Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast, nondestructive measurement of frost hardiness in conifer seedlings by VIS+NIR spectroscopy.

Frost hardiness development from mid-August to mid-November was evaluated in seedlings of three provenances of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst. ) and three provenances of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) raised at nurseries in north, central and south Sweden. Measurements of the visible + near infrared (VIS+NIR) spectra of shoots were made simultaneously with estimates of frost hardiness based on electrolyte leakage following artificial freezing. Nine physiological variables known to influence frost hardiness were measured throughout the experiment. Multivariate analysis showed that VIS+NIR spectra explained 69% and 72% of the variation in frost hardiness in Scots pine and Norway spruce, respectively. Stem lignification, dry weight fraction, and starch, glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, raffinose and stachyose concentrations together explained 80% and 85% of the variation in frost hardiness in Scots pine and Norway spruce, respectively when used as independent X variables in a partial least squares model. These physiological variables could be related to varying degrees with variation in the VIS+NIR spectra. We conclude that VIS+NIR spectroscopy provides a rapid nondestructive technique for measuring frost hardiness in conifer seedlings based on causal relationships between the spectra and the physiology of seedling frost hardiness.
Clinical spectrum of paediatric HIV in Nnewi, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND HIV/AIDS is increasingly becoming a predominant cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in this part of the world. STUDY DESIGN A descriptive, prospective study was carried out at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Southeast Nigeria, to ascertain the clinical features and probable modes of transmission of HIV infection in Children. RESULTS Out of 128 HIV -infected children, 53.1% were males and 46.9% females, giving a male: female ratio 1.1:1. They were aged from 3 months to 16 years, with a mean of 4.78 (+/- 3.97) years. Those in the 1-5 year age bracket made up 47.7%. The presumed route of infection was mother-to-child in 79.7% and blood transfusion in 16.4%. Majority (82.0%) presented with WHO clinical stage 3 disease and 55.7% were severely immunosuppressed. The most frequent clinical features were recurrent/persistent fever, persistent cough,weight loss/failure to thrive and generalised lymphadenopathy. There was co-infection with tuberculosis in 15.6% of patients. Eighteen patients (14.0%) were lost to follow up. Six children (4.7%) died during the period under review. They all presented in WHO stage 3 and 4. A hundred percent of the dead children had severe weight loss, 83.3% had generalized lymphadenopathy and recurrent or persistent fever respectively. Fifty percent presented with diarrhea and oral thrush. There was no gender difference in mortality. Mortality was highest among infants. CONCLUSION The high rate of vertical transmission of HIV reinforces the need for effective PMTCT interventions in reducing the incidence of HIV in children. A high index of suspicion and awareness of modes of presentation of HIV infection in children is needed for early diagnosis of those infected with HIV.
Effect of economic inequality on chronic childhood undernutrition in Ghana

Abstract Objective Food insecurity and undernutrition remain particularly severe in developing countries where improvements in economic conditions have tended to benefit the advantaged groups and resulted in widespread inequalities in health. This study examined how economic inequality is associated with chronic childhood undernutrition. Design A child was defined as chronically undernourished (stunted) if his or her height-for-age index was more than two standard deviations below the reference median. Household economic status was measured by an index based on household ownership of durable assets. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to estimate the effects of household economic status on stunting. Setting A nationally representative sample of 6251 household interviews in Ghana. Subjects A total of 3077 children aged 0–59 months included in the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. Results Children in the poorest 20% of households are more than twice as likely to suffer from stunting as children in the richest 20% of households independent of the child's age, sex, birth order, breast-feeding duration, birth weight; mother's age at childbirth, body mass index, education; and household access to safe drinking water, hygienic toilet facilities, residence and geographic region (odds ratio = 2.3; 95% confidence interval 1.4–3.7). Also children in the next poorest and in the middle quintiles are significant more likely to be chronically undernourished than children in the richest 20% of households. Conclusion This study concludes that economic inequality is strongly associated with chronic childhood undernutrition; and reducing economic inequalities and making services more accessible to the poor will be key to improving the health and nutritional status of children in Ghana.
Usefulness of intraoperative bronchoscopy during surgical repair of a congenital cardiac anomaly with possible airway obstruction: three cases report

