Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of Solithromycin (CEM-101) for Experimental Otitis Media Caused by Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae

ABSTRACT Solithromycin (CEM-101) is a “fourth-generation” macrolide, as it has three binding site and is acid stable. The three binding sites confer activity against bacteria resistant to the older macrolides and ketolides, including multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae and nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi). The objective of this study was to evaluate solithromycin pharmacokinetics (PK), middle ear fluid (MEF) concentrations, and microbiologic efficacy in a chinchilla model of experimental otitis media (EOM) due to strains of S. pneumoniae or NTHi. Plasma PK (maximum concentration of drug in serum [Cmax] and area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 24 h [AUC0–24]) and middle ear fluid (MEF) concentrations were determined. Isolates with specified antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were inoculated directly into the middle ear (ME). Plasma and MEF were collected for PK and MEF cultures performed to determine efficacy. Solithromycin administered at 150 mg/kg of body weight/day resulted in Cmax and AUC0–24 values of 2.2 μg/ml and 27.4 μg · h/ml in plasma and 1.7 μg/ml and 28.2 μg · h/ml in extracellular MEF on day 1. By day 3, Cmax and AUC0–24 values had increased to 4.5 μg/ml and 54 μg · h/ml in plasma and 4.8 μg/ml and 98.6 μg · h/ml in extracellular MEF. For NTHi EOM, three isolates with MIC/minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) ratios of 0.5/1 μg/ml (isolate BCH1), 2/2 μg/ml (isolate BMC1247C), and 4/4 μg/ml (isolate BMC1213C) were selected. The MEF of >85% of animals infected with BCH1 and BMC1247C was sterilized. For NTHi BMC1213, >85% of MEF cultures remained positive. For S. pneumoniae EOM, 3 isolates with MIC/MBC ratios of 0.06/0.125 μg/ml (S. pneumoniae 331), 0.125/1 μg/ml (S. pneumoniae CP-645 [MLSB phenotype]), and 0.5/2 μg/ml (CP-712 [mefA subclass mefA resistance]) were selected. Solithromycin sterilized MEF in 100% of animals infected with S. pneumoniae 331 and S. pneumoniae CP-645. ME infection persisted in 60% of animals infected with CP-712. In a model of EOM, solithromycin sterilized MEF in >85% of animals challenged with NTHi with an MIC of ≤2 μg/ml and 100% of ME infected with S. pneumoniae with an MIC of ≤0.125 μg/ml.
Computer-based Assessment for the Stroke Order of Chinese Characters Writing

The purpose of this research is to develop an assessment for examining the stroke order of Chinese character writing by computerized model. The system provides immediate feedback on the input character in terms of its key information of stroke order and some structure relations between strokes so it can accurately identify character writing problems such as wrong stroke direction, wrong stroke order, and inappropriate character shape. This model promises a solution to the difficulty of identifying stroke problems in a traditional paper-pen based character writing test. More importantly, data from this research demonstrates that this system could be an excellent tool for learners of character based languages to practice and monitor their character writing outside class.
Study on extraction method of smoke contour by improved vibe algorithm and watershed algorithm

A Vibe improved algorithm based on HIS color space and a watershed algorithm are used to obtain the smoke contours. The Vibe algorithm is used to extract smoke anomalies and smoke inaccuracies. In this paper, the classical Vibe algorithm is described, and the existing problems in the smoke detection are analyzed. A Vibe algorithm is proposed to change the gray color space and the HIS color space by using the color feature information and Vibe. The influence of light and shadow on the smoke extraction noise is reduced by using the difference of pixel value based on Euclidean distance. The problem of imprecision of smoke caused by Vibe algorithm is analyzed by using the watershed algorithm. Finally, the proposed method is evaluated by Barnich experiment standard. The experimental results show that the proposed method can extract the smoke profile more accurately and has good robustness.
Are Emotions Abstract or Concrete?: An ERP Study on Affect Representations

