Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Analysis of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a Causative Agent of Bronchopulmonary Infection: Relation to Colonization in the Upper Respiratory Tract

ABSTRACT Using five diagnostic markers, we compared the types of 72 strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated simultaneously from the nasal cavity, pharynx, and sputum from 24 patients. Almost identical MRSA types had colonized the nasal cavity and sputum from the same patient for 21 (88%) of the patients. We speculate that most MRSA organisms isolated in sputum are derived from the nasal cavity, while a few are derived from the pharynx.
Interpersonal Sensitivity in Computer-Mediated and Face-to-Face Conversations

Two studies were designed to assess the impact of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on the development of dominant/subordinate status roles and on the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions during dyadic, text-based conversations. Results comparing face-to-face (FtF) and synchronous CMC interactions indicated: (a) that dyads established dominant/subordinate roles in both communicative environments, although these roles were more clearly differentiated in the CMC interactions; and (b) that the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions did not differ substantially during CMC and FtF interactions. Considered together, these data pose problems for theoretical accounts of CMC suggesting that the impoverished social cues in this form of text-based communication tend to equalize hierarchical differences in the status of participants and undermine the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions.
An in vivo model of experimental arterial stenosis, intimal damage, and periodic thrombosis.

Coronary artery bypass grafts, angioplasty, and thrombolysis are beneficial procedures for patients with coronary artery disease. However, these procedures can fail by mechanisms related to interactions between platelets and the damaged arterial wall. An experimental model for studying some of the mechanisms of platelet interaction with endothelial- and medial-damaged stenosed arteries is described. Dogs or pigs are anesthetized, and the chest opened. The heart is exposed, the circumflex or left anterior descending coronary artery is dissected out, and an EMF or Doppler flow probe is placed on it. Distal to the flow probe, the artery is clamped with a vascular clamp to produce endothelial and/or medial injury. Then, an encircling plastic cylinder is placed around the outside of the injured artery, producing a "critical stenosis. " Acute platelet thrombus formation begins to occur in the stenosed lumen, gradually increasing the amount of stenosis. This causes the coronary flow to decline and reach zero flow when the artery is completely occluded. Then, the thrombus is embolized into the distal circulation, and flow is restored to normal levels. This occurs repeatedly causing cyclic flow reductions (CFRs). These CFRs can be made larger and to occur more frequently by increasing in vivo platelet activity, by raising the plasma catecholamine levels, or by increasing the collagen exposed in the stenosed lumen by increased medial damage. If an effective dose of an antiplatelet agent is given, the CFRs will be decreased in size and frequency or abolished entirely. Aspirin and other agents abolish the CFRs in this model; however, CFRs can be renewed by infusions of catecholamines or platelet activating factor. Thus, the model may be useful for studying mechanisms that enhance or inhibit arterial thrombosis in stenosed arteries with endothelial and medial injury.
Elevated globotriaosylsphingosine is a hallmark of Fabry disease

Fabry disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disease caused by deficiency of α-galactosidase A that affects males and shows disease expression in heterozygotes. The characteristic progressive renal insufficiency, cardiac involvement, and neuropathology usually are ascribed to globotriaosylceramide accumulation in the endothelium. However, no direct correlation exists between lipid storage and clinical manifestations, and treatment of patients with recombinant enzymes does not reverse several key signs despite clearance of lipid from the endothelium. We therefore investigated the possibility that globotriaosylceramide metabolites are a missing link in the pathogenesis. We report that deacylated globotriaosylceramide, globotriaosylsphingosine, and a minor additional metabolite are dramatically increased in plasma of classically affected male Fabry patients and plasma and tissues of Fabry mice. Plasma globotriaosylceramide levels are reduced by therapy. We show that globotriaosylsphingosine is an inhibitor of α-galactosidase A activity. Furthermore, exposure of smooth muscle cells, but not fibroblasts, to globotriaosylsphingosine at concentrations observed in plasma of patients promotes proliferation. The increased intima-media thickness in Fabry patients therefore may be related to the presence of this metabolite. Our findings suggest that measurement of circulating globotriaosylsphingosine will be useful to monitor Fabry disease and may contribute to a better understanding of the disorder.
Calculations of electrostatic interactions in biological systems and in solutions

