Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elimination of plasmid pMG110 from Escherichia coli by novobiocin and other inhibitors of DNA gyrase

The ability of novobiocin to eliminate (cure) the wild-type plasmid pMG110 from Escherichia coli has been compared with that of other inhibitors of the gyrase B subunit and of the gyrase A subunit. Novobiocin eliminated pMG110 , producing over 99% plasmid loss at concentrations two- to eightfold below the MIC for bacterial growth. Structurally related compounds ( clorobiocin , coumermycin A1, isobutyryl novenamine , and decarbamyl novobiocin) varied in their ability to eliminate pMG110 . Higher concentrations of drugs were required to eliminate pMG110 from a gyrB( Cour ) strain, implicating DNA gyrase in the curing phenomenon. For these drugs, the ratio of the concentration effecting maximal plasmid elimination to the MIC varied from 0.16 to 1.1, indicating that curing cannot be explained simply by inhibition of a pool of DNA gyrase equally available for replication of the bacterial chromosome and the plasmid DNA molecule. Inhibitors of the gyrase A subunit, nalidixic acid and oxolinic acid, eliminated pMG110 only to variable low levels. The differences in the ability of the gyrase A and B subunit antagonists to eliminate plasmids are discussed.
Scales, Scales and More Scales

Abstract This article examines the nature, uses, and limitations of the large variety of existing, so-called, hypnosis scales; that is, instruments that have been proposed for the assessment of hypnotic behavior. Although the major aim of most of the scales ostensively seems to be to assess several aspects of hypnotic states, they are found generally to say little about these and much more about responses to suggestions. The greatest application of these scales is to be found in research, but they also have a limited place in clinical work.
BinSim: Trace-based Semantic Binary Diffing via System Call Sliced Segment Equivalence Checking

Detecting differences between two binary executables (binary diffing), first derived from patch analysis, have been widely employed in various software security analysis tasks, such as software plagiarism detection and malware lineage inference. Especially when analyzing malware variants, pervasive code obfuscation techniques have driven recent work towards determining semantic similarity in spite of ostensible difference in syntax. Existing ways rely on either comparing runtime behaviors or modeling code snippet semantics with symbolic execution. However, neither approach delivers the expected precision. In this paper, we propose system call sliced segment equivalence checking, a hybrid method to identify fine-grained semantic similarities or differences between two execution traces. We perform enhanced dynamic slicing and symbolic execution to compare the logic of instructions that impact on the observable behaviors. Our approach improves existing semantics-based binary diffing by 1) inferring whether two executable binaries’ behaviors are conditionally equivalent; 2) detecting the similarities or differences, whose effects spread across multiple basic blocks. We have developed a prototype, called BinSim, and performed empirical evaluations against sophisticated obfuscation combinations and more than 1,000 recent malware samples, including now-infamous crypto ransomware. Our experimental results show that BinSim can successfully identify finegrained relations between obfuscated binaries, and outperform existing binary diffing tools in terms of better resilience and accuracy.
The cytomegalovirus enhancer: a pan-active control element in transgenic mice

In an effort to identify widely active positive regulatory elements, we have examined the action of the cytomegalovirus enhancer-promoter in transgenic mice. These elements activated expression in 24 of 28 tissues tested. The greatest expression was observed in the heart, kidney, brain, and testis. Maximum expression further localized to specific cells within the heart and kidney.
Young Chinese students’ teamwork experiences in a UK business school – from a cultural perspective

Using a qualitative approach, this study examines young Chinese students’ (born post 1985) perceptions of teamwork and how these perceptions change as a result of their experiences, whilst studying at a UK university. Built from deep and rich data collected from in-depth interviews with an experimental group of students, the research establishes that through direct communication with students from various cultural backgrounds during teamwork, the Chinese students adapt psychologically, cognitively and behaviourally to varying degrees. The decreased wariness of local and other international students and British university staff, increased self confidence and sense of achievement may be categorised as psychological adaptation. Changes are also revealed in their open mindedness, decreased ethnocentrism, increased cultural awareness, and attitudes towards time and assessment, opinions on abiding principles, that is following ethical and moral aspects and regulations. These may be labelled as cognitive adaptation. Further, changes are shown in their ways of expressing opinions, holding ground, handling uncertainties, mixing with local and international students, and studying autonomously. These may be termed as behavioural adaptation. The research finds that the extent of adaptation is moderated by their individual learning approaches, namely surface, deep and achieving. It stresses that creating optimal cultural synergy with diverse cultural contacts/exposure not only facilitates but maximises cultural adaptation, namely fitting in with new social and educational environment. The results are triangulated by the findings from a comparison group of similar students in China, with respect to age, gender and learning approaches, thus aiming to discount any bias. Implications arising from the study suggest that the internationalisation of education should enhance ‘cultural synergy’ so that both the local and international students can enrich their learning experiences and develop intercultural competence.
Electrostatic free energy landscapes for nucleic acid helix assembly

