Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the Effect of Three Strategies in Individuals with Sloping Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Background: Advances in hearing aid technology especially for the individuals with sloping sensorineural hearing loss have improved drastically. However, research pertaining to use of such technology and its outcomes has been limited. Aim: To compare the performance of older adults with sloping SNHL with three amplification strategies. Method: Aided warble tone thresholds, speech identification scores using recorded high frequency Kannada word lists and SNR-50 were measured. These measures were obtained in three aided conditions, i.e., conventional frequency amplification (CFA), frequency compression amplification (FCA) and amplification up to 1.7fe (1.7feA). Results: The FCA was better than CFA as well as 1.7feA at 0.5 kHz. However, at 4 kHz CFA was better than FCA as well as 1.7 feA. Further, the speech identification scores in all the three fitting strategies resulted in similar performance using high frequency words. It was also revealed that the FCA was better than CFA and 1.7 feA though these outcomes were not significantly different. The SNR-50 measures with FCA showed little benefit in comparison with the other two strategies which were similar in the older adults with cochlear dead regions. Friedman’s test results indicated that using a CFA, FCA and 1.7feA strategies there was a significant difference between all the three strategies in the frequencies 0.5 kHz and 4 kHz. Wilcoxon signed ranks test between these three strategies on the aided thresholds revealed that there was a significant difference between each strategy. At 500 Hz FCA was better when compared to CFA and 1.7 feA. But at 4000 Hz CFA was better than FCA and 1.7 feA. In SNR-50 measures results revealed CFA strategy was better when compared to FCA strategy. Conclusion Similar benefit with all the three aided conditions was noted using the three fitting strategies on aided thresholds and speech identification in quiet. Improved performance was evident for the SNR-50 measure when using conventional frequency and amplification up to 1.7feA when compared to the FCA.
Phenolic compounds’ dosage and antioxidant activities of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Lophira lanceolata ’s Van Tiegh. ex Keay (Ochnaceae) leaves

Hepatic disease is a public health problem because of the devastation it causes to people. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the antioxidant activity of a plant, such as Lophira lanceolata , commonly used in the treatment of liver diseases in Benin. Phytochemical screening of aqueous and ethanolic extracts according to traditional use revealed the presence of alkaloids, polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins, saponosids, anthocyanins, free anthracene derivated, leucoanthocyanins, quinone derivated and reducing compounds. Chemical analysis dosage of phenolic compounds has shown that the ethanolic extract of Lophira lanceolata ’s leaves was rich in total polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins and anthocyanins than the aqueous extract. The evaluation of the antioxidant activities by the DPPH and the ferric Reduction antioxydant power (FRAP) tests showed that the ethanolic extract of Lophira lanceolata ’s leaves is more active than the aqueous extract. The larval toxicity test on Artemia salina indicate that the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Lophira lanceolata are practically non-toxic. That can justify its use to the treatment of liver diseases by populations in Benin.
AI based Object Detection Robot through Live Streaming

— The need for Artificial Intelligence is increasing due to the increase in the complexity of modern world. The amount of data that is generated, by both humans and machines, far outperforms humans’ ability to captivate, infer and make complex decisions based on that data. Artificial intelligence is the foundation to all computer learning and elucidates all complex decisions. AI based Object detection is one of the solutions that can be implemented in face detection, pedestrian detection, vehicle detection, military and etc. Object detection is one of the most basic and central tasks in computer vision. Its task is to find all the concerned objects in the image, and determine the category and location of the objects. In recent times, with the development of convolutional neural network, significant advances have been made in object detection.
CD40×HER2 bispecific antibody overcomes the CCL2-induced trastuzumab resistance in HER2-positive gastric cancer

