Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship of Allergic Degree and PC20 Level in Adults with Positive Methacholine Challenge Test

Background: The relationship between allergic markers and PC20 (provocative concentration causing a 20% fall in FEV1) in adults with positive methacholine challenge test (MCT) is still subject to discussion. Objective: The goal of this study is to determine whether the degree of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) is correlated with the severity of atopy or not. Methods: Forty patients with persistent cough and/or unexplained episodes of dyspnea exhibiting a normal baseline pulmonary function test and positive MCT were enrolled in this study. They were divided into two groups according to their Phadiatop response (positive and negative), and three groups by PC20 level: PC20 < 1.25 mg/ml, 1.25 mg/ml ≤ PC20 < 5 mg/ml, and 5 mg/ml ≤ PC20 < 25 mg/ml. Results: Twenty-three patients (57.5%) were Phadiatop positive. Of the 23 Phadiatop-positive patients, 20 patients (87%) were positive for specific serum IgE to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (D1) and Dermatophagoides farinae (D2). The total serum IgE and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) level of the Phadiatop-positive group were higher than those of the Phadiatop-negative group (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.005, respectively). The age, gender, FEV1/FVC ratio, ECP and total serum IgE level were not significantly different in the three PC20 subgroups. The Phadiatop response and PC20 level were significantly correlated (p = 0.0063). For Phadiatop-positive adults, PC20 level was not significantly correlated with total serum IgE and specific serum IgE to D1 and D2. Conclusion: Atopy is related to adults with positive MCT. However, the degree of BHR to methacholine is not significantly correlated with the severity of atopy.
High level characterization and optimization of a GPSK modulator with genetic algorithm

Today, design requirements are extending more and more from electronic (analogue and digital) to multidiscipline ones. These current needs imply implementation of methodologies to make the CAD product reliable in order to improve time to market, study costs, reusability and reliability of the design process. This paper proposes a high level design approach applied for the characterization and the optimization of fractional-N synthesizer acting as a direct GPSK modulator and designed for the UMTS standard application. It uses the hardware description language VHDL-AMS and a genetic algorithm to optimize the modulator with a considerably reduced CPU time before passing to a transistor level characterization.
Evolution of density‐dependent movement during experimental range expansions

Range expansions and biological invasions are prime examples of transient processes that are likely impacted by rapid evolutionary changes. As a spatial process, range expansions are driven by dispersal and movement behaviour. Although it is widely accepted that dispersal and movement may be context‐dependent, for instance density‐dependent, and best represented by reaction norms, the evolution of density‐dependent movement during range expansions has received little experimental attention. We therefore tested current theory predicting the evolution of increased movement at low densities at range margins using highly replicated and controlled range expansion experiments across multiple genotypes of the protist model system Tetrahymena thermophila. Although rare, we found evolutionary changes during range expansions even in the absence of initial standing genetic variation. Range expansions led to the evolution of negatively density‐dependent movement at range margins. In addition, we report the evolution of increased intrastrain competitive ability and concurrently decreased population growth rates in range cores. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding movement and dispersal as evolving reaction norms and plastic life‐history traits of central relevance for range expansions, biological invasions and the dynamics of spatially structured systems in general.
Evolutionary strategy technique to optimize the grounding grids design

A new application of charge simulation method (CSM) is used to calculate the grounding resistance (Rg), and the earth surface potential (ESP) due to discharging current into grounding grids. Optimization of the grounding grids design is an important issue to safeguard those people who working in the surrounding of grounded installations and satisfy the minimum cost of the design. Evolutionary strategy technique is used to get the optimization process. The basic design quantities of the grounding grids are the touch and step voltages as well as the design cost. These previous quantities depend on the grid dimensions, which are its side lengths and vertical rod length that connected to it. The dependence of the design quantities of the geometric parameters is given by field computation based on equivalent charges. Numerical example is introduced to explain the performance of this method to give valuable information about the grid parameters that satisfy optimization.
Background factors in craniomandibular disorders: reported symptoms in adolescents with special reference to joint hypermobility and oral parafunctions.

