Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antioxidants: Friend or foe for tuberculosis patients

Respiratory burst induced bacteria killing by oxidants are important mechanism of host defence. However, it is impaired in tuberculosis due to inhibition of respiratory burst by Mycobacterial factors. Antioxidants are compounds that cause chelation of reactive oxygen species. So, antioxidants are expected to play a negative role in the management of active tuberculosis. But, oxidative stress is a proved fact that invariably happens in tuberculosis patients which is known to cause immunosuppression. Immunosuppression in turn is expected to augment tuberculosis. Hence, antioxidant supplementation is expected to benefit tuberculosis patients by minimising oxidative stress induced immunosuppression. Therefore, the role of antioxidants in tuberculosis appears to be paradoxical and urgent. Understanding of the role of antioxidant supplementation in tuberculosis is warranted. It is in this context that we have reviewed the recent literature and addressed the problem for its solution.
Stable and crit gesticulation recognition in children and pregnant women by Naïve Bayes classification

The remote healthcare monitoring on a care taking base involves many implicit observations between the subjects and the care takers. Any ignorance and negligence leads to unpleasant situations thereafter. A wearable attire system can precisely interpret the implicit communication of the state of the subject and pass it to the care takers or to an automated aid device. Casual and conventional movements of subjects during play and living condition can be used for the above purpose. The proposed system suggests a novel way of identifying safe and unsafe conditions of playing for the children where a rapid warning assistance is required. The Same in the case of the normal and contraction time identification of pregnant women. Naive Bayes classifier was applied on five different sets of combinations of features constructed by Fractal Dimension, Fast Fourier Transformation, Singular Value Decomposition and combinations of the three. The result shows the combinational features of FFT and SVD are more supportive in all three sets of experiments and better classified by Navie Bayes classifier than the other combination and individual features. The experimental results show a well-distinguished realization of different body movement activities using a wearable attire array medium and the interpretation results always show significant and identifiable thresholds.
Realismo científico hoy: a 40 años de la formulación del Argumento del No-Milagro

In 1975 Hilary Putnam captured in a few lines a longstanding intuition about the epistemic status of scientific theories. These lines are almost universally recognized as the first explicit formulation of the No-Miracles Argument (NMA). During the past 40 years, the debate on Scientific Realism became one of the central topics of the philosophy of science. The plausibility of NMA has been defended or challenged by several strategies, and new arguments fueled a controversy that still stands today. Current paper provides an overview of the dispute, and then critically addresses some of the most recent contributions to the contemporary debate.
Thymidylate Synthase Expression and Outcome of Patients Receiving Pemetrexed for Advanced Nonsquamous Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer in a Prospective Blinded Assessment Phase II Clinical Trial

Introduction: In retrospective analyses of patients with nonsquamous non–small-cell lung cancer treated with pemetrexed, low thymidylate synthase (TS) expression is associated with better clinical outcomes. This phase II study explored this association prospectively at the protein and mRNA-expression level. Methods: Treatment-naive patients with nonsquamous non–small-cell lung cancer (stage IIIB/IV) had four cycles of first-line chemotherapy with pemetrexed/cisplatin. Nonprogressing patients continued on pemetrexed maintenance until progression or maximum tolerability. TS expression (nucleus/cytoplasm/total) was assessed in diagnostic tissue samples by immunohistochemistry (IHC; H-scores), and quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Cox regression was used to assess the association between H-scores and progression-free/overall survival (PFS/OS) distribution estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method. Maximal &khgr;2 analysis identified optimal cutpoints between low TS- and high TS-expression groups, yielding maximal associations with PFS/OS. Results: The study enrolled 70 patients; of these 43 (61.4%) started maintenance treatment. In 60 patients with valid H-scores, median (m) PFS was 5.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.9–6.9) months, mOS was 9.6 (95% CI, 7.3–15.7) months. Higher nuclear TS expression was significantly associated with shorter PFS and OS (primary analysis IHC, PFS: p < 0.0001; hazard ratio per 1-unit increase: 1.015; 95%CI, 1.008–1.021). At the optimal cutpoint of nuclear H-score (70), mPFS in the low TS- versus high TS-expression groups was 7.1 (5.7–8.3) versus 2.6 (1.3–4.1) months (p = 0.0015; hazard ratio = 0.28; 95%CI, 0.16–0.52; n = 40/20). Trends were similar for cytoplasm H-scores, quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and other clinical endpoints (OS, response, and disease control). Conclusions: The primary endpoint was met; low TS expression was associated with longer PFS. Further randomized studies are needed to explore nuclear TS IHC expression as a potential biomarker of clinical outcomes for pemetrexed treatment in larger patient cohorts.
Effect of process variations in 3D global clock distribution networks

