LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Antibiotic resistance pattern of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from urine samples of Urinary Tract Infections patients in Karachi, Pakistan

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibiotic resistance pattern of Psedomonas aeruginosa and its prevalence in patients with urinary tract infections (UTI) for effective treatment in a developing country like Pakistan.


METHODS
This is an observational study conducted for a period of ten months which ended on December 2013 at the Dr. Essa Laboratory and Diagnostic Centre in Karachi. A total of 4668 urine samples of UTI patients were collected and standard microbiological techniques were performed to identify the organisms in urine cultures. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby-Bauer technique for twenty five commonly used antimicrobials and then analyzed on SPSS version 17.


RESULTS
P. aeruginosa was isolated in 254 cultures (5.4%). The most resistant drugs included Ceclor(100%) and Cefizox (100%) followed by Amoxil/Ampicillin (99.6%), Ceflixime (99.6%), Doxycycline (99.6%), Cefuroxime (99.2%), Cephradine (99.2%), Cotrimoxazole (99.2%), Nalidixic acid (98.8%), Pipemidic acid (98.6%) and Augmentin (97.6%).


CONCLUSION
Emerging resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa are potentially linked to injudicious use of drugs leading to ineffective empirical therapy and in turn, appearance of even more resistant strains of the bacterium. Therefore, we recommend culture and sensitivity testing to determine the presence of P.aeruginosa prior to specific antimicrobial therapy.
The effect of different dosing regimens of motesanib on the gallbladder: a randomized phase 1b study in patients with advanced solid tumors

Gallbladder toxicity, including cholecystitis, has been reported with motesanib, an orally administered small-molecule antagonist of VEGFRs 1, 2 and 3; PDGFR; and Kit. We assessed effects of motesanib on gallbladder size and function. Patients with advanced metastatic solid tumors ineligible for or progressing on standard-of-care therapies with no history of cholecystitis or biliary disease were randomized 2:1:1 to receive motesanib 125 mg once daily (Arm A); 75 mg twice daily (BID), 14-days-on/7-days-off (Arm B); or 75 mg BID, 5-days-on/2-days-off (Arm C). Primary endpoints were mean change from baseline in gallbladder size (volume by ultrasound; independent review) and function (ejection fraction by CCK-HIDA; investigator assessment). Forty-nine patients received ≥1 dose of motesanib (Arms A/B/C, n = 25/12/12). Across all patients, gallbladder volume increased by a mean 22.2 cc (from 38.6 cc at baseline) and ejection fraction decreased by a mean 19.2% (from 61.3% at baseline) during treatment. Changes were similar across arms and appeared reversible after treatment discontinuation. Three patients had cholecystitis (grades 1, 2, 3, n = 1 each) that resolved after treatment discontinuation, one patient developed grade 3 acute cholecystitis requiring cholecystectomy, and two patients had other notable grade 1 gallbladder disorders (gallbladder wall thickening, gallbladder dysfunction) (all in Arm A). Two patients developed de novo gallstones during treatment. Twelve patients had right upper quadrant pain (Arms A/B/C, n = 8/1/3). The incidence of biliary “sludge” in Arms A/B/C was 39%/36%/27%. Motesanib treatment was associated with increased gallbladder volume, decreased ejection fraction, biliary sludge, gallstone formation, and infrequent cholecystitis. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00448786
Mortality data in adult cardiac surgery for named surgeons: retrospective examination of prospectively collected data on coronary artery surgery and aortic valve replacement.

OBJECTIVES
To present named surgeon mortality for isolated first time coronary artery surgery and aortic valve surgery.


DESIGN
Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data.


SETTING
All NHS hospitals undertaking adult cardiac surgery in north west England.


PARTICIPANTS
25 consultant surgeons carrying out coronary artery surgery and aortic valve replacement between April 2001 and March 2004.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Mortality for both operations according to surgeon. EuroSCORE to stratify patients into low and high risk.


RESULTS
10,163 patients underwent surgery under 25 surgeons. The average number of patients per surgeon was 363 for coronary artery surgery and 44 for aortic valve replacement. Seventeen per cent of the patients undergoing coronary artery surgery and half of those undergoing aortic valve surgery were considered high risk. The average mortality was 1.8% (range 0-3.8%) for coronary surgery and 1.9% (0-12.5%) for aortic valve surgery. Mortality for all surgeons fell below 99% control limits of the national mean for both operations.