The ability to identify and communicate emotions is essential to psychological well-being. Yet research focusing exclusively on emotion concepts has been limited. This study examined nouns that represent emotions (e.g., pleasure, guilt) in comparison to nouns that represent abstract (e.g., wisdom, failure) and concrete entities (e.g., flower, coffin). Twenty-five healthy participants completed a lexical decision task. Event-related potential (ERP) data showed that emotion nouns elicited less pronounced N400 than both abstract and concrete nouns. Further, N400 amplitude differences between emotion and concrete nouns were evident in both hemispheres, whereas the differences between emotion and abstract nouns had a left-lateralized distribution. These findings suggest representational distinctions, possibly in both verbal and imagery systems, between emotion concepts versus other concepts, implications of which for theories of affect representations and for research on affect disorders merit further investigation.
A Study on Antinociceptive and Anti-hyperglycemic Activity of Methanol Extract of Brassica Juncea ( L . ) Czern . Leaves in Mice

Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. is widely cultivated in Bangladesh for both its edible green leaves and for its seeds from which oil is extracted and used for cooking. In folk medicinal practices, the oil is rubbed on the throat and chest for treatment of common colds with mucus. The objective of the present study was to investigate antinociceptive effects of methanol extract of leaves of the plant in acetic acid-induced gastric pain writhing models in mice, and anti-hyperglycemic effect in oral glucose tolerance tests in glucose-loaded mice. In antinociceptive tests, the methanol extract of leaves demonstrated dose-dependent and significant antinociceptive activity. At a dose of 200 mg leaf extract/kg body weight, writhing induced by acetic acid in Swiss albino mice was inhibited by 43.9%, which was the same as that observed with the standard drug aspirin when administered at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight. Maximum inhibition of writhing was observed with an extract dose of 400 mg/kg body weight (75.7%). In oral glucose tolerance tests, the methanol extract of leaves also demonstrated significant and dose-dependent glucose lowering activity. The extract, when administered at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight reduced serum glucose levels in glucose-loaded mice by 46.79% versus 73.40% obtained when mice were administered a standard hypoglycemic drug glibenclamide at a dose of 10 mg/kg body weight. Overall, the results suggest that the methanol extract of leaves contain constituents, which can prove to be valuable tools for treatment of pain as well as controlling of blood sugar in diabetic patients.
Object-based land cover classification based on fusion of multifrequency SAR data and THAICHOTE optical imagery

Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) information are significant to observe and evaluate environmental change. LULC classification applying remotely sensed data is a technique popularly employed on a global and local dimension particularly, in urban areas which have diverse land cover types. These are essential components of the urban terrain and ecosystem. In the present, object-based image analysis (OBIA) is becoming widely popular for land cover classification using the high-resolution image. COSMO-SkyMed SAR data was fused with THAICHOTE (namely, THEOS: Thailand Earth Observation Satellite) optical data for land cover classification using object-based. This paper indicates a comparison between object-based and pixel-based approaches in image fusion. The per-pixel method, support vector machines (SVM) was implemented to the fused image based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For the objectbased classification was applied to the fused images to separate land cover classes by using nearest neighbor (NN) classifier. Finally, the accuracy assessment was employed by comparing with the classification of land cover mapping generated from fused image dataset and THAICHOTE image. The object-based data fused COSMO-SkyMed with THAICHOTE images demonstrated the best classification accuracies, well over 85%. As the results, an object-based data fusion provides higher land cover classification accuracy than per-pixel data fusion.
Maintenance of the ionic composition of the incubated artery.

