Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Speech Detection in Noise and Spatial Unmasking in Children With Simultaneous Versus Sequential Bilateral Cochlear Implants

Objectives: To measure speech detection in noise performance for children with bilateral cochlear implants (BiCI), to compare performance in children with simultaneous implant versus those with sequential implant, and to compare performance to normal-hearing children. Study Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Tertiary academic pediatric center. Patients: Children with early-onset bilateral deafness and 2-year BiCI experience, comprising the "sequential" group (>2 yr interimplantation delay, n = 12) and "simultaneous group" (no interimplantation delay, n = 10) and normal-hearing controls (n = 8). Intervention: Thresholds to speech detection (at 0-degree azimuth) were measured with noise at 0-degree azimuth or ±90-degree azimuth. Main Outcome Measures: Spatial unmasking (SU) as the noise condition changed from 0-degree azimuth to ±90-degree azimuth and binaural summation advantage (BSA) of 2 over 1 CI. Results: Speech detection in noise was significantly poorer than controls for both BiCI groups (p < 0.0001). However, the SU in the simultaneous group approached levels found in normal controls (7.2 ± 0.6 versus 8.6 ± 0.6 dB, p > 0.05) and was significantly better than that in the sequential group (3.9 ± 0.4 dB, p < 0.05). Spatial unmasking was unaffected by the side of noise presentation in the simultaneous group but, in the sequential group, was significantly better when noise was moved to the second rather than the first implanted ear (4.8 ± 0.5 versus 3.0 ± 0.4 dB, p < 0.05). This was consistent with a larger BSA from the sequential group's second rather than first CI. Conclusion: Children with simultaneously implanted BiCI demonstrated an advantage over children with sequential implant by using spatial cues to improve speech detection in noise.
Multiple Virulence Determinants of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Cell Culture

ABSTRACT Hypervirulent variants of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) of serotype C arise upon serial cytolytic or persistent infections in cell culture. A specific mutation in the internal ribosome entry site of persistent FMDV was previously associated with enhanced translation initiation activity that could contribute to the hypervirulent phenotype for BHK-21 cells. Here we report that several hypervirulent FMDV variants arising upon serial cytolytic passage show an invariant internal ribosome entry site but have a number of mutations affecting structural and nonstructural viral proteins. The construction of chimeric type O-type C infectious transcripts has allowed the mapping of a major determinant of hypervirulence to the viral capsid. Tissue culture-adapted FMDV displayed enhanced affinity for heparin, but binding to cell surface heparan sulfate moieties was not required for expression of the hypervirulent phenotype in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Virulence was identical or even higher for glycosaminoglycan-deficient CHO cells than for wild-type CHO cells. FMDV variants with decreased affinity for heparin were selected from a high-binding parental population and analyzed. Substitutions associated with decreased heparin binding were located at positions 173 of capsid protein VP3 and 144 of capsid protein VP1. These substitutions had a moderate effect on virulence for BHK-21 cells but completely abrogated infection of CHO cells. The comparative results with several FMDV isolates show that (i) increased affinity for heparin and alterations in cell tropism may be mediated by a number of independent sites on the viral capsid and (ii) the same capsid modifications may have different effects on different cell types.
Role of the PD‐1 Pathway in the Immune Response

Understanding immunoregulatory mechanisms is essential for the development of novel interventions to improve long‐term allograft survival. Programmed death 1 (PD‐1) and its ligands, PD‐L1 and PD‐L2, have emerged as critical inhibitory signaling pathways that regulate T cell response and maintain peripheral tolerance. PD‐1 signaling inhibits alloreactive T cell activation, and can promote induced regulatory T cell development. Furthermore, the upregulation of PD‐L1 on nonhematopoietic cells of the allograft may actively participate in the inhibition of immune responses and provide tissue‐specific protection. In murine transplant models, this pathway has been shown to be critical for the induction and maintenance of graft tolerance. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of the immunoregulatory functions of PD‐1 and its ligands and their therapeutic potential in transplantation.
Testing biomaterials for application in artificial organs: impact of procedures, donor and patient properties.

