Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Plasma Biomarker Signature of Immune Activation in HIV Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy

Background Immune activation is a strong predictor of disease progression in HIV infection. Combinatorial plasma biomarker signatures that represent surrogate markers of immune activation in both viremic and aviremic HIV patients on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) have not been defined. Here, we identify a plasma inflammatory biomarker signature that distinguishes between both viremic and aviremic HIV patients on cART and healthy controls and examine relationships of this signature to markers of disease progression. Methods Multiplex profiling and ELISA were used to detect 15 cytokines/chemokines, soluble IL-2R (sIL-2R), and soluble CD14 (sCD14) in plasma from 57 HIV patients with CD4 nadir <300 cells/µl and 29 healthy controls. Supervised and unsupervised analyses were used to identify biomarkers explaining variance between groups defined by HIV status or drug abuse. Relationships between biomarkers and disease markers were examined by Spearman correlation. Results The majority (91%) of HIV subjects were on cART, with 38% having undetectable viral loads (VL). Hierarchical clustering identified a biomarker cluster in plasma consisting of two interferon-stimulated gene products (CXCL9 and CXCL10), T cell activation marker (sIL-2R), and monocyte activation marker (sCD14) that distinguished both viremic and aviremic HIV patients on cART from controls (p<0.0001) and were top-ranked in variables important in projection plots. IL-12 and CCL4 were also elevated in viremic and aviremic patients compared to controls (p<0.05). IL-12 correlated with IFNα, IFNγ, CXCL9, and sIL-2R (p<0.05). CXCL10 correlated positively with plasma VL and percentage of CD16+ monocytes, and inversely with CD4 count (p = 0.001, <0.0001, and 0.04, respectively). Conclusion A plasma inflammatory biomarker signature consisting of CXCL9, CXCL10, sIL-2R, and sCD14 may be useful as a surrogate marker to monitor immune activation in both viremic and aviremic HIV patients on cART during disease progression and therapeutic responses.
Harvesting, searching, and ranking knowledge on the web: invited talk

There are major trends to advance the functionality of search engines to a more expressive semantic level (e.g., [2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18]). This is enabled by employing large-scale information extraction [1, 11, 20] of entities and relationships from semistructured as well as natural-language Web sources. In addition, harnessing Semantic-Web-style ontologies [22] and reaching into Deep-Web sources [16] can contribute towards a grand vision of turning the Web into a comprehensive knowledge base that can be efficiently searched with high precision. This talk presents ongoing research towards this objective, with emphasis on our work on the YAGO knowledge base [23, 24] and the NAGA search engine [14] but also covering related projects. YAGO is a large collection of entities and relational facts that are harvested from Wikipedia and WordNet with high accuracy and reconciled into a consistent RDF-style "semantic" graph. For further growing YAGO from Web sources while retaining its high quality, pattern-based extraction is combined with logic-based consistency checking in a unified framework [25]. NAGA provides graph-template-based search over this data, with powerful ranking capabilities based on a statistical language model for graphs. Advanced queries and the need for ranking approximate matches pose efficiency and scalability challenges that are addressed by algorithmic and indexing techniques [15, 17]. YAGO is publicly available and has been imported into various other knowledge-management projects including DB-pedia. YAGO shares many of its goals and methodologies with parallel projects along related lines. These include Avatar [19], Cimple/DBlife [10, 21], DBpedia [3], Know-ItAll/TextRunner [12, 5], Kylin/KOG [26, 27], and the Libra technology [18, 28] (and more). Together they form an exciting trend towards providing comprehensive knowledge bases with semantic search capabilities.
Novel fuzzy classification approaches based on optimisation of association rules

The present paper proposes an approach for classification based on fuzzy rules. The paper mainly concentrates to optimize the association rules for classification. The present study proposes a method called Integrated Rule Classifier (IRC). To develop a Fuzzy Association Rule (FAR) algorithm to produce rules which are suitable for signature-based and anomaly-based detection for mining purposes with attacks. The proposed IRC derives cluster representatives. In the second step FAR's are formed. A lot of flexibility is achieved by the proposed IRC scheme which is not possible in the existing algorithms. One can use any clustering algorithm in step-1 depending on the data-set and other constraints. The other flexibility is that FAR's can be formed based on all cluster representatives or randomly chosen representatives. The proposed IRC methodology is experimented on network audit data collected from KDDCUP99 data-set with class-labels of various network attacks.
Masculinity and health in Nigeria : vulnerabilities, indifference and options

