Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Induction of homologous and cross‐reactive GII.4‐specific blocking antibodies in children after GII.4 New Orleans norovirus infection

Noroviruses (NoVs) are major causative agents of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children worldwide and the most common viral cause of AGE in countries where rotavirus incidence has been eliminated by vaccination. Previous infections with the dominant GII.4 NoV genotype confer only partial protection against evolving immune escape variants that emerge every few years. The objective of this work was to investigate GII.4‐specific homologous and cross‐reactive antibody responses in young children after NoV GII.4‐2009 New Orleans (NO) infection. Virus‐like particles (VLPs) representing GII.4‐1999, GII.4‐2009 NO, and GII.4‐2012 Sydney genotypes were used in ELISA and histo‐blood group antigen blocking assays to examine acute and convalescent sera of five children <2 years of age infected with GII.4‐2009 NO. GII.4‐2009 NO infection induced IgG seroconversion to all three tested NoV GII.4 variants. Homologous blocking antibodies to GII.4‐2009 NO were detected in each convalescent sera. Fourfold increase in cross‐blocking antibodies to GII.4‐2012 Sydney was observed in 4/5 subjects, but no child developed cross‐blocking antibodies to GII.4‐1999. In conclusion, antibodies induced in young children after norovirus GII.4 infection are targeted against the causative variant and may cross‐protect against strains that are closely related, but not with more distinct and earlier GII.4 genotypes. J. Med. Virol. 87:1656–1661, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Pose estimation and frontal face detection for face recognition

This paper proposes a pose estimation and frontal face detection algorithm for face recognition. Considering it's application in a real-world environment, the algorithm has to be robust yet computationally efficient. The main contribution of this paper is the efficient face localization, scale and pose estimation using color models. Simulation results showed very low computational load when compare to other face detection algorithm. The second contribution is the introduction of low dimensional statistical face geometrical model. Compared to other statistical face model the proposed method models the face geometry efficiently. The algorithm is demonstrated on a real-time system. The simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm is computationally efficient.
Evaluating amber force fields using computed NMR chemical shifts

NMR chemical shifts can be computed from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using a template matching approach and a library of conformers containing chemical shifts generated from ab initio quantum calculations. This approach has potential utility for evaluating the force fields that underlie these simulations. Imperfections in force fields generate flawed atomic coordinates. Chemical shifts obtained from flawed coordinates have errors that can be traced back to these imperfections. We use this approach to evaluate a series of AMBER force fields that have been refined over the course of two decades (ff94, ff96, ff99SB, ff14SB, ff14ipq, and ff15ipq). For each force field a series of MD simulations are carried out for eight model proteins. The calculated chemical shifts for the 1H, 15N, and 13Ca atoms are compared with experimental values. Initial evaluations are based on root mean squared (RMS) errors at the protein level. These results are further refined based on secondary structure and the types of atoms involved in nonbonded interactions. The best chemical shift for identifying force field differences is the shift associated with peptide protons. Examination of the model proteins on a residue by residue basis reveals that force field performance is highly dependent on residue position. Examination of the time course of nonbonded interactions at these sites provides explanations for chemical shift differences at the atomic coordinate level. Results show that the newer ff14ipq and ff15ipq force fields developed with the implicitly polarized charge method perform better than the older force fields.
Band-notched UWB antennas: Recent trends and development

