Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Typing and Epidemiological Study of Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhimurium Isolates from Cattle by Fluorescent Amplified-Fragment Length Polymorphism Fingerprinting and Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis

ABSTRACT One hundred twenty Salmonella entericaserotype Typhimurium strains, including 103 isolates from cattle gathered between 1977 and 1999 in the prefecture located on the northern-most island of Japan, were analyzed by using fluorescent amplified-fragment length polymorphism (FAFLP) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to examine the genotypic basis of the epidemic. Among these strains, there were 17 FAFLP profiles that formed four distinct clusters (A, B, C, and D). Isolates that belonged to cluster A have become increasingly common since 1992 with the increase of bovine salmonellosis caused by serotype Typhimurium. PFGE resolved 25 banding patterns that formed three distinct clusters (I, II, and III). All the isolates that belonged to FAFLP cluster A, in which all the strains of definitive phage type 104 examined were included, were grouped into PFGE cluster I. Taken together, these results indicate that clonal exchange of serotype Typhimurium has taken place since 1992, and they show a remarkable degree of homogeneity at a molecular level among contemporary isolates from cattle in this region. Moreover, we have sequenced two kinds of FAFLP markers, 142-bp and 132-bp fragments, which were identified as a polymorphic marker of strains that belonged to clusters A and C, respectively. The sequence of the 142-bp fragment shows homology with a segment of P22 phage, and that of the 132-bp fragment shows homology with a segment of traG, which is an F plasmid conjugation gene. FAFLP is apparently as well suited for epidemiological typing of serotype Typhimurium as is PFGE, and FAFLP can provide a source of molecular markers useful for studies of genetic variation in natural populations of serotype Typhimurium.
MSGR: A Mode-Switched Grid-Based Sustainable Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists of enormous amount of sensor nodes. These sensor nodes sense the changes in physical parameters from the sensing range and forward the information to the sink nodes or the base station. Since sensor nodes are driven with limited power batteries, prolonging the network lifetime is difficult and very expensive, especially for hostile locations. Therefore, routing protocols for WSN must strategically distribute the dissipation of energy, so as to increase the overall lifetime of the system. Current research trends from areas, such as from Internet of Things and fog computing use sensors as the source of data. Therefore, energy-efficient data routing in WSN is still a challenging task for real-time applications. Hierarchical grid-based routing is an energy-efficient method for routing of data packets. This method divides the sensing area into grids and is advantageous in wireless sensor networks to enhance network lifetime. The network is partitioned into virtual equal-sized grids. The proposed mode-switched grid-based routing protocol for WSN selects one node per grid as the grid head. The routing path to the sink is established using grid heads. Grid heads are switched between active and sleep modes alternately. Therefore, not all grid heads take part in the routing process at the same time. This saves energy in grid heads and improves the network lifetime. The proposed method builds a routing path using each active grid head which leads to the sink. For handling the mobile sink movement, the routing path changes only for some grid head nodes which are nearer to the grid, in which the mobile sink is currently positioned. Data packets generated at any source node are routed directly through the data disseminating grid head nodes on the routing path to the sink.
Usporedba morfoloških karakteristika i motoričkih sposobnosti dječaka polaznika različitih srednjoškolskih programa

Measurement data relating to three morphological characteristics and eight motor abilities were analysed; the sample of measured subjects included 18,374 secondary-school students who in the 2004/2005 academic year followed three different types of educational programmes: grammar school, professional/technical and vocational. The data were collected within a framework of annual measurements for the data collection Sports Education Chart, which is compulsory for all Slovenian schools. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to calculate the differences between the groups of students, defined by the type of programme and age of the measured subjects. For the entire set of variables the test was characteristic for both main factors (programme, age), although there was no significant interaction between the two of them. The factor programme is nearly twice as important as the factor age in explaining the entire set of dependent variables. Univariate tests showed similar results as the entire model and both main factors (programme, age) are highly significant, however, their interaction is not significant. The factor age better explains the differences between the morphological variables, whereas the factor programme better explains the difference between the motor variables. Together, these two factors explain the largest proportion of variance (7% to 9%) for the tests sit-ups, hand tapping and standing broad jump. It can be assumed that the differences seen in the morphological and motor status are the result of interpersonal factors as well as social factors and the effects of environmental factors. Secondary-school students from different educational programmes come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, which is reflected in the quality of nutrition, along with the frequency and type of free-time sports activities. Presumably, the differences are also a result of a smaller number of physical education classes in the curriculum of vocational schools.
The reflex nature of the pressor response to muscular exercise