Compression of the airway is relatively common in pediatric patients, although it is often an unrecognized complication of congenital cardiac and aortic arch anomalies. Aortopexy has been established as a surgical treatment for tracheobronchial obstruction associated with vascular anomaly, aortic arch anomaly, esophageal atresia, and tracheoesophageal fistula. The tissue-to-tissue arch repair technique could result in severe airway complication such as compression of the left main bronchus which was not a problem before the correction. We report three cases of corrective open heart surgery monitored by intraoperative bronchoscopy performed during prebypass, and performed immediately before weaning from bypass, to evaluate tracheobronchial obstruction caused by congenital, complex cardiac anomalies in the operating room.
Cytotoxicity of quahog parasite unknown (QPX) toward hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) haemocytes and interactions between different pathogen isolates and host strains

SUMMARY The ability of pathogens to neutralize host defence mechanisms represents a fundamental requisite in the successful establishment of an infection. Host-pathogen interactions between quahog parasite unknown (QPX) and its hard clam host are poorly understood. Our prior in vivo investigations have shown that different QPX isolates display varying levels of pathogenicity toward clams. Similarly, field investigations and laboratory transmission studies revealed some variations in the susceptibility of different hard clam stocks to QPX infection. An in vitro approach was developed in this study to evaluate the toxicity of QPX cells and extracellular products toward haemocytes using a neutral red uptake assay. Results demonstrated that QPX produces virulence factors that are cytotoxic to M. mercenaria haemocytes. This cytotoxicity appears to be induced by clam factors, suggesting that it may play an important role in supporting QPX infection and proliferation within the host. Moreover, application of this technique to different QPX isolates and clam broodstocks indicates variations of QPX cytotoxicity in agreement with previous in vivo experiments, strengthening the existence of different QPX strains.
Human PLU-1 Has Transcriptional Repression Properties and Interacts with the Developmental Transcription Factors BF-1 and PAX9*

PLU-1 is a large (1544 amino acids) nuclear protein that is highly expressed in breast cancers and is proposed to function as a regulator of gene expression. A yeast two-hybrid screen using PLU-1 as bait has identified two unrelated PLU-1 interacting proteins, namely brain factor-1 (BF-1) and paired box 9 (PAX9), both of which are developmental transcription factors. BF-1 and PAX9 interact with PLU-1 via a novel conserved sequence motif (Ala-X-Ala-Ala-X-Val-Pro-X4-Val-Pro-X8-Pro, termed the VP motif), because deletion or site-directed mutagenesis of this motif in either protein abolishes PLU-1 interaction in vivo. In a reporter assay system, PLU-1 has potent transcriptional repression activity. BF-1 and PAX9 also represses transcription in the same assay, but co-expression of PLU-1 with BF-1 or PAX9 significantly enhances this repression. Mutation of the PLU-1 binding motifs in BF-1 and PAX9 abolishes the observed PLU-1 co-repression activity. These data support a role for PLU-1 acting as a transcriptional co-repressor of two unrelated developmental transcription factors. Because both BF-1 and PAX proteins interact with members of the groucho co-repressor family, it is plausible that PLU-1 has a role in groucho-mediated transcriptional repression.
Predictors and the distal outcome of general Internet use: The identification of children's developmental trajectories

This study examined the predictors and distal outcome in relation to the frequency of online activities and investigated the presence of prototypical trajectories following different patterns of general Internet use over 5 years. The data set consisted of a nationally representative sample of 2,840 fourth graders (Mage = 9.86 years) in South Korea at baseline. Analyses revealed rank-order stability in general Internet use with four latent classes: high stable (5.8%), high quadratic (20.3%), moderate stable (32.7%), and low stable (41.2%). Youth with higher levels of perceived parental monitoring knowledge, friendship closeness, and depressed mood at baseline were more likely to belong to the high stable class, while girls were more likely to be in the high quadratic or moderate stable classes relative to the low stable class. The high stable class had the greatest odds of reporting alcohol use at grade eight, whereas the low stable class had the lowest odds. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Internet usage increases as children progress through to early adolescence and then levels off Longitudinal data have shown that adolescents' greater Internet use is predictive of their higher levels of drinking What does this study add? To explore different developmental pathways of Internet use in relation to its antecedents and distal outcome Early adolescents who spend more time on the Internet have a greater chance of starting to drink The interindividual rank-order stability of general Internet usage exists at least before late childhood.
Advancements and recent trends in emotion recognition using facial image analysis and machine learning models

