Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Variability of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis Isolates from Humans, Chickens, and Pigs in Malaysia

ABSTRACT Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have been reported to be present in humans, chickens, and pigs in Malaysia. In the present study, representative samples of VRE isolated from these populations were examined for similarities and differences by using the multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method. Housekeeping genes of Enterococcus faecium (n = 14) and Enterococcus faecalis (n = 11) isolates were sequenced and analyzed using the MLST databases eBURST and goeBURST. We found five sequence types (STs) of E. faecium and six STs of E. faecalis existing in Malaysia. Enterococcus faecium isolates belonging to ST203, ST17, ST55, ST79, and ST29 were identified, and E. faecium ST203 was the most common among humans. The MLST profiles of E. faecium from humans in this study were similar to the globally reported nosocomial-related strain lineage belonging to clonal complex 17 (CC17). Isolates from chickens and pigs have few similarities to those from humans, except for one isolate from a chicken, which was identified as ST203. E. faecalis isolates were more diverse and were identified as ST4, ST6, ST87, ST108, ST274, and ST244, which were grouped as specific to the three hosts. E. faecalis, belonging to the high-risk CC2 and CC87, were detected among isolates from humans. In conclusion, even though one isolate from a chicken was found clonal to that of humans, the MLST analysis of E. faecium and E. faecalis supports the findings of others who suggest VRE to be predominantly host specific and that clinically important strains are found mainly among humans. The infrequent detection of a human VRE clone in a chicken may in fact suggest a reverse transmission of VRE from humans to animals.
A Randomized Study of Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate in Treatment-experienced HIV-1 Infected Adolescents

Background: There are few data on the safety and antiviral activity of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) in HIV-1 infected adolescents. Methods: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study was conducted. Ninety adolescents (12 to <18 years) who were viremic while receiving antiretroviral treatment were randomized to receive TDF 300 mg (mean, 216.8 mg/m2) or placebo in combination with an optimized background regimen (OBR) for 48 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was time-weighted average change in plasma HIV-1 RNA from baseline at week 24 Results: Eighty-seven subjects (45 TDF, 42 placebo) received the study drug. Through week 24, the median time-weighted average change in plasma HIV-1 RNA was not different between the TDF and placebo groups (−1.6 versus −1.6 log10copies/mL, P = 0.55). The percentages of subjects who achieved HIV-1 RNA <400 copies/mL were similar at week 24 (40.9 versus 41.5%). One fourth of subjects in the TDF and placebo groups (24.4 versus 28.6%) had at least 3 active agents in the OBR. Many subjects in both groups had baseline genotypic resistance to TDF (48.9 versus 33.3%). TDF was generally safe and well tolerated. There were no statistically significant differences in changes of renal function and bone mineral density between the 2 groups. Conclusion: This study of TDF in combination with an OBR in antiretroviral-experienced adolescents did not meet its primary or secondary efficacy endpoints. The effectiveness of the OBR and baseline genotypic resistance to TDF in both groups may have confounded the efficacy findings. No clinically relevant TDF-related renal or bone toxicities were observed in this adolescent population.
Rectal Prolapse and Cystic Fibrosis

ABSTRACT Screening for cystic fibrosis (CF) is suggested in patients with rectal prolapse (RP). Little is known about the association between CF and RP in the era of newborn screening for CF. Our retrospective review showed that 3.6% of patients with RP had CF, and 3.5% of patients with CF had RP. No demographic or clinical factors appear to predict the likelihood of RP in patients with CF. Sweat chloride testing for patients with RP has a low yield in the era of newborn screening but may still need to be considered in children with RP to avoid missing the rare child with CF.
A Challenge in Enumerative Combinatorics: The Graph of Contributions of Professor Fa-Yueh Wu (???k??)