CONCLUSIONS
The presented mortality figures for the two cardiac operations fell within accepted limits for all surgeons. The division of outcomes according to low and high risk patients is imperfect but may help to inform the public about the complexities of this type of analysis and prevent surgeons avoiding high risk patents who may benefit from an operation.
Delivery of Loperamide Across the Blood-Brain Barrier with Polysorbate 80-Coated Polybutylcyanoacrylate Nanoparticles

Purpose. The possibility of using polysorbate 80-coated nanoparticles for the delivery of the water insoluble opioid agonist loperamide across the blood-brain barrier was investigated. The analgesic effect after i.v. injection of the preparations was used to indicate drug transport through this barrier. Methods. Loperamide was incorporated into PBCA nanoparticles. Drug-containing nanoparticles were coated with polysorbate 80 and injected intravenously into mice. Analgesia was then measured by the tail-flick test. Results. Intravenous injection of the particulate formulation resulted in a long and significant analgesic effect. A polysorbate 80 loperamide solution induced a much less pronounced and very short analgesia. Uncoated nanoparticles loaded with loperamide were unable to produce analgesia. Conclusions. Polysorbate 80-coated PBCA nanoparticles loaded with loperamide enabled the transport of loperamide to the brain.
Recommender System for Social Networks

In this paper, an online news recommender system for the popular social network, Facebook, is described. This system provides daily newsletters for communities on Facebook. The system fetches the news articles and filters them based on the community description to prepare the daily news digest. Explicit survey feedback from the users show that most users found the application useful and easy to use. They also indicated that they could get some community specific articles that they would not have got otherwise.
A Method for Fast, High-Precision Characterization of Synthetic Biology Devices

Engineering biological systems with predictable behavior is a foundational goal of synthetic biology. To accomplish this, it is important to accurately characterize the behavior of biological devices. Prior characterization efforts, however, have generally not yielded enough high-quality information to enable compositional design. In the TASBE (A Tool-Chain to Accelerate Synthetic Biological Engineering) project we have developed a new characterization technique capable of producing such data. This document describes the techniques we have developed, along with examples of their application, so that the techniques can be accurately used by others. 10 1 10 10 10 10 10 10 1 10 10 10 10 10 [Dox] IF P M EF L/ pl as m id Normalized Dox transfer curve, colored by plasmid bin 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 IFP MEFL O FP M EF L/ pl as m id Normalized Tal1 transfer curve, colored by plasmid count Work partially sponsored by DARPA; the views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and not DARPA or the U.S. Government.
Imperfect Information Dynamic Stackelberg Game Based Resource Allocation Using Hidden Markov for Cloud Computing

Existing static grid resource scheduling algorithms, which are limited to minimizing the makespan, cannot meet the needs of resource scheduling required by cloud computing. Current cloud infrastructure solutions provide operational support at the level of resource infrastructure only. When hardware resources form the virtual resource pool, virtual machines are deployed for use transparently. Considering the competing characteristics of multi-tenant environments in cloud computing, this paper proposes a cloud resource allocation model based on an imperfect information Stackelberg game (CSAM-IISG) using a hidden Markov model (HMM) in a cloud computing environment. CSAM-IISG was shown to increase the profit of both the resource supplier and the applicant. Firstly, we used the HMM to predict the service provider's current bid using the historical resources based on demand. Through predicting the bid dynamically, an imperfect information Stackelberg game (IISG) was established. The IISG motivates service providers to choose the optimal bidding strategy according to the overall utility, achieving maximum profits. Based on the unit prices of different types of resources, a resource allocation model is proposed to guarantee optimal gains for the infrastructure supplier. The proposed resource allocation model can support synchronous allocation for both multi-service providers and various resources. The simulation results demonstrated that the predicted price was close to the actual transaction price, which was lower than the actual value in the game model. The proposed model was shown to increase the profits of service providers and infrastructure suppliers simultaneously.
The epistemology of computer security

This paper studies computer security from first principles. The basic questions "Why?", "How do we know what we know?" and "What are the implications of what we believe?"
Weather radar rainfall data in urban hydrology

Application of weather radar data in urban hydrological applications has evolved significantly during the past decade as an alternative to traditional rainfall observations with rain gauges. Advances in radar hardware, data processing, numerical models, and emerging fields within urban hydrology necessitate an updated review of the state of the art in such radar rainfall data and applications. Three key areas with significant advances over the past decade have been identified: (1) temporal and spatial resolution of rainfall data required for different types of hydrological applications, (2) rainfall estimation, radar data adjustment and data quality, and (3) nowcasting of radar rainfall and real-time applications. Based on these three fields of research, the paper provides recommendations based on an updated overview of shortcomings, gains, and novel developments in relation to urban hydrological applications. The paper also reviews how the focus in urban hydrology research has shifted over the last decade to fields such as climate change impacts, resilience of urban areas to hydrological extremes, and online prediction/warning systems. It is discussed how radar rainfall data can add value to the aforementioned emerging fields in current and future applications, but also to the analysis of integrated water systems.
Waves, currents, sediment flux and morphological response in a barred nearshore system

