Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of agar dilution, broth microdilution, E-test, disk diffusion, and automated Vitek methods for testing susceptibilities of Enterococcus spp. to vancomycin

An evaluation was undertaken to determine the optimal method for testing the susceptibilities of 100 clinical isolates and two reference strains of Enterococcus spp. to vancomycin in vitro. Six testing methods were studied by using the following media and incubation times: agar screen with the Synergy Quad Plate (Remel, Lenexa, Kans.), an in-house-prepared brain heart infusion (BHI) agar plate, and an in-house-prepared Mueller-Hinton (MH) agar plate, all incubated for 24 or 48 h; broth microdilution (Sensititre Just One Strip; AccuMed International, Inc., West Lake, Ohio) with BHI or cation-adjusted MH broth incubated for 24 or 48 h; agar dilution with BHI or MH agar incubated for 24 or 48 h; epsilometer test (E test; AB BioDisk, Solna, Sweden) with BHI or MH agar incubated for 24 or 48 h; disk diffusion with BHI or MH agar incubated for 24 or 48 h; and the automated Vitek method with the gram-positive susceptibility Staphylococcus aureus card and R02.03 software (bioMerieux, Inc., Hazelwood, Mo.). Growth failures occurred with MH media (n = 6) but not with BHI media. One growth failure occurred with the Vitek method. Results for each testing method for each Enterococcus strain were interpreted as susceptible, intermediate, or resistant according to current National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) criteria and compared to the vancomycin resistance genotype (i.e., vanA, vanB, vanC-1, or vanC-2/3). For all methods, extension of the incubation time from 24 h to 48 h either produced no difference in the results or gave poorer results. The following methods produced no very major or major interpretive errors: broth microdilution with BHI media incubated for 24 h, agar dilution with BHI media incubated for 24 or 48 h, and E test with BHI media incubated for 24 or 48 h. Unacceptable frequencies of very major errors (> 1%) occurred with all methods for which MH media were used. Minor interpretive errors were frequent with all methods. These minor interpretive errors also occurred most frequently with Enterococcus strains with vanC genes, which encoded low-level vancomycin resistance (MIC < or = 8 microg/ml), as opposed to Enterococcus strains which possessed vanA or vanB genes, which encoded higher-level vancomycin resistance (MIC > or = 64 microg/ml). Modification of NCCLS breakpoints, especially for motile Enterococcus spp. (E. casseliflavus, E. flavescens, and E. gallinarum), may resolve this problem; however, in the current study, one E. faecalis strain and one E. faecium strain carried only the vanC gene. The agar screen method may also require reformulation. The current agar screen plate contains 6 microg of vancomycin per ml, which may not detect all low-level resistance associated with vanC genotypes. Nevertheless, the clinical significance of this low-level vancomycin resistance remains unknown.
The Effect of Velocity on Muscle Morphology Following Eccentric High-Resistance Training in Young Males

It is known that high-resistance training induces morphological changes in skeletal muscle. Following a resistance training program, increases in maximum torque generating capacity are observed due to both neural adaptations and hypertrophic gains within the trained muscle. Although it has been established that a muscle hypertrophies due to the addition of myofibrillar proteins through increased protein synthesis, the exact mechanism which stimulates the hypertrophic response is unknown. Previous reports have shown that training in the absence of eccentric contractions generally produces less muscle growth and strength gains, as well as inflicting less damage to the muscle ultrastructure. Likewise, fast eccentric contractions have been shown to increase muscular strength to a greater extent than slow contractions. It has been hypothesized that fast eccentric contractions may maximize muscular damage, thus invoking a greater response of repair mechanisms, including satellite cell recruitment, which would allow an increased addition of contractile proteins to be added to the injured muscle, increasing muscle size and strength to a greater degree. The effect of fast and slow eccentric training was investigated using a bilateral, within subject model. Twelve men trained one arm fast (3.66 rad/s) and one arm slow (0.52 rad/s) for 8 weeks on an isokinetic training apparatus. Type I muscle fibre size increased with training by an average of 9.3±12.0% (P<0.05, main effect for time). Type II muscle fibres increased more in the subjects' fast trained arm when compared to the slow trained arm according to ATPase histochemical analysis (P<0.05, time x condition interaction). Likewise, whole arm cross-sectional area showed that the fast trained arms had an average increase of 6.8±5.5 % whereas the slow arms only had an average
Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy in Children: Evaluation with Proton MR Spectroscopy