The ionic composition of the incubated rat tail artery, comparable but not identical to that of the freshly dissected tissue, can be maintained over a period of at least 5 h under aerobic conditions in the absence of utilizable exogenous substrate. A sufficient supply of exogenous glucose must be provided for the maintenance of this ionic composition under anaerobic conditions. The changes in the content of individual ions and water brought about by iodoacetate poisoning can be prevented more or less completely by addition of a utilizable noncarbohydrate substrate such as pyruvate or butyrate to the incubation medium. Abolition of the transmembrane ionic gradients caused by 2,4-dinitrophenol or oligomycin can be partially-prevented by exogenous glucose. The ionic composition of the artery is little affected by fluoroacetate inhibition even in the absence of utilizable exogenous substrate. The content of magnesium is decreased by 2-deoxy-D-glucose, although the content of other ions remains unchanged. Meta.
Effect of HIV viral load, CD4 cell count and antiretroviral therapy on human papillomavirus prevalence in urine samples of HIV-infected men

HIV-infected patients are at increased risk for persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, the major cause of anogenital cancer. The present study describes the HPV prevalence in urine samples of 243 HIV-infected men and a control group of 231 men. HPV DNA was amplified by the SPF10 polymerase chain reaction primer set. The overall HPV prevalence in HIV-infected men was 27.5% compared with 12.6% in controls (P < 0.01). Infections with high-risk and multiple HPV genotypes were present in both groups. Differences were not statistically significant. A multivariate logistic regression model showed a decreased HPV prevalence associated with use of a nucleoside and a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor combination (P = 0.03). A trend was observed towards a higher HPV prevalence and a lower CD4 cell count. Further prospective studies are needed to determine the role of HPV DNA testing in urine in future screening programmes for anal cancer in men.
Optimal patch code design via device characterization

In many color measurement applications, such as those for color calibration and profiling, "patch code" has been used successfully for job identification and automation to reduce operator errors. A patch code is similar to a barcode, but is intended primarily for use in measurement devices that cannot read barcodes due to limited spatial resolution, such as spectrophotometers. There is an inherent tradeoff between decoding robustness and the number of code levels available for encoding. Previous methods have attempted to address this tradeoff, but those solutions have been sub-optimal. In this paper, we propose a method to design optimal patch codes via device characterization. The tradeoff between decoding robustness and the number of available code levels is optimized in terms of printing and measurement efforts, and decoding robustness against noises from the printing and measurement devices. Effort is drastically reduced relative to previous methods because print-and-measure is minimized through modeling and the use of existing printer profiles. Decoding robustness is improved by distributing the code levels in CIE Lab space rather than in CMYK space.
Spectroscopy and microscopy characterization of spiropyran auto-assemble device

There are many studies focuses on self-assembled films characterization, photochromic material (spiropyran) had been electrosattached to different enzymes, and in this work we used these spiropyran characteristics to immobilized glucose oxidase. The aim of this work is establish a protocol to build an optical device that shows absorption changes when an enzyme is immobilized and characterized the devise through FTIR and UV/Vis spectroscopy and Atomic Force and Scanning Electron Microscopy. We use different methods such as self-assembled monolayers and the activation reaction by carbodiimide. Corning of quartz was used as matrix, clean solution (1:1 MeOH:HCl, H2SO4) was used to prepared the matrix, 1% silane solution was prepared to functionalized the surface, and a solution prepared with spiropyran (C19H18N2O3), EDC (C5H11N=C=NC6H11), NHS (C4H5NO3), HEPES (C8H18N2O4S) and glucose oxidase from Aspergillus niger was the last step to immobilized this enzyme. Three steps to build it, the first step was cleaned the matrix, the next step was functionalized the surface with silane material, this step allows to modified the surfaces, to prepared to attach the spiropyran. The bonds found from the FTIR spectra to silanized step and the functionalized step (spiropyran attached). That indicated that FTIR and AFM techniques are available to characterized and identify absorption, morphology of a devise modified with spiropyran, that allows attach some biological material, in this case glucose oxidase, the absorption changes and morphological changes are the evidence of immobilization successful.
Suitable digital color palette (DPC) for individual human color vision sensitivity

