Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Premastication: the second arm of infant and young child feeding for health and survival?

Premastication of foods for infants was a crucial behavioural adaptation to neoteny that ensured nutritional adequacy during the period of complementary feeding throughout the course of human evolution until recent times.While the paps and gruels of agricultural systems provided an alternative and modern food technology appears to make it unnecessary, we argue that, in addition to its role in nutrition, premastication also played a crucial role in supporting infant health. Its abandonment, particularly in poor communities, has placed children at increased risk of inadequate nutrition and decreased ability to confront infections associated with the introduction of complementary foods.We present two empirical studies. Section I is a cross-cultural study of the ethnographic literature in order to estimate prevalence in non-Western societies.One-third of ethnographies in the worldwide sample with data on infant feeding report premastication. Section II presents the results of a qualitative study in China, conducted in order to provide data on the likelihood that this percent is incorrect due to under-reporting.The finding that 63% of Chinese university students received premasticated food as infants, whereas none of eight ethnographic studies performed in Han China identified premastication in their reports, provides support for the conclusion that the cross-cultural study grossly underestimates its prevalence in non-Western societies. Section III is a discussion of potential benefits and risks of infant exposure to maternal saliva.We conclude with the argument for a concerted research effort to determine whether premastication can solve not only the 'weanling dilemma' in poor countries but also some of the health problems among the better-off.
3D model retrieval based on visual shape and relevance feedback

In this paper, we propose a novel wavelet moment-based surface light source (WM-SLS) descriptor and enhanced gaussian potential function-based silhouette (GPF-S) descriptor, and on the basis of combination with adaboost relevance feedback, to build a 3D model retrieval of two-stage strategy. PCA method for model normalization is introduced to obtain optimal bounding box at first. Secondly, the first stage using GPF-S descriptor is to reduce the retrieval scope and the second stage using combined descriptors retrieves precisely. Finally, we apply adaboost algorithm to improve the retrieval performance by dynamically assigning different weights. Experimental results show that the proposed method is superior to other methods.
The benefits of Tai Chi and brisk walking for cognitive function and fitness in older adults

The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits of exercises with different cognitive demands for cognitive functions (Executive and non-Executive) in healthy older adults. A cross-sectional design was adopted. In total, 84 healthy older adults were enrolled in the study. They were categorized into the Tai Chi group (TG), the brisk walking group (BG) or the control group (CG). Each participant performed the Stroop task and a digit comparison task. The Stroop task included the following three conditions: a naming condition, an inhibition condition and an executive condition. There were two experimental conditions in the digit comparison task: the non-delay condition and the delay condition. The results indicated that participants of the TG and BG revealed significant better performance than the CG in the executive condition of cognitive tasks and fitness. There was no significant difference of reaction time (RT) and accuracy rate in the inhibition and delay conditions of cognitive tasks and fitness between the TG and BG. The TG showed shorter reaction time in the naming and the executive conditions, and more accurate in the inhibition conditions than the BG. These findings demonstrated that regular participation in brisk walking and Tai Chi have significant beneficial effects on executive function and fitness. However, due to the high cognitive demands of the exercise, Tai Chi benefit cognitive functions (Executive and non-Executive) in older adults more than brisk walking does. Further studies should research the underlying mechanisms at the behavioural and neuroelectric levels, providing more evidence to explain the effect of high-cognitive demands exercise on different processing levels of cognition.
Cruciform DNA Structure Underlies the Etiology for Palindrome-mediated Human Chromosomal Translocations*

There is accumulating evidence to suggest that palindromic AT-rich repeats (PATRRs) represent hot spots of double-strand breakage that lead to recurrent chromosomal translocations in humans. As a mechanism for such rearrangements, we proposed that the PATRR forms a cruciform structure that is the source of genomic instability. To test this hypothesis, we have investigated the tertiary structure of a cloned PATRR. We have observed that a plasmid containing this PATRR undergoes a conformational change, causing temperature-dependent mobility changes upon agarose gel electrophoresis. The mobility shift is observed in physiologic salt concentrations and is most prominent when the plasmid DNA is incubated at room temperature prior to electrophoresis. Analysis using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis indicates that the mobility shift results from the formation of a cruciform structure. S1 nuclease and T7 endonuclease both cut the plasmid into a linear form, also suggesting cruciform formation. Furthermore, anti-cruciform DNA antibody reduces the electrophoretic mobility of the PATRR-containing fragment. Finally, we have directly visualized cruciform extrusions from the plasmid DNA with the size expected of hairpin arms using atomic force microscopy. Our data imply that for human chromosomes, translocation susceptibility is mediated by PATRRs and likely results from their unstable conformation.
Comparison of Intratympanic and Intravenous Dexamethasone Treatment on Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss with Diabetes