Correlations between craniomandibular disorders (CMD) symptoms and an inherited factor (general joint hypermobility) were studied in 193 adolescents (96 girls and 97 boys). They answered a questionnaire concerning CMD symptoms, oral parafunctions, head and jaw trauma and symptoms from other joints. Joint mobility was assessed by determining the Beighton score (0-9). Twenty-eight percent of the girls and 21% of the boys could perform four or more of the manoeuvres. Twenty-two percent of the girls and 3% of the boys were extremely hypermobile (score greater than or equal to 5). Eighty-nine percent were aware of some oral parafunction and the prevalences of oral habits were about the same in the two groups. Girls reported significantly more dysfunction symptoms than boys. No indication was found that oral parafunctions generally produced CMD but a systemic factor (joint hypermobility) seemed to play an important role when the masticatory system was exposed to local forces as in oral parafunction. This may be one explanation for the predominance of females among CMD patients.
Non-Thermal Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma for Sterilization of Surfaces and Biofilms

NON-THERMAL ATMOSPHERIC-PRESSURE PLASMA FOR STERILIZATION OF SURFACES AND BIOFILMS Johanna Ursula Neuber Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr.Chunqi Jiang Bacterial resistance to antimicrobial methods is a critical issue in many fields of medicine. This work describes the studies performed to characterize and optimize the bacterial inactivation effects of a non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma brush and plasma jet on a laminate surface inoculated with Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus, and a cultivated Enterococcus faecalis biofilm, respectively. These treatments are pilot studies for eventual application to surface sterilization in hospitals and root canal disinfection. To evaluate bacterial inactivation, after treatment and recovery, the bacterial colony forming units (CFUs) are counted. Several different methods are used to optimize the antimicrobial effect. For the plasma jet, the optimal fraction of oxygen in the helium feed gas is determined, resulting in a 1.5 log (97%) bacterial inactivation. For the plasma brush treatment of a dry laminate environment, the addition of water to the feed gas and surface is investigated. These variations greatly alter the plasma chemistry, which is characterized for the plasma brush by the use of optical emission spectroscopy to detect the presence of excited reactive species. These and other species generated in the plasma plume play a large role in the deleterious effect of plasma on bacterial cells. In a humid discharge, bacterial inactivation is maximized at 0.6 log (75%), whereas adding water to the laminate surface before treatment yields a 4 log (99.99%) reduction in bacterial growth. Thus, while the optimized oxygen or water concentration in a noble feed gas improves iii inactivation effect of the plasma, the most significant criterion for maximal bacterial inactivation in these studies is the presence of water at the treatment surface.
Modeling and Analysis of On-ChipNetworks ReinaldoRomero Electrical Engineering

The complexity of hardware platforms doubles every eighteen months. The number of processing elements on the same chip is going to be of the order of hundreds in the near future whichmakes the communication infrastructure very difficult to design. Constraints, especially in terms of power consumption, must be taken into account and the communication infrastructure has to be highly optimized. The optimization of a network gives different results depending on the trade-off between communication and computation. In this work we derive an expression for such trade-off and we predict how future communication topologies will look like by analyzing on-chip networks using simple analyticalmodels.
Development of Mobile Applications using a Model-Driven Software Development Approach

Mobile applications are becoming increasingly more present in our daily lives, allowing people to perform several tasks through the use of mobile devices. Despite fostering the innovation, the rapid growth of the mobile market resulted in some fragmentation of the mobile platforms. The existence of different mobile operating systems with different programming languages and tools can be a problem when we want to develop mobile applications for multiple platforms. Rewriting the application for each platform is usually impracticable either in terms of budget or time. Therefore, a solution that can generate cross-platform applications without compromising the quality, would decrease the time to market and increase the number of potential users. Fortunately, some work has been conducted over the last years to tackle this problem, namely through the use of web technologies, crossplatform tools and approaches based on MDD. This paper proposes the use of a MDD approach for the development of mobile applications. This approach, named XISMobile, uses a domain specific language (defined as a UML profile) and its MDD-based framework to address mobile platform fragmentation. They propose the definition of platformindependent models to describe mobile applications and from them automatically generate the application’s source code for multiple platforms. This paper presents XIS-Mobile (language and framework), provides an evaluation of it and discusses its main challenges and benefits in the context of the cross-platform mobile application development.
Cochlear Implantation in Patients With Usher Syndrome Type IIa Increases Performance and Quality of Life.

