Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of nutrition education program on mothers knowledge towards breast-feeding and weaning practices of children in Omdurman Pediatric Hospital

Received: 13/5/2018 Accepted: 6 /6/2018 Available online: June 2018 The main objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of nutrition education program on mothers‟ knowledge towards breast-feeding and weaning practices of children in Omdurman Pediatric Hospital. The quasi experimental study conducted. The study consisted of all (100) mothers of under-five malnourished children, with a diagnosis of severe protein energy malnutrition (Marasmus, Kwashiorkor and Mrasmic Kwashiorkor). Pretest data were collected as the base line information about breast-feeding, weaning, and analyzed. After that, nutrition and health education program prepared to mothers of children in hospital, two times per week during the study. Posttest questionnaire took place after that to identify the results of the program. Data collected analyzed by percentages. Then data before and after program were analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Program, chiSquare was used to determine the significance of the differences (P≤ 0.05). Results revealed that, before nutrition education, 64% of mothers, their weaning practice were stop abruptly; 13 % of the mothers introduced complementary foods at right time, only 3% of their mother‟s knowledge about weaning foods. After nutrition education program, 84% of mothers stated that the best situation of weaning practices methods were gradual weaning, 79% of the mothers knew the right time to introduce complementary foods and 91% of their mother had knowledge about weaning foods. The study recommended that it is important for raising awareness on breast-feeding and weaning among mothers of malnourishment children by community leadership . Coordination among sectors supports decision-making and prioritization.  2018 Sudan University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved
NKI-CCRT Corpus - Speech Intelligibility Before and After Advanced Head and Neck Cancer Treated with Concomitant Chemoradiotherapy

Evaluations of speech intelligibility based on a read passage are often used in the clinical situation to assess the impact of the disease and/or treatment on spoken communication. Although scale-based measures are often used in the clinical setting, these measures are susceptible to listener response bias. Automatic evaluation tools are being developed in response to some of the drawbacks of perceptual evaluation, however, large corpora judged by listeners are needed to improve and test these tools. To this end, the NKI-CCRT corpus with individual listener judgements on the intelligibility of recordings of 55 speakers treated for cancer of the head and neck will be made available for restricted scientific use. The corpus contains recordings and perceptual evaluations of speech intelligibility over three evaluation moments: before treatment and after treatment (10-weeks and 12-months). Treatment was by means of chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Thirteen recently graduated speech pathologists rated the speech intelligibility of the recordings on a 7-point scale. Information on recording and perceptual evaluation procedures is presented in addition to preliminary rater reliability and agreement information. Preliminary results show that for many speakers speech intelligibility is rated low before cancer treatment.
Fitting of SETAR Three-regime nonlinear time series model to Indian lac production data through genetic algorithm

In the field of agriculture, quite often the time-series data depicts cyclical fluctuations. Some examples of such behaviour are: Indian annual lac production/export data, Indian summer monsoon rainfall data and population-sizes of several fish species having prey-predator type of interactions. Prajneshu et al. (2002) used “Structural timeseries approach” for modeling of all-India lac production data. The fitted model has shown strong periodicity of five years with estimated cycle variance, cycle frequency and cycle amplitude estimated from Cycle plus noise model, Trend plus cycle model, and Cyclic trend model. However, one limitation of this work is that the underlying model is “linear”. During last three decades or so, the area of “Nonlinear time-series modelling” has been rapidly developing. To this end, we study an important subclass of such models, viz. Self-Exciting Threshold Auto Regressive (SETAR) family of models proposed by Tong (1980) and discussed in Fan and Yao (2003). A heartening aspect of this model is that it is capable of describing cyclical data having sudden rise and fall. Nampoothiri and Balakrishna (2000) fitted the SETAR two-regime model to monthly coconut oil prices at Cochin market by following “Recursive estimation” method. However, a drawback of this work is that the estimation procedure is ad hoc in nature as is not based on any sound statistical optimization principle. Accordingly, the estimates obtained are not, in general, globally optimum. Ghosh et al. (2006) tried to fit the same model by “Search algorithm” (Tong 1990) to Indian lac export data exhibiting prominent cycles. However, main limitation of this algorithm is that the number of possible models to be searched is extremely large. Specifically, if the number of regime autoregressive models is M, largest order in each regime is L, number of threshold values is S, and number of values of delay parameter is T,
Bacterial canker cause by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae on stone fruits in Guilan province of Iran.

Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae causes canker, leafspots and necrosis of the bark of cherry, plum, and peach fruit trees. Symptoms caused by this pathogen on leaves, blossoms, and fruit, reported as common else where, are rare in Guilan cherry orchards. In this research, during survey from cherry, plum, and peach orchards in different areas of Guilan province (Talesh, Hashtpar, AstanehAshrafieh and Lahijan), samples were taken from infected tissues of disease trees. For isolation of bacterial causal disease, infected tissue were crushed in pepton water then 100μL of juice were cultured on Nutrient Agar (NA) and King’s B medium containing Cyclohexamid antibiotic (50 μg mL). Strains of bacteria rod-shaped, gram negative and aerobic bacterium were isolated. The strains produced Levan on media including sucrose. All strains made Hypersensitive Reaction (HR) on tobacco and Geranium leaves. All of the isolated bacteria were oxidase, nitrate, tween 80 hydrolysis, indole and starch hydrolysis negative and could not rot potato tuber slices, produce H2S, and grow in 36°C. The isolates could use citrate and urease. The isolates produce acid from sorbitol, galactose, myo-inositol, manitol, xylose, maltose and sucrose. Their gelatin test were positive. Based on morphological, physiological, biochemical, pathogenicity properties, total cellular protein profiles (SDS-PAGE) and PCR method with specific primers the predominate pathogenic type was identified as P. s. pv. syringae. This is the first report of the existence of P. s. pv. syringae on stone fruit trees in Iran.
Free Radicals and Pathogens - Role for Reactive Intermediates in Innate Immunity 17

Microorganisms that enter the body and cause disease are referred to as pathogenic microorganisms or pathogens. Microbial invasion is detected by pattern recognition receptors, and innate defense mechanisms including production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) and proinflammatory signaling are subsequently triggered within minutes of bacterial attack. Thereby, innate immunity is regarded to be the first line of host defense and acts through general antimicrobial mechanisms such as acidification, the
A Comparative Study of the T Cell Stimulatory and Polarizing Capacity of Human Primary Blood Dendritic Cell Subsets

Dendritic cells (DCs) are central players of immune responses; they become activated upon infection or inflammation and migrate to lymph nodes, where they can initiate an antigen-specific immune response by activating naive T cells. Two major types of naturally occurring DCs circulate in peripheral blood, namely, myeloid and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs). Myeloid DCs (mDCs) can be subdivided based on the expression of either CD1c or CD141. These human DC subsets differ in surface marker expression, Toll-like receptor (TLR) repertoire, and transcriptional profile, suggesting functional differences between them. Here, we directly compared the capacity of human blood mDCs and pDCs to activate and polarize CD4+ T cells. CD141+ mDCs show an overall more mature phenotype over CD1c+ mDC and pDCs; they produce less IL-10 and more IL-12 than CD1c+ mDCs. Despite these differences, all subsets can induce the production of IFN-γ in naive CD4+ T cells. CD1c+ and CD141+ mDCs especially induce a strong T helper 1 profile. Importantly, naive CD4+ T cells are not polarized towards regulatory T cells by any subset. These findings further establish all three human blood DCs—despite their differences—as promising candidates for immunostimulatory effectors in cancer immunotherapy.
PATIENT DISABILITY: A CASE FOR THE DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF PATIENT EDUCATION

