Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Cryopreservation on Sea Bass Sperm Proteins

Abstract In the present study we used two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and matrix-associated laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry to verify whether the protein expression of sea bass sperm was affected by the cryopreservation procedure. The protein profiles differed between fresh and frozen-thawed semen as revealed by visual inspection and by image analysis software. We identified 163 spots in fresh sperm; among these, 13 were significantly decreased and 8 were absent in two-dimensional gel obtained with cryopreserved sperm. Five of these spots were analyzed with MALDI-TOF, but only three showed a significant match in the databases used in bio-informatics analysis (PeptIdent, Mascot, and MS-Fit). In particular, spot 5 showed homology with a novel protein of zebrafish (similar to SKB1 of human and mouse), spot 13 showed homology with amphibian G1/S-specific cyclin E2, and spot 20 showed homology with the hypothetical protein DKFZp566A1524 of Brachidanio rerio. The present work shows that the use of the cryopreservation procedure causes the degradation of sperm proteins and among these, two could be at least partially responsible for the observed decrease in sperm motility duration and the lower hatching rate of eggs fertilized with cryopreserved sperm.
Five cases of syphilis from an urban university hospital in Lebanon

In Lebanon, there are no data on the incidence of syphilis because there is no mandatory reporting of cases to Public Health authorities. This is a retrospective study that interviewed all syphilitic patients who presented to the Dermatology Department in Mount Lebanon hospital between July 2011 and March 2014. Five patients were included here. The demographic consisted exclusively of men, and all cases identified themselves as men who have sex with men (MSM). Data retrieved from the interviews are detailed in Table 1. All participants had more than five sexual partners per month. They all reported receptive anal sex. Four participants reported consistent condom use during anal sex, while only one patient used condoms irregularly. All participants practised unprotected fellatio. In the previous six months, the five patients had been living in Lebanon, but all of them reported various short-term travels (New York, London, Montreal, Paris, Cairo and Dubai) during that time period with sexual contact with non-Lebanese partners. Only one participant was co-infected with HIV. All participants had a prior diagnosis of at least one sexually transmitted infection (STI) (excluding HIV). Four participants reported the use of recreational drugs, alcohol, or both, before or during sex. The clinical presentation of syphilis was primary with genital ulcer in only one patient. The four others discovered their syphilitic status on screening tests. In the Middle East and North Africa regions, the annual incidence of syphilis is 2.2 per 1000. In Saudi Arabia, among 3270 women tested at King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, only one was found syphilitic. The prevalence was 0.0% in women from different areas in Jordan. According to our study, all patients reported sexual intercourse while travelling in cities known to have a
An Efficient Image Enlargement Method for Image Sensors of Mobile in Embedded Systems

Main challenges for image enlargement methods in embedded systems come from the requirements of good performance, low computational cost, and low memory usage. This paper proposes an efficient image enlargement method which can meet these requirements in embedded system. Firstly, to improve the performance of enlargement methods, this method extracts different kind of features for different morphologies with different approaches. Then, various dictionaries based on different kind of features are learned, which represent the image in a more efficient manner. Secondly, to accelerate the enlargement speed and reduce the memory usage, this method divides the atoms of each dictionary into several clusters. For each cluster, separate projection matrix is calculated. This method reformulates the problem as a least squares regression. The high-resolution (HR) images can be reconstructed based on a few projection matrixes. Numerous experiment results show that this method has advantages such as being efficient and real-time and having less memory cost. These advantages make this method easy to implement in mobile embedded system.
System-On-Chip for Biologically Inspired Vision Applications

