Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current diagnosis and treatment of cutaneous and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis

Tegumentary leishmaniasis, comprising the cutaneous and mucocutaneous forms, is caused by at least 13 dermotropic species of protozoa of the genus Leishmania, most of which are prevalent in the New World. Although diseases in the Old and New Worlds share similar characteristics, the ultimate manifestations and severity are quite different, with more severe forms associated with mucosal lesions observed in the New World. For the diagnosis and treatment of leishmaniasis, differences based on clinical features, usefulness/sensitivity of diagnostic methods and therapeutic responses are mainly emphasized. We present a critical review of the diagnostic methods, their contribution and the necessity for their improvement/development, particularly in molecular diagnosis aimed at detection and species identification, as well as serodiagnosis. In addition to a review of the drugs currently utilized, we describe differences in their effectiveness in Old and New World leishmaniasis. HIV/Leishmania coinfection is also presented in the context of diagnosis and treatment.
Automatic System for Filtering Obscene Video

This paper proposes an automatic system for filtering obscene video sequences. At present, an enormous number of video files are available on the various channels such as P2P networks, spam emails, and web sites. Especially recently, many video files are propagated via UCC community sites with the manual filtering process to screen the harmful videos. Thus, automatically recognizing obscene pictures in video files becomes an extremely important problem. In this paper, we propose a new, efficient, and fast algorithm for detecting obscene videos. Our algorithm is based on segmentation. We first extract the frames of a video, detect global motions, separate the foreground objects, and classify each frame as an objectionable or a benign frame based on skin color, texture, and shape features. Our algorithm shows a remarkable capability to detect obscene frames in the video files of various video edits such as UCC contents.
Crystallographic direct methods for surfaces

A brief review is given of the status of crystallographic direct methods for solving surface structure problems. The basic concepts of using the a priori information that the scattering comes from atoms to generate self-consistent equations and statistical constraints upon the phases are described. The use of a genetic algorithm to perform a search over possible phases is then discussed. Finally, solved cases in projection as well as the status of three-dimensional solutions for surfaces with a representative example are detailed.
A compact dual broadbabd monopole antenna with a triangular stub

Characteristics of a CPW-fed monopole antenna design with compact, dual-band and broadband operations are studied experimentally. Because the proposed antenna design just only uses a tapered triangular monopole stub to replace the longer rectangular monopole stub of the reference antenna, the dual-band frequency ratio of the proposed antenna still can be adjusted easily, as that of the reference antenna, by tuning the length of the two stubs. Moreover, the protruding length, the same as the length of the longer stub, and dual-band bandwidths of the antenna can be reduced and improved, respectively, by changing the flare angle of the tapered triangular stub. Therefore, a compact dual broadband monopole antenna can be achieved. Details of the antenna design and experimental results are presented and discussed.
Pulmonary Artery Agenesis Presenting as Massive Hemoptysis — A Case Report

Massive hemoptysis is the expectoration of approximately 600 ml of blood in twenty-four hours. Major causes of massive hemoptysis are tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, pulmonary neoplasm, fungus ball, bronchial adenomas, lung abscess, intrabronchial rupture of an aortic aneurysm, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary infarction, and pulmonary trauma. Other, less common causes include Good-pasture's syndrome, broncholiths, pulmonary varix, A-V malformation, and bleeding disorders. Agenesis of the pulmonary artery usually occurs in association with congenital cardiac anomalies, and isolated unilateral absence of the pulmonary artery is uncommon. About 10% of the patients with pulmonary artery agenesis develop inconsequential hemoptysis, but massive hemoptysis is a very rare complication of this anomaly. The following is a case report of a twenty-nine-year-old man with agenesis of the left pulmonary artery, who presented with massive hemoptysis requiring embolization and, eventually, pneumonectomy.
A comprehensive technique for the assessment of microwave circuit design variability through physical simulations

We propose a numerically efficient technique for the mixed-mode physics-based variability analysis of microwave circuits undergoing concurrent variations in the active device and in the external passive network, allowing for a direct link between the spread of nonlinear circuit performances and the variability of technological parameters. The new technique has been validated against repeated physical load-pull simulations of a class AB power amplifier with random variations of the active device gate length and of the external load, showing an excellent precision and a massive reduction of simulation time.
Muscle Na-K-pump and fatigue responses to progressive exercise in normoxia and hypoxia.

