical condition which could be modified to improve population health. Methods A retrospective cohort study design was used. Subjects were sampled from selected maternity facilities in Nairobi and were subjected to oral glucose test to ascertain Gestational Diabetes mellitus (GDM) status. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 238 respondents. Quantitative data was then analyzed as descriptive statistic, univariate and multivariate regression. Results Average age for mothers with GDM was high with a mean of 33.06 (95% C.I: 31.59-34.52) compared to a mean of 27.9 (95% C.I: 27.01-28.78) for non-GDM mothers. Weight before pregnancy was high with mean of 74.04 (95% C.I: 70.82-77.30) among mothers with GDM compared to mean of 60.27 (95% C.I:58.59-61.96) among non-GDM mothers. Mothers with diabetic history in the family had twice the risk of developing GDM (OR= 2.27; 95% C.I: 1.23-4.17) compared to those who did not observe diabetic history in the family. Conclusion Gestational diabetes cases are relatively high. Age advancement; high weight and diabetic history in family are determining factors for development of diabetes among pregnant women.
Query-point debugging

Software Debugging is still one of the most challenging and time consuming aspects of software development. Monitoring the software behavior and finding the causes of this behavior are located at the center of debugging process. Although many tools and techniques have been proposed to support developers in this job, none of them could replace or improve the traditional debugging methods. This paper presents Query-Point debugging as a new debugging approach and explains how it can facilitate debugging for developers.
Antimicrobial activity of Vitamin-D in human macrophages isolated from older adult women peripheral blood

Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a public health concern all over the world including India and its deficiency is associated with several adverse health outcomes. Many studies suggest that among all age groups geriatric population are more susceptible to Vitamin D deficiency and also more prone against infections than other age groups. A vitamin D replete state appears to benefit most infections. In present study the association of vitamin D status with antimicrobial activity of cultured macrophages isolated within an exclusively rural elderly women population cohort were assessed, since they are at an increased risk of both insufficient and deficient vitamin D status. We found that in vitro supplementation of vitamin D increases antimicrobial activity in monocytes derived macrophages (MDM), which also influences their current Vitamin D status.
Morphometry of Structural Preservation of Tunica Media in Aged and Hypertensive Human Intracerebral Arteries

Background and Purpose Medial smooth muscle cell necrosis has been reported as a lesion that may precede angionecrosis, which is a major cause of not only hypertensive brain hemorrhage but also lacunar infarct. We morphometrically studied a loss of smooth muscle cells in the media of cerebral arteries in relation to clinical risk factors. Methods The lateral striate, ie, perforating arteries and the medullary arteries in the subcortical white matter of the temporal lobe (100 to 400 μm in diameter) were histologically investigated in 121 autopsied brains. Medial area was measured quantitatively, and the number of nuclei of smooth muscle cells in the area was calculated in 1210 cross-sectional arteries of histological sections. The influence on the structural (ie, smooth muscle cell) preservation of the tunica media (ratio of number of smooth muscle cell nuclei to medial area [N-MA ratio]) of age, blood pressure, serum lipids, and presence or absence of extracerebral severe atherosclerosis was investigated. Results The N-MA ratio decreased slightly with age in both arteries. A reverse correlation between N-MA ratio and age was seen in groups both with and without hypertension. The mean N-MA ratio in the hypertensive group was significantly lower than that of the nonhypertensive group (P < .001) in all decades of life. The mean N-MA ratio of the perforating arteries was slightly lower than that of the medullary arteries in both groups. Severe atherosclerosis of the internal carotid arteries, even with hypertension, mitigated a decrease of the N-MA ratio, which was as slight as that in the nonhypertensive group. Serum cholesterol in this group was higher than in both the conventional hypertensive group (P < .005) and the nonhypertensive group (P < .001). Conclusions Although both hypertension and age were significant risk factors for medial smooth muscle cell necrosis, hypertension was relatively more significant. Medial smooth muscle cells of the perforating arteries in the basal ganglia were more vulnerable than those of the medullary arteries. Cerebral small arteries in subjects with severe atherosclerosis of the carotid and major cerebral arteries (hypertension in eight of nine subjects) may have been protected from extensive loss of medial smooth muscles presumably because of both high serum cholesterol and decreased wall tensile stress associated with reduced blood perfusion due to severe atherosclerotic stenosis.
Design and Implementation of Humanoid Robot for Obstacle Avoidance

