Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinicopathological spectrum of snake bite-induced acute kidney injury from India

AIM To study the clinico-pathological spectrum of snake bite-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). METHODS A retrospective study of patients admitted at Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital, Shimla with snake bite-induced AKI from July 2003 to June 2016. Medical records were evaluated for patient’s information on demographic, clinical characteristics, complications and outcome. Outcomes of duration of hospital stay, requirement for intensive care unit support, treatment with dialysis, survival and mortality were analyzed. The survival and non survival groups were compared to see the difference in the demographic factors, clinical characteristics, laboratory results, and complications. In patients subjected to kidney biopsy, the findings of histopathological examination of the kidney biopsies were also analyzed. RESULTS One hundred and twenty-one patients were diagnosed with snake bite-induced AKI. Mean age was 42.2 ± 15.1 years and majority (58%) were women. Clinical details were available in 88 patients. The mean duration of arrival at hospital was 3.4 ± 3.7 d with a range of 1 to 30 d. Eighty percent had oliguria and 55% had history of having passed red or brown colored urine. Coagulation defect was seen in 89% patients. The hematological and biochemical laboratory abnormalities were: Anemia (80.7%), leukocytosis (75%), thrombocytopenia (47.7%), hyperkalemia (25%), severe metabolic acidosis (39.8%), hepatic dysfunction (40.9%), hemolysis (85.2%) and rhabdomyolysis (68.2%). Main complications were: Gastrointestinal bleed (12.5%), seizure/encephalopathy (10.2%), hypertension, pneumonia/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (9.1% each), hypotension and multi organ failure (MOF) (4.5% each). Eighty-two percent patients required renal replacement therapy. One hundred and ten (90.9%) patient survived and 11 (9.1%) patients died. As compared to the survival group, the white blood cell count (P = 0.023) and bilirubin levels (P = 0.006) were significant higher and albumin levels were significantly lower (0.005) in patients who died. The proportion of patients with pneumonia/ARDS (P = 0.001), seizure/encephalopathy (P = 0.005), MOF (P = 0.05) and need for intensive care unit support (0.001) was significantly higher and duration of hospital stay was significantly shorter (P = 0.012) in patients who died. Kidney biopsy was done in total of 22 patients. Predominant lesion on kidney biopsy was acute tubular necrosis (ATN) in 20 (91%) cases. In 11 cases had severe ATN and in other nine (41%) cases kidney biopsy showed features of ATN associated with mild to moderate acute interstitial nephritis (AIN). One patient only had moderate AIN and one had patchy renal cortical necrosis (RCN). CONCLUSION AKI due to snake bite is severe and a high proportion requires renal replacement therapy. On renal histology ATN and AIN are common, RCN is rare.
Autism and Developmental Prosopagnosia: A Cross-Disorder Study.

It has been suggested that developmental prosopagnosia (DP) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are co-occurring conditions; i.e., that the incidence of DP is greater in ASD than in the general population, and vice versa. Consistent with this suggestion, several case studies have described individuals with ASD who also exhibit severe face recognition difficulties. These reports document a number of anecdotes widely regarded as classic hallmarks of DP, including the use of hairstyle, voice and clothing cues for identity recognition. Despite the hypothesized relationship between the two conditions, virtually nothing is known about the effects of co-occurring DP on the perceptual abilities of individuals with ASD, or the effects of co-occurring ASD in DP. The present study sought a better understanding of this co-occurrence, and the respective influence of ASD and DP on face and object recognition. A novel three group design was employed, allowing direct comparison of 18 observers with ASD, 18 with DP and 18 typically developing controls. All participants completed measures of prosopagnosic and autistic traits, and completed objective measures of face and object recognition ability. Consistent with the co-occurrence hypothesis, we found that i) individuals with ASD reported more prosopagnosic traits, and ii) individuals with DP reported more autistic traits, than controls. A subset of the ASD group reached the threshold for prosopagnosia and a subset of the DP group reached cut-off for clinically significant levels of autistic traits. As expected, prosopagnosic traits correlated closely with face recognition ability. Interestingly however, autistic traits were not predictive of face recognition ability once prosopagnosic traits were accounted for, but were associated with wider object recognition ability. These results have important implications for future research addressing visual perception in ASD and DP. A better appreciation of this co-occurrence may help to understand the heterogeneity seen in these conditions. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.
Decisão na administração pública: diálogo de racionalidades