OBJECTIVES Usher syndrome type IIa (USH2a) is characterized by congenital moderate to severe hearing impairment and retinitis pigmentosa. Hearing rehabilitation starts in early childhood with the application of hearing aids. In some patients with USH2a, severe progression of hearing impairment leads to insufficient speech intelligibility with hearing aids and issues with adequate communication and safety. Cochlear implantation (CI) is the next step in rehabilitation of such patients. This study evaluates the performance and benefit of CI in patients with USH2a. DESIGN Retrospective case-control study to evaluate the performance and benefit of CI in 16 postlingually deaf adults (eight patients with USH2a and eight matched controls). Performance and benefit were evaluated by a speech intelligibility test and three quality-of-life questionnaires. RESULTS Patients with USH2a with a mean age of 59 years at implantation exhibited good performance after CI. The phoneme scores improved significantly from 41 to 87% in patients with USH2a (p = 0.02) and from 30 to 86% in the control group (p = 0.001). The results of the questionnaire survey demonstrated a clear benefit from CI. There were no differences in performance or benefit between patients with USH2a and control patients before and after CI. CONCLUSIONS CI increases speech intelligibility and improves quality of life in patients with USH2a.
Targeted Alpha-Particle Immunotherapy with Bismuth-213 and Actinium-225 for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Lintuzumab, a humanized anti-CD33 antibody, targets myeloidleukemia cells and has modest activity against acute myeloidleukemia (AML). To increase the antibody��s potency yet avoidnonspecific cytotoxicity seen with ��-emitting isotopes, lintuzumabwas conjugated to the ��-emitters bismuth-213 (213Bi) andactinium-225 (225Ac). The 46-minute half-life of 213Bi limits itswidespread use. Therefore, 225Ac was also conjugated to variousantibodies using DOTA-SCN. We conducted a phase I trial of213Bi-lintuzumab and subsequently administered cytarabine with213Bi-lintuzumab in a phase I/II study. The toxicity and biologicalactivity of 225Ac-linutuzumab in patients with relapsed/refractoryAML in a phase I dose-escalation trial was determined. An initialphase I trial demonstrated the feasibility, safety and antileukemicactivity of 213Bi-lintuzumab. 213Bi-lintuzumab producedresponses in 24% of AML patients receiving doses > 37 MBq/kgafter partial cytoreduction with cytarabine. 225Ac-labeledimmunoconjugates killed in vitro at doses at least 1,000 times lowerthan 213Bi analogs. Eighteen patients with relapsed/refractory AMLreceived 18.5 to 148 kBq/kg of 225Ac-lintuzumab in a phase I study.Dose-limiting toxicities were myelosuppression lasting >35 daysin one patient and death due to sepsis in two patients. Themaximum tolerated dose (MTD) was 111 KBg/kg. Bone marrowblast reductions were seen across all dose levels. Targeted ��-particle immunotherapy with 213Bi- and 225Ac-lintuzumab is safe,has significant antileukemic effects, and can produce remissionsafter partial cytoreduction.
CHOLESTERYL ESTERS OF THE GLIOBLASTOMA *

Abstract The sterol ester fraction in the human glioblastoma was isolated and characterized. Cholesterol was identified as the constituent sterol. Contained in the complex mixture of fatty acids were members with 0‐4 double bonds and 14‐28 carbon atoms. About 1/4 of the acids were polyunsaturated. Long chain members (C20 and above) composed 1/3 of the mixture. The results suggest that the sterol ester component in the glioblastoma does not derive from blood plasma.
Toward the active conformations of rhodopsin and the β2‐adrenergic receptor

