Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hearing impairment associated with spinal anesthesia

Objectives Hearing loss after spinal anesthesia has been reported to be related to the transmission of a reduced subarachnoid pressure to the inner ear via the cochlear aqueduct due to loss of spinal fluid. However, there are also some controversies related to this phenomenon, which require systematic investigation. Material and Methods The effect of spinal needle diameter on hearing loss was investigated using audiometric tests in a prospective comparative study of 30 patients who were scheduled for surgery with spinal anesthesia. The bony structure of the cochlear and vestibular aqueducts was determined from temporal bone CT scans. Results Four out of 15 patients (26.67%) treated with a 22 G spinal needle demonstrated hearing loss the day after surgery, which recovered within 2–5 weeks. However, none of the patients treated with a 27 G spinal needle had statistically significant hearing loss in either ear at any frequency. Three out of four patients with hearing loss had an acute-onset balance problem. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of the widths of the vestibular and cochlear aqueducts. Conclusions It has been shown audiometrically that the diameter of the spinal needle used to induce spinal anesthesia seems to have an effect on subsequent hearing loss. The patency of the bony canal determines the transmission of pressure changes to the inner ear. However, the individual risk of this complication is not predictable as there is no radiological abnormality of the canal.
Changes in the Gut Microbiome of the Sea Lamprey during Metamorphosis

ABSTRACT Vertebrate metamorphosis is often marked by dramatic morphological and physiological changes of the alimentary tract, along with major shifts in diet following development from larva to adult. Little is known about how these developmental changes impact the gut microbiome of the host organism. The metamorphosis of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) from a sedentary filter-feeding larva to a free-swimming sanguivorous parasite is characterized by major physiological and morphological changes to all organ systems. The transformation of the alimentary canal includes closure of the larval esophagus and the physical isolation of the pharynx from the remainder of the gut, which results in a nonfeeding period that can last up to 8 months. To determine how the gut microbiome is affected by metamorphosis, the microbial communities of feeding and nonfeeding larval and parasitic sea lamprey were surveyed using both culture-dependent and -independent methods. Our results show that the gut of the filter-feeding larva contains a greater diversity of bacteria than that of the blood-feeding parasite, with the parasite gut being dominated by Aeromonas and, to a lesser extent, Citrobacter and Shewanella. Phylogenetic analysis of the culturable Aeromonas from both the larval and parasitic gut revealed that at least five distinct species were represented. Phenotypic characterization of these isolates revealed that over half were capable of sheep red blood cell hemolysis, but all were capable of trout red blood cell hemolysis. This suggests that the enrichment of Aeromonas that accompanies metamorphosis is likely related to the sanguivorous lifestyle of the parasitic sea lamprey.
New Small, Acid-Soluble Proteins Unique to Spores ofBacillus subtilis: Identification of the Coding Genes and Regulation and Function of Two of These Genes

ABSTRACT Eleven small, acid-soluble proteins (SASP) which are present in spores but not in growing cells of Bacillus subtilis were identified by sequence analysis of proteins separated by acrylamide gel electrophoresis of acid extracts from spores which lack the three major SASP (α, β, and γ). Six of these proteins are encoded by open reading frames identified previously or by analysis of the complete sequence of the B. subtilis genome, including two minor α/β-type SASP (SspC and SspD) and a putative spore coat protein (CotK). Five proteins are encoded by short open reading frames that were not identified as coding regions in the analysis of the completeB. subtilis genomic sequence. Studies of the regulation of two of the latter genes, termed sspG and sspJ, showed that both are expressed only in sporulation. ThesspG gene is transcribed in the mother cell compartment by RNA polymerase with the mother cell-specific sigma factor for RNA polymerase, ςK, and is cotranscribed with a downstream gene, yurS; sspG transcription also requires the DNA binding protein GerE. In contrast, sspJ is transcribed in the forespore compartment by RNA polymerase with the forespore-specific ςG and appears to give a monocistronic transcript. A mutation eliminating SspG had no effect on sporulation or spore properties, while loss of SspJ caused a slight decrease in the rate of spore outgrowth in an otherwise wild-type background.
Quantification and duration of viraemia during hepatitis A infection as determined by real‐time RT‐PCR