In three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuits, the effect of process variations on clock skew differs from 2D circuits. The combined effect of inter-die and intra-die process variations on the design of 3D clock distribution networks is considered in this article. A statistical clock skew model incorporating both the systematic and random components of process variations is employed to describe this effect. Two regular 3D clock tree topologies are investigated and compared in terms of clock skew variation. The statistical skew model used to describe clock skew variations is verified through Monte-Carlo simulations. The clock skew is shown to change in different ways with the number of planes forming the 3D IC and the clock network architecture. Simulations based on a 45-nm CMOS technology show that the maximum standard deviation of clock skew can vary from 15 ps to 77 ps. Results indicate that simply increasing the number of planes of a 3D IC does not necessarily lead to lower skew variation and higher operating frequencies. A multigroup 3D clock tree topology is proposed to effectively mitigate the variability of clock skew. Tradeoffs between the investigated 3D clock distribution networks and the number of planes comprising a 3D circuit are discussed and related design guidelines are offered. The skew variation in 3D clock trees is also compared with the skew variation of clock grids.
Autoimmune haemolysis in unexpectedly mild sickle cell/hemoglobin C disease

An 82-year-old woman of Afro-Caribbean origin was hospitalized with acute confusion and sepsis. Her past medical history included a colectomy for carcinoma of the colon, an ischemic stroke at the age of 71 years and compound heterozygosity for hemoglobin S and hemoglobin C. Other than a possible relationship to the stroke, there was no history of complications of the sickle cell/hemoglobin C disease. On admission, chest radiography showed a lobar pneumonia and urine culture showed mixed bacterial growth. In addition, an acute inferior myocardial infarction was diagnosed on the basis of electrocardiograph findings and a raised troponin I of 12.73 mg/l (normal less than 10). The full blood count on admission showed: hemoglobin concentration (Hb) 95 g/l, white blood cell count 17.7 x 10/l, neutrophil count 14.2 x 10/l, mean cell volume 78.8 fl, mean cell haemoglobin concentration 357 g/l, red blood cell distribution width 21.4% and platelet count 121 x 10. The blood film showed a leucoerythroblastic picture, which was attributed to sepsis. The patient was treated with intravenous antibiotics and her confusion resolved. One week after admission the Hb had fallen to 74 g/l. A blood film was re-examined and showed inconspicuous features of sickle cell disease including occasional target cells, boat-shaped cells and pointed poikilocytes (left). Hyposplenic features and classical sickle cells were absent. However spherocytes (left), red cell agglutinates (right) and polychromasia were seen, suggestive of immune hemolysis. This possibility was further supported by a positive direct antiglobulin test (21, immunoglobulin G), reticulocyte count of 189 x 10, bilirubin of 24 mmol/l (normal less than 17) and lactate dehydrogenase of 930 iu/l (normal less than 243). Antinuclear antibodies were present at a dilution of 1/160 with a fine speckled pattern and double-stranded DNA antibodies were positive at 95 iu/ml (normal less than 30 iu/ml). In view of her previous medical history, computed tomography virtual colonoscopy was carried out and showed a spleen of normal size with subcapsular calcification. The patient underwent percutaneous coronary stenting of the right coronary artery. Following the fall of Hb, she was transfused with one unit of red cells and folic acid was commenced. The Hb stabilised without requiring corticosteroids and three months later was 108 g/l. This case of immune-mediated hemolysis highlights the unexpected extra information that may be gained from a blood film when a patient with sickle cell disease suffers a fall of Hb. It also illustrates that sickle cell/haemoglobin C disease is sometimes very mild. The very minor blood film features and the preservation of splenic function are concordant with her unusually mild clinical phenotype. This is the oldest patient we have seen with this compound heterozygous state condition but in fact the median survival in women is as high as 68 years [1].
Automated markerless extraction of walking people using deformable contour models

We develop a new automated markerless motion capture system for the analysis of walking people. We employ global evidence gathering techniques guided by biomechanical analysis to robustly extract articulated motion. This forms a basis for new deformable contour models, using local image cues to capture shape and motion at a more detailed level. We extend the greedy snake formulation to include temporal constraints and occlusion modelling, increasing the capability of this technique when dealing with cluttered and self‐occluding extraction targets.
An Improved Fast Search Method Using Histogram Features for DNA Sequence Database

In this paper, we propose an efficient hierarchical DNA sequence search method to improve the search speed while the accuracy is being kept constant. For a given query DNA sequence, firstly, a fast local search method using histogram features is used as a filtering mechanism before scanning the sequences in the database. An overlapping processing is newly added to improve the robustness of the algorithm. A large number of DNA sequences with low similarity will be excluded for latter searching. The Smith-Waterman algorithm is then applied to each remainder sequences. Experimental results using GenBank sequence data show the proposed method combining histogram information and Smith-Waterman algorithm is more efficient for DNA sequence search. Keywords—Fast search, DNA sequence, Histogram feature, Smith-Waterman algorithm, Local search
Impact of diabetes mellitus on prediction of clinical outcome after coronary revascularization by 18F-FDG SPECT in patients with ischemic left ventricular dysfunction.