Using sets of experimental distance restraints, which characterize active or inactive receptor conformations, and the X‐ray crystal structure of the inactive form of bovine rhodopsin as a starting point, we have constructed models of both the active and inactive forms of rhodopsin and the β2‐adrenergic G‐protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The distance restraints were obtained from published data for site‐directed crosslinking, engineered zinc binding, site‐directed spin‐labeling, IR spectroscopy, and cysteine accessibility studies conducted on class A GPCRs. Molecular dynamics simulations in the presence of either “active” or “inactive” restraints were used to generate two distinguishable receptor models. The process for generating the inactive and active models was validated by the hit rates, yields, and enrichment factors determined for the selection of antagonists in the inactive model and for the selection of agonists in the active model from a set of nonadrenergic GPCR drug‐like ligands in a virtual screen using ligand docking software. The simulation results provide new insights into the relationships observed between selected biochemical data, the crystal structure of rhodopsin, and the structural rearrangements that occur during activation. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Physiological effects of similar training programs in males and females.

Abstract Comparisons were made between untrained college-age males and females in selected physiological alterations as a result of training. Experimental groups trained three times weekly for eight weeks at a heart rate (HR) intensity between 75% and 85% of HR max with total distance run held equal between sexes. MANOVA revealed a significant training effect for the experimental groups as well as a significant difference between sexes in response to training. Univariate ANCOVA revealed a significant training effect for [Vdot]O2 max expressed in ml/kg.min−1 and 1.min−1, [Vdot]Emax expressed in 1.min−1 and 1/kg.min−1, O2 pulse at [Vdot]O2 max and body weight. Sex differences were found for [Vdot]E max (1.min−1), and weight. No significant training effect was found for HR max or VE at [Vdot]O2 max.
Seven Layers of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning in Support of Software Development

The authors' experience in the Programmer's Apprentice project in applying knowledge representation and automated reasoning to support software development is summarized. A system, called Cake, is described that comprises seven layers of knowledge representation and reasoning facilities: truth maintenance, Boolean constraint propagation, equality, types, algebra, frames, and Plan Calculus. Sessions with two experimental software development tools implemented using Cake, the Requirements Apprentice and the Debugging Assistant, are also included. >
Longitudinal study of adaptation to the stress of bone marrow transplantation.

PURPOSE This prospective longitudinal study of adaptation to bone marrow transplantation (BMT) addressed three questions: (1) When during BMT do individuals experience the greatest distress? (2) What factors are associated with this distress? (3) Are there variables that could be potential clinical indicators of persons in greatest need of preventive intervention? PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred one participants undergoing either an autologous or allogeneic BMT completed questionnaires before hospitalization, before bone marrow infusion, 7 days and 14 days after transplantation, and then 1 month, 3 months, and 12 months after hospitalization. Adaptation was indicated by the degree of emotional distress. Independent variables were personal control, social support from specific sources, cognitive response, self-perception, and coping strategies, controlling for symptomatology. RESULTS The greatest emotional distress occurred after admission to the hospital and before the bone marrow infusion. Anxiety and depression decreased 1 week after the transplant, although symptomatology increased during this time. The periods of least emotional distress were 3 months and 1 year after transplantation. Factors that accounted for the greatest variance in emotional distress/adaptation were the degree of emotional distress at baseline, personal control, cognitive response, and symptomatology. CONCLUSION According to this longitudinal study, which includes pretransplant data, data from in-hospital transplantation, and posttransplant data, (1) psychosocial vulnerability of these BMT recipients was greatest during hospitalization before the transplant, (2) perceived personal control may be a potential indicator of vulnerability to secondary psychosocial morbidity, and (3) the demonstrated significance of psychosocial well-being before BMT indicates the importance of obtaining prospective data for both research and clinical purposes.
Changes in selected oxysterols in powdered foodstuffs