Human transmission studies and molecular techniques have provided evidence that transient viraemia occurs during infection with hepatitis A virus (HAV). However, the duration of its presence and levels during the phases of clinical disease and convalescence has not yet been well studied in human patients. Real‐time RT‐PCR techniques are increasingly used to quantify RNA viruses for diagnosis and/or research purposes. We have optimized a one‐step RT‐PCR that contains a dual‐labelled fluorogenic probe to quantify the 5′ noncoding region (5′NCR) of HAV. This method has a dynamic range (5–5 × 106 copies). The coefficient of regression of the standard curve was, on average 0.978. Intra‐assay CVs% varied from 6.1% to 0.98%, and interassay CVs% from 6.46% to 2.1%. In the currently reported study 41 HAV IgM positive serum samples and 200 serum samples from healthy blood donors were tested by the quantitative RT‐PCR method. The mean values on the first day of diagnosis found was 6.38 × 105 copies/mL. In a longitudinal study, viraemia persisted for an average of 60 days after clinical onset. These results show that viraemia in HAV infection lasts for many weeks.
IFN-γ Acts Directly on Activated CD4+ T Cells during Mycobacterial Infection to Promote Apoptosis by Inducing Components of the Intracellular Apoptosis Machinery and by Inducing Extracellular Proapoptotic Signals1

Despite many studies, the regulation of CD4+ T cell apoptosis during the shutdown of immune responses is not fully understood. We have investigated the molecular mechanisms of IFN-γ in regulating apoptosis of CD4+ T cells during bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) infection of mice. Our data provide new insight into the regulation of CD4+ T cell apoptosis by IFN-γ. As CD4+ T cells responded to BCG infection, there was a coordinated increase in IFN-γ production by effector CD4+ T cells and a coordinated IFN-γ-dependent up-regulation of many diverse apoptosis-pathway genes in effector CD4+ T cells. Unexpectedly, IFN-γ up-regulated transcripts and protein expression of Bcl-2, Bax, Bim, Bid, Apaf-1, and caspase-9 in activated CD4+ T cells—components of the apoptosis machinery that are involved in promoting mitochondrial damage-mediated apoptosis. Wild-type, but not IFN-γ knockout, CD4+ T cells underwent apoptosis that was associated with damaged mitochondrial membranes. IFN-γ also up-regulated expression of cell-extrinsic signals of apoptosis, including TRAIL, DR5, and TNFR1. Cell-extrinsic apoptosis signals from TNF-α, TRAIL, and NO were capable of damaging the mitochondrial membranes in activated CD4+ T cells. Moreover, activated CD4+ T cells from BCG-infected DR5, TNFR1, and inducible NO synthase knockout mice had impaired caspase-9 activity, suggesting impaired mitochondria-pathway apoptosis. We propose that IFN-γ promotes apoptosis of CD4+ T cells during BCG infection as follows: 1) by sensitizing CD4+ T cells to apoptosis by inducing intracellular apoptosis molecules and 2) by inducing cell-extrinsic apoptosis signals that kill CD4+ effector T cells.
Evolutionary stages and disk properties of young stellar objects in the Perseus cloud

