Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancement of freezing-resistance of Lactobacillus rhamnosus by the application of cell immobilization.

cently, the idea and the emphasis of probiotics has become more and more important. Probiotics can be applied to humans or other animals solely or by the mixture of living strains to ameliorate the balance of the indigenous microbial phase in the host (Marteau and Boutron-Ruault, 2002; Sanders, 1998). The most popular probiotics used commercially are lactic acid bacteria (Shortt, 1999). Lactic acid bacteria are widely distributed in nature. Those living in the human intestinal tract could maintain the stability and wellness of the microflora in the intestines, inhibit the multiplication of harmful microorganisms, and closely affect host health (Lee and Salminen, 1995). The nutrition and healthcare functions of lactic acid bacteria are being discovered and recognized gradually, and the fermentation products are receiving widespread consumer acceptance (Shortt, 1999). Lactobacillus rhamnosus is one of the lactic acid bacteria frequently used in probiotic foods. It can resist disadvantageous environment factors in the digestive tract, successfully colonize the intestinal tract, simultaneously adsorb to the epithelial cells in the tracts to form a defense, and prevent the infection of pathogens (Gopal et al., 2001). Besides, L. rhamnosus also can produce bacteriocin (Avonts et al., 2004), and possesses other probiotic effects (De Keersmaecker et al., 2006). Since obstacles to the function of intestinal tracts might be caused by the intake of antibiotics, or abnormal and incorrect dietary habits, scholars (Champagne and Gardner, 2005; Gueimonde et al., 2004) have suggested the dietary supplement of lactic acid bacteria to maintain and improve the health of human digestive tracts. This has facilitated the development of related functional foods and nutraceuticals (Hollingsworth, 2001; Senorans et al., 2003). Current food products with the addition of probiotics include sour cream, buttermilk, yoghurt, spreads, powdered milk, fruit juice, etc. (Wyers, 2004). However, owing to the lack of freezing resistance, the application of L. rhamnosus in frozen desserts is still limited. Low temperatures might have adverse effects on the survival of lactic acid bacteria, and the addition of L. rhamnosus to frozen foods at present is still not common (Castro et al., 1997; Fernandez Murga et al., 1998; Gilliland and Lara, 1988; Wang et al., 2005). Cell immobilization technology is a method using polymer, glass, inorganic salts, etc., to provide appropriate adsorption, binding, cross-linking, and entrapEnhancement of freezing-resistance of Lactobacillus rhamnosus by the application of cell immobilization
Self-citation and Self-reference: Credibility and Promotion in Academic Publication

Author self-citation has long been of interest to those working in informetrics for what it reveals about the publishing behavior of individuals and their relationships within academic networks. While this research has produced interesting insights, it typically assumes either that self-citation is a neutral form of reporting not unlike references to others' work or an unsavory kind of academic egotism. By examining self-citation in a wider context of self-mention, however, the phenomenon can be seen as part of a more comprehensive rhetorical strategy for emphasizing a writer's personal contribution to a piece of research and strengthening his or her knowledge claims, research credibility, and wider standing in the discipline. These meanings are not easily revealed through quantitative bibliometric methods and require careful text analyses and discourse-based interviews with academics. In this paper I explore the use of self-citation and authorial mention in a corpus of 240 research articles and 800 abstracts in eight disciplines. Through an analysis of these texts and interviews with expert informants I show how self-mention is used and the ways these uses reflect both the promotional strategies of individuals and the epistemological practices of their disciplines.
Pulsed Laser Deposited Dysprosium‐Doped Gadolinium–Vanadate Thin Films for Noncontact, Self‐Referencing Luminescence Thermometry

Lanthanide-doped vanadate thin films offer (i) a promising platform for luminescence-based noncontact temperature sensing; (ii) ratiometric/self-referencing absolute measurements; (iii) exceptional repeatability and reversibility for multirun uses and a long life cycle; (iv) 2% K(-1) maximum temperature sensitivity (among the highest recorded for inorganic nanothermometers); (v) a temperature resolution greater than 0.5 K; and (vi) the potential for high-resolution 2D temperature mapping.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY SYMPOSIUM: COLORECTAL CANCER