After the International Conference on Population and Development of 1994, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programs respond to ways in which socially constructed ideologies have shaped women’s experiences of SRH. There is however no commensurate attempt to understand men’s perception of gender ideologies. What is known is that men are often blamed for women’s SRH needs, with little or no attempt to understand men’s view on these. This study was designed to examine how socially constructed differences between men and women affect men’s experience of SRH. This study draws on qualitative data generated in 2005 from twenty focus group discussions, ten in-depth interviews and ten interviews with community leaders in urban and rural areas of South East Nigeria. The group discussions and interviews were conducted among men of four age groups: 15-24, 25-39, 40-54, and 55+. Gender role theory was the theoretical framework for the study. The major themes from content analysis include: men’s health risks, beliefs about masculine ideologies, and attitudes about vulnerability to health risks. Although traditional masculine ideologies and practices were identified, there is evidence of a shift from traditional to nontraditional attitudes and practices among men in the area. Most of the men were aware of their health needs, but think that researchers/policy makers in Nigeria are indifferent to these needs. The findings highlight the necessity of incorporating men’s SRH needs into existing reproductive health programs. This would promote effective male involvement in their partners’ SRH. Implications of findings for future research and advocacy are discussed.
The role of complement C3 opsonization, C5a receptor, and CD14 in E. coli‐induced up‐regulation of granulocyte and monocyte CD11b/CD18 (CR3), phagocytosis, and oxidative burst in human whole blood

The relative role of complement and CD14 in Escherichia coli‐induced leukocyte CD11b up‐regulation, phagocytosis, and oxidative burst in human whole blood was examined. The highly specific thrombin inhibitor lepirudin was used as anticoagulant, as it does not affect complement activation. Complement inhibition at the level of C3 (anti‐C2 and anti‐factor D) and C5 (C5a receptor antagonist and anti‐C5/C5a) efficiently inhibited CD11b up‐regulation, phagocytosis, and oxidative burst in granulocytes. Monocyte activation was generally less complement‐dependent, but when C3 activation was blocked, a pronounced inhibition of phagocytosis and oxidative burst was obtained. Only the combination of anti‐C2 and antifactor D blocked E. coli C3 opsonization completely. Whole E. coli, disrupted E. coli, and the C3‐convertase activator cobra venom factor up‐regulated CD11b rapidly on both cell types, proportional to their complement activation potential in the fluid phase. In comparison, purified LPS at concentrations comparable with that present in the E. coli preparations did not activate complement. Oxidative burst was induced only by whole bacteria. Finally, the combination of complement inhibition and anti‐CD14 completely blocked E. coli‐induced granulocyte and monocyte CD11b up‐regulation and quantitatively, virtually abolished phagocytosis. The results indicate that complement and CD14, despite differential effects on granulocytes and monocytes, are the two crucial, quantitative factors responsible for E. coli‐induced CD11b, phagocytosis, and oxidative burst in both cell types.
Primary care – mental health collaboration: An example of assessing usual practice and potential barriers

Practice guidelines include recommendations for collaboration between primary care (PC) and mental health (MH) to improve the quality of depression management within primary care. There is little research, however, assessing usual care relationships between PC and MH providers, or providers' perceptions regarding collaboration. Based on the literature, we conceptualize a continuum of collaborative activities and strategies. We describe the extent of collaboration and perceived barriers in selected outpatient clinics. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 PC and MH clinical leaders from 10 outpatient facilities. Topics included existing referral, consultation, and collaboration practices between PC and MH, beliefs and barriers related to collaboration. Informants generally described good relationships between providers, and PC providers reported satisfaction with referrals to MH. Informal consultation also occurred, although it was not universal. There was little evidence of collaboration beyond this basic level. The leaders identified several potential barriers to collaboration, including inadequate staffing and resources for both services. In contrast with practice guidelines, the clinics we studied incorporated little collaboration with MH providers into PC management of depression. We identify strategies that can help overcome the barriers to collaboration that our informants most commonly identified.
Refractive state and optical compositions of preterm children with and without retinopathy of prematurity in the first 6 years of life