To investigate the effects of hypoxia and incremental exercise on muscle contractility, membrane excitability, and maximal Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity, 10 untrained volunteers (age = 20 +/- 0.37 yr and weight = 80.0 +/- 3.54 kg; +/- SE) performed progressive cycle exercise to fatigue on two occasions: while breathing normal room air (Norm; Fi(O(2)) = 0.21) and while breathing a normobaric hypoxic gas mixture (Hypox; Fi(O(2)) = 0.14). Muscle samples extracted from the vastus lateralis before exercise and at fatigue were analyzed for maximal Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase (K(+)-stimulated 3-O-methylfluorescein phosphatase) activity in homogenates. A 32% reduction (P < 0.05) in Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity was observed (90.9 +/- 7.6 vs. 62.1 +/- 6.4 nmol.mg protein(-1). h(-1)) in Norm. At fatigue, the reductions in Hypox were not different (81 +/- 5.6 vs. 57.2 +/- 7.5 nmol.mg protein(-1). h(-1)) from Norm. Measurement of quadriceps neuromuscular function, assessed before and after exercise, indicated a generalized reduction (P < 0.05) in maximal voluntary contractile force (MVC) and in force elicited at all frequencies of stimulation (10, 20, 30, 50, and 100 Hz). In general, no differences were observed between Norm and Hypox. The properties of the compound action potential, amplitude, duration, and area, which represent the electromyographic response to a single, supramaximal stimulus, were not altered by exercise or oxygen condition when assessed both during and after the progressive cycle task. Progressive exercise, conducted in Hypox, results in an inhibition of Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity and reductions in MVC and force at different frequencies of stimulation; these results are not different from those observed with Norm. These changes occur in the absence of reductions in neuromuscular excitability.
Solar Nebula Heterogeneity in p-Process Samarium and Neodymium Isotopes

Bulk carbonaceous chondrites display a deficit of ∼100 parts per million (ppm) in 144Sm with respect to other meteorites and terrestrial standards, leading to a decrease in their 142Nd/144Nd ratios by ∼11 ppm. The data require that samarium and neodymium isotopes produced by the p process associated with photodisintegration reactions in supernovae were heterogeneously distributed in the solar nebula. Other samarium and neodymium isotopes produced by rapid neutron capture (r process) in supernovae and by slow neutron capture (s process) in red giants were homogeneously distributed. The supernovae sources supplying the p- and r-process nuclides to the solar nebula were thus disconnected or only weakly connected.
Effectiveness of Three Community Based Strategies to Promote Screening for Cervical Cancer

Objective– Evaluation of three potential methods for increasing Pap smear use: television media, television media combined with letter based recruitment, and television media combined with general practitioner based (GP based) recruitment. Setting - A trial of each intervention was carried out in three postal regions in New South Wales, Australia — a rural locality (containing about 1000 women), a country town (about 3000 women), and a major rural centre (about 10000 women). Three control regions were selected to be demographically similar to the corresponding intervention regions. Methods– Outcome data on regional Pap smear rates were obtained from government health insurance claims for cervical screening, and from pathology service records. Expected Pap smear rates for the three months after the intervention were predicted from 45 pre-intervention months and were compared with observed rates for this period. Results– Television media alone was associated with a significant increase in attendances for screening in one of the three regions where a trial was carried out: 13.3% in the rural centre. The media/ letter based campaign was associated with a significant increase in attendances in two out of three regions: 52.7% in the rural locality, 43.2% in the rural centre. The media/GP based campaign was associated with significant increases in attendances in all three regions: 50.2% in the rural locality, 80.8% in the country town, 15.7% in the rural centre. All three interventions were associated with significant increases in the number of women attending for cervical screening above those observed in the control regions. Furthermore, these increases were not restricted to women at low risk. They were also found for older women (aged 50–69 years) and women who had not had a Pap smear within the past three years.
enhanced aglycone production of fermented soybean products by Bacillus species