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) in children is difficult to evaluate because of lack of standardized neuropsychological tests for all age ranges. The purpose of this retrospective study of children with clinically suspected MHE was to investigate relationships between brain MR spectroscopy metabolites and biochemical markers of encephalopathy as well as measures of liver disease severity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 12 children (age range, 9–19 years; 8 female) with clinically suspected MHE were studied by short TE brain MR spectroscopy on a 1.5T magnet. We estimated gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) metabolite concentrations using “LCModel” software. Regional metabolite concentrations were examined for correlation with various parameters, including plasma ammonia, the ratio of branched-chain to aromatic amino acids (BCAA/AAA), model for end stage liver disease/pediatric end stage liver disease (MELD/PELD) and Child-Pugh scores, bilirubin, albumin, and platelet counts. RESULTS: Myo-inositol (mIns) levels correlated with BCAA/AAA ratios (r = 0.86; P = .002 for GM and r = 0.77; P = .01 for WM). WM choline (Cho) levels and GM mIns levels showed significant negative correlation with ammonia levels (r = −0.58; P = .04 and r = −0.65; P = .02, respectively). A positive significant correlation trend was present for GM glutamine/glutamate (Glx) and ammonia levels (r = 0.66; P = .05). There was no correlation of brain MR spectroscopy parameters and severity of liver disease. CONCLUSIONS: Brain MR spectroscopy metabolites in children with suspected MHE show significant correlations with plasma ammonia levels and BCAA/AAA. As in adults, brain MR spectroscopy in children may be helpful in establishing a diagnosis of MHE.
Control of Food Intake by Gastrointestinal Peptides: Mechanisms of Action and Possible Modulation in the Treatment of Obesity

This review focuses on the control of appetite by food intake-regulatory peptides secreted from the gastrointestinal tract, namely cholecystokinin, glucagon-like peptide 1, peptide YY, ghrelin, and the recently discovered nesfatin-1 via the gut-brain axis. Additionally, we describe the impact of external factors such as intake of different nutrients or stress on the secretion of gastrointestinal peptides. Finally, we highlight possible conservative—physical activity and pharmacotherapy—treatment strategies for obesity as well as surgical techniques such as deep brain stimulation and bariatric surgery also altering these peptidergic pathways.
Simulation and flowsheeting of agro industrial residues torrefaction: the case of tomato peels waste

Torrefaction is a thermal pretreatment for biomass feedstocks of various origin, which is usually carried out in an inert atmosphere, at ambient pressure and in a temperature range of 200-300 °C. It has the ability to reduce the main logistic and application limitations of biomass, arising from its heterogeneity, low bulk density, low energy density, hygroscopic behavior and fibrous nature. During torrefaction a combustible gas (‘torgas’) consisting of different organic compounds is also produced in addition to the torrefied solid product. In a properly designed and operated torrefaction system the torgas may be combusted to generate heat for the drying and torrefaction steps, thus increasing the overall process efficiency. This paper focuses on the valorization of biomass made available from low-value, wet agro-industrial residues. The aim of this work is to provide the conceptual design and technical analysis of a torrefaction process for recovery and upgrade of wet tomato peels, which are a typical industrial waste in the Campania region (IT). The Aspen Plus software was used to depict the flowsheeting of the investigated torrefaction process, to develop and solve material and energy balances of the whole process, to carry out the internal heat integration steps. A novel aspect is the modeling of the torrefaction reactor, which was carried out by taking advantage of experimental correlations available in the literature from authors’ previous work. Drying of the wet biomass feedstock results a very energy-demanding operation. The main output of this study is the calculation of the process energy demand from external sources. Therefore, the paper discusses how far the torrefaction process of high-moisture tomato peel residues is from autothermal operation, provided the best available process design options and internal heat integration steps.
Uterine natural killer cell partnerships in early mouse decidua basalis

