Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Possible biochemical impact of malaria infection in subjects with HIV co-infection in Anambra state , Nigeria

Background & objectives: The present study was designed to determine possible contributory impact of malaria infection on some biochemical markers in subjects with HIV co-infection in order to know if they are adverse or protective. Methods: Participants were recruited at the Voluntary Counseling and Testing Unit, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Nigeria and grouped into: (i) Malaria and HIV co-infection group (n = 45); and (ii) HIV infected group without concurrent malaria infection (n = 57). Standard laboratory methods were used for the HIV and Plasmodium falciparum antigen screening, malaria parasite density, CD4 T-cell count, packed cell volume, white blood cell count, serum iron and albumin concentrations. Results: The results showed that serum iron and albumin were significantly reduced and raised respectively in ‘Malaria–HIV co-infection group’ compared with ‘HIV infection group’ (p <0.05 and p <0.05). A positive association was observed between age and serum iron concentration in malaria and HIV co-infected group (r = 0.580; p <0.05) while negative associations were observed between PCV and serum iron (r = – 0.388; p <0.05) and between CD4 T-cells and serum iron concentration (r = – 0.362; p<0.05) in malaria and HIV co-infected group. The CD4 T-cell count, WBC count, PCV were not significantly different between the Malaria-HIV co-infection group and HIV infection group. Interpretation & conclusion: In the present study serum iron and albumin concentrations were the most sensitive indicators that showed the contributory impact of malaria infection on biochemical index in HIV co-infected subjects. The findings suggest that at the defined stage of HIV infection in the present study, malaria co-infection may moderate the impact of HIV infection on iron metabolism and hepatic synthesis of albumin.
Older women with osteoporosis have increased postural sway and weaker quadriceps strength than counterparts with normal bone mass: overlooked determinants of fracture risk?

BACKGROUND Fracture risk is determined by both bone health and fall risk. Evidence suggests that older women with osteoporosis may have a greater risk of falling compared with their age-matched counterparts without osteoporosis ( 1). To determine whether fall risk screening should be a routine part of medical assessment in older women with osteoporosis, a comparison of fall risk between those with osteoporosis and healthy age-matched counterparts is needed. The purpose of this study was to compare 3 established fall risk factors between these 2 groups of women. METHODS 42 women between the ages of 64 and 75 years old participated in this study. 21 women with osteoporosis were matched by age and current physical activity level to 21 women without osteoporosis. The performance on 3 fall risk factors (quadriceps strength, balance, and functional mobility) was compared between the 2 groups using multivariate analysis of variance. The level of significance was set at p <or=. 05. RESULTS There was an overall difference between the 2 groups on the fall risk factors (Wilk's lambda = 0.769, p =.018). Dominant quadriceps strength and composite balance score were, respectively, 18% significantly less and 11% worse in women with osteoporosis than those without. Functional mobility was not significantly different between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights older women with osteoporosis as a high fracture risk group due to having both lower bone density, and possibly, higher fall risk compared with their age-matched counterparts without osteoporosis. Both fall risk screening and fall risk reduction may be prudent to prevent fractures in women with osteoporosis.
Three diterpenes from Leonurus japonicus houtt protect primary cultured rat cortical cells from glutamate‐induced toxicity

