Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acinetobacter baumannii: Evolution of Antimicrobial Resistance—Treatment Options

Abstract The first decade of the 20th century witnessed a surge in the incidence of infections due to several highly antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in hospitals worldwide. Acinetobacter baumannii is one such organism that turned from an occasional respiratory pathogen into a major nosocomial pathogen. An increasing number of A. baumannii genome sequences have broadened our understanding of the genetic makeup of these bacteria and highlighted the extent of horizontal transfer of DNA. Animal models of disease combined with bacterial mutagenesis have provided some valuable insights into mechanisms of A. baumannii pathogenesis. Bacterial factors known to be important for disease include outer membrane porins, surface structures including capsule and lipopolysaccharide, enzymes such as phospholipase D, iron acquisition systems, and regulatory proteins. A. baumannii has a propensity to accumulate resistance to various groups of antimicrobial agents. In particular, carbapenem resistance has become commonplace, accounting for the majority of A. baumannii strains in many hospitals today. Carbapenem-resistant strains are often resistant to all other routinely tested agents. Treatment of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii infection therefore involves the use of combinations of last resort agents such as colistin and tigecycline, but the efficacy and safety of these approaches are yet to be defined. Antimicrobial-resistant A. baumannii has high potential to spread among ill patients in intensive care units. Early recognition and timely implementation of appropriate infection control measures is crucial in preventing outbreaks.
Impact of whole-body 18F-FDG PET on staging and managing patients with breast cancer: the referring physician's perspective.

UNLABELLED FDG PET has emerged as an important clinical imaging modality for diagnosing and staging cancer. However, the impact of FDG PET on staging and managing patients with breast cancer from the referring physician's point of view is unknown. METHODS The referring physicians of 160 breast cancer patients received standardized questionnaires inquiring if and how PET findings altered their patient's stage and their clinical management decisions. Management changes were classified as intermodality if the change was from one modality to another (e.g., medical to surgical, surgical to radiation, medical to no treatment, and vice versa) or as intramodality if the change was within the same modality (e.g., altered medical or radiotherapy approach). RESULTS Fifty of the 160 surveys were completed (31% response rate). PET changed the clinical stage in 36% of patients (28% upstaged, 8% downstaged) and resulted in intermodality changes in 28% of patients and intramodality changes in 30% of patients. CONCLUSION The results of this prospective survey show that FDG PET has a major impact on the management of breast cancer patients, influencing both clinical stage and management in more than 30% of patients.
Tissue Distribution, Gender-Divergent Expression, Ontogeny, and Chemical Induction of Multidrug Resistance Transporter Genes (Mdr1a, Mdr1b, Mdr2) in Mice

Multidrug resistance (Mdr) transporters are ATP-binding cassette transporters that efflux amphipathic cations from cells and protect tissues from xenobiotics. Unfortunately, Mdr transporters also efflux anticancer drugs from some tumor cells, resulting in multidrug resistance. There are two groups of Mdrs in mice: group I includes Mdr1a and Mdr1b that transport xenobiotics, whereas group II is Mdr2, a flipase that facilitates phospholipid excretion into bile. Little is known about the regulation of Mdr genes in vivo. The purpose of this study was to determine tissue distribution, gender differences, ontogeny, and chemical induction of Mdrs in mice. The mRNA of Mdr1a is highest in gastrointestinal tract, Mdr1b in ovary and placenta, and Mdr2 in liver. Both Mdr1a and Mdr1b in kidney show female-predominant expression patterns due to repression by androgens. The ontogeny of mouse Mdr1a in duodenum and brain as well as Mdr1b in brain, kidney, and liver all share a similar developmental pattern: low expression at birth, followed by a gradual increase to mature levels at approximately 30 days of age. In contrast, Mdr2 mRNA in liver is markedly up-regulated at birth, which returns to low levels by 5 days of age and then gradually increases to mature levels. None of the Mdrs in liver are readily inducible by any class of microsomal enzyme inducers. In conclusion, the three Mdr transporters in mice are expressed in a tissue-specific and age-dependent pattern, there are gender differences in expression, and Mdr transporters are inducible by only a few microsomal enzyme inducers.
Palaeomagnetism of the (Upper Palaeozoic-Lower Mesozoic) Pyongan Supergroup, Korea: a Phanerozoic Link with the North China Block