1. In anaesthetized cats tetanic contraction of the hind‐limb muscles, elicited by stimulating the ventral roots L6—S1, caused a rise of arterial blood pressure, usually accompanied by small increases in heart rate and pulmonary ventilation: in decerebrate cats, all components of the response were much increased.
Visualization of intraarticular structures of the acromioclavicular joint in an ex vivo model using a dedicated MRI protocol.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develop an MRI protocol that could visualize the intraarticular structures of the acromioclavicular (AC) joint. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using six fresh specimens from cadaveric shoulders, several MRI sequences were performed on 1.0-T scanners with a superficial coil (the temporomandibular joint coil). After the radiologic examination, the specimens were prepared for histology and 300-microm-thick, toluidine blue-stained sections were prepared that corresponded to the MR images. In each series of sections, immunohistochemistry using a type II collagen antibody was performed to further characterize the intraarticular structures. RESULTS The coronal 3D T1-weighted fast-field echo water-selective sequence allowed the identification of the intraarticular disk in all cases. Determination on MRI of other intraarticular structures--adipose tissue, synovial fluid, and the borders between neighboring tissues of different types--that corresponded to the histologic sections was possible. The use of a second plane in the 1.0-T sequences did not reveal additional information. CONCLUSION The described MRI protocol allows the visualization of the intraarticular fibrocartilaginous disk and the border between articular cartilage and the disk. Future clinical studies will indicate the diagnostic value of this protocol. We assume that this MRI protocol could help us to better understand AC joint disorders, in particular those located intraarticularly, and dislocations.
Structure and expression of human B cell stimulatory factor‐2 (BSF‐2/IL‐6) gene.

The chromosomal DNA segment of human B cell stimulatory factor‐2 (BSF‐2/IL‐6) was isolated and characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis. The human BSF‐2/IL‐6 gene consists of five exons and four introns and its organization shows a distinctive similarity to granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor gene. The two genes have the same number of exons and introns and the size of each exon is strikingly similar. The BSF‐2/IL‐6 mRNA was found to be constitutively expressed in a human T cell leukemia virus‐1 transformed T cell line, TCL‐Na1, a bladder cell carcinoma line, T24, and an amnion derived cell line, FL. The BSF‐2/IL‐6 mRNA was also found to be inducible with interleukin‐1 beta in an astrocytoma line, U373 and a glioblastoma line, SK‐MG‐4. S1 mapping and primer extension analyses showed the presence of multiple initiation sites and the preferential utilization of a different initiation site for each individual tissue tested.
Application and Development of Optical Soot Diagnostic Techniques

Internal combustion engines (ICE) have been a vital part of society ever since their inception more than a hundred years ago. While initially it seemed as if the replacement of horse and carriage had solved the issue with pollutant emissions, it became evident in the 60’s that emission from ICEs is a major concern. The first emissions in focus were the nitrogen oxides (NOx). Lately, however, focus has shifted towards emissions which affect the global warming trends. The two worst pollutants, with respect to global warming, are carbon
97-12 COMMERCIAL LINKS BETWEEN WESTERN EUROPE AND EAST ASIA : RETROSPECT AND PROSPECTS

Commercial Links between Western Europe and East Asia: Retrospect and Prospect by Kym Anderson and Joseph F. Francois East Asia has rapidly become the third centre of gravity for global economic activity. North America is relatively well integrated with East Asia, but Europe is not. This paper explores the extent to which economic growth and trade policy developments over the next decade or so will strengthen European-East Asian economic integration, and what scope there is to facilitate that set of bilateral relationships. Use is made of a modified version of the global CGE model known as GTAP to project the world economy to 2010 under various scenarios including Uruguay Round implementation, a trans-Atlantic free trade agreement, APEC liberalization, and a new WTO multilateral round. The bilateral trade consequences of economic growth and Uruguay Round implementation highlight the fact that as East Asia's relative importance in the world economy keeps growing, so too does its importance to Europe. However, the relative importance of Europe to East Asia is projected to grow very little, although in absolute terms the volume of that trade still grows enormously.
Lexicon acquisition with and for symbolic NLP-Systems: a bootstrapping approach

We present a method of applying a broad-coverage LFG grammar of German in the process of semi-automatic lexicon acquisition from corpora. The identification of corpus instances that illustrate a certain subcategorization frame uniquely is done by a comparison of the numbers of analyses the grammar assigns to the corpus instances, under the assumption of different hypothetical lexicon entries for the candidate verb. Filtering conditions expressed on the feature representation output by the grammar further restrict the sentences that the automatic extraction step is based on. Experiments show that the grammar-based method produces better results than a method based on patterns in a corpus query language.
Dissecting empathy: high levels of psychopathic and autistic traits are characterized by difficulties in different social information processing domains