As the demand for systems with human computer interaction grows, automated systems with human gesture and emotion recognition capabilities are the need of the hour. Emotions are understood by textual, vocal, and verbal expression data. Facial imagery also provides a constructive option to interpret and analyse human emotional issues. This paper describes the recent advancements in methods and techniques used to gauge the five primary emotions or moods frequently captured on images containing the human face: surprise, happiness, disgust, normality, drowsiness, through automated machinery. Looking at the recent developments in facial expression recognition techniques, the focus is on artificial neural networks and Support Vector Machine (SVM) in emotion classification. The technique first analyses the information conveyed by the facial regions of the eye and mouth into a merged new image and using it as an input to a feed forward neural network trained by back propagation. The second method showcases the use of Oriented Fast and Rotated (ORB) on a single frame of imagery to extract texture information, and the classification is completed using SVM. The special case of drowsiness detection systems using facial imagery by pattern classification, as automated drowsiness detection promises to play a revolutionary role in preventing road fatalities due to lethargic symptoms in drivers is also discussed.
Improvements of wireless communication and energy harvesting aspects for implantable sensor interfaces by using the Split Frequencies Concept

This work addresses system aspects of implantable medical sensor devices. Different concepts for power supply and communication are compared and discussed. State of the art systems mainly rely on one common frequency for both wireless data and energy transmission. This publication highlights the specific pros and cons of different frequency ranges. The proposed Split Frequencies Concept (SFC) uses two separate frequency bands: One for energy harvesting and the second for data transmission. Hence the advantages of HF and UHF frequencies can be combined into a single system.
A Low Noise Wide Dynamic Range CMOS Image Sensor With Low-Noise Transistors and 17b Column-Parallel ADCs

An extremely low temporal noise and wide dynamic range CMOS image sensor is developed using low-noise transistors and high gray-scale resolution (17b) folding-integration/cyclic analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Two types of pixel are designed. One is a high conversion gain (HCG) pixel with removing the coupling capacitance between the transfer gate and the floating diffusion, and the other is a pixel for wide dynamic range (WDR) CMOS imager with a native transistor as a source follower amplifier. The CMOS image sensor that is in combination with the proposed pixels and the high performance column ADC has achieved a low pixel temporal noise of 1.1erms-, a wide dynamic range of 87.5 dB with the video rate operation (30 Hz) and the vertical fixed pattern noise of 1.08-μVrms. The implemented HCG CMOS imager and WDR CMOS imager using 0.18 μm technology have the pixel conversion gain of 73.2- and 22.8-μV/e-, respectively.
Prediction of Postoperative Knee Flexion in Insall-Burstein II Total Knee Arthroplasty

Postoperative knee flexion in patients undergoing Insall-Burstein-II total knee arthroplasty at 2 years was evaluated regarding two basic questions: what groups of patients gain or lose the most flexion and what groups of patients have the best or worst postoperative flexion. Thirteen preoperative variables (maximum flexion, flexion arc, tibiofemoral angle, quadriceps strength, extensor lag, Knee Society score, Knee Society patient assessment, gender, age, height, weight, diagnosis, and surgeon) and four postoperative variables (leg length change, tibiofemoral angle, distance from patella to the joint line, and the tibial prosthesis anteroposterior translation on a lateral radiograph) were used in an attempt to explain postoperative flexion. The analysis was performed on 164 consecutive Insall-Burstein-II total knees in which the data were gathered prospectively on a time oriented medical record database. A regression tree analysis was used to identify several groups of patients, characterized by preoperative factor values, who had markedly above average performance on postoperative flexion. The preoperative factors identified include preoperative flexion, flexion arc, tibiofemoral angle, extensor lag, diagnosis, and age. The only postoperative variable of significance was tibiofemoral angle. Among the potential determinants of postoperative flexion that failed to appear predictive were the Knee Society scores and surgeon. Preoperative flexion is known to be a critical determinant of postoperative flexion in total knee replacement. However, in the current study, preoperative flexion accounted for only half of the difference between the best (122°) and the worst (88°) group, as determined with regression tree analysis.
Common-mode voltage reduction modulation techniques for three-phase grid connected converters

This paper experimentally investigates the performance of three-phase voltage source PWM converter, with the grid interfaced photovoltaic energy conversion system being the main application. In such applications the ground leakage current (common mode current, CMC) should be much less than an ampere and this is difficult to obtain in transformerless (direct) connected systems. With the target being reduction of the common mode voltage (CMV) and CMC, the converter performance is investigated thoroughly. Conventional PWM methods [space vector PWM (SVPWM) and discontinuous PWM (DPWM)] and recently developed reduced common mode voltage PWM (RCMV-PWM) methods [active zero state PWM (AZSPWM) and near state PWM (NSPWM)] are considered. The performance of a 1kW rated PV system has been experimentally investigated. It is shown that the CMV and CMC of the tested RCMV-PWM methods is significantly less than conventional methods. In particular, NSPWM yields the best overall performance including low ground leakage current, low inverter output (phase current) and input (DC link current) ripple, and low switching losses. Accounting for the parasitic capacitance effect, the resonant frequency of the common mode circuit is identified and it is used in the converter design for the purpose of avoiding resonances involving large CMV-CMC. The paper aims help the design engineer select the appropriate PWM method for grid connected applications and provides some design rules of thumb.
Hybrid prospective and retrospective head motion correction to mitigate cross‐calibration errors