We investigated the evolutionary stages and disk properties of 211 young stellar objects (YSOs) across the Perseus cloud by modeling their broadband optical to mid-infrared (IR) spectral energy distribution (SED). Our optical gri photometry data were obtained from the recently finished Purple Mountain Observatory Xuyi Schmidt Telescope Photometric Survey of the Galactic Anti-center (XSTPS-GAC). About 81% of our sample fall into the Stage II phase which is characterized by having optically thick disks, while 14% into the Stage I phase characterized by having significant infalling envelopes, and the remaining 5% into the Stage III phase characterized by having optically thin disks. The median stellar age and mass of the Perseus YSOs are 3.1 Myr and 0.3 M⊙ respectively. By exploring the relationships among the turnoff wave bands λturnoff (longward of which significant IR excesses above the stellar photosphere are observed), the excess spectral index αexcess as determined for λ > λturnoff, and the disk inner radius Rin (determined from SED modeling) for YSOs at different evolutionary stages, we found that the median and standard deviation of αexcess for YSOs with optically thick disks tend to increase with λturnoff, especially at λturnoff ≥5.8 μm, whereas the median fractional dust luminosities Ldust/L★ tend to decrease with increasing λturnoff. This points to an inside-out process of disk clearing for small dust grains. Moreover, a positive correlation between αexcess and Rin was found at αexcess ≳ 0 and Rin ≳ 10 × the dust sublimation radius Rsub, irrespective of λturnoff, Ldust/L★ and disk flaring. This suggests that the outer disk flaring either does not evolve synchronously with the inside-out disk clearing of small dust grains or has little appreciable influence on the spectral slopes at λ ≲ 24 μm. About 23% of our YSO disks are classified as transitional disks, which have λturnoff ≥ 5.8 μm and Ldust/L★ > 10−3. The transitional disks and full disks occupy distinctly different regions on the Ldust/L★ vs. αexcess diagram. Taking Ldust/L★ as an approximate discriminator of disks with (>0.1) and without (<0.1) considerable accretion activity, we found that 65% and 35% of the transitional disks may be consistent with being dominantly cleared by photoevaporation and dynamical interaction with giant planets respectively. None of our transitional disks have αexcess (<0.0) or Ldust/L★ (>0.1) values that would otherwise be suggestive of disk clearing dominanted by grain growth.
Afferents of the lamprey striatum with special reference to the dopaminergic system: A combined tracing and immunohistochemical study

The origin of afferents to the striatum in lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) was studied by using fluorescein‐coupled dextran‐amines (FDA). Injection of FDA into the striatum retrogradely labeled several cell populations in the forebrain and the rostral rhombencephalon. No retrograde labeled cells were seen in the mesencephalon.
Roles of galectins in chronic inflammatory microenvironments

Lectins are multifunctional carbohydrate-binding proteins that can recognize various carbohydrates on cell surfaces and extracellular matrix, and are involved in several biological processes. Galectins, a family of animal lectins with affinity for β-galactoside-containing oligosaccharides, are expressed by several cells of the immune system and tissue-resident stromal cells. Increasingly, experimental evidence indicates that galectins might play critical regulatory roles in cancer, fibrosis and chronic inflammatory disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis. In this review, we summarize recent developments in our understanding of the galectins’ roles within particular cells, and in the broader context of the inflammatory or tumor microenvironments. This body of knowledge, documenting the coming-of-age of galectins as potential immunosuppressive agents or targets for anti-inflammatory drugs, represents a sound basis to further explore their immunoregulatory properties in the development of novel therapies for.
Differential T cell responses to Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi in peripheral blood and spleens of C57BL/6 mice during infection.

The definition of the immune status of a person is often taken as the responses obtained from lymphocytes isolated from peripheral blood. We therefore analyzed in a mouse model of Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi the response of T lymphocytes taken from peripheral blood and compared it with the spleen during and after a primary erythrocytic infection. Using limiting dilution conditions, no malaria-specific T cell responses could be measured in the peripheral blood for up to 21 days after infection with P. chabaudi, whereas T cells responding to malaria Ag were readily detected in the spleen. This was true for T cells providing help and for those producing IFN-gamma. After clearance of the parasitemias to subpatent levels (75 days), qualitatively similar T cell responses were found in both compartments of the immune system, i.e., the Th cell response predominated over the inflammatory response. These data suggest that during an active infection with Plasmodium, T cell responses in peripheral blood are not necessarily indicators of the immune status.
Key Role for the Alternative Sigma Factor, SigH, in the Intracellular Life of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis during Macrophage Stress