Pain treatment often includes education about the pathoanatomical model which emphasizes pain resulting from tissue pathology. The model can be accurate in cases of acute pain, but it impedes progress, elevates anxiety, and increases fear of movement in the chronic pain population; therefore, methods of education that de-emphasize tissue damage need to be implemented. This case illustrates both disability driven by fear of movement resulting from a pathoanatomical explanation of pain and return to function following 9 treatments over 6 months. Treatment included manual therapy and incorporation of Therapuetic Neuroscience Education (TNE). Quantified improvements of 16 points in the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), 19 points on the Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaire Physical Assessment(FABQ-PA), and 25 points on the Neck Disability Index (NDI) occurred following treatment. Implementing TNE in conjunction with manual therapy in this case resulted in a significant decrease in disability related to the low back and neck pain and fear related to movement.
Bayesian inference of protein structure from chemical shift data

Protein chemical shifts are routinely used to augment molecular mechanics force fields in protein structure simulations, with weights of the chemical shift restraints determined empirically. These weights, however, might not be an optimal descriptor of a given protein structure and predictive model, and a bias is introduced which might result in incorrect structures. In the inferential structure determination framework, both the unknown structure and the disagreement between experimental and back-calculated data are formulated as a joint probability distribution, thus utilizing the full information content of the data. Here, we present the formulation of such a probability distribution where the error in chemical shift prediction is described by either a Gaussian or Cauchy distribution. The methodology is demonstrated and compared to a set of empirically weighted potentials through Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations of three small proteins (ENHD, Protein G and the SMN Tudor Domain) using the PROFASI force field and the chemical shift predictor CamShift. Using a clustering-criterion for identifying the best structure, together with the addition of a solvent exposure scoring term, the simulations suggests that sampling both the structure and the uncertainties in chemical shift prediction leads more accurate structures compared to conventional methods using empirical determined weights. The Cauchy distribution, using either sampled uncertainties or predetermined weights, did, however, result in overall better convergence to the native fold, suggesting that both types of distribution might be useful in different aspects of the protein structure prediction.
Regulation of Creatine Kinase Activity by Phosphorylation of Serine‐199 by AMP‐Activated Kinase

Creatine kinase (CK) catalyzes the reversible phosphorylation of creatine by MgATP to form phosphocreatine and MgADP. An accessible reservoir of high energy phosphate in the form of phosphocreatine is useful in excitable tissues (i.e. brain, heart, or muscle) which require large energy fluxes. Thus, CK is important to energy homeostasis in cells. Previous work has suggested that AMP‐activated kinase may regulate the activity of CK by phosphorylation, presumably at a serine residue (Ponticos, et al. EMBO J. 17:1688.). To confirm this hypothesis, a set of serines in CK were changed to glutamate by site‐directed mutagenesis to assess if any of these residues were possible phosphorylation sites. Notably, the S199E variant of CK showed a 200‐fold reduction in the catalytic rate constant (phosphocreatine formation) compared to wild‐type suggesting that phosphorylation of S199 is likely involved in regulation of CK. The possible means by which phosphorylation alters the active site will be discussed. These results point to a higher degree of cellular control of ATP concentration by regulating the activity of CK. Such a regulatory mechanism may have implications on better understanding energy flux within a cell.
DYNAMIN-MEDIATED MEMBRANE FISSION

Membrane fission is required for vesicular traffic between intracellular compartments. Dynamin is a GTPase implicated in vesicle scission during Clathrin-mediated endocytosis. It polymerizes into a helix at the neck of endocytic buds. Upon GTP hydrolysis, conformational changes reduce the helical radius and pitch showing that fission proceeds through a constriction mechanism. We show that the deformation of Dynamin helices is highly concerted and damped by the friction between membrane and Dynamin. To further understand fission, Dynamin polymerization and fission are studied on lipid tubes extruded from Giant Unilamellar Vesicles. Fission occurs at the edge of the helix, where the membrane is strongly curved. A statistical analysis of fission time reveals that the fission reaction can be modeled by a single step energy barrier. The fission time dependence on membrane tension, membrane rigidity and torque is established theoretically and validated experimentally. This work gives a quantitative picture of the energy landscape of Dynamin-mediated fission: the height of the energy barrier of fission is estimated around 70 kBT.
Simultaneous Bilateral Chest Wall Irradiation, Can Helical Tomotherapy Improve Dose Distribution?