Many imaging modalities and scanning techniques, such as contrast enhanced CT, MRI and FDG-PET, are available for assessment of recurrent colorectal carcinoma. In addition, integrated PET/CT is becoming increasingly available. Intuitively, a synergistic combination of scanning characteristics sounds promising. However, the exact clinical value has not yet been fully established. The role of PET/CT image fusion must be weighed carefully against other available modalities. In this review we evaluate the potential of combined PET/CT in recurrent colorectal carcinoma. When available, PET/CT currently appears the diagnostic tool of choice. In the near future, combined PET/MRI may further enhance the diagnostic algorithm.
Combinatorial and sequential delivery of gemcitabine and oseltamivir phosphate from implantable poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) cylinders disables human pancreatic cancer cell survival

Combination therapies against multiple targets are currently being developed to prevent resistance to a single chemotherapeutic agent and to extirpate pre-existing resistance in heterogeneous cancer cells in tumors due to selective pressure from the single agent. Gemcitabine (GEM), a chemotherapeutic agent, is the current standard of care for patients with pancreatic cancer. Patients with pancreatic cancer receiving GEM have a low progression-free survival. Given the poor response rate to GEM, cancer cells are known to develop rapid resistance to this drug. Metronomic chemotherapy using combinatorial and sequential delivery systems are novel developmental approaches to disrupt tumor neovascularization, reduce systemic drug toxicity, and increase the sensitivity of chemotherapeutics in cancer. Here, implantable double-layered poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) cylinders were engineered to sequentially release GEM in combination with oseltamivir phosphate (OP) over an extended time. Double-layered PLGA cylindrical implants loaded with these active hydrophilic drugs were fabricated with minimal loss of drugs during the formulation, enabling extensive control of drug loading and establishing uniform drug distribution throughout the polymer matrix. OP is used in the formulation because of its anticancer drug properties targeting mammalian neuraminidase 1 (Neu1) involved in multistage tumorigenesis. OP and GEM encapsulated in inner/outer GEMin/OPout or OPin/GEMout implantable double-layered PLGA cylinders displayed sustained near linear release over 30 days. OP and GEM released from the double-layered PLGA cylinders effectively reduced cell viability in pancreatic cancer cell line PANC1 and its GEM-resistant variant for up to 15 days.
Influence of climate on the presence of colour polymorphism in two montane reptile species

The coloration of ectotherms plays an important role in thermoregulation processes. Dark individuals should heat up faster and be able to reach a higher body temperature than light individuals and should therefore have benefits in cool areas. In central Europe, montane local populations of adder (Vipera berus) and asp viper (Vipera aspis) exhibit a varying proportion of melanistic individuals. We tested whether the presence of melanistic V. aspis and V. berus could be explained by climatic conditions. We measured the climatic niche position and breadth of monomorphic (including strictly patterned individuals) and polymorphic local populations, calculated their niche overlap and tested for niche equivalency and similarity. In accordance with expectations, niche overlap between polymorphic local populations of both species is high, and even higher than that of polymorphic versus monomorphic montane local populations of V. aspis, suggesting a predominant role of melanism in determining the niche of ectothermic vertebrates. However, unexpectedly, the niche of polymorphic local populations of both species is narrower than that of monomorphic ones, indicating that colour polymorphism does not always enable the exploitation of a greater variability of resources, at least at the intraspecific level. Overall, our results suggest that melanism might be present only when the thermoregulatory benefit is higher than the cost of predation.
Click Log Based Evaluation of Link Discovery