In this paper, a path planning of humanoid robot for obstacle avoidance by using infrared sensors (IRs) is proposed. An autonomous humanoid robot TWNHR-3 is used to implement the proposed strategy. Four IR sensors are mounted on TWNHR-3 to detect obstacles. Based on the obtained information from IR sensors, a decision tree method is proposed to decide the behavior of robot so that the robot avoids obstacles and goes to the destination. Obstacle avoidance simulations and experiments of TWNHR-3 are presented to confirm its effectiveness.
Delivery of electronic news: a broadband application

This paper describes an ongoing research program for the development of an electronic news delivery system that exploits the promised high-bandwidth, switched, interactive communication facilities of the information highway. The research program is in a preliminary stage and will investigate the design and organization of the news sources, client/server architecture, and user interfaces leading to a prototype model electronic news delivery system. Initially based on a newspaper metaphor, the system will exploit communication and multimedia technologies to integrate other news sources, such as newscasts and video clips, with the text backbone. The system will provide selective content delivery based on individual and group profiles, hypertext links into archival and external data, continuous coverage of news stories, interactive objects, and "smart" advertising.An initial prototype client has been developed using data that include video clips and news and photos from the Halifax newspaper, The Chronicle-Herald. An abstract data representation was developed for the integration of layout, syntactic, and semantic information from a variety of sources for the dynamic presentation and manipulation of the news items. This prototype allows us to explore the potential of the medium for supporting user interfaces that cope with a potentially large number of news items in a very restricted screen space and the potential for innovative advertising unlike any advertising we currently experience.
Genetic Differentiation of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae), the Major Dengue Vector in Brazil

Abstract In 2000, Brazil reported 180,137 cases of dengue, ≈80% of the total in the Americas. However, little is known about gene flow among the vector populations in Brazil. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to study the genetic structure of Aedes aegypti in 15 populations from five states, with a range extending 2,800 km. An analysis of 47 polymorphic RAPD loci estimated gene flow at the macro- (different states) and micro- (different cities) geographical levels. Genetic polymorphism was high (HS = 0.274), and high levels of genetic differentiation existed both between different states (GST = 0.317) and between cities or neighborhoods in each state (GST = 0.085–0.265). These values are higher than those described for any other populations of A. aegypti.
Wearable-object-based interaction for a mobile audio device

In this paper, we explore the possibilities of providing miniaturized audio players with gesture control capabilities that are based on wearable objects. We selected thirteen wearable objects and used them as interaction surfaces. We used user-centered design methods to collect interaction gestures suited for play, stop, volume up, volume down, previous song, and next song functions. The characteristics and possibility of these interaction gestures are also discussed.
Fabrication of Pillar Shaped Electrode Arrays for Artificial Retinal Implants

Polyimide has been widely applied to neural prosthetic devices, such as the retinal implants, due to its well-known biocompatibility and ability to be micropatterned. However, planar films of polyimide that are typically employed show a limited ability in reducing the distance between electrodes and targeting cell layers, which limits site resolution for effective multi-channel stimulation. In this paper, we report a newly designed device with a pillar structure that more effectively interfaces with the target. Electrode arrays were successfully fabricated and safely implanted inside the rabbit eye in suprachoroidal space. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) showed well-preserved pillar structures of the electrode without damage. Bipolar stimulation was applied through paired sites (6:1) and the neural responses were successfully recorded from several regions in the visual cortex. Electrically evoked cortical potential by the pillar electrode array stimulation were compared to visual evoked potential under full-field light stimulation.
National surveillance for type 1, type 2 diabetes and prediabetes among children and adolescents: a population-based study (SAUDI-DM)