SUMMARY The Upper Carboniferous-Lower Triassic Pyongan Supergroup is exposed in an E-W trending syncline comprising the Samcheok Coalfield in eastern South Korea; it borders the southern margin of a NE-SW trending (Okcheon) zone of Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous deformation (Daebo Orogeny). Although a Recent field overprint widely recorded in Korean rocks is represented here, an ancient field component structure is recovered from the red bed facies in this Supergroup by detailed thermal demagnetization. A prominent Upper Jurassic-Cretaceous overprint is widespread (DIZ = 56.1/54.8", agS = 9.6", palaeopole at 200.4"E, 46.7"N) and records the magnetic effect of the Daebo Orogeny within the Okcheon Belt. It is post-deformational in origin and appears to have been confined mainly to the Cretaceous Normal Superchron. It has been rotated clockwise since these times, in common with the main synclinal axis, as a consequence of dextral movements along the Tan Lu Fault System. Components predating this deformation are recovered from the Lower Triassic (DIZ = 1.1/19.4", agS = 18.2", palaeopole at 306.1°E, 63.2"N), Permian (DIZ = 358.3/11.5", c~~~ = 6.3", palaeopole at 311.9"E, 58.7"N) and Upper Carboniferous (DIZ = 34l.U-9.2", mgS = 7.2", palaeopole at 335.7"E, 44.6"N) sediments. Second-order small circle dispersions of site palaeopoles record unaccommodated tectonic rotations and are largest in the oldest beds below an Upper CarboniferousLower Permian unconformity. However, the presence of reversals, probably acquired before and after the Carboniferous-Permian Reversed Superchron, defines ancient field axes and identifies an Upper Carboniferous-Lower Triassic APW path. This path correlates with the contemporaneous path from the North China Block and is removed from the path from the South China Block; agreement with North China is enhanced when these results are corrected for the rotation indicated by the Cretaceous overprint. We therefore identify a first-order correlation between the Korean Peninsula and North China at least since Upper Palaeozoic times. Establishment of, and movements along, the Tan Lu Fault System since Mesozoic times have not obscured this palaeomagnetic correlation.
A Transaction Cost Approach to Make-or-Buy Decisions

Gordon Walker and David Weber This study focuses on make-or-buy decisions as a paradigmatic problem for analyzing transaction costs. Hypotheses developed from Williamson's efficient boundaries framework were tested in a multiple-indicator structural equation model. The influence of transaction costs on decisions to make or buy components was assessed indirectly through the effects of supplier market competition and two types of uncertainty, volume and technological. In addition to transaction costs, the decisions were hypothesized to be predicted by both buyer production experience and the comparative production costs between buyer and supplier. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of make-or-buy decisions made in a division of a U.S. automobile company. The results show that comparative production costs are the strongest predictor of makeor-buy decisions and that both volume uncertainty and supplier market competition have small but significant effects. The findings are explained in terms of the complexity of the components and the potential pattern of communication and influence among managers responsible for making the decisions. *
Uptake of [3H]serotonin and [3H]glutamate by primary astrocyte cultures. I. Effects of different sera and time in culture

Na+‐dependent, fluoxetine‐sensitive high‐affinity uptake of serotonin and Na+‐dependent uptake of glutamate were studied in primary astrocyte cultures from 1‐day‐old rat neocortex. This uptake was independent of time in culture from 1 to 6 weeks. High‐affinity serotonin uptake was decreased when cells were grown in horse serum as compared to fetal bovine serum and was almost absent when cells were grown in chemically defined medium. In contrast, glutamate uptake was unaffected by the composition of the medium in which the cultures were grown. The serum effect on serotonin uptake was not due to the greater level of serotonin in the fetal bovine serum and was only reversed by a change of serum over a time period of days. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Using score differences for search result diversification

We investigate the application of a light-weight approach to result list clustering for the purposes of diversifying search results. We introduce a novel post-retrieval approach, which is independent of external information or even the full-text content of retrieved documents; only the retrieval score of a document is used. Our experiments show that this novel approach is beneficial to effectiveness, albeit only on certain baseline systems. The fact that the method works indicates that the retrieval score is potentially exploitable in diversity.
Changing diet and physical activity to reduce gestational weight gain: a meta‐analysis

Excessive pregnancy weight gain is associated with adverse maternal and child health outcomes. Intervention developers have assumed that adopting a healthier diet and increasing physical activity in pregnancy can limit weight gain, but evaluations of such interventions have yielded mixed results. Recent reviews of this literature have not identified defining characteristics of effective interventions. We systematically reviewed 10 published controlled trials of interventions that aimed to reduce gestational weight gain through changes in diet or physical activity. Characteristics of the sample, intervention content and delivery, and methodology were categorized. Meta‐analysis showed that, overall, diet and physical activity change was effective in reducing gestational weight gain, but there was considerable heterogeneity in outcomes. Our analysis points to sample characteristics and aspects of intervention design, content, delivery and evaluation which differ between studies and may explain variation in effectiveness. Failure to evaluate changes in behaviour or its psychological determinants, and under‐reporting of intervention content, may obscure identification of the processes by which weight change is effected. This limits our ability to discern active intervention ingredients. We suggest that behaviour‐based gestational weight gain reduction interventions be more systematically designed, evaluated and reported to build on insights from behavioural science.
Timbre and Affect Dimensions: Evidence from Affect and Similarity Ratings and Acoustic Correlates of Isolated Instrument Sounds