We introduce a set of new metrics for hyper-link quality. These metrics are based on users’ interactions with hyperlinks as recorded in click logs. Using a year-long click log, we assess the INEX 2008 link discovery (Link-the-Wiki) runs and ﬁnd that our metrics rank them differently from the existing metrics (INEX automatic and manual assessment), and that runs tend to perform well according to either our metrics or the existing ones, but not both. We conclude that user behaviour is inﬂuenced by more factors than are assessed in automatic and manual assessment, and that future link discovery strategies should take this into account. We also suggest ways in which our assessment method may someday replace automatic and manual assessment, and explain how this would beneﬁt the quality of large-scale hypertext collections such as Wikipedia.
Mismatched anti-predator behavioral responses in predator-naïve larval anurans

Organisms are adept at altering behaviors to balance the tradeoff between foraging and predation risk in spatially and temporally shifting predator environments. In order to optimize this tradeoff, prey need to be able to display an appropriate response based on degree of predation risk. To be most beneficial in the earliest life stages in which many prey are vulnerable to predation, innate anti-predator responses should scale to match the risk imposed by predators until learned anti-predator responses can occur. We conducted an experiment that examined whether tadpoles with no previous exposure to predators (i.e., predator-naive) exhibit innate antipredator behavioral responses (e.g., via refuge use and spatial avoidance) that match the actual risk posed by each predator. Using 7 treatments (6 free-roaming, lethal predators plus no-predator control), we determined the predation rates of each predator on Lithobates sphenocephalus tadpoles. We recorded behavioral observations on an additional 7 nonlethal treatments (6 caged predators plus no-predator control). Tadpoles exhibited innate responses to fish predators, but not non-fish predators, even though two non-fish predators (newt and crayfish) consumed the most tadpoles. Due to a mismatch between innate response and predator consumption, tadpoles may be vulnerable to greater rates of predation at the earliest life stages before learning can occur. Thus, naïve tadpoles in nature may be at a high risk to predation in the presence of a novel predator until learned anti-predator responses provide additional defenses to the surviving tadpoles.
The durability of virological success of tenofovir and didanosine dosed at either 400 or 250 mg once daily

Tenofovir (TDF) co‐administered with didanosine (ddI) 400 mg increases ddI plasma concentrations by up to 60%, raising concerns over toxicity. To limit this interaction, the dosage of ddI may be reduced to 250 mg once daily when co‐prescribed with TDF. In this clinical cohort, highly active antiretroviral therapy regimens containing TDF and ddI 250 mg were significantly better tolerated than combinations with TDF and ddI at a dose of 400 mg. Low‐dose ddI 250 mg once daily plus TDF as part of antiretroviral therapy was effective.
Increased Survival and Reduced Neutrophil Infiltration of the Liver in Rab27a- but Not Munc13-4-Deficient Mice in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Systemic Inflammation

ABSTRACT Genetic defects in the Rab27a or Munc13-4 gene lead to immunodeficiencies in humans, characterized by frequent viral and bacterial infections. However, the role of Rab27a and Munc13-4 in the regulation of systemic inflammation initiated by Gram-negative bacterium-derived pathogenic molecules is currently unknown. Using a model of lipopolysaccharide-induced systemic inflammation, we show that Rab27a-deficient (Rab27a ash / ash ) mice are resistant to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced death, while Munc13-4-deficient (Munc13-4 jinx / jinx ) mice show only moderate protection. Rab27a ash / ash but not Munc13-4 jinx / jinx mice showed significantly decreased tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) plasma levels after LPS administration. Neutrophil sequestration in lungs from Rab27a ash / ash and Munc13-4 jinx / jinx LPS-treated mice was similar to that observed for wild-type mice. In contrast, Rab27a- but not Munc13-4-deficient mice showed decreased neutrophil infiltration in liver and failed to undergo LPS-induced neutropenia. Decreased liver infiltration in Rab27a ash / ash mice was accompanied by lower CD44 but normal CD11a and CD11b expression in neutrophils. Both Rab27a- and Munc13-4-deficient mice showed decreased azurophilic granule secretion in vivo, suggesting that impaired liver infiltration and improved survival in Rab27a ash / ash mice is not fully explained by deficient exocytosis of this granule subset. Altogether, our data indicate that Rab27a but not Munc13-4 plays an important role in neutrophil recruitment to liver and LPS-induced death during endotoxemia, thus highlighting a previously unrecognized role for Rab27a in LPS-mediated systemic inflammation.
Evaluation of Natural Rubber from Clones of Hevea Brasiliensis