Neuromorphic vision algorithms are biologically-inspired computational models of the primate visual pathway. They promise robustness, high accuracy, and high energy efficiency in advanced image processing applications. Despite these potential benefits, the realization of neuromorphic algorithms typically exhibit low performance even when executed on multi-core CPU and GPU platforms. This is due to the disparity in the computational modalities prominent in these algorithms and those modalities most exploited in contemporary computer architectures. In essence, acceleration of neuromorphic algorithms requires adherence to specific computational and communicational requirements. This paper discusses these requirements and proposes a framework for mapping neuromorphic vision applications on a System-on-Chip, SoC. A neuromorphic object detection and recognition on a multi-FPGA platform is presented with performance and power efficiency comparisons to CMP and GPU implementations.
Assembly of the BclB glycoprotein into the exosporium and evidence for its role in the formation of the exosporium ‘cap’ structure in Bacillus anthracis

The outermost layer of the Bacillus anthracis spore consists of an exosporium comprised of an outer hair‐like nap layer and an internal basal layer. A major component of the hair‐like nap is the glycosylated collagen‐like protein BclA. A second collagen‐like protein, BclB, is also present in the exosporium. BclB possesses an N‐terminal sequence that targets it to the exosporium and is similar in sequence to a cognate targeting region in BclA. BclB lacks, however, sequence similarity to the region of BclA thought to mediate attachment to the basal layer via covalent interactions with the basal layer protein BxpB. Here we demonstrate that BxpB is critical for correct localization of BclB during spore formation and that the N‐terminal domains of the BclA and BclB proteins compete for BxpB‐controlled assembly sites. We found that BclB is located principally in a region of the exosporium that excludes a short arc on one side of the exosporium (the so‐called bottle‐cap region). We also found that in bclB mutant spores, the distribution of exosporium proteins CotY and BxpB is altered, suggesting that BclB has roles in exosporium assembly. In bclB mutant spores, the distance between the exosporium and the coat, the interspace, is reduced.
Atrial Fibrillation:

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in clinical practice, and its incidence increases significantly with age.1 It is a major etiologic factor in stroke in the elderly, and it increases cardiovascular mortality, especially among patients with congestive heart failure. Atrial remodeling refers to the changes that occur in the atria following rapid atrial pacing or atrial tachyarrhythmias (atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter, and self-terminating episodes of AF) and result in progressive increase in the susceptibility to AF. Atrial remodeling also can develop in the presence of heart failure, which is known to be associated with increased incidence of AF. Atrial remodeling has several important clinical implications. It is purported to be the mechanism by which paroxysmal AF tends to become persistent. It may explain the high incidence of recurrence of AF that occurs early after cardioversion. More importantly, it may be the main reason why long-term AF is resistant to pharmacologic cardioversion. Atrial remodeling has been classified into electrical, contractile, and anatomic.2 These changes are the result of activation of specific signal transduction pathways that induce alterations in the molecular, ionic, electrical, and structural characteristics of atrial myocytes and intracellular matrix. Although considerable progress has been made over the past few years in assessing the molecular basis of the pathogenesis of AF, the mechanistic implication of genes alteration underlying AF is not yet completely understood. In this issue of the Journal, Lai et al.3 set out to investigate the genetic changes in a porcine model of AF induced by long-term rapid atrial pacing. Using cDNA microarray and two-dimensional protein electrophoresis techniques, the authors reported significant changes in mRNA levels in 387 genes in the atrium. The most prominent change was an isoform shift in the MCL-2 message and protein with an increase of the ratio MLC-2V/MLC-2A compared to sinus rhythm. The linkage that the study provided between reprogramming of MCL-2 isoform composition and AF is especially convincing, given that the authors have shown changes in MLC-2 isoforms at both mRNA and proteins levels. The changes in MLC-2 is of particular interest in AF because it has been demonstrated that ventricular MIC-2 isoform switch enhances atrial cardiomyocyte to calcium sensitivity of the myofilament and/or facilitates more effective actin-myosin
Myocardial Protective Effect of Exogenous Creatine Phosphate in Children Undergoing Open Heart Surgery