UNLABELLED Nuclear imaging using (18)F-FDG is an established method for the noninvasive assessment of myocardial viability. Data on the value of (18)F-FDG imaging in patients with diabetes mellitus are scarce. The aim of this study was to assess whether, in patients with diabetes mellitus and ischemic left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, (18)F-FDG imaging can predict improvement of LV function and heart failure symptoms after coronary revascularization. METHODS A total of 130 consecutive patients with ischemic LV dysfunction who were already scheduled for surgical revascularization were studied; 34 of the patients had diabetes mellitus. All patients underwent radionuclide ventriculography to assess left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), resting 2-dimensional echocardiography to identify dysfunctional myocardial tissue, and dual-isotope (18)F-FDG/(99m)Tc-tetrofosmin SPECT after oral administration of acipimox. Nine to 12 mo after coronary revascularization, radionuclide ventriculography and echocardiography were repeated. An improvement in LVEF by at least 5% was considered significant. RESULTS (18)F-FDG SPECT demonstrated that 610 (50%) of 1,212 dysfunctional segments were viable. Patients with and without diabetes mellitus had a comparable number of dysfunctional but viable segments per patient. Also, the number of patients with a substantial amount of dysfunctional but viable myocardium (>or=4 viable segments) was comparable between the groups with and without diabetes mellitus. The presence of substantial viability on (18)F-FDG SPECT was predictive of improvement in LVEF and heart failure symptoms postoperatively (sensitivity and specificity of 82% and 89%, respectively, in patients with diabetes and 83% and 93%, respectively, in patients without diabetes; not statistically significant). CONCLUSION (18)F-FDG SPECT is practical for routine assessment of myocardial viability in patients with ischemic LV dysfunction with or without diabetes mellitus. Patients with substantial myocardial viability on (18)F-FDG SPECT have a high probability of improvement of LV function and symptoms after coronary revascularization, irrespective of the absence or presence of diabetes mellitus.
Protein fate in neurodegenerative proteinopathies: polyglutamine diseases join the (mis)fold.

Protein misfolding is now recognized to be a central feature of neurodegenerative diseases. Alzheimer disease (AD), Parkinson disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), prion diseases, and the polyglutamine (polygln) diseases all represent proteinopathies—diseases in which a particular protein or set of proteins misfolds and aggregates. In the past decade, mutations have been identified in an increasing number of genes underlying specific forms of neurodegeneration—for example, genes encoding amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilins 1 and 2 in AD, parkin and alpha-synuclein in PD, Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase in ALS, tau in frontotemporal dementia, prion protein in Creutzfeldt-Jacob and Gerstmann-Straussler diseases, and at least eight different proteins in the polygln diseases (Hardy and GwinnHardy 1998; Price et al. 1998). Identification of these mutations was a first step in understanding the disease process; next, it will be necessary to explain how specific changes in disease proteins may alter the neuron’s physiology and to further question how neuronal responses to the mutant protein influence the disease process. This review examines the fate of mutant protein in neurons and the potential role of posttranslational events in pathogenesis, with particular focus on the polygln diseases. Posttranslational events have already been implicated
Probabilistic Segmentation and Targeted Exploration of Objects in Cluttered Environments

Creating robots that can act autonomously in dynamic unstructured environments requires dealing with novel objects. Thus, an offline learning phase is not sufficient for recognizing and manipulating such objects. Rather, an autonomous robot needs to acquire knowledge through its own interaction with its environment, without using heuristics encoding human insights about the domain. Interaction also allows information that is not present in static images of a scene to be elicited. Out of a potentially large set of possible interactions, a robot must select actions that are expected to have the most informative outcomes to learn efficiently. In the proposed bottom-up probabilistic approach, the robot achieves this goal by quantifying the expected informativeness of its own actions in information-theoretic terms. We use this approach to segment a scene into its constituent objects. We retain a probability distribution over segmentations. We show that this approach is robust in the presence of noise and uncertainty in real-world experiments. Evaluations show that the proposed information-theoretic approach allows a robot to efficiently determine the composite structure of its environment. We also show that our probabilistic model allows straightforward integration of multiple modalities, such as movement data and static scene features. Learned static scene features allow for experience from similar environments to speed up learning for new scenes.
Prognostic factors influencing the development of an iatrogenic pneumothorax for computed tomography-guided radiofrequency ablation of upper renal tumor