The decidua basalis of developing mouse implantation sites is highly enriched in CD45+ leukocytes. In intact, syngeneically mated C57BL/6 decidua basalis examined at gestation day 8.5 by whole‐mount in situ immunohistochemistry, leukocyte, but not trophoblast, conjugations were reported. Nothing is known regarding time course, frequency, composition, or importance of physiologic decidual CD45+ cell pairing. In this study, we confirmed the presence of anti‐CD54+/anti‐CD11a+ immune synapses in CD45+ decidual cell conjugates and characterized their cellular heterogeneity. Conjugated cell pairs were virtually absent before implantation (virgin and gestation days 3.5 and 4.5), were infrequent at gestation day 5.5, but involved 19% of all CD45+ cells by gestation day 8.5, then declined. By gestation day 8.5, almost all CD45+ cells coexpressed CD31, and 2 CD45+CD31+ cells composed most conjugates. Conjugation partners were defined for 2 nonoverlapping uterine natural killer cell subsets (Ly49C/I +/Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin− and Ly49C/I−/Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin+). Ly49C/I+ uterine natural killer cells were the major subset from before mating up to gestation day 6.5. At gestation day 5.5/6.5, uterine natural killer cell conjugates involving Ly49C/I + cells were more abundant. By gestation day 8.5/9.5, Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin+ uterine natural killer cells were the dominant subset with Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin+/Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin+ homologous conjugates and Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin+/Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin− heterologous conjugates dominating uterine natural killer cell pairings. At gestation day 6.5, both Ly49C/I+/CD45+ and Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin+/CD45+ heterologous conjugate pairs strongly engaged antigen‐presenting cells (CD11c+, CD68+, or major histocompatibility complex class II+). By gestation day 8.5, dominant partners of Ly49C/I+/CD45+ and Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin+/CD45+ heterologous conjugates are T cells (CD8+ >CD4+). Heterologous conjugates that did not involve uterine natural killer cells occurred but did not suggest antigen presentation to T cells. These data identify gestation day 6.5–8.5 in the pregnant mouse as a critical window for leukocyte interactions that may establish immune regulation within implantation sites.
The economics of the cloud: price competition and congestion

This letter provides an overview of our recent work studying the impacts of price competition and congestion in the cloud marketplace. Specifically, we discuss a three-tier market model that studies a vertical marketplace where users purchase services from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers, which in turn purchase computing resources from either Provider-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers.
Optimal Bounds in Parametric LTL Games

We consider graph games of infinite duration with winning conditions in parameterized linear temporal logic, where the temporal operators are equipped with variables for time bounds. In model checking such specifications were introduced as "PLTL" by Alur et al. and (in a different version called "PROMPT-LTL") by Kupferman et al. We present an algorithm to determine optimal variable valuations that allow a player to win a game. Furthermore, we show how to determine whether a player wins a game with respect to some, infinitely many, or all valuations. All our algorithms run in doubly-exponential time; so, adding bounded temporal operators does not increase the complexity compared to solving plain LTL games.
The quantitative structure of exponential time

Recent results on the internal, measure-theoretic structure of the exponential time complexity classes E=DTIME(2/sup linear/) and E/sub 2/=DTIME(2/sup polynomial/) are surveyed. The measure structure of these classes is seen to interact in informative ways with bi-immunity, complexity cores, /sub <or=/m/sup P/-reducibility, circuit-size complexity, Kolmogorov complexity, and the density of hard languages. Possible implications for the structure of NP are discussed. <<ETX>>
mNoC