Objective: To explore the protective role of exogenous Creatine Phosphate (PCr) in the postoperative cardiac muscle recovery in children undergoing open heart surgery. Material and methods: 63 cases of congenital heart disease were randomly divided into 3 groups; A, B and C; 21 cases in each group. Myocardial perfusion fluids were made of the same amount of blood in the St, Thomas Hospital cardioplegic solution type 2 (STH 2). In B and C group, intraoperative myocardial perfusion solution added with exogenous CP. All the groups were postoperatively treated with general fluid therapy, while group C was given postoperative intravenous exogenous CP. Trends of myocardial enzyme at different time points were monitored. Results: At the end of surgery (T2), enzyme levels in the plasma were significantly increased, no difference between the groups B and C but were significantly lower than that in group A (P<0.05); after surgery myocardial enzyme levels recovered fastest in Group C, slowest in A group, the differences between each group were significant (P<0.05). Conclusions: Perioperative and postoperative exogenous PCr have myocardial protective effect and accelerate the repair of injured myocardium due to ischemia during open heart surgery in children.
A new reduced model of scavenging to optimize cylinder design

This paper presents the development of a new scavenging model to optimize cylinder design. The developed model explicitly integrates some of the cylinder’s design and environmental variables to describe flows during the scavenging process. Then, based on the reduced model, an optimization phase was carried out in order to determine the optimal values of cylinder variables. From computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to optimal cylinder design, all method steps used are described in this paper. Adaptable to any type of engine, here it is applied to the particular two-stroke diesel engine with ports only. In order to fully understand fluid flow, the methodology integrates a number of CFD calculations with different cylinder configurations to provide data. The CFD results are used as neural network outputs during the training phase, whereas the cylinder variables plus the crankshaft angle are the inputs. The trained network provides the analytical reduced model for gas composition transiting through ports, which characterize the scavenging process. Thanks to these, genetic algorithms are run to define the most suitable values of cylinder variables in order to improve scavenging. The entire process for establishing the reduced model and the optimal design of the chamber is presented in this paper.
The patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has a family

To the Editor We have read the paper on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) by ten Berg et al with great interest.1 As the paper has an educational aim, we would like to address some minor misconceptions that could have major implications. Genotyping in HCM to establish a molecular diagnosis in HCM patients can indeed probably not be used to guide prognosis or therapy. However, it has …
Security Analysis and Improvements of a Three-Party Password-Based Key Exchange Protocol

Recently Xie et al. [Q. Xie, N. Dong, X. Tan. D. Wong, G. Wang. Improvement of a three-party password-based key exchange protocol with formal verification. Information Technology and Control, 2013, Vol. 42, No. 3, 231-237] proposed an efficient three-party password-based key exchange protocol and used a formal verification tool to verify its security. In this paper, we demonstrate that their protocol is vulnerable to the off-line password guessing attack and the key compromise impersonation attack. The analysis shows that their protocol is not secure for practical applications. To overcome weaknesses in Xie et al.’s protocol, we also propose an improved 3PAKE protocol. Analysis shows that our protocol not only overcomes those weaknesses, but also has better performance. Therefore, our protocol is more suitable for practical applications. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.itc. 43.1. 5322
Overview and pathogenesis of celiac disease.