Metal ions are crucial for nucleic acid folding. From the free energy landscapes, we investigate the detailed mechanism for ion-induced collapse for a paradigm system: loop-tethered short DNA helices. We find that Na+ and Mg2+ play distinctive roles in helix–helix assembly. High [Na+] (>0.3 M) causes a reduced helix–helix electrostatic repulsion and a subsequent disordered packing of helices. In contrast, Mg2+ of concentration >1 mM is predicted to induce helix–helix attraction and results in a more compact and ordered helix–helix packing. Mg2+ is much more efficient in causing nucleic acid compaction. In addition, the free energy landscape shows that the tethering loops between the helices also play a significant role. A flexible loop, such as a neutral loop or a polynucleotide loop in high salt concentration, enhances the close approach of the helices in order to gain the loop entropy. On the other hand, a rigid loop, such as a polynucleotide loop in low salt concentration, tends to de-compact the helices. Therefore, a polynucleotide loop significantly enhances the sharpness of the ion-induced compaction transition. Moreover, we find that a larger number of helices in the system or a smaller radius of the divalent ions can cause a more abrupt compaction transition and a more compact state at high ion concentration, and the ion size effect becomes more pronounced as the number of helices is increased.
Dopant Activation Control Using a Soak Pulse in Flash Lamp Annealing

Flash Lamp Annealing (FLA) is a well-known process for activation annealing in ultra-shallow junctions. Since our FLA tool has a flexible flash function that allows adjustments of the order of milliseconds, it is possible to realize precise diffusion control in the nanometer range. With soak pulse FLA the junction depth (Xj) can be easily controlled by the soak pulse time while achieving a high activation level. In particular, this controllability is 1.0nm per 1.0ms, and the same Xj can be obtained for both boron and phosphorous dopants. Additionally, the ramp-up rate is also adjustable. A pulse with a 40ms ramp-up enables defect recovery to a sufficiently deep region as well as recrystallization of the amorphous layer. These dopant activation control techniques are useful for device engineering and research. The excellent features of our FLA tool give it great potential for use in several applications.
INDUCTION OF DONOR‐SPECIFIC UNRESPONSIVENESS TO RAT CARDIAC ALLOGRAFTS BY PRETREATMENT WITH INTRATHYMIC DONOR MHC CLASS I ANTIGENS

Since intrathymic injection of UV-B-irradiated spleen cells induces donor-specific unresponsiveness in the sub-lethally irradiated (200 rads TBI) recipients, while intrathymic injection of naive SC leads to acute graft rejection, we hypothesized that presentation of MHC class I rather than MHC class II antigens to immature T cells in the thymus may convey a tolerogenic signal to the recipient. The present study was designed to examine if intrathymic injection of naive MHC class I—positive resting T lymphocytes can induce antigen-specific unresponsiveness to cardiac allografts in the Lewis-to-ACI rat combination. The results showed that intrathymic injection of resting Lewis T cells consistently induced indefinite graft survival (>300 days) in sublethally irradiated (200 rads TBI) ACI recipients while similar treatment failed to prevent the rejection of third-party (Wister-Furth) cardiac allografts, thus demonstrating the specificity of the immunologic unresponsiveness to donor alloantigens. Examination of the timing of intrathymic antigen presentation relative to cardiac transplantation that would achieve 100% permanent graft survival in the Lewis-to-ACI rat combination showed that the optimal time was 7 days before allografting, while peritransplant and immediate post-transplant intrathymic inoculation of donor T cells was relatively ineffective in the induction of unresponsive-ness to donor grafts. We also showed that removal of the antigen-containing thymus in the sublethally irradiated recipients with functioning cardiac allografts consistently caused graft rejection if performed earlier than 21 days after heart transplantation; thymectomy after 21 days of organ transplantation did not affect indefinite survival of the grafts. Thus, it appears that the maintenance of peripheral tolerance to the grafts after 21 days of transplantation may be dependent on the presence of a new clone of antigen-specific tolerant host T cells. These results confirm the immunologic privileged position of the thymus in the induction of central and peripheral tolerance, and suggest that pretreatment with intrathymic MHC class I alloantigens is potentially useful in the induction of unresponsiveness to donor vascularized allografts in adult animals and in man.
Minimum majority classification and boosting

Motivated by a theoretical analysis of the generalization of boosting, we examine learning algorithms that work by trying to fit data using a simple majority vote over a small number of a collection of hypotheses. We provide experimental evidence that an algorithm based on this principle outputs hypotheses that often generalize nearly as well as those output by boosting, and sometimes better. We also provide experimental evidence for an additional reason that boosting algorithms generalize well, that they take advantage of cases in which there are many simple hypotheses with independent errors.
Multiple Logistic Regression Analysis of Risk Factors for the Development of Steroid-Dependent Asthma in the Elderly: A Comparison with Younger Asthmatics