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the refractive state and optical compositions of preterm children with and without mild retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and explore the influence of prematurity and mild ROP on the development of refractive state and optical compositions. Preterm children who received fundus screening were recruited, and divided into ROP group and non-ROP group. Term children matched in age were also recruited as controls. Several correspondence indicators were measured before and after ciliary muscle paralysis with 1% cyclopentanone. A total of 250 eyes from 126 patients were included for analysis. The incidence of myopia was the highest in ROP group. The incidence of hyperopia was the highest in control group. The incidence of astigmatism was the highest in ROP group. The corneal astigmatism and mean astigmatism in ROP group and non-ROP group were significantly higher than in control group. Corneal refraction in ROP was markedly higher than in non-ROP group and control group; corneal curvature in ROP group increased significantly as compared with non-ROP group and control group (P < .05). The axial eye length in ROP group and non-ROP group reduced significantly as compared with control group (P < .05). Gestational age had negative relationships with corneal astigmatism (P = .019) and astigmatism (P = .001) and positive relationship with axial eye length (P = .005). Birth weight had negative relationships with corneal astigmatism (P = .001), astigmatism (P < .001), corneal refraction (P = .001), and corneal curvature (P = .001) and positive relationships with axial eye length (P = .001) and spherical equivalent refraction (P = .039). The incidence of myopia increased and that of hyperopia reduced in children over age. In children aged 3 to 4 years, the anterior chamber depth, lens thickness, vitreous thickness, and axial eye length significantly increased as compared with those aged 5 years (P < .05); the vitreous thickness and axial eye length in children aged 5 years increased significantly as compared with those aged 6 years (P < .05). This study shows that preterm children with and without mild ROP are more likely to develop myopia and astigmatism, and low birth weight, prematurity, and ROP may simultaneously affect the development of optical compositions, leading to myopia and astigmatism.
Heterologous Expression, Purification, and Immunological Reactivity of a Recombinant HSP60 from Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

ABSTRACT The complete coding cDNA of HSP60 from Paracoccidioides brasiliensis was overexpressed in an Escherichia coli host to produce high levels of recombinant protein. The protein was purified by affinity chromatography. A total of 169 human serum samples were tested for reactivity by Western blot analysis with the purified HSP60 recombinant protein. Immunoblots indicated that the recombinant P. brasiliensis HSP60 was recognized by antibodies in 72 of 75 sera from paracoccidioidomycosis patients. No cross-reactivity was detected with individual sera from patients with aspergillosis, sporotrichosis, cryptococcosis, and tuberculosis. Reactivity to HSP60 was observed in sera from 9.52% of control healthy individuals and 11.5% of patients with histoplasmosis. The high sensitivity and specificity (97.3 and 92.5%, respectively) for HSP60 suggested that the recombinant protein can be used singly or in association with other recombinant antigens to detect antibody responses in P. brasiliensis-infected patients.
Breast Cancer and Chemotherapy Knowledge among Undergraduates of Health Sciences: Which Traits Predict Good Knowledge?