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of intratympanic administration of dexamethasone (IT-DEX) treatment on sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) patients with diabetes by comparing the results with intravenous administration of dexamethasone (IV-DEX) treatment. Study Design: Comparative study. Setting: University hospital and affiliated hospital. Patients: Ten sequential SSNHL patients with diabetes receiving IT-DEX and 21 sequential SSNHL patients with diabetes receiving IV-DEX. Patients with low tone hearing loss were excluded. Intervention: In the IT-DEX group, two methods were applied to deliver DEX (4 mg/ml): injection through a perforation made by laser-assisted myringotomy or through a tympanostomy tube. IT-DEX administration was performed on 8 sequential days. In the IV-DEX group, DEX was administrated intravenously starting from an amount of 8 mg/d followed by taped doses for 10 days. Main Outcome Measures: Preprocedure and postprocedure hearing levels and complications. Results: In the IT-DEX group, the average hearing level before the treatment was 79 dB. Overall, all 10 patients showed improvement of more than 10 dB in the pure-tone audiogram, with a mean improvement of 41 dB. Seven patients (70%) demonstrated successful results, and four recovered completely. In the IV-DEX group, 14 (67%) of the 21 patients showed improvement of more than 10 dB with a mean improvement of 25 dB. Thirteen patients (62%) demonstrated successful results. Free blood sugar during and after the IT-DEX treatment remained below the pretreatment levels, whereas four patients in the IV-DEX group demonstrated worsening of the hyperglycemia. Conclusion: IT-DEX treatment is at least as effective as IV-DEX treatment for SSNHL patients with diabetes.
Intracarotid Amobarbital (Wada) Test for Language Dominance: Correlation with Results of Cortical Stimulation

Summary Eighty‐eight patients had bilateral intracarotid amobarbital (Wada) testing to determine hemispheric dominance for language in preparation for epilepsy surgery, as well as unilateral extraoperative cortical electrical stimulation using subdural electrode arrays. In none of the patients with left dominance by Wada testing were language areas found with right‐sided stimulation, but two patients with right dominance by Wada testing had language areas mapped on the left side. These findings suggest that left dominance by Wada testing is strong evidence for exclusive lateralization of language function in the left hemisphere, but there is concern about the ability of the Wada test to exclude the possibility of some left‐sided language function despite apparent right‐sided dominance. Patients with left dominance on Wada testing do not need cortical stimulation before extensive right temporal lobectomy, but we believe that patients with right or bilateral dominance on Wada testing should have cortical stimulation for localization of language areas if extensive left or right temporal or frontal resection is planned.
In vitro activity of DQ-2556, a new cephalosporin

The in vitro antibacterial activity of DQ-2556, a new semisynthetic cephalosporin, was compared with that of ceftazidime and cefotaxime. The activity of DQ-2556 against members of the family Enterobacteriaceae was roughly comparable to that of cefotaxime. Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, DQ-2556 was slightly less active than ceftazidime. DQ-2556 was more active than the reference cephalosporins against staphylococci. Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria gonorrhoeae were also highly susceptible to DQ-2556.
Printed tunable miniaturized Frequency Selective Surface with BST/polymer composite filled interdigital capacitors

Summary form only given. We present an electrically tunable Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) at X-band utilizing a novel version of Interdigital Capacitors (IDCs), in which the space between fingers are filled with a ferroelectric composite of Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) suspended in a polymer. We also introduce a low temperature, printed fabrication process on flexible films. The literature suggests the use of varactors based on ferroelectric ceramics as the electrically tunable element in FSSs. These varactors have low Q factor and are expensive to fabricate. The ceramics are brittle in nature and require very high processing temperature (~1100°C). On the other hand, tunable ferroelectric polymers such as Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) are lossy and slow in switching at microwave frequencies. However, a BST-polymer composite promises both excellent ferroelectric characteristics of the BST in its paraelectric phase and flexible processing of the polymer. A composite by mixing micro and nano size particles of sintered Ba0.55Sr0. 45TiO3 with a thermoplastic polymer, that has very low loss tangent at high frequencies, was prepared. It was found that when the key parameters - particle size and volume fraction - are tailored, high dielectric tunability up to 30% and low loss tangent are obtained for the composite, but the dielectric constant can be as low as 30 at microwave frequencies. To get around the low permittivity limitation, we introduced the filled IDC configuration that requires a dielectric constant as low as 20 for a frequency sweep range from 5.6 GHz to 12.8 GHz including full X-band (based on full-wave electromagnetic simulations), instead of the conventional IDCs with fingers on top of a BST ceramic layer that would require epsilon of few hundreds. Both computational and experimental results of the tunable filled IDC as well as the tunable FSS structure will be presented. Although, we demonstrate the implementation of this tunable filled IDC on FSS structures, this printable varactor can be utilized in various applications.
Increased audiovisual integration in cochlear‐implanted deaf patients: independent components analysis of longitudinal positron emission tomography data

