Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation Of Myelotoxicity In Cotton Rats (Sigmodon hispidus) Exposed To Environmental Contaminants. I. In Vitro Bone-Marrow Progenitor Culture

Bone marrow is extremely sensitive to toxicants, and in vitro culture of bone-marrow progenitor cells has been shown to be a sensitive indicator of bone-marrow injury in laboratory rodents. The ability of a bone-marrow progenitor cell assay to detect myelotoxicity in a wild rodent model (cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus) that inhabits many contaminated ecosystems in the southern United States was examined. Responsiveness of progenitor cells to recombinant murine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and cotton rat lung-conditioned medium (LCM) was determined to optimize culture conditions for cotton rats. Myelotoxicity was induced in cotton rats by treating animals with either cyclophosphamide (8 or 80 mg/kg) or dexamethasone (500 µg/kg) over a 5-d period. Administration of a high dose of cyclophosphamide caused nearly total suppression of colony formation of granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells (CFU-GM). Marked histological changes in both the bone marrow and spleen were also observed in cotton rats treated with a high dose of cyclophosphamide. Although histological lesions were not apparent, the number of CFU-GM in the bone marrow of low-dose cyclophosphamide- and dexamethasone-treated cotton rats was significantly suppressed compared to controls. The number of CFU-GM was consistently higher using LCM than recombinant murine GM-CSF. This reproducible, quantitative, in vitro bone-marrow progenitor cell culture system was a sensitive indicator of myelotoxicity in wild cotton rats and should be useful for monitoring chronic exposures to low levels of environmental toxicants in wild rodent populations.
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Adult Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Outcomes and Predictors of Mortality*

Objectives: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is a rescue therapy used to support severe cardiorespiratory failure. Data on outcomes from severe community-acquired pneumonia in adults receiving rescue extracorporeal membrane oxygenation are mainly confined to single-center experiences or specific pathogens. We examined data from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation registry to identify risk factors for poor outcomes in adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Design: Retrospective data analysis. Setting: Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry database. Patients: We collected deidentified data on adult patients (> 18 yr) receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for community-acquired pneumonia between 2002 and 2012. Patients with incomplete data or brain death were excluded. The primary outcome measure was in-hospital mortality. Other measurements included demographic information, pre-extracorporeal membrane oxygenation mechanical ventilation and biochemical variables, inotrope requirements, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation mode, duration, and complications. Initial univariate analysis assessed potential associations between survival and various pre-extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation factors. Variables with p values of less than 0.1 were considered for logistic regression analysis to identify predictors of mortality. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Findings: One thousand fifty-five patients, who satisfied inclusion criteria, were included in the final analysis. There was an increase in the number of patients cannulated per annum over the 10-year period studied. Univariate analysis identified pre-extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation variables associated with high mortality. Further multiple regression analysis identified certain pre-extracorporeal membrane oxygenation factors as predictors of mortality, including duration of mechanical ventilation prior to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, lower arterial pressure, fungal pneumonia, and advancing age. Type and duration of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, neurologic complications, and presence of more than three complications on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation were also associated with higher mortality. Conclusions: The majority (66%) of adults with community-acquired pneumonia supported on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation survived. Certain potentially modifiable risk factors were associated with increased mortality.
Elastodynamic analysis for slow tectonic loading with spontaneous rupture episodes on faults with rate‐ and state‐dependent friction

We present an efficient and rigorous numerical procedure for calculating the elastodynamic response of a fault subjected to slow tectonic loading processes of long duration within which there are episodes of rapid earthquake failure. This is done for a general class of rate- and state-dependent friction laws with positive direct velocity effect. The algorithm allows us to treat accurately, within a single computational procedure, loading intervals of thousands of years and to calculate, for each earthquake episode, initially aseismic accelerating slip prior to dynamic rupture, the rupture propagation itself, rapid post seismic deformation which follows, and also ongoing creep slippage throughout the loading period in velocity-strengthening fault regions. The methodology is presented using the two-dimensional (2-D) antiplane spectral formulation and can be readily extended to the 2-D in-plane and 3-D spectral formulations and, with certain modifications, to the space-time boundary integral formulations as well as to their discretized development using finite difference or finite element methods. The methodology can be used to address a number of important issues, such as fault operation under low overall stress, interaction of dynamic rupture propagation with pore pressure development, patterns of rupture propagation in events nucleated naturally as a part of a sequence, the earthquake nucleation process, earthquake sequences on faults with heterogeneous frictional properties and/or normal stress, and others. The procedure is illustrated for a 2-D crustal strike-slip fault model with depth-variable properties. For lower values of the state-evolution distance of the friction law, small events appear. The nucleation phases of the small and large events are very similar, suggesting that the size of an event is determined by the conditions on the fault segments the event is propagating into rather than by the nucleation process itself. We demonstrate the importance of incorporating slow tectonic loading with elastodynamics by evaluating two simplified approaches, one with the slow tectonic loading but no wave effects and the other with all dynamic effects included but much higher loading rate.
From Knock-Out Phenotype to Three-Dimensional Structure of a Promising Antibiotic Target from Streptococcus pneumoniae