Many factors can affect the characterisation of biomaterials during testing. These include drugs administered prior to testing and shear stress on blood cells induced by different blood flows and specific blood donor conditions. Some of the misconceptions in testing are described here and serve to indicate that a systems approach, and not only individual test parameters, is best when testing for biocompatibility. "Methodology is everything and the devil is in the details", remarked Paul Simmons, the current president of the International Society for Stemcell Research, in an article in Nature magazine [1]. The article refers to current problems related to the reproducibility of data in stem cell research. Reproducibility in in vitro testing is also mandatory when selecting polymers for medical device applications. Many mechanical and physical engineers are surprised when they realise the enormous standard deviations (sometimes between 50 and 100%) of data found in biological or physiological investigations of biomaterials. The reasons for this are the complexity of physiological parameters such as the nature of blood originating from a variety of donors and hour-to-hour and day-to-day physiological differences. As a consequence, standardisation is a condition sine qua non in biomaterial testing, and knowledge of possible pitfalls is absolutely necessary. Therefore ISO 10993-4, Biological Evaluation of Medical Devices, Selection of Tests for Interaction With Blood, [2] provides a practical tool, including a decision tree for use in the selection of appropriate polymers for biomaterial applications. However, the interested reader finds in Section 3.1 of ISO 10993-4 the definition of blood-device interaction: "Any interaction between blood or any component of blood and a device, resulting in effects on blood, or on any organ or tissue, or on the device". A note added to this definition further clarifies: "Such effects may or may not have clinically significant or undesirable consequences. " This prompts one to ask if effects leading to undesirable consequences that are not clinically significant would be helpful to the polymer chemist. This article provides some observations and examples of the misconceptions and pitfalls that exist in testing biomaterials for biocompatibility.
10MHz to 7GHz quadrature signal generation using a divide-by-4/3, -3/2, -5/3, -2, -5/2, -3, -4, and -5 injection-locked frequency divider

This paper presents a wideband LC-based VCO using a divide-by-fractional-N injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD), and the fractional-N division is realized by the proposed modulated injection technique. The feedback modulation of incident signals eliminates unwanted injections, which contributes to enlarge the locking range. The ILFD consists of a 2-stage differential ring oscillator, which achieves the multi-decade frequency tuning with quadrature outputs. The proposed circuit is implemented by using a 90 nm CMOS process, and the measured results achieves 10 MHz-to-7 GHz of continuous frequency tuning range with 9.6–15.6mW of power consumption. The chip area is 250 × 200 µm2.
Datos sobre la rarificación, extinción e intentos de reasentamiento del lobo en el País Vasco (1814-1967)*

[es] El retroceso y extincion del lobo se produjeron en territorio vasco durante el siglo XIX y fueron el resultado de la persecucion directa ejercida por el hombre contra este carnivoro salvaje y la consecuencia indirecta de la intensa antropogenizacion de los habitats, por la implantacion de un modelo socioeconomico de corte liberal. La persistencia de poblaciones lobunas estables en las provincias limitrofes favorecio el trasiego de ejemplares de la especie por el extremo occidental vasco durante el siglo XX.
Impact of time to therapy and reperfusion modality on the efficacy of adenosine in acute myocardial infarction: the AMISTAD-2 trial.