Background There is a paucity of data on the national prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes among youth. The Saudi Abnormal Glucose Metabolism and Diabetes Impact Study (SAUDI-DM) was used to assess the prevalence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as impaired fasting glucose (IFG) among children and adolescents. Methods Sociodemographic, anthropometric and clinical data were collected through a nationwide household randomly selected 23 523 children and adolescents aged ≤18 years. Known participants with diabetes were classified according to their diabetes type, while participants without diabetes were subjected to fasting plasma glucose assessment and patients with diabetes were identified using the American Diabetes Association (ADA) criteria. All the studied participants were tested for lipid parameters. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess different risk factors. Results The overall prevalence of diabetes was 10.84%, of which 0.45% were known type 1 and type 2 patients with diabetes and 10.39% were either newly identified cases of diabetes (4.27%) or IFG (6.12%) with more than 90% of the participants with diabetes being unaware of their disease. The prevalence of known type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as the newly identified cases was higher than what has been reported internationally. Age, male gender, obesity, urban residency, high family income and presence of dyslipidaemia were found to be significant risk factors for diabetes and IFG. Conclusions Diabetes and IFG are highly prevalent in this society with the majority of the patients being unaware of their disease, which warrants urgent adoption of early detection, treatment and prevention programmes.
Dynamic of cyclic automata over Z 2 (cid:1)

7 Let K be the two-dimensional grid. Let q be an integer greater than 1 and let Q = { 0 ; : : : ; q − 1 } . Let s : Q → Q be de(cid:3)ned by s ( (cid:1) ) = ( (cid:1) + 1) mod q , ∀ (cid:1) ∈ Q . 9 In this work we study the following dynamic F on Q Z 2 . For x ∈ Q Z 2 we de(cid:3)ne F v ( x )= s ( x v ) if the state s ( x v ) appears in one of the four neighbors of v in K and F v ( x ) = x v otherwise. 11 For x ∈ Q Z 2 , such that { v ∈ Z 2 : x v (cid:4) = 0 } is (cid:3)nite we prove that there exists a (cid:3)nite family of cycles such that the period of every vertex of K divides the lcm of their lengths. This is a 13 generalization of the same result known for (cid:3)nite graphs. Moreover, we show that this upper bound is sharp. We prove that for every n ¿ 1 and every collection k 1 ; : : : ; k n of non-negative 15 integers there exists y n ∈ Q Z 2 such that |{ v ∈ Z 2 : y nv (cid:4) = 0 }| = O( k 21 + · · · + k 2 n ) and the period of the vertex (0,0) is p · lcm { k 1 ; : : : ; k n } , for some even integer p . 17 c (cid:5) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Key detection for a virtual piano teacher

We propose a method for identifying a piano keyboard present in the video footage of a standard webcam with the goal of teaching chords, scales and suggested finger positions to a beginner pianist. Our keyboard identification method makes use of binary thresholding, Sobel operators and Hough transforms, as well as proposed algorithms specific to this application, to first find an area resembling a piano keyboard before narrowing the search to detect individual keys. Through the use of our method the keys of a piano keyboard were successfully identified from webcam video footage, with a tolerance to camera movement and occluded keys demonstrated. This result allowed the augmented reality style highlighting of individual keys, and the display of suggested fingering, for various chords and scales - which demonstrates the potential for our piano teacher program as a learning tool. The demo application achieved an average frame rate of 25.1 frames per second when run on a 2.20GHz dual-core laptop with 4GB RAM; a suitable rate for real-time use.
A study of cognitive resilience in a JPEG compressor

Many classes of applications are inherently tolerant to errors. One such class are applications designed for a human end user, where the capabilities of the human cognitive system (cognitive resilience) may compensate some of the errors produced by the application. We present a methodology to automatically distinguish between tolerable errors in imaging applications which can be handled by the human cognitive system and severe errors which are perceptible to a human end user. We also introduce an approach to identify non-critical spots in a hardware circuit which should not be hardened against soft errors because errors that occur on these spots are tolerable. We demonstrate that over 50% of flip-flops in a JPEG compressor chip are non-critical and require no hardening.
Long-term vehicle motion prediction

Future driver assistance systems will have to cope with complex traffic situations, especially in the road crossing scenario. To detect potentially hazardous situations as early as possible, it is therefore desirable to know the position and motion of the ego-vehicle and vehicles around it for several seconds in advance. For this purpose, we propose in this study a long-term prediction approach based on a combined trajectory classification and particle filter framework. As a measure for the similarity between trajectories, we introduce the quaternion-based rotationally invariant longest common subsequence (QRLCS) metric. The trajectories are classified by a radial basis function (RBF) classifier with an architecture that is able to process trajectories of arbitrary non-uniform length. The particle filter framework simultaneously tracks and assesses a large number of motion hypotheses (∼102), where the class-specific probabilities estimated by the RBF classifier are used as a-priori probabilities for the hypotheses of the particle filter. The hypotheses are clustered with a mean-shift technique and are assigned a likelihood value. Motion prediction is performed based on the cluster centre with the highest likelihood. While traditional motion prediction based on curve radius and acceleration is inaccurate especially during turning manoeuvres, we show that our approach achieves a reasonable motion prediction even for long prediction intervals of 3 s for these complex motion patterns.
Cytomegalovirus retinitis after the initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy: a 2 year prospective study