Given the rise in drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, there is an urgent need to discover new antimicrobials targeting this pathogen and an equally urgent need to characterize new drug targets. A promising antibiotic target is dihydrodipicolinate synthase (DHDPS), which catalyzes the rate-limiting step in lysine biosynthesis. In this study, we firstly show by gene knock out studies that S. pneumoniae (sp) lacking the DHDPS gene is unable to grow unless supplemented with lysine-rich media. We subsequently set out to characterize the structure, function and stability of the enzyme drug target. Our studies show that sp-DHDPS is folded and active with a k cat = 22 s-1, K M PYR = 2.55 ± 0.05 mM and K M ASA = 0.044 ± 0.003 mM. Thermal denaturation experiments demonstrate sp-DHDPS exhibits an apparent melting temperature (T M app) of 72 °C, which is significantly greater than Escherichia coli DHDPS (Ec-DHDPS) (T M app = 59 °C). Sedimentation studies show that sp-DHDPS exists in a dimer-tetramer equilibrium with a K D 4→2 = 1.7 nM, which is considerably tighter than its E. coli ortholog (K D 4→2 = 76 nM). To further characterize the structure of the enzyme and probe its enhanced stability, we solved the high resolution (1.9 Å) crystal structure of sp-DHDPS (PDB ID 3VFL). The enzyme is tetrameric in the crystal state, consistent with biophysical measurements in solution. Although the sp-DHDPS and Ec-DHDPS active sites are almost identical, the tetramerization interface of the s. pneumoniae enzyme is significantly different in composition and has greater buried surface area (800 Å2) compared to its E. coli counterpart (500 Å2). This larger interface area is consistent with our solution studies demonstrating that sp-DHDPS is considerably more thermally and thermodynamically stable than Ec-DHDPS. Our study describe for the first time the knock-out phenotype, solution properties, stability and crystal structure of DHDPS from S. pneumoniae, a promising antimicrobial target.
DSC Analysis of Crystallization and Melting Behavior of Polypropylene in Model Composites with Glass and Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Fibers

Isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP), which is used for the production of split warp knit composite preforms, 1 are analyzed in model composites to determine the influence of reinforce- ment glass fibers (GF) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) binding yarns on the crystallization kinetics. Basic energetic parameters of crystallization are determined, and the melting behavior of PP in model composites is analyzed. The crystallization of PP carried out in nonisothermal and isothermal regimes is facilitated in the presence of GF, and the additional effects of PET fibers are also shown. Better conditions for nucleation, resulting in lower energy for formation of a stable nucleus and lower critical dimensions, are proposed as a reason for this. The crystal structure of PP in model composites exhibits lower lamellae thickness and is less disposed to recrystallization. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 74: 239 -246, 1999
An Approach Towards Development Of Pmv Based Thermal Comfort Smart Sensor

Abstract ASHRAE 55-2004 and ISO 7730 standards failed to predict actual comfort level and lead to oversize design of HVAC system. So proper thermal environment monitoring is an important subject to have right size of HVAC systems. A prototype thermal EM system has been developed. Thermal environment parameters such as: temperature, relative humidity, CO and CO2 are measured by using the developed system. These data are used to calculate the thermal comfort index. The subjective judgments and the calculated PMV are compared with the results. The results showed the possibility of using PMV based thermal comfort smart sensor.
Isolation, organization and expression of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa threonine genes

Three genes from Pseudomonas aeruginosa involved in threonine biosynthesis, hom, thrB and thrC, encoding homoserine dehydrogenase (HDH), homoserine kinase (HK) and threonine synthase (TS), respectively, have been cloned and sequenced. The hom and thrC genes lie at the thr locus of the P. aeruginosa chromosome map (31 min) and are likely to be organized in a bicistronic operon. The encoded proteins are quite similar to the Hom and TS proteins from other bacterial species. The thrB gene was located by pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis experiments at 10 min on the chromosome map. The product of this gene does not share any similarity with other known ThrB proteins. No phenotype could be detected when the chromosomal thrB gene was inactivated by an insertion. Therefore the existence of isozymes for this activity is postulated. HDH activity was feedback inhibited by threonine; the expression of all three genes was constitutive. The overall organization of these three genes appears to differ from that in other bacterial species.
The lin-3/let-23 pathway mediates inductive signalling during male spicule development in Caenorhabditis elegans.