Moore's law and the continuity of device scaling have led to an increasing number of cores/nodes on a chip, creating a need for new mechanisms to achieve high-performance and power-efficient Network-on-Chip (NoC). Nanophotonics based NoCs provide for higher bandwidth and more power efficient designs than electronic networks. Present approaches often use an external laser source, ring resonators, and waveguides. However, they still suffer from important limitations: large static power consumption, and limited network scalability. In this article, we explore the use of emerging molecular scale devices to construct nanophotonic networks: Molecular-scale Network-on-Chip (mNoC). We leverage on-chip emitters such as quantum dot LEDs, which provide electrical to optical signal modulation, and chromophores, which provide optical signal filtering for receivers. These devices replace the ring resonators and the external laser source used in contemporary nanophotonic NoCs. They reduce energy consumption or enable scaling to larger crossbars for a reduced energy budget. We present a Single Writer Multiple Reader (SWMR) bus based crossbar mNoC. Our evaluation shows that an mNoC can achieve more than 88% reduction in energy for a 64×64 crossbar compared to similar ring resonator based designs. Additionally, an mNoC can scale to a 256×256 crossbar with an average 10% performance improvement and 54% energy reduction.
Semantic Retrieval for the Accurate Identification of Relational Concepts in Massive Textbases

This paper introduces a novel framework for the accurate retrieval of relational concepts from huge texts. Prior to retrieval, all sentences are annotated with predicate argument structures and ontological identifiers by applying a deep parser and a term recognizer. During the run time, user requests are converted into queries of region algebra on these annotations. Structural matching with pre-computed semantic annotations establishes the accurate and efficient retrieval of relational concepts. This framework was applied to a text retrieval system for MEDLINE. Experiments on the retrieval of biomedical correlations revealed that the cost is sufficiently small for real-time applications and that the retrieval precision is significantly improved.
Community Acceptance of Knowledge Sharing System in the Travel and Tourism Websites: an Application of an Extension of TAM

The presence of customer community in tourism websites is an added value service that enable customers to read about other tourists’ experience. This knowledge sharing of other people’s experience is perceived as more neutral and trustworthy and help to reduce tourist’s perceived risk. However, the deployment of tourist knowledge sharing through the Internet has yet to be measured. This paper presents the result of a study conducted to determine whether the perception of trust, risk and sharing have an effect on the sharing of information at the tourism website. The study was conducted, using the tourism website, www.virtualtour. com which has 400,000 members. A research team member became a member of the community group and befriended community members by taking part in the experience sharing sessions with them to gain their confidence. A survey was then conducted by sending questionnaires via personal e-mails to 1131 members and a total 262 completed questionnaires were returned and used in the analysis. The result yield preliminary evidence that perception of trust and perceived sharing resulted in positive behavioural intention of sharing. In addition, this research also produced preliminary evidence that perceived risk resulted in a negative behavioural intention of sharing. This research also contributed to the much needed measurement of users acceptance of knowledge management systems in e-commerce applications. The findings of this research is consistent with other TAM research findings especially on the constructs of perceived usefulness, ease of use and intentional behaviour.
Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate preservatives in food stuffs in Iran

A high-performance liquid chromatography method was applied for the determination of the levels of benzoate and sorbate in 400 food samples, including pickled cucumbers, canned tomato pastes, sour cherry jams, soft drinks, fruit juices and dairy products (UF-Feta cheeses, Lighvan cheeses, lactic cheeses, yogurts and doogh). The results showed that 270 (67.5%) of all samples contained benzoate ranging from 11.9 to 288.5 mg kg−1 in lactic cheese and fruit juice, respectively. The levels of sorbate in 98 (24.5%) of the samples were 20.1 to 284.3 mg kg−1 in doogh and fruit juice, respectively. Moreover, benzoate was detected in all dairy products ranging from 11.9 mg kg−1 in lactic cheese to 91.2 mg kg−1 in UF-Feta cheese. A low concentration of benzoate could originate naturally, due to specific biochemical mechanisms during cheese, yogurt and doogh maturation. In conclusion, a minimum level for benzoate in dairy products should be defined in the legislation.
Islet-cell tumour causing hypoglycaemia in a newborn infant.

tumours were found post mortem have been described by Scholten and Van der Vegt (1960), Bernheim et al. (1961), and Franqois et al. (1962). More recently, Salinas et al. (1968) and Garces, Drash, and Kenny (1968) described 2 infants with persistent hypoglycaemia which was relieved by resection of islet-cell tumours several weeks after delivery. 2 further infants with congenital isletcell tumours have been briefly reported by Drash
Manual procedure for direct microassay of serum glucose by use of 0 -toluidine, and its adaptation to the SMA 12-60 AutoAnalyzer.