Individuals with psychopathy or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can behave in ways that suggest lack of empathy towards others. However, many different cognitive and affective processes may lead to unempathic behavior and the social processing profiles of individuals with high psychopathic vs. ASD traits are likely different. Whilst psychopathy appears characterized by problems with resonating with others’ emotions, ASD appears characterized by problems with cognitive perspective-taking. In addition, alexithymia has previously been associated with both disorders, but the contribution of alexithymia needs further exploration. In a community sample (N = 110) we show for the first time that although affective resonance and cognitive perspective-taking are related, high psychopathic traits relate to problems with resonating with others’ emotions, but not cognitive perspective taking. Conversely, high ASD traits relate to problems with cognitive perspective-taking but not resonating with others’ emotions. Alexithymia was associated with problems with affective resonance independently of psychopathic traits, suggesting that different component processes (reduced tendency to feel what others feel and reduced ability to identify and describe feelings) comprise affective resonance. Alexithymia was not associated with the reduced cognitive perspective-taking in high ASD traits. Our data suggest that (1) elevated psychopathic and ASD traits are characterized by difficulties in different social information processing domains and (2) reduced affective resonance in individuals with elevated psychopathic traits and the reduced cognitive perspective taking in individuals with elevated ASD traits are not explained by co-occurring alexithymia. (3) Alexithymia is independently associated with reduced affective resonance. Consequently, our data point to different component processes within the construct of empathy that are suggestive of partially separable cognitive and neural systems.
Ellipsometry based on millimeter wave radar measurements

In this contribution, a method for material characterization based on polarimetric measurements is presented. The material under test (MUT) is characterized using two millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar sensors, which are operating from 68 GHz to 93 GHz. The sensors measure the transmission and reflection coefficients at an oblique angle of incidence of the MUT for orthogonal polarizations. The dielectric constant and losses of the MUT are then calculated from the polarimetric transmission and reflection factors.
P2X1 Ion Channels Promote Neutrophil Chemotaxis through Rho Kinase Activation1

ATP, released at the leading edge of migrating neutrophils, amplifies chemotactic signals. The aim of our study was to investigate whether neutrophils express ATP-gated P2X1 ion channels and whether these channels could play a role in chemotaxis. Whole-cell patch clamp experiments showed rapidly desensitizing currents in both human and mouse neutrophils stimulated with P2X1 agonists, αβ-methylene ATP (αβMeATP) and βγMeATP. These currents were strongly impaired or absent in neutrophils from P2X1−/− mice. In Boyden chamber assays, αβMeATP provoked chemokinesis and enhanced formylated peptide- and IL-8-induced chemotaxis of human neutrophils. This agonist similarly increased W-peptide-induced chemotaxis of wild-type mouse neutrophils, whereas it had no effect on P2X1−/− neutrophils. In human as in mouse neutrophils, αβMeATP selectively activated the small RhoGTPase RhoA that caused reversible myosin L chain phosphorylation. Moreover, the αβMeATP-elicited neutrophil movements were prevented by the two Rho kinase inhibitors, Y27632 and H1152. In a gradient of W-peptide, P2X1−/− neutrophils migrated with reduced speed and displayed impaired trailing edge retraction. Finally, neutrophil recruitment in mouse peritoneum upon Escherichia coli injection was enhanced in wild-type mice treated with αβMeATP, whereas it was significantly impaired in the P2X1−/− mice. Thus, activation of P2X1 ion channels by ATP promotes neutrophil chemotaxis, a process involving Rho kinase-dependent actomyosin-mediated contraction at the cell rear. These ion channels may therefore play a significant role in host defense and inflammation.
Differential sleep, sleepiness, and neurophysiology in the insomnia phenotypes of shift work disorder.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To characterize and compare insomnia symptoms within two common phenotypes of Shift Work Disorder. DESIGN Observational laboratory and field study. SETTING Hospital sleep center. PARTICIPANTS 34 permanent night workers. Subjects were classified by Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Insomnia Severity Index into 3 subgroups: asymptomatic controls, alert insomniacs (AI), and sleepy insomniacs (SI). MEASUREMENTS Sleep parameters were assessed by sleep diary. Circadian phase was evaluated by dim-light salivary melatonin onset (DLMO). Objective sleepiness was measured using the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Brain activity was measured using the N1 event-related potential (ERP). A tandem repeat in PER3 was genotyped from saliva DNA. RESULTS (1) AI group showed normal MSLT scores but elevated N1 amplitudes indicating cortical hyperarousal. (2) SI group showed pathologically low MSLT scores but normal N1 amplitudes. (3) AI and SI groups were not significantly different from one another in circadian phase, while controls were significantly phase-delayed relative to both SWD groups. (4) AI showed significantly longer sleep latencies and lower sleep efficiency than controls during both nocturnal and diurnal sleep. SI significantly differed from controls in nocturnal sleep parameters, but differences during diurnal sleep periods were smaller and not statistically significant. (5) Genotype × phenotype χ² analysis showed significant differences in the PER3 VNTR: 9 of 10 shift workers reporting sleepiness in a post hoc genetic substudy were found to carry the long tandem repeat on PER3, while 4 of 14 shift workers without excessive sleepiness carried the long allele. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that the sleepy insomnia phenotype is comprehensively explained by circadian misalignment, while the alert insomnia phenotype resembles an insomnia disorder precipitated by shift work.
Serum selenium concentrations in patients with newly diagnosed lymphoid malignancies.