Celiac disease is characterized by small intestinal mucosal injury and nutrient malabsorption in genetically susceptible individuals following the dietary ingestion of “gluten. ” The pathogenesis of disease involves interactions between environmental, genetic, and immunologic factors. 1 This brief overview of celiac disease and its pathogenesis is designed to place this disease, and current views of its pathogenesis, in a context appropriate for further consideration within the framework of questions being posed by the NIH Consensus Conference on Celiac Disease. Pathology and Clinical Symptoms First, a brief overview of disease pathology and clinical symptoms. The luminal surface of a small intestinal mucosal biopsy specimen from a healthy subject and an individual with celiac disease with total villous atrophy, as viewed through a dissecting microscope, are shown in Figure 1A and 1B, respectively. The normal biopsy specimen shows abundant villi (looking much like the shag household carpets of a prior era), whereas the biopsy specimen from the patient with celiac disease shows a complete loss of villi, with a flat mucosal surface accentuated by ridges and numerous openings of the crypts onto the luminal surface. Microscopic analysis of a normal H&E-stained, small intestinal mucosal biopsy specimen is shown in Figure 1C. Characteristic features include tall villi lined by a single layer of columnar epithelial cells with basally oriented nuclei, a “smattering” of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) occurring at a ratio of approximately 1 per 6 –10 epithelial cells, a normal complement of lymphocytes and plasma cells in the lamina propria consistent with the normal “physiologic inflammation” of the small intestine, and a villous to crypt ratio of 4 –5:1. Contrast that biopsy specimen with the biopsy specimen from a celiac disease patient with total villous atrophy as shown in Figure 1D. The latter reveals a complete loss of villi, markedly abnormal squamoid surface epithelial cells, an increase in intraepithelial lymphocytes, a chronic lymphocyte and plasma cell infiltrate in the lamina propria, and marked crypt hyperplasia with increased crypt mitoses. The pathology shown in this celiac biopsy specimen reflects the more severe end of the pathologic spectrum of disease, which, as indicated in Figure 2, can vary markedly among affected individuals. Just as the pathology can vary markedly among patients, so can the spectrum of clinical symptoms, which can range from severe to subtle (Figure 3). The proportion of individuals presenting with more dramatic symptoms of diarrhea, severe weight loss, and malnutrition is decreasing when compared with those presenting with mild or minimal symptoms or asymptomatic individuals in which disease is discovered only when investigating nongastrointestinal symptoms, for example, iron deficiency anemia or osteopenia. 2 A more detailed explanation of the clinical presentation of celiac disease in children and adults is presented in later articles in this series. Pathogenesis of Celiac Disease
Non-diabetic microalbuminuria, endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular disease

Subclinical increases in albuminuria (microalbuminuria) predict morbid events, but the reasons for that are still not understood in full. This paper reviews the existing evidence regarding the relationships of non-diabetic microalbuminuria and cardiovascular disease, the underlying assumption being that endothelial dysfunction contributes both to atherosclerotic macrovascular disease and renal microvascular disease of which albuminuria is a marker. Much data support that concept, and suggest a preferential link with endothelial activation in response to acute and subclinical inflammatory stimulation, although further studies are needed to establish the exact cause-effect mechanisms. Epidemiological studies also show associations with cardiovascular events, and some recent prospective results also indicate the power of micro-albuminuria to predict risk independently from conventional atherogenic factors. Thus, micro-albuminuria might be considered as an integrated marker of cardiovascular risk sensitive to systemic vascular status in addition to other parameters such as blood pressure levels, glucose metabolism, smoking habits, a profile rather unique among the prognostic predictors available to stratify risk in hypertensive patients.
Attachment and Depression Differentially Influence Nicotine Dependence Among Male and Female Undergraduates: A Preliminary Study