Since the approval and allocation of the frequency range of 3.1-10.6 GHz, ultrawideband (UWB) technology has become one of the most promising technologies for the high-data-rate wireless communications. Compact UWB antenna, as an essential part of the UWB system, has become the main subject of recent researches. Several techniques have been reported in the literature showing desirable characteristics. However, with an increase in the number of wireless communication devices, there is a problem of a possible electromagnetic interference, as over the allocated spectrum of the UWB system, some narrow band of other communication standards exist. In this paper, we summarize the main recent applied techniques used to suppress electromagnetic interferences with such narrow bands. Three notched bands relative to WiMAX, WLAN and for downlink X-band satellite communication systems are achieved by incorporating a stick of semicircular half-wavelength and open-ended quarter-wavelength straight slots etched in the radiating patch. Dual notched-bands can also achieved by incorporating two Γ-shaped slits and Ω-shaped parasitic structure in the radiating patch. Another technique, applied to suppress interference, consisted of two short-circuited folded Stepped Impedance Resonators (SIRs) embedded in the ground plane. The last presented band-notching technique consists of incorporating slots in both radiating patch and ground plane. The studies and discuss are followed by experimental and simulated reported results such as the coefficient reflexion over the allocated spectrum of the UWB system, the impedance bandwidth, radiation patterns and the antenna dimensions.
Posterior Capsule Opacification 9 Years after Phacoemulsification with a Hydrophobic and a Hydrophilic Intraocular Lens

Purpose To compare the development of posterior capsule opacification (PCO) and survival rate without capsulotomy after implantation of a hydrophobic or hydrophilic acrylic intraocular lens (IOL) at the 9-year postoperative follow-up. Methods One of 3 experienced cataract surgeons performed standard phacoemulsification in one eye of 120 patients with cataract. The patients were randomized to implantation of either a hydrophobic acrylic IOL or a hydrophilic acrylic IOL. Both IOLs had sharp posterior edges. Retroillumination images of PCO were obtained with a fundus camera 9 years postoperatively and analyzed semiobjectively using POCOman computer software. Results Seventy-eight of the 120 patients completed the 9-year follow-up examination. Patients implanted with the hydrophilic IOL had significantly (p<0.001) more and denser PCO. The survival rate without Nd:YAG capsulotomy was significantly higher (p<0.001) in eyes with the hydrophobic IOL. Conclusions After 9 years, more and denser PCO developed in eyes with the hydrophilic IOL than the hydrophobic IOL. The survival rate without the need for capsulotomy was higher in eyes with the hydrophobic IOL.
Alternate day and daily administration of GnRH antagonist may prevent premature luteinization to a similar extent during FSH treatment.

BACKGROUND This randomized controlled trial was designed to evaluate whether a GnRH antagonist given every other day could prevent premature luteinization in women undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment. METHODS A total of 73 women receiving ovulation stimulation IVF cycles with recombinant FSH were allocated randomly on cycle day 7 to GnRH antagonist ganirelix in multiple doses (0.25 mg each), either daily (n = 37 women, group 1) or every other day (n = 36 women, group 2) until the day of HCG administration. RESULTS Serum FSH, LH, estradiol and progesterone values showed similar trends in the two groups. During FSH stimulation, 13 (35%) of the women in group 1 had premature LH rises (> or = 10 IU/l) of which eight (22%) were after the start of antagonist administration. In group 2 there were 14 (39%) LH rises during FSH stimulation of which 10 (28%) were after the start of antagonist administration. Luteinization (serum progesterone >2 ng/ml) occurred in only one woman in each group overall (3%). A significantly smaller total dose of the antagonist was used in group 2 than in group 1 (P < 0.001). The study did not have power to evaluate differences in total dose of FSH, number of oocytes recovered and clinical pregnancy rate, all of which appeared similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Whether alternate day is as effective as daily administration of ganirelix in preventing premature luteinization should be addressed in a non-inferiority trial powered to evaluate live birth rate.
Effect of thiopentone-nitrous oxide anaesthesia and surgery on plasma testosterone levels in human males.