In this study, 34 students and teachers form a college of fine arts selected suitable colors for their artistic work on CRT display. From the results, several fundamental colors selected by artists can be seen on CIE-xy color spaces. The result of our experiment clearly showed that the 34 subjects could be divided into three groups based on differences in the level of red light or green light in their color palette.
Implementation of a cone-beam backprojection algorithm on the cell broadband engine processor

Tomographic image reconstruction is computationally very demanding. In all cases the backprojection represents the performance bottleneck due to the high operational count and due to the high demand put on the memory subsystem. In the past, solving this problem has lead to the implementation of specific architectures, connecting Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) or Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to memory through dedicated high speed busses. More recently, there have also been attempt to use Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) to perform the backprojection step. Originally aimed at the gaming market, IBM, Toshiba and Sony have introduced the Cell Broadband Engine (CBE) processor, often considered as a multicomputer on a chip. Clocked at 3 GHz, the Cell allows for a theoretical performance of 192 GFlops and a peak data transfer rate over the internal bus of 200 GB/s. This performance indeed makes the Cell a very attractive architecture for implementing tomographic image reconstruction algorithms. In this study, we investigate the relative performance of a perspective backprojection algorithm when implemented on a standard PC and on the Cell processor. We compare these results to the performance achievable with FPGAs based boards and high end GPUs. The cone-beam backprojection performance was assessed by backprojecting a full circle scan of 512 projections of 1024x1024 pixels into a volume of size 512x512x512 voxels. It took 3.2 minutes on the PC (single CPU) and is as fast as 13.6 seconds on the Cell.
UWB 3D near-field imaging with a sparse MIMO antenna array for concealed weapon detection

An ultra-wide-band (UWB) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with a sparse array is designed and manufactured for three-dimensional near-field imaging applications such as concealed weapon detection. Contrary to existing mmW imaging radars, UWB components working in the lower microwave frequencies are more cost effective and yield images with resolutions satisfactory for contraband detection while not raising concerns related to personal privacy. A UWB sparse array provides resolution values equivalent to a fully populated array with a similar aperture size albeit with much fewer antenna elements, while yielding lower sidelobe levels compared to a narrowband sparse array. Performance of the proposed system is studied using a full-wave electromagnetic simulation environment which is capable of modelling the antenna array, the environment and the target in 3D while allowing modifications in mechanical and electrical properties of the materials. For image reconstruction, Kirchhoff-migration and back-projection algorithms are used and performances of these algorithms are compared. The effects of the spatial and temporal frequency response of the antenna array as well as array calibration on the image quality are also studied. A prototype of UWB MIMO sparse antenna array in Archimedean spiral configuration with an RF switch matrix is manufactured. Measurements are performed using a stepped-frequency continuous waveform (SFCW) transceiver for various metallic and non-metallic targets. It is observed that these targets are identifiable in the images formed based on measurement data. Consequently, promising concealed weapon detection performance is demonstrated with full-wave electromagnetic simulation and experimental results.
A COLOUR ADDITIVE , INDUCED HEPATOTOXICITY IN ALBINO RATS : HISTOLOGICAL , ULTRASTRUCTURAL , AND BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES

The present work was designed to test the toxic impacts exerted by the colour additives erythrosine on the histology, ultrastructure and some serum liver function parameters in male albino rats. Erythrosine in a dose level equals 136 mg/kg bw was given orally to male albino rats for 4, 6 and 8 weeks. This caused time-dependent histological alterations in liver such as cytoplasmic vacuolization of hepatocytes, leucocytic infi ltration and congestion in blood vessels. Ultrastructurally, erythrosine induced changes in the size of mitochondria, reduction in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, and nuclear changes in the form of degeneration of the chromatin, variation in the size of nuclear pores and formation of side projections or lateral outgrowths. In addition, erythrosine treatment induced body weight decrease and elevated liver function enzymes, mainly aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in the serum of the treated rats. However, most of these changes subsided after one week of stopping erythrosine treatment.
Epidemiological Potential of Excretion and Regurgitation by Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae) in the Dissemination of Escherichia coli O157: H7 to Food