The authors surveyed a convenience sample of 208 undergraduate students who reported that they smoked cigarettes. The primary hypothesis they tested was whether gender predicted nicotine dependence. They further tested whether depression and attachment would mediate or moderate this relationship. Hierarchical regression analyses with social desirability and smoking stage of change entered as covariates indicated that women exhibited greater nicotine dependence than men did (p < .01). Lower attachment scores fully mediated this relationship, whereas elevated depression scores moderated the relationship. These findings suggest that depression and the inability to bond with peers may promote nicotine dependence among young female students.
Feasibility of MDCT Colonography in ultra-low-dose technique in the detection of colorectal lesions: comparison with high-resolution video colonoscopy.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of MDCT colonography in an ultra-low-dose technique in the detection of endoluminal colonic lesions compared with high-resolution video colonoscopy. SUBJECTS AND METHODS After standard bowel cleansing, 137 patients (77 men, 60 women; mean [+/- SD] age, 57.1 +/- 11.3 years) underwent high-resolution video colonoscopy within 2 hr after ultra-low-dose MDCT colonography had been performed. Ultra-low-dose MDCT colonography was performed with patients in the supine position only using 10 mAs (effective weighted CT dose index, 0.94 mGy). After mathematic noise reduction by nonlinear gaussian filter chains, using dedicated software (ECCET), images were analyzed by two blinded observers in simultaneously displayed interactive 2D and 3D modes. Findings of ultra-low-dose MDCT colonography were compared with the results obtained with high-resolution video colonoscopy. RESULTS Calculated effective doses were 0.7 and 1.2 mSv for men and women, respectively. Ultra-low-dose MDCT colonography detected 84 (62%) of 135 lesions: 11 (78.6%) of 14 large polyps (> 10 mm), 12 (85.7%) of 14 medium polyps (9.9-5 mm), and 61 (57%) of 107 small polyps (< 5 mm). On a patient-by-patient basis, an overall sensitivity of 70.3% with a specificity of 80.8% was calculated. False-positive findings were seen mostly for small lesions (eight medium and 29 small lesions). Two of the three false-negative lesions were retrospectively detected in contrast-enhanced cleansing fluid; one was a flat lipoma not detectable on ultra-low-dose MDCT colonography. CONCLUSION Despite an effective dose of approximately 1 mSv, MDCT colonography using an ultra-low-dose technique performs as well as MDCT colonography with a standard dose, according to published data. After mathematic noise reduction, 82% of polyps larger than 5 mm can be detected.
Evaluation of Forecasting and Inventory Control in Multi-product Manufacturing Systems Operating under Erratic Demand : A Case Study in the Automotive Domain

Erratic demands have traditionally shown complexity in inventory management and forecasting. Several organisations, especially in multi-product manufacturing systems with intermittent demand high level of variability and uncertainty, assume suitable estimators are put in place to forecast demand. This forces them to pay attention to controlling the inventory of a system. The forecasted demand is often characterised by one or more (hybrid) statistical distributions. The latter, often used in modelling highly variable intermittent demand profile, has a significant effect on the inventory and service level in a system. This paper evaluates the demand distributions frequently used for inventory control under erratic demand variability. We use a discrete event simulation technique to analyse the level of significance of statistical distributions. We then prove our methodology on real industrial data of a multi-product manufacturing plant. We aim to determine the most suitable approach for inventory control with respect to minimising inventory while maintaining zero stock-outs and high service level.
High prevalence rate of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) among Enterobacteriaceae in a small Brazilian public hospital

A producao de beta-lactamases de espectro ampliado (ESBL) e considerada um dos mais importantes mecanismos de resistencia aos antimicrobianos, o que dificulta o tratamento de infeccoes causadas por enterobacterias. Dados sobre cultura e testes de sensibilidade foram coletados das fichas do Laboratorio de Ensino e Pesquisa de Analises Clinicas de pacientes atendidos no Hospital Universitario de Maringa (HUM), de janeiro de 2004 a dezembro de 2009. As enterobacterias escolhidas foram: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Enterobacter spp. e Proteus mirabilis. Os testes foram realizados de acordo com as recomendacoes do CLSI (identificacao bioquimica; testes de suscetibilidade; triagem e confirmacao fenotipica de producao de ESBL). Para isolados de Enterobacter spp. , utilizou-se a tecnica de disco aproximacao, acrescentando um disco de cefepima. Setecentas amostras foram analisadas e E. coli foi a bacteria mais prevalente (n=356). ESBLs foram detectadas fenotipicamente em 7,3% das amostras de E. coli, 61,7% das de K. pneumoniae, 3,3% das de K. oxytoca, 7,1% das de P. mirabilis e em 13,4% das de Enterobacter spp. A prevalencia geral de ESBL chegou a 22%, somando-se todos os isolados produtores. O HUM, mesmo sendo considerado um hospital de pequeno porte, apresenta niveis altos de resistencia a antimicrobianos, semelhantes aqueles observados em hospitais maiores, demonstrando a necessidade de cuidadosa vigilância epidemiologica.