A ciencia da administracao publica tem sido palco de um debate aceso na procura dos modelos de gestao e desenhos organizacionais mais propicios a um sistema que se deseja capaz de cumprir as metas que se propoe realizar, fazendo simultaneamente um uso adequado dos recursos ao seu dispor. Almeja-se uma racionalidade instrumental, gestionaria, que decorre de uma modelizacao teorica da decisao muito adotada na gestao e na economia: o modelo de decisao racional. Porem, nao e linear que este modelo corresponda ao que realmente ocorre na realidade que visa descrever e explicar. Outros modelos existem, nascidos de estudos com uma natureza indutiva e pragmatica, que propiciam visoes e explanacoes diversas para os processos de decisao, nomeadamente quando se introduzem duas variaveis: o contexto politico e decisoes sobre problemas ambiguos e tendencialmente complexos. Neste artigo, sistematizaremos sinteticamente alguns desses modelos. Talvez ter em conta tais modelos possa revelar-se um precioso auxilio no processo de transformar, com eficacia, o sistema administrativo.
On multiphysics modeling and control of marine current turbine systems

Les travaux developpes durant la these, ont permis la mise au point d’un simulateur qui permet de prevoir le comportement dune hydrolienne dans son environnement. A cet effet, une approche multiphysique a ete adoptee pour la modelisation de l’ensemble de la chatne de conversion d’energie. L’environnement de simulation ainsi developpe peut egalement etre utilise pour le dimensionnement et l’evaluation de la rentabilite d’installations hydroliennes. A l’heure actuelle, l’outil developpe permet de simuler tous les types de turbines a axe horizontal. De plus, il permet de choisir entre deux topologies electriques differentes; une basee sur la generatrice asynchrone a double alimentation et une sur la generatrice synchrone a aimants permanents. Pour ces deux technologies, deux types de commande en vitesse ont ete proposes. La premiere strategie consacre l’utilisation des regulateurs lineaires PI. La deuxieme, quant a elle, propose une commande non lineaire dite « modes glissants d’ordre superieur». Les differents composants du simulateur ont ete testes et eprouves experimentalement en termes de modeles et en ternies de performances de regulations de vitesse. Les developpements presentes dans ce memoire restent cependant perfectibles ouvrant ainsi la voie a d’interessantes perspectives.
Some Bayesian stratified two-phase sampling results.

Abstract : In this paper we obtain some results concerning the optimum allocation of sampling effort among k strata at the second phase of a two phase sampling procedure, using information obtained from the first phase. Two different approaches are employed; a Bayesian posterior analysis and a Bayesian preposterior analysis. Two different allocation methods are derived and illustrated with some numerical examples, for cases where some or all of the nuisance parameters are unknown. The problem when all nuisance parameters are known has been discussed by Ericson (1965). (Author)
Improvement of original particle swarm optimization algorithm based on simulated annealing algorithm

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is an optimization algorithm in the filed of Evolutionary Computation, which has been applied widely in function optimization, artificial neural networks' training, pattern recognition, fuzzy control and some other fields. Original PSO algorithm could be trapped in the local minima easily, so in this paper we improved the original PSO algorithm using the idea of simulated annealing algorithm, which makes the PSO algorithm jump out of local minima. In this paper, two improved strategies was proposed, and after testing and comparing the two improved algorithms with the original PSO algorithm again and again, we conclude at last that efficiency of searching global about the two improved strategies is better than the original PSO.
Cell‐mediated immunity in patients with mycosis fungoides in clinical remission. Effect of thymic humoral factor on the immunocompetence of the lymphocytes