AIMS The purpose of this analysis was to determine whether the efficacy of adenosine vs. placebo was dependent on the timing of reperfusion therapy in the second Acute Myocardial Infarction Study of Adenosine (AMISTAD-II). METHODS AND RESULTS Patients presenting with ST-segment elevation anterior AMI were randomized to receive placebo vs. adenosine (50 or 70 microg/kg/min) for 3 h starting within 15 min of reperfusion therapy. In the present post hoc hypothesis generating study, the results were stratified according to the timing of reperfusion, i.e. > or = or < the median 3.17 h, and by reperfusion modality. In patients receiving reperfusion < 3.17 h, adenosine compared with placebo significantly reduced 1-month mortality (5.2 vs. 9.2%, respectively, P = 0.014), 6-month mortality (7.3 vs. 11.2%, P = 0.033), and the occurrence of the primary 6-month composite clinical endpoint of death, in-hospital CHF, or rehospitalization for CHF at 6 months (12.0 vs. 17.2%, P = 0.022). Patients reperfused beyond 3 h did not benefit from adenosine. CONCLUSION In this post hoc analysis, 3 h adenosine infusion administered as an adjunct to reperfusion therapy within the first 3.17 h onset of evolving anterior ST-segment elevation AMI enhanced early and late survival, and reduced the composite clinical endpoint of death or CHF at 6 months.
Contemporary issues of form and substance: an Islamic law perspective

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the concept of form over substance and introduces the term substance gap to the literature. The substance gap is defined as the difference between the way a concept is expressed and its intended result. Besides, the study investigates the issue from both classical and contemporary viewpoints. Design/methodology/approach The methodology adopted in this paper is descriptive research. Findings This paper has depicted the substance gap in contemporary contracts and found that form is equally important as substance in Islamic finance contracts. This paper offers a fresh outlook on form and substance to highlight the importance of the issue and its significance. The findings of the study will help researchers address the issue at its roots and help them to bridge the gap between the form and substance of Islamic finance contracts. Originality/value This paper investigates the substance gap in contemporary contracts that exists between the fiqh rules and conditions of an Islamic contract, and their development and construction. Further, the gap could also be attributed to the pressure to cope with a complicated modern finance environment.
Highly sensitive alpha‐fetoprotein, Lens culinaris agglutinin‐reactive fraction of alpha‐fetoprotein and des‐gamma‐carboxyprothrombin for hepatocellular carcinoma detection

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develops with high incidence in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), and particularly in those with cirrhosis. Currently, diagnosis and surveillance are mainly based on imaging methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of highly sensitive measurement of α‐fetoprotein (AFP), Lens culinaris agglutinin‐reactive fraction of AFP (AFP‐L3) and des‐γ‐carboxyprothrombin (DCP) alone and in combination, for HCC detection. In addition, a recently proposed statistical model, including these three biomarkers plus sex and age, the GALAD model, was applied.
Importance Sampling Simulation of Orthogonal Space-Time Block Coded Systems

Evaluation of bit error rates (BER) of a digital communication system is usually done via simulation using the Monte Carlo (MC) method. For low BERs, this method requires very large sample sizes to produce the rare error events. To overcome this limitation, importance sampling (IS) technique can be used to reduce simulation runtime. This reduction is achieved by modifying the input distribution and subsequently scaling the number of errors to make the estimator unbiased. In this paper, we illustrate the use of IS for simulating orthogonal space time block coded (OSTBC) systems over frequency nonselective Rayleigh fading channels. In particular, we show how to bias the Rayleigh and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) processes using the variance scaling and mean translation methods, respectively, in order to maximize the computational efficiency gain. It is demonstrated that the proposed method requires much smaller sample sizes to achieve the same accuracy required by a conventional MC estimator, especially at high signal to noise ratios
Prevalence of Coxiella burnetii infection in foresters and ticks in the south-eastern Poland and comparison of diagnostic methods.