BACKGROUND Increased mortality from lymphoid malignancies following exposure to environmental selenium has recently been reported. Moreover, conflicting results have been found in investigations examining the relationship between serum concentrations of selenium and some clinical features of malignant lymphoproliferative diseases. METHODS Serum concentrations of selenium were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry in fifty-nine patients with newly diagnosed chronic lymphoid malignancies and in forty control subjects. RESULTS Selenium concentrations were significantly lower in patients than in control subjects. However, when only patients with localized disease were compared to controls, no significant difference in serum selenium concentrations was observed. Clinical stage was inversely associated with selenium levels. High-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was characterized by lower selenium levels than low-grade and intermediate-grade disease. Selenium levels were positively associated with albumin and hemoglobin, and inversely correlated with serum concentrations of beta 2-microglobulin and with erythrocyte sedimentation rate. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study do not suggest that a high selenium intake represents a risk factor for malignant lymphoproliferative diseases, but limitations of the investigation hamper evaluation of the results. The possible utility of determining serum concentrations of selenium in the clinical evaluation of patients with lymphoid malignancies merits examination in larger studies.
Human Amygdala Represents the Complete Spectrum of Subjective Valence

Although the amygdala is a major locus for hedonic processing, how it encodes valence information is poorly understood. Given the hedonic potency of odor stimuli and the amygdala's anatomical proximity to the peripheral olfactory system, we combined high-resolution fMRI with pattern-based multivariate techniques to examine how valence information is encoded in the amygdala. Ten human subjects underwent fMRI scanning while smelling 9 odorants that systematically varied in perceived valence. Representational similarity analyses showed that amygdala codes the entire dimension of valence, ranging from pleasantness to unpleasantness. This unidimensional representation significantly correlated with self-reported valence ratings but not with intensity ratings. Furthermore, within-trial valence representations evolved over time, prioritizing earlier differentiation of unpleasant stimuli. Together, these findings underscore the idea that both spatial and temporal features uniquely encode pleasant and unpleasant odor valence in the amygdala. The availability of a unidimensional valence code in the amygdala, distributed in both space and time, would create greater flexibility in determining the pleasantness or unpleasantness of stimuli, providing a mechanism by which expectation, context, attention, and learning could influence affective boundaries for guiding behavior. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our findings elucidate the mechanisms of affective processing in the amygdala by demonstrating that this brain region represents the entire valence dimension from pleasant to unpleasant. An important implication of this unidimensional valence code is that pleasant and unpleasant valence cannot coexist in the amygdale because overlap of fMRI ensemble patterns for these two valence extremes obscures their unique content. This functional architecture, whereby subjective valence maps onto a pattern continuum between pleasant and unpleasant poles, offers a robust mechanism by which context, expectation, and experience could alter the set-point for valence-based behavior. Finally, identification of spatial and temporal differentiation of valence in amygdala may shed new insights into individual differences in emotional responding, with potential relevance for affective disorders.
Strategies or Routines ? Knowledge Codification, Path-Dependence and the Evolution of Post-Acquisition Integration Practices in the U.S. Banking Industry

In a study of post-acquisition management practices in the U.S. commercial banking industry, we examine how firms codify their knowledge from previous acquisition experiences and routinize their post-acquisition decisions. We find that firms with higher levels of knowledge codification tend to integrate their acquired units more and to replace the existing top management team with higher probability. Also, acquirers tend to replicate their integration and resource replacement decisions irrespective of variations in the resource characteristics of their targets, suggesting strong tacit routinization effects.
Efficient Left-to-Right Hierarchical Phrase-Based Translation with Improved Reordering

Left-to-right (LR) decoding (Watanabe et al., 2006b) is a promising decoding algorithm for hierarchical phrase-based translation (Hiero). It generates the target sentence by extending the hypotheses only on the right edge. LR decoding has complexity O(n 2 b) for input of n words and beam sizeb, compared toO(n 3 ) for the CKY algorithm. It requires a single language model (LM) history for each target hypothesis rather than two LM histories per hypothesis as in CKY. In this paper we present an augmented LR decoding algorithm that builds on the original algorithm in (Watanabe et al., 2006b). Unlike that algorithm, using experiments over multiple language pairs we show two new results: our LR decoding algorithm provides demonstrably more efficient decoding than CKY Hiero, four times faster; and by introducing new distortion and reordering features for LR decoding, it maintains the same translation quality (as in BLEU scores) obtained phrase-based and CKY Hiero with the same translation model.