OBJECTIVES Accurate medical information is essential among health care professionals to aid dissemination of information to the public. This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge about breast cancer and to identify related factors among undergraduate health sciences students in a public university in Terengganu, Malaysia. METHODS The respondents included students aged 18 years old or older who were enrolled in nursing, medical laboratory technician (MLT) and radiography diploma programmes. A Breast Cancer and Chemotherapy Questionnaire (BCCQ) was administered; higher scores on it indicated better knowledge. The reliability and validity of the BCCQ was considered adequate. Descriptive statistics, independent t test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple logistic regressions were employed (SPSS 16). RESULTS A total of 239 respondents participated (mean age = 19.8 ± 0.1 years; females = 83.7%). The knowledge level was moderate. Females, nursing, and final-year students possessed significantly better knowledge. After adjusting for covariates, significant factors determining good breast cancer knowledge include being in the nursing discipline and years of study. CONCLUSION This study has generally ascertained that knowledge related to breast cancer and chemotherapy among this sample population remains moderate and is not uniformly disseminated. An increase in knowledge is required to ensure an optimal level of knowledge, particularly for the junior students and those from courses other than nursing.
Infrared Ship Target Image Smoothing Based on Adaptive Mean Shift

Infrared (IR) image denoising is important for IR image analysis. In this paper, we propose a method based on adaptive range bandwidth mean shift for IR ship target image smoothing, aiming to effectively suppress noise as well as preserve important target structures. First, local image properties, including the mean value and standard deviation, are combined to build a salient region map, and a thresholding method is applied to obtain a binary mask on the target region. Then, we develop an adaptive range bandwidth mean shift method for image denoising. By associating the range bandwidth of the mean shift with local region saliency, we can adjust the bandwidth adaptively, thus to smooth the background region while preserving important target structures. Experimental results show that this method works well for IR ship target images with different backgrounds. It demonstrates superior performance for image denoising and target preserving, compared with some existing image denoising methods.
Acquired immunity on a schistosomiasis transmission model - fitting the data.

A semi-stochastic model is proposed to analyse the effects of acquired immunity on the transmission of schistosomiasis in the human host. The basic model's assumptions are as follows. The human host is assumed to build up an immune response after elapsing a fixed period of time L from the first infection. This acquired immunity is assumed to be partially effective and it is never lost. The parasite infection event is a Poisson process with multiple occurrences, i.e., in each event one or more cercaria are assumed to invade the host. The model treats deterministically the age distribution of human host. The model shows a good retrieving capacity of real data from two endemic areas of schistosomiasis: Touros, Brazil (Schistosoma mansoni) and Misungwi, Tanzania (Schistosoma haematobium).
MICROVASCULAR CONTRIBUTIONS IN TISSUE HEAT TRANSFER

Many mathematical formulations of the heat transfer in living tissues'-' have been for the purposes of studying thermal regulation, comfort, or other phenomenon where significant localized (as opposed to whole-body or regional) variations in temperature and heat flux were of little interest. The advent of intensified interest in hyperthermia as a cancer therapy and the safety associated with ultrasound and microwave radiation, as well as attempts at a quantitative interpretation of thermographic measurements, however, have made it highly desirable to have formulations that are valid also for small-scale temperature variations. Living tissues differ from nonbiological materials primarily because of the presence of the vasculature. The large number and the architectural and dimensional variety of blood vessels clearly make it impractical to account for their individual contribution to heat transfer processes in the tissue with the exception, of course, of the larger arteries and veins. In the fields of heat transfer and fluid flow, when one encounters problems with a large number of structures whose individual dimensions are small relative to the macroscopic phenomenon under study, a common practice is to adopt the so-called continuum description. In this description, only the collective behavior of the small structures is taken into consideration in a certain statistical manner. Usually the influence of the small structures are ultimately expressed in terms of continuum properties of the medium, in our case, the thermal conductivity, specific heat, and blood perfusion rate of the tissue. It is the purpose of this report to explore the theoretical basis for the relationship between these properties and the architecture and function of the vasculature. It will be shown that because of the vasculature, and the large rate of blood perfusion, living biological tissues are fundamentally different from inert materials. Consequently, the familiar thermal properties can no longer be assumed to be independent of the parameters of the temperature field. In other words, these properties may vary, depending on the nature of the application. In view of the fact that existing formulations of the bio-heat transfer problem have been found to be more or less satisfactory for the description of heat transfer involving large-scale tempera-
On the Sensitivity of Sensor Network Simulations