We will try to sketch Professor F. Y. Wu's contributions in lattice statistical mechanics, solid state physics, graph theory, enumerative combinatorics and so many other domains of physics and mathematics. We will recall F. Y. Wu's most important and well-known classic results, and we will also sketch his most recent research dedicated to the connections of lattice statistical mechanical models with deep problems in pure mathematics. Since it is hard to provide an exhaustive list of all his contributions, to give some representation of F. Y. Wu's ”mental connectivity”, we will concentrate on the interrelations between the various results he has obtained in so many different domains of physics and mathematics. Along the way we will also try to understand Wu's motivations and his favorite concepts, tools and ideas.
A Magnetoelectric Composite Energy Harvester and Power Management Circuit

This paper proposes a ferro-nickel (Fe-Ni)/PZT H-type fork magnetoelectric (ME) composite structure and an energy management circuit for ME energy harvesting. The resonant fork composite structure with a high Q value shows a higher ME voltage coefficient and a stronger power coefficient compared with the conventional rectangular composite structure. The resonant fork composite structure can obtain an output power of 61.64 μW at an ac magnetic field of 0.2 Oe. The ME sensitivity of the fork structure reaches 11 V/Oe. For weak magnetic-field environment, an active magnetic generator and a magnetic coil antenna underground are used for producing an ac magnetic field of 0.2-1 Oe at a distance of 25-50 m. A management circuit of the power supply with matching circuit, energy-storage circuit, and instantaneous-discharge circuit is developed suitable for weak electromagnetic energy harvesting. The management circuit can continuously accumulate weak energy from the fork composite structure for a long period and provide a high-power output in a very short cycle. While the voltage across the storage supercapacitor is over 0.36 V, the instantaneous-discharge circuit can drive a wireless sensor network node with an output power of 75 mW at a distance of over 60 m.
Economic competitiveness of U.S. utility-scale photovoltaics systems in 2015: Regional cost modeling of installed cost ($/W) and LCOE ($/kWh)

Utility-scale photovoltaics (PV) system growth is largely driven by the economic metrics of total installed costs and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), which differ by region. This study details regional cost factors, including environment (wind speed and snow loads), labor costs, material costs, sales taxes, and permitting costs using a new system-level bottom-up cost modeling approach. We use this model to identify regional all-in PV installed costs for fixed-tilt and one-axis tracker systems in the United States with consideration of union and non-union labor costs in 2015. LCOEs using those regional installed costs are then modeled and spatially presented. Finally, we assess the cost reduction opportunities of increasing module conversion efficiencies on PV system costs in order to indicate the possible economic impacts of module technology advancements and help future research and development (R&D) effects in the context of U.S. SunShot targets.
Cathedrals making friends : the religious social capital of Anglican cathedral Friends' associations

Spiritual Capital (Theos and The Grubb Institute, 2012) concluded that the future of Church of England cathedrals lies particularly in their ability to enable and sustain a range of connections. The cathedrals’ capacity to do this is significant for the preservation/maintenance of their fabric, in which task they are supported by 55,000 subscribing Friends. As well as encouraging Friends to donate money, volunteer and pray for the cathedrals, these long-standing associations offer subscribers opportunities to develop social networks and enhance cultural knowledge. This study conceptualized the Friends as para-church organizations that promote various forms of capital in the social arena, including bonds with the cathedral, as corporate person. The aim was to examine the utility of social capital models to explain the ways in which belonging to a Friends’ association can promote gift-giving to cathedrals. Questionnaire data were collected from 923 Friends of six English cathedrals. Multiple regression was used to identify the key predictors of religious social capital (measured by two indices, accessing different aspects of the resource), cultural capital, and ‘regard for the cathedral’ (a form of bonding social capital between Friend and cathedral). In turn, the four forms of capital were tested as predictors of different types of giving to cathedrals. The analyses indicated that the form of capital which Friends contributed varied according to Friendship style (identified as Sociable, Networked, Attached, Cultured); and that the nature of gifts to cathedrals differed according to capital(s) contributed. There was no evidence that household income was related to capitals or gifting. The thesis contributes to the growing corpus of empirical work on cathedrals, and also to social capital theory (by developing notions of vicarious social capital, and ‘regard’). The findings of the study will assist cathedral Friends’ Councils that wish to adopt an instrumental approach to generate capital(s) in the social arena, in order to pursue charitable aims.
Basic three-dimensional kinematics of the vertebral column of horses walking on a treadmill.