During Caenorhabditis elegans male spicule development, four pairs of precursor cells respond to multiple positional cues and establish a pattern of fates that correlates with relative anterior-posterior cell position. One of the extracellular cues is provided by the F and U cells, which promote anterior fates. We show that the genes in the lin-3/let-23 signalling pathway required for hermaphrodite vulval induction also mediate this F/U signal. Reduction-of-function mutations in lin-3, let-23, sem-5, let-60 or lin-45 disrupt the fate of anterior cells. Likewise, activation of the pathway with ubiquitously produced signal results in posterior cells inappropriately adopting the anterior fates even in the absence of F and U. We have further used this genetic pathway to begin to understand how multiple positional cues are integrated to specify cell fate. We demonstrate that lin-15 acts in spicule development as it does in vulval induction, as a negative regulator of let-23 receptor activity. A second extracellular cue, from Y.p, also acts antagonistically to the lin-3/let-23 pathway. However, this signal is apparently integrated into the lin-3/let-23 pathway at some step after lin-45 raf and is thus functionally distinct from lin-15. We have also investigated the role of lin-12 in forming the anterior/posterior pattern of fates. A lin-12 gain-of-function defect is masked by redundant positional information from F and U.
Exploiting Geographical Location Information of Web Pages

Many information resources on the web are relevant primarily to limited geographical communities. For instance, web sites containing information on restaurants, theaters, and apartment rentals are relevant primarily to web users in geographical proximity to these locations. In contrast, other information resources are relevant to a broader geographical community. For instance, an on-line newspaper may be relevant to users across the United States. Unfortunately, the geographical scope of web resources is largely ignored by web search engines. We make the case for identifying and exploiting the geographical location information of web sites so that web search engines can rank resources in a geographically sensitive fashion, in addition to using more traditional information-retrieval strategies. In this paper, we first consider how to compute the geographical location of web pages. Subsequently, we consider how to exploit such information in one specific "proof-of-concept" application we implemented in JAVA, and discuss other examples as well.
The relationship between the clinical features of pharyngitis and the sensitivity of a rapid antigen test: evidence of spectrum bias.

STUDY OBJECTIVE We evaluate the test characteristics and test for spectrum bias of a rapid antigen test for group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) pharyngitis among adults. METHODS Medical record and laboratory results of consecutive adult patients receiving a rapid antigen test for GABHS in the emergency department or urgent care clinic of an urban teaching hospital between August 1999 and December 1999 were analyzed. Patients were stratified according to the number of clinical features present using the following modified Centor criteria: history of fever, absence of cough, presence of pharyngeal exudate, and cervical lymphadenopathy. The sensitivity of the rapid antigen test was defined as the number of patients with positive rapid antigen test results divided by the number of patients with either positive rapid antigen test results or negative rapid antigen test results and positive throat culture results. RESULTS In the study sample of 498 patient visits, the prevalence of GABHS pharyngitis was 28% (95% confidence interval [CI] 24% to 32%). The prevalence of GABHS pharyngitis increased as modified Centor scores increased: 0 or 1=14%, 2=20%, 3=43%, and 4=52%. An increased number of modified Centor criteria (0 or 1, 2, 3, 4) was associated with increased rapid antigen test sensitivity (61%, 76%, 90%, and 97%, respectively) (Mantel-Haenszel trend test; P =.001). CONCLUSION The sensitivity of the rapid antigen test for GABHS is not a fixed value but varies with the spectrum of disease. Among adults with 3 or 4 clinical criteria for GABHS pharyngitis, further study may reveal that culture confirmation of negative rapid antigen test results are not necessary.
SaveRF: Towards Efficient Relevance Feedback Search

In multimedia retrieval, a query is typically interactively refined towards the ‘optimal’ answers by exploiting user feedback. However, in existing work, in each iteration, the refined query is re-evaluated. This is not only inefficient but fails to exploit the answers that may be common between iterations. In this paper, we introduce a new approach called SaveRF (Save random accesses in Relevance Feedback) for iterative relevance feedback search. SaveRF predicts the potential candidates for the next iteration and maintains this small set for efficient sequential scan. By doing so, repeated candidate accesses can be saved, hence reducing the number of random accesses. In addition, efficient scan on the overlap before the search starts also tightens the search space with smaller pruning radius. We implemented SaveRF and our experimental study on real life data sets show that it can reduce the I/O cost significantly.
Macroeconomic Effects of Nominal Exchange Rate Regimes: New Insights into the Role of Price Dynamics