Correlating the structure and action of biological molecules requires knowledge of the corresponding relation between structure and energy. Probably the most important factors in such a structure– energy correlation are associated with electrostatic interactions. Thus the key requirement for quantative understanding of the action of biological molecules is the ability to correlate electrostatic interactions with structural information. To appreciate this point it is useful to compare the electrostatic energy of a charged amino acid in a polar solvent to the corresponding van der Waals energy. The electrostatic free energy, ΔGel, can be approximated (as will be shown in Section II) by the Born formula (ΔGel = –(166Q2/ā) (I – I/E)). Where ΔGel is given in kcal/mol, Qis the charge of the given group, in units of electron charge, āis the effective radius of the group, and E is the dielectric constant of the solvent. With an effective radius of charged amino acids of approximately 2 Å, Born's formula gives about – 80 kcal/mol for their energy in polar solvents where E is larger than 10. This energy is two orders of magnitude larger than the van der Waals interaction of such groups and their surroundings.
Exploiting dual-polarization technique in weather radar for civil aircrafts to mitigate risk in adverse conditions

Trajectory of civil aircrafts is typically optimized off-board to optimize fuel consumption, using also information available from weather services. Changes to the set route are decided by the pilot based on METAR and NOTAM updates and unexpected adverse weather conditions detected by the weather radar installed on the nose of the aircraft [1]. Typically, weather radars of most civil aircrafts are single-polarization X-band systems (only larger airplanes use C-band) with 3° beam-width flat antenna, following the specifications set by the ARINC 708A standard. Notoriously, attenuation due to propagation through a precipitation filled medium is not negligible at X-band and in the presence of cluster of convective cells, the nearer cells masks or weakens returns from farther cells, ultimately determining a wrong input to the pilot's decision on optimal trajectory. Unfortunately, attenuation correction techniques applicable to single polarization radar are notoriously unreliable and strongly affected by radar calibration bias. Conversely, dual polarization technologies in ground based weather radar have demonstrated the capability of mitigating X-band attenuation based on differential phase shift measurements [2] and therefore could be successfully exploited for civil aviation weather radars. Current systems show to the pilot precipitation returns according to a few levels of reflectivity (the correspondence between colors and levels of reflectivity is not shown) and, within a shorter range, also information on turbulence detected from radar Doppler spectrum width. Meteorological interpretation of such images is largely left to the pilot's experience. Dual polarization radar provides more information arising from the sensitivity their measurements to microphysical properties of particles exploited in hydrometeor classification products [3]. On the other hand, dealing with more information yields increased workload for pilot and therefore, to keep simple and effective the information shown to the pilot, an automated software to process dual-polarization measurements along with trajectory information to support the pilot in decision making is essential. The European Union, through the Clean Sky framework funded several projects to improve airborne weather radars and to optimally use them to optimize flight route. The project KLEAN aimed at using output of the Selex ES Weather Radar Post-Processor software (WRPP) inside an EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) to produce weather classification maps and related binary risk maps as the final radar product to be shown to the pilots or to be used by a trajectory optimizer.
Metaraminol Infusion for Maintenance of Arterial Blood Pressure During Spinal Anesthesia for Cesarean Delivery: The Effect of a Crystalloid Bolus