considerable effort has been made towards understanding how acoustic and structural features contribute to emotional expression in music, but relatively little attention has been paid to the role of timbre in this process. Our aim was to investigate the role of timbre in the perception of affect dimensions in isolated musical sounds, by way of three behavioral experiments. In Experiment 1, participants evaluated perceived affects of 110 instrument sounds that were equal in duration, pitch, and dynamics using a three-dimensional affect model (valence, energy arousal, and tension arousal) and preference and emotional intensity. In Experiment 2, an emotional dissimilarity task was applied to a subset of the instrument sounds used in Experiment 1 to better reveal the underlying affect structure. In Experiment 3, the perceived affect dimensions as well as preference and intensity of a new set of 105 instrument sounds were rated by participants. These sounds were also uniform in pitch, duration, and playback dynamics but contained systematic manipulations in the dynamics of sound production, articulation, and ratio of high-frequency to low-frequency energy. The affect dimensions for all the experiments were then explained in terms of the three kinds of acoustic features extracted: spectral (e.g., ratio of high-frequency to low-frequency energy), temporal (e.g., attack slope), and spectro-temporal (e.g., spectral flux). High agreement among the participants9 ratings across the experiments suggested that even isolated instrument sounds contain cues that indicate affective expression, and these are recognized as such by the listeners. A dominant portion (50-57%) of the two dimensions of affect (valence and energy arousal) could be predicted by linear combinations of few acoustic features such as ratio of high-frequency to low-frequency energy, attack slope, and spectral regularity. Links between these features and those observed in the vocal expression of affects and other sound phenomena are discussed.
Chronic renal failure after transplantation of a nonrenal organ.

BACKGROUND Transplantation of nonrenal organs is often complicated by chronic renal disease with multifactorial causes. We conducted a population-based cohort analysis to evaluate the incidence of chronic renal failure, risk factors for it, and the associated hazard of death in recipients of nonrenal transplants. METHODS Pretransplantation and post-transplantation clinical variables and data from a registry of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) were linked in order to estimate the cumulative incidence of chronic renal failure (defined as a glomerular filtration rate of 29 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area or less or the development of ESRD) and the associated risk of death among 69,321 persons who received nonrenal transplants in the United States between 1990 and 2000. RESULTS During a median follow-up of 36 months, chronic renal failure developed in 11,426 patients (16.5 percent). Of these patients, 3297 (28.9 percent) required maintenance dialysis or renal transplantation. The five-year risk of chronic renal failure varied according to the type of organ transplanted - from 6.9 percent among recipients of heart-lung transplants to 21.3 percent among recipients of intestine transplants. Multivariate analysis indicated that an increased risk of chronic renal failure was associated with increasing age (relative risk per 10-year increment, 1.36; P<0.001), female sex (relative risk among male patients as compared with female patients, 0.74; P<0.001), pretransplantation hepatitis C infection (relative risk, 1.15; P<0.001), hypertension (relative risk, 1.18; P<0.001), diabetes mellitus (relative risk, 1.42; P<0.001), and postoperative acute renal failure (relative risk, 2.13; P<0.001). The occurrence of chronic renal failure significantly increased the risk of death (relative risk, 4.55; P<0.001). Treatment of ESRD with kidney transplantation was associated with a five-year risk of death that was significantly lower than that associated with dialysis (relative risk, 0.56; P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS The five-year risk of chronic renal failure after transplantation of a nonrenal organ ranges from 7 to 21 percent, depending on the type of organ transplanted. The occurrence of chronic renal failure among patients with a nonrenal transplant is associated with an increase by a factor of more than four in the risk of death.
Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.): An overview

Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) is a well-known medicinal plant species from the Asteraceae family often referred to as the “star among medicinal species. ” Nowadays it is a highly favored and much used medicinal plant in folk and traditional medicine. Its multitherapeutic, cosmetic, and nutritional values have been established through years of traditional and scientific use and research. Chamomile has an established domestic (Indian) and international market, which is increasing day by day. The plant available in the market many a times is adulterated and substituted by close relatives of chamomile. This article briefly reviews the medicinal uses along with botany and cultivation techniques. Since chamomile is a rich source of natural products, details on chemical constituents of essential oil and plant parts as well as their pharmacological properties are included. Furthermore, particular emphasis is given to the biochemistry, biotechnology, market demand, and trade of the plant. This is an attempt to compile and document information on different aspects of chamomile and highlight the need for research and development.
Advantages in using Drosophila melanogaster to model amyloid diseases