It has been demonstrated in earlier studies that patients with a cochlear implant have increased abilities for audio‐visual integration because the crude information transmitted by the cochlear implant requires the persistent use of the complementary speech information from the visual channel. The brain network for these abilities needs to be clarified. We used an independent components analysis (ICA) of the activation (H215O) positron emission tomography data to explore occipito‐temporal brain activity in post‐lingually deaf patients with unilaterally implanted cochlear implants at several months post‐implantation (T1), shortly after implantation (T0) and in normal hearing controls. In between‐group analysis, patients at T1 had greater blood flow in the left middle temporal cortex as compared with T0 and normal hearing controls. In within‐group analysis, patients at T0 had a task‐related ICA component in the visual cortex, and patients at T1 had one task‐related ICA component in the left middle temporal cortex and the other in the visual cortex. The time courses of temporal and visual activities during the positron emission tomography examination at T1 were highly correlated, meaning that synchronized integrative activity occurred. The greater involvement of the visual cortex and its close coupling with the temporal cortex at T1 confirm the importance of audio‐visual integration in more experienced cochlear implant subjects at the cortical level.
Inhibition of Interferon Regulatory Factor 4 Suppresses Th1 and Th17 Cell Differentiation and Ameliorates Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that is characterized by recurrent episodes of T‐cell‐mediated immune attack on central nervous system (CNS) myelin, leading to axon damage and progressive disability. Interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) is expressed predominantly in the immune system and plays an important role in its development and function. Recent study demonstrated that IRF4 was critical for the generation of IL‐17‐producing Th17 cells. However, the effect of IRF4 on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS, needs to be further investigated. In our current study, inhibition of IRF4 with IRF4 siRNA (SiIRF4) decreases EAE scores and infiltration of Th1 and Th17 cells, but increases Treg infiltration. SiIRF4 inhibits Th1 and Th17 cell differentiation in vivo and in vitro. In our DC‐T‐cell coculture system, SiIRF4‐treated DCs resulted in significantly less IFN‐γ and IL‐17 production from T cells. Next, we adoptively transfer CD11c+ DCs from SiIRF4‐treated mice into recipient mice and found that these CD11c+ DCs ameliorated EAE. Furthermore, CD11c+ DCs from SiIRF4‐treated naive mice exhibited significantly reduced expression of pro‐inflammatory cytokines TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐6 and IL‐12/IL‐23 (p40), and a corresponding increase in anti‐inflammatory IL‐10 expression. In conclusion, inhibition of IRF4 suppresses Th1 and Th17 cell differentiation and ameliorates EAE, via a direct regulation of DCs.
Knock-out of the Plastid-encoded PetL Subunit Results in Reduced Stability and Accelerated Leaf Age-dependent Loss of the Cytochrome b6f Complex*

The cytochrome-b6 f complex, a key component of the photosynthetic electron transport chain, contains a number of very small protein subunits whose functions are not well defined. Here we have investigated the function of the 31-amino acid PetL subunit encoded in the chloroplast genome in all higher plants. Chloroplast-transformed petL knock-out tobacco plants display no obvious phenotype, suggesting that PetL is not essential for cytochrome b6 f complex biogenesis and function (Fiebig, A., Stegemann, S., and Bock, R. (2004) Nucleic Acids Res. 32, 3615–3622). We show here that, whereas young mutant leaves accumulate comparable amounts of cytochrome b6 f complex and have an identical assimilation capacity as wild type leaves, both cytochrome b6 f complex contents and assimilation capacities of mature and old leaves are strongly reduced in the mutant, indicating that the cytochrome b6 f complex is less stable than in the wild type. Reduced complex stability was also confirmed by in vitro treatments of isolated thylakoids with chaotropic reagents. Adaptive responses observed in the knockout mutants, such as delayed down-regulation of plastocyanin contents, indicate that plants can sense the restricted electron flux to photosystem I yet cannot compensate the reduced stability of the cytochrome b6 f complex by adaptive up-regulation of complex synthesis. We propose that efficient cytochrome b6 f complex biogenesis occurs only in young leaves and that the capacity for de novo synthesis of the complex is very low in mature and aging leaves. Gene expression analysis indicates that the ontogenetic down-regulation of cytochrome b6 f complex biogenesis occurs at the post-transcriptional level.
Transcriptional Analysis by Nascent RNA FISH of In Vivo Trophoblast Giant Cells or In Vitro Short-term Cultures of Ectoplacental Cone Explants