SUMMARY The effect of thiopentone-nitrous oxide anaesthesia and surgery on plasma testosterone levels in 13 male patients was studied. Significant reductions of plasma testosterone levels were observed at 15 and 30 but not at 45 minutes of anaesthesia without surgery. Levels were not significantly lowered during surgery but were in the recovery period. The greatest reduction was to a mean of 61 per cent on the first postoperative day. The significant fall was still noted 7 days after operation.
Mechanism of Action of Isolated Caffeic Acid and Epicatechin 3-gallate from Euphorbia hirta against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Background: The escalating dominance of resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains as infectious pathogen had urged the researchers to look for alternative and complementary drugs. Objective: The objective of this study is to address the biological targets and probable mechanisms of action underlying the potent antibacterial effect of the isolated compounds from Euphorbia hirta (L.) against P. aeruginosa. Materials and Methods: The action mechanisms of caffeic acid (CA) and epicatechin 3-gallate (ECG) on P. aeruginosa cells were investigated by several bacterial physiological manifestations involving outer membrane permeabilization, intracellular potassium ion efflux, and nucleotide leakage. Results: The findings revealed that ECG and CA targeted both cell wall and cytoplasmic membrane of P. aeruginosa. The cellular membrane destruction and ensuing membrane permeability perturbation of P. aeruginosa had led to the ascending access of hydrophobic antibiotics, release of potassium ions, and leakages of nucleotides. Conclusion: The overall study concludes that ECG and CA isolated from E. hirta possess remarkable anti-infective potentials which can be exploited as drug template for the development of new antibacterial agent against resistant P. aeruginosa pathogen. Abbreviations used: ECG: Epicatechin 3-gallate; CA: Caffeic acid; E. hirta: Euphoria hirta.
Environmental conditions and physiological state influence estuarine movements of homing sockeye salmon

The reproductive migration of anadromous salmonids through estuarine waters is one of the most challenging stages of their life cycle, yet little is known about the environmental and physiological conditions that influence migratory behaviour. We captured, sampled tissues, tagged and released 365 sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) homing through inner coastal waters towards the Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. Biotelemetry was used to assess the behaviour of individual sockeye salmon approaching estuarine waters and at river entry, which were related to both fish physiological condition at release and to prevailing environmental conditions. Sockeye salmon tended to stay close to the shore, migrated during the day, and movements were related to tide. Sockeye salmon migration rate was linked to wind-induced currents, salinity and an individual's physiological state, but these factors were specific to location and stock. We propose that wind-induced currents exposed sockeye salmon entering the estuary to stronger olfactory cues associated with Fraser River water, which in turn resulted in faster migration rates presumably due to either an increased ability for olfactory navigation and/or advanced reproductive schedule through a neuroendocrine response to olfactory cues. However, once the migration had progressed further into more concentrated freshwater of the river plume, sockeye salmon presumably used wind-induced currents to aid in movements towards the river, which may be associated with energy conservation. Results from this study improve our biological understanding of the movements of Fraser River sockeye salmon and are also broadly relevant to other anadromous salmonids homing in marine environments.
Robust Control of Networked Systems With Variable Communication Capabilities and Application to a Semi-Active Suspension System

This paper is concerned with a robust control problem of a class of networked systems operated within a multiple communication channels (MCCs) environment. A practical scenario is considered that the active channel in such MCCs for the data communication is switched and the switching is governed by a Markov chain. For each channel, two network-induced imperfections, time delays, and packet dropouts with different characteristics are taken into account. Suppose that the practical plant is subject to energy-bounded disturbance and norm-bounded uncertainties, a robust controller is designed to ensure that the closed-loop system is robustly stable and achieves a disturbance attenuation index against the phenomenon of channel switching. A semi-active suspension system is introduced to illustrate the effectiveness, applicability of the proposed approach, and to demonstrate the advantages of the MCCs scheme within the channel-switching framework.
DEMOGRAPHIC DATA ON THE CHARACTERIZATION OF ORAL CLEFTS IN MALAYSIA 1