This study evaluated the effect of starter culture and fermentation period on the isoflavone content of protein-rich soybeans variety TG145. Initially, soybeans were washed, soaked in water for 16 h and autoclaved at 121°C for 40min. Three different bacterial starter cultures (~10 4 CFU/g) namely Bacillus subtilis BEST195, B. subtilis Asaichiban and B. subtilis TN51 were then added and the fermentation was allowed to proceed at 42°C for 24 h (natto-style) and 72 h (thua nao-style). The quantities of six major isoflavones (daidzin, genistin, glycitin, daidzein, genistein, and glycitein) were then determined in these fermented soybean products using reverse phase HPLC technique. Generally, our results clearly showed that the content of total isoflavones in the fermented products prepared by Bacillus starter cultures greatly increased ranging from 43 to 99% compared to that of the unfermented autoclaved soybeans. In addition, a dramatic increase of aglycones was also observed (> 400%) in the soybean products fermented by Bacillus subtilis strain TN51. This present study suggests a promising use of Bacillus starter cultures in improving isoflavone compounds especially the aglycones which would benefit for novel functional food development.
Pulse sequence analysis on PD data from electrical trees in flexible epoxy resins

Pulse Sequence Analysis (PSA) was carried on PD data from electrical trees grown in flexible epoxy resins. The samples used for the electrical tree experiments were conditioned in environments with different relative humidities in the range 15-100% prior to the electrical tests with the corresponding moisture content in the samples between 0.1 and 6.9%. The electrical treeing experiments were carried out at different temperatures in the range 20-70°C. The details of PD dynamics during the electrical tree growth have been found to change significantly with temperature and absorbed moisture. In this paper, it is shown that PSA could be successfully used to discriminate between PD data from electrical trees with different shapes and runaway tree growth.
C34. Enhanced blind, adaptive channel shortening for multi-carrier systems

This paper proposes a new blind, adaptive channel shortening for multi-carrier systems. We use the DST; along with its inverse as a replacement for the inverse fast Fourier transform/fast Fourier transform (IFFT/FFT) stages in DMT systems. The performance of the discrete Fourier transform-DMT (DFT-DMT) system is investigated with the proposed DST-DMT system over the standard carrier serving area (CSA) loop1, the results in this paper show that employing the proposed DST-DMT system rather than the conventional DFT-DMT system can provide a higher bit rate.
Reconstruction of transient waveforms from phasors sampled at the fundamental frequency

The concept of Wide-Area Measurement Systems (WAMS) envisages the transmission of current and voltage phasor samples from remote Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) to control centres, relays or controllers. Compression of the high frequency samples of sinusoidal waveforms into phasors is usually done using Discrete-Fourier Transform(DFT)-like algorithms. The phasor data is normally useful only when the system is in sinusoidal steady state, or nearly so. It is worthwhile to explore means to get reasonably accurate transient information as well, even if it means that some additional compressed information needs to be transmitted from the PMUs. Transient reconstruction has practical utility in the analysis of disturbances (at a remote control centre) and for flagging the initiation and clearing of network disturbances, which may be required for some WAMS analytics. In this paper, it is shown that one-cycle-delayed reconstruction of power system transient waveforms can be done with samples of the dc, fundamental and harmonic phasors reported at a rate of one sample per cycle obtained from the DFT algorithm. For power system transients, a few harmonics are usually adequate to reconstruct the transient waveforms with reasonable accuracy. The paper explains the reconstruction method, presents illustrative examples and discusses possible applications and practical issues.
The Plight of Reptiles as Ecological Actors in the Tropics