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis causes Johne's disease, an enteric infection in cattle and other ruminants, greatly afflicting the dairy industry worldwide. Once inside the cell, M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis is known to survive harsh microenvironments, especially those inside activated macrophages. To improve our understanding of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis pathogenesis, we examined phagosome maturation associated with transcriptional responses of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis during macrophage infection. Monitoring cellular markers, only live M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis bacilli were able to prevent phagosome maturation and reduce its acidification. On the transcriptional level, over 300 M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis genes were significantly and differentially regulated in both naive and IFN-γ-activated macrophages. These genes include the sigma factor H (sigH) that was shown to be important for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis survival inside gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-activated bovine macrophages. Interestingly, an sigH-knockout mutant showed increased sensitivity to a sustained level of thiol-specific oxidative stress. Large-scale RNA sequence analysis revealed that a large number of genes belong to the sigH regulon, especially following diamide stress. Genes involved in oxidative stress and virulence were among the induced genes in the sigH regulon with a putative consensus sequence for SigH binding that was recognized in a subset of these genes (n = 30), suggesting direct regulation by SigH. Finally, mice infections showed a significant attenuation of the ΔsigH mutant compared to its parental strain, suggesting a role for sigH in M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis virulence. Such analysis could identify potential targets for further testing as vaccine candidates against Johne's disease.
Giant Ameloblastoma: Report of an Extreme Case and a Description of its Treatment

Ameloblastoma is an odontogenic tumor that usually occurs in the mandible. It is an aggressive but benign tumor of epithelial origin that is rarely metastatic. We report the case of a 53-year-old woman who had a massive ameloblastoma of the mandible. The tumor measured 15.2 × 11.4 × 12.0 cm. The patient had oral bleeding that required a transfusion. The workup included three-dimensional imaging, arteriography, and embolization to control bleeding. Surgical management entailed the resection of the entire left mandible and right symphysis, followed by reconstruction with a free fibular flap. To our knowledge, this is the largest reported ameloblastoma managed with three-dimensional imaging, radical resection, and free-flap reconstruction. This article also reviews aspects of the differential diagnosis, pathology, and management of jaw tumors.
Error messages when calculating chi-square statistics with Microsoft EXCEL®

The chi-square (x) distribution forms the basis for calculating confidence limits of a standard deviation. The latter are applied, for example, in the NCCLS document EP5 (Evaluation of precision performance of clinical chemistry devices) (1) for comparing user estimates with manufacturers’ claims. Because we teach the use of the EP5 protocol in our post-graduate courses, we recently developed an educational template for calculating confidence limits of standard deviations. The calculations were done with the EXCEL CHIINV(a;n) function, where a denotes a probability and n denotes the degrees of freedom.We were highly surprised that EXCEL gave an error message when some of our students calculated values with higher degrees of freedom (see Table 1) (EXCEL versions tested: 2000 and 2002). The same error message appears when x-values with a-values -1y are calculated. While these
WiFi-assisted human activity recognition

This paper investigates the indoor activity recognition issue and proposes a novel recognition framework by exploring WiFi ambient signals. The key idea is to use data mining techniques to abstract footprints of different activities on the radio signal strength (RSS) data. Our experiments show that even using a single feature and the common k-NN classifier activities such as walking, sitting and standing can be recognized with a high accuracy, i.e. 75%. To further improve the performance, a new feature has been abstracted to represent the fluctuation of sampled data and a novel algorithm named fusion algorithm has been specifically designed based on the classification tree. Experiments show that the proposed fusion algorithm significantly outperforms the k-NN classifier in terms of both the average recognition ratio (from 75% to 92.58%) and the computational complexity. Compared to previous solutions relying on either special hardware or the cooperation of tested subjects, the proposed recognition framework is a passive and device-free solution that could be integrated into any WLAN network with low overheads.
How Do Black Men Succeed in Information Technology Careers ? The Effects of Capital