Background There was much hard work to study the trastuzumab resistance in HER2-positive gastric cancer (GC), but the information which would reveal this abstruse mechanism is little. In this study, we aimed to investigate the roles of tumor cell-derived CCL2 on trastuzumab resistance and overcome the resistance by treatment with the anti-CD40-scFv-linked anti-HER2 (CD40 ×HER2) bispecific antibody (bsAb). Methods We measured the levels of CCL2 expression in HER2-positive GC tissues, and revealed biological functions of tumor cell-derived CCL2 on tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and the trastuzumab resistance. Then, we developed CD40 ×HER2 bsAb, and examined the targeting roles on HER2 and CD40, to overcome the trastuzumab resistance without systemic toxicity. Results We found the level of CCL2 expression in HER2-postive GC was correlated with infiltration of TAMs, polarization status of infiltrated TAMs, trastuzumab resistance and survival outcomes of GC patients. On exposure to CCL2, TAMs decreased the M1-like phenotype, thereby eliciting the trastuzumab resistance. CCL2 activated the transcription of ZC3H12A, which increased K63-linked deubiquitination and K48-linked auto-ubiquitination of TRAF6/3 to inactivate NF-κB signaling in TAMs. CD40 ×HER2 bsAb, which targeted the CD40 to restore the ubiquitination level of TRAF6/3, increased the M1-like phenotypic transformation of TAMs, and overcame trastuzumab resistance without immune-related adversary effects (irAEs). Conclusions We revealed a novel mechanism of trastuzumab resistance in HER2-positive GC via the CCL2-ZC3H12A-TRAF6/3 signaling axis, and presented a CD40 ×HER2 bsAb which showed great antitumor efficacy with few irAEs.
Free Coffee and Cake! A Retention Initiative to Promote First Year Business School Students’ Social Interaction With Their Peers And Staff.

This paper discusses the findings from a small case study which involved implementing a social initiative with year 1 students on retention ‘hotspot’ programmes in the Business School. Financed by the internal TLA fund, this initiative involved running four coffee and cake events over an academic year specifically for students on the hotspot programmes. The purpose of these events was to facilitate student interaction with other students and lecturers in the department, to promote social engagement, connectedness to the department and feelings of belonging. With increasing tuition fees and the tendency for students to live off campus, many students attend only formal timetabled teaching events and do not engage in additional activities. Arguably therefore, not all students fully connect to the university or department, thus affecting their feelings of belonging. A sense of belonging appears repeatedly in the literature as contributing towards student retention. Students and staff took part in an evaluation of the coffee and cake events in April 2012 and this paper discusses the findings. Results showed that the coffee and cake events contributed towards students’ feelings of belonging and made students feel valued. In particular, students particularly benefited from the liaisons with staff in a more relaxed, non-teaching environment.
Proliferative Activation of Quiescent Rat-lA Cells by AFosB

Fos and Jun transcription factors are induced during the normal course of the proliferative response of quiescent cells to serum or to growth factors. We have shown that AFosB, an alternatively spliced form of FosB, is formed as rapidly as FosB in serum-stimulated Rat-IA cells. Although AFosB lacks the C-terminal region of FosB carrying the transactivation function, constitutive expression of AFosB transforms Rat-lA cells as does expression of FosB. The transforming ability ofAFosB suggests that AFosB may lead to proliferative activation of quiescent cells without activating AP-1-responsive genes. To address this question, FosB or AFosB was expressed as a fusion protein with the ligand binding domain of the human estrogen receptor (ER) in Rat-IA cells. After estrogen treatment, the fusion protein accumulates in nuclei and forms stable complexes with Jun proteins. We have shown that ER-AFosB or to a lesser extent ER-FosB triggers quiescent Rat-IA cells to transit G1, initiate DNA replication, and ultimately undergo cell division at least once. Since ER-FosB, but not ER-AFosB, induced expression of the AP-1-responsive transin/stromelysin gene, we concluded that the N-terminal region and the DNA binding domain of FosB or AFosB itself have the potential to regulate cell proliferation and that the transactivation function carried by the C-terminal region of FosB is not essential for the proliferative activation of quiescent cells.
A Review of the Effect of Non-ionizing Microwave Radiation on Human Health

