Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single-sided deaf tactical unit officer treated with cochlear implantation

Objectives: To demonstrate the efficacy of cochlear implantation for management of a severe single-sided deaf tactical unit officer. Showing that hearing improvement provided by cochlear implantation was sufficient for him to return to work as a police tactical officer. Methods: Case report. Results: A 43 years-old man working as a tactical unit officer suffered from a work-related severe single-sided hearing loss. He tried unsuccessfully many types of hearing aids including a contralateral routing of sound (CROS) system and a bone conduction hearing aid with a headband. He was finally treated with cochlear implantation which provided enough localization and hearing abilities for a complete return to work as a tactical unit officer. Discussion: This case report demonstrates that cochlear implantation was very successful for a patient suffering from severe single-sided hearing loss. The current literature demonstrates benefits from cochlear implant over CROS and osseointegrated devices in unilateral hearing loss. Nevertheless, literature does not report any case of patient suffering from single-sided deafness that received a cochlear implant and a complete bilateral hearing rehabilitation that allowed him to return to work as a police tactical officer. Conclusion: Cochlear implantation was the only effective treatment to provide our patient enough localization and hearing abilities for a complete return to work as a police tactical officer. As no consensus has been established about selection criteria for cochlear implantation in single-sided deafness, we suggest that the patient’s occupation should be considered when reviewing his candidacy for cochlear implantation.
Optimal allocation of distributed generation in distributed network with genetic algorithm

With the higher and higher demand by people for the quality and reliability of the power supply, the centralized power grid cannot meet the requirements. Distributed generation access to the distributed network is an inevitable trend of the development of power industry. It is also one of the important aspects of the development of a smart grid. Distributed Generation is a small scale, low investment and clean power resource. Installing distributed generation in the network can also have positive effects of the networks, such as lower losses, stable voltage and so on; these effects are related to the location and sizing of distributed generation. So this thesis is about optimal location and sizing of distributed generation in distributed network. At first, I introduce the definition of distributed generation and some common types of DG, such as wind power and PV power. Using Power factory simulate IEEE14 system was simulated to find the how the DG affects the power losses and voltage quality of the network. According to the analysis above, a model was built with the lowest investment and power losses and the highest voltage quality based on IEEE 14 buses system. The model was simulated in Power Factory; calculated the power flow using Power factory and used adaptive genetic algorithm to solve the optimal problem. The results of the case study will prove that installing distributed generation can decrease the power losses and improve the voltage quality. Finally, from the practical applications aspect, some directions for future research in this problem have been indicated.
Unsuspected recent transmission of tuberculosis among high-risk groups: implications of universal tuberculosis genotyping in its detection.

BACKGROUND The initiation of universal genotyping revealed 3 clusters of 19 patients with tuberculosis (TB) in Wisconsin, with no apparent epidemiologic links among most of them. An epidemiologic investigation was conducted to determine whether genotype clustering resulted from recent transmission. METHODS We conducted additional interviews with patients and reviewed medical records. Places frequented by the patients while they were infectious were visited to identify contacts. RESULTS Our investigation revealed several previously unrecognized possible sites of TB transmission: a single-room occupancy hotel, 2 homeless shelters, 1 bar, and 2 crack houses. Seven patients with previously diagnosed TB were added to the clusters. Of 26 patients, we identified epidemiologic links for all but 1. Common risk factors among patients included alcohol abuse, crack cocaine use, homelessness, and unemployment. Additionally, 98 contacts missed during routine contact investigation were identified. CONCLUSIONS Transmission of TB, particularly among high-risk groups, may go undetected for years. Our investigation demonstrated the value of universal genotyping in revealing unsuspected recent TB transmission and previously unrecognized sites of transmission, which can be targeted for specific TB interventions.
Uso de Azadirachta indica como control larvario del Anopheles albimanus : pruebas in vitro.