A direct o -toluidine method for serum glucose is described as an alternative to the usual Cu—neocuproine method used with the Technicon SMA 12/60 AutoAnalyzer. Routine operation of the machine is simplified: the number of reagents and manifold lines is decreased and the dialyzer and pre-heating bath are eliminated. Deterioration of manifold tubing is minimized, while maintaining optimal machine sensitivity by adding borate and water to the reagent. Serum glucose was measured by the automated o -toluidine and Cu—neocuproine methods with similar, highly correlated results. Thus, the "normal limits" are unchanged and the same recorder graph paper may be used. A direct manual micro-method is also described, in which an anhydrous o -toluidine reagent is used. Results of manual and automated methods agree satisfactorily.
Development and Application of Real-Time PCR Assay for Quantification of Mycobacterium ulcerans DNA

ABSTRACT Buruli ulcer, an infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, is, after tuberculosis and leprosy, the third most common mycobacterial disease. The mode of transmission of M. ulcerans is not exactly known, but since Buruli ulcer often occurs in focalized swampy areas, it is assumed that there is a reservoir of the pathogen in stagnant water. Buruli ulcer usually starts as a painless nodule and can lead to massive destruction of skin, subcutaneous tissue, and eventually muscle and bone. Currently the only recommended treatment is wide surgical excision. In this report we describe the development of a real-time PCR method for the quantification of M. ulcerans DNA (IS2404 TaqMan). The highly specific assay is based on the detection of the M. ulcerans specific insertion sequence IS2404. The IS2404 TaqMan assay turned out to be about 10 times more sensitive than the available conventional PCR-based diagnostic test. It is demonstrated that the IS2404 TaqMan assay is suitable for the quantitative assessment of the dissemination of the mycobacteria in Buruli ulcer lesions. Prototype results obtained with excised tissue from a patient with a late preulcerative Buruli ulcer lesion reconfirmed earlier histopathological findings indicating that tissue damage occurs far beyond the regions in which large numbers of mycobacteria are detectable. The IS2404 TaqMan assay should be a useful tool for both diagnosis and research into the pathology and mode of transmission of this still inadequately investigated mycobacterial disease.
Hoare-style specifications as correctness conditions for non-linearizable concurrent objects

Designing efficient concurrent objects often requires abandoning the standard specification technique of linearizability in favor of more relaxed correctness conditions. However, the variety of alternatives makes it difficult to choose which condition to employ, and how to compose them when using objects specified by different conditions. In this work, we propose a uniform alternative in the form of Hoare logic, which can explicitly capture--in the auxiliary state--the interference of environment threads. We demonstrate the expressiveness of our method by verifying a number of concurrent objects and their clients, which have so far been specified only by non-standard conditions of concurrency-aware linearizability, quiescent, and quantitative quiescent consistency. We report on the implementation of the ideas in an existing Coq-based tool, providing the first mechanized proofs for all the examples in the paper.
Malaria is a health problem in pregnant women of Bannu district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan

The study was conducted in Women & Children Teaching Hospital (WCTH) district Bannu for the incidence of plasmodium species in pregnant women. For this study those pregnant women were selected who visited to the hospital with the complaints of high fever, shivering, vomiting and headache. A total of 250 blood samples were collected, among these 57 (22.80%) blood samples were found positive and 193 (77.20%) were negative. Among the positive blood samples, 52 (20.80%) and 5 (2.00%) were infected with P. vivax and P. falciparum respectively Women of the age group 20-30 years were more susceptible to the plasmodium infection. In most of the patients, plasmodium density 1 was recorded. Women of the rural area were more infected than the urban area. The number of parasite per field in microscope is called as plasmodium density. The main reasons of the malaria transmission were the improper hygienic condition, diagnosis, high temperature and standing water in lands in district Bannu. In addition the study helps us for the improvement of malaria control and other strategic plan among the pregnant women in district Bannu.