The rapidly increasing concern of non-ionizing microwave radiations affecting human health adversely has been gaining much of attention. A large volume of research studies have been published in the past decade. Most of the previous review literature in this key research area are limited to a certain domain leading to questionable gaps that still need to be filled. This paper, therefore, investigates and analyses all possible gaps, which are left in recent literature related to this issue and aims to provide an inclusive up-to-date overview of evidences and epidemiological studies on different parts of human body, in both adult and children. Based on the literature review, it is evident that the rise in the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) above its maximum value due to the exposure from non-ionizing radiation can cause severe effect on human body such as a cataract formation in the eye, a shortfall in sperm count in men etc. Specific Anthropomorphic Mannequin (SAM) model, which is used as a certification technique for cell phone, is found to be overestimating the adult and child head exposure by using same geometric model for child and adult head types. It has also been observed that the electromagnetic radiation has both positive and negative effect on the human life, depending on the context of its application. It is envisaged that human can gain from the positive side and avoid the negative effect. A step by step example of numerical simulation model is illustrated to support future researchers in developing further work in this research area.
An Overview and Classiﬁcation of Approaches to Information Extraction in Wireless Sensor Networks

—Recent advances in wireless communication have made it possible to develop low-cost, and low power Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The WSN can be used for several application areas (e.g., habitat monitoring, forest ﬁre detection, and health care). WSN Information Extraction (IE) techniques can be classiﬁed into four categories depending on the factors that drive data acquisition: event-driven, time-driven, query-based, and hybrid. This paper presents a survey of the state-of-the-art IE techniques in WSNs. The beneﬁts and shortcomings of different IE approaches are presented as motivation for future work into automatic hybridisation and adaptation of IE mechanisms.
Determining dependences between directional quantities and position on a sphere. [In astronomy]

Two astronomically useful statistical tests to detect dependences of a circular quantity on a spherical one are presented: a nonparametric test and one, developed by Jupp and Mardia, which is based on multivariate statistics. A preliminary investigation of some of the statistical properties of the nonparametric test is undertaken. These tests are applied to a set of radio data to show that neither the integrated polarization vector nor the alignment of the source axes show any dependence on the source's position in the sky. This applies to a global sample, as well as to subsets in redshift, rotation measure, resolution of the radio map, etc. 13 references.
FREQUENCY OF S. AUREUS IN SEPTIC WOUND INFECTIONS AT A TERTIARY CARE UNIT

Background: Skin plays a pivotal role in protecting against micro-organisms. Damage to skin through cut, surgical incision, burn and road traffic accident etc. make it susceptible for micro-organism to invade our body. Septic wounds further put stress on immune system of already injured person, hence increase morbidity and mortality. Approximately 30% of the human population is colonized with Staphylococcus aureus. It is a leading cause of wound complication, soft tissue and skin infections, infective endocarditis, bacteremia and sepsis etc. Objective: Aim of this study is to determine frequency of Staphylococcus aureus in septic wound infections. Methodology: It was a cross sectional study done at surgical wards, burn center, orthopedic department and intensive care unit of Nishtar Hospital Multan from September 2017 to November 2017. We obtained 150 consecutive pus samples from wounded patients presenting with clinical symptoms of septic wound. The collected samples were transported aseptically to the microbiology laboratory within 30 minutes and segregation was done on the basis of infection site such as knee joints, burn sites, caesarean operated sites etc. Collected samples were inoculated on blood agar and MacConkey agar. Mannitol Salt agar was used as a selective medium for isolation of Staphylococcus aureus after incubation at 37°C for 24 hours. The culture were analyzed for morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics. For the identification of bacterial isolates samples were subjected to biochemical tests; catalase test, coagulase test and DNAse test. Data was analyzed in the form of frequency and percentage with Microsoft Excel. Results: Bacteriological investigation of septic wounds pus sample of 150 consecutive patients, in which there were 88 (58.6%) males and 62 (41.4%) females. Mean age of our patients was 28.91 ± 5.56 years, ranging from 20 – 50 years, 50 (33.33%) were aged 20 – 30 years, 40 (26.4%) were aged 31- 40 years, 28 (18.6%) were aged 41-50 years and 32 (21.1%) were above 50 years. Out of 150 pus samples, 60 (40%) had septic wound with S.aureus growth out of which methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus was 30% and MRSA was 34.6% and there 5% cases that were also resistant to vancomycin. Two patients (4%) had fungal infections while 9 patients (18%) showed only gram negative rods and all were Catalase test negative. Source of infection was also found to be significant factor as 82 patients (55%) had poor unhygienic condition, 60 patients (40%) showed poor or improper dressing. Conclusion: In this study we observed that almost two third of the septic wounds were infected with staphylococcus aureus, which may be due to hospital acquired infections and nosocomial due to improper unhygienic condition. There is special need of strategy implementation to control hospital acquired and nosocomial infections for a healthy community. It is recommended that consultants should update their knowledge due to continuously emerging antimicrobial resistance.
Increased Mortality by Digoxin in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation?