Earth’s tropical ecosystems have witnessed several extinctions and a dramatic reduction of the range and abundance of large reptile species, which is directly related to the rise of early and modern humans. The occurrence of such extinctions, range reduction, species loss, and the consequences for several paramount ecosystem processes are poorly documented compared to other large vertebrate species. Here, I reviewed the literature on the ecological processes performed by large tropical reptile species and their human-induced widespread demise in order to determine knowledge gaps and encourage a paradigm shift in understanding on the interactiveness of such species. The interactions and species involved indicate that large abundant reptiles in the tropics are important in ecological processes, and can consequently have an important role in ecosystem function through gene dispersal, nutrient cycling, trophic action, and ecosystem engineering. These important interactions performed by reptiles are not solely performed by few species, or geographically restricted to islands, but instead present a pattern that repeatedly occurs in large reptiles distributed over tropical ecosystems. The observed tendency of reptiles to be tightly involved in these ecological interactions has important implications for the ecology of tropical ecosystems. Lost and current ecological processes performed by large reptiles may be orders of magnitude higher than what is currently perceived, and the misleading baseline of those processes must be addressed otherwise we risk losing species and services that are dependent of such interactions. To fix this bias I suggest: (a) Increase information spreading about Pleistocene-Holocene reptile extinctions using popular media; (b) Improved exchange between the research field of megafauna effects in ecosystems and herpetologists working with large reptiles; (c) Increase research effort on anthropogenic reptile extinctions and their potential to predict future losses; (d) Address the knowledge gaps, as human-reptile conflict, chelonian seed dispersal and nutrient movement; (e) Increase quantitative research on large reptile population ecology, density, and abundance. (f) address the potentially present or lost ecosystem effects of extant and extinct reptile species. Although the importance of reptiles in most tropical ecosystems has been perceived as negligible, this study shows that this may be a misleading paradigm.
304520_Journal May

The results obtained in the present study resemble the conclusions drawn from our first analyses based on a whole pattern of results in a number of variables (Wölwer and Gaebel 2002) and summarize most of this information on deviances in the performance process (as opposed to performance time as a summarizing index of the performance result) in only one index. This could be an easy and valid starting point for further investigating brain-behaviour relationships. The additional T2 assessment included not only proved the trait characteristic of these difficulties in schizophrenia, but also hint at a certain nosological specificity, if illness course is taken into account: insufficient "visuomanumotor integration" at discharge occurred exclusively in schizophrenia patients. As far as depressive patients’ performance and planning strategy deviates from controls at all, this only seems to be a state dependent effect as opposed to the more trait-like deficits shown by schizophrenia patients throughout their hospital stay.
Angiotensin II: preferential efferent constriction?

In dogs with maximal subpression of endogenous angiotensin II (AII) production due to a high-salt diet and converting enzyme inhibition (CEI, SQ 14,225, 15 micrograms X kg-1 X min-1 i.v.), infusion of a subpressor dose of angiotensin II (1 ng X kg-1 X min-1) did not change contralateral kidney function. In the infused kidney, a decrease in renal blood (RBF) by 24% and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) by 9% with an increase in filtration fraction (FF) by 20% occurred. Similarly, the increase in single nephron (SN) RBF was greater than in SNGFR, thus rising SNFF by 8%. Glomerular capillary pressure (GCP) did not change significantly; a decrease by 20% in proximal tubule pressure thus resulted in an increase in delta HP by 22%. This increase counterbalanced the profound drop in ultrafiltration coefficient (Kf) (57%) making the decrease in GFR and SNGFR relatively small. Total arteriolar resistance (RT) rose by 26%, the rise being due mainly to an increase in efferent (RE, 50%) rather than afferent (RA, 4%) resistance. If the AII infusion was carried out during concomitant infusion of CEI and indomethacin (1 mg X kg-1 X min-1) or aspirin (5 mg X kg-1 X min-1), RBF decreased by 36%, GFR by 25%, thus increasing FF by 18%; corresponding SN values underwent similar changes. Drop in Kf amounted to 62% and hydraulic pressure difference (delta HP) increased by 11% with unchanged GCP. The increase in RT (72%) was now due to a very similar increase in both RA (68%) and RE (76%). In conclusion, a very small dose of AII exhibits-at least in superficial nephrons-a typical preferential efferent effect which disappears after inhibition of prostanoid synthesis, indicating a protective effect of vasodilatory prostaglandins mainly on the afferent arteriole.
Hair cell recovery in the vestibular sensory epithelia of mature guinea pigs