OBJETIVO. Determinar la eficacia del extracto acuoso Azadiractha indica para el control vectorial del Anopheles albimanus en areas endemicas. El estudio tiene como proposito investigar ? Cual es la eficacia y concentracion adecuada del extracto acuoso de Azadiractha indica en el control de vectores de Anopheles albimanus realizados en pruebas in vitro durante los meses de marzo y abril de 1999? Se utilizo un diseno experimental in vitro, con una significancia estadistica del 5 % y un nivel de confianza 95 %. La muestra fue de 1000 larvas de Anopheles albimanus tratados con concentraciones de 2.5 %, 5 % y 10 %, durante 8 semanas, clasificando taxonomicamente la especie y estadio larvario. RESULTADO. Al utilizar la concentracion del 10 % se obtuvo una dosis letal ( Dl 100 ), observando “desintegracion” de las larvas a las 24 hrs evitando el desarrollo a la fase adulta. CONCLUSION. La utilidad de Azadiractha indica para controlar el vector del Paludismo en pruebas in vitro tiene un efecto larvicida.
BMA - Boolean Matrices as Model for Motif Kernels

We introduce the data model BM, which specifies kernels of motifs by means of Boolean matrices. Different from position frequency matrices these only specify which bases can appear in which position of a motif instance. Boolean matrices describe motifs still more precisely than models based on consensus strings and Hamming distance and thus allow keeping the number of false positives low. Based on the BM model we introduce a new algorithm BMA for motif discovery that attempts to reduce the number of false positives as much as possible. The main idea is to start with small kernels of motif instances and iteratively enlarge the kernels with sets of strings which have a high expected signal to noise ratio, thus keeping the signal to noise ratio as high as possible. Only after a kernel of substantial size has been found, we use position frequency matrices and add in the final stage of the algorithm BMA strings that are close to the kernel to form the final list of potential motif instances. The data model BM simplifies theoretical analysis. For this we restrict ourselves further to Boolean matrices which have either one or two “1”s in each column, i.e. the positions are either preserved or semi-preserved. Finally we compare BMA to other word based approaches on synthetic data fitting the BM model.
Data-sparse matrix computations Lecture 25 : Low Rank + Sparse Matrix Recovery Lecturer : Anil Damle Scribers

In the previous lecture, we observed that it is possible to recover a sparse solution to Ax = b by solving a minimization problem involving the 1-norm. In this lecture, we consider a matrix A that can be written as A = L+ S, where L is a low rank matrix and S is a sparse matrix, and seek a method that recovers L and S. We remark that Lecture 26 forms a sequal to these notes and addresses the technical details related to recovery under the assumption that only a subset of the entries of A are observable. To motivate this work, we begin with two application-based examples.
Sodium fluoride induces changes on proteoglycans synthesized by avian osteoblasts in culture

The results reported here show that sodium fluoride (NaF) at low concentration (up to 10 μM) increased four times the proliferation rate of avian osteoblasts in culture. Also NaF increases, in a concentration dependent manner, 10 times the alkaline phosphatase activity. However, NaF decreased the incorporation of 35S‐sulfate into proteoglycans (PGs) synthesized by osteoblasts (60–65%). Also, we observed that PGs synthesized in the presence of NaF (50 μM) exhibited a higher sensitivity to chondroitinase ABC than PGs synthesized by osteoblasts in the absence of NaF, suggesting an increase in the chondroitin sulfate moieties associated with the core protein of PGs. The modification of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains composition was evidenced also by change in the mean charge density of the PGs observed by ion exchange chromatography. Since the ratio of 35SO4/3H‐glucosamine incorporated into PGs was similar in the presence and in the absence of NaF (8.2 and 7, respectively), it is not possible to explain differences in mean charge density by changes in the sulfation extent of PGs. No differences were observed in the hydrodynamic size of PG synthesized in the presence of NaF, nor in the hydrodynamic size of the GAG chains. According to these results, we speculate that the stimulatory effect of fluoride on bone mineralization may be mediated, in part, by the changes in the rate of synthesis or in the structural characteristics of bone PGs. The changes produced by fluoride in PGs suggest that these molecules play an inhibitory role in the bone mineralization process. J. Cell. Biochem. 83: 607–616, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Activation of Transcription by Metabolic Intermediates of the Pyrimidine Biosynthetic Pathway