OBJECTIVE To determine kinematic movements of the vertebral column of horses during normal locomotion. ANIMALS 5 Dutch Warmblood horses without apparent lameness or problems associated with the vertebral column. PROCEDURE Kinematics of 8 vertebrae (T6, T10, T13, T17, L1, L3, L5, and S3) and both tuber coxae were determined, using bone-fixated markers. Horses were recorded while walking on a treadmill at a constant speed of 1.6 m/s. RESULTS Flexion-extension was characterized by 2 periods of extension and flexion during 1 stride cycle, whereas lateral bending and axial rotation were characterized by 1 peak and 1 trough. The range of motion for flexion-extension was fairly constant for vertebrae caudal to T10 (approximately 7 degrees). For lateral bending, the cranial thoracic vertebrae and segments in the pelvic region had the maximal amount of motion, with values of up to 5.6 degrees. For vertebrae between T17 and L5, the amount of lateral bending decreased to <4 degrees The amount of axial rotation increased gradually from 4 degrees for T6 to 13 degrees for the tuber coxae. CONCLUSIONS This direct measurement method provides 3-dimensional kinematic data for flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation of the thoracolumbar portion of the vertebral column of horses walking on a treadmill. Regional differences were observed in the magnitude and pattern of the rotations. Understanding of the normal kinematics of the vertebral column in healthy horses is a prerequisite for a better understanding of abnormal function.
Improved insulin-sensitivity in mice heterozygous for PPAR-γ deficiency

The thiazolidinedione class of insulin-sensitizing, antidiabetic drugs interacts with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma). To gain insight into the role of this nuclear receptor in insulin resistance and diabetes, we conducted metabolic studies in the PPAR-gamma gene knockout mouse model. Because homozygous PPAR-gamma-null mice die in development, we studied glucose metabolism in mice heterozygous for the mutation (PPAR-gamma(+/-) mice). We identified no statistically significant differences in body weight, basal glucose, insulin, or FFA levels between the wild-type (WT) and PPAR-gamma(+/-) groups. Nor was there a difference in glucose excursion between the groups of mice during oral glucose tolerance test, but insulin concentrations of the WT group were greater than those of the PPAR-gamma(+/-) group, and insulin-induced increase in glucose disposal rate was significantly increased in PPAR-gamma(+/-) mice. Likewise, the insulin-induced suppression of hepatic glucose production was significantly greater in the PPAR-gamma(+/-) mice than in the WT mice. Taken together, these results indicate that - counterintuitively - although pharmacological activation of PPAR-gamma improves insulin sensitivity, a similar effect is obtained by genetically reducing the expression levels of the receptor.
'Restorative Justice? A Critical Analysis'

This chapter provides a critical analysis of the restorative justice movement in the field of youth justice. Examples of the application of restorative justice in Australia, England and Wales are considered. Then, the contemporary popularity of this phenomena is critically analysed through an emphasis on dominant notions of the 'victim-offender binary', the 'inclusive community', the 'imputation of responsibility' and 'alternative justice'. The effectiveness and impact of restorative justice is also critically examined. The author's conclude that in its current manifestation within the contemporary youth justice sphere, there is little, if anything, inherent to restorative justice that prevents it from co-existing with, being accommodated by and, ultimately lending legitimacy to, repressive youth justice systems and youth crime control strategies. Whilst profoundly sceptical of the restorative justice 'that is', they remain enthusiastic about the restorative justice that 'might be'; a project they argue that requires a re-imagining of the delivery of justice for children and young people, substantially more than existing variants of restorative justice appear able to provide.
An exact solution to the minimum size test pattern problem