The present research consisted of producing 3 types of powdered concentrates: the dairy, the egg and the dairy-egg (produced from a blend of raw liquid milk and liquid eggs). The dairy-egg powder was produced in order to facilitate formulation of dry food mixes. Powders were vacuumpackaged and packaged in air atmosphere and stored for 24 months. Changes in contents of selected oxysterols (determined by gas chromatography) were recorded. Regardless of the packaging type, the predominant oxysterol in the dairy-egg powder was α-epoxy-C (7.679 and 5.600 μg/g powder, respectively).
Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen as Biomarker and Therapeutic Target for Prostate Cancer

The Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) is considered to be the most well established target antigen in prostate cancer, since it is highly and specifically expressed at all tumor stages on the surface of prostate tumor cells. This chapter outlines the structure, function, and expression of PSMA, its relevance as prognostic and diagnostic biomarker, and different therapeutic approaches targeting this antigen.
Design of a new millimeter-wave Butler matrix

A 4 times 4 slot Butler matrix has been designed around 38 GHz band. The circuit is compact and has low losses. In the proposed design, a novel slot hybrid coupler and slot cross-over were also designed and introduced. This new configuration demonstrates the possibility to design Butler matrices using slot-line technology. Simulated results of magnitude show a good performance in terms of bandwidth (~8 GHz). The proposed system has the advantages of low cost, small volume, light weight and ease of fabrication. The proposed Butler matrix is suitable for millimetre-wave applications
A ROBUST METHOD BASED ON LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION FOR SPEECH SIGNIAL DETECTION

Speech signal detection is found to have a variety of applications in the speech communication. Many methods have been proposed for that purpose. Most of these methods can achieve very high detection accuracy for a reasonable given false alarm probability in clean speech environment. However, these methods become less reliable in the noisy environment. The accurate detection of speech signal is proven to be still very difficult in the presence of noise and interference. In this paper, we propose a method to use the likelihood estimated from a noise model to detect the speech signal. We shall address the problems on how to train a noise model, how to use the likelihood to detect the speech signal and how to use an on-line adaptation procedure to adapt the model parameters to a new noisy environment. We will also present experiment results to demonstrate some of the properties and advantages of the method.
Prevalence of Multidrug Resistant Enterococci in a Tertiary Care Hospital in India: A Growing Threat

Introduction: Enterococci are members of the healthy human intestinal flora, but are also leading causes of highly antibiotic-resistant infections. Serious enterococcal infections are often difficult to treat since the organisms have a tremendous capacity to acquire resistance to penicillin, high concentration of aminoglycoside & vancomycin. Careful review of in vitro susceptibility data is required to treat infections caused by MDR Enterococci. Therefore we conducted the study to find out prevalence of MDR Enterococci. Aims & Objectives: To study the prevalence of Vancomycin resistance, High Level Streptomycin Resistance (HLSR) & High Level Gentamicin Resistance (HLGR) in different enterococcal isolates. Materials & Methods: Total 180 enterococcal isolates were studied. Identification was done by conventional biochemical methods. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method on Mueller–Hinton agar and results were interpreted as per CLSI guidelines. HLSR & HLGR was determined by disc diffusion method using high level Gentamicin disc (120 μg) & Streptomycin (300 μg) discs. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination for Vancomycin was done by vancomycin E test strips. Results: Total 180 entetococcal isolates were studied. E. faecalis was 60%, E. faecium was 32.2%, E. durans and E. raffinosus were 4.4% & 3.3% respectively. Enterococcus fecium showed resistance in high percentage as compared to E. faecalis. 15 isolates were found to be vancomycin resistant. Conclusion: Resistance to aminoglycoside is of great concern. Regular screening of enterococcal isolates for vancomycin resistance detection should be implemented. It is very important to implement infection control measures, screening of health care workers, surveillance cultures in intensive care units which can control spread of multidrug resistant enterococci.