Greenwood, B. and Sherman, D.J., 1984. Waves, currents, sediment flux and morphological response in a barred nearshore system. In: B. Greenwood and R.A. Davis, Jr. (Editors), Hydrodynamics and Sedimentation in Wave-Dominated Coastal Environments. Mar. Geol., 60: 31--61. A shore-normal array of seven, bi-directional electromagnetic flowmeters and nine surface piercing, continuous resistance wave staffs were deployed across a multiple barred nearshore at Wendake Beach, Georgian Bay, Canada, and monitored for a complete storm cycle. Time-integrated estimates of total (ITVF) and net (INVF) sediment volume flux together with bed elevation changes were determined using depth-of-activity rods. The three bars, ranging in height from 0.10 to 0.40 m accreted during the storm (0.03 m), and the troughs were scoured (0.05 m). Sediment reactivation depths reached 0.14 m and 12% of the nearshore control volume was mobilized. However, the INVF value for the storm was less than 1% of the control volume revealing a near balance in sediment volume in the bar system. Landward migration of the inner, crescentic and second, sinuous bars occurred in association with an alongshore migration of the bar form itself; the outermost, straight, shore-parallel bar remained fixed in location. The surf zone was highly dissipative throughout the storm (e = 3.8 x 10L-192 X 102) and the wave spectrum was dominated by energy at the incident frequency. Spectral peaks at frequencies of the first harmonic and at one quarter that of the incident wave were associated with secondary wave generation just prior to breaking and a standing edge wave, respectively. The former spectral peak was within the 95% confidence band for the spectrum while the latter contributed not more than 10% to the total energy in the surface elevation spectrum even near the shoreline. During the storm wave height exceeded 2 m (H$) and periods reached 5 s (Tpk): orbital velocities exceeded 0.5 m s -1 (Um~s) and were above the threshold of motion for the medium-to-fine sands throughout the storm. Shore-parallel flows in excess of 0.4 m s -1 were recorded with maxima in the troughs and minima just landward of the bar crest. The rate and direction of sediment flux is best explained by the interaction of antecedent bed slopes with spatial gradients in the mean and asymmetry of the shore-normal velocity field. These hydrodynamic parameters represent "s teady" flows superimposed on the dominantly oscillatory motion and assumed a characteristic spatial pattern from the *Present address: Department of Geography, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90007, U.S.A. 0025-3227/84/$03.00 © 1984 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
Stellar Tidal Streams In Spiral Galaxies Of The Local Volume: A Pilot Survey With Modest Aperture Telescopes

Within the hierarchical framework for galaxy formation, minor merging and tidal interactions are expected to shape all large galaxies to the present day. As a consequence, most seemingly normal disk galaxies should be surrounded by spatially extended stellar ’tidal features’ of low surface brightness. As part of a pilot survey for such interaction signatures, we have carried out ultra deep, wide field imaging of 8 isolated spiral galaxies in the Local Volume, with data taken at small (D =0.1-0.5m) robotic telescopes that provide exquisite surface brightness sensitivity (μlim(V ) ∼ 28.5 mag/arcsec). This initial observational effort has led to the discovery of six previously undetected extensive (to ∼ 30kpc ) stellar structures in the halos surrounding these galaxies, likely debris from tidally disrupted satellites. In addition, we confirm and clarify several enormous stellar over-densities previously reported in the literature, but never before interpreted as tidal streams. Even this pilot sample of galaxies exhibits strikingly diverse morphological characteristics of these extended stellar features: great circle-like features that resemble the Sagittarius stream surrounding the Milky Way, remote shells and giant clouds of presumed tidal debris far beyond the main stelar body, as well as jet-like features emerging from galactic disks. Together with presumed remains of already disrupted companions, our observations also capture surviving satellites caught in the act of tidal disruption. A qualitative comparison with available simulations set in a ΛCold Dark Matter cosmology (that model the stellar halo as the result of satellite disruption evolution) shows that the extraordinary variety of stellar morphologies detected in this pilot survey matches that seen in those simulations. The common existence of these tidal features around ’normal’ disk galaxies and the morphological match
Software paradigms, assessment types and non-functional requirements in model-based integration testing: a systematic literature review