While most of the literature on Black men prescribe to a deficit model that focuses on academic failures and poverty, this work focuses on the positive by profiling Black men who have successfully entered information technology (IT) majors. Here we reveal various capitals, their accumulation, and their effects using Bourdieu’s framework to inductively uncover that Black men succeed in IT careers by accumulating five forms of capital—Cultural, Social, Symbolic, Technical, and Economic—that mold their habitus. The accumulated capital affects IT Career Choices, General Skills, IT Skills, Institutional Benefits, Symbolic Benefits, Financial Benefits, Self-efficacy, Ambition, Expectations, Extra Burden, The Black Experience, and Sense of Service. These effects are well aligned with the rules of playing in the IT field.
Relationship of topography to surface water chemistry with particular focus on nitrogen and organic carbon solutes within a forested watershed in Hokkaido, Japan

We studied the relationships between streamwater chemistry and the topography of subcatchments in the Dorokawa watershed in Hokkaido Island, northern Japan, to examine the use of topography as a predictor of streamwater chemistry in a watershed with relatively moderate terrain compared with other regions of Japan. Topographic characteristics of the Dorokawa watershed and its subcatchments were expressed as topographic index (TI) values, which ranged from 4·5 to 20·4 for individual grid cells (50 × 50 m2), but averaged from 6·4 to 7·4 for the 20 subcatchments. Streamwater samples for chemical analyses were collected four times between June and October 2002 from 20 locations in the watershed. The pH of water that passed through the watershed increased from ∼5·0 to 7·0, with major increases in Na+ and Ca2+ and marked decreases in NO3− and SO$_{4}^{2-}$. Distinctive spatial patterns were observed for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and NO3− concentrations of streamwater across the watershed. Statistical analyses indicated significant linear relationships between the average TI values of subcatchments and DOC, DON, and NO3− concentrations. Furthermore, the proportion of DOC in streamwaters in the wet season increased with TI values relative to other nitrogen species, whereas NO3− concentrations decreased with TI. The gradients of soil wetness and the presence of wetlands explained many of the observed spatial and temporal patterns of DOC, DON, and NO3− concentrations in the surface waters of the Dorokawa watershed. Our results suggest that the TI is especially useful for predicting the spatial distribution of DOC, DON and NO3− in the surface waters of Hokkaido, where topographical relief is moderate and wetlands more common than in other regions of Japan. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Balanced/balun filters based on dielectric resonators

Dielectric resonator (DR) owns advantages of high quality factor, high power capacity, superior temperature stability, moderate circuit size, etc., emerging as a promising candidate for future small base station systems. According to the field distribution of the DR's fundamental mode, proper excitation schemes are established to differentially feed the DR so that it can be applied in designing balanced/Balun filters. The most used DRs in microwave filter designs are rectangular and circular ones, as well as their derivations. This paper gives a review of the recent works on balanced/Balun filters based on the various types of dielectric resonators (DRs), which have been pursued by the authors' research group.
Towards ontological foundations for conceptual modeling: The unified foundational ontology (UFO) story

This paper describes a long-term research program on developing ontological foundations for conceptual modeling. This program, organized around the theoretical background of the foundational ontology UFO (Unified Foundational Ontol- ogy), aims at developing theories, methodologies and engineering tools with the goal of advancing conceptual modeling as a theoretically sound discipline but also one that has concrete and measurable practical implications. The paper describes the historical context in which UFO was conceived, briefly discusses its stratified organization, and reports on a number of applica- tions of this foundational ontology over more than a decade. In particular, it discusses the most successful application of UFO, namely, the development of the conceptual modeling language OntoUML. The paper also discusses a number of methodological and computational tools, which have been developed over the years to support the OntoUML community. Examples of these methodological tools include ontological patterns and anti-patterns; examples of these computational tools include automated support for pattern-based model construction, formal model verification, formal model validation via visual simulation, model verbalization, code generation and anti-pattern detection and rectification. In addition, the paper reports on a variety of appli- cations in which the language as well as its associated tools have been employed to engineer models in several institutional contexts and domains. Finally, it reflects on some of these lessons learned by observing how OntoUML has been actually used in practice by its community and on how these have influenced both the evolution of the language as well as the advancement of some of the core ontological notions in UFO.