To examine the cytoprotective effects of Leonurus japonicus Houtt, its protection against the glutamate‐induced toxicity in primary cortical cultured neurons was tested. In order to clarify the cytoprotective mechanism(s) of this observed effect, isolation was performed to seek and identify active fractions and components. By such fractionation, three known diterpenes – prehispanolone (1), leojaponin (2) and iso‐preleoheterin (3) – were isolated from the methanol extracts from the air‐dried L. japonicus. Among these three compounds, leojaponin (2) exhibited significant cytoprotective activities against glutamate‐induced toxicity, exhibiting cell viability of about 50%, at concentrations ranging from 0.1 μm to 10 μm. Therefore, the cytoprotective effect of L. japonicus might be due to the inhibition of glutamate‐induced toxicity by the diterpenes it contains. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Oxidative Damage to Specific Proteins in Replicative and Chronological-aged Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Oxidative modifications of cellular components have been described as one of the main contributions to aged phenotype. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, two distinct life spans can be considered, replicative and chronological. The relationship between both aging models is still not clear despite suggestions that these phenomena may be related. In this work, we show that replicative and chronological-aged yeast cells are affected by an oxidative stress situation demonstrated by increased protein carbonylation when compared with young cells. The data on the identification of these oxidatively modified proteins gives clues to better understand cellular dysfunction that occurs during aging. Strikingly, although in both aging models metabolic differences are important, major targets are almost the same. Common targets include stress resistance proteins (Hsp60 and Hsp70) and enzymes involved in glucose metabolism such as enolase, glyceraldehydes-3-P dehydrogenase, fructose-1,6-biphosphate aldolase, pyruvate decarboxylase, and alcohol dehydrogenase. In both aging models, calorie restriction results in decreased damage to these proteins. In addition, chronological-aged cells grown under glucose restriction displayed lowered levels of lipid peroxidation product lipofuscin. Intracellular iron concentration is kept almost unchanged, whereas in non-restricted cells, the values increase up 4–5 times. The pro-oxidant effects of such increased iron concentration would account for the damage observed. Also, calorie-restricted cells show undamaged catalase, which clearly appears carbonylated in cells grown at a high glucose concentration. These results may explain lengthening of the viability of chronological-aged cells and could have an important role in replicative life span extension by calorie restriction.
A Simple Model of Linkage Disequilibrium and Genetic Drift in Human Genomic SNPs: Importance of Demography and SNP Age

We propose a simple model of evolution at a pair of SNP loci, under mutation, genetic drift and recombination. The developed model allows to consider evolution of SNPs under different demographic scenarios. We applied it to SNP data containing polymorphisms spanning 19 gene regions. We initially matched the linkage disequilibrium (LD) data only, and then we reconciled both LD and heterozygosity data. The imbalance between LD and heterozygosity data, observed for some of the analyzed genomic regions, may be a signature of selection acting in these regions. However, assuming neutrality, we obtain estimates of the age of population expansion of modern humans, which are consistent with the consensus estimates. In addition, we are able to estimate the ages of the polymorphisms observed in different genomic regions and we find that they vary widely with respect to their age. Polymorphisms at loci implicated in human disease, seem to be younger than average. Our results supplement the conclusions originally obtained by Reich and co-workers for the same set of data.
Boosting for superparent-one-dependence estimators

Naive Bayes NB is a probability-based classification model based on the conditional independence assumption. However, in many real-world applications, this assumption is often violated. Responding to this fact, superparent-one-dependence estimators SPODEs weaken the attribute independence assumption by using each attribute of the database as the superparent. Aggregating one-dependence estimators AODEs, which estimates the corresponding parameters for every SPODE, has been proved to be one of the most efficient models due to its high accuracy among those improvements for NB classifier. This paper investigates a novel approach to ensemble the single SPODE based on the boosting strategy, Boosting for superparent-one-dependence estimators, simply, BODE. BODE first endows every instance a weight, and then find an optimal SPODE with highest accuracy in each iteration as a weak classifier. By doing so, BODE boosts all the selected weak classifiers to do the classification in the test processing. Experiments on UCI datasets demonstrate the algorithm performance.
Two ascending spinal pathways in the ventral part of the cord.