We randomly allocated women having elective cesarean delivery to receive either no bolus (Control Group, n = 31) or 20 mL/kg lactated Ringer’s solution (Bolus Group, n = 35) IV before spinal anesthesia. An infusion of metaraminol started at 0.25 mg/min was titrated to maintain systolic arterial blood pressure in the target range 90%–100% of baseline. The total dose of metaraminol required up to the time of uterine incision was similar between the Control Group and the Bolus Group (3.62 ± 1.20 vs 3.27 ± 1.39 mg, P = 0.3). However, the Control Group required more metaraminol in the first 5 min (1.29 ± 0.60 vs 0.96 ± 0.58 mg, P = 0.025) and a faster maximum infusion rate (0.45 ± 0.20 vs 0.32 ± 0.13 mg/min, P = 0.002) compared with the Bolus Group. There was no difference between groups in regards to changes in systolic arterial blood pressure or heart rate over time, or maternal or neonatal outcome. We conclude that when metaraminol is used to maintain arterial pressure during spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery, crystalloid bolus is not essential provided that sufficient vasopressor is given in the immediate postspinal period.
Strategic Voting , Mixed and Runoff Elections : Evidence from Hungary

I attempt to quantify strategic voting using the mixed (proportional and plurality) dual ballot election system in Hungary. The main finding is that there is a moderate amount of desertion of “third parties”. The smaller the likelihood of a second round, and the closer the large parties are, the more pronounced the desertion, consistent with a hypothesis of strategic voting. I thank Chishio Furukawa, Brian Knight, Gábor Simonovits and Neil Thakral for their comments.
Online object tracking based on L1-loss SVMs with motion constraints

Orange technologies focus on individual behavior analysis, and the core of which is object tracking, especially arbitrary object tracking. One of the popular solution for arbitrary object tracking is tracking by detection. These approaches regard the tracking problem as a detection task, and use the online learning methods to adapt the classifier to various object appearance changes. However, due to lack of prior knowledge and unpredictable appearance changes, it is always hard to get accurate target location during the whole tracking process. In this paper, we incorporate a motion model into the tracking by detection framework. Besides object prediction, the motion model also guides the model updating process to guarantee the performance of the classifier. Experimentally, we show that our algorithm is able to outperform state of art trackers on benchmark data sets.
Bone marrow scintigraphy as a useful method for estimating the physiological status of bone marrow and spleen in polycythaemia vera.

Bone marrow scintigraphy is a simple and noninvasive examination useful to define the status of the bone marrow and spleen in polycythaemia vera (P.V.). Despite the absence of specificity of Indium 111 labelled transferrin (In-Tf) for myelopoietic tissue, there is a close correlation between bone marrow In-Tf uptake and bone marrow cellularity and between splenic In-Tf uptake and splenic metaplasia. The results of scintigraphy are compared to clinical data, radioactive iron kinetics, bone marrow and spleen histology and the course of the disease. The diagnostic and prognostic value of bone marrow scintigraphy is discussed, particularly at the stage of transformation of P.V. into postpolycythaemia myeloid metaplasia (Post-P.V.M.M.).
Cartilage matrix changes in the developing epiphysis: early events on the pathway to equine osteochondrosis?

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY The earliest osteochondrosis (OC) microscopic lesion reported in the literature was present in the femorotibial joint of a 2-day-old foal suggesting that OC lesions and factors initiating them may arise prior to birth. OBJECTIVE To examine the developing equine epiphysis to detect histological changes that could be precursors to OC lesions. METHODS Osteochondral samples from 21 equine fetuses and 13 foals were harvested from selected sites in the scapulohumeral, humeroradial, metacarpophalangeal, femoropatellar, femorotibial, tarsocrural and metatarsophalangeal joints. Sections were stained with safranin O and picrosiruis red to assess cartilage changes and structural arrangement of the collagen matrix. RESULTS Extracellular matrix changes observed included perivascular areas of paleness of the proteoglycan matrix associated with hypocellularity and, sometimes, necrotic chondrocytes. These changes were most abundant in the youngest fetuses and in the femoropatellar/femorotibial (FP/FT) joints. Indentations of the ossification front were also observed in most specimens, but, most frequently, in scapulohumeral and FP/FT joints. A cartilage canal was almost always present in these indentations. The vascular density of the cartilage was higher in the youngest fetuses. In these fetuses, the most vascularised joints were the metacarpo- and metatarsophalangeal joints but their cartilage canals regressed quickly. After birth, the most vascularised cartilage was present in the FP/FT joint. Articular cartilage differentiated into 4 zones early in fetal life and the epiphyseal cartilage also had a distinct zonal cartilage structure. A striking difference was observed in the collagen structure at the junction of the proliferative and hypertrophic zones where OCD lesions occur. CONCLUSION Matrix and ossification front changes were frequently observed and significantly associated with cartilage canals suggesting that they may be physiological changes associated with matrix remodelling and development. The collagen structure was variable through the growing epiphysis and a differential in biomechanical properties at focal sites may predispose them to injury.
IMPROVEMENT ON FPGA IMPLEMENTATION OF A PIPELINE LARGE-FFT PROCESSOR