Abstract The latex and natural rubber from rubber trees [Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. exAdr. de Juss.) Muell. Arg. ] from clones (RRIM 600, IAN 873, GT 1 and PB 252) recommended to the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, were studied in three different tapping systems. The parameters studied were dry rubber content (DRC), percentages of ash and of nitrogen, Wallace Plasticity (P0) and Mooney Viscosity (VR). The rubber properties vary considerably as a function of clone type, tapping method and season of the year. DRC tends to decrease in the beginning of the dry, cold season (May and June), whereas both nitrogen % and ash % increase in the same period. A good linear correlation was obtained for P0 and VR. The highest P0 and VR were obtained for RRIM 600.
On brewing fresh espresso: LinkedIn's distributed data serving platform

Espresso is a document-oriented distributed data serving platform that has been built to address LinkedIn's requirements for a scalable, performant, source-of-truth primary store. It provides a hierarchical document model, transactional support for modifications to related documents, real-time secondary indexing, on-the-fly schema evolution and provides a timeline consistent change capture stream. This paper describes the motivation and design principles involved in building Espresso, the data model and capabilities exposed to clients, details of the replication and secondary indexing implementation and presents a set of experimental results that characterize the performance of the system along various dimensions. When we set out to build Espresso, we chose to apply best practices in industry, already published works in research and our own internal experience with different consistency models. Along the way, we built a novel generic distributed cluster management framework, a partition-aware change- capture pipeline and a high-performance inverted index implementation.
Effects of High‐Involvement Work Systems on Employee Satisfaction and Service Costs in Veterans Healthcare

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Two strong imperatives for healthcare managers are reducing costs of service and attracting and retaining highly dedicated and competent patient care and support employees. Is there a trade‐off or are there organizational practices that can further both objectives at the same time? High‐involvement work systems (HIWS) represent a holistic work design that includes interrelated core features such as involvement, empowerment, development, trust, openness, teamwork, and performance‐based rewards. HIWS have been linked to higher productivity, quality, employee and customer satisfaction, and market and financial performance in Fortune 1000 firms. Apparently, few prior studies have looked at the impacts of this holistic design within the healthcare sector. This research found that HIWS were associated with both greater employee satisfaction and lower patient service costs in 146 Veterans Health Administration centers, indicating that such practices pay off in both humanistic and financial terms. This suggests that managers implementing HIWS will incur real expenses that are likely to be more than offset by more satisfied employees, less organizational turmoil, and lower service delivery costs, which, in this study, amounted to over $1.2 million in savings for an average VHA facility.
Regulation of the formation and water permeability of endosomes from toad bladder granular cells