Two pathways with axons ascending in the ventral part of the cord have been identified as not belonging to the ventral spinocerebellar tract because the axons could not be antidromically activated from the cerebellar cortex. One pathway ascends to the lower brain stem, is polysynaptically activated from the flexor reflex afferents of a bilateral receptive field, and receives strong excitatory and inhibitory actions from the anterior cerebellar lobe. The other pathway, with unknown Termination, is polysynaptically activated from the flexor reflex afferents of a contralateral receptive field, and is not influenced from the anterior cerebellar lobe.
Three‐Dimensional Remodeling of Young Asian Women's Faces Using 20‐mg/mL Smooth, Highly Cohesive, Viscous Hyaluronic Acid Fillers: A Retrospective Study of 320 Patients

Background Because Asian faces are generally flatter than Caucasian faces, Asian women are increasingly requesting facial volume enhancement. Objective To clarify the effectiveness and safety of a volumizing treatment using 20‐mg/mL smooth, highly cohesive, viscous hyaluronic acid fillers in young Asian women. Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed 320 patients who had been treated with this filler from March 2010 to February 2012. The filler was injected in the shape of a diamond to the glabella, both malar eminences, and chin. Overall, 4 to 6 mL of filler was sufficient to enhance the volume of a face in young Asian women. Both the physicians and patients rated effectiveness on the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale at week 4. Need for touch‐up and any adverse events were also evaluated. Results Most patients were very satisfied with this volumizing procedure, and there were no major complications. Conclusion The 20‐mg/mL smooth, highly cohesive, viscous hyaluronic acid filler is an effective, well‐tolerated treatment option in young Asian women wishing for a more‐three‐dimensional profile.
The Rates Of Conduction Of Nerve Fibres Of Various Diameters In Cephalopods

1. The rates of conduction of nerve fibres of Sepia and Loligo varying from 30 to 718µ in diameter have been estimated from records of their action potentials. The limits of conduction velocity were found to be 2.2-22.8 m. /sec. at 20° C. 2. Although the fibres examined have different functions, and come from animals which differ considerably in structure and mode of life, yet the conduction rates of all of them can be approximately expressed as a single function of the diameter. These fibres, therefore, do not differ greatly from each other in any respect but size. 3. Calculation of the regression coefficient of the log. of the conduction rate on the log. of the diameter of the fibres shows that the rate increases with the power 0.614±0.027 of the diameter. On account of various sources of error however the exact relation does not necessarily lie within these limits, but it is not likely to be very far from the square root. 4. The possession of giant fibres produces a significant saving of time for the animal, it being calculated that the reaction time of a squid is about half that of a similar animal without giant fibres. 5. The presence of rapidly conducting fibres is probably also an advantage in that it decreases the discrepancies between the times of contraction of parts of the mantle at varying distances from the central nervous system. In Loligo there is a graded series of fibres with the larger in the longer nerves, and this is apparently a further device for ensuring more nearly simultaneous contraction. 6. The relative thickness of the myelin-like sheath increases from about 1% of the diameter of the axon in cephalopods to 5% in Crustacea and annelids and 25% in vertebrates: the conduction velocity of fibres of a given size also increases in the same series. This parallelism provides strong support for the view that the layer of oriented lipoids increases the velocity of propagation of the nerve impulse in proportion to its thickness.
Left ventricular torsion in patients with secundum atrial septal defect.

BACKGROUND Recently, assessment of left ventricular (LV) torsional deformation has become an important approach for quantifying LV function. This study sought to evaluate LV torsion using speckle tracking imaging in patients with atrial septal defect (ASD). METHODS AND RESULTS Basal and apical LV short-axis images were analyzed in 45 asymptomatic adults with isolated secundum ASD and 45 matched normal subjects. The apical rotation parameters were similar between 2 groups; however, the peak basal clockwise rotation was significantly depressed (-5.4 +/-2.8 degrees vs -6.9 +/-2.6 degrees , P<0.001) and time to the peak was significantly delayed (118.3 +/-18.8% vs 96.1 +/-12.6% of systolic period, P<0.001) in patients with ASD. The peak basal initial counterclockwise rotation in the ASD group was significantly higher (5.1 +/-3.3 degrees vs 1.8 +/-1.4 degrees , P<0.001) and longer (75.4 +/-26.7% vs 42.5 +/-24.4% of systolic period, P<0.001) than that in the control group. LV peak twist was also reduced significantly in patients with ASD (11.9 +/-5.9 degrees vs 14.6 +/-3.5 degrees , P<0.05) in comparison with the controls. CONCLUSIONS LV systolic twist was significantly reduced in patients with ASD mainly because of the heterogeneous basal rotation.
Influenza A Virus Neuraminidase Limits Viral Superinfection