Utilization of external motion tracking devices is an emerging technology in head motion correction for MRI. However, cross‐calibration between the reference frames of the external tracking device and the MRI scanner can be tedious and remains a challenge in practical applications. In this study, we present two hybrid methods, both of which combine prospective, optical‐based motion correction with retrospective entropy‐based autofocusing to remove residual motion artifacts. Our results revealed that in the presence of cross‐calibration errors between the optical tracking device and the MR scanner, application of retrospective correction on prospectively corrected data significantly improves image quality. As a result of this hybrid prospective and retrospective motion correction approach, the requirement for a high‐quality calibration scan can be significantly relaxed, even to the extent that it is possible to perform external prospective motion tracking without any prior cross‐calibration step if a crude approximation of cross‐calibration matrix exists. Moreover, the motion tracking system, which is used to reduce the dimensionality of the autofocusing problem, benefits the retrospective approach at the same time. Magn Reson Med, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
[Comparative study on early application of the recipe for activating blood circulation and the recipe for supplementing qi for inhibiting left ventricular remodeling and apoptosis in rats with heart failure].

OBJECTIVE To compare the characteristics of early application of the recipe for activating blood circulation and the recipe for supplementing qi for inhibiting left ventricular remodeling and apoptosis in rats with heart failure. METHOD The left coronary artery occlusion was conducted to establish the rat model of heart failure after myocardial infarction. The model rats were randomly divided into 5 groups, including model group, activating blood circulation group (8 g x kg(-1)), supplementing qi group (8 g x kg(-1)), activating blood circulation plus supplementing qi group (16 g x kg(-1)), and captopril group (10.125 g x kg(-1)), and a sham operation group was set up as negative control group. The drugs were administrated on the second day after myocardial infarction with a therapeutic course of 4 weeks or 8 weeks. The heart function was detected by impedance method; Pathological staining and image analysis were used to determine the perimeter and the area of left ventricular cavity, and myocardial nuclei number and collagen content per unit area; Apoptosis percentage of the myocardial cell was detected by TUNEL and the content of Ang II in the cardiac muscle was measured by radioimmunoassay. RESULT In comparison with the model group, the function of left ventricular contraction function improved, the area of left ventricular cavity diminished, and proliferation of collagen, content of Ang II and apoptosis percentage of the myocardial cell reduced in all of the treatment groups (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). After treatment of 8 weeks, the activating blood circulation group was similar to the sham operation group in improvement of cardiac index, and decreases of the area of left ventricular cavity and the content of Ang II; Apoptosis percentage of the myocardial cell in the activating blood circulation group was significantly lower than that in the supplementing qi group. CONCLUSION Both the recipes for activating blood circulation and for supplementing qi can inhibit left ventricular remodeling and myocardial apoptosis, and delay development of heart failure, with the best effect in the activating blood circulation group after treatment of 8 weeks.
Unidirectional heterologous receptor desensitization between both the fMLP and C5a receptor and the IL‐8 receptor

During inflammation neutrophils receive multiple signals that are integrated, allowing a single modified response. One mechanism for this discrimination is receptor desensitization, a process whereby ligand‐receptor binding is disassociated from cell activation. We examined the effect of heterologous receptor desensitization on neutrophil Chemotaxis, calcium mobilization, and arachidonic acid production, using interleukin‐8 (IL‐8), C5a, and N‐formyl‐methionyl‐leucyl‐phenylalanine (fMLP). We observed reciprocal inhibition with respect to Chemotaxis. We demonstrated that homologous desensitization, with respect to the mobilization of intracellular calcium stores, lasted approximately 15 min. Heterologous desensitization between the fMLP receptor and the C5a receptor was reciprocal; either stimulant would diminish the cells9 response to stimulation by the other for approximately 3–5 min. However, we observed a unidirectional heterologous desensitization of the IL‐8 receptor by both the fMLP and the C5a receptor. This unidirectional heterologous desensitization was observed with respect to both calcium mobilization and arachidonic acid production (i.e., prestimulation of the IL‐8 receptor had no effect on subsequent stimulation by either fMLP or C5a).