The aim of this study was to investigate current epidemiology of several types of oral clefts among the patients receiving treatment at two tertiary care hospitals, namely University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) Kuala Lumpur , and Hospital Kota Bharu / Hospital Raja Perumpuan Zainab II (HKB/ HRPZII) Kelantan. This study evaluated the records of 526 cleft lip and palate (CLP) patients with or without additional malformations, who came for treatment during 2003 to 2007. Of the total 526 patients registered in the study hospital records during the study period, 338 were from HKB/ HRPZ II and 188 from UMMC. Majority 86.7% of these patients were in the age group ≤=18years. The results of this study show that 57% females and 43 % males were affected by oral cleft. Out of the total patients, 77.8% were CLP, 13.5% were cleft palate (CP), and 8.7% were cleft lip (CL) patients. Moreover 57.2% patients were with unilateral cleft, 32.7% were left sided and 24.5% were right sided. Total 42.8% patients were with bilateral oral cleft. To best of our knowledge this is the first reported multi-center study on CLP in Malaysia with regard to the proportion of different types of oral clefts.
Production of embryos by oocyte cytoplastblastomere fusion in domestic animals

Embryos of amphibians, sheep, cattle, pigs and rabbits have been multiplied by nuclear transfer. Successful nuclear transfer in these species has been accomplished by transfer of a blastomere from a late-stage embryo into an enucleated oocyte with large scale multiplication by repeating the procedure using blastomeres from the embryos produced from nuclear transfer. This allows the production of clonal lines which, when appropriately selected for performance in a given trait, can be reproduced to capture in the offspring expression of additive and non-additive inheritance. The efficiency of these procedures is high only for amphibian embryos for which as many as 1000 offspring can be made from a blastulato gastrula-stage embryo and the process repeated 60-100 times with descendant embryos. In domestic animals the largest number of offspring from one embryo has been 8 calves. Embryos as late as the 64-cell stage in cattle and 120-cell blastocyst in sheep have been used successfully as donors of blastomeres. Recloning has also been done in cattle. Nuclear transfer potentially provides a mechanism for multiplication and production testing of clonal lines, a method for rapid genetic improvement and rapid propagation of a selected genotype. Unfortunately the present efficiencies of subsequent embryo development, pregnancy and embryo survival are less than normal. This paper reviews variables contributing to reduced efficiency and research to improve nuclear transfer.
Spanish-accented English is Spanish to English-learning 5-month-olds

Infants use prosody to distinguish between rhythmically-distinct languages, but in multilingual settings infants often encounter speakers who learned one or more of their languages later in life. Late learners of a language typically carry over the timing of their L1 into their L2. Can infants tell when a single heavily-accented speaker switches between two rhythmically-distinct languages? Or do infants have difficulty tracking which language this person is speaking? Here, we address this question by examining 5-month-olds’ ability to discriminate native Spanish from English speech samples produced by either a L2 English speaker (Experiment 1) or a L1 English speaker (Experiment 2). Infants succeeded in discriminating the two languages in Experiment 2, but not in Experiment 1. This suggests that infants perceived the Spanishaccented English as more Spanish-like than Englishlike. These findings underscore the importance of considering real-world speaker-related language variability in models of infant speech perception and language development.
Oral Changes Associated with Tobacco Use

&NA; Tobacco is a delivery system for the addictive agent nicotine. The dental profession is encouraged to perform oral examinations that focus on oral cancer detection, but other oral changes occur with tobacco use. The oral mucosa is composed of stratified squamous epithelium and masticatory/keratinized (hard palate, dorsum of the tongue, and keratinized gingival) and lining mucosa (floor of the mouth, ventrolateral surface of the tongue, soft palate complex, labial vestibule, and buccal mucosa). Tobacco use affects the surface epithelium, resulting in changes in the appearance of the tissues. The changes may range from an increase in pigmentation to thickening of the epithelium (white lesion). Tobacco use can also irritate the minor salivary glands on the hard palate and directly increase a person’s risk for periodontal disease and oral cancer. This article will review some of the more common oral lesions that are associated with tobacco use—smoker’s melanosis, nicotinic stomatitis, periodontal disease, smokeless tobacco keratosis, gingival recession/tooth abrasion, black hairy tongue, and oral cancer.
Characterization of a novel founder MSH6 mutation causing Lynch syndrome in the French Canadian population