The placenta derives from one extra-embryonic lineage, the trophectoderm. In the peri-implantation murine blastocyst, mural trophectoderm cells differentiate into primary trophoblast giant cells (TGCs) while the polar trophectoderm overlying the inner cell mass continues to proliferate later differentiating into secondary TGCs. TGCs play a key role in developing placenta and are essential for a successful pregnancy. Investigation of transcriptional regulation of specific genes during post-implantation development can give insights into TGCs development. Cells of the ectoplacental cone (EPC) from embryos at 7-7.5 days of gestation (E7-7.5), derived from the polar trophectoderm, differentiate into secondary TGCs1. TGCs can be studied in situ, on cryostat sections of embryos at E7 although the number of TGCs is very low at this stage. An alternative means of analyzing secondary TGCs is to use short-term cultures of individual EPCs from E7 embryos. We propose a technique to investigate the transcriptional status of genes of interest both in vivo and in vitro at the single-cell level using fluorescent in situ hybridization (RNA FISH) to visualize nascent transcripts. This technique provides a direct readout of gene expression and enables assessment of the chromosomal status of TGCs, which are large endoreplicating cells. Indeed, a key feature of terminal differentiation of TGCs is that they exit the cell cycle and undergo multiple rounds of endoreplication.This approach can be applied to detect expression of any gene expressed from autosomes and/or sex chromosomes and can provide important information into developmental mechanisms as well as placental diseases.
Evaluation of log‐rank tests for infrequent observations from a multi‐state process, with application to HPV vaccine efficacy

Genital infection by human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted disease, with over 25 per cent prevalence among young women in the US. Infections are usually without symptoms and transient (or reversible), but a small proportion of infections persist and are believed to be responsible for nearly all cervical cancers and precursor lesions such as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Therefore, successful vaccines against persistent HPV infections could have a great impact in preventing cervical cancers. In trials being planned, ongoing, and recently completed, a log‐rank or a similar test may be employed to assess a vaccine effect in comparison to placebo, with an infection ‘event’ defined to capture persistent but not transient infections. However, it is not clear how best to define such an event, because (1) diagnostic tests cannot distinguish a persistent from a transient infection, (2) participants are only examined periodically, and (3) there can be misclassification errors in the detection of infections. This paper evaluates several definitions of persistent infection that are based on periodically observed infection statuses by postulating a multi‐state model for persistent and transient infections. The type I error and the power of tests on vaccine efficacy based on these operational definitions are then examined under various scenarios of how a vaccine might affect the infection–disease process. We find that none of the candidates performs satisfactorily, thus raising concerns that clinical trials based only on infection endpoints will not be reliable. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Role of Elections in Boosting Good Governance

This paper presents a discussion on the role of elections in boosting good governance. The first part provides a historical background on election. The second part reveals challenges to accepting the elections results by various political parties. The paper further indulges in narrating the functions of elections and the need for skilled labor in managing elections for achieving good governance. It also reveals that in order for elections to be vital concerning good governance, voter education must be provided to the voters, which will articulate the importance of electing competent leaders at the expense of weak leaders. Good governance cannot exist unless good leaders exist. The paper has concluded that the preparation of elections processes, registration of voters, voting, counting, collation and declaration of the winner in any election, effective elections management is crucial. The entire public administration depends much on the electors. The stability of Judiciary, the Parliament and the Executives is highly dependent on how elections are carried. The weak the electoral organization the more likely is the elected leaders, in this case the appointing authority and finally the appointees, which will finally determine the integrity of governance.
Inheritance of low-density lipoprotein subclass patterns: results of complex segregation analysis.

Heterogeneity in the size of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles was used to identify two distinct patterns based on gradient gel electrophoresis analysis. These two phenotypes, LDL subclass pattern A and pattern B, were characterized by a predominance of large, buoyant LDL particles and small, dense LDL particles, respectively. The inheritance of these LDL subclass patterns was investigated in a sample of 61 healthy families including 301 individuals. LDL subclass pattern B was present in 31% of the subjects, with the prevalence varying by gender, age, and (in women) menopausal status. Complex segregation analysis suggested a major locus controlling LDL subclass patterns. The model providing the best fit to the data included a dominant mode of inheritance with a frequency of . 25 for the allele determining LDL subclass pattern B and reduced penetrance for men under age 20 and for premenopausal women. Thus, the allele for the LDL subclass pattern characterized by a predominance of small, dense LDL particles appears to be very common in the population, although not usually expressed until adulthood in men and until after menopause in women. The presence of a major gene controlling LDL subclass could explain much of the familial aggregation of lipid and apolipoprotein levels and may be involved in increased risk of coronary heart disease.