was completed in 4 patients with incessant VT: before the diagnosis of TB in 1 patient and during anti-TB treatment in the remaining 3 patients. Patients were followed up at 1, 3, and 6 months after the initiation of anti-TB treatment and when clinically warranted. The response was assessed after the intensive phase of anti-TB treatment in terms of clinical improvement, change in ejection fraction by echocardiography, and change in 18-fluorodexoyglucose uptake by PET/CT. There was significant improvement in ejection fraction (mean 46.7 14.4% to 50.8 16.1%; p 1⁄4 0.009). All patients but 1 became free of VT. In a follow-up PET/CT (n 1⁄4 11), abnormal metabolic activity resolved completely in the myocardium in 4 patients and in the lymph nodes in 9 patients (Table 1). There were no deaths. Our observations suggest that TB can present as idiopathic VT or unexplained ventricular dysfunction; patients may not have constitutional symptoms. Biopsy targeting fluorodeoxyglucose-avid lymph nodes rather than endomyocardial biopsy is more useful inmaking a clinical diagnosis. It may be prudent to investigate all patients with unexplained VT or left ventricular dysfunction and lymphadenopathy for myocardial TB, especially in those areas where the prevalence of TB is high. By subjecting the biopsy specimen to mycobacterial culture, TB polymerase chain reaction and histopathologic examination will help in distinguishing between TB and sarcoidosis— another granulomatous condition that may present in a similar fashion (4). This report serves to highlight the fact that myocardial TB may be more common than believed. Early diagnosis is important to prevent morbidity and mortality.
Heavy flavor spectroscopy at the Tevatron

During the last decade, the CDF and DO experiments at the Tevatron have been pursuing an extensive heavy flavor spectroscopy program that provides s ignificant advancements in the understanding of masses of ground state and orbitally excited b‐hadrons, and phenomenology of exotic XY Z states. It also yields a breakthrough in our knowledge of bottom baryons with the first observation of the Σ ±(�)
Correlation between Growth Rates, EIIA Crr Phosphorylation, and Intracellular Cyclic AMP Levels in Escherichia coli K-12 (cid:1)