Background: Percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) ablation of upper renal tumors is considered a minimally invasive treatment, but this technique may cause pneumothorax. Purpose: To assess retrospectively the prognostic factors influencing the development of iatrogenic pneumothorax for RF ablation of upper renal tumors. Material and Methods: Computed tomography (CT)-guided RF ablation was performed in 24 patients (21 men, three women; age range 31–77 years, mean age 53.3 years) with 28 upper renal tumors. Various factors for pneumothorax-complicated (PC) upper renal tumors and non-pneumothoracic (NP) upper renal tumors were compared during RF ablation to determine which of the factors were involved in the development of pneumothorax. Results: Among 28 upper renal tumors in 24 patients, a pneumothorax occurred accidentally in six patients with eight tumors and intentionally in two patients with two tumors. This complication was treated with conservative management, instead of tube drainage. PC upper renal tumors had shorter distance from the lung or from the costophrenic line to the tumor, a larger angle between the costophrenic line and the tumor, and a higher incidence of intervening lung tissue than NP upper renal tumors (P<0.01). Intervening lung tissue was more frequently detected on CT images obtained with the patient in the prone position than on CT images obtained with the patient in the supine position. Conclusion: The presence of intervening lung tissue and the close proximity between an upper renal tumor and the lung are high risk factors for developing an iatrogenic pneumothorax. Pre-ablation CT scan should be performed in the prone position to exactly evaluate intervening lung tissue.
Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis Fibronectin Attachment Protein Activates Dendritic Cells and Induces a Th1 Polarization

ABSTRACT Paratuberculosis is a chronic infectious disorder and a major problem in farmed ruminants. This disease is caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis is an important pathogen that causes Johne's disease in animals and also has been implicated as a possible cause of Crohn's disease in humans, but little is known about the protective immune responses to this microorganism. Fibronectin attachment protein (FAP) is a member of a family of fibronectin-binding proteins produced by several species of mycobacteria which is important in the pathogenesis of M. avium. Addition of recombinant FAP to human respiratory tract organ cultures inhibits M. avium binding to areas where there is epithelial damage. We characterized the role of FAP in promoting adaptive and innate immune responses. FAP functionally activated dendritic cells by augmenting the expression of CD80, CD86, major histocompatibility complex class I, and major histocompatibility complex class II. Moreover, FAP induced the allogeneic immunostimulatory capacity of dendritic cells by stimulating dendritic cell production of Th1-promoting interleukin-12. FAP also increased the production of gamma interferon by T cells in mixed-lymphocyte reactions, which would be expected to contribute to the Th1 polarization of the immune response. The expression of surface markers and cytokine production in dendritic cells was mediated by both mitogen-activated protein kinases and NF-κB pathways. These results show that FAP modulates the adaptive immune responses to M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis by inducing maturation and activation of dendritic cells, which drives Th1 polarization.
Structure learning of Bayesian networks using constraints

This paper addresses exact learning of Bayesian network structure from data and expert's knowledge based on score functions that are decomposable. First, it describes useful properties that strongly reduce the time and memory costs of many known methods such as hill-climbing, dynamic programming and sampling variable orderings. Secondly, a branch and bound algorithm is presented that integrates parameter and structural constraints with data in a way to guarantee global optimality with respect to the score function. It is an any-time procedure because, if stopped, it provides the best current solution and an estimation about how far it is from the global solution. We show empirically the advantages of the properties and the constraints, and the applicability of the algorithm to large data sets (up to one hundred variables) that cannot be handled by other current methods (limited to around 30 variables).
An Exploratory Examination of Positive and Negative Emotional Attractors' Impact on Coaching Intentional Change

By ANITA ROGERS HOWARD Few research studies have tested hypotheses from an integrated, multilevel theoretical model on coaching intentional change. Drawing on Intentional Change Theory (ICT) and supporting cognitive emotion and social complexity perspectives on positive and negative affect, this dissertation presents the first empirical investigation on the differential impact of inducing positive emotion vs. negative emotion in real time executive coaching sessions. Nineteen coaching recipients were randomly assigned to two coaching conditions. In the PEA condition the coachee’s own hopes, strengths, desired future (the Positive Emotional Attractor) was the anchoring framework of a onetime, hour-long coaching session. In the NEA condition the coachee’s own perceived improvement needs, weaknesses, present reality (the Negative Emotional Attractor) was the anchoring framework. Two central ICT propositions were tested. Hypothesis1 predicted that PEA participants would show higher levels of positive emotion during appraisal of 360-degree feedback results and discussion of change goals than NEA participants. Hypothesis2 predicted that PEA participants would show lower levels of stress immediately after the coaching session than NEA participants.