BACKGROUND/AIMS There have been several recent reports suggesting that the natural history of cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMVR) has been significantly modified with the development of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). This 2 year prospective cohort study assesses the effect of HAART on the incidence and progression of CMV retinitis in patients with CD4 cell counts below 50 cells ×106/l. METHODS 63 patients, with CD4 cell counts below 50 cells ×106/l, who were recruited to a 2 year prospective cohort study at the commencement of combination antiretroviral therapy including the use of the proteinase inhibitor, indinavir, were reported. The response to HAART was assessed in terms of a rise in the CD4 cell count and fall in HIV viral load. An experienced ophthalmologist performed dilated funduscopy at the time of recruitment and thereafter at 2 weekly intervals and retinal photography was performed at monthly intervals in patients with CMVR. The activity and progression of CMV retinitis was assessed on the basis of the characteristic clinical and photographic findings. RESULTS 34 patients achieved at least 50 CD4 cells ×106/l at 3 months after initiation of therapy. New diagnoses of CMVR were seen only in the non-responder group (p=0.085). Overall, the relative risk of a new retinitis event in this group was 3.52 (95% CI 1.16, 10.68) at 3 months compared with those patients who were responsive to HAART. 12 of the 63 patients had previous CMVR. Disease progression was associated with non-response to therapy (p=0.182 exact). In patients with CMVR the median time to first progression was 18 days (95% CI 8, 91) in non-responders and 121 days (95% CI 0.59, 3.65) in responders. By the end of the 2 year follow up period all surviving patients had >50 CD4 cells ×106/l. No CMV events were seen after 8 months of therapy in either group of patients. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that significant clinical immunorestoration to CMV occurs in response to HAART in patients with CMVR after a lag time of 3–8 months. Initially, a rise in CD4 count is predictive of CMVR response but after the lag period all survivors appear to have developed a clinical immunorestoration to CMV. If HAART is commenced in at risk patients before the development of CMVR the incidence of new disease falls significantly.
In Vitro and In Vivo Evidence for Anti-Inflammatory Properties of 2-Methoxyestradiol

2-Methoxyestradiol (2MEO) is an endogenous metabolite of 17β-estradiol that interacts with estrogen receptors and microtubules. It has acute anti-inflammatory activity in animal models that is not attributable to known antiproliferative or antiangiogenic actions. Because macrophages are central to the innate inflammatory response, we examined whether suppression of macrophage activation by 2MEO could account for some of its anti-inflammatory effects. Inflammatory mediator production stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-γ in the J774 murine macrophage cell line or human monocytes was measured after treatment with 2MEO or the anti-inflammatory agent dexamethasone. The effect of these agents on LPS-induced acute lung inflammation in mice was also examined. 2MEO suppressed J774 macrophage interleukin-6 and prostaglandin E2 production (by 30 and 47%, respectively, at 10 μM) and human monocyte tumor necrosis factor-α production (by 60% at 3 μM). Estradiol had no effect on J774 macrophage activation, nor did the estrogen receptor antagonist 7α-[9-[(4,4,5,5,5-pentafluoropentyl)sulfinyl]nonyl]estra-1,3,5(10)-triene-3,17β-diol (ICI 182,780) prevent the effects of 2MEO. The actions of 2MEO were not mimicked by the microtubule-interfering agents colchicine or paclitaxel. In mice exposed to LPS, bronchoalveolar lavage protein content, a measure of vascular leak and epithelial injury, was reduced to a comparable extent (∼54%) by treatment with 2MEO (150 mg · kg−1) or dexamethasone (1 mg · kg−1). In addition, 2MEO reduced LPS-induced interleukin-6 gene expression. Thus, 2MEO modulates macrophage activation in vitro and has high-dose acute anti-inflammatory activity in vivo. These findings are consistent with the acute anti-inflammatory actions of 2MEO being mediated in part by the suppression of macrophage activation.