INTRODUCTION Coxiella burnetii is an aetiologic agent of Q fever. Ticks have been considered as a reservoir and a vector of C. burnetii. The outbreaks of Q fever were noted in different parts of Europe both in animals and humans. Q fever is zoonotic diseases characterized by sudden fever, headache, atypical pneumonia and abortions. AIM The aim of the study was to investigate the presence of C. burnetii infection in foresters in the south-eastern endemic region of Poland and comparison of diagnostic methods. MATERIALS AND METHODS The serum samples were collected from 304 humans (foresters) from the 12 superintendency in the south-eastern Poland. Additionally, 1,200 ticks Ixodes ricinus were collected from the same area. The sera samples were tested by using serological methods (CFT, ELISA and IFA) and the ticks were tested with the use of real-time PCR. RESULTS The results demonstrates that infections with C. burnetii are present in foresters in the south-eastern Poland. The serological results showed both chronic and acute form of Q fever. The statistical analysis of the positive results obtained by three different serological methods revealed that values of χ2 were statistically significant between IFA and ELISA and CFT and IFA. The final percentage of examined foresters classified as positive was 10.52%. No significant differences were observed between CFT and ELISA (p=0.25). The percentage of infected ticks was 15.9%. CONCLUSION The study demonstrates that infections with C. burnetii are present in foresters in the south-eastern Poland. The comparison of serological methods showed that their diagnostic potential is differentiated but the most useful tool is IFA.
Evidential data association in multi-target tracking

In this paper we present a general algorithm for data association in multi-target tracking in the framework of Dempster-Shafer theory. The solution adopted for the representation of the information in our method is strongly influenced by the algorithm developed by Rombault and Gruyer. Furthermore we derive our mathematical formulation of the problem, give a new approach for mass function generation and provide a new way for decision making.
SaiCho: A parameters based model for team building for academic software projects

In academic courses of computer science and engineering, software project development holds maximum credits for students. Through these projects student learn various aspects of software development such as on hand practical exposure, time, effort as well as project management and corporate ethics. But the most important criteria or factor or parameter is that they learn how to work as well as coordinate with team members. For such projects, if not done individually, students are often required to frame a group of some team-size. There are many team building models available and to choose the most appropriate one is principally the imperative chore. Existing team building models such as RandomM, TeacherM, StudentsM and ProposedM were studied. It was found that they are preference-based and hence prone to bias. To overcome this limitation of preference and bias, 10 parameters have been identified and further ranked based on their suitability by postgraduate students and faculties. The results from the experiment show that Job Prospects, Technology and Stipend are top 3 highest parameters ranked by both groups of stakeholder's viz. students and faculties. A new model termed SaiCho, which is preference-independent, bias-independent and deploys consistent parameters, is proposed for deciding on most important parameters for building team for software project development in academic environment.
Influence of Language and Culture in the Primary Care of Spanish-Speaking Latino Adults with Poorly Controlled Diabetes: A Qualitative Study.

Background We examined the role of language and culture in the interactions between Spanish-speaking Latino patients with poorly controlled diabetes - a fast-growing population in the United States - and their primary care providers. Methods We conducted four focus groups with 36 non-US born Spanish-speaking patients with elevated HbA1c. Participants were insured health plan members with either English-speaking (2 groups) or Spanish-speaking (2 groups) primary care providers. Moderated discussions focused on visit preparation, communication during visit, and role of other care team members. Key themes derived from these discussions were then linked to corresponding Latino cultural constructs. Results Patients had a mean age of 57.9 (±11.2) years and last measured HbA1c was 8.6% (1.5%). Two communication-related themes (reluctance to switch providers and use of intermediaries) and two visit-related themes (provider-driven visit agendas and problem-based visits) emerged from our analyses. These themes reflected the cultural constructs of confianza (trust), familismo (family), respeto (deference), and simpatía (harmonious relationship). Trust in the patient-provider relationship led many participants to remain with English-speaking providers who treated them well. Patients with either language concordant and discordant providers reported reliance on family or other intermediaries to close communication gaps. Deference to physician expertise and authority led to visit expectations that it is the doctor's job to know what to ask and that visits were intended to address specific, often symptom-driven problems. Conclusions Spanish-speaking Latino patients' cultural expectations play an important role in framing their primary care interactions. Recognizing culturally influenced visit expectations is an important step toward improving patient-provider communication.
Distribution, covalent binding, and DNA adduct formation of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene in SENCAR and BALB/c mice following topical and oral administration.