This Paper analyses the effects of pegged and floating exchange rates using a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model that is calibrated to the US and a European aggregate. The model assumes shocks to money, productivity and the interest parity condition. It captures the fact that the sharp increase in nominal exchange rate volatility after the abandonment of the Bretton Woods (BW) system was accompanied by a commensurate rise in real exchange rate volatility, but had no pronounced effect on the volatility of US and European output. This holds irrespective of whether flexible or sticky prices are assumed – which casts doubt on the widespread view that the roughly equal rise in nominal and real exchange rate volatility reflects price stickiness. Flex-prices variants of the model capture better the fact that the correlation between US and European output has been higher in the floating-rate era.
A new approach for nonlinear finite element analysis of reinforced concrete structures with corroded reinforcements

A new approach for nonlinear finite element analysis of corroded reinforcements in RC structures is elaborated in the article. An algorithmic procedure for producing the tension-stiffening curve of RC elements taking into consideration most of effective parameters, e.g.: the rate of steel bar corrosion, bond-slip behavior, concrete cover and amount of reinforcement, is illustrated. This has been established on both experimental and analytical bases. This algorithm is implemented into a nonlinear finite element analysis program. The abilities of the resulted program have been studied by modeling some experimental specimens showing a reasonable agreement between the analytical and experimental findings.
Breeding Decision Trees Using Evolutionary Techniques

We explore the use of genetic algorithms to directly evolve classification decision trees. We argue on the suitability of such a concept learner due to its ability to efficiently search complex hypotheses spaces and discover conditionally dependent as well as irrelevant attributes. The performance of the system is measured on a set of artificial and standard discretized concept-learning problems and compared with the performance of two known algorithms (C4.5, OneR). We demonstrate that the derived hypotheses of standard algorithms can substantially deviate from the optimum. This deviation is partly because of their non-universal procedural bias and it can be reduced using global metrics of tree quality like the one proposed.
Optimization and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticle by Endophytic Fungi Penicillium sp. Isolated from Curcuma longa (Turmeric) and Application Studies against MDR E. coli and S. aureus

Development of ecofriendly and reliable processes for the synthesis of nanoparticles has attracted considerable interest in nanotechnology because of its tremendous impetus in modulating metals into nanosize to their potential use for human benefits. In this study an endophytic fungus, Penicillium sp. , isolated from healthy leaves of Curcuma longa (turmeric) was subjected to extracellular biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNps) and their activity against MDR E. coli and S. aureus. The biosynthesized AgNps optimization was studied and characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Then produced AgNps were tested against MDR E. coli and S. aureus. The endophytic fungus Penicillium sp. from healthy leaves of C. longa (turmeric) was found to be a good producer of AgNps. Parametric optimization showed maximum absorbance of 420–425 nm at pH-7, 25°C with 1 mM AgNO3 concentration and 15–20 g of wet biomass. Further TEM revealed the formation of spherical, well-dispersed nanoparticles with size ranging between 25 and 30 nm and FTIR shows the bands at 1644 and 1538 cm−1 corresponding to the binding vibrations of amide I and II bands of proteins, respectively. Antibacterial activity against MDR E. coli and S. aureus showed good results showing maximum zone of inhibition of 17 mm and 16 mm, respectively, at 80 µL of AgNps.
Less Likely to Fail: Low Performance, Firm Size, and Factory Expansion in the Shipbuilding Industry

The behavioral theory of the firm and prospect theory predict that performance below an aspiration level increases risk taking, but researchers also propose that performance below an aspiration level decreases risk taking. These conflicting predictions primarily hinge on whether decision makers perceive negative performance as a repairable gap or as a threat to firm survival. This study examines a boundary condition of these conflicting predictions. We argue that a firms resource endowment affects decision makers risk tolerance: Managers in firms with large stocks of resources are buffered from the threat of failure and conform to the prediction of greater risk taking in response to performance decreases; managers in firms with limited resources view low performance as a step closer to failure and decrease risk taking in response to performance decreases. Using data on the risky decision of factory expansion in shipbuilding firms and firm size as an indicator of the stock of tangible resources, we find that performance below the aspiration level reduces risk taking in small firms, but either does not affect risk taking or increases risk taking in large firms. These findings are largely consistent with our predictions and also suggest that large firms are more inert than small firms.
Fast, Responsive Decentralized Graph Coloring

Graph coloring problem arises in numerous networking applications. We solve it in a fully decentralized way (ı.e., with no message passing). We propose a novel algorithm that is automatically responsive to topology changes, and we prove that it converges to a proper coloring in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ \mathrm {\mathcal {O}}(N\log {N})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> time with high probability for generic graphs, when the number of available colors is greater than <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the maximum degree of the graph, and in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ \mathrm {\mathcal {O}}(\log {N})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> time if <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta = \mathrm {\mathcal {O}}(1)$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. We believe the proof techniques used in this paper are of independent interest and provide new insight into the properties required to ensure fast convergence of decentralized algorithms.