Background: Radiotherapy to bilateral breast cancer (BBC) is technically challenging because of the proximity to organs as the heart and lungs. Aim: We conducted this study tocompare helical tomotherapy (HT) to 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) technique in bilateral chest wall irradiation regarding the coverage of target volume and the doses recorded at adjacent organs at risk. Methods: Ten patients with synchronous BBC who underwent bilateral mastectomy were included. Two plans were performed for each patient using HT and 3D-CRT. Results: Target volume included bilateral chest wall, bilateral supraclavicular and level III axillary lymph nodes. Prescription dose was 50 Gy/25 fractions in 5 weeks. The mean chest wall planning target volume (PTV) homogeneity index and conformality index were 0.15 and 1.09 in HT versus 0.37 and 1.43 in 3D-CRT plans (p= 0.012 and 0.031). At least 95% of the prescribed dose was covering 96% and 92% of the chest wall PTV for HT and 3D-CRT plans (p= 0.026). Helical tomotherapy plans achieved significant decrease in all cardiac parameters compared to 3D-CRT plans. Helical tomotherapy also achieved reduction in mean dose and V20 for both lungs in expense of higher low dose to normal healthy tissue and longer treatment time in comparison to 3D-CRT. Conclusion: For BBC patients treated with bilateral chest wall and supraclavicular lymph nodes irradiation, HT provides more conformal and homogenous plan than conventional 3D-CRT plans. Helical tomotherapy improves chest wall PTV coverage and decreases the dose to the heart and lungs in expense of more volume of normal tissues exposure to low doses of radiation and longer treatment time.
Prostaglandins contribute to endotoxin‐induced increase in lipid peroxidation via nitric oxide production during endotoxemia in rats.

Endotoxemic shock is a systemic inflammatory response that is associated with increased nitric oxide (NO) and vasodilator prostaglandin production by inducible NO synthase and inducible cyclooxygenase (COX‐2) which contribute to the fall in blood pressure, vascular hyporeactivity and multiple organ failure. We have previously demonstrated that NO is involved in endotoxin‐induced changes in lipid peroxidation during endotoxemia in rats. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether COX‐2‐derived prostaglandins contribute to increase in lipid peroxidation via NO production in endotoxemic rats. Endotoxin caused an increase in nitrite (an index of NO production) and malonedialdehyde (MDA; an index of lipid peroxidation) levels as well as myeloperoxidase (MPO; an index of neutorphil infiltration) activity in the lung, spleen and femoral artery. Endotoxin‐induced increase in nitrite and MDA levels in these tissues of endotoxin‐treated rats was prevented by COX‐2 inhibitor, NS‐398. NS‐398 also prevented the effect of endotoxin to increase in MPO activity in these tissues. The data suggest that prostaglandins derived from COX‐2 contribute to the endotoxin‐induced changes in lipid peroxidation via NO production during endotoxemia.This study was supported by Mersin University Research Foundation (2006‐3, B Tunctan).
GDNF Signaling Regulates YBX1/mRNA Interactions in Mouse Spermatogonia