-In this paper, circuit complexity reduction in FPGA implementation of large N-point Radix-22 FFT with single-path delay feedback architecture is reported. Memory requirement of the FFT in the FPGA consists of two parts, the RAM data storage of the feedback in each stage of the data flow and the twiddle factors prepared as ROM for each complex multiplication. Through address rearrangement, the ROM sizes for the twiddle factors are significantly reduced with the removal of redundancy. The reduction ratio is about 1 3(log4 N−1) . As a result, the signal critical path is reduced and the system clock frequency is increased. The proposed architecture is validated by the implementations of 1K and 4K Radix-22 FFTs in an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA, EP4CGX22, which is the second lowest capacity FPGA of the low cost series. For the 1K-and 4K-point FFTs, the operating frequencies are 231.11 MHz and 215.75 MHz, respectively, approaching 250 MHz which is the speed limit of the I/O ports of the FPGA [1].
SKELETAL LESIONS IN A POPULATION OF VIRGINIA OPOSSUMS (DIDELPHIS VIRGINIANA) FROM BALDWIN COUNTY, GEORGIA

Antemortem skeletal lesions were analyzed in 61 Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana) collected as roadkill from Baldwin County, Georgia, USA. As evidenced by bridging fracture calluses, misalignments, bone-surface depressions, perforations, localized superficial calluses, periosteal proliferations, and bony bridges across intervertebral disk spaces, 64% of the individuals had signs of one or more healed injuries. Within the subset of skeletons with bone lesions, 54% had healed rib fractures and 23% had scapular, 21% pelvic, 18% fibular, 18% vertebral, 13% dentary, 10% tibial, and 10% podial lesions. Bone lesions occurred most frequently in the cranial portion of the skeletons and averaged approximately four per individual. The majority of the skeletal injuries appeared to be inconsistent with those caused by falls or automobile collisions. The nature and position of the bone lesions suggested that nonfatal predator attacks, possibly from domestic dogs, may be a significant contributor to bodily injury in this species.
Elevated body fat percentage and cardiovascular risks at low body mass index levels among Singaporean Chinese, Malays and Indians

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BF%) in Singaporean Chinese, Malays and Indians, and to determine the risk for selected comorbidities at various BMI categories and abdominal fat distributions, as assessed by waist circumference (WC). The study was a cross‐sectional (population) design. In total, 4723 subjects participated in the National Health Survey of 1998 in which the risks were investigated. A selected subsample of 291 subjects participated in a detailed body composition study, where weight, height and WC were measured, as were blood pressure, total and high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, serum triglycerides and fasting glucose. In the subsample, BF% was determined by means of a chemical four‐compartment model. At any given BF% the BMI of Singaporeans was about 3 kg m−2 lower than that of Caucasians. There were slight differences in the BF%/BMI relationship between the three ethnic groups. For all the ethnic groups, it was found that at low categories of BMI (between 22 and 24 kg m−2) and WC (between 75 and 80 cm for women and between 80 and 85 cm for men), the absolute risks for having at least one of the aforementioned risk factors were high, ranging from 41 to 81%. At these same categories the relative risks were significantly higher compared to the reference category, odds ratios ranging from 1.97–4.38. These categories of BMI and WC were all far below the cut‐off values of BMI and WC as currently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The data from the current study, which includes evidence that not only risk factors, but also BF% are elevated at low BMI values, presents a strong case for lowering the BMI cut‐off value for overweight and obesity among Singaporeans, from 25 kg m−2 and 30 kg m−2 to 23 kg m−2 and 27 kg m−2, respectively.
Graphene Oxide Membranes for Ionic and Molecular Sieving