ABSTRACT Saccharomyces cerevisiae responds to pyrimidine starvation by increasing the expression of four URA genes, encoding the enzymes of de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis, three- to eightfold. The increase in gene expression is dependent on a transcriptional activator protein, Ppr1p. Here, we investigate the mechanism by which the transcriptional activity of Ppr1p responds to the level of pyrimidine biosynthetic intermediates. We find that purified Ppr1p is unable to promote activation of transcription in an in vitro system. Transcriptional activation by Ppr1p can be observed, however, if either dihydroorotic acid (DHO) or orotic acid (OA) is included in the transcription reactions. The transcriptional activation function and the DHO/OA-responsive element of Ppr1p localize to the carboxyl-terminal 134 amino acids of the protein. Thus, Ppr1p directly senses the level of early pyrimidine biosynthetic intermediates within the cell and activates the expression of genes encoding proteins required later in the pathway. These results are discussed in terms of (i) regulation of the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway and (ii) a novel mechanism of regulating gene expression.
Characterization of Rabbit Antithymocyte Globulins-Induced CD25+ Regulatory T Cells From Cells of Patients With End-Stage Renal Disease

Background. Rabbit antithymocyte globulins (rATGs) are known to convert CD4+CD25−FoxP3− T cells from healthy individuals to CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of rATG on the induction of regulatory T cells (Tregs) from blood cells of patients with end-stage renal disease who are candidates for transplantation and rATG-induction therapy. The induced Tregs were analyzed and compared with naturally occurring CD4+CD25+FoxP3+T cells. Methods. The CD25− T cells of pretransplant patients (n=7) and healthy controls (n=4) were stimulated with rATG or control rabbit immunoglobulins for 24 hr. The phenotype of induced Tregs was examined by flow cytometry, and their function was studied in the conventional suppression assay. Further characterization was performed by mRNA analyses. Results. After 24 hr, the percentage of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+CD127−/low T cells and CD8+CD25+FoxP3−CD127+ T cells became higher in the rATG-treated samples compared with the rabbit immunoglobulin-treated samples (P<0.01). The rATG-induced CD25+T cells, whether CD4+ or CD8+ inhibited the allogeneic responses of CD25−/dim effector T cells as vigorously as natural CD25+T cells. However, the proportion of FoxP3+ within the top 2% rATG-induced CD4+CD25+T-cells was lower than within the natural CD4+CD25+T-cells (11%±2% vs. 95%±5%, P<0.01). The mRNA-expression levels of interleukin-27, interleukin-10, interferon-γ, perforin, and granzyme B were markedly higher compared with natural CD25+T-cells (all P=0.03), whereas CTLA4 (P=0.03), transforming growth factor-β (P=0.02), and RORγt (P=0.04) were lower. Conclusion. rATG allows the induction of Tregs from patient peripheral blood mononuclear cell in vitro. In comparison with natural Tregs, the rATG-induced Tregs are phenotypically distinct but have similar regulatory activities. rATG may beneficially contribute to the mechanisms that control alloreactivity.
Design and microfabrication of frequency selective uncooled microbolometer focal plane array for terahertz imaging

A THz frequency selective microbolometer focal plane array (FPA) with 35 μm pixel pitch and a resolution of 384×288 pixels was recently developed at INO. The FPA was fabricated on a CMOS readout circuit using MEMS surface micromachining techniques. The uncooled microbolometer detectors, based on vanadium oxide technology, were optimized for detection at 4.25 THz. A high performance frequency selective THz camera operating at 4.25 THz was also demonstrated.
Australian GPs' perceptions about child and adolescent overweight and obesity: the Weight of Opinion study.