Amyloidoses are a heterogeneous group of diverse etiology diseases. They are characterized by an endogenous production of abnormal proteins called amyloid proteins, which are not hydrosoluble, form depots in various organs and cause functional dysfunctions [Westermark et al., 2007]. Despite of their different structures, these proteins are probably generated by a common pathological pathway. Twentyseven such proteins have been identified as amyloid precursors in humans [Sipe et al., 2010]. However, the question how and why these proteins form aggregates and cause disease is not still completely clear. A wide range of common neurodegenerative diseases is associated with amyloidosis such as Alzheimer's disease and CreutzfeldtJakob disease, as well as non-neuropathic diseases, such as senile systemic amyloidosis and type II diabetes. At present, there is not an effective treatment to prevent these amyloid diseases. To understand the pathogenesis and to develop novel therapeutic strategies, it is crucial to generate animal models of amyloid diseases in genetically tractable organisms. During the last decades, the genetically amenable fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster was established as a valuable model system for the study of variety of human neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy [Bilen & Bonini. , 2005; Lu & Vogel. , 2009]. The advantages of using the Drosophila model are that flies have a short lifespan, small size, large number of individuals and simplicity in genetic manipulation [Hirth, 2010]. In addition, Drosophila represents a useful model for screening and testing chemical compounds. Moreover, Drosophila is an ideal model for screening genetic modifiers of pathogenic process due to their potential to prevent or ameliorate the disease [Marsh & Thompson. , 2006]. In this review we will summarize recent progress in developing of fly models for amyloid disease. We address the following issues: (1) creating models of human amyloidosis in Drosophila (Alzheimer’ disease, prion disease, senile systemic amyloidosis, familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy) and (2) screening of chemical and peptide compounds, as well as modifier genes of protein toxicity in the fly model.
Joint source coding, routing and resource allocation for wireless sensor networks

This paper presents an optimization framework for a wireless sensor network in which each sensor plays a dual role of sensing the environment and relaying the sensor information. The design of such a network involves two distinct aspects. First, as the observations of the underlying environment are often correlated, distributive source coding methods have the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of the sensor operation. Thus, information theoretical source coding methods are useful in the application layer. Second, as each sensor must send information individually to a central processor, routing and power allocation in the network and physical layers are also important issues. The main focus of this paper is an optimization framework that jointly solves the source coding, routing and power allocation problems in such a network. The main insight is the following: the joint optimization problem for a sensor network, when solved in the dual domain, provides a natural separation between the application layer, the network layer and the physical layer. The interface between the layers is precisely the dual optimization variables. The crucial observation that makes this possible is that the underlying source coding problem in the application layer and the channel coding problem in the physical layer can always be made convex via time-division or frequency-division multiplexing. Convexification in time or frequency enables dual algorithms to reach the global optimum of the overall network optimization problem efficiently.
Chronicle of a novice researcher: the challenges and rewards

This article reports on the experiences of a novice researcher undertaking a National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) scholarship programme. A summary of the research is provided, which involved a survey of international students completing vocational education and training (VET) courses in Tasmania. Whilst many students reported having local friends and being involved in social and community groups, some students did not feel welcomed by the broader community. The research suggested that community engagement could be enhanced by VET providers making students aware of low or no-cost social activities available to them and providing links to groups such as sporting clubs. The author reflects on the challenges and rewards of carrying out educational research and the impact on his own professional practice in the international education sector. The benefits to his organisation and education sector are considered; it is concluded that research is an excellent form of professional learning.
Problem-Based Learning for Traditional and Interdisciplinary Classrooms

Classroom instruction in problem solving often takes the form of presenting neat, verification-style problems to students at the end of a period of learning. This practice stands in stark contrast to professional problem solving, where the problem comes first, and is a catalyst for investigation and learning. Problem-based learning provides students with an opportunity to grapple with realistic, ill-structured problems using the same kinds of techniques and habits of mind professionals use. The problem-based curriculum and instruction design puts students in the role of professional problem solvers by designing instruction around the investigation of an ill-structured problem. Teachers act as metacognitive coaches and tutors instead of “experts” who have the “right answer” to the problem. Two different applications of problem-based learning at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy are described in this article. One application is in an interdisciplinary senior elective course entitled Science, Society and the Future where problems investigate modern dilemmas resulting in modern advances in science and technology; the other is in a more traditional sophomore required course, American Studies, where the problems studied provide students with a feel for the critical decisions which drove the development of the Nation. A description of research projects underway to document the effectiveness of the program is also provided.