Context: In modern systems, like cyber-physical systems, where software and physical services are interacting, safety, security or performance play an important role. In order to guarantee the correct interoperability of such systems, with respect to functional and non-functional requirements, integration testing is an effective measure to achieve this. Model-based testing moreover not only enables early definition and validation, but also test automation. This makes it a good choice to overcome urgent challenges of integration testing. Objective: Many publications on model-based integration testing (MBIT) approaches can be found. Nevertheless, a study giving a systematic overview on the underlying software paradigms, measures for guiding the integration testing process as well as non-functional requirements they are suitable for, is missing. The aim of this paper is to find and synthesize the relevant primary studies to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current state of model-based integration testing. Method: For synthesizing the relevant studies, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) according to the guidelines of Kitchenham. Results: The systematic search and selection retrieved 83 relevant studies from which data has been extracted. Our review identified three assessment criteria for guiding the testing process, namely static metrics, dynamic metrics and stochastic &random. In addition it shows that just a small fraction considers non-functional requirements. Most approaches are for component-oriented systems. Conclusion: Results from the SLR show that there are two major research gaps. First, there is an accumulated need for approaches in the MBIT field that support non-functional requirements, as they are gaining importance. Second, means for steering the integration testing process, especially together with automation, need to evolve.
Dynamic modeling of a bicycle robot with front-wheel drive based on Kane's method

This paper highlights dynamic modeling of a front-wheel drive bicycle robot by using Kane's method. At first, the unique structure of the proposed bicycle robot was introduced. Then, kinematics of the robot was discussed under the pure rolling presupposition of the two road wheels. The kinematics analysis reveals the nonholonomic constraints in the system. Next, dynamic model of the bicycle robot was derived with the consideration of uneven mass distribution in the system. Finally, numerical simulations of the bicycle's running behavior were implemented in MATLAB to examine the efficiency of the derived model. Simulations results show the model is basically in agreement with the real working condition of the bicycle robot. The work in this paper is the basis for realizing stable running of the bicycle robot in the future. 1
Achieving goals in higher education: An experiential approach to sustainability studies

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a concrete example of how experiential learning approaches (from internships in global policy institutes to visiting communities in rural Amazonia to meeting with officials from inter-governmental organizations) can be implemented in order to most effectively meet specific educational goals in international sustainability studies. Design/methodology/approach – Using four key educational goals as the framework for discussion, the author presents a multi-dimensional international experiential program at American University as an example of how non-traditional educational approaches can be used to supplement the traditional lecture-based format. Findings – The case illustrates how experiential learning offers an educational experience that most effectively: connects the academic with the practice, fosters an effective interdisciplinary curriculum, links students to work experience and job opportunities, and engages and empowers students. Research limitations/implications – This paper contributes to the literature on experiential learning and sustainability studies and argues that experiential learning approaches deserve greater attention in theory and practice. Practical implications – The unique institutional and course structure presented in this case is unlikely to be replicated in most higher education settings, but select elements of this model can be incorporated into traditional institutional settings to enhance lecture-centric curricula. Originality/value – The paper takes on the difficult task of simultaneously addressing traditional goals (e.g. connecting theory with practice; preparing students for the job market) with less traditional goals (e.g. engaging and empowering students) in higher education. This paper illustrates how these goals are often mutually reinforcing.
An evaluation of a hybrid occupational therapy and supported employment program in Japan for persons with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE
A vocational rehabilitation program (occupational therapy and supported employment) for promoting the return to the community of long-stay persons with schizophrenia was established at a psychiatric hospital in Japan. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the program in terms of hospitalization rates, community tenure, and social functioning with each individual serving as his or her control.


METHODS
Fifty-two participants, averaging 8.9 years of hospitalization, participated in the vocational rehabilitation program consisting of 2 to 6 hours of in-hospital occupational therapy for 6 days per week and a post-discharge supported employment component. Seventeen years after the program was established, a retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the program on hospitalizations, community tenure, and social functioning after participants' discharge from hospital, using an interrupted time-series analysis. The postdischarge period was compared with the period from onset of illness to the index discharge on the three outcome variables.


RESULTS
After discharge from the hospital, the length of time spent by participants out of the hospital increased, social functioning improved, and risk of hospitalization diminished by 50%. Female participants and those with supportive families spent more time out of the hospital than participants who were male or came from nonsupportive families.


CONCLUSION
A combined program of occupational therapy and supported employment was successful in a Japanese psychiatric hospital when implemented with the continuing involvement of a clinical team. Interventions that improve the emotional and housing supports provided to persons with schizophrenia by their families are likely to enhance the outcome of vocational services.
Listeria Meningitis Complicating Alemtuzumab Treatment in Multiple Sclerosis—Report of Two Cases

Alemtuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the surface molecule CD52, leads to a rapid depletion of immune cells in the innate and adaptive immune system. In phase 2 and 3 trials in multiple sclerosis (MS), infections have been reported more frequently in alemtuzumab than in interferon beta treated patients. Here we report two patients treated with alemtuzumab for MS developing Listeria meningitis few days after the first infusion cycle. Both patients recovered completely after prompt diagnosis and adequate treatment. Physicians and patients should be aware of this serious, but treatable complication.