Abstract We previously reported that enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157: H7 (EHEC) proliferates in the mouthparts of the house fly Musca domestica vicina Macquart and are excreted for at least 3 d after ingestion. However, the role of the crop and excretory behavior of the house fly in contamination of human food with EHEC is not known. In the current experiments, EHEC persisted in the crop of house flies for at least 4 d. The number of EHEC in an excreted droplet was ≈104 1 h after bacterial feeding, >1.8 × 105 3 h after feeding, and then drastically decreased after 24 h. Excretion is one of the major mechanisms for decreasing number of EHEC in the crop and gut of the house fly. The frequency of excretion by females with developing eggs in their ovary was clearly higher (6.5 min per drop) than for males or females with mature eggs. Minute eosin-sign around a container filled with eosin-supplemented trypticase soy broth might be derived from frequent contact by house fly contaminated mouthparts. These results show that frequent excretion potentially enhances the dissemination of EHEC to foods, particularly during the first 24 h after ingestion of the bacteria.
Projection displays and MEMS: timely convergence for a bright future

Projection displays and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have evolved independently, occasionally crossing paths as early as the 1950s. But the commercially viable use of MEMS for projection displays has been illusive until the recent invention of Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing TM (DLP) technology. DLP technology is based on the Digital Micromirror DeviceTM (DMD) microchip, a MEMS technology that is a semiconductor digital light switch that precisely controls a light source for projection display and hardcopy applications. DLP technology provides a unique business opportunity because of the timely convergence of market needs and technology advances. The world is rapidly moving to an all- digital communications and entertainment infrastructure. In the near future, most of the technologies necessary for this infrastrucutre will be available at the right performance and price levels. This will make commercially viable an all-digital chain (capture, compression, transmission, reception decompression, hearing, and viewing). Unfortunately, the digital images received today must be translated into analog signals for viewing on today's televisions. Digital video is the final link in the all-digital infrastructure and DLP technoogy provides that link. DLP technology is an enabler for digital, high-resolution, color projection displays that have high contrast, are bright, seamless, and have the accuracy of color and grayscale that can be achieved only by digital control. This paper contains an introduction to DMD and DLP technology, including the historical context from which to view their developemnt. The architecture, projection operation, and fabrication are presented. Finally, the paper includes an update about current DMD business opportunities in projection displays and hardcopy.
A large single-aperture telescope for submillimeter astronomy

We describe the scientific case and design challenges for an innovative large submillimetre telescope (LST). LST is proposed to have a diameter of at least 30m, operate in the wavelength range from 0.2 - 1mm and will have a wide field-of-view. The submillimetre region allows us to probe objects during formation - i.e. the earliest evolutionary stages of galaxies, stars and planets. Being so close to the peak of the cosmic far-IR/submm background and the emission from proto-stellar cores, the 200μm atmospheric window gives access to unique science. The key advantage of LST over other facilities will be in terms of addressing astronomical questions requiring large fields and good angular resolution: such as surveys of entire giant molecular clouds and fields of dusty galaxies at early epochs. For example, such a telescope would resolve all protoplanetary disks out to 100pc, revolutionising our knowledge of star and planet formation, and detect tens of millions of dusty high-redshift galaxies yielding information on formation and evolution of the early universe. Equipped with a state-of-the-art large format bolometer camera, LST would offer a survey (mapping) speed up to 5,000 times that of ALMA, arcsecond resolution at the shortest wavelengths, point-source sensitivities at least 25 times better than any planned submm facility, and confusion limits 10 times lower than any existing single-aperture telescope. The wide-field-of-view and superb image fidelity available from a single-dish will be perfect for large-scale surveys of the submillimetre sky - an ideal complement to new generation interferometers such as ALMA.