ABSTRACT Enveloped viruses use multiple mechanisms to inhibit infection of a target cell by more than one virion. These mechanisms may be of particular importance for the evolution of segmented viruses, because superinfection exclusion may limit the frequency of reassortment of viral genes. Here, we show that cellular expression of influenza A virus neuraminidase (NA), but not hemagglutinin (HA) or the M2 proton pump, inhibits entry of HA-pseudotyped retroviruses. Cells infected with H1N1 or H3N2 influenza A virus were similarly refractory to HA-mediated infection and to superinfection with a second influenza A virus. Both HA-mediated entry and viral superinfection were rescued by the neuraminidase inhibitors oseltamivir carboxylate and zanamivir. These inhibitors also prevented the removal of α-2,3- and α-2,6-linked sialic acid observed in cells expressing NA or infected with influenza A viruses. Our data indicate that NA alone among viral proteins limits influenza A virus superinfection.
MYRA – Face Detection and Face Recognition System

MYRA is a system created for face detection and face recognition on video images or live webcam video stream. For face detection the program uses two very different parallel techniques to give a better performance and for recognition it uses the eigenfaces method. The system includes a small database that stores information and optionally some personal data about the people already known by the system.
Molecular and Clinical Characterization of a Novel SCN5A Mutation Associated With Atrioventricular Block and Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Background—Increased susceptibility to dilated cardiomyopathy has been observed in patients carrying mutations in the SCN5A gene, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we identified and characterized, both in vitro and clinically, an SCN5A mutation associated with familial progressive atrioventricular block of adult onset and dilated cardiomyopathy in a Chinese family. Methods and Results—Among 32 family members, 5 were initially diagnosed with atrioventricular block after age 30; 4 were studied, 3 of whom later developed dilated cardiomyopathy. We found a heterozygous single-nucleotide mutation resulting in an amino acid substitution (A1180V) in all studied patients and in 6 other younger unaffected members but not in 200 control chromosomes. When expressed with the &bgr;1 subunit, the mutated channels exhibited a −4.5-mV shift of inactivation with slower recovery leading to a rate-dependent Na+ current reduction and a moderate increase in late Na+ current. Clinical study revealed that although QRS duration decreased with increasing heart rate in noncarrier family members, this change was blunted in unaffected carriers whose ECG and heart function were normal. Resting corrected QT interval of unaffected carriers was significantly longer than that of noncarriers, even though it was still within the normal range. Conclusions—A1180V expresses a mild Na+ channel phenotype in vitro and a corresponding clinical phenotype in unaffected mutation carriers, implying that A1180V caused structural heart disease in affected carriers by disturbing Na+ influx and, hence, cellular Na+ homeostasis. The high penetrance of A1180V suggests this phenotype as a high risk factor for dilated cardiomyopathy with preceding atrioventricular block.
Secure communication with privacy preservation in VANET- using multilingual translation

Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) are gaining more importance because they have opened new research fields by extending data networks connectivity to Vehicle to Vehicle where wired solutions are difficult to install. The networks which are deployed in the areas where the needed infrastructure is not feasible to install are Adhoc networks. Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANETs), in which each vehicle (node) acts as both data terminal and router uses wireless medium without the need of any centralized control. Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) is a kind of special wireless ad hoc network, which has the characteristics of high node mobility and fast topology changes. The Vehicular Networks can provide wide variety of services, range from safety-related warning systems to improved navigation mechanisms as well as information and entertainment applications. So a lot of work and research is being conducted to study problems related to the vehicular communications. These problems include network architecture, protocols for physical and link layers, routing algorithms, as well as security issues. The successful deployment of vehicular communication requires Vehicle to-Vehicle (V2V) & Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication with security to improve road safety and optimize road traffic. The technique used for secure communication in the presence of adversaries is known as cryptography. Cryptography refers to encryption in which a plaintext message is converted into a cipher-text and this can be done with private-key or public-key. , We propose an algorithm MTA (Multilingual Translation Algorithm) based on private key encryption to make secure communication and maintain privacy among nodes.
Determinación de prioridades por el Método Hanlon en el laboratorio de análisis clínicos en un hospital de 2do nivel de atención