In 10 patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) who were in clinical remission following local treatment with nitrogen mustard, cell‐mediated immunity was investigated by means of tests for lymphocytes, forming rosettes in the peripheral blood, and the graft‐vs‐host reaction as well as intradermal skin tests. The effect of thymic humoral factor (THF) on T lymphocytes with impaired immunecompetence was also investigated. The results provided evidence of various kinds of damage to the immunologic system in most of the patients. Of the 10 patients, 4 had low percentages of T cells. Eight of the 10 had a graft‐vs.‐host reaction which was weak or negative, and in 4 of these, the administration of THF to the lymphocytes induced an improvement in immunereactivity. These results together with other recently reported data indicate that the determination of cell‐mediated immunity in patients with MF may be of prognostic importance. Those patients whose T lymphocytes respond to treatment with THF are probably the best candidates for immunotherapy. Cancer 46:41–44, 1980.
Positron emission tomography in Alzheimer's disease

Twenty-one patients with a clinical diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) and 29 healthy, age-matched controls were studied using positron emission tomography (PET) and [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose to measure regional cerebral glucose consumption in the resting state. Reductions in ratio measures of relative metabolism in some parietal, temporal, and frontal regions were found in mild, moderate, and severe DAT groups. A significant increase in right/left metabolic asymmetry, particularly in parietal regions, also was seen in mild and moderate groups. Only in the severely demented patients was the absolute cerebral metabolic rate reduced significantly from control values. Fourteen patients had repeated PET studies, but only those patients with moderate to severe dementia showed a decline in IQ over 6 to 15 months. There were no significant changes in metabolic measures over time. PET is useful in quantifying regional cerebral dysfunction in DAT, even in the early stages of the disease.
Ribavirin as therapy for chronic hepatitis C. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate ribavirin, an oral antiviral agent, as therapy for chronic hepatitis C. DESIGN Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. SETTING Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health, a tertiary referral research hospital. PATIENTS 29 patients with chronic hepatitis C who received oral ribavirin (600 mg twice daily) for 12 months and 29 controls with chronic hepatitis C who received placebo for 12 months. MEASUREMENTS Effects of therapy were evaluated by measuring serum aminotransferase and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels before, during, and for 6 months after therapy and by histologic examination of liver specimens before and at the end of treatment. RESULTS Patients treated with ribavirin had a prompt decrease in serum aminotransferase levels (54% overall) compared with levels before treatment and levels in controls (5% decrease). Serum aminotransferase levels became normal or nearly normal in 10 patients treated with ribavirin (35% [95% CI, 18% to 54%]) but in no controls (0% [CI, 0% to 12%]). Aminotransferase levels remained normal in only 2 patients after ribavirin therapy was discontinued (7% [CI, 1% to 23%]). Serum HCV RNA levels did not change during or after therapy. Liver biopsy specimens showed a decrease in hepatic inflammation and necrosis among ribavirin-treated patients whose aminotransferase levels became normal. CONCLUSIONS Ribavirin has beneficial effects on serum aminotransferase levels and histologic findings in the liver in patients with chronic hepatitis C, but these effects are not accompanied by changes in HCV RNA levels and are not sustained when ribavirin therapy is discontinued. Thus, ribavirin alone for periods as long as 12 months is unlikely to be of value as therapy for chronic hepatitis C.
Promoter 7 of the Escherichia coli pfl operon is a major determinant in the anaerobic regulation of expression by ArcA

The anaerobically inducible pfl operon of Escherichia coli has a regulatory sequence comprising 494 bp, which includes two anaerobically regulated promoters, termed P6 and P7. In this study, we show that in its normal context the activity of P7 is constrained and that one important function of the promoter is to mediate controlled ArcA-dependent regulation of the operon.
Variations in immune response genes and their associations with multifactorial immune disorders