This paper addresses the problem of test pattern generation for single stuck-at faults in combinational circuits, under the additional constraint that the number of specified primary input assignments is minimized. This problem has different applications in testing including the identification of don't care conditions to be used in the synthesis of Built-In Self-Test (BIST) logic. The proposed solution is based on an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation which builds on an existing propositional satisfiability (SAT) model for test pattern generation. The resulting ILP formulation is linear on the size of the original SAT model for test generation, which is linear on the size of the circuit. Nevertheless, the resulting ILP instances represent complex optimization problems, that require dedicated ILP algorithms. Preliminary results on benchmark circuits validate the practical applicability of the test pattern minimization model and associated ILP algorithm.
Analysis of Large-Scale Service Network Tolerance to Cascading Failure

The future Internet will be populated with a massive number of cooperating services due to the rapid growth of publicly available services and the adoption of service-oriented computing (SOC) into the Internet of Things. The adoption of SOC enables combining the functionalities of smart devices as combining services by means of service composition. These cooperating services form a large-scale service network where the nodes and the links represent services and the dependency between services, respectively. The dependency between services potentially causes cascading failure, where the failure of a service propagates to its dependent services. Due to the lack of research in this type of cascading failure, we analyzed cascading failure in service networks for different topology and different degree of service interdependency. We found that the number of cascading failure is somewhat linear to the average number of required services, and decays exponentially over the average number of alternate services. The latter suggests that cascading failure tolerance can be significantly improved by adding few alternate services to each required service if the average number of alternate services is currently low. In addition, we also found that scale-free topology provides better tolerance, subsequently followed by exponential and random topology.
Evaluating and treating neurobehavioral symptoms in professional American football players: Lessons from a case series

SummaryIn the aftermath of multiple high-profile cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in professional American football players, physicians in clinical practice are likely to face an increasing number of retired football players seeking evaluation for chronic neurobehavioral symptoms. Guidelines for the evaluation and treatment of these patients are sparse. Clinical criteria for a diagnosis of CTE are under development. The contribution of CTE vs other neuropathologies to neurobehavioral symptoms in these players remains unclear. Here we describe the experience of our academic memory clinic in evaluating and treating a series of 14 self-referred symptomatic players. Our aim is to raise awareness in the neurology community regarding the different clinical phenotypes, idiosyncratic but potentially treatable symptoms, and the spectrum of underlying neuropathologies in these players.
Apoptosis, bcl-2 expression, and proliferation in benign and malignant endometrial epithelium: An approach using multiparameter flow cytometry.

OBJECTIVE Disturbances in the regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation play an important role in the formation of neoplastic lesions. Consequently, abnormalities in apoptosis regulation may contribute to this process. Expression of a neoepitope on cytokeratin 18, unmasked by an early caspase cleavage event and recognized by the novel monoclonal antibody M30, is an indicator of early epithelial cell apoptosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quantitative relation among apoptosis (M30), cell persistence (bcl-2), and proliferation (S-phase fraction; SPF) in malignant and benign endometrium. METHODS Using multiparameter DNA flow cytometry on 54 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples from benign (proliferative, secretory, inactive, and hyperplastic endometrium) and malignant (grades 1-3 endometrial adenocarcinoma) endometrial tissue, bcl-2 expression and M30 reactivity were assessed together with the SPF in the cytokeratin-positive epithelial cells. RESULTS Benign cyclic endometrium showed a relatively high bcl-2 expression and low M30 reactivity in the proliferative phase whereas in the secretory phase this relation was inverse. In endometrial hyperplasia the expression of bcl-2 was increased compared to that in secretory and postmenopausal endometrium, but still below the level of proliferative samples. The expression of M30 also increased compared to normal proliferative endometrium but did not reach the level of endometrium in the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle. In cancer the expression of bcl-2 decreased with the progression of differentiation grade. For M30 expression this relation was inverse. Overall there was a significant increase of M30 reactivity in cancerous compared to hyperplasia and normal cyclic endometrium. CONCLUSION Transition of endometrial epithelium from hyperplasia to cancer seems to involve both increased apoptosis and decreased bcl-2 expression. Flow cytometric evaluation of M30 and bcl-2 expression levels, with the SPF, in currettage specimens from postmenopausal patients complaining of bleeding provides a quantitative assessment of endometrial apoptosis, anti-apoptosis, and proliferation. Further studies are needed to determine the relationship among these three processes as indicators of the biological behavior of gynecological tumors.
Teachers' Gender Stereotypes in South Africa: A Case Study