Hanlon method is a tool that classifies the problems and the resources that account, prioritizing issues based on the magnitude of the problem, severity, effectiveness of the solution and feasibility of the intervention. This method is a health technology for making decisions. Hanlon method is applied in the clinical laboratory of the Civil Hospital Dr. Antonio Gonzalez Guevara, with the aim of solving the problem that has greater feasibility. Highest scoring problems and feasibility of solution were in the pre analytical and post analytical clinical laboratory. To solve these problems is a flowchart of care established with support from the laboratory area manager, aligning schedules for each department involved in the laboratory process and procedures manual review. Conclusions: The application of this method in the clinical laboratory allowed us to determine the impact of their problems in the hospital and make timely decisions based on the prioritization and resources you have.
THE RENAISSANCE OF CANCER IMMUNOSURVEILLANCE IFN-γ , Perforin , and Lymphocytes in Tumor

■ Abstract After a century of controversy, the notion that the immune system regulates cancer development is experiencing a new resurgence. An overwhelming amount of data from animal models—together with compelling data from human patients— indicate that a functional cancer immunosurveillance process indeed exists that acts as an extrinsic tumor suppressor. However, it has also become clear that the immune system can facilitate tumor progression, at least in part, by sculpting the immunogenic phenotype of tumors as they develop. The recognition that immunity plays a dual role in the complex interactions between tumors and the host prompted a refinement of the cancer immunosurveillance hypothesis into one termed “cancer immunoediting. ” In this review, we summarize the history of the cancer immunosurveillance controversy and discuss its resolution and evolution into the three Es of cancer immunoediting— elimination, equilibrium, and escape.
Child’s Weight Status and Parent’s Response to a School-Based Body Mass Index Screening and Parent Notification Program

This study examined the response of parents of elementary school-aged children to a school-based body mass index (BMI) screening and parent notification program conducted in one Minnesota school district in 2010–2011 and whether parent’s response was moderated by child’s weight status. Randomly selected parents (N = 122) of second- and fourth-grade students completed a mailed self-administered anonymous survey. Child’s weight status was determined using measured height and weight. Most parents read the BMI notification letter and considered it helpful, independent of child’s weight status. Parents of overweight children were significantly more likely than parents of normal weight children to report healthy lifestyle changes. This low-intensity intervention has the potential to support children, especially overweight children, and their parents to make healthy lifestyle changes. Future studies should investigate whether parent’s response contributes to improved short- and long-term health outcomes for children.
Uniform Solution on the Effect of Internal Heat Generation on Rayleigh-Benard Convection in Micropolar Fluid

The effect of internal heat generation is applied to the Rayleigh-Benard convection in a horizontal micropolar fluid layer. The bounding surfaces of the liquids are considered to be rigid-free, rigid-rigid and free-free with the combination of isothermal on the spin-vanishing boundaries. A linear stability analysis is used and the Galerkin method is employed to find the critical stability parameters numerically. It is shown that the critical Rayleigh number decreases as the value of internal heat generation increase and hence destabilize the system. Keywords—Internal heat generation, micropolar fluid, rayleighbenard convection.
Record‐linkage methodology for prescribing research

Record‐linkage refers to the linking together of data relating to the same individual from separate source files. In this paper, we discuss ways in which the technique can enhance observational prescribing research in large populations. We draw upon the work of the Medicines Monitoring Unit (MEMO), University of Dundee, to illustrate its contribution to prescribing research.