Summary: There are three genetic methods often used for detecting genes contributing to susceptibility or resistance to multifactorial diseases: nonparametric linkage analysis, case–control association analysis, and transmission disequilibrium test. In this review, we present the theoretical basis that the case–control association study has the highest power of detecting disease genes if there is no population stratification between patients and controls. Taking advantage of the high power, we have carried out extensive case–control association analyses of candidate genes for the search of susceptibility genes to rheumatic diseases in the Japanese as well as in some other populations. Several new associations have been disclosed, including those of TNFR2, FCGR2B, and CD19 gene polymorphisms with systemic lupus erythematosus, in addition to some unexpected findings such as the common occurrence of NKG2‐C null allele in the healthy population. Genome‐wide association studies using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or microsatellite polymorphisms have become realistic, and development of new high‐throughput and cost‐effective SNP typing technologies is urgently needed. At the same time, our observations may indicate that the ‘classical’ candidate gene approach will remain a strong alternative, even in the age of ‘post genome‐sequence’.
Influencia del procesamiento del fruto de membrillo (Cydonia Oblonga Miller). En el contenido de polifenoles y actividad antioxidante

Los polifenoles son metabolitos secundarios presentes en gran proporcion en las frutas, en su mayoria representados por los flavonoides y acidos fenolicos. El creciente interes por estas sustancias es principalmente debido a su capacidad antioxidante y la asociacion entre su consumo y la prevencion de algunas enfermedades. Entre las frutas, el membrillo es una importante fuente de componentes que promueven la salud, tales como compuestos fenolicos. Si bien el membrillo no se consume fresco debido a su dureza, amargor y astringencia, es muy apreciado como materia prima para la produccion de dulces y jaleas. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar la propiedad antioxidante del fruto de membrillo, su dulce y los productos intermediarios de su elaboracion, con el fin de estudiar el efecto del procesado termico en las caracteristicas nutricionales del mismo. Se analizaron el fruto (pulpa+piel), la mezcla cruda (pulpa+piel+azucar) y el dulce regular y el reducido en carbohidratos. Se midio el contenido de polifenoles totales (PT), perfil de polifenoles por HPLC-DAD-MSMS y la actividad antioxidante in vitro por las tecnicas DPPH (capacidad de atrapamiento de radicales libres) y FRAP (poder reductor). Todas las muestras analizadas presentaron un alto contenido de polifenoles en un rango de 200-500 mg ac. galico/100g muestra (futo, mezcla cruda, dulce). Se demostro la actividad antioxidante in vitro por ambos metodos en todas las muestras. Los valores obtenidos variaron entre 400 y 1500 µmol TROLOX/100g muestra (futo, mezcla cruda, dulce). Tanto para la linea regular como el reducido en carbohidratos se mantuvo el contenido de polifenoles desde el fruto al dulce, conteniendo el regular 370 mg de ac. galico/100 g de dulce y el light 184 mg ac. galico/100g de dulce. Por otro lado, se lograron identificar 16 compuestos polifenolicos, siendo los mayoritarios los acidos cafeoil-quinicos, seguidos por los derivados del acido cumarico, catequina y quercetina. La proporcion de los distintos compuestos tambien se mantuvo desde el fruto al dulce, lo que significa que el procesado termico no afecta cuantitativamente ni cualitativamente el contenido de polifenoles. Con respecto a la capacidad antioxidante determinada por DPPH y FRAP, como era de esperarse, al mantenerse el contenido de polifenoles, no hubo tampoco perdida de la actividad debido al procesamiento del membrillo. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que el dulce de membrillo realiza un aporte importante de antioxidantes en la dieta, y ademas que no existe perdida en la calidad nutricional debido al procesado termico. Palabras claves : membrillo, dulce, capacidad antioxidante
Modelling with Hierarchical Object Petri Nets