The study investigated Teachers' gender stereotypes in the Eastern Province of South Africa. Participants were 65 Junior Secondary school teachers (females= 40 and males = 25) who assembled together at a seminar organized by the Department of Education. They completed a ten-statement questionnaire on gender stereotypes that would apply to school boys and girls. Data were analysed by means for differences in proportions endorsing stereotypes in relation to school activities. Gender stereotypes were apparent in the pattern of activities endorsed for males and females.
Mapping the Effects of Genetic Susceptibility and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis Infection on Crohn's Disease: Strong but Independent

We read with interest the report of Sechi et al. ([1][1]) on the associations among Crohn's disease (CD), Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis , and carriage of mutant alleles of the NOD2/CARD15 gene. We believe that the study by Sechi et al. was well conceived, is critical to understanding
Clinical and molecular characteristics of sickle cell anemia in the northeast of Brazil

Beta S-globin gene (βS-globin) haplotypes, markers for severe sickle cell anemia (SCA), and the alpha-thalassemia 2 gene 3.7 kb deletion (-α2 3.7 kb thal) along with demographic and clinical data were investigated in SCA outpatients (n = 125, 63 female and 62 male) in the Brazilian state of Bahia, which has a high prevalence SCA. PCR-RFLP showed that the Central African Republic/Benin (CAR/BEN, 51.2%) haplotype was most frequent, followed by the Benin/Benin (Ben/Ben, 28.8%). At least one CAR haplotype was present in every outpatient with a history of cerebrovascular accident. The Cameroon (Cam), Senegal (Sen) and Arab-India haplotypes occurred in small numbers, as did atypical haplotypes. Fetal hemoglobin (HbF, %) was unevenly distributed. Compared to those > 18 y, those aged ≤ 18 y had had fewer erythrocyte transfusions and high HbF levels (12.3% ± 7.01 to 7.9% ± 4.36) but a higher frequency of spleen sequestration and pneumonia. Compared with normal α - genes carriers values, the outpatients with -α2 3.7 kb thal (determined by PCR analysis) had significantly higher mean hemoglobin concentration (Hb) (8.3 ± 1.34 g/dL, p = 0.018) and packed cell volume (PCV = 27.1% ± 4.26, p = 0.019) but low mean corpuscular volume (MCV = 86.1 fL = 10-15 L ± 9.56, p = 0.0004) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH = 26.6% ± 4.60, p = 0.039).
Mass of Saturn's magnetodisc: Cassini observations

Saturn's ring current was observed by Pioneer 11 and the two Voyager spacecraft to extend 8–16 RS in the equatorial plane and appeared to be driven by stress balance with the centrifugal force. We present Cassini observations that show thin current sheets on the dawn flank of Saturn's magnetosphere, symptomatic of the formation of a magnetodisc. We show that the centrifugal force is the dominant mechanical stress in these current sheets, which reinforces a magnetodisc interpretation – the formation of the current sheet is fundamentally rotational in origin. The stress balance calculation is also used to estimate the mass density in the disc, which show good agreement with independent in‐situ measurements of the density. We estimate the total mass in the magnetodisc to be ∼106 kg.