We identified an MSH6 mutation (c.10C>T, p.Gln4*) causing Lynch syndrome (LS) in 11 French Canadian (FC) families from the Canadian province of Quebec. We aimed to investigate the molecular and clinical implications of this mutation among FC carriers and to assess its putative founder origin. We studied 11 probands and 27 family members. Additionally 6433 newborns, 187 colorectal cancer (CRC) cases, 381 endometrial cancer (EC) cases and 179 additional controls, all of them from Quebec, were used. Found in approximately 1 of 400 newborns, the mutation is one of the most common LS mutations described. We have found that this mutation confers a greater risk for EC than for CRC, both in the 11 studied families and in the unselected cases: EC [odds ratio (OR) = 7.5, p < 0.0001] and CRC (OR = 2.2, p = 0.46). Haplotype analyses showed that the mutation arose in a common ancestor, probably around 430–656 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of the first French settlers. Application of the results of this study could significantly improve the molecular testing and clinical management of LS families in Quebec.
Digital calibration incorporating redundancy of flash ADCs

As feature size and supply voltage shrink, digital calibration incorporating redundancy of flash analog-to-digital converters is becoming attractive. This new scheme allows accuracy to be achieved through the use of redundancy and reassignment, effectively decoupling analog performance from component matching. Very large comparator offsets (several LSBs) are tolerated, allowing the comparators to be small, fast and power efficient. In this paper, we analyze this scheme and compare with it with more traditional approaches.
Hemostasis and Thrombosis in Trauma Patients

Abstract Hemostasis and thrombosis in trauma patients consist of physiological hemostasis for wound healing and the pathological reaction of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Whole body trauma, isolated brain injury, and fat embolism syndrome, if extremely severe, can cause DIC and affect a patient's prognosis. Shock-induced hyperfibrinolysis causes DIC with the fibrinolytic phenotype, contributing to oozing-type severe bleeding. If uncontrolled, this phenotype progresses to thrombotic phenotype at the late stage of trauma, followed by microvascular thrombosis, leading to organ dysfunction. Another type of pathological hemostatic change is acute coagulopathy of trauma shock (ACOTS), which gives rise to activated protein C–mediated systemic hypocoagulation, resulting in bleeding. ACOTS occurs only in trauma associated with shock-induced hypoperfusion and there is nothing to suggest DIC in this phenomenon. This review will provide information about the recent advances in hemostasis and thrombosis in trauma and will clarify the pathogeneses of the pathological processes observed in trauma patients.
Emergence of a Clinical Daptomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolate during Treatment of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia and Osteomyelitis

ABSTRACT The emergence of a clinically daptomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolate occurred during treatment of methicillin-resistant S. aureus bacteremia and probable vertebral osteomyelitis. The breakthrough isolate was indistinguishable from pretreatment daptomycin-susceptible isolates by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Daptomycin nonsusceptibility was confirmed by MIC and time-kill curve analyses.
Development of Slow‐wave Sleep in Low‐birthweight Infants

On the basis of 223 serial polygraphic eeg recordings made of 27 pre‐term, 72 small‐for‐dates and two hypoxic full‐term infants, the duration and percentages of total quiet‐sleep time per one sleep cycle spent in slow‐wave sleep and trace alternant (or trace discontinu) were studied, with the following results. (1) The duration of quiet sleep was constant between 32 weeks and 45 weeks' conceptional age. (2) The slow‐wave sleep pattern emerged from quiet sleep at about 35 to 36 weeks and gradually increased thereafter to replace immature trace alternant at 44 to 45 weeks. (3) Small‐for‐dates infants of toxemic mothers showed delayed maturation compared with those of non‐toxemic mothers and pre‐term appropriate‐for‐dates infants of the same age. (4) The two hypoxic infants had abnormal sequences of development of slow‐wave sleep. Depending upon the degree of hypoxic damage, slow‐wave sleep was affected to a variable degree. (5) The developmental sequence of slow‐wave sleep is one of the useful indices of the maturity of the central nervous system of the newborn infant, though it is unreliable for the assessment of conceptional age because of the considerable individual variability.