Fehling's hierarchical Petri nets are a net modelling framework based on refinement and abstraction of nets. Object Petri nets are a Petri net-based method of encapsulation. We bring these two domains together in the new concept of hierarchical object Petri nets. Defining hierarchical object Petri nets forces us to consider what it means to preserve synchronisation when abstracting or refining an object Petri net. The goal is to provide a sound theoretical basis for building computer tools to develop high-level Petri net models following the nets-within-nets paradigm.
Doubly iterative MMSE equalization of binary continuous phase modulation

In this paper, a suboptimal, but low-complexity technique is introduced to achieve the turbo equalization for binary continuous phase modulation (CPM). The proposed receiver consists of a soft-information aided minimum mean squared error equalizer (MMSE) at its front-end, and the soft-input soft-output demodulator and decoder blocks at its back-end. The receiver is doubly iterative with outer iterations for equalization and inner iterations for CPM demodulation and channel decoding at each outer iteration. Turbo processing overcomes the performance degradation due to suboptimality, where the iterations do not result in high computational complexity as it is in the conventional methods. Simulation results are furnished for performance comparisons.
Regulation of immune responses and tolerance: the microRNA perspective

Much has been learned about the molecular and cellular components critical for the control of immune responses and tolerance. It remains a challenge, however, to control the immune response and tolerance at the system level without causing significant toxicity to normal tissues. Recent studies suggest that microRNA (miRNA) genes, an abundant class of non‐coding RNA genes that produce characteristic approximately 22 nucleotides small RNAs, play important roles in immune cells. In this article, we discuss emerging knowledge regarding the functions of miRNA genes in the immune system. We delve into the roles of miRNAs in regulating signaling strength and threshold, homeostasis, and the dynamics of the immune response and tolerance during normal and pathogenic immunological conditions. We also present observations based on analyzes of miR‐181 family genes that indicate the potential functions of primary and/or precursor miRNAs in target recognition and explore the impact of these findings on target identification. Finally, we illustrate that despite the subtle effects of miRNAs on gene expression, miRNAs have the potential to influence the outcomes of normal and pathogenic immune responses by controlling the quantitative and dynamic aspects of immune responses. Tuning miRNA functions in immune cells, through gain‐ and loss‐of‐function approaches in mice, may reveal novel approach to restore immune equilibrium from pathogenic conditions, such as autoimmune disease and leukemia, without significant toxicity.
Spectroscopic investigation of the interaction of the toxicant, 2‐naphthylamine, with bovine serum albumin

The mechanism of interaction between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and 2‐naphthylamine (2‐NA) in aqueous solution was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectra, and UV–vis spectroscopy. It was proved from fluorescence spectra that the fluorescence quenching of BSA by 2‐NA was a result of the formation of complex between 2‐NA and BSA, and the binding constants (Ka) as well as the numbers of binding sites for 2‐NA in BSA were determined according to the modified Stern–Volmer equation. The results of synchronous fluorescence and CD spectra demonstrated 2‐NA could decrease the amount of α‐helix of BSA, leading to the loosening of protein skeleton. UV–vis spectroscopy and resonance light scattering spectra (RLS) results also suggested the conformation of BSA were changed and the BSA aggregation occured, which could induce toxic effects on the organism. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 25:362–368 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/jbt.20400
History and Evaluation of Hargreaves Evapotranspiration Equation

A brief history of development of the 1985 Hargreaves equation and its comparison to evapotranspiration (ET) predicted by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Penman-Monteith method are described to provide background and information helpful in selecting an appropriate reference ET equation under various data situations. Early efforts in irrigation water requirement computations in California and other arid and semiarid regions required the development of simplified ET equations for use with limited weather data. Several initial efforts were directed towards improving the usefulness of pan evaporation for estimating irrigation water requirements. Similarity with climates of other countries allowed developments in California to be extended overseas. Criticism of empirical methods by H. L. Penman and others encouraged the search for a robust and practical method that was based on readily available climatic data for computing potential evapotranspiration or reference crop evapot.