SENCAR mice are much more susceptible to tumor initiation by 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) administered topically than p.o. and are also more susceptible to initiation by topically applied DMBA than are BALB/c mice. To determine how the distribution and metabolic activation of DMBA differed in these strains and with route of administration, BALB/c and SENCAR mice were exposed to [3H]DMBA topically and p.o. , and the distribution and DNA binding of DMBA were analyzed. Both the amount of DMBA in skin and the covalent binding of DMBA to epidermal DNA were greater following topical administration than after p.o. administration in both strains. Differences in DMBA distribution and macromolecular binding were found between SENCAR and BALB/c mice, with the binding of DMBA to DNA in epidermis tending to be greater in BALB/c mice than in SENCAR mice when differences were observed. The formation of individual DMBA:DNA adducts in epidermis was also examined in SENCAR and BALB/c mice following topical administration of DMBA. No substantial qualitative or quantitative differences in DMBA:DNA adducts were found between SENCAR and BALB/c mice. The anti/syn-DMBA-diol-epoxide-DNA adduct ratios calculated from the three major DMBA:deoxyribonucleoside adducts increased with time in both SENCAR and BALB/c mice. The data suggest that differences in the distribution and macromolecular binding of DMBA are responsible for the much greater skin tumor initiating activity of DMBA applied topically than p.o. but do not account for the greater sensitivity of the SENCAR mouse to DMBA-induced epidermal tumorigenesis.
Axotomy-induced parallel increases in electrical and dye coupling between identified neurons of Helisoma

The electrically coupled buccal ganglion neurons 4R and 4L of the snail, Helisoma, display predictable plasticity. The strength of the electronic synapse between them increases significantly following axotomy. Synaptic strength was assayed by measurements of electrical coupling coefficients and by assessment of dye coupling (passage of dye into the uninjected neuron) following injection of Lucifer Yellow CH into one neuron. Within 3 to 5 days, axotomy induced an increase in electrical coupling coefficients between neurons 4R and 4L from 0.54 +/- 0.11 (n = 13) in normal preparations to 0.72 +/- 0.14 (n = 24). A parallel axotomy-induced increase in the probability of dye coupling occurred. Only 27% (n = 27) of normal neuron 4 pairs were dye coupled, compared with 87% (n = 15) of axotomized neuronal pairs. Irrespective of treatment, electrical and dye measurements in the same neuron 4 pairs showed a consistent correlation between the magnitude of the electrical coupling coefficients and the probability of detectable dye coupling. No dye coupling was observed in neuronal pairs with electrical coupling coefficients less than 0.50. Dye coupling always occurred when coupling coefficients were greater than 0.70. Sixty-seven percent of neuronal pairs with intermediate coupling (0.50 to 0.70) coefficients displayed dye coupling. The results show that axotomy evokes a predictable enhancement of communication at an “identified” electronic synapse and suggests that electrical and dye coupling are mediated by similar mechanisms.
Linear asymmetric pocket profile based pinch-off voltage model for nano scale n-MOSFET

This work reports on developing an analytical pinch-off voltage model for the pocket implanted nano scale n-MOSFETs based on an asymmetric linear pocket profile at the source side under the gate of the device. Straight line approximated equation is used to simulate the pocket profile from the source towards the drain along the gate length at the surface of the MOS device. The effective doping concentration is derived for the whole gate length and is incorporated in the pinch-off voltage model that is obtained from the strong inversion charge expression at the surface. Then the pinch-off voltage is simulated for various drain and gate biases as well as for various device parameters. To observe the model validity, inversion charge profile, surface potential at various points along the channel, drain current vs. drain voltage curve is plotted for various gate biases by incorporating this effective channel doping concentration as well as the developed pinch-off voltage model. The simulation results show that the developed pinch-off voltage model can be used to study, simulate and characterize the pocket implanted ULSI devices.