Spermatogenesis is a highly coordinated and productive process that maintains continuous sperm production in post-pubertal males. Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are the basis of spermatogenesis and balance self-renewal with differentiation to maintain the stem cell pool while producing differentiating progenitors that give rise, through several transit-amplifying mitotic divisions, two meiotic divisions and morphological differentiation to sperm. The molecular mechanisms driving these fate decisions are poorly understood, though numerous RNA regulatory pathways are thought to be critical. We used microarray analysis of distinct testis models to identify genes whose expression correlates with SSC activity. Fourteen RNA binding proteins were identified, and their testis expression was validated using RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The multi-functional RNA regulator YBX1 was expressed only by cells located on the basement membrane of seminiferous tubules, consistent with the location of SSCs. YBX1 was of special interest because of its heretofore unexplored role in the testis, as well as its possible phosphorylation by AKT. The AKT signaling pathway is activated in mouse SSCs by GDNF, a factor essential for SSC survival and self-renewal. We hypothesized that YBX1 was phosphorylated by AKT signaling downstream of GDNF, and that this phosphorylation would affect YBX1 interaction with target messenger RNAs (mRNAs). We show that YBX1 is phosphorylated in spermatogonia, and that GDNF signaling modulates YBX1 phosphorylation. Inhibiting either PI3K or AKT in SSC cultures also causes a loss of YBX1 phosphorylation, suggesting that GDNF works through the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway to phosphorylate YBX1. To identify mRNA targets of YBX1, we immunoprecipitated YBX1 from SSC cultures grown in the presence or absence of GDNF, and isolated co-immunoprecipitated mRNAs. In normal growth conditions (containing GDNF), YBX1 associated with mRNA for genes expressed by all germ cells (Dazl and Ddx4), but not those expressed specifically by more undifferentiated germ cells (GFRα1, Ngn3 and Plzf). Furthermore, association of YBX1 with a specific mRNA correlates with an increase in protein levels for that gene. These data collectively lead us to conclude that YBX1 mediates GDNF-dependent translational regulation of specific transcripts that may be important for coordinating SSC maintenance, renewal and/or differentiation.
EFFECTS OF MARKS ON AGGRESSION AND STRESS IN THE DOMESTIC FOWL (GALLUS GALLUS DOMESTICUS)

Title Thesis: EFFECTS OF MARKS ON AGGRESSION AND STRESS IN THE DOMESTIC FOWL (GALLUS GALLUS DOMESTICUS) Rachel Lynn Dennis, Master of Science, 2004 Thesis Directed By: Associate Professor, Dr. Inmaculada Estevez, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences Animals are marked for identification in a range of experiments from behavior and wildlife management, to reproduction and pharmacological studies. However, little is known of the impact marks have on animals. The objective of our experiment was to determine the impact of marking on aggression and stress in the domestic fowl. Broilers, in groups of 10 and 50 were housed with 20%, 50% or 100% of the birds marked. Aggressive interactions, given and received, were observed from 3 to 10 wks. Our results revealed that marked birds received significantly more aggression than unmarked birds, and subsequently deliver fewer aggressions to pen mates. Marked birds appear more stressed than their unmarked pen mates, especially in 20% pens. Marked birds in 20% pens also had a lower epinephrine response to manual restraint. Our findings show that marks can impact both the aggressive behavior and stress of the birds bearing them. EFFECTS OF MARKS ON AGGRESSION AND STRESS IN THE DOMESTIC FOWL (GALLUS GALLUS DOMESTICUS)
Study of prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of blood culture isolates from a tertiary care hospital of North India

Background: Bacterial bloodstream infections (BSIs) are important causes of morbidity and mortality world-wide. The choice of antimicrobial therapy for bloodstream infections is often empirical and based on the knowledge of local antimicrobial activity profiles of the most common bacteria causing such infections. The objective of the study was to determine the pattern of bacterial isolates from the blood cultures in a teaching hospital and determine their antibiotic resistance and provide guidelines for choosing an effective antibiotic therapy in cases of septicaemia.Methods: The etiological and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of blood cultures over a period of one year at a tertiary care hospital was studied. Blood culture positive isolates were identified by BacT/Alert3D, an automated blood culture system, while as identification of the isolates from these samples and their antimicrobial sensitivity testing was performed with Vitek2 Compact.Results: There were 2231 blood culture samples, of which 565 (25.3%) were identified to be culture positive. Out of 565 positive cultures, 447 (79.1%) showed bacterial growth; Gram positive were 306 (54.2%) and Gram negative were 141 (24.9%). Candida species were isolated from 118 (20.9%) of positive samples. The most frequently identified Gram-positive bacteria were Coagulase-negative staphylococci 208 (67.9%) and the most common Gram-negative isolates were Acinetobacter species 89 (63.1%). The most sensitive drugs for gram-positive isolates were vancomycin, and linezolid while as gram-negative isolates showed 100% sensitivity to colistin and tigecycline.Conclusions: This study reveals a significant prevalence of bacterial isolates in blood and it highlights the need for periodic surveillance of etiologic agent and antibiotic susceptibility to prevent further emergence and spread of resistant bacterial pathogens.