Osmotic water permeability (Pf) in toad bladder is regulated by the vasopressin (VP)-dependent movement of vesicles containing water channels between the cytoplasm and apical membrane of granular cells. Apical endosomes formed in the presence of serosal VP have the highest Pf of any biological or artificial membrane (Shi and Verkman. 1989. J. Gen. Physiol. 94:1101-1115). We examine here: (a) the influence of protein kinase A and C effectors on transepithelial Pf (Pfte) in intact bladders and on the number and Pf of labeled endosomes, and (b) whether endosome Pf can be modified physically or biochemically. In paired hemibladder studies, Pfte induced by maximal serosal VP (50 mU/ml, 0.03 cm/s) was not different than that induced by 8-Br-cAMP (1 mM), forskolin (50 microM), VP + 8-Br-cAMP, or VP + forskolin. Pf was measured in endosomes labeled in intact bladders with carboxyfluorescein by a stopped-flow, fluorescence-quenching assay using an isolated microsomal suspension; the number and Pf (0.08-0.11 cm/s, 18 degrees C) of labeled endosomes was not different in bladders treated with VP, forskolin, and 8-Br-cAMP. Protein kinase C activation by 1 microM mucosal phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) induced submaximal bladder Pfte (0.015 cm/s) and endosome Pf (0.022 cm/s) in the absence of VP, but had little effect on maximal Pfte and endosome Pf induced by VP. However, PMA increased by threefold the number of apical endosomes with high Pf formed in response to serosal VP. Pf of endosomes containing the VP-sensitive water channel decreased fourfold by increasing membrane fluidity with hexanol or chloroform (0-75 mM); Pf of phosphatidylcholine liposomes (0.002 cm/s) increased 2.5-fold under the same conditions. Endosome Pf was mildly pH dependent, strongly inhibited by HgCl2, but not significantly altered by GTP gamma S, Ca, ATP + protein kinase A, and phosphatase action. We conclude that: (a) water channels cycled in endocytic vesicles are functional and not subject to physiological regulation, (b) VP and forskolin do not have cAMP-independent cellular actions, (c) activation of protein kinase C stimulates trafficking of water channels, but does not increase the number of apical membrane water channels induced by maximal VP, and (d) water channel function is sensitive to membrane fluidity. By using VP and PMA together, large quantities of endosomes containing the VP- sensitive water channel are labeled with fluid-phase endocytic markers.
A wearable earpad sensor for chewing monitoring

Today dietary assessments require manual information sampling in paper or electronic questionnaires on food type and other diet-related details. Low accuracies of 50% are confirmed for self-reporting, which weakens diet coaching effectiveness and is a major limitation for today's diet programs. Automatic Dietary Monitoring (ADM) using ubiquitous sensors was proposed to alleviate this problem. In this work, we present implementation and analysis results of a novel acoustic earpad sensor device to capture air-conducted vibrations of food chewing. In contrast to previous works, our new device reduces ear occlusion compared to laboratory setups by using wearable earpad headphones. We investigate the sensing principle, perform a spectral sound analysis, and compare food classification performance to a classic lab-based sensor setup. We present novel food texture clustering results for 19 foods, spurring the understanding of food texture structure. In addition, we detail findings of a recent exhibition installation, were 375 food samples were analysed using the new sensor prototype.
How Music and Instruments Began: A Brief Overview of the Origin and Entire Development of Music, from Its Earliest Stages

Music must first be defined and distinguished from speech, and from animal and bird cries. We discuss the stages of hominid anatomy that permit music to be perceived and created, with the likelihood of both H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens both being capable. The earlier hominid ability to emit sounds of variable pitch with some meaning, shows that music at its simplest level must have predated speech. The possibilities of anthropoid motor impulse suggest that rhythm may have preceded melody, though full control of rhythm may well not have come any earlier than the perception of music above. There are four evident purposes for music: dance, ritual, entertainment personal and communal, and above all social cohesion, again on both personal and communal levels. We then proceed to how instruments began, with a brief survey of the surviving examples from the Mousterian period onwards, including the possible Neanderthal evidence and the extent to which they showed ‘artistic’ potential in other fields. We warn that our performance on replicas of surviving instruments may bear little or no resemblance to that of the original players. We continue with how later instruments, strings and skin-drums began and developed into instruments we know in worldwide cultures today. The sound of music is then discussed, scales and intervals, and the lack of any consistency of consonant tonality around the world. This is followed by iconographic evidence of the instruments of later antiquity into the European Middle Ages, and finally the history of public performance, again from the possibilities of early humanity into more modern times. This paper draws the ethnomusicological perspective on the entire development of music, instruments, and performance, from the times of H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens into those of modern musical history, and it is written with the deliberate intention of informing readers who are without special education in music, and providing necessary information for inquiries into the origin of music by cognitive scientists.