BACKGROUND GPs can potentially play a significant role in assessing weight status, providing advice, and making referrals to address overweight and obesity and its consequences among children and adolescents. AIM To investigate the perceptions of GPs about overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, including the extent to which they perceive it as a concern, the factors they see as causal, what actions they consider might be needed, and their sense of responsibility and self-efficacy. DESIGN OF STUDY A cross-sectional qualitative study of GPs' perceptions. SETTING General practice and primary health care services in the state of New South Wales, Australia. METHOD Focus groups using a structured protocol were conducted with samples of GPs. Groups comprised a mix of male and female GPs from a range of cultural backgrounds and working in practices in low, medium and high socioeconomic areas. Data were recorded and transcribed. Content analysis was used to identify key themes. RESULTS Many GPs are concerned about the increasing prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity. They are committed to dealing with the medical consequences, but are aware of the broad range of social causes. GPs perceived that parents are sensitive about this topic, making it difficult for them to raise the issue directly in clinical practice, unless they use lateral strategies. GPs were confident about providing advice, with some managing the problem independently, while others preferred to refer to specialised services. GPs perceived that there were significant barriers to patient compliance with advice. CONCLUSION Whereas some GPs manage patients' lifestyle change directly, including children's weight management, others prefer to refer. Programmes, service delivery systems, and resources to support both approaches are required.
Novel insights into DAPK autophagic signalling using peptide aptamer combinatorial protein-interaction screens

DAPK represents a relatively unique enzyme in the protein kinase superfamily whose major biological functions are linked to both autophagy and signal-mediated apoptosis. However, genetic studies have not yet uncovered how DAPK integrates into the core autophagy-related (Atg) machinery since DAPK is not present in a genetically tractable eukaryotic cell such as yeast. Furthermore, there have been no definitive DAPK binding proteins identified in metazoan systems that play a direct role in cooperating with DAPK in autophagy. We have utilized a growing concept in systems biology that invokes linear peptide-motifs as a fundamental mechanism driving protein-protein interactions and as a key switch underlying the dynamics of a signal transduction pathway. By using peptide combinatorial libraries as an assay that reflects the diversity of the linear peptide motif repertoire in the mammalian proteome, we identified microtubule-associated protein 1B (MAP1B) as a novel DAPK interacting protein that stimulates DAPK-dependent membrane blebbing and autophagy. MAP1B has previously been shown to form a functional interaction with the autophagosomal protein Atg8 (LC3). Together these studies define a genetic interaction between DAPK-MAP1B in the regulation of autophagy that may have particular relevance to cellular signalling pathways that regulate cell survival or cell death under distinct environmental stresses. Addendum to: Harrison B, Kraus M, Burch L, Stevens C, Craig A, Gordon-Weeks P, Hupp T. DAPK-1 binding to a linear interaction motif in MAP1B stimulates autophagy and membrane blebbing. J Biol Chem 2008; In press.
Abnormalities in cloned mice are not transmitted to the progeny

Cloned animals suffer a wide range of severe fetal and placental malformations. Whether these malformations arise from insufficient epigenetic modifications or mutations has not yet been determined. To address this question, we examined siblings from both cloned XO and XY parents. These parents, which exhibited hypertrophic placentas, increased body weights, and open eyelids at birth, were created from the same ES cell sublines. The siblings from all three cloned pairs showed normal body and placenta weights and no open eyelids at birth. The results clearly showed that the phenotypic abnormalities seen in cloned mice were not transmitted to the progeny, a finding that suggests that abnormalities in cloned mice are responsible for insufficient epigenetic modifications/reprogramming. genesis 2:203–207, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Traits, Attitudes and Symptoms in a Group of Attempted Suicides

Much early research on attempted suicide looked upon this phenomenon as failed, frustrated or bungled suicide, an attitude which still persists among the general population. Conceptually, attempted suicide was viewed as a special case of suicide, and theories about the latter were used to explain the former, without much success. Stengel's influential monograph (Stengel and Cook, 1958) made an important contribution to the study of suicidal behaviour by contending that attempted suicide presented issues peculiar to itself as well as sharing problems with suicide. The definition of attempted suicide offered by Stengel (1964) is as follows, ‘A suicidal attempt is any act of self-damage inflicted with self-destructive intention, however vague and ambiguous. Sometimes this intention has to be inferred from the patient's behaviour. ’ Suicidal attempts as thus defined are frequently insufficient to cause death, and must be related to the social setting of the patient. In situations which might be called crises of despair some people injure themselves in order to appeal for help, to spite others or to submit themselves to trial by ordeal. Stengel's definition has found general favour, although Kessel (1966) tried to promote the term self-poisoning, arguing that this term aroused fewer preconceived notions in the minds of the uninitiated.
Crystal structure of the Leishmania major phosphodiesterase LmjPDEB1 and insight into the design of the parasite‐selective inhibitors