Background: The percentage of the aged among all patients with bronchial asthma is increasing. Objective: To investigate the risk factors for the development of steroid-dependent asthma in the elderly. Methods: A multiple logistic regression analysis involving various clinical factors between steroid-dependent and -independent asthma was carried out for 59 asthmatics aged over 60 years, including 16 patients with steroid-dependent asthma. The calculated risk for each factor was compared with that obtained from 122 younger asthmatics aged 20–59 years. Results: Among the factors examined (sex, age, period from onset of asthma, type of asthma and family history of asthma, plus history of smoking, atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis and nasal polyps), the significant risk factors for the development of steroid dependency in the elderly asthmatics were only family history of bronchial asthma (relative risk 3.6) and smoking history (relative risk 6.9). Conclusions: Some risk factors for steroid-dependent asthma in younger individuals were not significant in the elderly. Since the smoking history was most closely associated with the development of steroid dependency in the elderly, even though most of them had quit smoking, it is important for patients with asthma to avoid smoking.
Bifidobacterium longum Subspecies infantis Bacteremia in 3 Extremely Preterm Infants Receiving Probiotics

To the Editor: Metaanalysis of randomized trials that tested different probiotics showed a reduction of ≈50% in necrotizing enterocolitis and all-cause deaths in preterm infants (1). Use of probiotics is increasing worldwide (2,3), and cases of probiotic sepsis were not reported among >5,000 infants in an updated review (1).
The Self-Selection of Migrant Workers Revisited

Work of low-skilled migrant workers from developing countries in developed economies is a growing phenomenon and a key political and economic issue. An extensive literature has found (for the most part) that these workers come from the lower part of the skill distribution. This paper revisits the issue, using a self-selection model, a unique data-set on migrant workers as well as on workers that chose not to migrate (‘stayers’), and direct estimation of the moments of the latent unobserved skill distributions. The main findings are that there are two dimensions to self-selection: in terms of observed skills, a substantial migration premium lures migrant workers, while very low returns to skills in the foreign economy deter skilled workers, leading to negative self-selection. In terms of unobservable skills, self-selection is found to be positive rather than negative. The latter finding entails substantial increases in mean wages and reduction in wage inequality, relative to random assignment and to the alternative of not migrating. The analysis also demonstrates that estimates of skill premia for migrants — an important issue in the immigration literature — are upward biased if selection is not accounted for. Relevant skills are multi-dimensional, hence assignments in this context are non-hierarchical.
Fast and Selective Ammonia Transport by Aquaporin-8*

The transport of ammonia/ammonium is fundamental to nitrogen metabolism in all forms of life. So far, no clear picture has emerged as to whether a protein channel is capable of transporting exclusively neutral NH3 while excluding H+ and \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NH}_{4}^{+}\) \end{document}. Our research is the first stoichiometric study to show the selective transport of NH3 by a membrane channel. The purified water channel protein aquaporin-8 was reconstituted into planar bilayers, and the exclusion of \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NH}_{4}^{+}\) \end{document} or H+ was established by ensuring a lack of current under voltage clamp conditions. The single channel water permeability coefficient of 1.2 × 10–14 cm3/subunit/s was established by imposing an osmotic gradient across reconstituted planar bilayers, and resulting minute changes in ionic concentration close to the membrane surface were detected. It is more than 2-fold smaller than the single channel ammonia permeability (2.7 × 10–14 cm3/subunit/s) that was derived by establishing a transmembrane ammonium concentration gradient and measuring the resulting concentration increases adjacent to the membrane. This permeability ratio suggests that electrically silent ammonia transport may be the main function of AQP8.
SI-WF 2 Q : WF 2 Q Approximation with Small Constant Execution Overhead-Extended Version

This paper presents a novel priority queue data structure and access operations for timer maintenance in the context of traffic shaping and scheduling in packet networks. The data structure and operations are used to construct an efficient General Processor Sharing (GPS) approximation scheduler. In contrast to existing proposals, this scheduler has constant and near-optimal delay and fairness properties, and can be implemented with bounded amortized O(1) algorithmic complexity, and has very low absolute execution overhead. The paper presents the data structure, the scheduling algorithm, and studies its execution complexity. The scheduling properties are analyzed and shown to relate nicely to existing work. Some illustrative simulation results are presented to reaffirm those properties.
Association between MSMB rs 10993994 polymorphism and susceptibility to prostate cancer : a meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis

Background: Previous studies remained controversial results related to the relationship between microseminoprotein beta gene (MSMB) rs10993994 polymorphism and prostate cancer risk. Therefore, this meta-analysis was performed to summarize such association. Methods: We searched for relevant available literatures on rs10993994 and prostate cancer until March 1st, 2016 on the databases Pubmed, Embase and web of science. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the strength of the association. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on ethnicity and source of controls. Then, trial sequential analysis was performed to reduce the risk of type I error and evaluate whether the results were based on firm evidence. Results: Overall, our results indicated that significant increased risk of prostate cancer was associated with rs10993994 for dominant model OR=1.28 (95% CI: 1.21-1.36), recessive model OR=1.41 (95% CI: 1.25-1.58) and homozygote model OR=1.57 (95% CI: 1.45-1.70) and heterozygote model OR=1.19 (95% CI: 1.12-1.26). In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, significant results were detected only in Caucasian populations (dominant model: OR=1.29, 95% CI: 1.22-1.37; recessive model: OR=1.46, 95% CI: 1.33-160; homozygote model: OR=1.62, 95% CI: 1.49-1.77; heterozygote model: OR=1.19, 95% CI: 1.12-1.27). Moreover, when stratified by source of controls, statistically significant increased risks were found among both population-based control group and hospital-based control group. In the present study, such association was confirmed by trial sequential analyses. Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests the T allele of the MSMB rs10993994 polymorphism increases prostate cancer susceptibility, which holds potential as biomarkers for prostate cancer risk.
Neglected Outcomes of Customer Orientation in Urban Public Water Utilities in Uganda and Tanzania

We used 30 decision making units (DMUs) of National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) in Uganda and Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation [DAWASCO] in Tanzania to collect data from customers and workers/regulators of the two utilities. We also collected secondary data on the performance of the utilities in 2010. We used this data to calculate the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for the DMUs. The results indicate high adoption of customer orientation in NWCS’ DMUs (mean score = 86%) while in DAWASCO’s DMUs the mean score is 44%. The results from DEA analysis show a mean efficiency score of 93% for NWSC and 71% for DAWASCO. Also, the findings indicate a service quality gap of -1.98 for NWSC and -2.81 for DAWASCO. We found that there is a positive correlation between customer orientation and efficiency (0.58 [p 0.01]); and an inverse correlation between customer satisfaction and efficiency (0.043% [p>0.01]). These results imply that increased adoption of customer orientation reforms enhances technical efficiency albeit the resultant improvement in customer satisfaction is statistically insignificant. Keywords · Customer orientation · Service quality · DEA
URBAN HOUSEHOLD DEMAND FOR MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS IN NIGERIA: AN ALMOST IDEAL DEMAND SYSTEM ANALYSIS

This study is based on micro level data on urban household food consumption and expenditure collected between 1999 and 2000 in three Nigerian cities. The LA/AIDS model, which allows the inclusion of demographic variables, was applied to a subset of the data on meat and meat products namely beef, mutton/goat, chicken, fish, eggs, and milk. Results indicate that urban demand for meat products will continue to increase as incomes improve, suggesting potential market opportunities especially for poultry. Intra-household demand patterns clearly indicate the importance of beef for children but contrary to expectations, there is a reduced demand for milk as the number of infants in urban households increase. The observed high income elasticity of demand for poultry products may have a positive impact on the derived demand for maize, a primary product in poultry feed. Encouraging poultry production will help restore the battered agricultural sector of Nigeria, increase farmer income, reduce unemployment, and conserve foreign exchange earnings.
Psychometric Soundness of an Arabic Version of the Jefferson Scale of Attitude toward Physician and Nurse Collaboration (JSAPNC): A Preliminary Study

Background: The Jefferson Scale of Attitude toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration (JSAPNC) has been used to measure the attitude regarding collaboration between nurses and physicians. The aim of this preliminary study was to test the reliability and validity of an Arabic version of the questionnaire and adapt it for use in Palestine. Methods: Forward-backward translation of guidelines provided in the literature was followed. Content validity was examined by nine health experts and reliability was assessed with Cronbach’s coefficient alpha; test-retest reliability. Construct validity was explored with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by means of survey among 414 physicians and nurses worked at Shifa Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip in 2015. Results: Response rate was 65% and Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was 73.2 for the entire sample. Test-retest reliability was 0.79 measured by Pearson correlation. Factor analysis with Varimax rotation revealed four factors explained 60.5% of the variance in the responses labeled as physician-nurse collaboration, doctor’s authority, Shared education and Nursing role in-patient care. Goodness of fit indices from the CFA showed a satisfactory model of fit; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.89; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06; Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = 0.03; and Hoelter index = 206. Conclusion: The Arabic version of JSAPNC is psychometrically sound tool with satisfactory measurement characteristics including validity and internal consistency reliability. Future research is required to replicate these findings with larger and representative sample. Generalization to Arab speaking countries can be considered but with caution.