The progression of recovery of the vestibular sensory epithelia of guinea pigs after gentamicin‐induced hair cell injury was assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Evaluations were made of the number of cells bearing hair bundles by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and of identifiable hair cells in thin sections. Both assessment procedures showed that an initial loss of hair cells in utricular maculae is followed by significant recovery in the number of hair cells present. SEM also showed recovery in saccules comparable to that in utricles. During the recovery, progressive maturation of hair bundles, which exhibited features similar to those seen during normal ontogenetic development of hair cells, could be identified. The pattern and extent of hair cell loss and subsequent reappearance revealed by SEM corresponded with that derived from analysis of thin sections. This suggests that repair of nonlethally damaged hair cells is unlikely but, rather, that new hair cells are produced. An apparent decrease in supporting cell numbers was observed coincident with the increase in hair cell numbers. This complements previous morphological observations, which have suggested new hair cells arise from direct, nonmitotic transdifferentiation of supporting cells. The quantitative analyses indicate that more than half of the hair cells that are lost are replaced, but the recovery process does not result in complete restoration of the epithelium. Eight months after the end of drug treatment, the number of hair cells present was still significantly less than normal, and several other abnormalities persisted. There was also no evidence of any hair cell recovery in the organ of Corti. Thus, there appear to be limitations on the capacity for spontaneous replacement of lost hair cells in the mammalian inner ear. J. Comp. Neurol. 397:69–88, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Chronic Viral Hepatitis Is Associated With Low Bone Mineral Density in HIV-Infected Patients, ANRS CO 3 Aquitaine Cohort

Background:High prevalence rates of low bone mineral density (BMD) have been reported in people living with HIV infection. We aimed to investigate the association of chronic viral hepatitis with low BMD in HIV-infected patients. Methods:A hospital-based cohort of HIV-infected patients was screened for hepatitis B and C coinfection. BMD was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. T-score was used to define bone status according to the World Health Organization’s classification; moreover, each observed BMD value was compared with reference to an average person of the same age and gender as a Z-score <−2.0 allow the diagnosis of patients having less bone mass and/or losing bone material more rapidly than expected. A polytomial logistic regression was performed by gender to investigate the association between chronic viral hepatitis and low BMD (osteopenia and osteoporosis) in HIV-infected patients. Results:A total of 626 patients (166 females of whom 52 postmenopausal) were recruited: 357 HIV monoinfected, and 269 HIV-coinfected with chronic viral hepatitis, among whom 61 with a diagnosis of cirrhosis. Osteopenia was present in 320 patients (51.1%) and osteoporosis in 187 (29.9%). After adjustment, osteoporosis was associated with older age and low body mass index in both genders. The association between chronic viral hepatitis B or C and osteoporosis was found in women only (odds ratio: 19.0; P value: 0.047). Conclusions:We found a high prevalence of low BMD overall, but chronic viral hepatitis was independently associated with osteoporosis only in female participants. Our data confirm the need of BMD evaluations for patients living with HIV.
Document Clustering With Dual Supervision Through Feature Reweighting

Traditional semi‐supervised clustering uses only limited user supervision in the form of instance seeds for clusters and pairwise instance constraints to aid unsupervised clustering. However, user supervision can also be provided in alternative forms for document clustering, such as labeling a feature by indicating whether it discriminates among clusters. This article thus fills this void by enhancing traditional semi‐supervised clustering with feature supervision, which asks the user to label discriminating features during defining (labeling) the instance seeds or pairwise instance constraints. Various types of semi‐supervised clustering algorithms were explored with feature supervision. Our experimental results on several real‐world data sets demonstrate that augmenting the instance‐level supervision with feature‐level supervision can significantly improve document clustering performance.