Human leishmaniasis is a major public health problem in many countries, but chemotherapy is in an unsatisfactory state. Leishmania major phosphodiesterases (LmjPDEs) have been shown to play important roles in cell proliferation and apoptosis of the parasite. Thus LmjPDE inhibitors may potentially represent a novel class of drugs for the treatment of leishmaniasis. Reported here are the kinetic characterization of the LmjPDEB1 catalytic domain and its crystal structure as a complex with 3‐isobutyl‐1‐methylxanthine (IBMX) at 1.55 Å resolution. The structure of LmjPDEB1 is similar to that of human PDEs. IBMX stacks against the conserved phenylalanine and forms a hydrogen bond with the invariant glutamine, in a pattern common to most inhibitors bound to human PDEs. However, an extensive structural comparison reveals subtle, but significant differences between the active sites of LmjPDEB1 and human PDEs. In addition, a pocket next to the inhibitor binding site is found to be unique to LmjPDEB1. This pocket is isolated by two gating residues in human PDE families, but constitutes a natural expansion of the inhibitor binding pocket in LmjPDEB1. The structure particularity might be useful for the development of parasite‐selective inhibitors for the treatment of leishmaniasis.
Isolation and phenotypic characterization of colonic macrophages

Macrophages play an important role in the intestinal mucosal immune system. However, they are a poorly defined cell population. We therefore determined their phenotype in normal colonic mucosa. Macrophages were isolated from colonic biopsies and surgical specimens by collagenase digestion. Colonic macrophages were positively sorted by anti‐CD33 magnetic beads. Flow cytometric triple fluorescence analysis was applied to study CD14, CD16, CD33, CD44, CD11b, CD11c, CD64, HLA‐DR, CD80, CD86 and CD3/CD19 expression. CD33 was evaluated as a positive marker for intestinal macrophages. CD33+ cells isolated from normal colonic mucosa showed co‐expression of the established intracellular macrophage marker CD68 in FACS analysis. CD33+ cells were capable of phagocytosis. Isolation of this cell population by magnetic anti‐CD33 beads and culture resulted in a 4.2–40‐fold increase in IL‐1β and 4.5–44‐fold increase in tumour necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) secretion compared with unsorted lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMC). Of the CD33+ cells, 90.9 ± 6.9% (mean ± s.d.) were CD44+. However, macrophages from colonic mucosa showed only a low expression of CD14 (10.5 ± 3.8%), CD16 (10.1 ± 3.9%), HLA‐DR (27.3 ± 9.2%), CD11b (17.4 ± 6.8%), CD11c (17.8 ± 10.4%). Furthermore, expression of CD80 (9.2 ± 4.2%) and CD86 (15.1 ± 7.3%) was low, suggesting a low ability of normal intestinal macrophages to activate T cells and T cell‐mediated immune responses. We conclude that CD33 is useful for the isolation and flow cytometric characterization of colonic macrophages. These cells exhibit a single phenotype in normal mucosa (CD33++, CD44++, CD14−, CD16−, CD11b−, CD11c−, HLA‐DRlow, CD80−, CD86−) lacking lipopolysaccharide (LPS) receptor and costimulatory molecules.
3D face recognition system based on feature analysis and support vector machine

In this paper, a novel 3D face recognition system based on feature analysis and support vector machine (SVM) is proposed. The first stage of this approach is to normalize the altitude and angle of 3D facial data to remove the distortion resulted from the head pose under arbitrary rotation. Next, the chain code method is employed for feature extraction in several selected facial regions. With the aids of the factor analysis techniques, the number of features is effectively reduced from 26 to 10, which decreased massive computation cost and make the whole system more efficiently. From the experimental results, it is observed that the correction rate using the recognition scheme based on SVM achieves up to 98%, which proves the superior performance of this system.