The availability of simulators and emulators that are tailored for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a necessary step in allowing accurate evaluation, but simply having the right tools is not sufficient to ensure that the results of experiments actually correspond to what might be expected in realistic deployments. The critical issue is what models are available in these tools, and if these are used in an appropriate manner. In this paper we review the current approaches to WSN experimentation and identify a serious shortcoming in common simulation methodology, specifically in regard to the choice of network topologies and traffic models. We hypothesize that this mismatch has an important impact on the sensitivity of published sensor network simulations. We support our hypothesis using an analysis of the directed diffusion protocol
Involvement of plasmids in total degradation of chlorinated biphenyls

Acinetobacter sp. strain P6 has previously been reported to utilize biphenyl (BP) and chlorinated BPs, with accumulation of corresponding chlorobenzoic acids. Arthrobacter sp. strain M5 was isolated as a contaminant in the culture of Acinetobacter sp. strain P6 growing on 4-chlorobiphenyl and showed properties similar to P6 in the degradation of chlorinated BPs. Both strains harbored an identical plasmid of 53.7 megadaltons. These strains spontaneously lost the ability to utilize BP and 4-chlorobiphenyl with high frequency (4 to 8%) after overnight growth in nutrient broth. The BP- derivatives could not regain the BP-assimilating ability (reversion frequency, less than 10(-9) per cell per generation) but retained the plasmid with small, detectable deletions. BP+ P6 cells grown on BP or benzoate oxidized BP and 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl and produced meta cleavage compounds from the latter compound (lambda max, 434 nm) and also from catechol (lambda max, 375 nm) through the meta pathway. On the other hand, benzoate-grown BP- segregants totally lost the BP-metabolizing activities and oxidized catechol through the ortho pathway. A combined culture of the chlorinated BP-dissimilating P6 or M5 strain (harboring the putative 53.7-megadalton plasmid specifying conversion of chlorobiphenyls to chlorobenzoic acids) and genetically constructed mono- or dichlorobenzoate-utilizing pseudomonads (harboring plasmids encoding complete utilization of mono- or dichlorobenzoates) allowed greater than 98% utilization of mono- and dichlorobiphenyls, with the liberation of equivalent amounts of chloride ions.
Caste in history

INTRODUCTION: QUESTIONS OF CASTE, ISHITA BANERJEE-DUBE CASTE AND COLONIALISM 1. Caste and the British Merchant Government, 1639-1749, Patrick A. Roche 2. The Census, Social Stratification and Objectification in South Asia, Bernard S. Cohn Excerpt from Caste and British Rule by G. S. Ghurye 3. Between Number and Knowledge: Career of Caste in Colonial Census, Padmanabh Samarendra Excerpt from From Village to Community by Richard Saumarez Smith Excerpt from Caste and Nationality by H. H. Risley 4. THE BIRTH OF A JATI, FRANK F. CONLON EXCERPT FROM THE NORTHERN NADARS OF TAMIL NADU BY DENIS TEMPLEMAN 5. Dimensions of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Caste Differences in Entrepreneurial Style, Raymond Lee Owens and Ashis Nandy 6. The Shudra Right to Rule: Caste, Clan, Community and State, Shail Mayaram 7. The Mukkuvars of Kanyakumari: On the Margins of Caste Society, Kalpana Ram 8. SECURING THE RURAL CITIZEN: THE ANTI KALLAR MOVEMENT OF 1896, ANAND PANDIAN 9. Phule and the Inversion of Brahman Myths, Rosalind O'Hanlon 10. Social Mobility in Colonial Bengal: The Namasudras, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay 11. Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Study in Leadership, Eleanor Zelliot Excerpt from Rise of Dalits and the Renewed Debate on Caste by Rajni Kothari 12. Is India Becoming More Democratic? , Ashutosh Varshney 13. HIGHER CASTES AND LOWER CASTES IN KARANI, VIRAMMA, JOSIAN RACINE AND JEAN-LUC RACINE 14. Religious Hymns, Vasant Moon 15. Childhood Formations, Kancha Ilaiah Excerpt from The Ex-Untouchables of Post-Independence Punjaby by Mark Juergensmeyer 16. Authority and Discrimination in Everyday Life, Saurabh Dube