Membranes made by properly spacing and bonding stacked graphene oxide nanosheets enable precise, superfast sieving of ions and molecules. [Also see Report by Joshi et al.] Ionic and molecular sieving membranes that enable fast solute separations from aqueous solutions are essential for processes such as water purification and desalination, sensing, and energy production (1–3). The two-dimensional structure and tunable physicochemical properties of graphene oxide (GO) offer an exciting opportunity to make a fundamentally new class of sieving membranes by stacking GO nanosheets (4–6). In the layered GO membrane, water molecules permeate through the interconnected nanochannels formed between GO nanosheets and follow a tortuous path primarily over the hydrophobic nonoxidized surface rather than the hydrophilic oxidized region of GO (7). The nearly frictionless surface of the non-oxidized GO facilitates the extremely fast flow of water molecules (5). On page 752 of this issue, Joshi et al. (8) further report that ions smaller in size than the GO nanochannel can permeate in the GO membrane at a speed orders of magnitude faster than would occur through simple diffusion. Size exclusion appears to be the dominant sieving mechanism.
Interaction of Estrogenic Chemicals and Phytoestrogens with Estrogen Receptor β.

The rat, mouse and human estrogen receptor (ER) exists as two subtypes, ERα and ERβ, which differ in the C-terminal ligand-binding domain and in the N-terminal transactivation domain. In this study, we investigated the estrogenic activity of environmental chemicals and phytoestrogens in competition binding assays with ERα or ERβ protein, and in a transient gene expression assay using cells in which an acute estrogenic response is created by cotransfecting cultures with recombinant human ERα or ERβ complementary DNA (cDNA) in the presence of an estrogen-dependent reporter plasmid. Saturation ligand-binding analysis of human ERα and ERβ protein revealed a single binding component for[ 3H]-17β-estradiol (E2) with high affinity[ dissociation constant (Kd) = 0.05 - 0.1 nm]. All environmental estrogenic chemicals [polychlorinated hydroxybiphenyls, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and derivatives, alkylphenols, bisphenol A, methoxychlor and chlordecone] compete with E2 for binding to both ER subtypes with a.
Low Cost Sensor for Low Flow-Rate Measurement

Many times in industrial application, measurement of very low flow rates is required with fair accuracy. Fluids like natural gas, petroleum and oxygen are supplied to customers on a continuous basis through dedicated pipelines, precise online measurement of quantum of supply is essential for payment purpose. The present work has aimed to design a sensor to measure low flow rate accurately, this sensor uses the important properties of the thermistor, it's self-heating, and its fluid flows sensing property, at the same time efforts have been made to keep it cost effective
Postoperative Analgesia with Extradural Clonidine

The analgesic effect of extradural clonidine was evaluated in a double-blind study. In the recovery room, following orthopaedic or perineal surgery 20 ASA I and II patients were allocated randomly to two groups. The extradural clonidine (EC) group received clonidine 2 micrograms kg-1 in isotonic saline solution 15 micrograms ml-1. The extradural saline (ES) group received the equivalent volume of plain isotonic saline solution. Pain was evaluated by a visual analogue scale (VAS) at 15-min intervals for the first 2 h and subsequently at 30-min intervals for the following 4 h. Morphine 5 mg was given s.c. when patients complained of pain after extradural saline or clonidine. In the EC group, the mean (SD) maximum pain relief was 68.2 (24.1)% of the initial VAS score, but it was only 14.7 (25.2)% in the ES group. The mean duration of analgesia, before injection of morphine, was significantly longer in the EC group (210 (87) min) compared with the ES group (45 (27) min) (P less than 0.001). Drowsiness and moderate hypotension were observed in the EC group.