In Escherichia coli K-12, components of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase systems (PTSs) represent a signal transduction system involved in the global control of carbon catabolism through inducer exclusion mediated by phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent protein kinase enzyme IIA Crr (EIIA Crr ) ( (cid:1) EIIA Glc ) and catabolite repression mediated by the global regulator cyclic AMP (cAMP)-cAMP receptor protein (CRP). We measured in a systematic way the relation between cellular growth rates and the key parameters of catabolite repression, i.e., the phosphorylated EIIA Crr (EIIA Crr (cid:2) P) level and the cAMP level, using in vitro and in vivo assays. Different growth rates were obtained by using either various carbon sources or by growing the cells with limited concentrations of glucose, sucrose, and mannitol in continuous bioreactor experiments. The ratio of EIIA Crr Analysis of the EIIA Crr phosphorylation state. The EIIA Crr phosphorylation state was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blotting essentially as described previously (57). Deviating from the protocol, protein precipitation was carried out at (cid:4) 80°C overnight. Detection was performed with polyclonal EIIA Crr antiserum from a rabbit. As secondary antibodies, goat anti-rabbit antibodies conjugated to horseradish peroxidase were used, and detection was performed with the SuperSignal West Femto Maximum sensitivity substrate (Pierce) and a cooled charge-coupled-device cam- era (INTAS, Germany). The sum of the EIIA Crr -speciﬁc bands was set at 100%. Reporter gene studies. To analyze the activity of the cAMP-dependent scrYp and cAMP-independent scrKp promoters, fragments covering the promoter re-gions of both genes and approximately 200 bp upstream and downstream of the start codon including the known cAMP-CRP binding site of scrYp (55), were ampliﬁed by PCR, and each promoter fragment was cloned separately in front of the luxCDABE genes into pCS26 (3). The plasmids were transformed into E . coli LJ110, and the cells were grown in MM supplied with different carbohydrates. At various time points throughout a growth curve, samples were taken. The biomass concentrations of these samples were determined by measurement of the absorbance at 420 nm, and the relative luminescence units of a 100- (cid:3) l sample was measured in a luminescence reader (Mithras; Berthold Technologies) (measure-ment time of 0.1 s). For analysis, the relative luminescence per 5 (cid:5) 10 8 cells and the growth rates of the cultures were calculated. Average values for a speciﬁc experiment were taken from at least three measurements during the exponential phase of a culture.
Investigation of the Sturm–Liouville problems with integral boundary condition

This paper presents some new results on the spectrum of a complex plane for the second order Finite-Difference Scheme with one integral type nonlocal boundary condition (NBC). We analyze how complex eigenvalues of these problems depend on the parameters of the integral NBC. The integral conditions are approximated by the trapezoidal rule or by Simpson’s rule.
DISCOLOURATION RISK MANAGEMENT AND CHLORINE WALL DECAY

This paper explores the concept that periodic imposed excess shear stress events to manage discolouration risk in trunk mains can also impact on the chlorine wall decay by changing the properties of the accumulated pipe wall material. By implementing a series of varying magnitude shear stress events in multiple trunk main demonstrated that significant material was mobilised, thereby cleaning the mains and reducing discolouration risk. Measured chlorine data also suggests that repeated shear stress intervention also reduced the chlorine wall decay relative to a control network and the larger the intervention greater the benefit. Calibrated first order chlorine decay simulations in EPANET supported this finding. The modelling results further show that the wall decay has a dominant influence on this change even for these large diameter pipes. The significance of these findings is to evidence the additional value of regular hydraulics based cleaning interventions for large diameter mains delivering service improvement in terms of both discolouration risk and persistence of chlorine residual.
Review on the Role of Dairy Product Processing and Preservation in Food Security of Ethiopia

Ethiopia holds large potential for dairy development, the sector is not developed to the expected level. The objectives of this paper were to provide organized information on different types of dairy product processing, preservation and the role of dairy product processing and preservation in food security in the country. Milk production systems can be classified into three based on their location: urban, pre-urban and rural milk production systems. Urban dairy production system is placed in cities and towns, with small or no access to grazing land and small feeding conditions which focus on the production and sale of fluid milk, using the available human and capital resources. Pre-urban milk production is developed around city areas. Another types of dairy production system is the rural dairy system, which includes pastoralist, agropastoral and mixed crop– livestock producers, mainly in the highland areas. There are four main methods used to process milk that are suitable for small-scale operation: Cooling fresh milk to extend the shelf life by a day or two, or freezing it. Heating milk to destroy both contaminating micro-organisms and naturally occurring enzymes that change the flavor of milk. Making the milk acidic to slow down or food poisoning bacteria, Reducing the amount of water in milk products to slow down or prevent the growth of bacteria are some Examples. Also, dairy production used for human consumption and it has great role in food security of the country.